Coronary artery systems are a kind of complex biological systems. Their chaotic phenomena can lead to serious health problems and illness development. From the perspective of engineering, this paper investigates the c...Coronary artery systems are a kind of complex biological systems. Their chaotic phenomena can lead to serious health problems and illness development. From the perspective of engineering, this paper investigates the chaos suppression problem. At first, nonlinear dynamics of coronary artery systems are presented. To suppress the chaotic phenomena, the method of derivative-integral terminal sliding mode control is adopted. Since coronary artery systems suffer from uncertainties, the technique of disturbance observer is taken into consideration. The stability of such a control system that integrates the derivative-integral terminal sliding mode controller and the disturbance observer is proven in the sense of Lyapunov. To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed strategy, simulation results are illustrated in comparison with a benchmark.展开更多
With the advanced development of computer-based enabling technologies, many engineering, medical, biology, chemistry, physics and food science etc have developed to the unprecedented levels, which lead to many researc...With the advanced development of computer-based enabling technologies, many engineering, medical, biology, chemistry, physics and food science etc have developed to the unprecedented levels, which lead to many research and development interests in various multi-discipline areas. Among them, biomimetics is one of the most promising and attractive branches of study. Biomimetics is a branch of study that uses biological systems as a model to develop synthetic systems. To learn from nature, one of the fundamental issues is to understand the natural systems such animals, insects, plants and human beings etc. The geometrical characterization and representation of natural systems is an important fundamental work for biomimetics research. 3D modeling plays a key role in the geometrical characterization and representation, especially in computer graphical visualization. This paper firstly presents the typical procedure of 3D modelling methods and then reviews the previous work of 3D geometrical modelling techniques and systems developed for industrial, medical and animation applications. Especially the paper discusses the problems associated with the existing techniques and systems when they are applied to 3D modelling of biological systems. Based upon the discussions, the paper proposes some areas of research interests in 3D modelling of biological systems and for Biomimetics.展开更多
This paper selects Xiaowangliu Village,Banquan Town,Junan County,Linyi City as the test point to explore the construction of he ecological village. The ecological village is divided into two sub-systems: land and wate...This paper selects Xiaowangliu Village,Banquan Town,Junan County,Linyi City as the test point to explore the construction of he ecological village. The ecological village is divided into two sub-systems: land and waters. The water resource of the ecological village is divided into the village water source,village water system,village pond wetland and water resource output sub-systems. The organic waste in villages is related to the industrialization of insect resources.展开更多
With the purpose to smooth the way of a correct understanding of information concepts and their evolution,in this paper,is discussed the evolution and development of the concept of information in biological systems,sh...With the purpose to smooth the way of a correct understanding of information concepts and their evolution,in this paper,is discussed the evolution and development of the concept of information in biological systems,showing that this concept was intuitively perceived even since ancient times by our predecessors,and described according to their language level of that times,but the crystallization of the real meaning of information is an achievement of our nowadays,by successive contribution of various scientific branches and personalities of the scientific community of the world,leading to a modern description/modeling of reality,in which information plays a fundamental role.It is shown that our reality can be understood as a contribution of matter/energy/information and represented/discussed as the model of the Universal Triangle of Reality(UTR),where various previous models can be suggestively inserted,as a function of their basic concern.The modern concepts on information starting from a theoretic experiment which would infringe the thermodynamics laws and reaching the theory of information and modern philosophic concepts on the world structuration allow us to show that information is a fundamental component of the material world and of the biological structures,in correlation with the structuration/destructuration processes of matter,involving absorption/release of information.Based on these concepts,is discussed the functionality of the biologic structures and is presented the informational model of the human body and living structures,as a general model of info-organization on the entire biological scale,showing that a rudimentary proto-consciousness should be operative even at the low-scale biological systems,because they work on the same principles,like the most developed bio-systems.The operability of biologic structures as informational devices is also pointed out.展开更多
