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Wisdom

Introduction
Wisdom begins with the observation that some things turn out better than others. Long ago our ancestors discovered that eating certain berries is tasty, healthy, and nutritious, while eating poison berries tastes bad, is unhealthy, and may be fatal. The wisdom of berries has a very long history.

Although the subject of wisdom has been contemplated and debated by philosophers for millennia, there is little consensus on its definition. More importantly, although wise choices could help us increase human well-being, there is little understanding, discussion, or application of wisdom in our lives. This course explores the topic of wisdom with a particular emphasis on applying wisdom to solve practical problems. lbeaumont Philosopher Nicholas Maxwell defines wisdom as “the capacity, the desire, and the active endeavor to realize what is of value in life, for oneself and others.”

At its simplest, wisdom is choosing humanity. This will become more clear as we progress through the course.

Objectives
The objectives of this course are to:
 * Explore the definitions and nature of wisdom,
 * Examine how wisdom can help solve important problems,
 * Describe a path of study and experience that can increase your wisdom,
 * Help to increase your wisdom and well-being,
 * Suggest areas for your further study and growth.

This course is part of the Applied Wisdom /Curriculum/.

The list of wise affirmations on the topic of wisdom may help you develop habits based on the ideas in this course.

If you wish to contact the instructor, please click here to send me an email.

Defining Wisdom
Definitions of wisdom are as elusive as they are numerous. In his doctoral dissertation The Scientific Approach of Wisdom researcher Dr. Richard Trowbridge surveys candidate definitions organized into sections labeled: wisdom as optimal choice, cultural differences, kinds of wisdom, difficulty of distinguishing wisdom, wisdom as a distinct, unique ability, wisdom and the good life, and wisdom and the common good. Of these “seeing through illusion” is perhaps the most intriguing, if somewhat ambiguous characterization of wisdom.

Here is a gallery of selected definitions of wisdom:
 * “the capacity, the desire, and the active endeavor to realize what is of value in life, for oneself and others.” ~ Nicholas Maxwell
 * “Wisdom is an understanding of what is important, where this understating informs a (wise) person’s thought or action.” ~ Robert Nozick
 * “the application of successful intelligence and creativity as mediated by values toward the achievement of a common good.” ~ Robert Sternberg
 * “Wisdom is the comprehension of things just as they are.” ~ Hugh of St. Victor
 * “Seeing through illusion” ~ Patrick McKee and Clifton Barber
 * “To know that you know what you know, and that you do not know what you do not know, that is true wisdom.” ~ Confucius
 * “knowledge of means to good ends” ~ John Kekes
 * “Wisdom is that understanding which is essential to living the best life” ~ Richard Garrett
 * “Wisdom is nothing more than the vision of things as they are, the vision of the cosmos as it is in the light of reason.” ~ Pierre Hadot
 * “Wisdom is the highest expression of self-development and future consciousness. It is the continually evolving understanding of and fascination with the big picture of life, of what is important, ethical, and meaningful, and the desire and creative capacity to apply this understanding to enhance the well being of life, both for oneself and others.” ~ Tom Lombardo
 * “Practical wisdom consists in the capacities needed to make good judgments about what matters in life and to bring one’s actions into accordance, insofar as this is in one’s control.” ~ The Rosewood Report
 * “Competence in, intention to, and application of, critical life events to facilitate the optimal development of self and others”.
 * “morally grounded excellence in social-cognitive processing” ,
 * S is wise if and only if: 1) S has a wide variety of epistemically justified beliefs on a wide variety of valuable academic subjects. 2) S has a wide variety of justified beliefs on how to live rationally (epistemically, morally, and practically). 3) S is committed to living rationally, and 4) S has very few unjustified beliefs and is sensitive to her limitations.

Practical and Ultimate Wisdom
In Book 6 of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle distinguishes between two intellectual virtues which are sometimes translated as "wisdom": sophia and phronesis.

Sophia is the true conception of the first principles of existence and that which follows from them. This is perfect wisdom, the wisdom of the gods, unattainable by mortal men. This ultimate form of wisdom is sometimes called “Theoretical wisdom” and is often intimately tied to theology.

Phronesis, sometimes translated as “practical wisdom” is the highest level of insight attainable by mortals; the wise deliberation about human affairs.

This course concentrates on practical wisdom.

Wisdom as a virtue
Wisdom is the virtue of good judgment.

Wisdom is a virtue because folly is not. The deliberation, decision, and action of wisdom guide the other virtues toward the good.

Prudence—knowing what to do—is one of the four classic western cardinal virtues. Aristotle recognized prudence is what makes it possible to decide correctly what is good and what is bad for man. Wisdom tells us what best to do—what we should do—for the good

Wisdom is using good judgment to consider how today’s choices may determine how we confront the future. It is the good sense to go to the dentist today, enduring the brief inconvenience and pain, to avoid more trouble later. Wisdom differentiates action from impulse, and heroes from hotheads. Wisdom seeks to do for our future what memory does for our past.

To Socrates and Plato, philosophy was literally the love of Wisdom (philo-sophia).

Assignment
Complete the Wikiversity course on the virtues.

Personal Aspects of Wisdom
Wise people characteristically exhibit several personal qualities. Read pages 61-84 of The Scientific Approach of Wisdom to learn about these personal aspects of wisdom.

Exemplars of Wisdom
Any list of wise people will be criticized for its omissions as well as its inclusions. Ideally a group of people, already widely acknowledged as wise, would work together to establish such a list. That has not yet happened. Alternatively, an assessment instrument, such as the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale developed by Monika Ardelt or the wisdom assessment form could be used to identify wise people. None the less, it is helpful to browse a well-chosen list of people considered wise, and to study their lives to help understand their way to wisdom. “To really know what wise people are like, it is important to actually study them.”

Here is a candidate list of wise people (ordered by birth date) for you to consider, study, and learn from:

 * The ancients – We will never know the names of those ancient innovators who first developed stone tools, cave paintings, the wheel, pottery vessels, writing, music, poetry, constructive uses of fire, and so many great ideas that have allowed humanity to move forward. More recently we know of Confucius, Buddha, Lao-Tzu, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Jesus of Nazareth, Muhammad and many other wise humanitarians from ancient times.
 * Baruch Spinoza — was a Jewish-Dutch philosopher who established the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, including modern conceptions of the self and, arguably, the universe. He came to be considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy.
 * Mary Wollstonecraft — was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book.
 * Dorothea Dix — was an American activist on behalf of the indigent insane who, through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums. During the Civil War, she served as Superintendent of Army Nurses.
 * Abraham Lincoln — was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln successfully led his country through its greatest constitutional, military, and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union while ending slavery, and promoting economic and financial modernization.
 * Susan B. Anthony — was a prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States.
 * Anton Chekhov — was a Russian physician, dramaturge and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. Read more.
 * Mahatma Gandhi — was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing non-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for non-violence, civil rights and freedom across the world.
 * Friedrich Nietzsche — was a German philosopher known for his controversial criticisms of religion, and his views on humankind.
 * Bertrand Russell — a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. He is widely held to be one of the 20th century's premier logicians.
 * Robert Frost — an American poet highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech.
 * Eleanor Roosevelt — Though widely respected in her later years, Roosevelt was a controversial First Lady for her outspokenness, particularly for her stands on racial issues.
 * David Ben Gurion — the main founder and the first Prime Minister of Israel. He believed in the equal rights of Arabs who remained in and would become citizens of Israel.
 * Carl Sandburg — was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He was the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and another for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat". His wife Lilian (Paula) Steichen shares credit for their work. Read more.
 * Dorothy Day — was an American journalist, social activist, and devout Catholic convert; she advocated the Catholic economic theory of distributism. Day "believed all states were inherently totalitarian," and was considered to be an anarchist who did not hesitate to use the term. Read more.
 * E. F. Schumacher — was an internationally influential economic thinker, statistician and economist in Britain, serving as Chief Economic Adviser to the UK National Coal Board for two decades. He is best known for his critique of Western economies and his proposals for human-scale, decentralized and appropriate technologies. Read more.
 * Nelson Mandela — a South African politician who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, the first to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before being elected President, Mandela was a militant anti-apartheid activist.
 * Andrei Sakharov — was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, and human rights activist. He became renowned as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. Read more.
 * Martin Luther King, Jr. — an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for his role in the advancement of civil rights using nonviolent civil disobedience.
 * Tenzin Gyatso — The 14th Dali Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, and is also well known for his lifelong advocacy for Tibetans inside and outside Tibet.
 * Aung San Suu Kyi — is a Burmese opposition politician and chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Burma.

In addition to these luminaries, perhaps there are people in your life, a grandparent, teacher, colleague, or acquaintance, who you consider to be wise. Learn what you can from them.

Choosing a working definition
There are so many disparate definitions of wisdom that we can become overwhelmed by its scope, diversity, and the challenges and choices it presents us. But to make progress we need to become energized and focused by the possibilities of wisdom, not paralyzed by it. Therefore I present three working definitions of wisdom, chosen to align with your own level of understanding, achievement, and progress toward all that wisdom can be.

Each definition of wisdom surveyed above emphasizes the importance of: 1) Good judgment, 2) taking action, and 3) working toward the common good. These themes are preserved in the three definitions proposed below.

Basic Wisdom: “Pursuit of well-being”. Begin by doing whatever improves your well-being, without jeopardizing the well-being of others. When it becomes possible for you to improve the well-being of others, then take the opportunity to do good for others. First, do no harm; reduce the folly. This is essential wisdom.

