Recently, porous aluminum has attracted special interest as a new functional material. However, the application of porous aluminum remains limited due to high-cost fabrication and low productivity. To overcome these problems, the authors proposed a new fabrication method called the "FSP Friction Stir Processing route precursor method". In this study, using aluminum alloy die casting ADC12 as the starting material, porous aluminum is fabricated by the FSP route precursor method. At first, the pore structures of ADC12 porous aluminum are observed through X-ray CT. It is shown that, in the porous aluminum by FSP precursor method, the pore size distribution and the circularity of pores are similar to those in commercially available porous aluminum. Moreover, the compression tests for ADC12 porous aluminum and commercially available porous aluminum are carried out. It is shown that ADC12 porous aluminum indicates brittle fracture, and high plateau stress and high absorption energy comparing those of commercially available porous aluminum.

In the automotive industry, porous aluminum is expected to be used as a new functional material because of its light weight, high energy absorption and high sound-insulating property. Recently, a new processing route for fabricating the porous aluminum precursor, which utilizes friction stir processing (FSP), has been developed. It is expected that, by applying the FSP route precursor method, the cost-effective fabrication of porous aluminum with high productivity can be realized. In this study, two different types of A1050 porous aluminum were fabricated from two different sizes of precursor by the FSP route precursor method. The two types of porous aluminum fabricated using small and large precursors are hereafter referred to ''FSP-S porous aluminum'' and ''FSP-L porous aluminum'', respectively. The pore structures of FSP-S porous aluminum, FSP-L porous aluminum and also commercially available porous aluminum (ALPORAS, fabricated by Shinko Wire Co., Ltd.) were nondestructively observed by X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT). From the nondestructive observation of pore structures, it was shown that a large number of pores of smaller area and volume were distributed in porous aluminum fabricated by the FSP route precursor method compared with the pores in ALPORAS. However, there was little difference in the circularity of pores between porous aluminum fabricated by the FSP route and ALPORAS, and there was little dependence of the pore structure on the precursor size for porous aluminum fabricated by the FSP route. This result indicates the potential of the FSP route for fabricating larger porous aluminum samples.

The genus Neomonoceratina, which dominated the ostracod assemblage in the uppermost part of the Akasaki Formation (Miroku Group) of the Kyushu Island, Japan, is associated with the benthic foraminifer Ammonia cf. beccarii, mollusca Terebralia? sp. and Anomia sp., and the oogonium of Charophyceae, indicating a marine-to-brackish estuarine environment involving inflowing freshwater. This is the first record of Eocene coastal-estuarine ostracods from the eastern margin of the Eurasian continent and demonstrates that different pre-Neogene coastal-estuarine ostracod assemblages flourished in this region. The assemblages comprised five ostracod species (including one novel species) assigned to the genera Neomonoceratina, Paijeiborchella, Propontocypris and Parakrithella. These species exhibited genus-level links with the Eocene borehole cores along the continental shelf of the East China Sea and other areas of Kyushu. Fossil data of characteristic Eocene coastal-estuarine genera collected worldwide indicate that different characteristic genera inhabited each region. For example, Neomonoceratina originated on the Indian subcontinent by the Early Paleocene period at the latest, along with the northern drift of the Indian subcontinent. These species subsequently diversified west and east with the equatorial current and counter-current via the Tethys and reached the eastern margin of the Eurasian continent among the various eastwards-migrating species, where one genus ultimately adapted to the coastal-estuarine environment. Notably, the coastal-estuarine ostracod assemblage of the eastern margin of the Eurasian continent differs completely from that of the Tethys during the Eocene period. Our results suggest that coastal-estuarine ostracod assemblages are a powerful tool for palaeogeographic reconstruction.

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