The Palaeolithic–Neolithic transition in East Asia is characterised by the transformation of mobile hunter-gatherer groups into sedentary communities. The existence of ‘ice-age’ pottery in the Japanese archipelago, however, is inconsistent with claims that directly link climatic warming with sedentism and the development of ceramics. Here, the authors reconsider the chronology and palaeoenvironment of the Maedakochi site in Tokyo. New AMS dating and environmental data suggest that intensified inland fishing in cold environments, immediately prior to the Late Glacial warm period, created conditions conducive to sedentism and the development of subsistence-related pottery.

A method based on the electroforming technique has been proposed for the fabrication of nanoparticle-reinforced copper-matrix composites using an electrolyte of copper sulfate–sulfuric acid solution containing 1 cm3/L of the nanoparticles without surfactants. Of the tested nanoparticles such as Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2, ZrO2, and CeO2, whose sizes ranged from 10 to 30 nm, only TiO2 nanoparticles were successfully embedded in the copper matrix during electroforming, owing to their positive charge in the electrolyte solution. It should be noted that there was very little contamination in the copper matrix, because surfactants were absent during electroforming. Therefore, the electrical conductivity of the specimen that was electroformed in the electrolytes with TiO2 nanoparticles was not significantly different from that of pure copper. Nevertheless, the hardness, yield, and ultimate tensile strength were significantly improved by a small amount (0.3 mass%) of TiO2 nanoparticles primarily because of strengthening by Orowan mechanics. The electroforming process is thus a promising means to prepare copper-matrix composites with an excellent balance of electrical conductivity and mechanical strengths.

Apart from simply connected spaces, a non-simply connected co-H-space is a typical example of a space X with a coaction of Bπ1 (X) along rX: X → Bπ1 (X), the classifying map of the universal covering. If such a space X is actually a co-H-space, then the fibrewise p-localization of rX (or the ‘almost’ p-localization of X) is a fibrewise co-H-space (or an ‘almost’ co-H-space, respectively) for every prime p. In this paper, we show that the converse statement is true, i.e. for a non-simply connected space X with a coaction of Bπ1 (X) along rX, X is a co-H-space if, for every prime p, the almost p-localization of X is an almost co-H-space.

Population genetics of invading pests can be informative for understanding their ecology. In this study, we investigated population genetics of the invasive alfalfa weevil Hypera postica in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. We analyzed mitochondrial tRNALeu-COII, nuclear EF-1α gene fragments, and Wolbachia infection in relation to three leguminous host plants: Vicia angustifolia, Vicia villosa, and a new host Astragalus sinicus cultivated as a honey source and green manure crop. A parsimony network generated from mitochondrial gene sequences uncovered two major haplotypic groups, Western and Egyptian. In contrast to reported Wolbachia infection of the Western strain in the United States, none of our analyzed individuals were infected. The absence of Wolbachia may contribute to the stable coexistence of mitochondrial strains through inter-strain reproductive compatibility. Hypera postica genetic variants for the mitochondrial and nuclear genes were associated neither with host plant species nor with two geographic regions (Hisayama and Kama) within Fukuoka. Mitochondrial haplogroups were incongruent with nuclear genetic variants. Genetic diversity at the nuclear locus was the highest for the populations feeding on V. angustifolia. The nuclear data for A. sinicus-feeding populations indicated past sudden population growth and extended Bayesian skyline plot analysis based on the mitochondrial and nuclear data showed that the growth of A. sinicus-feeding population took place within the past 1000 years. These results suggest a shorter history of A. sinicus as a host plant compared with V. angustifolia and a recent rapid growth of H. postica population using the new host A. sinicus.

The concept of ${{C}_{k}}$ -spaces is introduced, situated at an intermediate stage between $H$ -spaces and $T$ -spaces. The ${{C}_{k}}$ -space corresponds to the $k$ -th Milnor–Stasheff filtration on spaces. It is proved that a space $X$ is a ${{C}_{k}}$ -space if and only if the Gottlieb set $G(Z,\,X)\,=\,[Z,\,X]$ for any space $Z$ with cat $Z\,\le \,k$ , which generalizes the fact that $X$ is a $T$ -space if and only if $G(\sum B,\,X)\,=\,[\sum B,\,X]$ for any space $B$ . Some results on the ${{C}_{k}}$ -space are generalized to the $C_{k}^{f}$ -space for a map $f\,:\,A\,\to \,X$ . Projective spaces, lens spaces and spaces with a few cells are studied as examples of ${{C}_{k}}$ -spaces, and non- ${{C}_{k}}$ -spaces.

