Structural Identification of a Masonry Tower Based on Operational Modal Analysis

A wide program of structural assessment has been carried out by Politecnico di Milano on the historic bell tower of the church Chiesa Collegiata in Arcisate (Varese, northern Italy). Within this context, the first part of the article summarizes the results obtained from the application of the stochastic subspace identification method to ambient response data collected in two dynamic tests, carried out in June 2007 and June 2008. Next presented is the vibration-based methodology developed for the calibration of a three-dimensional finite element model of the tower, consisting in the successive application of systematic manual tuning, sensitivity analysis, and simple system identification algorithm.     

Was Lacquer the Key Ingredient for Luxurious Jinyin Pingtuo Products in the Tang Dynasty of China (AD 618–907)?

Jinyin pingtuo is one of the most sumptuous decorative methods applied on ‘lacquered' objects described in Tang dynasty literatures. Two Tang dynasty objects, a silver bowl and a bronze mirror, in the British Museum collection said to be made by this technique, were scientifically examined to confirm the application of the technique. Although the metal décors levelled with the rest of the surfaces on these objects suggested the application of the pingtuo method, lacquer, a major ingredient of this technique, was not identified by Py (HMDS)-GC–MS in any of the four samples analysed. The results question the use of lacquer in the pingtuo technique as usually described. The detection of shellac and oil in the bronze mirror aligns with other studies on similar objects, whereas proteinaceous materials as main ingredient of the decorative layers of the silver bowl, appear less usual. Further comparative study by scientific analysis of similar objects in other museum collections or from excavations is required to help better understand the use of lacquer in ancient China.     

“名实分离”：雍正帝对大学士选任制度的改革——兼谈阁权的“变异”

雍正帝在大学士选任制度上进行了一系列新尝试。其举措出现了外任大学士、协办大学士、额外大学士等多种形式,他一方面通过提高大学士品级巩固大学士文臣首领的地位;另一方面,也通过"名实分离"的方式虚化和拆解阁权,使原本单一的"阁权"发生变异。     

辽朝枢密院一院多使现象与制度渊源

辽朝共有北南二枢密院,但每一枢密院可以由两名或以上枢密使共同执掌。辽朝的知枢密院事实乃未经正授的枢密使,因此当辽朝同一枢密院内有枢密使与知枢密院事并立,实际上也相当于该枢密院同时受两位同级别长官管辖。辽朝枢密院一院多使现象的制度渊源来自于五代,一方面因袭了晚唐五代两名枢密使共同执掌枢密院的传统,另一方面继承并推动了枢密院地位不断上升的趋势。     

Scale in motion? Rethinking scalar production and border externalization

This paper signals how border externalization can inform geographical debates about scale and in turn, foster research on how scale intersects with recent forms of border and migration control. It interrogates what scales are being produced and struggled over, pointing to the contingency of scalar work in border externalization, specifically through the EU Migration Routes Strategy. Debates on scale and changing borders are worked through to arrive at the notion of “itinerant scale”, in order to highlight a very distinct spatial imaginary and implementation of border work. Instead of sitting at the edges of nation-states, staying in designated places for long, or pushing through some sort of region imagined as a buffer or frontline, borders are envisioned and designed to be mobile devices and reiterated along shifting migratory routes. This complex scalar production unfolds through a mix of policies, cartographies, surveillance infrastructures and atypical institutional agreements, reaching and acting simultaneously at local, national and regional levels, aiming at the management and contention of suspicious bodies on the move.     

‘Sword and plough’: settling Nazi stormtroopers in Eastern Europe, 1936–43

ABSTRACT

Most histories of the National Socialist stormtroopers (SA) come to a close with the Night of the Long Knives in the summer of 1934. For the remaining eleven years of National Socialist rule, the stormtroopers are usually regarded as a peripheral ‘nostalgic drinking companionship’ of early Nazi activists who, apart from their involvement in the persecution of the Jews, did not wield much influence. In contrast to such views, this article argues that the SA remained an important mass organization in the Third Reich that not only helped to stabilize the Nazi regime within the boundaries of the German heartlands but also contributed importantly to German expansionist policies from 1935 onwards. My argument is developed in three stages. First, I assess the SA’s contribution to the German settlement movement in the 1930s that was originally concerned with the ‘inner colonialism’, the population transfer within the existing borders of the German Reich in order to stimulate agriculture and economy in disadvantaged German regions, in particular in the northern and eastern provinces. Second, I concentrate on the analysis of the plans and initiatives of the so-called ‘commissioner of the SA Chief of Staff for the placement of new farmers and matters of ethnicity’ between 1938 and 1942. In a third and final part, I discuss these plans and the actual developments in the light of the expansionist Nazi policies of de- and reterritorialization during the war years, advanced in particular by the SS. Although the SA’s extensive pre-war ambitions in ‘Germanization’ suffered a serious backlash with the outbreak of the war, it still contributed in important ways to the formation of the Volksgemeinschaft in the occupied territories.     

