Acceptance of COVID-19 Vaccine Among Unvaccinated Filipinos

Background: Access to COVID-19 vaccines was one of the global measures for containing the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is still not known whether Filipinos accept it.  Methods: Cross-sectional study based on a modified version of the community COVID-19 vaccine acceptance survey, disseminated and collected through Google Forms to Filipinos within the Philippines aged 18-65 years old. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the association between the willingness to be vaccinated and sociodemographic characteristics using odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI).  Results: Among the 1,011 participants, 79.5% were willing to accept the COVID-19 vaccine. Significant determinants (p<0.05) were age, region of residence, sex, profession, income, religion, practice of alternative medicine, and previous contact with COVID-19 positive individuals. Essential healthcare workers (OR=11.0, 95%CI=1.3-93.5), practiced alternative medicine (OR=2.4, 95%CI=1.3-4.4), with previous contact with a COVID-19 positive person (OR=2.9, 95%CI=1.4-6.0), and females>males (OR=0.6, 95%CI=.3-1.0) were also more likely to accept COVID-19 vaccination. 63.7% preferred Pfizer the most, and 54.4% preferred Sinovac the least. In contrast, married individuals, essential non-healthcare workers and private/self-employed sectors were less likely to accept COVID-19 vaccines. Many individuals who refused to be vaccinated were unsure of its safety (59.70%) and had no trust in vaccines (56.50%). Conclusion: Despite a high prevalence of acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine in our study, there were significant sociodemographic disproportions in vaccine acceptance. Better policies urging Filipinos to get vaccinated and more effective dissemination of unified information regarding vaccines from verified sources are recommended to boost vaccine confidence in the Philippines

Balancing the Pedagogical and Practical Concerns in Remote Higher Education: A Cyberethnography

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about physical school closures and quick transitions online, with universities making decisions for this new mode of instruction. Such decisions, however, were open to discussion and debates, particularly as students and instructors held varying concerns, experiences, and expectations for remote learning. We investigate what these debates are using a cyberethnography of a Facebook group for students and faculty, and an anonymous Freedom Wall page for students in the same university. The concerns centered on workload that balanced academic rigor and practical exigencies; learning modalities that balanced accountability and flexibility; and assessments that balanced academic integrity and viable accommodations. Taken altogether, these suggest that faculty and students’ concerns are not merely about discrete curricular choices but are, at their root, about balancing pedagogical excellence and practical adaptability. We thus suggest that universities couch their policies not through discrete options but through the balancing of values

Assessing the impact of comparative genomic sequence data on the functional annotation of the Drosophila genome

BACKGROUND: It is widely accepted that comparative sequence data can aid the functional annotation of genome sequences; however, the most informative species and features of genome evolution for comparison remain to be determined. RESULTS: We analyzed conservation in eight genomic regions (apterous, even-skipped, fushi tarazu, twist, and Rhodopsins 1, 2, 3 and 4) from four Drosophila species (D. erecta, D. pseudoobscura, D. willistoni, and D. littoralis) covering more than 500 kb of the D. melanogaster genome. All D. melanogaster genes (and 78-82% of coding exons) identified in divergent species such as D. pseudoobscura show evidence of functional constraint. Addition of a third species can reveal functional constraint in otherwise non-significant pairwise exon comparisons. Microsynteny is largely conserved, with rearrangement breakpoints, novel transposable element insertions, and gene transpositions occurring in similar numbers. Rates of amino-acid substitution are higher in uncharacterized genes relative to genes that have previously been studied. Conserved non-coding sequences (CNCSs) tend to be spatially clustered with conserved spacing between CNCSs, and clusters of CNCSs can be used to predict enhancer sequences. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide the basis for choosing species whose genome sequences would be most useful in aiding the functional annotation of coding and cis-regulatory sequences in Drosophila. Furthermore, this work shows how decoding the spatial organization of conserved sequences, such as the clustering of CNCSs, can complement efforts to annotate eukaryotic genomes on the basis of sequence conservation alone

Finishing a whole-genome shotgun: Release 3 of the Drosophila melanogaster euchromatic genome sequence

