No abstract

Background. The improper recycling of electronic waste (e-waste) by informal recyclers often leads to contamination of the environment. E-waste contains organic and inorganic compounds along with heavy metals and trace elements. These pollutants can have a negative effect on humans. Biomonitoring can provide information on the sources, amount, geographical distribution, and adverse health effects of contaminants. Objectives. The present study aimed to assess risks to the health of informal e-waste recyclers in Payatas, the Philippines due to their exposure to e-waste toxicity by examining the presence of micronuclei in buccal epithelium cells. Methodology. Frequencies of binucleated cells (BNc) and abnormal cells were obtained from the buccal epithelium of the study population composed of e-waste exposed recyclers (n=40) and a control group (n=52). Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were employed for the data analysis. Results. Participants' gender, occupation, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and the number of karyolitic cells of both groups were significantly associated. Only occupation in e-waste recycling and length of e-waste exposure were significantly associated in terms of the number of abnormal cells and micronuclei. Similar trends were found in the linear regression analysis drawn from participants' length of e-waste exposure with a significance of R2= 7346, indicating that as the length of e-waste exposure increased, the number of micronuclei found in the participants' buccal epithelium cells increased as well. Conclusions. Longer exposure to e-waste materials may induce genotoxic damage in human cells which is a serious concern, leading to adverse effects to human health. Competing Interests. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Abstract. Berame J, Lawsin N, Miguel F, Chavez J. 2020. Morphological variations of mangosteen fruits from Luzon and Mindanao Islands, the Philippines. Biodiversitas 21: 3094-3100. Luzon and Mindanao islands in the Philippines are the important mangosteen producing provinces whose growing areas are scattered on these two islands. With this, mangosteen variability was detected based on field fruit collections in summer of 2019. The morphological variations of mangosteen fruits were observed and collected in Quezon Province in Luzon and Davao-Zamboanga Provinces in Mindanao based on the total number of 175 mangosteen trees. The main objectives of the research were to find out the morphological variations of mangosteen fruits and using Tomato Analyzer 4.0 to determine the morphological characters that can be used to differentiate mangosteen accessions in the Philippines. The variables include fruit shape index (external and internal), curve fruit shape index, asymmetry, internal eccentricity and weight of the ripe fruits. The results show that fruit characters like ellipsoidal, circular, rectangular, lobe shape, size, pericarp area, and pericarp thickness. are highly resemblance particularly in its fruit shape characters, and even sharing a similar taste of ripe fruits. Data revealed that Garcinia mangostana shared a similar character with Garcinia malaccensis even though they are from different geographical areas. Based on the morphological variations and characters, the two varieties of mangosteen fruits in the Philippines, G. mangostana and G. malaccensis, are so closely related that they could be combined together as one species as identified in the morphological analysis of this study.

The Philippines, like many other Asian countries, is struggling to combat the current widespread aquatic pollution levels caused by anthropogenic activities. Environmental biomonitoring is an efficient tool to detect and monitor the fluctuating toxicity levels in a dynamic ecosystem using bioindicators like algae, macrophytes, zooplankton, insect, bivalve mollusks, gastropod, fish, amphibians, and others to assess the extent and levels of pollution in aquatic ecosystems. The present review deliberates on the biomonitoring techniques such as bioaccumulation, biochemical alterations, population, and community-level approaches to evaluate the current status with respect to the extent and levels of pollution in the aquatic ecosystems in the Philippines which also is one of the biodiversity hotspots. Therefore, the potential applications for biomonitoring are proposed to mainly include evaluation of actual aquatic pollutions, bioremediation, toxicology prediction, and research on toxicological mechanisms. The purpose of such evaluations is to critically analyze and help stakeholders to come up with a strategic action plan with recommendations on a low-cost, sensitive, and effective bioindicator for rapid and efficient environmental biomonitoring.

