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Human Physiology/The Muscular System

The muscular system is the biological system of humans that produces movement. The muscular system, in vertebrates, is controlled through the nervous system, although some muscles, like cardiac muscle, can be completely autonomous. Muscle is contractile tissue and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. Its function is to produce force and cause motion, either locomotion or movement within internal organs. Much of muscle contraction occurs without conscious thought and is necessary for survival, like the contraction of the heart or peristalsis, which pushes food through the digestive system. Voluntary muscle contraction is used to move the body and can be finely controlled, such as movements of the finger or gross movements that of the biceps and triceps.Muscle is composed of muscle cells (sometimes known as "muscle fibers"). Within the cells are myofibrils; myofibrils contain sarcomeres which are composed of actin and myosin. Individual muscle cells are lined with endomysium. Muscle cells are bound together by perimysium into bundles called fascicles. These bundles are then grouped together to form muscle, and is lined by epimysium. Muscle spindles are distributed throughout the muscles, and provide sensory feedback information to the central nervous system. Skeletal muscle, which involves muscles from the skeletal tissue, is arranged in discrete groups. An example is the biceps brachii. It is connected by tendons to processes of the skeleton. In contrast, smooth muscle occurs at various scales in almost every organ, from the skin (in which it controls erection of body hair) to the blood vessels and digestive tract (in which it controls the caliber of a lumen and peristalsis, respectively).There are approximately 640 skeletal muscles in the human body (see list of muscles of the human body). Contrary to popular belief, the number of muscle fibers cannot be increased through exercise; instead the muscle cells simply get bigger. It is however believed that myofibrils have a limited capacity for growth through hypertrophy and will split if subject to increased demand. There are three basic types of muscles in the body (smooth, cardiac, and skeletal). While they differ in many regards, they all use actin sliding against myosin to create muscle contraction and relaxation. In skeletal muscle, contraction is stimulated at each cell by nervous impulses that releases acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction, creating action potentials along the cell membrane. All skeletal muscle and many smooth muscle contractions are stimulated by the binding of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Muscular activity accounts for most of the body's energy consumption. Muscles store energy for their own use in the form of glycogen, which represents about 1% of their mass. Glycogen can be rapidly converted to glucose when more energy is necessary.

Types
There are three types of muscles:

 * Smooth muscle or "involuntary muscle" consists of spindle shaped muscle cells found within the walls of organs and structures such as the esophagus, stomach, intestines, bronchi, uterus, ureters, bladder, and blood vessels. Smooth muscle cells contain only one nucleus and no striations.

 * Cardiac muscle is also an "involuntary muscle" but it is striated in structure and appearance. Like smooth muscle, cardiac muscle cells contain only one nucleus. Cardiac muscle is found only within the heart.

 * Skeletal muscle or "voluntary muscle" is anchored by tendons to the bone and is used to effect skeletal movement such as locomotion. Skeletal muscle cells are multinucleated with the nuclei peripherally located. Skeletal muscle is called 'striated' because of the longitudinally striped appearance under light microscopy. Functions of the skeletal muscle include:
 * Support of the body
 * Aids in bone movement
 * Helps maintain a constant temperature throughout the body
 * Assists with the movement of cardiovascular and lymphatic vessels through contractions
 * Protection of internal organs and contributing to joint stability

Cardiac and skeletal muscle are striated in that they contain sarcomere and are packed into highly-regular arrangements of bundles; smooth muscle has neither. Striated muscle is often used in short, intense bursts, whereas smooth muscle sustains longer or even near-permanent contractions.

Skeletal muscle is further divided into several subtypes:
 * Type I, slow oxidative, slow twitch, or "red" muscle is dense with capillaries and is rich in mitochondria and myoglobin, giving the muscle tissue its characteristic red color. It can carry more oxygen and sustain aerobic activity.
 * Type II, fast twitch, muscle has three major kinds that are, in order of increasing contractile speed:
 * a) Type IIa, which, like slow muscle, is aerobic, rich in mitochondria and capillaries and appears red.
 * b) Type IIx (also known as type IId), which is less dense in mitochondria and myoglobin. This is the fastest muscle type in humans.  It can contract more quickly and with a greater amount of force than oxidative muscle, but can sustain only short, anaerobic bursts of activity before muscle contraction becomes painful (often attributed to a build-up of lactic acid). N.B. in some books and articles this muscle in humans was, confusingly, called type IIB
 * c) Type IIb, which is anaerobic, glycolytic, "white" muscle that is even less dense in mitochondria and myoglobin. In small animals like rodents or rabbits this is the major fast muscle type, explaining the pale color of their meat.

For most muscles, contraction occurs as a result of conscious effort originating in the brain. The brain sends signals, in the form of action potentials, through the nervous system to the motor neuron that innervates the muscle fiber. However, some muscles (such as the heart) do not contract as a result of conscious effort. These are said to be autonomic. Also, it is not always necessary for the signals to originate from the brain. Reflexes are fast, unconscious muscular reactions that occur due to unexpected physical stimuli. The action potentials for reflexes originate in the spinal cord instead of the brain.

There are three general types of muscle contractions, skeletal muscle contractions, heart muscle contractions, and smooth muscle contractions.

Muscular System Working With Other Body Systems

 * 1. Homeostasis
 * 2. Protection
 * 3. Calcium Metabolism
 * 4. Maintaining Body Temperature

Skeletal Muscle Contractions
Steps of a skeletal muscle contraction:

 * An action potential reaches the axon of the motor neuron.
 * The action potential activates voltage gated calcium ion channels on the axon, and calcium rushes in.
 * The calcium causes acetylcholine vesicles in the axon to fuse with the membrane, releasing the acetylcholine into the cleft between the axon and the motor end plate of the muscle fiber.
 * The skeletal muscle fiber is excited by large myelinated nerve fibers which attach to the neuromuscular junction. There is one neuromuscular junction for each fiber.
 * The acetylcholine diffuses across the cleft and binds to nicotinic receptors on the motor end plate, opening channels in the membrane for sodium and potassium. Sodium rushes in, and potassium rushes out. However, because sodium is more permeable, the muscle fiber membrane becomes more positively charged, triggering an action potential.
 * The action potential on the muscle fiber causes the sarcoplasmic reticulum to release calcium ions(Ca++).
 * The calcium binds to the troponin present on the thin filaments of the myofibrils. The troponin then allosterically modulates the tropomyosin. Normally the tropomyosin physically obstructs binding sites for cross-bridge; once calcium binds to the troponin, the troponin forces the tropomyosin to move out of the way, unblocking the binding sites.
 * The cross-bridge (which is already in a ready-state) binds to the newly uncovered binding sites. It then delivers a power stroke.
 * ATP binds the cross-bridge, forcing it to conform in such a way as to break the actin-myosin bond. Another ATP is split to energize the cross bridge again.
 * Steps 7 and 8 repeat as long as calcium is present on thin filament.
 * Throughout this process, the calcium is actively pumped back into the sarcoplasmic reticulum. When no longer present on the thin filament, the tropomyosin changes back to its previous state, so as to block the binding sites again. The cross-bridge then ceases binding to the thin filament, and the contractions cease as well.
 * Muscle contraction remains as long as Ca++ is abundant in sarcoplasm.

Types of Contractions:

 * Isometric contraction--muscle does not shorten during contraction and does not require the sliding of myofibrils but muscles are stiff.
 * Isotonic contraction--inertia is used to move or work. More energy is used by the muscle and contraction lasts longer than isometric contraction. Isotonic muscle contraction is divided into two categories:  concentric, where the muscle fibers shorten as the muscle contracts (ie. biceps brachialis on the up phase of a biceps curl); and eccentric, where the muscle fibers lengthen as they contract (ie. biceps brachialis on the down phase of a biceps curl).
 * Twitch--exciting the nerve to a muscle or by passing electrical stimulus through muscle itself. Some fibers contract quickly while others contract slowly.
 * Tonic -maintaining postural tone against the force of gravity.

The Efficiency of Muscle Contraction:

 * Only about 20% of input energy converts into muscular work. The rest of the energy is heat.
 * 50% of energy from food is used in ATP formation.
 * If a muscle contraction is slow or without movement, energy is lost as maintenance heat.
 * If muscle contraction is rapid, energy is used to overcome friction.

Summation of Muscle Contraction: It is the adding together of individual muscle twitches to make strong muscle movements.

 * Multiple motor unit summation--increasing number of motor units contracting simultaneously.
 * Wave summation--increasing rapidity of contraction of individual motor units.
 * Tetanization--higher frequency successive contractions fuse together and cannot be distinguished from one another.

Sliding Filament theory
When a muscle contracts, the actin is pulled along myosin toward the center of the sarcomere until the actin and myosin filaments are completely overlapped. The H zone becomes smaller and smaller due to the increasing overlap of actin and myosin filaments, and the muscle shortens. Thus when the muscle is fully contracted, the H zone is no longer visible (as in the bottom diagram, left). Note that the actin and myosin filaments themselves do not change length, but instead slide past each other.

Cellular Action of Skeletal Muscles
During cellular respiration the mitochondria, within skeletal muscle cells, convert glucose from the blood to carbon dioxide and water in the process of producing ATP (see cell physiology). ATP is needed for all muscular movement. When the need of ATP in the muscle is higher than the cells can produce with aerobic respiration, the cells will produce extra ATP in a process called anaerobic respiration. The first step of aerobic respiration(glycolysis) produces two ATP per glucose molecule. When the rest of the aerobic respiration pathway is occupied the pyruvate molecule can be converted to lactic acid. This method produces much less ATP than the aerobic method, but it does it faster and allows the muscles to do a bit more than if they relied solely on ATP production from aerobic respiration. The drawback to this method is that lactic acid accumulates and causes the muscles to fatigue. They will eventually stop contracting until the breakdown of lactic acid is sufficient to allow for movement once again. People experience this most noticeably when they repeatedly lift heavy things such as weights or sprint for a long distance. Muscle soreness sometimes occurs after vigorous activity, and is often misunderstood by the general public to be the result of lactic acid buildup. This is a misconception because the muscle does fatigue from lactic acid buildup, but it does not stay in the muscle tissue long enough to cause tissue breakdown or soreness. During heavy breathing, following exercise, the cells are converting the lactic acid either back into glucose or converting it to pyruvate and sending it through the additional steps of aerobic respiration. By the time a person is breathing normally again the lactic acid has been removed. The soreness is actually from small tears in the fibers themselves. After the fibers heal they will increase in size. The number of mitochondria will also increase if there is continued demand for additional ATP. Hence, through exercise the muscles can increase in both strength and endurance.

