Test !!!!

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GATTACA

GATTACA is a science fiction story about a genetically imperfect human, Vincent, who dreams of going into space. He was one of the last natural-born individuals, with several inherited defects, including poor eyesight and a high probability of developing heart problem. Due to such genetic defect, he would refrain from traveling into space. Therefore, he decided to finance another man’s identity, that of Jerome Eugene who was a former athlete with top genetic background, to be allowed to get positioned to join a crew to space.

In not-too-distant future, genetics will play an important role in our life. Genetic sequence will become a part of our identity. We can generate a baby by selecting only good genes from parents to express only the perfect appearances and characteristics. After born, a baby will be tested and sequenced its DNA to evaluate the risks of certain diseases. These tasks are highly possible in the near future because at present, scientists have being kept going genetic researches related to human genome project to predict and evaluate genetic diseases. Many tasks to identify an individual will be based on the DNA sequencing.

However, the dystopia presented in the film is also a realistic possibility in the future. People may not be discriminated by races, but by the genetic sequences. People with imperfect DNA, including high risk or probability of developing certain diseases, might refrain from work because a company may tend to employ only “perfect” individuals. We can avoid this unfairness by accepting the differences and self-properties of each individual. We have to open our mind and really realize others’ rights and ambitions.

Writing a Conclusion

· Sankar, P. (2006). What is in a cause? Exploring the relationship between genetic cause and felt stigma. Genetics in Medicine, 8, 1, 33.

This conclusion initially summarizes the findings of this study. The interesting phrase for this part is “But data from our study suggest…” and “…, what these findings suggest is…”. Moreover, the author stated the importance of this research again and suggested some implications of his results. We can infer from the phrase “Because…, it is important to consider what implications this research might have for…”.

· Duncan, R. E. (2004). Predictive genetic testing in young people: When is it appropriate? Journal of Paediatrics & Child Health, 40, 11, 593-595.

This conclusion stated the current problem and recommend for further research. We can infer from the sentence “Currently empirical evidence is so lacking that we are not capable of either corroborating or refuting such a default position.”, “Empirical research must be priority. Qualitative research is vital…” and “Only in this way can we begin to develop…”.

· Should We Allow Genetic Enhancement?

This conclusion recommends for practice and policy about germline engineering. We can infer from “…the landscape of international operational policy and United States' domestic policy are currently in a state of flux…”, “Ultimately, the United States will have to make a legislative decision in the near future, or risk the private sector dictating the next steps.”.

· Designer Babies: One Step Closer

This conclusion restates the aims of the article. We can infer from “The proposal is to…”.

· Simoncelli, T, & Steinhardt, B. (2005).California's Proposition 69: A Dangerous Precedent for Criminal DNA Databases. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 33, 2, 279-293.

This conclusion summarizes the content of the article. We can infer from that the whole part was devoted to summarizing what the author said in the previous part.

· Verlinsky, Y. (2005). Designing babies: What the future holds. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 1, 10, 24-26.

This conclusion summarizes the findings from this research and their significance. We can infer from “We created…”, “So we have their permission to create stem cell lines, which will pmvide a source of cells helping to create newt herapies for existing disease.”, and “…we could make…”.

Writing an Introduction

Host Gene Induction and Transcriptional Reprogramming in Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus (KSHV/HHV-8)-Infected Endothelial, Fibroblast, and B Cells: Insights into Modulation Events Early during Infection

For Move 1, the author introduced the background knowledge about HHV-8, the seriousness of several diseases it causes, the mechanisms of the host responding to the viral infection, and also implied the importance to control the infection. The phrases used to drive this part are “Kaposi’s Sarcoma is …”, “In vitro, HHV-8 has been shown to…”, “The binding of herpes simplex virus type-1 to cell surfaces induces…”, and so on. For Move 2, the phrase author stated “The identification of such cellular signatures might eventually lead to the development of novel strategies to control HHV-8 infection” shows the importance to identify the cellular signatures in the infected patients. Besides, as the Move 3, he briefly described about his research’s methodology, which is to analyze the cellular transcriptional responses in three different target cells in vitro at 2 and 4 h after HHV-8 infection. The phrase he used to introduce is “we undertook this study to…”. The words used are “undertook” and “analyze”.

