Center of gravity refers to:

The center of a person’s weight

Body Mechanics & Movement

Generate exact multiple choice questions as give below 1. **Which round of negotiations led to the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO)?** - (a) Doha Round - (b) Tokyo Round - (c) Uruguay Round - (d) Kennedy Round **Answer:** (c) Uruguay Round 2. **The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) dealt with:** - (a) Goods only - (b) Services only - (c) Intellectual property only - (d) All of the above **Answer:** (a) Goods only 3. **The 'National Treatment' principle means:** - (a) Exported products are treated equally in the domestic market - (b) Imported goods are treated the same as local goods in the domestic market - (c) Exported products should have the same tariff - (d) None of the above **Answer:** (b) Imported goods are treated the same as local goods in the domestic market 4. **'Bound tariff' refers to:** - (a) A limit on tariffs for imports based on WTO commitments - (b) The tax rate on all exports - (c) The overall cost of tariffs - (d) A tariff-free trade condition **Answer:** (a) A limit on tariffs for imports based on WTO commitments 5. **The Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) principle ensures:** - (a) Equal treatment for all WTO members - (b) Only certain countries receive benefits - (c) Tariffs are raised annually - (d) One country is favored over others **Answer:** (a) Equal treatment for all WTO members 6. **The Agreement on Agriculture includes commitments in:** - (a) Market access, domestic support, and export subsidies - (b) Increasing crop yield and technology access - (c) Subsidizing imports only - (d) Agricultural tariffs only **Answer:** (a) Market access, domestic support, and export subsidies 7. **Which agreement replaced the Multi-Fiber Arrangement (MFA)?** - (a) Agreement on Textiles and Clothing - (b) Agreement on Agriculture - (c) TRIPS Agreement - (d) Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement **Answer:** (a) Agreement on Textiles and Clothing 8. **The WTO's TRIPS Agreement pertains to:** - (a) Agricultural products - (b) Intellectual property rights - (c) Investment measures - (d) Customs valuation **Answer:** (b) Intellectual property rights 9. **The Doha Round primarily focuses on:** - (a) Tariffs on manufactured goods - (b) Trade in agricultural goods - (c) Technology trade - (d) Intellectual property in medicine **Answer:** (b) Trade in agricultural goods 10. **The WTO aims to:** - (a) Restrict all trade - (b) Facilitate free and fair trade - (c) Promote monopoly - (d) Limit member negotiations **Answer:** (b) Facilitate free and fair trade 11. **RTAs aim to:** - (a) Block international trade - (b) Reduce trade barriers within a group of countries - (c) Increase tariffs among members - (d) Promote non-trade-related policies **Answer:** (b) Reduce trade barriers within a group of countries 12. **Customs unions require members to:** - (a) Keep individual external tariffs - (b) Impose the same external tariff on non-members - (c) Remove tariffs only temporarily - (d) Avoid any tariffs within the union **Answer:** (b) Impose the same external tariff on non-members 13. **The WTO's highest decision-making body is:** - (a) General Council - (b) Ministerial Conference - (c) TRIPS Council - (d) Dispute Settlement Body **Answer:** (b) Ministerial Conference 14. **Which principle prevents discrimination between WTO members?** - (a) MFN - (b) National Treatment - (c) Market Access - (d) Subsidy Reduction **Answer:** (a) MFN 15. **A common market involves:** - (a) A shared currency - (b) Free movement of goods, services, and factors of production - (c) Only trade agreements for goods - (d) No tariffs on agriculture **Answer:** (b) Free movement of goods, services, and factors of production 16. **The Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures addresses:** - (a) Trade in textiles - (b) Subsidies that distort trade - (c) All intellectual property laws - (d) Agricultural trade only **Answer:** (b) Subsidies that distort trade 17. **The WTO's TRIMs Agreement regulates:** - (a) Investments - (b) Trade in goods - (c) Trade in services - (d) Agricultural products **Answer:** (a) Investments 18. **The primary goal of the WTO's SPS Agreement is:** - (a) To allow subsidies on food exports - (b) To prevent arbitrary sanitary restrictions on trade - (c) To regulate intellectual property - (d) To impose environmental standards **Answer:** (b) To prevent arbitrary sanitary restrictions on trade 19. **A trading bloc