Theoretically, a recognized member of the modern state system possessing formal sovereignty and occupied by a people who see themselves as a single, united nation. Most nations and states aspire to parlance, nation-state is used as a synonym for country or state.
In biology, depolarization is a decrease in the absolute value of a cell's membrane potential. Thus, changes in membrane voltage in which the membrane potential becomes less positive or less negative are both depolarizations.
1. Depolarization occurs because... potassium ions continue to diffuse out of the cell after the inactivation gates of the voltage-gated sodium ion channels begin to close. the extra efflux of potassium ions causes the membrane potential to become slightly more positive than the resting value.