Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum Volume 2012 Issue 1

Qatar is facing unprecedented development both inland and in its surrounding waters. While the natural environment is not yet fully characterized, there is a need for managers to have an accurate overview of it as a decision making tool and a baseline study for monitoring the future changes. Remote sensing techniques are cost effective in their ability to cover great areas and provide information in a time and cost efficient manner. Development of new sensors such as the WorldView2 satellite and airborne hyperspectral sensors provides highly accurate data including habitat, and superficial soil characterizations. Finer scale techniques such as acoustic surveys can be deployed to compliment study areas of particular interest. Finally, data have to be verified and validated by visual field observations. Implementation of these new techniques for producing a large-scale geographic information system data set for Qatar would highly improve the current knowledge and provide a powerful decision making tool for environmental management and policy decisions. In this context, WorldView2 satellite images have been evaluated as a first step in the remote sensing research program to test the potential of such data for coastal mapping. The objectives of this project were to: test the standard strategies generally used for high resolution imagery processing taking advantage of the new specifications of the sensor (8 spectral bands), and to develop innovative methods for bathymetry estimation and sea bottom characterization. Preliminary results indicate that accurate classifications are possible; habitats such as coral patch reef structures, seagrass and soil classifications have been identified in agreement with the validation field surveys. This is the first step in a multi-faceted approach to utilize the latest remote sensing technologies.

In 2005 the impact module of the Deep Impact (DI) spacecraft collided with Comet 9P/Tempel 1. Based on analysis of the images made by this spacecraft during the first 13 minutes after the impact, Ipatov and A'Hearn concluded that the triggered outburst of small particles and excavation of a large cavity with dust and gas under pressure began at te= 8s, where te is the time after the DI collision. Schultz et al. analyzed images of Comet Tempel 1 made by the Stardust spacecraft and supposed that the diameter of the transient DI crater (dtc) was about 150-200m. Some authors support smaller values of dtc (up to 50m). My recent studies were devoted to estimates of the distance between the upper border of the cavity (dcav) excavated at te= 8s and the pre-impact surface of the comet. In particular, I supposed that the depth of a growing crater is proportional to te^gamma (where gamma is about 0.25-0.4) during the intermediate stage of crater excavation. The most probable estimate of dcav was about 0.1dtc*(te/Te)^0.3+1 meters, where Te is the duration of the normal ejection (Te=500 s at dtc=150 m). Using this approach I obtained dcav to be 5 or 6 meters for dtc equal to 150 or 200 m (dtc is 3 or 4 m for dtc ~ 50-100 m). The obtained values of the depth are in accordance with the depth (4-20 m) of the initial sublimation front of the CO ice in the models of the explosion of Comet 17P/Holmes considered by Kossacki and Szutowicz. The porous structure of comets provides enough space for sublimation and testifies in favor of existence of cavities. Natural outbursts were observed for several comets. Our studies testify in favor of that cavities with dust and gas under pressure located a few meters below surfaces of comets can be common. Similarity of velocities of particles ejected at triggered and natural outbursts shows that these outbursts could be caused by similar internal processes in comets.

Introduction: Solar energy has been one of the most active research areas in the last decade because it is environmental friendly with respect to conventional energy resources. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a promising oxide material that has useful electrical and optical properties. It has been extensively investigated for photovoltaic applications. Anatase titania (TiO2) is a well known n-type inorganic metal oxide semiconductor, it is transparent to visible light and has a high refractive index. TiO2 thin films have successfully been used in preparation of solar energy cells. Sol-gel is widely used because of its simplicity, commercial viability, and potential for cost effective mass production. It is also used for industrial fabrication because of its low-cost availability. Objectives: The effects of substrate types and thickness on structural, morphological and optical properties of dip-coated TiO2 thin films for applicability usage in solar cells were studied. Methods: TiO2 films have been prepared by sol-gel dip coating technique, using titanium isopropoxide (TIP) as precursors. The structure and the phase of TiO2 films were analyzed by x-ray diffraction which showed that films were anatase. Optical properties of the films were characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and ellipsometry. Results: The optical band gap was calculated for anatase film layers 50, 100, 150 and 200nm at 3.95, 3.87, 3.75 and 3.70eV, respectively. The refractive index of the films were computed by ellipsometry which were in the range of 1.9 to 2.3 and a wavelength range from 380 to 600nm. The thickness of the films was obtained from ellipsometry as of 58nm per one dip. The surfaces of TiO2 thin films were analyzed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM) and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The images obtained by SEM showed cracks and shrinkage particles in the film, whereas the images obtained by AFM showed a homogeneous distribution of elongated shapes of nanoparticles through the film. In addition, the composition of TiO2 thin films checked via EDS found a small amount of Ti. Conclusion: The results showed that anatase titania (TiO2) nanomaterials have a promised potential for applications in solar cells.

