M. KITAMURA Tokyo Astronomical Observatory, Japan and E. BUDDING Carter Observatory, Wellington, New Zealand The Third Asian-Pacific Regional Meeting of the International Astronomical Union was held from 30 September to 5 October, 1984, at the Kyoto International Conference Hall, Kyoto, Japan, under the auspices of the Union and the Astronomical Society of Japan with Kyoto University as host. Three hundred and twenty-seven astronomers from twenty-two countries participated at the meeting and more than two hundred papers were presented. The aim of the meeting was not only to promote scientific developments and cooperation, but also to offer a chance for all participants to become acquainted with major astronomical projects of the Asian-Pacific Region. Therefore, two new sessions of 'A View of Asian-Pacific Astronomy' and 'Astronomical Education in the Asian- Pacific Region', which had not been undertaken in the previous two Regional Meetings, were arranged as a first trial, besides the other ordinary scientific sessions. The Scientific Organizing Committee consisted of D. C. Morton (chairman), R. N. Manchester, S. M. Gong, K. J. Feng, C. S. Shen, J. C. Bhattacharyya, G. Swa- B. Hidayat, H. M. K. AI-Nairniy, H. S. Yun, J. B. Hearnshaw, S. C. Wolff, I. Ka- rup, waguchi, M. Kitamura, M. Morimoto, M. Oda, andJ. P. Swings (IAU, ex officio); and the Local Organizing Committee of T. Kogure (chairman), T.lshizawa, M. Saite, R. Hirata, S.lnagaki, E. Hiei, M. Kitamura, B. Takase, N. Kaifu, H. Maehara, Y. Osaki, and A. Yamasaki.

It is with great pleasure that we here present Artificial Heart 4 (proceedings of the 4th international symposium on artificial heart and assist devices). The symposium was held in Tokyo, Japan, on August 7 and 8, 1992 under the patronage of Mr. Hiromitsu Yoshioka, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Tokyo Women's Medical College. Artificial heart 4 consists of the papers presented in nine sessions: Oral Presentations A to E, Forums 1 to 10, and nine lectures by invited guest speakers from the United States and Europe. In this volume, papers from two new sessions, sessions IV and VII, entitled New Approaches, were prepared for devices and systems developed according to new ideas. Twenty-one papers in these two sessions were presented in five Forums (3, 4, 7, 8, and 9). Session VI was provided to deal with heart transplantation, which is now closely related to both ventricular assist systems (VAS) and the total artificial heart (TAH). In this session, papers by two guest speakers from major heart transplantation centers in Europe were included.