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Talk:Conversational Yiddish

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 * wikt:pl:Portal:Jidysz
 * wikt:pl:category:jidysz (indeks)

script
Hi - considering Yiddish is written in the Hebrew (Aramaic) script, maybe we could also write in that script rather than just the Romantic/English transliterations. I have a English/Hebrew keyboard, but my Yiddish doesn't really extend far beyond drek and shtup. :)

 * Ja, I think we should have both. My Yiddish isn't great, but I know some history. Maybe I'll get round to writing an introduction eventually. 163.195.192.74 21:11, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC) (English Wikipedia User: Taejo)

 * "svvarts"? I've never seen "svv" used in transliteration. Are you following some particular transliteration for Yiddish? There are several. -- wikipedia:en:user:Jmabel 20:51, 5 September 2005 (UTC)

The Transliteration is not YIVO, it's not anything; some weird new American dialect at best. if it's an u or i or a or o he'll write an u which is why we best stick to YIVO.זאראטוסטרא (discuss • contribs) 18:26, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

considering YIVO
I suggest removing the yivo transliteration completely, instead dedicating a part to the Yiddish alefbet. YIVO is not an alternate orthography for Yiddish, it not more than a mean of transliteration to the English language. Please throw a look at how it is handled in other languages not written in latin - Greek, Persian and Hebrew. I actually believe it should be rewritten completely, animal names and colours are not that helpful; that 3 irregular verbs aren't that helpful either. My Yiddish is more than just rusty, yet I could explain the basics, but I would need helpers. Do we have any literate advanced Yiddish speakers? 84.167.249.71 21:37, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

I know a few chuncks of Yiddish and the Alefbet, but by no way in hell I could read the proper version with the original spelling for Aramaic and Hebrew-rooted words. That's why I guess it's called conversational, not literary Yiddish. I'm sure there are plenty of people needing something similar for their stay in Greece or Russia. 79.216.238.200 (talk) 22:08, 9 October 2008 (UTC) EDIT: Knowing the vegetable names hardly suffices even for a conversation about vegetables. The book indeed needs to be rewritten. Can anyone contact the yiddish wikipedians? I'd start greetings or asking directions and time if I knew how.

If anyone wants to work on this book
I suggest throwing away this one completely and starting from scratch. You can grab some pages from the other Yiddish book, such as the reading Yiddish page, but keep in mind that many things will have to be changed to suit the audience (i.e., you'll have to explain how to pronounce all those letters that are the same as Hebrew). And all the examples have to be totally different, and much of the vocabulary. --Clum (talk) 06:32, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

הײ,

איך װאָלט געװאָלט צולײגן א פאר װערטער אױף דעם זײטל, צו העלפן דיא װאס לערנט זיך אידיש. איך װעל, װען איך האב צײט צוגעהבן נאָך מעהר..

אַזױ װיא נעכטן האָב איך נאָך אַ ביסל דאָ געשריבן, אָבער איך װיל עמעצער זאָל פֿאַרבעסערן װאָס איך האָב געשריבן :)

the Phrases
were apparently made up on spot by one of the more ingenious wikipedos !ינפֿאַ 100% that it is mostly just calque from the english counterparts: useless. delete it זאראטוסטרא (discuss • contribs) 18:32, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Remake
Hello, I have decided to take up the challenge of making a high-quality Conversational Yiddish Wikibook. I have written up the front page, and I want to see what people would think. Will anyone help? My Yiddish is not perfect yet, so someone who is further along should help and fix any errors, as well as help to write pages. So, I hope people will allow me to undertake this challenge, and help, too. -Shikku27316 (discuss • contribs) 02:03, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:Conversational Yiddish


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

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Template talk:Cleanup

Article
Should this not be "module" quality? Mga 22:10, 14 Jun 2005 (UTC)

title: Template talk:Cleanup


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Template talk:IPA

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Cookbook talk:Olive

To do: Include material from this site. Make list of olive varieties, classified by type.

 * Try the USDA instead. US government works are public domain, and thus won't be copyright violations. AlbertCahalan 03:04, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

title: Cookbook talk:Olive


text:
Metabolomics/Nutrition/Vitamin C

Vitamin C is a water-soluble nutrient essential for life and is used by the human body for many purposes. To the best of scientific knowledge, all animals and plants synthesize their own vitamin C, except for a small number of animals, including humans.

What can vitamin C do for your health?
By Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD/LD WebMD Weight Loss Clinic - Feature

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Vitamin C is one of the safest and most effective nutrients. The benefits of vitamin C may include protection against immune system deficiencies, cardiovascular disease, prenatal health problems, eye disease, and even skin wrinkling.

A recent study published in Seminars in Preventive and Alternative Medicine that looked at over 100 studies over 10 years revealed a growing list of benefits of vitamin C.

"Vitamin C has received a great deal of attention, and with good reason. Higher blood levels of vitamin C may be the ideal nutrition marker for overall health," says study researcher Mark Moyad, MD, MPH, of the University of Michigan. "The more we study vitamin C, the better our understanding of how diverse it is in protecting our health, from cardiovascular, cancer, stroke, eye health [and] immunity to living longer."

"But," Moyad notes, "the ideal dosage may be higher than the recommended dietary allowance."

How Much Vitamin C Is Enough?
Most of the studies Moyad and his colleagues examined used 500 daily milligrams of vitamin C to achieve health results. That's much higher than the RDA of 75-90 milligrams a day for adults. So unless you can eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, you may need to take a dietary supplement of vitamin C to gain all the benefits, Moyad says. He suggests taking 500 milligrams a day, in addition to eating five servings of fruits and vegetables. He also notes that only 10% to 20% of adults get the recommended nine servings of fruits and vegetables daily.

Moyad says: "The safe upper limit for vitamin C is 2,000 milligrams a day, and there is a great track record with strong evidence that taking 500 milligrams daily is safe," he says.

The foods and beverages you'd need to consume to reach 500 milligrams (mg):
•Cantaloupe, 1 cup: 59 mg Vitamin C •Orange juice, 1 cup: 97 mg •Broccoli, cooked, 1 cup: 74 mg •Red cabbage, 1/2 cup: 40 mg •Green pepper, 1/2 cup, 60 mg •Red pepper, 1/2 cup, 95 mg •Kiwi, 1 medium: 70 mg •Tomato juice, 1 cup: 45 mg

The Health Benefits of Vitamin C
According to recent research, vitamin C may offer health benefits in these areas:

1. Stress. "A recent meta-analysis showed vitamin C was beneficial to individuals whose immune system was weakened due to stress -- a condition which is very common in our society," says Moyad. And, he adds, "because vitamin C is one of the nutrients sensitive to stress, and [is] the first nutrient to be depleted in alcoholics, smokers, and obese individuals, it makes it an ideal marker for overall health."

2. Colds. When it comes to the common cold, vitamin C may not be a cure. But studies show that it can help prevent more serious complications. "There is good evidence taking vitamin C for colds and flu can reduce the risk of developing further complications, such as pneumonia and lung infections," says Moyad.

3. Stroke. A recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that those with the highest concentrations of vitamin C in their blood were associated with 42% lower stroke risk than those with the lowest concentrations. The reasons for this are not completely clear. But what is clear is that people who eat plenty of fruits and vegetables have higher blood levels of vitamin C.

4. Skin Aging. Vitamin C affects cells on the inside and outside of the body. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition examined links between nutrient intakes and skin aging in 4,025 women aged 40-74. It found that higher vitamin C intakes were associated with a lower likelihood of a wrinkled appearance, dryness of the skin, and a better skin-aging appearance.

Other studies have suggested that vitamin C may also:

•Improve macular degeneration. •Reduce inflammation. •Reduce the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Vitamin C's Role in the Body
Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is necessary for the growth, development and repair of all body tissues. It's involved in many body functions, including formation of collagen, absorption of iron, the immune system, wound healing, and the maintenance of cartilage, bones, and teeth.

Vitamin C is one of many antioxidants that can protect against damage caused by harmful molecules called free radicals, as well as toxic chemicals and pollutants like cigarette smoke. Free radicals can build up and contribute to the development of health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and arthritis.

Vitamin C is not stored in the body (excess amounts are excreted), so overdose is not a concern. But it's still important not to exceed the safe upper limit of 2,000 milligrams a day to avoid stomach upset and diarrhea.

