the effects of "mapping the brains" on our society - Porfolio 5

Most of people think “reading people’s mind” is an idea that could just be in fairy tales. But this fairy tale is coming true with the development of the technology named Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The technology promises positive potentials in some related-brain diseases treatment and also criminal investigation as well. However, ethical and legal issues in the development and application of fMRI that are thought to be the negative effect of the technology are still under experiment and public consideration.

How fMRI could affect our society?
Firstly, fMRI can detect and locate brain activity, so enable computer analyze then determine correctly what words and visual images the person is thinking of. In the term of investigation, on the one hand, the technology could function well in detect the information the person’s brain. A terrorist’ brain, for example, will contain many information and visual images of weapons, bomb and shooting. In the group of people are being considered as the criminals, the police could distinguish and arrest the right person more easily by using fMRI. Moreover, in a company, the boss could also check if his managers and worker are lying or cheating him. On the other hand, evaluating this technology on the aspect of ethical issues, many questions could be raised. “Who have the right to use this technique, read and store data of people’s brains?” “What would be happening if the computer did not function well and give the wrong data?” “Are the visual images and information from brain are reliable to determine the nature of the person?” As the result, a good person could be thought to be a bad worker, a liar in work place and in society accidentally; a man could be arrested because of some criminal information obtained from his brain.
Secondly, in the issues of testing with children, the technology could create a chaos among parents’ opinion. Parents want to know whether their children are talented at a particular subject. That might be a good idea when you have directional orientations for your children and support their talents. On the contrary, the talents and interests could be able to change in the effect of surroundings. Then the above idea “checking children’s talents” could have negative effects when parents themselves get confused about the “talent- orientation” from children’s brains overtime.
Furthermore, development of fMRI could support the techniques in treatment of some serious brain-diseases. “The technology could eventually lead to the use of brain scans to identify thoughts and could have applications in the study of autism, disorders of thought such as paranoid schizophrenia, and semantic dementias such as Pick’s disease.”(“National Science Foundation”, 2008).

In the perspective of a researcher of brain mapping, I think minimizing potential unethical abuses depends mostly on governments. The governments should decree the laws and regulations of use of the technology fMRI in some limited aspects of life such as criminal investigation and medical treatments. It is also necessary to have the data and information obtained from human’s brains saved and stored safely once the computer has scanned brains for treatments.
In summary, although fMRI has negative effects on our society that must be considered in terms of ethical and political issues, the technology promises the positive potential in criminal investigations and medical treatments. Beside scientist and engineering are working to develop this technology, the governments also need to build laws of usage of fMRI so that the technology could be developed and applied legally with the agreements and support from public.

References
National Science Foundation. (2008, May 30). A computer that can “read” your mind
[Press release 08-091]. Retrieved August 6, 2008, from http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111641&org=olpa&from=news

the method is suitable for my homecountry

With the development of societies, human beings have been exploiting and overusing resources but they have the limit. This problem is not exceptional for my country, Vietnam. The recent concerns are how to deal with the increasing amount of rubbish, how to reuse and recycle things that we dispose, actually taking the perspective of a future engineer, I think zero waste system seems to promise potential to solve that. First of all, Vietnam is also in a similar context with many other countries, using more and more resources for industries to catch up the common development of the world and serving the increasing needs of people. Rubbish is, however, not treated well by the current method: landfills. A conspicuous problem is that waste is constantly leaking from reservoirs and causes many pollutions to our living environment and harms humans’ health. Incinerators could be considered as alternative methods, however, it required much energy to burn rubbish and might exhaust some poisonous gases. In contrast, with zero waste system, we could classify kinds of rubbish and separate them into particular recycling process. So we can reduce significantly the amount of rubbish released into the environment, and also reduce the need for incinerators and landfills. That means we also prevent the risks from the leakage of waste from landfills and the cost for incinerators. In addition, by recycling used products, turning rubbish into the useful products, we can have a small business, create jobs for people and make money. In conclusion, I, a would-be engineer, strongly believe that zero waste system could be applied in my home country to solve the increasing amount of rubbish, prevent pollution in natural environment by reusing and recycling used products.

My difficulties in MLE1101 class- porfolio 4

This is my first year in university, a big change from high school to the higher education environment, I think. I have, obviously, been dealing with many difficulties and challenge in this new studying environment. My modules in this semester cause me some confused and worried because of my non-speaking English background and many brand new concepts.

