Concepts in Human Health and Disease
For the assignments, you will be required to write four essays on the following topics pertaining to the field of human health and disease from scientific and socioeconomically perspectives. There are four topics you are requested to discuss:
1) Bacterial resistance to antibiotics from scientific and socioeconomic perspectives.
a. What are the most important biological processes for developing antibiotics resistance?
b. What are the socioeconomic factors which accelerate the development of antibiotics resistance?
c. For future drugs: what should be done to slow down the development of drug resistance?
2) The good and the bad sides of smallpox eradication.
a. Why was the eradication of smallpox so successful?
b. Since smallpox was eradicated by 1980, why would we still need to worry about the virus?
3) The effect of Tobacco advertisement/promotion on our society
a. Describe the effect of tobacco advertisement/promotion during the last 100 years.
b. Since advertisements and the use of cigarettes are highly regulated today, why would we still need to worry about their effects on young people?
4) Acceptance/rejection of vaccination
a. Why vaccines have bad public relations? Describe the most common claims by the anti-vaccine movements.
b. Suggest some specific answers for these claims
c. describe and give specific examples for the effect of vaccine rejection on public health
d. What do you think: should vaccines be mandatory?
The topics above will be discussed in the pre-recorded lectures. So the starting point can be the material from these lectures. However, from here you are expected to do some research on the above topics. You can use textbooks, websites and any other resources of your choice. You need to list all the resources you have used.
Concepts in Human Health and Disease
Originality
The essays must be your own original essays created specifically for NATS 1670. The essays must be written with your own words and ideas. Do not copy text directly from another source, and cite any ideas that you’re borrowing from another source. I opened four TurnItIn accounts (each for each topic) in the Moodle web site of the course for three purposes:
a. To help you get feedback on the originality of your paper before the due date. If the similarity of your work with other resources is above 20%, you must make the appropriate changes to increase your originality score. Be aware that after submitting your paper once, it will be stored in the database of TurnItIn and you might find that following submission of your paper will show high similarity to your previous version.
b. To help me and the TAs to evaluate the originality of your work.
c. To avoid plagiarism.
The three parts in each TurnItIn account are there to allow you to submit your assignment up to three times in order to improve originality. Please use Part 1 (assignment) first, and use Parts 2 (Corrected assignment) and 3 (last corrected assignment) only if you need to improve your score. Note: If you write your assignment using your own words, your score should be below 20% from your first version. So again, do not copy any text from another source.
Part 4 is for late assignments. If you submit your assignment after the due date you must use this part. Note: Any submissions after the due date will be subject to a penalty of 5% per day.
Essay Structure
The length of each essay should be 3-4 pages, typed and double spaced. The assignment must consist of the following parts:
A. Description of problem: presentation of the issue from multiple perspectives.
B. Discussion: here, I want to hear YOUR voice and opinion on the question.
C. Bibliography: You can use the referencing style of your choice, but it must be consistent.
The specific questions I wrote for each topic will help you to take the best direction in your assignment. However, if you want, you can discuss each topic from other directions. How do you submit your answered exam? Your paper must be submitted electronically through the TurnItIn accounts which can be found on our course Moodle website. You will be able to send the electronic version at any point between the dates indicated on the course outline. Any submissions after the due date will be subject to a penalty of 5% per day.
Grading scheme (% of the grade)
1) Originality: 40%
2) Introduction: 20%
3) Discussion: 20%
4) Overall Structure: 10%
5) Writing Style: 10%
The grade will be calculated out of your best 75% (the best three out of four assignments). So for this
component of the grade, you have 25% buffer. This accounts for missed assignments (e.g. due to illness,
technical issues you might have with the computer or internet, or any other reasons). No justification (e.g.
doctor note etc.) will be required for a missed assignment.
Concepts in Human Health and Disease
