Electron Transport Chain

In this blog, it is also my mission to help out students who have difficulty understanding concepts in medical school by looking for good, easy-to-understand Youtube videos created by other educators and sharing them in this blog.

The instructional video for this week is an animation on the Electron Transport Chain (cellular respiration).

Velez College Mourns the Death of its President

Atty. Teodoro Diez, President of Velez College and one of the Board of Trustees of the Cebu Institute of Medicine passed away yesterday.

Interment will be this afternoon at 4:30 PM. Our condolences.

Atty. Diez has been one of the pillars of Velez College for many years already. Back when I was a medical technology student he was the one who handed me my diploma during the graduation rites.

Despite his stature, he was a very simple distinguished gentleman.

May eternal light shine upon you, Atty. Diez.

While up there, may you still guide Velez College to the right direction.

Neuroanatomy Educational Video on Cranial Nerves

Neuroanatomy is such a difficult subject for medical students. During my time as a medical student videos on neuroanatomy were not readily available. Thanks to Youtube, there are now several videos that make understanding neuroanatomy easier.

One example is this pair of video on cranial nerves...





Hope you learned something!

Return of mandatory ROTC in Philippine schools: Are you in favor?

ROTC: Yes or No?
 
The issue of mandatory ROTC is again alive. This 1st week of August, local news reports have circulated that the Armed Forces of the Philippines endorsed the plan of the defense department to bring back mandatory ROTC or Reserved Officers Training Corps in colleges and universities.

Since then, TV and radio programs are abuzz over the said issue. Some are in favor, citing that the present youth lacks discipline and ROTC is a good venue for discipline.

On the other hand, others are against the move since instead of discipline, corruption will be cultivated.

Other Pro-ROTC arguments:

• "Making ROTC mandatory would also increase the much-needed manpower requirements of the military in times of disaster and other service-related activities."
• "It's nice to observe male students having their hair cut short."
• " Since the ROTC was not made mandatory, the number of people aspiring to be soldiers decreased."
• “Aside from discipline, we are talking about patriotism and love of country here.”

Anti-ROTC arguments:

• "It's just a waste of time."
• "Pangwarta ra na."
• "Why would they force me, if I don't want to serve as a reservist?"

To recall, in 2002, the Philippine Congress passed a law making ROTC just optional instead of mandatory in the college level after alleged corruptions were believed to be prevalent in the program and also following a murder of an ROTC cadet in a popular university. To bring ROTC back requires action from Congress.

I went through ROTC before mandatory ROTC was abolished. At that time, I felt ROTC was just a waste of time. We were just sitting in the field, exposing ourselves to the sun mostly doing nothing, occasionally marching and consuming siopao and soda sold at higher than regular price exclusively by a certain supplier who I suspect gives a portion of the sale to "somebody in the higher chain of command of the ROTC perhaps".

Some who want to avoid the sun, volunteer as personal "transpo" of certain officers.

Those who can afford would donate electric fans or some other thing or fee to evade "sun-bathing".

I think the "little acts of corruption in the ROTC" are common knowledge among all male ROTC cadets at that time.

Yes, there were occasional lectures and even quizzes at times. There were times we are called to help control the crowds especially during Sinulog. But I cannot explain why I felt then it was generally a waste of time most of the time. While are female classmates were studying for a Monday exam, here we are forced to endure the heat doing practically nothing useful even for the country or the community.

If ROTC will be done properly minus the corrupt practices, if ROTC time will be spent wisely and something actually useful for the student and the country will be taught, perhaps I will be in favor of mandatory ROTC.

If  the same ROTC during our time will be brought back, then I think we should forget about it.

How about you? Are you in favor of having ROTC back in Philippine colleges and universities?

See related article in Philippine star online.

Velez College has topnotchers in the July 2010 PT-OT Board Exam

Amy Fritzie Chiu Yee of Velez College in Cebu City got the number 2 spot among Occupational Therapy Board exam takers with a rating of 80.60 while Keziah Loren Pascual Shan was number 8 in the Physical Therapy Board Exam with a rating of 84.45. The exams were held just this month of July 2010.

Congratulations to these 2 topnotchers from Cebu PT-OT schools, Velez College in particular, and all the examinees. By the way, 434 out of 938 passed the Physical and Occupational Therapists Licensure Examination.

The oathtaking ceremony of the successful examinees in the said examinations will be held on Sunday, September 19, 2010 at 1:00 PM at the Manila Hotel, One Rizal Park, Manila.

Below is the roll of successful PT examinees:

PTjuly2010

Below is the roll of successful OT examinees:

OTjuly2010

Download Philippine National Ethical Guidelines for Health Research

Sometimes when the internet connection is slow, it is very difficult to download pdf files from Philippine government websites. Since many health students and professionals need to know these ethical guidelines when doing health research locally, I decided to have an alternate site for download through my blog.

These guidelines are not the product of my work. These are from the Philippine National Health Research system. I am just sharing this to disseminate the information regarding the importance of ethical considerations in health research. I am just assuming it is OK to share this document (to help disseminate the information) since it is being shared anyway by the Philippine Department of Science and Technology. I will be willing to remove this said document from my blog, should sharing through blogs is not allowed.

So here it is...

Philippine National Ethical Guidelines

Postgraduate Course on Health Promotion and Education on October 25-29, 2010

The Department of Health Promotion and Education, College of Public Health, University of the Philippines Manila will conduct a postgraduate course on Octobers 25-29, 2010 at the Press Room of the College of Public Health, UP-Manila.

The course aims to deepen the participants' knowledge on the basics of health promotion and enhance their skills in using the different strategies in promoting health.

Opportunities like this should be grabbed especially for those doing health education activities in the local government units and non-governmental organizations. The trainings are designed for them as well as for those faculty handling subjects like Strategies in Health Education, Community and Public Health or anyone who may be interested to work in the field of health education in the future.

For more details, contact Prof. Ernesto R. Gregorio, Jr., MPH, course coordinator at (02) 5260811 or email at junr.gregorio@yahoo.com