Digital Commons Network^™

Skitchi, Kristine Nicole Q. Vila, Julianne Danielle C. Briones Ms, Chester A. Del Rosario, Spyrus A. Garcia, Megan Samantha L. Te, Ma. Louise Gena Crisologo

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress Conference Proceedings

Skitchi is a bag business established in 2024 by five students from De La Salle University-Manila’s Accountancy, Business, and Management strand, namely Kristine Vila, Megan Te, Julianne Briones, Chester Del Rosario, and Spyrus Garcia. Operating under a sole proprietorship, the team shares a unified vision of promoting sustainability through practical, affordable, and stylish canvas bags with patches crafted from “katsa” or recycled sackcloth. In response to the growing issue of fabric waste, Skitchi sources leftover sackcloth from local stores in Marikina. The bags are produced in Bulacan, with patches sewn by Marikina seamstresses, demonstrating the company’s commitment to sustainable practices …

Opulace, Charisse Isabel V. Alagar, Michael Andre M. Mempin, Kristianna N. Naron, Zei Alexa S. Salazar, Christine A. Maranon

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress Conference Proceedings

Opulace is a student-led business founded in October 2024. It responds to the increased demand among Generation Z consumers for stylish, affordable accessories or ‘anik-aniks.’ The brand sells shoe charms, shoe chains, and mesh shoelaces, offering customers jewelry for leveling up their fashion in a unique manner: by adorning their footwear. Operating as a sole proprietorship, Opulace is controlled by four founders: Zei Salazar (General Manager), Andre Mempin (Operations Manager), Kristianna Naron (Finance Manager), and Charisse Alagar (Marketing Manager), whose positions align with their respective strengths. Mentors Chester Lin, Christine Marañon, and Norie Ecija support the team and provide strategic …

Kartera, Arwyn G. Alignay, Julianne Skye Alexandria A. Antonio, Jacob Mark R. Carlos, Lance P. Ercia, Ricardo P. Macatangay Iii, Christine A. Maranon

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress Conference Proceedings

Kartera was formed in July 2024, bridging the gap between physical and digital wallets while combining a convenient form and sustainability. These factors distinguish its product offerings from a recently stagnant set of commercial wallets. The venture is in an early growth stage in the wallet industry, having recently launched its flagship product. The product, a no-fold wallet constructed from Piñatex, a sustainable pineapple leather alternative, was launched in February 2025 during the ABM Bazaar and initiated the framework for design protection for future products. Kartera functions under the sole proprietorship of Lance Ercia, who is supported by four officers: …

Love And Lust: A Philosophical Assessment Of The Morality Of Watching Pornography In Romantic Relationships Through Aristotle’S Function Of Rationality And Virtue Ethics, Missy Gabrielle Magtibay Dimayuga, Kaisser Brent Sanchez Eufemio, Annika Almhyr B. Rivera, Aiyana Chantel Go Tuvilla, Maria Karla Ysabelle Ticzon Vesorio, Naoemi Mikka Ella Weill

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress Conference Proceedings

This study examines the moral acceptability of watching pornography while being in a romantic relationship. It explores the role of consent and intent in determining whether the aforementioned act is morally acceptable or morally unacceptable. Using Aristotle’s Function of Rationality and his Virtue Ethics, the study establishes that the moral acceptability of pornography consumption is subjective, and its acceptability is not dictated by a universal and unconditional moral rule, but is rather dictated by the perspective, situation, and dynamic of the individuals in a relationship themselves. The study argues that the act may be morally acceptable given that there is …

Star Apple (Chrysophyllum Cainito) Leaf & Banana (Musa Acuminata) Peel Extract As A Hydrophobic Coating For Cardboard, Ferdinand F. Begnaen, Missy Noelle C. Velasco, Mary Catherine M. Alfonso, Sharee Mae A. Tamayo, Ashley Irish V. Balneg, Crizanne R. Barsatan, David Isaiah S. Gengania, Rivi N. Wacnisen, Nikah Mei I. James

