text:
Wikiversity:Request custodian action/Archive/9

IP vandalism to Colloquium, revert warring
Please look at or watch and act as appropriate. I'm warning the IP, don't know if that will help or not. --Abd 20:21, 13 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I will revert as I see these edits, as they are blatantly inappropriate. I will stop immediately on request by any sysop or reputable registered editor. (Which means everyone I'd recognize, I believe.) If the IP editor sees this, ask an other editor to ask me to stop, or you can discuss this with me on my talk page or your talk page (if you have the same IP). Please do not continue unless you have support from others or me. --Abd 20:34, 13 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Both this and the IP 211.116.47.68, just blocked, and which was cross-wiki vandalizing, are Korean IP, likely same user. --Abd 21:01, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

Block User:180.190.170.182
Cross-wiki spamming. Thenub314 00:23, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

 * Either they've lost interest or their IP address has changed. I think no action is needed right now. -- dark lama  17:45, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

Delete edits
Could someone please hide/delete edits to User:LauraHale/IRC log - 23/11/2010. She accidentally posted a bit too much. Thenub314 04:55, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
 * ✅ -- Jtneill - Talk - c 06:11, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

Vandal Concerns
Someone on IRC was concerned about vandalism and looking for admins, but none were around. Here is what they were concerned about:

User:%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F%3F

As well as User:Vandal_account_1703, User:Vandal_account_1704, ... User:Vandal_account_1713 and their related contributions should be checked out. Though some accounts seem somewhat inactive. I thought it couldn't hurt to call custodian attention to them. Thenub314 06:13, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

To make it more clear. --Gbaor 18:26, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
 * These accounts appear to be dummy accounts created to eliminate vandals. I don't see anything that requires custodial action, can you elaborate a bit further on what the user's concern was? Geoff Plourde 18:36, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
 * I think these were users with offensive usernames who were renamed by a 'crat. Adambro 18:40, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
 * I asked for CU on meta just in case. Who was asking about these? --SB_Johnny talk 18:48, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
 * @Geoff He was a bit vauge about his concerns. He came in and had been asking for an admin for a while, when I asked him what specifically what he mentioned blocking and deleting. When I asked him of what he started listing these accounts.  Not having tools I didn't read much further, just thought I would call some custodians attention to it.  I am not terribly surprised no action is necessary, most of the accounts seemed quite stale to me.  But I thought it was better to be safe then sorry, so I posted them here. Thenub314 19:08, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
 * I think that these are dummy accounts moved by crats to prevent the vandal's name appearing in revision history (which is largely unsuccessful due to the rv directly following any such edits by the previous accounts' names) and that they should be blocked because they violate the username policy at the very least; see Digitalme blocking Vandal account 1701 for example, despite the user having no contribs. TeleComNasSprVen 23:50, 23 November 2010 (UTC)
 * No action necessary These accounts have been in existence for some time and none listed have edits. They were likely created by a bureaucrat and are likely inaccessible to the original user. Simply due to the sheer number of accounts and dormancy, there is no reason to act at this time. Geoff Plourde 01:35, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

delete all my pages
can you please delete all the pages that i created. including my talk page and user page. You can check in there histories that no edit of substance was done by others.--Deweirdifier 22:52, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

 * I asked for such and it was rejected. Good luck to you and I hope your request succeeds. Ottava Rima (talk) 23:07, 17 December 2010 (UTC)
 * The normal way to request a self-created page be deleted is through a speedy deletion template, not through a general request to go through contributions history, or with a blanket request, even, on Requests for deletion. The template makes the pages easy to find for a custodian, and each page will be considered on its own merits. I suppose a blanket deletion like this, covering everything is about as simple this way, but creates a single large task instead of creating a pile of smaller ones than can be handled piecemeal, by different custodians, as with a deletion template.
 * Ottava was requesting the deletion of pages with substantial and useful content, and which had, at the time of the request, apparently mixed authorship; i.e., he was requesting pages created under another account to be deleted from a request with this account, and it also appeared that the request had an origin in a snit, and some felt it might be better to wait a little while and follow normal process. Complicated.
 * As to this request, here, were I a custodian (I expect I will be one in very short order), I'd attend to this request -- i.e., specifically consider it. I might not delete the user talk page: it has comment from another user on it. I might ask by email, or on the user talk page, for a reason why the material is being deleted. We do not necessarily honor such requests; while there is a preference, other things being equal, to honor a user request, there is also the welfare of the project to consider. I looked only at one of these pages, one mentioned by Jtneil, and, while it has problems, it was also engaging in a certain way.... --Abd 23:23, 17 December 2010 (UTC)
 * "it was also engaging in a certain way"? Will you delete my user page right away at least?--Deweirdifier 00:06, 18 December 2010 (UTC)
 * ✅ Your user page has been deleted. Some of the other pages requested will need to be reviewed.  --mikeu talk 00:49, 18 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Maybe that's okay, but given that, it turns out, the user listed the pages he wanted deleted specifically on his user page, see User_talk:Jtneill, this might have complicated the rest.... But we normally do delete user pages on request, period!
 * In any case, Deweirdifier, how do you now feel about the rest of the pages? If you still want any of them deleted, you can place
 * at the top of each page, logged in, and they will each eventually get attention. If you really want the content to not be seen by 'bots or searches, you can also blank the page. Sometimes an author blanking the page is enough to attract a custodian to delete the page, but blanking and then adding the deletion template shown above will call more attention to it, possibly leading to faster action. When I was a custodian, I frequently checked the category of speedy deletions and I never got around to checking for blank pages!
 * at the top of each page, logged in, and they will each eventually get attention. If you really want the content to not be seen by 'bots or searches, you can also blank the page. Sometimes an author blanking the page is enough to attract a custodian to delete the page, but blanking and then adding the deletion template shown above will call more attention to it, possibly leading to faster action. When I was a custodian, I frequently checked the category of speedy deletions and I never got around to checking for blank pages!

 * If someone disagrees with blanking or the deletion request, they will unblank and/or remove the deletion template. Then you would have to go to Requests for deletion in order to obtain consensus for deletion. That takes up people's time, and you should think, in that case, how important it is to you. It will, of course, attract attention and create a permanent, not easily deletable, record of discussion of your work. Seems to me that your work was more or less writing off the top of your head, with whatever idea came in. That's okay! If we don't want to keep it, we won't! I'd guess you are young, but anyone who writes as you did will make mistakes. Not A Problem. Mistakes are the fastest way to learn. This is a place for learning. Welcome. As this place grows, you would find more comment appear on what you wrote, I regret that it has not, yet, attracted comment (was there some, I didn't look at all of it). Would you want correction of errors there? Or discussion of debatable points? It could be valuable for you and others. If something doesn't belong in mainspace, is too personal, it could easily be moved to user space. Or, indeed, deleted, as appropriate. --Abd 02:33, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

 * Ok, thank you for your help. I used the delete template.--Deweirdifier 14:48, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

✅ by Geoff Plourde. --Draicone (talk) 09:11, 5 January 2011 (UTC)

Request for Import
Could someone import from wikipedia? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Thenub314 (talk • contribs) 16:03, 25 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Done, may need a bit of work to tailor it for WV. Adambro 16:15, 25 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Thenub314 18:00, 25 November 2010 (UTC)
 * FYI, we also have Template:SUL Box. --mikeu talk 22:39, 29 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Does mean that there is a redundancy? Geoff Plourde 01:36, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Unless there is some subtle difference that I didn't notice, they seem to do the same thing. --mikeu talk 14:43, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
 * So which one should be deleted? Geoff Plourde 19:16, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
 * I've changed Template:SUL Box to a redirect for consistency with WP. I think my import may have confused things slightly. It is a shame that when importing pages you aren't able to see where revision have come from. I've had a quick look at where this template is used and can see some working okay and a couple not but can't be sure whether they worked before anyway. When I get chance I'll have a look at making sure they all work. Adambro 19:28, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Sorry I missed our version and created extra work, I will look more carefully next time.

Requesting an Unbiased set of eyes
I am very upset about this comment and I was hoping less involved could take a look at it. I am hoping for the following outcome either tell me to stop being so sensitive (which is a possibility) or let me know if I have legitimate cause for complaint. In which case I will approach Abd and attempt to resolve our issue directly.

The part that most concerns me most is: "...by you, making unsupportable statements, trying to tempt, perhaps, a custodian into deletion without checking *each page.* The list was ordered such that a simple confirmation on a few pages might miss the problem."

From my point of view I was responding to a request of Geoff to figure out which pages had multiple authors and which did not. Instead I was greeted with demands of explaining how I knew Ottava was the author of these pages (which I don't think crossed any civility lines.) If I been in civil in any way in this conversation it was in stating my belief that Abd had reason to know that second account belong to Ottava and he was raising this objection was valid but purely argumentative.

