• Korean Journal of Hospice Care
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2006

There are various understandings how to define death. In the context of medicine, death is defined as the irreversible change of the tissue according to the cessation of circulation and respiration. According to the psychologists, a person need to accept the finiteness as a human being and remain conscious that the death is not avoidable. And they say if a person doesn't regard death as unavoidable reality of life he or she will not confront the humanistic death and after all will die like animals. In philosophy, death is viewed as an unwelcome reality in the end of the journey of life. Sociologists usually understand that the society is the organization composed with living persons and human beings which construct and transmit the culture from generation to generation between the both ends of life and death. In society, the generation is changed, maintained, and developed through the phenomenon of death. Although death of human being is natural event in society, the death of a specific person brings a sense of loss, crisis, and anxiety to the communities like family, regional society, nation, and the world. In this context, death is not confined to personal dimension and it can be regarded as a social problem. It is valuable to summarize the religious perspectives on the meaning of death for the better hospice care. In shamanism, there are basic idea that although the flesh of human being disappears, soul never die. If human dies, the flesh of human being disappears but soul never disappear and come back to the origin of soul as it is called chaos. So in shamanism, it is said that shaman can solve the mortified feeling, restore the broken harmony, send the soul to comfortable space- the origin, and guarantee the blessing of descendents. Buddhists regard the death as an essential component through the cycles of life. Through this cycle, human being exits as an endlessly transmigrating being and the death is just a restoration to the original status. In Confucianism, the view on the death based on the philosophy of the "Yin and Yang" and "Five elements". In Buddhist tradition, many believers said the philosophy of "Death is the same as life". Unlike usual thoughts that a god governs "life and death" and "fortune and misfortune", Confucianists deny the governance of a god and emphasize the natural orders in which every phenomenon in the world moves according to the principle. Confucianists understand the death as a natural order with this principle. In Confucianists' belief, the essence of human being remains in their own descendent's lives after the death of ancestor, so in Confucianism there is no concept of immortality of the soul. In the history of Christianity, death has been defined generally as the separation of the immortal soul from the mortal body. In the earlier days of Old Testament, the death is regarded as a disappearance of just a flesh and human never disappear and always live in the relationship with God. Later days in Old Testament, we can find the growing concern for the life after the death because of the entrance of the theodicy. In the New Testament, the death is not regarded as the normal process of the human life and regarded as the abnormal status in which death come to human because of sin as a decisive factor and it should be conquered. In fact, the most of us afraid death because not of the fear of death itself but of the sense of the emptiness and regrets. so many people often make the monument hoping to live forever. But Christian usually regard this behavior as a sinful act because human being usually think themselves as a master of their life and attempt to become immortal in this kind of trial mortal. But if we live with God, we cannot confront such a condition because we aware limits as a mortal human being and entrust everything on Him and want to live according to His guidance. Therefore, in the Christian tradition, the death is regarded as accomplishment of life, fruits of life, invitation to the eternal life, and the last stage of human growth. For human being, the death is the great step of maturation as a human in the final stage of life.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.599-607
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• 1998

To clarify annual reproductive cycle of Korean dark sleeper, Odontobutis platycephala (Iwata et Jeon), we examined the seasonal changes of gonadosomatic index (GSI), the proportional frequency of oocyte development stages in the ovary and the changes of sex steroid hormone levels in blood from December 1995 to November 1997. In July and August, GSI was 0.35 to 0.72 and most oocytes in the ovary were chromatin-nucleolus stage and perinucleolar stage (proportional frequency: $87\%\~96\%$). In September, GSI was 1.20 $\pm$ 0.12, some oocytes in the ovary were yolk vesifle stage (proportional frequency: $22.8\%$) and vitellogenic stage which appeared very rarely(proportional frequency: $2.2\%$). GSI increased gradually from October and reached 4.59± 0.61 to December. During this period, oocytes of vitellogenic stage increased slightly (proportional frequency in December: $22.1\%$). In January, GSI was 4.32 $\pm$ 0.72 but the proportional frequency of oocytes in vitellogenic stage increased (proportional frequency: $51.2\%$). from February, GSI was increased sharply and reached to 10.51 $\pm$ 1.04 in March, the highest value throughout the year and the proportional frequency of oocytes in vitellogenic stage also reached the highest levels (proportional frequency: $60\%$). From April, GSI was gradually decreased and fell down to 1.11 $\pm$ 0.35 in June. During this period, the proportional frequency of mature oocytes was the highest in April (proportional frequency of mature oocyte stage: $40\%$ in April, $12\%$ May, $5\%$ June) throughout the year, and atretic ovarian follicles were appeared. The blood level of estradiol-17$\beta$ ($E_2$), which stimulates the hepatic synthesis and secretion of vitellogenin, was $0.84{\pm}0.20\;ng/m{\ell}$ in August, and thereafter was not changed until December. from January, it increased sharply and reached the highest level of $ 2.85{\pm}0.35\;ng/m{\ell}$ in March throughout the year, but fell to $0.14{\pm}0.02\;ng/m{\ell}$ in July(P<0.05), 17$\alpha$-hydroxprogesterone(17$\alpha$-OHP) was the peak $13.37{\pm}0.52ng/m{\ell}$ in March, but no significant changes in other period(below $3ng/m{\ell}$, P<0.05). 17$\alpha$, 20$\beta$-dihydroxy-4-pregnen-3-one(17$\alpha$, 20$\beta$-P), which was known as the final maturation inducing hormone in teleost, was $0.74{\pm}0.09ng/m{\ell}$ in April and $0.54{\pm}0.07ng/m{\ell}$ in May, but no significant changes in other period (below $0.26\;ng/m{\ell}$, p<0.05). Taken together these results, the annual reproductive cycle of O. platycephala divided into 4 periods as follows: 1) ripe and spawning period from April to June, main spawning period was from April to May, 2) Resting period from July to August, 3) Growing period from September to December, 4) Maturing period from January to March. Moreover, It was showed that the changes of sex steroid hormone in blood played a important roles in the annual reproductive cycle of O. platycephala.