Strong typhoons strike the Philippines every year, and the amount of usable land is decreased by the loss of land properties from soil erosion. In recent years, geotechnical engineering has increasingly used biodegradable reinforcing materials. Since natural fibers are renewable, energy-efficient, and non-toxic raw materials, using them in these applications makes the solutions more sustainable. Using temporary, biodegradable geosynthetics to stop soil loss and promote the establishment of vegetation where the vegetation alone should provide adequate site protection once established is one of the solutions used nowadays to solve soil erosion problems. The characteristics and field performance of coating geotextile with lignin-based adhesive are discussed in this paper. The adhesive was created by mixing 70% Urea Formaldehyde resin, 10% water, and 20% calcium lignosulfonate. In a 3 feet by 2 feet scale model plot with clay soil from Tandang Kutyo, Rizal, on a 45 degree slope, coconet with and without lignin was laid out. Laboratory tests and statistical analysis were done to determine the product's suitability as an erosion control blanket material. A scale model for field setup was also used to assess the performance of coconet with lignin coating after weather exposure in terms of runoff and soil loss, degradation through tensile strength, and vegetation development. The average tensile strength per twine of lignin-coated, unexposed coconet measured in the laboratory was 222.92N, or almost 150 percent of the tensile strength of coconet sold commercially. Shapiro-Wilk Normality Test on tensile strength also shows that the tensile strength of coated and uncoated coconet were not normally distributed. The Mann-Whitney U-Test also demonstrated that there is at least 95% probability that the increase in strength is due to coating coconet with lignin-based adhesive. Coating coconet with lignin-based adhesive increased its mass per unit area, thickness, and lignin content while it reduced the mesh opening, flexibility, and moisture content. Coconet is also good at increasing runoff and reducing soil loss, according to field testing results. The findings of this study show that coating coconet with a lignin-based adhesive gives it qualities that make it suitable for use as a soil erosion control blanket.

Floods in the Philippines constitute about 23% of the hazards that have occurred during the past decades. Flood risk management strategies are usually developed from statistical models to derive return levels from flood frequency analysis. Traditional analysis relies on the concept of stationarity, which assumes that there are no shifts in the key statistical properties of the data over time, i.e., design flood levels will fall within the distribution characterized by historical data. Several studies, however, revealed that streamflow records indicate some kind of non-stationarity in the form of changing trends and shifts associated with climate change and urbanization; thus, there is a need to consider non-stationary analysis. This research conducted a non-stationary analysis of the annual maximum daily streamflow of the Cagayan De Oro River Basin, which is one of the areas in the country significantly affected by floods in the past. Streamflow data was fitted to generalized extreme value distributions under stationary and non-stationary assumptions using the maximum likelihood estimation method, incorporating time, annual rainfall mean, and percentage of impervious area as covariates. Twelve non-stationary models were developed and compared using the Akaike Information Criterion. The model with impervious area as a covariate was deemed as the best model. Model results show that flood magnitudes having 25-, 50-, and 100-year return periods under the stationary assumption correspond to 20-, 30-, and 48-year return periods, respectively, under the non-stationary assumption. Implications on risk of failure show consistently higher risk throughout the project life of the structure under non-stationary conditions, particularly on longer return periods. Projected water level estimates also indicate that expected levels are generally higher under the non-stationary assumption. These results suggest that flood structures designed under stationary assumption are bound to fail sooner than expected. Incorporating non-stationary will provide a more sound and realistic risk assessment.