The interactions of electromagnetic waves with the human body are complex and depend on several factors related to the characteristics of the incident wave, including its frequency, its intensity, the polarization of ...The interactions of electromagnetic waves with the human body are complex and depend on several factors related to the characteristics of the incident wave, including its frequency, its intensity, the polarization of the tissue encountered, the geometry of the tissue and its electromagnetic properties. That’s to say, the dielectric permittivity, the conductivity and the type of coupling between the field and the exposed body. A biological system irradiated by an electromagnetic wave is traversed by induced currents of non-negligible density;the water molecules present in the biological tissues exposed to the electromagnetic field will begin to oscillate at the frequency of the incident wave, thus creating internal friction responsible for the heating of the irradiated tissues. This heating will be all the more important as the tissues are rich in water. This article presents the establishment from a mathematical and numerical analysis explaining the phenomena of interaction and consequences between electromagnetic waves and health. Since the total electric field in the biological system is unknown, that is why it can be determined by the Finite Difference Time Domain FDTD method to assess the electromagnetic power distribution in the biological system under study. For this purpose, the detailed on the mechanisms of interaction of microwave electromagnetic waves with the human body have been presented. Mathematical analysis using Maxwell’s equations as well as bio-heat equations is the basis of this study for a consistent result. Therefore, a thermal model of biological tissues based on an electrical analogy has been developed. By the principle of duality, an electrical model in the dielectric form of a multilayered human tissue was used in order to obtain a corresponding thermal model. This thermal model made it possible to evaluate the temperature profile of biological tissues during exposure to electromagnetic waves. The simulation results obtained from computer tools show that the temperature in the biological tissue is a linear function of the duration of exposure to microwave electromagnetic waves.展开更多
We present a numerical approach for modeling unknown dynamical systems using partially observed data,with a focus on biological systems with(relatively)complex dynamical behavior.As an extension of the recently develo...We present a numerical approach for modeling unknown dynamical systems using partially observed data,with a focus on biological systems with(relatively)complex dynamical behavior.As an extension of the recently developed deep neural network(DNN)learning methods,our approach is particularly suitable for practical situations when(i)measurement data are available for only a subset of the state variables,and(ii)the system parameters cannot be observed or measured at all.We demonstrate that,with a properly designed DNN structure with memory terms,effective DNN models can be learned from such partially observed data containing hidden parameters.The learned DNN model serves as an accurate predictive tool for system analysis.Through a few representative biological problems,we demonstrate that such DNN models can capture qualitative dynamical behavior changes in the system,such as bifurcations,even when the parameters controlling such behavior changes are completely unknown throughout not only the model learning process but also the system prediction process.The learned DNN model effectively creates a“closed”model involving only the observables when such a closed-form model does not exist mathematically.展开更多
Energy efficiency is closely related to the evolution of biological systems and is important to their information processing. In this work, we calculate the excitation probability of a simple model of a bistable biolo...Energy efficiency is closely related to the evolution of biological systems and is important to their information processing. In this work, we calculate the excitation probability of a simple model of a bistable biological unit in response to pulsatile inputs, and its spontaneous excitation rate due to noise perturbation. Then we analytically calculate the mutual information, energy cost, and energy efficiency of an array of these bistable units. We find that the optimal number of units could maximize this array＇s energy efficiency in encoding pulse inputs, which depends on the fixed energy cost. We conclude that demand for energy efficiency in biological systems may strongly influence the size of these systems under the pressure of natural selection.展开更多
