text:
About learning a report by Demos study group

Why is this project needed?
If the Wikiverstiy is to succeed then it will need to develop effective methods of learning. This project will help identify some of these methods.

What is this project about?
This project will look at the implications for Wikiversity of "About learning" a report from Demos (a rightwing British think tank). This report looks at how English and Welsh secondary school pupils could benefit from learning to learn projects involving teachers working with cognitive scientists to make the most of the latest advances in research and practice.

Who is this project for?
This project is for anyone who is interested in how to improve learning.

Active participants
Mystictim 20:39, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

When will this project take place?
The initial phase of this project will be conducted during January 2007.

How will this project be conducted?
If you would like to take part in this project please download the document About learning. The main strand of this project will be a critical reading of this document.

Related learning projects
Learning to learn a wiki way

Documents
About learning

Summary of the About learning report
There are 9 sections to this report.

The challenge: making students more effective at learning
Begins with a plea for teachers and cognitive scientists to work together to improve the practice of teaching and learning.

Then makes the claim that if the learning skills and attitudes children develop at home are enhanced by their school experience they will tend to succeed were as if this doesn't happen then they will end up paying a personal and social price resulting in disadvantage.

Then claims that no formal system exists to help teachers develop and use an explicit, elaborate and expert view of learning.

Goes on to say that cognitive and social scientists can provide a framework for this as seen in such publications as How people learn: brain, mind, experience and school.

However goes on to say teachers have been exposed to various psychological models of learning and have divergent class room experiences. This has lead to a lack of a common vocabulary to develop and share knowledge about learning with their peers and students. This has lead to a range of teaching methods being used in a rather arbitrary manner.

The report then says that time is right for teachers, educationists and cognitive scientists to come together to improve this situation.

The report claims this has already begun with a strong emphasis on learning to learn.

Finally ends session on a cautionary note in that not all of these schemes for improving learning have a strong evidence base.

Is it possible to learn how to learn?
Difficulty with a common sense view of learning and a confusion of terms used to mean the same thing and the same terms used to mean different things in the literature on this subject.

Then quotes from of the Teaching and Learning Research Programme’s Learning How to Learn Project
 * "learning to learn is not a single entity or skill, but a family of learning practices that enhance one's capacity to learn."

The evidence for recent developments
Two types of evidence, scientific research and practice based. "It is when the two kinds of evidence are mutually supportive that the evidence base for a practice is most powerful" Then gives two examples Assessment for learning and Cognitive acceleration along with a more eclectic approach from Profesor Guy Claxton.

Then lists the 5 Rs developed by Claxton with The Campaign for learning
 * Remembering - the ability to recall
 * Resilience - the habit of persisting with difficulty
 * Resourcefulness - the ability to deploy a variety of learning strategies
 * Reflection - the disposition to think about one's own learning and about oneself as a developing learner
 * Reciprocity or sociability - the ability to learn well in the company of others

A second Claxton formulation the seven dimensions of learning power from the Lifelong Learning Foundation is then given
 * Changing and learning - a sense that I can change and continue to learn
 * Critical curiosity - getting below the surface, asking questions
 * Meaning making - making a bigger picture by fitting information together
 * Creativity - finding new ways to approach information and situations
 * Resilience - being able to resist distraction from inside and outside and to tolerate the feelings of learning
 * Strategic awareness - planning, resourcing and using learning preferences to complete a task
 * Learning relationships - being able to work alone and in collaboration.

Then goes on to warn about commercial schemes that have little scientific or practice evidence to support their claims.

Gives example of various learning styles approaches currently very popular. However limited evidence either scientifically or from class room practice to support their claims.

Then says that the best practitioners use learning styles to expand the variety of leaning activities and encourage learners to explore a range of approaches to learning that vary from situation to situation and individual to individual. However learning styles often end up being seen as fix innate attributes of learners. This leads tutors to target specific types of learning activities at given individuals limiting their learning strategies.

Then points out that as a growing need to personalise learning and learning styles could be a useful tool if there was evidence to show that they are in fact effective. This needs to come from both the scientific community and practice based evidence.

What we know: the evidence from science
This section draws mainly on How people learn: brain, mind, experience and school has to say on learner-centred, knowledge-centred, assessment-centred and community-centred learning environments.

Learner-centred learning environments accepts that learners already have a wealth of knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs that they bring to any learning situation. They will rely on these as the starting position for any new learning. If the tutor is starting from a very different position then learning will become difficult and ineffective. Knowledge-centred environments


text:
User:Ev

meta:User:Ev

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

title: User:Ev


text:
Topic talk:Interreligious conflict studies

 * Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. Psalms 37:37

Religion and War
What is the source of Religious warfare? When did it begin? Where will it end? Are the battles of Armageddon (Book of Revelation) and Kurukshetra (Bhagavad Gita) related? Could they be the same battle from two different perspectives? Just wondering. CQ 22:07, 16 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Religious warfare is over 6000 years old. The earliest extant texts relating warfare are religious in nature.  I recommend you check out William Hamblin's Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC for more details.  The Jade Knight 08:33, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Jainism
I just wanted to advocate for the inclusion of a topic on Peace in Jainism. Jainism is based on the concept of nonviolence. This religion is, I believe, a key example necessary in this topic as they strive for such a high level of peace, from not eating anything needed to be killed (i.e. everything but nonroot vegetables) to not stepping on bugs, and even to the extreme in somecases of starving to death in order to prevent harm to others. The reason are extensive but I think you get the idea. I just believe it should be included.

Text suggestion
I highly recommend using Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC: Holy Warriors at the Dawn of History by William Hamblin. In it, he discusses extensively how, in the earliest records of war extant in the Middle East, warfare and religion were inseparably connected. It's well put together from a historiographical standpoint, as well, and not so technical as to be difficult to understand for normal, educated persons. The Jade Knight 02:34, 21 February 2007 (UTC)


text:
User:Balloonguy/sandbox

Greetings are very important to know in Japan. It is something even Japanese people don't truly master, and yet it is a huge and important subject. This short lesson will go over the easier and more useful forms of address and greetings. Consider this situation

Situation 1: Meeting someone for the first time
Mr. Tanaka is arranged to meet with Ms. Hayasaka at the airport. Neither party has met the other before. She is waiting for him with a sign that has his name on it.

Japanese
です. : ようこそ、さん. はじめまして. です. : よろしくおいします. : こちらこそ、よろしくおいします.

Japanese (Romanized)

 * Tanaka: Hajimemashite. Tanaka desu.
 * Hayasaka: Youkoso, Tanaka-san. Hajimemashite. Hayasaka desu.
 * Tanaka: Yoroshiku o-negai shimasu.
 * Hayasaka: Kochira koso, yoroshiku o-negai shimasu.

English Translation

 * Tanaka: Pleased to meet you. I'm Mr. Tanaka.
 * Hayasaka: Welcome, Mr. Tanaka. Pleased to meet you. I'm Ms. Hayasaka.
 * Tanaka: I look forward to working with you.
 * Hayasaka: Likewise, I look forward to working with you.

Saying Hello!
Saying hello takes many different forms, depending on the time of day. The Japanese have no one word for hello, they instead have three major greetings based on morning, afternoon, and evening.

 * Good Morning!
 * "おはようございます" "Ohayou-gozaimasu!" or simply "Ohayou!" (it is early)

 * Good Afternoon!
 * "こんにちは" "Konnichiwa!" (this day)

 * Good Evening!
 * "こんばんは" "Konbanwa!" (this night)

Now that wasn't too painful, was it? There's one more thing you should know how to say along these lines, and that's good night, used before someone goes to bed.

 * Good Night
 * "おやすみなさい" "Oyasuminasai" or just "おやすみ" "Oyasumi!" (Take a rest!)

Use "Ohayou" from waking to about 12:00, "Konnichiwa" until dusk, "Konbanwa" throughout the evening, and "Oyasumi" only before bed or sleeping.

Saying Goodbye!
Goodbye is done in two ways. Say "Sayonara" for goodbyes that are more formal or more permanent. A simple informal "bye bye" is fine for friends. Occasionally you will hear friends use "Ja ne," which is tough to translate. Literally, it would probably be more akin to "well, all right then," but it is employed in the same way as we would say bye bye.

Please and Thank you
Please has multiple ways of manifesting itself, as does Thank you, but keep in mind the two simple forms of these terms until the Honourifics section. Please is said as "Kudasai" or "Onegaishimasu." Thank you is "Arigatou." Further expansion on this subject of thanks and requests will be dealt with in the Honourifics section as the giving and receiving of gifts is an important part of Japanese culture, and the language thereof is both more slightly complex and very flowery. It tends to be very nice though, and one begins to enjoy hearing exchanges of go-aisatsu (greetings).

Everyday Japanese Phrases Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Konnichiwa/Formal salutations b:Japanese: Lesson: Introducing yourself b:Japanese:Elementary Japanese: Lesson 1

title: User:Balloonguy/sandbox


text:
Drosophila Sex Determination

Χɴ= Drosophila Sex Determination =

In Drosophila, sex is determined by the X:autosome ratio and is independent of the Y chromosome.

XX:AA = female

X:AA = male

XX:AAA = intersex; these individuals are sexual mosaics; individual cells are either fully female or fully male sex index ratio =1, normal demale =o.5, male >1, super female or meta female <0.5, super male or meta male between 0.5 to 1, intersex these are points to remember

Pathway Deduction from Genetics
Phenotype examination of double mutants establish the sex determination pathway:

dsx is epistatic to tra, tra-2, Sxl

dsx and ix are indistinguishable in females; ix is placed downstream because it only effects females.

tra and tra-2 are epistatic to Sxl but not distinguishable from each other

Sex Specific Lethality
Sxl and upstream genes effect dosage compensation, thus they result in sex-specific lethality instead of transformations.

X:autosome ratio is assessed early and then no longer needed. Once Sxl is activated, it is autoregulated in females, da, sis-a, and sis-b are only needed for initial signal first.

dsx
dsx can be alternatively spliced to give 2 RNAs differing at their 3' end (they use different splice acceptor sites.

Mutations in the splice acceptor of the female specific exon lead to default use of male-specific exons. Tra and tra-2 thus promote the female specific splice rather than inhibit the male specific splice.

tra
tra can be alternatively spliced to give sex-nonspecific RNA and female specific RNA

Non-specific RNA includes a stop codon and produces no active product. Its splicing is regulated by Sxl and unaffected by tra-2. Sxl blocks use of the non-specific acceptor site.

Sxl has no effect on tra-2 transcripts. Sxl exerts control of somatic sex solely by effects on tra.

Tra-2 is only functionally active in the presence of tra gene product. Active product of tra-2 has homology to RNA-binding domains of splicing factors.