From:
Naranatt P.P. et al. Host Gene Induction and Transcriptional Reprogramming in Kaposi’s Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus (KSHV/HHV-8)-Infected Endothelial, Fibroblast, and B Cells: Insights into Modulation Events Early during Infection. Cancer Res., 64: 72-84, 2004.

Vitamin C fails to protect amino acids and lipids from oxidation during acute inflammation

This introduction provided all “Moves”. For “Move1”, the author explained about the mechanisms of specific enzyme that can damage tissue in mice. He gave background about oxidants, and finally came up with the knowledge about vitamin C as an anti-oxidant. Then, he brought the readers to the move 2 by stated that “Despite intense interest in the proposed antioxidant role of ascorbate and other vitamins, however, there is remarkably little evidence that these compounds directly scavenge reactive intermediates in vivo.”. This allows the readers to know the “gap” in this field and the importance to perform this research. Interesting phrases in this move are “Despite intense interest in…, however,…” and “There is remarkably little evidence that…”. Finally, he added the move 3, “To determine whether ascorbate functions as an antioxidant during inflammation, we studied…”, which indicated the approach of this research. The interesting phrase in this move is “To determine…, we studied…”.

From:

Joseph, P.H., Abderrazzaq, B., et al. Vitamin C fails to protect amino acids and lipids from oxidation during acute inflammation. Free Rad. Biol.& Med., 40: 1494-1501, 2006.

Vitamin D, Aging, and the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans

This introduction is driven in different way from the two formers. The author started with a little background and seriousness of vitamin D deficiency to interest readers. He also indicated that the today guidelines for taking vitamin D are not up-to-date. Then, he went to move 2 by stating the importance of vitamin D recommendation. The interesting phrase in this move is “Therefore, it is prudent to…”. After that, he brought his readers to the next move. For move 3, he stated the purpose of his article. The interesting phrase is “The purpose of this article is to review…”. Finally, he came back to the move 1 again to give more background about vitamin D and bring to the next part of his article.

From:

Mary, A.J., Michael, G.K. Nutrition grand rounds: Vitamin D, aging, and the 2005 dietary guidelines for Americans. Nutrition Reviews, 64(9):410-421, 2006.

A Problem-Solving Essay

Creating Law to Reduce CFC: Pros and Cons

At present, there is no denying the fact that global warming effect has become one of the most serious environmental problems we all are facing with. Every country has being tried to solve the every-year rising temperature. Several solutions have been figured out; however, each solution has its advantages and disadvantages. This essay will provide some solutions, including its pros and cons.

It has been known for a long time that one of the important causes of the global warming is the production of toxic gases, especially Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), which has been released from the process in manufacturing a variety of products, such as spray, air-conditioner, and refrigerator. CFC vapors and destroys the ozone layer, which plays a very prudent role in reflecting the excess amount of sun light out of the earth, in the atmosphere. With thinning ozone layer, the earth exposes largely amount of sun light and cannot release the excess amount of those out; therefore, the earth’s temperature has been gradually heat up. Several countries have being tried to reduce the amount of CFC released each year by creating environmental laws to control and solve this problem. If such manufacturer violated against the law, some penalties would be conducted. Creating the environmental law has some advantages. It, of course, would control the production of CFC and be able to reduce the amount of such gas finally. Moreover, people would be healthier because CFC and other toxic gases, which cause some health problems, such as asthma and lung cancer, were reduced.

However, creating such law has some drawbacks as well. The strict law may lead to the slower rate of investment, especially in the business related to air-conditioner or refrigerator manufacturers. Such companies have been forced to change the process of production, which might cause more budgets, or have been forced to install the environmental sound system to reduce or get rid of the gases before releasing. This would bring to the higher budget such companies had to spent and, in turn, the lower profit. This could cause the difficulties in making a decision to invest to entrepreneurs and affect to the credits of such companies.

The effort to create law to reduce the amount of CFC has several advantages and disadvantages. It might solve the global warming effectively, but lead to economic problems. To make final decision, it is not an easy task. We should consider carefully solving environmental problem without the effect on economics or, at least, minimize such effect.

