1.
Leaf
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A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant and is the principal lateral appendage of the stem. The leaves and stem together form the shoot, Leaves are collectively referred to as foliage, as in autumn foliage. Although leaves can be seen in different shapes, sizes and textures, typically a leaf is a thin, dorsiventrally flattened organ, borne above ground. Most leaves have distinctive upper surface and lower surface that differ in colour, hairiness, broad, flat leaves with complex venation are known as megaphylls and the species that bear them, the majority, as broad-leaved or megaphyllous plants. In others, such as the clubmosses, with different evolutionary origins, some leaves, such as bulb scales are not above ground, and in many aquatic species the leaves are submerged in water. Succulent plants often have thick juicy leaves, but some leaves are without major photosynthetic function and may be dead at maturity, as in some cataphylls, furthermore, several kinds of leaf-like structures found in vascular plants are not totally homologous with them. Examples include flattened plant stems called phylloclades and cladodes, and flattened leaf stems called phyllodes which differ from both in their structure and origin. Many structures of plants, such as the phyllids of mosses and liverworts and even of some foliose lichens. Leaves are the most important organs of most vascular plants and these are then further processed by chemical synthesis into more complex organic molecules such as cellulose, the basic structural material in plant cell walls. The plant must therefore bring these three together in the leaf for photosynthesis to take place. Once sugar has been synthesized, it needs to be transported to areas of growth such as the plant shoots and roots. Vascular plants transport sucrose in a tissue called the phloem. The phloem and xylem are parallel to each other but the transport of materials is usually in opposite directions. Within the leaf these vascular systems branch to form veins which supply as much as the leaf as possible and they are arranged on the plant so as to expose their surfaces to light as efficiently as possible without shading each other, but there are many exceptions and complications. For instance plants adapted to windy conditions may have pendent leaves, such as in many willows, the flat, or laminar, shape also maximises thermal contact with the surrounding air, promoting cooling. Functionally, in addition to photosynthesis the leaf is the site of transpiration and guttation. Many gymnosperms have thin needle-like or scale-like leaves that can be advantageous in cold climates with frequent snow and these are interpreted as reduced from megaphyllous leaves of their Devonian ancestors. For xerophytes the major constraint is not light flux or intensity, some window plants such as Fenestraria species and some Haworthia species such as Haworthia tesselata and Haworthia truncata are examples of xerophytes. and Bulbine mesembryanthemoides
2.
Melaleuca alternifolia
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Melaleuca alternifolia, commonly known as narrow-leaved paperbark, narrow-leaved tea-tree, narrow-leaved ti-tree, or snow-in-summer, is a species of tree or tall shrub in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Melaleuca alternifolia is a tree to about 7 m with a bushy crown and whitish. Leaves are arranged irregularly, scattered or whorled, and leaf shape is linear, 10–35 mm in length and 1 mm wide, smooth and they are also rich in oil with the glands prominent. Flowers occur in white or cream-colored masses of spikes 3–5 cm long over a period, mostly spring to early summer. The small woody, cup-shaped fruit, 2–3 mm in diameter are scattered along the branches, Melaleuca alternifolia was first formally described in 1905 by Joseph Maiden and Ernst Betche as Melaleuca linariifolia var. alternifolia. It was renamed Melaleuca alternifolia in 1925 by Edwin Cheel, the specific epithet is a botanical term meaning having leaves that alternate on each side of a stem. Melaleuca alternifolia is endemic to Australia and is found from the Grafton district in New South Wales as far inland as Stroud and it grows along streams and in swampy places. This species grows well in a range of soils and climates. It prefers well-drained but moist soils and to be grown in full sun, tea tree has been used as an alternative medicinal treatment for almost a century in Australia and is now becoming more commonplace all around the world. The indigenous Bundjalung people of eastern Australia use tea trees as a medicine by inhaling the oils from the crushed leaves to treat coughs. They also sprinkle leaves on wounds, after which a poultice is applied, in addition, tea tree leaves are soaked to make an infusion to treat sore throats or skin ailments. Characteristic of the myrtle family Myrtaceae, it is used to distill essential oil and it is the primary species for commercial production of tea tree oil, a topical antibacterial. Tea tree oil is used as a topical antiseptic agent because of its antimicrobial properties. It is also known to reduce inflammation and may be effective in the treatment of infections such as Athletes foot. Tea tree oil should not be ingested in large due to its toxicity. No deaths have been reported in medical literature
3.