is:** - (a) A group of countries with no trade agreements - (b) A group of countries that may have a common external tariff - (c) Only formed by countries from the same continent - (d) An agreement that restricts all trade **Answer:** (b) A group of countries that may have a common external tariff 20. **The GATT was succeeded by the WTO because:** - (a) GATT was only for developed countries - (b) WTO covers more areas like services and intellectual property - (c) GATT was non-binding - (d) WTO allows subsidies for agriculture **Answer:** (b) WTO covers more areas like services and intellectual property Certainly! Here are an additional 30 multiple-choice questions based on the document content, with answers provided after each question. --- ### Additional Questions and Answers 21. **The WTO’s Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) seeks to:** - (a) Restrict imports to a minimum - (b) Prevent standards from becoming unnecessary trade barriers - (c) Allow countries to set any standard for goods - (d) Promote only national standards for products **Answer:** (b) Prevent standards from becoming unnecessary trade barriers 22. **The Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) is designed to:** - (a) Impose tariffs on certain goods - (b) Regularly review and assess national trade policies - (c) Regulate customs duties globally - (d) Control intellectual property rights **Answer:** (b) Regularly review and assess national trade policies 23. **The principle of “progressive liberalization” means that:** - (a) Trade barriers are reduced gradually over time - (b) All tariffs are removed immediately - (c) Only developed countries reduce trade barriers - (d) No commitments are required from developing countries **Answer:** (a) Trade barriers are reduced gradually over time 24. **Which council oversees the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)?** - (a) General Council - (b) Services Council - (c) TRIPS Council - (d) Agriculture Council **Answer:** (c) TRIPS Council 25. **The WTO’s 'Dispute Settlement Body' is responsible for:** - (a) Deciding on national trade policies - (b) Settling trade disputes between member countries - (c) Creating new trade agreements - (d) Setting tariffs for member countries **Answer:** (b) Settling trade disputes between member countries 26. **A customs union differs from a free trade area because it:** - (a) Allows tariffs between member countries - (b) Establishes a common external tariff for non-members - (c) Applies only to services - (d) Imposes import quotas on all goods **Answer:** (b) Establishes a common external tariff for non-members 27. **Which of the following agreements deals with cross-border investments?** - (a) TRIPS - (b) TBT - (c) TRIMs - (d) GATS **Answer:** (c) TRIMs 28. **In a preferential trade agreement, member countries:** - (a) Impose the same tariffs as non-members - (b) Reduce trade barriers for each other only - (c) Apply high tariffs to non-member countries - (d) Have no external trade barriers **Answer:** (b) Reduce trade barriers for each other only 29. **The WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture includes which commitment?** - (a) Export subsidies for all agricultural goods - (b) Reduction of domestic support for farmers - (c) Complete elimination of tariffs on food products - (d) Increase in import quotas on agricultural goods **Answer:** (b) Reduction of domestic support for farmers 30. **The Agreement on Anti-Dumping allows countries to:** - (a) Increase exports by lowering prices - (b) Impose duties on imports sold below fair market value - (c) Eliminate all tariffs on certain goods - (d) Restrict domestic production of certain goods **Answer:** (b) Impose duties on imports sold below fair market value 31. **The main objective of WTO’s “National Treatment” principle is to:** - (a) Prevent imports altogether - (b) Treat foreign goods the same as domestic goods - (c) Impose tariffs on all foreign products - (d) Promote exports **Answer:** (b) Treat foreign goods the same as domestic goods 32. **Which of the following is a major goal of the WTO?