May vodun sacred spaces be considered as a natural patrimony ?

In the south of Benin and Togo, access to and management of natural sites are strictly controlled by religious rules of the vodun cult. These sacred forests and woodlands, and their biodiversity have been noticed both by scientists and managers specializing in questions of conservation as a proof of the capacities of traditional societies to protect biodiversity. But, the analysis of past and current practices concerning vodun sacred sites shows clearly that the biodiversity inherent in them cannot completely and always be considered as a natural patrimony. Very often the elements concerned are neither inherited nor passed on, and their management is not static. For example, though these sacred spaces are often wooded, one cannot assert that the composition and structure of the tree cover faithfully represents that of the original forest. On the contrary, our study shows that borrowings, movements, and fashions connected to the social dynamics and economic and political situation effect the religious management of sites, depending on the history of the people concerned. Numerous cult sites have been destroyed, moved, or re-organized, and the corresponding biological diversity was widely affected by these changes

Tropiques d'abondance ou tropiques menacées : regards européens sur la flore et la végétation de l'Afrique tropicale humide (XVII°-XX° siècles).

International audienceThe flora and vegetation of wet West tropical Africa are actually perceived both rich and threatened. This perception is not new as attested in historical and scientific sources. As far back the first journeys, a picture showing the biological richness of these regions has been elaborated. It was only at the end of the nineteen century that the first scientific inventories has been done and a new awareness of thining and degradation has appeared.This analysis shows also that political and economical European interests have always had an important part into the development of the representations.La flore et la végétation de la zone tropicale humide de l'Afrique de l'Ouest sont actuellement perçues comme riche et menacée à la fois. Cette perception n'est pas nouvelle comme le montre l'analyse des sources historiques et scientifiques anciennes. Dès les premiers voyages, s'est élaborée une image mettant en valeur la richesse biologique de ces régions. Ce n'est qu'à partir de la fin du 19° siècle que les premiers inventaires scientifiques ont été réalisés et qu'apparurent les premières prises de conscience concernant l'appauvrissement de la flore et la dégradation des couverts végétaux. Cette analyse montre également que les intérêts économiques et politiques des nations européennes ont joué de tout temps un rôle certain dans l'élaboration des représentations

Effects of the nature of the doping salt and of the thermal pre-treatment and sintering temperature on spark plasma sintering of transparent alumina

A slurry of a-Al2O3 was doped with Mg, Zr and La nitrates or chlorides, in various amounts in the range 150-500 wt ppm and then freeze-dried to produce nanosized doped powder (~150 nm). The powder was sintered by SPS to yield transparent polycrystalline alpha alumina. The influence of the nature of the doping element and the starting salt, the thermal treatment before sintering and the sintering emperature on the transparency of the ceramics were investigated. The transparency of the ceramics of nanosized Al2O3 was shown to depend mainly on the way the powder was prepared, the nature of the doping salt also had an effect. Finally, a high real inline transmittance, reaching 48.1% was achieved after optimization

Joint inversion of P-wave velocity and density, application to La Soufrière of Guadeloupe hydrothermal system

International audienceWe present the result of a 3-D gravity and P-wave traveltime joint inversion applied to the hydrothermal system of La Soufri'ere of Guadeloupe. The joint inversion process is used here to overcome the different resolution limitations attached to the two data sets. P-wave traveltimes were obtained from three active seismic surveys that were conducted from 2001 to 2007. Gravity data collected during a microgravity campaign is described in a companion paper. We use a joint inversion process based on a Bayesian formulation and a deterministic iterative approach. The coupling between slowness and density is introduced through a supplementary constraint in the misfit function that tries to minimize the distance between parameter values and a theoretical relationship. This relationship is derived from measurements on samples representative of Mt Pel'ee of Martinique and La Soufri'ere volcanoes. We chose a grid discretization that leads to an under-determined problem that we regularize using spatial exponential covariance between the nodes parameters. Our results are compared to geophysical electromagnetic results obtained using resistivity and VLF surveys. They confirm the presence of highly contrasted dense/fast and light/slow zones in La Soufri'ere dome and crater basement. Our images suggest however that some non-conductive zones may be massive andesite bodies rather than argilized zones, and that these bodies may have deeper roots than hypothesized

