Biological Laws Research Articles

Morphological complexity promotes origination and extinction rates in ammonoids.

The causes of heterogeneity in evolutionary rates are a key question in macroevolution. Origination and extinction rates are closely related to abiotic factors, such as climate1,2 and geography,3,4 as well as biotic factors such as taxonomic richness5,6 and morphology,7 which are influenced by phylogeny.8,9 Studies on the relationship between morphology and macroevolution have focused on morphological traits, including body size,6,7,9 shape,10 color,11,12 and complexity,13,14,15 and have proposed biological laws, such as the zero-force evolutionary law16 and Cope's rule.17 However, the relationship between morphological complexity and turnover rates remains poorly defined because of the lack of suitable measures for various subjects.18,19 Here, we establish a quantitative method, the two-dimensional ornamentation index (2D-OI), which allows the description of the ornamental complexity of ammonoids. Ammonoids are one of the most abundant and well-studied fossil groups, with complex conch structures.20 Ammonoids display some similarities with trilobites and mammals21,22 in terms of their high evolutionary rates; however, the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Moreover, ammonoids exhibit marked heterogeneity in turnover rates across spatiotemporal scales23 and clades,23,24 making them key clades for investigating the relationship between turnover rates and morphological complexity. The results show that morphologically complex genera and species often have higher origination and extinction rates than morphologically simple taxa. Diversity fluctuations of taxa with complex ornamentation generally overimprint and control the overall net diversification rates of ammonoids. This double-edged sword of rapid evolution and increased extinction risk driven by complex morphologies has significant implications for our understanding of how species survive over geological timescales.

Leveraging Numerical Simulation Technology to Advance Drug Preparation: A Comprehensive Review of Application Scenarios and Cases.

Numerical simulation plays an important role in pharmaceutical preparation recently. Mechanistic models, as a type of numerical model, are widely used in the study of pharmaceutical preparations. Mechanistic models are based on a priori knowledge, i.e., laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. However, due to interdisciplinary reasons, pharmacy researchers have greater difficulties in using computer models. In this paper, we highlight the application scenarios and examples of mechanistic modelling in pharmacy research and provide a reference for drug researchers to get started. By establishing a suitable model and inputting preparation parameters, researchers can analyze the drug preparation process. Therefore, mechanistic models are effective tools to optimize the preparation parameters and predict potential quality problems of the product. With product quality parameters as the ultimate goal, the experiment design is optimized by mechanistic models. This process emphasizes the concept of quality by design. The use of numerical simulation saves experimental cost and time, and speeds up the experimental process. In pharmacy experiments, part of the physical information and the change processes are difficult to obtain, such as the mechanical phenomena during tablet compression and the airflow details in the nasal cavity. Therefore, it is necessary to predict the information and guide the formulation with the help of mechanistic models.

Natural selection and evolution: evolving concepts.

Many recent studies in evolutionary biology have expanded and refined definitions of biological evolution and natural selection. Current evolutionary models incorporate different adaptive and non-adaptive processes based on molecular genetic changes and how DNA is modified over time in unicellular species, or in germline versus somatic cells in metazoan species. Cogent arguments can be raised for the view that natural selection should be considered a biological law, consistent with quantitative mathematical equations that describe the fitness of individuals, as well as variations within and among populations. Evolution is an overarching framework that incorporates the laws of natural selection and clarifies why phenotypic variation can increase in prevalence and result in species adaptations. The conceptual framework for biological evolution incorporates many cohesive principles that collectively have a predictive value. This framework will continue to evolve with improvements in high-resolution technologies that enable us to examine both adaptive and non-adaptive changes that drive biological phenotypes.

Marxism as a Natural Science: Alexander Bogdanov’s Anti-Revisionist Revisionism

Abstract Discussion of Alexander Bogdanov as a Marxist revisionist has largely centred on his philosophy of being and cognition and on Plekhanov’s and Lenin’s accusation that Bogdanov was an idealist renegade from Marxism. However, the real issue of revisionism at the time was not materialism but determinism: the question of whether socialism would appear by the working of the objective laws of nature or the subjective will of human beings. Bogdanov did indeed revise Marxism, but he did so in order to defend it as a natural science. He conceived of society as a form of life subject to biological laws of nature: the need to assimilate energy from the environment and the need to adapt to the environment in the struggle to survive. He reinterpreted the key elements of scientific socialism – the idea that existence determines consciousness and the labour theory of value – in terms of this worldview.

