In order to construct an artificial cultivation of Nostoc flagelliforme on solid medium, we attempted to assess the viability of approaches, which utilized either BG-11 agar or sand medium using both sterile and non-sterile algal segments. In the trial in

The program of site survey in western China has been initiated by the National Astronomical Observatories of China(NAOC) toward large telescope facilities. The program is carried out in aspects of remote studies and local surveys. The preliminary results show that the eastern Pamirs and Ali area in Tibet may be the best candidates for further monitoring. The site survey group of NAOC will proceed to set up site testing stations on the selected sites and perform monitoring and campaign in 2005.

Anti-oxidation coatings are the key technique for carbon/carbon (C/C) composites used as the thermal structural materials. The microstructure and oxidation behavior of several kinds of high-performance ceramic coatings for C/C composites prepared in Northwestern Polytechnical University were introduced in this paper. It showed that the ceramic coatings such as SiC, Si-MoSi2, SiC-MoSi2, Al2O3-mullite-SiC and SiC/yttrium silicate/glass coatings possessed excellent oxidation resistance at high temperatures, and some of these coatings were characterized with excellent thermal shock resistance. The SiC-MoSi2 coating system has the best oxidation protective property, which can effectively protect C/C composites from oxidation up to 1973 K. In addition, the protection and failure reasons of some coatings at high temperature were also provided.