This study determined the functionality of Violence Against Women (VAW) Desks in the differrent barangays of Tarlac Province. Using the qualitative and quantitative research designs with questionnaire which was patterned from the Barangay VAW Desk Handbook served as the main tool in gathering data from the 157 respondents who were asked to evaluate their facilities and materials, intervention program, referral system, advocacy programs, and financial resources. Results of the study showed that there was increase in the number of VAWC cases in Tarlac for the past three years. Majority of the VAW Desks were not compliant to the set guidelines in the Joint Memorandum Circular 2010-2 and VAW Desks Handbook. Majority of the barangays have designated officers who possess the attributes required of their positions but lack the necessary skills, knowledge and trainings on the relevant laws and GAD concepts to address incidents of violence in a gender-responsive manner. More than half of the respondents have identified problems on finances, lack of facilities, inadequacy of advocacy materials and non-conformity to protocols and referral system which resulted to the inefficient delivery of the needed services to the victim survivors. Recommendations include prudent utilization of the 5% GAD budget as mandated by Republic Act 9710 considering VAW desk operations as one of the priorities to address concerns on finances, provision of separate room for VAW, availability of reference and advocacy materials. Moreover, the Provincial Government of Tarlac must establish linkage with academic institutions and other agencies that could provide assistance on the required training and seminars to all barangay officials to ensure proper implementation of the barangay VAW desks.
In this paper, we study a controlled general risk process. We assume that claim and rates of interest are homogenous Markov chains, take a countable number of non – negative values. Generalized Lundberg inequalities for ruin probability of this process are derived by the Martingale approach.
School context and environment may or may not be ideal and this may add up to the possible reasons why learning may be hard for IP students. This study attempted to analyze the educational engagement of the IP students from Pampanga and Tarlac; establish the school factors that significantly indicate cognitive engagement; and to resolve the factors that contribute to disengagement by a multi-sectoral plan of action to help the IP students.\n The IP students in the study were 250, 130 elementary and 120 high school students. These came from Porac, Clark and Mabalacat in Pampanga and Bamban, Capas and San Jose in Tarlac. \nBehavioral engagement of IP students showed average results. There were more IP students who had high emotional engagement (102 or 40.8%), although the average and low when combined consisted the majority (59.2%). Those who had low emotional engagement could not stand students who are not IPs and felt also the distance between themselves and their teachers. Cognitive engagement of IP students is on the average (84.375).\nRelationship with the teachers of the IP students highly indicated the cognitive engagement of elementary school IPs (t=2.4; sig=.018); this is the same indicator for their reading performance (t=2.437; sig=.016); class performance, on the other hand, indicated the numeracy skills (t=2.043; sig=.043). For high school students, sense of belonging (t=3.110; sig=.002) and experiences in school (t=3.094; sig=.003) indicated their cognitive engagement. For high school IPs, it is so important to them that they belong and they are treated well to inspire them to perform.
Background: There is worldwide concern about the rapid emergence of resistant bacteria and their resistance to commonly used antibiotics. Nowadays, the need for innovative strategies for developing antimicrobial drugs is becoming a necessity against antibiotic multi-resistant bacteria that have become of critical concern in public health.\nAims: To overcome this multidrug-resistance problem, we studied for the first time a green, simple, and low-cost synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Juniperus excelsa leaves extract, to be used as alternative agents against multidrug-resistant bacteria. The synergistic effect of AgNPs with antibiotic was also studied. \nMethods: Multi-drug resistant bacteria were collected from Al-Adwani hospital patients from skin infections. Phenotyping, biotyping and molecular characterization using 16S rRNA gene analysis of nonrepetitive multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial isolates were studied. The formation of later nanoparticles was characterized using FTIR, XRD, UV-VIS spectrophotometer and TEM. The antimicrobial studies were initially carried out by the determination of inhibition zone (ZIN), the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC). \nResults: The biomolecules in the aqueous Juniperus excelsa leaves extract function as both safeties reducing and capping agents for biosynthesis of AgNPs. The shapes of AgNPs were spherical and hexagonal. The particle sizes ranged from 16.08-24.42 nm. The antimicrobial effect of AgNPs and their synergistic effect with antibiotic were studied against MDR bacteria Proteus mirabilis and Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA and MRSA). MICs of AgNPs against tested MDR bacteria ranged from 48-56 µg/ml, while MBCs of AgNPs against tested strains ranged from 72-96 µg/ml. Synergistic effects of AgNPs with cefoxitin, erythromycin and cefaclor showed 3 folds increase in the inhibition zone against tested strains. \nConclusion: Consequently, we suggest that phyto-synthesized AgNPs are good alternatives in the treatment of diseases because of the presence of bioactive agents. Also, it showed a strong synergistic effect of AgNPs with antibiotic on tested bacteria. Consequently, it may be used to activate the antibiotics. These results indicate that AgNPs and AgNPs with antibiotic showed strong antibacterial properties on multi-drug resistant bacteria, which could be exploited in developing better dressings for wounds.
The economic operation and emission of the thermal generating units are considered simultaneously to determine the optimal scheduling of thermal units. The growing concern of global climate change, the promotion of renewable energy sources, primarily wind generation, decreases the power generation from fossil fuel plants that leads to reduction in pollutant emission. In recent years, wind power is becoming worldwide a significant component of the power generation portfolio. Here, Multi Objective Unit Commitment (MOUC) problem is formulated by considering minimization of the total cost and emission from the thermal units simultaneously. The real power generation from wind farm is also integrated with thermal units. The reliability analysis of the power system operation is also included which makes the problem as more complex. It necessitates a potential optimization tool. Hence, the novel swarm intelligence algorithm namely, Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) algorithm has been chosen to solve multi objective problem. The standard test systems for planning period of 24 hours are used to validate the potential of the GWO algorithm. The attained simulation results reveal that the intended algorithm has the competence of determining economical resolutions with good solution quality
Nano/Micro-electro-mechanical-system (NEMS/MEMS) consists of couplings of electrical and mechanical components within the micro-scale. Their nonlinear working state makes their analysis complex and complicated. Compliant mechanisms can (CMs) achieve a specified motion as a mechanism without relying on the use of joints and pins. They have broad application in precision mechanical devices and Nano/Micro-electro-mechanical-systems. Compliant mechanisms are suggested as alternates for simplification of assembly and for miniaturization. The design synthesis of compliant mechanisms yields optimized topologies that combine several stiff parts with highly elastic flexural hinges. In this paper, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) analysis and design of a compliant micro-gripper compliant mechanism with parallel movement arm are presented by employing its Pseudo Rigid Body Model (PRBM), which leads to the establishment of high performance mechanism. This micro-gripper is capable of delivering high precision and fidelity manipulation of micro objects. The mechanism adopts a flexure-based concept on its joints to address the inherent nonlinearities associated with the application of conventional rigid hinges.