Leveraging Secondary School Heads’ State of the School Address (SOSA): A Content Analysis

Government schools in the Philippines are headed by school administrators who are generally called School Heads. These school heads carry out the State of the School Address every year to showcase the accomplishment of the school and its future directions. This study analyzed the content and form of the secondary school heads’ written speeches. Stratified random sampling was used to determine the sample size. A qualitative content analysis was conducted to find out the aspect of the SOSA that was given more prominence, the percentage allotted to key messages related to the School-Based Management, the local and global errors made, and the intertextual figures employed in the written speeches. Results showed that school heads gave more prominence to resource management in their SOSA and only 13.46% of the entire SOSA was allotted to key messages related to SBM. They made local errors in morphology, syntax, and lexicon and global errors in idea and organization of information. School heads employed quotation and plagiarism as intertextual figures in their written speeches. The study concluded with the findings that the State of the School Address did not have a clear framework on which to anchor the content of the SOSA. The State of the School Address did not have proper speech guidelines for school heads to follow. School heads needed to enhance their writing proficiency, thus, the adoption of the ideal framework of the SOSA and the implementation of the special writing training program for secondary school heads produced in this study are recommended

A Qualitative Exploration of the Mental Health and Psychosocial Contexts of HIV-Positive Adolescents in Tanzania

Although 85% of HIV-positive adolescents reside in sub-Saharan Africa, little is known about the psychosocial and mental health factors affecting their daily well-being. Identifying these contextual variables is key to development of culturally appropriate and effective interventions for this understudied and high-risk population. The purpose of this study was to identify salient psychosocial and mental health challenges confronted by HIV-positive youth in a resource-poor Tanzanian setting. A total of 24 qualitative interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of adolescents aged 12–24 receiving outpatient HIV care at a medical center in Moshi, Tanzania. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded using thematic analysis. Psychosocial challenges identified included loss of one or more parents, chronic domestic abuse, financial stressors restricting access to medical care and education, and high levels of internalized and community stigma among peers and other social contacts. Over half of youth (56%) reported difficulties coming to terms with their HIV diagnosis and espoused related feelings of self-blame. These findings highlight the urgent need to develop culturally proficient programs aimed at helping adolescents cope with these manifold challenges. Results from this study guided the development of Sauti ya Vijana (The Voice of Youth), a 10-session group mental health intervention designed to address the psychosocial and mental health needs of HIV-positive Tanzanian youth

Profile of Private Hospitals in the Philippines

As a recognition of the valuable role of private sector in the healthcare delivery system, this paper attempts to collate vital information on private hospitals in the Philippines. This paper looks at the different characteristics and structures of private hospitals sector with regard to geographical distribution, services, financing, human resource, and other information needed by policymakers, investors, and other interested stakeholders. To better understand the current health care delivery system in the country, other sections compare private hospitals vis-a-vis government-owned facilities

Inequities in Noncommunicable Diseases

This report presents the findings of the research conducted by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) on leading noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). With the collaborative efforts of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI), this research project was conducted to supplement the Department of Health's (DOH) initiative in crafting a national strategy in the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases.This study presents evidences on mortality, morbidity, some social determinants, and inequities. Different secondary data sets like the National Nutrition Survey, National Demographic and Health Survey, Death Registry from the National Statistics Office, Family Income and Expenditure Survey and other information obtained from other studies were analyzed to come up with a unified and comprehensive study that depicts the true picture of NCDs epidemic in the country

Altered NCAM expression associated with the cholinergic system in Alzheimer's disease

Neurotransmitter system dysfunction and synapse loss have been recognized as hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our hypothesis is that specific neurochemical populations of neurons might be more vulnerable to degeneration in AD due to particular deficits in synaptic plasticity. We have studied, in postmortem brain tissue, the relationship between levels of synaptic markers (NCAM and BDNF), neurochemical measurements (cholinacetyltransferase activity, serotonin, dopamine, GABA, and glutamate levels), and clinical data (cognitive status measured as MMSE score). NCAM levels in frontal and temporal cortex from AD patients were significantly lower than control patients. Interestingly, these reductions in NCAM levels were associated to an ApoE4 genotype. Levels of BDNF were also significantly reduced in both frontal and temporal regions in AD patients. The ratio between plasticity markers and neurochemical measurements was used to study which of the neurochemical populations was particularly associated to plasticity changes. In both the frontal and temporal cortex, there was a significant reduction in the ChAT/NCAM ratio in AD samples compared to controls. None of the ratios to BDNF were different between control and AD samples. Furthermore, Pearson's product moment showed a significant positive correlation between MMSE score and the ChAT/NCAM ratio in frontal cortex (n=19; r=0.526*; p=0.037) as well as in temporal cortex (n=19; r=0.601*; p=0.018) in AD patients. Altogether, these data suggest a potential involvement of NCAM expressing neurons in the cognitive deficits in AD

Furthering the implementation of AEC blueprint measures

The study identifies outstanding issues and bottlenecks and provides recommendations to facilitate the Philippines' full compliance to its commitments to the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). Various in-depth interviews and surveys were conducted with concerned stakeholders from government agencies and the private sector to bring to fore the issues and bottlenecks for policymakers' action. Although its focus is mainly on services and investment liberalization, this study also tracks policy changes in trade facilitation, nontariff measures, standards and conformance, and mutual recognition arrangements after the release of the 2010/2011 AEC Scorecard Reports

Mirror system of the RICH detector of the NA62 experiment

A large RICH detector is used in NA62 to suppress the muon contamination in the charged pion selection by a factor 100 in the momentum range between 15 and 35 GeV/c. The detector consists of a 17 m long tank (vessel), filled with neon gas at atmospheric pressure. Cherenkov light is reflected by a mosaic of 20 spherical mirrors with 17 m focal length, placed at the downstream end, and collected by 1952 photomultipliers (PMTs) placed at the upstream end. In this paper the characterization of the mirrors before installation and the mirror support system are described. The mirror installation procedure and the laser alignment are also illustrated

Effect of Mycophenolate Mofetil on Plasma Bioelements in Renal Transplant Recipients

The proper concentrations of plasma bioelements may favorably reduce the incidence of metabolic disorders, which often occur during immunosuppressive therapy. Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is currently one of the most frequently administered immunosuppressive agents; however, MMF treatment is often related to gastrointestinal side effects. The aim of this study was thus to verify whether the MMF treatment itself, or its metabolite pharmacokinetics, has an effect on the concentrations of plasma bioelements. To determine this, the effect of MMF on the levels of both major (sodium [Na], potassium [K], calcium [Ca], magnesium [Mg]), and trace (iron [Fe], zinc [Zn], copper [Cu]) plasma bioelements in 61 renal transplant recipients was assessed in comparison to a control group (n = 45). The pharmacokinetic parameters of mycophenolic acid were determined by the high-performance liquid chromatography method. All patients filled out a 24-h diet history questionnaire. The results showed high plasma concentrations of Fe and low plasma concentrations of Mg and Zn as compared with diagnostic norms. The patients treated with MMF had significantly lower plasma Na (P < 0.001) and significantly higher plasma Zn (P = 0.030) and Cu concentrations (P < 0.001). In conclusion, MMF treatment was found to affect plasma Fe, Zn, and Cu levels by increasing their concentrations while decreasing the plasma Na concentration. Mg and Zn deficiencies, as well as excessive Fe levels, are frequently observed irrespective of the immunosuppressive regimen applied, which suggests that monitoring of these bioelements may be favorable