Research

As the national university, we champion and support innovative research that addresses the country’s most pressing challenges.

02 Jan 2024

UP Diliman

Researchers develop first marine plastics pollution database in Southeast Asia

The Southeast Asian region has been consistently tagged as among the top polluters of plastic in the oceans, with the...

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02 Jan 2024

UP Los Baños

Despite having positive views about queering English language teaching, teachers report limited knowledge of queer concepts

In the last two decades, there has been an increasing acknowledgement of and interest in the role of education in...

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29 Nov 2023

UP Manila

“No home birthing” policy affected the social and economic status of hilots and the well-being of mothers in a community

The paper aims to document the ways people understand, practice and experience pregnancy and childbirth in a community in Batangas,...

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24 Nov 2023

UP Diliman

Filipino women exposed to violence between their parents are likely to be both a perpetrator and a victim of intimate partner violence

Violence can be transferred from one generation to another through social learning. Social learning theory posits that behaviors and values...

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22 Nov 2023

UP Diliman

Children’s writers can present issues to young readers through words, linguistic structures and literary devices

This research focuses on the analysis of five stories for children written by Filipino authors and published in the Philippines...

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17 Nov 2023

UP Los Baños

Study looks at how Filipino researchers write articles in Philippine English and its implications for academic writing

For over half a century, Philippine English has existed as a linguistic issue in the Philippines. Despite the numerous studies...

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10 Nov 2023

UP Los Baños

The local Chinese population helped make Iloilo the textile capital of the Philippines in the 19th century

Textiles played a significant role in Philippine economic history. In this study, archival materials and records have shown that the...

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07 Nov 2023

UP Cebu

Knowing whether initiatives are employee-led, leader-led, organization-led or HR-led can increase organization citizenship behavior in the service industry

Most studies about organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) focus on actions that employees, supervisors, or owners of organizations should exhibit. OCB...

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03 Nov 2023

UP Cebu

Public lecture to tackle challenges to democracy and politics in a post-truth era

The University of the Philippines Cebu Central Visayas Studies and College of Social Sciences in cooperation with the Critical Policy...

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27 Oct 2023

UP Diliman

First and most extensive study in the Philippines shows diagnostic accuracy of a multivariate index assay alone and in combination with ovarian imaging for ovarian cancer prediction

This study determined the utility of ovarian imaging and a second-generation multivariate index assay in predicting  the risk of ovarian...

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Research

The development of green and low-cost functional building materials is increasingly becoming one of the primary goals in the construction industry, triggering interest in the use of biomass waste as substitutes for traditional construction materials. This work makes use of biomass waste, particularly oyster shell as the calcium material and rice husk as the silicate material, to produce calcium silicate boards. These boards were incorporated with an antimicrobial composite material (CuSe/CaCO 3 ) to endow the boards with an antimicrobial functionality that can effectively inhibit the growth of pathogenic microorganisms, such as bacteria (E. coli and S. aureus) and fungi (C. albicans). The utilization of biomass waste in creating functional building materials can help in mitigating environmental pollution and in reducing the overall cost of construction.

The antimicrobial effect can be attributed to the presence of CuSe nanoparticles, which are capable of effectively inhibiting microbial growth through a combination of (i) light-induced generation of radicals, (ii) release of copper ions, and (iii) photothermal heating. The experimental parameters (e.g. Ca/Si ratio, molding pressure, curing time and temperature, and CuSe/CaCO 3 loading amount) were varied to determine the optimal parameters for fabricating calcium silicate boards with the most satisfying flexural strength and antimicrobial efficacy. Our study aims to pave the way for the green fabrication of functional calcium silicate boards through valorization of biomass waste.

Authors: Xiaoyan Zhao, Yugi Zhai and Yongcheng Zhou (School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hebei University of Technology), Zhihua Liu, Zewen Kang and Bingging Wang (College of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Quanzhou Normal University), Michelle D. Regulacio (Institute of Chemistry, University of the Philippines Diliman) and Da-Peng Yang (School of Rehabilitation Science and Engineering, University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and College of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Quanzhou Normal University)

Read the full paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2023.134505