Air Definition in Science

Air Definition in Science The term air refers to gas, but exactly which gas depends on the context in which the term is used. Learn about the modern definition of air in scientific disciplines and the earlier definition of the term. Modern Air Definition Air is the general name for the mixture of gases that makes up the Earths atmosphere. On the Earth, this gas is primarily nitrogen (78 percent), with oxygen (21 percent), water vapor (variable), argon (0.9 percent), carbon dioxide (0.04 percent), and many trace gases. Pure air has no discernible scent and no color. Air typically contains dust, pollen, and spores. Other contaminants are referred to as air pollution. On another planet (e.g., Mars), the air would have a different composition. There is no air in space. Older Air Definition Air is also an early chemical term for a type of gas. Many individual airs made up the air we breathe. Vital air was later determined to be oxygen, phlogisticated air became nitrogen. An alchemist might refer to any gas released by a chemical reaction as its air.

Jibal (WNW Iran, ENE Iraq) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Jibal (WNW Iran, ENE Iraq) - Essay Example The same case occurs in the context of Iran, a nation known to defy global policies guiding the manufacture of nuclear weapons: It is a geographically ‘blessed’ country with unique mountainous regions, cultural and social diversity as well as infrastructural development existing in its major cities. This discussion will focus on the geographical, cultural and infrastructural development as well as historical and archeological aspects of the ENE Iraq and the WNW Iran, basically pointing out what makes them unique as compared to other features existing within the country. Northern Iraq geographically extends from Baghdad and borders Turkey, Iran and Syria. The ENE Iraq region is composed of seven provinces, which are: Ninawa, Dahuk, Kirkuk, Diyala, Salah ad-Din, Arbil as well as Sulaymaniyah. The major cities in the ENE Iraqi region are: Dahuk, it is surrounded by mountains and is located along the famous River Tigris; Arbil, which is located approximately 88km on the eastern part of Mosul; Kirkuk, located 236 km on the northern part of Baghdad; Sulaymaniyah, which is on the Southern Part of Kurdistan region; Ba’quba it is on the Northeast of Baghdad, Al Muqdadiya, which is located on the eastern border of Iraq and orders Iran; Al Kazimiyah, a town located on the Northern part of Iraq, five kilometers away from Baghdad; as well as Baghdad, which is located along River Tigris. In relation to the major roads, there are various highways, freeways as well as roads that have enhaced mobility not only in the northern region, but connecting the north ern region with the east, the west as well as the southern part. Specifically, in the ENE Iraqi region, there are the: The first highway connects Baghdad to Samarra, Mosul, Tirkit and Taji; this highway also connects these cities into Syria. Additionally, there is the highway that connects Baghdad to Irbil, Ba’quba and leads to Iran. The other major highway in the ENE Iraq region, is the highway

