User:Vapememes2020/Choose an Article

Article Selection
Please list articles that you're considering for your Wikipedia assignment below. Begin to critique these articles and find relevant sources.

Option 1 (Acclimatization)

 * Article title
 * Acclimatization


 * Article Evaluation
 * I found the lead was very well made, and it was tough to think of any real improvements I could have made. The lead also perfectly and subtly introduced all of the different sections of the article.
 * Content wise I found most of the article's material was relevant to the topic and seemed recent based on the sources used. However, one thing that seemed to be missing from the article were details on how some organisms can change the amount of cholesterol/unsaturated fatty acids in response to temperature. I found this strange as they mentioned that organisms could change the protein composition of the membrane in response to temperature but didn't mention the actual lipids. In general I also found the content was less thorough than I hoped for and I fear there may have been more things missing from the article that I am unaware of. I say this as the article was quite short.
 * One feature of the article that may have been less neutral was the fact they equated acclimation with acclimatization (and this was being discussed in the talk section too). It's difficult to say whether or not this was really all that biased though as they provided several citations from regular and medical dictionaries backing up their claim, so it's possible that the 2 terms are generally synonymous unless an author states otherwise. Aside from this though the article felt quite neutral.
 * Several statements weren't supported by sources (including 1 statement about how researchers aren't entirely familiar with how/why organisms acclimatize). Not only this, some of the sources they used seemed to be primary rather than secondary sources. While they had a plethora of sources that seem reliable and recent, upwards of 1/3 of these sources were just dictionary definitions of acclimatization, so one may wish to add a few more sources to reflect all available literature on the topic.
 * The organization, conciseness and readability of the various sections was well done, but there were several strange grammar and punctuation issues the article had, as there seemed to be several sentences that were initially going in one way but were then later changed, but the person changing the sentence forgot to scrap the intro for the last sentence. For example one part of the article read: "The Theory While the capacity" which was just one grammatical issue I found.
 * This article strangely enough had no images, even though a topic like this would really benefit from it (for example: showing a before and after image of a mammal shedding its heavy winter coat in the spring, images of changes in membrane fluidity based on temperature, and other such images could have been used).
 * Despite the article being of high importance and C-class in 3 different Wikiprojects (biology, ecology and physiology) the talk page is fairly bare-bones, with discussions mainly being about definitions, possibly including nonliving materials into the article (as some wooden objects may acclimatize), and there was also a strange tangent about pet allergies.
 * I feel the article could certainly use some proofreading, a few more citations in several places, and it could definitely use some images. If I choose this article I may also try to improve it by looking at whether there really is widespread consensus as to whether acclimation and acclimatization are synonyms. I would also try to do more research to see if there's any other notable types of acclimatization that the article neglected to discuss, as the article seems fairly sparse at the moment (for example I would definitely include discussions on the changes in unsaturated fatty acids and cholesterol in cell membranes in response to temperature).
 * I feel the article could certainly use some proofreading, a few more citations in several places, and it could definitely use some images. If I choose this article I may also try to improve it by looking at whether there really is widespread consensus as to whether acclimation and acclimatization are synonyms. I would also try to do more research to see if there's any other notable types of acclimatization that the article neglected to discuss, as the article seems fairly sparse at the moment (for example I would definitely include discussions on the changes in unsaturated fatty acids and cholesterol in cell membranes in response to temperature).


 * Sources
 * Seasonal Acclimatization and Latitudinal Compensation in Metabolism: Do They Exist? Functional Ecology 7(2), 139-149 (1993) https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_and_General_ Biology/Book%3A_General_Biology_(Boundless)/5%3A_Structure_and_Function_of_Plasma_Membranes/5.1%3A_Components_and_Structure/5.1C%3A_Membrane_Fluidity
 * Effects of Temperature on Lipid Unsaturation. Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews. S L Neidleman. 10.1080/02648725.1987.10647839

Option 2 (Thermoregulation)