REFLECTION OF THE NATIONAL CULTURE OF THE FRENCH PEOPLE IN PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS WITH A GASTRONOMIC COMPONENT

The article considers the connection between the language and culture of the French people, analyzes the two-way nature of this connection, shows the importance of researching the national character traits of the people to reveal their mentality. The article is devoted to the analysis of the relationship between gastronomy which is an integral part of culture and phraseology which characterizes a certain language. It is the combined study of these concepts that allows to determine the peculiarities of the formation and development of the culture of the French people as a whole. The article also defines the main concepts used in the research - such as "language", "culture", "phraseology", "phraseology with a gastronomic component". The article also provides a general description of French cuisine, defines the list of products that are particularly popular among the French people. In this connection, it has been established that the most widespread phraseological units in the French language are the phraseological units with gastronomic component which are related to food. The article also provides examples of phraseological units with a gastronomic component, based on the classification of phraseological units proposed by the scientist O. Lapinina according to the subject-concept relationship. Among the researched phraseological units there are expressions representing food products of animal and plant origin (namely, meat and meat products;vegetables and greens); names of flavorings, seasonings and raw materials; names of ready meals); gastronomic components for designation of alcoholic, low-alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks. In addition, the article analyzes the history of the origin of individual phraseological units with a gastronomic component and what underlies the formation of these phraseological units. As a result of the study, it has been concluded that the most common criteria used for the formation of phraseological units with a gastronomic component are, in particular, the following: laws of biology - description of the behavior of certain animals or features of plant development, habits and traditions of the people at a certain historical stage, characteristic features of their life, food preferences, etc. The article also identifies potential areas of application of research results to other social sciences.

Development of Philosophical and Methodological Aspects of Theoretical Biology in the Study of Discipline “Cytology” at Pedagogical University

The article highlights the issues related to the development of philosophical and methodological aspects in teaching the discipline Cytology in Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University. The role of philosophy in the study of some sections of this discipline is consistently revealed from the standpoint of existing ideas about the fundamental laws of theoretical biology. The authors evaluate of the substantive part of some issues of Cytology as a science. The development of principles of integrity of the organic world, as well as structural and functional organization of the living and the format of their interaction in a single system are discussed from the standpoint of dialectics. From the point of view of philosophy, the problem of the origin of the cell and the process of transformation of the inanimate into the living is touched upon. It is suggested an approach of teaching biological science disciplines in the format of studying contradictions, comparing different ideas, theories and hypotheses significantly expand the field of knowledge of the universe and is aimed at the formation of students’ general professional and professional competencies.

Ervin Bauer's concept of biological thermodynamics and its different evaluations

The development of biological concepts in the 19th century was followed by the emergence of approaches to formulate the principles of theoretical biology. Ervin Bauer in 1920, and in more detail in 1935, suggested the basic principle that can be accepted as the fundamental law of biology: “The living systems are never in equilibrium; at the expense of their free energy they constantly perform work to avoid the equilibrium required by the laws of physics and chemistry under existing external conditions.” Many researchers interpreted biology with the help of physical quantities but Bauer was the first to build a general and already molecular-based biological theory. The main point of Bauer's concept is not the non-equilibrium, but the function of organism producing the non-equilibrium, the capacity for self-adaptation, and the power for changing its functions in such a way that the system gets the state of non-equilibrium always anew. We will discuss Bauer's theorem, the contemporaneous objections, and the divergent opinions about his work by succeeding generations of scientists.

Человек в контексте биологической гипотезы сознания

The article analyzes the problem of human consciousness, which is commonly called the main mystery of the Universe. The authors proceed from the fact that traditional views on it do not permit to properly investigate the essence of human consciousness. According to the authors of the article, the allocation of human conscious-ness as a special autonomous object of cognition does not correspond to the idea of genetic organization of living matter between different levels. Of particular difficulty is the task of explaining the birth of mental events from neurophysiological processes occurring in the human brain. In this connection, the authors propose a new formulation of the human problem in the context of the biological hypothesis of consciousness, according to which the latter is defined as the result of the activity of special microorganisms inside man, the essence of which he knows little about, since he is accustomed to consider himself the “crown of nature” as per the con-cept of European culture. Reference is made to the consistency of the assertion that man in general and his consciousness in particular should be subject to the same biological laws of existence as other living organ-isms, since they are all part of a single physical reality.

Seven governing principles in biology

In physical science such as physics and chemistry, there are governing principles that are universal and applicable to all relevant systems, including energy conservation, entropy increase, uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics, and chemical equilibrium. However, what are governing principles in biology that are unique to all living systems? After collecting opinions and thoughts from diverse scientists and engineers all over the world, I summarize seven governing principles or laws in biology: central dogma, evolution, biological robustness, regeneration, reproduction, development, and causality. Some of these are not necessarily unique in biological systems from a reductionist’s point of view (e.g., causality), and others are applicable predominantly to eukaryotes (e.g., reproduction and development). Notably, many engineering systems have mimicked biological systems to enhance their performance. In this perspective article, I discuss these principles to better understand the rules of life and help construct improved engineering systems that we can use and control in an ethical, safe, and rational way.

