W11T1 What Can We Do to Minimize the Abuses of Brain Mapping

W11T1 What Can We Do to Minimize the Abuses of Brain Mapping

Have you ever imagined that the mind readers, which only existed in science fictions, could be existing in the real world one day? Maybe brain mapping can make this dream come true in the future. Brain mapping is a set of neuroscience techniques predicated on the mapping of (biological) quantities or properties onto spatial representations of the (human or non-human) brain resulting in maps. However every coin has two sides, brain mapping also has its positive and negative effects on society. National Science Foundation has reported that he positive effect of brain mapping is that could applied in the study of the autism, disorders of thoughts such as paranoid schizophrenia, and semantic dementias such as Pick’s disease in the future(May, 2008). Conversely, if the work of the brain mapping is abused, the negative effects of brain mapping are very serious. It will cause a lot of ethical problems, such as the privacy right of citizens will be violated. Hence, what can we do to minimize the unethical abuses of brain mapping.  
In my view, the authority should strengthen the control of the use of brain mapping firstly. The authority and the related experts should take the responsibility to supervise the proper use of brain mapping. They can make the restricted rules to regulate the use of brain mapping. For example, they can make a rule saying that before using brain mapping, people or organizations should get the permission from the authority. Secondly, the experts can do more research on brain mapping to make this technology becomes more and more accurate. The increasing accuracy of the technology can lead to less errors and minimize the harm caused by the abuse of brain mapping. Finally, citizens should strengthen their legal sense. They should protect their privacy right by laws. 
In conclusion, we should be careful to apply brain mapping to daily life, because it is easy to cause a lot of ethical problems. Experts and the authority should be responsible to the use of brain mapping, and trying their best to minimize the abuse of brain mapping.


Reference:
National Science Foundation. ( 2008, May 30). A computer that can ‘read’ your mind [Press release 08-091]. Retrieved August6, 2008, from

W9T2: Difficulties I have in writing in EG1471

W9T2: Difficulties I have in writing in EG1471

Up to now the main difficulty I have had in writing is that I cannot express my ideas clearly. When I write the essays, I always think the sentences in Chinese way then translate them into English. This bad habit makes the sentences’ structures are very strange. That causes I cannot express my ideas properly and people cannot understand me. In addition, I always misuse some words such as “consequence” and “sequence”. It causes readers’ confusion. Moreover, sometimes, I want to express too many ideas in one sentence. However, I cannot handle it, which makes the essay very complicated.

In order to resolve this difficulty, I set a learning plan. This plan has three parts. The first part is reading. The best way to write a good essay is reading. I will read all kinds of good articles, such as academic essays, scientific report and news. In this way, I can get a lot of useful information, such as the good structures of sentences, the proper use of the words and so on. The second part is practicing. When I was in secondary school, my teacher had said that if I want to improve my writing skills, I should write regularly. Hence, doing more writing practice cannot only help me improve my writing skills, but also can help me find the problems of my writings. I think keeping a diary is a good and rapid way to improve my writing skills. I can record a lot of writing material as well. The third part is peer-review. Sometimes, the problems in our essays are not easy to be discovered by ourselves. We need others’ help. Sometimes, people are more sensitive to others’ shortages. We need them to figure out the shortages of our essays. And we need others’ suggestion to make the essays more perfect. 

I believe that if I can carry on this plan for half year at least, my writing skills will have a big progress. 

W7T1:Engineering’s greatest challenge: Our survival

Summary:  

Title: Engineering’s greatest challenge: Our survival

Sub-title: Panel puts 14 jobs on to-do list, ranging from clean water to clean fusion

In Feb 15, 2008, in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the 14 Grand Challenges for engineering were announced. These challenges were as followed: making solar energy affordable, providing energy from fusion, developing carbon sequestration methods, managing the nitrogen cycle, providing access to clean water, restoring and improving urban infrastructure, advancing health informatics, engineering the brain, preventing nuclear terror, securing cyberspace, enhancing virtual reality, advancing personalized learning, engineering the tools for scientific discovery. These challenges fell into four general themes: promoting sustainable technologies, advancing human health, reducing vulnerability to threats and increasing the joy of living. It reported that was imperative for our survival on the planet to meet these challenges, since some of these challenges would improve the quality of life in the world. They would make us more secure against both human and natural threats. In addition, W. Perry, who was an engineering professor at Stanford University, noted that almost of these challenges were caused by the great achievements of the 20th century. He thought that scientists and engineers should not only look at how we seize the opportunities of new technology, but how they meet the challenges that were created by the developments in the 20th century. 
While, the details about these challenges project are offered in the official website of the National Academy of Engineering. And the academy did a survey in the website which was asking the public to vote for the most important challenge and provide comments about it. A lot of people did response. A man called Vest mentioned that in order to solve these challenges as soon as possible, it was very important to get the support from the high authority.  

