E-Portfolio 7 – Ways that Recent University Graduates can contribute to Improving Our Health, Security, Joy in Life or the Environment

University graduates are always bogged down by their workloads, and do not find enough time for anything else in their lives. However, keeping a certain health level is extremely important. They can do just about anything at the Sports & Recreational Centre, or even take a jog down NUS roads in the evening to avoid the sweltering heat beating down on their backs in the day. This would enable their minds to be refreshed after facing a book for a straight 6 hours. Students must always keep a very good balance between work and play, no matter how difficult it seems.

Security can be greatly improved if students watch each other's backs. Incidents in school can be reduced if students are bothered enough to find out where their friends are, and where they are headed to especially if it is late at night. In hall, neighbours should be kept informed of a student's whereabouts, and not be left to worry when they come knocking on their door and realise their bed is empty. No one except hall residents should be able to go into a hall, or unless they have an extremely valid reason in which they would have to attain a certain pass to get in.

Classmates or friends should meet up once every 2 weeks to head out and relax, and keep work or studies out of the picture. There isn't any point if a group of people go out and they end up discussing about what should be handed in next week, or how their presentations are going. This would defeat the whole purpose of having a social life in school. They need not go anywhere extravagant, afterall most students have limited spending power. Even a simple picnic in the park would suffice. All of these factors would make the school not only a conducive place to study, but also a place where students bond and forge new friendships.

E-Portfolio 6 – My Common Grammar Mistakes

One of the most common grammatical mistakes would be forgetting to use the correct tense when I am writing an essay. Often, I mix both past and present tense in the same sentence or paragraph. Even when I am quoting an article or stating a fact, it is common that I unintentionally mix the tenses up. The mistakes are spotted when my essays are double-checked and vetted. An example would be "These statistics listed would be used to shown people how results fluctuate in different readings." After the word "to", only the base form of the word should be used.
The correct sentence should go "The statistics shown would be used to show people how results fluctuate in different reading."

The next error that I would be elaborating on would be the wrong usage of past participle in a sentence. The basic grammar rule would be using the past participle of the word only after the words "has","have", and "had". However, for certain words, for example, “eat”, “take” and "drink", their past participles are spelt differently from the present and the past tense forms of the word. An example would be "They have drank all the water in the fridge!" Past participle, and not simple past tense, should be used in this sentence where there is a critical "have" before the verb. The correct sentence should go "They have drunk all the water in the fridge!"

The last error would be using direct speech when it should be indirect speech. This should only be used when a sentence or a question in a conversation was being quoted by a third party who was not involved in the conversation. "Shall I" and "Will you" are in their direct forms, however, when it is changed to indirect, the sentence structure is different. Not only is the sentence structure affected, the tense should be changed too. "Shall" must be changed to "Should", "Will" to "Would", "May" to "Might and so on and so forth. Even other terms like "today" must be changed to "that day". Pronouns have to be changed accordingly too. "I" must be changed, depending on who "I" represents. An example would be: Mrs Tan said "Bobby, is it possible for you to hand in your homework by 12pm today?" (Direct); Mrs Tan asked Bobby is it possible for you to hand in your homework by 12pm today. (Indirect)
The correct indirect speech should go: Mrs Tan asked Bobby if it was possible for him to hand in his homework by 12pm that day.

E-Portfolio 5 – Roundtable Discussion on 3 March 2009

There was a total of 4 roundtable discussions in our session. Shu Lin’s group discussed about the climate change mitigation technology. One of the suggestions that have been discussed is the injection of sulphur aerosol into the stratosphere to reduce the effect of climate change. This technology works in such a way that the sulphur aerosol injected in the stratosphere will reflect the solar waves out of the Earth, therefore protecting the Earth from further temperature rise. However, the side effect of this technology is the acid rain as a result of the mixing of sulphur with the cloud.

Kai Yi’s group discussed about the advantages and disadvantages of Genetically Modified (GM) food. The advantages of GM food include the production of crops that are more disease-resistant and the introduction of food with superior nutritional value which can be helpful in addressing world hunger issues. They also brought up that the selling price of GM food is much more expensive than the normal food. Kai Yi pointed out that there is evidence showing that GM crops will interbreed with wild weed to become “super weed” that might be a disaster to the agriculture industry.

Terrance’s group discussed about the advantages and disadvantages of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). The introduction of LNG would enable contribution in lowering the carbon emission in the atmosphere as compared to fuel we are using right now. Furthermore, the price of LNG is much cheaper compared to the price of petrol in the market. They have also discussed the expensive installation fees of the gas vessel which is one of the reasons to the low usage of LNG currently. There are only a few LNG refilling stations in Singapore and LNG users have to travel a long distance in order to refill their gas. They also brought up that there are consumer complaints that LNG generates lesser power as compared to fuel, causing most of the drivers to feel reluctant to switch from fuel to LNG.