 * Article title
 * Thermoregulation


 * Article Evaluation
 * The lead needs serious work. Much of the lead seemed cluttered with information more suited to other sections of the article, so there was a real issue with being concise in the lead. There was also some issues with material being mentioned in the lead but not really discussed later in the paper (such as the development of thermometers for measuring internal temperatures and issues with hypothermia/hyperthermia. The lead also didn't help discuss the various sections of the article much at all.
 * The vast majority of the information seemed relevant to the topic but there were a few exceptions that seemed a touch out of place (but still tangentially related). The information (generally) seemed to be up to date and thorough (though this often came at the cost of being less concise).
 * While generally the article seemed quite neutral, I do think they focused a bit more on endothermy as opposed to ectothermy, and I am concerned that there possibly wasn't enough discussion regarding the correlation between lower body temperatures and longer lifespans. In this way I think the article was slightly biased towards endothermy and I think the article was biased towards the idea that lower body temperatures result in longer lifespans, whereas in humans alone there's evidence contradicting this notion, but this was never discussed in the article.
 * There was inconsistent citation usage in the article, with large sections with few/no citations while other sections have plenty of citations. However, I admit the sources (for the most part) seem to be thorough and recent, because there were over 50 sources used. But some of the sources they used could have been improved upon (quality/reliability wise) as they seemed to turn to some unorthodox sources like Khan academy and Yahoo health.
 * While I find that the organization of the article was relatively good, there were a few oddities (such as how plant thermoregulation was placed between vertebrate regulation and behavioral regulation when it could have been better placed closer to the end of the article). There were also some oddities in organization within sections, such as how the section on ectothermic cooling discusses sweating and increasing blood flow to the surface of the skin to cool off, when these mechanisms of cooling are more associated with endotherms. Luckily the article was clear and free of punctuation/grammar errors though.
 * One of the good things about the article were some of the images (except for one image on the control circuit of human thermoregulation which had several unexplained symbols on it which could confuse the reader).
 * Much of the talk page seemed to have been discussing issues that no longer plagued the article such as several issues with grammar. Although some discussions about the distinction between homeotherms/poikilotherms, endotherms/ectotherms and warm/cold blooded animals highlight a lack of clarity in some areas of the article. One person on the talk page was exceptionally harsh, saying the article was irredeemable and should be wiped from Wikipedia entirely (Sodom-and-Gomorrah style). The article was ranked as C-class and I have to agree that the article was somewhat underdeveloped, with a lack of citations in some areas, strange organizational decisions in other areas and issues with being concise in many areas.
 * If I am to try to improve the article I would first try to find several citations for the sections lacking them. I would also try to work on the lead, possibly moving some material to later sections and heavily shortening the lead to be more concise yet still informative. I would also try to work on making the article more concise in places as I feel that several sections of the article had either run on sentences or repeat information. I would also try to look into the issue about lifespans and body temperature (I already found a source that seems to provide some counterevidence to the Wikipedia article's claim, so I will probably use that to both support and give a 2nd opinion on this issue). I may also see about reorganizing the order of sections if needed. If the issue still persists then I will try to clear up the issue related to the terms ectotherm and poikilotherm and how they relate to the term "cold blooded". Lastly I may try to look into the one image of the control circuit of human thermoregulation and find the original source so I could maybe include an interpretation of the image in the caption.
 * If I am to try to improve the article I would first try to find several citations for the sections lacking them. I would also try to work on the lead, possibly moving some material to later sections and heavily shortening the lead to be more concise yet still informative. I would also try to work on making the article more concise in places as I feel that several sections of the article had either run on sentences or repeat information. I would also try to look into the issue about lifespans and body temperature (I already found a source that seems to provide some counterevidence to the Wikipedia article's claim, so I will probably use that to both support and give a 2nd opinion on this issue). I may also see about reorganizing the order of sections if needed. If the issue still persists then I will try to clear up the issue related to the terms ectotherm and poikilotherm and how they relate to the term "cold blooded". Lastly I may try to look into the one image of the control circuit of human thermoregulation and find the original source so I could maybe include an interpretation of the image in the caption.


 * Sources
 * Being Cool: How body temperature influences ageing and longevity. Biogerontology. (2015) 16(4):383-97
 * Antifreeze proteins: characteristics, occurrence and human exposure. (2002). Food and Chemical Toxicology. 40 (7): 899–903.
 * The development of the concepts of homeothermy and thermoregulation. Journal of Thermal Biology 31, 24–29 (2006).
 * Metabolic rate and body temperature reduction during hibernation and daily torpor. Annual Review of Physiology. (2004).

Option 3 (Cell Death)

