‘Nation-states’, ‘quasi-states’, and ‘collapsed-states’ in contemporary Africa

The revival of ethnic identities and the search for historical roots have been significant factors in re-shaping the map of the world in the late twentieth century. Multi-ethnic states have come under increasing strain throughout the century and undermining the concept of the nation-state. However, the successor states to the colonial empires in Africa exhibit the same strains as the often highly fragile successors to the European continental empires earlier in the century. The survival of these quasi-states has been dependent upon the support of the international community for over thirty years as a reaction to the era of colonialism. Anti-colonialism offers little practical support for states in a post-colonial, post-Cold War era. In some cases the result has been disintegration and the emergence of the collapsed state. The revived political movements aimed at democratisation and self-determination have unleashed forces which may be incompatible with the survival of the current state system.     

对‘清河镇动物群’和‘昌图动物群’的质疑

在《地质学报》64卷2期和66卷2期上发表有这两个‘动物群’的重要论文。在长期有争议的清河镇群和下二台群中发现小壳化石固然非同小可,但笔者拜读了两文后,却感到有些困惑与失望。图版所示两个动物群的绝大多数(如果不是全部的话!)看来不象是小壳化石,而是人工处理样品时所形成的假化石。如果依据这样的‘化石’来确定地层,将会带来极大的混乱。     

The neighborhood council: Where ‘top-down’ engages with ‘bottom-up’

The paper examines the neighborhood council from the perspective of its contribution to town planning. Within the context of planning in Israel, two distinct models of neighborhood council and their relationship to the municipal planning administration in two different towns are considered. Their potential as a new arena of planning at the neighborhood level is evaluated, including the ability to mediate between ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ planning processes, and to offer a planning framework that combines local with professional knowledge.     

Ascomycete fungi on dimension stone of the “Burg Gleichen”, Thuringia

In the present study, the diversity of ascomycete fungi was investigated on two wall areas of the “Burg Gleichen”, Thuringia (Germany), made of various types of sandstones, travertine and Grenzdolomit. From a W-exposed, shaded wall area, free-living ascomycetes (mainly “black fungi”) and green algae could be retrieved from sandstone lithologies. Sandstone from an ESE-exposed area was mainly colonized by lichen ascomycetes and the lichen alga Trebouxia. Both areas share a small number of generalist species, related to the ascomycete black fungi Sarcinomyces petricola, Phaeococcomyces chersonesos and Stichococcus mirabilis. Free-living black fungi were isolated and characterized with respect to cell wall morphology and melanin content. A remarkably rigid melanin layer, incorporated in the cell wall of a Cladosporium isolate is presented in detail.     

Borders on the move: Cross-strait tourists’ material moments on ‘the other side’ in the midst of rapprochement between China and Taiwan

This paper forms part of an endeavour to elicit the cultural-geo-politics of rapprochement tourism between China and Taiwan from a grounded approach. It seeks to examine cross-strait tourists’ travel experiences on ‘the other side’ through the lens of ‘border’, ‘materiality’ and ‘identity’ in an attempt to move beyond the often state-centric analyses of cross-strait ties. Discussion shows that travel documents that are close to the personal or those that are part and parcel of a touring experience are far from inert; they participate in the social and political lives of their owners, feature in bordering practices between the Chinese and the Taiwanese, and are often platforms through which identities are performed. Importantly too, as the various travel narratives reveal, the ubiquitous border certainly does not exist only in its physical form; imagined and perceived social borders are equally potent in (re)shaping cross-strait relations. A study that captures the often neglected field of comparative tourists’ travel experiences is timely in the advent of a warming relationship between China and Taiwan and the unprecedented increase in tourism exchanges that ensues.     

Cenozoic fault control on ‘deep lead’ palaeoriver systems,Central Highlands,Victoria