Water-soluble vitamins must be continuously supplied in the diet to maintain healthy levels. Eat vitamin-C-rich fruits and vegetables raw, or cook them with minimal water so you don't lose some of the water-soluble vitamin in the cooking water.

Vitamin C is easily absorbed both in food and in pill form, and it can enhance the absorption of iron when the two are eaten together.

Deficiency of vitamin C is relatively rare, and primarily seen in malnourished adults. In extreme cases, it can lead to scurvy -- characterized by weakness, anemia, bruising, bleeding, and loose teeth.

Scurvy symptoms arise as a result of the deactivation of many ascorbic acid dependent enzymes, classified as 2-oxoglutarate dependent dioxygenases (2-ODD’s). This class of enzymes, which are widely present in all animal cells is involved in the incorporation of O2 into organic substrates. To be catalytically active, these enzymes require Fe2+ and ascorbic acid as co substrates. The reaction catalyzed by 2-ODD’s involves the splitting of the dioxygen molecule to generate an oxygen-iron complex which is then used to hydroxylate a proline residue that is then used in many biochemical pathways. Some of these reactions include ring closures and post-translational hydroxylations. Since the enzymatic activity in highly dependent on the presence of ascorbic acid, it is proposed that 2-ODD’s and ascorbic acid (ASC) evolved together to carry out these biological reactions.

In the absence of ASC, one of the 2-ODD’s, P4H self oxidizes and becomes inactive. This inactivation was the first determined causes of scurvy symptoms. P4H, which carries out the hydroxylation of peptidyl-proline, is required for collagen folding. Without the hydroxylation the trimers that are a key to mature collagen formation cannot form. This leads to decreased melting point and an increased flexibility under biological conditions.

This is just one of many biological pathways that, as a result of a decreased dietary intake of ASC can lead to the symptoms observed in scurvy.

The foods richest in vitamin C are:
Citrus fruits, green peppers, strawberries, tomatoes, broccoli, white potatoes, and sweet potatoes. Other good sources include dark leafy greens, cantaloupe, papaya, mango, watermelon, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, red peppers, raspberries, blueberries, winter squash, and pineapples.

Published April 04, 2008

SOURCES:
Mark A. Moyad, MD, MPH, senior research associate and Phil F. Jenkins Director, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, University of Michigan Urology Center. Phyo K. Myint, MRCP, department of public health, University of Cambridge, England. Dee Sandquist, MS, RD, director, Center for Weight Management, Southwest Washington Medical Center; spokeswoman, American Dietetic Association. U.S. Department of Agriculture 2005 US Dietary Guidelines. Seminars in Preventive and Alternative Medicine (1) Sept, 24, 2007; 3-1; pp 25-35). Myint, P.K., American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, January 2008; vol 87: pp 64-69. American Journal of Public Health, May 2004; vol 94: pp 870-875. Jeffrey S Hampl, PhD, RD; Christopher A. Taylor, PhD, RD; and Carol S. Johnston, PhD, RD, Vitamin C Deficiency and Depletion in the United States: The Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988 to 1994. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October 2007; vol 86; pp 1125-31. WebMD Medical News: "Veggie Eaters Have Fewer Strokes."

©2008 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.

Plant sources
Citrus fruits (lime, lemon, orange, grapefruit), tomatoes, and potatoes are good common sources of vitamin C. Other foods that are good sources of vitamin C include papaya, broccoli, brussels sprouts, black currants, strawberries, cauliflower, spinach, cantaloupe, and kiwifruit. Also, cranberries and red peppers are good sources of the vitamin.

The amount of vitamin C in foods of plant origin depends on:

 * the precise variety of the plant,
 * the soil condition
 * the climate in which it grew,
 * the length of time since it was picked,
 * the storage conditions,
 * the method of preparation. Cooking in particular is often said to destroy vitamin C - but see the section on Food preparation.

The following table is approximate and shows the relative abundance in different raw plant sources. The amount is given in mg per 100 grams of fruit:

Animal sources

It was only realised in the 1920s that some cuts of meat and fish are also a source of vitamin C for humans. The muscle and fat which make up the modern western diet are however poor sources. As with fruit and vegetables cooking destroys the vitamin C content.

The following table shows the relative abundance of vitamin C in various foods of animal origin, given in mg of vitamin C per 100 grams of food:

Functions in the body

 * As a participant in hydroxylation, vitamin C is needed for the production of collagen in the connective tissue. These fibres are ubiquitous throughout the body; providing firm but flexible structure. Some tissues have a greater percentage of collagen, especially: skin, mucous membranes, teeth and bones.
 * Vitamin C is required for synthesis of dopamine, noradrenaline and adrenaline in the nervous system or in the adrenal glands.
 * Vitamin C is also needed to synthesise carnitine, important in the transfer of energy to the cell mitochondria.
 * It is a strong antioxidant.
 * The tissues with greatest percentage of vitamin C — over 100 times the level in blood plasma — are the adrenal glands, pituitary, thymus, corpus luteum, and retina.
 * The brain, spleen, lung, testicle, lymph nodes, liver, thyroid, small intestinal mucous membrane|mucosa, leukocytes, pancreas, kidney and salivary glands usually have 10 to 50 times the concentration present in plasma.

No bodily organ stores ascorbate as a primary function, and so the body soon depletes itself of ascorbate if fresh supplies do not continue to arrive though the digestive system, eventually leading to death if unresolved.

Only a few animal species including humans (primates) and guinea pigs are unable to synthesize ascorbic acid (ASC). There are several theories as to why this has been eliminated from the genetic code including the fact that dietary intake of ASC is often enough. It has even been suggested that the loss of this gene might have conferred an advantage to primates since hydrogen peroxide is generated as a byproduct of the synthesis of ASC.

Vitamin C deficiency
Lack of ascorbic acid in the daily diet leads to a disease called scurvy, a form of avitaminosis that is characterized by:
 * loose teeth
 * superficial bleeding
 * fragility of blood vessels
 * poor healing
 * compromised immunity
 * mild anaemia.

Daily requirement
There is a continuing debate within the scientific community over the optimum amount of vitamin C for humans.2

A healthy person on a balanced western diet should be able to get all the vitamin C needed to prevent the symptoms of scurvy from their daily diet. However, a person who is just freed from a scorbutic condition with only a small amount of ascorbate (i.e. RDA quantities) is arguably a very unhealthy individual, and certainly not one in optimum health. People who smoke, those under stress and women in pregnancy have a slightly higher requirement.

The amount of vitamin C needed to avoid deficiency symptoms of scurvy has been set by variously national agencies as follows:

 * 40 mg per day UK Food Standards Agency

 * 60–95 mg per day US Food and Nutrition Board 2001 revision.

Some researchers have calculated the amount needed for an adult human to achieve similar blood serum levels as Vitamin C synthesising mammals as follows:

 * 400 mg per day – Linus Pauling Institute & US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Recommendation.

 * 3000 mg per day – Vitamin C Foundation's recommendation.

 * 6000-12000 mg per day – Thomas Levy, Colorado Integrative Medical Centre recommendation.

 * 6000-18000 mg per day – Linus Pauling's daily recommendation

 * from 3000 mg to 200,000 mg based on bowel tolerance levels (see Cathcart below)

High doses (thousands of mg) may result in diarrhoea, which is harmless if the dose is reduced immediately. Some researchers (Cathcart) claim the onset of diarrhoea to be an indication of where the body’s true vitamin C requirement lies. Both Cathcart and Cameron have demonstrated that very sick patients with cancer or influenza do not display any evidence of diarrhoea at all until ascorbate intake reaches levels as high as 200 grams (1/2 pound).

The small size of the ascorbic acid molecule means the kidneys cannot retain it in the body. Some other explanation is required to explain why very sick persons retain such huge quantities of vitamin C without any discharge. Quite a low level in the blood serum will cause traces to be present in the urine. All vitamin C synthesising mammals have traces in the urine at all times. The fact that animals like rats pass ascorbate into their urinary tract, after expending valuable energy manufacturing it, implies that there is a benefit to having vitamin C passing through, and this does not represent waste.

