Military and school personnel psychological states amidst the Pandemic: A Kruskal-Wallis comparative analysis

Purpose – This study aims to determine the Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout, and Secondary Traumatic Stress among Military and School Personnel.Method - Quantitative descriptive-comparative research design was used.  There are 147 respondents participated in this study.Result - Compassion Satisfaction levels of Military-Enlisted and Teaching Personnel were Average, while for the Military-Officer and Non-Teaching School Personnel were High; Burnout for the Military-Enlisted and Teaching Personnel were both Average, while the Military-Officer and Non-Teaching School Personnel were both low; and the Secondary Traumatic Stress was Low for the Military-Officer and Average to other three groups of respondents. Significant differences manifested after employing the parametric test MANOVA and non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis.  Post Hoc test was employed in order to identify the specific significant differences.Implication – The researchers have identified significant pattern and trends that contribute to the understanding of comparison, personnel who are less often directly exposed to the clients have better Psychological States descriptively.Originality - This research contributes to the existing body of knowledge in the areas of Compassion, Burnout and Stress   experienced by militaries and educators in the conduct of their respective public services.***Tujuan - Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui Kepuasan Belas Kasih, Burnout, dan Stres Trauma Sekunder di antara Personel Militer dan Sekolah, serta untuk membandingkan kondisi-kondisi psikologis tersebut.Metode - Desain penelitian deskriptif-komparatif kuantitatif digunakan.   Ada 147 responden yang berpartisipasi dalam penelitian ini.Hasil - Tingkat Kepuasan Belas Kasih pada Tamtama Militer dan Tenaga Pengajar tergolong sedang, sedangkan pada Perwira Militer dan Tenaga Kependidikan tergolong tinggi; Burnout pada Tamtama Militer dan Tenaga Pengajar tergolong sedang, sedangkan pada Perwira Militer dan Tenaga Kependidikan tergolong rendah; dan Stres Traumatis Sekunder tergolong rendah pada Tamtama Militer dan tergolong sedang pada tiga kelompok responden lainnya.  Perbedaan yang signifikan terlihat setelah menggunakan uji parametrik MANOVA dan non parametrik Kruskal-Wallis.  Uji Post Hoc digunakan untuk mengidentifikasi perbedaan signifikan yang spesifik,Implikasi - Para peneliti telah mengidentifikasi pola dan tren signifikan yang berkontribusi pada pemahaman perbandingan, personel yang lebih jarang terpapar langsung dengan klien memiliki kondisi psikologis yang lebih baik secara deskriptif.Orisinalitas - Penelitian ini berkontribusi pada pengetahuan yang sudah ada di bidang Welas Asih, Kelelahan dan Stres yang dialami oleh militer dan pendidik dalam melaksanakan layanan publik masing-masing

Teachers’ challenges, capabilities, and needs in teaching learners with reading difficulties

This study aims to understand the teachers’ challenges, capabilities, and resources in teaching learners with reading difficulties. It utilized a qualitative descriptive approach and data were collected using single focus group discussion. A descriptive thematic approach was employed following the method of Braun & Clark to analyze the data and describe the experiences of the informants. Participants of this study are 17 teachers from Junior High School in one public school in the City Schools Division of Dasmariñas who encountered students with reading difficulties in the conduct of their classes during the first quarter of school year 2022-2023.  Findings revealed that in terms of challenges, the following themes emerged 1) Low participation in class, 2) Unmet learning competencies; as regards to capabilities 3) Language teachers are capable, 4) Content teachers have inadequate skills, and when it comes to teachers’ needs 5) Capacity building, 6) Intensification of reading intervention, and 7) Learning resources for reading