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress Conference Proceedings

This research aims to find a natural way to make cardboard more water-resistant, increasing its recyclability and lifespan by using banana peels (BP) and star apple leaves (SAL). The inspiration behind this study comes from commercial coatings that are made from synthetic chemicals, such as fluoropolymers and silicone, that can harm the environment. Since cardboard easily absorbs water, the researchers tested different mixtures of BP and SAL to determine which combination works best as a coating. Using ethanol maceration to extract hydrophobic compounds, epicuticular wax was obtained from SAL, while powdered BP was macerated with hexane. The extracts were concentrated …

The Role Of Social Media In Philippine Disaster Management: A Systematic Literature Review, Maxim Alexandrite V. Inoferio, Rich Angelo P. Santos, Henry Joshua A. Hernandez, Jeyson T. Taeza

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress Conference Proceedings

Despite the Philippines being one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, research on the role of social media in its disaster risk management remains limited. This study addresses this gap through a systematic review of existing literature on social media use in Philippine disaster risk management. The analysis is framed within the context of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) and its four thematic areas: Prevention and Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Rehabilitation and Recovery, which guide disaster risk reduction efforts in the country. Results show that social media is primarily employed in response to typhoons and earthquakes, …

Assessing The Eutrophication Potential Of Manila Bay Using Landsat 8-Derived Ndvi And Ndwi Parameters, Sean Andre D. Calajate, Tristan Josef A. Tolentino, Francis Edric M. Robles, Maria Francesca I. Rojas, Angela Nicole S. Masongsong, John Ray Cordova Estrellado

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress Conference Proceedings

Eutrophication, characterized by the presence of excess aquatic nutrients, poses a detrimental environmental threat to Philippine water bodies such as Manila Bay, consequently degrading water quality and augmenting algal blooms that harm aquatic life. This may be caused by a variety of issues, such as urbanization and assorted nutrient overloading. Thus, monitoring of its susceptibility to eutrophication is a valuable step in mitigating its potential effects. This study utilized Landsat-8 derived satellite imagery of Manila Bay to analyze the eutrophication potential (EP) of the bay from January 2024 to December 2024 using the open-access QGIS software for processing. Two spectral …

Asclepad: A Sustainable Wound Dressing Pad Using Chitosan And Vitamin C Infused Milkfish (Chanos Chanos) Skin For Advanced Wound Care, Diether Mark A. Lucero, Ramon Jacob L. Caluag, Juan Miguel M. Elayda, Marcelino G. Gigantone Jr.

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress Conference Proceedings

Medical waste is an overlooked issue posing a significant environmental and public health threat, with 4.7 billion tons generated annually, accounting for 3% of overall waste, and wound dressing pads being a major contributor. Vitamin C, involved in all phases of wound healing, demonstrates synergy with Chitosan, a polysaccharide ideal for medical and cosmetic applications. Milkfish (Chanos chanos) skin, a dominant commercial fish in the Philippines, shows synergy with Chitosan and Vitamin C in wound healing. Thus, aligning with SDGs 3, 12, and 13, this study aims to synthesize and evaluate AsclePad, a sustainable wound dressing pad infused with Chitosan …

A Vector Autoregressive (Var) Model For The Hourly Forecasting Of Climatological Data In General Santos City, Jezzu Morrisen C. Quimosing, Feevol S. Into, Ayeesha Kate N. Castro, Criss Allyn C. Hongoy, Bai Ashfahana A. Abdullah, Ma. Sofia Franchesca P. Dizor, Leo James M. Podador, Joshua Caleb G. Pagalan, Ralph Laurence Valdueza

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress Conference Proceedings

With rising concerns over climate change and its impacts, this study develops and evaluates a Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model to forecast climatological data in General Santos City: surface pressure, specific humidity, wind speed, air temperature, precipitation, UVA and UVB irradiance, with data from January 1, 2001 to June 30, 2024. Mean hour calculations confirmed seasonality via the QS test (p < 0.001) for all variables except precipitation; Mann-Kendall tests indicated significant trends for all tested variables, and UV irradiances were the only variables with no significant long‐term trend. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller Test (p < 0.001) established stationarity of variables, and Granger‐causal relationships were identified. Results indicated a bidirectional Granger-causal relationship between variable pairs (p < 0.001). The AIC-based model selection identified VAR(168) as the best-fitting model, effectively capturing cyclic patterns up to one week. The residuals passed the Ljung-Box tests for no residual autocorrelation (p > 0.05), and OLS-CUSUM plots indicated structural stability. Mean root-mean-square error determined out-of-sample forecasting accuracy to be good for most variables, and poor for UVA and UVB irradiance; therefore, while the VAR(168) model does generate accurate forecasts, it still presents challenges. …

