A revolutionary "Active Braze Coated Diamond" (ABCD) has been developed for bonding diamond grits firmly in the metal matrix. The molten braze is wetted and reacted with diamond to form strong chemical bond at the interface so that the diamond does not become knocked out of tools. The ABC is a nickel alloy that can form metallurgical diffusion bondswith the metal matrix. In essence, ABCD turns diamond into a metal grain so that the diamond tools can be made by conventional powder metallurgical process without being concerned about the poor bonding between matrix metal powder and the diamond as before.

Homogeneous microstructures of the PM compacts are difficult to attain when mixed elemental powders are used. This study examined the microstructures of pressed-and-sintered and MIM products that contain Ni and Mo.Ni-rich areas, which were lean in carbon and were soft and were found easily in regular specimens. Gaps or cracks near the Ni-rich or Mo-rich areas were also frequently observed. This problem worsened when Ni and Mo particles were large and were irregular in shape. By using ball milling treatment and ferroalloy powders, the microstructure homogeneity and mechanical properties were improved. The addition of 0.5wt%Cr further improved the distribution of Ni because Cr reduced the repulsion effect between nickel and carbon. With the elimination of Ni-rich areas, more bainites and martensites were formed and mechanical properties were significantly improved.

It is well known that a rotating bar potential can transport angular momentum to the disk and hence cause the evolution of the disk. Such a process is particularly important in disk galaxies since it can result in fuelling AGNs and starburst ring activities. In this paper, we will present the numerical simulations to show how this mechanism works. The problem, however, is quite complicated. We classify our simulations according to the type of Lindbald resonances and try to single out the individual roles they play in the disk evolution. Among many interesting results, we emphasize the identification of the origin of the starburst rings and the dense circumnuclear molecular disks to the instability of the disk. Unlike most of the other simulations, the self-gravitation of the disk is emphasized in this study.

We present a progress report on HCN(1-0) line observations toward starless cores to probe inward motions. We have made a single pointing survey toward the central regions of 85 starless cores and performed mapping observations of 6 infall candidate starless cores. The distributions of the velocity difference between HCN(1-0) hyperfine lines and the optically thin tracer N2H+(1-0) are significantly skewed to the blue, meaning that HCN(1-0) frequently detects inward motions. Their skewness to the blue is even greater than that of CS(2-1) Lee et al., possibly implying more infall occurrence than CS(1-0). We identify 19 infall candidates by using several characteristics illustrating spectral infall asymmetry seen in HCN(1-0) hyperfine lines, CS(3-2), CS(2-1), DCO+(2-1) and N2H+ observations. The HCN(1-0) F(O-l) with the least optical depth usually shows a similar intensity distribution to that of N2H+ which closely traces the density distribution of the cores, indicating that HCN(1-0) is less chemically affected and so believed to reflect kinematics occurring in rather inner regions of the cores. Detailed radiative transfer model fits of the spectra are underway to analyze central infall kinematics in starless cores.

We compare the results of the surveys of starless cores performed with CS (2-1) and (3-2) lines to study inward motions in the cores. The velocity shifts of the CS(3-2) and (2-1) lines with respect to N2H+ are found to correlate well with each other and to have similar number distributions, implying that, in many cores, systematic inward motions of gaseous material may occur over a range of density of at least a factor ~ 4. Fits of the CS spectra to a 2-layer radiative transfer model in ten infall candidates suggest that the median effective line-of-sight speed of the inward-moving gas is ~ 0.07 km s-l for CS (3-2) and ~ 0.04 km s-l for CS(2-1). Considering that the optical depth obtained from the fits is usually smaller in CS(3-2) than in (2-1) line, this may indicate that CS(3-2) usually traces inner, denser gas with greater inward motions than CS(2-1) implying that many of the infall candidates have faster infall toward the center. However, this conclusion may not be representative of all starless core infall candidates, due to the statistically small number analyzed here. Further line observations will be useful to test this conclusion.

