Assignment+2+critiques

// Assignment 2 //
Here you can upload your critiques along with a link to the article you critique. Similarly to the assignment 1 exercise, you need to post the link first and then write the critique below it. For step-by-step instructions for how to do this, see the page assignment 1 summaries.

http://efegroupb2011.wikispaces.com/Assignment+1+summaries Arash Mazaheri

A summary of Marcus Hedenstrom with a title of “Working with Sudoku puzzles” was published on Wikispace website on February 2011. In this summary, he declared that Sudoku puzzles were mathematically complex problems. Although the subject is fascinating and attracts everybody’s attention and in some parts gives good information about the original article, in my opinion it is not well prepared and it is difficult to be followed by its readers in some cases.

In the beginning of the summary “In their paper titled programming model …” the writer jumped his text without preparing an introduction which makes readers confused. Moreover, he said “their paper” and I cannot understand what he was talking about and who they are. As if I opened middle of a book and just starting to read; however the sentences are clear and meaningful, it is not possible to make connection to the text. This manner continued until the end of the summary, so that a reader who has not read the original article can neither recognize what the blue prints and main ideas are, nor which part is body or conclusion of the summary. The summary consists of two paragraphs without introduction and conclusion. For example the second paragraph starts with “most Sudoku have more than one solution” and it continues with simulating Sudoku by matrices and illustrates that the lows of matrices are applicable for Sudoku problems. Then he end his summary with this sentence “it is possible to swap rows or columns, as long as the two being swapped are within the same set of sub matrices, or simply substitute the individual digits throughout the Sudoku puzzle, providing a shortcut to the otherwise complex problem.”; but as a reader this summary cannot sum up the original one.

All in all, the subject of working with Sudoku puzzles written by Marcus was eye catching and he used good sentences with clear meanings in his text, albeit the summary did not have coherence and cohesion and it did not manage to show its introduction, body and conclusion.

** [] **
 **Putting it together – the science and technology of composite materials**

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Australian academy of science published an article in November 2000 with the topic of "Putting it together-the science and technology of composite materials" which is sponsored by the Cooperative research center for advanced composite structure ltd and Australian governments' national innovation awareness strategy. In this article, author tried to introduce concept of composite materials to the readers and talk about advantages of composite material and its various applications but argues that despite huge advantages of the composite materials, there is not reliable method for their recycling and this matter would be so harmful for our environment if we produce composites without a reliable and applicable recycling strategy. ====== Author explained composite materials by applying very clear and popular examples from our routine life and by these examples the complicated concept of composite materials has been simplified for approximately all readers; This simplification help all readers with different knowledge of material science to understand composites very well but the real situation of producing composite materials is much more complicated than this. For instance selection of proper materials often is the hardest thing because all materials do not attach to each other properly and binding of two materials to each other is depends on different parameters. Sometimes you these two materials hate each other and make very weak binding energy and these make your compound much weaker than each component even. So it would be better if author pointed out this important factor at least shortly.  Recycling is one of the crucial points about composites that almost all of the governments and environment organizations are researching about that. Recycling often is needed that materials is separated in advance but this issue for almost all composites is very hard and energy consuming. This problem should be explained by the author because many research institutes in many different projects are researching and developing recycling methods for composite materials but still it is very hard. Sometimes it is impossible to recycle a composite materials and sometimes separation is not feasible when we assume that we will have a huge amount of that composites in our life and ordinary applications.  Concluding this critique, I think this article is very handy and author clearly explains composite materials, advantages and applications but two key issues about composite materials which are tricks for compounding and recycling missed to clarify and to be explained.