Sxl
Like tra-2 the active product of Sxl has homology to RNA-binding domains of splicing factors. Early Sxl expression is from a different promoter which is sensitive to X:A ration. At later times, Sxl product made from this early promoter can prevent splicing to the male exon and allow the production of female-specific RNA.

sis-a and sis-b
Sis-a and sis-b function by counting X chromosomes. da and sis-b encode helix-loop-helix proteins which function as heterodimers. Da is supplied maternally in excess. Dosage of sis-b determines the amount of helix-loop-helix heterodimer that can bind to Sxl and activate it.

hairy
Hairy is another helix-loop-helix protein which, when bound to sis-b makes an inactive dimer. Sxl is no longer activated in the presence of hairy protein.

quiz
{dsx can be alternatively spliced to give 2 RNAs differing at their ______ end. + 3' - 5' - middle - start
 * type="[]"}
 * Correct! The RNAs differ at their 3' end.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.
 * Incorrect. The RNAs differ at their 3' end.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.

{Mutations in the splice acceptor of the female specific exon lead to default use of ______ exons. + male-specific - female-specific - non-specific - both male and female
 * type="[]"}
 * Correct! Mutations lead to the default use of male-specific exons.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.
 * Incorrect. The mutations lead to male-specific exons.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.

{tra can be alternatively spliced to give ______ RNA and female specific RNA. + sex-nonspecific - male-specific - both male and female - none of the above
 * type="[]"}
 * Correct! tra gives sex-nonspecific RNA and female specific RNA.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.
 * Incorrect. tra gives sex-nonspecific and female specific RNA.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.

{Non-specific RNA includes a stop codon and produces no ______. + active product - inactive product - RNA product - DNA product
 * type="[]"}
 * Correct! Non-specific RNA produces no active product.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.
 * Incorrect. Non-specific RNA produces no active product.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.

{Sxl exerts control of somatic sex solely by effects on ______. + tra - tra-2 - dsx - none of the above
 * type="[]"}
 * Correct! Sxl exerts control by effects on tra.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.
 * Incorrect. Sxl affects tra.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.

{Tra-2 is only functionally active in the presence of ______ gene product. + tra - dsx - Sxl - none of the above
 * type="[]"}
 * Correct! Tra-2 is active in the presence of tra gene product.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.
 * Incorrect. Tra-2 is active in the presence of tra.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.

{Sis-a and sis-b function by ______. + counting X chromosomes - counting Y chromosomes - splicing RNA - none of the above
 * type="[]"}
 * Correct! Sis-a and sis-b function by counting X chromosomes.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.
 * Incorrect. Sis-a and sis-b count X chromosomes.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.

{Hairy is another helix-loop-helix protein which, when bound to sis-b makes an ______. + inactive dimer - active dimer - RNA product - none of the above
 * type="[]"}
 * Correct! Hairy makes an inactive dimer when bound to sis-b.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.
 * Incorrect. Hairy makes an inactive dimer with sis-b.
 * Incorrect. Review the information provided.

title: Drosophila Sex Determination


text:
Japanese Language/Materials

 Find more Japanese materials by searching Wikiversity's sister projects: Dictionary definitions from Wiktionary Articles from Wikipedia Quotations from Wikiquote Source texts from Wikisource Images and media from Commons News stories from Wikinews

Wikibooks

 * Japanese

Wiktionary

 * Items found at Wiktionary

Wikipedia

 * Items found at Wikipedia

Wikiquote

 * Japanese proverbs
 * Japanese tongue twisters

Commons

 * Category:Japanese pronunciation -- contains audio of pronunciation of Japanese words
 * Category:CJK stroke order -- stroke order for characters (possible learning activity)000
 * Image:Hiragana-strokes-s2.png -- stroke of sa hiragana group
 * Image:Japanese Verbs of Giving.png -- illustration explaining Japanese verbs of giving and receiving (both from the speaker's point of view and from the listener's point of view)
 * Image:Japanese language extension.PNG -- map of speakers of Japanese
 * Image:Japanese vowel chart.png -- IPA vowel chart for Japanese
 * Image:Jappis gor.png -- picture of Japanese fairy tale written horizontally
 * Image:Jappis ver.png -- picture of Japanese fairy tale written vertically
 * Image:Nihongo ichiran 01.png -- The Japanese table, with Hiragana, Katakana, and Romanization of Japanese.

External

 * The Japanese Language -- a reprinted Microsoft Encarta article.
 * Rapid Japanese : V. 1: 200+ Essential Words and Phrases Anchored into Your Long Term Memory with ...
 * renshuu.org (練習.org) -- a collection of vocabulary quizzes in kanji/kana ranging from JLPT tests to vocabulary from Japanese textbooks.
 * Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese -- a free online textbook with thorough explanations on basic, intermediate, advanced, and slang grammar.
 * Romajidesu Kanji -- a free online resources of 12805 Kanji with meaning and stroke order diagrams.
 * FSI Japanese Course -- a public domain online course with audios made by the U.S. Foreign Service Institute.

title: Japanese Language/Materials


text:
Portal:Japanese/Materials/Wikibooks

Syllabus

 * Japanese/Lessons/Basic –syllabus
 * Japanese/Practical Lessons/Syllabus
 * Japanese/Practical Lessons -in progress

Introduction

 * Japanese/Grammar Lessons/Chapter 0/Introducing Japanese
 * Japanese/Introduction/About
 * Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Amerika-jin desu ka/Foreign loan words
 * Japanese language guide -a sampling of everything

Appendix

 * Japanese:Internet Links
 * Japanese:Software
 * Japanese/Computing in Japanese
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/About JLPT
 * Japanese:Japanese Tests
 * Japanese:Background Japan -cultural guide
 * Japanese/Linguistic Terminology -parts of speech in Japanese
 * Japanese/Q&A -list of questions people have asked about Japanese

Reading and Writing

 * Japanese: Introduction: Japanese punctuation

Introduction

 * Japanese: Introduction: Reading Japanese
 * Japanese:Japanese writing system

Readers

 * Japanese/Reader/イズムの功過
 * Japanese/Reader/坊っちゃん
 * Japanese/Reader/彗星
 * Japanese/Reader/第三夜
 * Japanese/Gmail Guide

Vocabulary

 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Academic Subjects
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Adjectives
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Astronomy
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Biology
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Buildings
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Business
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Chemistry
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Country Names
 * Japanese/Vocabulary Days -days of week
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Direction -cardinal directions
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Gairaigo -foreign words
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Glaciology
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Government and Politics
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Internet
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Language Names -also explains how formed
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Law
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Mathematics
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Music
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Nouns
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Nouns/Animals
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Nouns/Body
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Nouns/Clothes
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Nouns/Colors
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Nouns/Family
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Nouns/Food and Drink
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Nouns/Food and Drink/Sushi
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Nouns/Health -includes body parts
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Numbers
 * Japanese: Lesson: Asking for something -includes numbers
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Numbers/Time
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Onomatopoeia
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Physics
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Prefecture Names -regions
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Universe -astronomical
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Videogame -terms i.e. villager, wizard
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Weather
 * Japanese: Lesson: Vocabulary List 1
 * Japanese:Lessons:Word list 1
 * JapaneseVocabulary Days

Kana

 * Japanese/Kana
 * Japanese/Kana Chart
 * Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Ii tenki desu ne/Special kana rules

Hiragana

 * Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Ogenki desu ka/Gojuuon and hiragana
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana -contains chart
 * Japanese/Grammar Lessons/Chapter 0/Hiragana group n

Lessons without example words

 * Japanese/Grammar Lessons/Chapter 0/Hiragana group a
 * Japanese/Grammar Lessons/Chapter 0/Hiragana group ha
 * Japanese/Grammar Lessons/Chapter 0/Hiragana group ka
 * Japanese/Grammar Lessons/Chapter 0/Hiragana group ma
 * Japanese/Grammar Lessons/Chapter 0/Hiragana group na
 * Japanese/Grammar Lessons/Chapter 0/Hiragana group ra
 * Japanese/Grammar Lessons/Chapter 0/Hiragana group sa
 * Japanese/Grammar Lessons/Chapter 0/Hiragana group ta
 * Japanese/Grammar Lessons/Chapter 0/Hiragana group wa
 * Japanese/Grammar Lessons/Chapter 0/Hiragana group ya
 * Japanese/Grammar Lessons/Chapter 0/Hiragana group ya usage notes

Lessons with example words

 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana/Lesson 1
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana/Lesson 2
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana/Lesson 3
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana/Lesson 4
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana/Lesson 5
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana/Lesson 6
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana/Lesson 7
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana/Lesson 9
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana/Lesson 8
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Hiragana/Lesson 10

Katakana

 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana -contains chart
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 1
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 1/Exercises
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 1/Key
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 10
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 11
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 2
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 2/Exercises
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 2/Key
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 3
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 4
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 5
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 6
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 7
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 8
 * Japanese/Kana/Lessons/Katakana/Lesson 9

Kanji

 * Japanese/Kanji

Lessons

 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 1
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 10
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 11
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 12
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 13
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 14
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 15
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 16
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 2
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 3
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 4
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 5
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 6
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 7
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 8
 * Japanese/Kanji/Lesson 9
 * Japanese/Kanji/Numerals

JLPT Kanji

 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 3 Kanji
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 3 Vocabulary/Row A
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 3 Vocabulary/Row Ha –not formatted
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 3 Vocabulary/Row Ka –not formatted
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 3 Vocabulary/Row Ma –not formatted
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 3 Vocabulary/Row Na –not formatted
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 3 Vocabulary/Row Ra -not formatted
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 3 Vocabulary/Row Sa –not formatted
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 3 Vocabulary/Row Ta –not formatted
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 3 Vocabulary/Row Wa –not formatted
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 3 Vocabulary/Row Ya –not formatted
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 4 Kanji
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 4 Vocabulary/Row A
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 4 Vocabulary/Row Ha
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 4 Vocabulary/Row Ka
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 4 Vocabulary/Row Ma
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 4 Vocabulary/Row Na
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 4 Vocabulary/Row Ra
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 4 Vocabulary/Row Sa
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 4 Vocabulary/Row Ta
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 4 Vocabulary/Row Wa
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/JLPT 4 Vocabulary/Row Ya

Pronunciation

 * Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Konnichiwa/Pronunciation
 * Japanese: Pronunciation
 * Japanese: Pronunciation: Consonant doubling & long vowels
 * Japanese: Pronunciation: Mora
 * Japanese: Pronunciation: Pitch accent
 * Japanese:Reading Hiragana

Dialects

 * Japanese/Hougen
 * Japanese/Hougen/Kansai
 * Japanese/Hougen/Kanto
 * Japanese/Hougen/Kyushu
 * Japanese/Hougen/Okinawa
 * Japanese/Hougen/Osaka
 * Japanese/Hougen/Toyama
 * Japanese/Hougen/Yokohama