Background and Objectives: The objective of this work is to illustrate concepts and applications of nilpotent structures in physics. To that end, we will use two examples, both of which have attracted considerable attention recently: the generalized uncertainty principle, in its various forms, and the Tsallis entropy. The former has been motivated and extensively used in string theory and black hole physics during the last two decades. There are almost 4000 papers written on the latter during the last 20 years, reflecting a considerable interest in Tsallis entropy as an alternative to the Boltzmann-Gibbs-Shannon (BGS) entropic form. The Tsallis entropy has been having a considerable impact in re-examining the foundations of statistical mechanics for both equilibrium and non-equilibrium processes. Nilpotent structures have a long presence in various branches of mathematics, especially in group theory and geometry with the works of Malcev and Gromov standing out as particularly pertinent for our purposes. We also consider the sub-Riemannian aspects of nilpotent structures which have applications in a variety of fields ranging from examining how a cat falls to analyzing human vision. Results: Both the generalized uncertainty principles and the Tsallis entropy indicate that the dynamical structure of spacetime and the statistical methods used to quantize it may benefit considerably if one uses general nilpotent structures instead of the two-stage Heisenberg model or the abelian group of the BGS entropy. Conclusions: Nilpotent structures are flexible enough to generalize aspects of quantum theory and statistical mechanics. At the same time, they are understood well enough to allow us to obtain results of potential physical significance. Hence they are worth taking a look at and exploring their consequences. Notes: Partial results have already been published by the author recently and have appeared in the arXiv.org repository and are being presented at various international conferences. Parts of this work were done in collaboration with A. J. Creaco of the City University of New York.

Recycled polypropylene (RPP) based hybrid composites of date palm wood flour/glass fibre were prepared by different weight ratios of the two reinforcements. The mixing process was carried out in an extruder and samples were prepared by an injection molding machine. RPP properties were improved by reinforcing it by wood flour. Morphological studies indicated that glass fiber has good adhesion with RPP supporting the improvement of the mechanical properties of hybrid composites with glass fiber addition. An increase in wood particle content in the polypropylene resulted in a decrease in the degree of crystallinity of the polymer. The tensile strength of the composites increased with an increase in the percentage of crystallinity when adding the glass fibre. The improvement in the mechanical properties with the increase in crystallinity percentage (and with the decrease of the lamellar thicknesses) can be attributed to the constrained region between the lamellae because the agglomeration is absent in this case.