The RDA is based on blood plasma and white blood cell saturation data. In 2004, the validity of the pharmacokinetic research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that gave this data was challenged by Hickey and Roberts 4. According to these authors, the doses required to achieve blood, tissue and body "saturation" are much larger than previously believed. They allege that the Institute of Medicine (IoM) and the NIH have ignored an open letter from Drs Steve Hickey, Hilary Roberts, Ian Brighthope, Robert Cathcart, Abram Hoffer, Archie Kalokerinos, Tom Levy, Richard Passwater, Hugh Riordan, Andrew Saul and Patrick Holford, calling for revision of the RDA, and have refused to reconsider their low-dose recommendations. Hickey and Roberts have issued their open scientific challenge in the form of a book, which was submitted to the IoM and NIH prior to publication.

Food preparation
It is important to choose a suitable method of food preparation. When cooking vegetables, one should seek to minimize or not discard the water used in their preparation, e.g. by frying the food – which unfortunately increases fat content, steam cooking or by making soup.

Recent observations suggest that the impact of temperature and cooking on vitamin C may have been overestimated:
 * 1) Since it is water-soluble, vitamin C will strongly leach into the cooking water while cooking most vegetables — but this doesn't necessarily mean the vitamin is destroyed — it's still there, but it's in the cooking water. (This may also suggest how the apparent misconception about the extent to which boiling temperatures destroy vitamin C might have been the result of flawed research: If the vitamin C content of vegetables (and not of the water) was measured subsequent to cooking them, then that content would have been much lower, though the vitamin has not actually been destroyed.)
 * 2) Not only the temperature, but also the exposure time is significant. Contrary to what was previously and is still commonly assumed, it can take much longer than two or three minutes to destroy vitamin C at boiling point.

It also appears that cooking does not necessarily leach vitamin C in all vegetables at the same rate; it has been suggested that the vitamin is not destroyed when boiling broccoli.1, this may however just be a result of vitamin C leaching into the cooking water at a slower rate from this vegetable. Copper pots will destroy the vitamin.

Vitamin C enriched teas and infusions have increasingly appeared on supermarket shelves. Such products would be nonsense if boiling temperatures did indeed destroy vitamin C at the rate it had previously been suggested. It should be noted however that as of 2004 most academics not directly involved in vitamin C research still teach that boiling temperatures will destroy vitamin C very rapidly.

Reported potential harmful effects
Reports of harmful effects of vitamin C tend to receive great prominence in the world's media. Many such reports have never been published in peer reviewed journals, which casts some suspicion on their credibility.

 * In April 1998 Nature reported alleged carcinogenic and teratogenic effects of excessive doses of vitamin C. The effects were noted in test tube experiments and on only two of the 20 markers of free radical damage to DNA. They have not been supported by further evidence from living organisms. Almost all mammals manufacture their own vitamin C in amounts equivalent to human doses of thousands of milligrams per day.

 * University of Southern California researchers in April 2000, reported a thickening of the arteries of the neck in persons taking high vitamin C doses. It was pointed out by vitamin C advocates that vitamin C's collagen synthesising role would lead to thicker and stronger artery walls. This research did not measure the blood velocity, which after simple mathematics, gives a more precise estimate of cross sectional area of the blood vessel.

 * In June 2004, Duke University researchers reported an increased susceptibility to osteo-arthritis in guinea pigs fed a diet high in vitamin C. However, a 2003 study at Umeå University in Sweden, found that "the plasma levels of vitamin C, retinol and uric acid were inversely correlated to variables related to rheumatoid arthritis disease activity."

 * "Rebound scurvy" is an often quoted theoretical, and never observed, condition that occurs when the amount of daily intake of Vitamin C is rapidly reduced from a  very large amount to a relatively lower amount.  This is an exaggeration of the rebound effect that occurs because ascorbate-dependent enzyme reactions continue for 24-48 hours, and use up vitamin C in the blood that is not being replenished. The effect is to lower one's serum vitamin C blood concentration to less than normal for a short amount of time. During this period of time there is a slight risk of cold of flu infection through reduced resistance. Within a couple of days the enzyme reactions shut down and blood serum returns to the normal level of someone not taking high supplements. This is not scurvy, which takes weeks of zero vitamin c consumption to produce symptoms. It is something people who take large vitamin C supplements need to be aware of in order to manage phased rather than sudden changes to the amount taken.

 * Kidney stones are a much cited harmful side effect of taking vitamin C in larger than normal amounts. However research has shown this not to be the case 3

Therapeutic uses
Vitamin C is needed in the diet to prevent scurvy. It also has a reputation for being useful in the treatment of colds and flu. The evidence to support this idea, however, is ambiguous, unless the studies are divided by dose size and dosing regime. When that is done, it is remarkable that most of the studies showing little or no effect employ quite small doses of ascorbate such as 100mg to 500mg per day. ("small" according to the vitamin C advocates) The Vitamin C foundation (1) recommends 8 grams of vitamin C every half hour in order to show an effect on the symptoms of a cold infection that is in progress.

title: Metabolomics/Nutrition/Vitamin C


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User talk:Daniel Simunic

I have just noticed that User:210.55.230.21 has made significant changes to the Year 10 Science Topic Templates that you created. In light of their questionable edits elsewhere, you may want to check to see if this addition is vandalism or not. (Donovan|Geocachernemesis|Interact) 00:37, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:Daniel Simunic


text:
Biblical Studies/Christianity/Major events and important movements in church history/Palestine map

The old family Bible under careful scrutiny yields some treasure, if only to emphasize that according to Mark 16, the road to Emmaus should have been toward Galilee (North country) and Bethany should have sufficient water (John 3:23), near to Nazareth. (Mark 1:10):
 * three Bethabara(s) - southern site preferred by Origen, 3rd century A.D., as place of Jesus' baptism (John 1:28).
 * two Bethany(s) - one beyond the Jordan which is dissected by the Kings Highway trade route through Damascus.
 * two Emmaus(s)
 * Josephus in Antiquities places Emmaus near to Tiberias, built by Herod the Tetrarch on Lake Gennesareth (Galilee) to honor Roman Emperor Tiberius. The attraction of the small village of Emmaus, named, the warm baths or springs, was its reputation (Josephus, Wars) as a place of healing. Vespasian made his camp there, before the seige of Gamala in 67 A.D.

 * one Wilderness - historically accurate, the desert (Heb. Arabah) of Isaiah 33:9 and SW of the Dead Sea.
 * not exactly - a smaller Wilderness of John 11:54, opposite Ephraim, according to map, west of Jordan is devoid of settlement and possibly "the wilderness."

Highlights − The Holy Land, Jesus, and Beyond
 * no Bethsaida west (as Mark 6:53 relates Gennesaret mentioned was west of Sea and north of Magdala) on Sea of Galilee adjacent to Capernaum - only Bethsaida Julias east on map. Next stop on the mission (Mark 7) was Tyre, even further west. Except for the storm scene, the disciples crossed and recrossed the Lake with ease, the mark of true fishermen, who became fishers of men.
 * A Savior is Born: Bethelehem
 * Hometown: Nazareth
 * Ministry: from Sidon to the Decapolis
 * Last Known Dwelling: Capernaum
 * Died: Jerusalem
 * Rose: on the third day, but according to local authorities, body was spirited away.

Map Find:

Decapolis: Ten Cities of the Greeks−Scythopolis, Damascus, Dion, Gadara, Gerasa, Hippos, Kanatha, Pella, Philadelphia, and Raphana

Where was the birthplace of the Christian Gospel?

What is the symbol for East on the Wind Compass Rose?

Bonus question: Identify the Bethabara (of the ______) opposite Bethabara (of the Greeks) and put your name on the map.