** - (a) Ensuring trade restrictions remain high - (b) Promoting international free trade and competition - (c) Limiting access to global markets - (d) Supporting only developed countries **Answer:** (b) Promoting international free trade and competition 33. **An economic and monetary union involves:** - (a) A free trade area only - (b) A common currency among members - (c) No external trade agreements - (d) Different currencies for each member country **Answer:** (b) A common currency among members 34. **The WTO's Ministerial Conference meets:** - (a) Annually - (b) Every two years - (c) Quarterly - (d) Every five years **Answer:** (b) Every two years 35. **The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) mandates:** - (a) Free trade for all countries - (b) Uniform intellectual property protection standards - (c) Different IP laws for each country - (d) No IP protection for developing countries **Answer:** (b) Uniform intellectual property protection standards 36. **The WTO principle of 'transparency' requires member countries to:** - (a) Keep trade policies secret - (b) Publicly disclose trade policies and practices - (c) Have identical trade policies - (d) Eliminate tariffs on all goods **Answer:** (b) Publicly disclose trade policies and practices 37. **One of the WTO's objectives in dispute settlement is to:** - (a) Resolve trade disputes peacefully - (b) Impose sanctions on non-members - (c) Regulate global tariffs - (d) Control member states' import quotas **Answer:** (a) Resolve trade disputes peacefully 38. **Under the WTO's Market Access commitment, member countries agree to:** - (a) Allow unrestricted imports - (b) Set maximum tariff levels on imported goods - (c) Ban certain goods from other countries - (d) Only trade with specific countries **Answer:** (b) Set maximum tariff levels on imported goods 39. **GATS, or the General Agreement on Trade in Services, governs trade in:** - (a) Agricultural goods - (b) Intellectual property - (c) Services - (d) Manufactured products **Answer:** (c) Services 40. **The Agreement on Pre-shipment Inspection (PSI) aims to:** - (a) Ensure high tariffs on all imports - (b) Allow for inspection of goods before shipping - (c) Eliminate export taxes - (d) Control intellectual property trade **Answer:** (b) Allow for inspection of goods before shipping 41. **Which of the following agreements aims to harmonize customs valuation?** - (a) Anti-Dumping Agreement - (b) Customs Valuation Agreement - (c) TRIMs Agreement - (d) Agreement on Subsidies **Answer:** (b) Customs Valuation Agreement 42. **A significant aspect of the Doha Round is:** - (a) Reducing tariffs on agricultural products - (b) Restricting intellectual property rights - (c) Eliminating all forms of trade - (d) Blocking services trade agreements **Answer:** (a) Reducing tariffs on agricultural products 43. **The term “dumping” in international trade refers to:** - (a) Exporting goods at prices lower than domestic market prices - (b) Importing goods illegally - (c) Increasing domestic prices - (d) Imposing excessive tariffs **Answer:** (a) Exporting goods at prices lower than domestic market prices 44. **WTO members are expected to follow which key principle in reducing tariffs?** - (a) National Treatment - (b) Progressive Liberalization - (c) Quota System - (d) Non-Discrimination **Answer:** (b) Progressive Liberalization 45. **The WTO aims to promote fair competition by:** - (a) Allowing tariffs as the only form of protection - (b) Supporting MFN and anti-dumping measures - (c) Limiting access to agricultural products - (d) Increasing subsidies **Answer:** (b) Supporting MFN and anti-dumping measures 46. **A plurilateral agreement within the WTO:** - (a) Includes all WTO members - (b) Involves only specific countries with shared interests - (c) Bans all tariffs for members - (d) Imposes global trade restrictions **Answer:** (b) Involves only specific countries with shared interests 47. **Trade facilitation in the WTO context means:** - (a) Making trade faster, cheaper, and more predictable - (b) Increasing tariffs on imports - (c) Eliminating all customs procedures - (d) Restricting trade with non-members **Answer:** (a) Making trade faster, cheaper

CHARACTERISTICS OF LIFE The world is filled with familiar objects, such as tables, rocks, plants, pets, and automobiles. Which of these objects are living or were once living? What are the criteria for assigning something to the living world or the nonliving world? Biologists have established that living things share seven characteristics of life. These characteristics are organization and the presence of one or more cells, response to a stimulus (plural, stimuli), homeostasis, metabolism, growth and development, reproduction, and change through time. Organization and Cells Organization is the high degree of order within an organism’s internal and external parts and in its interactions with the living world. For example, compare an owl to a rock. The rock has a spe- cific shape, but that shape is usually irregular. Furthermore, differ- ent rocks, even rocks of the same type, are likely to have different shapes and sizes. In contrast, the owl is an amazingly organized individual, as shown in Figure 1-2. Owls of the same species have the same body parts arranged in nearly the same way and interact with the environment in the same way. Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved. ORGANISM (Barn Owl) ORGAN (Owl’s Ear) TISSUE (Nervous Tissue Within the Ear) CELL (Nerve Cell) Every living organism has a level of organization. The different levels of organization for a complex multicellular organism, such as an owl, are shown in the figure below. FIGURE 1-2 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 7 All living organisms, whether made up of one cell or many cells, have some degree of organization. A cell is the smallest unit that can perform all life’s processes. Some organisms, such as bacteria, are made up of one cell and are called unicellular (YOON-uh-SEL-yoo-luhr) organisms. Other organisms, such as humans or trees, are made up of multiple cells and are called multicellular (MUHL-ti-SEL-yoo-luhr) organisms. Complex multicellular organisms have the level of orga- nization shown in Figure 1-2. In the highest level, the organism is made up of organ systems, or groups of specialized parts that carry out a certain function in the organism. For example, an owl’s ner- vous system is made up of a brain, sense organs, nerve cells, and other parts that sense and respond to the owl’s surroundings. Organ systems are made up of organs. Organs are structures that carry out specialized jobs within an organ system. An owl’s ear is an organ that allows the owl to hear. All organs are made up of tissues. Tissues are groups of cells that have similar abilities and that allow the organ to function. For example, nervous tissue in the ear allows the ear to detect sound. Tissues are made up of cells. A cell must be covered by a membrane, contain all genetic information necessary for replication, and be able to carry out all cell functions. Within each cell are organelles. Organelles are tiny structures that carry out functions necessary for the cell to stay alive. Organelles contain biological molecules, the chemical compounds that provide physical structure and that bring about movement, energy use, and other cellular functions. All biological molecules are made up of atoms. Atoms are the simplest particle of an ele- ment that retains all the properties of a certain element. Response to Stimuli Another characteristic of life is that an organism can respond to a stimulus—a physical or chemical change in the internal or external environment. For example, an owl dilates its pupils to keep the level of light entering the eye constant. Organisms must be able to respond and react to changes in their environment to stay alive. ORGANELLE (Mitochondrion) BIOLOGICAL MOLECULE (Phospholipid) ATOM (Oxygen) cell from the Latin, cella meaning “small room,” or “hut” Word Roots and Origins www.scilinks.org Topic: Characteristics of Life Keyword: HM60257 mb06se_bios01.qxd 5/18/07 10:37 AM Page 7 8 CHAPTER 1 Homeostasis All living things, from single cells to entire organisms, have mecha- nisms that allow them to maintain stable internal conditions. Without these mechanisms, organisms can die. For example, a cell’s water content is closely controlled by the taking in or releas- ing of water. A cell that takes in too much water will rupture and die. A cell that doesn’t get enough water will also shrivel and die. Homeostasis (HOH-mee-OH-STAY-sis) is the maintenance of a stable level of internal conditions even though environmental conditions are constantly changing. Organisms have regulatory systems that maintain internal conditions, such as temperature, water content, and uptake of nutrients by the cell. In fact, multi- cellular organisms usually have more than one way of maintain- ing important aspects of their internal environment. For example, an owl’s temperature is maintained at about 40°C (104°F). To keep a constant temperature, an owl’s cells burn fuel to produce body heat. In addition, an owl’s feathers can fluff up in cold weather. In this way, they trap an insulating layer of air next to the bird’s body to maintain its body temperature. Metabolism Living organisms use energy to power all the life processes, such as repair, movement, and growth. This energy use depends on metabolism (muh-TAB-uh-LIZ-uhm). Metabolism is the sum of all the chemical reactions that