Nicotine is a substance found in most members of the nightshade family of plants. Small quantities of it can be found in tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines (eggplants) and green pepper ("Capsicum", the peppers used as vegetables). Nicotine is also in the Coca plant. In higher quantities it is a very efficient poison. It acts on the nerves. It is a stimulant in lower quantities. It is the main reason people are addicted to smoking.
Nicotine is named after Jean Nicot. Nicot was a French ambassador in Portugal. He had some tobacco seeds sent to Paris for analysis (As a drug).
Besides the treatment of nicotine dependency, it seems that the drug can also be used to treat special (severe) forms of epilepsy, as well as some other diseases.
The amount of nicotine in one cigarette varies greatly. Factors which influence the amount include type of tobacco; brand of cigarette; country or region (some markets restrict maximum average nicotine levels); and how the cigarette is smoked.
Addiction
Addiction is when the body or mind badly wants or needs something in order to work right. When you have addiction to something it is called being "addicted" or being an "addict". People can be addicted to drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine, and many other things.
When somebody is addicted to something, they can become sick if they do not get the thing they are addicted to. But taking more of the thing they are addicted to can also hurt their health. Some people who are addicts need to go to a doctor or hospital to cure the addiction, so they no longer crave (want or need) the drug.
Addiction takes place when the addictive element enters the body. The blood stream moves the element around the body so that it gets to the brain, and makes the person feel that they are enjoying it; then they want more of that substance. This takes place remarkably fast for some addictions such as hashish and cocaine; but all of them control the consumer. Once under this control, the consumer does not have a completely free will, and listens to the addiction's bidding.
People can also be addicted to other things which are not drugs. You may hear people talk about being "addicted to the Internet" or "addicted to chocolate" or gambling. This means that they get into a habit of enjoying that thing, so if they have to go without it for a while, they miss it a lot.
Addiction is similar to a major disease like chronic heart disease or perhaps diabetes, but addictions are not taken as seriously as these major diseases. Most people believe addiction to be a lifestyle choice, which in fact it is but it is also part of a person's genetics. While some people can do things and control themselves others cannot due to their genetic makeup. There are ways of helping the addict but this takes the admission of a problem and then proper testing to reveal what kind of treatment is needed.
The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) defines addiction as a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences. People with addiction use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences. Prevention efforts and treatment approaches for addiction are generally as successful as those for other chronic diseases.
Secession
Secession usually means when part of one country breaks away, or leaves that country to start a new country. During the American Civil War, eleven southern states declared their secession (independence) from the United States.
Mine
In English, the term mine can stand for different concepts:
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern United States consisting of six states: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The name was coined in 1616 by the English explorer John Smith.
Rockville, Virginia
Rockville is a small town in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is in Hanover County near Richmond, Virginia. Rockville is mainly a farming town. It got its name from nearby rock quarries.
Intelligence quotient
An intelligence quotient (acronym: IQ) is a number. This number is the score (result) of a standard test to measure intelligence. There are several different tests designed to measure the intelligence of a person. Measuring intelligence in any way is an idea developed by British scientist Francis Galton in the book "Hereditary genius" published in the late 19th century.
IQ is a comparative measure: it tells one how much above or below the average a person is. The idea of the test was developed at the start of the 20th century. The tests try to avoid specific knowledge, and try to ask questions which, in principle, anyone might be able to answer.
One modern IQ test is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. It says where the subject's score is on the Gaussian bell. The bell curve used has a center value of 100 and a standard deviation of 15; other tests may have different standard deviations.
IQ scores can tell some things about a person, as well as intelligence. This is because intelligence is linked to other aspects of life. "All the cognitive tests completed in 1983 predicted onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease up to 11 years later". They can predict the social status of the parents, and the parents' IQ.
There is still disagreement about to what extent IQ is inherited. People still disagree about how much of a person's IQ comes from his parents and how much depends on his environment (what his home is like).
IQ scores are used in various ways:
The average IQ scores for many populations have been rising about three points per decade since the early 20th century. Most of the increase is in the lower half of the IQ range. This is called the Flynn effect. People who study it disagree whether these changes in scores are really happening, or it they mean that there were mistakes in how people were tested in the past.
There are associations of people who have scored high on IQ tests, such as Mensa International.
There are many different kinds of intelligence tests that use many methods. Some kinds of tests are
The different tests are strongly correlated with each other. psychologist Charles Spearman in 1904 first studied how the scores from different kinds of intelligence tests are related to each other. He did factor analysis of correlations between the tests, and found a single common factor explained the positive correlations among tests.
Spearman found that if a person got a high (or low) score on one kind of test, he probably (but not always) would get a similar score on the other kinds of tests. Because of this, he said that a person's intelligence could be described with one number. He called this number "g" (for general factor). Tests that use abstract reasoning are usually the best to tell what the scores on the other kinds of tests probably will be. Because of that, Spearman thought that a person's abstract reasoning ability (how good he was at solving puzzles or problems) was what other kinds of intelligence are based on.
Therefore, the number "g" is what an IQ test is supposed to measure. One of the most commonly used measures of "g" is Raven's Progressive Matrices, which is a test of visual reasoning.
During World War I, the military needed a way to test recruits and decide what kind of job they could do best. They used IQ tests.
The testing generated controversy and much public debate. Nonverbal or "performance" tests were developed for those who could not speak English or were suspected of malingering. After the war, positive publicity on army psychological testing helped to make psychology a respected field. Afterwards, there was an increase in jobs and funding in psychology in the United States. Group intelligence tests were developed and became widely used in schools and industry.