The practice of mother tongue in teaching kindergarten and primary levels are of great help to strengthen the foundation of early years of education in improving pupils’ basic learning skills. It is designed to implement learner-centered education from the beginning of the education ladder and this is apparent in a rising number of educational programs that utilize this approach. As such, little is known about how a national policy for MTB-MLE can be disseminated into contextualized local schools. To capture the breadth of conceptual and implementation issues, purposive sampling was used in this study to determine the teachers, tribal parents, and leader perspectives. Focus group discussion was done using transcript-based analysis to gather first-hand information. Findings derived and identified four main themes, namely (1) teachers’ unpreparedness of MTB-MLE implementation, (2) teachers’ difficulty in delivering MTB-MLE, (3) fear of Manobo Language endangerment, and (4) inadequacy of contextualized and indigenized IMs. Hence, it is commended that these issues must be addressed efficiently to shift the perspective of the teachers in using the Manobo Language in their school. The implementation needs better encouragement, support, and motivation for the teachers to embrace the challenges brought by MTB-MLE with an optimistic perspective to address certain gaps in its implementation.

Abstract. Berame JS, Lumaban NW, Delima SB, Mercado RL, Bulay ML, Morano AB, Parohinog CDMG. 2022. The attitude and behavior of senior high school students toward environmental conservation. Biodiversitas 23: 5267-5277. The worsening environmental problems have become a serious concern prompting humanity to search for solutions aiming for environmental management through understanding the relationship between human-environmental attitude and behavior with the belief that humans are the prime contributor to both - problem and the solution. By acknowledging this existing situation, this study was designed to assess the senior high school student’s level of understanding of and attitude toward the environment and the effects of both variables on their ecological behavior. A sequential strategy under mixed-method research was used in the study. A survey questionnaire containing both qualitative and quantitative questions was distributed to and answered by the respondents, followed by a focus group discussion that solidified and substantiated the quantitative result. Analysis of the responses demonstrated that students’ environmental attitudes were uncertain and connoted that they have intermediate attitudes and were all observed to be connected to their intermediate ecological behavior. Further, it revealed anthropocentric attitudes were dominant among students. This environmental attitude, together with human dominance over nature, denoted correlation along ecological behavior toward conservation policies, environmental threats and support for population growth policies, while eco-centric attitudes do not correlate to ecological behavior. In conclusion, the limited and ambiguous knowledge of senior high school students on the rule of human and nature need reinforcement for them to develop a good quality viewpoint about nature and willingly advocate environmental protection through their actions.

Strategic Intervention Material for Teaching Augmented Reality (SIMaTAR) is a collection of teaching and learning materials in Science which uses augmented reality technology to greatly improve learning experience through digital immersion in different 3D and 4D worlds and is under the innovative approaches in science education project of DOST-SEI. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of using SIMaTAR mobile application as a tool on improving the Grade 8 students’ academic performance, motivation, and attitude towards learning science as well as the teachers’ assessment upon using the application. Results showed that all indicators on the teachers and students’ assessment on SIMaTAR mobile augmented reality application were rated as strongly agree. All indicators of students’ attitude towards science showed improvement after implementing the AR application in science teaching. Further, the scores of the student participants in pre-test and post-test were remarkably increased after using the application. As for the challenges, results revealed that students do not have the gadgets to use and they lack the knowledge on how to manipulate the application. Through data analysis using paired samples t-test, it is concluded that the integration of SIMaTAR in teaching science increases the engagement and interest of the students in learning the subject and the application of mobile augmented reality could substantially improve the teaching and learning process.

The study probed the integration of technology in Science instruction in relation to the students’ performance in National Achievement Test (NAT) results. It utilized a researcher-made questionnaire to obtain the data. The respondents of the study were the upper and lower 30% performing schools in the National Achievement Test (NAT) for the aforementioned school years. Results of the study revealed that the available technological resources for use in Science instruction in Butuan City Division for the upper 30% were printer, desktop computer, and Internet connection while for the lower 30% were desktop computer, printer, and speaker; that the level of technological skills of both the 30% school-respondents were rated expert in creating a presentation, using social networks, and their knowledge to operate computer. For the level of implementation in Technology-Assisted Science instruction the respondents were rated occasionally. On the other hand, data revealed that the relationship between the level of technological skills of the teachers, school’s implementation in Technology-Assisted Science instruction, and the performance in Science NAT between the upper and lower 30% school-respondents was significant. In conclusion, school-participants considered lack of computer sets as the major challenge they faced upon the implementation of Technology-Assisted Science instruction.