Этнокультурные стереотипы образа мусульманской женщины

Данная статья посвящена изучению коранической основы и социокультурного положения женщины в исламе. Особое внимание было уделено изучению коранического аспекта роли женщины в кругу семьи и роли семьи в целом для исламского мира.Дана стаття присвячена вивченню коранічної основи та соціокультурного положення жінки в ісламі. Особлива увага приділена вивченню коранічного аспекту ролі жінки в колі родини та ролі родини в цілому для ісламського світу.This article is devoted to study of Koran basis and sociocultural status of woman in Islam. The special attention has been paid to study of Koran aspect of the woman’s role in monogynopaedium and the role of monogynopaedium for the Islam world on the whole

TSF experiment for comparison of high Reynolds number turbulence in both HeI and HeII: First results

International audienceTSF experiment for comparison of high Reynolds number turbulence in both HeI and HeII: First result

ISM Properties in Low-Metallicity Environments II. The Dust Spectral Energy Distribution of NGC 1569

We present new 450 and 850 microns SCUBA data of the dwarf galaxy NGC 1569. We construct the mid-infrared to millimeter SED of NGC 1569, using ISOCAM, ISOPHOT, IRAS, KAO, SCUBA and MAMBO data, and model the SED in order to explore the nature of the dust in low metallicity environments. The detailed modeling is performed in a self-consistent way, synthesizing the global ISRF of the galaxy using an evolutionary synthesis model with further constraints provided by the observed MIR ionic lines and a photoionisation model. Our results show that the dust properties are different in this low metallicity galaxy compared to other more metal rich galaxies. The results indicate a paucity of PAHs probably due to the destructive effects of the ISRF penetrating a clumpy environment and a size-segregation of grains where the emission is dominated by small grains of size ~3 nm, consistent with the idea of shocks having a dramatic effect on the dust properties in NGC 1569. A significant millimetre excess is present in the dust SED which can be explained by the presence of ubiquitous very cold dust (T = 5-7 K). This dust component accounts for 40 to 70 % of the total dust mass in the galaxy (1.6 - 3.4 10^5 Msol) and could be distributed in small clumps (size a few pc) throughout the galaxy. We find a gas-to-dust mass ratio of 740 - 1600, larger than that of the Galaxy and a dust-to-metals ratio of 1/4 to 1/7. We generate an extinction curve for NGC 1569, consistent with the modeled dust size distribution. This extinction curve has relatively steep FUV rise and smaller 2175 Angstroms bump, resembling the observed extinction curve of some regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud.Comment: 20 pages, 20 figures, accepted by A&

The Pipe Nebula as seen with Herschel: Formation of filamentary structures by large-scale compression ?

A growing body of evidence indicates that the formation of filaments in interstellar clouds is a key component of the star formation process. In this paper, we present new Herschel PACS and SPIRE observations of the B59 and Stem regions in the Pipe Nebula complex, revealing a rich, organized network of filaments. The asymmetric column density profiles observed for several filaments, along with the bow-like edge of B59, indicates that the Pipe Nebula is being compressed from its western side, most likely by the winds from the nearby Sco OB2 association. We suggest that this compressive flow has contributed to the formation of some of the observed filamentary structures. In B59, the only region of the entire Pipe complex showing star formation activity, the same compressive flow has likely enhanced the initial column density of the clump, allowing it to become globally gravitationally unstable. Although more speculative, we propose that gravity has also been responsible for shaping the converging filamentary pattern observed in B59. While the question of the relative impact of large-scale compression and gravity remains open in B59, large-scale compression appears to be a plausible mechanism for the initial formation of filamentary structures in the rest of the complexComment: 9 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A&