X-ray observations of galaxy clusters have played an important role in cosmology, especially in determining the cosmological density parameter and the fluctuation amplitude. While they represent the bright side of the universe together with the other probes including the cosmic microwave background and the Type Ia supernovae, the resulting information clearly indicates that the universe is dominated by dark components. Even most of cosmic baryons turns out to be dark. In order to elucidate the nature of dark baryons, we propose a dedicated soft-X-ray mission, DIOS (Diffuse Intergalactic Oxygen Surveyor). Recent numerical simulations suggest that approximately 30 to 50 percent of total baryons at z = 0 take the form of the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) with 105K < T < 107K which has evaded the direct detection so far. The unprecedented energy resolution (~ 2eV) of the XSA (X-ray Spectrometer Array) on-board DIGS enables us to identify WHIM with gas temperature T = 106 ~ 107K and overdensity δ = 10 ~ 100 located at z < 0.3 through emission lines of OVII and OVIII. In addition, WHIMs surrounding nearby clusters are detectable with a typical exposure time of a day, and thus constitute realistic and promising targets for DIOS.

Galaxy clusters as the densest and most prominent regions within the large-scale structure can be used as well characterizable laboratories to study astrophysical processes on the largest scales. X-ray observations provide currently the best way to determine the physical properties of galaxy clusters and the environmental parameters that describe them as laboratories. We illustrate this use of galaxy clusters and the precision of our understanding of them as laboratory environments with several examples. Their application to determine the matter composition of the Universe shows good agreement with results from other methods and is therefore a good test of our understanding. We test the reliability of mass measurements and illustrate the use of X-ray diagnostics to study the dynamical state of clusters. We discuss further studies on turbulence in the cluster ICM, the interaction of central AGN with the radiatively cooling plasma in cluster cooling cores and the lessons learned from the ICM enrichment by heavy elements.

ReαlITent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) appears to be one of the most common oral diseases. However, the defmitive etiology of RAS is not well established, though many etiologic faαors have been suggested and examined. The present study was petformed to investigate the association between HIA and Korean recurrent aphthous stomatitis pa디ents. πle proportions of class 1 and class II HIA types expressed in 49 Korean subjects affected by recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) and in 50 healthy controls were deteffi1Í11ed by microlymphocytotoxicity test. 까le sig띠ficance of the data was analyzed by chi-square test and Fisher' s exact test. πle proportions of HIA-Cw1 and -DR9 antigens were significantly higher in RAS pa디ents (p(0.05), whereas those of HIA-DR4 and -DQ2 antigens were significantly lower (p(0.05). 까le odds ratio (OR) were 2.8 for HIA-Cw1 and 2.7 for -DR9. πle etiologic fractions (EF) were 0.262 and 0.193, respectively. The results s맹gest that, in Koreans, there Í$ a sig띠ficant relation between HIA antigens and RAS. Genetic faαors ， reflected in the HIA type, may play an in1portant role in the development of RAS.

μ방lt emitting diodes (LED) devices are commercially introduced as an alternative for low-Ievellaser therapy (11ι，T) ， and it has several advantages over lasers such as a safe, efficient, and less-expensive altemative to treat wounds. And LED irradiation at the same biostimulatory wavelength has similar bíochemical effεαs. In the present study, to asses whether the I핑ht-emitting diode (LED) irradíation can stimulate bone regeneration, irradiated bony defects with or without grafting materials on rat calvaria were compared to corresponding nonirradiated control. Fifty male Sprague-Dawly rats weighing about 150g, were used. Factors for present study were designed as follows, 1) presence or absence of grafting materials, 2) with or without irradiation, and 3) number of irradiation. Two weeks after operation, rats were sacrifìced. Radiologic and 비stomorphologic fmdings were evaluated. Macrospically, there were no incidents of infection, dehiscence, hematoma and necrosis during study. Radiological findings showed greater radiopacity in the graft group and radiopacity increased as the number of irradiation increase. And microscopically, new bαle formation was great in the graft group and increased as the number of irradiation increase, Present study has shown that LED irradiation improved bone regeneration through radiologic and histomorphologic fmdings in rat.

Ixeris dentata is a typical oriental herb. It is a widely distributed perennial in Korea, Japan and China, which belongs to the Compositae Family. The whole plant of I. dentata has been used for the treatment of pneumonia, contusion, tumor and hepatitis.

