Socio-Demographic Profile of Scavenging Households in Umapad Dumpsite, Mandaue City Cebu, Philippines

Scavengers being informal settlers are often not provided by the government with basic services. Furthermore, they are often exposed to occupational safety and health hazard and yet they to continue to rely on wastepicking as their major source of income. Upon the implementation of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act (RA 9003) by the city government of Mandaue, this significantly lowered the income of the scavengers by 62.34%. This indicates a conflict of interest between the scavengers and the implementing body. Hence, a comprehensive environmental and socio-economic policy should be planned to identify the needs of the scavengers and address the interest of both parties

Platforms and software systems for an autonomic internet

The current Internet does not enable easy introduction and deployment of new network technologies and services. This paper aims to progress the Future Internet (FI) by introduction of a service composition and execution environment that re-use existing components of access and core networks. This paper presents essential service-centric platforms and software systems that have been developed with the aim to create a flexible environment for an Autonomic Internet.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Removing leakage-induced correlated errors in superconducting quantum error correction

Quantum computing can become scalable through error correction, but logical error rates only decrease with system size when physical errors are sufficiently uncorrelated. During computation, unused high energy levels of the qubits can become excited, creating leakage states that are long-lived and mobile. Particularly for superconducting transmon qubits, this leakage opens a path to errors that are correlated in space and time. Here, we report a reset protocol that returns a qubit to the ground state from all relevant higher level states. We test its performance with the bit-flip stabilizer code, a simplified version of the surface code for quantum error correction. We investigate the accumulation and dynamics of leakage during error correction. Using this protocol, we find lower rates of logical errors and an improved scaling and stability of error suppression with increasing qubit number. This demonstration provides a key step on the path towards scalable quantum computing

Potential therapeutic applications of microbial surface-activecompounds

Numerous investigations of microbial surface-active compounds or biosurfactants over the past two decades have led to the discovery of many interesting physicochemical and biological properties including antimicrobial, anti-biofilm and therapeutic among many other pharmaceutical and medical applications. Microbial control and inhibition strategies involving the use of antibiotics are becoming continually challenged due to the emergence of resistant strains mostly embedded within biofilm formations that are difficult to eradicate. Different aspects of antimicrobial and anti-biofilm control are becoming issues of increasing importance in clinical, hygiene, therapeutic and other applications. Biosurfactants research has resulted in increasing interest into their ability to inhibit microbial activity and disperse microbial biofilms in addition to being mostly nontoxic and stable at extremes conditions. Some biosurfactants are now in use in clinical, food and environmental fields, whilst others remain under investigation and development. The dispersal properties of biosurfactants have been shown to rival that of conventional inhibitory agents against bacterial, fungal and yeast biofilms as well as viral membrane structures. This presents them as potential candidates for future uses in new generations of antimicrobial agents or as adjuvants to other antibiotics and use as preservatives for microbial suppression and eradication strategies

Low microplastic abundance in Siganus spp. from the Tañon Strait, Central Philippines

Microplastic (MP) occurrence is a major global issue, though data on MP occurrence in the Philippines is limited and the potential effects of MPs on biota are still poorly studied. MP occurrence in fishes remains a concern, especially in economically and ecologically important species such as Siganus spp. This study determined MP occurrence in the gastrointestinal tract of wild rabbit fishes from Tañon Strait, the largest marine protected area in the Philippines. Siganus canaliculatus ( n = 65), S. spinus ( n = 17), S. guttatus ( n = 5), S. virgatus ( n = 8) and S. punctatus ( n = 1) were sampled from the north and south of the strait. All MPs isolated from the gut of the rabbit fishes except for fibers were chemically analyzed by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy ; an established library was used to determine the polymeric identities. Five particles were confirmed as polyester, polyamide, polyethylene or phenoxy resin MPs. The average MP abundance was 0.05 items/individual ( S. virgatus > S. guttatus > S. canaliculatus > S. spinus = S. punctatus ), which is comparable to studies conducted in other locations using similar methods. Fibers were counted (1556 in total), but not chemically analyzed. The low MP abundance in the samples may be attributed to the capability of rabbit fishes to discriminate food preferences. However, the risks associated with MPs should not be underestimated, especially as all parts of the fishes-including the gut-are utilized as human foods in the Philippines and many other Asian countries