John 1 −  2   −   3   − 4

Return to Church History


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Talk:Metabolomics/Nutrition/Vitamin C

Attribution required by the GFDL
This article was created by Polyparadigm by copying all of the text from Wikipedia's Vitamin C article on 12:17, 15 Jun 2005. Note, the history is far too long to copy here for attribution purposes. It should be sufficient to know when the copy was made. (Donovan|Geocachernemesis|Interact) 01:22, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Page Simplification?
Maybe the job of fixing the broken links could be simplified by cutting out the parts of the article that don't relate directly to cooking, that's what I assume your aim is Polyparadigm. That would shorten the article, hence making it easier to edit. (Donovan|Geocachernemesis|Interact) 02:33, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

 * I agree, this page appears to be more encyclopedic in nature and possibley distracting to the main concept of the book "the presenting of nutrition data for a variety of food products". I cannot see where the "Discovery and history" of vitamin C is relevant. --Hapa 00:28, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

I dewikified and hacked up the article quite a bit. Someone please proof it, and maybe hack it up further, or re-add something I took out. --Hapa 07:01, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Some idiot is vandalizing this page...pretty fucking annoying to read his shitty jokes. Someone ban him please.--24.6.242.154 05:03, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

I was researching the amount of food plants that an average UK family would need to grow to stave off scurvy in the event of a prolonged disruption of services, and found the article as it stands now was excellent and not at all over written given the complexity of the information I required

title: Talk:Metabolomics/Nutrition/Vitamin C


text:
Cocoa Programming/Application Kit

Overview
When programming in Cocoa there are two core frameworks that the developer can use:
 * Foundation Framework
 * Application Framework

The Application Framework is more commonly referred to as the Application Kit or just AppKit. It provides developers with APIs that simplify commonly performed programming tasks related primarily to the GUI and the elements that make up the GUI (e.g. menus, windows, icons, buttons, etc.).

Using AppKit
To use AppKit the developer must use a programming or scripting language that is capable of interacting with the classes, functions and APIs that make up Appkit. The most obvious choice is Objective-C as this is the language in which Cocoa is written. Also natively supported is AppleScript. Other C based programming languages can also be used (with some constraints) while Python, Ruby and Tcl are three scripting languages that can be interfaced to Cocoa.

title: Cocoa Programming/Application Kit


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Compiler Construction/Java

Invocation
In Java, there are four kinds of method invocation, namely invokestatic, invokespecial, invokevirtual, invokeinterface. As the names suggest, the first is used to invoke static method and the rest instance methods. Since a static method cannot be overridden, invokestatic is very simple; it is essentially the same as calling a function in C.

We now see the mechanism of invocation of instance methods. Consider the following piece of code.

class A { public static int f { return 1; } private int g_private { return 2; } public final int g_final { return 3; } public int g_non_final { return 4; }

public void test (A a) { a.f ; // static; this is always 1. a.g_private ; // special; this is always 2. a.g_final ; // special; this is always 3. a.g_non_final ; // virtual; this may be 4 or something else. } }

class B extends A { public int g_non_final { return 6; } }

class C extends B { public int g_non_final { return 7; } public int foo { return A.this.g_non_final ; } }

invokestatic is invoked with the references to the class name and the method name and pops arguments from the stack. An expression  is complied to:

iconst_2          // push a constant 2 onto the stack invokestatic A.f  // invoke a static method // the return value is at the top of the stack.

In Java, a private method cannot be overridden. Thus, a method has to be called based on a class regardless of how an object is created. invokespecial allows this; the instruction is the same as invokestatic except that it also pops the object reference besides supplied arguments. Thus far, dynamic binding is not in use, and it is not necessary to have information about binding at runtime about private methods.

Specifically,  can be used either (1) calling a private method or (2) a invoking a method of the super class (including the constructor for the super class, namely ). To call a super method other than, one has to write like  where f is the name of the super method.

In semantics  doesn't differ from , but it can give the compiler a hit about the invocation.

Class methods
Class methods can be defined with a  qualifier. Private class methods may be in the same object, if they belong to the different classes. No two public class methods may be in the same object; in other words, class methods cannot be overridden. This also means  qualifier is semantically meaningless for class methods.

Fields
Each field is accessed based on a class. Consider the following.

class A { public int i = 2; } class B extends A { public int i = 3; }

B b = new B ; A a = b; b.i++; // this would be 3 + 1 = 4 a.i++; // this would be 2 + 1 = 3

In other words, an access control modifier (none, public, private and protected) only affects if clients of the class can access a given field. This means that Java virtual machine may ignore the access flag, handling each field in the same manner.

title: Compiler Construction/Java


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Cookbook:Roasted Vegetable Pasta

Roasted vegetable pasta is a tried and true favorite. You can add whatever vegetables you prefer.

Ingredients

 * 3 large leeks, white parts only, split in half lengthwise and cut into bite-sized pieces
 * 1 medium red onion, cut into eighths
 * 1–2 red bell peppers, cut into wide strips
 * Olive oil
 * 2 fresh sprigs of thyme
 * Vegetable stock or water
 * 4 large garlic cloves, chopped
 * 1 ½ cups (360 ml) tomato sauce
 * ½ cup (120 ml) chopped fresh basil
 * ¼ cup (60 ml) white wine
 * 1 tbsp (or less) of salt
 * ¾ pound (330 g) dried penne or other pasta
 * ⅓ cup (80 ml) grated Parmesan cheese
 * 3 ounces (85 g) mozzarella or goat cheese (optional)

Procedure

 * 1) Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C).
 * 2) Put leeks, onion, and red bell pepper in a shallow roasting pan, tossing them with a tablespoon of olive oil to coat them. Add thyme and roast in the preheated oven until they are cooked and start to brown (about 30–45 minutes). Check early to make sure they're not burning, and add a little water or vegetable stock if the juices are evaporating.
 * 3) While vegetables are roasting, sauté the garlic in a tablespoon of olive oil until it begins to colour. Add the tomato sauce and simmer 1 minute. Then, turn off heat and add the basil. Stir the roasted vegetables into the sauce. Gorgeous!
 * 4) Turn oven down to 375°F (190°C). Add wine to roasting pan and stir, scraping up bits of vegetables that are stuck to pan, and add these deglazed juices to the sauce.
 * 5) Boil a large pot of water, and add the salt and pasta. Cook the pasta for about 6–8 minutes until al dente.
 * 6) Drain pasta, and add it to the sauce and vegetables. Add the cheese and mix it all.
 * 7) Grease a 2–2 ½ quart casserole dish, and pour it all in. Top with the optional mozzarella or goat cheese if you like, then bake it all for another 15 minutes in the 375°F (190°C) oven.

title: Cookbook:Roasted Vegetable Pasta


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Cookbook:Kiwi and Asian Pear in Lemon Dressing

Kiwi and Asian pear in lemon sauce (kiwo to nashi no lemon ae) makes a delicious and refreshing summer dish.

Lemon dressing

 * Finely-grated fresh peel of 1 small lemon
 * ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
 * 2 tbsp sugar
 * ¼ tsp salt
 * ½ tsp sesame oil

Fruit

 * 2 kiwifruit, peeled, sliced, and cut into thin strips
 * 1 crisp Asian pear, sliced, and cut into thin strips (crisp Anjou pear may be substituted)
 * ½ yellow or red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
 * ½ European cucumber, halved, seeded, and cut into thin strips
 * 1 tbsp lightly-roasted black sesame seeds

Procedure

 * 1) Whisk the lemon dressing ingredients together in a serving bowl, and set aside.
 * 2) Add the fruit to the bowl of lemon dressing. Toss, cover, and chill for about an hour.


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Cookbook:Tri-Colored Autumn Rice Balls

Tri-colored autumn rice balls (san-shoku ohagi) is a simple a tea sweet, which was at one time served during the autumn equinox celebration. The name comes from a type of bush clover that only blooms in the fall. Serve these rice balls with your finest cup of tea.

Ingredients

 * 3 cups prepared steamed sweet rice
 * ¼ cup toasted black sesame seeds, lightly crushed
 * 1 tablespoon sugar
 * 1 cup smooth Japanese bean paste (koshi-an), chilled
 * ½ cup roasted soybean powder (kinako) or toasted ground pecans

Procedure

 * 1) Mix sesame seeds and sugar in a small bowl.
 * 2) Moisten your hands with water and divide warm rice into 12 equal portions.
 * 3) Shape 4 portions into balls. Moisten a clean dish towel and squeeze it dry.
 * 4) Place 2½ tablespoons bean paste on towel; pat into a 4-inch circle.
 * 5) Place 1 rice ball in the centre of the bean paste circle and use towel to mould bean paste around the rice ball.
 * 6) Repeat this 3 more times, using another ½ cup of bean paste and the other 3 rice balls.
 * 7) Place these on a nice serving tray. Flatten the remaining eight rice portions.
 * 8) Form the remaining bean paste into 8 balls (about 2 teaspoons per ball). Place a bean paste ball in the centre of each piece of flattened rice and shape the rice around it.
 * 9) Mould these stuffed rice balls into oval shapes. Roll 4 ovals in the sesame-sugar mixture. Roll the other 4 balls in the roasted soybean powder. Add these to the serving tray.

title: Cookbook:Tri-Colored Autumn Rice Balls


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Cookbook talk:Dairy

So, my question remains: Is an egg a dairy product?? Not is it CONSIDERED one, is it one??
 * Depends on how you look at it. Dairy primarily refers to milk and other milk products like cheese. However, "dairy" also refers to products produced on a dairy farm, which traditionally would probably include eggs. Thus the confusion. Eggs are therefore not "dairy" but they could be a "dairy product" (with different meanings of "dairy" in each). Kellen 06:36, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

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User:Angelo.romano

Buongiorno a tutti. My name is Angelo Romano, and I am an Italian student at the University of Pisa, but originally I'm from Sicily. In addition to Italian, I also speak English fluently, and I even know some of the basics of French and Spanish.