Vocabulary

 * Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Ii tenki desu ne/Talking about the weather
 * Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Konnichiwa
 * Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Konnichiwa/Formal salutations
 * Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Konnichiwa/Formality –also contains formality stuff
 * Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Ogenki desu ka/Talking about how you are doing
 * Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Ogenki desu ka/Yes and no
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Everyday Phrases
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Numbers/Time
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Phrases and Idioms –sentence endings
 * Japanese: Lesson: Asking for something
 * Japanese: Lesson: Giving directions
 * Japanese: Lesson: Introducing yourself
 * Japanese: Basic Japanese: Answers: Lesson 1 -answers to above
 * Japanese: Lesson: Telling time
 * Japanese: Lesson: What is that?
 * Japanese: Basic Japanese: Answers: Lesson 2 -answer to above
 * Japanese: Lesson: Where is it?
 * Japanese:Calendar –days of week
 * Japanese:Elementary Japanese: Lesson 1 –introduce oneself
 * Japanese:Elementary Japanese: Lesson 2 - say something is something else
 * Japanese:Elementary Japanese: Lesson 3 -how to express date and time
 * Japanese:Lesson Greetings
 * Japanese:Lessons:Chinese numbers –counting
 * Japanese:Lessons:Native Japanese counting

Grammar

 * Japanese/Grammar/Introduction
 * Japanese:Lessons:Word order in Japanese

Adjectives

 * Japanese/Grammar/Adjectives
 * Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Ii tenki desu ne/I-adjectives –under construction
 * Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Ogenki desu ka/Na-adjectives–contains vocab

Nouns

 * Japanese/Grammar/Nouns
 * Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Konnichiwa/Noun predicates -contains vocab

Pronouns

 * Japanese/Grammar/Pronouns
 * Japanese:Lessons:Personal pronouns
 * Japanese:Lessons:ko-so-a-do pronouns
 * Japanese:Random Lessons watashi

Verbs

 * Japanese/Grammar/Verbs
 * Japanese/Grammar/Transitivity
 * Japanese/JLPT Guide/Verb Types
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Verbs
 * Japanese: Lesson: Present tense –verb endings
 * Japanese: Lesson: Simultaneous action
 * Japanese:Lesson Passive Voice
 * Japanese:Lesson Conditional
 * Japanese:Lesson Progressive
 * Japanese:Lesson Progressive:Answers

Particles

 * Japanese/Grammar/Basic Particles
 * Japanese/Grammar/More Particles
 * Japanese/Lessons/Introduction/Ogenki desu ka/Questions using ka
 * Japanese: Lesson: Topic marker
 * Japanese:Lessons:Nounphrase particles
 * Japanese:Lessons:Other uses of particles
 * Japanese:Lessons:Sentence ending particles
 * Japanese:Random Lessons The Ne Particle

Politness

 * Japanese/Grammar/Politeness
 * Japanese/Grammar/Honorifics
 * Japanese/Grammar/お
 * Japanese:Lessons:Personal suffixes and name usage

Counters

 * Japanese/Grammar/Counters
 * Japanese/Vocabulary/Numbers/Days -days of month and time
 * Japanese: Lesson: Asking for something -contains stuff about counters
 * Japanese:Lessons:Popular counting postfixes

Existence

 * Japanese: Lesson: Existence
 * Japanese:Existence and Copula

Unsorted

 * Japanese:Elementary Japanese: Lesson 9 -comparison
 * Japanese/Grammar/~ほど –comparison, It was ... to the extent that I could/couldn't/did/didn’t.
 * Japanese:Lesson Comparisons
 * Japanese:Lesson Giving and Receiving
 * Japanese:Lesson Relative Clauses
 * Japanese:Lessons:Assembling simple sentences
 * Japanese/Grammar/Giving
 * Japanese/Grammar/Grammar Assorted -Question Word + V-ても & ～まま
 * Japanese/Grammar/Writing -formal writing ～まい
 * Japanese/Grammar/Other Basic Words -もし moshi, if & これ, それ, あれ, どれ (Demonstratives adjectives)
 * Japanese/Grammar/~あげく（に）

title: Portal:Japanese/Materials/Wikibooks


text:
User:Doughmuffins~enwikiversity

Hi! I am currently a student that is intrested in all subjects of learning. You can get to my "Wiki Portal" by going to my Wikipedia user page.

title: User:Doughmuffins~enwikiversity


text:
Gene regulation in prokaryotes/Review

Part A
Like the products of the lac operon, the products of the ara operon degrade a sugar so it can supply energy for the cell. From this knowledge, would you expect the ara to be repressible or inducible? Explain

Part B
AraC is required both as an activator and a repressor. Which activity is favored in the presence of arabinose? Explain.

Part C
When araC mutants were first anaylzed, people concluded that AraC protein acts as an activator, not a repressor. Explain why they came to this conclusion.

Part D
What effect, if any would be the effect of deleting the araO2 sites where AraC binds?

Part E
Explain how the presence of glucose will affect expression of the ara operon. Be specific!

Part A
For each of the E. coli diploids that follow, indicate whether the strain is inducible, constitutive or negative for β-galactosidase and permease.

i-o+z-y+/i-ocz+y-

i+o+z+y+/i-ocz+y-

Part B
Suppose you have isolated a Lac- mutant and by genetic analysis have found that the cell is z+y+; you have also found that the mutation, which you call i*, is in the i gene. The diploid i*o+z+y+/i-o+z+y+ is constructed and found to be Lac-

Is i* dominant or recessive?

The diploid i*o+z+y+/i+ocz+y+ is Lac+. Suggest a property of the mutant repressor that would explain this phenotype. Explain your answer.

Would i*o+z+y+/i+ocz-y+ make β-galactosidase? Explain.

title: Gene regulation in prokaryotes/Review


text:
User:TheVividDream

And I don't know how a man decides

What's right for his own life

It's all a mystery

Cause I'm a man, not a boy

And there are things you can't avoid

You have to face them

When you're not prepared to face them

Hiya! I'm TheVividDream. I'm a 20 year old student at the University of California Berkeley studying Immunology.

Interests
I have a great passion for music. I play violin and guitar and I am attempting to learn how to play djembe and mandolin. If you happen to stumble onto this page, you should leave a favorite song of yours for me.

One of mine for the moment is:

Flaming Lips - Do You Realize???

Gnarls Barkley - A Little Better

Contributions
Topic:Genetics - Overview of General Genetics (MCB C142 @ UCB)

Topic:Molecular Biology - Overview of Cell Biology (MCB 130 @ UCB)

title: User:TheVividDream


text:
Genetics/General overview

Lectures and Learning Material

 * Lesson 1: Gene Regulation in Prokaryotes
 * Lesson 2: Gene Regulation in Eukaryotes
 * Lesson 3: Genetics of Cancer
 * Lesson 4: Drosophila Sex Determination
 * Lesson 5: Genetic Control in Drosophila Patterning

As taught by Prof. Steven Beckendorf @ the University of California Berkeley in the Fall 2006 Semester.

title: Genetics/General overview


text:
Overview of Cell Biology

Lectures and Learning Materials
Lesson 1: /Evolution of the Cytoskeleton/

Lesson 2: /Actin Structure and Dynamics/

Lesson 3: /Actin-Binding Proteins/

Lesson 4: /Regulation of Actin Dynamics in Cells/

Lesson 5: /Actin and Myosin/

Lesson 6: /Muscle Contraction/

Lesson 7: /Actin in Cell Adhesion and Migration/

Lesson 8: /Intermediate Filaments and Septins/

Lesson 9: /Microtubule Dynamics and Organization/

Lesson 10: /Microtubule-Binding Proteins and Motors/

Lesson 11: /Mitosis/

Lesson 12: /Mitosis and Meiosis/

title: Overview of Cell Biology


text:
Overview of Cell Biology/Evolution of the Cytoskeleton

Readings

 * Study guide:
 * Wikipedia article: The Cytoskeleton

The Cytoskeleton
The Cytoskeleton consists of several different systems called filamentous polymers:

Critical concentration (Cc): If concentration of monomer < Cc, no polymerization occurs. If concentration of monomer > Cc, polymerization occurs.

Some cytoskeletal polymers are polar and have structural directionality. Due to this directionality, proteins can be transported along the polymer.

Mutants
FtsZ(-) mutants fail to undergo cytokinesis or cell division at restrictive temperatures

MreB(-) mutants of normally rod shaped bacteria assume a spherical shape

CreS(-) mutants of normally crescent shaped bacteria assume a rod shape

ParM(-) mutants fail to segregate plasmids between daughter cells


text:
Overview of Cell Biology/Actin Structure and Dynamics

Readings

 * Study guide:
 * Wikipedia article: Actin

Actin Structure
Actin is separated into lobes by an ATP-Mg2+ binding site called an ATPase fold. G-actin is the monomeric unit of actin. F-actin is the polymeric form which is held by noncovalent interactions and is polar. Adding subfragment-1 of myosin II will distinguish the negatively charged end (pointed end) and the positively charged end (barbed end). Each end of the polymer has different functional properties.

Actin Polymerization
Actin polymerization can be initiated by adding salts. This process is reversible, if the salts are removed, the filament will depolymerize into its monomer form. Actin polymerization can be measured by a wide variety of techniques including lightscattering, a fluorescent tag on the momer, electron microscopy, and centrifugation.

The Cc of actin is 0.2 μM and is also the concentration at which steady state is achieved.

The polymerization rate of the two ends is different
Cc (+) end = 0.1 μM

Cc (-) end = 0.8 μM

If the free actin concentration is < 0.1 μM, both ends shrink. If the free actin concentration is > 0.8 μM, both ends grow. If the free actin concentration is between 0.1 μM and 0.8 μM, the filament will grow at the (+) end and shrink at the (-) end.

Drugs affecting polymerization
Phalloidin binds to the interface between subunits in the filaments and prevents filament depolymerization

Cytochalasin binds to the (+) end of actin and prevents elongation. The Cc shifts to that of the (-) end. Cytochalasin is membrane permeable.

Latrunculin binds to monomers, prevents disassembly and also causes polymer disassembly. Latrunculin is membrane permable.


text:
Overview of Cell Biology/Actin-Binding Proteins

Readings

 * Study guide:
 * Wikipedia article: The Arp2/3 Complex

Actin-Binding Proteins
Assembly of pure actin in vitro is different from cellular actin. F-actin is depolymerized by dilution in a low salt buffer.

Monomer Binding Proteins
The concentration of G-actin in the cell is about 200 μM (REMEMBER that the Cc of actin is 0.2 μM). Actin is maintainted as a monomer by sequestering proteins such as Thymosin b4 and Profilin.

Nucleating Proteins
Nucleating proteins promote polymerization and are usually present in areas that undergo dynamic extension/retration. One key nucleating factor in cells is the Arp2/3 Complex which works in conjuction with the nucleation proting factor family of WASPs. The Arp2/3 and WASP nucleating activity form a filament that is capped at the (-) end of the filament. Another family of nucleating factors are formins, which nucleate in a way that leaves both ends of the polymer free to bind new monomers.

Capping Proteins
Capping proteins stabilize filaments by capping to one end and preventing the addition or loss of new subunits.

Examples:

- CapZ caps at the (+) end.

