Near-infrared polarimetry of the GG Tauri A binary system

A high angular resolution near-infrared image that shows the intensity of polarization for the GG Tau A binary system was obtained with the Subaru Telescope. The image shows a circumbinary disk scattering the light from the central binary. The azimuthal profile of the intensity of polarization for the circumbinary disk is roughly reproduced by a simple disk model with the Henyey-Greenstein phase function and the Rayleigh function, indicating there are small dust grains at the surface of the disk. Combined with a previous observation of the circumbinary disk, our image indicates that the gap structure in the circumbinary disk orbits counterclockwise, but material in the disk orbits clockwise. We propose that there is a shadow caused by material located between the central binary and the circumbinary disk. The separations and position angles of the stellar components of the binary in the past 20 yr are consistent with the binary orbit with a = 33.4 AU and e = 0.34.

Molecular analysis of bacterial community in the tap water with different water ages of a drinking water distribution system

Bacterial community in the drinking water distribution system （DWDS） was regulated by multiple environmental factors, many of which varied as a function of water age. In this study, four water samples with different water ages, including finished water （FW, 0 d） and tap water （TW） [TWI （1 d）, TW2（2 d） and TW3（3 d）], were collected along with the mains of a practical DWDS, and the bacterial community was investigated by high-throughput sequencing technique. Results indicated that the residual chlorine declined with the increase of water age, accompanied by the increase of dissolved organic matter, total bacteria counts and bacterial diversity （Shannon）. For bacterial community composition, although Proteobacteria phylum （84.12%-97.6%） and Alphaproteobacteria class （67.42c/,~93.09%） kept dominate, an evident regular was observed at the order level. In detail, the relative abundance of most of other residual orders increased with different degrees from the start to the end of the DWDS, while a downward trend was uniquely observed in terms of Rhizobiales, who was inferred to be chlorine-resistant and be helpful for inhibiting pipes corrosion. Moreover, some OTUs were found to be closely related with species possessing pathogenicity and chlorine-resistant ability, so it was recommended that the use of agents other than chlorine or agents that can act synergically with chlorine should be developed for drinking water disinfection. This paper revealed bacterial community variations along the mains of the DWDS and the result was helpful for understanding bacterial ecology in the DWDS.

An online resource for marine fungi

Index Fungorum,Species Fungorum and MycoBank are the key fungal nomenclature and taxonomic databases that can be sourced to find taxonomic details concerning fungi,while DNA sequence data can be sourced from the NCBI,EBI and UNITE databases.Nomenclature and ecological data on freshwater fungi can be accessed on http://fungi.life.illinois.edu/,while http://www.marinespecies.org/provides a comprehensive list of names of marine organisms,including information on their synonymy.Previous websites however have little information on marine fungi and their ecology,beside articles that deal with marine fungi,especially those published in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries may not be accessible to those working in third world countries.To address this problem,a new website www.marinefungi.org was set up and is introduced in this paper.This website provides a search facility to genera of marine fungi,full species descriptions,key to species and illustrations,an up to date classification of all recorded marine fungi which includes all fungal groups(Ascomycota,Basidiomycota,Blastocladiomycota,Chytridiomycota,Mucoromycota and fungus-like organisms e.g.Thraustochytriales),and listing recent publications.Currently,1257 species are listed in the marine fungi website(www.marinefungi.org),in 539 genera,74 orders,168 families,20 classes and five phyla,with new taxa continuing to be described.The website has curators with specialist mycological expertise who help to provide update data on the classification of marine fungi.This article also reviews knowledge of marine fungi covering a wide range of topics:their higher classification,ecology and world distribution,role in energy transfer in the oceans,origin and new chemical structures.An updated classification of marine fungi is also included.We would like to invite all mycologists to contribute to this innovative website.

Adsorption selectivity of salicylic acid and 5-sulfosalicylic acid onto hypercrosslinked polymeric adsorbents

Both bottle-point and column-feeding experi-ments involving different solutes and sorbents were carried out to investigate the adsorption selectivity and separation performance of salicylic acid and 5-sulfosalicylic acid.Their adsorption isotherms onto such hypercrosslinked polymeric adsorbents as NDA-100 and NDA-99 could be well described by the Freundlich equations whose characteristics describe extrathermic and favorable adsorption processes.The adsorp-tion towards NDA-100 mainly depended on the p-p interac-tion,while that towards NDA-99 was extremely influenced by the static-electric interaction.Additionally,the adsorptive capacity of salicylic acid on NDA-99 decreased while it increased on NDA-100 with the presence of 5-sulfosalicylic acid in the adsorptive environment as the competitive component.Comparatively,the adsorption capacity of 5-sulfosalicylic acid decreased on both resins with salicylic acid as the competitive component.In fact,the difference in the interaction between adsorbent and adsorbate resulted in the straight antagonism on the effective adsorption sites on the adsorbent.In conclusion,the adsorption selectivity of salicylic acid onto NDA-100 was obviously larger than that onto NDA-99 with the existence of 5-sulfosalicylic acid in the adsorptive environment.A satisfactory separation and recovery of tested solutes in aqueous phase could be foresee-ably achieved by the sequencing adsorption technique involving NDA-100 as well as NDA-99.

Design and implementation of the NaI(Tl)/CsI(Na) detectors output signal generator

We designed and implemented a signal generator that can simulate the output of the NaI（Tl）/CsI（Na）detectors＇pre-amplifier onboard the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope（HXMT）.Using the development of the FPGA（Field Programmable Gate Array）with VHDL language and adding a random constituent,we have finally produced the double exponential random pulse signal generator.The statistical distribution of the signal amplitude is programmable.The occurrence time intervals of the adjacent signals contain negative exponential distribution statistically.