 * Article title
 * Cell Death


 * Article Evaluation
 * I found that the lead section was virtually perfect, although it's a touch short.
 * Virtually all the information provided seemed to be relevant to the topic of cell death and there didn't seem to be too much material missing, (although they didn't seem to discuss cell death by cytotoxic t cells too much). Since every source they used was from 1993 or later, I have good reason to believe the content of the article is up to date too.
 * There luckily seemed to be no issues with regards to bias, lack of neutrality or anything of that sort from what I could tell.
 * There aren't too many sources, however the sources that were used seem to be reliable and recent secondary sources on the subject. However, several sections of the article lacked citations (like one statement about how apoptosis allows for the formation of toes and fingers, and much of the apoptosis section lacked citations too).
 * There were some strange grammar/punctuation issues in the article. I found several sentences with poor grammar, misplaced/absent commas, and even one sentence that was missing a period. These sorts of issues at times did hinder the clarity of the article despite much of the article being fairly concise and clear. The article also used several Greek terms without bothering to give a transliteration of what they would sound like in English, which while not a major issue was still somewhat inconvenient and unhelpful especially when terms like "νεκρό" in Greek are pronounced "nekro". The overall organization of the various sections of the article seemed very good though.
 * There were a few images and all of them seemed helpful for understanding the issues of cell death and they had good captions supporting them. Based on the creative commons licenses on all of the images they seem to hold to the copyright standards of Wikipedia as well.
 * There was only 1 chat in the talk page so not much discussion was going on with this article (and said chat was just about getting a better necrosis image to use). This article was part of 4 different Wikiprojects (Biology, Molecular Biology/Molecular and Cell Biology, Medicine, and Physiology) and in all of these Wikiprojects it was rated a C-class article of mid importance (except for the Biology Wikiproject which considered it of low importance).
 * If I was to edit this article I would try to add a few more citations to areas of the article in which citations were fairly sparse. Not only this, the article in my mind is in great need of a spellcheck, some transliteration work, grammar/punctuation checks and maybe some more elaboration on a few things (such as the role of cytotoxic t cells in cell death), so if I pursue this article I will be sure to do this too
 * If I was to edit this article I would try to add a few more citations to areas of the article in which citations were fairly sparse. Not only this, the article in my mind is in great need of a spellcheck, some transliteration work, grammar/punctuation checks and maybe some more elaboration on a few things (such as the role of cytotoxic t cells in cell death), so if I pursue this article I will be sure to do this too


 * Sources
 * Cell Death Independent of Caspases: A Review. Clinical Cancer Research. 11(9):3155-62
 * Cell death: a review of the major forms of apoptosis, necrosis and autophagy. Cell Biology International. 43(6):582-592
 * Cell Death Mechanisms Induced by Cytotoxic Lymphocytes. Cellular & Molecular Immunology. 6, 15–25 (2009)

Option 4 (Peristalsis)

 * Article title
 * Peristalsis


 * Article Evaluation
 * The lead seemed fairly well made, however it used a self-published source. Everything else about the lead seemed fine though, as it outlined the article quite well, it was clear and concise, and its introductory sentence is a perfect way of describing peristalsis.
 * When it came to the actual content of the article most of it seemed up to date, relevant, and at least somewhat complete. However, in trying to find sources for the article I found that they neglected to discuss uterine peristalsis despite discussing peristalsis in relation to sperm release. None of the material necessarily felt like it didn't belong in the article, though I was a bit intrigued at one section about peristalsis in machinery (which seemed a bit off).
 * The article seemed to have few issues with neutrality or bias from what I could tell. However they may have oversimplified some mechanisms of peristalsis, as the major peristalsis trigger they pointed to was the bolus stretching the smooth muscle. Yet one of the papers I read discussed how sometimes in vivo this bolus mechanism wasn't able to trigger peristalsis, and that a focus on this mechanism in particular may actually be hindering research into other mechanisms causing peristalsis (so maybe this detail should be acknowledged in the article).
 * This article had several issues with sources. The esophagus, lymph and large intestine sections lacked citations and there was even a message notice at the top of the article saying the article was in need of citations. This is likely because the article only had 10 citations, 1 of which was self published and another of which was a YouTube video (so how credible/appropriate these citations are is somewhat questionable). The small amount of sources and the questionable credibility of these sources is probably the biggest issue for this article. However, the sources used all seemed very recently published, which was one of the few upsides with the sources.
 * There were a couple grammatical issues and also some issues with using strange terminology that may not be too understandable for many readers without checking out a dictionary or another article. Aside from this though the article's sections were very well organized, and the article was generally very clear and concise.
 * The images/videos used in the article were strong points for the article as all of them seemed simple, well made, and really help in understanding the concept of peristalsis a bit better.
 * The talk page was fairly interesting. In many cases the issues brought up in the talk page have been addressed (like one discussing how sperm is propelled by peristalsis in the vans deferens, and how the article used to only discuss peristalsis in the digestive system when it actually occurs in the reproductive and lymphatic system too). Though there were some interesting discussions regarding the various triggers of peristalsis and whether humans have the potential to consciously control peristalsis given enough training. The article is rated as a C-class article of mid importance, and it's part of the physiology Wikiproject.
 * Overall the article was quite well made but it could use a lot more credible citations (which I plan on doing if I choose this project). If I pursue working on this article I may also include material pertaining to uterine peristalsis and discuss material on other mechanisms that can trigger peristalsis (as one of my sources seemed to imply that much of the material on peristalsis has been oversimplified and several possible mechanisms of peristalsis have been ignored as a result). I may also try to find sources related to large intestine, lymph and esophagus peristalsis as all of these sections lacked sources. I may also try to proofread the article and see if I can use alternative terminology to make the article more accessible to readers.
 * Overall the article was quite well made but it could use a lot more credible citations (which I plan on doing if I choose this project). If I pursue working on this article I may also include material pertaining to uterine peristalsis and discuss material on other mechanisms that can trigger peristalsis (as one of my sources seemed to imply that much of the material on peristalsis has been oversimplified and several possible mechanisms of peristalsis have been ignored as a result). I may also try to find sources related to large intestine, lymph and esophagus peristalsis as all of these sections lacked sources. I may also try to proofread the article and see if I can use alternative terminology to make the article more accessible to readers.