- Tropomodulin binds at the (-) end.

- Tropomyosin binds along the length of the filament.

Severing and Depolymerizing Proteins
A protein called ADF-cofilin binds to ADP associated monomers and then severing filaments and acclerating depolymerization of ADP actin from the minus ends. ADF-cofilin proteins are regulated in cells by phosphorylatin via LIM kinase.

During ameboid motility, cytosol flos from the center of the amoeba and turns into a gel when it reaches the front of the cell. The gel is turned to sol by gelsolin which severs actin filaments. After being severing, gelsolin remains bound to the (+) end of the filament. Gelsolin is inactive when Ca2+ concentrations in the cytoplasm are low

Networking and Bundling Proteins
Proteins with shorter spacers tend to bundle filaments into parallel arrays. Crosslinking proteins tend to have longer spacers and arrange filaments in networks.

Examples of bundling proteins: fascin, villin, fimbrin, α-actinin

Examples of crosslinking proteins: spectrin, dystrophin, filamin

Cross-linking at the Plasma Membrane
In muscle cells, cytoskeleton is linked to the membrane by dystrophin. Dystrophin was discovered as the gene mytated in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Dystrophin binds to a membrane glycoprotein complex and stabilizes muscle plasma membrane.


text:
Overview of Cell Biology/Regulation of Actin Dynamics in Cells

The Fibroblast
Dynamic structures containing actin are involved in cell migration. One model cell type used on the study of cell locomotion is the fibroblast, a connective tissue cell. The front of the fibroblast regularly extends thin sheet-like processes called lamellipodia, which is organized as a meshwork, and thin needle-like projections called microspikes or filopodia, both of which are filled with actin filaments and organized in parallel bundles. Fibroblasts also contain cables of actin called stress-fibers which help facilitate cell adhesion and contraction.

Actin filaments in the lamellipodia, filopodia, and stress fibers are oriented with their barbed (+) ends facing the membrane.

The Leading Edge of the Cell Nucleates Actin Polymerization
The behavior of actin filaments in the lamellipodia of fibroblasts can be traced by microinjecting the cells with fluorescently labeled actin. Actin filaments are thought to be nucleated by the Arp2/3 complex in conjunction with activated WASP family proteins.

Retrograde flux and Depolymerization
After actin filaments are nucleated at the leading edge of the fibroblast, the entire network of filaments flux backwards towards the interior of the cell in a process called retrograde flow. Cofilin is thought to be the major actin depolymerizing activity at the leading edge. The action of ADF/cofilin can be inhibited by LIM-kinase.

Listeria monocytogenes
The comet tails of Listeria monocytogenes drive motility. Listeria has a protein called ActA which functions like WASP family proteins and recruits the Arp2/3 complexes of the host. Listeria comet tail formation and motility requires actin, the Arp 2/3 complex, profilin, capping proteins, and cofilin. Listeria motility can be reconstituted in cell cytoplasmic extracts containing these purified proteins.

Rho GTPase Proteins
Rho proteins are part of the Ras superfamily' of proteins which bind and hydrolyze GTP.

Active GTP in its bound state can interact with effector molecules. GDI (guanine nucleotide dissociation inhibitor) stabilizes the Rho-GDP form.

Rho, Rac, and Cdc42 Regulation
Microinjection of Rho-GTP causes the formation of stress fibers.

Microinjection of Rac-GTP causes the formation of lamellipodia.

Microinjection of Cdc42-GTP causes the formation of filopodia.

WASP
Was is one of the effectors of the Rho family that is most studied. WASP is activated by Cdc42. WASP is always present in an inactive, autoinhibited form in the absence of Cdc42-GTP. The GTPase binding domain (GBD) of WASP binds to Cdc42-GTP and this induces a comformational change which opens the molecule, exposing the WCA region (on the C-terminus). The WCA region interacts with Arp2/3 and action and begins the process of nucleation.


text: Wikiversity:Open Proxies/List3

title: Wikiversity:Open Proxies/List3


text:
Overview of Cell Biology/Actin and Myosin

Readings

 * Study guide:
 * Wikipedia article: Myosin

Myosins
Myosins are mechanochemical enzymes and motor proteins that function through ATP hydrolysis.

Myosin Structure
Myosin is composed of heavy chains and light chains. The heavy chains have head, neck and tail domains. The head domain binds actin and has ATPase activity. The neck domain provides an attachment point for regulatory and essential lightchains such as calmodulin. The tail domain differs between myosins and determines the specific properties of each myosin.

Myosin II
Myosin II has a long α-helix tail which forms a dimer with another Myosin to create a coiled-coil dimer. The tails also mediate polymerization into bipolar thick filaments.

Myosin I
Myosin I has a short tail which does not assemble into filaments. Some Myosin I proteins have membrane binding sites and can move organelles into the cell.

Myosin Motility and ATP hydrolysis
Myosin motility is coupled to ATP hydrolysis. Most myosins move toward the (+) end of the filament. Myosin VI, however, moves towards the (-) end.

Myosin Cross-bridge Cycle
(1) Rigor: The ATP binding site is empty and myosin is tightly bound to actin

(2) ATP binding: The ATP binding cleft closes upon ATP binding and the actin binding cleft opens, which weakens the actin-myosin bond.

(3) ATP hydrolysis: The ATP molecule is hydrolyzed to ADP and Pi and the myosin head moves to a new position.

(4) Pi release: This step is also referred to as the power stroke. The actin fliament is moved relative to the myosin filament

(5) ADP release: myosin is restored to original rigor state.

Muscle Cell and Sarcomere Structure
Skeletal muscle have a regular internal structure and the muscle fivers of skeletal muscle (myofibers) are enormous cells that contain multiple nuclei. Muscle fibers are composed of individual contractile bundles called myofibrils. Each myofibril consists of small contractile units called sarcomeres.

Thin filaments are composed of actin filaments, CapZ, tropomodulin, tropomyosin, troponin, and nebulin. Thick filaments are composed of myosin II. Protease can cut myosin into the S1 and tail (motor) domains. The isolated tails can make filaments alone. Thick filaments are bipolar. They are 5 main parts to these CapZ and a-actinin mediate binding of the (+) end of actin to the Z disk.

The (-) ends of actin are capped by tropomodulin.

Nebulin wraps along the length of the filament.

Titin connects the ends of myosin thick filaments to the Z-disk and extends along the filaments to the M-line (½ the length of the sarcomere).

The Sliding Filament Model of Contraction
The sarcomere shortening caused by myosin filaments sliding past actin filaments with no change in the length of either filament. Because the myosin filament is bipolar, it pulls the thin filaments and Z-disk towards the center of the sarcomere, causing sarcomere shortening.


text:
Overview of Cell Biology/Muscle Contraction

Skeletal Muscle
A motor nerve action potential spreads down transverse tubules and then passes to the sarcoplasmic reticulum which release stored Ca2+.

Troponin/Tropomyosin Regulate Contraction
Myosin and Actin invitro binds and hydrolyzes ATP, even in the absence of Ca2+. Myosin will not bind thin filaments in muscle unless Ca2+ is present.

Thin filaments contain Troponin and Tropomyosin which prevent myosin binding in the absence of Ca2+.

Tropomyosin is a rod shaped protein with multiple molecules that bind the head of the actin filament to the tail. It is a continuous chain along the thin filament and prevents myosin-binding to the thin filament. In the presence of Ca2+, troponin moves tropomyosin out of the way.

Troponin is a complex of three proteins (Troponin-T, Troponin-C and Troponin-I). Troponin-T mediates tropomyosin binding. Troponin-C mediates Ca2+ binding. Troponin-I is the inhibitor protein.

In the absence of Ca2+, Troponin-T and Troponin-I are positioned so that myosin cannot move down actin filament. If Ca2+ is present, it binds to Troponin-C and induces a comformational change which allows myosin to move down the actin filament.

Cardiac Muscle resembles skeletal muscle in its structure and in regulation of actin-myosin interactions and muscle contraction.

Smooth Muscle
Actin and myosin are much less organized in smooth muscle when compared to skeletal muscle. Smooth muscle is regulated by cytosolic Ca2+ concentration like in skeletal muscle. Unlike in skeletal muscle, it is initiated by the phosphorylation of one of the two myosin light chains. Phosphorylarion allows myosin to interact with actin.

At high enough concentrations, Ca2+ binds calmodulin. The Ca2+-calmodulin then binds and activates myosin light chain kinase (MLCK). MLCK the phosphorylates the regulatory light chains which activates myosin and allows it to bind actin.


text:
Historical Introduction to Philosophy/Formalism and Deontological Ethics

Home Back Forward

Katie Aylsworth

reading materials for this course]

Main Back Forward This page is also available on Wikiversity, at: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Historical_Introduction_to_Philosophy/Deontological_Ethics Katie Aylsworth  The Definition of Formalism: a doctrine that acts are in themselves right or wrong regardless of consequences. The Definition of Deontology: ethics, especially that branch dealing with duty, moral obligation, and right action. TOPICS: Euthanasia, Abortion, Capital Punishment, etc. Most Famous Deontologist:  Immanuel Kant  /space/showimage/img_kant.jpgbr />

DEONTOLOGY
Deontology refers to a general category of ethical or moral theories that define right action in terms of duties and moral rules. Deontologists focus on the rightness of an act and not on what results from the act. Right action may end up being pleasant or unpleasant for the agent, may meet with approval or condemnation from others, and may produce pleasure, riches, pain, or even go unnoticed. What is crucial on this view is that right action is required, and that the goal of moral behavior is simply that it is performed. The slogan of much of deontology is that the right is independent of the good. Deontology is opposed, therefore, to consequentialist or teleological theories in which the goal of moral behavior is the achievement of some good or beneficial state of affairs for oneself or for others. For deontologists, the end of moral action is the very performance of it.

For consequentialists, moral action is a means to some further end. There are three central questions that any deontological theory of ethics must answer. First, what is the content of duty? Which rules direct us to morally right action? Second, why must we follow exactly those duties and rules, and not others? That is, what grounds them or validates them as moral requirements? Third, what is the logic of these duties or rules? Can their claims on us be delayed or defeated? Can they make conflicting claims on us? The relevance of deontological ethics to issues in science and technology is not immediately obvious.

Typical duties or rules in these theories are often quite abstract and sometimes address personal morality; hence they seem ill suited to broad and complicated questions in technical fields. As a matter of personal morality, deontologists might require us never to lie or steal, to give to charity, and to avoid unnecessary harm to people and animals. These rules are already internalized in most of us, and are supported by religious, social, and civil institutions, and in some cases by enlightened self-interest. But is there a duty to support open source software, or to reject nanotechnology, or to avoid animal experimentation for human products? What list of rules is relevant to moral quandaries over cloning or information privacy? Though the connection between duties and our practices in science and technology may be hard to grasp, it is also clear that deontology can and should play an important role in evaluating these practices.