Basaltic eruptions across the Central Highlands of Victoria have sealed in-place Early to middle Cenozoic palaeodrainage systems (also known as deep leads). The basal gravels of the deep leads have been mined extensively in the past for their rich placer-gold deposits. Detailed mapping of the distribution of all palaeorivers has been carried out using drilling results and modern aeromagnetic/radiometric surveys. The palaeochannel isopachs (including basalt and sediment) do not thicken in a modern downvalley direction. Instead, deeper depressions alternate with shallower areas. The variations in thickness, and parts of the palaeochannel courses, are controlled by a series of east-northeast-trending basement highs. The basement highs are caused by a set of east-northeast-trending (Otway Basin-style) faults visible on radar shuttle imagery in the Central Highlands. They have not previously been recognised in regional geological mapping. Most published fault trends are north – south oriented, parallel to the strike of the Palaeozoic basement rocks. Exceptions occur at Ballarat where there is an orthogonal east-northeast set mapped in underground quartz reef workings that show right-lateral strike-slip movements. The east-northeast faults show half-graben block-style rotational movement on basement, creating north- and south-facing fault scarps along the horst ridges. Where palaeochannels overlie the grabens, valleys broadened, infill thickens, and locally drainage directions may change. When the drainage cuts through the horsts, steeper incised valleys result, and this is where, in the historical past, some gold leads were ‘lost’. The initial timing of the block movement pre-dates at least the Early Oligocene to Late Miocene ages of the basal palaeovalley sediments, as shown by revised palynological dating. In places, the modern drainage divide coincides with east-northeast-trending faults. In the Ballarat area, an earlier divide accentuated by the aeromagnetic palaeodrainage mapping occurs up to 25 km south and appears to pre-date the earliest basalt flows at around 7.0 Ma. This evidence suggests the divide can change position through time by differential movements along east-northeast faults and transferral of maximum uplift to adjacent blocks.     

Nonlinear analysis of footings on granular bed–stone column improved soft soil

In this paper, a model for the analysis of footings having finite flexural rigidity resting on a granular bed on top of stone columns improved saturated soft (clayey) soil has been proposed. Soft soil has been modeled as a Kelvin–Voigt body to represent its time dependent behavior. Pasternak shear layer has been used to represent the granular layer and the stone columns have been idealized by means of nonlinear Winkler springs. Nonlinear behavior of granular fill, soft soil and stone columns has been invoked by means of hyperbolic constitutive relationships. Governing differential equations for the soil–foundation system have been obtained and finite difference method has been adopted for solving these, using the Gauss-elimination iterative scheme. Detailed parametric study for a combined footing has been carried out to study the influence of parameters, like magnitude of applied load, flexural rigidity of footing, diameter of stone column, spacing of stone column, ultimate bearing capacity of granular fill, poor foundation soil and stone column, relative stiffness of stone columns and degree of consolidation, on flexural response of the footing.     

Post-depositional impacts on ‘Findlinge’ (erratic boulders) and their implications for surface-exposure dating

Understanding and interpretation of ‘numbers’ produced about the depositional age of an erratic boulder by cosmogenic nuclide surface-exposure dating is important in the construction of glacial chronology. We have sampled three ‘Findlinge’ (glacially transported boulders) located on the right-lateral margin of the Aare glacier at Möschberg, Grosshöchstetten, southeast of Bern, with the aim of shedding light on this topic. The boulders have the same depositional, but different post-depositional histories: simple exposure; exhumation; and human impact. This sampling is specially selected for this study, since the boulders showing exhumation and human impact would not have been sampled in a regular surface-exposure dating application. We measured cosmogenic ¹⁰Be concentrations and calculated apparent exposure ages that are 13.6 ± 0.5, 18.1 ± 0.8, and 7.5 ± 0.4 ka, respectively. The exposure age of the first boulder reflects exhumation. The apparent exposure age of 18.1 ± 0.8 ka (erosion-corrected exposure age 19.0 ± 0.9 ka) from the second boulder correlates well with the end of the Alpine and global last glacial maximum. The third boulder shows evidence of quarrying as it is surrounded by a rim of excavation material, which is also reflected by the 7.5 ± 0.4 ka apparent exposure age. We modeled the variation of ¹⁰Be concentrations with depth down into the sediment in which the first (exhumed) boulder was once buried in, and down into the third (quarried) boulder. According to our modeling, we determined that the exhumed ‘Findling’ was buried in sediment at a depth of around 0.5 m, and around 2 m of rock was quarried from the third ‘Findling’. Our results reveal the importance of sampling for surface-exposure dating within a well defined field context, as post-depositional impacts can easily hinder exposure-dating of surfaces.     

Metallogenic ‘factories’ and resultant highly anomalous mineral endowment on the craton margins of China