Camellia sinensis
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Camellia sinensis is a species of evergreen shrub or small tree whose leaves and leaf buds are used to produce tea. It is of the genus Camellia of flowering plants in the family Theaceae, common names include tea plant, tea shrub, and tea tree. Two major varieties are grown, Camellia sinensis var. sinensis for Chinese teas, white tea, yellow tea, green tea, oolong, pu-erh tea and black tea are all harvested from one or the other, but are processed differently to attain varying levels of oxidation. Kukicha is also harvested from Camellia sinensis, but uses twigs, the name Camellia is taken from the Latinized name of Rev. Georg Kamel, SJ, a Moravian-born Jesuit lay brother, pharmacist, and missionary to the Philippines. Carl Linnaeus chose his name in 1753 for the genus to honor Kamels contributions to botany, robert Sweet shifted all formerly Thea species to the Camellia genus in 1818. The name sinensis means from China in Latin, four varieties of Camellia sinensis are recognized. Camellia sinensis is a shrub or small tree that is usually trimmed to below 2 m when cultivated for its leaves. The flowers are yellow-white,2. 5–4 cm in diameter, the leaves are 4–15 cm long and 2–5 cm broad. Fresh leaves contain about 4% caffeine, as well as related compounds including theobromine, the young, light green leaves are preferably harvested for tea production, they have short white hairs on the underside. Different leaf ages produce differing tea qualities, since their chemical compositions are different, usually, the tip and the first two to three leaves are harvested for processing. This hand picking is repeated every one to two weeks, Camellia sinensis is mainly cultivated in tropical and subtropical climates, in areas with at least 127 cm. of rainfall a year. Tea plants prefer a rich and moist growing location in full to part sun, however, the clonal one is commercially cultivated from the equator to as far north as Cornwall and Scotland on the UK mainland. Many high quality teas are grown at high elevations, up to 1,500 meters, as the plants grow more slowly, tea plants will grow into a tree if left undisturbed, but cultivated plants are pruned to waist height for ease of plucking. Two principal varieties are used, the small-leaved Chinese variety plant, the Chinese plant is a small-leafed bush with multiple stems that reaches a height of some 3 meters. It is native to southeast China, the first tea plant to be discovered, recorded and used to produce tea three thousand years ago, it yields some of the most popular teas. C. sinensis var. waldenae was considered a different species, Camellia waldenae by SY Hu and this variety is commonly called Waldenae Camellia. It is seen on Sunset Peak and Tai Mo Shan in Hong Kong and it is also distributed in Guangxi province, China. Three main kinds of tea are produced in India, Assam comes from the section of the country
4.
Coraki, New South Wales
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Coraki is a small town that sits on the confluence of the Richmond and Wilson Rivers in northern New South Wales, Australia in Richmond Valley Shire. At the 2011 census, Coraki had a population of 1,478 people, the name Coraki is derived from the Bundjalung word gurigay, meaning the meeting of the waters. Coraki is positioned centrally to the hub of the Summerland Way Casino, the city of Lismore. Like many other towns in the area, it is a hub for the agricultural industries such as cattle, sugar cane. Coraki is the home of the annual Coraki Art Prize, an art competition and exhibition open to all artists and including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture and printmaking, held late October. Each year, a fundraising event for the Art Prize. In 2010, the first Dylanfest celebrated the music, art, annually in November, the Tweed Water Skiing Club converges on the Richmond River to contest the Coraki Assault race. At the western boundary of Coraki township lies Box Ridge, an indigenous community, the Coraki Hotel has a thriving Fishing Club that enjoys sponsorship from most of the local businesses in town. The village was founded by William Yabsley in 1849 when Lismore was only a small station and Casino had only one store. Yabsley and his family obtained the lease to Brook Station and established the first permanent settlement and he built his shipyard just above The Junction, as it was first called. Many ships and river boats were launched there and Yabsley opened a store for provisions for the cedar cutters who came to the district, transport at the time was almost entirely by water and Coraki was the busiest port on the Richmond River. Northern Rivers Geoogy Blog - Coraki
5.