Optimization Of Iron (Iii) Removal Using Mango (Mangifera Indica) Peel Activated Carbon Biosorbent With Varying Adsorbent Dosage, Contact Time, And Temperature, Enzo Damian Berosa Magbatoc, Janssen Cahayon Mendoza, Pierre Cyrus Austria Obando, Fiona Bianca Tabares Saulon, Shelah Alfaro

DLSU Senior High School Research Congress Conference Proceedings

Heavy metal contamination in natural water sources poses a significant threat to public health, aquatic ecosystems, and environmental safety in affected communities. This study explores the utilization of Mango Peel Activated Carbon (MPAC), derived from ripe mango (Mangifera indica) peels, as a biosorbent for removing Iron(III) from aqueous solution, which underwent a sequence of physical and chemical activation processes. This examined key parameters such as A: adsorbent dosage (0.025–0.1 g/L), B: contact time (15–35 minutes), and C: temperature (25–35 °C), in order to assess its potential as a sustainable clean water solution. A Box-Behnken Design under Response Surface Methodology (RSM) …

“Neither Living Nor Dead”: From Nazgûl To The Sídhe In Tolkien's The Fellowship Of The Ring (1954), Noelia Ramos

Journal of Tolkien Research

This study explores the influence of Celtic supernatural folklore, particularly the banshee tradition, on Tolkien’s depiction of the Nazgûl in The Fellowship of the Ring. Using W.B. Yeats’ Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888) and the Celtic Twilight movement as a comparative framework, it analyses “A Short Cut to Mushrooms” and “A Knife in the Dark”, focusing on liminality, spectral presence, and supernatural dread. These parallels are further contextualised through reference to early Irish texts The Táin Bó Cúailnge and The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn, central works within the Celtic literary compilation known to Tolkien …

Mechanical, Thermal And Fire Behaviour Of Hemp-Based Composites With Different Binders For Sustainable Building Applications, Anilcan Aygun, Fahri Birinci, Selim Aytac, Ali Kemal Ayan, Hasan Alp Sahin, Ibrahim Isildak

Journal of Sustainable Construction Materials and Technologies

This study investigates the physical, mechanical and thermal properties of hemp-based composites produced with traditional binders such as lime, cement, gypsum, clay, and water-based glue. Hemp fractions of different sizes (splinter, shiv, fiber and powder) were combined with these binders to manufacture cube and plate specimens, which were tested for physical, mechanical, thermal, and temperature resistance properties. The study aims to compare the mechanical, physical, thermal, and fire behaviour of these composites to assess their suitability for sustainable construction applications. The hemp-based composites were tested for unit weight, water absorption, compressive strength and thermal conductivity. Most specimens are lightweight (<1000 kg/m3), and exhibit good thermal insulation performance and high compressive deformability, making them suitable for seismic-prone regions. The glue-based composite had the lowest unit weight, measured as 330 kg/m3. Thermal conductivity ranged from 0.051 to 0.243 W/m· K, with several mixtures performing better than natural pumice. While cement-based composites showed the highest compressive strength, ranging from 5.5 to 24.8 kg/cm2, natural hydraulic lime is the lowest. Water absorption was high, and moisture release occurred slowly across all hemp fractions. Combustion tests indicated that hemp-based materials have moderate temperature resistance, with charring temperatures ranging from 238–265°C for raw hemp and 300–385°C when mixed with binders. Overall, hemp-based composites are lightweight, eco-friendly, and suitable for non-load-bearing construction and insulation applications. However, improvements in moisture resistance and long-term durability are necessary to enhance their practical applicability.