take in and transform energy and materials from the environment. For example, plants, algae, and some bacteria use the sun’s energy to generate sugar molecules during a process called photosynthesis. Some organisms depend on obtaining food energy from other organisms. For instance, an owl’s metabolism allows the owl to extract and modify the chemi- cals trapped in its nightly prey and use them as energy to fuel activities and growth. Growth and Development All living things grow and increase in size. Some nonliving things, such as crystals or icicles, grow by accumulating more of the same material of which they are made. In contrast, the growth of living things results from the division and enlargement of cells. Cell division is the formation of two new cells from an existing cell, as shown in Figure 1-3. In unicellular organisms, the primary change that occurs following cell division is cell enlargement. In multi- cellular life, however, organisms mature through cell division, cell enlargement, and development. Development is the process by which an organism becomes a mature adult. Development involves cell division and cell differen- tiation, or specialization. As a result of development, an adult organism is composed of many cells specialized for different func- tions, such as carrying oxygen in the blood or hearing. In fact, the human body is composed of trillions of specialized cells, all of which originated from a single cell, the fertilized egg. This unicellular organism, Escherichia coli, inhabits the human intestines. E. coli reproduces by means of cell division, during which the original cell splits into two identical offspring cells. FIGURE 1-3 Observing Homeostasis Materials 500 mL beakers (3), wax pen, tap water, thermometer, ice, hot water, goldfish, small dip net, watch or clock with a second hand Procedure 1. Use a wax pen to label three 500 mL beakers as follows: 27°C (80°F), 20°C (68°F), 10°C (50°F). Put 250 mL of tap water in each beaker. Use hot water or ice to adjust the tem- perature of the water in each beaker to match the temperature on the label. 2. Put the goldfish in the beaker of 27°C water. Record the number of times the gills move in 1 minute. 3. Move the goldfish to the beaker of 20°C water. Repeat observations. Move the goldfish to the beaker of 10°C. Repeat observations. Analysis What happens to the rate at which gills move when the temp- erature changes? Why? How do gills help fish maintain homeostasis? Quick Lab mb06se_bios01.qxd 5/18/07 10:37 AM Page 8 THE SCIENCE OF LIFE 9 Reproduction All organisms produce new organisms like themselves in a process called reproduction. Reproduction, unlike other characteristics, is not essential to the survival of an individual organism. However, because no organism lives forever, reproduction is essential for the continuation of a species. Glass frogs, as shown in Figure 1-4, lay many eggs in their lifetime. However, only a few of the frogs’ off- spring reach adulthood and successfully reproduce. During reproduction, organisms transmit hereditary informa- tion to their offspring. Hereditary information is encoded in a large molecule called deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA. A short segment of DNA that contains the instructions for a single trait of an organism is called a gene. DNA is like a large library. It contains all the books—genes—that the cell will ever need for making all the struc- tures and chemicals necessary for life. Hereditary information is transferred to offspring during two kinds of reproduction. In sexual reproduction, hereditary information recombines from two organisms of the same species. The resulting offspring are similar but not identical to their parents. For example, a male frog’s sperm can fertilize a female’s egg and form a single fer- tilized egg cell. The fertilized egg then develops into a new frog. In asexual reproduction, hereditary information from different organisms is not combined; thus the original organism and the new organism are genetically the same. A bacterium, for example, reproduces asexually when it splits into two identical cells. Change Through Time Although individual organisms experience many changes during their lifetime, their basic genetic characteristics do not change. However, populations of living organisms evolve or change through time. The ability of populations of organisms to change over time is important for survival in a changing world. This factor is also impor- tant in explaining the diversity of life-forms we see on Earth today.