Wisdom: “The capacity, the desire, and the active endeavor to realize what is of value in life, for oneself and others.” A narrow focus on well-being may neglect important aspects of wisdom. This may include creating and enjoying various art forms such as poetry, music, theater, and the visual arts. It may include development of the various personal qualities associated with wisdom described above, and it may include exploring advanced mental states such as meditation, mindfulness, awareness,, and natural inclusion.

Ultimate Wisdom: “All knowing, all caring, all loving”. We can only begin to imagine the ultimate potential of the human mind and spirit.

Assignment:
Part 1:

Consider a wide variety of candidate definitions for wisdom drawn from those cited above, the references to this course, or other reliable sources. Choose the one you consider to be the most fitting. Discuss and defend your choice.

Part 2:

Choose one of the three working definitions of wisdom, presented above, best suited to your current experience, situation, resources, and aspirations. Work toward fulfilling that definition in the way you think and act everyday.

Part 3: (Optional)

View this video on "Defining Wisdom".

Toward Wisdom
Increasing maturity along three paths: thinking, feeling, and doing, moves us toward wisdom. We often progress along the paths described below.

Emerging from Chaos
We are born essentially unaware of the wonderful world we live in. As infants and young children, we learn quickly about our world, but see such a small slice we are almost entirely misinformed about the world. We are born fussy but largely passive, able only to cry and squirm and we must rely on others to feed us, move us, protect us and care for us. Because our emotions are undeveloped we are apathetic toward the world, unless our comfort is at stake. Infants have no empathy for others—they are apathetic.

Considering the three dimensions of doing, feeling, and thinking, we are:

 * Unaware
 * Passive
 * Apathetic

We become more wise as we begin to mature and move beyond this chaos and struggle to survive on our own.

Survival
Eventually our curiosity is armed with language, reasoning, exploration opportunities, number skills, and reading skills. Now we can ask our own questions and seek our own answers. We begin to become factually informed, at least in those areas where our curiosity takes us and we can find reliable answers to our questions. But this realm is still treacherous. Certain questions are off limits, myths and traditions may present falsehoods as facts, trusted people may disagree on the answers to certain questions, or we may accept the first answer we hear. Formal schooling, self study, adventures, and life experiences combine to increase our information base. Some of that information is factual, and some is false, incomplete, invalid, or misleading.

As we gain control over our muscles, we eventually learn to roll over, crawl, walk, and then run. We can now move, but we travel in small circles, repeat actions endlessly, and our thrashing around does not seem to accomplish anything more than pass time as we entertain ourselves and perhaps our parents and friends.

As our emotions begin to emerge infants soon learn to reflect the smile on their mother’s face, and react simply and predictably to other’s facial expressions, movements, fears, frustration, and pain. While raw and immediate reactions to emotions represent a growth stage for infants, this reactive behavior is immature, destructive, and unacceptable in adults. Violent tirades, hateful actions, spiteful revenge, humiliation, and ego rants have no wise place among responsible adults.

We are struggling to survive with our skills at these nascent levels:

 * Misinformed — Believing falsehoods
 * Thrashing — Motion without purpose
 * Reactive — Impulsive and Destructive Emotional Reactions

Clear and critical thinkers eventually develop their own theory of knowledge to help them decide what to believe in the face of incomplete or misleading answers and conflicting information sources. Here the rules of evidence, logic, inference, and critical thinking begin to take shape. The ability to integrate information and “connect the dots” to get a larger and consistent understanding of the world becomes important. Falsehoods and fallacies become easier to detect and reject. Inconsistencies become apparent and careful investigation begins to reveal larger and more durable truths about our fascinating world. We are better able to assimilate diversity, learn from ambiguity, suspend judgment, and become comfortable with complexity. These skills allow us to integrate factual information with our own investigations, knowledge base, and world view as we begin to truly know the world for ourselves.

Eventually we form goals and we focus and engage our actions to meet those goals. These goals may be modest and self-centered requiring little action, or we may set bolder goals to learn, gain strength, achieve, and help others.

Emotionally competent adults develop the essential social skills to recognize, interpret, and respond constructively to emotions in themselves and others. Understanding and impulse control allows reason to prevail over passion as we regulate and interpret our emotions. With study and practice we can each become emotionally competent.

We are now surviving by living at the following levels along the three tracks:

 * Factually Informed — Holding rigorously verified beliefs
 * Engagement — Activity toward goals
 * Emotionally Competent — Deliberate and constructive emotional responses

At this level we are doing well, we are certainly surviving, but we may not yet be thriving or successful.

Success
As we mature we are better able to assimilate diversity, learn from ambiguity, suspend judgment, and become comfortable with complexity. These skills allow us to integrate factual information with our own investigations, knowledge base, and world view as we begin to truly know the world for ourselves.

As we begin to explore more of the world, we see opportunities that can only be seized by taking more risks. We can go away to summer camp or stay home. We can go far away to a challenging college ideally suited to us or play it safe and stay near home. We can seek a challenging job or tolerate a boring one. We either decide to yield to temptation and avoid taking risks, or we summon the courage to act on our values and do what we believe is right, despite the temptations of an easier path. Running a marathon, graduating from college, job interviews, serious relationships, and studying for tomorrow’s test all require us to leave comfort behind to attain a greater outcome. Achievement requires courage.

Fortunately some people are emotionally talented—they are gifted with a special aptitude for interpersonal skills, or they learn emotional competency at an early age and practice it all their lives. They seem to know exactly what to say or do to bring out the best in each of us, comfort us during times of distress, and quickly reach a rapport even with total strangers. These are the warm and charismatic people among us who often excel at counseling professions.

We are now living at the following levels along the three tracks:

 * Knowing — Combining Facts, drawing Conclusions
 * Courage — Value-based action despite temptation
 * Emotionally Talented — Naturally warm and constructive emotional responses

We are thriving and successful, perhaps even significant, when we are behaving at this level.

Transformation
When we can reflect on our reliable and broad knowledge, exercise good judgment, and apply it to solve significant problems to enhance human well-being we begin to understand the world as it is. Examining knowledge from multiple viewpoints, adopting a global perspective and long-term view, understanding interrelationships, and gaining insight all contribute to our holistic understanding of the world. Being curious about what happened, creative about what can happen, and open to new possibilities allows us to make surprisingly good decisions that benefit all.

Climbing a mountain or completing a marathon are courageous personal achievements that don’t do much to move the world forward. Action must be combined with well-chosen, human-based values to make a significant difference. Courageous achievements that help others around the globe for all time is wisdom in action. When Rosa Parks kept her bus seat and Martin Luther King Jr. organized and sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott their actions created substantial and lasting progress for all people. This is real progress; this is doing good.

A few people have dedicated their lives to achieving compassion. One example is Dr. Matthieu Ricard who is a molecular geneticist, Buddhist monk, author, translator, and photographer sometimes described as the happiest person in the world. He was a volunteer subject in studies on happiness performed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, scoring significantly beyond the average obtained after testing hundreds of other volunteers. He radiates calm and compassion.

We are now living at the following high levels along the three tracks:

 * Holistic Understanding — Knowing why
 * Doing Good — Lasting improvement in human well-being, world-wide
 * Compassionate — Joyously Radiating Calm and Compassion

This brings us to the threshold of wisdom.

Assignment:
Part 1:

 * Where are you now along this three-track path toward wisdom?
 * Are you farthest along in the thinking, feeling, or doing dimension?
 * What steps are most important for you to take to progress to the next level toward wisdom?

Part 2:

Study the text and complete the assignments provided in the Wisdom topic of the Virtues course.

Folly brings us problems
Perhaps because folly is more common than wisdom, we face grand challenges.

Assignment
Complete the Applied Wisdom course on grand challenges.

Can wisdom bring us solutions?
If folly has lead us to problems, perhaps wisdom, and its global perspective, can lead us to solutions.

Assignment
Part 1:

Complete the Applied Wisdom course on global perspective.

Part 2:

To improve well-being, focus on what matters. Complete the Applied Wisdom course on what matters.

Part 3:

Choose to live wisely.

Assessing Wisdom
Can we determine who is wise, or at least who is more wise?

There are times when you have to choose one person from a pool of candidates to fill an important position in which wisdom is very important. Examples include deciding what candidate to vote for in an election, who to hire for some job or business partnership, who to consult for advice, and even who to choose for a romantic commitment, or an important friendship.

Assessing the relative wisdom of each candidate, using this /wisdom assessment form/, can help. Follow the instructions on the form.

Assignment

 * 1) Read the essay Wisdom, Intelligence, and Artificial Intelligence.
 * 2) Choose an exemplar of wisdom from the list provided above, or from your own experience.
 * 3) Complete the /wisdom assessment form/ using yourself as "Candidate 1" and the exemplar identified above as "Candidate 2". It may be best to assign each characteristic the same importance value, e.g. 1.
 * 4) What can you learn from analyzing this chosen exemplar that can help you become more wise?
 * 5) Optionally, view this video on Measuring Wisdom.
 * 6) Optionally, read this short entry on measuring wisdom.

