A NOTE ON TRANSPORTATION RATES AND LOCATION OF THE FIRM IN A TWO-DIMENSION,n-INPUT SPACE*

This paper examines the theoretical implications of quantity-discounted transportation rates on the optimum location decision of the firm. It shows that the linearly homogeneous or homothetic production function is not a sufficient condition for the independence between the optimum location and the output level, unless (i) the elasticities of transportation rates with respect to quantity shipped are constant and identical, and (ii) the ratios of marginal products 60 the marginal transportation costs are equal for each input.     

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE IN WESTERN INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES: AN AGENDA FOR MEDICAL GEOGRAPHY

The range of health and health care topics amenable to geographical analyses in Western industralized countries has increased tremendously in the past two decades. These studies of health care systems have focused on the health organization, delivery, and utilization of biomed-ical services, however, to the virtual exclusion of analyses of a wide variety of alternative approaches to health and healing in these countries. This lacuna is regrettable in view of the fact that people's health care behaviour suggests that medical pluralism is a persisting reality in the industrialized countries. There is indeed a coexistence of biomedicine with several alternative therapies and, in recent years, there has been resurgence in the popularity and use of alternative medicine.     

Strontium isotope analysis in ancient glass from South Asia using portable laser ablation sampling

In order to carry out strontium (Sr) isotope analysis, glass artefacts from South Asia were sampled with portable laser ablation (pLA), a relatively novel sampling technique that leaves damage invisible to the naked eye. Subsequently, thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) was used to obtain Sr isotope ratios after sample dissolution and separation. In this study, the goal was twofold: to determine whether the measurements of Sr isotope ratios were impacted by using a portable laser as a sample tool; and to assess the pertinence of using Sr isotope ratios to provenance Indian glass. Despite a deterioration in the precision of the measurement of the Sr isotope ratios for artefacts sampled with pLA compared with the traditional sampling method, the Sr isotope ratios of certain Indian glass are so different that this does not affect their separation but a comparison of data sets obtained using standard methods and pLA might be challenging.