ABSTRACT
Disasters strike globally, but their impacts are often more severe on socially and economically marginalized sectors like women. This is one of the main justifications behind the 2010 Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, which promotes gender equality and inclusivity in all strategies to combat the adverse effects of natural hazards, especially on underrepresented populations. However, gender-based discrimination during disasters is still prevalent in local communities of the Philippines. Thus, this study attempts to unfold the struggles of displaced mothers in Talisay, Batangas, because of the Taal Volcano's eruption in January 2020 and worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic that began in March 2020. Specifically, this study identifies the direct impacts that impede survivors' capacity to recover from the disruptions brought about by the aforementioned catastrophes. Findings, through mothers' narratives, reveal six (6) key themes that reveal insecurity in livelihood, shelter, education of their children, food, health and nutrition, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). This only proves that displaced mothers face socio-economic issues aggravated by the changing climate that the local government of Talisay needs to address towards a gender-inclusive DRRM. © 2022 Aesthetics Media Services. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: During the first COVID-19 wave, the BAUS Section of Oncology issued guidance to minimise risks of sepsis and general anaesthesia at prostate biopsy. Consequently, and as a result of diminished diagnostics capacity on Trust acute sites, we implemented a centralised network-wide nurse-led LA TP biopsy service on a COVID-secure 'green' site and abandoned trans-rectal biopsies. We evaluated the impact of this service improvement on patient waiting times before and after national lockdown in March 2020. Method: Classic Quality Improvement (QI) methodology was used with continuous data collection and waiting list management by clinical staff with standard admin support. Balancing measurements were collected. Run charts were used to confirm whether a change led to a real and sustainable improvement. Results: The number of days waiting, from time of request to date of biopsy, is presented in the following run chart. The mean waiting time for those pre lockdown was 145 days (SD 57) whereas post lockdown was 23 days (SD 20). This identified that there was a significant difference between the average waiting time pre and post lockdown (U=55.5, p= ,0.001) There were also reductions in waiting time when subcategorised into planned Active Surveillance cases, target cases and delayed cases. Conclusions: Centralising the TP biopsy service and converting to a nurse led LA service has led to reductions in waiting lists and was safely expedited and resilient even in the COVID-19 pandemic. Allowing a second advanced TP practitioner to be fully trained, during COVID. The service was highly valued by patients and staff.
ABSTRACT
People around the world have used social media extensively to communicate and express opinions especially during this time of the rapid spread of COVID-19. Nowadays, the various narratives of social media users are important that can be used in creating measures to curb the deadly disease. However, the manual collection of data from social media such as Facebook and its analysis can take time. Thus, this study attempted to use natural language processing (NLP) techniques such as topic modeling and word embedding to identify the concepts contained in the posts and comments of Facebook users in the Philippines regarding the pandemic. This study harvested posts and comments in Facebook groups that are primarily Filipino citizens that express opinions and suggestions in COVID-19 responses. Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), this study was able to generate 10 topics related to the concepts of (1) self-discipline, (2) prayers for the frontliners, (3) total lockdown, (4) following government guidelines and protocols, and (5) flattening the curve of the disease. Meanwhile, word groups generated by Word2vec developed concepts such as (1) mass testing, (2) hope for faster recovery, and (3) expectation from the government. The average cosine similarity for word groups is 0.92, which implies strong relatedness of each word per group. This study proved that the use of NLP techniques helped in analyzing the themes of Facebook posts and comments related to the pandemic. © 2020 ACM.
ABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 outbreak in the Philippines, online education became an alternative way for various schools and universities in the country to continue the education of the youth. In this abrupt transition from face-to-face to online learning, students had voiced out several learning experiences that are important to unfold. This paper discusses how selected college students in Manila, Philippines negotiated online education amidst pandemic. Specifically, this examines the challenges students faced in online learning and their adjustments in the situation, and the strategies students have developed towards effective online learning. Thirty college students from different universities in Manila shared their experiences through the structured online written interview using Google Forms. This study reveals that some of the challenges in online learning are internet connectivity, online teaching and technical skills of their professors, and communication/interaction. Moreover, deep work, time management, asynchronous method are among the strategies that have been effective in their online learning. From the results of the study, the researcher has been able to develop practical recommendations as far as the education of the youth is concerned. © 2020 RESTORATIVE JUSTICE FOR ALL.