Assisted Suicide Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Assisted Suicide - Term Paper Example Center of discussion in this paper is an assisted suicide, a concept that is facing much controversy in legal and ethical terms. Patients who are suffering from terminal illness or unbearable pain ask their doctors to end their lives and relieve them of their suffering. This is called doctor-assisted suicide. Forman writes that the concept of assisted suicide is common to euthanasia which literally means good death. He states that, â€Å"Assisted suicide, in which a doctor or a family member takes active steps to end another person’s life, is another form of euthanasia†. There is a thought that such a practice is a blessing for those who are suffering from endless pain that cannot be lessened even with the use of medicine or years of treatment. Some patients think that they have a right to make a decision about their life and opting for a more dignified death. Thus, they go for assisted suicide or passive euthanasia. Individual’s consent matters the most. In the other case, obviously, it becomes a murder. But if the patient agrees, then his informed consent matters a lot. After all, it is he who is suffering from all the pain and distress. However, legislators have a controversial view on the issue. They think that assisted suicide should not be legalized even with the individual’s consent. According to Forman, Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Act in 1997, which legalized the physician-assisted suicide, but later the Act was challenged by the Federal Authorities and was argued in the Supreme Court in 2005. In 2006, the decision was in its favor. United States legalizes passive euthanasia and terminally ill people are given the choice to refuse medical treatments that are doing nothing to improve their conditions and are only prolonging their illnesses. In my perspective, assisted suicide should be legalized with the individual’s consent under extreme conditions like when he is suffering from terminal illness with extreme pain. Methods used As illustrated earlier, the most common form of assisted suicide is the doctor-assisted suicide. Under this form, the terminally ill person, with his consent, is made to undergo processes like overmedication. Panzer states that, â€Å"One method of hastening death used by physicians, nurses and even family members is to administer overly high dosages of narcotics, sedatives or antidepressants when the patient has no need for them.† Inappropriately high doses of narcotics and sedatives result in respiratory depression which stops breathing and causes death to occur. Lethal injections are also used to hasten death and this is the more humane method, according to me. High doses of morphine are also given. Many doctors report that they gave high doses of morphine to the patient after telling him that the aim is to hasten the end of life and eliminate his pain forever. Hence, the primary aim is never to kill and to get relieved ourselves, but to help the patient to die an easy death and relieve him of his pain. My perspective It is a very hard task to decide whether or not to take a patient’s life deliberately. However, in some extreme conditions, it is appropriate to take the patient’s consent and give his choice priority. Consider a patient with a deadly disease or cruel debility which has made his life so unbearable and so troublesome with pain that pleasing, significant, focused survival has ceased to exist. If such a patient says himself, â€Å"I am unable to bear this pain. This is becoming intolerable for me and I no longer want to become a burden on my family. Please relieve me of this torment.† After considering all alternatives, I think it would be wise for the physician to respect and honor his choice of dignified death. The role of the physician is to do what is in the best interest of the patient, and sometimes it becomes better for the patient to die instead of living in torment and despair when there is

Neo-Liberalism and Global Environmental Governance Essay

Neo-Liberalism and Global Environmental Governance - Essay Example Human activities whether political, economic, or social have to be managed as subsets of ecosystems and the environment. Environmental governance involves the government, business society, and the civil society and necessitates the incorporation of alternative governing systems such as the watershed based management (Kutting, 2004). The global community has proven incapable of meeting these requirements, which has led to environmental degradation and the emergence of new environmental problems. The international community is experiencing several problems due to globalization. Globalization has led to the improvement of the logistic systems, changes in business and demographic trends and rapid technological progress. This process, however, has led to social and environmental marginalization, widening the gap between the rich and the poor, and increasing the gap between information and technology in the rich and poor countries and social groups. Sustainable development calls for the go vernance of globalization by applying international laws, civil sector domain, and the private sector. The global community has participated in several summits for sustainable development in order to address these issues. ... Resource depletion and environmental degradation could undermine the economy and have to be addressed by all sector actors. Neoliberal institutions argue that international institutions have considerable power to mobilize policymaking towards sustainable environmental governance. Some actors argue that a body high up in the UN hierarchy has to be established in to deal with global environmental and developmental problems. This body would have a mandate and funds to coordinate and centralize environmental and developmental problems within the UN. Economic governance was developed by the UN to promote economic prosperity. The World Bank was established to lend capital to governments for development and poverty alleviation. The GATT agreement promoted global prosperity through the establishment of free markets. The World Bank together with donor governments promoted the idea of liberal market themes, which would also govern resource allocation. UNEP has enacted several laws in the areas of marine pollution, disposal of hazardous wastes, and depletion of the ozone layer. This body linked development and environmental depletion, which forced developed nations to reduce its budgetary allocation. The developed framework has established several institutions in various countries that deal with environmental issues. Developed nations have in the past used environmental laws to limit innovation, intellectual property protection, and macroeconomic management in developing countries. Several developing countries have acquired development loans from the World Bank and other developed nations. These loans have increased the national debt of these countries, making poverty levels unmanageable. These governments spend most