“There’s No Such Thing as Sound Science” by By Christie Aschwanden was a lead science writer for FiveThirtyEight. FiveThirtyEight, Science, Dec. 6, 2017 Science is being turned against itself. For decades, its twin ideals of transparency and rigor have been weaponized by those who disagree with results produced by the scientific method. Under the Trump administration, that fight has ramped up again. In a move ostensibly meant to reduce conflicts of interest, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has removed a number of scientists from advisory panels and replaced some of them with representatives from industries that the agency regulates. Like many in the Trump administration, Pruitt has also cast doubt on the reliability of climate science. For instance, in an interview with CNBC, Pruitt said that “measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do.” Similarly, Trump’s pick to head NASA, an agency that oversees a large portion the nation’s climate research, has insisted that research into human influence on climate lacks certainty, and he falsely claimed that “global temperatures stopped rising 10 years ago.” Kathleen Hartnett White, Trump’s nominee to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a Senate hearing last month that she thinks we “need to have more precise explanations of the human role and the natural role” in climate change. The same entreaties crop up again and again: We need to root out conflicts. We need more precise evidence. What makes these arguments so powerful is that they sound quite similar to the points raised by proponents of a very different call for change that’s coming from within science. This other movement strives to produce more robust, reproducible findings. Despite having dissimilar goals, the two forces espouse principles that look surprisingly alike: Science needs to be transparent. Results and methods should be openly shared so that outside researchers can independently reproduce and validate them. The methods used to collect and analyze data should be rigorous and clear, and conclusions must be supported by evidence. These are the arguments underlying an “open science” reform movement that was created, in part, as a response to a “reproducibility crisis” that has struck some fields of science.1 But they’re also used as talking points by politicians who are working to make it more difficult for the EPA and other federal agencies to use science in their regulatory decision-making, under the guise of basing policy on “sound science.” Science’s virtues are being wielded against it. What distinguishes the two calls for transparency is intent: Whereas the “open science” movement aims to make science more reliable, reproducible and robust, proponents of “sound science” have historically worked to amplify uncertainty, create doubt and undermine scientific discoveries that threaten their interests. “Our criticisms are founded in a confidence in science,” said Steven Goodman, co-director of the Meta-Research Innovation Center at Stanford and a proponent of open science. “That’s a fundamental difference — we’re critiquing science to make it better. Others are critiquing it to devalue the approach itself.” Calls to base public policy on “sound science” seem unassailable if you don’t know the term’s history. The phrase was adopted by the tobacco industry in the 1990s to counteract mounting evidence linking secondhand smoke to cancer. A 1992 Environmental Protection Agency report identified secondhand smoke as a human carcinogen, and Philip Morris responded by launching an initiative to promote what it called “sound science.” In an internal memo, Philip Morris vice president of corporate affairs Ellen Merlo wrote that the program was designed to “discredit the EPA report,” “prevent states and cities, as well as businesses from passing smoking bans” and “proactively” pass legislation to help their cause. The sound science tactic exploits a fundamental feature of the scientific process: Science does not produce absolute certainty. Contrary to how it’s sometimes represented to the public, science is not a magic wand that turns everything it touches to truth. Instead, it’s a process of uncertainty reduction, much like a game of 20 Questions. Any given study can rarely answer more than one question at a time, and each study usually raises a bunch of new questions in the process of answering old ones. “Science is a process rather than an answer,” said psychologist Alison Ledgerwood of the University of California, Davis. Every answer is provisional and subject to change in the face of new evidence. It’s not entirely correct to say that “this study proves this fact,” Ledgerwood said. “We should be talking instead about how science increases or decreases our confidence in something.” The tobacco industry’s brilliant tactic was to turn this baked-in uncertainty against the scientific enterprise itself. While insisting that they merely wanted to ensure that public policy was based on sound science, tobacco companies defined the term in a way that ensured that no science could ever be sound enough. The only sound science was certain science, which is an