Wise Decision Making
How can we use wisdom to make better decisions in our lives? Since good judgment and optimal choice are at the core of wisdom, good decisions should be a natural outcome. Follow each link below to study these tools, tips and guidance for making important decisions:

The seven steps to making a wise decision.
 * Step One – Be Clear about What to Decide
 * Step Two – Gather the Facts
 * Step Three – Set the Criteria for a Successful Decision
 * Step Four – Develop Your Options
 * Step Five – Evaluate Your Options
 * Step Six – Assess Risk
 * Step Seven – Make the Decision and Carry Through

To ensure a wise decision, be certain to include criteria that adequately address each of these questions:
 * Are you working to solve the right problem? Can the problem be recast with a different point of view or a different scope to be more beneficial? Try to: "take flight to where there is a free view over the whole single great problem."
 * Identify all of the assumptions you are relying on. Pay particular attention to the assumptions you are making implicitly. (e.g. Housing prices always increase.) Write them down, and check them out.
 * Are the short term, midterm, and long term benefits and consequences of this decision each being given appropriate consideration? Have I avoided hyperbolic discounting when considering the long term?
 * How do I define my own well-being? How will this decision contribute to, or detract from my well-being? Am I adequately separating economic considerations from broader considerations of well-being?
 * How have I defined success for the purposes of this decision? Have I defined success broadly enough? Am I truly pulling the problem out by the roots?
 * Am I adopting a global perspective in making this decision? Who else is affected by this decision? How will they be affected? Can I involve them to understand their points of view on this issue? What are the externalities of this decision? How are their costs being met? How does this decision contribute to the greater good?
 * Based only on my own moral reasoning and moral integration, what decision would I make? What is the virtuous choice? Make that decision.
 * Am I accurately evaluating the evidence for and against this decision? Am I applying a robust Theory of Knowledge to evaluate the evidence and arrive at well-founded beliefs? Have I adequately researched reliable sources to understand the situation, the possibilities, the likely outcomes, and consequences? Is my decision based on true beliefs? How do I know?
 * Are my heart (emotions, intuition) and my head (rational decision making) pointing me in the same direction or opposite directions? If they are in conflict, can I explain why? Have I spent enough time reflecting on this decision? Have I been creative enough in generating alternatives? Have I sought guidance in making this decision from people I trust, people who care most about me, and from objective people expert in the domain? Who is the wisest person I can consult with to get advice on this decision? When is the best time to make this decision? Can the decision be delayed to gain a better understanding without jeopardizing the outcome?
 * Getting beyond false dilemmas and inventing new alternatives for mutual gain is often essential to making the wisest decisions. Integrate more considerations to arrive at a surprisingly elegant solution. Get beyond the same old list of options, as King Solomon so wisely did in making his most famous judgement.
 * What does each of the Six Thinking Hats have to say about this decision?
 * Have I adequately acknowledged limits to growth in foreseeing the future consequences of this decision? How will this decision affect people in each of the next seven generations?

Also, please study these examples of /wise decisions/ to learn to recognize wise decisions and improve your ability to make wise decisions.

Assignment
Part 1: Part 2: Part 3:
 * 1) Study the materials in this section.
 * 2) Identify an important decision you face.
 * 3) Apply the techniques in this section to clarifying, analyzing, and making that decision.
 * 1) Watch the movie Thirteen Days.
 * 2) Notice all the thoughts, consultations, actions, and precautions that contributed to the wise decision making portrayed in this film.
 * 1) Complete the assignment in the section on Examples of Wise decisions.

Resources

 * The Wikipedia entry for wisdom.
 * The Wisdom Page — a website dedicated to helping us better understand wisdom — that vitally important but poorly understood pinnacle of human functioning.
 * Wisdom 101 — A Course in Practical Wisdom
 * The Wise Path — progress toward wisdom.
 * Knowledge to Wisdom — helping humanity acquire more wisdom by rational means.
 * Sophos is a web portal that is all about Wisdom
 * The Rosewood Report on Practical Wisdom summarizing discussions in July, 2010 by a small group of philosophers and psychologists about practical wisdom.
 * Defining wisdom, a project from the University of Chicago on the nature and benefits of wisdom.
 * The Global Oneness Project produces films, media and educational materials that explore how the simple notion of interconnectedness can be lived in today's complex world.
 * The Quotes About Wisdom site catalogs nearly 22,000 quotations pertaining to wisdom.
 * Suarez, Juan Francisco, "Wise by Design: A Wisdom-Based Framework for Innovation and Organizational Design and its Potential Application in the Future of Higher Education" (2014). Dissertations & Theses. Paper 131.
 * The Evidence Based Wisdom site is making the new science of wisdom research more accessible.

Discussion questions and essay ideas

 * Is intentionally seeking wisdom an effective way to actually become more wise?

title: Wisdom


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Category:Ancient languages of the Americas

This topic is for the ancient languages of the ancient peoples of central america from around 200-1500 ad. These languages have been translated from the descendants of the native peoples but sadly, the text and ancient runes were lost, so they are now spelt the way they are pronounced.


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User:Sudhir Mishra9893060930 from Shivpuri,India

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Control systems/Open loop systems

In control systems, systems are classified into two groups:
 * Open loop systems,
 * Closed loop systems.

Open loop systems are systems in which the output of a system is not used as a variable to control the system.

Open loop control systems use the input variables to calculate the output based on the "open loop transfer function" of the system. The output is not fedback to modify the controlled output. There are many reasons to use open loop control such as simplifying the control system, quicker response of the system, to reduce the possiblility of oscillation and sometimes to lower cost.

An example of the use of open loop transfer function in control system is in the control of the wing surfaces on a modern figther plane. The closed loop implenmentaion would make the control much slower (cost is clearly not an issue in this example).

There are very good references for the fundamentals on the main wikipedia.org site such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_function

Note for moderators, the statements below are incorrect. Open loop systems are systems in which input to the system is not controlled by the present output.

In open loop systems, problems are solved by trying to avoid them in the first place, ie., by good design.

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Cytogenetics

Cytogenetics is a study of structure, function, behavior and pathology of chromosomes.

Cytogenetics is a branch of genetics that is concerned with how the chromosomes relate to cell behaviour, particularly to their behaviour during mitosis and meiosis.

Theoretical cytogenetics
Def. the "branch of genetics that studies the relationships between the structure and number of chromosomes as seen in isolated cells and variation in genotype and phenotype" is called cytogenetics.

Molecular cytogenetics
Molecular cytogenetics is a useful tool for the diagnosing and treatment of various malignancies such as brain tumors, haematological malignancies, etc.

In Lilium longiflorum, Rad51 and Lim15 (an ortholog of Dmc1) co-localize on meiotic prophase I chromosomes where they form discrete foci.

Rad51 and/or Lim15 proteins are components of early meiotic nodules that are involved in recombination related events.

The stages of meiosis in which the co-localization of the Rad51 and Lim15 proteins occurs are the leptotene and zygotene stages, suggesting that meiotic recombination begins at the leptotene stage with the cooperation of these proteins and continues into zygotene.

These proteins catalyze pairing of homologous chromosomes, DNA strand exchange, and recombinational repair of DNA damages.

Major landmarks in human cytogenetics

 * 1) W.Waldeyer (1888) - Named chromosomes
 * 2) T.Boveri (1914) - Chromosome change could cause cancer
 * 3) Painter (1922) - Humans have 48 chromosomes
 * 4) Blakeslee and Avery (1937) - Colchicine as metaphase arrester
 * 5) T.C. Hsu (1952) - Hypotonic saline solution
 * 6) Tijo and Levan (1956) - Humans have 46 chromosomes
 * 7) J. Lejeune (1959)-Extra chromosome in Down Syndrome
 * 8) P. Nowell (1960) - Phytohemagglutinin (PHA) for lymphocyte culture
 * 9) Moorehead et al (1960) - Blood culture
 * 10) Caspersson et al (1968) - Q band
 * 11) Gall and Pardue (1969) - insitu hybridisation using radioactive probes
 * 12) Sumner et al (1971) - G banding
 * 13) Dutrillaux and Lejeune (1971) - R band
 * 14) P. Perry and S. Wolff (1974) - Sister Chromatid Exchange staining
 * 15) Goodpasture and Bloom (1975) - NOR silver staining
 * 16) Yunis et al (1979) - High resolution G banding
 * 17) P. R. Langer et al (1981) - Biotin Labeled probes in insitu hybridisation
 * 18) Spurbeck et al (1987) - Robotic Harvesting
 * 19) Ludecke (1989) - Microdissection of chromosomes
 * 20) Kallioniemi et al. (1991) - comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH)
 * 21) E. Schrock, Thomas Ried (1996) SKY technique
 * 22) M. Speicher (1996) - Multi color Fluorescence In Sity Hybridisation (M FISH)
 * 23) Chudoba I et al (1999) - Multicolor banding
 * 24) Nietzel A (2001) - centromere specific M FISH.

