We made phase-referencing Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations of Galactic 22 GHz H2O maser sources with VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA). We measured the parallax dis- tances of G48.61+0.02, G48.99-0.30, G49.19-0.34, ON1, IRAS 20056+3350, IRAS 20143+3634, ON2N, and IRAS 20126+4104, which are located near the tangent point and the Solar circle. The angular ve- locity of the Galactic rotation at the LSR (i.e. the ratio of the Galactic constants) is derived using the measured parallax distances and proper motions of these sources. The derived value of Ω0 = 28:8  1:7 km s-1 kpc-1 is consistent with recent values obtained using VLBI astrometry but 10% larger than the International Astronomical Union (IAU) recommended value of 25.9 km s-1 kpc-1 = (220 km s-1) / (8.5 kpc).

Several boride sintered bodies such as , , and were previously reported. In the present study, the sinterability and physical properties of chromium boride containing chromium carbide sintered bodies were investigated in order to determine its new advanced material. The samples were sintered at desired temperature for 1 hour in vacuum under a pressure by hot pressing. The relative density of sintered bodies was measured by Archimedes' method. The relative densities of addition of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 mass% composites were 92 to 95%. The Vickers hardness of the with 10 and 15 mass% composites were about 14 and 15 GPa at room temperature, respectively. The Vickers hardness at high temperature of the addition of 10 mass% composite decreased with increasing measurement temperature. The Vickers hardness at 1273 K of the sample was 6 GPa. The Vickers hardness of addition of composites was higher than monolithic sintered body. The powder X-ray diffraction analysis detected CrB and phases in containing composites.