Finally my group discussed about the various advantages and disadvantages of cloning technology. Randy mentioned that it is possible to clone livestock and crops with desired quality. He also talked about cloning of vital organs and even the possibility of cloning humans. Zhi Hong said that cloning can produce healthy cells that can replace damaged cells in degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Cheng Xu added that introduction of cloning technology represents the end of the world as it will lead to a lack of DNA diversities in certain species which might cause the extinction of a certain species of animal or plant. Wang Yu expressed his disagreement on human cloning due to the fact that the technology is not safe enough to produce a sheep, therefore it is unethical to attempt to clone humans.

E-Portfolio 4 – Summary of Article by Tricia Ellis-Christensen (What Are the Pros and Cons of Cloning) and Peter Hutch (Disadvantages of Cloning)

Tricia compares the advantages and disadvantages of cloning in her article (What Are the Pros and Cons of Cloning). In her opinion, people might see more benefits in cloning plants and animals than they do in cloning humans. Some of the advantages of cloning that she listed out in her article includes the point that cloning could help to reproduce plants and animals that are more disease-resistant. Besides, cloning can also be used to reproduce superior plants and animals with nutritional superiority to address the world hunger issues. In addition, cloning can also save those nearly extinct plants and animals.

However, efforts to genetically engineer or clone plant and animal species could result in a lack of DNA diversity which might lead to their extinction. The author thinks that genetic variation is the key factor to keep certain species in survival from unpredictable disease. Besides that, potential cost in cloning animals is another disadvantage of cloning. Due to the high failure rate, cloning animals is much more expensive than reproducing animals by other means. Furthermore, some people feel greatly reluctant to eat cloned meat as it might lower the value of the animal that was cloned.

According to the author, there are potential benefits and drawbacks in cloning of humans too. Advantages include the possibility of cloning vital organs for transplantation, which is believed to be able to nullify the organ rejection issues. There are also suggestions to clone children for couples who are unable to have their own children or for those people who lose their children at a very young age. However, the method of cloning which involved fertilized embryos is considered unethical and morally repugnant. People feel that the idea of cloning humans is against the religious beliefs of some religions.

In the article of Peter Hutch (Disadvantages of Cloning), he pointed out that it is impossible to clone someone’s personality even though it is technologically possible to clone 2 people that look alike. This is because one’s personality is unique and is based on his life experiences. He added that an abnormal baby would be produced as a side effect from mutation of genes. Furthermore, genetic material used from the adult might continue to age so the genes in a new born baby clone could be 30 years old or more on the day of birth. Similar to Tricia, he also discussed about the ethical issue of cloning with evidence that the Christianity and Judaism community do not support the destruction of embryos as well as the creation of humans artificially.

Peter also manages to give some advantages of cloning in his article. He mentioned that the genes of cows and sheep can be modified so that they will produce large amounts of pharmaceutically important proteins in their milk, such as insulin and factor VIII to treat haemophilia. On the other hand, genes of pig can also be altered so that they produce a component of the human immune system’s regulatory proteins which will make pig's organs more suitable for transplantation in human body.

Generally these 2 articles gave useful information about cloning technology. However, it does not give us a conclusion on whether we should adopt cloning in the future. Scientists have to make the most appropriate decision.



Vocabulary
1. Repugnant – objectionable, or offensive, distasteful in a high degree.

2. Mutation – A change of the DNA sequence within a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the creation of a new character or trait not found in the parental type.

3. Transgenic animal – A transgenic animal is one that carries a foreign gene that has been deliberately inserted into its genome. The foreign gene is constructed using recombinant DNA methodology. In addition to a structural gene, the DNA usually includes other sequences to enable it be incorporated into the DNA of the host and to be expressed correctly by the cells of the host.

4. Hemophilia – Any of several hereditary blood-coagulation disorders in which the blood fails to clot normally because of a deficiency or abnormality of one of the clotting factors. Hemophilia, a recessive trait associated with the X-chromosome, is manifested almost exclusively in males.

5. Cloning – The process of making a clone, a genetically identical copy. Cloning can refer to the technique of producing a genetically identical copy of an organism by replacing the nucleus of an unfertilized ovum with the nucleus of a body cell from the organism.



References
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-cloning.htm
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/disadvantages-of-human-cloning-461241.html

E-Portfolio 3 – Summary of Presentation by Professor Palmer, Assistant Professor Sovacool and Associate Professor Rajasekhar

First speaker, Professor Palmer begin his presentation by saying that if climate changes happen, we should accept the world as it is and response through adaptation, alteration and conservation of energy. The third speaker, Professor Rajasekhar highlight on the increase of global temperature with the support of ‘2007 IPCC Report”. There are some common points between the presentations of Professor Palmer and Professor Rajasekhar. Both of them addressed various factors that affect earth temperature and potential consequences that might arise from Global Warming. They also suggested some possible solution for Global Warming such as to increase energy efficiency, reduce green house gasses emission, and we can even store the excessive carbon dioxide in the ocean. While pointing out there are various difficulties in dealing with climate change, both of them said that it is the responsible of everyone living on the Earth to combat global warming. Government should play their role while each individual should corporate to combat climate change.