Critical Heavy Metal Contamination In The Tigris River, Baghdad: A Comprehensive Assessment Using The Metal Index (Mi), Talib Kamil Abed, Abass J. Kadhem, Muwafaq Hussein Al-Lami

AUIQ Technical Engineering Science

One of the most important rivers in Iraq is the Tigris River, which serves as the primary source of drinking water and irrigation for agricultural purposes. In recent events, researchers have identified growing concerns about heavy metal contamination in the river. To decide the status of the Tigris River, the metal index (MI) was used in this study. To conduct this study, three locations were chosen along the river, and eight likely harmful heavy metals were examined: iron (Fe), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), manganese (Mn), and copper (Cu). The results were worrying. The metal …

Aquifer Characteristics And Groundwater Flow Modeling For Sustainable Water Resources Development And Planning Using Modflow Software In India, Ravi Sharma

AUIQ Complementary Biological System

MODFLOW is one of the most commonly used numerical models for simulating groundwater flow. Its structured data design and compatibility with GIS tools make it suitable for groundwater assessment and planning. Groundwater forms an important part of the hydrological cycle and occurs within the pore spaces of sedimentary rocks or within fractures in hard rock terrains. Although its distribution beneath the surface is not always uniform or predictable, it is still considered one of the cleanest, most accessible, and quickly available freshwater sources. Numerical groundwater models help convert complex subsurface processes into simplified relationships that describe flow behavior. Even though …

Facing The Constitution: How Facial Recognition Technology Threatens Fourth Amendment Protections And Deepens Racial Inequality, Bailey Mandell

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights and Social Justice (ERSJ) Blog

It is very unlikely you have ever consented to a police lineup. Yet if you have a driver’s license or a social media account, you may already be in one. A new kind of digital lineup has emerged, one that never ends and requires neither your knowledge nor consent. Facial recognition technology (“FRT”)is a biometric identification method that creates a digital template of a person’s face using measurements such as the distance between the eyes, the width of the nose, the length of the jawline, and the shape of the cheekbones. Algorithms then compare that template either to a second …

Cycling Past 50: A Closer Look Into The World Of Older Cyclists, Year 5 Survey, Carol Kachadoorian

Mineta Transportation Institute

This document reports on approximately 2,800 responses to a North American survey of older adults who cycle. The survey, open from March 2024 through February 2025, included questions that captured a person’s cycling over their life course, as well as their current cycling styles, habits, and preferences. Responses reflect the impact of various factors on an older adult’s cycling habits with respect to their ability and agility and their expectation to continue cycling. The survey asked about falls and near misses in the past year, coding fall descriptions into six categories and sorting them by the respondent’s gender and age. …

How Does A Structured Pre-Operative Airway Assessment Influence Anesthesiologists' Prediction Of A Difficult Airway In Surgical Patients?, Anjana Palanisamy

Mentorship Program 2025-2026

No abstract provided.

Competency Vs Concept Based Education In Nursing Programs, Amber L. Simmons

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

Competency based education helps to develop skills for nursing students to help them prepare for graduation and the workforce. Concept based nursing delivers knowledge to students and can help to build some clinical judgement and critical thinking. Globally there is a shift moving toward competency-based education attempting to allow nursing students appropriately apply their conceptual knowledge in a clinical setting.

Views And Experiences Regarding Workplace Genetic Testing: Findings From A National Survey Of U.S. Employees., Drew Blasco, Sarah Mccain, Subhamoy Pal, Wendy R Uhlmann, Rebecca Ferber, Kunal Sanghavi, Elizabeth Charnysh, Anya E R Prince, Charles Lee, J Scott Roberts, Insight @ Work Consortium