Another misconception is that as the muscle increases in size it also gains more fibers. This is not true. The fibers themselves increase in size rather than in quantity. The same holds true for adipose tissue--fat cells do not increase in number, but rather the amount of lipids (oil) in the cells increase.

Muscle fibers are also genetically programmed to reach a certain size and stop growing from there, so after a while even the hardest working weightlifter will only reach a certain level of strength and endurance. Some people will get around this by taking steroids. The artificial steroids cause all sorts of trouble for the person. They can cause the adrenal glands to stop producing corticosteroids and glucosteroids. This leads to the atrophy of the gland's medulla and causes permanent loss of the production of these hormones. The testicles may also atrophy in response to steroids. Eventually the testes will stop making testosterone and sperm, rendering the male infertile.

One of the more serious problems associated with abnormal gain of muscle mass is heart failure. While for most people gaining muscle and losing fat is desirable, a body builder is at risk of producing more muscle mass than the heart can handle. One pound of fat contains about 3.5 miles of blood vessels, but one pound of muscle has about 6.5 miles. Hence, additional muscle causes the heart to pump more blood. Some people that have too much muscle will be very strong but will not have a healthy aerobic endurance, in part because of the difficulty of providing oxygenated blood to so much tissue.

 * Sliding filament theory:This link shows the animation of the sliding filament theory.
 * explanation and image of sliding filament theory:this link gives a better demonstration of the theory with the explanation.

Involuntary Muscle Movement
When Smooth and skeletal muscles go through multiple spasms it is referred either as seizure or convulsion.
 * Spasms

Strenuous activities can cause painful spasms that are long, this is referred to as cramps.
 * Cramps

Injury
An injury to a joint that involves a stretched or torn ligament.
 * Sprain

 * Muscle Strain

A strain occurs when a muscle or the tendon that attaches it to the bone is overstretched or torn. Muscle strains are also called pulled muscles. Who gets it?

Anyone can strain a muscle. However, people involved in sports or other forms of strenuous exercise are more likely to strain a muscle. What causes it?

Muscles are bunches of fibers that can contract. Muscle strains usually occur during activities that require the muscle to tighten forcefully. The muscle is strained either because it is not properly stretched, or warmed up, before the activity; it is too weak; or because the muscle is already injured and not allowed time to recover. So, many muscle strains occur during exercise or sports activities. They can also occur when lifting heavy objects. What are the symptoms?

When a muscle is strained, it hurts and is difficult to move. You may also feel a burning sensation in the area of the injured muscle, or feel as though something has "popped." Sometimes the area of the strained muscle looks bruised or swells. A strained muscle might spasm, which means it contracts suddenly and involuntarily, causing severe pain. How is it diagnosed?

To diagnose a muscle strain, your doctor will examine the painful area, and ask how and when the injury happened. He or she may order other diagnostic tests, such as x-rays, to rule out any injury to the bone.

What is the treatment?

Muscle strains are treated with rest, ice, compression, and elevation, or RICE. You will be told to rest the injured area to reduce pain and swelling. If the strain is in the leg or foot area, you may need to use crutches. Ice packs are recommended at regular intervals (as recommended by your doctor) over the first few days after the injury. Ice causes the blood vessels to constrict, which reduces inflammation and pain. Anti-inflammatory medications might also be used to relieve pain. Compression and elevation help to reduce swelling. Your doctor may also recommend physical therapy to speed your recovery. You should avoid the type of activity that caused the injury until the muscle is completely healed. Self-care tips

You can prevent muscle strains by warming up for at least 10 minutes before participating in any strenuous exercise or heavy lifting. When you warm up, you increase the blood circulation to the muscle and prepare it for exercise. When starting any new exercise program or sport, it's important to begin gradually so your muscles are conditioned for the activity.

Steroids
Anabolic steroids, which are synthetic versions of the primary male sex hormone testosterone, can be injected, taken orally, or used transdermally. These drugs are Controlled Substances that can be prescribed to treat conditions such as body wasting in patients with AIDS, and other diseases that occur when the body produces abnormally low amounts of testosterone. However, the doses prescribed to treat these medical conditions are 10 to 100 times lower than the doses that are used for performance enhancement.

Let me be clear:- while anabolic steroids can enhance certain types of performance or appearance,they are dangerous drugs, and when used inappropriately, they can cause a host of severe, long-lasting, and often irreversible negative health consequences. These drugs can stunt the height of growing adolescents, masculinize women, and alter sex characteristics of men. Anabolic steroids can lead to premature heart attacks, strokes, liver tumors, kidney failure and serious psychiatric problems. In addition, because steroids are often injected, users risk contracting or transmitting HIV or hepatitis.

Abuse of anabolic steroids differs from the abuse of other illicit substances because the initial use of anabolic steroids is not driven by the immediate euphoria that accompanies most drugs of abuse, such as cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, but by the desire of the user to change their appearance and performance, characteristics of great importance to adolescents. These effects of steroids can boost confidence and strength leading the user to overlook the potential serious long-term damage that these substances can cause.

Government agencies such as NIDA support research that increases our understanding of the impact of steroid use and improves our ability to prevent abuse of these drugs. For example, NIDA funding led to the development of two highly effective programs that not only prevent anabolic steroid abuse among male and female high school athletes, but also promote other healthy behaviors and attitudes. The ATLAS (targeting male athletes) and ATHENA (targeting female athletes) programs have been adopted by schools in 29 states and Puerto Rico. Both Congress and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration have endorsed ATLAS and ATHENA as model prevention programs, which could and should be implemented in more communities throughout the country.

In addition to these prevention programs and other research efforts, also has invested in public education efforts to increase awareness about the dangers of steroid abuse. We have material on our website about steroid abuse at www.steroidabuse.gov and in April 2005 we again will distribute a "Game Plan" public service announcement designed to bring attention to abuse of anabolic steroids.

Research has shown that the inappropriate use of anabolic steroids can have catastrophic medical, psychiatric and behavioral consequences.

I hope that students, parents, teachers, coaches and others will take advantage of the information on our website about anabolic steroids abuse and join us in our prevention and education efforts. Participating in sports offers many benefits, but young people and adults shouldn't take unnecessary health risks in an effort to win.(Nora D. Volkow, M.D.)

-Human-made substances related to male sex hormones. Some athletes abuse anabolic steroids to enhance performance. Abuse of anabolic steroids can lead to serious health problems, some of which are irreversible.

Major side effects can include liver tumors and cancer, jaundice, high blood pressure, kidney tumors, severe acne, and trembling. In males, side effects may include shrinking of the testicles and breast development. In females, side effects may include growth of facial hair, menstrual changes, and deepened voice. In teenagers, growth may be halted prematurely and permanently.

The therapeutic use of steroids can be realized by patients and their doctors by using them in a manner that is beneficial to the person.

MyoD and other muscular factors
MyoD is a protein and a transcription factor that activates muscle cell differentiation by turning on transcription of specific regulatory genes. It turns stem cells into myoblasts, a cell that can turn into many muscle cell, also called "muscle stem cell". MyoD belongs to a family of proteins knowns as myogenic regulatory factor(MRFs). MyoD can also turn on transcription of its own regulatory genes (MyoD protein coding genes), and this means that it can produce more of itself. The positive feedback turns on transcription of other muscle proteins, cell cycle blockers, and microRNA-206. One of the main actions of MyoD is to remove cells from the cell cycle by enhancing the transcription of p21The function of MyoD is to commit mesoderm cells to a skeletal lineage. MyoD can also regulate muscle repair. One of the main actions of MyoD is to remove cells from the cell cycle by enhancing the transcription of p21. Bidirectional Signalling- muscle cells and nerves cells send signals back and forth to each other. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis(ALS) is a loss of motor neuron and this blocks the formation of neuromuscular junctions. Therefore, no muscle growth which means a potential of leading to paralysis. Stephen Hawking suffers from this disease.

Muscle Homeostasis
MicroRNA-206 indirectly forms neuromuscular junctions with motor neurons. Neuromuscular junction sends synaptic signals to MyoD and this blocks MyoD and stops or limits muscle development. Myostatin is a protein that also blocks MyoD. Without myostatin, muscle development increases.

Myostatin Mutations In Sheep: they can have a mutant myostatin that causes microRNA-206 to block myostatin translation

Myostatin Mutations In Humans: humans with mutant myostatin will develop lots of muscle (like a body builder) is possible to create a drug that blocks myostatin production.

Smooth Muscle Contraction

 * Contractions are initiated by an influx of calcium which binds to calmodulin.
 * The calcium-calmodulin complex binds to and activates myosin light-chain kinase.
 * Myosin light-chain kinase phosphorylates myosin light-chains using ATP, causing them to interact with actin filaments.
 * Powerstroke.
 * Calcium is actively pumped out of the cell by receptor regulated channels. A second messanger, IP3, causes the release.
 * As calcium is removed the calcium-calmodulin complex breaks away from the myosin light-chain kinase, stopping phosphorylation.
 * Myosin phophatase dephosphorylates the myosin. If the myosin was bound to an actin molecule, the release is slow, this is called a latch state. In this manner, smooth muscle is able to stay contracted for some time without the use of much ATP. If the myosin was not bound to an actin chain it loses its affinity for actin.

It should be noted that ATP is still needed for crossbridge cycling, and that there is no reserve, such as creatine phosphate, available. Most ATP is created from aerobic metabolism, however anaerobic production may take place in times of low oxygen concentrations.

Cardiac Muscle
Cardiac muscle is found in the hearts of humans. They are shaped like skeletal muscles but work like smooth muscles. The cardiac muscle is responsible for the contractility of the heart and, therefore, the pumping action.

