Selective doping of pyridinic nitrogen in carbon materials has attracted attention due to its significant properties for various applications such as catalysts and electrodes. However, selective doping of pyridinic nitrogen together with controlling skeletal structure is challenging in the absence of catalysts. In this work, four precursors including four fused aromatic rings and pyridinic nitrogen were simply carbonized in the absence of catalysts in order to attain mass synthesis at low cost and a high percentage of pyridinic nitrogen in carbon materials with controlled edges. Among four precursors, dibenzo[f,h] quinoline (DQ) showed an extremely high percentage of pyridinic nitrogen (96 and 86%) after heat treatment at 923 and 973 K, respectively. Experimental spectroscopic analyses combined with calculated spectroscopic analyses using density functional theory calculations unveiled that the C-H next to the pyridinic nitrogen in DQ generated gulf edge structures with controlled pyridinic nitrogen after carbonization. By comparing the reactivities among the four precursors, three main factors required for maintaining the pyridinic nitrogen in carbon materials with controlled edges, such as (1) high thermal stability of the pyridinic nitrogen, (2) the presence of one pyridinic nitrogen in one ring, and (3) the formation of gulf edges including pyridinic nitrogen to protect the pyridinic nitrogen by the C-H groups on the gulf edges, were revealed.

Carbon dots (CDs) were synthesized from phloroglucinol (PG) by simple heat treatment at 220–230 °C in the atmosphere without catalysts and solvents. PG-CDs heated at 220–230 °C could be completely dissolved in environmentally friendly water and exhibited a photoluminescence (PL) peak at 485 nm with 85 nm of the full width at half maximum (FWHM). The water-soluble polymer-dot-like PG-CDs were estimated to be 1.6–3.2 nm in size, and exhibited a wide range of PL wavelength at 370–630 nm. Since the PG-CDs are water-soluble materials, PG-CDs could be homogeneously mixed with a polymer such as polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) in water as a solvent, and PG-CDs/PVP films were prepared. The films exhibited PL characteristics that convert ultraviolet light at 350 nm to visible light above 400 nm. Thus, using PG as the raw material which has widely been produced industrially, the water-soluble fluorescent PG-CDs/PVP films could be prepared at a low cost by environmentally friendly methods.

This paper addresses the following: First, it summarizes the history of the IT environment of sinology in Japan with a focus on Chinese character processing. Then, it introduces the open-access digital archive projects in Japan as well as ICT-based research activities. An attempt was made to allow multiple Chinese characters/Chinese input from PCs in Japan beginning in the 1980s. At first, Chinese characters were implemented applying special hardware or software to JIS Chinese character encoding. After the 1990s, these approaches disappeared with the spread of Unicode and a multilingual mixed environment became more widely available. The digital archives in Japan are described focusing on databases, digital libraries, etc. Although Japan’s number of independent databases has decreased, the paper examines the current contributions to sinology studies, including a Chinese character DB that interlinks with Unicode.org and digital literature archives in Chinese characters that are held by universities and public institutions. Additionally, there are numerous research studies on humanities and oriental studies as research associations and societies have been in operation for several years.

Metallic compound of ternary Al-B-C system was prepared by mechanical alloying (MA) using Al, boron and graphite powders as starting materials. MA was carried out using Spex 8000 mixer/mill for 50 hours in an argon atmosphere without process control reagent such as methyl alcohol. The MA powders obtained were heat-treated in vacuum at the temperature of 873 and 1273 K for 5 hour. Pure ternary Al-B-C compound was obtained in the chemical content of Al:B:C=55:27:18. The ternary compound obtained in this study has a new phase whose crystal structure is not identified yet.

Micro-porous nickel (Ni) with an open cell structure was fabricated by powder metallurgy. The pore size of the micro-porous Ni approximated and . For comparison, porous Ni with a macro-porous structure were also prepared by both powder metallurgy (pore size ) and the traditional chemical vapour deposition method (pore size ). The mechanical properties of the micro-and macro-porous Ni samples were evaluated using compressive tests. Results indicate that the micro-porous Ni samples exhibited significantly enhanced mechanical properties, compared to those of the macro-porous Ni samples.

Recently, there has been a remarkable trend of using aggregates at sizes smaller than 13 mm for drainage asphalt pavement (DAP) in order to reduce the noise generated between vehicle tires and road surface. These DAPs have their performance and durability seriously worsen after several years in-service due to the clogging of void space and the abrasion. This paper proposes the use of large size aggregates in porous asphalt mixtures to overcome these defects. Results of laboratory and field experiments on asphalt mixtures with several aggregate gradations are investigated and compared. The study focuses on advantages of DAP using large size aggregate and on particle size combinations containing no fine aggregates of size 2.36 mm or less, which have not been considered in current engineering practice.

In order to protect the lives and property of citizens, the central and local governments are responding by enacting municipal ordinances and regulations as the frequency of extreme weather conditions due to climate change increases and intensity increases gradually. Accordingly, the basic contents and strategies of domestic and foreign policies to cope with cold and heat waves were reviewed, referring to measures suitable for application to the Daegu metropolitan area. In addition, it is intended to provide a policy alternative to Daegu metropolitan area to minimize damage from extreme weather by identifying the current status, characteristics, and future prospects of extreme weather in Daegu metropolitan area. Since the damage caused by the cold wave in Daegu area is not as great as that of other regions, it is urgent to come up with cold wave measures for the health and transportation sectors, and to come up with measures against the heat wave as the damage caused by the heat wave is the most serious in the country. Also we will identify spatial characteristics so that the districts and counties with high vulnerability to extreme weather can be identified and implemented first, and present civic life-oriented facilities and civic action guidelines to overcome cold and heat waves.

Prediction method for the long-term chemical leaching amount from by-product/recycled materials such as waste concrete and steel slag and so on is necessary to widely promote their effective utilization and evaluate their environmental safety. Although there are the batch leaching tests and the column leaching test as the testing methods for evaluating the long-term leaching behavior, the leaching mechanism and the testing result compatibility in both tests has insufficiently been clarified yet. Thus, the prediction of the leaching behavior from the by-product/recycled materials used in actual civil works and their environmental safety evaluation are by no means certain. This paper shows the difference between the batch leaching tests and the column leaching tests in the chemical leaching behavior of Cu-slag. The batch leaching tests were conducted under liquid/solid ratio = 10, liquid = distilled water, stirring strength = 0, 30, or 120 rpm. After a certain elapsed time, the leaching solution was exchanged with the pure distilled water and then the stirring was restarted. The elapsed time was set at 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 days. The column leaching tests were also conducted under the same conditions as those of the batch leaching tests in order to evaluate the effects of the pore distribution and the pore flow velocity in the Cu-slag column on the leaching behavior. In the column leaching tests, the effluent passing through the column was circulated as the influent (Fig. 1). The leaching duration in the column tests can be equivalent as that in the batch tests, so that the difference in the leaching behavior between the batch leaching tests and the column leaching tests may be dependent on the pore-scale heterogeneous flow and path generated in porous materials. Figure 2 shows the leaching rate evaluated from the batch leaching tests and the column leaching tests. In the same fluid velocity levels, the leaching rate in the column tests was larger than that in the batch tests. The leaching rate has been considered large with the fluid velocity. Although the fluid velocity generated by the stirring was the same as the flushing velocity on the surface of the Cu-slag in the batch tests, the fluid velocity in the column tests was enhanced because the permeant liquid was concentrated into the limited pore space in the Cu-slag column. Thus, the pore-scale heterogeneous flow and path generated in porous materials should be evaluated in order to clarify the compatibility between the batch leaching tests and the column leaching tests.