BACKGROUND: The Drosophila melanogaster genome was the first metazoan genome to have been sequenced by the whole-genome shotgun (WGS) method. Two issues relating to this achievement were widely debated in the genomics community: how correct is the sequence with respect to base-pair (bp) accuracy and frequency of assembly errors? And, how difficult is it to bring a WGS sequence to the accepted standard for finished sequence? We are now in a position to answer these questions. RESULTS: Our finishing process was designed to close gaps, improve sequence quality and validate the assembly. Sequence traces derived from the WGS and draft sequencing of individual bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs) were assembled into BAC-sized segments. These segments were brought to high quality, and then joined to constitute the sequence of each chromosome arm. Overall assembly was verified by comparison to a physical map of fingerprinted BAC clones. In the current version of the 116.9 Mb euchromatic genome, called Release 3, the six euchromatic chromosome arms are represented by 13 scaffolds with a total of 37 sequence gaps. We compared Release 3 to Release 2; in autosomal regions of unique sequence, the error rate of Release 2 was one in 20,000 bp. CONCLUSIONS: The WGS strategy can efficiently produce a high-quality sequence of a metazoan genome while generating the reagents required for sequence finishing. However, the initial method of repeat assembly was flawed. The sequence we report here, Release 3, is a reliable resource for molecular genetic experimentation and computational analysis

Breeding Temperate Japonica Rice Varieties Adaptable to Tropical Regions: Progress and Prospects

Temperate japonica rice is mainly cultivated in temperate regions. Many temperate japonica varieties have a superior grain quality that is preferred in Northeast Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, and China. The changes in consumers’ preferences in Southeast Asia and Western countries has contributed to increasing the demand for temperate japonica. Most temperate japonica varieties developed in temperate regions typically exhibit extra-early flowering under the short-day conditions in the tropics, which usually results in severely reduced yields. Since 1992, we have been developing temperate japonica varieties that can adapt to tropical environments to meet the increasing demand for temperate japonica rice, having released six varieties in the Philippines. Especially, the yield of one of the temperate japonica varieties, Japonica 7, was comparable to the yields of leading indica varieties in the Philippines. Here, we discuss the current breeding initiatives and future plans for the development of tropical-region-bred temperate japonica rice

The Relationship of Acculturation Stress and Leisure Satisfaction of Hispanic College Students

Hispanics are the fastest growing minority group in the U.S. and signs indicate a similar trend in their college enrollment. Leisure activities are known to have a moderating effect on individuals experiencing stress in their lives. Hispanic organizations registered with a major 4-year metropolitan university were targeted. The hypothesis for this study was there is no relationship between acculturation stress and leisure satisfaction. Results indicate no relationship between acculturation stress and leisure satisfaction. One explanation for this lack of a significant relationship between these two measures might be that these college students had obtained a high level of acculturation, which would explain the relatively low level of acculturation stress reported

An integrated marketing communications campaign for Keepr Storage PH

The research aims to examine the preference and use of storage service providers and facilities in Metro Manila. Respondents are from Metro Manila who availed or planning to use a storage service provider and facilities. Analysis of data and insights from consumers aid the researcher in developing an Integrated Marketing Communications plan for Keepr Storage Solutions, Inc. Through its brand, Keepr Storage PH, the company provides full-service storage solutions such as rental of storage, inventory of storage, pick-up, and return of items, packing service, moving service, and storage insurance. The proposed Integrated Marketing Communications Campaign focuses on increasing the company’s revenue by implementing strategic and streamlined marketing activities, primarily using digital as a channel. In order to maximize the company resources and budget, marketing activities are performance-based, regularly measured and re-calibrated, directly targeting the specific market, and are cost-efficient. Aside from the strategy, the campaign aims to underscore the inherent value that storage services can provide. The researcher focused on understanding consumer insight to find the essential truth. The campaign\u27s big idea focuses on how consumers value, treasure, and deeply care about the things they store. The messaging is conveyed through a genuine, kind, and straightforward tone of voice that shines through the brand experience. The creative materials aim to make consumers feel enlightened, encouraged, and informed with the impact of the messaging to bring satisfaction, lifestyle improvement, value for money, saved time, and peace of mind. The Campaign also emphasizes the importance of identifying specific objectives in every stage of the buyer’s journey, which shall be measured based on performance and contribution to the company sales. Budget and sales forecasting were also presented. Evaluation, monitoring and control measures are also specified to identify areas for improvement and measure key performance indicators. Keywords: Keepr Storage PH, Storage Service, Storage Facility, Storage Rental, Storage Unit

