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Rhodes Scholarship

 The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award to students to study at the University of Oxford. Established in 1903, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world and considered to be among the most prestigious international scholarship programs. Its founder, Cecil John Rhodes, wanted to promote unity between English-speaking nations and instill a sense of civic-minded leadership and moral fortitude in future leaders, irrespective of their chosen career paths. Initially restricted to male applicants from countries that are today within The Commonwealth, Germany, and the United States, the scholarship is now open to applicants from all backgrounds and from across the globe (click  here  to see the various Rhodes Constituencies). Since its creation, controversy has surrounded its inital exclusion of women, historical failure to select black Africans, and Cecil Rhodes' own standing as a British imperialist. In his will, Rhodes specified that he did not want his s

Pharmacokinetics

 Pharmacokinetics (from Ancient Greek  Pharmakon  "drug" and  kinetikos  "moving, putting in motion"), sometimes abbreviated  PK , is a branch of pharmacology dedicated to determine the fate of substances administered to a living organism. The substances of interest include any chemical xenobiotic such as pharmaceutical drugs, pesticides, food additives, cosmetics, etc. It attempts to analyze chemical metabolism and to discover the fate of a chemical from the moment it is administered up to the point at which it is completely eliminated from the body. Pharmacokinetics is the study of how an organism affects a drug, whereas pharmacodynamics (PD) is the study of how the drug affects the organism. Both together influence dosing, benefit, and adverse effects as seen in PK/PD models. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) defines pharmacokinetics as: Process of the uptake of drugs by the body, the biotransformation they undergo, the distribution of

Human Nature

Human nature is a concept that denotes the fundamental dispositions and characteristics--including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting--that humans are said to have naturally. The term is often used to denote the essence of humankind, or what it "means" to be human. This usage has proven to be controversial in that there is dispute as to whether or not such an essence actually exists. Arguments about human nature have been a central focus of philosophy for centuries and the concept continues to provoke lively philosophical debate. While both concepts are distinct from one another, discussions regarding human nature are typically related to those regarding the comparative importance of genes and environment in human development (i.e., "nature versus nurture"). Accordingly, the concept also continues to play a role in fields of science, such as neuroscience, psychology, and social science (such as sociology), in which various theorists claim to have yielded insight