Evidence from Strandings for Geomagnetic Sensitivity in Cetaceans

We tested the hypothesis that cetaceans use weak anomalies in the geomagnetic field as cues for orientation, navigation and/or piloting. Using the positions of 212 stranding events of live animals in the Smith sonian compilation which fall within the boundaries of the USGS East-Coast Aeromagnetic Survey, we found that there are highly significant tendencies for cetaceans to beach themselves near coastal locations with local magnetic minima. Monte-Carlo simulations confirm the significance of these effects. These results suggest that cetaceans have a magnetic sensory systemcomparable to that in other migratory and homing animals, and predict that the magnetic topography and in particular the marine magnetic lineations may play an important role in guiding long-distance migration. The ‘map’ sense of migratoryanimals may therefore be largely based on a simple strategy of following paths of local magnetic minima and avoiding magnetic gradients

Holistic Processing of Colour Images Using Novel Quaternion-Valued Wavelets on the Plane

We investigate the applicability of quaternion-valued wavelets on the plane to holistic colour image processing. We present a methodology for decomposing and reconstructing colour images using quaternionic wavelet filters associated to recently developed quaternion-valued wavelets on the plane. We consider compression, enhancement, segmentation, and denoising techniques to demonstrate quaternion-valued wavelets as a promising tool for holistic colour image processing

Design and Development of RC Railed Robot for Coffee Nursery Logistics

The Remote Controlled (RC) Railed Robot was designed and developed to transfer polybags from manual operation to an automated logistic system. Gizduino microcontroller was used to read and interpret commands sent and received by the transceivers to the robot and a remote to command instructions to the robot.The project was tested and evaluated at the Coffee Nursery of Cavite State University by determining the speed of the robot, the effectiveness of the remote control and the accuracy of the robot to lift a pallet and place it into an empty space.Results showed that the robot was able to receive and interpret commands provided by the remote control as well as perform the tasks successfully.The most significant recommendation was to use a counterweight at the rear side of the robot to avoid unnecessary derailments of the robot if lifting heavier or greater number of pallets is desired

Environmental effects following a seismic sequence: the 2019 Cotabato—Davao del Sur (Philippines) earthquakes

In the period of October–December 2019, the Cotabato–Davao del Sur region (Philippines) was hit by a seismic sequence comprising four earthquakes with magnitude MW > 6.0 (EQ1-4; max magnitude MW 6.8). The earthquakes triggered widespread environmental effects, including landslides and liquefaction features. We documented such effects by means of field surveys, which we supplemented with landslide mapping from satellite images. Field surveys allowed us to gather information on 43 points after EQ1, 202 points after EQs2–3 and 87 points after EQ4. Additionally, we built a multi-temporal inventory of landslides from remote sensing, comprising 190 slope movements triggered by EQ1, 4737 after EQs2–3, and 5666 at the end of the sequence. We assigned an intensity value to each environmental effect using the environmental seismic intensity (ESI-07) scale. Our preferred estimates of ESI-07 epicentral intensity are VIII for the first earthquake and IX at the end of the sequence, which is in broad agreement with other events of similar magnitude globally. This study, which is the first case of the application of the ESI-07 scale to a seismic sequence in the Philippines, shows that repeated documentation of environmental damage and the evaluation of the progression through time may be useful for providing input data for derivative products, such as susceptibility assessment, evaluation of residual risk or investigation of the role played by ground shaking and by other mechanisms able to trigger environmental effects

Beyond Covid-19: The Future of Festivals in Calabarzon, Philippines

Purpose: This study aims to determine or forecast the willingness of regular participants of festivals to attend or join events festivals in the post-COVID-19 scenario. Specifically, it aimed to 1.) identify the perceived future of festivals in the post-pandemic scenario and if people are still willing to participate in or join in any of the festival's events, and 2.) discuss the role of festivals in the post-pandemic scenario.   Theoretical framework: The researchers employed the stakeholder theory technique to predict the future of the festival's events. A stakeholder is "any group or person who may impact or is affected by the attainment of the institution's objective," Freeman (1984). Freeman contends that a person or group is a stakeholder if it has a sincere interest in a particular component of the institution's operations and, as a result, either can influence the company's performance or has a stake in that performance. Particularly, in this study, the stakeholders are the participants, the businessmen, and the organizers of the festivals. Ultimately, the perception of the stakeholders may be used by festival organizers as a basis for holding festivals in the post-pandemic scenario.   Design/methodology/approach: This study used a qualitative design using phenomenological approach based on the lived experiences of the participants with the festivals they have attended. Snowball sampling was used to choose 32 participants, commencing with the tourist local government official that had control over the festival events. The researchers utilized key informant interviews and focus group discussions on obtaining data, guided by a semi-structured questionnaire to allow the researchers to adjust questions according to the participant's willingness and manner of answering. For data clustering and theme identification, the researchers utilized a qualitative research tool (NVIVO) with license key: (N-L-Z-7-7) and used the analytical framework by Moustakas (1994), as covered by Creswell (2007). The researchers began by outlining the subject's or participant’s encounters concerning the festivals being examined. Next, they created collection of noteworthy remarks and organized these into more substantial units of information (i.e., units or themes).   Findings: As a result, every participant is eager to engage, be present, or take part in their respective festivals again, once the COVID-19 restrictions are removed, but some have a few reservations.   Implications for research, everyday life, and society: In the Philippines, the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in 2023. This is also a time for the local economy to recover. The series of lockdowns heavily hampered the local economy due to the pandemic. The local governments may use festivals to help small, medium, and microenterprises recover from the losses they took during the pandemic, and festivals. can kick start the local economy. Festival organizers may utilize the findings of this research as a foundation.   Originality/value: All the data gathered in this research was at the peak of lockdowns and cases of COVID-19 in the Philippines. This made it very difficult for the researchers to collect data, thus resulting in an integration of in-person interactions, key informant interviews and online focus group discussions. It was a time when mass gatherings were hard to imagine, let alone the celebration of festivals uncertain. Nevertheless, the result was surprising since all the participants were still willing to join or attend festivals

IDENTIFYING ILLUMINATION COVERAGE IN UP DILIMAN CAMPUS USING GIS

The University of the Philippines Diliman faces challenges for pedestrians, particularly at night. Hence, this study proposed the creation of a detailed map using QGIS to showcase the illumination coverage of street lights around the UP Academic Oval. The project aims to establish a safer and more secure environment within the university community, ensuring optimal visibility and reducing the risk of accidents through a map that provides crucial insights into the spatial distribution of street lights, highlighting areas with sufficient lighting and areas in need of improvement. It considered significant factors that affect illumination quality across the campus such as terrain, lamp height, and bulb specifications. Based on the gathered data, increasing the lamp post height by a meter expands the illumination coverage around Roces Street and along paths towards University Avenue, but decreases light intensity. Changing the beam angles of the lamp posts from 112 to 140 degrees causes clustering of illumination areas along the left side of the Academic Oval, enhances those along Beta Way, and weakens light intensity of the lamp posts though not as much as in the first case. Lastly, increasing both the height of the lamp posts and their beam angles by a meter and at 140 degrees results in the significant increase of illumination coverage along the Academic Oval. However, increasing the heights of the posts may be costly. Therefore, to economically provide better coverage and maintain safety around the area, beam angles of the lamp posts should be increased to 140 degrees