Lead sulfide (PbS) is an important IV-VI semiconductor material with narrow bandwidth and wide wave width, which attracts people's attention. Nano-level PbS has many novel optoelectronic properties and has a wide range of applications in the field of optoelectronics, such as infrared optoelectronic devices, photovoltaic devices, light-emitting devices and display devices. In this paper, Pbs is produced by solvent thermal method by using lead acetate as lead source, sulfur power as sulfur source, ethylene glycol as solvent, and acetic acid to provide acidic environment. The reaction acidity, type of lead source, amount of sulfur source and other aspects will be explored. The products obtained under different conditions were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that PbS produced at 140°C for 24 hours, using 14mL ethylene glycol and 1.2mL acetic acid has the best morphology. It has a non-planar six-arm symmetrical structure. Finally, we prepare the lead sulfide composite Ni/PbS, and characterized it.

The study looks into how governance qualities of decentralized governments mediate the impacts of decentralization on development. Based on a set-oriented approach, the study analyzed data from a nation-wide survey conducted with business managers from all provinces in Indonesia, and found evidence that, despite the country’s uniform decentralization reform, individual provinces exhibited great variation in the qualities of their various physical and institutional infrastructures. Notably, these qualities assumed nested relations, with order and security as well as accountability and rule of law seemingly being the preconditions of basic infrastructure provision as well as local governments’ coordination. Moreover, business investment decisions (measured as staff expansion and product innovation) were found to vary with some specific combinations of these infrastructural conditions. The result provides evidence supporting the argument that both physical and institutional infrastructures are instrumental to realize the supposed benefits of decentralization and supports the recent call of the literature to look into the political-institutional complex in the process of decentralization reform.

In this study, the effect of porogenic solvents on pore size distribution of the polycaprolactone (PCL) thin films was investigated. Five thin PCL films were prepared using the solvent-casting method. Chloroform, Methylene Chloride (MC) and three different compositions of MC/ Dimethylformamide (DMF) (80/20, 50/50 and 20/80) were used as solvents. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) investigations were employed to study morphology and consequently the pore size distribution of the prepared films. The PCL films made by chloroform and MC as a solvent were completely non-porous. Whereas the other films (made by a combination of MC and DMF) showed both uni-modal and bi-modal pore size distributions.

This study analyzes the impact of a high-speed rail line on tax revenues and on the economy of affected regions within the country. The economic impact of infrastructure investment can be induced by changes in tax revenues when the infrastructure is in operation. Accurate regional GDP data are not necessarily available in many Asian countries. However, tax data can be collected. Therefore, this study uses tax revenue dates in order to estimate spillover effects of infrastructure investment. The Kyushu high-speed rail line was constructed in 1991 and was completed in 2003. In 2004, the rail line started operating from Kagoshima to Kumamoto. The entire line was opened in 2011. We estimated its impact in the Kyushu region of Japan by using the differencein- difference method, and compared the tax revenues of regions along the high-speed railway line with other regions that were not affected by the railway line. Our findings show a positive impact on the region’s tax revenue following the connection of the Kyushu rapid train with large cities, such as Osaka and Tokyo. Tax revenue in the region significantly increased during construction in 1991–2003, and dropped after the start of operations in 2004–2010. The rapid train’s impact on the neighboring prefectures of Kyushu is positive. However, in 2004–2013, its impact on tax revenue in places farther from the rapid train was observed to be lower. When the Kyushu railway line was connected to the existing high-speed railway line of Sanyo, the situation changed. The study finds statistically significant and economically growing impact on tax revenue after it was completed and connected to other large cities, such as Osaka and Tokyo. Tax revenues in the regions close to the high-speed train is higher than in adjacent regions. The difference-in-difference coefficient methods reveal that corporate tax revenue was lower than personal income tax revenue during construction. However, the difference in corporate tax revenues rose after connectivity with large cities was completed. Public–private partnership (PPP) has been promoted in many Asian countries. However, PPP-infrastructure in India failed in many cases due to the low rate of return from infrastructure investment. This study shows that an increase of tax revenues is significant in the case of the Kyushu rapid train in Japan. If half of the incremental tax revenues were returned to private investors in infrastructure, the rate of return from infrastructure investment would significantly rise for long period of time. It would attract stable and long-term private investors, such as pension funds and insurance funds into infrastructure investment. The last section of the paper will address how incremental tax revenues created by the spillover effects of infrastructure will improve the performance of private investors in infrastructure investment.

Against the backdrop of anti-globalization rhetoric, this paper summarizes our joint book entitled Going Beyond Aid (Lin and Wang, 2017a) and discusses the prospects for development finance in the broad context of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Based on the New Structural Economics (Lin, 2010; 2011), here we focus on China’s demonstrated comparative advantages in infrastructure, e.g. in hydropower and high-speed railways (HSR). In addition, long-term orientation (LTO) and patient capital are latent comparative advantages that many Asian economies possess, and are critical for the Belt and Road Initiative. Only if these comparative advantages are utilized can these economies cooperate to potentially achieve win-win.