In this paper we study ruled surfaces which appear as an exceptional surface in a succession of blowing-ups. In particular we prove that the $e$-invariant of such a ruled exceptional surface $E$ is strictly positive whenever its intersection with the other exceptional surfaces does not contain a fiber (of $E$). This fact immediately enables us to resolve an open problem concerning an intersection configuration on such a ruled exceptional surface consisting of three nonintersecting sections. In the second part of the paper we apply the non-vanishing of $e$ to the study of the poles of the well-known topological, Hodge and motivic zeta functions.

For most of the finite subgroups of $\SL(3,\mathbf{C})$, we give explicit formulae for the Molien series of the coinvariant algebras, generalizing McKay's formulae \cite{M99} for subgroups of $\SU(2)$. We also study the $G$-orbit Hilbert scheme $\Hilb^G(\mathbf{C}^3)$ for any finite subgroup $G$ of $\SO(3)$, which is known to be a minimal (crepant) resolution of the orbit space $\mathbf{C}^3/G$. In this case the fiber over the origin of the Hilbert-Chow morphism from $\Hilb^G(\mathbf{C}^3)$ to $\mathbf{C}^3/G$ consists of finitely many smooth rational curves, whose planar dual graph is identified with a certain subgraph of the representation graph of $G$. This is an $\SO(3)$ version of the McKay correspondence in the $\SU(2)$ case.

A theorem of Donaldson on the existence of Hermitian-Einstein metrics on stable holomorphic bundles over a compact K\"ahler surface is extended to bundles which are parabolic along an effective divisor with normal crossings. Orbifold methods, together with a suitable approximation theorem, are used following an approach successful for the case of Riemann surfaces.

We describe the embedded resolution of an irreducible quasi-ordinary surface singularity $(V,p)$ which results from applying the canonical resolution of Bierstone-Milman to $(V,p)$. We show that this process depends solely on the characteristic pairs of $(V,p)$, as predicted by Lipman. We describe the process explicitly enough that a resolution graph for $f$ could in principle be obtained by computer using only the characteristic pairs.