History of Classical Cytogenetics

 * Walther Flemming published the first illustration of human chromosomes in 1882 and first used the term mitosis (Flemming, 1882). In 1888, Waldeyer introduced the term Chromosome, the Greek words for "colored body" (Waldeyer, 1888) soon after "chromosome theory of inheritance" came to an existence (Sutton, 1903; Boveri, 1902). Sutton combined two disciplines, cytology and genetics when he referred to the study of chromosome as cytogenetics. The ordered arrangement of chromosomes was termed as karyotype by Levitsky (Levitsky, 1924). A significant discovery in the field of cytogenetics was the use of "hypotonic shock" by Hsu and Pomerat to prepare a metaphase spread (Hsu and Pomerat, 1955). Later in the year, Ford and Hamerton used colchicine to accumulate dividing cells in metaphase (Ford and Hmerton, 1956). With all this technical advancement, Tijo and Levan found the human diploid chromosome  number as 46 (Tijo and Levan, 1956) which was confirmed by subsequent studies. The technical advancements had continued with the use of mitogen by Nowell to stimulate peripheral blood lympocyte to divide (Nowell, 1960). Yet with this technical advancements the chromosomal rearrangments were not distinguishable until Caspersson's observation of plant chromosome stained with  fluorescent quinacrine compunds where the chromosomes gave bright and dull patterns (Caspersson et al., 1968). In 1971, Caspersson and co-workers produced and reported a unique banding pattern for each human chromosome pair (Caspersson et al, 1971). The difficulties faced with the use of quinacrine were overcome when Drets and Shaw proposed a new method to produce similar banding pattern using an alkaline and saline pretreatment followed by staining with Giemsa (Drets and Shaw, 1971). With the ability to distinguish the human chromosomes with the specific banding pattern, the chromosomal rearrangments like chromosomal translocations, chromosomal inversions (including paracentric inversions), deletions, duplications, aneuploidies, microdeletions, insertions and mosaicisms had become identifiable.

History of Molecular Cytogenetics

 * The first demonstration of in situ hybridization was carried out by Pardue and Gall in 1969 (Pardue and Gall 1969) using radiolabelled DNA on cytological preparation. Just after the success of their experiment they localized mouse satellite DNA onto mouse metaphase spreads (Pardue and Gall 1970). Over a decade later unique sequences were localized using cloned DNA (Harper and Saunders 1981; Harper et al 1981; Malcolm et al 1981). Due to the hazardous, complicated and slow experimental procedure the use of non-isotope labelling of DNA was sought (Bauman 1980; Bauman et al 1981). The most important development for the non isotope labelling of DNA was development of new method of conjugation of biotin to nucleotides (Langer et al 1981). Later on, biotin was incorporated  in DNA or RNA  enzymatically(Brigati et al 1983). The biotin labelled probes were detected using immunoflourescence (Albertson 1983) and by the use of fluoresceine isothiocyanate (FITC) conjugated avidin (Pinkel et al 1986)  and the FISH technology emerged. Using fluorescence microscopes the hybridization can be visualized. With the use of recombinant nucleic acid technology and the ability to clone and amplify DNA segments in micro organisms has provided the richest source of probes for FISH. The types of probes used are mainly influenced by the nature of the target sequences and by the complexity of the cloned insert. For repeat sequence targest such as alphoid and satellite DNA, plasmid vectors are most commonly used while for the region specific or locus specific targets ranging from 1kb to just over 1 Mb Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes (BACs), P1 derived Artificial chromosomes (PACs),  Yeast Artificial Chromosomes (YACs)  or Cosmids are commonly used. Another breakthrough  was a development of chromosome painting  using flow sorted chromosome libraries (Cremer et al 1988a,b; Lichter et al 1988a,b; Pinkel et al 1988). Apart from flow sorting the whole chromosome painting probes (WCPs) can also be generated using chromosome microdissection (Guan et al 1994).  In a sgnificant development, Nederlof presented simultaneous detection of more than three target sequences using FISH (Nederlof et al., 1990). Using this principle, the separation of all 24 different human chromosomes via multiplex fluorescence in situ hybridization (M-FISH) (Speicher et al., 1996, Eils et al., 1998), spectral karyotyping (SKY) (Schröck et al., 1996), Combined Binary RAtio labeling-FISH (COBRA FISH) (Tanke et al. 1999), color-changing karyotyping (CCK) (Henegariu et al. 1999) and IPM-FISH (Aurich-costa et al., 2001) has been established. However, these methods cannot detect pericentric and paracentric inversions and precisely identify chromosome breakpoints. To overcome the limitations of previously developed FISH techniques, a new high resolution multicolor banding (MCB) method was developed (Chudoba I et al., 1999) and tested on the example of chromosome 5. The major advantage of this technique is the MCB pattern, which can be aligned with the GTG banding (Lemke et al., 2001), is independent of the length of the analyzed chromosomes (Chudoba I et al, 1999) and a resolution higher than of GTG banding can be achieved. The advantages of the MCB technique was made available to all human chromosomes by developing 24 MCB probe sets, a specific one for each human chromosome( Liehr et al. 2001). As pointed out by Weise et al. (2003), MCB can be efficiently used for roughly mapping breakpoints or narrowing critical regions, but precise localization of breakpoints required subsequent BAC mapping. Later, MCB approach was used by Schmidt et al (2005) to narrow down the breakpoints of pericentric inversions.Weise et al. (2008) introduced Parental-origin-determination fluorescence in situ hybridization for distinguishing homologous human chromosomes on a single-cell level.

title: Cytogenetics


text:
Topic talk:Continental philosophy

Continental
I have a problem with the name continental. In my country, the Netherlands, the discipline of philosophy is not divided into continental and non-continental philosophy. It seems like a typical name used in a certain specified region, which doesn't sound very global. English is a language used globally in every country on earth. It is the dominant language in the United Nations and on the internet. Could it be possible to have more neutral terms to describe the different departments within the school of philosophy? For instance by splitting this department into marxist philosophy and postmodern philosophy.--Daanschr 20:49, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
 * "Continental philosophy" along with "analytic philosophy" is discussed right near the start of the English language Wikipedia article abut philosophy. There are over 5000 google scholar hits for "continental philosophy". Speaking as a biologist with an interest in philosophy, "continental philosophy" is a term that I have found to be quite commonly used by English speaking philosophers. I doubt if it makes sense for Wikiversity to put limits on use of the term. There is already a red link at School:Philosophy for marxist philosophy (3,190 on the google scholar hit meter) and postmodern philosophy (1,470 google scholar hits) can be added. I think all "Topic:" pages should be viewed as "educational content development projects". Each Wikiversity "Topic:" provides a place for Wikiversity participants who are interested in the topic to coordinate their efforts that are related to the development of learning resources related to that topic. --JWSchmidt 21:51, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

A problem is that this term could pose problems in interlingual cooperation, since it is not used in other languages. But perhaps we should make distinctions between the schools from different languages.--Daanschr 09:06, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Hi Daanschr, you are right about the problems with the term Continental Philosophy and the confusion it might course. It can be argued that all labels and divisions in philosophy are arbitrary and artificial. However for better or worse it is a term widely used in the English speaking world of academia. " Continental Philosophy" and " Analytical Philosophy" are widely used term used to make a distinction between two major trends in 20th century western philosophy. If you needed to translate this division into another culture then the terms "Analytical Philosophy" and "Non Analytical Philosophy" would be a possible distinction. The term continental philosophy isn't a geographical distinction but a methodological one in being distinct from analytical philosophy. Continental philosophy is a category that covers a range of approaches including phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, structuralism, post-structuralism and post-modernism, deconstruction, French feminism, critical theory such as that of the Frankfurt School, psychoanalysis, the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Søren Kierkegaard, and most branches of Marxism and Marxist philosophy (though there also exists a self-described Analytical Marxism). I Hopes this helps clarify why this term has been used. Mystictim 16:27, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
 * My problem with the word continental has mainly to do with the books that i am reading for my final paper on the description of John Stuart Mill. Some Anglo-Saxon writers say that Mill rules in Britain and the USA and Nietzsche on the continent and that people should choose Mill.
 * Analytical philosophy is different from the philosophy of Mill. Mill is somewhere in between analytical philosophy and continental philosophy. I have the impression that the difference between analytical philosophy and continental philosophy doesn't exist in my country, the Netherlands. I read a Dutch book about contemporary philosophy, which included 25 philosophers of the last century, who were ranked from the date of birth, thereby losing the division between analytical and continental completely. The Wikipedia articles doesn't make it very clear what the distinction is between the two. Perhaps it is between intellectualism and anti-intellectualism? This question is important for my final paper, although i will not mention the difference between analytical and continental philosophy.--Daanschr 11:05, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
 * There is a striking difference between the English and Dutch Wikipedia on contemporary philosophers. The English Wikipedia has a clear distinction between continentalists and analytical philosophy, but without mentioning the name continental. The Dutch article only gives a list of names without classification. But the introduction of the Dutch article doesn't mention analytical philosophy. It only mentions elements which seem to belong to continental philosophy. The German article gives a distinction between German, French-Italian and Anglo-Saxon. So, postmodernism becomes something French and not German. The French article mentions the analytical philosophy first and then the phenomenology. Foucault and Derrida didn't call themselves postmodernists, so that is not a surprise. A surprise is that the Anglo-Saxons are mentioned first, but the article is very small (which could be regarded as another surprise since the French philosophers have had a major impact on the world). The Russians give a distinction between analytical and continental philosophy.--Daanschr 11:30, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Hi Daanschr, your research has shown some fascinating differences in the categorisations of contemporary philosophy on different language Wikipedias. It would be interesting to see if these differences show up between other philosophy websites written in different languages. I wonder what the differences are in how Universities from different countries divide up contemporary philosophies. This needs further investigation but it appears that the sites in each language divide contemporary philosophy according to the contributions made by native speakers. Hence the German Wikipedia makes a distinction between German philosophy, French-Italian Philosophy and Anglo-Saxon (Analytical). The French site makes a distinction between Analytical (Anglo-Saxon) and Phenomenology (French). The Dutch site is a model of objectivity with a list of philosophers by date of birth. The English speaking site distinguishes between Analytical (Anglo-Saxon) and Philosophers of the phenomenological, structuralist and post-structuralist schools (Continental). It appears that their is no single definition for the category Continental philosophy. This is hardly surprising considering the diversity and often contradictory approaches to philosophy that Continental philosophy is used to cover. These various approaches differ as much from each other as they do from Analytical philosophy. Continental philosophy appears to be a term used in the Anglo-Saxon (Analytical) philosophical tradition to make a distinction between Analytical philosophy and other contemporary philosophies. Analytical and Continental philosophy are used to catogories 20th century philosophers and philosophies I'm not sure how useful these terms are for philosophers from other periods. I'm guessing that Analytical philosophers might count John Stuart Mill as one of their predecessors were as many of the philosophers classed under Continental philosophy would see themselves as breaking away from the tradition that Mill represents. Mystictim 15:32, 26 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I guess the main difference between the analytical and the continental school is that the analytical school wants to protect civilization, while the continental school is sceptical on the value and reality of civilization.
 * Bertrand Russel seems to be the founder of the analytical school. He was a defender of science within the context of a liberal society. Other representatives of the analytical school are defenders of certain kinds of morality.
 * Two main segments of the continental school are marxism and postmodernism. Marxists want to change society for the good, which includes the destruction of barriers set up by conservative elites (including members of the analytical school of philosophy) who want to prevent the end of oppression. Marxism has waned considerably. Postmodernism seems to be popular at the moment. Nietzsche, the godfather of postmodernism saw enlightenment and religion as illusions. The light promised by science and religion does not exist according to Nietzsche. Just like the marxists, the postmodernists are in favour of destruction, not to create a new better society, but to make individuals free from society. Allthough the individual is an illusion as well according to Nietzsche. The word destruction is not well chosen, because that what doesn't exist can't be destroyed. Postmodernism is full of contradictions. Contradictions are good according to Nietzsche because unity is an illusion as well.
 * It is pretty bizare that postmodernism is taught at universities as a philosophy. Nietzsche was against philosophy and against study. He wanted people to say yes to live, to create instead of to learn. And now many learn about the 'philosopher' Nietzsche. Foucault didn't regard himself as a philosopher as well, he called himself a historian, studying the history of ideas.--Daanschr 16:28, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