Faculty Research 2026

The emergence of voluntary health-related genetic testing in workplace wellness programs indicates a need to understand employees’ views and experiences regarding workplace genetic testing (wGT). A large, diverse national sample of employed adults (N=2000; median age=43 years; 51.1% female; 33% non-white) completed a web survey of their wGT views and experiences. Although 80% of participants indicated their employer did not offer wGT, 54.1% were interested in testing, especially (somewhat/very) for cancer (89.2%), heart disease (93.1%), and Alzheimer’s disease (85.3%). Characteristics associated with wGT interest included younger age (< 55 years), Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, genetic testing experience or familiarity, and a positive family medical history (all p< 0.05). Reasons for pursuing wGT (e.g., inform health behaviors) were endorsed more frequently than reasons for declining (e.g., insurance/employability concerns). Among participants offered wGT (20%), 60% indicated having undergone testing. Test uptake was associated with personal medical history, greater familiarity with genetic testing, and self-reported physical health (all p< 0.05). A minority of employed adults surveyed reported being offered, or having had, wGT. Nevertheless, many employees are potentially interested in wGT, particularly for common diseases. Although employees have wGT concerns, many view it as beneficial to inform health behaviors and decisions.

Views And Experiences Regarding Workplace Genetic Testing: Findings From A National Survey Of U.S. Employees., Drew Blasco, Sarah Mccain, Subhamoy Pal, Wendy R Uhlmann, Rebecca Ferber, Kunal Sanghavi, Elizabeth Charnysh, Anya E R Prince, Charles Lee, J Scott Roberts, The Insight @ Work Consortium

Faculty Research 2026

The emergence of voluntary health-related genetic testing in workplace wellness programs indicates a need to understand employees’ views and experiences regarding workplace genetic testing (wGT). A large, diverse national sample of employed adults (N=2000; median age=43 years; 51.1% female; 33% non-white) completed a web survey of their wGT views and experiences. Although 80% of participants indicated their employer did not offer wGT, 54.1% were interested in testing, especially (somewhat/very) for cancer (89.2%), heart disease (93.1%), and Alzheimer’s disease (85.3%). Characteristics associated with wGT interest included younger age (< 55 years), Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, genetic testing experience or familiarity, and a positive family medical history (all p< 0.05). Reasons for pursuing wGT (e.g., inform health behaviors) were endorsed more frequently than reasons for declining (e.g., insurance/employability concerns). Among participants offered wGT (20%), 60% indicated having undergone testing. Test uptake was associated with personal medical history, greater familiarity with genetic testing, and self-reported physical health (all p< 0.05). A minority of employed adults surveyed reported being offered, or having had, wGT. Nevertheless, many employees are potentially interested in wGT, particularly for common diseases. Although employees have wGT concerns, many view it as beneficial to inform health behaviors and decisions.

Keirkegaard And The Algorithm, John Egan

Philosophy Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

2026 Iupc Program, Philosophy Department

Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Philosophy Conference at Providence College

No abstract provided.

Modelling Enablers And Barriers To Improve Uptake Of A Fruit And Vegetable Voucher Scheme (The Fresh Street Community) In England:: A Tism-Micmac Approach, Jiang Pan, Clare Relton, Lisa Howard, Lisa Howard, Aira Ong, Louise Hunt, Paridhi Garg, Jane Bradbeer, Manik Puranik, Rachel Sutton, Carol Wagstaff, Clare Pettinger

School of Health Professions

Background: Improving equitable access to fresh fruit and vegetables (FV) remains a critical public health priority in the UK, particularly in low-income communities where affordability, accessibility, and social barriers limit healthy food choices. The Fresh Street Community scheme, a place-based FV voucher initiative in England, aims to enhance dietary equity by enabling households to purchase fresh produce from local community centres. Building on prior feasibility research, this study applies a systems-modelling approach to explore how multiple enablers and barriers interact to influence scheme uptake and sustainability.Methods: Using Total Interpretive Structural Modelling (TISM) combined with MICMAC analysis, we engaged research team …

The Difficulty With Setting A Standard Based On Difficulty: The Role Of Validity In Determining Assessment Standards., Steven Burr, Daniel Zahra, Iain M Robinson

Peninsula Medical School

When setting standards for high-stakes assessments, it is necessary to be clear whether the primary criterion should be importance or difficulty. While standard setting practices frequently rely on the difficulty to determine passing or failing thresholds, this can undermine the intended inferences and uses of assessments. Standard setting based on difficulty conflates importance with subjective perceptions of difficulty, misguiding decisions about what candidates need to demonstrate for safe and effective practice. We explore several reasons why difficulty does not align with the aims of assessment and how prioritising importance can better reflect the intended uses and inferences of a test. …

