Lead sulfide ( PbS ) nanocrystals anchored on nitrogen-doped multiwalled carbon nanotubes ( CNx ) have been synthesized employing an environmentally friendly and inexpensive wet chemistry process. CNx∕PbS composites have been examined by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Theorical ab initio calculations have been developed to determine the samples structural, morphological and optical properties to explain the experimental evidences. The PbS nanoparticles exhibit of 4 nm to 27 nm particle size with a face-centered cubic crystal structure and are homogeneously distributed along the carbon nanotubes. The nitrogen-doped CNTs acts as binding sites for the PbS clusters as ab initio theoretical study suggests.

The biocarbon (SKPH) was obtained from Sargassum spp., and it was evaluated electrochemically as support for the CO2 reduction. The biocarbon was synthesized and activated with KOH, obtaining a high surface area (1600 m2 g− 1) due to the activation process. Graphitic carbon formation after pyrolysis was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy. The XRD results show that SKPH has an amorphous structure with peaks corresponding to typical amorphous carbonaceous materials. FTIR was used to determine the chemical structure of SKPH. The bands at 3426, 2981, 2851, and 1604 cm− 1 correspond to O–H, C-H, and C-O stretching vibrations, respectively. Then, it compares SKPH films with different carbon films using two electrolytic systems with and without charge transfer. The SKPH film showed a capacitive behavior in the KOH, H2SO4, and, KCl systems; in the acid medium, the presence of a redox couple associated with carbon functional groups was shown. Likewise, in the [Fe(CN)6]−3 and Cu(II) systems, the charge transfer process coupled with a capacitive behavior was described, and this effect is more noticeable in the [Fe(CN)6]−3 system. Electrodeposition of copper on SKPH film showed two stages Cu(NH 3)2+ 4 /Cu(NH 3)+ 2 and Cu(NH 3)+ 2 ∕Cu in ammonia media. Hydrogen formation and the activity of CO2 are observed on SKPH film and are favored by the carbon’s surface chemistry. Cu/SKPH electrocatalyst has a catalytic effect on electrochemical reduction of CO2 and inhibition of hydrogen formation. This study showed that the SKPH film electrode responds as a capacitive material that can be used as an electrode for energy storage or as metal support.

The use of recycled materials, such as the fine recycled aggregate made from concrete waste and carbon fiber (CF) product of industrial waste, for the manufacture of conductive recycled mortars (CRM), transforms the mortar base cement normally made with cement:sand in a sustainable multifunctional material, conferring satisfactory mechanical and electrical properties for non-structural uses. This action provides ecological benefits, reducing the use of natural fine aggregates from rivers and the amount of concrete waste deposited in landfills resulting from construction waste. In this investigation the effect of the addition of CF on electrical properties in hardened, wet and dry state, electric percolation in dry state and fluidity of the wet mixture of a cement based CRM was evaluated: fine recycled aggregate: graphite powder, CRM specimens with dimensions of 4 × 4 × 16 cm. were manufactured for 3, 7 and 28 days of age and sand/cement ratios = 1.00, graphite/cement = 1.00, water/cement = 0.60 and CF = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0% compared to the weight of cement. The results demonstrated the effect of the addition of CF in CRM, reducing fluidity of the mixtures due to the opposition generated by its physical interaction of CF with recycled sand or recycled fine aggregate and graphite powder (GP), in its case, placing the electric percolation percolation at 0.30% and 0.45% of CF for CRM with and without GP, respectively. Increases in electrical conductivity (EC) without the presence of GP are defined by the contact between the CF and the conductive paths formed. In contrast, with the presence of GP, the EC is defined by the contact between the CF and the GP simultaneously, forming conductive routes with greater performance in its EC.

Pollution of chloride ion-reinforced concrete can trigger active corrosion processes that reduce the useful life of structures. Multifunctional materials used as a counter-electrode by electrochemical techniques have been used to rehabilitate contaminated concrete. Cement-based pastes added to carbonaceous material, fibers or dust, have been used as an anode in the non-destructive Electrochemical Chloride Extraction (ECE) technique. We studied the performance of the addition of Carbon Fiber (CF) in a cement-graphite powder base paste used as an anode in ECE of concretes contaminated with chlorides from the preparation of the mixture. The experimental parameters were: 2.3% of free chlorides, 21 days of ECE application, a Carbon Fiber Volume Fraction (CFVF) of 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9%, a lithium borate alkaline electrolyte, a current density of 4.0 A / m2 and a cement/graphite ratio of 1.0 for the paste. The efficiency of the ECE in the traditional technique using metal mesh as an anode was 77.6% and for CFVF of 0.9% it was 90.4%, with a tendency to increase to higher percentages of the CFVF in the conductive cement-graphite paste, keeping the pH stable and achieving a homogeneous ECE in the mass of the concrete contaminated with chlorides.

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute plans to develop a coronagraph in collaboration with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and to install it on the International Space Station (ISS). The coronagraph is an externally occulted one-stage coronagraph with a field of view from 3 to 15 solar radii. The observation wavelength is approximately 400~nm, where strong Fraunhofer absorption lines from the photosphere experience thermal broadening and Doppler shift through scattering by coronal electrons. Photometric filter observations around this band enable the estimation of 2D electron temperature and electron velocity distribution in the corona. Together with a high time cadence ($<$12~min) of corona images used to determine the geometric and kinematic parameters of coronal mass ejections, the coronagraph will yield the spatial distribution of electron density by measuring the polarized brightness. For the purpose of technical demonstration, we intend to observe the total solar eclipse in August 2017 with the filter system and to perform a stratospheric balloon experiment in 2019 with the engineering model of the coronagraph. The coronagraph is planned to be installed on the ISS in 2021 for addressing a number of questions (e.g., coronal heating and solar wind acceleration) that are both fundamental and practically important in the physics of the solar corona and of the heliosphere.

