Food security has long been a major development priority of all countries and will remain to be in the future. This has become all the more important in this time of COVID19 pandemic. It is achieved when there is the… More

Food security has long been a major development priority of all countries and will remain to be in the future. This has become all the more important in this time of COVID19 pandemic. It is achieved when there is the availability of and adequate access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food at all times for individuals to maintain a healthy and active life. The United Nations has identified four pillars of food security: food availability, food access, food utilization and food stability. Through the years, all our efforts are expected to contribute to the pillars of food security, and a country’s ability to consolidate its resources towards defining and achieving their aspired food security targets across relevant scales has become a major hallmark of development success. Less

Good water quality is a key component of sustainable aquaculture production. The present study reports the water physico-chemical properties of selected fish ponds in Central Mindanao University, Bukidnon, Philippines. The values of the parameters ranged from pH 8.36-8.64, 26.73-27.61 °C… More

Good water quality is a key component of sustainable aquaculture production. The present study reports the water physico-chemical properties of selected fish ponds in Central Mindanao University, Bukidnon, Philippines. The values of the parameters ranged from pH 8.36-8.64, 26.73-27.61 °C temperature, 203-211 ?S/cm electrical conductivity, 98-128 NTU turbidity, 13.04-13.78 mg/L dissolved oxygen, 0.095-0.104 g/L total dissolved solids, 73.2-81.9 mg CaCO3/L total alkalinity, 91.0-101.9 mg CaCO3/L total hardness, 11.18-27.86 mg/L sulfate, 0.44-1.08 mg/L chloride, 24.61-50.52 mg/L phosphate, <0.001 mg/L cadmium, <0.01 mg/L lead, and <0.001 mg/L mercury. These findings conformed to the water quality guidelines for aquaculture production except for turbidity and phosphate content. Chloride concentrations were also remarkably low. It is recommended to conduct regular monitoring of the physico-chemical parameters of the pond water, and undertake corrective measures to reduce turbidity and phosphate to an acceptable level and increase the chloride to a level specifically suitable for catfish production. Less

Mount Apo Natural Park (MANP) is an important forest reserve in most part of Region XI and XII because of its watershed importance. However, the MANP may also threatened by habitat modification that may alter most of its water resource.… More

Mount Apo Natural Park (MANP) is an important forest reserve in most part of Region XI and XII because of its watershed importance. However, the MANP may also threatened by habitat modification that may alter most of its water resource. Thus, this study was conducted to assess the abundance of freshwater fish and analyze the physico-chemical properties like water temperature, pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen (DO), total dissolved solids (TDS), electric conductivity (EC), oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) of the two major rivers of MANP. A total of six freshwater fishes consisting of four native and two introduced species were collected and identified in the two sampling stations. The native Barbodes binotatus (Valenciennes 1842) was found to be the most abundant in all the years the survey was conducted. The data on physico-chemical properties showed fluctuations in all year (2012-13 and 2015). High turbidity rate in Marbel River and high water temperature recorded in upper station of Matingao River could have influenced the collection and abundance of freshwater fishes. Shannon diversity index in Marbel River and Matingao River are very low with values of 0.69 (2012-2013); 0.68 (2015) and 0.70 (2012-2013); 0.70 (2015) for the two rivers, respectively. This could be attributed to anthropogenic activities, characteristics and physico-chemical properties of the river. Less

The study was conducted to evaluate the growth and profitability of broilers in the different levels of vermi (Eisenia fetida) meal ration under two management systems. 120 day old chicks were tested in Randomized Complete Block Design with 4 treatments:… More