Firstly, language is the most important thing I have to master parallel with my engineering curriculum. It is said that engineers are working with formulas and figures most of time. However, in term of language, the way I read and we write also plays a very important in our study because I must read textbook and listen to my lecturers as well as do reports. Naturally, those things are the difficulties for an engineer in general and even more difficult for international students who do not have a speaking English background. I often read slowly to understand what the points are in the lectures, and in textbooks. I also get troubles in writing since I am required to change my writing style, I mean, the English grammars and sentence structures from my mother tongue. And how am I solving these problems? First, I am lucky to take an English class in university now so that I have opportunities to learn more reading and writing strategies from my professor and textbooks. Furthermore, I have time to discuss with my classmate and improve English each other. Meanwhile, in my other modules’ textbooks, I often try to read twice or three times until I understand. Besides studying, I also listen to radio, for example BBC or VOA, to get catch new words and improve my listening skill also. Reading academic articles related with engineering or science helps me to upgrade my reading speed and I can learn new writing style and sentences or paragraphs organizations.

Secondly, English causes me some problems, but the brand new concepts trouble me more. Particularly, although I could know the meaning of the words, I could not understand what they mean because I have to get stuck into the real knowledge engineering and technology to understand it. So what I have done to deal with this big problem is I try to transfer these word- concepts into visual concepts. In MLE1101 class, for example, talking about polymers, polymerization and particle reinforced composite materials, it is extremely to understand those concepts without pictures about them. Moreover, if I still have difficulties with my visual concepts, asking for help from my professors and tutors is also the best way to clarify your mind. Otherwise, studying in a group, and discussing with my friends not only gives me chance to ask but also helps me out discovering my misconception sometimes.

In conclusion, having difficulties in studying is the common things for every students, especially for international students, but the important thing is how you could figure out the way to overcome. To me, trying to improve my own English, having visual concepts and discussing with my friends, tutors, and professor are my way to get over my difficulties and challenges in my university time.

summary- Porfolio 3

The summary of "China's Milk Scandal Now seen as Risk in Europe"
European Union (EU) has just put a serious testing on imports containing milk powder after the event that milk powder from China may be appearing in Europe and damaging children's health. That cookies, toffees and chocolates are put on the top of the list has proved how widespread Chinese ingredients geographically are. The World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. have also expressed the same attitude recently. In China, milk products containing the industrial chemical melanine have already harmed more then 50,000 young children and pushed a puzzling scandal to the government. The European Food Safety Authority said that children taking some products such as chocolate and biscuits could have the T.D.I intake three times higher than average level which could lead to kidney stone. The European Commission and the U.S. have been trying to assess the extent of the risk but it seems to be out of their reach. A lot of countries as well as companies have disposed a significant amount of China products with milk ingredients in recent times. Global companies like Oreo who have manufacturers in China are also fighting with the issues to determine that their products do not have the milk ingredients from China, otherwise they just use a very low level.

References
Rosenthal, E. (2008, September 26). China's Milk Scandal Now seen as Risk in Europe.
Retrieved September 29, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26
/world/asia/26melamine.html?_r=2&ref=health&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

This is the original article:

China’s Milk Scandal Now Seen as Risk in Europe
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

European Union regulators on Thursday ordered rigorous testing of imports containing at least 15 percent milk powder after concluding that food containing tainted milk powder from China may well be circulating in Europe and putting children at risk.

The action, announced by the European Food Safety Authority and the European Commission, significantly expands the potential geographic reach of a milk adulteration scandal in China to now include a range of foods sold around the world. The Europeans said cookies, toffees and chocolates were the major concerns.

The World Health Organization and the Unicef also expressed concern on Thursday about the Chinese milk contamination and the implications for other foods. In the United States, some consumer groups called on the Food and Drug Administration to restrict imports of foods that may contain suspected dairy ingredients from China.

In China, milk products contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine have sickened more than 50,000 young children in recent weeks and created a spiraling government scandal.

While it is illegal to import dairy products and baby formula from China into the European Union, European nations can and do import many processed foods containing milk powder as an ingredient that are manufactured outside of Europe. Such products could contain milk powder from China.

In 2007, the European Union imported from China about 19,500 tons of confectionary products, including pastries, cake and cookies, and about 1,250 tons of chocolate and other prepared foods containing cocoa.