Queensland
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Queensland is the second-largest and third-most-populous state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Situated in the north-east of the country, it is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west, to the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. Queensland has a population of 4,750,500, concentrated along the coast, the state is the worlds sixth largest sub-national entity, with an area of 1,852,642 km2. The capital and largest city in the state is Brisbane, Australias third largest city, often referred to as the Sunshine State, Queensland is home to 10 of Australias 30 largest cities and is the nations third largest economy. Tourism in the state, fuelled largely by its tropical climate, is a major industry. Queensland was first inhabited by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, the first European to land in Queensland was Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606, who explored the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula near present-day Weipa. In 1770, Lieutenant James Cook claimed the east coast of Australia for the Kingdom of Great Britain. The colony of New South Wales was founded in 1788 by Governor Arthur Phillip at Sydney, New South Wales at that time included all of what is now Queensland, Queensland was explored in subsequent decades until the establishment of a penal colony at Brisbane in 1824 by John Oxley. Penal transportation ceased in 1839 and free settlement was allowed from 1842, the state was named in honour of Queen Victoria, who on 6 June 1859 signed Letters Patent separating the colony from New South Wales. The 6th of June is now celebrated statewide as Queensland Day. Queensland achieved statehood with the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, the history of Queensland spans thousands of years, encompassing both a lengthy indigenous presence, as well as the eventful times of post-European settlement. The north-eastern Australian region was explored by Dutch, Spanish and French navigators before being encountered by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770, the Australian Labor Party has its origin as a formal organisation in Queensland and the town of Barcaldine is the symbolic birthplace of the party. June 2009 marked the 150th anniversary of its creation as a colony from New South Wales. The Aboriginal occupation of Queensland is thought to predate 50,000 BC, likely via boat or land bridge across Torres Strait, during the last ice age Queenslands landscape became more arid and largely desolate, making food and other supplies scarce. This led to the worlds first seed-grinding technology, warming again made the land hospitable, which brought high rainfall along the eastern coast, stimulating the growth of the states tropical rainforests. In February 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon landed near the site of what is now Weipa and this was the first recorded landing of a European in Australia, and it also marked the first reported contact between European and Aboriginal Australian people. The region was explored by French and Spanish explorers prior to the arrival of Lieutenant James Cook in 1770. Cook claimed the east coast under instruction from King George III of the United Kingdom on 22 August 1770 at Possession Island, naming Eastern Australia, including Queensland, the Aboriginal population declined significantly after a smallpox epidemic during the late 18th century
6.
New South Wales
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New South Wales is a state on the east coast of Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south and it has a coast line with the Tasman Sea on its east side. The Australian Capital Territory is an enclave within the state, New South Wales state capital is Sydney, which is also Australias most populous city. In March 2014, the population of New South Wales was 7.5 million. Just under two-thirds of the population,4.67 million. Inhabitants of New South Wales are referred to as New South Welshmen, the Colony of New South Wales was founded as a penal colony in 1788. It originally comprised a more than half of the Australian mainland with its western boundary set at 129th meridian east in 1825, in addition, the colony also included the island territories of New Zealand, Van Diemens Land, Lord Howe Island, and Norfolk Island. During the 19th century, most of the area was detached to form separate British colonies that eventually became New Zealand. However, the Swan River Colony has never administered as part of New South Wales. Lord Howe Island remains part of New South Wales, while Norfolk Island has become a federal Territory, as have the now known as the Australian Capital Territory. The prior inhabitants of New South Wales were the Aboriginal tribes who arrived in Australia about 40,000 to 60,000 years ago, before European settlement there were an estimated 250,000 Aboriginal people in the region. The Wodi Wodi people are the custodians of the Illawarra region of South Sydney. The Bundjalung people are the custodians of parts of the northern coastal areas. The European discovery of New South Wales was made by Captain James Cook during his 1770 survey along the eastern coast of the Dutch-named continent of New Holland. In his original journal covering the survey, in triplicate to satisfy Admiralty Orders, Cook first named the land New Wales, however, in the copy held by the Admiralty, he revised the wording to New South Wales. After years of chaos and anarchy after the overthrow of Governor William Bligh, macquaries legacy is still evident today. During the 19th century, large areas were separated to form the British colonies of Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria. Responsible government was granted to the New South Wales colony in 1855, following the Treaty of Waitangi, William Hobson declared British sovereignty over New Zealand in 1840
7.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
8.