 * Sources
 * Uterine peristalsis and fertility: current knowledge and future perspectives: a review and meta-analysis. Reproductive BioMedicine Online. Volume 35, Issue 1, pp. 50-71
 * Gut peristalsis is governed by a multitude of cooperating mechanisms. The American Journal of Physiology: Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology.
 * Modelling the lymphatic system: challenges and opportunities. Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 9(69):601-12

Option 5 (Cleavage (Embryo))

 * Article title
 * Cleavage (Embryo)


 * Article Evaluation
 * The lead had a good introductory sentence and it seemed to give a good overview of the subject. However, I feel it could be either more concise (as it seemed a bit too long/detailed), or it could be the same length but with a better overview of the sections covered in the article, as the lead didn't outline these sections much at all.
 * I found that virtually all of the content of the article was relevant, thorough, and up to date as most of the information seemed to have come from the 90s or later. Luckily there didn't seem to be anything missing from the article as they elaborated a ton on almost every aspect of cell cleavage I could think of (and some material I didn't know about).
 * There didn't seem to be any issue with neutrality or bias in the article, although I was intrigued by some of the methods of cleavage they discussed in the article (such as bilateral, rotational and discoidal cleavage) as I had never heard of some of these cleavage methods and I assumed that there was only really radial and spiral cleavage. I may need to check if there's consensus on the groups of animals which exhibit each type of cleavage but aside from this I don't believe there were any issues with a lack of neutrality in the article.
 * Many of the earlier sections seemed to have entirely lacked citations which seemed odd especially for sections regarding the mechanism of cleavage which I would assume would need some source. Aside from this though, the vast majority of the article included plenty of sources to support their claims. Not only this, many of the sources seemed recent and reliable (though there did seem to be a few primary sources used). There were a lot of sources used though, which may reflect the available literature on the topic.
 * I found that the organization of the article was well done, and there weren't any issues with grammar or punctuation that I could find in the article. I found the article generally easy to read, but the amount of somewhat unfamiliar terminology used in the article hindered its clarity a bit.
 * The images and their associated captions were well made and were great at assisting in understanding the topic. Not to mention the images seemed to follow the copyright restrictions (either being in the creative commons or public domain).
 * Most of the discussion board was just discussing whether the sections on spiral/radial cleavage should be merged (and a similar discussion occurred for determinate/indeterminate cleavage). This seems to have somewhat already been done, with all of these now being subsections instead of their own dedicated sections. The other discussion was something I brought up in the neutrality discussion, this being that one Wikipedian was concerned as to whether marsupials had radial or rotational cleavage. This article is in the Wikiprojects of: Biology, Anatomy, Physiology and Animal Anatomy, and it's considered C class for most of these projects whereas it's considered a start class article in the Animal Anatomy Wikiproject.
 * Overall I found this article was very well made and informative but I think it could use a few more citations, especially early on in the article. I may also try to either give a better overview of the various sections in the lead and/or make the lead a bit more concise. I may also double check if the various animal groups actually have the type of cleavage that the article claimed they had (and if I can confirm/deny that the article was right I would include a citation to prove it). I will also see if I can simplify the terminology used in some of the sections in order to make the article more accessible/understandable to readers.
 * Overall I found this article was very well made and informative but I think it could use a few more citations, especially early on in the article. I may also try to either give a better overview of the various sections in the lead and/or make the lead a bit more concise. I may also double check if the various animal groups actually have the type of cleavage that the article claimed they had (and if I can confirm/deny that the article was right I would include a citation to prove it). I will also see if I can simplify the terminology used in some of the sections in order to make the article more accessible/understandable to readers.


 * Sources
 * Vertebrate Embryonic Cleavage Pattern Determination. Vertebrate Development. pp 117-171
 * On the features of embryonic cleavage in diverse fish species. Russian Journal of Developmental Biology. 46, 326–332 (2015)
 * “Evolution” of Embryogenesis: Complexity of the Early Developmental Stages in the Animal Kingdom. OBM Genetics. (2020) 4(3)