“Children who consume both biscuits and chocolate could potentially exceed the T.D.I. by up to more than three times,” the European Food Safety Authority said Thursday, referring to the tolerable daily intake of melamine that the agency regards as safe. Levels above that could result in kidney stones, Ian Palombi, a spokesman for the agency, said in a telephone interview.

In Brussels, the European Commission was trying to assess the extent of the risk. “The problem is with the composite food products, which can be imported, even if they contain milk powder from China,” said Nina Papadoulaki, a spokeswoman for the commission. She said the Commission did not know how many companies sell snacks in Europe that were manufactured in China or included ingredients from China.

She said that member states and food companies in the European Union had been asked to test products for melamine in the past 10 days and so far had not detected a problem, although the testing was continuing.

In the United States, some consumer groups called for stricter regulation as well.

“It is now clear that China has exported dairy products like powdered milk and milk protein products around the globe and we know that some of them came to the United States,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food and Water Watch. “It is time for the F.D.A. to take this issue seriously and stop the import of dairy products from China until this situation is under control.”

The United States has imported two million pounds of a milk protein called casein this year, along with other powdered milk proteins that are used as ingredients in many processed foods, according to figures from the United States Department of Agriculture. This includes 293,000 pounds that were imported in July. The Food and Drug Administration did not immediately return calls for comment on Thursday.

Melamine is a chemical used in plastic manufacturing that can be added to foods to artificially increase their protein content in testing. Its presence was detected in pet foods originating from China last year.

Even if present in foods in Europe, milk powder contaminated with melamine is not likely to cause the kind of public health disaster that is occurring among Chinese infants. In China, babies drank contaminated milk powder as their sole source of nutrition for weeks if not months, and a handful have died.

Because the harm caused by melamine is related to someone’s weight, it is far less harmful to older children and not likely to be dangerous for adults. Also, for children and adults in Europe, melamine-contaminated milk powder is one small component of a broader diet. The toxic effects of melamine are cumulative, creating kidney stones that can in severe cases lead to kidney failure. Still, children who eat very large quantities of sweets could be at risk.

This week, a number of countries and companies that had previously removed Chinese dairy products from supermarket shelves have started removing snack foods containing milk powder as well. On Thursday, members of the Philippine Association of Supermarkets removed Chinese food products with milk ingredients.

In an increasingly globalized food economy, manufacturers use raw ingredients from all over the world, often making it difficult to track the origins.

For example, Kraft Foods, the maker of Oreo cookies, recently moved one of its large cookie factories from Australia to China. But Claire Regan, a spokeswoman for the company, said that most of the products Kraft made in China were distributed within China, although a limited number were exported. Most do not contain milk products from China, she said, and, when they do, the levels of such ingredients are very low. The Oreo product line does not contain milk ingredients from China, Ms. Regan said.

My reflection

oops, so i have been attending in Ms Fong's Class for 9 weeks, a time i have learnt and improved a lot.

the first thing, i want to self-encourage me is that "i have been improving my writing skill". I understand that writing skill plays a very important role not only in the next four year in NUS, but in my future career as well. Particularly, now i can contribute many more my ideas and my writing in my group assignments by which i was often scared, and i felt embarassing because i could not express what i thought in academic and understandable sentences.

Secondly, i also know i must consider the in-text citation and references when i am writing an essay. Because, i could be a plagiarist accidentially if i cited someone's ideas or words without indicating where and who these ideas were from.

And last but not least, i also find that my reading skill has been better by limiting the reading time in class that makes my mind quicker and more flexible. And because of having assignment, reading more related articles or books to support my ideas in assignment, i gradually find out the best way to read fast that fits me. 

finally, thank you, Ms Fong with a lot of helpful lessons, thank mates with small talk and laughter in class in recent time. Thank you very much.