While I find particularly upsetting is the suggestion that I ordered the lists specifically to deceive. I copy and pasted the list from above, and using the edit preview feature moved down and move pages into the appropriate section as they came up. I would like to explicitly call attention to the fact that the last sentence of my post asked a custodian to double check my work. So I find the attempt at casting doubt on my character.... well upsetting to put it politely. So if I could get the advice of an uninvolved person, I would appreciate it. Thenub314 07:16, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Done, see Requests_for_Deletion. --Draicone (talk) 17:08, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Thenub misinterpreted my comment there. I have redacted the part of my comment that made this misinterpretation more possible. There were no demands, in fact, there were challenges of fact, because Thenub was not mentioning the obvious, while asserting something that was, on the face, preposterous. Unless Ottava had an undeclared sock. That is now, roughly, out, on the page, probably irreversibly. Yes, I knew that this was Ottava, probably most did. But not Draicone, who, then, simply stated the obvious. I was unwilling to do that because I was trying to leave the door open for Ottava to withdraw that request and, if he wanted to, later, quietly follow the normal process for an author-requested deletion, which he could easily have done, separately, for the two accounts. There was no explicit "suggestion that" Thenub "ordered the lists specifically to deceive," but that the lists were ordered in a way that might lead to an oversight. Thenub had simply ordered the lists the same way as Ottava had, so if there was an attempt to deceive through ordering, it would not have been that of Thenub. However, Thenub obviously did come across the problem, and asserted, then, someting that was, on the face, false. Unless we assume that the two accounts were both Ottava. Since Ottava had long taken pains to conceal that connection, to the point of revision deleting references to his real name, leaving that RfD open was an invitation to outing. Ottava has used outing previously, over this very name, as a reason to block or to keep blocked. So the whole thing was quickly an entangled mess, with Ottava and Thenub, apparently, assuming an intention on my part to harm Ottava, when the reverse was the case.
 * Thanks to Draicone for responding here and commenting there. This shows how an "inactive custodian" may become active at any time, and I very much appreciate his responses. --Abd 17:24, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Ottava Rima
Please examine and watch this situation:. --Abd 18:13, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

It's unfolding: User_talk:SB_Johnny#Incivility_warning. --Abd 18:22, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

 * No offense Abd, it's rather easy to imagine that you're salivating at the thought of Ottava being blocked. You also recieved the same warning, and at least your second post here seems to go against the spirit of that warning. Again, please drop the stick. --SB_Johnny talk 18:39, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, SBJ, I find it hard to understand how the edits above violate the warning. ("Spirit" may be something in your mind, but not actually expressed. Sorry, I'm not necessarily a good mind-reader. Gets me into trouble, sometimes.) Nor do I see how a request for custodian attention on a situation like that is improper in any way, nor how this indicates "salivating" over anything. No specific response is proposed. No block is requested. Nothing deprecating anyone, unless the writings of the individuals themselves do so. Those diffs show a developing situation requiring attention, which is why I posted this. The attention might be warnings, suggestions, or, yes, blocks. Of you, of Ottava, of me, whatever a custodian thinks.
 * I will say this: everything I have written or done since that warning has considered it, I've strictly curtailed my writing about this situation, and posted the above to carefully avoid what you warned me against. Nevertheless, if you believe that my actions are harming Wikiversity, you have the right or even responsibility to block me appropriately, I am waiving recusal requirements, because I deeply trust that your intentions are to help Wikiversity. If you err, it can be fixed. --Abd 19:17, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
 * I find it odd that you criticize Abd. He went to a neutral forum to post. You, however, with a strong conflict of interest came at us with a warning that was inappropriate then claimed there were no other admin around. It is odd, seeing as how Draicone, Darklama, Geoff, Leigh, Juandev, and others are around but only semi-active, and that Mikeu is even in IRC now. It would seem that Abd's action above was 100% appropriate whereas yours was not, compounding the problem inherent in your incivil response to Abd. Characterizing someone as "salivating" is not within Civility's acceptable use. Ottava Rima (talk) 18:43, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
 * The first post was fine. The second post was maybe not so good. --SB_Johnny talk 19:02, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
 * In your opinion. Ottava Rima (talk) 19:10, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the support, Ottava! However, please don't take this as a cause to claim a problem with SB_Johnny. His warnings were appropriate. What he is trying to do is obvious, and commendable. Now, let's see what neutral custodians think, okay? --Abd 19:17, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

 * Even though a custodian may be seen as involved, particularly if there is a situation causing disruption which might indicate blocking a user, and the user is, say, attacking the custodian who is aware of the situation, I have written that a custodian may bypass recusal requirements by going ahead and blocking, but immediately disclosing the possible recusal requirement, declaring an emergency, and placing the matter on an appropriate noticeboard for immediate review. In immediate review, the action itself would be reviewed for necessity. In long-term review, a custodian who improperly declares emergency may be reprimanded, or, if the situation continues, desysopped, but the latter remedy would likely only arise after continued disregard of recusal policy and abuse of the "emergency" declaration. Our problems with recusal failure have been where there was involved action, but no emergency and no referral. Recusal protects custodians as well as the community, custodians who do not understand recusal create disruption even when they are "right," because an appearance of partiality is created and allowed to continue. Too often, even blatant recusal failure, when pointed out, results in argument over whether the action was right or not. That's a fundamental error, Wikipedia fell into that trap and is still stuck in it.
 * In the present case, it's obvious that SB_Johnny is under a recusal requirement; however, that does not mean that his warnings can be disregarded. He may block, if he follows the suggested procedure, which assumes that he sees an emergency, where immediate harm is resulting, and where delay may compound the harm and blocking prevent it. I asked for review of the situation here because of what is obvious if the links are reviewed, and because it would be better if additional custodial attention is focused, quickly, on this situation, so that SB_Johnny is not forced into a recusal violation, unnecessarily, emergency or not.

--Abd 19:17, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

 * Right now, I have seen more incivility coming from either Ottava or Abd more so than I have ever seen SB Johnny. How is he in any way "canvassing" when this wiki is so small and posting to only a few discussion boards draws editors to a thread like bees to their honey? And isn't using the MediaWiki:Sitenotice also considered "canvassing"? Anyway, would a topic ban between these two be appropriate? TeleComNasSprVen 19:56, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Did you read the diffs I posted, the reason for this request for independent review? Did you read the warnings from SBJ to Ottava and myself and our responses? In a sense, there is a topic ban, though not totally rigid, this is not Wikipedia. I'm under tight restriction at this moment, and voluntarily, because I respect the warning that SBJ issued and appreciate his intentions. I hope I can say this: I'm hoping that Ottava will do likewise, and I can easily forgive him for his strenuous objections, given the extreme stress he was under. That is, I hope, over now, given the desysopping close, and what I hope is rapid closure of the CR, and we can all move on. We should not hold his responses during this event against him. Amnesty. Thanks. --Abd 23:01, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Canvassing is drawing people who would not normally participate in a discussion to a discussion to stack the decks. Most of the people SB Johnny brought in were highly inactive and would not have been involved. Sitenotices are for active users who are regulars and would most likely see the matter anyway. And we do not need many outsiders flooding in to deal with community matters as consensus is to reflect the active community and be discussions by them. Ottava Rima (talk) 20:02, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

New Project
I will be starting a new project in the very near future and there will be 12 students assisting me in the development of it. In the "editing a wiki" section I was advised to contact custodians ahead of time. I am not sure how to do that as I couldn't see any form of traditional hyperlink so I am resorting to this method. Help?

 * I'm not exactly sure why that advise is there, but if we can provide any assistance or answer anything specific, please let us know :-).
 * Just out of curiosity, what will the project be about? --SB_Johnny talk 18:37, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

 * I will suggest that you request the students to register accounts and to only edit the project pages with the account they register. (If they have a Wikipedia account, they may use that, but they may also, if they wish, register a separate account here, it's okay as long as they don't "sock," i.e., use more than one account to make a single user appear to be more than one on the same wiki, or to evade a block, etc. We do not care about account status elsewhere, just here.) Further, the project should probably have a single top-level page, with all other pages being subpages of that page. This allows the rest of us to see what is going on. I saw a recent case where a class created a whole series of similar pages, and, worse, many of these pages were created by IP editors, and, not being visible as being part of the project, one of the pages was deleted by a custodian who thought it, by itself, was inappropriate for Wikiversity. As something clearly part of a class project, it would have been fine, without question.
 * You can then have a class roster listing the participants by their user name here. This will help everyone else understand what's going on. (It becomes important when vandals appear!) You may also decide whether or not to admit "outside students," i.e., people who are not already connected with you. We prefer, generally, that Wikiversity projects be open, but we can, for a limited time, allow a professor or teacher to control participation (this is not well-established policy, just my opinion). This kind of control is more legitimate in subpages, generally; a top-level mainspace page with a generic subject name could appear to "own" a whole topic. However, if there is a class in, say, French history, there can be a top-level page on French history, linking to a specific class on that subject, as French history/Leader's class. All work by the class then would be on that and subpages of that. If Leader has some idiosyncratic or fringe view of French history, we still have no problem with this organization, and can allow Leader wide latitude in directing study of the topic on that set of subpages. But on the top page, we must have subject neutrality, which requires consensus and shared responsibility.
 * Welcome to Wikiversity, Cmac7203. --Abd 23:37, 17 December 2010 (UTC)


text:
User talk:Johnbod

 Hello Johnbod, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. All users are expected to abide by our Privacy policy, Civility policy, and the Terms of Use while at Wikiversity.

To get started, you may

 * Take a guided tour and learn to edit.
 * Visit a (kind of) random project.
 * Browse Wikiversity, or visit a portal corresponding to your educational level: pre-school, primary, secondary, tertiary, non-formal education.
 * Find out about research activities on Wikiversity.

 * Read an introduction for teachers and find out how to write an educational resource for Wikiversity.
 * Give feedback about your initial observations
 * Discuss Wikiversity issues or ask questions at the colloquium.
 * Chat with other Wikiversitans on #wikiversity-en.