The current margins of the North China and Yangtze Cratons provide arguably the best examples globally of anomalously high mineral endowment within a 100 km buffer zone, hosting 66 diverse world-class to giant ore systems that help explain China’s premier position as a producer of multiple metal and mineral commodities. After the cratonization of these crustal blocks during the Neoarchean-Paleoproterozoic, with incorporation of iron ores on assembled micro-block margins, the margins of the cratons experienced multiple convergence and rifting events leading to metasomatism and fertilization of their underlying sub-continental lithospheric mantle. The rifted margins with trans-lithosphere faults provided pathways for Cu-Au (Mo-W-Sn)-bearing felsic to Ni-Cu-bearing ultrabasic intrusions and REE-rich carbonatite magmas, and for the development of marginal sedimentary basins with both Cu-Pb-Zn-rich source units and reactive carbonate or carbonaceous host rocks. There was diachronous formation of hydrothermal orogenic gold, antimony, and bismuth systems in the narrow orogenic belts between the cratons. Complexity in the Mesozoic Paleo-Pacific subduction systems resulted in asthenosphere upwelling and lithosphere extension and thinning in the North China Craton, leading to anomalous heat flow and formation of orogenic gold deposits, including those of the giant Jiaodong gold province on its north-eastern margin. These gold deposits, many of which formed from fluids liberated by devolatilization of previously metasomatized sub-continental lithospheric mantle, helped propel China to be the premier gold producer globally. The thick sub-continental lithospheric mantle of the cold buoyant cratons helped the preservation of some of the world’s oldest porphyry-skarn and epithermal mineral systems. Although craton margins globally control the formation and preservation of a diverse range of mineral deposits, China represents the premier example in terms of metal endowment due to the anomalous length of its craton margins combined with their abnormally complex tectonic history.     

A new spin on ‘non-rotating’ porphyroblasts: implications of cleavage refraction and reference frames

It has been claimed that rigid porphyroblasts which grow before or during folding and concurrent cleavage development do not rotate with respect to the geographical reference frame (GRF), even if the straining is non-coaxial (Bell, 1985, Bell and Johnson, 1990). The explanation offered is based on strain partitioning. It is argued that the initial orientations of early fabrics included as internal foliations (S_i) in the porphyroblasts have been preserved after polyphase deformation, and even after successive orogenies. According to the strain partitioning model, the porphyroblasts are fixed in domains of coaxial straining (microlithons) and are isolated from the non-coaxial straining associated with the enveloping septa (S_e). This hypothesis, and also its discussions both pro and contra, suffer from insufficient attention to reference frames. We therefore attempt to demonstrate: (a) the need for rigorous treatment of reference frames in geological interpretations; (b) that, in a folding situation, grains that do not rotate with respect to their immediate matrix generally rotate with respect to the GRF; (c) that lack of porphyroblast rotation with respect to the GRF demands a rare folding mechanism (slip fold model); and (d) that the non-rotation hypothesis is in conflict with heterogeneous deformation (cleavage refraction). Finally, we question the validity of the evidence in a study by Fyson (1980), cited in support of non-rotation with respect to the GRF during folding. Fyson reported orientations of S_i that are constant, after folding, over a large area; this scenario is a product of selective data acquisition. In summary, our investigation shows that the lack of porphyroblast rotation with respect to a GRF during folding, while possible, is not universal. The development of microstructures (e.g. curved S_i) is only related to the local deformation path, the characterisation of which does not rely on the GRF.     

‘Bone-shaped’ boudins in progressive shearing

Some peculiar ‘bone-shaped’ boudins are observed in two areas of progressive shearing. They are characterized by large quartz-filled gashes that separate thinner boudins. These gashes often have a consistent obliquity, suggesting a rotation synthetic to the shear sense. These may be formed by rigid material that crystallizes in tension gashes between the boudins; during further ongoing deformation these behaved as rigid inclusions in a more ductile matrix and show systematic rotations. The sense of rotation of the gashes constitutes a shear criterion.     

‘南山系’之时代范围

‘南山砂岩系’一名,为早年洛采氏(L.Loczy)调查南山区地质时创立。以砂岩为主,夹石灰岩,有花岗岩侵入体,受强烈褶皱,劈开与片理俱甚发育,但变质作用,殊为轻微,无化石,其时代暂定为下部古生代或更老。其后俄博奇夫(Obrutschew)虽调查较详细,惟关     

Discussion of ‘Soil creep effects on ground lateral deformation and pore water pressure under embankments’

Settlement analysis of field cases is normally studied based on parameters interpreted from laboratory samples influenced by varying degrees of sample disturbance. Such disturbance is more pronounced in natural soft clays and could significantly affect the engineering properties of the soil, e.g. the over consolidation ratio (OCR) and compressibility index (C_c). Hence, it is vital to understand the role of sample quality in relation to soil characterisation for long-term settlement analyses. In this work, this is numerically illustrated by use of a simple creep model along with realistic parameter selection. This work takes its starting point on critical discussion of the work presented by Fatahi et al. (2013) and uses the opportunity to further clarify some important aspects of settlement/creep analyses in light of sample quality and parameter interpretation valid for the corresponding constitutive model.     

