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.
The inside of the cell becomes less negative compared to the outside. This is due to a change in permeability and migration of sodium ions into the interior of the cell. Depolarization is excitatory because the membrane potential shifts towards the neuron's threshold at which an action potential occurs.