Traditional medicine
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Traditional medicine comprises medical aspects of traditional knowledge that developed over generations within various societies before the era of modern medicine. In some Asian and African countries, up to 80% of the population relies on traditional medicine for their health care needs. When adopted outside of its culture, traditional medicine is often called alternative medicine. Core disciplines which study traditional medicine include herbalism, ethnomedicine, ethnobotany, the line between alternative medicine and quackery is a contentious subject. Traditional medicine may include formalized aspects of medicine, that is to say longstanding remedies passed on. Folk medicine may also be referred to as traditional medicine, alternative medicine, indigenous medicine and these terms are often considered interchangeable, even though some authors may prefer one or the other because of certain overtones they may wish to highlight. Similarly, a remedy is a treatment to cure a disease or ailment that employs certain spices, vegetables. Home remedies may or may not have medicinal properties that treat or cure the disease or ailment in question, in the written record, the study of herbs dates back 5,000 years to the ancient Sumerians, who described well-established medicinal uses for plants. In Ancient Egyptian medicine, the Ebers papyrus from c.1552 BC records a list of folk remedies, the Old Testament also mentions herb use and cultivation in regards to Kashrut. Many herbs and minerals used in Ayurveda were described by ancient Indian herbalists such as Charaka, Latin manuscripts of De Materia Medica were combined with a Latin herbal by Apuleius Platonicus and were incorporated into the Anglo-Saxon codex Cotton Vitellius C. III. These early Greek and Roman compilations became the backbone of European medical theory and were translated by the Persian Avicenna, the Persian Rhazes, Arabic indigenous medicine developed from the conflict between the magic-based medicine of the Bedouins and the Arabic translations of the Hellenic and Ayurvedic medical traditions. Spanish indigenous medicine was influenced by the Arabs from 711 to 1492, islamic physicians and Muslim botanists such as al-Dinawari and Ibn al-Baitar significantly expanded on the earlier knowledge of materia medica. The most famous Persian medical treatise was Avicennas The Canon of Medicine, the Canon was translated into Latin in the 12th century and remained a medical authority in Europe until the 17th century. The Unani system of medicine is also based on the Canon. Translations of the early Roman-Greek compilations were made into German by Hieronymus Bock whose herbal, the book was translated into Dutch as Pemptades by Rembert Dodoens, and from Dutch into English by Carolus Clusius, published by Henry Lyte in 1578 as A Nievve Herball. This became John Gerards Herball or General Hiftorie of Plantes, each new work was a compilation of existing texts with new additions. Womens folk knowledge existed in undocumented parallel with these texts, forty-four drugs, diluents, flavouring agents and emollients mentioned by Dioscorides are still listed in the official pharmacopoeias of Europe. The Puritans took Gerards work to the United States where it influenced American Indigenous medicine, both Hernandez and Ximenez fitted Aztec ethnomedicinal information into the European concepts of disease such as warm, cold, and moist, but it is not clear that the Aztecs used these categories
9.
