We present the most sensitive and detailed view of the neutral hydrogen ( ${\rm H\small I}$ ) emission associated with the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), through the combination of data from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and Parkes (Murriyang), as part of the Galactic Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (GASKAP) pilot survey. These GASKAP-HI pilot observations, for the first time, reveal ${\rm H\small I}$ in the SMC on similar physical scales as other important tracers of the interstellar medium, such as molecular gas and dust. The resultant image cube possesses an rms noise level of 1.1 K ( $1.6\,\mathrm{mJy\ beam}^{-1}$ ) $\mathrm{per}\ 0.98\,\mathrm{km\ s}^{-1}$ spectral channel with an angular resolution of $30^{\prime\prime}$ ( ${\sim}10\,\mathrm{pc}$ ). We discuss the calibration scheme and the custom imaging pipeline that utilises a joint deconvolution approach, efficiently distributed across a computing cluster, to accurately recover the emission extending across the entire ${\sim}25\,\mathrm{deg}^2$ field-of-view. We provide an overview of the data products and characterise several aspects including the noise properties as a function of angular resolution and the represented spatial scales by deriving the global transfer function over the full spectral range. A preliminary spatial power spectrum analysis on individual spectral channels reveals that the power law nature of the density distribution extends down to scales of 10 pc. We highlight the scientific potential of these data by comparing the properties of an outflowing high-velocity cloud with previous ASKAP+Parkes ${\rm H\small I}$ test observations.

We carried out simultaneous observations of H2O and OH masers, and radio continuum at 1.3 cm with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) towards 4 water-fountain candidates. Water fountains (WFs) are evolved stars, in the AGB and post-AGB phase, with collimated jets traced by high-velocity H2O masers. Up to now, only 15 sources have been confirmed as WFs through interferometric observations. We are interested in the discovery and study of new WFs. A higher number of these sources is important to understand their properties as a group, because they may represent one of the first manifestations of collimated mass-loss in evolved stars. These observations will provide information about the role of magnetic fields in the launching of jets in WFs. Our aim is to ascertain the WF nature of these candidates, and investigate the spatial distribution of the H2O and OH masers.

We present polarimetric observations of the 4 ground-state transitions of OH, toward a sample of maser-emitting planetary nebulae (PNe) using the Australia Telescope Compact Array. This sample includes confirmed OH-emitting PNe, confirmed and candidate H2O-maser-emitting PNe. Polarimetric observations provide information related to the magnetic field of these sources. Maser-emitting PNe are very young PNe and magnetic fields are a key ingredient in the early evolution and shaping process of PNe. Our preliminary results suggest that magnetic field strengths may change very rapidly in young PNe.

Extended research has been developed in the use of wheat straw (WS) as biomass for the production of biofuels (bioethanol), including the processes of degradation of cellulose by enzymatic systems. For centuries, Cellulose has been used by man; however, its enormous potential as a renewable energy source was recognized only after the discovery of cellulose degrading enzymes (cellulases). A wide variety of microorganisms can produce cellulolytic enzymes under appropriate culture conditions and among these microorganisms are filamentous fungi of the genera Trichoderma, Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium. The purpose of this study was to produce cellulase enzyme from previously isolated and characterized filamentous fungi. Cellulytic fungi belonged to Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus oryzae, Penicillium chrysogenum, Penicillium sp., and Trichoderma harzianum. All these strains were preserved by lyophilization and also kept in sterile media (sand and soil) at 4 °C. The production of cellulases by submerged fermentation was performed in a Mandels mineral medium. The nitrogen sources were urea and ammonium sulfate. Glucose alone was used in the pre-inoculum, and dried and ground wheat straw was used in the fermentation as carbon sources. Subcultures of spore suspensions were incubated with orbital stirring (120 rpm) at 30 °C for 48 hours and used as inoculum for submerged fermentation with wheat straw as substrate in mineral medium with an initial pH of 5. Activity cellulase was determined by the method of 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS). The results showed that wheat straw have potential for use as a substrate in the production of cellulases. Aspergillus niger showed the highest enzymatic activity from the cellulase produced 0.051 FPU (filter paper units) after 96 hours of fermentation.

A survey of the Milky Way disk and the Magellanic System at the wavelengths of the 21-cm atomic hydrogen (H i) line and three 18-cm lines of the OH molecule will be carried out with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope. The survey will study the distribution of H i emission and absorption with unprecedented angular and velocity resolution, as well as molecular line thermal emission, absorption, and maser lines. The area to be covered includes the Galactic plane (|b| < 10°) at all declinations south of δ = +40°, spanning longitudes 167° through 360°to 79° at b = 0°, plus the entire area of the Magellanic Stream and Clouds, a total of 13 020 deg2. The brightness temperature sensitivity will be very good, typically σT≃ 1 K at resolution 30 arcsec and 1 km s−1. The survey has a wide spectrum of scientific goals, from studies of galaxy evolution to star formation, with particular contributions to understanding stellar wind kinematics, the thermal phases of the interstellar medium, the interaction between gas in the disk and halo, and the dynamical and thermal states of gas at various positions along the Magellanic Stream.

K 3-35 is a very young planetary nebula (PN) with a characteristic S-shaped radio emission morphology. It is the first PN where water vapor maser was detected: the emission is located in a torus-like structure with a radius of 100 AU and also at the surprisingly large distance of 5000 AU from the star, in the tips of the bipolar lobes. Several mechanism have been proposed to explain the bipolar morphology of PNe, and in the case of K 3-35 we believe we may be observing several of them at the same time: i) a disk-like structure traced by the H2O masers, ii) a precessing bipolar jet probably due to the presence of a binary companion and iii) circular polarization in the OH 1665 MHz masers, which suggests the presence of a magnetic field. Additional observations and modeling are needed to establish what mechanisms are shaping K 3-35.

We have re-analyzed observations of the water maser emission in IRAS 17347-3139 carried out previously and compared them with new higher angular resolution and more sensitive radio-continuum observations to explain the shift between the position of the peak of the radio-continuum with respect to the center of the ring-like distribution. From our analysis, we found that the water maser emission is not distributed in a closed ring-like structure, but in what appears to be a segment of an ellipse centered in the position of the peak of the radio-continuum. These results can explain the shift between the radio-continuum and the water maser emission. We also present interferometric observations of the OH maser emission towards IRAS 17347-3139 from which we have found that the OH maser emission detected previously is not associated with this source. Furthermore, since our observations are more sensitive, we have detected for the first time weak OH maser emission associated with IRAS 17347-3139.

We study the maser emission arising from a thin, planar, gaseous ring in Keplerian rotation around a central mass when it is observed edge-on. Assuming that the absorption coefficient within the amplifying ring is a decreasing function of distance from the central mass (i.e., κ = κ0r−q), we calculated position-velocity (PV) diagrams for the most intense maser features using different values of the exponent q. We found that, depending on the value of q, these diagrams can be qualitatively different.