Approaches in biotechnological applications of natural polymers

Natural polymers, such as gums and mucilage, are biocompatible, cheap, easily available and non-toxic materials of native origin. These polymers are increasingly preferred over synthetic materials for industrial applications due to their intrinsic properties, as well as they are considered alternative sources of raw materials since they present characteristics of sustainability, biodegradability and biosafety. As definition, gums and mucilages are polysaccharides or complex carbohydrates consisting of one or more monosaccharides or their derivatives linked in bewildering variety of linkages and structures. Natural gums are considered polysaccharides naturally occurring in varieties of plant seeds and exudates, tree or shrub exudates, seaweed extracts, fungi, bacteria, and animal sources. Water-soluble gums, also known as hydrocolloids, are considered exudates and are pathological products; therefore, they do not form a part of cell wall. On the other hand, mucilages are part of cell and physiological products. It is important to highlight that gums represent the largest amounts of polymer materials derived from plants. Gums have enormously large and broad applications in both food and non-food industries, being commonly used as thickening, binding, emulsifying, suspending, stabilizing agents and matrices for drug release in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. In the food industry, their gelling properties and the ability to mold edible films and coatings are extensively studied. The use of gums depends on the intrinsic properties that they provide, often at costs below those of synthetic polymers. For upgrading the value of gums, they are being processed into various forms, including the most recent nanomaterials, for various biotechnological applications. Thus, the main natural polymers including galactomannans, cellulose, chitin, agar, carrageenan, alginate, cashew gum, pectin and starch, in addition to the current researches about them are reviewed in this article.. }To the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientfíico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for fellowships (LCBBC and MGCC) and the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nvíel Superior (CAPES) (PBSA). This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit, the Project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462) and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) (JAT)

Exploring the positive self and virtual relationship experience of emering Filipino Facebook users

Facebook is considered as one of the most popular social networking sites in the world and it is apparent that Filipinos are one of its top users. Despite the popularity of the site, empirical evidence has implicated Facebook use with a wide variety of negative outcomes but with less knowledge on the positive effects of its use. The present investigation seeks to understand the positive experiences of Facebook use among Filipinos to capture a deeper understanding of the positive influences of the social networking site on the self and social relationships. Six individuals were asked to share two Facebook posts that they believe had a positive influence on them. Semi-structured interviews were conducted which focused on the two shared posts. The results of thematic analysis using Giorgi’s (1975) phenomenological analysis show four themes: Facebook makes families closer; Facebook facilitates connection with people; Facebook contributes to identity formation and; Facebook facilitates positive emotions. The findings of the study provide insights on positive Facebook experiences, family dynamics, and Filipino virtual identity

Properties and Potential Applications of Carboxymethyl-kappa-carrageenan Hydrogels Crosslinked by Gamma Radiation

Carboxymethyl derivatives of k-carrageenan(CMkC), with different degrees of substitution, were gamma-irradiated in viscous or paste solutions. Successfully obtained chemically crosslinked hydrogels showed dependence on the degree of substitution(DS), concentration, and radiation dose. The highest gel fraction was 76% exhibited by CMkC-3s hydrogel with a DS of 1.58. The hydrogels showed different swelling degrees in water and saline. Swelling behavior versus time, in both solvents, corresponded to 2nd order kinetics. The CMkC-3s at 20% concentration irradiated at 15 kGy had the highest water absorption of 324 g water/g dry gel. Selected hydrogels were evaluated for applications as wound dressing, as water retainer in sandy soil, and as metal adsorbent. As a wound dressing, CMkC-2s and CMkC-3s hydrogels exhibited considerable tensile strengths, abilities to absorb pseudo extracellular fluid and extractables with pH/conductivity conducive for healing promotion. In addition, the CMkC-3s hydrogel had no cytotoxic potential based on the MTT test. As water retainer in sandy soil, test samples with 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5% CMkC-3s granules retained 25.1%, 32.2%, and 42.6% water, respectively, at day 0 compared to 19.2% of the sandy soil alone. On day 7, the three sandy soil-CMkC groups still had 13.7%, 19.4%, and 29.3% water while the control had only 3.85%. In the batch adsorption studies, the hydrogels adsorbed heavy metals (Cu2+, Zn2+, Cd2+ and Pb2+) in the solution at different capacities, with Cd2+ as the highly adsorbed and Pb2+ as the least. The CMkC-3s hydrogel showed the highest metal uptake and adsorption efficiency, followed by CMkC-2s, then CMkC-1s. The CMkC-3s hydrogel, further tested on pH effect, had optimum metal uptake at neutral pH