I. THE COMPLEXITY OFBIOLOGICAL RESPONSESFor an organism, to be living or notdepends on its response to foreign matters.Facing the increasing amount and diversi-ty of chemicals, natural and synthetic, tounderstand the ...I. THE COMPLEXITY OFBIOLOGICAL RESPONSESFor an organism, to be living or notdepends on its response to foreign matters.Facing the increasing amount and diversi-ty of chemicals, natural and synthetic, tounderstand the principles of the biologicalresponses becomes extremely importantin pursuing the way of rational utiliza-tion and governing the foreign matters.However, most biological responses aretoo complex to explore their nature. Forinstance, the risk to human beings andorganisms related to the application ofrare earths in agriculture, forestation, fish-ery and husbandry has been argued展开更多
Biological systems can be modeled and described by biological networks.Biological networks are typical complex networks with widely real-world applications.Many problems arising in biological systems can be boiled dow...Biological systems can be modeled and described by biological networks.Biological networks are typical complex networks with widely real-world applications.Many problems arising in biological systems can be boiled down to the identification of important nodes.For example,biomedical researchers frequently need to identify important genes that potentially leaded to disease phenotypes in animal and explore crucial genes that were responsible for stress responsiveness in plants.To facilitate the identification of important nodes in biological systems,one needs to know network structures or behavioral data of nodes(such as gene expression data).If network topology was known,various centrality measures can be developed to solve the problem;while if only behavioral data of nodes were given,some sophisticated statistical methods can be employed.This paper reviewed some of the recent works on statistical identification of important nodes in biological systems from three aspects,that is,1)in general complex networks based on complex networks theory and epidemic dynamic models;2)in biological networks based on network motifs;and 3)in plants based on RNA-seq data.The identification of important nodes in a complex system can be seen as a mapping from the system to the ranking score vector of nodes,such mapping is not necessarily with explicit form.The three aspects reflected three typical approaches on ranking nodes in biological systems and can be integrated into one general framework.This paper also proposed some challenges and future works on the related topics.The associated investigations have potential real-world applications in the control of biological systems,network medicine and new variety cultivation of crops.展开更多
Mitochondria play a crucial role as organelles,managing several physiological processes such as redox balance,cell metabolism,and energy synthesis.Initially,the assumption was that mitochondria primarily resided in th...Mitochondria play a crucial role as organelles,managing several physiological processes such as redox balance,cell metabolism,and energy synthesis.Initially,the assumption was that mitochondria primarily resided in the host cells and could exclusively transmit from oocytes to offspring by a mechanism known as vertical inheritance of mitochondria.Recent scholarly works,however,suggest that certain cell types transmit their mitochondria to other developmental cell types via a mechanism referred to as intercellular or horizontal mitochondrial transfer.This review details the process of which mitochondria are transferred across cells and explains the impact of mitochondrial transfer between cells on the efficacy and functionality of cancer cells in various cancer forms.Specifically,we review the role of mitochondria transfer in regulating cellular metabolism restoration,excess reactive oxygen species(ROS)generation,proliferation,invasion,metastasis,mitophagy activation,mitochondrial DNA(mtDNA)inheritance,immune system modulation and therapeutic resistance in cancer.Additionally,we highlight the possibility of using intercellular mitochondria transfer as a therapeutic approach to treat cancer and enhance the efficacy of cancer treatments.展开更多
BACKGROUND Autoimmune hepatitis(AIH)is typically treated with immunomodulators and steroids.However,some patients are refractory to these treatments,necessitating alternative approaches.Biological therapies have recen...BACKGROUND Autoimmune hepatitis(AIH)is typically treated with immunomodulators and steroids.However,some patients are refractory to these treatments,necessitating alternative approaches.Biological therapies have recently been explored for these difficult cases.AIM To assess the efficacy and safety of biologics in AIH,focusing on patients unresponsive to standard treatments and evaluating outcomes such as serological markers and histological remission.METHODS A case-based systematic review was performed following the PRISMA protocol to evaluate the efficacy and safety of biological therapies in AIH.The primary focus was on serological improvement and histological remission.The secondary focus was on assessing therapy safety and additional