And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! If you're a twitter user, please follow http://twitter.com/Wikiversity. --Geoff Plourde 01:43, 30 November 2010 (UTC) Geoff Plourde 01:43, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

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

title: User talk:Johnbod


text:
User:S.emp/week 9, lecture 7

{| cellpadding="10" cellspacing="5" style="width: 100%; background-color: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" =Week 9, Lecture 7=
 * style="background-color: #ffffaa; border: 1px solid #777777; -moz-border-radius-topleft: 8px; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 8px; -moz-border-radius-topright: 8px; -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 8px;" colspan="2" |

Nature of Emotion
Defining emotions is more complex than I originally thought. Emotions are multidimensional. They exist as subjective, biological, purposive and social phenomena. According to Reeve (2009) emotions are short-lived, feeling-arousal-purposive-expressive phenomena that helps a person adapt to opportunities and challenges that people face during important life events.

Currently there is debate within the academic World as what causes emotions. The cognitive arguments states, that individuals cannot respond emotionally unless they first cognitively appraise the meaning and personal significance of an event. While the Biological argument is that bodily mechanisms trigger emotions, such as spontaneous facial expressions. Another theory of what causes emotions is the Two-system view. According to this view people have two synchronous systems that activate and regulate emotions – one is an innate, spontaneous, physiological system that reacts involuntarily to emotional stimuli, while the other is an experience-based cognitive system that reacts interpretively and socially. I personally feel that the Two-system view is more accurate when trying to determine what causes emotions, as I feel that some emotions need both a biological and cognitive arousal, while other emotions only need either biological or cognitive arousal. For example, for a person to feel guilty they need to be cognitively aware that what they did was wrong, however, if a person is experiencing fear they would be experiencing biological arousal.

Once again the debate on how many emotions that people have comes down to biological vs. cognitive. The Cognitive theorists argue that several different emotions can arise from the same event as they can be interpreted differently and therefore, they believe that there are a limitless number of emotions. While the biological theorists believe that there are only a small number of basic emotions, they believe that basic emotions are universal to all animals and that basic emotion are products of biology and evolution. However, one aspects that they do not agree on the a exact number of emotions that a person has, for example, the opponent-process theory believes that people have two emotions, such as fear vs. euphoria, while the differential emotions theory believes that people have ten emotions, such as, anger, fear, distress, joy, disgust, surprise, shame, guilt, interest, contempt.

Basic emotions are innate and universal, they occur in all people irrespective of age, gender and culture, they are expressed uniquely and distinctively and they are distinctive physiological patterned response. Two emotions that I feel are the most powerful are fear, sadness and joy. Life is driven by these three basic emotions, while throughout a persons life they will experience numerous emotions, I personally believe that when a person thinks back on the most powerful memories in their lives the memories mainly consist of experiences that consisted of fear, sadness or joy. People are afraid of committing to relationships, going into a new job, moving, life is driven by fear, it is how a person handles that fear that is important. One of the most powerful memories that I have is when I was twelve I was boogie boarding at the beach when a hug wave pulled me under, the rope from the board went around my neck and I struggled to reach the surface. This memory will always stay with me because I was terrified and for years I was afraid of going into the ocean, however, I overcame that fear and now I love the water again. Everyone experiences sadness in their lives, it can range from not getting a job, a relationship ending or a loved one dieing. For me personally, a memory that will always stick with me and still makes me cry is losing my eleven month old niece this year to an unknown death. Joy is another emotion that is extremely powerful in a person’s life, joy in finding love or having a baby. A joyful memory of mine is when my boyfriend, asked me out for the first time, I was so giddy and happy. These emotions are extremely powerful and motivational in a person’s life and they help to shape who the person is. While I do feel that negative emotions or memories may stick with us longer, I think that it is important that we remember the joyful times in our lives, just as much or if not more.

Fear

Fear is an emotion that is related to danger and a threat to a person's well-being. It can be Physical or psychological and it primes the fight or flight response.

Sadness

Sadness is an negative emotion, that arises from seperation or failure. Sadness motivates behaviour, while allevating the distress provoking circumstances or withdrawal and helpelessness.

Joy

Joy comes from desirable outcomes, it makes people feel enthusiastic and outgoing. The emotion motivates people to engage in social interactions, counterbalances negative emotions and facilitates psycholigical well-being.

I think that it is really important to state the difference between mood and emotion, as they can sometimes be confused. According to Reeve (2009) moods are relatively stable positive or negative affect where emotions emerge from situational events are they are usually short lived. Emotions and moods are different because they have different antecedents; emotions arise from life events and how a person appraises these situations, while moods arise from ill-defined and often unknown processes, they have different action-specificity; emotions mostly influence behaviour and what actions people take, while moods mostly influence cognition and people thoughts, they have different time courses; emotions are short lives, while moods are enduring. After reading this week’s chapter the difference between the two became clearer, however, I feel that the two can also interact, I think that a person’s mood can make a person more susceptible to feel a certain emotion.

One question that stuck out for me in this weeks lecture was how can emotions be measured? I think that it is extremely difficult to measure a person’s emotions. Manly because people would either have to measure their own emotions or someone else and this is extremely subjectable, is different people may measure an emotion in different ways, or they may not understand what emotions they are feeling or why they are feeling a certain way.

title: User:S.emp/week 9, lecture 7


text:
Ideas in Geometry/Instructive examples/Lesson 4: Algebraic Geometry

The equation of a line is L(x)=mx+b, where m is the slope and b is the y-intercept.

The equation of a parabola is P(x)=ax^2+bx+c.

A line that is tangent to a parabola goes through the parabola at exactly one point.

To find P(x)=L(x), we can set P(x)-L(x)=0. This equation will have 2 roots because the answer will be a quadratic since a quadratic minus a line equals a quadratic of some sort. THESE ROOTS MUST BE THE SAME, so P(x)-L(x)=(x-c)^2.

Example 1: Find the line tangent to y=x^2-3x+1 at the point x=3.

Solution 1:

P(x)-L(x)=(x-c)^2

x^2-3x+1-L(x)=(x-3)^2

-3x+1-L(x)=-6x+9

L(x)=8-3x

Example 2: Find the line tangent to y=x^3-3x^2+4x-1 at the point x=0.

Solution 2: x^3-3x^2+4x-1-L(x)=x^2(x-c)

4x-1-L(x)=0

L(x)=4x-1


text:
User:S.emp/Week 10, lecture 8

{| cellpadding="10" cellspacing="5" style="width: 100%; background-color: inherit; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto"
 * style="background-color: pink; border: 1px solid #777777; -moz-border-radius-topleft: 8px; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 8px; -moz-border-radius-topright: 8px; -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 8px;" colspan="2" |

=Week 10, Lecture 8=

Aspects of Emotion
There is still debate whether biological or cognitive aspects create emotions, as the text book chapter puts it, whether it is the chicken or the egg. In other words, does an emotion lead our bodies to react in particular ways or does our body’s reaction lead us to identify our emotion. I have decided to pick two theories from each argument that interests me the most.

Biological Aspects of emotion
The James-Lang Theory is one biological aspect of emotion. The theory states that first there is a stimulus then the body reacts to this stimulus and from this change in a person’s body their emotions are expressed. Therefore, the theory goes against the traditional view that first a person experiences a stimulus then the emotion and then the body reacts to a particular emotional expression. There theory is based on two assumptions that the body reacts uniquely to different emotion producing circumstances and that the body reacts to non-emotion producing events. However, while the theory is extremely well-known in the academic world it has encountered a few criticisms. These criticisms are that a person’s bodily reactions are actually just part of the body’s general mobilizing fight/flight response and it does not vary from one emotion to another and that an emotional experience is seen to be quicker than bodily reactions in some situations.

The Facial Feedback Hypothesis is another biological theory that suggests that emotions come from three things, movements in the facial musculature, changes in facial temperature and changes in glandular activity in the facial skin. This theory therefore suggests that emotions are sets of muscle and glandular responses located in the face. The facial feedback system activates a person’s emotion/s and once it is activated it produces the emotional program and it is this program that then brings in the cognitive and bodily responses. There is mixed research about whether this theory is accurate, however, one thing that is agreed upon is that the change in facial feedback changes the intensity of the experiences emotions. I tried this theory and I found to some extent it works and I find that fascinating that if a person spends an amount of time smiling, their mood begins to match their outside appearance.

Cognitive Aspects of Emotion
A main theory in regards to the cognitive aspects of emotion is Appraisal. The theory suggests that how a person appraises a situation (primary appraisal) and how a person thinks they will cope with the even (secondary appraisal) will determine the emotion that they will feel. The Attribution theory states that people want to explain why they experienced a particular life event. According to Reeve (2009) attributions are important because they explain how a person’s outcome results in an emotional experience. A person’s outcome dependent emotional reactions are the primary appraisal of the outcome. Specific secondary emotion develops after this as a response to the event that has occurred. This is called the secondary appraisal of the outcome. The Attribution theory is centred on seven different emotions. These emotions are pride, hope, guilt, gratitude, anger, pity, shame and guilt.

At this stage I am not sure whether I believe that people have cognitive or biological aspects of emotions. Both theories have valid points, therefore, at this stage I feel that both biological and cognitive aspects are important in regards to a person’s emotions. I also think that social interactions play an important part in the development of a person’s emotional response.