 S. Mojtaba Siahpoosh

http://efegroupb2011.wikispaces.com/Assignment+1+summaries

Critiques on “summary of putting it together: the science and technology of composite materials” The Observer published an article in February 2011, written by Alexis Masson and titled it as “Putting it together: the science and technology of composite materials” In this article, Alexis discusses the development of new materials, composites high performance. I intend to expand on the points made and offer additional explanations about side effects of composite material. Alexis explains how combining two or more different materials can produce composites with good mechanical properties and very light weight. A composite material is a mix between and a matrix used to bind together reinforcement (very strong material). Composites is not a new concept, they have always been existing in the nature for instance wood is a composite material. Human beings have been using composites for several thousand years with mud bricks or concrete later. Nowadays, most common composite materials are made with fiberglass or carbon fibers. There are several applications for composites: in aerospace in which the lightness combined to strength are very important, but also in shipbuilding and boatbuilding (resistance to corrosion), in sports... The author concludes that even if the cost of composites is high, this type of materials will be more and more used in the future. Despite all those benefits Alexis explains, some engineers are reluctant to use composites. They view it as a relatively brittle material that is prone to fractures, cracks and elimination. In addition, manufacturing with composites tends to be more labor intensive than with alternative materials, such as traditional plastics, which can be injection molded. Composites are considered risky, design codes may not exist for a particular application, manufacturing operations may not be set up for composites and, for certain applications, their up-front cost or material costs may be higher. Composites are sometimes referred to as ‘plastics,’ and this makes people think of consumer plastics, which are usually unreinforced materials not designed for load carrying. Certainly, composite materials are not suitable for every application. However, with society moving toward a low-carbon economy, some of the inherent properties of composite materials offer solutions to new problems.

Afsaneh Behrouz Critique of the article: Scammers exploit viral video of girl falling into fountain while texting  The Naked Security published an article on Saturday, January 15th this year, written by Graham Cluley and titled as “Scammers exploit viral video of girl falling into fountain while texting”. In this article, Cluley explains that unsafe applications were discovered on Facebook and they have been using in order to generate income for scammers. The money is made by collecting information through surveys and compromising user´s accounts to spread the “evil links” even further. The author also provides a methodology to remove these kinds of undesired applications from accounts, in case they have installed innocently by the users. I intend to expand this topic discussing the real guilty part of the situation, and putting part of the blame for the lack of security and privacy on Facebook administration, as it has the responsibility to their users. Cluley argues that Facebook´s users have to be very cautious about what applications to allow access on their accounts, and I agree with him. But Cluley failed to address in his article that Facebook has also an important role of create mechanisms to avoid this undesired and illegal applications. Moreover, the author stated that the users do not worry about their privacy at the moment that the application asks then personal information. It is my view that the users are not aware of what is happening with them and just because of this they provide the information. As the users turn their attention totally on the desire to watch the video, which is actually a trap, they are blindly taking risk at the moment that they are providing personal data. Therefore, I strongly believe, contradicting Cluley, that the users worry about their privacy, but they are induced to error due to a big Facebook´s mistake: do not advice their users about these scammers and do not avoid technically these undesired events to happen. This situation leads awful consequences to the Facebook´s users as, for instance, sharing private information among unknown players. In conclusion, Cluley states that Facebook´s users have the blame of being victims of undesired application that hiding behind the links to videos. He explained that this links are traps which have as the main goal to collect personal information from the users and this links are accessed by the users because they do not worry about their privacy. I expand the Cluley ideas about the guilty party of the discussion arguing that Facebook has also the blame for the lack of security and privacy within its virtual social net. In addition, I defend the Facebook´s users saying that they actually worry about their privacy, but their unawareness about the real main of these undesired applications blind them and therefore they act in a non safe behaviour. Carla Cleri Melo Garcia Ferreira

[|chilled ammonia process for CO2 capture]