Zircon geochronology constraints on the age and nature of ‘Precambrian metamorphic rocks’ in the Xing’an block of Northeast China

The Great Xing’an Range in Northeast China is located in the eastern part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. From north to south, the Great Xing’an Range is divided into the Erguna, Xing’an, and Songliao blocks. Previous U–Pb zircon geochronology results have revealed that some ‘Precambrian metamorphic rocks’ in the Xing’an block have Phanerozoic protolith ages, questioning whether Precambrian basement exists in the Xing’an block. We present laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS) U–Pb dating results for zircons from suspected Precambrian metamorphic rocks in the Xing’an block. Meta-rhyolites of the Xinkailing Group in Nenjiang yield magmatic ages of 355.8 Ma. Detrital zircons from phyllites of the Xinkailing Group in Duobaoshan yield populations of ca. 1505, ca. 810, and ca. 485 Ma, with the youngest peak constraining its depositional age to be <485 Ma. Zircons from amphibolitic gneisses of the Xinkailing Group in Nenjiang have magmatic ages of 308.6 Ma. Mylonitic granites of the Xinkailing Group in Nenjiang have zircon magmatic ages of 164 Ma. Detrital zircons from two-mica quartz schists of the Luomahu Group in the Galashan Forest yield ca. 2419, ca. 1789, ca. 801, ca. 536, ca. 480, and ca. 420 Ma, with the youngest peak indicating its depositional age as <420 Ma. Detrital zircons from mylonitized sericite–chlorite schist of the Ergunhe Formation in Taerqi yield populations of 982–948, ca. 519, and ca. 410 Ma, with the youngest peak demonstrating that its depositional age is <410 Ma. These zircon ages for a range of lithologies show that the Great Xing’an Range metamorphic rocks formed during the Phanerozoic (164–485 Ma) and that this crust is mostly Palaeozoic. Based on these results and published data, we conclude that there is no evidence of Precambrian metamorphic basement in the Xing’an block. In summary, the age data indicate that Precambrian metamorphic basement may not exist in the Xing’an region.     

What is the ‘Just Transition’?

The ‘just transition’ is a concept receiving more attention in the literature to-date. This critical review discusses this and how there are overlaps with literature on energy, environmental and climate justice. Within the separate energy, environment and climate change scholar communities, there is too much distortion of what the ‘transition’ means and what ‘justice’ means, and they all should be understood within the just transition concept. To increase public understanding and public acceptance of a just transition, these research communities need to unite rather than continue alone.     

‘A place for everything’: Moral landscapes of ‘swiftlet farming’ in George Town,Malaysia

This paper is based on 6 months of ethnographic, multi-sited research in Malaysia, and investigates the relatively recent phenomenon of edible birds’ nest farming in urban areas (‘swiftlet farming’). Swiftlet farms are typically converted shophouses or other buildings which have been modified for the purpose of harvesting the nests of the Edible-nest Swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus). I use the controversy over urban swiftlet farming in the Malaysian city of George Town, Penang, to examine discourses used by key stakeholders to shape debates over the place of non-human animals in cities. By considering everyday experiences of urban swiftlet farming, I explore how this burgeoning industry is perceived amongst residents, and how it is deemed to be (in)appropriate within the political, economic and cultural landscape of George Town. Yet, I also consider how farmers have sought to contest these discourses on ideological and normative grounds. In so doing, I place the cultural animal geographies literature in conversation with emergent literature on landscape and urban political ecology. Such a framing allows for a critical evaluation of the controversies surrounding this case, and their implications for human-animal cohabitation in cities. The paper reflects on the implications of this case for how we regulate human-animal relations and live in contemporary cities, and the crucial role of animals in altering urban form, aesthetics and everyday life, particularly in non-Western contexts.     

Determining proper strategies for Iran’s dimensional stone mines: a SWOT–AHP analysis

Iran has very high potential for production and export of dimension stone (rock quarried to size and shape specifications); nevertheless, in spite of growing mine production during the past decade, in many instances this potential has been overlooked. Construction, decorative, and facing stones of Iran are among the highest-quality products in the world. In this paper, Iran’s dimensional stone mines are analyzed using strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis in combination with analytic hierarchy process (AHP). SWOT analysis is a tool commonly used for analyzing both the internal and external environments in order to attain a systematic approach and support for a decision situation. Conventionally, SWOT analysis is qualitative and does not quantify the effect of the factors. Consequently, it is not effective in priority setting. To overcome this limitation, SWOT analysis has been used in combination with other quantitative multi-criteria decision making methods especially the AHP. In this study, first an environment analysis was performed by an expert team familiar with these mines. In this way, the SWOT factors were identified and the subfactors which had very significant effects on the success of these mines were determined. Using the SWOT subfactors, the SWOT matrix and alternative strategies based on these subfactors were developed. Subsequently, the strategies were prioritized and the best strategies for Iran’s dimensional stone mines were determined.