Awe Only At What You See, Thomas Marinelli

Philosophy Student Scholarship

The sublime, as developed by Immanuel Kant in Critique of Judgment and later framed and deconstructed by Jacques Derrida in The Truth in Painting, is much like admiring a view—standing before the ocean, seeing nothing but an endless expanse of water stretching beyond the horizon. Yet this vastness is only visible through the lens of our own perception. Imagine being placed in the middle of that ocean, surrounded by nothing: a sensation of weight, anxiety, perhaps even freedom and clarity, might emerge—a powerful emotion never before felt. That situation itself is not the sublime; rather, it is the feeling, the …

Gnsi Decision Brief: The Three-Body Trap: The New Geometry Of Nuclear Deterrence, Seong-Hyon Lee

GNSI Decision Briefs

In the astrophysics of orbital mechanics, the “Two-Body Problem” – predicting the gravitational interaction between two objects, such as the Earth and the Moon – is mathematically solvable. The system is stable, the orbits are predictable, and the variables are calculable. However, if a third independent object of sufficient mass is introduced, the system becomes non-linear and highly unpredictable. As proven by mathematician Henri Poincaré in 1887, no single formula can solve for long-term stability in a three-body system. For eight decades, since the dawn of the nuclear age, global security operated on “Two-Body” physics. The United States and the …

Social Control And Neglect At A Crossroads: Unpacking The Interactive Effects Of Residential Segregation And Violence On Pretrial Detention, Paige Vaughn, Joshua H. Williams

Faculty Publications

Racial segregation and violent crime are both important predictors of jurisdiction-level criminal justice outcomes, yet little research has examined their influences on front-end detention patterns and how they may interact to shape local punishment practices. The current study uses official sources and Vera Institute of Justice data spanning 1496 decennial county-years (374 counties from 1980 to 2010) to examine the independent and combined effects of county-level racial segregation and violent crime on pretrial detention rates. Drawing on group threat and minority neglect arguments, we find that high segregation levels are associated with neglect, especially in violent areas. Reduced segregation between …

Analyzing Methods To Support Students Left Behind In Colorado Primary/Secondary Schools, Grace Hudson

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

In the United States, there has been an increase of deportations, since 2024, of undocumented immigrants. This has disproportionally affected Mexicans and others from Latin American countries (Dreby 2012) due to them being the largest group of undocumented people in the United States. One effect of these deportations is an increase in children that are left in the United States while their parent(s) are in detention or have been deported. Some of these children are in mixed-status families, which means that the child has a different citizenship status than their parents or other members in their family, which allows for …

Addressing The Problems Of Data Variations, Quality, And Scarcity In Training Deep Neural Networks, Jian Sun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The performance of deep neural networks (DNNs) is strongly influenced by the characteristics and quality of the underlying datasets. This Ph.D. dissertation addresses three pervasive data challenges-imbalance, quality degradation, and scarcity-that commonly hinder the effectiveness of DNNs in computer vision (CV) and natural language processing (NLP) applications.

Class imbalance remains one of the most frequent causes of degraded model generalization. While Focal Loss effectively mitigates inter-class imbalance by assigning higher weights to minority classes, it struggles with intra-class imbalance, particularly in video datasets where longer clips dominate feature representation. To address this, I implement and utilize …

Critical Roles And Critical Rolls: A Frame-Analytical Perspective Of Self-Making, Safe Spaces, And Worldbuilding In Tabletop Role-Playing Games, Cal Quayle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many gamers prefer to play tabletop roleplaying games, or TTRPGs, in order to a) join a community, and b) tell a story collaboratively with friends and acquaintances. This thesis discusses selfhood-making, safe spaces, and allegory in imaginary worlds from the perspective of Erving Goff man’s frame analysis. It relies on a theoretical framework of imagined communities, the magic circle, and subcreation. This research culminated in the understanding that people play TTRPGs for a variety of reasons - collaborative storytelling and exercising critical thinking skills, but respondents overwhelmingly reported that they enjoyed the ability to socialize with friends and strangers, and …