벼멸구(Nilaparvata lugens)는 벼에 가장 큰 피해를 주는 해충 중의 하나로서, 마이토콘드리아 DNA를 분석한 선행 연구결과에 의하면 북 베트남의 홍하유역을 중심으로 남쪽과 북쪽의 개체군이 유전적으로 뚜렷한 차이를 보이고 있다. 그러나 이러한 마이토콘드리아 DNA의 변이로는 좀더 상세한 지역간 개체군의 유전적 변이를 검정할 수 없으므로, 마이크로새털라이트 마커를 이용할 수 있는 방법을 모색하였다. 총 37개 마이크로새털라이트 위치를 분석한 결과 5개 위치에서 성공적으로 라벨을 할 수 있었으며, 그 중 2개 위치에서 유용한 개체군 변이정보를 얻을 수 있었다. 이러한 두 위치에서 벼멸구의 생태형(1, 2, 3형)에 따른 변이를 검정할 수 있는지의 여부를 검정한 결과, 두 위치 중에서 한 곳(27035)에서는 생태형간의 차이를 나타내지 않았으나, 다른 한 곳(7314)에서는 생태형 간에 차이를 보였다. 따라서 마이크로새털라이트 마커를 이용하면 좀 더 상세한 벼멸구 지역 개체군의 차이를 검정하여 이동과 분산의 근원과 경로를 알아내는데 유용한 방법이 될 것으로 생각된다.

Near-infrared imaging photometry supplemented by optical spectroscopy and narrow-band imaging of the H II region Sh 2-128 and its environment are presented. This region contains a developed H II region and the neighboring compact H II region S 128N associated with a pair of water maser sources. Midway between these, the core of a CO cloud is located. The principal ionizing source of Sh 2-128 is an 07 star close to its center. A new spectroscopic distance of 9.4 kpc is derived, very similar to the kinematic distance to the nebula. This implies a galactocentric distance of 13.5 kpc and z = 550 pc. The region is optically thin with abundances close to those predicted by galactocentric gradients. The JHK_s images show that S 128N contains several infrared point sources and nebular emission knots with large near-infrared excesses. One of the three red Ks knots coincides with the compact H II region. A few of the infrared-excess objects are close to known mid- and far-infrared emission peaks. Star counts in J and K_s show the presence of a small cluster of B-type stars, mainly associated with S 128N. The JHKs photometric properties together with the characteristics of the other objects in the vicinity suggest that Sh 2-128 and S 128N constitute a single complex formed from the same molecular cloud, with ages ~ 106 and < 3 X 105 years respectively. No molecular hydrogen emission was detected at 2.12 μm. The origin of this remote star forming region is an open problem.

Optical imaging and spectroscopy of G353.2+0.9, the brightest part of the giant H II region NGC 6357, shows that this H II region is optically thin, contains "300 M⊙ of ionized gas and is probably expanding into the surrounding medium. Its chemical composition is similar to that found in other H II regions at similar galactocentric distances if temperature fluctuations are significant. The inner regions are probably made of thin shells and filaments, whereas extended slabs of material, maybe shells seen edge-on, are found in the periphery. The radio continuum and Hα emission maps are very similar, indicating that most of the optical nebula is not embedded in the denser regions traced by molecular gas and the presence of IR sources. About 1050 UV photons per second are required to produce the Hβ flux from the 1l.3'x10' region surrounding the Pis 24 cluster that is south of G353.2+0.9. Most of the energy powering this region is produced by the 03-7 stars in Pis 24. Most of the 2MASS sources in the field with large infrared excesses are within G353.2+0.9, indicating that the most recent star forming process occured within it. The formation of Pis 24 preceded and caused the formation of this new generation of stars and may be responsible for the present-day morphology of the entire NGC 6357 region.

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.

The electrochemical removal (ECR) of water pollutants by activated carbon fiber (ACF) electrodes from wastewater was investigated over wide range of electrochemical reaction time. The ECR capacities of ACF electrodes were associated with their internal porosity and were related to physical properties and to reaction time. And, surface morphologies and elemental analysis for the ACFs after electrochemical reaction are investigated by SEM and EDX to explain the changes in adsorption properties. The FT-IR spectra of ACFs for the investigation of functional groups show that the electrochemical treatment is consequently associated with the homogeneous removal of pollutants with the increasing surface reactivity of the activated carbon fiber surfaces. The ACFs were electrochemically reacted to waste water to investigate the removal efficiency for the COD, T-N and T-P. From these removal results of pollutants using ACFs substrate, satisfactory removal performance was obtained. The outstanding removal effects of the ACFs substrate were determined by the properties of the material for adsorption and trapping of organics, and catalytic effects.