Organic geochemistry plays a major role in the environmental assessments of water quality. Today, the tools used in exploration and production of hydrocarbons combined with good understanding on natural processes which form and alter the hydrocarbons during biodegradation, weathering, oxidation and evaporation, can be applied to predict the fate of pollution in water. BTEX (Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene) are very toxic compounds and are normally present in significant concentrations in petroleum. They are pollutants in groundwater and surface water due to their high solubility. Pollutant identification is usually conducted by specialised laboratories in order to determine the relationship between hydrocarbons in water samples and suspected source of pollution. Guidelines on recommended methods for sample collection, handling and analysis are well established. For instance, analysis of BTEX in headspace gas of water sample collected in closed vessels can be performed by using: *High-resolution gas chromatography (HRGC) *HRGC coupled with mass spectrometry (HRGC/MS) Beyond to the recommended methods, more advanced techniques can be used for the pollution assessment and its behaviour: *Solid phase micro extraction gas chromatography mass spectrometry (SPME-GCMS). This simple technique is able to sample and analyze 1 ppt only of benzene in water (1 ppt = 1 mg of benzene in 1000 m³ of water). This technique is very accurate and quantitative owing to the addition of known trace amount of internal standards. *Compound specific isotope analysis (CSIA). This sophisticated technique consists in measuring the carbon and hydrogen stable isotope ratios of individual compounds. The stable isotope ratio of individual components depends on their source and their alteration. In this paper, we will demonstrate state of the art technology to measure BTEX in waste water and its behavior during the natural biodegradation and weathering process. It was well demonstrated that biodegradation increases the concentration of ¹³C and ²H isotopes in the residual non-biodegraded hydrocarbons. This paper shows that the use of SPME-CSIA and SPME-GCMS enable us: *To monitor trace levels of BTEX. *To give evidence of the biodegradation of BTEX owing to their strong and specific isotope fractionation. *To calculate biodegradation rate of BTEX by using isotope fractionation.

Improving the mechanical properties in an aluminum alloy at high temperatures should acknowledge several factors which are related principally to a decrease in the strength of the metal with increasing temperatures. Most applications of Al-Si casting alloys are generally used at temperatures of no more than 230°C. To improve the strength of the alloys under high temperature conditions, a microstructure containing thermally stable and coarsening resistant dispersoids is required. Nickel leads to the formation of Al3Ni and Al9FeNi in the presence of iron, while zirconium forms Al3Zri. These intermetallics improve the high temperature strength of Al-Si alloys, depending on the shape of the intermetallic particles, their volume fraction and the contiguity with the eutectic Si. The present work aims to investigate the effects of individual and combined additions of nickel and zirconium on the microstructure and strength of the cast Al-Si alloy, namely 354, at high temperatures. The cast alloys were given a solutionizing treatment followed by artificial aging at 190°C for 2 hr. High temperature tensile tests were conducted at various temperatures from 25°C to 300°C. Optical microscopy and electron probe micro-analyzer were used to study the microstructure of different intermetallic phases formed. The fractographic observations of fracture surface were analysed by SEM to understand the fracture mechanism. The results revealed that the intermetallics phases of (Al,Si)3(Zr,Ti), Al3CuNi and Al9NiFe are the main feature in the microstructures of alloys with Zr and Ni additions. The results also indicated that the tensile strength of alloy decreases with an increase in temperature. The combined addition of 0.2 wt% Zr and 0.2 wt% Ni leads to a 30% increase in the tensile properties at 300°C compared to the base alloy. Zr and Ni bearing phases played a vital role in the fracture mechanism of the alloys studied. Tensile strength of 354 alloy with additions of Ni and Zr are decreasing with increase of temperatures. The ultimate tensile strength and yield strength of alloys containing Ni- and Zr-bearing phases are higher than that of alloy for all testing temperatures.

