X-ray plasma ejections often occurred around the impulsive phases of solar flares and have been well observed by the SXT aboard Yohkoh. Though the X-ray plasma ejections show various morphological shapes, there has been no attempt at classifying the morphological groups for a large sample of the X-ray plasma ejections. In this study, we have classified 137 X-ray plasma ejections according to their shape for the first time. Our classification criteria are as follows: (1) a loop type shows ejecting plasma with the shape of loops, (2) a spray type has a continuous stream of plasma without showing any typical shape, (3) a jet type shows collimated motions of plasma, (4) a confined ejection shows limited motions of plasma near a flaring site. As a result, we classified the flare-associated X-ray plasma ejections into five groups as follows: loop-type (60 events), spray-type (40 events), jet-type (11 events), confined ejection (18 events), and others (8 events). As an illustration, we presented time sequence images of several typical events to discuss their morphological characteristics, speed, CME association, and magnetic field configuration. We found that the jet-type events tend to have higher speeds and better association with CMEs than those of the loop-type events. It is also found that the CME association (11/11) of the jet-type events is much higher than that (5/18) of the confined ejections. These facts imply that the physical characteristics of the X-ray plasma ejections are closely associated with magnetic field configurations near the reconnection regions.

We have developed a two fluid solar wind model from the Sun to 1 AU. Its basic equations are mass, momentum and energy conservations. In these equations, we include a wave mechanism of heating the corona and accelerating the wind. The two fluid model takes into account the power spectrum of Alfvenic wave fluctuation. Model computations have been made to fit observational constraints such as electron(Te) and proton(Tp) temperatures and solar wind speed(V) at 1 AU. As a result, we obtained physical quantities of solar wind as follows: Te is 7.4 X 10.5 K and density(n) is 1.7 X 107 cm-3 in the corona. At 1 AU Te is 2.1 X 105 K and n is 0.3 cm-3, and V is 511 km s-1. Our model well explains the heating of protons in the corona and the acceleration of the solar wind.

This study was carried out to find out the changes on serum concentrations of estradiol-17β, progesterone in primiparous Duroc, Landrace and Yorkshire sows weaned at 7 or 21 days. Also, we compared the litter size at birth and weaning among the breeds weaned after lactation for 7 or 21 days. The estradiol-17β concentrations among the breeds were 6.9∼8.8 pg/ml and 6.4∼8.8 pg/ml after lactation for 7 or 21 days, respectively. The progesterone concentrations ranged from 0.3 ng/ml to 1.6 ng/ml. Duroc sow showed higher progesterone concentration compared with Landrace and Yorkshire sows weaned after lactation for 7 or 21 days. Also, we found out that litter size at birth and weaning, respectively, did not show any differences between day 7 and day 21 of lactation. From the facts mentioned above, it was suggested that very early weaning systems could work with no apparent adverse effect on prolificacy.

In this paper, we review recent studies on the magnetic helicity changes of solar active regions by photospheric horizontal motions. Recently, Chae(200l) developed a methodology to determine the magnetic helicity change rate via photospheric horizontal motions. We have applied this methodology to four cases: (1) NOAA AR 8100 which has a series of homologous X-ray flares, (2) three active regions which have four eruptive major X-ray flares, (3) NOAA AR 9236 which has three eruptive X-class flares, and (4) NOAA AR 8668 in which a large filament was under formation. As a result, we have found several interesting results. First, the rate of magnetic helicity injection strongly depends on an active region and its evolution. Its mean rate ranges from 4 to 17 × 10 40 Mx2 h-1. Especially when the homologous flares occurred and when the filament was formed, significant rates of magnetic helicity were continuously deposited in the corona via photospheric shear flows. Second, there is a strong positive correlation between the magnetic helicity accumulated during the flaring time interval of the homologous flares in AR 8100 and the GOES X-ray flux integrated over the flaring time. This indicates that the occurrence of a series of homologous flares is physically related to the accumulation of magnetic helicity in the corona by photospheric shearing motions. Third, impulsive helicity variations took place near the flaring times of some strong flares. These impulsive variations whose time scales are less than one hour are attributed to localized velocity kernels around the polarity inversion line. Fourth, considering the filament eruption associated with an X1.8 flare started about 10 minutes before the impulsive variation of the helicity change rate, we suggest that the impulsive helicity variation is not a cause of the eruptive solar flare but its result. Finally, we discuss the physical implications on these results and our future plans.