Chilled ammonia process for CO2 capture

An article was published by International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control on 2010 entitled”Chilled ammonia process for CO2 capture”by Victor Darde and co-workers. In this article Darde et al. mentioned that what chilled ammonia process is and why this process is more promising and more suitable for CO2 post treatment than other processes in this regard. I am going to express their arguments and make some comments on parts that I think are not well defined and clear enough. The article describes the process and different reaction mechanisms occurring in it for a very simple system and continues with a thermodynamic analysis. In my point of view it is a good approach to analyze a system but it needs more details about geometry of the system and its operating conditions, since these parameters are effective on the results and it will not be possible to reach accurate results without these parameters. I suppose these data have been available in this study since getting results without them is impossible. To have a more applicable article the data needs to be accessible for readers too. Additionally, authors have described their thermodynamic model based on "UNIQUAC model". The obtained results in this part are so useful and valuable and figures can be followed very well. It is also clarified that this process is a useful process because of low heat demand and high ability to remove carbon dioxide. Unfortunately there is no appropriate citation to the model itself. Moreover, assumptions considered to use this model are not clearly described which make it hard for readers to follow that part of the article. It would be great if authors could describe how they have used the UNIQUAC model to obtain their results. In fifth part of the article (Heat requirement), authors have studied the heat demand and parameters which have effect on it. This part is so clear and easy to follow. The method used can be extended even for other processes and the reasons behind their assumptions and calculations are completely logical and understandable. To conclude, it is a useful article containing valuable data and results with very nice discussion on different parts. The number of citation to this article shows that it is a promising and applicable article in its area of research but in mentioned parts it needs to be clearer or at least citation should be improved.

Mohammad Khalilitehrani [|On the breakup of fluid particles in turbulent flows] Review critique

AIChE journal published an article (volume 52, 2006), written by R. Andersson and B. A. under the title of ‘’ on the breakup of fluid particles in turbulent dispersion’’. Within the article the dynamic behavior of fluid particles (bubbles and droplets) in turbulent dispersions has been discussed in detail. Data for breakup time, particle deformations, number of fragments and daughter size distribution were obtained using a high speed CCD-camera. Results showed several important differences between breakup mechanisms of different fluid particles. Although bubbles like to break equally to smaller daughter fragments, but droplets tend to divide unequally to several smaller parts .Further on, Andersons propose an internal flow redistribution mechanism as the main phenomenon which is responsible for the breakup of bubbles. Finally, they conclude that that drops will not break similar to bubbles due to 3 orders of magnitude higher densities of liquids in compare to gases. The article opens with a literature review on previous works which has done on the topic that provides an overview of the previous studies, achievements, challenges, and limitations with previous models. In the second part, an experimental approach is introduced for the measurements. In this part, methodology and settings of measurements are expressed carefully. Later in the study a comparison between bubble and droplet breakup was done using data given from the experiments. The article further proposes a three-step phenomenon (micro, -meso, and macro scale deformation) for interaction of turbulent structures and fluid particles. However, the phenomenon describes the result accurately but at the same time article does not provide enough evidences to support the suggested idea and no quantitative measurements is done to characterize each step of deformation. Additionally, the article provides a really poor description on the meso scale deformation concept. In the analysis of energy that is needed for fluid particle deformation, the effect of inertia has been neglected. The authors describe that the effect of inertia could be neglected considering small size for fluid particles. First of all, the article did not mention any specific length scale to name a particle as ‘’small size’’. It is of high importance to know the range of particle sizes which the model could be useful. By the way, No calculation is provided by the authors to prove that the inertia effect can be neglected in the model. In conclusion the study improves the understanding of fluid particles behavior in turbulent motions to high extent. Ronnie and Bengt suggest a three step phenomenon for fluid particle break up inside turbulent dispersions which has a reasonable agreement with data given by experiments. But, still some issues could be considered for further studies. The model only proves the data for small size bubbles and droplets and also the effect of inertia is neglected in energy calculation for fluid particle deformation.

 Arash Helmi **Critique on the Article [|“Scammers exploit viral video of a girl falling into fountain while texting]”**

On January 15th 2011, Sophos IT blog published an article “Scammers exploit viral video of a girl falling into fountain while texting” written by Graham Cluley, who presents the issues that might occur while using social networks. By bringing an example of an incident, which happened to a girl, the author explains what privacy problems can arise if one uses for instance Facebook. The author is writing about the bad influence of Facebook and the dangerous aspect that might occur while using it. I think that the article was well composed and all the main points well presented and I will explain the reasons why I think so.

First of all, Cluley says that anything uploaded on the internet is not secure and might end up in wrong hands. This is what happened with a girl, whose accident was videotaped and then exploited by scammers. I agree on this completely and support the writer’s idea about the privacy issue. After the video footage was uploaded online, it was used for bad intentions. Of course such video catches the attention of millions of users and this is a perfect way to get money.