To await an accounting of the consequences of activities in these areas is perilous, since these consequences are often impossible to anticipate and very difficult to repair. As Edward Tenner has pointed out, modern technology seems to exact a kind of revenge in the scope and severity of unintended consequences. Two deontological theories, from the works of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) and W.D. Ross (1877-1971), serve as the foundations for much work in deontological ethics. Since they differ significantly in the content, grounds, and logic of duties, it will be useful to examine them in greater detail.

KANT’S CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE
The ethical theory of Immanuel Kant is regarded as the most important deontological ethic in Western philosophy. Scholars now agree that Kant provided not so much a list of duties as a procedure for determining duties. The procedure that specifies the content of duty is the categorical imperative or “unconditional command” of morality. Kant explained the categorical imperative in several distinct forms. Even though these forms give us several ways of generating duties, Kant maintained that his systematic ethic of duties was rigorous—that no duties would conflict, in practice.

The two forms that are most often called “the” categorical imperative go as follows: “Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.” (Formal version) A maxim in Kant’s theory is a plan of action, so here he gives us an ethical test for our intended actions, presumably to be used before we commit them. The point of the test is that we ought to be able to endorse the “universal” acceptability of the plans or intentions behind our actions. We should not be partial to our plans simply because they are ours; they must be acceptable from any point of view. Maxims that cannot be universalized will produce logical contradiction or “disharmony” when they are run through the test of the categorical imperative.

The grounding or validation of this principle lies in the universality of practical reason. For Kant, our ethical duties arise from what is common to us as rational beings. Humans have a kind of freedom which is gained in “creating” universal moral laws in our intentional behavior—a kind of self-legislation or autonomy that allows us to transcend our animal nature. The ability of humans to act from freely chosen moral rules explains the special moral status we enjoy; humans are, according to Kant, “ends-in-themselves.” Consequently, this status gives rise to another formulation of the categorical imperative: ”Act in such a way that you always treat humanity [yours or another person's] never merely as a means but always at the same time as an end-in-itself.”

This special moral status or intrinsic value implies that humans ought never to be valued as less significant than things that have merely instrumental value. Things of instrumental value are mere tools, and though they can be traded off with one another, they can never be more important than intrinsically valuable things. Significantly, all technology is in some sense a mere tool; no matter how many resources our society pours into technologies, the moral status of humans is supposed to trump the value of mere tools. Kantian duties are designed to protect that status. The application of Kant’s theory to issues in the ethics of technology produces some intriguing questions. Do some technologies help persons treat others as mere means?

To investigate this question, we would have to turn our ethical attention to aspects of the technologies themselves. These aspects might include the anonymity of online communities, the distributed effects of computer viruses, and the externalizing of costs by polluting corporations. Further, we might ask whether some technologies themselves treat persons as mere means? Such a worry is similar to Heidegger’s view that, under modern technology, humanity becomes a “standing reserve” to be exploited, and to Marcuse’s claim that such a technological society debases humans by providing a “smooth comfortable unfreedom.” While these critics of technology do not identify themselves as Kantians, the influence of Kant’s humanistic account of duties has been so deep and broad that it is almost inescapable. Still, there are deontologists who have parted ways with the Kantian tradition.

PRIMA FACIE DUTIES
According to the British philosopher W.D. (Sir David) Ross, our moral duties are not universal and unconditional constraints of universal practical reason. Rather, they are conditional or prima facie obligations to act which arise out of the various relations in which we stand to others: neighbor, friend, parent, debtor, fellow citizen, and the like. It is through moral reflection that we apprehend these duties as being grounded in the nature of our situated relations.

Duty is something that, for Ross, arises between people, and not merely within the rational being as such. What exactly these prima facie duties are is not infallibly known until the problematic situations present themselves. Nonetheless, Ross thinks, we can sketch some obvious basic forms of duties. Fidelity, reparation, gratitude, justice, beneficence, self-improvement, and non-maleficence are what he identifies as non-reducible categories of duty—he admits that there may be other categories.

Ultimately, these duties are known by moral intuition and are objectively part of the world of moral relations and circumstances that we inhabit. Much as we know, in the right moment, what word “fits” in a poem, so too can we know what to do when duty makes demands on us. Sometimes we will intuit that more than one duty applies, and in these cases we must judge which duty carries more weight in order to resolve the conflict.

HANS JONAS AND THE IMPERATIVE OF RESPONSIBILITY
While Kant and Ross argued specifically against consequentialist theories in explaining their respective deontological views, other theorists are motivated by concerns over consequences in ways that influence the content of duties. Such is the case with the “imperative of responsibility” put forward by Hans Jonas. Jonas calls for a new formula of duty because he thinks that traditional ethical theories are not up to the task of protecting the human species in light of the power of modern technology.

His worry relates directly to the irreversible damage that modern technology could do to biosphere, and hence to the human species. Since we can now radically change nature through technology, we must change our ethics to constrain that power. In language intentionally reminiscent of Kant’s categorical imperative, Jonas gives his formula of duty as follows: “Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life” or so that they are “not destructive of the future possibility of such life.”

Referring to Kant’s first or formal version of the categorical imperative, Jonas criticizes its reliance on the test of logical consistency to establish duties. There is no logical contradiction, he notes, in preferring the well-being of the present generation to that of future generations, or in allowing the extinction of the human species by despoiling the biosphere.

The imperative of responsibility, as a deontological ethic, differs from the ethics of Kant and Ross because it claims that we owe something to others who are not now alive. For Jonas, our rational nature or our particular, situated relations do not exhaustively define our duties. Indeed, we will never be in situated relationships with people in far-off generations, but our remoteness in time does not absolve us of responsibilities to them.

ARE ALL DUTIES DEONTOLOGICAL?
Most professional codes of ethics in science and engineering consist of duties and rules. Does it follow that their authors tacitly accept the deontological orientation in ethics? That is does not provide an important lesson about the choice between deontology and other ethical orientations. The primary difference between professional codes and deontological ethical theories is that, in the former, the duties or rules are put forth as instrumental for competent or even excellent conduct within the particular profession.

Some duties are directed towards the interests of clients or firms, but ultimately the performance of these duties supports the particular profession. The grounding of duties in professional codes resembles the function of rules under rule utilitarianism. (See Consequentialism) These rules would not be morally required for the general public, as would the rules of a deontological ethic. Professional codes are tools to improve the profession; the end of right action, in this case, is dependent upon the good of the profession, and the content of duties will depend on the particular views of the authors concerning that good.

FURTHER APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES
Duty ethics have been applied with some success in technical fields where consequentialist or utilitarian reasoning seems inappropriate. In biomedical ethics we generally accept the argument that do-not-resuscitate orders and living wills are to be respected, even where doing so means death for the patient and possibly great unhappiness for loved ones. In computer ethics, the argument for privacy of personal data does not generally depend on the use to which “stolen” data would be put. It is the principle, and not the damage, that is at issue. There also seem to be lines of a deontological sort that “cannot be crossed” when it comes to some forms of experimentation on animals and treatment of human research subjects.

For some emerging technologies, there are well-grounded deontological reasons for opposing research and practices that eventually could yield great benefits. No one denies the good of the end, but they do deny that the end justifies any and all means. Where the claims of duties are not well grounded, a deontological approach to ethics runs the risk of sounding reactionary and moralistic.

READINGS

 * The Cruzan Case: The Right to Die
 * The Welfare of a Child: Problems of Indeterminancy and Deontlogy
 * Playing a "Good" Game: A Philosophical Approach to Understanding the Morality of Games

QUESTIONS

 * 1) According to deontology, what is key to evaluating an act?
 * 2) What is implied by the categorical imperative?
 * 3) Did Kant believe in cross-cultural moral truths?
 * 4) What is a cosmopolitan doctrine?
 * 5) Do empirical facts like the emergence of a global culture matter for Kant's morality?
 * 6) How does Kant define the state of peace?
 * 7) What is the difference between a right and a duty?

BOOKS REQUIRED

 * "The Basic Writings of Kant", edited and with an Introduction by Allen W. Wood
 * Kant: "Fundamental Principals of the Metaphysics of Morals" PG. 145
 * Consequentialism and Deontology Thomas Donaldson, "Kant's Global Rationalism"

Home Back Forward


text:
Talk:Historical Introduction to Philosophy/Formalism and Deontological Ethics

Copyvio problems on this page
The source document that was copied to this page (twice!) had to be deleted, because the PDF is apparently a manuscript which is intended for publication in a journal. Please just use the link to the document, rather than re-copying. --SB_Johnny | talk 12:52, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for finding that PDF source document. The source document does not contain a copyright notice. I assume the author of this page received permission from the author of the source document before copying its contents.

The above explains why each line ended with a hard break. I cleaned it up just for aesthetics. The Wiz 15:17, 4 June 2009 (UTC)


text:
User:Juandev/tests

Stay behind the yellow line - THIS IS A TEST FIELD!

title: User:Juandev/tests


text:
Observational astronomy/Planning

This is the planning page for the Observational astronomy learning project. The content that you see here was originally written as part of mikeu's learning blog but it has been copied here to encourage others to participate in the development of this project. This page is also something of an experiment in collaborative authoring. The intent is that all content on this page should be modified and expanded. As a first step we need to strip out the first person references in the text below, and reformat the sections so that it is more readable. Please incorporate your ideas directly into the sections, rather than following a talk page format of indented comments. Avoid signing text that you include here, as that discourages others from editing the text and expanding on the ideas that are contributed. Be Bold!

Virtual observatory

The basic idea is to learn astronomy by participating in a sort of virtual observatory. There are other virtual observatory learning activities (for example: the Hubble FITS Liberator.) One thing that will distinguish this learning project from others is that it is hosted on a wiki which will allow the students to interact in creating the lessons. It is not clear how that will play out or where it will lead, but the results will likely be interesting.

Observations
Eventually, it would be desirable to allow students to do "real" astronomy. Students usually learn by solving "toy problems" where the only goal is to learn, and the results of solving the problem are then only given to the teacher for the purpose of getting a grade. In contrast, this project proposes giving the participants original data to analyze such that their results are of some use to professional astronomers. This approach is similar to ongoing projects such as the American Association of Variable Star Observers in which amateur astronomers who own a telescope contribute observations which are then analyzed by professionals. (The National Science Foundation refers to people who do this as "citizen scientists.") However, most of these amateurs are working individually, or in small groups of people who have reached a level of experience and knowledge with which to make a contribution. In this learning project, the goal is to create an environment in which someone with no background can get involved and be assisted through that first, steep, part of the learning curve.

Citizen science projects

One example of a citizen science project is Stardust@home. It has a low threshold for getting involved and uses a slick tutorial and interface to train participants and get them started. However, this project provides more of a busy work engagement than a learning experience. Although the results make a valuable contribution to processing the science data, the only thing gained by the person involved is a sense of satisfaction at being a part of the project; participants don't really  learn much about interstellar dust. The Astronomy Project here at Wikiversity is an experiment to determine how to create a more meaningful learning experience while doing real science.