outcomes.A standardized search command was applied to MEDLINE,EMBASE,and Cochrane Library databases to identify relevant studies.Inclusion criteria encompassed adult AIH patients treated with biologics.Data were analyzed based on demographics,prior treatments,and therapy-related outcomes.A narrative synthesis was employed to address biases and provide a comprehensive overview of the evidence.RESULTS A total of 352 studies were reviewed,with 30 selected for detailed analysis.Key findings revealed that Belimumab led to a favourable response in five out of eight AIH patients across two studies.Rituximab demonstrated high efficacy,with 41 out of 45 patients showing significant improvement across six studies.Basiliximab was assessed in a single study,where the sole patient treated experienced a beneficial outcome.Additionally,a notable number of AIH cases were induced by anti-tumor necrosis factor(TNF)medications,including 16 cases associated with infliximab and four cases with adalimumab.All these cases showed improvement upon withdrawal of the biologic agent.CONCLUSION Belimumab and Rituximab show promise as effective alternatives for managing refractory AIH,demonstrating significant improvements in clinical outcomes and liver function.However,the variability in patient responses to different therapies highlights the need for personalized treatment strategies.The risk of AIH induced by anti-TNF therapies underscores the need for vigilant monitoring and prompt symptom recognition.These findings support the incorporation of biologic agents into AIH treatment protocols,particularly for patients who do not respond to conventional therapies.展开更多
Engineered water systems such as wastewater treatment plants(WWTPs)are potential reservoirs of various biological risk factors(BRFs),including pathogens,antibiotic resistance genes(ARGs),and virulence factors(VFs).Cur...Engineered water systems such as wastewater treatment plants(WWTPs)are potential reservoirs of various biological risk factors(BRFs),including pathogens,antibiotic resistance genes(ARGs),and virulence factors(VFs).Currently,a BRF database relevant to engineered water systems on a global geographic scale is lacking.Here,we present the Global Wastewater Pathogen Database(GWPD),an online database that provides information on the diversity,abundance,and distribution of BRFs from 1302 metagenome samples obtained from 186 cities,68 countries,and six continents.We sorted these samples into six types:sewer networks,influent,anoxic activated sludge,oxic activated sludge,effluent,and receiving/natural waters.In total,476 pathogens,442 ARGs,and 246 VFs were identified.As a multifunctional database,GWPD provides an interactive visualization of these BRFs in a world map,an information retrieval interface,and an online one-click service for BRF annotation from metagenome sequencing data.GWPD is built on a web service framework,which can be readily extended to future versions of GWPD by adding more functional modules and connecting to other data sources,such as epidemic databases,to support risk assessment and control in the context of“One Health.”展开更多
The inhibitory effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles(ZnO NPs)and impacts of N-acylhomoserine lactone(AHL)-based quorum sensing(QS)on biological nitrogen removal(BNR)performance have beenwell-investigated.However,the eff...The inhibitory effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles(ZnO NPs)and impacts of N-acylhomoserine lactone(AHL)-based quorum sensing(QS)on biological nitrogen removal(BNR)performance have beenwell-investigated.However,the effects of ammonia nitrogen(NH_(4)^(+)-N)concentrations on NP toxicity and AHL regulation have seldom been addressed yet.This study consulted on the impacts of ZnO NPs on BNR systems when high NH_(4)^(+)-N concentrationwas available.The synergistic toxic effects of high-strength NH_(4)^(+)-N(200 mg/L)and ZnO NPs resulted in decreased ammonia oxidation rates and dropped the nitrogen removal efficiencies by 17.5%±0.2%.The increased extracellular polymeric substances(EPS)production was observed in response to the high NH_(4)^(+)-N and ZnO NP stress,which indicated the defensemechanism against the toxic effects in the BNR systemswas stimulated.Furthermore,the regulatory effects of exogenous N-decanoyl-homoserine lactone(C_(10)-HSL)-mediated QS system on NP-stressed BNR systems were revealed to improve the BNR performance under different NH_(4)^(+)-N concentrations.The C_(10)-HSL regulated the intracellular reactive oxygen species levels,denitrification functional enzyme activities,and antioxidant enzyme activities,respectively.This probably synergistically enhanced the defense mechanism against NP toxicity.However,compared to the low NH_(4)^(+)-N concentration of 60 mg/L,the efficacy of C_(10)-HSL was inhibited at high NH_(4)^(+)-N levels of 200 mg/L.The findings provided the significant application potential of QS system for BNR when facing toxic compound shock threats.展开更多