Secondly, the author explains how the social networks e.g. Facebook, make money with the help of their users, who do not pay much attention on their privacy. In my opinion this fact is true, because it is very easy to catch the attention of those, who are not cautious enough and by that are being exploited by hackers, whose intention is to make money. This might also hold true to those, who do not know much about technology and privacy. This in turn means that people have no ability to protect themselves from the scammers.

In conclusion, I fully support the author’s arguments about the privacy issue. People should be aware of the dangers that arise, when social network users are not cautious enough or usual home-users are not protecting themselves from the scammers.

Diana

**CRITIQUE OF AN ARTICLE **

On December 7th 2010, “Scientific American” published an article ”How has Wikileaks managed to keep its web site up and running?” wrote by Larry Greenemeier; the author presents the main idea of the article, which is a focus on the issue with the controversial web sites that show classified documents and at the same time hide, where the original documents are on the net. Can the government organizations stop Wikileaks? Can the arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in London stop the flow of this controversial information on internet? To support his opinion, the author begins with several examples about what the governments have done and are doing to prevent a new wave of controversial information. The Swedish Internet Service Provider hosting the original “wikileaks.org”, but it was cut off to the provider from a new address according with the new protocol. The U.S. government recognizes by the library congress that they are blocking wikileaks, because they have a lot of classified information. Basically, there is a huge effort for authorities to control or to delete all of this kind of information that hurt the diplomatic relationships between some countries. Furthermore the author discredit those efforts by explaining how the red works helping wikileaks to survive the attacks that want to ”stop” it; Wikileaks is hosted at 507 different locations, with mirror web sites, and also Wikileaks is obscure the real documents, their point of origin and destination, it is based on a report by The New Yorker in June during last year. It is a huge reason to doubt the effectiveness of the action that the government **is** doing, because nobody is going to discredit the name of a prestigious magazine, overall when the news are a double shave weapon, you can hurt but you also can be damaged. Wikileaks noticed on twitter “we are going to continue although our boss editor is in prison” Now the cat has freedom to hunt the mouse…to try to skip or control the information from Wikileaks, but will it be possible? The author opinion with his words is”frankly impossible” and I just would like to add a question what these people expect? Are they expecting that the can control everything? They use the information that they want in their benefit, I mean manipulating to get something, but they don’t want that determine information, (perhaps more true than the information they give us) is known. To shut down a web site it can be a gorgeous task, and in the case that the get it… I am completely agreed with the author; __the damage is done__. How you can solve the diplomatic damage that’s already done? What repercussion it will be? Anyway and to conclude, we are puppets in a world dominated by just a few people, the threads are the information and they move us with relatively facility… the threads are extremely shave and some time the master of puppets is hurt by his own toy. DANIEL CRESPO ARAGONÈS **Differences between Al2O3 and Ag/Al2O3 for Lean Reduction of NO x with Dimethyl Ether** Tamm, Stefanie

Ingelsten, Hanna H.

Skoglundh, Magnus

Palmqvist, Anders E. C.

 Topics in Catalysis, 2009, volume 52, issue 13-20, pages 1813-1816 [|differences between Al2O3 and AgAl2O3] This article is written by Stefanie Tamm, Hanna H .Ingelsten, Magnus Skoglundh and Anders E. C. Palmqvist. The title of this article is “Differences between Al2O3 and Ag /Al2O3 for lean reduction of NOx with dimethyl ether” which is published online on 9 July 2009. The authors performed many experiments to compare the effect of Al2O3 and Ag /Al2O3 as a catalyst to reduce in reduction of the amount of NOx. They also investigated how this catalyst can help to convert Nox to harmless gas N2 with dimethyl ether. I have tried to give an explanation about the effect of these two catalysts on NOx reduction from vehicle engines.

The authors prepared the catalysts and they tested the activity of catalysts in flow reactor by FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) analyzer and measuring the reactor temperature and controlling the mass flow of feed gases during the experiment.

