Rise and Fall of Empires Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Rise and Fall of Empires - Term Paper Example tion and elevated levels of industrialization which may make a nation attain superpower status just like that of the People’s Republic of China (Fishman 112). In this essay, our focus will be on China as an emerging superpower capable of rivaling the status of the United States driven by its exemplary economic growth and military might. From our discussion, we find that China helped by its impressive economic growth can mount a successive campaign to become an important player capable of becoming a superpower in the world affairs. This is helped by the declining power of the United States as a major player in the international arena as it faces both domestic and international problems in its economy and policies. However, we will conclude that the People’s Republic of China is incapable of becoming the absolute global superpower to rival the United States due to certain inadequacies in its systems. For instance, China has poor governance and political situations that ar e not universally acceptable while it also has inferior military as compared to the United States of America. The People’s Republic of China has continuously risen to be a serious power as seen through its tremendous economic growth and transformation in its foreign policy aimed at increasing its power and influence (Shirk 77). The nation has used its growing influence to try and have a say on how the affairs of the world are run with the sole purpose of having the world serve its mainly economic interests. Through the increase of state power of China, it is increasingly becoming capable of creating and enforcing rules and institutions aimed at pursuing its interests and security as well as that of its citizens. Part of the reason put forward for China’s rise in global affairs can be attributed to the slow changes in its regime and its dissatisfaction of the old international order led by the United States. Though the rise of China had started during the Ming Dynasty, the foresight by the

Biology - Down's Syndrome Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Biology - Down's Syndrome - Term Paper Example Despite the alleged incurable nature of Down’s syndrome, it is possible that the fields of pharmacology and medicine have surely come up with ways to alleviate its symptoms as well as to be able to learn further about the disease. In fact, research through the medical and scientific databases on the latest scientific breakthroughs concerning Down’s syndrome resulted in the discovery of five journal articles relating the most recent breakthroughs on the disease. Review of Literature The study of Bradeau et al. conducted in Paris, France in 2011 is entitled â€Å"Specific targeting of the GABA-A receptor ÃŽ ±5 subtype by a selective inverse agonist restores cognitive deficits in Down syndrome mice.† Based on the results of this study, one reason why there is an altered brain function among individuals with Down’s syndrome is that there is a chemical imbalance between inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters. One inhibitory transmitter, GABA or gamma-aminobutyric acid seems to occur in large amounts in the nervous system of Down’s syndrome patients and thus causes a relatively great amount of inhibition of certain cognitive functions among them. The study then utilized GABA-A antagonists in order to treat such chemical imbalance and the result was positive. As a result, the subjects of the experiment, Ts65Dn mice, or mice with Down’s syndrome, demonstrated restored cognitive functions. The specific chemical GABA-A antagonist, which is a ?5-subtype or ?5IA, was used to restore memory and learning functions n rats. The ?5IA subtype of GABA-A antagonist is different from its other subtypes because it is non-convulsant, which means to say that the other subtypes may cause convulsions if tested on humans. Other subtypes also caused certain changes in the tissues of the brain, liver and kidney of the experimental mice, but ?5IA did not. The study of Braudeau et al. was particularly important to the medical community as well as to families of Down’s syndrome patients because this new particular chemical or drug – GABA-A antagonist ?5IA subtype – may actually improve learning and memory problems among patients suffering from Down’s syndrome. Nonetheless, the drug has not yet been tested in humans for fear that although it may not cause convulsions in rats, it may still do so in humans. Moreover, the study was unique in itself because although it has been known that Down’s syndrome pa tients suffer from imbalanced inhibition and excitation at the cellular level, there had been no non-convulsant drug that promised any good cure until now. Another study, the one conducted by Perluigi and Butterfield in Kentucky, USA in 2011 is entitled â€Å"Oxidative Stress and Down Syndrome: A Route toward Alzheimer-Like Dementia.† This study involved the discovery of the physiological causes of the almost natural development of Alzheimer’s Disease among Down’s syndrome patients as early as their middle age. Although there are already genetic physical and mental abnormalities in a newborn child with Down’s syndrome, these pathological problems get worse as the patient gets older and thus may have a great chance of developing into Alzheimer’s Disease later on in life. The study found out that the causes of such development were â€Å"altered free radical metabolism† and â€Å"impaired mitochondrial function† (Perluigi & Butterfield, 2012). These two cellular processes,