Lysophosphatidic acid(LPA)is a pleiotropic lipid agonist essential for functions of the central nervous system(CNS).It is abundant in the developing and adult brain while its concentration in biological fluids,includi...Lysophosphatidic acid(LPA)is a pleiotropic lipid agonist essential for functions of the central nervous system(CNS).It is abundant in the developing and adult brain while its concentration in biological fluids,including cerebrospinal fluid,varies significantly(Figure 1Α;Yung et al.,2014).LPA actually corresponds to a variety of lipid species that include different stereoisomers with either saturated or unsaturated fatty acids bearing likely differentiated biological activities(Figure 1Α;Yung et al.,2014;Hernández-Araiza et al.,2018).展开更多
This review presents a simple introduction on the unique properties and general synthesis of quantum dots (QDs) in which we lay emphasis on the optical applications in the biological system. The detection of biologica...This review presents a simple introduction on the unique properties and general synthesis of quantum dots (QDs) in which we lay emphasis on the optical applications in the biological system. The detection of biological molecules such as DNA, protein and enzyme, the cell-based analysis and in vivo animal imaging are mainly discussed.展开更多
Background:Since biological systems are complex and often involve multiple types of genomic relationships,tensor analysis methods can be utilized to elucidate these hidden complex relationships.There is a pressing nee...Background:Since biological systems are complex and often involve multiple types of genomic relationships,tensor analysis methods can be utilized to elucidate these hidden complex relationships.There is a pressing need for this,as the interpretation of the results of high-throughput experiments has advanced at a much slower pace than the accumulation of data.Results:In this review we provide an overview of some tensor analysis methods for biological systems.Conclusions:Tensors are natural and powerful generalizations of vectors and matrices to higher dimensions and play a fundamental role in physics,mathematics and many other areas.Tensor analysis methods can be used to provide the foundations of systematic approaches to distinguish significant higher order correlations among the elements of a complex systems via finding ensembles of a small number of reduced systems that provide a concise and representative summary of these correlations.展开更多
What makes biological systems different from man-made systems?One distinction is explored in this paper:Biological systems achieve reliable functions through randomness,i.e.,by both mitigating and exploiting the effec...What makes biological systems different from man-made systems?One distinction is explored in this paper:Biological systems achieve reliable functions through randomness,i.e.,by both mitigating and exploiting the effects of randomness.The fundamental reason for biological systems to take such a random approach is the randomness of the microscopic world,which is dramatically different from the macroscopic world we are familiar with.To substantiate the idea,bacterial chemotaxis is used as an example.展开更多
Natural products(NPs)continue to play a pivotal role in drug discovery programs.The rapid development of synthetic biology has conferred the strategies of NPs production.Synthetic biology is a new engineering discipli...Natural products(NPs)continue to play a pivotal role in drug discovery programs.The rapid development of synthetic biology has conferred the strategies of NPs production.Synthetic biology is a new engineering discipline that aims to produce desirable products by rationally programming the biological parts and manipulating the pathways.However,there is still a challenge for integrating a heterologous pathway in chassis cells for overproduction purpose due to the limited characterized parts,modules incompatibility,and cell tolerance towards product.Enormous endeavors have been taken for mentioned issues.Herein,in this review,the progresses in naturally discovering novel biological parts and rational design of synthetic biological parts are reviewed,combining with the advanced assembly technologies,pathway engineering,and pathway optimization in global network guidance.The future perspectives are also presented.展开更多
Rare-earth(RE)based luminescent probes exhibit rich optical properties including upconversion and down-conversion luminescence spanning a broad spectral range from 300 to 3,000 nm,and have generated great scientific a...Rare-earth(RE)based luminescent probes exhibit rich optical properties including upconversion and down-conversion luminescence spanning a broad spectral range from 300 to 3,000 nm,and have generated great scientific and practical interest from telecommunication to biological imaging.While upconversion nanoparticles have been investigated for decades,down-conversion luminescence of RE-based probes in the second near-infrared(NIR-II,1,000-1,700 nm)window for in vivo biological imaging with sub-centimeter tissue penetration and micrometer image resolution has come into light only recently.In this review,we present recent progress on RE-based NIR-II probes for in vivo vasculature and molecular imaging with a focus on Er3+-based nanoparticles due