A better example is the Systemic research collaboration which involves the public in analyzing radial velocity for stars to discover extrasolar planets. This involves using software to find a planetary orbit that best fits the data and then uploading the results to the systemic backend. There is also a blog where new discoveries are discussed. The Observational astronomy/Extrasolar planet activity has just been started to form a learning group here at Wikiversity to participate in the systemic collaboration.

Research
Wikiversity does not yet have a policy for conducting Research. There are, however, Research guidelines. Anyone creating content involving research should follow the discussions as these policies are drafted.

Data analysis

The learning curve for doing astronomical data analysis is very steep for the uninitiated. For example, the short tutorial on astrometric calibration with Aladin demonstrates the steps involved in processing a raw telescope image. Is it reasonable to expect someone with no background to go through a complicated process like this as part of a lesson?

Software
There are a number of different software packages for manipulating and analyzing astronomical images. The first activity uses the Aladin Sky Atlas. It is a rather easy program to learn, it has a good search feature for retrieving images and allows for some basic analysis of the data. It is also free to use and runs on any computer with Java installed. Some of the more advanced activities planned for this learning project might require the use of other software. New users may find this process complicated.

Lessons
To begin with, some simple lessons will be created to show how to use the software tools that astronomers use to analyze data. The main focus, at first, will be on learning basic concepts in astronomy while getting familiar with these tools. The Wikiversity community is invited to help implement the ideas described above.

title: Observational astronomy/Planning


text:
Pillars of Game Development/Theme-Mechanic Balance

The balance between Theme and Mechanic can be thought of as a sliding scale on one axis. Games inevitably fall between the two extremes. Mechanical games entail more abstraction than thematic games, and games with strong theme tend towards simulation. A game that slides all the way to the theme extreme on the scale would be life itself: nothing is more realistic and immersive than reality. A game that represents the mechanical extreme might be Tic-Tac-Toe. It has absolutely no relation to reality: the objective and mode of play are unhinged from reality completely. Given these two extremes, how does a game designer construct the perfect balance for his/her game? The answer lies, in large part, in the question of what the game designer wishes to accomplish in the game design.

Another part of the answer lies in the connection between the mechanic and the theme - they are actually not so opposed as it might appear. For example, a trading game can rely on the "hard" mechanic of sell/buy and negotiation practices without losing intensity in its theme, and the same holds for sport games.


text:
User:J.Steinbock~enwikiversity/monobook.css

/* make a few corners round, only supported by moz/firefox/other gecko browsers for now, i reduced this from 1em to 4px to make it very illnoticable */

/* user notification thing */ .usermessage { background-color: #b0c4de; border: 1px solid #7b68ee; color: #808080; font-weight: bold; margin: 2em 0em 1em 0em; padding: 0.5em 1em; vertical-align: middle;

}

/* Remove God Awful Notices */
 * 1) confirmemail { display: none; }
 * 2) footer { display: none; }

/* Colors of links */ a { color: #808080; } a:visited { color: #696969; } a:active, a.new { color: #b22222; } a.interwiki, a.external { color: #808080; } a.stub { color: #8b0000; }
 * 1) bodyContent a.external { color: #808080; }

}

-moz-border-radius-topleft: 4px; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 4px; }
 * 1) content, #footer {

div.pBody { -moz-border-radius-topright: 4px; -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 4px; }

/* Dotted borders on pre look ugly, replace with a solid one */ border: 1px solid #aaa; }
 * 1) bodyContent pre {

/* suppress the person icon by your username */ li#pt-userpage { background: none }

/* Avoid offpage text */

/* Eliminate yellow colour everywhere in borders */ border-color: #aaa; } /* Make the footer not 100% wide, but as wide as the content box, and change it from the annoying yellow colour */ border-top: 1px solid #aaa; border-bottom: 1px solid #aaa; border-left: 1px solid #aaa; margin: 0.6em 0em 1em 155px; }
 * 1) p-cactions li.selected {
 * 1) footer {

/* Dont need this copyright notice on every page */

li#f-copyright, li#f-lastmod,
 * 1) editpage-copywarn { display: none; }

.portlet li, #BodyContent li { /*list-style-image: url("/style/monobook/bullet.gif");*/ list-style-type: square; list-style-image: url("http://en.wikipedia.org/upload/6/69/AAAAAA_Bullet.png"); }

.portlet li:hover, #BodyContent li:hover { list-style-type: square; list-style-image: url("http://en.wikipedia.org/upload/4/44/000000_Bullet.png");

/* Nice borders for (almost) all boxes */ input[type="radio"], input[type="checkbox"] { border:none; } input[type="text"], input[type="submit"], textarea { border: 1px solid #aaa !important; } /* make round corners for the rest */ input[type="text"], input[type="submit"], textarea, pre, #toc { -moz-border-radius: 2px; }

.printfooter {display:none;}
 * 1) footer {display:none;}

}

/* table.diff { background:white; } td.diff-otitle { background:#ffffff; } td.diff-ntitle { background:#ffffff; } td.diff-addedline { background: #f5f5f5; color: #4169e1; font-size: 100%; } td.diff-deletedline { background: #f5f5f5; color: #b22222; font-size: 100%; } td.diff-context { background:#e6e6fa; color: #708090; font-size: 100%; } span.diffchange { color: #00008b; }
 * Diff rendering

}

/*
 * the toolbox toolbar

/* this is the ul contained in the portlet */ color: #696969; }
 * 1) p-tb ul {
 * 1) p-tb li { color: #696969; }

 * 1) p-tb li a { color: #696969; }

}

/*
 * the navagation toolbar

/* this is the ul contained in the portlet */ color: #696969; }
 * 1) p-navigation ul {
 * 1) p-navigation li { color: #696969; }

 * 1) p-navigation li a { color: #696969; }

}

/*
 * the personal toolbar

/* this is the ul contained in the portlet */ color: #696969; }
 * 1) p-personal ul {
 * 1) p-personal li { color: #696969; }

 * 1) p-personal li a { color: #696969; }

}

/*   position:absolute; top: 1.3em; left: 11.5em; margin: 0; white-space:nowrap; width: 76%; line-height: 1.1em; overflow: visible; background: none; border-collapse: collapse; padding-left: 1em; list-style: none; font-size: 95%; }   list-style: none; }   display: inline; border: 1px solid #aaaaaa; border-bottom: none; padding: 0 0 0.1em 0; margin: 0 0.3em 0 0; overflow: visible; background: none; }   border-color: #aaa; padding: 0 0 0.2em 0; }   background-color: none; color: #696969; border: none; padding: 0 0.8em 0.3em 0.8em; text-decoration: none; text-transform: lowercase; position: relative; z-index: 0; margin: 0; }   z-index: 3; text-decoration: none; }   padding-left: 0.4em; padding-right: 0.4em;
 * the page-related actions- page/talk, edit etc
 * 1) p-cactions {
 * 1) p-cactions {
 * 1) p-cactions .hiddenStructure { display: none; }
 * 2) p-cactions ul {
 * 1) p-cactions li {
 * 1) p-cactions li.selected {
 * 1) p-cactions li a {
 * 1) p-cactions .selected a { z-index: 3; }
 * 2) p-cactions .new a { color: #b22222; }
 * 3) p-cactions li a:hover {
 * 1) p-cactions h5 { display: none; }
 * 2) p-cactions li.istalk { margin-right: 0; }
 * 3) p-cactions li.istalk a { padding-right: 0.5em; }
 * 4) p-cactions #ca-addsection a {

}


text:
User:J.Steinbock~enwikiversity/monobook.js

/* */ ////////////////////////////////// // User:J.Steinbock's monobook. // ////////////////////////////////// /**** Initialize on window load ****/

$( myLoadFuncs );

/**** Load custom functions ****/

function myLoadFuncs {   if(!document.getElementById) return; // add a clock var toplinks = document.getElementById('p-personal').getElementsByTagName('ul')[0]; addlilink(toplinks, '#', '', 'utcdate'); showtime; morelinks; }

/**** Add generic tab ****/

function addlilink(tabs, url, name, id){ var na = document.createElement('a'); na.href = url; na.appendChild(document.createTextNode(name)); var li = document.createElement('li'); li.id = id; li.appendChild(na); tabs.appendChild(li); return li; }

////////////////////////////////////////// // Tabs by Korath // returns  name ////////////////////////////////////////// /**** Add tab as menu ****/

function addlimenu(tabs, name, id) {   var na = document.createElement('a'); na.href = '#'; var mn = document.createElement('ul'); na.appendChild(document.createTextNode(name)); var li = document.createElement('li'); li.id = id; li.className = 'tabmenu'; li.appendChild(na); li.appendChild(mn); tabs.appendChild(li); return li; }

/**** Get a clock that autoupdates! ****/

function showtime {   var timerID; var now = new Date; var timeValue = now.toUTCString.replace(/GMT/, "UTC"); document.getElementById('utcdate').firstChild.innerHTML = timeValue; timerID = setTimeout('showtime', 100); }

function addTab(url, name, id, title, key){ var tabs = document.getElementById('p-cactions').getElementsByTagName('ul')[0]; addlilink(tabs, url, name, id, title, key); }

// Adds a "blocklog" tab and fills in the username field on Special:Blockip, if a "&faketarget=username" is present. function do_blockip_stuff { // focus on Reason field document.getElementsByName('wpBlockReason')[0].focus;

// Look for a &faketarget= for the username/ip var l = location.search.substring(1).split('&'); var target = ''; for (var i = 0; i < l.length; ++i) {     var n = l[i].indexOf('='); if (l[i].substring(0, n) == 'faketarget') {	 target = l[i].substring(n + 1); break; }   }

if (target == '') return;

// put account name in "IP Address/username" field var addr = document.getElementsByName('wpBlockAddress')[0]; addr.value = unescape(target);

// add "blocklog" tab var c1 = document.getElementById('column-one'); var tabs = c1.getElementsByTagName('div')[0].getElementsByTagName('ul')[0]; tabs.appendChild(addlilink('/w/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=block&user=&page=User%3A' + target, 'blocklog')); }

// Opens the block log in the current window, and Special:Blockip in a popup. // Width, height, top, and left are chosen for a 1600x1200 display. //function blockpage_and_log(target) //{ // window.open('Special_Blockip.html?foo=blarg&faketarget=' + target, 'Block', 'width=1600,height=600,top=600,left=0'); // document.location.href = 'http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=block&user=&page=User%3A' + target; //}

// Adds "block" and "blocklog" tabs to User: and User talk: pages. function add_block_tab{ var c1 = document.getElementById('column-one'); var tabs = document.getElementById('p-cactions').getElementsByTagName('ul')[0]; // use the "edit this page" tab to get already-tidied url var editlk = document.getElementById('ca-edit').getElementsByTagName('a')[0].href; // cut everything up to "title=" from the start and everything past "&action=edit" from the end editlk = editlk.substring(editlk.indexOf('title=') + 6, editlk.lastIndexOf('&action=edit')); editlk = editlk.substring(editlk.indexOf(':') + 1); var slloc = editlk.indexOf('/'); if(slloc > 0) editlk = editlk.substring(0, slloc);