ATP in the Human Body
Muscles cells, like all cells, use ATP as an energy source. The total quantity of ATP in the human body at any one time is about 0.1 Mole. The energy used by human cells requires the hydrolysis of 200 to 300 moles of ATP daily. This means that each ATP molecule is recycled 2000 to 3000 times during a single day. ATP cannot be stored, hence its consumption must closely follow its synthesis. On a per-hour basis, 1 kilogram of ATP is created, processed and then recycled in the body. Looking at it another way, a single cell uses about 10 million ATP molecules per second to meet its metabolic needs, and recycles all of its ATP molecules about every 20-30 seconds.

Lactic Acid
Catabolized carbohydrates is known as glycolysis. The end product of glycolysis, pyruvate can go into different directions depending on aerobic or anaerobic conditions. In aerobic it goes through the Krebs cycle and in anaerobic it goes through the Cori cycle. In the Cori cycle pyruvate is converted to lactate, this forms lactic acid, lactic acid causes muscle fatigue. In the aerobic conditions pyruvate goes through the Krebs cycle. For more about Krebs cycle refer to chapter 2 Cell Physiology.

Dermatomyositis and Polymyositis
Dermatomyositis and polymyositis cause inflammation of the muscles. They are rare disorders, affecting only about one in 100,000 people per year. More women than men are affected. Although the peak age of onset is in the 50s, the disorders can occur at any age.

Signs and symptoms — Patients complain of muscle weakness that usually worsens over several months, though in some cases symptoms come on suddenly. The affected muscles are close to the trunk (as opposed to in the wrists or feet), involving for example the hip, shoulder, or neck muscles. Muscles on both sides of the body are equally affected. In some cases, muscles are sore or tender. Some patients have involvement of the muscles of the pharynx (throat) or the esophagus (the tube leading from the throat to the stomach), causing problems with swallowing. In some cases, this leads to food being misdirected from the esophagus to the lungs, causing severe pneumonia.

In dermatomyositis, there is a rash, though sometimes the rash resolves before muscle problems occur. A number of different types of rash can occur, including rashes on the fingers, the chest and shoulders, or on the upper eyelids (show picture 1-3). In rare cases, the rash of dermatomyositis appears but myopathy never develops.

Other problems sometimes associated with these diseases include fever, weight loss, arthritis, cold-induced color changes in the fingers or toes (Raynaud phenomenon), and heart or lung problems.

Muscle Atrophy
Alternative names : Atrophy of the muscles, Muscle wasting, Wasting

The majority of muscle atrophy in the general population results from disuse. People with sedentary jobs and senior citizens with decreased activity can lose muscle tone and develop significant atrophy. This type of atrophy is reversible with vigorous exercise. Bed-ridden people can undergo significant muscle wasting. Astronauts, free of the gravitational pull of Earth, can develop decreased muscle tone and loss of calcium from their bones following just a few days of weightlessness.

Muscle atrophy resulting from disease rather than disuse is generally one of two types, that resulting from damage to the nerves that supply the muscles, and disease of the muscle itself. Examples of diseases affecting the nerves that control muscles would be poliomyelitis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), and Guillain-Barre syndrome. Examples of diseases affecting primarily the muscles would include muscular dystrophy, myotonia congenita, and myotonic dystrophy as well as other congenital, inflammatory or metabolic myopathies.

Even minor muscle atrophy usually results in some loss of mobility or power.

Common Causes

 * some atrophy that occurs normally with ageing
 * cerebrovascular accident (stroke)
 * spinal cord injury
 * peripheral nerve injury (peripheral neuropathy)
 * other injury
 * prolonged immobilization
 * osteoarthritis
 * rheumatoid arthritis
 * prolonged corticosteroid therapy
 * diabetes (diabetic neuropathy)
 * burns
 * poliomyelitis
 * amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease)
 * Guillain-Barre syndrome
 * muscular dystrophy
 * myotonia congenita
 * myotonic dystrophy
 * myopathy

Muscular Dystrophy
Muscular dystrophy (MD) is a group of rare inherited muscle diseases in which muscle fibers are unusually susceptible to damage. Muscles, primarily voluntary muscles, become progressively weaker. In the late stages of muscular dystrophy, muscle fibers are often replaced by fat and connective tissue. In some types of muscular dystrophy, heart muscles, other involuntary muscles and other organs are affected.

The most common types of muscular dystrophy appear to be due to a genetic deficiency of the muscle protein dystrophin. There's no cure for muscular dystrophy, but medications and therapy can slow the course of the disease.

Sleep Twitches
The twitching phenomenon that happens in the early stage of sleep is called a hypnagogic massive jerk, or simply a hypnic jerk. It has also been referred to as a sleep start. There has been little research on this topic, but there have been some theories put forth. When the body drifts off into sleep, it undergoes physiological changes related to body temperature, breathing rate and muscular tone. Hypnic jerks may be the result of muscle changes. Another theory suggests that the transition from the waking to the sleeping state signals the body to relax. But the brain may interpret the relaxation as a sign of falling and then signal the arms and legs to wake up. Electroencephalogram studies have shown sleep starts affect almost 10 percent of the population regularly, 80 percent occasionally, and another 10 percent rarely.

Muscle movement or twitching also may take place during the Rapid Eye Movement, or REM, phase of sleep. This also is the time when dreams occur. During the REM phase, all voluntary muscular activity stops with a drop in muscle tone, but some individuals may experience slight eyelid or ear twitching or slight jerks. Some people with REM behavioral disorder, or RBD, may experience more violent muscular twitching and full-fledged activity during sleep. This is because they do not achieve muscle paralysis, and as a result, act out their dreams. Researchers think that people with RBD lack neurological barriers that define the different stages of sleep. New research done by the Mayo Clinic and published in the July 2003 issue of Sleep Medicine shows that melatonin can help lessen RBD symptoms.

Resources:
 * Sleep twitches, or myoclonic jerks, as they are sometimes called, are explained in easily understood language on this website.
 * Learn more about REM Behavior Disorder, or RBD, and treatment for sufferers.
 * View information about various sleep disorders such as insomnia, apnea, and narcolepsy.

Microbiology

 * Clostridium tetani
 * Tetanus
 * Normally a nerve impulse initiates contraction of a muscle. At the same time, an opposing muscle receives the signal to relax so as not to oppose the contraction.  Tetanus toxin blocks the relaxation, so both sets of muscle contract. The usual cause of tetany is lack of calcium, but excess of phosphate (high phosphate-to-calcium ratio) can also trigger the spasms.

 * Clostridium botulinum
 * Infant botulism (floppy baby syndrome) the most common form of botulism in the U.S. of the four forms of botulism.
 * If ingested, the toxin is absorbed in the intestine, goes to the blood, and on to the nervous system. It acts on the peripheral nervous system by blocking the impulse that is normally passes along to the nervous system.  By blocking the impulse that is normally passed along to motor end plates so the muscle contraction can be released, resulting in paralysis.

Glossary

 * Actin:A protein that forms a long polymer rods called microfilaments; Interacts with myosin to cause movement in muscles.

 * ATP:"Adenosine Triphosphate" is a nucleotide that comes from adenosine that takes place in muscle tissue: This provides a large source of energy for cellular reactions.

 * Cardiac muscle: is also an "involuntary muscle" but it's a specialized kind of muscle found only within the heart.

 * Clostridium botulinum:   A pathogen that causes botulism, gram stain positive, morphology is rod shaped, grows in  anaerobic conditions, and produces spores.
 * Clostridium tetani: A pathogen that causes lock jaw, gram stain positive, morphology is tennis racket shaped rod, grows in anaerobic conditions, and produces spores.

 * Cori cycle: In anaerobic conditions produces lactic acid.

 * Cramp: A localized muscle spasm that happens after strenuous activity.

 * Glycogen: Glucose that has been converted for energy storage. Muscles store energy for their own use in this form.

 * Lactic acid: Causes muscle fatigue.

 * Muscle:Contractile tissue that is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells.

 * Muscular Dystrophy:A hereditary disease characterized by progressive atrophy of muscle fibers

 * Myosin: The fibrous motor protein that uses ATP to drive movements along actin filaments.

 * Sarcoplasmic Reticulum: Smooth-surfaced tubules forming a plexus around each myofibril that function as a storage and release area for calcium ions (CA+2).

 * Skeletal muscle: this "voluntary muscle" is anchored by tendons to the bone and is used to affect skeletal movement such as locomotion.

 * Smooth muscle: this "involuntary muscle" is found within the walls of organs and structures such as the esophagus, stomach, intestines, bronchi, uterus, ureters, bladder, and blood vessels.

 * Sprain: Injuries that involves a stretched or torn ligament.

 * Strain: A injury to the muscle or tendon attachment

charitin; a form of drug use to ensure muscle growth.

title: Human Physiology/The Muscular System


text:
Talk:Haskell/Lists and tuples

DavidHouse: oops! Sorry about those edit conflicts! Don't think I'll have much time for wikibook hacking. Over to you. -- Kowey 18:05, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Dupes
Is the List section supposed to summarize or duplicate Haskell/Lists or what? I'm just confused. --maru (talk) contribs 23:38, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

 * DavidHouse and I were rearranging things. Haskell/Lists should probably be renamed to something like Haskell/More on lists. This page is meant to be very introductory; give the reader the bare list and tuple essentials for learning the other stuff.  -- Kowey 08:48, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

FIXME: Is this too hard?
I'm not sure what you meant by that comment. Coming up with the answer "You can't just add on to a tuple because it has a size restraint" is trivial. Coming up with a more in-depth answer doesn't seem feasible to me, as a programming novice, without more information than covered so far.