The study was conducted to evaluate the growth and profitability of broilers in the different levels of vermi (Eisenia fetida) meal ration under two management systems. 120 day old chicks were tested in Randomized Complete Block Design with 4 treatments: commercial feeds, 2% vermi meal (vm)+local ingredients(li), 3% vm+li, 5% vm+li in three replications. Result revealed that total confinement (TC) had higher body weight (bw) and weight gain (wg) with a difference of 35.60 grams and 36.90 grams respectively compared to that of free-range (FR) that had lesser feed consumption (fc) with a difference of 81.10 grams and high in net income and ROI. Infeed ration, fc increased when given a higher percentage of vm, and it was significantly different from the commercial feeds (cf). In 3 different levels of vm, though they did not have a significant difference to each other, the 2% level of vm was comparable to cf and showed a difference in terms of bw 296.70 grams in TC; 326.00 grams in FR. In wg 296.67 grams in TC and 370.97 grams in FR in both management systems. Consequently, 2% level vm had an optimum result in final body weight, wg, and high in feed conversion. Less

Ultrasound is aided with acoustic gel to provide an accurate medical diagnosis; however, this product is costly and, thus, may hinder the diagnostic value of the procedure. This research is focused on the evaluation of radiographic image quality parameters of… More

Ultrasound is aided with acoustic gel to provide an accurate medical diagnosis; however, this product is costly and, thus, may hinder the diagnostic value of the procedure. This research is focused on the evaluation of radiographic image quality parameters of sonograms scanned using Saluyot leaves and commercial acoustic gels. Twelve participants were purposively chosen and subjected to an Ultrasound scan using the acoustic gels. Recorded sonograms were evaluated using the standard radiographic image quality parameters. Results revealed that sonograms obtained using Saluyot leaves were more acceptable, more visible, more detailed, and less distorted compared to commercial acoustic gel. Statistical analysis showed that there is no significant difference in the level of acceptability and distortion of the sonograms obtained using the Saluyot leaves and commercial acoustic gels. However, there is a significant difference in the visibility and amount of recorded detail of the sonograms using the two gels. Less

In radiation therapy, Monte Carlo method was a standard procedure for absorbed dose calculations; yet it was often frustrating due to long computation requirements and complex programming. Monte Carlo method was soon revitalized since the introduction of Geant4 framework purely… More

In radiation therapy, Monte Carlo method was a standard procedure for absorbed dose calculations; yet it was often frustrating due to long computation requirements and complex programming. Monte Carlo method was soon revitalized since the introduction of Geant4 framework purely written in C++ object-oriented language. This study utilized opensource Geant4 codes for modeling and simulation purposes. These codes were executed to simulate the performance of an Elekta Compact linear accelerator based on available manufacturer’s specifications. A 6-MV photon beam spectrum was modeled by transporting 2 billion 6-MeV primary electrons to hit a tungsten target from a 0.5 mm gun filament radius with spatial energy of 0.127 MeV and angular distribution of ±30o. Depth-doses were computed at 1.04 to 30 cm along the central axis of a voxelized water phantom. Validity of simulated data was verified by comparison with experimental measurement. There was close agreement between simulated and measured beam data. Normalization errors were equal to 4.6% for 10 x 10 cm2; and 3.9% for 15 x 15 cm2 field sizes. Computing efficiency has improved when using condensed-history technique. Therefore, the Geant4 framework can create model and simulate complex geometries of a linear accelerator facility with improved reliability, accuracy, and efficiency. Less

With the advancement in diagnostic imaging, providing shielding against X-rays has become a significant concern. While Lead has been extensively used as the shielding material, it is costly and toxic to humans and the surrounding environment. This study aims to… More

With the advancement in diagnostic imaging, providing shielding against X-rays has become a significant concern. While Lead has been extensively used as the shielding material, it is costly and toxic to humans and the surrounding environment. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of eggshells as alternative shielding material against diagnostic X-rays. To this end, the eggshells were collected, ground, sieved and mixed with cement and water with an increasing amount. Radiographic analysis was utilized to measure the performance of the shields. The results showed that increasing the number of eggshells increased its shielding performance; however, more shielding is required at higher X-ray energies. Nevertheless, the performance of the standard Lead shield and the shield with the highest number of eggshells yielded a comparable result. The eggshells can be used as alternative shielding material against diagnostic X-rays. Less