I do not work often on Wikibooks, so, for more info about me, please take a look on my Wikipedia userpage. Grazie.

title: User:Angelo.romano


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User talk:ZeroOne

Please, discuss before you made such root changes next time. All you did is missing history from all Blender 3D books now. Thank you. --Popski 15:02, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * Oops, didn't realize that. I'll be more careful in the future. Sorry. --ZeroOne 12:30, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

hey pal
Hi ZeroOne,

Long time no see! Have some things to discuss with past and future authors of the Noob to Pro book... will you please sign into irc.freenode.net channel #blenderwiki and talk to either myself or S68 as soon as possible? Thank you very much. --Spiderworm 15:27, 23 November 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:ZeroOne


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Introduction to Sociology/Sociological Theory

Introduction
Sociologists develop theories to explain social phenomena. A theory is a proposed relationship between two or more concepts. In other words, a theory is an explanation for why or how a phenomenon occurs. An example of a sociological theory is the work of Robert Putnam on the decline of civic engagement. Putnam found that Americans' involvement in civic life (e.g., community organizations, clubs, voting, religious participation, etc.) has declined over the last 40 to 60 years. While there are a number of factors that contribute to this decline (Putnam's theory is quite complex), one of the prominent factors is the increased consumption of television as a form entertainment. Putnam's theory proposes:

 * The more television people watch, the lower their involvement in civic life will be.

This element of Putnam's theory clearly illustrates the basic purpose of sociological theory: it proposes a relationship between two or more concepts. In this case, the concepts are civic engagement and television watching. The relationship is an inverse one - as one goes up, the other goes down. What's more, it is an explanation of one phenomenon with another: part of the reason why civic engagement has declined over the last several decades is because people are watching more television.

Sociological theory is developed at multiple levels, ranging from grand theory to highly contextualized and specific micro-range theories. There are many middle-range and micro-range theories in sociology. Because such theories are dependent on context and specific to certain situations, it is beyond the scope of this text to explore each of those theories. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce some of the more well-known and most commonly used grand and middle-range theories in sociology.

Importance of Theory
In the theory proposed above, the astute reader will notice that the theory includes two components: The data, in this case the findings that civic engagement has declined and TV watching has increased, and the proposed relationship, that the increase in television viewing has contributed to the decline in civic engagement. Data alone are not particularly informative. If Putnam had not proposed a relationship between the two elements of social life, we may not have realized that television viewing does, in fact, reduce people's desire to participate in and their time dedicated to civic life. In order to understand the social world around us, it is necessary to employ theory to draw the connections between seemingly disparate concepts.

Another example of sociological theorizing illustrates this point. In his now classic work, Suicide, Emile Durkheim was interested in explaining a social phenomenon, suicide, and employed both data and theory to offer an explanation. By aggregating data for large groups of people in Europe, Durkheim was able to discern patterns in suicide rates and connect those patterns with another concept (or variable): religious affiliation. Durkheim found that Protestants were more likely to commit suicide than were Catholics. At this point, Durkheim's analysis was still in the data stage; he had not proposed an explanation for the different suicide rates of the two groups. It was when Durkheim introduced the ideas of anomie and social solidarity that he began to explain the difference in suicide rates. Durkheim argued that the looser social ties found in Protestant religions lead to weaker social cohesion and reduced social solidarity. The higher suicide rates were the result of weakened social bonds among Protestants.

While Durkheim's findings have since been criticized, his study is a classic example of the use of theory to explain the relationship between two concepts. Durkheim's work also illustrates the importance of theory: without theories to explain the relationship between concepts, we would not be able to hypothesize cause and effect relationships in social life or outline processes whereby social events and patterns occur. Proposing cause and effect relationships or outlining processes in social experience are the major components of sociological theory.

Prominent Sociological Theories
As noted above, there are many theories in sociology. However, there are several broad theoretical perspectives that are prominent in the field (they are arguably paradigms). These theories are prominent because they are quite good at explaining social life. They are not without their problems, but these theories remain widely used and cited precisely because they have withstood a great deal of criticism.

As the dominant theories in sociology are discussed below, you might be inclined to ask, "Which of these theories is the best?" As is often the case in sociology (and in other scientific disciplines), just because things are different doesn't mean one is better than another. In fact, it is probably more useful and informative to view these theories as complementary. One theory may explain one element of society better than another. Or, both may be useful for explaining social life. In short, all of the theories are correct in the sense that they offer compelling explanations for social phenomena.

Structural-Functionalism
Structural-Functionalism is a sociological theory that originally attempted to explain social institutions as collective means to meet individual biological needs (originally just functionalism). Later it came to focus on the ways social institutions meet social needs (structural-functionalism).

Structural-functionalism draws its inspiration primarily from the ideas of Emile Durkheim. Durkheim was concerned with the question of how societies maintain internal stability and survive over time. He sought to explain social cohesion and stability through the concept of solidarity. In more "primitive" societies it was mechanical solidarity, everyone performing similar tasks, that held society together. Durkheim proposed that such societies tend to be segmented, being composed of equivalent parts that are held together by shared values, common symbols, or systems of exchanges. In modern, complex societies members perform very different tasks, resulting in a strong interdependence between individuals. Based on the metaphor of an organism in which many parts function together to sustain the whole, Durkheim argued that modern complex societies are held together by organic solidarity (think interdependent organs).

The central concern of structural-functionalism is a continuation of the Durkheimian task of explaining the apparent stability and internal cohesion of societies that are necessary to ensure their continued existence over time. Many functionalists argue that social institutions are functionally integrated to form a stable system and that a change in one institution will precipitate a change in other institutions. Societies are seen as coherent, bounded and fundamentally relational constructs that function like organisms, with their various parts (social institutions) working together to maintain and reproduce them. The various parts of society are assumed to work in an unconscious, quasi-automatic fashion towards the maintenance of the overall social equilibrium. All social and cultural phenomena are therefore seen as being functional in the sense of working together to achieve this state and are effectively deemed to have a life of their own. These components are then primarily analyzed in terms of the function they play. In other words, to understand a component of society, one can ask the question, "What is the function of this institution?" A function, in this sense, is the contribution made by a phenomenon to a larger system of which the phenomenon is a part.

Thus, one can ask of education, "What is the function of education for society?" The answer is actually quite complex and requires a detailed analysis of the history of education, but one obvious answer is that education prepares individuals to enter the workforce. By delineating the functions of elements of society, of the social structure, we can better understand social life.

Durkheim's strongly sociological perspective of society was continued by Radcliffe-Brown. Following Auguste Comte, Radcliffe-Brown believed that the social constituted a separate level of reality distinct from both the biological and the inorganic (here non-living). Explanations of social phenomena therefore had to be constructed within this social level, with individuals merely being transient occupants of comparatively stable social roles. Thus, in structural-functionalist thought, individuals are not significant in and of themselves but only in terms of their social status: their position in patterns of social relations. The social structure is therefore a network of statuses connected by associated roles.

Structural-functionalism was the dominant perspective of sociology between World War II and the Vietnam War.