Disentangling interspecific and intraspecific variability in height–diameter allometry of dominant tree species in the Rocky Mountains across broad spatial scales

Abstract Height–diameter (H-D) allometric relationships provide us with insights into tree growth strategies and resource utilization. Yet, we have a poor understanding about the underlying drivers that limit or alter tree H-D allometries at large scales. Based on 569 502 pairs of height versus diameter from 53 808 plots of 20 species in the Rocky Mountains, USA, we used a mixed-effects approach to model the variability in H-D allometry across species (interspecific variation) and within-species (intraspecific variation) along gradients of site condition, climate, and competition. The allometric theories derived from physics or biological laws provide a fundamental framework for tree growth and performance, but our findings also show that physiological and environmental factors further shape the interspecific and intraspecific patterns in tree allometry with the intraspecific variation being smaller than the interspecific variation along all the gradients we considered. In general, trees growing in favorable site conditions and highly competitive environments tend to comparatively invest more in height growth, while trees may preferentially invest in diameter growth when constrained by water stress or other unfavorable climatic condition. Trees will choose the most appropriate growth strategies with corresponding allometric patterns to adapt to environmental changes. Our study is expected to provide applied value for estimating biomass and carbon stocks at broad environmental scales.

A Law of Redundancy Compounds the Problem of Cancer and Precision Medicine.

Genetics and molecular biology research have progressed for over a century; however, no laws of biology resembling those of physics have been identified, despite the expectations of some physicists. It may be that it is not the properties of matter alone but evolved properties of matter in combination with atomic physics and chemistry that gave rise to the origin and complexity of life. It is proposed that any law of biology must also be a product of evolution that co-evolved with the origin and progression of life. It was suggested that molecular complexity and redundancy exponentially increase over time and have the following relationship: DNA sequence complexity (Cd) < molecular complexity (Cm) < phenotypic complexity (Cp). This study presents a law of redundancy, which together with the law of complexity, is proposed as an evolutionary law of biology. Molecular complexity and redundancy are inseparable aspects of biochemical pathways, and molecular redundancy provides the first line of defense against environmental challenges, including those of deleterious mutations. Redundancy can create problems for precision medicine because in addition to the issues arising from the involvement of multiple genes, redundancy arising from alternate pathways between genotypes and phenotypes can complicate gene detection for complex diseases and mental disorders. This study uses cancer as an example to show how cellular complexity, molecular redundancy, and hidden variation affect the ability of cancer cells to evolve and evade detection and elimination. Characterization of alternate biochemical pathways or "escape routes" can provide a step in the fight against cancer.

The Personalist Basis of the Church's Teaching on Human Sexuality and the Natural Law in the Work of John Paul II. Part II.

Responding to Pope John Paul II's call to give the "ethical grounds and personalistic reasons" behind the Church's teaching on sexual morality, this reflection written over the span of two articles analyzes the norms of the natural law related to human sexuality from a personalist perspective. The key ideas of this study are drawn from two passages: one from Gaudium et spes which states that "The sexual characteristics of man and the human faculty of reproduction wonderfully exceed the dispositions of lower forms of life", the other from Humanae vitae stating that "Conjugal love reveals its true nature and nobility when it is considered in its supreme origin, God, who is love … and it is of supreme importance to have an exact idea of these." (9) Drawing on the analysis of parts I and II shows, first, that the spousal act is in its original structure an "embodying act" intrinsically fashioned to embody spousal love: the self-donation, the intimacy, and the fruitfulness proper to the spirit's act of love animates the bodily act of sex from within, so that the spirit and the body form "one thing" in the spousal act. Secondly, this truth about the spousal act as structured by spousal love will mean that the norms governing human sexuality are not based on biological laws, but on the laws of love. Finally, Part II culminates in a reflection on the individual norms of sexual morality, showing how each of them follows the nature of spousal love. The precepts of the natural law are our guides to properly reverencing the sacred sphere of human sexuality, which is a condition for our flourishing as human persons.