Natural resources such as oil and gas can be used in more efficient ways. Instead of just burning these fuels, the exhaust gas or sync-gases can be used for hydrogen fusion reactions along with carbon fusion reactions. This offers the prospect of a longer-term supply of energy by using only a very small amount of fuel. Fusion reaction energy could be made relatively cheap by using proton tunneling catalytic reactors that bypass the nuclear repulsion barrier at lower temperatures, to produce enough energy that can be stored into hydrocarbons through Fischer-Tropsch synthetic gasification and pyrolysis cracking of CO₂. This could significantly decrease environmental pollution and the greenhouse effect. This catalytic reactor uses mesosphore support made of pyroelectric and piezoelectric crystals. Pyroelectric crystals convert the fusion temperature into electricity and piezoelectric crystals control the diameter of porosity to determine diffusion and fusion reaction rate. This active catalyst is a quasi-crystal of fullerenes covered by a single layer of graphene. By providing a voltage difference across this catalyst, its conductivity can be changed. By using magnetic field variable mass Dirac fermions (for example cooper electron-hole/phonon pairs), these can be introduced with different conductive layers (heterogeneous topological layers or parallel quantum wells) due to the quantum Hall effect. Hydrocarbons or its burned products enter this catalyst from mesophores through microphores by carrier fluids which need to be supercritical and superfluid with a momentum vortex at input temperature and pressure. Zero mass Dirac fermions are very sensitive to the applied field by piezoelectric crystal supports which produce maximum charge carriers compared to other layers where electron pairs have less mass. The higher the momentum of these ions, the higher the mass of the Dirac fermions (electron). At the collision point, the catalytic layer which has a Dirac fermion mass higher than the effective electron mass (such as the mass of the muon particle), this increases the probability of fusion by weakening the electron repulsion and increasing a strong nuclear force, also resulting in a tunneling effect due to an increase in gravitational pull between higher masses. This demonstrates that controlling resonance phonon frequency and the electric field through piezoelectric crystal fusion reaction can easily be controlled at lower temperatures due to the action of this catalyst.

Constructed wetlands are engineered land treatment systems that utilize natural processes to improve water quality. A system that consists primarily of vegetation, aquatic organisms, soils and microbes is designed to assist in treating wastewater by taking advantage of the same process that occur in nature, but in a more controlled setting. Successful and sustainable planning and management of an engineered wetland (EWL) will be highly influenced by the degree of understanding of not only the natural processes that occur in the EWL, but many other equally important elements and how these elements work jointly. Engineered weland has an input--namely influent wastewater, treatment process--and an output effluent. The treatment process becomes more complete when the wastewater has many constituents, some of which may be specific to a certain industry or source. It is essential to ascertain a reliable characterization of water quality and quantity over temporal and spatial variations, and the impact of these elements will directly influence the design of the EWL. The treatment media of the EWL must be carefully selected to sustain itself to the subject conditions and support the targeted water treatment goals. These considerations will lead to an iterative process leading further to an engineered solution. This presentation will demonstrate the framework and scientific basis for the implementation of a research program currently underway at ExxonMobil Research Qatar to design and test a EWL according to local conditions.

Background & Objectives: Qatar ranked number one in the world in terms of per capita CO2 emissions and is the latest Middle Eastern country to aggressively push towards reducing the per capita CO2 emissions and embrace a low carbon economy. Information and communication technology (ICT) already represents around 2% of total CO2 emissions (of which wireless networks represents about 0.2%) and this is expected to increase annually. The exponential growth in demand for higher data rates in wireless networks requires dense deployment of base stations which not only increases the energy consumption but also requires higher capital expenditures which still do not ensure an improvement in the data rate. To address the challenges of increasing the energy efficiency of the future wireless networks and maintain profitability, it is essential to consider various novel technologies which improve the energy efficiency of wireless networks and establish 'greener' networks. Therefore, decreasing the propagation distance between the base station and the mobile users is a promising solution to design energy aware wireless networks. Methods: Small cells such as femtocells are becoming a standard part of future wireless networks. We propose an energy aware design for wireless networks where the small cells are arranged around the edge of the macrocell such that the configuration is referred to as cell-on-edge (COE) where mobile users transmitting with a reduced transmitter power enjoy higher data rates due to shorter distances between the transmitter and the receiver. The COE configuration promises energy savings by integrating small cell and macrocell networks and thereby reducing CO2 emissions, operational and capital expenditures whilst enhancing the spectral and energy efficiency of wireless network. In this context, we define a performance metric which characterizes the aggregate energy savings per unit macrocell area and is referred to as an area green efficiency (AGE) wireless network. Results: The proposed wireless network design will provide a significant increase in energy efficiency of approximately 50% to 75% in comparison with the existing networks. Conclusions: The COE configuration has been shown to reduce CO2 emissions and thereby significantly improve the energy efficiency of future wireless networks.