Effect of equal-channel angular pressing on pitting corrosion resistance of anodized aluminum-copper alloy

The effect of equal-channel angular pressing(ECAP) on the pitting corrosion resistance of anodized Al-Cu alloy was investigated by electrochemical techniques in a solution containing 0.2 mol/L AlCl3 and also by surface analysis.Anodizing was conducted for 20 min at 200 and 400 A/m2 in a solution containing 1.53 mol/L H2SO4 and 0.018 5 mol/L Al2(SO4)3·16H2O at 20 ℃.Anodized Al-Cu alloy was immediately dipped in boiling water for 20 min to seal the micro pores present in anodic oxide films.The time required before initiating pitting corrosion of anodized Al-Cu alloy is longer with ECAP than without,indicating that ECAP process improves the pitting corrosion resistance of anodized Al-Cu alloy.Second phase precipitates such as Si,Al-Cu-Mg and Al-Cu-Si-Fe-Mn intermetallic compounds are present in Al-Cu alloy and the size of these precipitates is greatly decreased by application of ECAP.Al-Cu-Mg intermetallic compounds are dissolved during anodization,whereas the precipitates composed of Si and Al-Cu-Si-Fe-Mn remain in anodic oxide films due to their more noble corrosion potential than Al.FE-SEM and EPMA observation reveal that the pitting corrosion of anodized Al-Cu alloy occurs preferentially around Al-Cu-Si-Fe-Mn intermetallic compounds,since the anodic oxide films are absent at the boundary between the normal oxide films and these impurity precipitates.The improvement of pitting corrosion resistance of anodized Al-Cu alloy processed by ECAP appears to be attributed to a decrease in the size of precipitates,which act as origins of pitting corrosion.

Impacts of invasive Iris pseudacorus L.(yellow flag) establishing in an abandoned urban pond on native semi-wetland vegetation

Iris pseudacorus L., intentionally introduced in Japan as an ornamental plant and to improve aquatic environments, has been declared a noxious species in the Invasive Alien Species Act of Japan due to the suspected high ecological risks to the local species and ecosystems. Although prompt responses to I. pseudacorus have been sought to conserve local biodiversity, knowledge about its invasiveness is lacking. Here, we report the relationship between the establishment of I. pseudacorus and floristic changes in semi-wetland vegetation of an abandoned urban pond(Aoike), Nara City, Nara Prepecture, Japan. In total, 64 vascular plants were recorded in the pond, of which 50 were native species, seven were naturalized non-native, and seven were invasive species. On the other hand, most of these vascular plants(42 species) were grassland species and only several aquatic plants(10 species) were found in this study pond. The number of vascular plant species decreased significantly at quadrats with a coverage of I. pseudacorus above 50%. In addition, tendencies of lower number of native species and concomitant higher number of invasive species were found with increasing coverage of I. pseudacorus. From these results, we suggest that it is important to preferentially manage sites where the coverage of I. pseudacorus is above 50%, in order to preserve the local biodiversity. Additionally, as recommended in the literature, it is essential that the cut reproductive organs are kept submerged under deep water for an effective control of I. pseudacorus.

Performance Improvement of the LM Device and Its Application to Precise Measurement of Motion Trajectories within a Small Range with a Machining Centre

In order to apply the LM device previously developed to precisely measuring small motion trajectories located on the different motion planes, three major improvements are successfully performed under the condition of completely maintaining the advantages of the device. These improvements include 1) development of a novel connection mechanism to smoothly attach the device to the spindle of a machining centre;2) employment of a new data sampling method to achieve a high sampling frequency independent of the operating system of the control computer;and 3) proposal of a set-up method to conveniently install the device on the test machining centre with respect to different motion planes. Practical measurement experiment results with the improved device on a machining centre sufficiently demonstrate the effectiveness of the improvements and confirm several features including a very good response to small displacement close to the resolution of the device, high precision, repeatability and reliance. Moreover, based on the measurement results for a number of trajectories for a wide range of motion conditions, the error characteristics of small size motions are systematically discussed and the effect of the movement size and feed rate on the motion accuracy is verified for the machining centre tested.

Sharp Growth Theorems and Coefficient Bounds for Starlike Mappings in Several Complex Variables

Let B be the unit ball in a complex Banach space. Let S^＊k＋1（B） be the family of normalized starlike mappings f on B such that z = 0 is a zero of order k ＋ 1 of f（z） - z. The authors obtain sharp growth and covering theorems, as well as sharp coefficient bounds for various subsets of S^＊k＋1（B）.

Extreme points, support points and the Loewner variation in several complex variables

In this paper we consider extreme points and support points for compact subclasses of normalized biholomorphic mappings of the Euclidean unit ball Bn in Cn. We consider the class So（Bn） of biholomorphic mappings on Bn which have parametric representation, i.e., they are the initial elements f（-, O） of a Loewner chain f（x,t） = etz ＋ ... such that {e-tf（.,t）}t≥o is a normal family on Bn. We show that if f（.,O） is an extreme point （respectively a support point） of So（Bn）, then e-t f（., t） is an extreme point of So（Bn） for t≥0 （respectively a support point of So（Bn） for t C [O, t0] and some to〉 0）. This is a generalization to the n-dimensional case of work due to Pell. Also, we prove analogous results for mappings which belong to So（Bn） and which are bounded in the norm by a fixed constant. We relate the study of this class to reachable sets in control theory generalizing work of Roth. Finally we consider extreme points and support points for biholomorphic mappings of Bn generated by using extension operators that preserve Loewner chains.