title: Topic talk:Continental philosophy


text:
Chromosomes

A chromosome is a single large macromolecule of DNA, and constitutes a physically organized form of DNA in a cell. It is a very long, continuous piece of DNA (a single DNA molecule), which contains many genes, regulatory elements and other intervening nucleotide sequences. A broader definition of "chromosome" also includes the DNA-bound proteins which serve to package and manage the DNA. The word chromosome comes from the Greek (chroma, color) and  (soma, body) due to its capacity to be stained very strongly with vital and supravital dyes.

Chromosomes vary extensively between different organisms. The DNA molecule may be circular or linear, and can contain anything from tens of kilobase pairs to hundreds of megabase pairs. Typically eukaryotic cells have large linear chromosomes and prokaryotic cells smaller circular chromosomes, although there are many exceptions to this rule. Furthermore, cells may contain more than one type of chromosome; for example mitochondria in most eukaryotes and chloroplasts in plants have their own small chromosome in addition to the nuclear chromosomes.

In eukaryotes nuclear chromosomes are packaged by proteins (particularly histones) into chromatin to fit the massive molecules into the nucleus. The structure of chromatin varies through the cell cycle, and is responsible for the compaction of DNA into the classic four-arm structure during mitosis and meiosis. Prokaryotes do not form chromatin, the cells lack proteins required and the circular configuration of the molecule prevents this.

"Chromosome" is a rather loosely defined term. In prokaryotes, a small circular DNA molecule may be called either a plasmid or a small chromosome. In viruses, the DNA molecules present in mitochondria and chloroplasts are commonly referred to as chromosomes, despite being naked molecules, as they constitute the complete genome of the organism or organelle.

Chromosomes in eukaryotes
Eukaryotes (cells with nuclei such as plants, yeast, and animals) possess multiple large linear chromosomes contained in the cell's nucleus. Each chromosome has one centromere, with one or two arms projecting from the centromere, although under most circumstances these arms are not visible as such. In addition most eukaryotes have a small circular mitochondrial genome, and some eukaryotes may have additional small circular or linear cytoplasmic chromosomes.

In the nuclear chromosomes of eukaryotes, the uncondensed DNA exists in a semi-ordered structure, where it is wrapped around histones (structural proteins), forming a composite material called chromatin.

Chromatin
Chromatin is the complex of DNA and protein found in the eukaryotic nucleus which packages chromosomes. The structure of chromatin varies significantly between different stages of the cell cycle, according to the requirements of the DNA.

Interphase chromatin
During interphase (the period of the cell cycle where the cell is not dividing) two types of chromatin can be distinguished:
 * Euchromatin, which consists of DNA that is active, e.g., expressed as protein.
 * Heterochromatin, which consists of mostly inactive DNA. It seems to serve structural purposes during the chromosomal stages. Heterochromatin can be further distinguished into two types:
 * Constitutive heterochromatin, which is never expressed. It is located around the centromere and usually contains repetitive sequences.
 * Facultative heterochromatin, which is sometimes expressed.

Individual chromosomes cannot be distinguished at this stage - they appear in the nucleus as a homogeneous tangled mix of DNA and protein.

Metaphase chromatin and division
In the early stages of mitosis or meiosis (cell division), the chromatin strands become more and more condensed. They cease to function as accessible genetic material (transcription stops) and become a compact transportable form. This compact form makes the individual chromosomes visible, and they form the classic four arm structure, a pair of sister chromatids attach to each other at the centromere. The shorter arms are called p arms (from the French petit, small) and the longer arms are called q arms (q follows p in the Latin alphabet). This is the only natural context in which individual chromosomes are visible with an optical microscope.

During divisions long microtubules attach to the centromere and the two opposite ends of the cell. The microtubules then pull the chromatids apart, so that each daughter cell inherits one set of chromatids. Once the cells have divided, the chromatids are uncoiled and can function again as chromatin. In spite of their appearance, chromosomes are structurally highly condensed which enables these giant DNA structures to be contained within a cell nucleus (Fig. 2).

The self assembled microtubules form the spindle, which attaches to chromosomes at specialized structures called kinetochores, one of which is present on each sister chromatid. A special DNA base sequence in the region of the kinetochores provides, along with special proteins, longer-lasting attachment in this region.

Chromosomes in prokaryotes
Prokaryotes (eg. Bacteria) typically have a single circular chromosome, but many variations do exist. Bacterial DNA also exists as plasmids, essentially miniature chromosomes, which are small circular pieces of DNA that are readily transmitted between bacteria. The distinction between plasmids and chromosomes is poorly defined, though size and necessity are generally taken into account.

Structure in sequences
Prokaryotes chromosomes have less sequence based structure than eukaryotes. They do, however, typically have a single point, the origin of replication, from which replication starts.

The genes in prokaryotes are often organised in operons, and do not contain introns, unlike eukaryotes.

Location in the cell
Bacterial chromosomes tend to be tethered to the plasma membrane of the bacteria. In molecular biology application, this allows for its isolation from plasmid DNA by centrifugation of lysed bacteria and pelleting of the membranes (and the attached DNA).

DNA packaging
Prokaryotes possess high stones and a nuclear bomb, and so do not possess chromatin like eukaryotes. There is, however, thought to be some structural organisation to help condense the large molecule into the small prokaryotic cell.

Prokaryotic chromosomes and plasmids are, like eukaryotic DNA, generally supercoiled. The DNA must first be released into its relaxed state for access for transcription, regulation, and replication.

Eukaryotes
Normal members of a particular eukaryotic species all have the same number of nuclear chromosomes (see the table). Other eukaryotic chromosomes, i.e. mitochondrial and plasmid-like small chromosomes, are much more variable in number, and there may be thousands of copies per cell.

Asexually reproducing species have one set of chromosomes, which is the same in all body cells.

Sexually reproducing species have somatic cells (body cells), which are diploid [2n] having two sets of chromosomes, one from the mother and one from the father. Gametes, reproductive cells, are haploid [n]: they have one set of chromosomes. Gametes are produced by meiosis of a diploid germ line cell. During meiosis, the matching chromosomes of father and mother can exchange small parts of themselves (crossover), and thus create new chromosomes that are not inherited solely from either parent. When a male and a female gamete merge (fertilization), a new diploid organism is formed.

Some animal and plant species are polyploid [Xn]: they have more than two sets of homologous chromosomes. Agriculturally important plants such as tobacco or wheat are often polyploid compared to their ancestral species. Wheat has a haploid number of seven chromosomes, still seen in some cultivars as well as the wild progenitors. The more common pasta and bread wheats are polyploid having 28 (tetraploid) and 42 (hexaploid) chromosomes compared to the 14 (diploid) chromosomes in the wild wheat.

Historical note: In 1921, Theophilus Painter claimed, based on his observations, that human sex cells had 24 chromosomes each, giving humans 48 chromosomes total. It wasn't until 1955 that the number of chromosomes was clearly shown to be 23.

Prokaryotes
Prokaryote species generally have one copy of each major chromosome, but most cells can easily survive with multiple copies. Plasmids and plasmid-like small chromosomes are, like in eukaryotes, very variable in copy number. The number of plasmids in the cell is almost entirely determined by the rate of division of the plasmid - fast division causes high copy number, and vice versa.