From my point of view this article is easy to follow and it clearly described the catalyst preparation method. It is also facilitated for readers to go behind how these catalysts prepared and to know which species and what conditions are required for this aim. In addition, figures are clear enough; therefore the readers can uncover what occurred during different steps without difficulty. Further more, the context was cited evidently to the references and I can follow the subject on the references without difficulty.

On the other hand there are some negative points which are negligible beside the positive points of this article but I will mention them. In my opinion it is not clarified in the flow reactor tests part and it is a small paragraph where explained these tests. Thus, it is difficult for readers to understand the process. I think the authors allocated big part to “the results and discussion” than “the experimental works”. If you read through the article you will see that most of the experiments are put on results part which could be much more well-located if they put them on the separate part with “experimental” title.

In conclusion, the article is an attempt to clarify the different activity and sensitivity to gas phase radial reactions and also activity for methanol SCR between Al2O3 and Ag /Al2O3 catalysts. It is indicated that the authors have achieved these goals entirely but it needs to be improved in some parts. As I have mentioned above it could be more efficient if the location of experimental tests modified to “experimental” part. However the article could noticeably describe the differences between two catalysts for reduction of NOx with dimethyl ether.

**Negar Valim **

Scammers exploit viral video of girl falling into fountain while texting

[|Scammers exploit viral video of girl falling into fountain while texting]

 The article argues that people in general are not careful enough when it comes to keeping their personal information private. It provides a example of a situation where a viral video was used as bait, interesting a person to allow access to their Facebook profile, before the actual video would be played.

 For a critical thinker, it is clear that if the video clip were as popular as implied by the proponent, it would be more easily available elsewhere. Still, some people were willing to jump through proverbial hoops, allowing a stranger application access to their personal profile, and even post messages in their name on the website, before receiving the reward of watching the video clip.

 I agree that many people are unaware of the degree of threat against anyone using the Internet, for example the trivial passwords they choose, or even give out to anyone in exchange for small amounts of chocolate. The article notes the side matter of whether or not it is an invasion of privacy to post videos of other people, taken in a public setting, on a website. Fortunately however, that is not relevant for the main argument of the article, and is left for another discussion.

<span style="display: block; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> The final irony is of course, that the company responsible for the article, an computer security software company, invites the reader to sign up for their very own Facebook application at the end, with the justification that this will provide them with future security tips and information.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"> Marcus Hedenström

//Reference: Carol Morris (February 2002), Charlotte-Mecklenburg-Workforce Development Board.// ====<span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">Evidently, cultural and language barriers are unavoidable problems when there are over 190 countries and approximately 6900 languages currently spoken around the world as well as globalization is happening everyday. Especially, USA, one of the nations with a high racial diversity, was usually supposed that the problem must cause enormous arguments but it is not really happen because they have good preparations for the issue. A guide book called “//<span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">Cultural and Language Barriers in the Workplace //” from an organization working in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, for example, is evidence for the adaptation of the US. The papers indicate some of the common barriers and breakdowns between employers and immigrant workers from many countries as well as show many tips for local businesses to cope with the challenge. ==== ====<span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">First, the hand book identifies cultural and language barriers sufficiently. Factors as roles and status, personal space, body language, religion and personal appearance are key elements which form distance between employers and foreign-born workers. The barriers could reduce worker’s productivity and increase risk in damage. Therefore, I totally advocate for cracking the code of assimilation. ==== ====<span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">Second, the article gives useful information and convincing arguments to reader though interesting examples. The structure of the article is arranged in separate parts clearly. However, the solutions are quite unspecific and lack practicability because a successful employer here should know how to balance between company’s profits and interests of employees who need help to assimilate into American workplace. Meanwhile, Carol Morris only simply draws out general solutions which is completely directed toward employer such as learning about cultures, recognizing the board ethnic diversity, respecting individual differences, abilities or personalities, providing an orientation, English program and recruiting bilingual manager and supervisor et cetera. These are more easy realization than performance. ==== ====<span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">In my opinion, the employers should learn about various demands of the work force before he conducts solutions for the problems. For example, the young immigrant workers and the older or between man and woman worker have different abilities and desires to break the drawback. It will be more effective solutions when they know what the immigrant workers want and how their ability is. ==== ====<span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">In conclusion, I agree with the author that we should respect culture and language difference but employers should help foreign-born employees to understand and be familiar with regulations and customs which need for their life in a new place. This is also a way to help the immigrant employees overcome the barriers. Solutions should also be two-way. ==== HOA KHUU
 * CRITIQUE OF "Cultural and Language Barriers in the Workplace" (Article from Group A)**

Wilkinson, L. (1995). How to build scenarios. Planning for "long fuse, big bang" problems in an era of uncertainty. Scenarios: The Future of the Future, 1-4.

