User talk:Se110301/sandbox

Assignment 1: Chlorosome
Article Critique

One of the crucial aspects of quality Wikipedia articles is the verifiability. This means that the readers should be able to check that the claims made by the article come from multitude of reputable, published sources. In this article, however, there are only four references and four citations. Moreover, the section on “Structure” does not have any citation and therefore, it may be difficult to validate the information. Overall, the inadequate referencing shows that the content of the article may lack credibility. Furthermore, the references were published between 2002 and 2009, which suggests that some of the information may be outdated. There is a recently published journal by Günther et al (2016). The paper sheds light on the chlorosome self-assembly by introducing innovative techniques such as mutagenesis and theoretical modelling. These up-to-date research findings from dependable sources and more citations throughout the article should be added.

In terms of the layout, there is room for improvement. For instance, the article introduces the lamellar and helices model to describe the chlorosome’s structure and organization in the bacteria. However, there are no images or diagrams in the article that illustrates the chlorosome assembly. Typically, quality articles utilize visual aid to provide guidance and elaborate the concept to the reader. On the “talk” page, a user has proposed a diagram depicting the rod model of the chlorosome assembly, based on adequate references. Integrating appropriate images and media as such with suitable captions would enhance the quality of the article and make the material more reader-friendly.

Assignment 2: Denitrification
Article Critique

The Wikipedia article Denitrification is of high notability for several reasons. First, this article is supported by 22 references and literatures, including peer reviewed journals from reputable databases such as the PubMed and the UBC Library. Moreover, denitrification is a chemical process that plays an integral role in maintaining life on Earth. Denitrifying bacteria reduces nitrate (NO3-) to gaseous nitrogen (N2), facilitating a crucial step in balancing the global nitrogen cycle. In addition, denitrification serves as the vital component in industrial applications such as the wastewater system and agriculture.

Nonetheless, the section Conditions required could be enhanced in a couple of ways. The section introduces some bias, potentially due to the inclusion of material from an outdated source. For example, the first part claims that denitrification can only take place in anoxic, or oxygen depleted environments. Yet, recent research findings have suggested that the process can be carried out in areas of low oxygen concentration. For instance, the bacterial species Paracoccus denitrificans was found to perform denitrification in both oxic and anoxic environments simultaneously. The bacteria showed little but stable activity of nitrous-oxide reductase, an enzyme that catalyzes the last step of denitrification. Furthermore, high activity of denitrifying organisms was observed in the intertidal zones, where the tidal cycles cause high fluctuations in oxygen concentration. As such, adding updated findings from dependable sources would immensely improve this section by neutralizing the claims. In addition, the latter part of the section introduces a phenomenon called nitrogen isotope fractionation. The use of jargons may be too technical for most readers especially since the section lacks elaboration on key concepts. First of all, the article should inform the readers that the two most stable isotopes of nitrogen found in nature are: 14N and 15N. Then, the idea of fractionation should be expanded further. The article should explain that the fractionation is the enrichment of 15N residue in the soil due to the preference of lighter isotope of nitrogen,14N, in biological processes such as denitrification. Thus, enlightening the readers by using less technical terms and adding more detail would significantly improve the article.

Se110301 (talk) 06:25, 28 September 2017 (UTC)

Eric Lee’s Peer Review
Although it is the nature of a start-to-C level article to be short of key details, it is great to see your additions by rewording, adding cited research, and providing important facts! Your edits were neutral in tone and concise in style making it approachable to a wide range audience.

Yet, there are some significant considerations to make. In your first paragraph, you reworded the second and third sentences, but the meaning was changed. It was originally written: bacteria respire nitrate as ‘a’ substitute TEA in oxygen depletion, but here you suggest “In anoxic environments, nitrate is used as ‘the’ substitute” which is logically false because nitrate isn’t the only option in anoxic cases.

However, you successfully corrected that denitrification not only happens in anoxic environments by adding another paragraph. Your paragraph was nicely written with a species example and a methodology of how oxic denitrification is possible – this expands the breath. Yet, I suggest rephrasing the last two sentences as it lacks grammatical transition. You may benefit by further discussing if low level reductase is significant to expand content.

All references that you have used are primary original studies – this strengthens the reliability of your edits. In the last paragraph you identified the isotopes “N14 and N15” that weren’t mentioned, but you deleted one sentence that explained details of denitrification which originally lacked a citation. You may benefit by adding in the citation and further explaining the delta value which reveals a variety of environmental and experimental conditions. I have found the missing citation: http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/8/9/385/htm, you can put this primary source into good use.

The overall structure was excellent to begin with and you have nicely maintained the structure. As the topic is on conditions required for denitrification, it is wise to check whether all details belong here or if they need explanation on why it is a “condition” such as fractionation.

Edits0920 (talk) 07:06, 6 November 2017 (UTC)