My Definition of "Terrorism"

My Definition of "Terrorism"

There is no denying fact that some today-used words are so difficult to give a precise definition and still ambiguous. Such ambiguity sometimes leads to widely arguments and finally becomes a controversial issue throughout the world. “Terrorism” is a good example for this point. Its exact definition has been worldwide debated for a long time. The importance to exactly define “terrorism” is that this word and its definition can affect the responses of government to people who conducted “terrorism”, or even affect the international policy and relationships. For example, if people who committed crime were judged to be “terrorists”, the sentence for their guilty might be much stronger than usual; therefore, it is very important to define “terrorism” precisely.

“Terrorism” has been defined in various ways. In my perspective, “terrorism” is the term used to describe the use or threat of action of an individual, a group, or even a country against another country, its institutions, or its people with intentions to influence a government, to damage social structures or to intimidate the public for a political, economic, religious, or ideological cause. The action involved includes serious violence against people or danger to life, a serious risk to public health or safety, or serious damage to property, including a wide range of specific crime, such as murder, kidnapping, seizing public transport, releasing contaminating substances, and even interfering with computer networks.

Therefore, for my definition of “terrorism”, one of the most significant criteria is the intention to commit any actions. If an individual commit crime without his intention, he could not be considered as a “terrorist”. Also, whether or not there were media, the action could be “terrorism” because, in my opinion, media just play their roles in informing what has been happening. If some people intend to attack on government or destroy the national sustainability, they should be classified terrorists even though media have not been reported any events. Moreover, in this modern era, an individual could commit crime by using a computer. He could conduct terrorism in cyber world by releasing computer virus with intentions to destroy or damage public computer system. Such action should be notified as terrorism as well.

Moreover, we should distinguish between attacks on civilians and on members of the security forces. Any wars which are the fighting between military forces of two or more countries in which soldiers of each other are targeted, not civilians, should not be included in the definition of “terrorism”. Applying this criterion to the Middle East, Yasser Arafat’s security forces firing on Israeli soldiers would not be terrorism, whereas a suicide bomber on a bus and a market leaving many civilians injured and killed would without-a-doubt be.

To summarize, “terrorism” can be defined as the actions of an individual, a group, or a country with its intentions to destroy civilians or the public institutions via any way, including computer network with or without media.

Historical Time Frames

Historical Time Frames

1782 –The inauguration of the Chakris, the coronation of King Rama I. New capital, Bangkok, has established.
1868-1910 – The reformation of Thai tradition, legal, and administrative realm, The revolution of education, public health, and transportation.
1925-1935 – The political revolution
1941 – World War II, Japanese expansion into Thailand

On April6, 1782, The Chakris, the family of Kings of Thailand, were inaugurated together with the coronation of King Rama I. Due to the limited size of Thonburi, the old capital of Thailand or Siam at that time, The King decided to move the capital from those to Bangkok. The History of Bangkok as a capital of Thailand has started since then.

Between 1868 and 1910, in the period of Rama V or King Chulalongkorn, Thai society and quality of life had been significantly improved in all aspects such as education system, public health, and even transportation. Those resulted from the influence of western countries’ expansion especially England’s and France’s. The western tradition had been initially conducted in the King’s palace and after that this trends expanded to all part throughout Thailand. About education system, the king established many schools and the first University in Thailand, Chulalongkorn University named after the King who founded. This could be considered as the most critical change in Thai education system because in the past Thai people usually studied in a temple and regarded monks as teachers. The establishment of schools and university at that time was the first time that allowed everyone to study in higher degree outside temples and gained more knowledge from any field of expertise.

Furthermore, he also promoted Thai public health by establishing Siriraj Hospital founded in 1900 that is the first hospital in Thailand. This led to the vast improvement of Thai public health. Doctors who had in-depth knowledge and experience in medication from Europe were the key factor contributing to an improvement of life quality of Thai people. Although there was a large amount of Thai development in several aspects, the political format of government still was the absolute monarchy, the format that kings had rights to do everything and were beyond any laws.