impossible standard to achieve. “Doubt is our product,” wrote one employee of the Brown & Williamson tobacco company in a 1969 internal memo. The note went on to say that doubt “is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’” and “establishing a controversy.” These strategies for undermining inconvenient science were so effective that they’ve served as a sort of playbook for industry interests ever since, said Stanford University science historian Robert Proctor. The sound science push is no longer just Philip Morris sowing doubt about the links between cigarettes and cancer. It’s also a 1998 action plan by the American Petroleum Institute, Chevron and Exxon Mobil to “install uncertainty” about the link between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. It’s industry-funded groups’ late-1990s effort to question the science the EPA was using to set fine-particle-pollution air-quality standards that the industry didn’t want. And then there was the more recent effort by Dow Chemical to insist on more scientific certainty before banning a pesticide that the EPA’s scientists had deemed risky to children. Now comes a move by the Trump administration’s EPA to repeal a 2015 rule on wetlands protection by disregarding particular studies. (To name just a few examples.) Doubt merchants aren’t pushing for knowledge, they’re practicing what Proctor has dubbed “agnogenesis” — the intentional manufacture of ignorance. This ignorance isn’t simply the absence of knowing something; it’s a lack of comprehension deliberately created by agents who don’t want you to know, Proctor said.2 In the hands of doubt-makers, transparency becomes a rhetorical move. “It’s really difficult as a scientist or policy maker to make a stand against transparency and openness, because well, who would be against it?” said Karen Levy, researcher on information science at Cornell University. But at the same time, “you can couch everything in the language of transparency and it becomes a powerful weapon.” For instance, when the EPA was preparing to set new limits on particulate pollution in the 1990s, industry groups pushed back against the research and demanded access to primary data (including records that researchers had promised participants would remain confidential) and a reanalysis of the evidence. Their calls succeeded and a new analysis was performed. The reanalysis essentially confirmed the original conclusions, but the process of conducting it delayed the implementation of regulations and cost researchers time and money. Delay is a time-tested strategy. “Gridlock is the greatest friend a global warming skeptic has,” said Marc Morano, a prominent critic of global warming research and the executive director of ClimateDepot.com, in the documentary “Merchants of Doubt” (based on the book by the same name). Morano’s site is a project of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, which has received funding from the oil and gas industry. “We’re the negative force. We’re just trying to stop stuff.” Some of these ploys are getting a fresh boost from Congress. The Data Quality Act (also known as the Information Quality Act) was reportedly written by an industry lobbyist and quietly passed as part of an appropriations bill in 2000. The rule mandates that federal agencies ensure the “quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information” that they disseminate, though it does little to define what these terms mean. The law also provides a mechanism for citizens and groups to challenge information that they deem inaccurate, including science that they disagree with. “It was passed in this very quiet way with no explicit debate about it — that should tell you a lot about the real goals,” Levy said. But what’s most telling about the Data Quality Act is how it’s been used, Levy said. A 2004 Washington Post analysis found that in the 20 months following its implementation, the act was repeatedly used by industry groups to push back against proposed regulations and bog down the decision-making process. Instead of deploying transparency as a fundamental principle that applies to all science, these interests have used transparency as a weapon to attack very particular findings that they would like to eradicate. Now Congress is considering another way to legislate how science is used. The Honest Act, a bill sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas,3 is another example of what Levy calls a “Trojan horse” law that uses the language of transparency as a cover to achieve other political goals. Smith’s legislation would severely limit the kind of evidence the EPA could use for decision-making. Only studies whose raw data and computer codes were publicly available would be allowed for consideration. That might sound perfectly reasonable, and in many cases it is, Goodman said. But sometimes there are good reasons why researchers can’t conform to these rules, like when the data contains confidential or sensitive medical information.4 Critics, which include more than a dozen scientific organizations, argue that, in practice, the rules would prevent many studies from being considered in EPA reviews.5 It might