Nueva Vizcaya State University

Pure and silver-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were synthesized via phytomediation using Stachytarpheta jamaicensis leaf extract to develop an eco-friendly method for synthesizing nanoparticles with enhanced properties. Zinc nitrate and silver nitrate were employed as precursors for ZnO and Ag-doped ZnO nanoparticles, respectively. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized using Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) to investigate their optical and morphological properties. Results revealed that the absorption peaks of the synthesized nanoparticles confirmed the formation of nanoparticles, with Ag doping causing a red shift in the absorption spectrum. SEM images indicated a spherical morphology, with slight agglomeration in the doped samples. Doping with silver enhanced the optical properties, which could have potential applications in catalysis, sensing, and biomedical fields. Furthermore, the nanoparticle extracts were subjected to antimicrobial test against two bacterial strains (Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus) using a modified disk diffusion method and compared with the antibacterial effect with the standard antibacterial drug, Ampicillin. Ampicillin only showed antibacterial activity against S. aureus and had no antibacterial effect on E. coli. Result of this study showed that the 5% and 10% Ag-doped ZnO NPs showed strong antibacterial activity against both gram-positive (S. aureus) and gram-negative (E. coli) bacterial strains.

This research promotes Sustainable Development Goal 4 and Code of Ethics for Professional Teachers. This qualitative research examined grammar and literature lesson planning challenges and their causes through content analysis of the lesson plans, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions among 43 preservice teachers in Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines. Confidentiality was guaranteed, informed consent was acquired, and participation was voluntary. The challenges faced are centered on the structures of English, content, form, approaches, integration, and attitude. The causes are the complexity of the language, inadequate understanding of the genres and elements of literature, format, and approaches, few teaching resources, lack of experience and difficulty in recognizing multiple intelligences, and lack of interest in writing. The findings suggest to incorporate emphasis and study on lexicogrammar and law of practice, literary criticism, DepEd format, researches on approaches, differentiated instruction, and demonstration teaching. Future research may address the challenges associated with translating lesson plans into actual instruction.

This descriptive-correlational study examined the relationship between communicative competence and academic performance in Oral Communication in Context, a course in the Senior High School (SHS) curriculum in the Philippines. A total sampling technique was utilized, involving 124 SHS learners as respondents. Specifically, it evaluated the degree of communicative competence across four domains: grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic, and analyzed their relationship with academic performance and demographic variables. The results showed that the respondents exhibited a growing level of communicative competence, with sociolinguistic competence being the highest domain, followed by strategic, discourse, and grammatical competence. Students generally perceived themselves as effective communicators, particularly in adapting language to social and cultural situations and dealing with communication failures, but demonstrated less assurance in grammatical correctness and control of discourse structure. Academic performance (mean = 82.45) revealed that the majority of learners fell into the fairly satisfactory and satisfactory groups, with only a few achieving very satisfactory and outstanding scores. Although the minimum passing norm was achieved, the findings indicate that clarity, fluency, coherence, and academic discourse were not fully mastered. Correlation analysis showed no significant relationship between overall communicative competence and academic performance, except for sociolinguistic competence, which exhibited a statistically significant negative correlation. This implies that perceived sociolinguistic adaptability does not always translate to better academic scores, suggesting the need for performance-based tests to be implemented in conjunction with self-assessments. Furthermore, demographic factors (sex, age, grade level, or language at home) showed no significant impact on communicative competence. The results reestablish that the quality of instruction, classroom discourse, and communicative exposure are more decisive than demographic factors in the development of communicative competence.

Accurate and reliable plant disease detection is essential for improving agricultural productivity and supporting precision farming systems. This study proposes a real Multi-Staged Transfer Learning (MSTL) framework for automated rice leaf disease classification using a dual backbone feature fusion model based on MobileNetV2 and EfficientNetB4. The proposed approach employs progressive stage-wise fine-tuning, where network adaptation is performed incrementally by selectively unfreezing different backbones across successive training stages. This strategy enables controlled domain adaptation while maintaining training stability and minimizing overfitting. Experimental results demonstrate a clear performance progression across stages, with the final model achieving an overall test accuracy of 96.39%, along with balanced precision, recall, and F1-score across both disease classes. Confusion matrix analysis confirms low and symmetrically distributed misclassification errors, indicating strong generalization on unseen data. The findings validate the effectiveness of true MSTL with dual-backbone fusion and highlight its potential as a robust and scalable solution for real-world agricultural disease monitoring applications.

This study determined whether science foundational literacy predicts the science achievement of senior high school students in Saint Louis College of Solano, Inc.. Specifically, it examined the level of science achievement and science foundational literacy in terms of science reading comprehension, science vocabulary, ability to interpret science concepts, and science numeracy. The study employed a quantitative descriptive-correlational research design involving 190 senior high school students selected through stratified random sampling. Data were gathered using a researcher-made instrument entitled the Science Foundational Literacy Diagnostic Test (SFLDT), which consisted of 80 multiple-choice items distributed across the four domains of science foundational literacy. The instrument underwent expert validation prior to administration. Mean, standard deviation, Pearson Product-Moment Correlation, and Multiple Linear Regression Analysis were used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that the respondents demonstrated a “Very Satisfactory” level of science achievement. Among the domains of science foundational literacy, science reading comprehension was interpreted as “High,” while science vocabulary, ability to interpret science concepts, and science numeracy were interpreted as “Moderate.” Furthermore, all domains of science foundational literacy showed significant positive relationships with science achievement. Regression analysis revealed that science reading comprehension and science numeracy significantly predicted science achievement, whereas science vocabulary and ability to interpret science concepts did not significantly predict science achievement. The study concludes that science foundational literacy, particularly science reading comprehension and science numeracy, plays a significant role in improving students’ science achievement. The findings highlight the importance of strengthening literacy-based and numeracy-centered instructional strategies to enhance students’ scientific understanding and academic performance in science.