We report the characterization of a massive (mp = 3:91:4Mjup) microlensing planet (OGLE- 2015-BLG-0954Lb) orbiting an M dwarf host (M = 0:33  0:12M) at a distance toward the Galactic bulge of 0:6+0:4 􀀀0:2 kpc, which is extremely nearby by microlensing standards. The planet-host projected separation is a?  1:2AU. The characterization was made possible by the wide-eld (4 deg2) high cadence (􀀀 = 6 hr􀀀1) monitoring of the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet), which had two of its three telescopes in commissioning operations at the time of the planetary anomaly. The source crossing time t = 16 min is among the shortest ever published. The high-cadence, wide-eld observations that are the hallmark of KMTNet are the only way to routinely capture such short crossings. High-cadence resolution of short caustic crossings will preferentially lead to mass and distance measurements for the lens. This is because the short crossing time typically implies a nearby lens, which enables the measurement of additional eects (bright lens and/or microlens parallax). When combined with the measured crossing time, these eects can yield planet/host masses and distance.

Polarbear is a ground-based experiment located in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. The experiment is designed to measure the Cosmic Microwave Background B-mode polarization at several arcminute resolution. The CMB B-mode polarization on degree angular scales is a unique signature of primordial gravitational waves from cosmic in ation and B-mode signal on sub-degree scales is induced by the gravitational lensing from large-scale structure. Science observations began in early 2012 with an array of 1,274 polarization sensitive antenna-couple Transition Edge Sensor (TES) bolometers at 150 GHz. We published the first CMB-only measurement of the B-mode polarization on sub-degree scales induced by gravitational lensing in December 2013 followed by the first measurement of the B-mode power spectrum on those scales in March 2014. In this proceedings, we review the physics of CMB B-modes and then describe the Polarbear experiment, observations, and recent results.

We identify a strong lensing galaxy in the cluster IRC 0218 that is spectroscopically confirmed to be at z = 1:62, making it the highest-redshift strong lens galaxy known. The lens is one of the two brightest cluster galaxies and lenses a background source galaxy into an arc and a counterimage. With Hubble Space Telescope (HST) grism and Keck/LRIS spectroscopy, we measure the source redshift to be zS = 2:26. Using HST imaging, we model the lens mass distribution with an elliptical power-law prole and account for the effects of the cluster halo and nearby galaxies. The Einstein radius is θE = 0.38+0.02-0.01" (3.2+0.2 -0.1 kpc) and the total enclosed mass is Mtot(< θE) = 1.8+0.2 -0.1 X 1011 M⊙. We estimate that the cluster environment contributes ~ 10% of this total mass. Assuming a Chabrier IMF, the dark matter fraction within θE is fChab DM = 0.3+0.1 -0.3, while a Salpeter IMF is marginally inconsistent with the enclosed mass (fSalp DM = -0.3+0.2 -0.5).

The Eclipsing Binaries Minima (BIMA) Monitoring Project is a CCD-based photometric observational program initiated by Bosscha Observatory - Lembang, Indonesia in June 2012. Since December 2012 the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) has joined the BIMA Project as the main partner. This project aims to build an open-database of eclipsing binary minima and to establish the orbital period of each system and its variations. The project is conducted on the basis of multisite monitoring observations of eclipsing binaries with magnitudes less than 19 mag. Dierential photometry methods have been applied throughout the observations. Data reduction was performed using IRAF. The observations were carried out in BVRI bands using three dierent small telescopes situated in Indonesia, Thailand, and Chile. Computer programs have been developed for calculating the time of minima. To date, more than 140 eclipsing binaries have been observed. From them 71 minima have been determined. We present and discuss the O-C diagrams for some eclipsing binary systems.

Water, plankton, blood and liver of crucian carp (Carassius auratus) and mandarin fish (Siniperca cherzeri) samples from 5 freshwater ecosystems in 3 major rivers of Korea including Nam Han River, Nakdong River and Yeongsan River were collected.

Cell transplantation therapy using adult stem cells has recently been identified as a potential treatment for spinal cord injury (SCI). But, recovery after traumatic SCI is very limited. As dogs are physiologically much more similar to human compared with other traditional mammalian models in disease presentation and clinical responses, a number of researches demonstrated canis familiaris is a suitable model for human diseases. This study investigated the effect of transplantation of canine Mesenchymal Stem Cells (cMSC) and neural-induced cMSC (nMSC) to understand how these cells improve neurological function in canine SCI model. The differentiation of cMSC into neural precursor cells was induced in dulbecco’s modified eagle’s medium supplemented with N2-supplement, dibutyryl cyclic adenosine monophosphate, and butylated hydroxyanisole. SCI was induced between T1 and T2 by surgical hemi-section in adult dogs, and then assigned to two groups according to the applied cell types (cMSC vs nMSC). Pelleted cMSC or nMSC were transplanted directly into the injured site after SCI, respectively. Analysis of motor function after transplantation was evaluated by modified Olby score. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), histological and immunohistichemical analysis were also performed. Functional recovery in group of cMSC was increasing gradually after transplantation and was higher than nMSC. In MRI, we could not confirm any difference between the cMSC and nMSC experimental groups. Immunohistochemically, beta3-tubuline and nestin were observed in injury site of two experimental groups with the expression level close to non-injured groups. Transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells could promote neuronal reconstruction and repair motor function in SCI. These showed mesenchymal stem cells could be a great candidate as a therapeutic tools in degeneration disease, and dogs could be used to explore human regenerative medicine as a promising animal model. This research was supported by iPET (Grants 110056032CG000), Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Republic of Korea.

Acteoside (verbascoside) is a typical phenylethanoid glycoside, extracted from various plants. It has various biological functions such as anti-oxidant, anti-inflammation, and anti-hypertension. Specially, it was powerful anti-oxidants either by direct scavenging of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, or by acting as chain-breaking peroxyl radical scavengers. We examined the role of acteoside in IVM medium on the morphological progress of meiosis, developmental competence, and ROS in porcine oocytes. And we investigated effect of acteoside on the oocytes condition represented by cytoplasmic maturation by homogeneous distribution and formation of cytoplasmic organelles and regulation of apoptosis-related genes. The selected COCs were cultured in TCM-199 with various concentration of acteoside: 0 (control), 10, 30, and 50 μM. After 22 h of maturation with hormones, the oocytes were washed twice in a fresh maturation medium before being cultured in hormone-free medium for additional 22 h. The oocytes maturation rates of supplemented with acteoside were no significantly different compared with control group (71.13, 75.96, 72.95 and 73.68%, respectively). Level of ROS was significantly decreased in acteoside treated group. Furthermore, the parthenogenetic blastocyst rate was significantly improved in 10 μM acteoside treated group compared with control group (40.03 vs. 22.95%). During IVM, 10 μM acteoside treated oocytes showed that the mitochondria and lipid droplet were smaller and homogeneous distribution in cytoplasm compare with non-treated control oocytes. And reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) witarthenogenetic blstocysts revealed that acteoside increased the anti-apoptoticgenes, otherwise reibued pro-apoptotic genes. In conclusion, our results represents that addition of acteoside to the IVM medium has a beneficial effect in physiology of porcine oocytes such as viability and activation, providing a improved method for porcine oocytes in vitro.