Limitations
Structural-functionalism has been criticized for being unable to account for social change because it focuses so intently on social order and equilibrium in society. For instance, in the late 19th Century, higher education transitioned from a training center for clergy and the elite to a center for the conduct of science and the general education of the masses. In other words, education did not always serve the function of preparing individuals for the labor force (with the exception of the ministry and the elite). As structural-functionalism thinks about elements of social life in relation to their present function and not their past functions, structural-functionalism has a difficult time explaining why a function of some element of society might change or how such change occurs. However, structural-functionalism could, in fact, offer an explanation in this case. Also occurring in the 19th Century (though it began in the 18th) was the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution, facilitated by capitalism, was increasingly demanding technological advances to increase profit. Technological advances and advanced industry both required more educated work forces. Thus, as one aspect of society changed - the economy and production - it required a comparable change in the educational system, bringing social life back into equilibrium.

Another philosophical problem with the structural-functional approach is the tautological argument that society does not have needs as a human being does; and even if society does have needs they need not be met. The idea that society has needs like humans do is not a tenable position because society is only alive in the sense that it is made up of living individuals.Thus, society cannot have wants or needs like humans do. What's more, just because a society has some element in it at the present that does not mean that it must necessarily have that element. For instance, in the United Kingdom, religious service attendance has declined precipitously over the last 100 years. Today, less than 1 in 10 British individuals attend religious services in a given week. While one might argue that religion has certain functions in British society, it is becoming apparent that it is not necessary for British society to function.

Another criticism often leveled at structural-functionalist theory is that it supports the status quo. According to some critics, structural-functionalism paints conflict and challenge to the status quo as harmful to society, and therefore tends to be the prominent view among conservative thinkers.

Manifest and Latent Functions
Robert K. Merton (1957) proposed a distinction between manifest and latent functions. Manifest functions are the intended functions of a phenomenon in a social system. Latent functions are the unintended functions of a phenomenon in a social system. An example of manifest and latent functions is education. The manifest purpose of public education is to increase the knowledge and abilities of the citizenry to prepare them to contribute in the workforce. A latent function of the education system is to function as a gatekeeper, preventing some people from earning degrees. Thus, while education's manifest function is to empower all individuals to contribute to the workforce and society, it also limits some people by creating boundaries of entry into occupations.

Conflict Theory
A prominent sociological theory that is often contrasted with structural-functionalism is conflict theory. Karl Marx is considered the father of conflict theory. Conflict theory argues that society is not best understood as a complex system striving for equilibrium but rather as a competition. Society is made up of individuals competing for limited resources (e.g., money, leisure, sexual partners, etc.). Broader social structures and organizations (e.g., religions, government, etc.) reflect the competition for resources in their inherent inequalities; some people and organizations have more resources (i.e., power and influence) and use those resources to maintain their positions of power in society.

Conflict theory was developed in part to illustrate the limitations of structural-functionalism. The structural-functionalist approach argued that society tends toward equilibrium, focusing on stability at the expense of social change. This is contrasted with the conflict approach, which argues that society is constantly in conflict over resources. One of the primary contributions conflict theory presents over the structural-functional approach is that it is ideally suited for explaining social change, a significant problem in the structural-functional approach.

The following are three primary assumptions of modern conflict theory:

 * Competition over scarce resources is at the heart of all social relationships. Competition rather than consensus is characteristic of human relationships.
 * Inequalities in power and reward are built into all social structures. Individuals and groups that benefit from any particular structure strive to see it maintained.
 * Change occurs as a result of conflict between competing interests rather than through adaptation. Change is often abrupt and revolutionary rather than evolutionary.

A heuristic device to help you think about society from a conflict perspective is to ask, "Who benefits from this element of society?" Using the same example as we did above, we can ask, "Who benefits from the current higher educational system in the U.S.?" The answer, of course, is the wealthy. Why? Because higher education in the U.S. is not free. Thus, the educational system often screens out poorer individuals not because they are unable to compete academically but because they cannot afford to pay for their education. Because the poor are unable to obtain higher education, this means they are also generally unable to get higher paying jobs which means they remain poor. This can easily translate into a vicious cycle of poverty. Thus, while the function of education is to educate the workforce, it also has built into it an element of conflict and inequality, favoring one group (the wealthy) over other groups (the poor). Thinking about education this way helps illustrate why both structural-functionalist and conflict theories are helpful in understanding how society works.

Conflict theory was elaborated in the United Kingdom by Max Gluckman and John Rex, in the United States by Lewis A. Coser and Randall Collins, and in Germany by Ralf Dahrendorf, all of whom were influenced by Karl Marx, Ludwig Gumplovicz, Vilfredo Pareto, Georg Simmel, and other founders of European sociology.

Limitations
Not surprisingly, the primary limitation of the social-conflict perspective is that it overlooks the stability of societies. While societies are in a constant state of change, much of the change is minor. Many of the broader elements of societies remain remarkably stable over time, indicating the structural-functional perspective has a great deal of merit.

As noted above, sociological theory is often complementary. This is particularly true of structural-functionalism and social-conflict theories. Structural-functionalism focuses on equilibrium and solidarity; conflict-theory focuses on change and conflict. Keep in mind that neither is better than the other; when combined, the two approaches offer a broader and more comprehensive view of society.

Symbolic Interactionism
In contrast to the rather broad approach toward society of structural-functionalism and conflict theory, Symbolic Interactionism is a theoretical approach to understanding the relationship between humans and society. The basic notion of symbolic interactionism is that human action and interaction are understandable only through the exchange of meaningful communication or symbols. In this approach, humans are portrayed as acting as opposed to being acted upon.

The main principles of symbolic interactionism are:
 * 1) human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings those things have for them
 * 2) these meanings arise from ongoing processes of social interaction and interpretation
 * 3) social action results from a "joint action", or the fitting together of individual lines of action

This approach stands in contrast to the strict behaviorism of psychological theories prevalent at the time it was first formulated (in the 1920s and 1930s). According to Symbolic Interactionism, humans are distinct from other animals because non-human animals simply respond to their environment (i.e., a stimulus evokes a response or stimulus -> response) whereas humans have the ability to interrupt that process (i.e., stimulus -> cognition -> response). Additionally, non-human animals are unable to conceive of alternative responses to gestures. Humans can. This understanding should not be taken to indicate that humans never behave in a strict stimulus -> response fashion, but rather that humans have the capability of not responding in that fashion (and do so much of the time).

This perspective is also rooted in phenomenological thought (see social constructionism and phenomenology). According to symbolic interactionism, the objective world has no reality for humans, only subjectively-defined objects have meaning. Meanings are not entities that are bestowed on humans and learned by habituation. Instead, meanings can be altered through the creative capabilities of humans, and individuals may influence the many meanings that form their society. Human society, therefore, is a social product.

Neurological evidence based on EEGs supports the idea that humans have a "social brain," that is, there are components of the human brain that govern social interaction. These parts of the brain begin developing in early childhood (the preschool years) and aid humans in understanding how other people think. In symbolic interactionism, this is known as "reflected appraisals" or "the looking glass self" and refers to our ability to think about how other people will think about us. A good example of this is when people try on clothes before going out with friends. Some people may not think much about how others will think about their clothing choices, but others can spend quite a bit of time considering what they are going to wear. And while they are deciding, the dialogue that is taking place inside their mind is usually a dialogue between their "self" (that portion of their identity that calls itself "I") and that person's internalized understanding of their friends and society (a "generalized other" called the "me"). An indicator of mature socialization is when an individual quite accurately predicts how other people think about them. Such an individual has incorporated the "social" into the "self" and will thus experience the world through an ongoing internal communication process that seeks to determine "if I do this, what will be thought of me."

It should also be noted that symbolic interactionists advocate a particular methodology. Because they see meaning as the fundamental component of human and society interaction, studying human and society interaction requires getting at that meaning. Thus, symbolic interaction tends to take two distinct, but related methodological paths. Processual Symbolic Interaction seeks to uncover the elaboration and experience of meanings in natural settings of social interaction through primarily qualitative methods (e.g., examining the process whereby people become and signify selves) while Structural Symbolic Interaction seeks to map the contours of the self through primarily quantitative methods (e.g., examining the structure of the self by asking who people believe themselves and others to be).