What Is Information? :: Science Research Essays

What Is Information? ABSTRACT: There is a striking paradox in contemporary brain and cognitive science. Their purported fundamental category of information either is not defined or is used in a Shannonesque sense, which is unable to account for the processes of regulation and control when content, not the quantity of information, is concerned. I try to provide a more adequate formula which is applicable to a wide range of systems commonly counted as informational systems. Representative examples would include a single biological cell, animals, persons, and computers. In fact, I consider information-defined here as any detectable difference of physical states-to be the determining principle of all animate systems, one in which determines both their achitecture and their operation. I claim that the concept of information is a realist category and that information itself is, in ontological terms, an irreal entity unable to act on its own. Three hierarchically ordered forms of information are distinguished a nd a number of applications of the proposed definition are discussed. In the books and papers on brain science, cognitive science, etc., one of the most frequently used terms is information. We are told that brains and their various subunits — down to the level of a single neuron — process information, store it, retrieve it, transmit it, etc. They do, indeed. The point, however, is that we are not told what information is. Perhaps information is meant to be understood in the sense first given by C. Shannon? If so, it would be a huge misunderstanding for at least two reasons. First, his approach is entirely content-neutral. It concerns only technical/economical, quantitative problems of data transmission and communication. Brain activity, on the other hand, is concerned with regulation and control, where the content of information matters a lot. Furthermore, since according to Shannon's approach information is what reduces uncertainty, the whole idea presupposes such things as knowledge of a priori probabilities — a requirement which can hardly be attributed to, say, frogs and butterflies. It can serve well the purposes of mathematicians and engineers dealing with well-specified communication problems, but it is useless with regard to the systems which must cope with varieties of environmental stimuli. I suppose that what is taken for granted here is a commonsense, mentalistic connotation: information is thought to be a piece of knowledge. If this is the assumption being made, we must either flatly reject it because of its strong anthropocentric bias, or we must treat it figuratively, as a conventional term of art with no objective counterpart in reality.