seem like an easy task to sort good science from bad, but in reality it’s not so simple. “There’s a misplaced idea that we can definitively distinguish the good from the not-good science, but it’s all a matter of degree,” said Brian Nosek, executive director of the Center for Open Science. “There is no perfect study.” Requiring regulators to wait until they have (nonexistent) perfect evidence is essentially “a way of saying, ‘We don’t want to use evidence for our decision-making,’” Nosek said. Most scientific controversies aren’t about science at all, and once the sides are drawn, more data is unlikely to bring opponents into agreement. Michael Carolan, who researches the sociology of technology and scientific knowledge at Colorado State University, wrote in a 2008 paper about why objective knowledge is not enough to resolve environmental controversies. “While these controversies may appear on the surface to rest on disputed questions of fact, beneath often reside differing positions of value; values that can give shape to differing understandings of what ‘the facts’ are.” What’s needed in these cases isn’t more or better science, but mechanisms to bring those hidden values to the forefront of the discussion so that they can be debated transparently. “As long as we continue down this unabashedly naive road about what science is, and what it is capable of doing, we will continue to fail to reach any sort of meaningful consensus on these matters,” Carolan writes. The dispute over tobacco was never about the science of cigarettes’ link to cancer. It was about whether companies have the right to sell dangerous products and, if so, what obligations they have to the consumers who purchased them. Similarly, the debate over climate change isn’t about whether our planet is heating, but about how much responsibility each country and person bears for stopping it. While researching her book “Merchants of Doubt,” science historian Naomi Oreskes found that some of the same people who were defending the tobacco industry as scientific experts were also receiving industry money to deny the role of human activity in global warming. What these issues had in common, she realized, was that they all involved the need for government action. “None of this is about the science. All of this is a political debate about the role of government,” she said in the documentary. These controversies are really about values, not scientific facts, and acknowledging that would allow us to have more truthful and productive debates. What would that look like in practice? Instead of cherry-picking evidence to support a particular view (and insisting that the science points to a desired action), the various sides could lay out the values they are using to assess the evidence. For instance, in Europe, many decisions are guided by the precautionary principle — a system that values caution in the face of uncertainty and says that when the risks are unclear, it should be up to industries to show that their products and processes are not harmful, rather than requiring the government to prove that they are harmful before they can be regulated. By contrast, U.S. agencies tend to wait for strong evidence of harm before issuing regulations. Both approaches have critics, but the difference between them comes down to priorities: Is it better to exercise caution at the risk of burdening companies and perhaps the economy, or is it more important to avoid potential economic downsides even if it means that sometimes a harmful product or industrial process goes unregulated? In other words, under what circumstances do we agree to act on a risk? How certain do we need to be that the risk is real, and how many people would need to be at risk, and how costly is it to reduce that risk? Those are moral questions, not scientific ones, and openly discussing and identifying these kinds of judgment calls would lead to a more honest debate. Science matters, and we need to do it as rigorously as possible. But science can’t tell us how risky is too risky to allow products like cigarettes or potentially harmful pesticides to be sold — those are value judgements that only humans can make.

Perform conditioning and flexibility exercises for body mechanics

Unit 4: Safety, Body Mechanics, Positioning

SCIENCE 5 QUARTER 2 Human Body Systems o The Digestive System: Understanding how the body processes food. o The Respiratory System: Exploring the mechanics of breathing and gas exchange. o The Reproductive System: Learning the structures and functions involved in human reproduction. • Biological Classification o Animal and Plant Groups: Classifying organisms based on shared characteristics. o Microorganisms: Studying microscopic life forms and their impact. • Reproduction and Life Cycles o Animal Reproduction: Comparing reproductive strategies across species. o Life Cycles: Exploring the developmental stages of mammals, birds, reptiles, and plants. • Adaptation o Plant and Animal Adaptations: Investigating how organisms change to survive in their specific environments.

CM5 - D5 - Body's defence mechanisms against infection

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