Fungus
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A fungus is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, Fungi, which is separate from the other eukaryotic life kingdoms of plants, a characteristic that places fungi in a different kingdom from plants, bacteria and some protists, is chitin in their cell walls. Similar to animals, fungi are heterotrophs, they acquire their food by absorbing dissolved molecules, growth is their means of mobility, except for spores, which may travel through the air or water. Fungi are the principal decomposers in ecological systems and this fungal group is distinct from the structurally similar myxomycetes and oomycetes. The discipline of biology devoted to the study of fungi is known as mycology, in the past, mycology was regarded as a branch of botany, although it is now known fungi are genetically more closely related to animals than to plants. Abundant worldwide, most fungi are inconspicuous because of the size of their structures. Fungi include symbionts of plants, animals, or other fungi and they may become noticeable when fruiting, either as mushrooms or as molds. Fungi perform a role in the decomposition of organic matter and have fundamental roles in nutrient cycling. Since the 1940s, fungi have been used for the production of antibiotics, Fungi are also used as biological pesticides to control weeds, plant diseases and insect pests. Many species produce bioactive compounds called mycotoxins, such as alkaloids and polyketides, the fruiting structures of a few species contain psychotropic compounds and are consumed recreationally or in traditional spiritual ceremonies. Fungi can break down manufactured materials and buildings, and become significant pathogens of humans, losses of crops due to fungal diseases or food spoilage can have a large impact on human food supplies and local economies. The fungus kingdom encompasses a diversity of taxa with varied ecologies, life cycle strategies. However, little is known of the biodiversity of Kingdom Fungi. Advances in molecular genetics have opened the way for DNA analysis to be incorporated into taxonomy, phylogenetic studies published in the last decade have helped reshape the classification within Kingdom Fungi, which is divided into one subkingdom, seven phyla, and ten subphyla. The English word fungus is directly adopted from the Latin fungus, used in the writings of Horace, a group of all the fungi present in a particular area or geographic region is known as mycobiota, e. g. the mycobiota of Ireland. Like plants, fungi grow in soil and, in the case of mushrooms, form conspicuous fruit bodies. The fungi are now considered a kingdom, distinct from both plants and animals, from which they appear to have diverged around one billion years ago. Fungi have membrane-bound cytoplasmic organelles such as mitochondria, sterol-containing membranes and they have a characteristic range of soluble carbohydrates and storage compounds, including sugar alcohols, disaccharides, and polysaccharides
10.
Bacteria
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Bacteria constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a number of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods, Bacteria were among the first life forms to appear on Earth, and are present in most of its habitats. Bacteria inhabit soil, water, acidic hot springs, radioactive waste, Bacteria also live in symbiotic and parasitic relationships with plants and animals. Most bacteria have not been characterised, and only half of the bacterial phyla have species that can be grown in the laboratory. The study of bacteria is known as bacteriology, a branch of microbiology, There are typically 40 million bacterial cells in a gram of soil and a million bacterial cells in a millilitre of fresh water. There are approximately 5×1030 bacteria on Earth, forming a biomass which exceeds that of all plants, Bacteria are vital in many stages of the nutrient cycle by recycling nutrients such as the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere. The nutrient cycle includes the decomposition of bodies and bacteria are responsible for the putrefaction stage in this process. In March 2013, data reported by researchers in October 2012, was published and it was suggested that bacteria thrive in the Mariana Trench, which with a depth of up to 11 kilometres is the deepest known part of the oceans. Other researchers reported related studies that microbes thrive inside rocks up to 580 metres below the sea floor under 2.6 kilometres of ocean off the coast of the northwestern United States. According to one of the researchers, You can find microbes everywhere—theyre extremely adaptable to conditions, the vast majority of the bacteria in the body are rendered harmless by the protective effects of the immune system, though many are beneficial particularly in the gut flora. However several species of bacteria are pathogenic and cause diseases, including cholera, syphilis, anthrax, leprosy. The most common fatal diseases are respiratory infections, with tuberculosis alone killing about 2 million people per year. In developed countries, antibiotics are used to treat infections and are also used in farming, making antibiotic resistance a growing problem. Once regarded as constituting the class Schizomycetes, bacteria are now classified as prokaryotes. Unlike cells of animals and other eukaryotes, bacterial cells do not contain a nucleus and these evolutionary domains are called Bacteria and Archaea. The ancestors of modern bacteria were unicellular microorganisms that were the first forms of life to appear on Earth, for about 3 billion years, most organisms were microscopic, and bacteria and archaea were the dominant forms of life. In 2008, fossils of macroorganisms were discovered and named as the Francevillian biota, however, gene sequences can be used to reconstruct the bacterial phylogeny, and these studies indicate that bacteria diverged first from the archaeal/eukaryotic lineage. Bacteria were also involved in the second great evolutionary divergence, that of the archaea, here, eukaryotes resulted from the entering of ancient bacteria into endosymbiotic associations with the ancestors of eukaryotic cells, which were themselves possibly related to the Archaea
11.
