THE LEAD INGOTS OF CAPO PASSERO: ROMAN GLOBAL MEDITERRANEAN TRADE

Summary.   Epigraphic and isotopic analysis of the lead ingots recovered from a shipwreck off Capo Passero (in Sicily) in mid-2006 suggests that the ingots were produced in Spain, in the Cartagena region. The shipwreck is estimated to have occurred around 38 BC, at the beginning of the Hispanic era. This provides further evidence that the Romans were trading lead throughout the Mediterranean Sea.     

Modélisation spatiale de la pauvretéà Montréal: apport méthodologique de la régression géographiquement pondérée

Spatial Modeling of Poverty in Montréal: Methodological Contribution of the Geographically Weighted Regression
The Island of Montréal is particularly concerned with the issue of poverty. In 2000, 29 percent of its inhabitants lived under the low income cut-offs as defined by Statistics Canada. However, poverty is not a homogeneous phenomenon at the intra-urban scale, and identifying and categorizing spaces of poverty has become a main concern for ongoing researches. According to this way of thinking, this paper proposes an analysis of the factors influencing the geographical distribution of poverty on the Island of Montréal. To be able to identify properly the various profiles of poverty, this analysis uses a specific methodology, the geographically weighted regression (GWR), and compares its results with the ones of a classical regression model. At the global level, the most important factors to explain poverty are in order: unemployment, lone-parent families, one person households, recent immigrants, part time or part year workers, school dropouts. At the local level,     

SOIL-STRUCTURE AND SOIL-STRUCTURE-SOIL INTERACTION: EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE AT THE VOLVI TEST SITE

This paper shows the results of two passive experiments carried out at the European Volvi test site where a scaled building has been constructed. The first experiment was performed to study the motion of the structure excited by two small earthquakes. For one month, six strong-motion recorders were installed within the structure, at the top and at the basement. The analysis of the deformation of the structure has been assessed by computing the spectral ratio between the top and the bottom, with a special focus on soil-structure interaction. An analytical model was then proposed to reproduce the structure and soil-structure system behaviour. The soil-structure interaction was accounted for by using impedance functions. During the second experiment, we concentrated our efforts on the effect of the building vibration on the surface ground motion. An explosive shot was fired and several strong-motion recorders were installed on the ground close to the structure that allowed us to clearly identify a monochromatic wave coming from the building, in the time and frequency domains. This experiment allows us to demonstrate the non-negligible effect of the soil-structure-soil interaction that may disturb the surrounding ground motion.     

ATTENUATION RELATION FOR WEST EURASIA DETERMINED WITH RECENT NEAR-FAULT RECORDS FROM CALIFORNIA,JAPAN AND TURKEY

Strong ground motion close to a fault can be expected to be very large, so its estimation is essential for human safetv. Although a few strong-motion data exist for the west Eurasian region, we proposed in a previous work [Berge-Thierry et al., 2003] an attenuation relation for spectral acceleration using strong-motion data recorded in west Eurasia (mainly in Europe) and some in the western United States: this relationship was derived for the French Safety Rule, which is applied for seismic hazard assessment at nuclear power plants. In this study, we propose a constraining of the amplitude saturation term related to the proximity of the fault, and an adding of an amplitude saturation term in the regression model. We add, to the data-set previously used to derive the west Eurasian attenuation relationship strong-motions recorded during recent large earth-quakes: the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Kobe) event in Japan and the 1999 Kocaeli (Izmit) event in Turkey. The regression analysis, adopted from Fukushima and Tanaka [1990], is non-linear, so an iterative procedure is applied. The determined regression coefficients lead to a prediction of a peak ground acceleration of about 0.7 g for soil site conditions at a fault distance of 0.5 km. The Q coefficient deduced, from the distance coefficient is in agreement with scattering Q models. The introduction of the saturation term leads to significantly lower predictions of average spectral accelerations at short distances as compared with using the Berge-Thierry et al. [2003] empirical model.     