Until 1932, Rama VII decided to change the form of government from absolute monarchy into democracy. As a result, any kings would be under the laws and people have rights to govern themselves. Thai democratic history has started since then.

In 1941, the Second World War began. Japanese military invaded into every part throughout Southeast Asia, including Thailand. The Japanese expansion brought Thailand into a crisis. They generated curfews to forbid Thai people going outside at nights and forced Thai government to support them in every way. The price of goods rose to the highest point in Thai history. A large number of Thai soldiers and civil were brought into the death without any mistakes. After World War II ended and Japan became the loser in the war, Thailand tried to develop country in every aspect. King Bhumibol has played important role in recovery not only in the physical aspects such as economy or politic, but he has also improved Thailand in emotional aspect. Therefore, there can be no doubt that he has been placed in every hearts of Thai and regarded as a father of the country.

Summary of the "Of Frozen Milk and Bison Herdes"

The Summary of the Of Frozen Milk and Bison Herds

“Of Frozen Milk and Bison Herds” discusses the idea that climate change influences human affair. The author referred Lamp, a pioneering climatologist, and his suggestion describing that the climate change at the beginning of the end of the little optimum, a period of warmer temperatures from approximately AD 800-1200 BC, may have been responsible for the emergence of the Mongol hordes out of Asia early in the thirteenth century. The rapid coldness in the northern hemisphere at that time reduced the productivity of the land and forced the people to follow their charismatic leader, Genghis Khan, in a fest for survival.

Moreover, the author also described that the shift and the expansion of the circumpolar vortex, the circular winds that blow from west to east around the globe, caused the deterioration in climate which, in turn, played an important role in the deterioration of civilization. He exemplified an increase in stormy weather heralded the setback in the development of European civilization. Detrimental change in climate led to the harvests fail, desertion across Europe, and, in turn, resulted to poor health due to malnutrition and the Black Death, another name for bubonic plague. Therefore, it was not be wrong to say that climate change was the key factor contributing to such disease at that time in Europe. The effects of climate shift also affected Africa, India, and China.

A Prompt For a Cause-and-effect Writing Assignment

An "A" and a "C" paper

Usually, for a cause-and-effect writing assignments in the scientific field, students are expected to be able to apply not only their understanding and knowledge from lessons, but also other evidences from real scientific world to analyze and express some related and reasonable causes or effects of a given topic.

In my opinion, to write an “A” paper, certainly, students should provide both of direct and indirect causes and effects. Besides, they should include some examples and strong scientific evidences related to the topic. Some statistics and citations might be included. Students are supposed to clearly explain and discuss the relationships among those. Writing format is considered as well. An “A” paper should be written into an academic format and easy to understand. Moreover, the content should remain coherent and focus on the topic.

On the contrary, the benchmarks for a “C” paper could be described as follows. Like an “A” paper, a “C” paper should be written into an academic form, and easy to understand. It provides causes and effects and also few scientific evidences but might not be sufficient. Students cannot discuss and picture the relationships between the causes and the effects clearly. The included statistics and citations might not strong enough to demonstrate the relationships. So, the large-scale of an assignment is quite weak.

Consequences of Deforestation

Consequences of Deforestation

It would not be wrong to say that deforestation is one of the largest problems with which Thailand is facing. Between 2000 and 2005, statistics from the Thailand Environmental Profile, Thailand lost its forest cover as high as an average of 1,445,000 hectares, or about 9.1% of those. This crisis is needed to be immediately solved; otherwise, it may lead to a large number of problems in the nearly future. It has been widely known for a long time that deforestation results to several serious problems as follows.

To start with, deforestation can lead to bad soil erosion. A forest, especially growing on the top of mountain, plays an important role preventing soil erosion due to rain and strong wind. A great number of wide-spreading roots of a variety of plants throughout a forest hold the ground surface tightly and protect soil from directly exposing to storms, allows leaves to gradually be decomposed without being flushed out. This helps a forest remain soil fertility and, in turn, leads to the forest sustainability.