Social Interactions
Social interactions are also an important contribution to social understanding of emotion. It is theorised that our emotions change depending on the cultural context. People from different cultures are thought to place different meanings on different emotions and from a social perspective it is thought that if a person changes the situation they are in then a person’s emotions will also change. Managing emotions is an important aspect of social interactions. Managing emotions is important for people who interact frequently, closely and intimately with the community. People need to be able to cope with aversive feelings in a way that is both socially acceptable and personally adaptive. I believe that if a person wants to be able to effectively function in society they need to learn to manage their emotions. I work in retail and while I can become frustrated and angry with a person on the inside, I have to appear calm, understanding and happy on the outside, due to the fact that if I let out my true emotions then it would only escalate the situation and I would probably get in trouble, as it is not socially acceptable to get upset at a customer when they are yelling at you, due to the fact that you are in a work environment and must at all times act professionally. Another example of managing emotions is a friend of mine, when she is upset or hurt she laughs and she has found that this is not socially acceptable, due to the fact that when people generally feel these emotions they become upset on the outside, some people even cry. She has found that if she laughs people stare at her and she has had to adapt to societies acceptable emotions, rather than displaying her natural response when something terrible occurs.

title: User:S.emp/Week 10, lecture 8


text:
User:S.emp/Week 10, tutoral 4

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=Week 10, Tutorial 4=

While I am still sick, I am starting to feel a little better, the antibiotics are starting to kick in, so I would say that I will be loads better next week. However, for this week, I missed the tutorial again. From looking at the tutorial 4 outline during this tutorial the class sorted many emotions into groups during a q-sort activity.

title: User:S.emp/Week 10, tutoral 4


text:
Connectedness to nature

This is a stub-page for projects about connectedness to nature.

A starting activity is to complete the Connectedness to nature scale and then discuss.

title: Connectedness to nature


text:
User:S.emp/Week 11 lecture 9

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=Week 11, Lecture 9=

Personality Characteristics
I found this particular week extremely interesting as I was able to examine why are people different? Why are some people interested in one thing, while other people are not? And why do some people do things like sensation seeking while others do not?

Five Factor Model
There are five main personality traits widely accepted in the literature, these five personality traits are called the Big Five or the Five Factor Model (Barta & Kiene, 2005),

 * Neuroticism: The tendency to experience negative affective states, for example, worry.
 * Extroversion: The tendency to experience positive affective states, for example, happiness.
 * Agreeableness: The tendency to avoid interpersonal conflict and seek harmonious relationships.
 * Conscientiousness: The tendency to preserver at tasks and follow rules.
 * Openness to experience: The tendency to expose oneself to novel, unconventional or even difficult and challenging thoughts and sensations.

Interestingly my textbook on adultery has found a link between cheating and these five personality traits.

Happiness
According to Reeve (2009) people are generally happy, regardless of situational factors. I find this statement interesting because I had never thought of most people as generally happy, I think that people grasp on to happiness, as this is ideally what people want to feel, they do not want to feel upset or angry and therefore, I think people try to appear happy, as this is what is expected. In one day I can feel many emotions and I see people going through times in their lives when they are anything but happy due to factors or evens outside of their control, sometimes it is something that they have gotten themselves into and they cannot escape. Therefore, I think that it is important to note that while generally most people are happy there are moments or long periods of time in a person’s life where they unhappy and trying to appear happy for society sake, as it is what is expected. Happiness is said to be as much about a person’s genes and personality, as it is about the events in a person’s life. Happiness has been linked to extraversion, this is because they are more sensitive to positive feelings and therefore, these people approach and enjoy rewarding situations. Unhappiness has been lined to neuroticism. As these people have a greater capacity to experience negative emotions and negative thoughts. According to Reeve (2009) there are two types of happiness;   phedonic (a pleasant life and what most people think of as happiness) and eudaimonic (self-realisation, engaging oneself in meaningful pursuits and in doing what is worth doing).

Arousal
Arousal symbolises a selection of processes that govern alertness, wakefulness and activation. The motivational construct is made up of cortical (brain activity), behavioural (skeletal muscular system) and autonomic mechanisms. According to Reeve (2009) there are four main principles that explain arousal’s contribution to emotion:

 * A individual’s arousal level is largely a function of how much stimulation they are receiving from their environment.
 * People engage in behaviour to increase or decrease their level of arousal.
 * When underaroused people seek out opportunities to increase their level of arousal.
 * When overaroused people seek out opportunities to decrease their arousal levels.

One area of arousal that I find fascinating is sensation seeking. Zuckerman (1994) defined sensation seeking as 'the seeking if varied, novel, complex and intense sensations and experiences and the willingness to take physical, social, legal and financial risks for the sake of such experiences.' Sensation seeking is related to a high arousal need and these people seek out new, exciting situations and accept the cost of the risks of the experience. I have done one sensation seeking thing in my life and that is to go sky diving, it was amazing and when you land you feel alive, you feel energised and you want to experience that feeling again. When I went skydiving afterwards I was hugging my instructor because it was an amazing experience and my friends thought I was going to kiss him, I was that excited. Personally I don’t go out of my way to do sensation seeking activities but I can understand the appeal and I plan on sky diving again.

Control
This week we also discussed control and how this can effect motivation and engagement. Perceived control is about differences in people’s performance expectancies of processing the needed capacity to produce positive outcomes. To be able to have perceived control over a situation a person must;  be capable of obtaining the available desired outcome and the situation much be somewhat predictable and responsive.

The level of perceived control can affect a person is relation to:
 * goal setting
 * task choice
 * effort
 * concentration
 * persistence in the face of difficulty
 * positive emotional states
 * problem-solving strategies
 * performance

Desire for control is the extent to which we are motivated to establish control over the events in our lives. People want to establish control and if control is lost a person wants to restore this control. I agree with this point, I like to be in control of things, especially if I feel that I will get the task done properly. For example, at work when magazines that are not sold need to be returned to the company, so that my store can be reimbursed, I need control, as I feel that I am the only one that gets in done properly and if I am not working I only like a select few doing the return as I only trust them to get it done right. In this area I have a desire for control and if I lose this control I become unhappy and seek to regain this loss of control.

title: User:S.emp/Week 11 lecture 9


text:
User:Charles Jeffrey Danoff/CELTA log

HELP WANTED

This is an attempt to log my work, reflections and more as I make my way through my month long intensive CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) course at Teaching House New York from November 29th – December 23rd, 2010.

please help

If you are so inclined, please improve this log by wikignoming the following pages, or leave feedback/questions on the |discussion pages.

Abbreviations
The following abbreviations will be used:
 * T = Teacher
 * Ss = Students
 * W = Week
 * D = Day
 * L = Lesson
 * TH = Teaching House NYC
 * HW = Home Work
 * TP = Teaching Practice
 * ICQ = Instruction Check Question
 * CCQ = Concept Check Question
 * TTT = Teacher Talking Time
 * STT = Student Talking Time

TP

 * Be less of a dancing bear like I was last Friday, and elicit from the students.
 * Use more ICQs and CCQs.

@ TH

 * Be attentive and engaged while I am watching my peers teach and as a student in the classroom.

HW

 * TP 4 lesson plan done by Tuesday.
 * Assignment 2 done by Wednesday.
 * Have lesson plan for week 3 monday, and assignment 3 done on Friday.

@ TH

 * Did a solid job of paying attention in the AM as my peers taught, then staying focused throughout the afternoon. Doing better with energy and general being on-task during class.

HW

 * Worked for a bit after school @ TH, then headed across the street to Kafe, where I finished up my lesson plan for tomorrow. Got everything done after 8:30, which implies it took around 4 hours to do, but I'd say there was at least an hour or so of chatting involved there. Tomorrow's lesson is focused on me being less of a dancing bear, and eliciting more, hopefully it'll work out. Downloaded the form for my second assignment, but nothing beyond that, and I did not start my upcoming lesson plan yet.

TP4
Felt like far less of a dancing bear, eliciting more from students. Still need to reduce my TTT + running commentary and discovered I use "or something" often when I ask questions, which I was not aware of at, all.

@ TH

 * Afternoon input sessions were engaging and I learned a lot from watching my peers teach, one of whom gave me an awesome introduction into the "passive", which I'll be teaching on Thursday, making my life easier.

Organization

 * In my binder instead of doing everything by date besides the coursebook files, I put all the TP parts together.
 * Perhaps next do an alternative table of contents w/everything I've written?

HW

 * Worked till around 6 on TP5, engaging with phonetics and grammar somewhat seriously for the first time in the course. Annoying and a little fun. Still didn't finish tonight, feeling drained around 6 and having plans to see a friend in town for the evening.

TP5
First grammar lesson. Started with a personal anecdote tying into the topic. Did an alright job explaining the grammar, but I spent too much time explaining what the grammatical form means, as opposed to what the example sentence meant. Lesson was easier, because a peer had already taught the same grammar point the lesson prior, so I was just reviewing.

@ TH
Afternoon input sessions were solid, kept my attention for most of the time.

HW
Evening began and I still hadn't finished my second assignment, so I spent some distracted time working on that till about 8:30, first by hand then typing. As I was about to leave I didn't save adequately, so I lost my typed work. Still had my hand notes, and spent about 3.5 hours re-doing the whole assignment by hand after dinner. Stupid mistake and stupid of me to put myself in a position where I was rushing. Positive is my assignment is way better than it would've been and I learned a lot more about how-to fill out grammar and vocabulary language analysis sheets. Overall I am only treading water in terms of assignments (as in finishing what's due the next day the night before) nowhere near my goals of ahead heading into the weekend. Partially because I chose to have some fun this week, I was less efficient, and the work has proven more challenging than I anticipated.