to the down-conversion luminescence at the long-wavelength end of the NIR-II window(NIR-IIb,1,500-1,700 nm).Imaging in NIR-IIb is superior to imaging with organic probes such as ICG and IRDye800 in the^800 nm NIR range and the 1,000-1,300 nm short end of NIR-II range,owing to minimized light scattering and autofluorescence background.Doping by cerium and other ions and phase engineering of Er^3+-based nanoparticles,combined with surface hydrophilic coating optimization can afford ultrabright,biocompatible NIR-IIb probe towards clinical translation for human use.The Nd^3+-based probes with NIR-II emission at 1,050 and 1,330 nm are also discussed,including Nd^3+doped nanocrystals and Nd^3+-organic ligand complexes.This review also points out future directions for further development of multi-functional RE NIR-II probes for biological imaging.展开更多
Dimethomorph is a fungicide with high activity against Peronosporomycetes plant pathogens. The present study showed that dimethomorph is effective on controlling the oomycete fungal pathogen Pseudoperonospora cubensis...Dimethomorph is a fungicide with high activity against Peronosporomycetes plant pathogens. The present study showed that dimethomorph is effective on controlling the oomycete fungal pathogen Pseudoperonospora cubensis causing downy mildew on cucumber. The fungicide did not affect zoospores discharge from sporangia of P. cubensis, but it strongly inhibited mycelial growth and sporangial production in vitro and increased lysis of zoospores. Dose of 2 mg L^-1 of dimethomorph was sufficient to inhibit mycelial growth and sporangial production of P. cubensis on leaf disks, 5 mg L^-1 was enough to lyse zoospores of P. cubensis, and 25 mg L^-1 was required to inhibit sporangial production on detached leaves. In whole plant tests, dimethomorph exhibited strong protective and curative activity. Dimethomorph when applied at a dose of 300 mg L^-1 for 1, 3, 5, 7 days before inoculation exhibited 100% efficacy on disease control. On the other hand, efficacies of 67.1 and 31.5% were obtained when the same dose of dimethomorph was applied for 1 and 3 days after inoculation, respectively. So dimethomorph had persistence effect on leaves for 7 days at least and exhibited strong protective and curative activity. Bioassay analyses showed that dimethomorph could be translocated in the xylem system, redistributed in the leaf, and penetrated from the upper surface to the lower surface of the leaf but could not be translocated in phloem system or transferred from the roots to leaves of cucumber plants in sufficient amounts for disease control. The biocharacteristics of dimethomorph make it well suitable for integration of a control programme against downy mildew disease on cucumber and as a component to delay other peronosporomycetes fungicide-resistance development.展开更多
基金supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(2018MS29)
文摘Coronary artery systems are a kind of complex biological systems. Their chaotic phenomena can lead to serious health problems and illness development. From the perspective of engineering, this paper investigates the chaos suppression problem. At first, nonlinear dynamics of coronary artery systems are presented. To suppress the chaotic phenomena, the method of derivative-integral terminal sliding mode control is adopted. Since coronary artery systems suffer from uncertainties, the technique of disturbance observer is taken into consideration. The stability of such a control system that integrates the derivative-integral terminal sliding mode controller and the disturbance observer is proven in the sense of Lyapunov. To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed strategy, simulation results are illustrated in comparison with a benchmark.
文摘With the advanced development of computer-based enabling technologies, many engineering, medical, biology, chemistry, physics and food science etc have developed to the unprecedented levels, which lead to many research and development interests in various multi-discipline areas. Among them, biomimetics is one of the most promising and attractive branches of study. Biomimetics is a branch of study that uses biological systems as a model to develop synthetic systems. To learn from nature, one of the fundamental issues is to understand the natural systems such animals, insects, plants and human beings etc. The geometrical characterization and representation of natural systems is an important fundamental work for biomimetics research. 3D modeling plays a key role in the geometrical characterization and representation, especially in computer graphical visualization. This paper firstly presents the typical procedure of 3D modelling methods and then reviews the previous work of 3D geometrical modelling techniques and systems developed for industrial, medical and animation applications. Especially the paper discusses the problems associated with the existing techniques and systems when they are applied to 3D modelling of biological systems. Based upon the discussions, the paper proposes some areas of research interests in 3D modelling of biological systems and for Biomimetics.