Offshore Internet Gambling and the World Trade Organization Essay

Case Study Analysis of the Offshore Internet Gambling and the Wto Case Study Analysis: Offshore Internet Gambling and the World Trade Organization Running Head: Case Study Analysis of the Offshore Internet Gambling and the WTO Case Study Analysis: Offshore Internet Gambling and the World Trade Organization Ayman Naguib Abstract This case study analysis discusses the central issue of the case presented in the article, as well as the most relevant facts and assumptions with respect to the case under investigation. Furthermore, patterns that arise from reflection on these facts and assumptions with relation to external environment perspectives are described. The analysis also examines the consequences of not addressing the central issue of the case, and provides suggested actions in order to resolve it in the short and long term. Introduction The World Trade Organization (WTO) has been established as the world’s single international organization dealing with the rules and regulations governing trade between nations. In principal, the WTO is concerned with helping producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business within a competitive, non-discriminatory, open and transparent global trade framework. However, in reality, achieving these objectives is far from being e asy. The complexity of the WTO agreements signed by the majority of the world’s trading nations and collisions with national legislative frameworks, economic policies of the individual member states and political issues are the main hurdles in the way of achieving the objectives of the WTO. Consequently, several disputes have surfaced during the past decade. One of the most remarkable cases involved the Offshore Internet Gambling activities that take place in Antigua, a Caribbean island state. The importance of this case can be attributed to the fact that it was the first attempt by the WTO to examine cross-border electronic services as has been shown by Pontell, H., Geis, G., and Brown, G. (2007). The roots of the dispute between the USA and Antigua are undoubtedly related to the criminal prosecution of Jay Cohen, an American citizen that cofounded and ran an online gambling business licensed in Antigua. The basis of the prosecution was an alleged violation of the US Wire Act (U.S. Code, Title 18  §1604) (United States v. Cohen, 2001). The aforementioned statue was enacted in 1961, decades before the internet became publicly accessible. Antigua claimed that the USA has been using the complexity and opacity of its own legal system to deflect attention from the fundamental issue which is to retain revenues from internet Running Head: Case Study Analysis of the Offshore Internet Gambling and the WTO gambling within the US, which contradicts with the USA’s obligations as per the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) that the USA ratified. On the other hand, the USA claimed that the disputed activity poses financial and social threats to its citizens. Identification of the Central Issue While the GATS explicitly concedes the right of sovereign states to regulate and to devise laws on the supply of services within their countries to meet national policies and strategies (Krajweski and Marcus, 2003), aligning such regulations, legislative instruments and policies to the commitments of the individual states that are signatory to the GATS and vice versa is often a problematic affair that has led to a majority of the recent disputes handled by the WTO. This is clearly the case in the Internet Gambling dispute. Another issue is maintaining a balance between the special needs of developing and poorer countries and those of the richer and already developed countries, as far as the liberalization of service trade is concerned. Notably, a study of the WTO dispute settlement cases during the period from 1995 to 2006 (World Trade Organization [WTO], 2006) shows that the USA has been involved in approximately 38% of all disputes handled by the organization during that period. Most of these disputes involved developing countries. Notable Facts and Assumptions Based on a study of the facts and assumptions stated in the article, the following facts can be identified: ï‚ · ï‚ · The GATS was applicable to betting and gambling and the USA was in violation of the GATS treaty; The WTO mechanism allows sovereign states to restrict that trade of certain products or services that are deemed to pose risks to public morals and/or public order, provided that such products or services are the production of such products or rendering of such services should not be allowed domestically. However, as far as the USA is involved, gambling activities are permitted in several states, such as Nevada, Michigan and Ohio, amongst others; The American legal framework is complicated and somehow obscure due to the variation between State level laws and Federal laws; and The USA has ratified the GATS without making exclusions pertaining to gambling activities, unlike the Senegal which made an explicit exclusion in its agreement to rule out crossborder betting (WTO, 2005, p. 63); Similarly, the following assumptions can be pointed out: ï‚ · Antigua has demonstrated that it has devised rules and regulations aiming at addressing, as far as reasonably practicable, the concerns over fraud and under-age betting. In fact, the measures taken by the Antigua appear to be more stringent than those enforced within the US; Running Head: Case Study Analysis of the Offshore Internet Gambling and the WTO ï‚ · Suspicions have arisen as to the true motives behind the USA’s claims, which could indicate that the claim was driven by the desire to retain revenues generated from internet gambling; and Restrictions that the USA tried to impose over Internet gambling activities, would negatively affect the Antiguan economy. Arising Patterns and the External Environment The arising patterns suggest that on the technological environment, new technologies such as the internet and related technologies pose a challenge to national legislations and international regulatory frameworks which need to address the implications of such advancements. Furthermore, the political environment is affected by issues arising from the power that the more developed and rich nations try to exercise on poorer developing nations in order to enforce their national strategies, which can sometimes be in contradiction to the global inclination towards facilitating the growth of developing nations. As far as the economic environment is concerned, the consequences of such disputes may be greatly harmful for developing countries such as Antigua, compared to the impact it might have on developed nations such as the USA. For example, in 1999, 10 percent of Antigua’s gross national product (US$ 0.6 Billion) was generated from online gambling, which was equivalent to only 0.006 percent of the gross national product of the US during the same year. Consequences There are several consequences of not addressing the central issue identified in this analysis, the most significant amongst which is making agreements such as the GATS ineffective due to the collision between national interests of the more powerful countries and the brisk needs of developing countries. Furthermore, trade  imbalances and discriminatory global wealth distribution will be inevitable, which will clearly be inclined towards the more powerful and developed nations will have control. Recommended Actions In light of this analysis, the short-term actions that are suggested to resolve the central issue entail working towards streamlining the internet gambling business in Antigua in collaboration with the USA to ensure that concerns over fraud and underage gambling is reasonably addressed. Furthermore, the USA should adopt a more transparent approach that avoids double standards in deeming the legality of internet gambling. On the long term, an international framework is required in order to establish a more effective and transparent mechanism to maximise the alignment of national legislation with international treaties, without compromising the rights of each nation over its legislative instruments. Additionally, the WTO’s should enforce provisions that are meant to give developing nations a special and a more Running Head: Case Study Analysis of the Offshore Internet Gambling and the WTO lenient status when liberalisation of trade is concerned. These provisions should also be protected against unjust practices from developed nations. On the other hand, the WTO and particularly its developed nations’ members should assist developing countries to implement legislative reforms that ensure that such countries to achieve better governance and compliance in adopting more fair trade practices. Running Head: Case Study Analysis of the Offshore Internet Gambling and the WTO References CIA 2008. Antigua and Barbuda. The World Factbook, Updated August 7. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ac.html. Djordjevic M (2002) Domestic Regulation and Free Trade in Services – A Balancing Act. Legal issues on Economic Integration, vol 29, no 3. Krajweski, Marcus (2003). National Regulation and Trade Liberalization in Services: The Legal Impact of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) on National Regulatory Autonomy; Kluwer Law International, The Hague-London-New York. Lang, Andrew (2004) The GATS and Regulatory Autonomy:  A Case Study of Social regulation of the Water Industry, Journal of international Economic Law, 7(4). Mattoo Aaditya and Sauvà ¨, Pierre, Editors (2004. Domestic Regulation and Services Trade liberalization. World Bank and Oxford University Press. Pontell, H., Geis, G., and Brown, G. (2007). Offshore Internet gambling and the World Trade Organization: Is it criminal behavior or a commodity? International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 1(1), 119-136. Scott Sinclair and Jim Grieshaber-Otto (2002) Facing the Facts: A guide to the GATS Debate, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Ottawa. World Trade Organization (2007). WTO Dispute Settlement : One-Page Case Summaries : 1995September 2006. Geneva: WTO Publications.