My common grammar mistakes-porfolio 2

“What is the difference between ‘a/an’ and ‘the’” and “What article do I have to use now” are the questions which used to be on my mind when I tried to describe things that I meant. So I have had a summary of using correctly English to help me and you memorize the usage of articles. First of all, how many types of articles does English have? In fact, there are two types: one is indefinite (an, a) and definite (the). Secondly, although “a” and “an”, two indefinite articles, indicate singular countable nouns, they have differences. “A” stands in front of the consonant sounds and whereas “An” does stand in front of the vowel sounds. The emphasized thing is consonant sounds and vowel sounds because you sometimes have to use “An” instead of “A” although the nouns or phrasal nouns begins with consonant and inversely. I have some useful examples such as “an hour”, “an honor”, “a one-man show”, “a European”, “a university student”, “a NUSSU member”, “an FBI agent” and “an SIA stewardess” are helpful examples (Low, C., & Pan, D., 2007). Thirdly, “the” is used when nouns are particular or specific, and countable or uncountable. Moreover, “The” also stands in front of the name of rivers, ocean, seas, points on the globe, geographical areas, but “the” is not used before the name of countries, cities, mountain, continents. To sump up, a/an are used when the nouns refer to any member of the group, indefinite things, whereas “the” indicate particular ones.

Reference
Low, C., & Pan, Daphne. (2007). The write right guide (6^th ed). Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning: National University of Singapore.

Then, this is the practical exercise for you.

SELF Materials Articles Advanced

Exercise 2

Read the passage below and edit it by filling in the correct articles: ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’, or ‘zero article’(Ø). There are twenty errors altogether.

Personal information management has come long way since Filofax became ‘in’ thing for executives in late 1980’s.

Today, diaries are no longer made of paper- they are mini computers which can process information at touch of a button, allow users to surf Internet or even play music video clips. Not only that, typical personal digital assistant (PDA) can have memory capacity of 16 to 96 MB, or enough space to store information kept in more than 100 paper diaries.

Ever since Palm- mother of modern-day PDAs- launched Palm Pilot in 1996, much has changed. Colour screens and vast leaps in memory capacity have changed humble handheld gadget from mere digital Filofax to pocket multimedia hub.

However, once you decide to buy handheld products, it doesn’t stop there. More than 145,000 developers for Palm operating system (OS) alone are busy producing software and hardware accessories. This means that users can attach anything to their PDAs, from digital cameras to devices that massage their backs. Your palmtop can also be television remote control unit, game theatre, database, book reader, humble pocket calculator and even phone.

Some traditional phone manufacturers like Motorola (Accompli A388, available next month) and Nokia (Communicator 9210, available now for $1288) satisfy convergence -gadget fans by putting useful diary functions into their handsets. But Palm OS and Pocket PC products are still superior PDAs. Choice between two, however, is personal.

(Adapted from an article by Steve Dawson - Tech Talk, The Straits Times: Thursday, April 4, 2002)

You can find the answer at http://courses.nus.edu.sg/courseware/ITSELF/ by clicking on the tab Grammatical Exercise/Articles.

I wish you a enjoyable reading and practicing.

Extra assignment. Disadvantages of STEM education.

That “Engineers must join with scientists, educators, and others to encourage and promote improved science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education” is the key for engineers to “acquire the knowledge and tools required to meet society’s needs” (National Academy of Engineering, 2008). However, “a coin always has two faces”, more focus on STEM education most likely means less time for education in language arts and lots of corresponding disadvantages can be foreseen. The first thing that is pointed out is the weakness of communication skills, especially vocal skills. Majoring in STEM, engineers pay most attention to the formulas, equations, structures of the materials in which the dry literal language is most likely used. So it is evident that an engineer who is good at solving mathematical problems and drawing the system’s structure doesn’t mean he will verbalize the representations of those things well. Moreover, the lack of exposure to more normal and social issues makes it hard for engineers to begin a small talk with strangers and easily make the conversation boring. Secondly, once engineers mainly focus on STEM, they may lose their creativity. Most of inventions and innovations have arisen at the beginning of thinking of non-existent and “pretty crazy” things. But the lack of language art education is in harmony with the lack of abstraction in the mind of engineers and leads to the shortage of romance and imagination that are strongly required for creating brand new things for the world. Last but not least, the deficient preparedness for a workplace might be considered as the most disadvantage of the lack of attention to language arts. Engineers have been certainly well trained to be capable of operating systems and machines. Are engineers, however, taught how to behave well and deal with real-life problems among colleagues in the offices that may happen frequently? That is the really big obstacle when the engineers experience themselves in the real working environment. So, as arguments considered above, though STEM is indispensable for engineers, the language arts education is surely necessary for excellent would-be engineers.

References

National Academy of Engineering. (2008, February). Introduction to the

grand challenges of engineering. Retrieved June 3, 2008, from

http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9221.aspx