University of the Philippines

About: University of the Philippines is a education organization based out in Quezon City, Philippines. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 4589 authors who have published 4437 publications receiving 114846 citations. The organization is also known as: UP.

Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD)--clinical profile of 47 Filipino patients.

Abstract: Maple syrup urine disease (MSUD) is a very rare disorder of branched-chain amino acid metabolism. However, it is the most common inborn error of metabolism in the Philippines. We present a retrospective review of 21 patients diagnosed with MSUD between 1999 and 2004. The patients presented clinically between 2 and 14 days of life (mean 5 days) and the diagnosis of MSUD was established between 6 days and 11 months of age (mean 39 days). The classical burnt sugar odour was noted in the majority of patients (81%). The diagnosis of MSUD was initially based on clinical suspicion and confirmed biochemically by measurement of leucine/isoleucine levels by thin-layer chromatography. The acute management included removal of accumulated branched-chain amino acids by peritoneal dialysis in 62% of the patients. Mortality rate of this group of patients was 24% and follow-up rate was 87%. We compared this series with a previously reported series of 26 patients to determine whether diagnosis and the management of MSUD improved over the two periods. Four cases have been diagnosed early since 1992, the majority of whom had the classic form of MSUD with the onset of symptoms in the first two weeks of life. A small subset of patients with early nonspecific symptoms was diagnosed much later owing to a low-level clinical suspicion among clinicians. Overall, however, there appears to be a small but general trend towards earlier diagnosis, reduced mortality and long-term follow up in the later series. Although we are able to diagnose and manage MSUD in the Philippines, we recognize that the clinical outcome remains poor and is due mainly to late referral of cases and inadequate long-term management. In the Philippines, we recommend that all newborns who are considered to be septic, have feeding difficulties, fail to regain their birth weight or present with any other symptoms suggestive of MSUD be evaluated in the first instance by analysis of urine for ketones and if they are positive have blood collected and sent to our laboratory for leucine/isoleucine measurement.

Distribution of Semen Examination Results 2020 – a follow up of data collated for the WHO semen analysis manual 2010

Abstract: Background It is now 11 years since publication of the WHO 2010 guidelines for semen assessment values, and it is critical to determine whether they are still valid and/or whether they should be modified. Objectives To utilise data published since 2010 and combine these with data used in the 2010 assessment to provide an updated and more comprehensive representation of the fertile man. This may be utilised to present an updated distribution of values for use by WHO in 2021. Materials and methods Two specific analyses were performed namely, (1) Analysis 1: Examination of published data following publication of WHO 2010 [termed 2010-2020 data]. (2) Analysis 2: Examination of the data used to help formulate the 2010 distribution of values combined with the data from Analysis (1) [termed WHO 2020]. Results In total, data from more than 3500 subjects, from twelve countries and five continents were analysed. The 5th centile values for concentration, motility and morphology are: 16 × 106 /ml, 30% progressive motility [42% total motility] and 4% normal forms. Discussion This study presents substantial additional information to establish more comprehensive and globally applicable lower reference values for semen parameters for fertile men although they do not represent distinct limits between fertile and subfertile men. There are still data missing from many countries and, some geographical regions are not represented. Moreover, the number of subjects although significant is still relatively low ( Conclusion These distributions of values now include semen analysis providing a more global representation of the fertile man. Increasing the number of subjects provides robust information that is also more geographically representative.

Image classification of coral reef components from underwater color video

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to automate coral reef assessment, that is, to classify coral images into benthic categories from digitized underwater video using a computer-based classifier such that coral reef analysis becomes less subjective, less tedious and more precise. Corals exhibit a variety of color, texture and structure which are the visual cues used by marine scientists for their classification. In computer vision, color is a point property of a picture element while texture is a property of an area. Color and texture have been combined as color-texture which is a feature that describes the spatial organization of colors in an area. As inputs to a classifier, the authors extract color, texture and color-texture descriptors from coral images and measure recognition rates using each feature. Corals are 3D structures and, when imaged, are prone to varying resolutions, perspective projection and lighting conditions. Therefore, an additional objective of this study is to address the problem of illumination, rotation and scale invariance in pattern recognition of underwater images. Images were classified into one of five benthic categories: alive coral, dead coral, dead coral with algae, algae and abiotics. Overall, texture was found to be more discriminating than using color alone or color and texture combined. Dead coral was the most successfully recognized class using color features.

Gender Representation in Philippine Television Advertisements

Abstract: This study analyzed 254 unduplicated primetime Philippine television advertisements from 2010 for differences in gender representation. Two coders independently coded the entire sample and achieved an intercoder reliability of greater than .700 for each reported variable. The findings are based on chi-square analyses and indicate a high prevalence of gender differences and stereotypes in Philippine television advertisements. For example, more males were shown in the workplace (17.9 % vs. 7.4 %), whereas more females were shown at home (45.9 % vs. 24.5 %); males were generally fully clothed (88.7 % vs. 44.6 %), whereas females were often suggestively dressed (52.7 % vs. 6.6 %); more males than females delivered voiceovers (46.1 % vs. 35.0 %); and product categories were stereotypically associated with gender. The only exception to these traditional, stereotypical gender portrayals was the predominance of female primary characters in television advertisements (58.3 % vs. 41.7 %). Overall, such stereotypical portrayals do not accurately reflect Philippine society, which is considered to be one of the most egalitarian Asian societies with regard to gender. By analyzing Philippine television advertisements, this study intends to close a gap in the still under-researched area of gender representation in developing countries, which could provide a more complete picture of this topic from an international perspective. The similarities and differences between this research and previous studies on this topic in developing and developed countries are examined. The possible effects of such representation on audiences are discussed based on social cognitive theory and cultivation theory.