-Humble Reader, 10/04/06 10:58 pm

consistent form for describing operators?
The comma operator is mentioned with double quotes around the comma, and the cons operator is written with parentheses. It might be nice for them to be done in bold, so I can tell if the is textually parenthesizing of if the parentheses are part of the formal definition, and whether the comma operator is formally defined with or without parens. Msouth 14:53, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

cons8 exercise: write a function that takes a list? how?
Am I supposed to know how to write a function that "takes a list"? I tried to figure out how to tell my function to expect a list, didn't know how to do it. It might be easier for people to guess what to do if you just said "write a function cons8 that takes a single argument and conses 8 on to it" or something like that. Msouth 15:12, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

lists - we should introduce ++ before :
How about introducing ++ before :? It would be easier to understand as it's commutative. We would need to give examples such as
 * [someThing]++someListofThings

The : should be mentioned last, only after it's clear what lists are, and how they must have elements of the same type. I think the list of lists example should be mentioned before : also. Concatenation of lists is easier to understand then is cons. Aaron McDaid (talk) 23:08, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

 * Especially given that operator ++ is needed to solve exercise 3. --2A02:8433:3580:3D00:5635:30FF:FEA8:D0B6 (discuss) 08:29, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

 * is introduced first because it is more fundamental and important to understand what lists are made of. Furthermore, prioritising  can induce newcomers to use it in situations where   would be enough, which is poor style and can lead to performance woes. The exercise 3 you mention is pedagogically a little risky in that respect already; talking about   first would make it worse.--Duplode (discuss • contribs) 14:55, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

Pattern matching already?
I don't think this including pattern matching to show how the fst function works is actually useful to people if they don't know what it is; we shouldn't show things that have not yet been covered. --Digichoron (discuss • contribs) 19:22, 4 April 2011 (UTC)

 * Attacked the issue by removing the forward reference and adding a proper introductory example to the Recursion chapter (and, as a side effect, bringing head and tail into play here). --Duplode (discuss • contribs) 07:53, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Request amendment of discussion of length function
This is the input and output on my (latest stable) version of ghci:

length :: Foldable t => t a -> Int

Miroslav65 (discuss • contribs) 03:07, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

 * Thanks for pointing it out. GHC 7.10 has generalised the type of  and several other functions, so that they can be used not only with lists but also with some other structures. I won't make the amendment right now, as there are some other places in the book which also need to be adjusted and we'd rather do that in a coordinated way, but it is definitely in the plans.--Duplode (discuss • contribs) 19:04, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

 * I finally got around to fixing this passage. The example here was changed to use  rather than  ; as for , it is now used as a motivating example to make a preliminary remark about   in Haskell/Type basics II. I'm not too sure about how well that will work, but at least it reflects the current state of affairs. Cheers, Duplode (discuss • contribs) 02:59, 10 December 2016 (UTC)

Minor Typographic Edit of Notes Requested
In the notes section, Note 1 says "In some way cases they can be annoying." I'd change that to either "In some ways" or "In some cases," but I'm not familiar enough with Wikibooks editing to find the Notes section, so FYI. Miroslav65 (discuss • contribs) 06:16, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

 * Fixed. In such cases, the text of the footnotes is within the paragraph they are linked from, inside tags.--Duplode (discuss • contribs) 18:54, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

Update GHCi output?
GHCi error messages have changed somewhat from the ones given. In GHCi 7.8.4

instead of the given

But this should probably be changed generally.

Android B780 (discuss • contribs) 13:13, 30 December 2016 (UTC)

 * It would be nice to change them, specially given that some of the messages have improved. There aren't that many error messages across the book, so updating them all in a single pass shouldn't be too much trouble; I will look into that later.

 * (By the way, thanks for the correction at Type Basics II. Without it, I would have taken much longer to notice that the same edits that introduced that typo left a few other things needing to be adjusted around that point of the text.)

 * Cheers, Duplode (discuss • contribs) 04:26, 3 January 2017 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Haskell/Lists and tuples


text:
User talk:68.201.239.110

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally. Kellen T 18:37, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Please also check out the Cookbook policy page and the Cookbook talk pages.

Blanking pages
Hiya, you blanked this page. If the page isn't needed any more, please be sure to put up a template so we don't end up with lots of empty and unnecessary pages. Kellen T 18:37, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:68.201.239.110


text:
Category:Southeast Asian recipes

from Southeast Asia.

title: Category:Southeast Asian recipes


text:
User:A3392

About me
I have a BS in Electrical Engineering from Temple University. During my time (it was a long time) at Temple I always wanted a resource that could help me better understand the classes I was in. I hope that my contributions can help students or hobbyists.

title: User:A3392


text:
Physical Activity/Injury

Major possible Injuries
One of the common kinds of sports and fitness-related injuries (non- major) are strains, depending on the kind of fitness you are practicing, these can be localised in the arms or legs (most commonly) but also in the back area (not uncommon). It is important to watch back strain and possible injury very closely as it can become a long-term problem or conceal other medical problems.

It is not uncommon for strains and other minor injuries to not be obvious at the time of injury, usually developing later during the same day or the next morning (this may be caused by the body still being full of anti-pain chemicals that prevent the body unfit for activity that may increase its survival).

Injury prevention and stretching
One of the best ways to decrease the amount of injuries you encounter in sports and fitness are uses of proper stretching and warm up/cool downs. warming up is the activity of preparing your body for the fitness activity and cooling down is the end part of a physical activity. A key part of both of this process is stretching, during this activity light movements are undertaken that increase your flexibility and decrease the likelihood of strain injuries

More major injuries are often course by lack of care being taken during proper short and fitness activities, it is vital that you read information available to you and make sure you are using the equipment (including safety gear correctly)

Stretching exercises usually take the form of extending a muscle (see Static and Dynamic) through a slow movement arch that exercises and prepares the muscles for training, it is important that a large group of muscles that are going to be used in the main exercises are stretched prior to it, stretching is also generally more effective after a short warm up.

 * A simple work out plain that might be followed:
 * 10-20 min warm up aerobic exercise gradual rising intensity.
 * Stretching program of 5-10 min (depending on results wanted).
 * Strength training or other form of activity.
 * 10-20 min cool down aerobic exercise with gradual lowering intensity.
 * Reverse stretching program.

Treating injuries
Firstly it is a recommended that you delay any further fitness activities, most often minor strains and injuries will fade after a few days of decreased overall physical activity.

Usually of effective use are the commonly on sale at most supermarkets are topical gels that can ether numb pain in that area (such as UK product ibuprofen gel) or ‘heat’ the area to ease strains (UK product ‘deep heat’) these are useful products but are best used only as directed and not over used if the pain is worse, they are short-term treatments for temporary pains only.

title: Physical Activity/Injury


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User:Beniamin~enwikibooks

My name is Benjamin, and I'm a homeschooled student from Texas. I'm just an editor at Wikibooks, adding a space here, maybe a comma there. I do more writing at Wikipedia.

title: User:Beniamin~enwikibooks


text:
Perl Programming/Simple examples 1

This script counts the number of occurences of each letter in a file:

If you executed this program on a file containing the sentence "The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.", you would see this as output:

a appeared once. b appeared once. c appeared once. d appeared once. e appeared 3 times. f appeared once. g appeared once. h appeared 2 times. i appeared once. j appeared once. k appeared once. l appeared once. m appeared once. n appeared once. o appeared 4 times. p appeared once. q appeared once. r appeared 2 times. s appeared once. t appeared 2 times. u appeared 2 times. v appeared once. w appeared once. x appeared once. y appeared once. z appeared once.

I have added a bit to this code to enable the user to create a report of the data if they wish:

title: Perl Programming/Simple examples 1


text:
User:Rozzychan/sandbox

 Previous < Up > Next : Index

Detail Level
 Easy

 * Why are plants green?

 * Why do leaves change color in the fall?

 Advanced
 * Excited states
 * Photosystems
 * C4 plants

 why are plants green? Covalent bonding  Covalent bonding  Covalent bonding

Photosynthesis

 * [[Image:Leafpurple40.jpg]]

title: User:Rozzychan/sandbox


text:
Talk:Israeli History/The Zionist Movement

'' Which jew is the best, discuss: - A Jew who is completely assimilated and marries a non-Jew - A very Zionistic Jew who fights in the IDF - A Jew who learns all day in the U.S. ''

Are you serious? This is some seriously heavy propaganda. Jews are the most Talented,sharp minded,Laborious,Honest persons in the world after Hindus.


text:
Talk:Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Stars - Advanced

Please don't change the requirements for this honor. We're using the NAD version of the requirements which can generally be found at http://www.pathfindersonline.org/html/honors/honors_ay_manual.htm and this one in particular can be found at http://www.pathfindersonline.org/pdf/ayhonors/stars_a.pdf


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User talk:JDDunn9

Spam
Stop spamming Wikibooks with links to your site or you will be banned. We already have links to the sites which you have taken content from. Additionally, your site incorrectly states, "Copyright ?2006, eLanguageSchool.net All rights reserved." You do not have copyright over the GFDL'd content found on your site. You will be banned if you spam Wikibooks again. I hope you will be able to make constructive edits to our site in the future. Thanks, hagindaz 22:01, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Ignorance or Stupidity
You should look up the definition of spam. I'll give you a hint, it's not relevant links on relevant topics. Furthermore, there are no links in those locations that are nearly as conclusive as elanguageschool.net. Also elanguageschool.net owns the copyright to their own logo, and all content and images that originate with them. All other copyrighted materials are used with permission and have been properly credited. Thanks, jddunn9 16:21, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

 * Wikibooks is not a collection of any and all "relevant links." Check google for that. Any one of the follwing reasons would be enough to remove your link:

# Neither does any encyclopedia. # First off, who doesn't use cookies? Also, you can use anything but the media lessons without cookies. # So what? So does Yahoo, eBay, and About.com # Show me a single site on the planet with that much content organized as well. It is unmatched. # Maybe you should read the copyright section, as long as credit is given, it's perfectly OK. # Such as...
 * 1) Your site contains no unique content, only copies from other sites, including Wikibooks, the site you link from.
 * 1) Your site is not usable without cookies, while the sites which you have taken content from are.
 * 1) Your site contains ads, while the sites which you have taken content from do not.
 * 1) Your site is just a dump of content, while the sites which you have taken content from are actually sensibly organized.
 * 1) You do not have copyright over Wikibooks content that you did not create, and your site is therefore a violation of the GFDL.
 * 1) Your site falls into the "links to be avoided" category on w:WP:EL, on multiple counts.

