• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.123-135
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• 2021

Solid Viscoelastic Coupling Dampers (VCDs) provide distributed damping that improves the dynamic performance of tall buildings for both wind-storms and earthquakes for all amplitudes of vibration. They are configured in place of typical structural members in tall buildings and therefore do not occupy any architectural space. This paper summarizes the research and development at the University of Toronto in collaboration with Nippon Steel Engineering, 3M and Kinetica over the past two decades. In addition, impact studies on buildings incorporating the VCDs are presented, consisting of a wind sensitive 66-story building in Toronto, a dual-wind and seismic performance-based design of a 4-tower development in Manila and finally a 630 meter Megatall building in Southeast Asia in a severe seismic environment. In all applications the VCDs are shown to provide significant benefits in the dynamic performance under both wind and earthquake loading in a cost-effective manner.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.409-431
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• 2020

This study explores the images and ideas presented by the editorial cartoons that have appeared in the author's Facebook timeline during Duterte's enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). The study analyzed 70 editorial cartoons posted between March 14, 2020, when Duterte declared ECQ in the National Capital Region of the Philippines, and June 22, 2020, a few days before the emergency powers of Duterte expired. This study used (visual-verbal) textual analysis as the research method to surface discourses embedded in the selected editorial cartoons. The editorial cartoons were clustered according to the roles the powerful people play in the images, and the details of each image were compared and contrasted to surface nuances in representation. The 70 editorial cartoons were classified into seven categories: (1) invisible (non-suffering) persons, (2) front liners, (3) privileged homeowners, (4) priority clients, (5) judges, (6) gatekeepers, and (7) dysfunctional public officials. They gravitated towards the tragic realities that call for acts of social justice and equity, and underscore specific contexts that need to be fixed by those in power.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.149-173
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• 2022

Vaccine nationalism and its implications to vaccine supply were a huge concern globally when COVID-19 vaccines first became available in 2021. At the time, vaccine supply was limited and it was difficult for many countries around the world to get adequate supply of the COVID-19 vaccine to inoculate their people. At its most benign, vaccine nationalism delayed the access of poorer countries to vaccines that are widely considered as the long-term solution to the COVID-19 pandemic. Poorer countries needed to resort to diplomacy to wrangle early access to vaccine supply from vaccine-producing countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and others. In particular, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte leveraged his country's Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States and the need for Filipino nurses by countries like the United Kingdom and Germany to secure early access to COVID-19 vaccines. It all seems trivial now (in 2022) because of better global vaccine supply, but in 2021 when countries scrambled for access to scarce COVID-19 vaccines, Rodrigo Duterte leveraged the Philippines' assets to gain early access to vaccine supply.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Health Society Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.66-75
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• 2003

This paper reviewed available information/data compiled by various agencies, institutions, and experts, including the academe. The review concentrated on five of the most pressing problems such as air pollution, water pollution, land pollution related to the problem of solid wastes, toxic and hazardous chemical wastes and deforestation. Most of the data presented focused on Metro Manila. Past air monitoring data showed significant exceedances of national air quality guideline values especially for particulates and lead. Many of the country's rivers and lakes have deteriorated, some were declared biologically dead. The acute solid waste problem and the proliferation of toxic and hazardous chemicals have led to the enactment of legislation. Uncontrolled deforestation has taken its toll on the environment and people. Various actions were undertaken by the national administration with the cooperation of other sectors to address environmental problems. However, constraints to the enforcement of environmental laws and programs must be minimized to attain the desired level of environmental protection and management.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.149-174
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• 2018

Southeast Asians participate in elections eagerly, a fact indexed by the high electoral participation rates across a range of political conditions in the region. What gives elections in Southeast Asia such high legitimacy? Using data from Indonesia and the Philippines, this article emphasizes the need to understand peoples' rationalities, which are informed by meanings generated by prevailing cultural practices. From this perspective, electoralism can be understood as a cultural phenomenon that conforms to the structure of a ritual. Despite the democratic deficit in many electoral exercises, elections share the attractiveness and fun of traditional community festivities. Voters participate in elections as a testament to membership in a community. Although they do not always transform the existing social arrangements, elections embed contradictory impulses in the same way that cockfights do. A procedure of formal democracy authored elsewhere, electoralism has been localized in Southeast Asia and invested with indigenous significance.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.57-78
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• 2015

Southeast Asia has been a showcase for democratic transitions in the past 30 years. This paper proposes a conceptual lens for studying political shifts in the Southeast Asian region. The argumentative storyline follows two fundamental propositions about democratic transitions. My first proposition is that during democratic transitions, human phenomena arise on nested analytical layers namely the global arena, the state, prodemocracy movements, and individuals. Each layer is conventionally studied by international relations, political science, sociology, and psychology respectively. I propose a multidisciplinary lens that transverses all these analytical layers. A second proposition is that during political shifts, social conditions are historically-situated. Historicity is anchored on stages of democratization, namely the authoritarian regime, toppling the regime, power shift, state building, and nation building. This paper describes a 4 × 5 matrix (analytical layer × historical stage) that may guide a regional agenda on the empirical study of democratic transitions in the Southeast Asian region. It likewise gives examples of research findings in Philippine-based studies that have already begun to provide empirical data about segments of this research matrix.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.123-144
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• 2017