The second speaker, Assistant Professor Benjamin K. Sovacool presented about Using Science & Technology Studies to Address Energy (and Technological) Problems. According to him, technology cannot be separated from the social system because they will have heavy influences on political and social issues in the human world. He added that technologies are produced by processes which involved negotiation and compromise on human part. Power and interest of people play an important role in deciding if a technology will work. It means to say that whether a certain technology fails or is accepted doesn’t have anything to do with the technology itself. For example, it can actually be a good concept but it is not accepted by humans simply because it clashes with human interests.

Throughout the 1.5 hours presentation, I was impressed by the technique to store carbon dioxide in the ocean. It captured my attention since this is the first time I heard about this technology, although it has been around for more than a decade. Basically engineers will first of all compress the carbon dioxide and convert it to liquid form, and then keep the liquid carbon dioxide with a layer of membrane like material. According to Professor Palmer, liquid carbon dioxide is denser than sea water at the depth of 2750 meters in the ocean and therefore it will sink to the sea bed and stay there permanently. Therefore we can continue to store the excessive carbon in the ocean as long as the sea level remains in the safe height.

E-Portfolio 2 - Government’s Policies That Contribute to Reduce the Problem of Global Warming

According to statistics (An Inconvenient Truth, 2006), the actual measurement of temperature increases every year especially in the recent years. Ten hottest years on record have occurred in the last 14 years, and the hottest of all was 2005. The increase in global temperature is resulted from the increase of the amount of emission of green house gases which trap the infrared radiation from sunlight and heat up the earth.

In the mid-1990s, my home country, Malaysia ranked among 50 nations with the world's highest industrial carbon dioxide emissions, which totalled 70.5 million metric tons per year, a per capita level of 3.74 metric tons per year. Statistics shows that both industrial and automobile sectors are the main contributor to the carbon emissions. As a result, Clean-air legislation was adopted in 1998 to monitor and control the carbon dioxide emissions in the country. Under this legislation, discharge of oil by vessels in Malaysian waters is prohibited as well.

Under The Environmental Quality Act of 1974 administered by the Division of Environment of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment, housing developers have to plan and space out area to plant trees in the housing area in order to get their development projects approved. As one of the largest timber exporting countries, Malaysia has set strict rules to make sure the developers replant the tree for each tree they have chopped down. They are also being restricted from cutting the trees which are younger than 15 years old. Besides, open burning is also prohibited.

Individual who found guilty under The Environment Quality Act of 1974 will be subjected to heavy fines, mandatory caning or jail terms (depending on the situation). The licenses of commercial companies will be forfeited for committing similar types of crime.

In conclusion, besides government’s policies, each individual have to take initiative to help reduce the problem of global warming. Each one of us contributes actively to global warming, but each of us can make choices to change that with the things we buy, the electricity we use and the car we drive. We can make choices to bring our individual carbon emissions to zero. The solutions are in our hands, we just have to have the determination to make them happen. (Al Gore, 2006)


Al Gore (2006). An Inconvenient Truth.

E-Portfolio 1 - Engineer’s Approach in Designing Solutions

According to the Dean of Engineering at NUS, Prof Seeram Ramakrishna(2007, August 5), with the advent of service-oriented economy, engineers are not only people who build high-rise buildings, dig underground tunnels, manufacture electronic goods and medical devices, they are now also highly sought after to design and manage health care systems, run data and information management systems and design and run complex logistics and supply chain systems. In addition to this, they run transportation systems, manage efficient distribution of water and energy supplies, manage large-scale projects/mega developments and they also design early-warning systems against natural catastrophes.

I believe that the processes and principles of problem solving and approaches of designing solutions will always remain the same, regardless of which area the engineers are involved in. As an engineering student, we were taught that there will always be a solution for a problem.

Engineers always begin with understanding the definition of the problem thoroughly prior to designing the solution. They are trained to study and break down a complex problem into bite - sizes, and start to gather the relevant information in order to analyze the current situation of the problem. From the results of these researches, they will be able to draft a few possible solutions for the problem. Engineers will then conduct the feasibility studies on every possible solution, and select one which is most practical and which meets most of the criteria required for the solution. This is followed by a detailed design to fulfill all major and minor specifications of the full solution. After that, evaluations of the solution will take place to investigate if the solution meets its ultimate objectives.

Evaluation is not the final step of designing the solution, but it serves as a bridge for the engineers to continuously observe the performance of the designed solution until it is outdated sometime in the future. This will lead the engineers to re-run the cycle of designing the solution.


Ramakrishna, S. (2007, August 5). The expanding world of engineers. The Sunday Times, p. 25.