 * You are not a random user who happened to find a good site on the net. According to w:WP:SPAM, a spammer adds "mere advertisements or self-promotion, or spewing external links to a Web site over many articles," which fits you perfectly, and is proven by your editing habit (going from page to page, rearranging links to highlight yours, adding your link several times on each page, etc - all of which constitute vandalism). --hagindaz 22:07, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

# I haven't added ads, rearranged links, or added several links on the same page. No need to just flat out lie.

title: User talk:JDDunn9


text:
User talk:82.194.205.75

Rakehell
Hi. I have deleted the page Rakehell because it does not appear to be a textbook. If you do wish to write a textbook on the subject, then please recreate the page after reading WB:NEW. Thanks. --hagindaz 22:08, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:82.194.205.75


text:
Talk:Human Physiology/The Muscular System

Steroids
I think the whole "Steroids" section should be reviewed at least, potentially removed. It seems self-serving and opinionated as opposed to evidence based.

Removal of ATP Production
I was thinking that the ATP production section in this chapter is mostly a repeat from the cell chapter. Seems like it's not needed- does anyone else have an opinion on this? -Stephanie March 13

D

Goals for the wikibook
I thought this might help us to keep on top of the book and get as much done as we can. If anyone has any ideas to have as a goal please fill free to post it. 1. Let communicate with each other. 2. One idea I had was to post any clinical cases you might have where applicable.

Copy from Wikipedia
I notice that alot of this information currently is copied from wikipedia. Wikibooks and wikipedia are sister projects, so copying isn't a big problem. However, all the links from the wikipedia artical will show up as red "broken" links here. The artical is a good starting point, but make sure you add alot of new, good information. This is supposed to be an entire book, remember, not just a single artical! --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 22:19, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Remove the links
As Whiteknight has noted, it is fine to post some links for additional information if there are some topics that you are not going to go into as much depth about, but in general each chapter should be complete without having to follow 10 different links. To remove the links just edit the page and delete the brackets around the words. Glad to see you are getting off the ground! ~Kevin Provophys 23:46, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Images
I've found some resources for you and your chapter:

commons:Category:Muscles

commons:Category:Gray's Anatomy plates

Let me know if you need help importing these images into your page. --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 14:48, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Fast twitch slow twitch
I didn't see anything about fast and slow twitch--should we add something?

Fat cell numbers change dramatically in post-natal life
A slight correction is indicated to the assertion that fat cell numbers do not change. Otherwise this assertion should be omitted. While adipose cells are known to increase extraordinarily in size (hypertrophy), it is also true that fat contains adult stem cells which proliferate and form new fat cells in postnatal life (hyperplasia). Thus obesity is due to increases in both the number and size of fat cells, and fat represents one of the most dynamic and plastic permanent tissues in the human body. e.g. PMID: 17726433.

Is there any study showed that brain cell is merely a energy storage pocket for a sole purpose of triggering mass energy block, like specific muscle?


text:
Talk:Human Physiology/The female reproductive system

Images
Your chapter doesnt have many images, so i found a few extra for you.

There are plenty of other images on the server, but many of them are photographic depictions of nude women, so they may not be appropriate. Ask your professor first. --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 23:40, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

how can we download these file? or we cann't?

G Spot
You show the G-Spot in the urethra, not the vagina. fatmarauder@gmail.com 108.216.66.77 (discuss) 21:00, 3 December 2012 (UTC)

Types of Birth Control, misleading language, bias
In several of the birth control methods listed in the table it seems someone appended the following statement "but can also operate by killing a fertilized egg by preventing its implantation" which in at least one case is incorrect and in all cases is dubious in wording if not in how factual it is.

This strikes me as almost certainly biased, charged rhetoric used in political NOT scientific debate.

In the case of the morning after pill (plan B) the following npr article and the links within it clearly show evidence that it does no such thing. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/02/22/172595689/morning-after-pills-dont-cause-abortion-studies-say

In the other cases none of the methods have been definitively of casually established to operate in such a manner.

As such I believe the language should be removed from the listing for plan B and made much more neutral in all other instances to make it clear that although there is debate about whether they prevent implantation it has neither been established nor ruled out.

In particular I take issue with the term "killing", it is far from neutral and in my opinion betrays the editor's bias.

The edit in question which added this text is: [https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php?title=Human_Physiology/The_female_reproductive_system&diff=2224136&oldid=2204048 01:54, 30 November 2011 MichaelJoseph (discuss | contribs) m. . (68,893 bytes) (+455). . (→Types of Birth Control: added effects of some birth control methods on fertilized eggs in a few places)] [checked by Xania]. That edit served ONLY to append those lines.

I have created an account and taken the action of reverting these changes.

If someone would like to rewrite/add-to the article/section to reflect the valid debate and lack of understanding/consensus on mechanism for the methods for which it is still unclear they are encouraged to do so in a fair and npov manner.

Furthermore I would encourage anyone considering updating the text to include something on this controversial/debatable mechanism of action to post here regarding any changes or planned changes explaining rationale, evidence, reasoning, etc. Edit wars are undesirable, thank you. --Ascientificmind (discuss • contribs) 23:46, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Edit: Seems I can't edit the page because I'm a newly registered user, I'll try to remember to come back and fix this but as I have no idea how long the period is during which I'll be considered a "new user" I can't be sure I will soon. As such if anyone else sees this and the language is still there I would appreciate it being reverted. --Ascientificmind (discuss • contribs) 00:10, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

New to Wikibooks, but old to Wikipedia
I'm not certain what kind of permissions it takes to be allowed to edit this book, but I've been researching topics related to the female reproductive system and have a lot to contribute. I adhere to the reliable source guidelines in the Project:Medicine and so all my info is documented and up-to-date.  Bfpage |leave a message 01:42, 29 April 2015 (UTC)


text:
Talk:X86 Assembly/YASM Syntax

If YASM is a ground-up rewrite of NASM, except under a different licence, then perhaps we should consider merging this page with the NASM page, and including a note, or something. --Whiteknight (talk) (projects) 22:49, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:X86 Assembly/YASM Syntax


text:
Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Michael Corner

Overview
Michael Corner is a Ravenclaw student in the same year as Harry.

Order of the Phoenix
Michael Corner attends the first meeting of Dumbledore's Army (although that name hasn't yet been chosen) at the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade. After the meeting breaks up, Hermione tells Harry and Ron that Michael had been there because Ginny Weasley had attended. Ginny and Michael, she says, are currently going out together. This causes Ron to state that he doesn't trust Michael. Carefully, because she was aware that Harry and Ginny had been speculatively linked, Hermione goes on to say that Ginny had been waiting for Harry but had given up, and had met Michael at the Yule Ball in the previous year. They had started going out shortly after that.

As Harry is unable to play as Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Ginny takes his place. The final match of the year pits Gryffindor against Ravenclaw; and when Ginny catches the Snitch out from under Cho Chang's nose, Michael sulks instead of congratulating his girlfriend. Ginny then "ditched him, and he went off to comfort Cho Chang instead." On the Hogwarts Express, when Ginny tells this to Ron and Harry, Ron hints that she might now be able to find someone better, implying that Harry would be that someone; Ginny says that she's going out now with Dean Thomas.

Half-Blood Prince
Michael Corner asks a question of Professor Slughorn during his and Harry's first potion class.

Deathly Hallows
As he leads Harry, Ron, and Hermione into the school from the Hog's Head, Neville mentions that Michael Corner had gotten caught releasing a first-year student that the Carrows had chained up as punishment. Michael had gotten very badly beaten for that, which had slowed down the activities of the revived Dumbledore's Army; Neville, the one remaining leader, felt that they could not ask anyone else to go through what Michael had suffered.

When Harry returns to the school, Michael Corner is one of the students in the Room of Requirement waiting for his return. He does have a role in the ensuing battle, but we don't see much of him.

Relationships with Other Characters
It is perhaps interesting that Michael and Harry have shared romantic interest in the same girls; Michael dated Ginny before Harry did, and dated Cho after Harry had done so.


text:
Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Miles Bletchley

Overview
Miles Bletchley is an older student in Slytherin House; he is the keeper for the Slytherin Quidditch team.

Philosopher's Stone
Miles Bletchley is mentioned as being the Keeper of the Slytherin house team in the game against Gryffindor.

Prisoner of Azkaban
In the Quidditch Final, Slytherin against Gryffindor, it is mentioned that Marcus Flint, team captain, has juggled the lineup in favour of brawn versus skill. The keeper in that match is never named, so we may assume that it is probably not Bletchley, who is named in earlier and later matches where he is Keeper.

Order of the Phoenix
Alicia Spinnet goes to the Hospital Wing with her eyebrows growing so thick and fast that they obscure her vision and obstruct her mouth. Despite fourteen eye-witnesses who saw Miles Bletchley, here identified as the Slytherin keeper, jinx Alicia from behind as she worked in the library, Professor Snape insists that she must have tried a hair-thickening charm on herself.

In the only game that Harry plays, against Slytherin, Bletchley is mentioned as being Keeper.


text:
Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Avery

Overview
Avery (whose first name is never given) is a Death Eater. He has remained free.

Goblet of Fire
When the Trio are visiting Sirius Black in his cave, Sirius mentions that Avery was a member of a group of future death eaters that Severus Snape was also a part of and, from what he heard, got out of Azkaban by saying he had been under the Imperius curse, and was now at large.

When Lord Voldemort returns to life and summons his Death Eaters, Avery is one of the ones who returns to the call. Avery breaks ranks to plead for forgiveness and is rewarded with the Cruciatus curse.

Order of the Phoenix
In a dream, Harry sees Voldemort discussing a plan with one of his Death Eaters. It seems that Avery has suggested a certain way to retrieve an object, and it has not worked. Augustus Rookwood, a one-time Ministry employee, is explaining that it could never have worked, and Voldemort, hearing this, orders Avery to attend him. Harry wakes up, wrenches his attention away, and tries to ignore Voldemort torturing Avery.

Avery is one of the twelve Death Eaters ranged against Harry and the five other members of Dumbledore's Army in the climactic Battle in the Department of Mysteries. We believe that Avery was one of the ten Death Eaters left standing in the room of the Veil, and thus one of the nine held in that room by Albus Dumbledore's anti-Apparition spell at the end of the battle.