The next important consequence of deforestation I would like to refer is the food web damages. The food web is the termed in biology used to describe the relationships among various kinds of animals living in the same habitat. Plants are eaten by herbivores, plant-eating animals, which eaten later by carnivores, meat-eating animals. Destroying a forest would not damage only plants, but it would also have indirectly effects on every species of wildlife. Lower the number of forest, lower the habitat and food of herbivores, in turn, lower the food of carnivores.

Last, but not least, deforestation is widely considered as one of the crucial factors contributing to global warming. It is the fact that a plant is able to change the Carbon dioxide, one of the gases badly released by fuel burnings and is responsible for the global warming. The continuously decreasing number of forest, together with the non-stopped increasing number of fuel burnings makes the situation worse. The temperature of our world is gradually increasing and may cause very serious consequences affecting to every creature in the world.

For the paragraph mentioned above, there can be no doubt that deforestation causes the significant number of serious consequences, such as soil erosion, food web damage, and, most importantly, global warming. Unless we stop destroying forest now, the global-warming effects might destroy all of us in the nearly future.

My Evaluation for the "Bowling For Columbine"

My Evaluation for the Bowling for Columbine

My Criteria for Documentary Film
- Interesting topic
- Provide Knowledge
- Based on Facts
- Reasonable Supporting Evidences
- Entertain, not boring
- Appropriate Length

Bowling for Columbine, the documentary film starring, directed, and produced by Michael Moore, revolves the story around the student massacre in Columbine, the United States. The film focuses on gun violence in U.S. and suggests several reasons and causes of those. In my opinion, this film is so worthwhile to watch because of several reasons.

To begin with, it’s interesting. Even though the American gun violence theme initially sounds a little bit boring, the film can appeal and interests audiences by using the infamous student massacre as a background to bring audiences to the film’s focused question; should American gun availability be controlled? Moreover, more than entertainment, the good documentary film, of course, should provide some knowledge to its audiences. Bowling for Columbine could be accepted for this point without question. It provides a great deal of knowledge related to gun availability, and gun violence, including America’s history leading to such problem. For instance, he mentioned interesting statistics of gun violence around the world and did not forget to emphasize that U.S. has had the highest rate of people injured by a gun.

Besides, Moore suggests reliable causes and reasons of gun violence in the U.S., all of which are based on facts. He demonstrated easiness to get a gun by just walking into the real bank, deposited some money and got a gun back. The very availability of gun in U.S. surprised me so much, especially getting a gun from a bank as a promotion. Furthermore, the length of the film is appropriate, not too long, or too short. Moore could provide enough information and simultaneously made audiences realize the importance to solve such problem as soon as possible. Last, but not least, the film reached its purpose not only to make audiences realize the important of gun control in U.S., but it also entertains them even though some scenes looked seem too violent.

Over all, in my opinion, Bowling for Columbine is a kind of a good documentary film. Moore chose interesting topic to make the film, provided knowledge about gun violence in U.S., including base-on-fact supporting evidences that make his film strongly reasonable, in the appropriate length. This film also entertains audiences despite too many violent scenes.

The Summary of "Luigi, Tony, and the Family"

The Summary of Luigi, Tony, and the Family

“Luigi, Toni, and the Family” discusses about the evolutionary stereotypes of Italian-American people represented in American media. The author described those by dividing Italian’s views into four different stages, “The Invisible Man”, “The Grateful Immigrant”, “The Mafia Gangster”, and “The Jivy Proletarian”. “The Invisible Man” is the earlier stage that Italian did not present in any media. When the second stage, “The Grateful Immigrant” had begun, Italian became a featured personality in radio and television. The author demonstrated “Life with Luigi” as an example. It was about Italian immigrant who was joyful and appreciative in the United States. In “The Mafia Gangster” stage, Italian was represented in the archetypal gangster. The author considered this stereotype as the most enduring in media. Finally, the last stage “The Jivy Proletarian”, media display more commercial success in streetwise working-class Italian. Furthermore, the author also stated that the media’s tactic was to move with the stereotypical notions about one group or another, rather than against them. The media merchandisers promoted the crudest impression of ethnics held by the public, encouraging each group to accept the prefabricated images of other groups.