No cultural transmission of species recognition between parents and offspring in free-living great tits and blue tits

Imprinting plays a key role in the development of species recognition, with young imprinting upon the morphological characters of their parents. However, the potential role that cultural transmission might play in species recognition remains largely uninvestigated. Great tits (Parus major) and blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) do not normally perceive each other as sexual competitors or potential partners. However, after reciprocal interspecific cross-fostering, both species may perceive individuals of the foster species as potential rivals or mates. Although the experience of being raised by heterospecifics clearly has affected the species recognition of cross-fostered birds, some of them breed naturally with conspecifics. The offspring of such cross-fostered birds (OCF) are hence raised by parents that look like ordinary conspecifics but display deviant species recognition as compared to controls in terms of aggressive response towards rivals. Comparing the aggressive behavior of OCF, cross-fostered birds and controls towards territorial intruders may thus help tease apart the influence of morphological vs behavioral cues of parents in the development of offspring species recognition. To this end, we compared birds from all three treatments with respect to their aggressive response to territorial intruders of both species during the breeding season. OCF and controls did not differ in their pattern of response towards heterospecific and conspecific stimuli. Compared to cross-fostered birds, OCF and controls showed less aggression towards heterospecific intruders, while the response towards conspecific intruders did not differ between treatments. These results demonstrate that both tit species imprint on the morphological characters of their parents, but that parental behavior is not important for the development of species recognition in terms of aggressive response towards territorial intruders.     

多环芳烃的零阶价分子连接性指数与正-辛醇/水分配系数

本文建立了准确预测多环芳烃(PAHs)及其烷基衍生物的正-辛醇/水分配系数(Kow)模型。模型表明PAHs的分配性质可用零阶价分子连接性指数(~°x~v)描述,~°x~v数值与PAHs的logKow成正比。应用本模型可以预测大范围PAHs的logKow值。     

印染废水混凝脱色技术的分子结构基础

印染废水的混凝脱色效果取决于染料分子的分子结构及其在水中的分子分散状态和染料的染色机制。大量研究结果表明，所选用的染料分子的分子结构决定了印染废水混凝脱色技术的混凝机制和混凝效果，合成絮凝剂与选择絮凝剂应充分考虑染料分子的分子结构与空间构型。     

Purification and molecular weight distribution of a key exopolysaccharide component of Bacillus megaterium TF10

Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) are organic metabolic compounds excreted by microorganisms. They largely impact microbial aggregate structures and functions. Extracellular polysaccharides (EP) in EPS are responsible for the formation of microbial aggregates. In this work, we successfully separated and characterized EP from EPS of the bacterium Bacillus megaterium TF10. Extraction of EP from EPS was optimized using Sevag''s reagent. Chemical characteristics, functional groups, and molecular weight (MW) distribu-tion of EP were compared with the harvested EPS and soluble microbial products (SMP). We found that the polymers of lower MW and free proteins were successfully removed by Sevag''s reagent. The higher MW components of EPS were predominantly polysaccharides, while the polymers of lower MW tended to secrete to the supernatant and were described as SMP. A part of the proteins in the EP was polysaccharide-bonded. Our results can be further used in elucidating the complex flocculation mechanisms in which EP play a major role.     

Characteristics of molecular weight distribution of dissolved organic matter in bromide-containing water and disinfection by-product formation properties during treatment processes

The characteristics of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and bromide ion concentration have a significant influence on the formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs). In order to identify the main DBP precursors, DOM was divided into five fractions based on molecular weight (MW), trihalomethane formation potential and haloacetic acid formation potential were determined for fractions, and the change in contents of different fractions and total DBPs during treatment processes (pre-chlorination, coagulation, sand filtration, disinfection) were studied. Moreover, the relationship between bromide concentration and DBP generation characteristics in processes was also analyzed. The results showed that the main DBP precursors were the fraction with MW < 1 kDa and fraction with MW 3−10 kDa, and the DBP''s generation ability of lower molecular weight DOM (< 10 kDa) was higher than that of higher molecular weight DOM. During different processes, pre-chlorination and disinfection had limited effect on removing organics but could alter the MW distribution, and coagulation and filtration could effectively remove organics with higher MW. For DBPs, trihalomethanes (THMs) were mainly generated in pre-chlorination and disinfection, while haloacetic acids (HAAs) were mostly generated during pre-chlorination; coagulation and sand filtration had little effect on THMs but resulted in a slight removal of HAAs. In addition, the results of ANOVA tests suggested that molecular sizes and treatment processes have significant influence on DBP formation. With increasing bromide concentration, the brominated DBPs significantly increased, but the bromine incorporation factor in the processes was basically consistent at each concentration.     