Half-Blood Prince
Avery is only mentioned in passing here due to being sent Azkaban at the end of the previous novel. Severus Snape names him among the Death Eaters who did not search for Voldemort following his failed attack on the Potters.

Twice, Professor Dumbledore and Harry visit Horace Slughorn's memories of one particular night when Slughorn is meeting with Tom Riddle and his associates. In both of those memories, Slughorn notes that it is eleven o'clock, and says that it is time to send the gathered students off to bed, remarking to two of them, Avery and Lestrange, that they have an essay due. It should be noted that this is not the same Avery we usually see, as he was born a generation later.

Deathly Hallows
In Severus Snape's memory, we see Lily Evans expressing dislike of Snape's friends, specifically naming Avery and Mulciber.

Weaknesses
Avery doesn't seem to be very competent.

Analysis
We've been given two references that Avery was a friend of Snape's when they were at Hogwarts. This contradicts Slughorn's memory in book six showing Avery as a friend of Tom Riddle's, a generation before Snape's. From this we are to assume that there are two Avery's and that the Avery that knew Tom Riddle is the father of the one that knew Snape. It is our belief that the Avery mentioned in most of the series is the later one, the one who knew Snape, and who would be about thirty years old during the series, rather than the one who went to school with Tom Riddle, who would be in his sixties during this story, if he is still alive.


text:
Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Ludovic Bagman

Overview
Ludovic Bagman, head of the Division for Magical Games and Sports is a very flamboyant wizard, always bounding around and trying to look like he is having a lot of fun. He is relatively short, rather fat, and has the look of a powerful man rather gone to seed. He seems rather flighty, paying more attention to his entertainments than to his job.

Goblet of Fire
Ludo Bagman bounces around the campground at the Quidditch World Cup, talking up a storm and placing and taking bets. He is commentator for the match, but when the Snitch is finally caught, he seems rather shaken, and becomes rather hard to find; obviously, he has made a few bad bets. One of the bets that had been placed was with Fred and George Weasley, that the Bulgarian Seeker, Krum, would catch the Snitch but that Ireland would win, and they had won that bet.

During the riot at the campsite, Harry, Ron, and Hermione meet Ludo in the woods. Ludo seems preoccupied, and is unaware of the riot until told about it; he then Disapparates, possibly to the campground to see what is going on. Shortly after the Dark Mark appears, he Apparates back in, and is quite surprised to see all the wizards who have appeared to find the spell-caster. Throughout, Ludo appears preoccupied.

Ludo is present at Hogwarts for the selection of the Champions at the opening of the Triwizard Tournament. It turns out that he is to be one of the five judges, the others being Albus Dumbledore, Igor Karkaroff, Olympe Maxime, and Bartemius Crouch Sr.

He is present again when the names of the Champions are produced by the Goblet on the following day. While he is as shocked as anyone when Harry's name comes out of the Goblet as the fourth of the three Champions, once he is over his shock he seems to think it great fun. When the judges meet with the Champions after the selection is complete, Madame Maxime and Igor Karkaroff are angry, feeling that Hogwarts has unjustly managed to get itself two Champions; Dumbledore is more rational, trying to determine what courses of action are open to them now; Crouch is remote, only quoting rules at the other parties; and Bagman seems to be actively trying to get the other Judges to accept Harry as a fourth contestant.

Harry agrees to go to Hogsmeade with Hermione, though he insists on using his Invisibility Cloak. As they are walking in the street, they pass Rita Skeeter, who is saying something vaguely defamatory about Ludo to her photographer.

Bagman is present at the beginning of the First Task. The four Champions have been brought to a tent near the arena, and Ludo is there to provide each of the Champions with tokens representing the dragons that they will be facing, and the order in which they will be facing them. He then tells them that their task is to retrieve the golden egg, and that they will be entering the arena, one at a time, when the whistle sounds. He then takes Harry aside, out of the tent, for a private word. There, he asks Harry if he is feeling alright, and if he needs any help in managing the task. Harry says, no, he has a plan. Ludo persists in offering help until they hear a whistle; Ludo then belts off, saying he's late, and as Harry returns to the tent he sees Viktor Krum, the first-selected Champion, slouching off towards the dragon enclosure.

Bagman's voice is heard commentating Krum's, Cedric Diggory's, and Fleur Delacour's efforts, but Harry is tormented; Ludo is not revealing what is going on, and Harry has only his imagination to work with. Finally, though, it is his turn. Once he summons his Firebolt, however, all else fades; while Harry does still hear the occasional ecstatic comment from Ludo, he is largely oblivious. Once he has retrieved his egg, and received first aid for the injury he got from the dragon, he returns to the arena to receive his score, and finds that Ludo has awarded him a perfect ten. Ludo then rejoins the Champions in their tent, and tells them the date of the Second Task, and that the contents of the golden egg they have retrieved is the only clue they will get as to what their task is.

All of the judges, except Crouch who is "feeling ill" and has been replaced by Percy, are present for the Yule Ball. In the dancing after the dinner, Fred and George try to corner Ludo; he escapes, going over to talk to Harry. When asked, Ludo says that the Twins were looking for marketing advice.

On the first Hogsmeade weekend after Christmas, Harry sees Ludo in the Three Broomsticks, talking seriously with a number of Goblins. Seeing Harry, Ludo approaches to speak with him, asking him if he needs help with the clue of the Egg. Harry, who as yet has no idea what the Egg's caterwauling means, says he has a plan, and asks Ludo why he is offering to help him. Ludo says it is sympathy for the underdog; Harry, as the youngest, has the hardest job, and deserves some assistance for that reason. Fred and George now appear, offering to buy Ludo a drink; Ludo demurs, saying he has to be elsewhere, and leaves, followed by the goblins. Almost immediately, Rita Skeeter comes in, and takes a table near the Trio; Rita is again complaining about Ludo, saying that he wouldn't give her an interview. Confronted by Hermione, Rita says that she knows some things about Bagman that would curl Hermione's hair if she told them.

The next time we see Bagman, he is on the shore of the school lake, as one of the five judges for the Second Task. He has very little to say, however, until the task is ended, at which time he announces the scores to the assembled audience. He then tells the Champions that he will give them details of the Third Task on May 21st.

On 21 May, then, Ludo brings the four Champions down to the Quidditch pitch, which has evidently been planted with a maze of hedges. When harry arrives there, the hedges are only about eighteen inches high, but already they are an obstruction on the pitch. Ludo says they will be quite tall by the time the Task comes about, but that they will be removed afterwards; as an old Quidditch player himself, he does not want to see the pitch destroyed. He goes on to explain that the Triwizard Cup will be located in the center of the maze, and the first Champion to touch it will win outright. Harry and Cedric will enter the maze first, as they are tied in first place. He also mentions that there will be various obstacles in the maze, some of which will be provided by Hagrid as Care of Magical Creatures teacher, and some others imported for the purpose. As they depart the pitch, both Ludo and Krum want to have a word with Harry, but Harry, believing he knows what Ludo wants, chooses to talk with Krum.

While inside Dumbledore's Pensive, Harry sees Ludo in the second trial, as he's being trailed for giving information to the Death Eaters. He pleads that he didn't know, as Augustus Rookwood was a spy for them, which he didn't know about, saying it never crossed his mind. When Crouch asks the jury to give him a sentence to Azkaban, no one raises their hands, due to how famous he is, which does not suit Crouch well, annoying him.

Ludo is again present at the Third Task, and explains the rules and safety precautions. Presumably he is also commentating, but Harry cannot hear him, or anything much else, inside the maze.

It turns out that the Twins have been writing to, and trying to talk to, Ludo all year, and he has been avoiding them. It seems that he had paid off their bet with Leprechaun gold, which had vanished, and they had been trying to force him to make good on his bet ever since. Apparently he had also bet heavily on the World Cup with the Goblins, had lost, and had tried to pay them off with Leprechaun gold as well. In order to try and make good his losses there, Ludo had bet with the Goblins on Harry to win the Tournament. In his last letter to the Twins, Ludo had said that boys their age shouldn't be gambling anyway, and had not even returned their stake. Finally, as Harry and Cedric had touched the Cup at the same instant, the Goblins felt this was a draw, and that Ludo had lost his bet, and Ludo, not having any money to pay them, much less the Twins, had gone into hiding.

Order of the Phoenix
It is mentioned in passing that negotiations with the Goblins have been somewhat tense; Ludo had not helped their case by running.

Strengths
Ludo was a very good Quidditch player in his day, playing Beater for the Wimbourne Wasps, and on the English National Quidditch team. Arthur Weasley says he was the best beater the Wasps ever had, which would be impressive given that "Kennilworthy Whisp", in Quidditch Through the Ages, tells us that the Wasps team was founded in 1312.

Weaknesses
Ludovic has a very strong weakness to gambling, even trying to deny it when it is obvious to everyone. He also manages to build up a large amount of debts from goblins as well as Fred and George Weasley.

Questions

 * 1) Why does Winky think Ludo is a bad wizard?


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Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Crabbe, Sr.

Overview
Crabbe, Sr. is the father of Vincent Crabbe- one of Draco Malfoy's sidekicks. He is also one of Lord Voldemort's Death Eaters alongside Lucius Malfoy and Goyle.

Goblet of Fire
When Lord Voldemort summons his Death Eaters after returning to life, he addresses one of them as Crabbe, and asks him if he will do better next time, and Crabbe promises he will.

When Harry later names Crabbe as one of the Death Eaters present in the graveyard, Cornelius Fudge dismisses that, saying he had already been tried and released, and Harry could have gotten his name from the old news stories.

Order of the Phoenix
Crabbe, Sr. is one of the twelve Death Eaters who take part in the Battle at the Ministry. His role is not entirely certain -- when Lucius Malfoy is sending pairs off to hunt for Harry Potter and the students with him, he is partnered with Rabastan Lestrange. Both of them are said to be the Death Eaters Harry, Hermione and Neville first encounter, with Crabbe getting stunned and falling into a time jar, giving him a baby's head.

Deathly Hallows
During the Battle at Hogwarts, Crabbe Sr. and Crabbe Jr. fight for Voldemort. Very little is seen of Crabbe Sr. during this time.

