• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.562-571
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• 2014

In the celebration of the $50^{th}$ anniversary of the Korean Earth Science Society, the whole articles published in Journal of the Korean Earth Science Society (JKESS) were quantitatively analyzed. JKESS has played a major role in exchanging academically among earth science education specialists and in educating next generation for the last 36 years since it was founded in 1979. The total number of 1544 articles in thirty five volumes about the earth sciences and the earth science pedagogy has been published by August, 2014, and the number of the yearly published articles has been increasing. Regarding the research area, 69.3% was published in earth sciences and the other 30.7% was in earth science education; the percentage of research articles in geology, atmospheric science, environmental science, oceanography, and astronomy was 55.2, 17.6, 16.0, 6.0, and 5.2%, respectively. The number of research articles on atmospheric science and environmental science has recently been increasing, whereas, earth science education research articles have been" decreasing, which was similar to the pattern seen fifteen years ago. We thought that one of the reasons was related to a new journal named, "Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education" started to publish in December, 2008. The number of articles authored or co-authored with foreigner scholars was totaled 53, which is only 3.4% of the entire number of published articles. It suggests that international advertisement via public relations as well as the development of English homepage be necessary. In order to become an excellent registered academic journal, it is the time to comprehensively discuss how to improve both the quality growth and the quantity of JKESS. According to the Ministry of Education, it is now in its planning stage to convert the current registration system of the academic journals to the autonomous evaluation system in academia. Therefore, we recommend that Journal of the Korean Earth Science Society be prepared for the upcoming future change.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.846-860
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• 1998

Background: Endotoxin (LPS : lipopolysaccharide), a potent activator of immune system, can induce acute and chronic inflammation through the production of cytokines by a variety of cells, such as monocytes, endothelial cells, lymphocytes, eosinophils, neutrophils and fibroblasts. LPS stimulate the mononucelar cells by two different pathway, the CD14 dependent and independent way, of which the former has been well documented, but not the latter. LPS binds to the LPS-binding protein (LBP), in serum, to make the LPS-LBP complex which interacts with CD14 molecules on the mononuclear cell surface in peripheral blood or is transported to the tissues. In case of high concentration of LPS, LPS can stimulate directly the macrophages without LBP. We investigated to detect the generation of proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 1 (IL-1), IL-6 and TNF-$\alpha$ and fibrogenic cytokine, TGF-$\beta$, by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) after LPS stimulation under serum-free conditions, which lacks LBPs. Methods : PBMC were obtained by centrifugation on Ficoll Hypaque solution of peripheral venous bloods from healthy normal subjects, then stimulated in the presence of LPS (0.1 ${\mu}g/mL$ to 100 ${\mu}g/mL$ ). The activities of IL-1, IL-6, TNF, and TGF-$\beta$ were measured by bioassaies using cytokines - dependent proliferating or inhibiting cell lines. The cellular sources producing the cytokines was investigated by immunohistochemical stains and in situ hybridization. Results : PBMC started to produce IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ and TGF-$\beta$ in 1 hr, 4 hrs and 8hrs, respectively, after LPS stimulation. The production of IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ and TGF-$\beta$ continuously increased 96 hrs after stimulation of LPS. The amount of production was 19.8 ng/ml of IL-6 by $10^5$ PBMC, 4.1 ng/mL of TNF by $10^6$ PBMC and 34.4 pg/mL of TGF-$\beta$ by $2{\times}10^6$ PBMC. The immunoreactivity to IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ and TGF-$\beta$ were detected on monocytes in LPS-stimulated PBMC. Some of lymphocytes showed positive immunoreactivity to TGF-$\beta$. Double immunohistochemical stain showed that IL-1$\beta$, IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ expression was not associated with CD14 postivity on monocytes. IL-1$\beta$, IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ and TGF-$\beta$mRNA expression were same as observed in immunoreactivity for each cytokines. Conclusion: When monocytes are stimulated with LPS under serum-free conditions, IL-6 and TNF-$\alpha$ are secreted in early stage of inflammation. In contrast, the secretion of TGF-$\beta$ arise in the late stages and that is maintained after 96 hrs. The main cells releasing IL-1$\beta$, IL-6, TNF-$\alpha$ and TGF-$\beta$ are monocytes, but also lymphocytes can secret TGF-$\beta$.