• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.306-310
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• 2021

In this study, IF steel, which has a body-centered cubic (BCC) crystal structure, was fabricated as a 25 mm-long cube, and then processed for one cycle without intermediate heat treatment by applying MADF Ver.1 and Ver.2 processes. MADF processing was performed with graphite lubrication for each pass at room temperature. The development of the microstructure and texture was analyzed and compared by the location of the specimen using EBSD measurements of the IF steel. Vickers hardness test and miniature tensile test were also performed to analyze the mechanical properties. The coarse grain size of 742.6 ㎛ of the as-received IF steel was refined to a grain size of 53.0 ㎛ after one cycle of MADF Ver.1 processing and 27.0 ㎛ after MADF Ver.2 processing. Vicker's hardness of the as-received IF steel at 94 Hv was increased to 185.6 Hv and 191.2 Hv after one cycle of MADF Ver.1 and Ver.2 processing, respectively.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2019

Direct Laser Melting (DLM) of $Ti-xTiH_2$ (mixing ratio x = 2, 5, 10 wt.%) blended powder is characterized by producing porous titanium parts. When a high energy laser is irradiated on a $Ti-TiH_2$ blended powder, hydrogen gas ($H_2$) is produced by the accompanying decomposition of the $TiH_2$ powder, and acts as a pore-forming and activator. The hydrogen gas trapped in a rapidly solidified molten pool, which generates porosity in the deposited layer. In this study, the effects of a $TiH_2$ mixing ratio and the associated processing parameters on the development of a porous titanium were investigated. It was determined that as the content of $TiH_2$ increases, the resulting porosity density also increases, due to the increase of $H_2$ produced by $TiH_2$. Also, porosity increases as the scan speed increases. As fast solidified melting pools do not provide enough time for $H_2$ to escape, the faster the scan speed, the more the resulting $H_2$ is captured by the process. The results of this study show that the mixing ratio (x) and laser machining parameters can be adjusted to actively generate and control the porosity of the DLM parts.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.370-378
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• 2018

Cold forging, carried out at room temperature, leads to high dimensional accuracy and excellent surface integrity as compared to other forging methods such as warm and hot forgings. In the cold forging process, WC-Co (Tungsten Carbide-Cobalt) alloy is the mainly used material as a core dies because of its superior hardness and strength as compared to other structural materials. For cold forging, die life is the most significant factor because it is directly related to the manufacturing cost due to periodic die replacement in mass production. To investigate die life of WC-Co alloy for cold forging, mechanical properties such as strength and fatigue are essentially necessary. Generally, uniaxial tensile test and fatigue test are the most efficient and simplest testing method. However, uniaxial tension is not efficiently application to WC-Co alloy because of its sensitivity to alignment of the specimen due to its brittleness and difficulty in thread machining. In this study, shape of specimen, tools, and testing methods, which are appropriate for uniaxial tensile test for WC-Co alloy, are proposed. The test results such as Young's modulus, tensile strength and stress-strain curves are compared to those in previous literature to validate the proposed testing methods. Based on the validation of test results it was concluded that the newly developed testing method is applicable to other cemented carbides like Titanium carbides with high strength and brittleness, and also can be utilized to carry out fatigue tests for further investigation on die life of cold forging.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.82-87
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• 2019

Recently, plastic materials have become more diversified, and the development of materials with excellent mechanical properties and plasticity has enabled wider application, miniaturization, and refinement of injection molded products. As a result, the utilization of these products in household goods, electronics, automotive parts, and aircraft parts is increasing in almost all industries. Injection molded parts are often used externally on finished commercial products. This means that the injection mold industry is very important to the value of these products. For this reason, the industry is performing research on the precision and efficiency of the injection molding process. In this study, we investigated the applicability of the core in core cooling method to the problem of product deformation due to temperature variation in existing injection mold designs. We also characterized the cooling performance of an injection mold when using this cooling method.

• Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.33-39
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• 2022

Objectives The early growth response 3 (EGR3) gene located in chromosome 8p21.3 is one of the susceptibility loci in many psychiatric disorders. EGR3 gene plays critical roles in signal transduction in the brain, which is involved in neuronal plasticity, neuronal development, learning, memory, and circadian rhythms. Recent studies have suggested EGR3 as a potential susceptibility gene for bipolar disorder (BPD). However, this requires further replication with an independent sample set. Methods To investigate the genetic role of EGR3 in Korean patients, we genotyped six single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the chromosome region of EGR3 in 1076 Korean BPD patients and 773 healthy control subjects. Results Among the six examined SNPs of EGR3 (rs17088531, rs1996147, rs3750192, rs35201266, rs7009708, rs1008949), SNP rs35201266, rs7009708, rs1008949 showed a significant association with BPD (p = 0.0041 for rs35201266 and BPD2, p = 0.0074 for rs1008949 and BPD, p = 0.0052 for rs1008949 and BPD1), which withstand multiple testing correction. In addition, the 'G-C-C-C' and 'G-C-G-C' haplotypes of EGR3 were overrepresented in the patients with BPD (p = 0.0055, < 0.0001, respectively) and the 'G-T-G-C' haplotype of EGR3 was underrepresented in patients with BPD (p = 0.0040). Conclusions In summary, our study supports the association of EGR3 with BPD in Korean population sample, and EGR3 could be suggested as a compelling susceptibility gene in BPD.

• BMB Reports
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• v.56 no.9
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• pp.520-525
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• 2023

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by cognitive decline. Several recent studies demonstrated that impaired adult neurogenesis could contribute to AD-related cognitive impairment. Adult subventricular zone (SVZ) neurogenesis, which occurs in the lateral ventricles, plays a crucial role in structural plasticity and neural circuit maintenance. Alterations in adult SVZ neurogenesis are early events in AD, and impaired adult neurogenesis is influenced by the accumulation of intracellular Aβ. Although Aβ-overexpressing transgenic 5XFAD mice are an AD animal model well representative of Aβ-related pathologies in the brain, the characterization of altered adult SVZ neurogenesis following AD progression in 5XFAD mice has not been thoroughly examined. Therefore, we validated the characterization of adult SVZ neurogenesis changes with AD progression in 2-, 4-, 8-, and 11-monthold male 5XFAD mice. We first investigated the Aβ accumulation in the SVZ using the 4G8 antibody. We observed intracellular Aβ accumulation in the SVZ of 2-month-old 5XFAD mice. In addition, 5XFAD mice exhibited significantly increased Aβ deposition in the SVZ with age. Next, we performed a histological analysis to investigate changes in various phases of adult neurogenesis, such as quiescence, proliferation, and differentiation, in SVZ. Compared to age-matched wild-type (WT) mice, quiescent neural stem cells were reduced in 5XFAD mice from 2-11 months of age. Moreover, proliferative neural stem cells were decreased in 5XFAD mice from 2 to 8 months of age. Furthermore, differentiations of neuroblasts were diminished in 5XFAD mice from 2-11 months of age. Intriguingly, we found that adult SVZ neurogenesis was reduced with aging in healthy mice. Taken together, our results revealed that impairment of adult SVZ neurogenesis appears with aging or AD progression.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.41-53
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• 2006

The brittle materials like rocks show complicated strain-softening behavior after the peak which is hard to model using the classical constitutive models based on the relation between strain and stress tensors. A kinematically constrained three-dimensional microplane constitutive model is developed for granite. The model is verified by fitting the experimented data of Westerly granite and Bonnet granite. The triaxial behavior of granite is well reproduced by the model as well as the uniaxial behavior. We studied the development of the fracture zone in granite during blasting impact using the model with the standard finite element method. All the results obtained from the microplane model developed are compared to those from the linear elasticity model which is commonly used in many researches and practices. It is found that the nonlinearity of rocks sigificantly affects the results of analysis.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.344-351
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• 2023