Karyotype
Karyotyping is a technique used to determine the (diploid) number of nuclear chromosomes of a eukaryotic organism, and may be used for determining sex and spotting chromosomal abnormalities. Cells can be locked part way through division (in metaphase) in vitro (in a reaction vial) with colchicine. These cells are then stained, photographed and arranged into a karyotype (an ordered set of chromosomes, Fig. 3), also called karyogram.

Like many sexually reproducing species, humans have special gonosomes (sex chromosomes, in contrast to autosomes). These are XX in females and XY in males, and can be seen in the karyotype, Fig. 3.

Chromosomal aberrations

Chromosomal aberrations are disruptions in the normal chromosomal content of a cell, and are a major cause of genetic disease in humans, such as Down syndrome. Some chromosome abnormalities do not cause disease in carriers, such as translocations, or chromosomal inversions, although they may lead to a higher chance of having a child with a chromosome disorder. Abnormal numbers of chromosomes or chromosome sets, aneuploidy, may be lethal or give rise to genetic disorders. Genetic counseling is offered for families that may carry a chromosome rearrangement.

The gain or loss of chromosome material can lead to a variety of genetic disorders. Human examples include:
 * Cri du chat, which is caused by the deletion of part of the short arm of chromosome 5. "Cri du chat" means "cry of the cat" in French, and the condition was so-named because affected babies make high-pitched cries that sound like a cat. Affected individuals have wide-set eyes, a small head and jaw and are moderately to severely mentally retarded and very short.
 * Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, which is caused by partial deletion of the short arm of chromosome 4. It is characterized by severe growth retardation and severe to profound mental retardation.
 * Down's syndrome, usually is caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21 (trisomy 21). Characteristics include decreased muscle tone, asymmetrical skull, slanting eyes and mild to moderate mental retardation.
 * Edward's syndrome, which is the second most common trisomy after Down syndrome. It is a trisomy of chromosome 18. Symptoms include mental and motor retardation and numerous congenital anomalies causing serious health problems. Ninety percent die in infancy; however, those who live past their first birthday usually are quite healthy thereafter. They have a characteristic hand appearance with clenched hands and overlapping fingers.
 * Patau Syndrome, also called D-Syndrome or trisomy-13. Symptoms are somewhat similar to those of trisomy-18, but they do not have the characteristic hand shape.
 * Idic15, abbreviation for Isodicentric 15 on chromosome 15; also called the following names due to various researches, but they all mean the same; IDIC(15), Inverted dupliction 15, extra Marker, Inv dup 15, partial tetrasomy 15
 * Jacobsen syndrome, also called the terminal 11q deletion disorder. This is a very rare disorder. Those affected have normal intelligence or mild mental retardation, with poor expressive language skills. Most have a bleeding disorder called Paris-Trousseau syndrome.
 * Klinefelter's syndrome (XXY). Men with Klinefelter syndrome are usually sterile, and tend to have longer arms and legs and to be taller than their peers. Boys with the syndrome are often shy and quiet, and have a higher incidence of speech delay and dyslexia. During puberty, without testosterone treatment, some of them may develop gynecomastia.
 * Turner syndrome (X instead of XX or XY). In Turner syndrome, female sexual characteristics are present but underdeveloped. People with Turner syndrome often have a short stature, low hairline, abnormal eye features and bone development and a "caved-in" appearance to the chest.
 * XYY syndrome. XYY boys are usually taller than their siblings. Like XXY boys and XXX girls, they are somewhat more likely to have learning difficulties.
 * Triple-X syndrome (XXX). XXX girls tend to be tall and thin and are often shy. They have a higher incidence of dyslexia.
 * Small supernumerary marker chromosome]. This means there is an extra, abnormal chromosome. Features depend on the origin of the extra genetic material. Cat-eye syndrome and Isodicentric chromosome 15 syndrome (or Idic15) are both caused by a supernumerary marker chromosome, as is Pallister-Killian syndrome.

Chromosomal mutations produce changes in whole chromosomes (more than one gene) or in the number of chromosomes present. Most mutations are neutral- have little or no effect
 * Deletion- loss of part of a chromosome
 * Duplication- extra copies of a part of a chromosome
 * Inversion- reverse the direction of a part of a chromosome
 * Translocation- part of a chromosome breaks off and attaches to another chromosome

A detailed graphical display of all human chromosomes and the diseases annotated at the correct spot may be found at.

The human chromosomes
Human cells have 23 pairs of large linear nuclear chromosomes, giving a total of 46 per cell. In addition to these, human cells have many hundreds of copies of the mitochondrial genome. All of the human chromosomes have been sequenced and a great deal is known about each of them.
 * † Human Genome Project goals called for determination of only the euchromatic portion of the genome. Telomeres, centromeres, and other heterochromatic regions have been left undetermined, as have a small number of unclonable gaps.

title: Chromosomes


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User:Piotrus/Crossword2

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> Sociology of the family - final crossword

Sociology of the family - final crossword

This crossword was created by Piotr Konieczny with EclipseCrossword - www.eclipsecrossword.com

This crossword puzzle was created by Piotr Konieczny with EclipseCrossword. Try it today—it's free!

title: User:Piotrus/Crossword2


text:
User:Lyondif02

fr:User:Lyondif02 nha from Lyon, France.

Links to my personal pages on other Wikimedia projects:
 * Wikipedia in French, English.
 * Wikisource in French.
 * Wiktionary in French, English.
 * Wikibooks in French, English.
 * Wikiversity in French.
 * Wikimedia meta-wiki.

title: User:Lyondif02


text:
Swedish Language

Swedish is a North Germanic language spoken natively by 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden (as the sole official language) and in parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish, although the degree of mutual intelligibility is largely dependent on the dialect and accent of the speaker.

Courses

 * Introduction to Swedish
 * Intermediate Swedish 1
 * Intermediate Swedish 2

title: Swedish Language


text:
User:Icoxhead

=Imogen Coxhead=

I am a senior lecturer at Otago Polytechnic in the field of Business Communication.

I have just started a blog.

title: User:Icoxhead


text:
User talk:Icoxhead

Welcome to Wikiversity. --JWSchmidt 01:47, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:Icoxhead


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User talk:Icerogue

Welcome to Wikiversity. --JWSchmidt 01:49, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:Icerogue


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User talk:Ssbhaskarbhatt

Welcome to Wikiversity. I wonder if you know anything about chromosome fusion events. --JWSchmidt 01:54, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I've got a nice article published by Hillier L. W. et al in Nature 434, 724-731 (7 April 2005)entitled "Generation and annotation of the DNA sequences of human chromosomes 2 and 4" which talks about the chromosome fusion event. If you want this article then I could send you or you want to add this as a major landmark of human cytogenetics then I'm definitely going to add it in the topic (Thanks).--ssbhaskarbhatt 16:41, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

 * I'd love to see a copy of the Hillier L. W. et al article. You might want to go into your user preferences and activate the "E-mail this user" feature. --JWSchmidt 17:02, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Please give me your mail ID so, I could send you the article in pdf.--ssbhaskarbhatt 17:38, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Image licence
An image you uploaded (on right) has no licence associated with it. It will soon be up for deletion if one isn't provided. If it wouldn't be too much trouble to add the info, it would allow Wikiversity to keep it. Thanks. Historybuff 04:39, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Ssbhaskarbhatt


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User talk:Delia13

Hi, Delia. I have italicized the journal names in the References section. --Ian Kennedy 06:34, 6 December 2006 (UTC) Hello Ian, I would like to encourage collaboration and add more information to this page. Any suggestions?

Image copyright problem with Image:CreatingTechnoUnits.pdf
Thanks for uploading Image:CreatingTechnoUnits.pdf. However, the image may soon be deleted unless we can determine the copyright holder and copyright status. The Wikimedia Foundation is very careful about the images included in Wikiversity because of copyright law (see Wikiversity' Copyright policy).

The copyright holder is usually the creator, the creator's employer, or the last person who was transferred ownership rights. Copyright information on images is signified using copyright templates. The three basic license types on Wikibooks are open content, public domain, and fair use. Find the appropriate template in Image copyright tags and place it on the image page like this:.

Please signify the copyright information on any other images you have uploaded or will upload. Remember that images without this important information or giving false information can be deleted by an administrator. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me, or ask them at Colloquim. Thank you. – Mike.lifeguard | talk 23:31, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Delia13


text:
Template:Helpme

 I am looking for help!

Note to helpers: once you have offered help, please remove this template.
 * Use  on your talk page and ask your question below
 * Check the FAQ

Automatically categorized into Category:Users looking for help. Note that this template was copied in part from w:Template:Helpme. A full list of contributors can be found in its page history.

title: Template:Helpme


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Category:Users looking for help

This category lists users who have indicated that they need help, by adding the helpme template to their talk pages. Experienced editors: please offer assistance to these users.

title: Category:Users looking for help


text:
User:Richard2me

About Me
I am a Robot.

My contribution to Wikiversity
Hopefully some good stuff.

Contact Info
Nada

title: User:Richard2me


text:
User:Thesaurus~enwikiversity

I'm Thesaurus, and I herald from Colorado and currently attend the University of Colorado, Boulder. I'm interested in contributing as much as I can to Wikiversity. I'm really excited about the idea and I would like to see it reach the point where we have genuine students coming here to learn.

My main interests are Literature, philosophy, linguistics, and classics. I'm currently finishing my undergraduate degree with the following specialties: B.A. English Literature, B.A. Philosophy, Minor Linguistics, Minor Classics (Latin).