Reference:
Boyle. A (2008). Engineering’s greatest challenge: Our survival. Retrieved September 30, 2008, from:
        http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23175788/

Writing assignment1

NAME: WANG TIANREN (APPLE)
Martic NO.: U086069E
GROUP: E06
TUTOR: MS KHOO SIM ENG
Writing Assignment 1
Paragraph 1: Cause and Effect -- Why people resist new technology 
Rewrite :
The high price of high-technology products is one of the reasons that people resist new technology. As new technology is at the beginning of its development stage, it does not have as much infrastructure as other industries. The products of new technology are normally more expensive than other products. For example, solar energy is a new technology. Consequently, solar energy’s price is about 5 to 20 times higher than other energy sources (Solar Energy: Competitive Positioning by each Market Segment, 2006, para1). There are four factors that cause the high price of high-technology products. The first factor is the high price of the patent. As new technology has not been applied in daily life for a long period, the producers must pay a high price to get the patent. The second factor is the high cost of new installations. New technology is different from existing technology and requires specific equipment. The producers may need to spend much money to make this specific equipment. That leads to another factor, which is the high cost of educating workers. Since the machines are new, most of the workers have not used them before. Hence, the producers have to pay a lot of money to educate their workers and train them so that they work efficiently. The fourth factor is the high cost of advertising. Since most people are not familiar with the new technology, the producers have to put out many advertisements to popularize their products. While this is effective, it is also expensive. In conclusion, the high price is a great obstacle for people to accept the new technology.

References:
 Solar Energy: Competitive Positioning by each Market Segment (2006). Retrieved 01 Sep, 2008, from http://www.solarbuzz.com/StatsCosts.htm

 Word 267

W5T2 Grammar Mistakes

One of my common grammar mistakes is sentence fragment. I always write incomplete sentences when I write my essays. According to Writing Academic English (Oshima A, Hogue A, 2006, P183), the key to solve this problem is to remember that a complete sentence must contain at least one main or independent clause. Refer to Writing Academic English, “an independent clause contains a subject and a verb and express a complete thought” (Oshima A, Hogue A, 2006, P163). For example, “I am writing my assignment.”, it is a independent clause. Another key to avoid sentence fragment is to pay attention to the sentences with subordinators, such as although, since, because, if, before and so on. Make sure that every clause beginning with these words is attached to an independent clause. For instance, “Before we make the detailed plan, we need some more facts and figures.”, it is a sentence with correct usage of “before”. As I hold to the tenet that theory should be united with practice, I will do some exercise then. 

Practice: to correct the followed sentence.

1. Everybody in this village know, April fond of hunting.

Right: Everybody in this village knows that April is fond of hunting.

2. To study a foreign language, a good dictionary should be bought.

Right: To study a foreign language, we should buy a good dictionary.

3. Finishing my composition, I had nothing to do.

Right: Having finishing my composition, I had nothing to do.

4. Sailing on and on, a new island was discovered.

Right: Sailing on and on, they discovered a new island.

5. He succeeded because had work hard.

Right: He succeeded because he had worked hard.

All in all, the structure of the sentence is very important. We can pay attention to it.

Task1:Sustainablity--the Great Challenge for Engineers

Today, engineers are facing a lot of challenges with technological advancements such as sustainability, human health, vulnerability and joy of living. I regard sustainability as the greatest one. My reasons are as followed:

First of all, sustainability is related to the existence of all the human beings. It is a common sense that we only have one earth; we should take care of it. However, we cannot deny that the living situation of our earth is getting worse and worse. People have to fight against a lot of sustainable problems, such as energy crisis, water crisis, world starvation, greenhouse effect, kinds of pollutions and so on. The problems above all have very significant influence on our life. As we know the resources on the earth are finite. They will be run out one day. It is urgent to put the Strategy of Sustainable Development into effect. Without doubting, human beings will benefit a lot from implementing the Strategy of Sustainable Development.

Secondly, there are a lot of limitations that we have to deal with. It is very sad that the sustainable problems are not easy to solve in a short time, though the situation of the world now is very serious. One of the important reasons is that some academic theories are impractical. Normally, they cost too much to make the products, that makes them cannot be applied in manufacturing industries. In addition, this sustainable industry is a kind of new industry. The related technologies and skills still need to be improved. And as it is new, the customers need time to accept its products.

In conclusion, sustainability is the greatest challenge for the engineers, and the work will be more and more challenging in the future. However, do not forget the challenges always come with chances. We can find out ourselves’ ways to face the challenges and seize the chances. Come on, the engineers in the future!