基金Supported by the National Science and Technology Supporting Plan for the 12th Five-Year Plan Period(2014BAL04B05)
文摘This paper selects Xiaowangliu Village,Banquan Town,Junan County,Linyi City as the test point to explore the construction of he ecological village. The ecological village is divided into two sub-systems: land and waters. The water resource of the ecological village is divided into the village water source,village water system,village pond wetland and water resource output sub-systems. The organic waste in villages is related to the industrialization of insect resources.
文摘With the purpose to smooth the way of a correct understanding of information concepts and their evolution,in this paper,is discussed the evolution and development of the concept of information in biological systems,showing that this concept was intuitively perceived even since ancient times by our predecessors,and described according to their language level of that times,but the crystallization of the real meaning of information is an achievement of our nowadays,by successive contribution of various scientific branches and personalities of the scientific community of the world,leading to a modern description/modeling of reality,in which information plays a fundamental role.It is shown that our reality can be understood as a contribution of matter/energy/information and represented/discussed as the model of the Universal Triangle of Reality(UTR),where various previous models can be suggestively inserted,as a function of their basic concern.The modern concepts on information starting from a theoretic experiment which would infringe the thermodynamics laws and reaching the theory of information and modern philosophic concepts on the world structuration allow us to show that information is a fundamental component of the material world and of the biological structures,in correlation with the structuration/destructuration processes of matter,involving absorption/release of information.Based on these concepts,is discussed the functionality of the biologic structures and is presented the informational model of the human body and living structures,as a general model of info-organization on the entire biological scale,showing that a rudimentary proto-consciousness should be operative even at the low-scale biological systems,because they work on the same principles,like the most developed bio-systems.The operability of biologic structures as informational devices is also pointed out.
文摘The interactions of electromagnetic waves with the human body are complex and depend on several factors related to the characteristics of the incident wave, including its frequency, its intensity, the polarization of the tissue encountered, the geometry of the tissue and its electromagnetic properties. That’s to say, the dielectric permittivity, the conductivity and the type of coupling between the field and the exposed body. A biological system irradiated by an electromagnetic wave is traversed by induced currents of non-negligible density;the water molecules present in the biological tissues exposed to the electromagnetic field will begin to oscillate at the frequency of the incident wave, thus creating internal friction responsible for the heating of the irradiated tissues. This heating will be all the more important as the tissues are rich in water. This article presents the establishment from a mathematical and numerical analysis explaining the phenomena of interaction and consequences between electromagnetic waves and health. Since the total electric field in the biological system is unknown, that is why it can be determined by the Finite Difference Time Domain FDTD method to assess the electromagnetic power distribution in the biological system under study. For this purpose, the detailed on the mechanisms of interaction of microwave electromagnetic waves with the human body have been presented. Mathematical analysis using Maxwell’s equations as well as bio-heat equations is the basis of this study for a consistent result. Therefore, a thermal model of biological tissues based on an electrical analogy has been developed. By the principle of duality, an electrical model in the dielectric form of a multilayered human tissue was used in order to obtain a corresponding thermal model. This thermal model made it possible to evaluate the temperature profile of biological tissues during exposure to electromagnetic waves. The simulation results obtained from computer tools show that the temperature in the biological tissue is a linear function of the duration of exposure to microwave electromagnetic waves.
基金supported by the NSF(No.DMS-1813071)(Chou)and the AFSOR(No.FA9550-22-1-0011)(Xiu).
文摘We present a numerical approach for modeling unknown dynamical systems using partially observed data,with a focus on biological systems with(relatively)complex dynamical behavior.As an extension of the recently developed deep neural network(DNN)learning methods,our approach is particularly suitable for practical situations when(i)measurement data are available for only a subset of the state variables,and(ii)the system parameters cannot be observed or measured at all.We demonstrate that,with a properly designed DNN structure with memory terms,effective DNN models can be learned from such partially observed data containing hidden parameters.The learned DNN model serves as an accurate predictive tool for system analysis.Through a few representative biological problems,we demonstrate that such DNN models can capture qualitative dynamical behavior changes in the system,such as bifurcations,even when the parameters controlling such behavior changes are completely unknown throughout not only the model learning process but also the system prediction process.The learned DNN model effectively creates a“closed”model involving only the observables when such a closed-form model does not exist mathematically.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 11105062 and 11265014the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant Nos LZUJBKY-2011-57 and LZUJBKY-2015-119
文摘Energy efficiency is closely related to the evolution of biological systems and is important to their information processing. In this work, we calculate the excitation probability of a simple model of a bistable biological unit in response to pulsatile inputs, and its spontaneous excitation rate due to noise perturbation. Then we analytically calculate the mutual information, energy cost, and energy efficiency of an array of these bistable units. We find that the optimal number of units could maximize this array＇s energy efficiency in encoding pulse inputs, which depends on the fixed energy cost. We conclude that demand for energy efficiency in biological systems may strongly influence the size of these systems under the pressure of natural selection.
