E porfolio 5

Brain mapping technology is gaining recognition in this scientific world. It has a wide prospect of contribution, ranging from the study of emotion to moral judgment and to disease diagnosis. Even though brain mapping has many bright sides, misusing it will cause unethical abuses. One of the major negative impacts from the use of this technology is information invasion. With this advance technology, it increases information accessibility. Consequently, it increases the opportunity for criminals to invade any protected information by just analyzing the brain activities of any victims. This is a very detrimental to a nation as it threatens national security. The major ethical issue would prevail from the use of brain mapping is the consideration of implementing such technology into young children (Lou Marano, 2003). Parents who are compulsive of their children future will allow such implementation to be done unto their children in order to know what future holds for them. For example, knowing that their child is not academic talented, parents will invest less in their education even though their children might show interest in education. Hence, the future if their children will be affected.
To minimize such unethical abuses, one of the ways is scientist should set the guidelines and standards of the usage of the brain mapping technology. Regulations and rules are to be setup in a way such that it does not promote technology exploitation. Permission by authority is needed before one can implement brain mapping and it is only allowed in certain necessary situations only, particularly disease treatment. Scientists should also do a thorough on this field whether we can totally depend on it to determine a person’s characteristic, especially in the case of a young child. This is because environment could be another factor that might able to change the child’s behavior and thinking. Hence, Scietist should come out a concrete explanation so that parents would not undermine the capability of their children.
Brain mapping technology is a very intriguing technology yet it can bring harm to human if it is not operated accordingly to rules in which ethics should be taken into consideration. Hence, unethical abuses of such technology should be minimized so that this technology is fully benefited for the right purposes.

Reference:
1.Lou Marano, (June 3, 2003). Ethics and Mapping the Brain Washington Times

E porfolio 4

Writings in engineering subjects require mature organization skill before one can execute it. This is because most of the subjects in this field are either in the form of a “chronological” manner or a “cause and effect” style. Even though with all of the knowledge I have in a certain matter, I find it hard to organize them in an appropriate way to project my ideas smoothly. Hence, at times I find that my essays are quite messy and easily misinterpreted by others. This is due to my weaknesses in organization skills and my conjunction usage. In addition, I tend to use long sentences to explain my thoughts, in other words, I often commit to use run-off sentences.
In order to resolve this issue, firstly I think I will have to understand the question fully and analyze them in order to prevent from misinterpretation. After highlighting all the required information and keywords, I will have to come out with a clear outline. This will certainly come in handy as I will not miss any important facts and able to organize them in a more clear and systematic manner. This method will confine me into the scope of discussion, preventing me from providing irrelevant information. Hence, it will improve my flow of ideas in the essay, avoiding confusion or misunderstandings.
In order to enhance the flow of my essay, I think I should improve my usage of conjunctions and transition signals. By misusing either one of the both would change the meaning of an idea or make the flow of the idea to jerk. The only way is to do more practices to improve myself. Writing a scientific essay does not require flowery language, but it still requires skills. In order avoid long sentence, I have to simplify my sentence structure. One of the skills of writing an engineering essay is to avoid heavy sentences. Simple sentences are sufficient to project a certain idea.

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E porfolio 3 -- Clean Water supply

Clean water supply has been a critical issue in this 21^st century. Human life has been afflicted severely by this scarcity. This is largely due to the uneven distribution of water sources around the globe. However, partly it is also caused by natural climate or even political and economic barriers. In a technological perspective, engineers have to develop a more sophisticated method to overcome this issue. This is because current technology could not support the increasing of water usage. Moreover, most of the world’s water is in the ocean which is salty, causing it unsuitable for most purposes. One of the most widely used methods is the diversion of water supply. Clean water is directed to various regions that faces water shortage. However, this method is not so practical since it could not meet all of the society needs, especially in the agricultural sector. Political controversy may also arise due to unfairness in distribution. Desalination is also another common yet costly method in which it is a salt extraction process from sea water. Its contribution is limited to seaside cities and rich countries since the operation requires high amount of energy. Even though this technique is modified into a more advanced system, new strategies still have to be developed in order to overcome the global water crisis. For example, further improvement on recycling wastewater and sewage treatment are being developed with the help of nanotechnology. The “drip irrigation” method is also another prospective approach to reduce water usage especially in the agricultural field. In additional, small distribution units are also being invented to overcome water distribution problem in rural areas. However, there were still ongoing plans to make this technology more affordable. All in all, besides improvising new technologies, equality in clean water distribution should not be neglected in addressing the issue of clean water supply.

National Academy of Engineering , WSEAS Groups, February 20, 2008

E-porfolio 2

One of the most common English Grammar mistakes which I often commit is preposition. A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition. It is used to express used to express position, direction or time. For example,
(a) I am sitting on the stool. (Position) (b) I am walking to her. (Direction)
(c) I do my homework at night. (Time)

Even though it might sound easy, sometimes it will be quite confusing because certain groups of preposition can be used in the same category. For example, “in”, “at”, and “on” can be used to indicate time. However, there are some differences of usage between them.

