Viral load differences associated with infection outcomes and resistance to white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infection in mud crab, Scylla serrata.

White spot syndrome virus (WSSV), the causative agent of white spot disease, remains a serious threat to crustacean aquaculture. Infecting a wide range of crustaceans, host species exhibit varying susceptibility and mortality rates. Mud crabs, Scylla serrata, a high-value aquaculture commodity across the Indo-Pacific region, are known to be relatively resistant to WSSV.

Comparative Analysis of Vaginal Inflammatory Cytokines Among HPV-Positive and HPV-Negative Women in Manila, Philippines.

Problem: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is considered the necessary cause of cervical cancer. Studies showed that disruption of the inflammatory milieu in the cervicovaginal mucosa can promote the persistence of HPV, which can result in cervical carcinogenesis. This study determined sociodemographic factors and vaginal inflammatory cytokines associated with HPV infection in Manila, Philippines.

Novel lithocholic acid-diindolylmethane hybrids as potent sialyltransferase inhibitors targeting triple-negative breast cancer: a molecular hybridization approach.

Molecular hybridization, an emerging strategy for the discovery of new anticancer therapeutics, shows promise as a powerful tool for the development of new sialyltransferase (ST) inhibitors for cancer treatment. This concept inspired the design of novel ST inhibitors through the hybridization of lithocholic acid and diindolylmethane, leading to the discovery of LCA-DIM hybrids as potential chemical entities targeting STs. Preliminary screening revealed the significance of the DIM moiety and incorporation of Asp linker on enhancing the inhibitory activity and selectivity of the hybrids towards ST6GAL1, inhibiting up to 100% of ST6GAL1 activity at 25 μM with no ST3GAL1 inhibition even at 500 μM.

Food insecurity and sleep deficiency among older Filipinos: the mediating roles of depressive symptoms and frailty phenotypes.

Background: Although research has shown that food insecurity may lead to sleep problems due to poor mental health, it remains unclear whether physical health mediates this relationship. We investigated whether depressive symptoms and frailty phenotypes mediated the association of food insecurity with sleep deficiency among community-dwelling older adults in the Philippines.

Methods: We analysed data from the baseline survey of a longitudinal study of ageing and health in the Philippines involving a nationally representative sample of older adults aged ≥60 years (n = 3599).

Evaluation of patient satisfaction after primary care system interventions: a follow-up study.

Background: The Philippine Primary Care Studies implemented interventions that aimed to improve primary care services in selected urban, rural and remote communities. This study aims to describe trends in patient satisfaction in years 2 and 3 after implementation of primary care interventions.

Methods: This study is a serial cross-sectional study that assessed patient satisfaction under the domains of healthcare availability, service efficiency, technical competency, environment, location, health communication, handling and general perception in three primary care sites.

Human exposure to per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Asia and contributing factors, with a focus on East Asia.

The production and use of PFAS in some countries, coupled with uncertainties about their applications across Asia, underscore the urgent need to assess human exposure-particularly beyond China, Japan, and South Korea, which account for 80-90% of existing environmental PFAS studies. Exposure levels vary significantly across the region, with industrial activities, including textile and automotive manufacturing, contributing to severe contamination, especially in freshwater sources. Studies have detected PFAS in surface and groundwater across 20 Asian countries (∼3000 samples), sometimes at concerning concentrations.

From fitness to flourishing: culturally grounded implementation of the PERMAH model in Philippine physical education.

Background: Disruptions in education caused by natural disasters, conflict, or global crises pose significant challenges for educators, particularly in physical education (PE), where embodied learning and social interaction are essential. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, supporting the wellbeing of both students and teachers became a central focus of educational recovery. While the PERMAH model of wellbeing has garnered international attention, this study contributes to the growing body of work by exploring how it may take shape within culturally specific and resource-constrained educational contexts.

Towards a Relational Understanding of Human Beings in an AI-Mediated World: A Hermeneutical Reading.