In this paper we present a methodology to derive the temporal change of the magnetic shear angle from a series of vector magnetograms, with a high time cadence. This method looks for the minimum change of the shear angle between a pair of magnetograms, free from the 180° ambiguity, and then accumulates this change over many successive pairs to derive the temporal change of magnetic shear. This methodology will work well if only the successive magnetograms occurred in an active region are well aligned and its helicity sign is reasonably determined. We have applied this methodology to a set of vector magnetograms of NOAA Active Region 9661 on October 19, 2001 by the new digital magnetograph at the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). For this work we considered well aligned magnetograms whose cross-correlation values are larger than 0.95. As a result, we have confirmed the recent report of Wang et al. that there was the abrupt shear change associated with the X1.6 flare. It is also demonstrated that the shear change map can be an useful tool to highlight the local areas that experienced the abrupt shear change. Finally, we suggest that this observation should be a direct support of the emergence of sheared magnetic fields.

Non-stoichiometric ceramics of were prepared by self-propagating high temperature synthesis reaction with various processing conditions and their stoichometric numbers were determined by neutron diffraction. The neutron diffraction patterns were measured at room temperature using monochromatic neutrons with a wave length of 0.18339 nm from a Ge(331) mocochromator at a 90 degree take off angle. The Rietveld refinement of each pattern converged to good agreement (x2=1.88-2.24). The neutron diffraction analysis revealed the final stoichiometries of the ferrites were and respectively. This supports that final stoichiometric number of the self-propagating high temperature synthesis product can be controlled by the processing parameters during the combustion reaction.

In the present work we introduce a new flare activity indicator, MAD and examine its characteristics by analyzing a set of successive three days' observations of a typical active region, AR2372. The computed MAD is compared with conventional activity indicator such as separator. It is found that. (1) MAD traces very well the separator, (2) it. singles out. local discontinuity of magnetic field lines and (3) it. is a good measure of describing the evolutionary status of active region.

We investigated whether sound could alter gene expression in plants. Using a sound-treated subtractive library, a set of sound-responsive genes in plants was demonstrated through mRNA expression analyses. Of them, the rbcS and ald genes, which are light responsive, up-regulated their expression with sound treatment in both light and in dark conditions. This suggested that sound could be used as a gene regulator instead of light. When we analyzed ald gene expression using various single wavelengths, a significant increase in mRNA levels was found at 125 or 250 Hz but decreased at 50 Hz, indicating that the gene responded to sound in a wavelength-specific manner. To determine whether the ald promoter respond to sound, we generated transgenic rice plants harboring the chimeric gene consisting of a 1,506-bp promoter fragment of the ald gene fused to Escherichia coli GUS reporter gene. Analyses of mRNA expressison level of three independent transgenic lines sound-treated with 50 or 250 Hz for 4 h showed that the Gus gene expression in all three transgenic lines was up regulated by 250 Hz, but down regulated by 50 Hz. These results correlated with sound responsive mRNA expression pattern observed for the ald gene in rice plants, indicating that the 1,506-bp ald promoter confers sound-responsiveness on a reporter gene in transgenic rice plants. We also investigated whether sound waves could improve salt tolerance in rice seedling. The rice seedlings were sound treated with 800 Hz for 1hr, and then treated with 0, 75, 150, and 225mM NaCl for 3 days to observe changes in physiological and morphological aspects. Sound treatment seedlings resulted in enhanced salt stress tolerance, mainly demonstrated by the sound treated seedlings exhibiting of increased root relative water contents (RWC), root length and weight, photochemical efficiency (ratio of variable to maximum fluorescence, Fv/Fm), and germination rate under salt stress condition. This demonstrates that a specific sound wave might be used, not only to alter gene expression in plant, but also to improve salt stress tolerance.

This study was performed to analyze the improvement of soil physical property and soil biota characteristics through cultivation of green manure crops for a one-year period before creation of a tea plantation as follows. The study revealed that the contents of available phosphate tended to decrease after sod-culture by green manure cultivation and open-pollination, when compared to the level before cultivation. The ratio soil porosity increased by approximately 30% when Crotalaria juncea and Sorghum bicolar L. Moench were cultivated, while the soil bacteria and fungi also increased. In a research on microfauna using a pit fall trap, the population number of the microfauna was 174 of 27 species in the plot of open-pollinated sod-culture and no organic matter application, and 268 of 26 species in the plot of Sorghum bicolar L. Moench. Consequently, the culturing tool of Crotalaria juncea recorded the highest level of species diversity at 2.5, the evenness index at 3.7 and richness at 4.6, with the lowest level of a dominance index. The ecological quotient of microfauna was 0.76 in the plot of Sorghum bicolar L. Moench, and 0.63 in the plot of Crotalaria juncea.