I'm interested in all of English literature, but my specialty (and love!) is Victorian literature, society, and culture (esp. novels, Thomas Hardy, Thomas Carlyle, and other prose/essayists). Most of my contributions will probably be in this field. Otherwise, I can contribute generally to most areas of English literature.

I have general competence in philosophy and will contribute there to the best of my ability. I'm especially willing to work within Ancient (esp. Socrates and Plato) and Medieval philosophy, and literary theory (the combined disciplines of literature and philosophy). I have a very rudimentary knowledge of Ancient Greek.

My knowledge of linguistics and Latin is currently in progress. I should be able to give basic help in these areas. In particular, I'm interested in historical and Indo-European linguistics. I have intermediate knowledge of Latin language and literature, but I am progressing steadily.

I'll attempt to squeeze in contributions whenever possible. Currently, I don't think I'm capable of running a course, but I'd like to contribute material, syllabi, etc. I can grade papers/course-work if needed.

title: User:Thesaurus~enwikiversity


text:
Topic talk:Linux desktop

Shell scripting seems something best left for a topic on it's own right. I'd suggest that this topic keep more focus on just using the Linux Desktop; in this sense it's aimed at people possibly migrating from Windows who have already installed Linux and are now faced with a desktop straight out of the box per-se. BrentSimpson 09:35, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm less interested in creating just a resource on How to Use Linux -- that might be better for something like wikibooks. What I'm interested in is giving a gentle introduction to how to use the Gnome desktop to do things that a user might have already done on Windows, to present a case for Open Source and Gnu/Linux systems in education, and to provide pointers to other resources that are out there to help educators and students get more from using Linux and open source apps for education. BrentSimpson 20:48, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

title: Topic talk:Linux desktop


text:
User talk:Richard2me

Hello, want to help
I'm an IT professional who would like to help out. Leave a message here or on my talk page. Historybuff 15:28, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Richard2me


text: User talk:Cmw4884

title: User talk:Cmw4884


text:
User talk:Thesaurus~enwikiversity

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 Thesaurus. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Thesaurus~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 23:45, 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) 06:24, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Thesaurus~enwikiversity


text: User talk:Esselle

title: User talk:Esselle


text:
Template:Mad Max Header and TOC for Lesson 1

=You should no longer see this page. Bad page link if you do.=

 * Select One :

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 * bgcolor="#ffeeff" style="border: 1px DarkBlue solid;" |[[Image:Nuvola apps kalarm.png|24px]] Pop Quiz - garageBand (only)  - 4 points [[Image:Nuvola apps kalarm.png|24px]]
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 * bgcolor="LightCyan" style="border: 1px DarkBlue solid;" |Page 2a: Creating the sound of fear with GarageBand - 6 points
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 * bgcolor="#ffeeff" style="border: 1px DarkBlue solid;" |[[Image:Nuvola apps kalarm.png|24px]] Pop Quiz GarageBand with symphony sounds  - 4 points [[Image:Nuvola apps kalarm.png|24px]]
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 * bgcolor="LightCyan" style="border: 1px DarkBlue solid;" |Page 2b: Creating the sound of fear using symphony orchestra sounds - 6 points
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 * bgcolor="#ffeeff" style="border: 1px DarkBlue solid;" |[[Image:Nuvola apps kalarm.png|24px]] Pop Quiz - Protégé  - 4 points [[Image:Nuvola apps kalarm.png|24px]]
 * }

 * {| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" width="500px"

 * bgcolor="LightCyan" style="border: 1px DarkBlue solid;" |Page 2b: Creating the sound of fear with Protégé - 6 points
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 * More Musical Sounds

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 * bgcolor="#eeeeff" style="border: 1px #cccccc solid;" |Page 3: Creating additional moods for motion pictures with individual notes  - 6 points
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Film Scoring/Melody/Creating the sound of fear

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Overview

 * There are three ways to create simple film scores for motion pictures using GarageBand. Musical sounds can be either:

 * individual notes and cords, or

 * musical rhythm, or

 * musical melody.

The first way is the simplest

 * In this lesson, we will start learning film scoring by learning how to create musical sound effects using individual notes or cords.

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Introduction
One of the simplest ways to create moods is with single notes or cords. This works only if the sound is so fantastic, it creates the correct mood.
 * Creating moods with individual notes

You do not need to be a musician if you use very organic sounds such as the sounds of a symphony orchestra. If you use the sounds of a symphony orchestra, people automatically think you have musical talent.
 * The secret : Organic notes

The only economical way for a low budget filmmaker to create the sounds of a symphony orchestra is with software instruments that live inside your computer.
 * Good news : Really cheap orchestra

 * }

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The grand theory of film scoring
Music creates all of the mood for a motion picture. The visual images and the words of the actors do not tell the audience what to feel. Only the music explains the emotion of the scene. The four kinds of music in a motion picture are: Of the four kinds of music in film scores, music which narates the story is the most important. Because the music which narrates the story will drown out any dialog, the editor must add gaps between the dialog. That is, between the sentences or ideas in a motion picture.
 * Four kinds of music
 * Narrative music
 * Background music
 * Songs
 * The melody line of the actor's voices.
 * Music that tells a story
 * Sources of narrative music for motion pictures
 * Organic sounds - As typified by the "sound of fear" from this lesson.
 * Rhythm - As typified by the "sound of joy" which is the next lesson.
 * Melody - For non-musicians, melody comes from midi files of classical music and broadway music. For non-musicians, this is where all your skills of "cut & paste", simplify, and organize are put to the test.
 * Editing for narrative music in a conversation

Since the film's editor and the film's composer must work closely together, it is easier for the composer and the editor to be the same person. That can be you!
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What software is required?

 * First, you need special software.
 * By using Apple's GarageBand plus Jam Pack:Symphony Orchestra (or MOTU's Symphonic Instrument which I have not tested), you can create fantastic musical sound effects for motion pictures. A single musical sound can be enough to create the mood for the scene.

 * Note : There are alternative musical instruments.
 * If you do not have Jam Pack: Symphony Orchestra, there are other notes which can create the sound of fear. Try all the different software instruments until you find a good one.

 * Third, you need to shape the volume of the sound.
 * Once you have recorded the single note of a violin trill, using the volume track, create points which shape the volume of the sound so it seems like a real violin playing a real violin trill.

 * Extra credit : You can add more tracks with additional sounds.
 * You might enhance this sound with other sounds from Jam Pack: Symphony orchestra. Try some of the percussion sound effects in the orchesta drum kit.

 * When you are finished, send the sound file to me
 * Export your sound and send me your finished sound file.  [[Image:Crystal Clear app xfmail.png|24px]]

 * Ogg's the prefered file format for Wikiversity.
 * I will convert your sound file into an ogg sound file and upload it to this site for everyone to hear your sound of fear.

 * Other fearful sounds
 * Besides the violin trill, there are other sounds in GarageBand which can produce the sound of fear. Again, submit your best sounds to me.  [[Image:Crystal Clear app xfmail.png|24px]]

 * }

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The Next Page

 * The next page explains the theory of music in motion pictures.
 * Page 1: Why is there music in motion pictures! [[Image:Crystal Clear action forward.png|24px]]

Contact Your Instructor

 * Your instructor for this class is Robert Elliott. To email me, you simply  Click Here. [[Image:Crystal Clear app xfmail.png|24px]]

 * }


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Template:Mad Max End of Lesson and TOC

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Film scoring lessons
Below are Mad Max's Music Lessons. To the right are general filmmaking lessons. Supplemental A: Examples of Narrative Music Supplemental B: A fun movie which needs a film score
 * 1. The Sound of Fear [[Image:Crystal Clear app knotify.png|25px]]
 * 2. The Sound of Joy Crystal128-staroffice.svg
 * 3. Creating film scores from Midi files [[Image:Crystal Clear app kcmmidi.png|30px]]
 * 4. Creating a humming score [[Image:Crystal Clear app kmid.png|25px]]
 * 5. Film Scoring Workshop - Movie for Television  Crystal128-tv.svg

Contact Your Instructor

 * Your instructor for this class is Robert Elliott.

Please email me by simply clicking here.

 * style="width: 50%; background-color: #ffffe0; border: 1px solid #777777; vertical-align: center; -moz-border-radius-topleft: 8px; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 8px; -moz-border-radius-topright: 8px; -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 8px; height: 10px;" |

 * }

title: Template:Mad Max End of Lesson and TOC


text:
Talk:Visual Basic/Introduction

I just made a whole lot of new content for this page. Good luck sifting through it! :-D

Some places to link to or somehow incorporate knowledge from:
 * http://hashvb.earlsoft.co.uk/Main_Page
 * Anything on this list: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=vb6&go=Go
 * http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/API_use_with_VB6
 * http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Variables_and_Types_in_VB6
 * http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Functions_and_Subroutines_in_VB6

A place to chat with the people involved in this project would be nice so we're not stepping on eachothers' toes. I'm new to wikiversity, et al. I just figured out the basic structure of the courses, so I'm trying to work with that. I think some more brainstorming about course plan structure would be a good idea.

= Removed content... =

I just removed the following content from this page. It's useful information, but highly inappropriate to an introductory article. Let's see if we can't find a better place for it. AmiDaniel (talk) 18:51, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Object Types and Naming Scheme
These are very important things to remember in order to make your source code more easily intelligible.