How to build scenarios Planning for “long fuse, big bang” problems in an era of uncertainty. <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">The article called how to build scenarios by Lawrence Wilkinsson is an article included in the publication named Wired “Scenarios: The Future of the Future” Special Edition, 1995. In this article Wilkinsson explains the scenario technique and the need for this useful technique among managers that have to make decisions today about uncertain factors in the future. However, I will present arguments that this managerial technique could lead organizations to a world of more uncertainty. <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"> Scenario is a technique used by managers to see how the future will be like. Scenario planning originate from the fact that the future is uncertain, this means no one can know what is going to happen for sure in the future. The idea of building scenarios is to create a robust strategy which translates not only in one but several outcomes for the future. Knowing all the alternatives available for future outcomes, managers can make decisions since there is much less uncertainty about the upcoming events. This sounds very good in theory but when creating scenarios, new problems could be presented for the scenarios builders, for instance: causal factors diagrams are needed to know how systems work, inexperienced people can speculate about different causal factors that could lead to fictional systems that will guide to faulty scenarios. Furthermore, scenarios are useless most of the time, scenarios might have some elements of the future but managers still have to make decisions under uncertainty, they have to choose a direction for the organization. It is highly probable they are going to make decisions based in not well-built scenarios due the complexity of the different variables that could affect the future. <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"> Different techniques are promoted by their creators as the panacea for solving different managerial problems but managers should look at them from a critically perspective. I am not saying that the scenario technique is worthless but it is only helpful under certain conditions such as: a well scenario builder team that truly knows system dynamics, unbiased managers able to recognize bounded rationality in the scenarios and the use of other techniques that could complement the scenario technique. However, managers have to consider that random events can drastically change the probable future into an improbable future. Somehow organizations have to deal with different levels of uncertainty depending of its core business. Carlos Alberto Carrillo Salgado

**Critique on the Article [|“Scammers exploit viral video of a girl falling into fountain while texting]”** <span style="display: block; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 35.4pt;">The website Sophos IT blog published an article on his blog “Naked Security” on January 15th 2011, written by Graham Cluley, untitled “Scammers exploit viral video of girl falling into fountain while texting”. In this article, the author argues about a new way for scammers to make profits by controlling the privacy of social network users. I intend to expand on the points made and offer additional reasons arguing that this issue is very problematic and users have to be very careful when they are on social networks on internet.

The author constructs his thinking from a video which is freely available on YouTube: “A girl falls into a fountain while texting”. This video is used by scammers to earn money. They created an application on Facebook which looks like a link to the video but isn’t. If a Facebook user clicks on the link, a flashy advert appears to interest more the user. Then he has to “click here to watch the full video”. In fact, it’s a link to request for permission to access to your Facebook account and your privacy. Unfortunately, some users don’t worry about their privacy and give access their account to strangers. Finally, before watching the video, the user has to answer to a survey. That’s how scammers earn money. At the end of the text, the author gives a link to a video to clean-up your Facebook account if you have been hit by this kind of scams.

According to me, the thinking of the author and the organization of the text are quite clever. He develops the problem step by step. First, he bases his thinking on an example (the video) to interest the reader. Then, he develops his ideas with the problem of the scammers and finally he explains how to avoid this problem and how to clean-up the mistakes. So, this thinking is very logical and easy to understand for the readers. People who are confronted to this problem are Facebook users and more particularly people who are not aware of the risks of invasion of somebody’s privacy like teenagers or new users on Facebook. But the audience of this text is the readers of “Naked Security” blog that is to say people who interest themselves in the security on internet. Therefore, there is a difference between the audience of the issue and the audience of this article.

