Introspecting the Causes of Absenteeism of Pre-Service Teachers

Educators have recognized the importance of school attendance to learners’ academic growth and development. School attendance is often linked to positive school performance and considered as predictor of academic success. This notion makes it imperative to examine the potential causes of absenteeism to prevent students to be at risk of habitual truancy. Hence, this survey type of research determined the causes of absenteeism of teacher education students along attitude, school, and home-related factors. Twenty-three teacher education students who were purposively chosen as respondents based on their attendance record perceived attitude-related and home-related factors as highly contributory to their absenteeism. They had considered their current program not as their field of interest nor their first choice in selecting academic programs, and were also easily affected by their parents’ quarrel. Moreover, they considered school-related factors as contributory to absenteeism as the classrooms’ ventilation appeared not conducive to learning for the respondents. An intervention program strengthening the monitoring of students’ attendance is highly recommended in this study

Inverse association between atopy and melanoma: A case-control study

Heightened cutaneous immune surveillance in atopic patients may inhibit development of melanoma. The aim of this study was to analyse the association between atopy and melanoma (development and outcome). A total of 188 cases of melanoma and 596 healthy controls were interviewed by telephone with a standardized questionnaire on atopic, demographic and melanoma characteristics. Cases were matched with controls on important confounders (age, sex, sunburn sensitivity, hair colour, number of moles, sunburn as juvenile, ever sunbed use, familial melanoma). Melanoma outcome data (disease relapse and death) within cases were retrieved. Analysis showed a general inverse association between atopy and melanoma development, but this was statistically significant only for a history of personal atopy (odds ratio 0.53, 95% confidence interval: 0.30-0.96, p-value = 0.04). Among melanoma patients, atopy did not affect survival or progression. In conclusion, this study suggests an inverse association between a history of atopy and melanoma development, but not with disease progression

Readiness in Mathematics Flipped Classroom of Filipino Secondary School Teachers

School’s access to technology is increasing steadily every day and most of these technologies are now even used in classroom. Due to these circumstances, educators’ ideas of using technology to support deeper learning in multiple ways gave rise to the concepts of distance and blended learning. Hence, this study determined the readiness in Mathematics flipped classroom of selected Filipino secondary school teachers at the Division Schools of Tanauan City during the School Year 2016-2017. Specifically, it dealt with the following: profile of the respondents in terms of sex, age, highest educational attainment, and number of seminars attended related to ICT; respondents’ assessment on their readiness in Mathematics flipped classroom; and relationship between the respondents’ profile and their readiness in Mathematics flipped classroom. By employing the descriptive type of research with the researcher-made questionnaire, the study found out that the respondents were ready in Mathematics flipped classroom. Moreover, the results of the study revealed that there was a significant relationship between the respondents’ profile and their readiness in Mathematics flipped classroom. With these, the researchers proposed a course of action to support the readiness of Mathematics teachers in a flipped classroom

Vitamin D supplementation in cutaneous malignant melanoma outcome (ViDMe): a randomized controlled trial.

L

Sustainability reporting in the Philippines: The case of Manila Water Company Inc.

Sustainability reporting is currently gaining traction in the international community. More and more corporations are now seeing the importance of aligning business objectives with those of society and the environment. While reporting is now common place in developed countries, it is still in the infancy stages in developing countries. This paper aims to describe and analyze the reporting pattern of the first corporation in the Philippines to report about its sustainability efforts. A content analysis was done on the ten sustainability reports issued by Manila Water Company, Inc. The findings show that while the company achieved significant developments in terms of reporting, it still has to report on the more difficult areas such as non-conformance and other not-so-positive aspects of the company

Comparing tenure of employees in terms of work engagement and experience of flow in the workplace

The study compared senior and new employees with regards to their work engagement and experiences of flow through a mixed ANOVA design. There were one hundred (100) employees from selected Chinese family businesses based in Metro Manila who accomplished the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) and the Work Related Flow Inventory (WOLF). The findings revealed that work engagement and flow are not dependent on tenure. Differences were observed between the two groups of tenure in terms of mean although the study was unable to draw relevant conclusions with company culture and incompetence of tenure as a grouping variable

Scoring performance on computer-based patient simulations: beyond value of information.

As computer based clinical case simulations become increasingly popular for training and evaluating clinicians, approaches are needed to evaluate a trainee's or examinee's solution of the simulated cases. In 1997 we developed a decision analytic approach to scoring performance on computerized patient case simulations, using expected value of information (VOI) to generate a score each time the user requested clinical information from the simulation. Although this measure has many desirable characteristics, we found that the VOI was zero for the majority of information requests. We enhanced our original algorithm to measure potential decrements in expected utility that could result from using results of information requests that have zero VOI. Like the original algorithm, the new approach uses decision models, represented as influence diagrams, to represent the diagnostic problem. The process of solving computer based patient simulations involves repeated cycles of requesting and receiving these data from the simulations. Each time the user requests clinical data from the simulation, the influence diagram is evaluated to determine the expected VOI of the requested clinical datum. The VOI is non-zero only it the requested datum has the potential to change the leading diagnosis. The VOI is zero when the data item requested does not map to any node in the influence diagram or when the item maps to a node but does not change the leading diagnosis regardless of it's value. Our new algorithm generates a score for each of these situations by modeling what would happen to the expected utility of the model if the user changes the leading diagnosis based on the results. The resulting algorithm produces a non-zero score for all information requests. The score is the VOI when the VOI is non-zero It is a negative number when the VOI is zero

Selfie-taking Behavior and Narcissistic Tendencies of College Students

The increasing popularity of selfies and social media made users vulnerable to excessive selfie-related behaviors. This maladaptive behavior can cause people to develop several mental disorders such as depression and body dysmorphic disorder. Thus, this study determined the relationship between selfie-taking behavior and narcissistic tendencies of selected college students. Selfitis Behavior Scale (SBS) and Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI-13) are research instruments used to measure selfie-taking behavior and narcissistic tendencies, respectively. The descriptive-correlational research revealed that 120 college students, selected through stratified sampling technique, are more likely to engage in selfie-taking behavior which in turn, may lead to narcissistic tendencies. Respondents showed high level of selfie-taking behavior and low level of narcissistic tendencies, therefore displaying ‘seldom narcissistic’ features. Only the frequency of selfies taken was significantly related to selfie-taking behavior. Selfie-taking behavior was also significantly related to narcissistic tendencies. Thus, this study concludes that selfie-taking and narcissistic behaviors can be positive and negative, influenced primarily by the motives of selfie-taking, and cultural differences play an important role in mediating selfie-taking and narcissistic behaviors. This study suggests a deeper exploration on the narcissistic tendencies and providing more specific details on the nature, causes, classification, as well as possible diagnostic criteria of these narcissistic features