불완전 분리의 실질적인 분리투과 특성을 근거로 하는 모사모델을 이용하여 투과증발 막촉진 에스터화 반응의 실질적인 거동을 연구하였다. 막의 분리효율, 막의 물제거 능력을 모델에 포함시킴으로써 반응모사를 통하여 이들이 막촉진반응에 어떻게 영향을 끼치는지를 체계적으로 관찰할 수 있었다. 막을 통한 비완전분리가 일어날 경우에 초기 반응물 몰비율이 1이 아닐 때 반응 혼합물중 소량으로 존재하는 반응성분이 투과되거나, 혹은 초기 반응물 몰비율이 1인 반응 혼합물중 어느 반응성분이 투과되든지 반응이 완결될 수 없었다. 생성물인 에스터가 물과 함께 일부 투과될 경우 정방향 반응속도를 증가시켜 시간에 따른 반응 전환률을 증가시킨다. 막을 통한 불완전 분리시 막을 통한 투과로 인하여 발생하는 반응혼합물의 부피감소로 인하여 반응성분 뿐 아니라 생성성분의 농도가 증가되는데 이들 농도증가가 반응속도에 상반된 영향을 끼친다; 반응물 농축은 반응속도를 증가시키나 생성물 농축은 역방향의 반응을 촉진시킴으로서 반응속도를 감소시킨다. 반응초기에는 반응물 농축효과가 우세하나 반응이 진행됨에 따라 생성물 농축효과가 우세하여 반응속도를 저하시킴이 모사결과 관찰되었다.

반응성 페놀수지 폐액을 처리하기 위해 중공사막 모듈을 이용한 투과증발 막 탈수공정을 연구하였다. 이 공정의 거동을 예측하기 위한 모사모델을 확립하였고 여기에 사용되는 중요 기본 파라메타들을 평판형 막을 사용하여 직접 구하여 사용함으로써 공정모사의 정확성을 얻을 수가 있었다. 이들을 모사치와 중공사 투과증발 막으로 부터 직접 측정한 각 투과특성들을 비교한 결과 서로 잘 일치함을 보여 본 모사모델의 타당성을 입증하였다. 사용된 중공사막은 중공사 안쪽에 활성층이 도포되어 있으며 공급액은 중공사 내부로 공급하였다. 공급액의 막내에서의 흐름속도에 따라 온도분포가 결정되며 이에 따라 막 투과특성이 달라짐을 모사결과로부터 얻을 수가 있었다. 공급액 온도증가는 막을 통한 탈수 투과 속도를 증가시킬 뿐 아니라 반응속도 증가로 인하여 물 생성속도도 증가시킴으로써 공급액 저장조 내의 수분 함량은 이들 상반된 공정들에 의해 결정이 됨을 보였다. 투과압력이 공급액 증기압보다 훨씬 작은 범위에서 증가할 경우 투과추진력인 공급액과 투과부의 투과물 활성도비 감소가 크지 않아 투과특성을 약간 저하시킨다. 그러나 투과압력이 공급액의 증기압에 접근할 경우 활성도비 감소가 현저하게 일어나 투과특성저하가 급격히 일어난다.

DNA methylation at CpG sites, which is a epigenetic modification, is associated with gene expression without change of DNA sequences. During early mouse embryogenesis, dynamic changes of DNA methylation occur. In this study, DNA methylation patterns of porcine embryos produced in vivo and in vitro were examined at various developmental stages by the immunocytochemical staining method. Interestingly, active demethylation was not observed on the paternal pronucleus of porcine zygotes. However, differences were detected in the passive demethylation process between in vivo and in vitro embryos. There was no change in the DNA methylation state until the blastocyst stage of in vivo embryos, whereas partial demethylation was observed in several blastomeres from a 4 cell stage to a morula stage of in vitro embryos. The whole genome of inner cell mass (ICM) and trophectoderm (TE) cells in porcine blastocysts were evenly methylated without de novo methylation. Our findings demonstrate that genome-wide demethylation does not occur in pig embryos during preimplantation development unlike murine and bovine embryos. It indicates that the machinery regulating epigenetic reprogramming may be different between species.

A characterization of the permeation and separation using single salt solution was carried out with charged composite membranes. Various charged composite membranes were fabricated by blending an ionic polymer with a nonionic polymer in different ratios. In this study, sodium alginate, chitosan and poly(vinyl alcohol) were employed as anionic, cationic and nonionic polymers, respectively. The permeation and separation behaviors of the aqueous salt solutions have been investigated through the charged composite membranes with various charge densities. As the content of the ionic polymer increased in the membrane, the hydrophilicity of the membrane increased, and pure water flux and the solution flux increased correspondingly, indicating that the permeation performance through the membrane is determined mainly by its hydrophilicity. Electrostatic interaction between the charged membrane and ionic solute molecules, that is, Donnan exclusion, was observed to be attributed to salt rejection to a greater extent, and molecular sieve mechanism was effective for the separation of salts under a similar electrostatic circumstance of solutes.