Bone remodeling is a process controlled by the action of two major bone cells; the bone forming osteoblast and the bone resorbing osteoclast. In the process of osteoclastogenesis, stromal cells and osteoblast produce RANKL, OPG, and M-CSF, which in turn regulate the osteoclastogenesis. During the bone resorption by activated osteoclasts, extracellular Ca²+/PO₄²- concentration and degraded organic materials goes up, providing the hypertonic microenvironment. In this study, we tested the effects of hypertonicity due to the degraded organic materials on osteoclastogenesis in co-culture system. It was examined the cellular response of osteoblastic cell in terms of osteoclastogenesis by applying the sucrose, and mannitol, as a substitute of degraded organic materials to co-culture system. Apart from the sucrose, mannitol, and NaCl was tested to be compared to the effect of organic osmotic particles. The addition of sucrose and mannitol (25, 50, 100, 150, or 200 mM) to co-culture medium inhibited the number of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) positive multinucleated cells induced by 10 nM (). However, NaCl did exert harmful effect upon the cells in this co-culture system, which is attributed to DNA damage in high concentration of NaCl. To further investigate the mechanism by which hypertonicity inhibits -induced osteoclastogenesis, the mRNA expressions of receptor activator of nuclear factor (NF)-kB ligand (RANKL) and osteoprotegerin (OPG) were monitored by RT-PCR. In the presence of sucrose (50 mM), RANKL mRNA expression was decreased in a dose-dependent manner, while the change in OPG and M-CSF mRNA were not occurred in significantly. The RANKL mRNA expression was inhibited for 48 hours in the presence of sucrose (50 mM), but such a decrement recovered after 72 hours. However, there were no considerable changes in the expression of OPG and M-CSF mRNA. Conclusively, these findings strongly suggest that hypertonic stress down-regulates -induced osteoclastogenesis via RANKL signal pathway in osteoblastic cell, and may playa pivotal role as a regulator that modulates osteoclastogenesis.

The electrosorption of U(VI) from waste water was carried out by using an activated carbon fiber (ACF) felt electrode in a continuous electrosorption cell. In order to enhance the electrosorption capacity at a lower potential, the ACF was electrochemically modified in an acidic and a basic solution. Pore structure and functional groups of the electrochemically modified ACF were examined, and the effects of the modification conditions were studied for the adsorption of U(VI). Specific surface area of all the ACFs was decreased by this modification. The amount of the acidic functional groups decreased with a basic modification, while the amount increased a lot with an acidic modification. The electrosorption capacity of U(VI) decreased on the acid modified electrode due to the shielding effect of the acidic functional groups. The base modified electrode enhanced the capacity due to a reduction of the acidic functional groups. The electrosorption amount of U(VI) on the base modified electrode at .0.3 V corresponds to that of the as-received ACF electrode at .0.9 V. Such a good adsorption capacity was due to a reduction of the shielding effect and an increase of the hydroxyl ions in the electric double layer on the ACF surface by the application of negative potential.

Because hand-written characters, especially drawn by a brush can give readers various impressions, they are not only a communication method but also art works. Authors have already investigated the relationship between brush motion analytical results and sensory testing results obtained from Japanese hiragana and reported quantitative evaluation method for the beauty of hiragana, In this paper, sensory tests for South Koreans who cannot recognize the word are carried out, compared with sensory testing results of Japanese. The evaluation objects are 6 hiragana drawn by 4 beginners and 2 experts, Semantic Differential Method based on 30 paired evaluation words are used in the sensory tests. Therefore South Koreans also feel the beauty in hiragana drawn by experts, as compared with by beginners. On the other hand it was confirmed that South Koreans couldnt recognize the difference among beginners. Judging from the factor analysis results, both Japanese and South Koreans selected stability as the 1st factor, there is interesting difference in the following orders.

Isotropic pitch based carbon fibers were exposed to isothermal oxidation in carbon dioxide gas to study the activation kinetics under the temperature of 800~1100℃. The kinetic equation f=1--(-atb) was introduced and the constant b was obtained in the range of 0.92~1.25. It was shown that the activated carbon fiber shows the highly specific surface area (SSA) when the constant b comes close to 1. The activation kinetics were evaluated by the reaction-controlling regime (RCR) according to changes of the apparent activation energy with changes of the conversion. It was observed that the activation energies increase from 47.6 to 51.2 kcal/mole with the conversion increasing from 0.2 to 0.8. It was found that the pores of the activated carbon fiber under the chemical reaction were developed well through the fiber.

We showed that magnetic fields are generated in the plasma which have the temperature inhomogeneities. The mechanism is the same as the Weibel instability because the velocity distribution functions are at non-equilibrium and anisotropic under the temperature gradients. The growth timescale is much shorter than the dynamical time of structure formation. The coherence length of magnetic fields at the saturated time is much shorter than kpc scale and then, at nonlinear phase, become longer by inverse-cascade process. We report the application of our results to clusters of galaxies, not including hydrodynamic effects.

The inverse Compton scattering of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation with electrons in the intracluster medium which has a temperature gradient, was examined by the third-order perturbation theory of the Compton scattering. A new type of the spectrum distortion of the CMB was found and named as gradient T Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (gradT SZE). The spectrum has an universal shape. There is a zero distortion point, the cross over frequency, at 326GHz. When the hotter region locates closer to an observer, the intensity becomes brighter than the CMB in the frequency region lower than the cross over frequency and fainter than the CMB in the frequency region higher than the cross over frequency. When the cooler region locates closer to an observer, the distorted part of the spectrum has an opposite sign to the above case. The amplitude of the spectrum distortion does not de-pend on the electron density and depends on the heat conductivity and the total temperature variation along a line of sight. Therefore, the gradT SZE provides an unique opportunity to measure thermally nonequilibrium electron momentum distribution function in the ICM and combined with the X-ray measurements of the electron temperature distribution provides an opportunity of direct measurement of the heat conductivity in the ICM.

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.