Obesity

  Obesity is a medical condition where excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have a negative effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems. In Western society, people are considered obese when their body mass index (BMI), a measurement obtained by dividing a person's weight by the square of the person's height, exceeds 30 kg/m2, with the range 25-30 kg/m2 defined as overweight. On the contrary, some East Asian countries use stricter criteria.

  Obesity may increase the possibility of various other diseases, like heart disease, diabetes, sleep apnea, cancer, osteoarthritis, etc. The factors which cause obesity include a combination of excessive food energy intake, lack of physical activity, and genetic susceptibility. However in a few cases, it is also caused primarily by genes, endocrine disorders, medications, or psychiatric. On average, people who have obesity have a greater energy expenditure than thin counterparts because the energy is required to maintain an increased body mass.

  For obese people, dieting and exercising are the main treatments. Diet quality can be improved by reducing the consumption of energy-dense food and by increasing the intake of dietary fiber. With a suitable diet, anti-obesity drugs may be taken to reduce appetite or decrease fat absorption.

  A gastric balloon may also assist with weight loss, or surgery may be performed to reduce stomach volume and/or bowel length, leading to feeling full earlier and a reduced ability to absorb nutrients from food.

  

  In modern society, obesity is considered as one of the most serious public health problems of the 21^st century by authorities. It attracts more and more concern of people in recent years. So there are increasing number of people, especially in western countries, doing exercise to enhance the health of their body and to prevent obesity.

Picture from the following website:

http://www.modvive.com/2014/11/20/worldwide-obesity-costs-rise-2-trillion-annually/

Who should be responsible for the sexual harassment?

Who should be responsible for the sexual harassment?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dzgqXjhTA8

  Sexual harassment is very prevalent in India. There is a news that a woman was gang-raped on the bus and nobody showed the intention to stop this violence.

  Actually, sexual harassment is a kind of bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. And there is an argument in India that the molesters in that case thought that the woman should take the responsibility for the sexual harassment. Because the woman wears so hot and attractive, so they cannot control to savage the woman.

  It is ridiculous that the woman should be responsible for this case. We female have the right to choose what to wear, but this is not the excuse for those men to do bad things on women. The adverse impacts of sexual harassment result in psychological effects as well as physical effects. 

  I don't know why those molesters have those absurd thoughts, but the government in India should take some measures and implement the policy and law to regulate the behaviours and to protect the women's right. 

Wildfire

Wildfire

  A wildfire is an uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation that occurs in countryside area. It also has other names, such as brush fire, bush fire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, vegetation fire, and veldfire. These names may be used to describe the same phenomenon relying on the type of vegetation which are being burned, and the regional variant of English being used. The standards of distinguishing wildfire from other fires include its extensive size, the speed at which it can spread out from its original source, its potential to change direction unexpectedly, and also its ability to jump gaps such as roads, rivers and fire breaks. Wildfires are characterized in terms of the cause of ignition, their physical properties such as speed of propagation, the combustible material present, and the effect of weather on the fire.

  Forest fire are a common occurrence in Australia due to the generally hot and dry climate, they pose a great risk to life and infrastructure during all times of the year, though mostly throughout the hotter months of summer and spring. Fossil records and human history contain accounts of wildfires, because wildfires can occur in periodic intervals.

  Wildfires can cause extensive damage, both to human life and property, but they also have various beneficial effects on wilderness areas. Some plant species depend on the effects of fire for growth and reproduction, although large wildfires may also have negative ecological effects.

  Strategies of wildfire prevention, detection, and suppression have changed and varied over the years, and further development of technology and research are encouraged by international wildfire management experts. One of the more controversial techniques is controlled burning: permitting or even igniting smaller fires to minimize the amount of flammable material available for a potential wildfire. While some wildfires burn in remote forested regions, they can cause extensive destruction of homes and other property located in the wildland-urban interface: a zone of transition between developed areas and undeveloped wilderness.

Picture from the following website:

http://www.kcwy13.com/todayinwyoming/headlines/We-Review-Wildfire-Prevention-and-Safety-266587201.html

Light pollution-A cause of eye diseases

Light pollution-A cause of eye diseases

  In my blogs, I talked about several different pollution which are air pollution, visual pollution and E-waste. And in this blog, I want to talk about the other pollution which is called light pollution. According to Wikipedia, the light pollution also known as photopollution or luminous pollution, is excessive, misdirected, or obtrusive artificial light. Pollution is the adding -of/ added light itself, in analogy to added sound, carbon dioxide, etc.

Light pollution compares with starlight in the night sky for residents, interferes with astronomical observatories, and like any other form of pollution, disrupts ecosystems and has adverse health effects, and the pollution can be divided into to major categories:

• Unpleasant light that intrudes on an otherwise natural or low-light setting
• Excessive light (generally means indoors' lights) that leads to discomfort and adverse health effects

  The consequences of this kind of issue can be seen as the following:

• Energy waste
• Effects on animal and human health and psychology
• Disruption of ecosystem
• Effect on astronomy
• Increase in atmospheric pollution
• Reduction of natural sky polarization

  The reduction of this issue includes many things such as reducing sky glow, reducing glare, reducing light trespass, and reducing clutter. And some possible solutions include (Wikipedia):

1. Utilizing light sources of minimum intensity necessary to accomplish the light's purpose
2.  Turning lights off using a timer or occupancy sensor or manually when not needed
3. Improving lighting fixtures, so that they direct their light more accurately towards where it is needed, and with fewer side effects
4. Adjusting the type of lights used, so that the light waves emitted are those that are less likely to cause severe light pollution problems. Mercury, metal halide and above all first generation of blue-light LED road luminaires are much more pollutant than sodium lamps: Earth atmosphere scatters and transmits blue light better than yellow or red light. It is a common experience observing "glare" and "fog" around and below LED road luminaires as soon as air humidity increases, while orange sodium lamp luminaires are less prone to show this phenomenon
5. Evaluating existing lighting plans, and re-designing some or all of the plans depending on whether existing light is actually needed

  I hope that we can mitigate this kind of issue and help to protect our planet to let we human beings live in a beautiful and environmental friendly earth.