Mechanical properties and thermal stability of bulk glassy alloys depend on their chemical composition ratios, although their detailed local structures especially around free volume have not been clarified yet. In order to know the origin of property dependence on alloy composition in Zr-Cu-Al ternary bulk glassy alloys in a view point of atomic scale, positron annihilation lifetime, coincidence Doppler broadening (CDB) and EXAFS (extended X-ray absorption fine structure) measurements have been employed for eutectic Zr50Cu40Al10 and hypoeutectic Zr60Cu30Al10 bulk glassy alloys before and after structural relaxation by annealing below glass transition temperature Tg .

The result of CDB experiment, which represents the electron momentum distribution around free volume, shows that significant atomic reordering around free volume does not take place by the annealing in each alloy. Besides, CDB ratio profiles for each alloy suggest that the fraction of Zr atom around free volume does not match the chemical composition of each alloy system. Change in positron lifetime, which is proportional to the size of free volume, during annealing for hypoeutectic alloy almost remains unchanged.

The effects of the catalysts on the evolution of in-plane stress during heating were studied for silica gel coatings prepared from alkoxide solutions. Tetramethylorthosilicate was hydrolyzed in the presence of nitric acid, acetic acid, and ammonia as catalysts. Gel films were deposited on Si(100) wafers by spin coating, and heated at a constant rate of 5 °C/min up to 500 °C. During heating, in situ measurement of the in-plane stress was conducted by measuring the radius of curvature of the substrate. In-plane, tensile stress increased up to 560 and 370 MPa in the films prepared with HNO3 and CH3COOH, respectively. However, the stress was much smaller at 30–40 MPa, which remained almost constant during heating, for the films prepared with NH3. The much smaller stress resulted from the much lower degrees of the progress of densification during heating, which was revealed in the changes in thickness and infrared absorption spectra during heating. The low degrees of the progress of densification were caused by the colloidal nature of the gel films.

Throughout this paper, we work in the category of (p-localized) spaces having the homotopy type of connected CW-complexes of finite type with base point. We consider a principal bundle

where Gn = SU(n), U(n) or Sp(n) and d = 1, 1 or 2 respectively. In this case, the bundle is obtained as an induced bundle by a mapping f of base space S2dn−1 from the classical group extension as follows:

Structural relaxation around free volume in Zr50Cu40Al10 bulk metallic glass (BMG) during isothermal annealing at 473, 573 and 673 K which are below glass transition temperature Tg =675 K have been investigated by positron annihilation lifetime (PAL) and coincidence Doppler broadening (CDB) measurements. The trends of change in positron lifetime, which correspond to the size of free volume at each annealing temperature, have a good correlation with their density change. These annealing processes obey a stretched exponential relaxation function (KWW: Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts law). Fitting parameters of KWW function, with relaxation time t 0 and β, in each temperature were determined. These relaxation parameters depend on the annealing temperature, suggesting the distribution of activation energy for structural relaxation. Moreover, the profile of electron momentum distribution around free volume derived by CDB spectrum during annealing showed no appreciable change at each temperature. These facts suggest that long range chemical ordering, particularly around the free volume, dose not take place essentially.

Three kinds of Fe-based model alloys, Fe-0.02wt%Cu, Fe-0.6wt%Cu, and Fe-1.2wt%Cu were irradiated with 2MeV electrons at 250°C. After the irradiation, the hardness was measured by using a micro Vickers hardness tester at room temperature. It was found that the hardness change by electron irradiation is proportional to the product of the copper concentration and the square root of electron fluence. The result is discussed in terms of the dispersion strengthening by Cu precipitates.

CeO2 thin films were irradiated with 200MeV Xe ions. Effects of the irradiation were studied by using Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) measurement at SPring8 synchrotron radiation facility. EXAFS spectra for the irradiated thin films near the Ce K-edge show that the coordination number for oxygen atoms around Ce atom decreases and that the Ce-O Debye-Waller factor increases by the irradiation. The atomic distance between oxygen atom and Ce atom does not vary within the accuracy of EXAFS measurement. The effect of high density electronic excitation on the structure of CeO2 is discussed.

