2editor's note-july-dec.2016.pmd


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FROM THE EDITOR

ISSN 0115-7809 Print/ISSN 2012-0818 Online

Irene M. V illaseñor, Ph.D.

                                                                         Editor-in-Chief

Welcome again to Science Diliman. Four ar ticles and a short communication are

featured in this December 2016 issue. The topics discussed are a mixture of physical

and natural sciences. Rather than the usual measurement of physicochemical

parameters in the assessment of water quality of freshwater streams, Deborde,

Hernandez and Magbanua used benthic macroinvertebrates as bioindicators. The

paper concludes that macroinvertebrates can be successfully used to differentiate

water quality of the streams. The manuscripts by the research groups of

mathematicians Merino, Kunwor, and Walls;  Aala, Jose and Roque; and physicists

Paraan and Laurente are quite challenging and only experts in the respective f ields

can fully appreciate their conclusions. Let me try to go over the main points. The

manuscript of Aala, Jose and Roque gave a unique solution to a parabolic partial

differential equation whose application is on the heat transfer in a perforated cell.

The research group of Merino, Kunwor, and Walls discussed the application of

Mobius transformation into a sub-group of Vahlen matrices, and in the process,

provided results on eigenvalues with entries in Clifford algebra. Paraan and Laurente

discussed the work they did on the quantum Ising model. A preliminary study by

Chichioco-Hernandez and Isah  showed the potential cholesterol lowering activity

of plant extracts.The activity was measured by the inhibition of β-hydroxy-β-

methylglutaryl-Coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoA reductase). Layman’s abstracts

for the non-specialists are also included.