Realistic simulation of fruit mildew diseases: Skin discoloration, fungus growth and volume shrinkage

Time-varying effects simulation plays a critical role in computer graphics. Fruit diseases are typical time-varying phenomena. Due to the biological complexity, the existing methods fail to represent the biodiversity and biological law of symptoms. To this end, this paper proposes a biology-aware, physically-based framework that respects biological knowledge for realistic simulation of fruit mildew diseases. The simulated symptoms include skin discoloration, fungus growth, and volume shrinkage. Specifically, we take advantage of both the zero-order kinetic model and reaction–diffusion model to represent the complex fruit skin discoloration related to skin biological characteristics. To reproduce 3D mildew growth, we employ the Poisson-disk sampling technique and propose a template model instancing method. One can flexibly change hyphal template models to characterize the fungal biological diversity. To model the fruit’s biological structure, we fill the fruit mesh interior with particles in a biologically-based arrangement. Based on this structure, we propose a turgor pressure and a Lennard-Jones force-based adaptive mass–spring system to simulate the fruit shrinkage in a biological manner. Experiments verified that the proposed framework can effectively simulate mildew diseases, including gray mold, powdery mildew, and downy mildew. Our results are visually compelling and close to the ground truth. Both quantitative and qualitative experiments validated the proposed method.

SIMULATION OF NITROGEN BALANCE UNDER SUB-SURFACE DRAINAGE CONDITIONS AT THEHRI MUKTSAR PUNJAB, USING THE DNDC MODEL V. 9.5

Aim of the study: The aim of the study is DNDC model simulation for nitrogen balance in rice-wheat cropping system. Material and methods: The DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC) model is a computer simulation model for the biogeochemistry of carbon and nitrogen in agro ecosystems that takes a process-oriented approach. The DNDC model version 9.5 (http:// www.dndc.sr.unh.edu) was selected for estimating nitrogen balance. The model consists of two modules. The first component simulates moisture, soil temperature, pH, and substrate concentration, which are determined by ecological parameters such as soil, climate, anthropogenic activities, and vegetation. It consists of sub-models for plant growth, decomposition, and soil climate. The second module predicts the emission of gasses from plant-soil systems such as methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), nitrogen oxide (NO), dinitrogen (N2), ammonia (NH3), and carbon dioxide (CO2). The model includes empirical equations developed from laboratory studies and is based on the classical laws of chemistry, physics, and biology. The empirical equations included parameterizing specific biochemical or geochemical reactions. The entire model bridges the primary ecological drivers with the biogeochemical cycles of C and N (see: Figures 1 and 2). Results and conclusions: This study used the DNDC model to estimate nitrogen balance in the study area. A calibrated and validated DNDC model was used to simulate NO3-N loss in runoff and leachate from a rice–wheat cropping system from 2018 to 2020. The total nitrogen balance estimated by the DNDC model was negative (–99.44 kg N ha–1 yr–1) and positive (69.1 kg N ha–1 yr–1) for rice and wheat cropping systems, respectively, in the study area.

Lymphatics: Future Perspectives Unrealized Potential

Proposed fundamental laws of biology and a model of health and disease underscore the importance of the lymphatic system. The lymphatics are responsible for two of the laws of biology and the fulcrum of health and disease balancing regeneration with degeneration through the immune system. It is responsible for protection from the environment and repair of senile and damaged tissue. Life is constantly bombarded by forces that increase entropy. Lymphatics provide negative entropy to maintain health. Lymphatics help maintain cellular homeostasis removing products of metabolism. Using these principles, the role of lymphatics is investigated in salt sensitivity hypertension, cardio-renal system, the new pillar of heart failure and kidney disease—Sodium-Glucose Transport Protein 2 (SGLT2) Inhibitors, and brain diseases. The realization of organ lymphatics in maintenance of health and disease opens the avenue to new therapeutics. This is the unrealized potential of lymphatic study.

EUROPEAN DIMENSION OF CROP PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT AT AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISES

The purpose of the study is to develop methodological approaches to analytical support for the management of the production of plant products in the enterprises of the agro-industrial complex. Methodology. Research is based on scientific methods, among which it is advisable to highlight: analysis and synthesis, comparison, idealisation and abstraction, as well as systematisation and generalisation, economic and mathematical methods. Results. Directions for improving the management of crop production in terms of its analytical support are proposed, taking into account the realities of today: the choice of the European vector of development, the state of war, agribusiness in Ukraine is the driving force that ensures the efficiency of the domestic economy. Ukraine is called the breadbasket of Europe, with about 25% of the world's highly fertile chernozem soils concentrated here. Agriculture as an industry has a number of peculiarities that largely determine the results of enterprises, among them: the means of production here are living organisms – plants and animals that develop according to biological laws. Therefore, in agriculture, the operation of economic laws is closely intertwined with the operation of natural laws; the main means of production is land, which is directly related to the labour process and the production of products. Practical implications. The most optimal path for the development of agriculture in Ukraine is the European one, which will lead to the socio-economic success of the entire population and the economy as a whole. Having received the status of a candidate country for accession to the European Union, we are already taking the first steps in this direction. Military actions bring their own corrections, but clear actions of the government and effective management at the level of enterprises will help Ukraine to maintain its position in the world market of crop production. Value/originality. Directions for improving the management of the production of plant products in the part of its analytical support are proposed, taking into account the realities of today: the choice of the European vector of development, the state of war. The article substantiates the need to improve the management of the production of plant products of agricultural enterprises in terms of its analytical support, caused by the conditions of martial law, as well as the European vector of development.