新型高效改性材料在重金属废水处理中的应用

使用原始吸附材料,如微生物、有机或无机材料等吸附废水中的重金属时,通常呈现较低的吸附性能,其吸附量通常都低于30mg/g。因此,研究者更多地关注提高各种吸附材料的吸附能力。国内外一些研究者采用新型、高效的物理或化学改性技术对吸附材料进行表面改造,如将高聚物接枝融合到菌体表面、表面分子印迹吸附剂、固定化微生物、酸改性处理有机或无机材料等,与常规材料相比,改性后材料对重金属的最大吸附容量一般可提高到100mg/g以上。随着各种改性技术的不断成熟,利用改性材料吸附重金属废水将成为今后研究重金属废水处理的主流方向。     

Selective removal of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid from water by molecularly-imprinted amino-functionalized silica gel sorbent

A molecularly-imprinted amino-functionalized sorbent for selective removal of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid(2,4-D) was prepared by a surface imprinting technique in combination with a sol-gel process.The 2,4-D-imprinted amino-functionalized silica sorbent was characterized by FT-IR,nitrogen adsorption and static adsorption experiments.The selectivity of the sorbent was investigated by a batch competitive binding experiment using an aqueous 2,4-D and 2,4-dichlorophenol(2,4-DCP) mixture or using an aqueous 2...     

电化学发光、分子印迹技术及其结合技术分析

电化学发光是一种不需要外加激发光源,而且背景信号低,线性范围宽,不需要昂贵设备的方法.分子印迹却是一种具有高度识别性和选择性的新技术.通过结合两者,可制备出具有选择性好、灵敏度高、检测限低、易于操作等特点的分子印迹-电化学发光传感器.近年来,在有毒有害物质、残留农药、药物质量检测以及生物传感器制备等多领域具有广泛的应用.本综述简要介绍电化学发光、分子印迹技术以及分子印迹-电化学发光传感器的应用概况,为今后的检测技术提供了一种新方法.     

Improving biodegradation potential of domestic wastewater by manipulating the size distribution of organic matter

Carbon source is a critical constraint on nutrient removal in domestic wastewater treatment. However, the functions of particulate organic matter (POM) and some organics with high molecular weight (HMW) are overlooked in the conventional process, as they cannot be directly assimilated into cells during microbial metabolism. This further aggravates the problem of carbon source shortage and thus affects the effluent quality. Therefore, to better characterize organic matter (OM) based MW distribution, microfiltration/ultrafiltration/nanofiltration (MF/UF/NF) membranes were used in parallel to fractionate OM, which obtained seven fractions. Hydrolysis acidification (HA) was adopted to manipulate the MW distribution of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and further explore the correlation between molecular size and biodegradability. Results showed that HA pretreatment of wastewater not only promoted transformation from POM to DOM, but also boosted biodegradability. After 8 hr of HA, the concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) increased by 65%, from the initial value of 20.25 to 33.48 mg/L, and the biodegradability index (BOD5 (biochemical oxygen demand)/SCOD (soluble chemical oxygen demand)) increased from 0.52 to 0.74. Using MW distribution analysis and composition optimization, a new understanding on the characteristics of organics in wastewater was obtained, which is of importance to solving low C/N wastewater treatment in engineering practice.     

Effect of organic matter on phosphorus recovery from sewage sludge subjected to microwave hybrid pretreatment

Microwave (MW) hybrid processes are able to disrupt the flocculent structure of complex waste activated sludge, and help promote the recovery of phosphorus as struvite. In this study, to optimize struvite yield, (1) the characteristics of matter released in MW-hybrid treatments were compared, including MW, MW-acid, MW-alkali, MW-H₂O₂, and MW-H₂O₂-alkali. The results showed that selective release of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, Ca^2 +, and Mg^2 + achieved by sludge pretreatment using MW-hybrid processes. MW-H₂O₂ is the recommended sludge pretreatment process for phosphorus recovery in the form of struvite. The ratio of Mg^2 +:NH₄⁺-N:PO₄^3 −-P was 1.2:2.9:1 in the supernatant. (2) To clarify the effects of organic matter on struvite recovery, the composition and molecular weight distribution of organic matters were analyzed. Low molecular weight COD was found to facilitate the removal rate of NH₄⁺-N and PO₄³-P via crystallization, and the amorphous struvite crystals (< 1 kDa) from the filtered solutions had high purity. Therefore, the present study reveals the necessity of taking into consideration the interference effect of high molecular weight organic matters during struvite crystallization from sewage sludge.