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.     

Grüne Wiese kontra Innenstadt – immer noch ein aktuelles Thema für den Einzelhandel?

Kurzfassung Mit dem gro?fl?chigen Einzelhandel und seinen Standorten besch?ftigen sich Geographen und Planer seit Jahrzehnten. Schlie?lich ist die Versorgung mit Gütern des t?glichen und des speziellen Bedarfs eine unverzichtbare Grunddaseinsfunktion, die allen Menschen zug?nglich sein sollte. Gleichzeitig ist dies ein Bereich, in dem die zunehmende Kapital- und Standortkonzentration in den letzten Jahren auch Probleme bereitete. Grund genug für den Informations- und Initiativkreis „Regionalplanung“ der Akademie für Raumforschung und Landesplanung (ARL), sich damit zu besch?ftigen und zu positionieren. Projektkoordinator und Impulsgeber war dabei Dr.-Ing. Dirk Vallée, der auch den Entwurf für das 2006 erschienene Positionspapier der ARL erarbeitet hatte. Dipl.-Geogr. Ute C. Bauer sprach mit dem Technischen Direktor vom „Verband Region Stuttgart“, der dort für die Regional- und die Landschaftsplanung zust?ndig ist, über gegenw?rtige und zukünftige Entwicklungen im Bereich des gro?fl?chigen Einzelhandels.     

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.     

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.     

Contrasting approaches to ethnohistory in Africa: Vansina,Dillon, Ferguson

Vansina, Jan. Paths in the Rainforests: Toward a History of Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990. xx + 428 pp. including appendix, notes/references, and index. $45.00 cloth, $17.50 paper.

Dillon, Richard D. Ranking and Resistance: A Precolonial Cameroonian Polity in Regional Perspective. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990. xiii + 310 pp. including appendix, references, and index. $39.50 cloth.

Ferguson, James. The Anti‐politics Machine: “Development,” Depoliticization and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. xvi + 320 pp. including notes, references, and index. $49.50 cloth.