The papers included in this issue of ECS Transactions were originally presented in the symposium ¿Corrosion General Poster Session¿ held during the 218th meeting of The Electrochemical Society, in Las Vegas, Nevada, from October 10 to 15, 2010.

The papers included in this issue of ECS Transactions were originally presented in the symposium ¿General Student Poster Session¿, held during the 218th meeting of The Electrochemical Society, in Las Vegas, Nevada from October 10 to 15, 2010.

This textbook is intended for a one-semester course in corrosion science at the graduate or advanced undergraduate level. The approach is that of a physical chemist or materials scientist, and the text is geared toward students of chemistry, materials science, and engineering. This textbook should also be useful to practicing corrosion engineers or materials engineers who wish to enhance their understanding of the fundamental principles of corrosion science. It is assumed that the student or reader does not have a background in electrochemistry. However, the student or reader should have taken at least an undergraduate course in materials science or physical chemistry. More material is presented in the textbook than can be covered in a one-semester course, so the book is intended for both the classroom and as a source book for further use. This book grew out of classroom lectures which the author presented between 1982 and the present while a professorial lecturer at George Washington University, Washington, DC, where he organized and taught a graduate course on “Environmental Effects on Materials.” Additional material has been provided by over 30 years of experience in corrosion research, largely at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC and also at the Bethlehem Steel Company, Bethlehem, PA and as a Robert A. Welch Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas. The text emphasizes basic principles of corrosion science which underpin extensions to practice.

This book covers a significant number of R&D projects, performed mostly after 2000, devoted to the understanding and prevention of performance degradation processes in polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs). The extent and severity of performance degradation processes in PEFCs were recognized rather gradually. Indeed, the recognition overlapped with a significant number of industrial dem- strations of fuel cell powered vehicles, which would suggest a degree of technology maturity beyond the resaolution of fundamental failure mechanisms. An intriguing question, therefore, is why has there been this apparent delay in addressing fun- mental performance stability requirements. The apparent answer is that testing of the power system under fully realistic operation conditions was one prerequisite for revealing the nature and extent of some key modes of PEFC stack failure. Such modes of failure were not exposed to a similar degree, or not at all, in earlier tests of PEFC stacks which were not performed under fully relevant conditions, parti- larly such tests which did not include multiple on–off and/or high power–low power cycles typical for transportation and mobile power applications of PEFCs. Long-term testing of PEFCs reported in the early 1990s by both Los Alamos National Laboratory and Ballard Power was performed under conditions of c- stant cell voltage, typically near the maximum power point of the PEFC.

This collection offers new research findings, innovations, and industrial technological developments in extractive metallurgy, energy and environment, and materials processing. Technical topics included in the book are thermodynamics and kinetics of metallurgical reactions, electrochemical processing of materials, plasma processing of materials, composite materials, ionic liquids, thermal energy storage, energy efficient and environmental cleaner technologies and process modeling. These topics are of interest not only to traditional base ferrous and non-ferrous metal industrial processes but also to new and upcoming technologies, and they play important roles in industrial growth and economy worldwide.

In the decade since the introduction of the first commercial lithium-ion battery research and development on virtually every aspect of the chemistry and engineering of these systems has proceeded at unprecedented levels. This book is a snapshot of the state-of-the-art and where the work is going in the near future. The book is intended not only for researchers, but also for engineers and users of lithium-ion batteries which are found in virtually every type of portable electronic product.

Corruption... How can policymakers and practitioners better comprehend the many forms and shapes that this socialpandemic takes? From the delivery of essential drugs, the reduction in teacher absenteeism, the containment of illegal logging, the construction of roads, the provision of water andelectricity, the international trade in oil and gas, the conduct of public budgeting and procurement, and the management of public revenues, corruption shows its many faces. 'The Many Faces of Corruption' attempts to bring greater clarity to the often murky manifestations of this virulent and debilitating social disease. It explores the use of prototype road maps to identify corruption vulnerabilities, suggests corresponding 'warning signals,' and proposes operationally useful remedial measures in each of several selected sectors and for a selected sampleof cross cutting public sector functions that are particularlyprone to corruption and that are critical to sector performance.Numerous technical experts have come together in this effort to develop an operationally useful approach to diagnosing and tackling corruption. 'The Many Faces of Corruption' is an invaluable reference for policymakers, practitioners, andresearchers engaged in the business of development.