The changing of clothes in Balagtas' 1860 fictional comedy La filipina elegante y negrito amante (The Elegant Filipina and the Amorous Negrito) is used to explore the ethnic, cultural, and sartorial diversity in 19^th century colonial Philippines. But, how does plurality in men's clothing reflect the socio-economic conditions of the late Spanish colonial period? This paper focuses on the diversity in Philippine men's clothing around 1850 to 1896, taking into account the limited range of colonial archetypes in iconographic and documentary sources. Underscoring the colonial culture that shaped mentalities and tendencies, this study offers insights on how clothing was used and how it was perceived in relation to the wearer. In discussing clothing diversity, distinctiveness was articulated using the work of J.A.B. Wiselius (1875), a Dutch colonial administrator in neighboring Indonesia, who in comparing Spanish and Dutch systems of colonial governance, underscored the Filipino penchant for imitation.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.270-282
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• 2012

This study was conducted to investigate the impact of sand addition to an intertidal for the development of the Manila clam habitat on benthic community structure. For this, we focused on the spatio-temporal changes in the surface sediment condition and benthic community structure before and after the event. Study site was an sandbank in Gonam-myeon, Taean-gun where sand added to on July 2010. We set three stations at each of sand adding area (experimental plot) and non sand-adding area (control plot) and did sampling works ten times from June 2010 to October 2011. Directly after the event, surface sediments changed to very coarse sand, but the state was not maintained over four months because of seasonal sedimentation and finally got back to very fine sand in eight months. The number of species and density were temporarily reduced right after the event and crustacean species such as Apocorophium acutum, Photis sp. were most negatively affected by the event. However, the number of species recovered from the reduction in three months and density did in four months due to the recolonization by the existing species and species in the vicinity of the plot. During the study period, dominant species continuously changed from the species such as A. acutum, Photis sp. at the time before the event, through the species such as Heteromastus filiformis, Macrophthalmus japonicus at the time right after the event, to the species such as Musculista senhousia, Ruditapes philippinarum, Mediomastus californiensis in the latter part of the study period. Although surface sediment properties and ecological indices recovered within a certain period after the event, the recovery of community structure has never been observed up to the end of the study.

• The Korean Journal of Malacology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.45-54
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• 2016

To evaluate the applicability of cellular energy allocation (CEA) in the bivalves as a biomarker for the assessment of environmental contamination, the energy contents and energy consumption in several tissues of the Manila clam, Ruditapes philippinarum were analyzed. The contents of lipid, glucose, protein and electron transport system (ETS) activity in the foot, siphons, gills, and body of R. philippinarum exposed to crude oil-spiked sediments were measured at 1, 2, 4, 7, 10 days after exposure. The reserved energy (energy available, EA) in the lipid, glucose and protein decreased as contamination level and exposure time increased. In contrast, the ETS activity (energy consumed, EC) showed the reverse tendency. The order of available energy contents were foot > siphons > gill > body. Significant differences in both EA and EC were found only at the highest contamination level (58.3 mg TPAHs/kg DW). EA decreased significantly in the foot and gill at 1 day, in the body at 2 and 7 days after exposure. EC increased significantly in the body at 4 days after exposure. CEA showed higher sensitivity to the contamination than EA or EC. Especially, CEA in the foot and body decreased significantly at lower ranges of contamination level (as low as 6.5 mg TPAHs/kg DW) during 1 to 7 days after exposure. The CEA is more useful than EA or EC alone for the assessment of sediment contamination at lower level that acute toxicity could not be detected. CEA analyses in the body of R. philippinarum after 4 days' exposure to contaminated sediments seem to be the most sensitive and reliable.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.171-178
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• 2013

This paper presents the Part 1 of the Questionnaire Survey on Marine Safety and VTS in the Philippine Coastal Waters. This part deals with respondents profiles; experiences onboard and ashore; familiar areas; and their subjective perception of marine risks- by factors and by areas. The subjects are chosen from different regions nationwide with connection and/or with maritime background. There are 202 responses returned and these are put into a database for analysis made through Excel programs and statistics references. The result of the nationwide responses show that 97 % of respondents have shipboard experiences onboard of different ships' types and sizes; and 88 % are directly involved in the navigation of ships. Risk Perception levels - by factors and by familiar areas - show a higher risk degree in the 3rd level ('Sometimes Increases Risks') and 4th level ('Often Increases Risk') in each respondents' response indices. The study finds that the most risky factor is the "Violation of Rules and Regulations" which has a high risk at 5th level (Very Often Increases Risk), and for the over-all familiar areas, the Manila Bay area (NCR region) garners the most risky perception, also, at the 5th level. It is, therefore, recommended by this paper to conduct a comprehensive review of the rules and regulations viable in each locality; strengthening the maritime traffic systems, structures and educating the stake-holders specifically in Manila Bay area and other busy waterways of the country. The ultimate goal of this paper is to gather information, analyze these data and develop a set of tools and techniques to be utilized as a guide in the improvement and development of maritime traffic safety in the country.