Placebo
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A placebo is a substance or treatment with no active therapeutic effect. A placebo may be given to a person in order to deceive the recipient into thinking that it is an active treatment. This phenomenon, in which the recipient perceives an improvement in condition due to personal expectations, research about the effect is ongoing. Placebos are an important methodological tool in medical research, common placebos include inert tablets, vehicle infusions, sham surgery, and other procedures based on false information. Placebo effects are the subject of research aiming to understand underlying neurobiological mechanisms of action in pain relief, immunosuppression, Parkinsons disease. Brain imaging techniques done by Emeran Mayer, Johanna Jarco and Matt Lieberman showed that placebo can have real, in other cases, like asthma, the effect is purely subjective, when the patient reports improvement despite no objective change in the underlying condition. The placebo effect is a phenomenon, in fact, it is part of the response to any active medical intervention. The placebo effect points to the importance of perception and the role in physical health. The use of placebos as treatment in clinical medicine is ethically problematic as it introduces deception, the United Kingdom Parliamentary Committee on Science and Technology has stated that. prescribing placebos. Usually relies on some degree of patient deception and prescribing pure placebos is bad medicine and their effect is unreliable and unpredictable and cannot form the sole basis of any treatment on the NHS. In 1955, Henry K. Beecher proposed that placebos could have important effects. The article received a flurry of criticism, but the later published a Cochrane review with similar conclusions. A placebo has been defined as a substance or procedure and that is objectively without specific activity for the condition being treated. Under this definition, a variety of things can be placebos. Likewise, the effects of stimulation from implanted electrodes in the brains of those with advanced Parkinsons disease are greater when they are aware they are receiving this stimulation, sometimes administering or prescribing a placebo merges into fake medicine. Common placebos include pills or saline injections, fake surgeries have also seen some use. An example is the Finish Meniscal Legion Study Group’s trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine, while examples of placebo treatments can be found, defining the placebo concept remains elusive. A placebo electronic cigarette contains 0 mg of nicotine, instead they introduced the term meaning response for the meaning that the brain associates with the placebo, which causes a physiological placebo effect
12.
Redox
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Redox is a chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of atoms are changed. Any such reaction involves both a process and a complementary oxidation process, two key concepts involved with electron transfer processes. Redox reactions include all chemical reactions in which atoms have their oxidation state changed, in general, the chemical species from which the electron is stripped is said to have been oxidized, while the chemical species to which the electron is added is said to have been reduced. It can be explained in terms, Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in oxidation state by a molecule, atom. Reduction is the gain of electrons or a decrease in state by a molecule, atom. As an example, during the combustion of wood, oxygen from the air is reduced, the reaction can occur relatively slowly, as in the case of rust, or more quickly, as in the case of fire. Redox is a portmanteau of reduction and oxidation, the word oxidation originally implied reaction with oxygen to form an oxide, since dioxygen was historically the first recognized oxidizing agent. Later, the term was expanded to encompass oxygen-like substances that accomplished parallel chemical reactions, ultimately, the meaning was generalized to include all processes involving loss of electrons. The word reduction originally referred to the loss in weight upon heating a metallic ore such as an oxide to extract the metal. In other words, ore was reduced to metal, antoine Lavoisier showed that this loss of weight was due to the loss of oxygen as a gas. Later, scientists realized that the atom gains electrons in this process. The meaning of reduction then became generalized to all processes involving gain of electrons. Even though reduction seems counter-intuitive when speaking of the gain of electrons, it help to think of reduction as the loss of oxygen. Since electrons are charged, it is also helpful to think of this as reduction in electrical charge. The electrochemist John Bockris has used the words electronation and deelectronation to describe reduction and oxidation processes respectively when they occur at electrodes and these words are analogous to protonation and deprotonation, but they have not been widely adopted by chemists. The term hydrogenation could be used instead of reduction, since hydrogen is the agent in a large number of reactions. But, unlike oxidation, which has been generalized beyond its root element, the word redox was first used in 1928. The processes of oxidation and reduction occur simultaneously and cannot happen independently of one another, the oxidation alone and the reduction alone are each called a half-reaction, because two half-reactions always occur together to form a whole reaction
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