Week 1
See Week 1 entries (29 Nov 2010 - 03 Dec 2010)

Other Versions
Alternative versions of this log are available on:
 * Le Dive, my MediaWiki
 * Wikigogy

title: User:Charles Jeffrey Danoff/CELTA log


text:
User:S.emp/Week 12 Lecture 10

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=Week 12, Lecture 10=

Psychodynamic Perspective
This perspective believes that the causes of people’s motivations and behaviours come from biologically endowed and socially acquired impulses that establish our desires, thoughts, feelings and behaviours, where we like it or not. Psychoanalytic is the traditional Freudian approach to the unconscious that discusses our own private subjective experiences and why unwanted desires and fears make their home there. It is the study of dynamic unconscious mental processes.

The Dual-Instinct Theory, which was founded by Freud, thought that all energy a person needed for life, both physical and mental came from biological drivers or instincts and that these drives explained our motivation. Freud believed that all our bodily drives could be fit into two categories; instincts for life (Eros) and instincts for death (Thanatos),

The contemporary psychodynamic theory is based on four principles the Unconscious (the unconscious is hidden from both private consciousness and public observation), psychodynamics (this refers to mental processes that operate in parallel to each other), ego development and objective relations theory (mental representations of oneself and others form during childhood as a guide to a person’s later social motivations and relationship).

The Unconscious
There are different theories in regards to the unconscious, the three main theories are \ Freudian unconscious, adaptive unconscious and implicit motivation.

 * Freudian Unconscious automatically appraises the environment. This concept explores people’s dreams and the hidden messages, tensions and desires.
 * Adaptive Unconscious appraises the environment, sets goals, makes judgements and initiates actions, while we are consciously thinking about other things. In other words people are performing tasks on auto-pilot’.
 * Implicit Motivation refers to all the emotions, motivations, attitudes and judgements that occurs outside of a person’s consciousness. Implicit motivation automatically attends to emotionally linked environmental events. It is a combination of our explicit and implicit motivations.

Subliminal Motivation is another important motivation, it is where a person subliminally stimulates unconscious information. These type of motivations can emotionally effect people but it does not necessarily motivate someone to change their behaviour.

I find it interesting that people experience emotions, thoughts and experiences without realising it. The unconscious is a part of us that will probably never be completely understood, yet it is something that is vital for development of a person’s motivations and emotions.

title: User:S.emp/Week 12 Lecture 10


text:
User:S.emp/Week 13 lecture 11

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=Week 13, Lecture 11=

Holism and Positive Psychology
Holism states that human-beings are best understood as an integrated, organised whole rather than as a series of differentiated parts. According to this idea any event that affects one system, will affect the entire system, the entire person. Holism has emerged from humanistic psychology and is about striving toward growth and self-realisation and moving away from simply satisfying the expectations of others. It is about working towards your needs, not others.

Positive psychology is a newly emerging field of psychology. It seeks to articulate the idea of the good life and it uses the empirical methods of psychology to understand what makes life worth living. Positive psychology is not a subfield of humanistic psychology. Unlike humanistic psychology, positive psychology has a strong reliance on hypothesis-testing and data-based empirical research. Positive psychology looks at a person and asks ‘what can be?’

Self-Actualisation
Self-actualisation is the inherent striving of individuals to fulfill their talents, capacities and potentials. According to Reeve (2009) Self-actualization has two fundamental directions of self-actualization; Autonomy and Openness to experience. Self-actualization is at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

The Problem of evil
I found this part of this chapter and lecture really interesting because I do not think that people are born evil and that no one is completely evil. I think that people who commit evil acts do so because of environmental factors. According to Reeve (2009) evil is the deliberate, voluntary, intentional infliction of painful suffering on another person without respect for their humanity or personhood. Humanistic theorists’ views on evil are that evil is not inherent in human nature, it is not environment that creates an evil person. I completely agree with this and I think that evil acts can be committed by anyone, any race, any age and a person from any educational background. An example of an evil act is the Columbine shootings in 1999, the boys that killed twelve high school students and one teacher did so partly because they had been placed in an environment where they were tortured by fellow students, while it does not excuse them killing other people, it helps to explian why. Here is a link of footage from the massacre. This footage highlights the terrifying reality of what an environment can foster in a person. It is scary and extremely sad and it happens every day. Currently, in our society people are bullied for being gay or a lesbian, time will tell whether these evil acts will create evil in the person who is being tormented. To stop a person from committing evil, we first need to change the environment in which it occurs and that starts with how we treat other people.

title: User:S.emp/Week 13 lecture 11


text:
User:S.emp/Week 14, tutoral 6

=Week 14, Tutorial 6=

This week was out final tutorial. We started the class off by discussing whether we thought humans are evil or whether the environment influences a person to become evil. As previously discussed I believe that the environemt fosters evil, however, I do not think that many people are completely evil. While it may make me sound naieve but I think that everyone has somesort of good in them, not matter how small.

We then discussed the difference between Maslow's characteristics of a self-actualised person and Rodgers' idea of a fully functioning individual. We discussed how Maslow has 16 characteristics while Rodgers' has 9. It is extremely difficult to become self-actualised with only 1% of people reaching this goal. After this we discused the sense of meaning and coherence to finish the tutorial we conpleted the 'Sense of Coherence – Orientation to Life Questionnaire'.

title: User:S.emp/Week 14, tutoral 6


text:
User talk:RJackson

 Hello RJackson, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. All users are expected to abide by our Privacy policy, Civility policy, and the Terms of Use while at Wikiversity.

To get started, you may

 * Take a guided tour and learn to edit.
 * Visit a (kind of) random project.
 * Browse Wikiversity, or visit a portal corresponding to your educational level: pre-school, primary, secondary, tertiary, non-formal education.
 * Find out about research activities on Wikiversity.

 * Read an introduction for teachers and find out how to write an educational resource for Wikiversity.
 * Give feedback about your initial observations
 * Discuss Wikiversity issues or ask questions at the colloquium.
 * Chat with other Wikiversitans on #wikiversity-en.

And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! If you're a twitter user, please follow http://twitter.com/Wikiversity. --Mu301Bot 08:17, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Feel free to leave a message on my talk page if you have any questions or need help. --mikeu talk 08:17, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

title: User talk:RJackson


text:
User talk:Sola negron

 Hello Sola negron, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. All users are expected to abide by our Privacy policy, Civility policy, and the Terms of Use while at Wikiversity.

To get started, you may

 * Take a guided tour and learn to edit.
 * Visit a (kind of) random project.
 * Browse Wikiversity, or visit a portal corresponding to your educational level: pre-school, primary, secondary, tertiary, non-formal education.
 * Find out about research activities on Wikiversity.

 * Read an introduction for teachers and find out how to write an educational resource for Wikiversity.
 * Give feedback about your initial observations
 * Discuss Wikiversity issues or ask questions at the colloquium.
 * Chat with other Wikiversitans on #wikiversity-en.

And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! If you're a twitter user, please follow http://twitter.com/Wikiversity. --Mu301Bot 08:17, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Feel free to leave a message on my talk page if you have any questions or need help. --mikeu talk 08:17, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

title: User talk:Sola negron


text:
User talk:Mudassir~enwikiversity

 Hello Mudassir, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. All users are expected to abide by our Privacy policy, Civility policy, and the Terms of Use while at Wikiversity.

To get started, you may

 * Take a guided tour and learn to edit.
 * Visit a (kind of) random project.
 * Browse Wikiversity, or visit a portal corresponding to your educational level: pre-school, primary, secondary, tertiary, non-formal education.
 * Find out about research activities on Wikiversity.

 * Read an introduction for teachers and find out how to write an educational resource for Wikiversity.
 * Give feedback about your initial observations
 * Discuss Wikiversity issues or ask questions at the colloquium.
 * Chat with other Wikiversitans on #wikiversity-en.

And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! If you're a twitter user, please follow http://twitter.com/Wikiversity. --Mu301Bot 08:17, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Feel free to leave a message on my talk page if you have any questions or need help. --mikeu talk 08:17, 30 November 2010 (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 Mudassir. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Mudassir~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 23:44, 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) 06:16, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Mudassir~enwikiversity


text:
User:Donald Albury

My primary registration is on Wikipedia: w:User:Donald Albury.

title: User:Donald Albury


text:
User talk:Vaiscyk

 Hello Vaiscyk, and welcome to Wikiversity! If you need help, feel free to visit my talk page, or contact us and ask questions. After you leave a comment on a talk page, remember to sign and date; it helps everyone follow the threads of the discussion. The signature icon in the edit window makes it simple. All users are expected to abide by our Privacy policy, Civility policy, and the Terms of Use while at Wikiversity.

To get started, you may

 * Take a guided tour and learn to edit.
 * Visit a (kind of) random project.
 * Browse Wikiversity, or visit a portal corresponding to your educational level: pre-school, primary, secondary, tertiary, non-formal education.
 * Find out about research activities on Wikiversity.

 * Read an introduction for teachers and find out how to write an educational resource for Wikiversity.
 * Give feedback about your initial observations
 * Discuss Wikiversity issues or ask questions at the colloquium.
 * Chat with other Wikiversitans on #wikiversity-en.

