Research

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

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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23 Oct 2023

UP Baguio

Covid-19 caused more psychological distress on women and young people than older persons

The results of this study represent 14,133 participants across 6 continents, with data from 19 nations. The most consistent finding...

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19 Oct 2023

UP Diliman, UP System

Children as young as two months are exposed to digital media for an average of two hours every day

The dramatic increase in the touchscreen exposure of very young children has raised issues regarding the potentials and perils that...

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11 Oct 2023

UP

Caves require greater management as important, but seldom studied, nonrenewable resources

Caves are significant nonrenewable resources that provide a variety of ecosystem services with varying sensitivities to disturbance. In the Philippines,...

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10 Oct 2023

UP Los Baños, UP Open University

Small islands in Northern Samar are linked by political, economic and social reasons

The Philippines as an archipelago is made up of many islands. Most of these islands are characterized as small, isolated,...

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06 Oct 2023

UP Los Baños

Online learning had adverse effects on the well-being and mental health of STEM students

This research adds to the growing body of literature pertaining to the extent and consequences of fully online
learning to Science,...

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05 Oct 2023

UP Manila

Teachers are still hesitant to talk about sex education due to cultural and religious factors

Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) enables children and young people to learn about the cognitive, emotional, physical, and social characteristics of...

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02 Oct 2023

UP Manila

Smart-city projects will not “reduce inequality, hold policymakers accountable or address the root causes of Manila’s problems”

The Philippines is said to fall behind when it comes to adopting digital technologies and urged to catch up with...

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14 Sep 2023

UP Diliman

The location and number of language areas in the brain differ among multilingual brain tumor patients

The location of the speech area in the brain may be different or located in several sites in patients who...

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05 Sep 2023

UP Los Baños

Agent-based model reveals a sustainable method of forest tree harvesting

The Philippines requires 6 million cubic meters of wood annually, based on its 2006–2014 average wood consumption. However, due to...

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29 Aug 2023

UP Diliman

Adjusting the rice cropping calendar can improve the production and income of rice farmers

The study assessed the impact of an adjusted cropping calendar on the welfare of rice farming households in the  Mekong...

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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