Symbolic Interaction arose through the integration of Structural Functionalism and Conflict Theories. Specifically, Symbolic Interaction seeks to uncover the ways "meanings" are deployed within interactions and embedded within larger social structures to facilitate social cohesion (Structural Functionalism) and social change (Conflict Theories). To use the case above, Symbolic Interaction may be used to explain the distinction between Conflict and Structural Functionalist approaches to education. If people act toward education based on the meaning they hold of it, then people that believe that education serves an important function for all of society (e.g., Structural Functionalism) will be hesitant to change this social structure. On the other hand, if people believe that education transmits social inequalities from generation to generation (e.g., Conflict Theory), then they will be more likely to attempt to change this structure over time. In either case, societies (and the people that form them) will move towards cohesion (Structural Functionalism) or conflict (Conflict Theory) concerning educational structures based upon the meanings these people have for the current educational structure. Symbolic Interaction thus often focuses on elaborating the multitude of ways that micro patterns of interaction and interpretation justify, sustain, or change large scale social structures and patterns of activity within the world.

Central to Symbolic Interaction is the notion that selves and societies exist in an ongoing reciprocal relationship wherein each acts back upon the other. Stated another way, Symbolic Interactionism argues that people become selves by learning and internalizing the symbolic materials of the social and historical context and culture they are born into and raised within (e.g., the individual is formed by the society), and then act back upon and alter societies (e.g., norms, cultures and structures) by deploying the symbolic resources at their disposal throughout the course of their ongoing lives (e.g., the society is formed by the joint action of individuals). As a result, Symbolic Interactionists argue against the division of society into micro, meso, and macro forms, and instead focus on the ways that interconnected people continuously construct, alter, signify, and affirm themselves and others in ways that create, sustain, and change existing social structures. They thus argue that society is always an ongoing information exchange between individuals, groups, and social structures that each depend on the other for their meaning and by extension their existence and survival.

Limitations
The most significant limitations of symbolic interactionism relate to its primary contribution: it focuses on the ongoing construction and contestation of meanings in society (e.g., norms, rules, cultures, and interpersonal experiences), which can only be grasped via examination of small groups or individual beings. As a result, Symbolic Interactionism typically focuses on "how" things are done rather than "why" things are done. As a result, Symbolic Interaction is more adequately suited to explaining how the world is, but is unable to demonstrate and document predictions about how the world might differ, if circumstances were hypothetically altered.

Role Theory
Another more micro-oriented approach to understanding social life that also incorporates the more structural elements of society is Role Theory. Role theory emerged from the integration of Structural and Processual Symbolic Interactionist insights, and often draws heavily upon both of these theoretical traditions (see also dramaturgy). Role theory posits that human behavior is guided by expectations held both by the individual and by other people. The expectations correspond to different roles individuals perform or enact in their daily lives, such as secretary, father, or friend. For instance, most people hold preconceived notions of the role expectations of a secretary, which might include: answering phones, making and managing appointments, filing paperwork, and typing memos. These role expectations would not be expected of a professional soccer player.

Individuals generally have and manage many roles. Roles consist of a set of rules or norms that function as plans or blueprints to guide behavior. Roles specify what goals should be pursued, what tasks must be accomplished, and what performances are required in a given scenario or situation. Role theory holds that a substantial proportion of observable, day-to-day social behavior is simply persons carrying out their roles, much as actors carry out their roles on the stage or ballplayers theirs on the field. Role theory is, in fact, predictive. It implies that if we have information about the role expectations for a specified status (e.g., sister, fireman, prostitute), a significant portion of the behavior of the persons occupying that position can be predicted.

What's more, role theory also argues that in order to change behavior it is necessary to change roles; roles correspond to behaviors and vice versa. In addition to heavily influencing behavior, roles influence beliefs and attitudes; individuals will change their beliefs and attitudes to correspond with their roles. For instance, someone over-looked for a promotion to a managerial position in a company may change their beliefs about the benefits of management by convincing themself that they didn't want the additional responsibility that would have accompanied the position.

Many role theorists see Role Theory as one of the most compelling theories bridging individual behavior and social structure. Roles, which are in part dictated by social structure and in part by social interactions, guide the behavior of the individual. The individual, in turn, influences the norms, expectations, and behaviors associated with roles. The understanding is reciprocal.

Role Theory includes the following propositions:
 * 1) people spend much of their lives as members of groups and organizations
 * 2) within these groups, people occupy distinct positions
 * 3) each of these positions entails a role, which is a set of functions performed by the person for the group
 * 4) groups often formalize role expectations as norms or even codified rules, which include what rewards will result when roles are successfully performed and what punishments will result when roles are not successfully performed
 * 5) individuals usually carry out their roles and perform in accordance with prevailing norms; in other words, role theory assumes that people are primarily conformists who try to live up to the norms that accompany their roles
 * 6) group members check each individual's performance to determine whether it conforms with the norms; the anticipation that others will apply sanctions ensures role performance

Limitations
Role theory has a hard time explaining social deviance when it does not correspond to a pre-specified role. For instance, the behavior of someone who adopts the role of bank robber can be predicted - they will rob banks. But if a bank teller simply begins handing out cash to random people, role theory would be unable to explain why (though role conflict could be one possible answer; the bank teller may also be a Marxist-Communist who believes the means of production should belong to the masses and not the bourgeoisie).

Another limitation of role theory is that it does not and cannot explain how role expectations came to be what they are. Role theory has no explanation for why it is expected of male soldiers to cut their hair short, but it could predict with a high degree of accuracy that if someone is a male soldier they will have short hair. Additionally, role theory does not explain when and how role expectations change. As a result, role theorists typically draw upon insights from Symbolic Interaction Theory and Historical Comparative analyses to address these questions.

Impression Management
An extension of role theory, impression management is both a theory and process. The theory argues that people are constantly engaged in controlling how others perceive them. The process refers to the goal-directed conscious or unconscious effort to influence the perceptions of other people by regulating and controlling information in social interaction. If a person tries to influence the perception of her or his own image, this activity is called self-presentation.

Erving Goffman (1959), the person most often credited with formally developing impression management theory, cast the idea in a dramaturgical framework. The basic idea is that individuals in face-to-face situations are like actors on a stage performing roles (see role theory above). Aware of how they are being perceived by their audience, actors manage their behavior so as to create specific impressions in the minds of the audience. Strategic interpersonal behavior to shape or influence impressions formed by an audience is not a new idea. Plato spoke of the "great stage of human life" and Shakespeare noted that "All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players".

Social Constructionism
Social constructionism is a school of thought introduced into sociology by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann with their 1966 book The Social Construction of Reality. Drawing on Symbolic Interactionist insights about the ongoing production and affirmation of meaning, social constructionism aims to discover the ways that individuals and groups create their perceived reality. Social constructionism focuses on the description of institutions and actions and not on analyzing cause and effect. Socially constructed reality is seen as an on-going dynamic process; reality is re-produced by people acting on their interpretations of what they perceive to be the world external to them. Berger and Luckmann argue that social construction describes both subjective and objective reality - that is that no reality exists outside what is produced and reproduced in social interactions.

A clear example of social constructionist thought is, following Sigmund Freud and Émile Durkheim, religion. Religion is seen as a socially constructed concept, the basis for which is rooted in either our psyche (Freud) or man's need to see some purpose in life or worship a higher presence. One of the key theorists of social constructionism, Peter Berger, explored this concept extensively in his book, The Sacred Canopy.

Social constructionism is often seen as a source of the postmodern movement, and has been influential in the field of cultural studies.

Feminist Theory
Although women were primarily ignored, barred, and disenfranchised within most scientific communities prior to the women's rights movement of the 1960's and 1970's (for a notable exception in Sociology, see Dorothy Swaine Thomas), women have contributed to scientific disciplines, methods, and theories since at least the 1830's. Following the establishment of women's academic conferences and coordinated protests of the American Sociological Association's annual meetings during the 1970's, women made significant inroads into Sociology. For example, women such as Dorothy E. Smith, Joan Acker, Myra Marx Ferree, Patricia Yancey Martin, and bell hooks were all pioneers in Sociology who developed insights and empirical findings that challenged much of existing sociological practice, knowledge, and methods. These early scholars also founded women's academic organizations like Sociologists for Women in Society to lobby for the admittance and inclusion of minority people and perspectives within scientific disciplines. The theoretical perspectives these and subsequent scholars developed is broadly referred to as Feminist Theory. The name derives from the ties many of these individuals had and continue to have with women's movement organizations, the promotion of minority perspectives, their experience in relation to the subjective nature of scientific practice, and commitment to principles of social justice. Feminist Theory uncovered a vast "herstory" of women's (and other minority) academic thinking, writing, and activism, and integrated insights from these essays and studies into the scientific enterprise. These scholars uncovered many ways that Feminist theorists from as far back as the 1830's had already introduced insights - such as Social Constructionism, Intersectionality, and the subjective nature and critical possibilities of scientific work - that have informed scientific research and theorizing across disciplines.