The “Sipadan and Ligitan” dispute was settled by the ICJ (2002), but its impact on basepoint for baseline and maritime delimitation on the Ambalat remains a contentious issue until now. Since the islands are used as basepoints by Malaysia that results in controversy between Indonesia and Malaysia. This essay will investigate the current situation over Ambalat regarding two basepoints islands for maintaining Equidistance Line in Disputed Area. It will discuss why Malaysia has no right to use the straight baseline or straight archipelagic baseline to connect the basepoints of Sipadan and Ligitan at Sabah and suggest measures to maintain equidistance line in Ambalat.

How does the presence of an AGN in uence the total SFR estimates of galaxies and change their distribution with respect to the Galaxy Main Sequence? To contribute to solving this question, we study a sample of 1133 sources detected in the North Ecliptic Pole field (NEP) by AKARI and Herschel. We create a multi-wavelength dataset for these galaxies and we fit their multi-wavelength Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) using the whole spectral regime (from 0.1 to 500 μm). We perform the fit using three procedures: LePhare and two optimised codes for identifying AGN tracers from the SED analysis. In this work we present an overview of the comparison between the estimates of the Infrared bolometric luminosi- ties (between 8 and 1000 μm) and the AGN fractions obtained exploiting these dierent procedures. In particular, by estimating the AGN contribution in four different wavelength ranges (5-40 μm, 10-20 μm, 20-40 μm and 8-1000 μm) we show how the presence of an AGN affects the PAH emission by suppressing the ratio L8 μm L4:5 μm as a function of the considered wavelength range.

Malaysia, situated between East and West, is an interface in world maritime trade, playing a crucial role in the business of moving container boxes in South-eastern parts of Asia. The prominent container terminals in Malaysia such as Port Klang and Port of Tanjung Pelepas are positioned among the top twenty ports in terms of volume handled. The annual average growth of throughputs in Malaysian container ports increased more than three-fold from the year 2000 to 2010. Within this context, the development of Malaysian seaports has been significantly influenced by three forces: increased use of containerisation, significant growth in domestic economic activities and ever-changing patterns in both supply and demand chains, all of which have led to increased transshipment activities and altered shipping routes. This phenomenon has brought dynamic change to Malaysian container ports, resulting in the establishment of new terminals and adapting emerging technology to enhance the ports’ ability to accommodate larger vessels and an increased number of containers. This paper aims to present the development of Malaysian container seaports by addressing changes to acreage size and handling volumes during the last three decades. The results of the analysis suggest that major Malaysian ports are experiencing an exponential growth in container trade with the expansion of port capacity following trade growth and need effective strategies to reduce the operational pressures of Malaysian seaports. The results of this research offer directions for development strategies of seaports by utilising the existing inland freight facilities as an effective strategy for capacity enhancement and develop efficient distribution network to meet future demands.

A full-scale process has been developed to immobilize fission products that accumulate within the Mark IV electrorefiner (ER) electrolyte at Idaho National Laboratory. ER salt was blended with treatment additives, followed by pressureless consolidation (PC) in a furnace to produce a durable ceramic waste form (CWF). The goal is the development of a process to consolidate actual radioactive ER salt into a form suitable for transportation and disposal.Four batches (300 to 400 kg per batch) of full-scale pre-qualification material preparation runs have been prepared. From these four batches of nonradioactive salt-loaded surrogate material, three full-scale PC trials have been conducted. The first PC test run, established equipment parameters with a basic CWF container design. The second trial included a modified CWF container design, real-time measurement of CWF consolidation, and an audio recording to identify cracking during the CWF cool-down. During the third trial, salt was doped (from the fourth material preparation batch) to create a nonradioactive salt material and to more closely represent actual ER salt. The second and third trials were also used to validate a model developed for the CWF. The CWF model is beneficial for understanding and predicting the physical processes that occur during the heat cycle. This would be particularly useful when the CWF is located in a hot cell, which makes accessing and examining a CWF difficult.

Polarbear is a ground-based experiment located in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. The experiment is designed to measure the Cosmic Microwave Background B-mode polarization at several arcminute resolution. The CMB B-mode polarization on degree angular scales is a unique signature of primordial gravitational waves from cosmic in ation and B-mode signal on sub-degree scales is induced by the gravitational lensing from large-scale structure. Science observations began in early 2012 with an array of 1,274 polarization sensitive antenna-couple Transition Edge Sensor (TES) bolometers at 150 GHz. We published the first CMB-only measurement of the B-mode polarization on sub-degree scales induced by gravitational lensing in December 2013 followed by the first measurement of the B-mode power spectrum on those scales in March 2014. In this proceedings, we review the physics of CMB B-modes and then describe the Polarbear experiment, observations, and recent results.

We describe a survey of nearby core-collapse supernova (SN) explosion sites using integral field spec- troscopy (IFS) techniques, which is an extension of the work described in Kuncarayakti et al. (2013). The project aims to constrain SN progenitor properties based on the study of the immediate environment of the SN. The stellar populations present at the SN explosion sites are studied by means of integral field spectroscopy, which enables the acquisition of both spatial and spectral information of the object simultaneously. The spectrum of the SN parent stellar population gives an estimate of its age and metal- licity. With this information, the initial mass and metallicity of the once coeval SN progenitor star are derived. While the survey is mostly done in optical, the additional utilization of near-infrared integral field spectroscopy assisted with adaptive optics (AO) enables us to examine the explosion sites in high spatial detail, down to a few parsecs. This work is being carried out using multiple 2-8 m class telescopes equipped with integral field spectrographs in Chile and Hawaii.