Developing Divisoria as shopping tourism destination amidst COVID-19 pandemic

The inevitable circumstance of Covid-19 to dierent tourism destinations requires a concerted effort of the government, industry, and academe in finding ways to continue tourism activities which safeguard the health of the people while contributing to the economic development of a destination. Thus, this research focuses how Divisoria may be branded as a potential shopping tourism destination for local and foreign tourists. Specifically, the variance in the assessments, motivating factors for shopping, and the necessary actions to make Divisoria a tourism destination that prioritizes welfare of tourists amid Covid-19 pandemic were investigated. Six (6) tourists were initially interviewed on how they think Divisoria can be promoted as a shopping tourism destination in the country and how the destination can be adept to Covid-19 pandemic. Sixty (60) respondents were then surveyed on the potential of Divisoria on being a tourist shopping district, focusing on the aspects of shopping culture, service quality, product value and reliability, physical features of stalls and supporting facilities. Tourists are found to be motivated to shop in Divisoria because of cheap finds, accessibility to transportation, variety of goods sold, and availability of local produce. They are also attracted to visit Divisoria due to the accounts of family and friends which increase their curiosity of the place, as well as the association of the destination to holidays. The added value of experiencing vast cultures in the Philippines through Divisoria can be considered a unique selling proposition of the place that may translate to multiplicity of positive word-of-mouth marketing

Level of integration into university life among Social Sciences students coming from rural areas

Abstract onlyThe study, "Level of Integration Into University Life Among Social Sciences Students Coming From Rural Areas," utilized a descriptive quantitative method to assess integration levels among respondents from rural areas within the College of Ails and Sciences. It surveyed 131 Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and 89 Bachelor of Science in Psychology students with overall 220, focusing on those residing outside city parameters. Data were collected via Google Forms and analyzed using SPSS v23. Results revealed that the level of integration into university life is average (x=3.48) when taken as a whole according to sex, course and extra-curricular involvement. In terms of sex, the male has high level (x=3.67) while the female has average (x=3.38), in the course where Bachelor of Arts in Political Science has high (x=3.66) while Bachelor of Science in Psychology has average (x= 3.37), and in extra-curricular involvement participants has high (x=3.64) while non-participants has average (x=3.28). Using Mann-Whitney U Test, the study revealed that there was a significant difference when grouped according to sex (p <0.0001) where males were significantly higher compared to females, when grouped according to courses (p <0.0001) the Bachelor of Alts in Political Science and Public Administration was significantly higher compared to the Bachelor of Science in Psychology, and extra-curricular involvement (p <0.0001) where participants were significantly higher compared to non-participants. The study underscores the significance of extracurricular involvement for curriculum development and provides insights for institutions to facilitate the integration of rural students. It also offers guidance for further study on the dynamics of integration and what drives different student demographics.Includes bibliographical referencesBachelor of Science in Psycholog

Clinical characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 patients in a tertiary hospital in Baguio City, Philippines

Objective: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), primarily targets the respiratory system. This study describes the characteristics associated with mortality among patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 at a single hospital in Baguio City, Philippines. Methods: We reviewed medical records (including history, laboratory results and treatment regimen) of 280 confirmed COVID-19 patients admitted to a single hospital during March–October 2020. Clinical characteristics and outcomes (frequency and type of complication, recovery rate and mortality) were evaluated. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyse factors associated with mortality. Results: The mean age of COVID-19 patients was 48.4 years and the female-to-male ratio was 1.8:1. Hypertension, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes were the most frequent comorbidities reported. Common presenting symptoms were respiratory and constitutional, with 41% of patients not reporting symptoms on admission. Patients with moderate, severe and critical disease comprised 45%, 8% and 4%, respectively. A total of 15% had complications, health care-associated pneumonia being the most frequent complication. The recovery rate was 95%; 5% of patients died, with multiorgan failure being the most common cause. The presence of CVD, chronic kidney disease, prolonged prothrombin time and elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were associated with mortality. Discussion: Most COVID-19 patients in our population had asymptomatic to moderate disease on admission. Mortality from COVID-19 was associated with having CVD, chronic kidney disease, elevated LDH and prolonged prothrombin time. Based on these results, we emphasize that people should take all necessary precautions to avoid infection with SARS-CoV-2

Predictors of gains in the English component of the assessment for college potential (ACP)

This research conducted during the 2nd semester of SY 2016-2017 ascertained the predictors of gains in the English component of the Assessment for College Potential (ACP) of the marine engineering students at PHINMA - University of Iloilo. The respondents of the study were the 238 marine engineering students who completed ENG 105 on the second semester of SY 2013-2014, and have taken the ACP achievement tests during the SY 2013-2014 and 2014-2015. The class standing records in ENG 105 and the ACP achievement test scores were used as the instruments for this study. For descriptive statistics, the mean and the standard deviation were used. For the inferential statistics, One-Way ANOVA, Pearson r, and the multiple regression analysis were employed. The 0.05 alpha level was used as the criterion for the acceptance or rejection of the null hypothesis. Results showed that the mean score of the participants in the ACP post-test increased by 1.19 points from 73.09 in the school year 2013-2014 to 74.28 in 2014-2015. Statistical analysis also revealed that no grading component in ENG 105 was found to predict score gains in the English component of the ACP. This was attributed to the lack of objective numerical data for student's scores in the two grading components. Thus, it was recommended that PHINMA-UI consider revising policies and guidelines for SCLP that includes giving weight to students' attendance and devising objective scoring rubrics for computing points earned in the SRA Record Books and the comprehensive student portfolios

Locating Optimal Coordinates of Police Deployment and Outpost in Santa Maria Bulacan using Centroid 360: An Enhanced Centroid Initialization for K means Algorithm

The number of police in the Philippines is way below than the declared number of police per population based on the Philippines Republic Act No. 6975, Chapter 3, Section 27 which states that one (1) policeman per five hundred (500) persons. Santa Maria Bulacan only have fifty-two (52) police personnel, and one (1) police outpost which is located in the town of Poblacion which is in the far south east of the whole municipality. This produces different speed when responding to incident reports. The police force’s response time vary based from the location of the incident. This research determined the optimum location to where police will be deployed as a mobile unit to be able to respond faster to more areas than staying in the outpost. Another thing that will be determined by this research is the optimum coordinates of a perfect scenario where each town in the municipality of Santa Maria Bulacan would have their own police outpost. The coordinates will be calculated based on the populations’ location by plotting all the houses and structures located in Santa Maria Bulacan based on Google Map Images, and the Optimum locations will be determined in the form of the converged centroids after applying enhanced K means clustering algorithm.</jats:p