Geneva. An Urban Sociodemographic Database

The Geneva databases are a data resource covering the period 1800–1880 for the city of Geneva, and occasionally the canton of Geneva. The research team adopted an alphabetical sampling approach, collecting data on individuals whose surname begins with the letter B. The individuals and households belonging to this sample in six population censuses between 1816 and 1843 were digitised and linked. A second database collected marriage and divorce records for the period 1800–1880. A third collection of data included residence permits. All these sources were used for a massive reconstitution of families. This article presents the sources, the linking methods, the typologies used to code places and occupations, to study household structures and forms of solitude. Combined with qualitative information extracted from the archives of public administrations and the National Protestant Church, as well as from newspapers, these databases were used to study the transformation of a medium-sized European city, sociopolitical tensions embedded in demographic and social structures, and the impact of the immigrants who made the 'Calvinist Rome' a religiously mixed city

New reactor dedicated to in operando studies of model catalysts by means of surface x-ray diffraction and grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering

International audienceA new experimental setup has been developed to enable in situ studies of catalyst surfaces during chemical reactions by means of surface x-ray diffraction (SXRD) and grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering. The x-ray reactor chamber was designed for both ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) and reactive gas environments. A laser beam heating of the sample was implemented; the sample temperature reaches 1100 K in UHV and 600 K in the presence of reactive gases. The reactor equipment allows dynamical observations of the surface with various, perfectly mixed gases at controlled partial pressures. It can run in two modes: as a bath reactor in the pressure range of 1-1000 mbars and as a continuous flow cell for pressure lower than 10−3 mbar. The reactor is connected to an UHV preparation chamber also equipped with low energy electron diffraction and Auger spectroscopy. This setup is thus perfectly well suited to extend in situ studies to more complex surfaces, such as epitaxial films or supported nanoparticles. It offers the possibility to follow the chemically induced changes of the morphology, the structure, the composition, and growth processes of the model catalyst surface during exposure to reactive gases. As an example the Pd8Ni92(110) surface structure was followed by SXRD under a few millibars of hydrogen and during butadiene hydrogenation while the reaction was monitored by quadrupole mass spectrometry. This experiment evidenced the great sensitivity of the diffracted intensity to the subtle interaction between the surface atoms and the gas molecules

FAME : A new beamline for X-ray absorption investigations of very-diluted systems of environmental, material and biological interests

International audienceFAME is the French Absorption spectroscopy beamline in Material and Environmental sciences at the ESRF (France), operational since September 2002. Technically speaking, the source is a 0.85 T bending magnet and the main optical element is a two-crystals monochromator using either Si(111) or Si(220) monocrystals so that the available energy ranges from 4 to 40 keV. The first crystal is liquid nitrogen cooled in order to avoid a thermal bump and thus preserve the energy resolution. The second crystal is dynamically bent during the energy scan in order to focus the beam in the horizontal plane. Two bendable mirrors are located before and after the monochromator, for beam-collimation (to optimize the energy resolution) and vertical focalization, respectively. During scans, the beam on the sample is kept constant in position and size (around 150 × 200 μm2, V × H). The high flux on the sample combined with the sensitivity of our 30-elements fluorescence detector allow to decrease the detection limit down to 10 ppm or around less than a monolayer. Moreover, quick-EXAFS acquisition is operational: the acquisition time may be reduced down to 30s

Tradition, vocation et progrès : les élites bourgeoises de Genève (1814-1914)

Les anciennes familles bourgeoises de Genève, solidement ancrées dans la tradition calviniste, perdent subitement le pouvoir en 1846 lorsque James Fazy et les radicaux provoquent une révolution. Pourtant le microcosme bourgeois dans lequel vivent ces vieilles élites reste grandement inchangé depuis l'Ancien Régime.. A Genève, les familles bourgeoises, confrontées à la suppression du statut bourgeoisial, puis à la disparition du cens électoral, ont tendance à se refermer sur elles-mêmes pour se protéger d'une confrontation sociale dont elles ne veulent pas. Au cours du XIXe siècle, forte endogamie, cloisonnement des formations, développement d'associations bancaires parmi des cercles d'alliés s'organisent d'autant plus facilement que les élites bourgeoises prolongent et accentuent une tradition de fonctionnement en vase clos. Au travers d'un parcours de vie fictif allant de l'éducation à l'organisation des successions, le lecteur est amené à explorer ce monde à part qui conserve, après la révolution, un formidable pouvoir économique.