IRSL and post-IR IRSL residual doses recorded in modern dust samples from the Chinese Loess Plateau

Using a set of modern/young (0 to about 200 years old) dust samples collected from the Chinese Loess Plateau the bleachability of IRSL measured at 50°C (IR₅₀) and post-IR₅₀ elevated temperature IRSL (measured at 225°C and at 290°C) is investigated by measuring the apparent (residual) doses recorded by these signals. Doses recorded by quartz OSL are used as a reference. Allowing for differences in dose rates it seems that both IRSL and post-IR IRSL signals yield residual doses that are significantly larger than the doses measured in quartz. These residual doses can be largely explained by thermal transfer caused by preheating. Nevertheless, we advise against the use of a low temperature preheat (<200°C) with IR₅₀ to date loess samples because, as has been reported before, the signal appears to be thermally unstable. In general, we conclude that it may not be advisable to apply post-IR IRSL dating to Chinese loess samples where residuals of up to ∼20 Gy are a significant fraction of the total dose. However, these residuals quickly become unimportant when dating older samples, and this is the age range in which post-IR IRSL dating is likely to be most useful.     

Incidental heritage: difficult intangible heritages as collateral damage

Within the context of ‘negative’ and ‘intangible heritage,’ this paper explores Burström and Gelderblom’s proposition of ‘difficult heritage,’ with respect to Bückeberg, the site of the Third Reich Harvest Festival, as a site where collective moments of cultural shame occur. The paper then considers homelessness within this theoretical framework to ask whether those aspects of our inherited and contemporary culture, which are difficult and culturally shameful, are able to be accommodated within the framework of intangible heritage. It proposes homelessness as difficult intangible heritage which is produced as ‘collateral damage,’ an indirect byproduct of other pro-active cultural processes and community values.     

The Political Life of Natural Infrastructure: Water Funds and Alternative Histories of Payments for Ecosystem Services in Valle del Cauca,Colombia

This article shows the two-way relation between global norms and local conditions as they shape Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) theory and practice, through a case study of a water fund in Valle del Cauca, Colombia, the heartland of the country's sugarcane industry. Drawing on interviews, survey data and historical research, the article argues that the water fund should be understood in the context of the history of infrastructure for the sugarcane industry in the region, and that this infrastructural perspective provides a more nuanced insight into the fund's political life than the traditional PES framing. Furthermore, the article shows how the norms embedded in this locally grown programme circulated through international networks to influence PES theory and design. This case offers one example of the need to attend to the multiple and geographically specific histories of actually existing PES in order to understand its diversity in the present.     

At the ogre's house

The female helper identified in two recent articles in this journal is a figure in a stereotyped scene that exists in a number of different folktales. When the hero arrives at the ogre's house, this woman warns him that when the ogre returns, he will eat him. Then she protects the hero by hiding him. When the ogre comes in, he smells the human, but the woman (his wife, daughter, grandmother, or captive) prevents him from finding the visitor.     

Functional-adaptive features and palaeobiologic implications of the postcranial skeleton of the late Miocene sabretooth borhyaenoid Thylacosmilus atrox (Metatheria)

A functional-adaptive study of the postcranium of two late Miocene sabretooth borhyaenoid specimens (Mammalia, Metatheria) is presented. Thylacosmilus atrox developed a longer neck than in non-sabretooth borhyaenoids and was capable of strong flexion of the head. The lower back is well-stabilized and more rigid than in the other borhyaenoids. The forelimb appears well-suited for manipulating and capturing prey, with a probably well-developed deltoid and pectoral musculature. Compared with other Miocene borhyaenoids, the hip joint of Thylacosmilus is modified to allow greater postural flexibility (e.g. possibility of erect stances). The low greater femoral trochanter, the short and sigmoid tibia, and the semiplantigrade hind foot of Thylacosmilus precluded fast running. Thylacosmilus killed by stabbing, a peculiar mechanism that evolved in parallel in many other sabretooth taxa. This technique has significant functional-adaptive consequences on the postcranial skeleton, superimposed on the generalized morphological pattern reflected in its non-sabertooth relatives. The superficial similarities observed between Thylacosmilus and Smilodon overshadow real differences (at the level of joint patterns and muscular groups involved in particular movements), a condition that suggests the development in the marsupial form of a morphological type unique to the thylacosmilid lineage within Borhyaenoidea.     

Miralinidae (Marsupialia: Phalangeroidea) from northern Australia,including the youngest occurrence of the family

Five isolated molars from two localities in the Northern Territory, the middle Miocene Bullock Creek and late Oligocene Kangaroo Well sites, are assigned to the new miralinid genus Barguru, which includes the three new species: Barguru kayir, Barguru maru and Barguru kula. The Miralinidae was previously thought to be restricted to the late Oligocene and early Miocene, but the occurrence at Bullock Creek extends the time range of this family into the middle Miocene. Analysis of metaloph development in the Miralinidae suggests that loph formation in this family followed a different trajectory to that of phalangerids.