Supporting Intergenerational Arts

This research project looks at intergenerational arts programs and seeks to answer the question of how we can better support intergenerational arts programs in a variety of settings within the community. Specifically, this study will give us a better understanding of how people interpret intergenerational arts programs and what they believe will help support these programs. A better understanding of supports for intergenerational arts programs is important because it will help foster a greater variety of programs for the public as well as how to help those programs flourish in our communities. To complete this research project 5 interviews were conducted by participants from the Hamilton community involved in recreational activities. Through these interviews the result was that there is interest in intergenerational arts programming involving music and instruments in settings such as schools and community centres. The research also found that there is lack of or hard to find information about intergenerational programming available to the public. These results will help in supporting intergenerational arts programs within the community

Would a 'vaccine passport' work in the Philippines?

A novel coronavirus in 2019 took the life of ‘patient zero’ and then millions of others alerting nation states to protect and secure the lives of their citizens. The coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 caused the ‘COVID-19’ disease which had governments impose restrictions on the freedom of movement or the right to travel in the form of ‘community quarantines.’ The serious adverse effects of these on the world and national economies moved the governments to loosen the quarantines and implement versions of so-called ‘vaccine passport,’ an international digital health certificate proving COVID-19 vaccination status. One of the uses of the vaccine passport is to expedite the safe and orderly passage of people in airports which extends to other travel terminals, essential and commercial establishments, and facilities. There are ethical concerns, however, such as the inequitable distribution of the scarce supply of vaccines, among others. In this article, I briefly describe the vaccine passport idea, its uses, and ethical concerns, and then apply these concerns in a national context through the pending bills that aim to legitimize a Vaccine Passport System in the Philippines. In the end, I recommend that lawmakers (who represent the moral interest of Filipinos) consider such concerns before they cast their votes

Expression and prognostic role of STAT5a across cancer types.

Studies examining the role of signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (STAT5) in various cancers have produced controversial results. To address this controversy, we examined the prognostic role of STAT5a in cancer patients across multiple cancers. Transcription levels of STAT5a between tumors and normal tissues, obtained from public databases, were analyzed for statistical differences using Cox regression analysis with the outcome as overall survival and covariate of interest as high STAT5a expression. Meta-analysis was then conducted to summarize the hazard ratio estimate from the Cox regression analyses. We found that STAT5a was significantly under-expressed in breast, lung, and ovarian cancers, while STAT5a was significantly overexpressed in lymphoid neoplasm diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, glioblastoma, and glioma. High STAT5a expression was significantly associated with favorable survival in bladder cancer (lnHR = -0.8689 [-1.4087, -0.3292], P-value = 0.0016), breast cancer (lnHR = -0.7805 [-1.1394, -0.4215], P-value < 0.0001) and lung cancer (lnHR = -0.3255 [-0.6427, -0.0083], P-value = 0.0443). After adjusting for clinicopathological factors, high STAT5a expression remained significantly associated with favorable survival in breast cancer (lnHR = -0.6091 [-1.0810, -0.1372], P-value = 0.0114). These results suggest that higher STAT5a expression is associated with favorable overall survival in breast cancer, and therefore might have protective effects, and that STAT5a expression could be a potential prognostic biomarker, especially in breast cancer. However, the prognostic role of STAT5a is dependent on cancer type

Threshold phenomena with respect to the initiation of depopulation in a simple model of foot-and-mouth disease

Depopulation is one of the important interventions for the outbreak of animal diseases. Simulation models using actual case scenarios conclude that early depopulation is the most efficient in preventing the spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD). However, the long delay in its initiation was often seen in the actual cases and the theoretical analyses of FMD epidemiology with depopulation needs further elaboration. Here, we investigated the qualitative features of epidemic models when depopulation at a fixed capacity was delayed. We built a simple deterministic model for FMD based on state-transition, the SEIIR model whose unit is a single farm. The model settings and parameters were determined using the data from the 2010 epidemic in Miyazaki, Japan. By numerical calculation, we showed the existence of the threshold phenomenon with respect to delays in the initiation of depopulation and if the initiation of full-fledged depopulation surpasses the certain critical timing, the final size of the epidemic rapidly increases leading to a “catastrophic situation”. We also revealed the mechanism of the threshold phenomenon from the relationship between the depopulation capacity and the increasing rate of infection. Although it can be delayed with lower transmission coefficients, the threshold phenomenon still exists. Thus, the existence of the critical timing for depopulation appears to be a universal feature of FMD epidemiology when depopulation is used as the main treatment for disease control