Weaknesses
Much like his son, he doesn't seem to be very intelligent.

Relationships with Other Characters
The relationship that Crabbe Sr. has with Lucius Malfoy seems similar, from what little we see of it, to the relationship Crabbe Jr. has with Draco Malfoy. We are uncertain whether this continues after Malfoy's fall from grace.

Questions

 * 1) What are some similarities between Crabbe and Crabbe? (Father and Son)
 * 2) What are some differences between Crabbe and Crabbe? (Father and Son)


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Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Barty Crouch Jr.

Overview
Bartemius (Barty) Crouch Jr. is the son of Ministry of Magic employee Bartemius Crouch Sr., and one of a group of four convicted for the torture of Frank and Alice Longbottom.

Goblet of Fire
Note: Events in this subsection appear in a different order than they appear in the book. Much of what is mentioned here actually is only revealed in the closing chapters of the book, and some events actually occur well before the beginning of the book, but are revealed during the course of this year.

Shortly after Lord Voldemort's disappearance, Bartemius Crouch Jr. and three other young Death Eaters (Bellatrix Lestrange, and brothers Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange) captured and tortured Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom, using the Cruciatus Curse on them until the two completely lost their minds. It is believed that their intent was to find out what the Aurors had done with Lord Voldemort so that they could bring him back.

Harry Potter first hears about Barty Crouch's sentencing and removal to Azkaban at Bartemius Crouch Sr.'s orders, from Sirius Black, and later observes that trial and sentencing in Albus Dumbledore's Pensieve.

Barty Crouch's escape from Azkaban was engineered by his father, Bartemius Crouch Sr., presumably acting at the request of his wife. Barty's escape remained undiscovered because Bartemius' wife took his place, very quickly dying in Azkaban from a pre-existing condition, and being buried there. Though Bartemius had freed his son from Azkaban at his wife's request, he clearly did not trust Barty, and kept his son controlled by means of the Imperius curse, and the actions of the Crouch house-elf, Winky. During this stretch of in-home incarceration, we learn later, Bertha Jorkins had dropped in unannounced, and had learned that Barty was alive and in Bartemius' house; Bartemius had been forced to alter her memory, an action which apparently had deep-seated and permanent effects on her mental abilities.

Over the years, Bartemius' control over his son slackened, to the point that at the Quidditch World Cup he was able to escape control completely, albeit briefly. He conjured the Dark Mark during the riot following the Cup, and then had been Stunned by Ministry wizards investigating its appearance. While the Ministry wizards did not find him, as he was concealed under his own Invisibility Cloak, they did find Winky; from this, his father knew Barty was there and was able to locate him. Bartemius returned him to the family home and placed him under the Imperius curse again. Lord Voldemort, meanwhile, had apparently learned of Barty's continuing existence and relative freedom through his questioning of Bertha Jorkins. Voldemort and Wormtail then attacked Bartemius and placed him under the Imperius curse; with Wormtail's help, Barty stunned and then impersonated Alastor Moody throughout Harry's fourth school year.

Because of the impersonation, Crouch was basically living a double life through his time at Hogwarts. The public face of his career during that year, as it mimics the real Alastor Moody well enough to fool even Albus Dumbledore, is largely covered under the topic Alastor Moody. However, his private actions are covered here: the following events, that were not initially attributed to Moody, were actually caused by Barty Crouch.

 * Barty apparently Charmed the Goblet of Fire such that it acted as though there were four schools competing in the Triwizard Tournament, rather than three; he then placed Harry's name in the Goblet as the sole competitor in this fourth school, thus forcing the Goblet to select Harry as a Champion. We note that Barty, as Moody, did suggest this chain of occurrences, probably knowing that his theory would be discounted because of Moody's well-known paranoia.
 * During this time, Voldemort had Bartemius Crouch Sr. controlled by the Imperius Curse. With Barty's assistance and advice, Bartemius interpreted the Triwizard Tournament rulebook in such a way as to make it seem that Harry was required to compete in the Tournament.
 * Bartemius Crouch Sr. did manage to break free much later in the year, and made his way to Hogwarts; but was there discovered and killed by Barty Crouch Jr., and his body hidden.
 * To replenish his stocks of Polyjuice Potion, Barty broke into Severus Snape's office to steal potion ingredients. He was observed by Harry using the Marauder's Map, but due to the similarity of names, Harry thought that the intruder was Bartemius.
 * Barty, acting as Professor Moody, provided assistance to Harry in the various quests:
 * directly suggesting summoning a broom to fly past the dragon in the First Task;
 * suggesting to Cedric Diggory that he should open his Golden Egg underwater, knowing that Cedric's sense of justice would result in Cedric passing this information to Harry;
 * loaning Neville Longbottom a book that described Gillyweed in the expectation that Harry would mention to Neville that he needed to figure out a way to survive underwater;
 * when that failed, mentioning Gillyweed in front of Dobby so that Dobby would provide a method for Harry to win the Second Task;
 * using the Imperius curse again to control and eliminate Harry's opponents in the Third Task.

Finally, captured by Dumbledore, he reverts to his actual shape when his dose of Polyjuice potion wears off. Having been dosed with Veritaserum, he then reveals all that he had done. Dumbledore summons Cornelius Fudge in order that a Ministry representative may hear this confession. Fudge brings a Dementor with him "for protection," and the Dementor immediately performs the Kiss, effectively removing Barty's soul, before he can repeat his confession to Fudge. Crouch Jr. then lives the rest of his life without his memories or sense of self.

Strengths
Barty is apparently an accomplished wizard. He was able to subdue Alastor Moody and impersonate him for several months. He was also capable of creating a Confundus Charm powerful enough to fool the Goblet of Fire. Bartemius Crouch does say at one point that Barty received an impressive twelve O.W.L.s at Hogwarts; at the time, though, Bartemius is largely out of his mind and is speaking to a tree, so it's uncertain how much weight we should give this revelation.

As mentioned, Barty advises Cedric Diggory to open his Golden Egg underwater, knowing that he will in turn tell Harry in order to pay him back for tipping him off about the dragons. When telling Harry about this, Barty says that "decent people are so easy to manipulate." This would seem to indicate that, unlike Voldemort who is unable to understand love and so discounts it completely, Crouch is aware of it, and of gratitude, and is able to pervert its force to steer events towards his own ends. Barty's manipulation of his father, and of Winky, is clearly based on abuse of familial love.

Weaknesses
Barty is shown to believe that his faithfulness and service will make him and Voldemort emotionally close, like a father and son. Thus, Barty views Voldemort as a replacement father figure, either not knowing or refusing to accept that Voldemort will always see him as just another disposable follower. In the sixth book, Dumbledore states that "You will hear many of his Death Eaters claiming that they are in his confidence, that they alone are close to him, even understand him. They are deluded. Lord Voldemort has never had a friend, nor do I believe that he has ever wanted one."

In the trial Harry witnesses, Barty is seen desperately proclaiming his innocence while Bellatrix Lestrange openly admits to being a Death Eater. Later on, however, Barty boasts that he is Voldemort's only faithful follower and claims that the Death Eaters who refused to brave Azkaban for their master should be severely punished. This might indicate that Barty is a hypocrite, condemning other Death Eaters for what he tried to do himself and disregarding Bellatrix's higher degree of faithfulness. As we don't know at this point about his participation in the Longbottom tortures, it is possible to assume he was innocent at this point, and then warped to the dark side. It is also possible that, during the trial, Barty was just doing whatever he could, for instance using his parents' trust, to remain free and continue his search for Voldemort, in contrast to other Death Eaters, who were just trying to evade Azkaban.

Relationships With Other Characters
All relationships we hear about are either adversarial or manipulative. For instance, he imprisoned 'Mad Eye' Moody for an entire school year while taking his identity. During this time, he would interrogate Moody repeatedly to improve his own mimicry. We also hear of his imprisonment by his father and Winky, and learn of his odd relationship with Winky as part of that imprisonment. He seems to be treating Harry, Hermione, and Neville, in particular, with something like compassion, however we find out at the end of his story arc that he was using them as a means of getting Harry into Voldemort's power. We hear very little of his worshipful relationship with Voldemort, only enough to know of its existence and nature.

Questions

 * 1) Why do you think Barty Crouch Jr. became one of Voldemort's followers?

Greater Picture
Shortly after his return, Voldemort summons his Death Eaters to his side. As Voldemort goes around the circle of Death Eaters, commenting on the gaps in the circle, he comes to the largest gap of all... "And here we have six missing Death Eaters ... three dead in my service. One, too cowardly to return ... he will pay. One, who I believe has left me for ever ... he will be killed, of course ... and one, who remains my most faithful servant, and who has already re-entered my service. ... He is at Hogwarts, that faithful servant, and it was through his efforts that our young friend arrived tonight..." By not naming these Death Eaters, and by not completing the circle, the author is able to leave it in doubt as to who exactly is being referred to here. We are led to believe, correctly, that it is Karkaroff who has run, but it is unclear whether that is the cowardly one, or the one who has left Voldemort's service forever. At this point, we are unaware of the existence of Barty Crouch, and so we are misled into believing that the faithful servant who has already re-entered Voldemort's service is Severus Snape. And despite the revelation of Barty's role in the events of the book, the casual reader may well retain this mistaken belief even after that revelation, and may see this particular scene as confirmation of Snape's continuing loyalty to the Dark Lord. In fact, though, the faithful servant is Barty, Karkaroff is the cowardly one, and it is Snape who Voldemort feels has left. We will find out in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that Voldemort had his doubts about Snape, but that Voldemort had accepted Snape's explanation, both for his apparent desertion of Voldemort in the intervening years, and for his failure to appear instantly at Voldemort's summons on this occasion.

This mention of Barty's place in the circle of Death Eaters does indicate that Barty had been a full Death Eater before Voldemort's first downfall, despite his youth at the time.


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Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Terry Boot

Overview
Terry Boot is a student in Harry's year. He is in Ravenclaw house.

Philosopher's Stone
The Sorting Hat places Terry Boot in Ravenclaw.

Chamber of Secrets
Terry Boot is likely one of the people helped by Professor Lockhart after the grand chaos of the Duelling Club. "Pinch it hard, it will stop bleeding in a second, Boot..."