Pneumothorax, a life-threatening condition characterized by air accumulation in the pleural cavity, requires early and accurate detection for optimal patient outcomes. Chest X-ray radiographs are a common diagnostic tool due to their speed and affordability. However, detecting pneumothorax can be challenging for radiologists because the sole visual indicator is often a thin displaced pleural line. This research addresses this challenge by developing an end-to-end machine learning system for real-time chest X-ray radiograph analysis. Users can upload chest X-ray radiographs to our system and receive instant predictions from our novel deep learning architecture. This architecture combines the advantages of fully convolutional neural networks (FCNNs) and Vision Transformers (ViTs) while using only convolutional modules to avoid the quadratic complexity of ViT's self-attention mechanism. It utilizes a patch-based encoder-decoder structure with skip connections to effectively combine high-level and low-level features. Compared to prior research and baseline FCNNs, our model demonstrates significantly higher accuracy in detection and segmentation while maintaining computational efficiency. This is evident on two datasets: (1) the SIIM-ACR Pneumothorax Segmentation dataset and (2) a novel dataset we curated from The Medical City, a private hospital in the Philippines. Ablation studies further reveal that using a mixed Tversky and Focal loss function significantly improves performance compared to using solely the Tversky loss. Our findings suggest our model has the potential to improve diagnostic accuracy and efficiency in pneumothorax detection, potentially aiding radiologists in clinical settings.

To improve the multimodal transfers through adequate physical infrastructure in Metro Manila, this study conducted a review of indicators used in measuring the quality of transfers for urban multimodal passenger transport systems and develop an index for assessing the quality of transfer between different modes of transit in selected EDSA Busway stations. The EDSA Busway was used as the pilot site due to its current integration issues despite the high demand for its services. The study also aims to determine the relationship of the physical integration index with the passenger mode transfer satisfaction score. There are two types of data to be collected: (1) objective physical measurement data from field survey, and (2) subjective measurement data from questionnaire survey. Through the developed mode transfer quality index, the results revealed that among the selected stations, Buendia station has the highest rating of 3.18 out of 5 for there is sufficient physical infrastructure which led to accessible and convenient transfers improving the transfer walking experience of the commuters. The other EDSA Carousel stations also had presence of physical infrastructure, but it was not sufficient and accessible to persons with limited mobility and physically impaired. What’s similar for all stations is that all of them have high convenience and transfer walking ratings even with the less presence of sufficient physical infrastructure. Additionally, results also show that the station design indicator is consistently the lowest rating in all the stations. The results reflect the absence of adequate infrastructure to facilitate the mobility of persons with disabilities and the elderly. Escalators and elevators were only distributed in other transportation stations but weren’t present in the route in going to the EDSA Busway station. The study revealed that the sub-indicators which affect the passenger mode transfer satisfaction are thermal comfort, presence of covered waiting area/resting stop, proximity and PWD accessibility. Improving the passenger experience of commuters based on these indicators will enhance passenger mode transfer satisfaction.

There is an imperative need to develop effective emission quantification and management strategies given that the international aviation and the Philippine air transport account for 2.1% in the global carbon emissions and 0.712 million metric tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent, respectively. Thus, with the aim of developing a standardized greenhouse gas quantification template that will initiate and provide a data collection and monitoring system for the Philippine aviation industry, an assessment was done on the industry’s readiness on GHG emissions reporting using six criteria namely regulatory framework, data collection and monitoring systems, transparency and accountability, adherence to standards, capacity building and training, and GHG emissions reduction and management strategies. In the formulation of the standardized template, standards set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, World Resources Institute and WBCSD, Global Sustainability Standards Board, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, European Environment Agency and Climate Change Commission were used as guidelines and framework. Collected activity data from the local aviation industry companies was, then, applied to the formulated template to create an emission profile for the industry. The readiness assessment suggests that the Philippine aviation industry is not fully ready to report its emissions due to the lack of regulatory policies on GHG emissions reporting, GHG reporting protocols for selective industries, restricted data and monitoring systems, data gaps on Scope 3 emissions, and lack of training for emissions reporting. During the application of the formulated standardized template, it is recommended to focus on GHG intensity rather than relying solely on the absolute Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions particularly during unusual circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidently, the development of a standardized GHG quantification template will enable the industry to quantify its emissions and demonstrate their commitment towards carbon neutrality.