3layman'sabstracts.pmd Layman’s Abstracts 1 SCIENCE DILIMAN (JULY-DECEMBER 2016) 28:2, 1-3 LAYMAN’S ABSTRACTS Benthic Macroinver tebrate Community as an Ind icator of Stream Health: The Effects of Land Use on Stream Benthic Macroinver tebrates Danielle Dominique D. Deborde, Maria Brenda M. Hernandez and Francis S. Magbanua ISSN 0115-7809 Print / ISSN 2012-0818 Online Biological monitoring of stream health in the tropical countries still uses standard water chemistry methods, which require expensive measuring tools. In this study, the use of benthic macroinver tebrates as biological i n d i c a t o r s o f f r e s h w a t e r s t r e a m s w a s c a r r i e d o u t . T h e s t u d y a l s o a t t e m p t e d t o d e t e r m i n e t h e a p p l i c a b i l i t y o f d i f f e r e n t b i o t i c i n d i c e s (numerical scores for stream health evaluation) in characterizing sites across land use type. Benthic macroinvertebrate samples were obtained from nine streams in Silago, Southern Leyte and were identif ied up to f a m i l y l eve l . Ave r a g e To l e r a n ce S co r e p e r Taxo n ( AT S P T ) w a s t h e o n l y b i o t i c i n d e x t o s u c c e s s f u l l y d i f f e r e n t i a t e t h e w a t e r q u a l i t y o f n i n e s t r e a m s b a s e d o n l a n d u s e , w h i c h r a n g e d f r o m m o d e r a t e l y p o o r t o excellent. Forested sites achieved the lowest ATSPT score, whereas mixed f o r e s ted - a g r i c u l t u r a l s i t e s h a d t h e h i g h e s t AT S PT s co r e s . T h e r e s u l t s establish that benthic macroinvertebrates can be used as biomonitoring tool in evaluating the ecological integrity of waterways in the country. Layman’s Abstracts 2 Detailed Calculation of the Average Work Done in a Ground State Quench of the Quantum Ising Model Salvador T. Laurente Jr. and Francis N.C. Paraan Work is done on the Ising model of a quantum magnet when an external m a g n e t i c f i e l d i s c h a n g e d i n s t a n t a n e o u s l y. Ve r t i c a l t a n g e n t s a n d inflection points appear in graphs of the work done versus the initial f ield. These singular features arise from an underlying zero-temperature p h a s e t r a n s i t i o n b e t w e e n a f e r r o m a g n e t i c o r d e r e d p h a s e a n d a p a r a m a g n e t i c d i s o r d e r e d p h a s e . Le t a n i n t e g e r n ≥ 2 b e g i v e n . Le t R n = R n ∪ { ∞ } b e t h e ex t e n d e d Euclidean space. A Möbius transformation is a function from Rn onto Rn t h a t t r a n s f o r m s s p h e r e s a n d h y p e r p l a n e s t o e i t h e r s p h e r e s o r hyperplanes. Of particular interest are the Möbius transformations that map the unit sphere Sn-1 onto a hyperplane that is orthogonal to a given u n i t vec to r. T h e r e s t r i c t i o n of s u c h a M ö b i u s t r a n s fo r m a t i o n to S n -1 i s called a stereographic projection. Let ∏ : S n-1 → R n-1 be a stereographic p r o j e c t i o n . I t i s k n o w n ( d u e t o L a r s A h l f o r s ) t h a t a n y M ö b i u s t r a n s f o r m a t i o n m a y b e e x p r e s s e d a s a p s e u d o l i n e a r f r a c t i o n a l t r a n s f o r m a t i o n d e f i n ed by a 2 - b y - 2 Va h l e n m a t r i x w i t h e n t r i e s i n a Clifford algebra. Conjugating by ∏ , we embed the real orthogonal group O(n) into a projective group of Vahlen matrices. We also provide results on eigenvalues of 2-by-2 matrices with entries in a Clifford algebra. The Real Orthogonal Group and Vahlen Matrices Bimal Kunwor, Dennis I. Merino, Edgar N. Reyes and Gary A. Walls         Layman’s Abstracts 3 Potential Cholesterol-lowering Activity of Selected Plant Extracts Raff i R. Isah and Christine L. Chichioco-Hernandez β-Hydroxy-β-methylglutaryl-Coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoA reductase) catalyzes the NADPH-dependent reduction of HMG-CoA to mevalonate. This reaction is the rate-limiting step in cholesterol synthesis. Inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase helps in the reduction of the high levels of plasma cholesterol, which is a primary risk factor in coronary artery diseases, s u c h a s a t h e r o s c l e r o s i s . T h i s s t u d y e x a m i n e d t h e H M G - C o A r e d u c t a s e inhibitory activities of f ive Philippine plants, namely Pouteria campechiana (Kunth) Baehni, Barringtonia asiatica (L.), Vitex parviflora A . Juss. , Antidesma bunius (L.) Spreng. , and Diospyros blancoi A .DC. The HMG-CoA reductase inhibitory activities of the plants were determined spectrophotometrically at 340 nm, utilizing the oxidation of NADPH and with HMG-CoA as the substrate. Pouteria campechiana, A. bunius, and D. blancoi exhibited percent inhibition values of more than 70% among the f ive methanol extracts. The last two plants were further partitioned, and their respective hexane, ethyl acetate, and aqueous extracts displayed more than 80% inhibition. Keywords: β-Hydroxy-β-methylglutaryl-Coenzyme A reductase, medicinal plants, plant extracts P a r a b o l i c p a r t i a l d i f f e r e n t i a l e q u a t i o n s ( P D E s ) a r e w i d e l y k n o w n f o r modeling physical phenomena. They have many applications, especially i n t h e a r e a s o f s c i e n ce a n d e n g i n e e r i n g . I n t h i s p a p e r, w e s t u d y a parabolic PDE which models heat transfer in a perforated cell. In our system, the thermal conductivity represented by a matrix is dependent on the temperature f ield and the temperature itself. We impose a cer tain co n d i t i o n fo r t h e h e a t f l u x o n t h e b o u n d a r y, a s we l l a s s o m e i n i t i a l c o n d i t i o n . W e s h o w t h e e x i s t e n c e o f a s o l u t i o n t o o u r p r o b l e m i n a n a p p r o p r i a t e f u n c t i o n a l s p a c e . W e a l s o p r o v e t h a t t h e s o l u t i o n w e obtained is unique. On the Solvabil ity of a Quasil inear Parabol ic Problem with Neumann Boundary Cond ition Mylen L. Aala, Ed itha C. Jose and Marian P. Roque