And don't forget to explore Wikiversity with the links to your left. Be bold to contribute and to experiment with the sandbox or your userpage, and see you around Wikiversity! If you're a twitter user, please follow http://twitter.com/Wikiversity. --Geoff Plourde 19:30, 30 November 2010 (UTC) Geoff Plourde 19:30, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

title: User talk:Vaiscyk


text:
User talk:Rich Farmbrough

Best to leave messages at Wikipedia:User talk:Rich Farmbrough

title: User talk:Rich Farmbrough


text:
Euclid's Elements

Introduction
Euclid’s “Elements” form a set of 13 books dedicated to the fundamentals and logical and systematic development of geometry. It is the masterpiece of Greek Mathematics and for centuries it was the set geometry text in many schools. It is, like Newton’s “Principia” or Maxwell’s books about electrodynamic theory, or Darwin’s “The origin of species”, a book of synthesis. It is the first book of geometric foundation and its style and organization have been the model for later mathematical work.

It is not a practical handbook or a set of useful rules for calculating or measuring like the Egyptian or Babylonian documents of early times. It is a logical structure which responds to Plato’s geometry :

“The geometricians have in view practice only, and are always speaking, in a narrow and ridiculous manner, of squaring and extending and applying and the like-- they confuse the necessities of geometry with those of daily life; whereas knowledge is the real object of the whole science.”

The base which Euclid used to build his geometry is a set of definitions, postulates and common notions, called axioms by some authors. At the beginning, the definitions are 23 even if later some others are introduced. These definitions have the function of naming the elements with which geometry will be built. Some examples are :

 * A point is that of which there is no part.
 * And a line is a length without breadth.
 * And the extremities of a line are points.
 * A straight-line is (any) one which lies evenly with points on itself.
 * And a surface is that which has length and breadth only.
 * And the extremities of a surface are lines.
 * A plane surface is (any) one which lies evenly with the straight-lines on itself.
 * Parallel lines are straight-lines which, being in the same plane, and being produced to infinity in each direction, meet with one another in neither (of these directions).

Then it continues with the five postulates :

 * I.	Let it have been postulated to draw a straight-line from any point to any point.
 * II.	And to produce a finite straight-line continuously in a straight-line.
 * III.	And to draw a circle with any center and radius.
 * IV.	And that all right-angles are equal to one another.
 * V.	And that if a straight-line falling across two (other), straight-lines makes internal angles on the same side (of itself whose sum is) less than two right-angles, then the two (other) straight-lines, being produced to infinity, meet on that side (of the original straight-line) that the (sum of the internal angles) is less than two right-angles (and do not meet on the other side) (sic).

Finally he enunciates some common notions whose number is variable depending on the versions. Some of these notions are :

 * Things equal to the same thing are also equal to one another.
 * And if equal things are added to equal things then the wholes are equal.
 * And if equal things are subtracted from equal things then the remainders are equal.
 * And things coinciding with one another are equal to one another.
 * And the whole [is] greater than the part.

With the previous five postulates and the common notions he attempts to build geometry (Topic:Euclidean_Geometry). For modern criticism the system has many defects, however all the defects are insignificant compared with the extraordinary merit of having constructed a deductive science from a set of disperse concepts which constituted the previous math.

title: Euclid's Elements


text:
History of the Ottoman Empire/Height of the Ottoman Empire/Quiz

{When did Selim II become emperor of Ottoman Empire? -1561 +1566 -1571 -1576
 * type=""}

{Which states made war with Ottoman Empire? -Spanish, France, Rome, Venice -Spanish, Sweden, Persia, Venice +Spanish, Russia, Persia, Venice -Spanish, Arabia, Persia, Venice
 * type=""}

{Which state was winner of Battle of Lepanto? -Ottoman Empire -Persia, Arabia, Egypt -Russia, France, Spanish +Rome, Venice, Spanish
 * type=""}

{When did Ottomans landed Cyprus? +1570 -1571 -1572 -1573
 * type=""}

{Why did Ottomans capture Cyprus? -Because; Cyprus was Russian island and enemy for Ottoman Empire -Because; Cyprus tax delayed +Because; Cyprus was enemy for Ottoman Empire and Cyprus navy was pirate -Because; Spanish provoked Ottoman Empire
 * type=""}

{When did Crusaders attack Ottoman navy? -1568 +1571 -1573 -1576
 * type=""}

{Who did decide build a new Ottoman navy? -Selim II -Lala Paşa -Uluch Ali Paşa +Sokollu Mehmet Paşa
 * type=""}

{Why did Ottomans attack Tunisia? +Because; Ottomans wanted to revenge of Lepanto -Because; Ottomans wanted to capture all Africa -Because; Ottomans wanted to capture Spanish areas -Because; Tunisia people wanted to help
 * type=""}

{When did Ottomans captured Tunisia -1572 -1573 +1574 -1575
 * type=""}

{When did Selim II die? -1573 +1574 -1575 -1576
 * type=""}


text:
Chromatography

Chromatography
Chromatography is the most widely used technique for the separation of mixtures. It was used at the beginning of the 20th century by M. S. Tswett to separate pigments from plants. The name comes from Greek chroma, “color”, and graphein, “to write”. In chromatography, a mixture of analytes which is going to be separated is injected on a column where one phase flows and passes over another one which is immobile or stationary. The mixture of analytes passes through the column with the mobile phase. Analytes generally have different interactions with stationary and mobile phases resulting in different migration rates. The components of the mixture which have longer interaction with the stationary phase are retarded and the components which have poor interaction are moved faster by the mobile phase. The physical states of the mobile and stationary phases are one of the ways to classify different types of chromatography techniques. If the mobile phase is a gas, it is called gas chromatography (GC) and if it is a liquid, it is called liquid chromatography (LC). Thin layer chromatography (TLC) and HPLC are one of the most common examples of the last group; the first one uses an open column and the other one is on a layer. If the stationary phase is a solid and the mobile phase is a liquid, it is called liquid-solid chromatography (LSC) and if both are liquid, it is called liquid-liquid chromatography (LLC). In these different types of chromatography we could identify other groups according to phenomena inside the system. [1] Generally, a separation process takes place inside a column where the stationary phase is and where the mobile phase moves through.

HPLC
As it was said before, HPLC consists of a liquid mobile phase passing through a column where the stationary phase is attacked, which generally is formed of particles a few microns in diameter. The components of the equipment are: solvent reservoirs, pumps, injector, column and detector. According to the polarities of the phases, the technique can be classified into reversed and normal phase. In reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC), the stationary phase is less polar than the mobile phase. In normal phase liquid chromatography (NPLC), the stationary phase is more polar than the mobile phase [1]. Since there is a difference among the migration rates of different analytes if there is a difference between the interaction of different analytes and the phases, separation can be achieved. The detector is set at the end of the column and its response is related to analyte concentrations. This device monitors the presence of analytes; their responses are shown in a graphic called chromatogram, in Figure 1 [2]. Every analyte is represented by a peak at the time when they leave the column; faster analytes appear at the beginning of the chromatograms and slower ones appear at the end of them.

Figure 1: Chromatogram.

Introduction
Chromatographic methods permanently tend to increase the speed of determinations, reduce solvent consumption and work with small sample volumes. One option is the use of UHPLC (Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography -High Performance), miniaturization of equipment, the use of new stationary phases (Core -Shell or fused- core) or monolithic columns.

Systems of miniaturized HPLC
The miniaturization of liquid chromatography systems was because of its great benefits, including the small sample volume required for analysis and use low solvent flows. The first steps were taken by Horváth et al in 1967 [3, 4] who filled columns of 0.5-1.0 mm internal diameter with particulate materials. The classification of the different systems is based primarily on the size of the columns used, as well as on flow rate:

Table 1: Classification of HPLC systems according to the scale used [5].

The main disadvantage of these columns is that they operate at very high pressures. This problem was solved by the development of monolithic stationary phases, which allow to achieve similar efficiencies with low pressures and highly efficient separations in a significantly shorter analysis time. These advantages have contributed to the development of monolithic columns to be used in micro-HPLC and electrochromatography, with very promising results [6]. These changes led to the commercialization of equipment of micro and nano - HPLC. It is also possible to adapt conventional HPLC equipment by: I) microflow split valve, which reduces and regulates the flow rate of the mobile phase; II) micro- injection, whose volume is determined by capillary injection loop or “loop” on the order of nanoliters and III) UV detector with nanocells or online detection (“on-column”).

Figure 2: Diagram of a possible adaptation of a conventional HPLC to microscale.

Sample pretreatment
The main aims of a sample pretreatment are: to eliminate interferences from a sample matrix; to preconcentrate some analytes which are in very low concentration so that they will be detected and quantifiable, and to derivatizate them to allow their detection. This step precedes the injection in the HPLC system. Some sample pretreatment methods are: liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), solid-phase extraction (SPE), evaporation, distillation, solid-liquid extraction, soxhlet extraction, microwave-assited extraction, etc. In LLE, extraction is carried out using two immiscible liquids, one of which is an organic solvent, while the other is an aqueous solution. Analytes of interest partition between those two phases in which they have different solubility values. The main objective is to retain the analytes in one or another phase, generally in the organic phase. After that, the organic solvent is usually evaporated, and this allows us to concentrate the analytes. If we are going to use the sample in an HPLC system, the organic solvent has to be acceptable for it. The relationship between the analyte concentration in the organic phase, [A]o, over the analyte concentration in the aqueous phase, [A]aq, is called partition coefficient, k.