File Types
You will use various file types while using VB6. These are some the most common ones.
 * File type: What people call it
 * Prefix: What people prefix the filename with
 * Extension: What file extension is used
 * Description: What its used for most often

Examples of common file names:
 * OddCalc.vbp
 * frmMain.frm
 * frmAbout.frm
 * frmPrintInvoice.frm
 * modMain.bas
 * modSettings.bas
 * modDeclares.bas
 * modWinsock.bas
 * clsWinsock.cls
 * ucCustomButton.ctl
 * ucTreeView.ctl
 * ucWinsock.ctl

Variables
A variable is a word or letter used to reference data used in a program. At the most basic level: All variables used in a program (Even if its interpreted as text) are held on the computer as a sequence of 1s and 0s (Binary) which represent numbers, which may or may not in turn represent letters or any given ASCII character.

In a sane programmer's code the variable names are easy to understand because they clearly state what the variable is used for inside of the variable name.

The information to be conveyed in a variable name is:
 * 1) Variable data type
 * 2) Functional use in program

This is accomplished by coming up with a unique word between about 3 and 10 letters which explains the functional use of the variable as well as a prefix of usually 3 letters which explains the variable data type.

A few examples of this:
 * intResult -- An integer which is the result of an operation
 * strFirstName -- A string which is used to store the first name of a person
 * dtmWorkDayEnd -- A Date variable which is used to store the time of the end of the work day

Computer Data Storage
All data stored on a computer is based upon binary values associated with them somewhere between 0 and 255. This is the range of values possible with an 8 bit binary value (8 ones and zeroes).

A text character's "ASCII value" is the decimal value of the binary value used to represent that character on the computer. In the case of the uppercase letters A, the ASCII value is 65, which is 01000001 in binary. Uppercase Z has an ASCII value of 90, which is 1011010 in binary. The values for uppercase letters A through Z are between the values 65 and 90.

Anybody notice how similar the uppercase and lower case values are in binary and hex? In binary you toggle the 32's place in order to change case, and in hex you add/subtract 2 from the 16's place. Handy.

Associated example to play with: Option Explicit

Private Sub Form_Load Dim strChar As String ' Declares a variable ' Shows an input box and puts the result in a variable called strChar strChar = InputBox("What would you like the ASCII value of?", "HUH!? PUNK!?", "A") ' Shows a message box containing the ASCII value of the previously input letter '  plus a random ASCII uppercase letter MsgBox "The ASCII value of " & strChar & " is " & Asc(strChar) & vbNewLine & _ "And your random, uppercase ASCII character is: " & _ Chr$(RandomNumInRange(65, 90)) ' Unloads the form (Which cleanly ends the program if no other forms are loaded) Unload Me End Sub

Public Function RandomNumInRange(ByVal Low As Long, ByVal High As Long) As Long Randomize ' Randomizes Rnd (Surprisingly good random number generator) ' Generates a random number between "High" and "Low" and returns it   RandomNumInRange = Int((High - Low + 1) * Rnd) + Low End Function

Variable Names
The following are the requirements when naming the variables in Visual Basic:
 * It must be less than 255 characters
 * No spacing is allowed
 * It must not begin with a number
 * Period is not permitted

For the sake of making sure other people can look at your code and know what the hell you were thinking:
 * Suffix your variable name with the appropriate suffix for your variable's data type
 * Make sure the body of your variable name makes it easy to tell what its used for
 * Don't use an ambiguous name like "intUhhhh" or "strX" unless its use is within a very small scope of the program

Control Types
Examples of common object names:
 * txtName
 * txtAddress
 * cboYear
 * cmdOK
 * cmdCancel

Routine Types
' Description: Makes the window caption a random number between 1 and 100 every time the form is clicked
 * Sub: Returns nothing
 * Example:

Option Explicit

Public intRandom As Integer

Private Sub Form_Click Call GetNewRandom Me.Caption = intRandom End Sub

Public Sub GetNewRandom Randomize intRandom = Int(Rnd * 100) + 1 End Sub

' Description: Makes a message box which displays the current military time at form load. Option Explicit
 * Function: Returns some sort of value
 * Example:

Private Sub Form_Load MsgBox "Current military time is: " & GetMilitaryTime End Sub

Public Function GetMilitaryTime As String GetMilitaryTime = Format$(Time, "hh:mm:ss") End Function

Specific to user controls:
 * Let
 * Get
 * Set

title: Talk:Visual Basic/Introduction


text:
File:UnderTheTree.jpg

Summary
A teacher teaching his class in Mozambique under the tree (no classroom)

title: File:UnderTheTree.jpg


text:
Talk:VB

I slapped this together, quickly, based off Java.

title: Talk:VB


text:
Beginning composition

This is an introduction to different types of composition.

Chord Progression
A chord progression is a series of chords, notes that are played simultaneously, played in order. The amount of time on each chord in a progression may vary, and this is called the harmonic rhythm. Melodic lines are typically added by writing the melody using primarliy notes from the chord, though other, generally short, "passing" and "approach" notes should be used to add variety.

Traditional Part-Writing
Traditional part writing is often based on counterpoint, in which a second melody is written to use harmonic intervals that create primarily consonant relationships between notes. First, a leading melodic line must be written, then contrapuntal methods may be used to add additional melodic lines. Consonants are further divided into perfect and imperfect consonances and contrasted to dissonances. Traditionally the unison, the octave and the fifth were considered perfect consonances while the third and sixth were considered imperfect consonances; the fourth was considered a dissonance if it was above the leading line but a consonance if below, though modern theorists have questioned the need for this distinction. Other intervals are considered dissonant. Additional melodic lines beyond the second may be added by writing them in counterpoint to all the lines already written.

In addition, the types of movement made a difference. In early theory there were three types of movement: direct, in which both melodic line move in the same direction, oblique in which one line moves and the other does not, and contrary in which both lines move in opposite directions. Some modern theorist further divide direct motion into similar motion, in which both lines move different distances in the same direction, and parallel motion in which both line maintain the same interval between them. Early counterpoint texts (such as Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnasum) listed several rules for moving lines, however these can be boiled down to one: Don't move from perfect consonance to perfect consonance by direct motion. The addition of dissonance may be added on an off beat, to be resolve to on the next on beat. Large jumps are discouraged, and it is recommended that they be followed by stepwise motion in the opposite direction. The octave should be used vary sparingly and the unison avoided, however, as these tend to make the melodic lines blur together.

Various rhythms could be used in the various melodic line, and this was encouraged with the goal being "florid counterpoint" in which various rhythms mix in an elaborate way. If a smaller note is used in the following line then dissonance must be on the second note; if the following note starts after the leader, then it must start on the dissonance. Of course, neither have to be dissonant, and a consonance may be used in both places. A series of stepwise movements may also be used to move over several dissonance between consonances. However, two notes one semitone apart (sometimes described as "fa on mi") should always be avoided.

Note that a modern composition that follows a chord progression may just write all parts to fit the same chord, however, use of contrapuntal principles may still be useful in order to make to melodic lines work better together.

Twelve-tone Composition
Twelve-tone Composition is a composing method that uses all tones of the chromatic scale in any order and at any octave, this is called an ordered tone row. The only rule to this is that every tone has to be played once before another may be repeated. An easy (though never actually used) row is the chromatic scale itself.

The row may present itself in several ways, as a transposition, an inversion, a retrograde, or any combination of these transformations.

Complement and Contrast
A composition is made up of a series of musical phrases which can either complement or contrast each other. A complementary phrase is one which sounds similar to previous phrases, and can be made by, for example, transposing the previous phrase, using the same set of chords, using the same rhythmic pattern, or slightly varying certain notes, among other things. A contrasting phrase, on the other hand, is one that sounds entirely different from previous phrases and often serves as a fill or transition between different parts of a piece.

Good compositions will usually have a balance of complementary and contrasting phrases: a piece which is too complementary will be repetitive and boring, whereas a piece with too much contrast will seem to lack organization and will be difficult to follow.

title: Beginning composition


text: File:Boy at piano with iMac and girl.jpg


text:
Pomology

Pomological research is mainly focused on the development, cultivation and physiological studies of fruit trees. The goals of fruit tree improvement include enhancement of fruit quality, regulation of production periods, and reduction of production cost.

Resources

 * Pomology Teaching Tools
 * Botany Ink Drawing - how to make botanical drawings
 * Tropical and Subtropical Pomology I - contain lessons with the most important fruits of the world=under-graduate level.
 * Tropical and Subtropical Pomology II - contain lessons with important fruits to the regional markets=under-graduate level.
 * /Tropical and Subtropical Pomology III/ - contain lessons with less important fruits of tropics and subtropics=under-graduate level.
 * /Special Tropical and Subtropical Pomology/ - it contains the knowledge of Tropical and Subtropical Pomology I-III, but going deeper (there are more projects). On the site of theoretical studying participants can also study practical things by their own or with a teacher. They are also doing a primary research (=literature survey)=graduate level.
 * /Ethnobotany of Fruit Crops/ - this subject tries to cover the fruit crops with a local importance and focuses on their ethnobotany. Students are working upon research ethnobotanical projects (firstly needs to establish Wikiversity research policy!) according their interests. Opening a new project is free and also the working teams
 * /Banana Production/ - highly specialized subject on the most consumed fruit of the world.
 * /Citriculture/ - highly specialized subject on the most consumed fruit of the subtropics.

Wanted Subjects/Lessons
Temperate Tree Fruit Pomology

title: Pomology