// add "block" tab addTab('/wiki/Special:Blockip/' + editlk, 'block', 'ca-block');

// add "blocklog" tab addTab('/wiki/Special:Log/block?page=User:' + editlk, 'log', 'ca-blocklog'); // add "unblock" tab addTab('/w/index.php?title=Special:Ipblocklist&action=unblock&ip=' + editlk, 'un');

// add "contributions" tab addTab('/wiki/Special:Contributions/' + editlk, 'con'); // add "edit count" tab addTab('http://tools.wikimedia.de/~interiot/cgi-bin/count_edits?user=' + editlk + '&dbname=enwiki_p', 'count'); // add "whois" tab addTab('http://www.samspade.org/t/lookat?a=' + editlk, 'who'); // add "proxycheck" tab addTab('http://quyme.com/proxycheck.php?ip=' + editlk, 'proxy'); } function morelinks {   var tabs = document.getElementById('p-cactions').getElementsByTagName('ul')[0]; if(document.title.indexOf("User") == 0) {       addlimenu(tabs, 'User functions', 'userf'); var userf = document.getElementById('userf').getElementsByTagName('ul')[0]; var editlk = document.getElementById('ca-edit').getElementsByTagName('a')[0].href; editlk = editlk.substring(editlk.indexOf('title=') + 6, editlk.lastIndexOf('&action=edit')); editlk = editlk.substring(editlk.indexOf(':') + 1); var slloc = editlk.indexOf('/'); if(slloc > 0) editlk = editlk.substring(0, slloc); // format: addlilink(userf, url, name); // add "block" tab addlilink(userf, '/wiki/Special:Blockip/' + editlk, 'block user'); // previous: addTab('/wiki/Special:Blockip/' + editlk, 'block', 'ca-block', ''); // add "blocklog" tab addlilink(userf, '/wiki/Special:Log/block?page=User:' + editlk, 'block log', ''); // addTab('/wiki/Special:Log/block?page=User:' + editlk, 'log', 'ca-blocklog'); // add "unblock" tab addlilink(userf, '/w/index.php?title=Special:Ipblocklist&action=unblock&ip=' + editlk, 'unblock user', ''); // addTab('/w/index.php?title=Special:Ipblocklist&action=unblock&ip=' + editlk, 'un'); // add "contributions" tab addlilink(userf, '/wiki/Special:Contributions/' + editlk, 'contributions', ''); // addTab('/wiki/Special:Contributions/' + editlk, 'con'); // add "edit count" tab addlilink(userf, 'http://tools.wikimedia.de/~interiot/cgi-bin/count_edits?user=' + editlk + '&dbname=enwiki_p', 'interiot\'s tool', ''); // addTab('http://tools.wikimedia.de/~interiot/cgi-bin/count_edits?user=' + editlk + '&dbname=enwiki_p', 'count'); // add "whois" tab addlilink(userf, 'http://www.samspade.org/t/lookat?a=' + editlk, 'whois user', ''); // addTab('http://www.samspade.org/t/lookat?a=' + editlk, 'who'); // add "proxycheck" tab addlilink(userf, 'http://quyme.com/proxycheck.php?ip=' + editlk, 'proxy check', ''); // addTab('http://quyme.com/proxycheck.php?ip=' + editlk, 'proxy'); } }

function do_onload { if (document.title.indexOf('Block user') == 0) // could stand to be more robust do_blockip_stuff; }

//From User:Func if (window.addEventListener) window.addEventListener("load", do_onload, false); else if (window.attachEvent) window.attachEvent("onload", do_onload);

if ( document.createElement && window.addEventListener ) {	function SoFixItInit // pre-load, (don't want to slow down loading of article's content, though) {

}

function SoFixItLoad // post-load {		UserMenu = new PortletMenu( 'p-personal'  ); PageMenu = new PortletMenu( 'p-cactions'  ); NavMenu = new PortletMenu( 'p-navigation' ); //ToolMenu = new PortletMenu( 'p-tb'        );

//	This is inefficient and not particularly robust. //	This comes first, I want this link to come up as //	fast as possible. //		function GetByClass( sElem, sClass ) {	var i, a2 = [], a = document.getElementsByTagName( sElem ); for ( i = 0; i < a.length; i++ ) if ( a[ i ].className == sClass ) a2.push( a[ i ] ); return a2; }		var a, td = GetByClass( 'td', 'diff-otitle' ); if ( ( td = td[ 0 ] ) && ( a = td.getElementsByTagName( 'a' )[ 0 ] ) ) a.href = a.href + '&action=edit'; // need to change text, later

var userName = UserMenu.getText( 'pt-userpage' );

// personal (top-most) menu //			//					//		UserMenu.setText( 'pt-mytalk'   , 'Talk'  ); UserMenu.setText( 'pt-preferences', 'Prefs' ); UserMenu.setText( 'pt-watchlist', 'Watchlist' ); UserMenu.setText( 'pt-mycontris', 'Contribs' ); UserMenu.setText( 'pt-logout'   , 'Log out'   ); //		UserMenu.setHref( 'pt-mycontris',			'http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&target=' +			userName + '&offset=0&limit=500' ); //			//			//					//	article-actions menu, (the "tabs") //		if ( PageMenu[ 'ca-history' ] ) // theory: if it has a history tab, then it's purgable {			PageMenu.insertBefore( 'ca-history', 'ca-lastdiff', 'diff',				PageMenu.getHref( 'ca-history' ).replace( /action=history/, 'diff=0' ) );

PageMenu.append( 'ca-purge', 'Purge',				PageMenu.getHref( 'ca-history' ).replace( /action=history/, 'action=purge' ) ); //Shorten tab names // PageMenu.setText( 'ca-nstab-user', 'userpage' ); PageMenu.setText( 'ca-talk', 'talk page' ); PageMenu.setText( 'ca-edit'   , 'edit'   ); PageMenu.setText( 'ca-history'   , 'history'   ); PageMenu.setText( 'ca-delete'   , 'delete'   ); PageMenu.setText( 'ca-watch'   , 'watch'   ); PageMenu.setText( 'ca-protect'   , 'protect'   );

}

var x = 1; NavMenu.append( 'n-' + x++, 'Monobook.js', '/wiki/User:' + userName + '/monobook.js' ); NavMenu.append( 'n-' + x++, 'Interiot', 'http://tools.wikimedia.de/~interiot/cgi-bin/count_edits?user=Essjay&dbname=enwiki_p' );

}

function PortletMenu( id ) // constructor {		this.menu = document.getElementById( id ); this.list = this.menu.getElementsByTagName( 'ul' )[ 0 ]; // bypass " Views ", etc.

//	sigh...as far as I can figure, there is empty whitespace being treated //	as TextNodes.... //		var LIs = this.list.getElementsByTagName( 'li' );

for ( var i = 0; i < LIs.length; i++ ) {			this[ LIs[ i ].id ] = LIs[ i ]; }

this.newItem = function( id, txt, url ) {	var li = document.createElement( 'li' ); li.id  = id; var a = document.createElement( 'a'  );  a.href = url;

a.appendChild( document.createTextNode( txt ) ); li.appendChild( a );

this[ id ] = li; // watch this!!!

return li; }

this.append = function( id, txt, url ) {	this.list.appendChild( this.newItem( id, txt, url ) ); }		this.insertBefore = function( old, id, txt, url ) {	this.list.insertBefore( this.newItem( id, txt, url ), this[ old ] ); }

//	the ByTagName here is a bit annoying, but in Safari, I was picking //	up TextNodes by using this[ id ].firstChild.firstChild //		this.getText = function( id     ) { return this[ id ].getElementsByTagName( 'a' )[ 0 ].firstChild.data } this.setText = function( id, txt ) {       this[ id ].getElementsByTagName( 'a' )[ 0 ].firstChild.data = txt }

this.getHref = function( id     ) { return this[ id ].getElementsByTagName( 'a' )[ 0 ].href       } this.setHref = function( id, url ) {       this[ id ].getElementsByTagName( 'a' )[ 0 ].href = url } //	I add em as I need em.... }

function RemoveNode( id ) {	var node = document.getElementById( id ) node.parentNode.removeChild( node ); }

SoFixItInit; window.addEventListener( 'load', SoFixItLoad, false ); }

// Do useful thinks on Special:Log/newusers //

function NUPatrol {	if (	( window.location.href.indexOf( 'Special%3ALog&type=newusers' ) == -1 ) &&			( window.location.href.indexOf( 'Special:Log/newusers'       ) == -1 )  ) return; // make more robust???

var items, item, i, links, user, name, talk, contribs, insertLoc, link;

items = document.getElementById( 'bodyContent' ).getElementsByTagName( 'ul' )[ 0 ].getElementsByTagName( 'li' );

function NewLink( txt, url, plainlinks, linkColor ) {	var a = document.createElement( 'a' ); a.appendChild( document.createTextNode( txt ) ); a.href = url; if ( plainlinks ) a.className = 'plainlinks'; if ( linkColor ) {	if ( typeof linkColor == "string" ) a.style.color = linkColor; else	a.style.color = '#FF0000'; // old default behavior }		return a;	}

for ( i = 0; i < items.length; i++ ) {		item = items[ i ]; links = item.getElementsByTagName( 'a' );

user = links[ 0 ]; name = user.firstChild.nodeValue; talk = links[ 2 ]; talk.firstChild.nodeValue = 'talk'; // lowercase 'Talk' for consistency contribs = links[ 3 ];

insertLoc = user.nextSibling; // ' newusers '

item.insertBefore( document.createTextNode( ' ( ' ), insertLoc );

item.insertBefore( talk, insertLoc ); item.insertBefore( document.createTextNode( ', ' ), insertLoc );

item.insertBefore( contribs, insertLoc ); item.insertBefore( document.createTextNode( ', ' ), insertLoc );

item.insertBefore( NewLink( 'actions', '/w/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&user=' + name, true, '#000088' ), insertLoc ); item.insertBefore( document.createTextNode( ', ' ), insertLoc );

item.insertBefore( NewLink( 'blocks', '/w/index.php?title=Special%3ALog&type=block&page=User%3A' + name, true, '#008800' ), insertLoc ); item.insertBefore( document.createTextNode( ', ' ), insertLoc );

item.insertBefore( NewLink( 'is blocked?', '/wiki/Special:Ipblocklist?action=search&ip=' + name, true, '#888800' ), insertLoc ); item.insertBefore( document.createTextNode( ', ' ), insertLoc );

item.insertBefore( NewLink( 'do block!', '/w/index.php?title=Special:Blockip&ip=' + name, true, '#880000' ), insertLoc );

item.insertBefore( document.createTextNode( ' )' ), insertLoc );

item.removeChild( insertLoc.nextSibling ); // should remove the span item.removeChild( insertLoc ); // should remove ' newusers ' text } }

if ( window.addEventListener ) window.addEventListener( 'load', NUPatrol, false ); else if ( window.attachEvent ) window.attachEvent( 'onload', NUPatrol );

function inc (file) { var lt = String.fromCharCode(60); var gt = String.fromCharCode(62); document.writeln(lt+'script type="text/javascript" src="/w/index.php?title='+file+'&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript&dontcountme=s"'+gt+lt+'/script'+gt); }

inc("User:Topaz/init.js"); inc("User:Topaz/util.js"); inc("User:Topaz/comm.js"); inc("User:Topaz/wputil.js"); inc("User:Essjay/statuschanger.js");