Small and scattered: poor law children’s homes in Leeds, 1900–1950

By the turn of the twentieth century, the concepts of home and family had begun to have a positive influence on institutional life. Within poor law circles, large, residential institutions became seen as inappropriate for the needs of children without family support, and moves were made to transfer them into smaller, family-sized units of care. Cottage homes were one option, and, less commonly, scattered homes. This article argues that it was scattered homes that held the greatest potential to create a homely, family-orientated environment, and its adoption by the Leeds Poor Law Guardians in Leeds placed them in the vanguard of best practice at the beginning of the twentieth century with regard to the care of children. At the twentieth century’s mid-point, the local authority in Leeds continued to favour the same system.     

Sumozhe Suppressed,Huntuo Halted: An Investigation into the Nature and Stakes of the Cold-Splashing Sogdian Festal Dramas Performed in Early Eighth Century Tang China

This article investigates two specific dramatic elements-the huntuo 渾脫 and the sumozhe蘇摩遮-at the core of the controversial "cold-splashing Sogdian plays" (pohan huxi潑寒胡戲).The huntuo could be a felt hat,an oilcloth,a pelt headdress,or a theatrical striptease.With deep multicultural roots,the sumozhe (samāja) combined masquerade,ambulatory drama,dance,and music into a boisterous spectacle.In addition to examining the high cultural stakes underlying the public performance and imperial support (or prohibition) of these plays in early eighth century Tang China,this essay proposes a link between these hibernal festal dramas and Turkish K(o)se plays.     

The urbanisation of Java, 2000–2010: towards ‘the island of mega-urban regions’

The mega-urbanisation process in Java is reflected in the spatial patterns of urban population growth between 2000 and 2010, although there has been a small deceleration in the rate of growth recently. This process is also clearly indicated in the significant increase in the number of urban localities, which reflects in situ urbanisation and rural–urban transformation in Java. Most districts and cities located adjacent to large cities experienced much higher population growth rates, compared to the core areas in cities. The formation of urban belts with a mix of economic activities connecting large cities is greatly expanding, while the small and medium cities, those with population sizes between 100,000 to one million, have tended to stagnate as their role and functions as centres of socio-economic activities are taken over by the large cities. Java’s mega-urbanisation appears unstoppable, and is largely uncontrolled at the present time. It is a daunting challenge for the central and local governments to manage the spatial urban growth in Java in the near future.     

Islands,extraction and violence: Mining and the politics of scale in Island Melanesia

Set against the backdrop of past, contemporary and possible future mining-related violence on islands in the western Pacific, this article explores how scholarship on the politics of scale, as well as strands of the burgeoning island studies literature, might sharpen our understanding of the political economic and violent effects of extractive resource enclaves in Island Melanesia. Drawing upon field research in Bougainville and Solomon Islands, I argue that just as Melanesian islands were produced as a scale of struggle in the context of the introduction of capitalist social relations under colonialism, so too have they emerged as a critical, albeit problematic, scale of struggle in contemporary contestations around extractive resource capitalism under the current round of globalisation and accumulation by dispossession. I suggest that this politics of scale lens enriches our understanding of how “islandness” can be an important variable in social and political economic processes. When the politics of scale is imbricated with the well-established idea of the island as the paradigmatic setting for territorialising projects, including the nation-state and sub-national jurisdictions, islandness emerges as a potentially powerful variable in the political economic struggles that attend extractive resource enclaves. I also highlight, in the cases considered here, how islands can become containers for internal socio-spatial contradictions that can be animated by extractive enclaves and can contribute to the island scale becoming violent and “ungovernable”. The article advances recent efforts to bring the island studies literature into closer conversation with political and economic geography.