LES SITES WEB DE QUATRE MUNICIPALITÉS FRANÇAISES AU CRIBLE DE LA GÉOGRAPHIE DES REPRÉSENTATIONS

L'objectif de cette étude est d'éclairer la question des représentations municipales sur le Web à partir de l'observation de quatre sites Internet des communes d'lssy-les-Moulineaux, Marly-le-Roi, Metz et Parthenay. Cet échantillon ne se veut pas représentatif de l'ensemble des sites municipaux français dont l'immense majorité ne recouvre qu'une prosaïque vocation promotionnelle (pour caricaturer: venez visiter notre ville, ses spécialités, son musée, ses hôtels, ses restaurants, son église…). Nous avons donc sélectionné quatre sites qui remplissent de fait — grâce notamment à l'investissement personnel de leur maire au projet —à la fois la fonction de vitrine de ce qui «se fait de mieux» en France en matière d'implantation des Technologies d'Information et de Communication dans une commune, et de laboratoire, compte tenu du fait que les quatre expérimentations sont reconnues d'utilités publiques par le ministère de l'Industrie et auréolées du label «autoroute de l'information». L'objectif de cette étude n'est pas de faire une évaluation du projet-laboratoire et de ses impacts socio-spatiaux sur le territoire local, mais s'applique davantage à analyser le projet-vitrine à partir des observations de leur site Web. Elle tente de démontrer comment un projet de développement local novateur passe nécessairement par une mise en visibilité forte sur un média qui est à la fois support et contenu, (média et médium selon une expression macluhanienne) dans un monde, celui de la communication politique, où le discours est partie intégrante de l'action. The objective of this study is to shed light on the question of municipal representation on the Web, based on observations of the Internet of four French ‘communes’: Issy-les-Moulineaux, Marly-le-Roi, Metz and Parthenay. This sample is not representative of all French municipality sites, of which the large majority exist only for promotional uses (‘come and visit our city, its specialties, its museum, its hotels, its restaurants, its church…’). We have chosen four sites which serve - thanks to the personal investments of the cities' mayors in the projects - as showcases of the best examples of the establishment of information and communication technologies in ‘communes’ and as a laboratory. This last, because the Ministry of Industry has recognized that the four experiments are useful to the public and so has given them the name ‘information highway’. The purpose of this study is not to evaluate the laboratory aspect of the projects and their social and spatial impacts on their local territories but to analyze the showcase aspects of the projects, based on observations of the communes' websites. It attempts to demonstrate how new local development projects automatically acquire high visibility in a medium that is both support and content (medium and message, to use McLuhan's expression) in a world of political communication where speech is an integral part of action.     

THE FUTURE OF TIBETAN CULTURE

This is a short presentation drawn from a Belgian experience by Philippe Paquet,reporter at La Libre Belgique,Brussels,Beijing,October 2006.     

Une histoire de résidus : à propos des facteurs généraux et locaux de croissance régionale au Canada,de 1971 à 2001

Starting from an econometric model of local employment growth, applied to Canada (1971–2001), residuals—relative to model predictions—are analyzed over time and over space, in turn allowing us to draw a distinction between general explanatory variables and factors of a more local, cyclical or accidental nature. The model's explanatory power grows over time, founded on variables such as urban size, market access and industrial structure, allowing us to conclude that local employment growth in Canada follows an increasingly geographically predictable pattern. However, an examination of the residuals reveals more localized processes. Growth volatility is most manifest in Alberta and British Columbia, home to the most erratic local economies. Emerging patterns are visible in the last period, most notably the underperformance of Northern Ontario and of non‐metropolitan communities between Windsor and Québec City, lying along the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence. The over‐performance—compared to model predictions — of small and mid‐sized towns in south‐eastern Québec can, on the other hand, be interpreted as a sign of truly local social processes, generally associated with a particularly dynamic local entrepreneurial class.     

China's weapons trade: from ships of shame to the ethics of global resistance

China is among the largest exporters of arms to the developing world and is often criticized for exacerbating violent conflicts in Africa. This article examines geopolitical tensions surrounding some of China's most controversial weapons alliances, rethinking the role of the global media, state leaders and non-state actors in forming fragmentary movements of 'resistance'. Focusing on the tensions around a shipment of Chinese arms to Zimbabwe during a period of mid-election repression and violence in 2008, this article is a media content analysis on the debates about diplomacy, arms embargoes, regime violence, protests against the Beijing Olympics, and efforts by China to counter western critics. The article argues that more rigorous diplomatic efforts to block the weapons were required and that the moral and political hazards of unreflexive foreign policy analysis emboldened the Chinese authorities' denial of their responsibilities. Beyond the case of Zimbabwe, we suggest that a deeper and wider understanding of 'geopolitical resistance' against violence is vital.     

Essai de typologie des centres de santé et de services sociaux au Québec

Given the importance of contextual factors—physical, social and institutional environments—for understanding health landscapes, this article examines the situation in the province of Québec and suggests a spatial typology at the scale of the health and social services centres (CSSS). These CSSS provide services for 95 areas which are the finest territorial delineation in terms of health policies since a reform instituted in 2003. While delivery of primary health and social services is defined at this local scale, overall health policy is decided at the provincial scale. The challenge for stakeholders is to supplement their local knowledge with that of the broader context. In this article, we use principal components analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis to identify eight profiles of CSSS. The final results of the cluster analysis demonstrate that two‐thirds of the health and social services centres correspond with two marginally differentiated profiles and the remaining third shows specificities that are highly spatially anchored.