To conclude, this article is very perceptive in its content but there is a big problem of audience. Indeed, I’m not sure teenagers or new users on Facebook will read this article. Thus, the reach of this article isn’t wide so we can ask ourselves if this article is really useful. That’s a pity because this issue is very serious and scammers could have other aims that earning money with surveys by using access to privacy.

Alexis Masson

Critique of <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"> “ Paying Waste: Sewage Contains More Usable Energy Than Scientists Thought. ”

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 宋体; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">Original text: <span class="15" style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Arial'; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">[|__http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=wastewater-energy-content__] <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">The Scientific American published an article on January 11, 2011, written by Mike Orcutt and titled it as “ Paying Waste: Sewage Contains More Usable Energy Than Scientists Thought. ” In this article, Orcutt argues that previous estimate of waste water as a renewable energy source is "a substantial underestimation" based on a new study. I intend to make some comments against these points. It is not persuasive enough to assert that sewage is underestimated as a potential renewable energy source based solely on the findings of one single research group. The findings, published by Elizabeth Heidrich, a PhD student at Newcastle University in England on January 5 in Environmental Science & Technology, are claimed to be the second most early research outcomes on this subject. Consequently, there is no comparison sample, no repeated experiments, no substantial proof from other independent research groups mentioned in this article. As a result, if there is any malfunctioning part in these findings, the main point of the article we are discussing will fail immediately. More over, the fact that the number of calories stored in waste water is underestimated does not guarantee that these calories could be utilized efficiently as a energy source. In this article, the author states the finding that sewage sample contained 20 percent more than the previous study had reported for its sample. However, if we can ’ t transform these calories into utilizable energy form such as electricity, the potential of sewage as an energy source is still low. From the Einstein ’ s famous equations of special relativity reveals that every atom contains huge energy. But this does not mean that every atom is a reasonable energy source. The author mentioned several methods to harvest energy form sewage, but not in detail enough to give desired conclusion. Last but not least, the limitations of the experiment discussed in the last paragraph provide no support to the main point. These limitations, if exist, lower the number of calories detected, hence give more potential to the sewage as an energy source. As a result they strengthen the summary stated at the end of the article which stated the main point again. Instead, the author use “ regardless “ when referring them, treating them as negative arguments. To summary, in my opinion, the source of argument of this article is monotonic. Also, the deduction from arguments to main point is not obvious. Moreover, the limitations discussed in the last paragraph are not necessary.

Guowei He

Critique of <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">“ <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Brunel-for-Titles,georgia; font-style: normal;">Paying Waste: Sewage Contains More Usable Energy Than Scientists Thought <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">“

==== <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">On January the 11th of 2011, the Scientific Americain blog published an article “ <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Brunel-for-Titles,georgia; font-style: normal;">Paying Waste: Sewage Contains More Usable Energy Than Scientists Thought <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">“ written by Mike Orcutt. ==== ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; margin-bottom: 0in;"> The author presents the issue of water waste and the fact there could be a new way to recycle household water waste into renewable energy. ==== ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">I think the author has good arguments but I don't really agree on his point of view and I don't really disagree too. I will explain why I am in both sides. ====

====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">To begin with the authors stresses that household waterwaste is more important than industrial waterwaste. It has been proven that nowadays we can extract methane from anaerobic digestion or produce electricity using fuel cells. So we have the power to do it but there is no companies interested in this problem yet. Because it is a completely new environment and people want to know if it's a good idea to put their money into this field. ====

====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">On the other hand, this technique has its limitation, as the author says. The process of freezing and drying take several weeks. So we have to store the frozen samples and the dried ones somewhere. And during the storing process, a new freezing and drying process should occur. So there will be a storage problem added to the time problem. ==== ====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">Moreover, even if the authors didn't mention it, I would like to stress a very important problem. In my opinion, what is important for most of human being is not the ecology, otherwise there would be no stupid things like braconage, it is money. ====

