Three theorems are proved to
the effect that a nonaffine function h on an interval cannot operate by composition
on the real part of a uniform algebra on X unless the algebra is C(X). The
additional hypotheses necessary are, respectively, that h be continuously
differentiable, that h be “highly” nonaffine in a suitable sense, and that h operate in a
rather weakly bounded manner. These results contain and extend work of J. Wermer
and of A. Bernard.