Parallel Binary Rafflesia Optimization Algorithm and Its Application in Feature Selection Problem

The Rafflesia Optimization Algorithm (ROA) is a new swarm intelligence optimization algorithm inspired by Rafflesia’s biological laws. It has the advantages of high efficiency and fast convergence speed, and it effectively avoids falling into local optimum. It has been used in logistics distribution center location problems, and its superiority has been demonstrated. It is applied to solve the problem of continuity, but there are many binary problems to be solved in the actual situation. Thus, we designed a binary version of ROA. We used transfer functions to change continuous values into binary values, and binary values are used to symmetrically represent the meaning of physical problems. In this paper, four transfer functions are implemented to binarize ROA so as to improve the original transfer function for the overall performance of the algorithm. In addition, on the basis of the algorithm, we further improve the algorithm by adopting a parallel strategy, which improves the convergence speed and global exploration ability of the algorithm. The algorithm is verified on 23 benchmark functions, and the parallel binary ROA has a better performance than some other existing algorithms. In the aspect of the application, this paper adopts the datasets on UCI for feature selection. The improved algorithm has higher accuracy and selects fewer features.

Sometimes you ride the Pegasus, sometimes you take the road: Mitchell on laws in biology

Mitchell’s philosophical contributions are part of an ongoing conversation among philosophers and scientists about laws and unification in biology, going back at least to Darwin. This article situates Mitchell in this conversation, explains why and how she has correctly guided us away from false idols, and engages several difficult questions she leaves open. I argue that there are different epistemic roles laws (or models describing lawlike regularities) play in biological inquiry. First, they play the role of “how possibly” explanations, akin to Herschel’s characterization of Whewell’s “a priori Pegasus,” and second, they provide descriptions of empirical regularities, akin to the “plain matter of fact roadster.”

Biology-Informed Recurrent Neural Network for Pandemic Prediction Using Multimodal Data.

In the biomedical field, the time interval from infection to medical diagnosis is a random variable that obeys the log-normal distribution in general. Inspired by this biological law, we propose a novel back-projection infected-susceptible-infected-based long short-term memory (BPISI-LSTM) neural network for pandemic prediction. The multimodal data, including disease-related data and migration information, are used to model the impact of social contact on disease transmission. The proposed model not only predicts the number of confirmed cases, but also estimates the number of infected cases. We evaluate the proposed model on the COVID-19 datasets from India, Austria, and Indonesia. In terms of predicting the number of confirmed cases, our model outperforms the latest epidemiological modeling methods, such as vSIR, and intelligent algorithms, such as LSTM, for both short-term and long-term predictions, which shows the superiority of bio-inspired intelligent algorithms. In general, the use of mobility information improves the prediction accuracy of the model. Moreover, the number of infected cases in these three countries is also estimated, which is an unobservable but crucial indicator for the control of the pandemic.

Geometric Interaction Graph Neural Network for Predicting Protein-Ligand Binding Affinities from 3D Structures (GIGN).

Predicting protein-ligand binding affinities (PLAs) is a core problem in drug discovery. Recent advances have shown great potential in applying machine learning (ML) for PLA prediction. However, most of them omit the 3D structures of complexes and physical interactions between proteins and ligands, which are considered essential to understanding the binding mechanism. This paper proposes a geometric interaction graph neural network (GIGN) that incorporates 3D structures and physical interactions for predicting protein-ligand binding affinities. Specifically, we design a heterogeneous interaction layer that unifies covalent and noncovalent interactions into the message passing phase to learn node representations more effectively. The heterogeneous interaction layer also follows fundamental biological laws, including invariance to translations and rotations of the complexes, thus avoiding expensive data augmentation strategies. GIGN achieves state-of-the-art performance on three external test sets. Moreover, by visualizing learned representations of protein-ligand complexes, we show that the predictions of GIGN are biologically meaningful.