A toxonomic survey of intertidal marine crabs found in Bataan, Cavite and Quezon Province

The collection of brachyuran crabs in Bataan, Cavite and Quezon Provinces resulted in thirty-seven species under eight families, thirty-six species belong to twenty-three genera. One species was not classified up to genus level. Two species, Tmethypocoelis sp. and Ozius sp. still need further study in order to classify them up to the species level. Each species is described morphologically including their habitats, locality, economic importance and distribution patterns. Family Portunidae has the greatest number of collected species that comprise the 35.14% (thirteen species) of the total number of species amassed. Family Ocypodidae and Grapsidae each have 18.91% with seven species. Family Mennipidae has 10.81% (four species). Family Calappidae and each constitutes 5.41% (two species) of the total number of species collected. The least number of brachyurans amassed is found to be the Family Pilumnidae and Gecarcinidae each with 2.70% (one species). Among the collecting sites, Sariaya, Quezon has the highest number of brachyurans (25 species) while the lowest number is found in Orion, Bataan (16 species). About 43.24% (sixteen species) of crabs collected are consumed by the local residents. About 18.92% (seven species) are already commercially available in the market, only 5.41% (two species) are considered poisonous and 32.43% (twelve species) functions only as part of the food chain for the natural balance of nature

Variation in the Physical and Functional Properties of Yam (Dioscorea spp.) Flour Produced by Different Processing Techniques

Research on the processing of yam (Dioscorea spp.) into flour is aimed at optimizing techniques to obtain a material with high physicochemical and functional properties. The present study investigates the effect of the processing techniques on the levels of inulin, organic acids, total phenolics (TP), antioxidant capacity, and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD) activities, as well as on the physicochemical properties of flour derived from two yam species—Dioscorea esculenta and Dioscorea bulbifera. All tubers were peeled and sliced, then subjected to different processing techniques through blanching, soaking, and drying. The results revealed that freeze-drying appears to be the best technique in achieving the highest whiteness index of yam flour. This coincided well with the low phenolics content and POD activity, which suggests a reduced enzymatic browning reaction in the freeze-dried yam flour. On the other hand, chemical analyses showed that D. esculenta and D. bulbifera flours have the highest levels of inulin (23.0 and 27.8 g/100 g DW, respectively) and succinic acid (7.96 and 7.65 g/100 g DW, respectively) in the samples subjected to direct oven-drying. Oven drying without pretreatment neither blanching nor water steeping maintained antioxidant activity in the flour derived from both D. esculenta and D. bulbifera

Evaluation of Biological Response of Lettuce (<i>Lactuca sativa</i> L.) and Weeds to Safranal Allelochemical of Saffron (<i>Crocus sativus</i>) by Using Static Exposure Method

Safranal, the main volatile chemical of Saffron (Crocus sativus) was studied to estimate its allelopathic effects on the photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll, leaf electrolyte leakage, fresh weight, catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POX) activity of the test plant Lettuce (Lactuca sativa). In this study, the effective concentration (EC50) of safranal on CAT was estimated to be 6.12 &#181;g/cm3. CAT activity was inhibited in a dose-dependent manner by the increase in the safranal concentration while POX activity was increased. Moreover, Safranal caused significant physiological changes in chlorophyll content, leaf electrolyte leakage, and fresh weight of several weed species with Lolium multiflorum being the most sensitive. Furthermore, 5 &#181;M Safranal showed significant inhibitory activity against dicotyledonous in comparison to the monocotyledons under greenhouse conditions. The inhibition of the CAT by safranal was similar to those of uncompetitive inhibitors, and therefore the decline in carbon fixation by plants might be the mechanism behind the inhibitory activity of safranal