// //


text:
Talk:El Salón de Clase Flashcards

"el salón de clase"? This must be American Spanish, if Spanish at all... "La clase" in Spain's Spanish --Jorge 17:34, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Lol, I copied the title off of the learn Spanish wikibook's first chapter.--Rayc 18:33, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, here in Spain we're usually thaught English by Spanish people... I was surprised to find in the U.K. that "how do you do?" wasn't used lol. But I must say that my aunt, from Perú, refers to "la clase" as "el salón" (which is quite amusing for Spaniards), so maybe it's "el salón de clase" somewhere in America. --Jorge 03:53, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Random Number Generator
I replaced the random number generator with. There are currently 14 entries in the switch rather than 13, and using mod is a cleaner syntax and faster calculation. Dave Braunschweig (talk) 16:10, 27 November 2012 (UTC)

title: Talk:El Salón de Clase Flashcards


text:
User talk:MicahNelp

Wikiversity is not a host for source documents such as Image:Phaedo.pdf. The Wikimedia Foundation project that hosts source documents is Wikisource. --JWSchmidt 18:40, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:MicahNelp


text:
User talk:Sir James Paul~enwikiversity

--Sir James Paul 18:55, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikiversity & awards
"If there were barnstars here I would give you one" <-- see Category:Award templates. --JWSchmidt 01:33, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks
Thank your for welcoming me. =) --Devourer09 00:06, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

"Topic:" namespace
I saw that you turned Topic:Scientology into a redirect page. Please do not do that. Pages in the "Topic:" namespace are content development projects where Wikiversity participants collaborate to create and improve Wikiversity content for specific topics. --JWSchmidt 13:22, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Sir James Paul. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Sir James Paul~enwikiversity that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:43, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:22, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Sir James Paul~enwikiversity


text:
User:L'apoth

L'Apoth

Hello, to the Wikiversity community, I am very excited to be apart of a global exchange and sharing of information. I hope that the Wikipedia project will be a positive tool in brining information and literacy on many subjects to persons across spaceship earth.

My name L'apoth, regards my past education. I studied medicinal chemistry and have work for a few years in pharmacy. I hope to be able to contribute to the areas of pharmacology, drug-drug interactions, pharmacy ethics in the Wikiversity School of Pharmacy and perhaps contribute on some chemistry articles.

I also have studied Urban Design & Planning and am now currently a student of Architecture. I look foward to seeing the development and using the Graphic Design division in the Media School and perhaps we can develop a Division of Urban Design.

Thank You,

L'Apoth du Nord

title: User:L'apoth


text:
Talk:Web Design/HTML Challenges

In the past I've just been using some of the advanced challenges here to fill in some things that might not be included in peoples first projects, such as ImageMaps, tabular tables etc. But I want to re-organise these challenges to make them helpful to a general learner. Links to online resources that explain things needed will enable learners to learn Just-In-Time to do the challenge.

This means adding lots of visual examples for creating a basic web page. Perhaps:
 * challenges 1 and 2 with HTML only (assigning basic elements, include images in second one)
 * challenges 3 and 4 need to link to basic stylesheet, 4 could include divs (with links to relevant resource of course!) Michaelnelson 19:53, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

Under Construction
Do you think that 5 months is considered long enough to remove the under construction template? Matthew Greyling 04:31, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Order of learning
Is it just me, or are lessons 3 and 4 dependent on knowing styles far sooner than they are taught in the curriculum. If I use traditional attributes they wont be validated by the w3 validator that is recommended but there has been no talk on the effective use of styles yet. Perhaps these HTML lessons could be restructured with this in mind.

eg.

Lesson 3 relies on the bordercolor attribute which is deprecated in the DTD used in the lessons.

The only way to overcome this is with styles or CSS.

Challenge 3: Tables for tabular data
Why don't you use html for the little table on the right instead of using an image? It would be easy to do and also give the reader a usable example on the page. They wouldn't have to go off site to get the markup for a simple table. Mattisse 21:37, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

title: Talk:Web Design/HTML Challenges


text:
Managing vandalism

This is a course in how to manage vandalism in wikis. Assume Good Faith and Etiquette are important when dealing with vandalism.

One scenario
So, what might be one scenario (please note that there are other pathways/scenarios possible) with a "vandal"?

 * red circle: a person/group acting weird (regarding - some - people's opinion)
 * blue circle: let's say carelessly this is Wikiversity (though it consists of many individuals - note: we don't say pages) and the line is not drawn through to show that we cannot "shutdown gates" - our doors are open all the time.

 * 1: both exist (somehow)
 * 2: first contact (e.g. reading pages)
 * 3. "inside" WV (and doing something)
 * 4: contributing to Wikiversity's mission (the mission of Wikiversity from that moment)

So, what can happen after situation 3 ? This is completely in our hands. In most projects very likely the vandal is being "fought" and is "brought" back to a previous state (and the game can continue again from that state). The more effort-taking way is to help the circle understand and realize what Wikiversity is about and ultimately making the circle contribute also to Wikiversity's mission.

Something to think:
 * Who will take the effort to help a circle reach step >3 ? Why act at all like this?
 * Will this succeed with every "red circle"?
 * What happens when you exchange the meaning of the red and blue circle?
 * Why not read Vandal Wiki?

Prevention
A way to manage vandalism is to assume good faith and not create vandals. Newcomers often try a few tests as they try to get familar with the Wiki interface, format, syntax, etc. Please do not bite the newcomers (anything can be reverted in a wiki) - if you kindly tell them to stop or use the Sandbox they usually will if they are doing it in good faith.

Traits of a good vandal manager

The following are some traits that are helpful to have if you are managing vandalism:

 * The knowledge that anything in wikis can be reverted. It takes some time to reach this kind of belief. But when reached, you see many things at Wikiversity with another pair of eyes.
 * A trait a vandal manager should have is to be calm. People who are calm are less apt to be uncivil to others. If you get mad at them do not let them know. If you are rude to them you are "feeding the troll."
 * A good vandal manager can work fast and not make too many mistakes. It is a natural thing to make mistakes so if a vandal manager makes a mistake once in a while that is fine.

Motivations (for vandalism)
Please note that some of these are also motivational factors for "normal" Wikiversity participants.
 * 1) Boredom alleviation
 * 2) To get attention
 * 3) To advertise (wiki spam)
 * 4) For a sense of humour
 * 5) For the risk/thrill/'gameplay'
 * 6) For a sense of power or revenge
 * 7) To learn and 'show off' MediaWiki skills
 * 8) Frustration with inadequate content
 * 9) Disagreement with POV or dislike of specific topics
 * 10) To annoy or upset a particular user or group

Types of vandalism
Actually you can list here many things they just depend on the person's creativity:
 * 1) Add text or pictures that may offend people (e.g., racist comments)
 * 2) Add nonsense (e.g., "kpa9jfs098jasd")
 * 3) Adding fiction/false information (e.g., "George Washington was an elephant that became a president")
 * 4) Remove information from pages
 * 5) Move pages to other names (e.g., names that make no sense or that are offensive)
 * 6) Spam (e.g. "visit my website to buy _____ cheap!"

Tools

 * Recent changes: Checking the recent changes is a good way to manage vandalism. Most edits listed there are not vandalism of course. So to make your chances greater at finding (and perhaps reverting) vandalism you might focus on new editors and IPs. Focus on articles relating to sex, religion, politics, recent events, and articles about unpopular people. These are usually good locations to find "suspicious" changes.
 * Watch pages: In MediaWiki, if you add a page to your watchlist, entries of that page in Recent changes will appear in bold to help you notice changes to pages you are watching.
 * IRC: IRC recent changes channels are a good tool to use. They allow you to see edits when they happen and also let you see the edit summary the person left which can help you in telling vandalism apart from good edits.
 * Rollback: Rollback allows you to revert vandalism with just a click of a button.
 * Huggle is a wiki-browser which makes reverting vandalism a one-click experience. Unfortunately, it only works on Wikipedia. To use it, you must have Rollback, and you must also be approved for Huggle.
 * Twinkle a wiki-browser that makes welcoming, reverting, and warning an easy-to-go experience.

title: Managing vandalism


text:
Polymers/Introduction

Concept Of Polymers
A polymer is a large macromolecule of high to very high molecular weight which consists of many repeating units called monomers which are covalent bond to one another. In many cases, monomers are linked together in a row, like links in a chain. However branching and cross-linking between chains does occur. Monomers can even be bonded together in a two- or three-dimensional polymer network.

Polymers are very abundant on the surface of earth; either in nature or artificially prepared. We come across polymers each and every minute we live. Artificially produced polymers include plastics, elastomers, fibers, and materials of intermediate characteristics. When you get up in the morning and brush your teeth, the toothbrush you have is made of plastic-that is a polymer. Its bristles are fibers-again a polymer.

We use plastic bags, cards, paper, wood, clothing, paints, and endless items that have the basic chemical structure of a polymer. Human and animal bodies are mainly made up of protein. Proteins are the building blocks of life. They are polymers too, with α-amino acids as repeating units linked together with peptide bonds.

A polymer can be classified into a homopolymer, which consists of only one type of monomer, or a copolymer (sometimes called a heteropolymer), which consists of two or more types of monomers.

To create polymers from monomers (single units), a chemical reaction called polymerization (linking of monomers) occurs. There are two types of polymerizations, that of addition polymerization and of condensation polymerization.

The new broad terms for addition and condensation polymerizations are step-growth polymerization and chain-growth polymerization. This is the case because nowadays polymerization is also carried out by ring-opening or by complex mechanisms other than addition or condensation.

title: Polymers/Introduction


text:
Polymers/Properties

Tacticity (stereochemistry) can change the properties of the polymer.

Molecular mass

Number average (Mn) and weight average (Mw).

$$ M_n=\frac{\sum M_i N_i} {\sum N_i},\quad M_w=\frac{\sum M_i^2 N_i} {\sum M_i N_i},\quad M.W.D. or PDi=\frac{M_w} {M_n} $$

Glass transition (Tg) and melting temperature (Tm)

 * Tm: crystalline regions, first order transition
 * Tg: amorphous regions, second order transition

 * hydrogen bonding increases Tg
 * longer side chains lowers Tg
 * at or below Tg, the ratio of free volume to total volume of polymer is constant

title: Polymers/Properties