(a) At is used for times of the day
Examples:At half past 7, At breakfast time, at midnight
(b) On is used for days and dates
Examples:ON 5th of June, On Tuesday
(c) In is used for longer time of period
Examples: In April, In 1987
(d) No preposition is used for some “ time” words
Examples:Yesterday, next, tomorrow

Sometimes, “on” and “upon” can be quite confusing as well. Actually, ‘On’ is used to show position. For example: She sat on a chair. In the other hand, ‘Upon’ is used to indicate motion. For example: The cat sprang upon the cat.

Besides that, there is a difference between ‘at’ and ‘in’ when we use them to express places. ‘At ‘is used with small places like “At Hill Town” or “At Gaya Street”. On the other hand, ‘in’ is used with large towns or countries, such as “In Singapore” or “In Hong Kong”.

A part from that, there are certain words followed by certain prepositions in a fixed way. It is important to identify the suitable preposition when it is used with a word. Otherwise, it will be inappropriate since it will give a different meaning.For instances, 'I seldom talk to him anymore' is different with' Do not talk about sensitive issues in the public'. The preposition 'to' used in the first example , is used to direct the reader to some , while the preposition 'about' used in second sentence is used to describe or discuss a matter.Other examples are as the followings: ‘parted from’ and ‘parted with’, ‘known to’ and ‘know for ’, ‘glance at’ and ‘glance for’.
All in all, it is important that we aware of preposition usage so that confusion can be avoided and the message can be presented clearly.



Exercise1
Complete the sentences with ‘in’, ‘on’, or ‘at’.

1 I start work _9.00.
2 My birthday is_ December.
3 He goes shopping_ lunchtime.
4 My holiday starts _the 2nd of August.
5 In Canada it's very cold the _winter.
6 I don't work _Sundays.

Answers: 1. at 2.in 3.at 4.on 5.in 6.on

Exercise 2
1. My mother was fond _ children
2. He was born _ India_ poor parents
3. In order to find the solution for this question, we must look _ the matter more closely.
4. It depends how do u look_ this issue.
5. He is known_ his great contribution to the poor
6. He is made known _ her by his grandparents.
7. We shall fight_ terrorism by cooperating with government
8. Who shall we fight_?
9. Even though both of them are twins, they are different_ each other just by looking_ their physical appearance.
10. Most pianists are different_ their playing style

Answers: 1. Of 2.In, to 3.into 4.at 5.for 6.to 7.against 8. For 9.from 10.in

References:
1. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammarchallenge/pdfs/gc_16_timepreps_%20explanation.pdf
2. http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/preposit.html
3. Practical English Usage, English as a Second Language, Book 3, English Language Research Service, T.S. Kon
4. http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/englishfile/elementary/a_grammar/file03/grammar03_d02/

Eportfolio-task-1-EnGinEeriNg

After reading both articles, the idea of creating a more sustainable, safe and healthy place besides mainly focusing on the technological development has caught my attention (National Academy of Engineering, par. 28, Feb 2008). This is the grand challenge in which engineering faces today. Engineering has always been one of the sectors that have contributed the most in civilization and globalization. However, sadly, ethics and moral values or- in short, engineering professionalism- has often being neglected.

One of the significance of engineering professionalism is to ensure that all benefits and gifts from the sectors are evenly distributed and contributed to all classes of community. Despite living in a globalised world, millions and billions of people are still suffering from food and water scarcity, basic medical care and communication accessibility. Ironically, the richer countries are given more attention into higher level of technology development. As engineers, they should look at a bigger picture that the world cannot be a sustainable place if the world is divided. Civilization is not complete without meeting the needs and goals of the world’s community. In this matter, it is where engineering professionalism comes in, playing an important role in producing ethical engineers.

The abandonment of engineering ethics would also result in environmental hazard, which is closely related to human health as well. The current state of our environment is partly due to the irresponsibility and unprofessional conduct of some engineers. Despite with all the environmental regulations, cheaper polluting technologies are preferable over the more costly and most importantly “greener” technologies (National Academy of Engineering, par. 21, Feb 2008). Some may debate that this matter can be solved by medication, but this is not the main concern. Instead, it is all about sensing the urgency and the need to care for the environment. If this norm is to continue on without any action taken, our earth is no longer in a healthy state to live in.

Regardless of how advance and complex are the technologies produced by engineering, without moral and ethical values, the contribution from this field is less desirable, for creating a safer , healthier and more sustainable place still remains the main concerns for all of us.

National Academy of Engineering. (2008, February). Introduction to the grand challenges of engineering. Retrieved June 3, 2008, from http://engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9221/.aspx