Order of the Phoenix
Terry Boot attended the first meeting of Dumbledore's Army in the Hog's Head.

In the first meeting in the Room of Requirement, Terry is Disarmed. His wand goes whizzing past Harry's ear, and comically hits Alicia Spinnet's nose.

During the fourth meeting, Terry is amazed by the Protean Charm Hermione places on the fake Galleons, and comments that this is NEWT-level magic. He thinks she should have been in Ravenclaw. Hermione responds by stating that the Hat did consider putting her in Ravenclaw, but decided upon Gryffindor in the end.

Terry is also one of the six members of Dumbledore's Army who see Draco Malfoy attempting to jinx Harry on the Hogwarts Express, and promptly return fire, leaving Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle looking like gigantic slugs squeezed into Hogwarts robes.

Half-Blood Prince
Terry is mentioned as being one of twelve students in Slughorn's Potions Class along with fellow Ravenclaws, including his friend Michael Corner.

Deathly Hallows
When Harry, Ron, and Hermione return to Hogwarts, Neville Longbottom mentions that Terry Boot was punished by the Carrows for yelling about Harry's escape from Gringotts during dinner.

Terry is one of the DA members hiding out in the Room of Requirement when the Trio follow Neville back to it. He is there with other members of his House - Padma, Michael, Luna and Cho are all mentioned. He gives a little bit of information about the lost diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw when Luna mentions it - namely, that it is lost.

He was also present during the final Battle of Hogwarts.

Strengths
Terry Boot is one of the few people that manage to make it into Professor Slughorn's N.E.W.T. level Potions class, along with his friend Michael. Therefore, he must be assumed to be intelligent enough to make it. As he is a Ravenclaw, this is not surprising.

Terry is a member of the DA and, by the time of its dissolution, had learned a fairly comprehensive amount of defensive magic from Harry and the other members.

As he remained an active member of the DA in his dangerous seventh year, this shows a certain amount of fortitude.

Weaknesses
Neville mentions that Terry was "beaten up" by one of the Carrows in response to yelling about Harry's escape from Gringotts. This could indicate that Terry has a lack of restraint, although equally, he could be aware that he would be punished and wanted to spread the news anyway.

Relationships with Other Characters
Boot joined the DA with his Ravenclaw friends Michael Corner and Anthony Goldstein. He is almost always seen in this group, suggesting their friendship is strong and enduring.

He is also genuinely friendly towards everyone, including the Trio. He was impressed by Hermione's magical abiliies, and gave some help to Harry in the search for Rowena Ravenclaw's lost Diadem, a suspected Horcrux.

Analysis
Terry is a generally positive minor character, with little to dislike about him. It has been mentioned by the author that the Boot family name is one of the great old names in wizardry, and that the Boot family had lost members to Voldemort. This could have been one of the reasons Terry chose to fight his forces in the final battle (in addition his his loyalty to Hogwarts).

Questions

 * 1) Which qualities did Terry possess to put him in Ravenclaw?
 * 2) Do you think Terry might have survived the final battle? Why or why not?

Greater Picture
Ravenclaw students make occasional appearances in the story, although many of them are side characters; we see more from the other three houses until the introduction of Luna in the fifth book. Terry serves to flesh out the student body in this house, and eventually gets a few lines. He is a typical Ravenclaw with intelligence and knowledge.


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Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Amelia Bones

Overview
Amelia Bones is the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in the Ministry of Magic.

Order of the Phoenix
Harry is required to attend a hearing at the Ministry regarding his use of magic while underage and in the presence of Muggles (his cousin Dudley). Somehow, instead of a hearing, this becomes a trial by the full Wizengamot. As the magic in question was the creation of a Patronus, Madam Bones is curious as to whether Harry can, in fact, produce a corporeal Patronus, one with an actual form. When the evidence has all been heard, it is Madam Bones who calls for the show of hands to vote on Harry's innocence or guilt.

At the organizational meeting of Dumbledore's Army, a question asked by Susan Bones suggests to Harry that she may be related to Madam Bones. Susan confirms that Amelia is her aunt.

Half-Blood Prince
In the meeting between Cornelius Fudge and the Muggle Prime Minister, we learn that Madam Bones has been murdered. The Prime Minister is quite upset about this, because it happened "right around the corner", and has not yet been solved.

Narcissa Malfoy, with Bellatrix Lestrange in tow, visits Severus Snape. In the course of their conversation, Bellatrix accuses Snape of not being loyal to the Death Eaters, saying that she is Voldemort's most trusted aide. Snape wonders if that is still true, and points out that it was information Snape provided that had made the murders of Madam Bones and the Vance families possible.

Strengths
During Harry's trial in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Amelia Bones showed herself to be fair-minded and honest. In contrast to Fudge, nominally her senior in the Wizengamot, and Umbridge, she had not prejudged Harry, and insisted on hearing the truth about Harry's case before forming an opinion. It seems that it was the force of her character, opposed to Fudge's, that allowed the hearing to be as fair as it ended up being.

When Fudge was explaining her murder to the Muggle Prime Minister in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, he described her as a highly gifted witch of her time and said Voldemort may have killed her himself after she put up quite a fight.

Questions

 * 1) Why was Madam Bones so impressed with Harry's Patronus?

Greater Picture
Although it was not explicitly stated, it is implied that Madam Bones voted in favour of clearing Harry of all charges during his trial. We are told that Fudge, Umbridge and a "heavily-moustached" wizard - among a few others - vote in favour of conviction. Madam Bones is not mentioned; therefore, we must assume she voted for clearing Harry.

This goes further towards establishing her as a character of fair and just reasoning, as she uses the evidence presented to her to make a final decision.


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Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Edgar Bones

Overview
Edgar Bones was killed with his wife (name unknown) while working for the Order of the Phoenix.

Philosopher's Stone
In their first meeting, Hagrid mentions to Harry that Voldemort killed some of the best wizards of the age such as the Bones, along with the McKinnons and the Prewetts.

Order of the Phoenix
At the celebratory party at Grimmauld Place for Ron and Hermione's appointment as Prefects, Alastor Moody shows Harry a photograph of the original Order of the Phoenix. Edgar Bones was in that picture, and Moody remarks that they got him and his family, too.


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Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Buckbeak

Overview
Buckbeak is Hagrid's favorite Hippogriff, a creature who has the forequarters of an eagle and the hindquarters of a horse.

Prisoner of Azkaban
One of the subplots of the book involves the attempted execution of Buckbeak. Harry Potter is introduced to him and rides him; Draco Malfoy is introduced to him, insults him, and is injured by him. Draco exaggerates his injury, and, as Professor Dumbledore will not sack Rubeus Hagrid from his job as Care of Magical Creatures teacher, Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, attempts to have Buckbeak prosecuted by the Ministry as a dangerous creature. Hagrid doesn't stand much of a chance against Lucius' eloquence, so Buckbeak is sentenced to death. At the eleventh hour and a bit, with assistance from Hermione Granger, Harry saves Buckbeak from execution, and gives him to Sirius Black, who escapes on him.

Goblet of Fire
Sirius apparently returns to the environs of Hogsmeade with Buckbeak; Harry, Hermione, and Ron meet him when they visit Sirius in the cave he is inhabiting outside the village.

Order of the Phoenix
Sirius is now living at 12 Grimmauld Place, his old family home, and Buckbeak is living in an attic room there. Throughout the story, Sirius is seen carrying bags of rats up to Buckbeak, and for a while Harry is spending a lot of time with him as he retreats from dealing with other people.

Half-Blood Prince
With the death of Sirius, Buckbeak now has to move, and so he returns to Hagrid's care. Renamed Witherwings, so as to avoid the wrath of the Ministry, Buckbeak now lives in Hagrid's cottage. The only active part he plays in this story is near the end: as Severus Snape is escaping, Buckbeak tries to attack him, perhaps in retaliation for Severus' setting Hagrid's hut on fire.

Deathly Hallows
Buckbeak again joins in near the end of the story, attacking the Death Eaters in the climactic Battle of Hogwarts.

Strengths
Like any Hippogriff, Buckbeak can fly. Of necessity he has very powerful musculature in order to support this. He will use this strength to defend himself and his owner at need. We don't know whether he is proof against magic; many magical beings in the story seem to be somewhat immune to magical effects, so it would not be surprising if he was only somewhat affected by jinxes and curses.

Weaknesses
Buckbeak's biggest weakness is grove movements. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban he attacks Draco Malfoy because Draco advanced towards Buckbeak without bowing beforehand.

Relationships with Other Characters
Despite his being shown as a domesticated beast of burden, like a horse, Buckbeak is seen to have loyalty much like a house pet. This may be due to Hagrid's treating him like a house pet initially. Buckbeak's primary loyalty is to Hagrid, his first and last owner (in the series). Once Buckbeak accepts Harry, there is also some loyalty, or at least willingness to take instruction, from Harry; Harry is able to ride him the day they meet, and is able to extract him from behind Hagrid's hut and ride him again on the evening of Buckbeak's scheduled execution. evening. He then accepts Sirius Black as owner, and remains loyal to him until Sirius' death, when he returns to Hagrid's care, but Harry's nominal ownership.


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Talk:Human Physiology/Pregnancy and birth

Process of Fertilization
I would like to suggest including at least a summarized version of the process of fertilization. Most people are used to hearing about the epigenetic processes involved in mitosis and meiosis. However, it's seems rare to find an explanation of how chromosomes are recombined rather than split. I feel that it should be somewhat easy to include a satisfying explanation of this process without adding too much volume to the article. However, I'm not exactly confident enough in my writing capabilities to accomplish this.

I and many others have contributed information on this subject in the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_fertilization. Please see for references. It would be amazing for information on this project to be readily available and/or common knowledge. Normally, when I see this process referred to, I see wordings such as, "The male and female chromosomes are then recombined to form a new genome." et. al. I feel that even a 3 - 7 sentence expansion on this could add a lot of robustness. Of course, I wouldn't expect a complete explanation of every protein and metabolic pathway involved, but a brief discussion of how the two haploid genomes are recombined would make a great, yet short addition.

Thank you, anyone, for your consideration on this matter.