Introduction: The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into caring practices has revolutionised traditional methods, offering new possibilities while raising ethical and relational challenges. AI's ability to enhance efficiency, accuracy and accessibility has driven its widespread adoption in healthcare, elder care and mental health counselling. However, concerns about its impact on the relational and ethical dimensions of caring persist, particularly given the deeply human aspects of care-intentionality, empathy and mutual recognition.

Drug-free nation: Reconstructing the 'official drug narratives' in Singapore and the Philippines.

Background: This paper reconstructs and analyses the "official drug narratives" in Singapore and the Philippines as recounted by its drug enforcement agencies and government officials. Drawing inspiration from narrative analyses and works that have explored official and institutional narratives, it defines such narratives as government accounts of how drugs figured in its country's history and how it responded to the challenges posed by drugs to society. It then identifies common elements in these narratives, namely plot, settings, characters, and moral of the story.

Matrix Representation of Virus Machines and an Application to the Discrete Logarithm Problem.

Virus machines, which develop models of computation inspired by biological processes and the spread of viruses among hosts, deviate from the traditional methods. These virus machines are recognized for their computational power (functioning as algorithms) and their ability to tackle computationally difficult problems. In this paper, we introduce a new extension of the matrix-based representation of virus machines.

Resilience, ingenuity, and identity: A multi-level analysis of the Filipino community health worker experience in rural and remote municipalities in the Philippines.

Community Health Workers (CHWs) have an extensive involvement in augmenting service capacities in primary care settings. This study sheds light on the unique experiences of CHWs as they navigate barriers and enablers in the Philippine healthcare setting through their journey for professionalization. This study aims to: (1) Describe the roles assumed by CHWs in rural and remote municipalities in the Philippines; and (2) Identify the multi-level barriers and enablers CHWs perceive to influence their performance of these roles.

College Perception and Well-being Assessment of Medical Students in a Public Medical School in the Philippines: A Cross-sectional Study.

Background And Objective: Given the rigors of medical training with its high documented prevalence of mental issues as well as the global need to safeguard the well-being of medical students, there is an urgency to assess the well-being of medical students and their perception of support from their respective medical schools during their education. This also applies in the context of public medical school students in the Philippines, where there is still a relative lack of literature. This cross-sectional study investigates the well-being and such perceptions of medical students at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine (UPCM).

Qualitative assessment of sex-stratified human papillomavirus transmission dynamics in South Korea.

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, primarily targeting females aged 9-14 years, is pivotal in preventing HPV infections. This case study evaluates the effects of HPV vaccination in South Korea within the primary target group using incidence data and proposes optimal intervention strategies for maximizing the effectiveness of HPV mitigation programs.

Methods: We developed a mathematical model to simulate HPV transmission dynamics in South Korea, incorporating sex-stratified groups.

Development of the college student life satisfaction scale (CSLSS): initial validation among Filipino college students.

Few domain-specific satisfaction measures explicitly evaluate students' satisfaction with their learning experiences. Although numerous instruments are available to measure student satisfaction, they often focus on general life domains rather than specific aspects of the learning experience. Furthermore, it is imperative to ensure that these measures effectively capture learning experiences, particularly within the context of Filipino college students.

Enablers and Barriers of COVID-19 Vaccination in the Philippines.

: The COVID-19 pandemic prompted extensive vaccination efforts globally, yet in the Philippines, many families remained unvaccinated. Caregivers are key decision-makers for family vaccination, but evidence on factors influencing their own vaccine uptake is limited. : A cross-sectional survey of primary caregivers was conducted in low COVID-19 vaccine uptake regions in the Philippines from July to October 2023 using a validated questionnaire.

Molecular identification of heterophyids in human stool samples from the Philippines.

