Background: Rasch analysis has the advantage of placing both the items and the person along a single ratio scale and calibrates person ability and item difficulty onto an interval scale by logits. Therefore, Rasch analysis has been recommended as a better method for evaluating functional outcome questionnaires than traditional analyses. Objects: The aim of current study was to investigate item fit, item difficulty, rating scale, and separation index of the Korean version of the Fullerton Advanced Balance (KFAB) scale using Rasch analysis. Methods: In total, 93 patients with stroke (male=58, female=35) participated in this study. To investigate the item fit, difficulty, rating scale, and separation index of the KFAB scale, Rasch analysis was completed by the Winsteps software program. Results: In this study, all items of the KFAB scale were included in the Rasch model. The most difficult item was ‘standing with feet together and eyes closed’, and the easiest item was ‘two-footed jump’. The rating scale was a 4-point scale instead of the original 5-point scale. Person and item separation indices showed high values that can identify a person with a wide range of balance ability. Conclusion: The KFAB scale appears to be a reliable and valid tool to assess balance function in patients with stroke. Furthermore, the scale was found to discriminate among stroke patients of varying balance abilities.

The effect of particle size distribution on green and sintered properties of Fe-Cr-Mo prealloy powder was investigated in this study. For the study, prealloyed Fe-Cr-Mo powders with different particle sizes were mixed as various ratios and cold compacted at various pressure and sintered at for 30 min, atmosphere in the continuous sintering furnace. The results shows that the powders with large particle size distribution have high compressibility and low ejection force. However the green strength are much less than those with small particle size distribution. Tensile prperties of the sintered specimes with large particles size also have high strength and elongation.

Al/AlN composites were synthesized by mechanical alloying using process control agents(PCAs). Three different PCAs which contain N element, were examined to see the effectiveness of ball-milling and the nitridation during sintering. Among examined PCAs, was the most effective to facilitate ball-milling and to form nitrides during a subsequent sintering. By a proper control of ball-milling and sintering, we could obtained surface-hardened Al-based composites.

nanowires were synthesized by a hydrothermal reaction of metallic Y with aqueous solution of LiOH. The morphology and the size of the nanowires changed with varying the volume of the LiOH solution inside the autoclave. nanowires transformed to by a subsequent heat-treatment without morphological change. By a proper control of hydrothermal reaction parameter and heat-treatment, the yield of pure nanowires up to 97% was attained.

The ultrafine titanium carbonitride () particles below 100 nm in mean size, including various carbon and nitrogen contents (x=0.55~0.9, y=0.1~0.5), were successfully synthesized by new Mg-thermal reduction process. Nanostructured sub-stoichiometric titanium carbide () particles were initially produced by the magnesium reduction of gaseous at and post heat treatments in vacuum were performed for 2 hrs to remove residual magnesium and magnesium chloride mixed with . Finally, well C/N-controled phases were successfully produced by nitrification heat treatment under normal gas atmosphere at for 2 hrs. The values of purity, mean particle size and oxygen content of produced particles were about 99.3%, 100 nm and 0.2 wt.%, respectively.

The ultrafine titanium carbonitride particles () below 100nm in mean size were successfully synthesized by Mg-thermal reduction process. The nanostructured sub-stoichiometric titanium carbide () particles were produced by the magnesium reduction at 1123K of gaseous and the heat treatments in vacuum were performed for five hours to remove residual magnesium and magnesium chloride mixed with . And final phase was obtained by nitrification under normal gas at 1373K for 2 hrs. The purity of produced particles was above 99.3% and the oxygen contents below 0.2 wt%. We investigated in particular the effects of the temperatures in vacuum treatment on the particle refinement of final product.

The densification behavior of Al-20Si-5.5Fe-1.2Mg-0.5Mn powders was investigated through micro-structure analysis of sintered specimens. The specimens sintered in vacuum or in high purity (99.999%) nitrogen showed porous near-surface microstructures. The densification of near-surface part was enhanced by means of ultra-high purity (99.9999%) nitrogen atmosphere. The relationship between slow densification and oxide surfaces of Al alloy powders was discussed. And the effects of Mg addition, nitrogen gas, and humidity on densification were discussed. In addition, the rapid growth of primary Si crystals above the critical temperature was reported.

Wear behaviors of gas atomized and extruded Al-Si alloys were investigated using the dry sliding wear apparatus. The wear tests were conducted on Al-Si alloy discs against cast iron pins and vice versa at constant load of 10N with different sliding speed of 0.1, 0.3, 0.5m/s. In the case of Al-Si alloy discs slid against the cast iron pins, the wear rate slightly increased with increasing the sliding speed due to the abrasive wear occurred between Al-Si alloy discs and cast iron pins. Conversely, in the case of cast iron discs against Al-Si alloy pins, the wear rate decreased with increasing the sliding speed up to 0.3m/s. However, the wear rate increased with increasing the sliding speed from 0.3m/s to 0.5m/s. It could be due to adhesive wear behavior and abrasive wear behavior_between cast iron discs and Al-Si alloy pins.

The nanostructured cerium oxide powders were synthesized by spray thermal decomposition process for the use as the raw materials of resistive oxygen sensor. The synthesis routes consisted of 1) spray drying of water based organic solution made from cerium nitrate hydrate () and 2) heat treatment of spray dried precursor powders at in air atmosphere to remove the volatile components and identically to oxidize the cerium component. The produced powders have shown the loose structure agglomerated with extremely fine cerium oxide particles with about 15 nm and very high specific surface area (). The oxygen sensitivity, n ( and the response time, measured at in the sample sintered at , were about 0.25 and 3 seconds, respectively, which had much higher performances than those known in micron or sized sensors.

분말야금제품의 90%를 점하는 소결기계부품의 기술동향에 대해서 주요한 재료기술과 제조기술에 초점을 두고, 고강도 혹은 고정도라고 하는 시장의 요구에 대응한 신소결재료의 개발 및 고밀도 혹은 복잡형상에 대응하는 온간성형이나 확산접합등에 관한 제조기술에 대해서 개설했다.

In order to improve mechanical properties, the hypereutectic Al-20 wt%Si based prealloy powder was prepared by gas atomization process. Microstructure and compressibility of the atomized Al-Si powder were investigated. The average powder size was decreased with increasing the atomization gas pressure. Size of primary Si particles of the as-atomized powder was about . The as-atomized Al-Si powder such as AMB 2712 and AMB 7775 to increase compressibility and sinterability. Relative density of the mixed powder samples sintered at was reached about 96% of a theoretical density.

The microstructure and mechanical properties of the hypereutectic prealloyed Al-Si powders prepared by the gas atomization process were described in this paper. With increasing the gas pressure of the atomization, the average powder size was decreased from about . The primary eutectic Si particles were uniformly distributed in the Al matrix and their size varied in the range of . The high densified specimens with above 96% of the theoretical density were fabricated the hot pressing process. The UTS mechanical properties of VN1 specimens were much higher than that of conventional hypoeutectic Al-Si alloys.