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">If we want to put money into this field, it could be more expensive than what we think.
====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">So if we manage to make it very interesting for investors, this solution will become much more developed and we will use less raw products. Thus it will be good for the Nature. ====

====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">To conclude, I think this idea is a good solution for protecting the Nature. Extracting energies from waterwaste is better than producing a big amount fuel. ====

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">We have to consider this technique because raw products are not unlimited.
====<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">But this will not happen before a long time, because we can't change people's mind until something important has happened to them. ====

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; margin-bottom: 0in;">That is why I have a neutral point of view.
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Valentin KIM

http://efegroupb2011.wikispaces.com/file/view/Topical+report.pdf

__ Critique of the article ‘ ____Geotechnical engineering versus__ __Earthquakes’ by Alavi Karim__

The article ‘ Geotechnical engineering versus Earthquakes’ written by Sara Johansson and group describes the various effects that an earthquake has on the environment such as ground shaking, land-slides, tsunamis etc. It further goes on to describe the numerous geotechnical designs available for mitigating the damages from an earthquake.

Although the article extensively covers the effects of an earthquake and geotechnical designs to mitigate those effects, it would have been helpful to read more about practical examples to support the theories presented. For example, maybe suggestions of countries that have implemented the designs mentioned in the article. There is only one example in the end about preventive measures taken in Alaska on an oil pipe to minimize the damages from a spill during an earthquake. This immediately helped me to connect the theory to reality. I believe, more of such examples will support their argument more. What the article also fails to discuss is how cost effective the technology is and how realistic it is to implement them. For eg, can third world countries afford to build them? In comparison to how detailed the sections about the effects of earthquakes on the environment are, the sections regarding the geotechnical engineering is not that detailed. It does not bring focus to the engineering perspective as much.

Lastly, although this critique should be mostly focused on the content of the article, I could not help but notice the grammatical errors throughout the article. The main problem was the incorrect references to the figures (1 should have been 2 and 2 should have been 3). Overall, it is a very well written and informative article.

Critique

This is a critique about Alexis Masson’s summary published on Wikispaces website. The summary is based on an article “Putting it together: the science and technology of composite materials” published in the magazine Nova in 2000. Alexis makes us familiar with a developing technology of composite materials, discussing their origin, an idea about their way of production, how do they work and their current and future application. Concerning my knowledge about that field I agree with author’s statements excepting one in the introduction of the summary which says that composites high performance are new materials.

Following Alexis’ entire interpretation we learn about a new technology product which is on the way to throw the traditional materials into the background. He even claims that these are new materials forming a complex of something new which is lighter and has better mechanical properties. In my opinion it is not accurately to say that there is development of new materials. Practically we do not have new materials, there is just a method founded how to utilize them better and obtain a new product with characteristics improved. The materials are the same but combined in a smart way using certain technology contrary to Alexis’ statement about developing of new materials namely composites high performance.

Later in the text we see that composites are always been around us in the Nature. Their usage dates since a lot time ago. Some examples are mud bricks and concrete. Following that way of thinking I can add only that our ancestors have found most of these composites just by chance. The concept which we find similar in the Nature has been founded later. Then it was possible to make this association and say that composites are not a new concept by itself but has existed in the Nature even before mankind.

Regarding the type of the most common composite materials and their application, respectfully fiberglass or carbon fibers and their utilization in aircraft, boats, spacecraft industry, I have the same comprehensions. Actually we can see such materials everywhere around in all these areas without forgetting the automobile industry as well. The technology is both used for traditional staff and developing new products. That’s all in accordance with Alexis’s explanations about the most common fiberglass and carbon fibers which has their potential in the future despite the high price.

To conclude my critique I would like to say that most of the materials nowadays are already founded and the scientists mostly try to improve them coming up with new methods and techniques. A representative example for that are composite materials. That’s why in my opinion Alexis Masson presents the article “Putting it together: the science and technology of composite materials” using the source in good way, describing the new scientific matter quite well with only one exception: the development of new materials which should be formulated in better fashion.

References: Wikispaces (2011), electronic, available: http://efegroupb2011.wikispaces.com/Assignment+1+summaries, (2011-02-16) Yordan Venev