The family Heterophyidae includes endoparasitic minute intestinal flukes that are primarily transmitted through the consumption of raw or undercooked fish, causing heterophyidiasis. Several heterophyid species have been reported to infect humans in the Philippines. Heterophyidiasis is diagnosed by detection of parasite ova in stool samples through Kato-Katz stool microscopy, but species identification is challenging due to the morphologically similar eggs of different heterophyid species and other minute intestinal flukes such as Clonorchis and Opisthorchis.

Complete genome sequence of a pESI-Carrying Infantis from raw chicken meat in a Metro Manila wet market, Philippines.

We report the complete genome sequence (4,727,598 bp chromosome, 308,757 bp plasmid of emerging . Infantis (pESI), and 5,423 bp pSCD6R1a_5.4k plasmid) of serovar Infantis SCD6R1a, isolated from raw chicken meat sold at a wet market in Metro Manila, Philippines.

A New Deep-water Species of (Pisces: Synodontidae) from the South China Sea and Central Philippines.

A new species of lizardfish, sp. nov., from deep water of the outer slope of the North Macclesfield Bank (Zhongsha), South China Sea, and Guimaras Island, Western Visayas region of the Philippines, is described and figured.

Examining the digital connections: comprehensive HIV knowledge, awareness of antiretroviral therapy, and digital media use among adolescents and young adults in a middle-income country.

There remains a gap in identifying factors that influence HIV knowledge among younger people in middle-income countries who report higher Internet access and social media use. In this study, the association of use of two types of digital media - Internet media and social media - for information about sex with comprehensive HIV knowledge and ART awareness among youth aged 15-24 was measured. Data from the 2021 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study in the Philippines ( = 10,949) were used, and the adolescent health literacy framework was adopted to obtain parsimonious weighted logistic regression models.

Random guide-independent DNA cleavage from the Argonaute of Exiguobacterium sp. AB2.

Background: Bacteria and bacteriophages (phages) are locked in a coevolutionary "arms race" to outcompete one another with novel systems and strategies. Regularly outnumbered tenfold by phages, bacteria have responded to the constant threat of phage predation by evolving a vast array of sophisticated defense systems. Among these, prokaryotic Argonautes (pAgos) are nucleic acid-guided endonucleases that target complementary sequences of invading mobile genetic elements (MGEs).

A synergistic approach using digital twins and statistical machine learning for intelligent residential energy modelling.

The growing need for energy efficiency in buildings has driven significant improvements in digitalisation and intelligent energy management. Traditional energy management techniques often fail to address dynamic energy demands and user preferences, leading to inefficiencies and increased costs. This paper proposes a framework that integrates Digital Twin (DT) systems with Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms for intelligent building energy consumption assessment by developing real-time virtual twin representations.

Quality of Care of Adult Patients With Allergic Diseases in Urban, Rural, and Remote Primary Care Sites in the Philippines.

Introduction: This study determined the clinic prevalence and compared the quality of care of allergic diseases in urban, rural, and remote primary care sites.

Methods: This was a retrospective review of electronic health records of all adult patients who consulted in the 3 sites from May 2019 to April 2022. Data of adult patients with allergic diseases was extracted from the 3 EHR systems operating across the participating sites using standardized Structured Query Language queries across the 3 systems.

A test of the Archaic Introgression Hypothesis for the Chiari malformation type I.

The Chiari malformation type I (CM-I) is a herniation of the cerebellum through the foramen magnum. Its proximate cause is accepted to be an unusually small occipital bone. However, its ultimate cause remains unclear.

Implementing Electronic Health Records in Philippine Primary Care Settings: Mixed-Methods Pilot Study.

Background: Between 2020 and 2022, the Philippine Primary Care Studies program, a government-funded initiative supporting universal health care implementation, piloted two electronic health records (EHR) systems across urban, rural, and remote primary care sites.

Objective: The study aimed to evaluate the implementation of two EHR systems in diverse primary care settings in the Philippines over a three-year period.

Methods: This implementation study used an explanatory mixed methods design.