TiCuNiAl quaternary amorphous alloy was prepared by high-energy ball milling process. A complete amorphization was confirmed for the composition of TiCuNiAl after milling for 30hrs. Differential scanning calorimetry showed a large super-cooled liquid region (T = T T, T and T: glass transition and crystallization onset temperatures, respectively) of 80 K. Prepared amorphous powders of TiCuNiAl were consolidated by spark-plasma sintering. Densification behavior and microstructure changes were investigated. Samples sintered at higher temperature of 713 K had a nearly full density. With increasing the sintering temperature, the compressive strength increased to fracture strength of 756 MPa in the case of sintering at 733 K, which showed a 'transparticle' fracture. The samples sintered at above 693 K showed the elongation maximum above 2%.

Beef marbling is known as one of the most important beef-quality traits in Korea. It is likely that marbling derived from fatty acids, mainly propionate, is mediated by rumen. Recently micro-agents were studied to enhance marbling, although many parts of that were digested in rumen. Therefore, this study was conducted to screen candidate materials to effect on beef quality with in vitro ruminal incubation. The materials such as saponin, chitosan, Zn compounds (4), vitamin C sources (2), Korean herb cocktail and garlic sources (2) were added to rumen fluid to 1.25% of substrate volume at 0 and 24 h incubation time. Total gas production in intact vitamin C source increased but that in all Zn compounds decreased (P＜0.05). Total gas production in Zn sulfate compound less decreased than in other Zn sources. Propionate in Zn sulfate increased than the other candidate compounds at all incubation time (P＜0.05). Experiment two was conducted to clarified effect of additives such as vitamin C sources (2), garlic lyophilized, Korea herb cocktail and Zn sulfate were supplemented with 2.5% volume at the 0, 3, 6, 12 and 24 h incubation time. Total gas in Zn sulfate was lower than any other treatments. Propionate in garlic, herb and Zn sulfate appeared to be lower than control and vitamin C sources at all incubation time, although significant difference was not observed in total VFA among control and all treatment. This study suggested that micro-agent might be used to improve beef quality with minute level.

The properties of SOHO/LASCO CMEs are subjected to projection effects. Their dependence on the source position is important to be studied. Our main aim is to study the dependence of CME properties on helio-longitude and latitude using the CMEs associated with type IIs observed by Wind/WAVES spacecraft (Deca-hecta metric type IIs - DH type IIs). These CMEs were identified as a separate population of geo-effective CMEs. We considered the CMEs associated with the Wind/WAVE type IIs observed during the period January 1997 - December 2005. The source locations of these CMEs were identified using their associated GOES X-ray flares and listed online. Using their locations and the cataloged properties of CMEs, we carried out a study on the dependence of CME properties on source location. We studied the above for three groups of CMEs: (i) all CMEs, (ii) halo and non-halo CMEs, and (iii) limb and non-limb CMEs. Major results from this study can be summarized as follows. (i) There is a clear dependence of speed on both the longitude and latitude; while there is an increasing trend with respect to longitude, it is opposite in the case of latitude. Our investigations show that the longitudinal dependence is caused by the projection effect and the latitudinal effect by the solar cycle effect. (ii) In the case of width, the disc centered events are observed with more width than those occurred at higher longitudes, and this result seems to be the same for latitude. (iii) The dependency of speed is confirmed on the angular distance between the sun-center and source location determined using both the longitude and latitude. (iv) There is no dependency found in the case of acceleration. (v) Among all the three groups of CMEs, the speeds of halo CMEs show more dependency on longitude. The speed of non-halo and non-limb CMEs show more dependency on latitude. The above results may be taken into account in correcting the projection effects of geo-effective CMEs.

Recently, we suggested a CME earthward direction parameter as an important geoeffective parameter that has been demonstrated by front-side halo CME data. In this study, we present the geometrical implication of this parameter by comparing with the parameters from a CME cone model. Major results from this study can be summarized as follows. First, we derive an analytic relationship between the cone model parameters (the half angular width of a cone and the angle between the cone axis and the plane of sky) and the earthward direction parameter. Second, we demonstrate a close relationship between the earthward direction parameter and the cone axis angle using 32 front-side full halo CMEs. Third, we found that there is noticeable inconsistency between the cone axis angles estimated from the cone model fitting to the CMEs and from their associated flare positions, implying that the flare position should not be considered as a good earthward direction parameter. Finally we present several advantages of our earthward direction parameter in terms of the forecast of a geomagnetic storm based on CME parameters.