Examining the Impact of the Community of Inquiry and Student Learning Process on Participants' Academic Achievement

This dissertation presents an empirical investigation of learning from online courses. The current dissertation examined student participation, using Arbaugh et al.'s Community of Inquiry (CoI) survey instrument and Biggs et al.'s revised version of the Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) to determine CoI influences on learning from the students' perspective. This study is in response to Rourke and Kanuka's call to provide further empirical evidence about CoI conceptual framework connections to deep and meaningful learning. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the elements of CoI, cognitive, social, and teaching presences and students' learning approaches to students' perceived learning. Students enrolled in traditional, online, and, blended courses during the 2016 spring semester at a southwestern university participated in a web-based survey. Structural equation modeling was used to test the indirect effects between the elements of CoI, learning approaches, and perceived learning. Student's deep approach to learning was found to have an indirect effect between cognitive presence and perceived learning. However, this study's findings, when the CoI framework was viewed in its entirety, failed to provide evidence to simulate deep and meaningful learning

On comparing measures of sample skewness and kurtesis

This research is an exposition of D. N. Joanes and C. A. Gill\u27s study on Comparing Measures of Sample Skewness and Kurtosis. It focuses on the traditional measures of skewness and kurtosis, g1 and g2, respectively, and other measures of skewness and kurtosis adopted by statistical packages, such as SAS and SPSS G1 and G2, and MINITAB and BMP\u27s b1 and b2. Simulation studies were conducted to compare measures of sample skewness and kurtosis. MS Excel was used to generate data from uniform from 0 to 1, normal with mean 5 and variance 2, chi-square with 1, 15 and 30 degrees of freedom and t-distribution with 5 and 20 degrees of freedom. Property of least mean-squared error was used as criteria to determine best estimators for skewness and kurtosis. It was found out that choice of best estimators of skewness and kurtosis are dependent on the sample size and whether the mean-squared error is dominated by a large variance or bias term. For uniform and normal distributions, b1 is the best estimator for skewness and b2 and g2, are good estimators kurtosis. For the chi-square with 1 degree of freedom, the measures G1 and G2 are best estimators of skewness and kurtosis, respectively. For greater degrees of freedom, b1 and g2 are best estimators of skewness and kurtosis respectively. For the t-distribution, the best estimator of skewness is b1. Moreover, b2 and g2 are good estimators of kurtosis for the t-distribution

Feature detection and matching on atmospheric nuclear detonation video

Automated feature matching of nuclear detonations (NUDETs) enables three-dimensional point cloud reconstruction, and establishment a volume-based model to reduce uncertainty in estimating the yield of NUDETs solely from video. Establishing a volume-based model requires feature correspondences between wide viewpoints of 58°–110° that are larger than scale-invariant feature transform-based techniques can reliably match. The presented technique detects relative bright features in the NUDET known as ‘hotspots,’ and matches them across wide viewpoints using a spherical based object model. Results show that hotspots can be detected with a 71.95% hit rate and 86.03% precision. Hotspots are matched to films from different viewpoints with 76.6% correctness and a standard deviation of 16.4%. Hotspot descriptors are also matched in time sequence with 99.6% correctness and a standard deviation of 1.07%. The results demonstrate that a spherical model can serve as a viable descriptor model for matching across wide viewpoints when the object is known to be spherical. It also demonstrates an automated feature detection and matching combination that enables features to be matched from unsynchronised video across wide viewpoints of 58°–110° on spherical objects where state-of-the-art techniques are insufficient