Picture from the following website:
http://blogs.plos.org/citizensci/2013/05/10/two-new-citizen-science-apps-to-measure-light-pollution/

Cultural Conflict-one obstacle of globalisation

Cultural Conflict-one obstacle of globalization

  
  As the world is becoming more and more small, people can communicate with each other easier than before. This is the globalization which is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture. From the definition of the globalization, we can indicate that our world would be narrow and we can learn more from other countries. 
   

  The positive aspects of globalization are that we can share our technologies, our thoughts, our cultures and our productions. In the ancient time, it was hard for people who lived in different countries to communicate and exchange things. The reason for this is the technology. Because of the high technology, we can fly to wherever you want by taking a flight; with the high technology, we can talk to people wherever they are via the internet. The globalization provides us more chance to live a better life, it also could stimulate the economy across the world.

  However, there are also some disadvantages of globalization. One of them I am concerned about is the cultural conflict. The impacts of cultural conflict is enormous, affecting 'name, frame, blame, and attempt to tame conflicts'. And different people who have different cultural backgrounds would be hard to communicate with each other. This also may effect the global economy. So this kind of issue should be solved in the future.




Picture from the following website:
http://www.sociologydiscussion.com/globalisation/globalisation-social-dimensions-of-globalisation-explained/977

http://www.qnatrainings.com/Cross-Cultural-Management-Master-Class.html

Would advertisements pollute our daily life?

 Would advertisements pollute our daily life?

  There are large amount of advertisements are filled in our daily life, and it is also a kind of pollution called visual pollution. Visual pollution is a kind of an aesthetic issue and refers to the impacts of pollution that impair one's ability to enjoy a vista or view.

We can see from the picture above, the huge advertisement cover the whole wall of the building, we cannot enjoy the beautiful architecture, but only the advertisement. And this kind of pollution distributes the visual areas of people by creating negative changes in the natural environment. Billboards, open storage if trash, space debris, telephone towers, electric wires, buildings and automobiles are forms of visual pollution, and it is defined as the whole of irregular formations, which are mostly found in natural and built environments.

  Although this kind of pollution can not be as equally serious as other kind of pollutions such as air pollution and water pollution. However, this issue also would impact our quality of life, and we should find some method to solve this problem. And I think there are several solutions that could mitigate the situation:

• Policy

  Implementing a policy to regulate the advertisement industry is an effective way to control the issue. Advertisement companies should follow the policy and thus the size and the locations of the ad can be limited, and which in turn may help to solve the pollution.

• Education

  This could be more focus on the environment management, planning and advertising students. Because they design the advertisements, so if they have the sense of protecting visual view, that pollution could be mitigate.

• Management

  This method is similar to the first one, the policy. It also need the cooperation between the government and advertisement companies.

  I think, through those methods above can we mitigate the visual pollution in the future, and this could not be a pollution anymore.




Picture from the following website: http://www.brainsonfire.com/blog/2012/04/30/visual-pollution/

 

How to prevent from school bullying?

How to prevent from school bullying?

  If we want to live in a high quality of life, we cannot just focus on the external environment, but also we should care about the internal situation which is the psychological health. Bullying is a kind adverse impact on individual health.

  

What is bullying?

  Bullying is the use of force, threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively dominant others. The bullying is divided into four basic types of abuse:

1. emotional (or can be called relational)
2. verbal
3. physical
4. cyber

One of most serious kind of bullying is school bullying which is a type of bullying that occurs in an educational setting. The school bullying may be more specifically characterized by five aspects as the following:

• An intention to harm
• Victimization distress
• Repetition
• Power inequity
• Provocation

How to prevent this kind of problem?

  Many parents may concern more about this issue for that they are afraid of their children would be treated like that. First of all, parents should stay connected with your child. The more you know about his or her friends and the details about his or her interactions eith classmates and peers, the more likely you are to spot any changes in your child's social interactions. If you communicate well with your child, when they get in trouble, they may ask you for help at first.

  Secondly, you should explain to your children what is school bullying, especially young children, they may not understand that hitting someone is bad. And parents also should tell your childern other kinds of bullying behaviours.

  Then, the children should be aware of how to deal with a school bullying. Children should understand what is school bullying, and should be educated that they cannot do the bullying behaviours. However, when they face the situation, they also should know how to deal with this issue. Asking teachers for help is a effective method, teachers have the right to protect children and provide a healthy study environment.

  Children need a healthy and positive circumstances to study, and we adults should provide them this kind of surroundings.

Pictures from the following websites:

https://www.madison.k12.wi.us/bullying

http://www.devrylaw.ca/education-law-bullying-in-schools