Paludification is the most common process of peatland formation in boreal regions. In this study, we investigated the autogenic (e.g., topography) and allogenic (fire and climate) factors triggering paludification in different geomorphological contexts (glaciolacustrine silty-clayey and fluvioglacial deposits) within the Québec black spruce (Picea mariana)–moss boreal forest. Paleoecological analyses were conducted along three toposequences varying from a forest on mineral soil to forested and semi-open peatlands. Plant macrofossil and charcoal analyses were performed on basal peat sections (≤50 cm) and thick forest humus (<40 cm) to reconstruct local vegetation dynamics and fire history involved in the paludification process. Results show that primary paludification started in small topographic depressions after land emergence ca. 8000 cal yr BP within rich fens. Lateral peatland expansion and secondary paludification into adjacent forests occurred between ca. 5100 and 2300 cal yr BP and resulted from low-severity fires during a climatic deterioration. Fires that reduced or eliminated entirely the organic layer promoted the establishment of Sphagnum in microdepressions. Paludification resulted in the decline of some coniferous species such as Abies balsamea and Pinus banksiana. The paleoecological approach along toposequences allowed us to understand the spatiotemporal dynamics of paludification and its impacts on the vegetation dynamics over the Holocene.

Morocco's argan oil is now the most expensive edible oil in the world. Growing high-value argan markets have sparked a bonanza of argan activity. NGOs, international and domestic development agencies, and argan oil cooperatives have promoted the win–win aim of simultaneously benefiting locals and the argan forest. We test this win–win claim by surveying households before and after rapid appreciation in argan prices. The argan boom has benefited some rural households. Those well positioned to benefit increased their goat herds more than other households, which bodes poorly for forest impacts, and were more likely to send their girls to secondary school. While locals are keeping their goats out of argan trees during the harvest, they may also be resorting to more aggressive harvesting techniques. The boom has made households vigilant guardians of fruit on their own trees, but has not incited investments in longer term tree and forest health.

Bouffée délirante is an historic and unique French diagnostic term for a short-lived psychosis. The key diagnostic features are acute, floridly psychotic symptoms with complete remission. Its use in a Paris hospital has been examined, and it appears that the term is declining in popularity. A case-controlled study indicated that the diagnosis is likely to be given to migrants on first admission. A re-diagnosis of case summaries indicated no particular correspondence of bouffée délirante to any one lCD category. However, the usefulness of having a special diagnostic term for psychosis with a good outcome is discussed.

Photometric and polarimetric observations of Long-Period Variables (LPVs), carried out at Byurakan Observatory over the last few years, have yielded some interesting results. In particular, one of the important results obtained for Mira type variables is that there is a certain correlation between brightness and polarization: the maximum degree of polarization is midway on the increasing branch of the light curve and in all probability its change has a periodic character. More recently an important result has been obtained for a post AGB star SAO 124414. The polarimetric and photometric observations of this star were carried out over a period of 3 years. At an almost constant brightness, strong, irregular changes of light polarization were observed in three bands (BVR) of the spectrum. The analysis of the observations does not show periodicity in changes of polarization. In this report the observational results for SAO 124414 are presented. In the study of the evolution of red giants and supergiants, future observations of this star taken simultaneously in optical and radio wavelengths, could be very significant.

We present the results of the classification of newly discovered M-type variables obtained as part of an H-alpha survey of Galactic dark cloud regions.

The kinetics of the growth of copper clusters on the alumina (0001) surface was studied as a function of surface structure, using EXAFS at the Cu K edge. Equivalent Cu coverages ranging from 0.5 to 4 equivalent monolayers were deposited in situ, at room temperature, on alumina (0001) surfaces exhibiting the (1×1) or the reconstructed structure. The evolution of mean cluster size with deposition time was followed from the mean Cu coordination number in the clusters deduced from the EXAFS data. The increase of the mean cluster radius with deposition time is characteristic of a coalescence mechanism on both surfaces. The growth is quicker on the reconstructed surface, likely due to different surface diffusion properties of both surfaces.

After reviewing observations of the spectral solar features originated either in the chromospheric layers or in the photospheric layers, from the point of view of the observations, and after having shown the strikingly discrepant set of interpretations that can be found currently in literature, a numerical experiment is performed in a case not too different from the solar case. It is shown that the use of the line bisector to determine, from the asymmetry of a single line, the trend of the velocity field might be considerably misleading, a fact which explains partly the results published in literature.