The structure of Au-Pd bimetallic nanoparticles prepared by sonochemical technique was investigated by an analytical transmission electron microscopy. The core (Au)-shell (Pd) structure was clearly confirmed by the intensity profile of annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (ADF-STEM). The line-scan analysis of energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) in STEM mode also revealed the Au core-Pd shell structure. The selected area electron diffraction pattern from the Au-Pd nanoparticles indicated the possibility that the crystal lattice of Pd shell is expanded and coincident with the crystal lattice of Au core.

Dilute aqueous solutions with Au3+ ions and Polyethylene Glycol Monostearate are irradiated with ∼1 MeV γ-ray from 60Co source, 10 MeV pulsed electrons or 1.6 GeV carbon ions. After the irradiation, the color of solutions changes from buff yellow to reddish color. The UV-vis absorption spectra show that after the irradiation, light absorption around 530 nm appears, which corresponds to the excitation of the surface plasmon due to Au nano-particles. The result confirms that the irradiation reduces Au3+ ions in the aqueous solutions and synthesizes Au nano-particles. Size and shape of the nano-particles are examined by using 200kV transmission electron microscope. Effects of irradiation parameters (total dose and dose rate) on Au nano-particle synthesis are discussed.

We have studied high-energy ion irradiation effects in bismuth by measuring the electrical resistivity at low temperature in relation to its structural change. Bismuth thin films (330–520 Å thick) are irradiated below ∼10 K with energetic (150–200-MeV) heavy ions. The resistivity of the specimen is measured in situ below ∼7.2 K during the irradiation. After the irradiation, annealing behavior of the resistivity is observed up to ∼30 K. The temperature dependence of the resistivity during annealing shows an abrupt increase around 20 K, implying re-crystallization of irradiation-induced amorphous regions. We have tried to detect a superconducting transition which may take place as a result of irradiation-induced amorphization. In the range of the measuring temperature down to ∼4.9 K, resistivity decrease due to superconducting transition has not been observed in the temperature dependence of the resistivity after 200-MeV 197Au ion irradiation up to a fluence of 3.1×1012 cm-2.

In order to modify the lattice structure and magnetic properties, we irradiate Fe-50at.%Rh alloys with 8 MeV electrons at room temperature. Effects of irradiation are investigated by using Superconducting QUantum Interference Device (SQUID) and X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD).

Although the crystal structure is not changed by the irradiation and remains the B2 structure, the lattice parameter increases by about 0.1–0.3 % and the antiferromagnetic(AF)-ferromagnetic(FM) transition temperature decreases by 3–18 deg. with increasing the electron fluence. The present result shows that energetic electron irradiation can be used for the precise control of AF-FM transition temperature of Fe-50at.%Rh alloy.

We fabricated the multi-color electroluminescent (EL) device using hydrofluoric (HF) acid solution treated and oxidized silicon (Si) nanoparticles. Strong red luminescence was obtained from the HF treated Si nanoparticles based EL device under a low forward bias of 4.0 V. On the other hand, green and blue luminescence, which could be seen with naked eye under room illumination, was observed for the oxidized Si nanoparitcles based EL device at the forward bias below 9.5 V, because of reduction of size due to oxidation onto the Si nanoparticle surface. Furthermore, the red/green/blue lights showed good stability for aging of a long period of time in air by the formation of oxidized layer on the surface. These results indicate that the EL devices developed in this study can realize as application to future flat panel display.

Anomalously large shift of the Curie temperature has recently been observed in Fe-Ni Invar alloys irradiated with high-energy heavy ions. This large effect can be attributed to the large positive magneto-volume effect essentially originated in the itinerant electron ferromagnetism in Fe-Ni Invar alloys. To investigate the mechanism of the large modification of the ferromagnetism and the structure of the modified portion, measurements of the beam energy dependence of AC-susceptibility-temperature curves have been made. It was found that the amount of the shift of the Curie temperature did not change by increasing the beam energy. On the contrary, the intensity of the susceptibility of the modified portion increased with increasing the ion beam energy. The high-density electronic excitation is considered to be responsible for the large modification of the ferromagnetism in Fe-Ni Invar alloys.