It is investigated quantitative relations between the magnetic storm magnitude and the solar wind parameters such as the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (hereinafter, IMF) magnitude (B), the southward component of IMF (Bz), and the dynamic pressure during the main phase of the magnetic storm with focus on the role of the interplanetary shock (hereinafter, IPS) in order to build the space weather fore-casting model in the future capable to predict the occurrence of the magnetic storm and its magnitude quantitatively. Total 113 moderate and intense magnetic storms and 189 forward IPSs are selected for four years from 1998 to 2001. The results agree with the general consensus that solar wind parameter, especially, Bz component in the shocked gas region plays the most important role in generating storms (Tsurutani and Gonzales, 1997). However, we found that the correlations between the solar wind parameters and the magnetic storm magnitude are higher in case the storm happens after the IPS passing than in case the storm occurs without any IPS influence. The correlation coefficients of B and BZ(min) are specially over 0.8 while the magnetic storms are driven by IPSs. Even though recently a Dst prediction model based on the real time solar wind data (Temerin and Li, 2002) is made, our correlation test results would be supplementary in estimating the prediction error of such kind of model and in improving the model by using the different fitting parameters in cases associated with IPS or not associated with IPS rather than single fitting parameter in the current model.

Porcine fibroblasts were transferred into enucleated bovine oocytes for the interspecies nuclear transfer (NT). After NT, the embryos were cultured in three different culture systems. The media used for the experiment were CR1aa and NCSU23. The culture systems used for the experiment were: 1. Culture in CR1aa for 7 days (CR). 2. Culture in CR1aa for 2 days and subsequently in NCSU23 for 5 days (CR-NC). 3. Culture in NCSU23 for 7 days (NC). Bovine (intraspecies) NT group was used as a control. The oocytes in bovine NT group were treated the same as interspecies NT embryos except using bovine fibroblasts as nuclear donors. Regardless of their nuclear origin (interspecies vs bovine), the embryos in CR (68.4% vs 77.2%) and CR-NC (67.8% vs 70.5%) showed better developmental competence to the 2-cell stage (p<0.05) than those in NC (41.0% vs 10.0%). Bovine NT embryos in CR-NC did not develop over the 4-cell stage after the medium replacement, while interspecies NT embryos in CR-NC continued to develop and could reach over the 8-cell stage (12.2%). Blastocysts were only found in bovine NT group (17.4%), but no blastocyst was found in interspecies NT group. This study suggests that the development of interspecies NT embryos mostly depends on their recipient cytoplasm during the culture in vitro.

Human embryonic stem (ES) cells are derived from the inner cell mass of the preimplantation embryo. Human ES cells have the capacity to differentiate into various types of cells in the body. Human ES cells are indefinite source of cells for cell therapy in various degenerative disorders including neuronal disorders. Directed differentiation of human ES cells is a prerequisite for their clinical application. The objective of this study is to develop the culture condition for the derivation of neural precursor cells from human ES cells. Neural precursor cells were derived from human ES cells in a stepwise culture condition. Neural precursor cells in the form of neural rosette structures developed into neurospheres when cultured in suspension. Suspension culture of neurospheres has been maintained over 4 months. Expressions of nestin, soxl, sox2, pax3 and pax6 transcripts were upregulated during differentiation into neural precursor cells by RT-PCR analysis. In contrast, expression of oct4 was dramatically downregulated in neural precursor cells. Immunocytochemical analyses of neural precursor cells demonstrated expression of nestin and SOX1. When induced to differentiate on an adhesive substrate, neuro-spheres were able to differentiate into three lineages of neural systems, including neurons, astrocytes and oligo-dendrocytes. Transcripts of sox1 and pax6 were downregulated during differentiation of neural precursor cells into neurons. In contrast, expression of map2ab was elevated in the differentiated cells, relative to those in neural precursor cells. Neurons derived from neural precursor cells expressed NCAM, Tuj1, MAP2ab, NeuN and NF200 in immunocytochemical analyses. Presence of astrocytes was confirmed by expression of GFAP immuno-cytochemically. Oligodendrocytes were also observed by positive immuno-reactivities against oligodendrocyte marker O1. Results of this study demonstrate that a stepwise culture condition is developed for the derivation of neural precursor cells from human ES cells.