The Matrix, By Directors Lana And Larry Wachowski Essay

Due to technology more advanced, it is only natural for people to question the possibilities and dangers as well its consequences to our society. Science fiction genres are great depictions and visual representations that can bring possible answers to our doubts. In the film The Matrix (1999), directors Lana and Larry Wachowski convey their idea that freedom is when you can fully control you own life and the theme of Reality Vs. illusion through characterization, setting and the films visual effects. The protagonist Neo, is a hacker who believes that he is not truly awake and feels an unexplainable doubt in his life. He is then awakened by Morpheus, the leader of the resistance against the matrix, into an apocalyptic world where machines control peoples’ minds through a program called â€Å"the matrix†. Throughout their battle in rescuing the human race, the crucial idea of what true freedom is, constantly stirs up not only the characters but also the viewer’s mi nds. Would we call living in a reality full of chaos being free, or would we rather live in an illusion where you are free and the society is perfect, but in reality being locked up in a tube? The theme of Man Vs Machine is communicated through characterization and costume. The matrix is an example of human devolution, when Machine takes over human species. In the film, humans are enslaved by machines in an invisible prison where they perceive they live normal lives, but in reality they are controlled by the machines.Show MoreRelatedThe National Lgbtq Task Force Transgender1504 Words   |  7 Pagestransgenders and gay and lesbian these past couple years, for exampleâ€Å", Last year, Americans enthusiastically supported Chaz; nee Chastity Bono as an openly transgender dancing contestant on national television. Hollywood film director of The Matrix Lana; (nee Larry) Wachowski was celebrated in the press for sharing her painful past of growing up transgender,† said Eve Glickman writer for apa.org. Glickman also talked about how there are more studies are exploring treatment for transgender people