Feminist scholars across disciplines have continuously sought to expand scientific "facts" beyond their initial (and often continuing) white, male, heterosexual biases and assumptions while seeking knowledge as an entryway into a more just social world. Below we offer summaries of the major conceptual approaches within Feminist Theory. It is important to note, however, that while we outline these perspectives under distinct headings and within specific orders for the purposes of clarity and introduction, contemporary Feminist theorists and researchers across disciplines often draw upon more than one of these perspectives in practice and continually seek ways to refine and integrate each of these approaches. Before presenting this outline, however, it is important to be aware of three basic premises or foundational ideas within and between contemporary Feminist Theories.
 * Scientific practice is subjective: If one admits that social experience and environment influence individual and collective perceptions, then one cannot form a question without expressing - implicitly or explicitly - a socially influenced perspective. As long as people are the "doers" of research, research will have a subjective element to it and be open to debate or refinement on some level. Feminist theorists argue that understanding the social or natural world also requires interrogating our own conscious or unconscious bias, perspective, beliefs, and values, and our own positions within systems of racial, class, gender, sexual, political, and scientific social systems.

 * The personal is political: Experiences we consider personal are generally shaped by our social locations within existing systems of oppression and privilege. As a result, every personal decision or action ultimately reproduces and/or challenges systems of social inequality. Feminist theorists argue that understanding or changing large-scale systems of oppression and privilege requires examining the ways people think, feel, and act in all aspects of life since all such endeavors will influence the social and natural worlds they experience.

 * Everything is more than one thing: Rather than simple one to one relationships or isolated causal patterns, all social and natural systems are interlocked systems that may only be understood, reproduced or challenged in relation to the other systems they depend on. If one examines women's oppression, for example, one must also explore the ways of thinking and feeling that produce scientific categorization systems, the system of categorization that simplifies the world into only two sexes or genders, the social construction of the term "woman" within historical and contextual power relations, and the other systems that make up a given "woman". For example, in order to understand the experience of one woman requires examining the ways her position within racial, classed, sexual, religious, political, scientific, and other systems create the definition of what it means for her to be a "woman". Feminist theorists argue that the social and natural worlds cannot be understood via the isolation or control of various parts of social or natural experience. As a result, scientific inquiries require attending to the whole entity, system, or structure in relation to other entities, systems, or structures in the world at that time.

With these foundational ideas in mind, we now present the primary Feminist theoretical perspectives.

Liberal Feminism
Liberal feminists believe that men and women both are disadvantaged by society’s gender expectations. They advocate working within institutions to “level the playing field” through changing laws, education, and socialization to bring about gender equality.

Marxist and Socialist Feminism
Marxist feminists believe that the oppression of women stems primarily from capitalism, which exploits women’s labor and is upheld through women’s unpaid domestic labor. They believe that economic inequalities are the most central form of inequality. Therefore, eliminating capitalism would get rid of gender inequalities.

Socialist feminists believe that women’s oppression is inseparable from class oppression. Therefore, to bring about gender equality, we must work to eliminate both capitalism and patriarchy in all social and natural fields of knowledge and experience.

Radical, Separatist, and Cultural Feminism
Radical feminists believe that women are oppressed by our patriarchal society. They do not believe that men are oppressed. They seek a fundamental reorganization of society because our existing political, scientific, religious, and social organization is inherently patriarchal.

Separatist feminists, like radical feminists, believe that women are oppressed by our patriarchal society. They, however, believe that we can’t get rid of this problem if women and men are together. In order to achieve equality, women need to separate themselves from men. Some believe this is a temporary stage while others see this as a permanent goal.

Cultural feminists, like radical feminists, believe that women are oppressed by our patriarchal society. They, however, focus on empowering women through valuing, emphasizing, and encouraging the positive qualities traditionally associated with women, such as nurturing, caring, cooperation, relationships with others, childbirth, morality, peace, pureness, and women’s connection to nature and the earth.

Black Feminist Thought and Queer Feminism
Black feminists believe that many inequalities are important in society today, not only gender. In addition to gender inequalities, they focus on race, ethnicity, and class — and sometimes also add sexuality, nationality, age, disability, and others. They believe that people experience gender differently depending on their location in socially constructed cultural, political, and biological structures of race, ethnicity and class. Therefore, there is no universal female experience. This perspective is sometimes referred to as multicultural feminism, multiracial feminism, or womanism.

Queer feminists - sometimes referred to as Postmodern Feminists - believe that gender and sex are multiple, constantly changing, and performed by individuals and groups within situated social, historical, scientific, and political contexts. There are many (i.e., more than two) genders and sexes, and variations (biologically and socially) within other "accepted" or "normalized" categorizations. They focus on creating social change through challenging the existence and blurring the boundaries of these categories. This perspective shares many ideas with Queer Theory.

Integration Theory
Recently, some sociologists have been taking a different approach to sociological theory by employing an integrationist approach - combining micro- and macro-level theories to provide a comprehensive understanding of human social behavior (while these studies rarely cite Symbolic Interaction Theory, most of their models are based heavily upon Herbert Blumer's initial elaboration of Symbolic Interaction in relation to social institutions ). Numerous models could be presented in this vein. George Ritzer's Integration Model is a good example.

Ritzer proposes four highly interdependent elements in his sociological model: a macro-objective component (e.g., society, law, bureaucracy), a micro-objective component (e.g., patterns of behavior and human interaction), a macro-subjective component (e.g., culture, norms, and values), and a micro-subjective component (e.g., perceptions, beliefs). This model is of particular use in understanding society because it uses two axes: one ranging from objective (society) to subjective (culture and cultural interpretation); the other ranging from the macro-level (norms) to the micro-level (individual level beliefs).

The integration approach is particularly useful for explaining social phenomena because it shows how the different components of social life work together to influence society and behavior.

If used for understanding a specific cultural phenomenon, like the displaying of abstract art in one's home, the integration model depicts the different influences on the decision. For instance, the model depicts that cultural norms can influence individual behavior. The model also shows that individual level values, beliefs, and behaviors influence macro-level culture. This is, in fact, part of what David Halle finds: while there are art consumption differences based on class, they are not predicted solely by class. Displayers of abstract art tend not only to belong to the upper-class, but also are employed in art-production occupations. This would indicate that there are multiple levels of influence involved in art tastes – both broad cultural norms and smaller level occupational norms in addition to personal preferences.

Additional Reading
Durkheim, Emile. Suicide: A Study in Sociology. Edited with an introduction by George Simpson. Translated by John A. Spaulding & George Simpson. New York: The Free Press. ISBN: 978-0684836324.

Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Translated by Talcott Parsons. Introduction by Anthony Giddens. New York: Routledge. ISBN: 978- 0415084345.

Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN: 978-0385094023.

Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor Books. ISBN: 978-0-385-05898-8.

Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism. New York: Routledge. ISBN: 978-0415951500.

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN: 978-0679752554.

Mead, George Herbert. 1934. Mind, Self, and Society. University of Chicago Press. Mills, C. Wright. The Power Elite.

Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. 1994. Racial Formation in the United States:  From the 1960’s to the 1990’s. New York: Routledge.

Smith, Dorothy. 1987. The Everyday World as Problematic. Boston: Northeastern University.

Smith, Dorothy. 1990. The Conceptual Practices of Power.

Warner, Michael. 1999. The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics and the Ethics of Queer Life. New York: Free Press.

hooks, bell. 1981. Ain’t I a Woman?: Black Women and Feminism. ISBN 0-89608-129-X

Dubois, W.E.B. 1899. The Philadelphia Negro.

DuBois, W.E.B., The Souls of Black Folk

Durkheim, Emile. 1912. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

Foucault, Michel. 1990 [1978]. The History of Sexuality, An Introduction. New York: Vintage Books.

Discussion Questions

 * Why do sociologists need theories?
 * How does sociological theory complement data?
 * What is the difference between sociological theorizing and philosophy?