Research

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

21 May 2025

UP Diliman

Machine learning holds great promise for advancing hadron physics and deepening our understanding of the subatomic world

We investigated a peak signal around MeV in the invariant mass spectrum, which has intrigued physicists as a potential candidate...

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20 May 2025

UP Diliman

Cigarette demand varies with changes in price

This study looks into how recent tax reforms on cigarettes and fermented liquor in the Philippines have affected people’s consumption...

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08 May 2025

UP Diliman

There is a weak positive correlation between land surface temperature and concentrations of carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide

This study looks at how land surface temperature (LST) from satellite data, elevation, and air quality parameters are related in...

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07 May 2025

Proper water management and soil sanitation can help prevent crop losses caused by the Paramyrothecium fungus

Paramyrothecium is a fungus that can cause plant diseases like coffee leaf spots, muskmelon crown rot, and eggplant crater rot....

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02 May 2025

Simulations show that rosette nanotube is a potential vehicle for anticancer drugs such as paclitaxel

Anticancer drugs such as paclitaxel (PTX) affect the healthy cells apart from the cancer cells, causing severe side effects. Targeted...

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30 Apr 2025

Leni Robredo’s presidential campaign offered supporters spaces that reflected their hopes by highlighting gender and sexuality issues

This paper examines how Leni Robredo’s presidential campaign during the 2022 Philippines elections used language and visuals to create a...

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30 Apr 2025

Researchers propose a modified inelastic bouncing ball model that includes collision time between the ball and its container

The behavior of granular materials subjected to shaking or vibration remains a complex puzzling phenomenon. A reliable strategy in science...

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25 Apr 2025

A method has been developed to determine the minimum aperture size that a digital micromirror device can accurately render

A digital micromirror device (DMD) is a programmable pixelated instrument that uses an array of tiny individually switchable mirrors as...

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25 Apr 2025

China’s projects aim not only to compete with the US but also to bring about positive change

This research looks at how China is becoming more influential in the world through projects like the Belt and Road...

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24 Apr 2025

Non-democratic states, even if they perform well in sports, receive less media attention than democratic countries

In this study, Panao and Gache delve into the fascinating world of sports and its connection to global politics. Essentially,...

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15 Apr 2025

Survivors of the 1974 Battle of Jolo wish to forget the tragedy but their memories expose the recent struggles of Muslim Mindanao

Moving beyond the disinformation surrounding Filipino memory construction of martial law this study delves into the experiences of civilians during...

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11 Apr 2025

This study of the largest fast food group in the Philippines acquiring its competition adds to the limited, but growing, inventory of business case studies

This case is about the acquisition by the largest quick service restaurant (QSR) group in the Philippines, Jollibee Foods Corporation...

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Research

This is a study that uses 3D shape analyses to investigate if there is a relationship between mandible shape in primates and diet. Biological anthropologists have long aimed to link jaw shape with diet in living primates to better understand the diets of extinct species, including fossil hominins. This could be important for identifying diet and behavior in the fossil record and understanding human evolution. To date, studies on this topic produced mixed results, likely because they relied on 2D shape data. In this study, we tested whether using 3D shape data would give clearer insights. We used a sample of more than 200 primate specimens, representing individuals from 27 species and five families.

Our results indicate that there is a weak relationship between 3D mandibular shape and diet in extant primates. Other factors have a larger influence on mandible shape than diet in primates, thus anthropologists should try other avenues of research to help understand diet in the past. The 3D jaw shape analysis is unlikely to reveal more about extinct primate diets so future research should focus on other approaches.

Authors: Kimberly Plomp (School of Archaeology, UP Diliman | Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University), Joseph Owen (Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University), Keith Dobney (Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University) and Mark Collard (Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University)

Read the full paper: https://europepmc.org/article/med/38445747

Photo by Andreas Hoja from Pixabay