2editor's note-july-dec.2015.pmd


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FROM THE EDITOR

ISSN 0115-7809 Print/ISSN 2012-0818 Online

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the December 2015 issue of Science Diliman. Let me f irst thank the

authors for sharing basic knowledge as well as applications of researches in their

f ields of expertise. I also thank the Science Diliman team for completing the

publication of this issue.

This issue presents four diverse researches covering quaternion matrices , synthesis

of copper nanoparticles, barcoding of catf ish, and optimized extraction of mango

kernel butter.

Quaternions are also used in electromechanics, quantum mechanics, and 3D

animation to calculate movement and rotation.  I viewed a real-world application of

quaternions in computer graphics with the open source program NASA WorldWind

at http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/java/. The research paper of Ralph John dela Cruz

gave a mathematical description of quaternion matrices.

Metallic copper nanoparticles were successfully synthesized and characterized by

Mary Donnabelle L. Balela and Kathy Lois S. Amores. The synthesized copper

nanoparticles also exhibited antimicrobial activity. Nanoparticles or nanopowders

or nanoclusters or nanocrystals are submicroscopic with dimensions up to 100

nanometers. Nanoparticles have varied applications in medicine (e.g. , in drug delivery

systems), in manufacturing (e.g. , as industrial catalysts) and materials (e.g. , as

n a n o co m p o s i t e s ) , i n  e n e r g y ( e . g . , a s  b a t t e r i e s )  a n d  e l e c t r o n i c s ( e . g . , a s

supercapacitors), and in the environment (e.g. , in remediation).

Different species of catf ish may look very similar in terms of their morphological

features to the untrained eye. DNA barcoding, which uses a very short genetic

sequence from a part of the genome, was utilized by the research group of Brian S.

Santos to distinguish the different catf ish species in the Philippines. The gene

region used by the research group is the 648 base-pair region in the mitochondrial

cytochrome c oxidase 1 gene “COI”.  Santos et al. concluded that C. batrachus and

C. macrocephalus are native to the Philippines while C. gariepinus is an introduced

species.



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Irene M. V illaseñor, Ph.D.

                                                                         Editor-in-Chief

The mango seed, which is a major waste of mango, is a potential source of oil.

Mango oil may be used as edible oil, as extenders in manufacturing soap and

cosmetics, and it may also provide nutritional benef its. Mango kernel butter is

well-characterized in terms of its chemical composition with oil content of 8 to

10%. It has a similar chemical composition to shea and cocoa butter. Its major

constituents are oleic acid and stearic acid. The research group of Edgardo V. Casas

optimized the parameters used in the microwave pretreatment of mango kernels,

which increased the yield of mechanically extracted mango kernel butter.  Microwave

is a non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation.

Please read the complete articles including the layman’s abstracts to better

understand the researches.