The larger the value of k, the greater the analyte concentration in the organic phase. Microextration is another form of LLE, and in this case a micro volume of organic solvent is used. According to solvent densities, the method needs different arrangements. When the organic solvent is denser than water, conical tubes are needed. In the opposite case, tubes with narrow necks are needed. This technique has worse recovery values but better extraction efficiency values because of the low organic phase volume. Another environment friendly alternative to organic solvents is ionic liquids. These substances are replacing organic solvents due to their unique properties such as low volatility, chemical and thermal stability, and good solubility for both organic and inorganic molecules [7].

Chiral chromatography
Chirality is a geometric property related to asymmetry. A chiral molecule lacks an internal plane of symmetry and has a molecule which is its non-superimposable mirror image. Those molecules are called enantiomers and a mixture of them is known as a racemic mixture. They have very similar physical properties, so their separation is very difficult.

Figure 3: Example of enantiomeric molecules and its comparison with the hands.

Separating chiral molecules is important in organic, environmental, biological, pharmaceutical and analytical chemistry fields. Many techniques are used to analyze chiral organic molecules, such as Chiroptical Methods (Polarimetry, Optical Rotation Dispersion, Circular dicroism, Vibrational Optical Activity, etc); Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), and Chromatography.

Chiral Chromatography uses a chiral selector, a molecule with chiral centers. The most common chiral selectors, especially in gas chromatography, are cyclodextrins. They are macromolecules made of glucose molecules bonded together in a cone form. According to the number of sugar members, the names of the cyclodextrin are: alpha for six members, beta for seven and gamma for eight. Native cyclodextrins are solid and have poor solubility. This is the reason why they have to be dissolved in a proper solvent or derivatized in order to be used as stationary phases in Gas Chromatography. The most common solvents are polysiloxanes and they are also used to prepare cyclodextrin derivative solutions.

Figure 4: Chemical structure of the three main types of cyclodextrins (Wikipedia)

title: Chromatography


text:
Dicamba

Brief update on geno- and cytotoxicity of dicamba, an auxinic herbicide

 * 1) Pesticide and herbicide definition.
 * 2) Auxinic herbicides.
 * 3) Characterization of dicamba.
 * 4) Prior investigations on genotoxicity and cytotoxicity of dicamba.
 * 5) New findings on the genotoxic and cytotoxic capabilities of dicamba.

Some words before starting
The aim for the present article is to present updated data on the geno- and cytotoxicity of dicamba, an auxinic herbicide commonly used worldwide. Definitions of pesticides and herbicides are given for contextualizing the topic. The main features of auxinic herbicides are presented as well as a characterization of dicamba taking into account its role as a xenobiotic molecule. Finally, the genotoxic and cytotoxic capabilities will be developed, dealing with previous data and new findings.

What is a pesticide? And a herbicide?
A pesticide, as defined by EPA, one of the most worldwide recognized regulatory agencies, is “any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest”. For further clarification of the term pesticide, the following is added: “Though often misunderstood to refer only to insecticides, the term pesticide also applies to herbicides, fungicides, and various other substances used to control pests.” In order to acquire a more complete notion of the term pesticide, a revision of what is actually a pest is needed. Again, EPA provides a definition: “''Pests are living organisms that occur where they are not wanted or that cause damage to crops or humans or other animals. Examples include insects, mice and other animals, unwanted plants (weeds), fungi, microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses, and prions.''”. However, as Ware and Whitacre (2004) call to our attention, pests are organisms that are competitive to mankind or its interests in some manner. In this way, pests are defined by human beings and their life-style and preferences rather than by nature: i.e. in an agricultural environment pests may include diverse animal, plant, bacterial and fungal species that compete with or damage crops whereas in an urban environment pests would be represented by another set of species that carry diseases, eat fabric wools, leather and wood, deteriorate or infest packaged foods and garden plants or even infest pets. In short, every person has an intuitive appreciation of what a pest is. In this line of thought, a herbicide is then, a type of pesticide used to kill unwanted plants. Herbicides are employed mainly to protect crops that are affected by weeds in various ways. Unwanted plants compete with crop plants for sunlight and also for water and nutritive substances in the soil. Harvested grain may be contaminated with weed seeds that decrease the quality of crops and may be toxic to humans and animals. Complete loss of the crop is also a result of competitive effect of unwanted plants Herbicides have been used to protect crops since ancient times. The first recorded use of a herbicide can be traced back to 1200 BC when the Biblical armies spread the conquered fields with salt and ashes in order to make them unproductive. Ever since this nonselective herbicide application, mankind has employed herbicides. Many substances have been applied to fight unwanted plants, for instance pouring olive oil on their roots. The discovery of the first chemical weed killer is attributed to Marco Terentius Varro, a Roman scholar (116 BC – 27 BC). Varro recommended the application of amurca to control weeds. Amurca is the watery liquid obtained from pressed olives under light pressure, before olive oil is drained under greater pressure. An herbicide mixture was prepared by boiling the amurca with salt in copper. For a long time farmers protected their crops by the application of few chemicals available such as petroleum oils, diluted sulfuric acid, iron sulfate, copper sulfate, copper nitrate, and sodium arsenate to control broadleaf weeds in cereal crops. This situation changed after the Second World War with the advent of synthetic organic pesticides, starting with DDT.

Auxinic herbicides
There are multiple schemes of herbicide classification according to several criteria, such as their chemical similarity, site of action, mode of action, timing and method of application. the classification which will be developed in this article is the categorization proposed by Kappler and Namuth (2004) based on the mode of action of herbicides. These authors list seven possible modes of action for herbicides and include an eighth group for those compounds which lack a known mode of action or have not been classified. Herbicides act as inhibitors on 1) amino acid synthesis, 2) seedling growth, 3) photosynthesis, 4) lipid synthesis, and 5) pigment metabolism. Herbicides also act as cell membrane disrupters, and growth regulators. Growth regulators are of particular interest for dicamba is a member of this group of herbicides. This class of herbicides are usually termed as auxinic herbicides for they mimic auxins action in the coordination of several growth and behavioral processes in the plant’s life cycle . The molecules of synthetic auxinic herbicides resemble the structure of the natural plant hormone auxin (indole-3-acetic acid, also known as IAA) and cause physiological effects in sensitive plants similar to those caused by high doses of IAA . Other similarities to IAA include: Herbicide families within this mode of action include phenoxies, picolinic acids, carboxylic acids, and the benzoic acids. The chemical families, active ingredients, some common trade names and major uses of auxinic herbicides can be accessed at http://plantandsoil.unl.edu/croptechnology2005/crop_tech/?what=topicsD&informationModuleId=1022008824&topicOrder=2&max=7&min=1&
 * 1) at low doses they act as plant-growth regulators and have a stimulatory effect on plant-cell growth, while at high doses they exert phytotoxic effects;
 * 2) some of them can replace IAA as the hormone supplement used for proper cell development in plant-cell culture medium;
 * 3) differential sensitivity has been observed among different tissues as well as between tissues at different physiological stages of growth; and
 * 4) auxin and auxinic herbicides induce growth by cell elongation as opposed to cell division.

Benzoic acid derivatives are mostly applied as dimethylamine salts. The majority of the compounds in this group are employed as herbicides but some of them have fungicide, insecticide and microbicide properties. Benzoic herbicides are slightly toxic and can cause dermatitis through dermal exposure. Besides dicamba, clorphenac, chlorambem, and tricamba are members of the benzoic acid.

title: Dicamba


text:
Geology/Quebrada de Juan Pobre

The Most Relevant Geological Settings of Quebrada de Juan Pobre, Sierra Chica de Zonda (Province of San Juan)
The Quebrada de Juan Pobre (Fig. 1) is located  at  the  Sierra  Chica de Zonda  (Rivadavia Department, Province of San  Juan ,Argentina). The whole area exhibits a succession of carbonatic rocks whose age ranges from the Lower Cambrian to the Ordovician. Those rocks are in contact with Tertiary sequences due to a fault which is located at the western slope of the Sierra Chica de Zonda. The wide interval of time involves approximately 540 million years, since life started complexifying.

The existence of a unique geological and palaeontological record for South America in the Sierra Chica de Zonda and surroundings has encouraged many prestigious research works, some of which are mentioned in this contribution. The features described for this area  make it a preferential place to learn  about geology and  palaeontology for natural sciences students.

Students of the Historical Geology Course of the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, having a class before field work with Dr. Carlos Cingolani at the Camping Municipal Rivadavia (photo belongs to the author).

Introduction
The geological  history  of Precordillera,  where the  Quebrada de  Juan  Pobre is  located, is the  result of a  broad and  complex geotectonic, sedimentary, palaeontological and paleoclimatic  event  succession, analyzed in the last  decades by the current  paradigm of  Earth  Sciences known as  Global  Tectonic. There are a couple of theories which try to understand the geological history of Precordillera, and it is important to point out that this work offers just a brief explanation of one of them. The Geological History of Precordillera: About 540 million years from the present the Iapetus Ocean was formed and in the same process a paleocontinent known as Laurentia (which included the North American territory) was separating from the Gondwana paleocontinent (which included the Argentinean territory). In this continental breakup process a passive margin was originated in the eastern border of the United States of America (like the current east American coast). After this phase, during Cambrian times, extension occurred within the Laurentic crust (which is similar to what is taking place in the Rift Valley, Africa). That process of crustal extension generated the  Ouachita Rift as well as its  related oceanic crust. As a result of these phenomena a basin was created and then sedimentary rocks were formed. Those rocks are found in the Precordillera Argentina and its counterpart Laurentia. In relation to the rifting process, a piece of Laurentian crust (known as Precordillera Terrane or Cuyania Terrane) split from its homonymous paleocontinent and started its drifting towards Gondwana. Drifting continued  during the rest of the Cambrian  System and part of the  Ordovician  System,  lastly, during the Middle  Ordovician the Precordillera Terrane collided against and amalgamated to the Gondwana west margin.