The use of Zn-Al-Mg alloy coatings for enhancing the corrosion resistance of steel sheets is gaining prominence over traditional Zn coatings. There is a growing demand for the development of thermal spray wires made from Zn-Al-Mg alloys, as a replacement for the existing wires produced using Al and Zn. This is particularly crucial to secure corrosion resistance and durability in the damaged areas of coated steel sheets caused by deformation and welding. This study focuses on the casting and extrusion processes of Zn-2Al-1Mg alloy for the fabrication of such spray wires and analyzes the changes in microstructure during the extrusion process. The Zn-2Al-1Mg alloy, cast in molds, was subjected to a heat treatment at 250 ℃ for 3 hours prior to extrusion. The extrusion process was carried out by heating both the material and the mold up to 300 ℃. Microstructural analysis was conducted using FE-SEM and EDS to differentiate each phase. The mechanical properties of the cast specimen were evaluated through compression tests at temperatures ranging from 200 to 300 ℃, with strain rates of 0.1 to 5 sec^-1. Vickers hardness testing was utilized to assess the inhomogeneity of mechanical properties in the radial direction of the extruded material. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was employed to understand the inhomogeneity in stress and strain distribution during extrusion, which aids in understanding the impact of heterogeneous deformation on the microstructure during the process.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.311-320
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• 2023

Recently, lightweight of automotive parts has been required to solve environmental problems caused by global warming. Accordingly, research and development are proceeded on manufacturing of parts using aluminum that can replace steel for lightweight of the automotive parts. In addition, high strength aluminum can be applied to body parts in order to meet both requirements of lightening and improving crash safety of vehicle. In this study, hot blow forming of roof side rail is employed to manufacturing of the automotive parts with high strength aluminum tube. In hot blow forming, longer forming times and excessive thinning can be occurred as compared with conventional manufacturing processes. So optimization of process conditions is required to prevent excessive thinning and to uniformize thickness distribution with fast forming time. Mechanical properties of high strength aluminum are obtained from tensile test at high temperature. These properties are used for finite element(FE) analysis to investigate the effect of strain rate on thinning and thickness distribution. Variation of thickness was firstly investigated from the result of FE analysis according to tube diameter, where the shapes at cross section of roof side rail are compared with allowable dimensional tolerance. Effective tube diameter is determined when fracture and wrinkle are not occurred during hot blow forming. Also FE analysis with various pressure-time profiles is performed to investigate the their effects on thinning and thickness distribution which is quantitatively verified with thinning factor. As a results, optimal process conditions can be determined for the manufacturing of roof side rail using high strength aluminum.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.5.1-5.15
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• 2020

The γδ T cells are unconventional lymphocytes that function in both innate and adaptive immune responses against various intracellular and infectious stresses. The γδ T cells can be exploited as cancer-killing effector cells since γδ TCRs recognize MHC-like molecules and growth factor receptors that are upregulated in cancer cells, and γδ T cells can differentiate into cytotoxic effector cells. However, γδ T cells may also promote tumor progression by secreting IL-17 or other cytokines. Therefore, it is essential to understand how the differentiation and homeostasis of γδ T cells are regulated and whether distinct γδ T cell subsets have different functions. Human γδ T cells are classified into Vδ2 and non-Vδ2 γδ T cells. The majority of Vδ2 γδ T cells are Vγ9δ2 T cells that recognize pyrophosphorylated isoprenoids generated by the dysregulated mevalonate pathway. In contrast, Vδ1 T cells expand from initially diverse TCR repertoire in patients with infectious diseases and cancers. The ligands of Vδ1 T cells are diverse and include the growth factor receptors such as endothelial protein C receptor. Both Vδ1 and Vδ2 γδ T cells are implicated to have immunotherapeutic potentials for cancers, but the detailed elucidation of the distinct characteristics of 2 populations will be required to enhance the immunotherapeutic potential of γδ T cells. Here, we summarize recent progress regarding cancer immunology of human γδ T cells, including their development, heterogeneity, and plasticity, the putative mechanisms underlying ligand recognition and activation, and their dual effects on tumor progression in the tumor microenvironment.