Figure 2: Evolution model for the Cuyania Terrane which occurred during Upper Neoproterozoic and Lower Paleozoic (Naipauer et al., 2010).

Since those times the area has been experimenting several deformative and erosional processes  including the compressive neotectonics of the Andean Orogeny, responsible for the widely known seismological activity in this broken foreland basin (Fig. 3).

Figure 3: Cross section showing the seismicity through 31° S for the 1973 to 2010 period according to NEIC (Badi, 2010).

The Three Sectors of Precordillera
There are three areas which have  been recognized in the Precordillera  Argentina exhibiting a distinctive  lithological record and structural style. Researchers (Baldi and Chebli, 1969, Ortiz and Zambrano, 1981) divided this geological province in Eastern Precordillera, Central Precordillera and Western Precordillera. The Quebrada de Juan Pobre is included in the Eastern Precordillera (Fig. 4).

Figure 4: Geological provinces of the central – western area of Argentina (Keller, 1999).

Concerning the outcrop of Cambrian rocks, Borrello (1969) mentioned two typical areas for the Province of San Juan: Sierra Chica de Zonda and the Sierra de Villicúm. Both of them have a preferential eastward slope and a westward vergency (Fig. 5), which are first-order features of the Central Precordillera.

Figure 5: Cross section of rocks exposures in front of the Camping Municipal Rivadavia (Bordonaro, 1980).

Sierra Chica de Zonda, Eastern Precordillera
A basement which is about 1100 to 1200 million years old –like its counterpart in Laurentia- underlying the Cambrian rocks is inferred. The Cambrian sedimentary sequence is mainly composed by  limestones, with  subordinates shales and sandstones in the lower  section. These units bear an  abundant fauna of  trilobites, brachiopods  and molluscs which were inhabitants  of the marine carbonatic platform during  the Lower Cambrian to the Upper  Ordovician Systems. The sedimentary units of Sierra Chica de Zonda are known as Marquesado Group, composed of two formations: La Laja Formation, divided into five members which are from base to top: El Estero quarcites and shales, Soldano limestones and marls, Bernardino Rivadavia black limestones, Juan Pobre oolitic limestones (Baldis and Bordonaro, 1984), and Las Torres black limestones and argillaceous limestones (Gómez and Astini, 2006). Zonda Formation, a dolomitic unit which passes transitionally through the Cambrian – Ordovician boundary. The Marquesado Group exhibits its most thick outcrops to the north of Sierra Chica de Zonda where the oldest sequences are exposed as a result of a failure (Fig. 6) resulting from the Andean neotectonic. The base of the Marquesado Group is not exposed because it is truncated by the previously mentioned fault.

Figure 6: Geologic map of the Sierra Chica de Zonda and surroundings – Zonda fault.

Appropriate geological mapping works were made in different sectors at the Sierra Chica de Zonda, then an integrated geological section for the Cambrian sedimentary inner platform rocks could be confected (Fig. 7 and 8).

Figure 7: Stratigraphic chart. In de column “Plataforma interna” are mentioned the members and formations belonging to the Sierra Chica de Zonda.

Figure 8: Outer, middle and inner Precordillera Argentina platform (Bordonaro, 2003).

Cambrian and Lower Ordovician Fossil Record of the Precordillera
The Precordillera Terrane has peculiar features for South America which are related with its  lithology as well as with the Cambrian to Lower Ordovician  palaeontological content. Such an indistinguishable fossil record gives strong evidence favouring the idea of a Lower Paleozoic connection between the Cuyania Terrane and Laurentia. It is important to point out the discovery of individuals belonging to the Olenellus Fauna (tipicaly  Laurentic forms) carried out by Dr. Borrello (1962) at the Sierra Chica de Zonda, where major a unique evidence was added to the South American geology and palaeontology (Figs. 9 and 10).

Figure 9: On the left the Olenellus found by Dr. Borrelo, on the right an illustration of a whole individual.

Addenda
Trilobites and brachiopods were proliferous  marine  animals which lived in the  Precordillera Terrane, therefore they are commonest  fossil individuals in the area. Trilobites are extinct animals named after their trilobular external body pattern. They lived at the Paleozoic Era from the beginning of Cambrian (540 million years), then they had a climax in the Ordovician System, and finally all of them extinguished in the Permo – Triassic boundary (250 million years). Trilobites have a copious fossil record and have been deeply studied so that they are probably the best known fossil animals. About brachiopods (from Greek brakhý: "short" and podós: "feet”), they comprise more than 2000 fossil and 300 living species of benthonic animals which have an upper and lower valve hinged at the rear end, they live attached to hard surfaces by means of a pedicle or burrowing into soft substrates where they dig using their valves while they construct galleries.

title: Geology/Quebrada de Juan Pobre


text:
Bacterial biofilm

Introduction to biofilms
The study of biofilms represents a new way of understanding the microbiology of virtually everything around us, from problems which affect industries to serious public health issues.

Microbial biofilms are widely present in nature where this kind of growth is the usual form of bacterial growth. We can encounter biofilms everywhere, and their presence has a huge impact on various aspects of our lives. For example, the plaque that forms on the teeth and causes tooth decay is one type of bacterial biofilm; the mucous material that covers a vase in which we have deposited flowers and the gunk that clogs the household drains are also biofilms. If someone has ever walked in a stream or river, they may have slipped on rocks that were slimy with biofilm.

The ability of biofilm formation does not appear to be restricted to any specific group of microorganisms and it is now considered that all microorganisms are capable of forming biofilms in appropriate environmental conditions

What are biofilms?
Biofilms are defined as sessile communities characterized by cells that are irreversibly attached to a surface or to each other, embedded in a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), and that exhibit differential phenotypic characteristics with respect to their planktonic counterparts. Under such growth conditions exopolysaccharide production is often increased, which could form a exopolymer slime layer and protect the bacteria against a variety of antimicrobial agents as well as against host attack. A biofilm is composed of living, reproducing microorganisms, such as bacteria, which exist as a colony, or community.

A biofilm community can be formed by a single kind of microorganism, but in nature biofilms almost always consist of mixtures of many species of bacteria, as well as fungi, algae, yeasts, along with non-living debris and corrosion products. For example, over 500 bacterial species have been identified in typical dental plaque biofilms.

How do biofilms form?
A biofilm forms when microorganisms adhere to the surface of some object in a moist environment and begin to reproduce. Biofilms grow virtually everywhere, in almost any environment where there is a combination of moisture, nutrients, and a surface. Biofilms can form on just about any imaginable surface, like metals, plastics, natural materials (such as rocks), medical implants, kitchen counters, contact lenses, human and animal tissues.

The biofilm life cycle

 * Attachment: the first stage of the biofilm formation process is the adhesion to the surface. Free-floating, or planktonic, bacteria encounter a submerged surface and soon become attached. At first reversible adhesion occurs and finally the irreversible adhesion of bacteria to the surface takes place. They begin to produce extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and to colonize the surface.
 * Growth: the bacteria begin to reproduce and form microcolonies. EPS production, which constitutes the matrix of biofilm, allows the emerging biofilm community to develop a complex, three-dimensional structure that is influenced by a variety of environmental factors. The composition of the EPS is different for each bacterium.
 * Dispersal: finally, after biofilms have reached maturity, they can propagate through detachment of small or large clumps of cells, which allows bacteria to attach to a surface or to a biofilm away from the original community.

How do biofilms impact our World?
Biofilms are a natural part of the ecology of the earth. Many biofilms are quite harmful (for example, when they produce infections in wounds) and must be treated or controlled. Other biofilms are beneficial and can be used to solve serious problems (such as ground contamination from an oil spill).

Biofilms have been found to be involved in a wide variety of microbial infections in the body. Over 60% of all microbial infections are caused by biofilms. Biofilms have been implicated in such common problems as urinary tract infections, catheter infections, middle-ear infections, formation of dental plaque, gingivitis and coating contact lenses. All these infections have in common that they are chronic in nature and very persistent. They are highly resistant to antimicrobial treatments and host defense. This is what mainly distinguishes acute from chronic infections. While acute infections can be removed after a short treatment of antibiotics, biofilm infections usually are never completely eliminated, resulting in recurrent episodes. This is because the bacteria in the biofilm can be up to 1,000 times more resistant to antibiotics than the same bacteria grown in liquid medium.

Domestically, kitchens and bathrooms are the preference sites for the establishment of biofilms. It is no coincidence that in these sites the traditional hygienic procedures are based on mechanical processes helped by detergents and disinfectants. In the case of dental plaque, mouthwashes only help to displace the freshly deposited organic matter. The tenacity with which biofilms adhere to surfaces is the property which makes cleaning difficult. This is because the cells produce EPS, which form very adhesive gels with water, and which encompasses the cells and binds them to the surface.

title: Bacterial biofilm