文摘I. THE COMPLEXITY OFBIOLOGICAL RESPONSESFor an organism, to be living or notdepends on its response to foreign matters.Facing the increasing amount and diversi-ty of chemicals, natural and synthetic, tounderstand the principles of the biologicalresponses becomes extremely importantin pursuing the way of rational utiliza-tion and governing the foreign matters.However, most biological responses aretoo complex to explore their nature. Forinstance, the risk to human beings andorganisms related to the application ofrare earths in agriculture, forestation, fish-ery and husbandry has been argued
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No.61773153the Natural Science Foundation of Henan under Grant No.202300410045+2 种基金the Supporting Plan for Scientific and Technological Innovative Talents in Universities of Henan Province under Grant No.20HASTIT025the Training Plan of Young Key Teachers in Colleges and Universities of Henan Province under Grant No.2018GGJS021Partly supported by the Supporting Grant of Bioinformatics Center of Henan University under Grant No.2018YLJC03。
文摘Biological systems can be modeled and described by biological networks.Biological networks are typical complex networks with widely real-world applications.Many problems arising in biological systems can be boiled down to the identification of important nodes.For example,biomedical researchers frequently need to identify important genes that potentially leaded to disease phenotypes in animal and explore crucial genes that were responsible for stress responsiveness in plants.To facilitate the identification of important nodes in biological systems,one needs to know network structures or behavioral data of nodes(such as gene expression data).If network topology was known,various centrality measures can be developed to solve the problem;while if only behavioral data of nodes were given,some sophisticated statistical methods can be employed.This paper reviewed some of the recent works on statistical identification of important nodes in biological systems from three aspects,that is,1)in general complex networks based on complex networks theory and epidemic dynamic models;2)in biological networks based on network motifs;and 3)in plants based on RNA-seq data.The identification of important nodes in a complex system can be seen as a mapping from the system to the ranking score vector of nodes,such mapping is not necessarily with explicit form.The three aspects reflected three typical approaches on ranking nodes in biological systems and can be integrated into one general framework.This paper also proposed some challenges and future works on the related topics.The associated investigations have potential real-world applications in the control of biological systems,network medicine and new variety cultivation of crops.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.:82272749)the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province,China(Grant No.:2022-MS-190).
文摘Mitochondria play a crucial role as organelles,managing several physiological processes such as redox balance,cell metabolism,and energy synthesis.Initially,the assumption was that mitochondria primarily resided in the host cells and could exclusively transmit from oocytes to offspring by a mechanism known as vertical inheritance of mitochondria.Recent scholarly works,however,suggest that certain cell types transmit their mitochondria to other developmental cell types via a mechanism referred to as intercellular or horizontal mitochondrial transfer.This review details the process of which mitochondria are transferred across cells and explains the impact of mitochondrial transfer between cells on the efficacy and functionality of cancer cells in various cancer forms.Specifically,we review the role of mitochondria transfer in regulating cellular metabolism restoration,excess reactive oxygen species(ROS)generation,proliferation,invasion,metastasis,mitophagy activation,mitochondrial DNA(mtDNA)inheritance,immune system modulation and therapeutic resistance in cancer.Additionally,we highlight the possibility of using intercellular mitochondria transfer as a therapeutic approach to treat cancer and enhance the efficacy of cancer treatments.
文摘BACKGROUND Autoimmune hepatitis(AIH)is typically treated with immunomodulators and steroids.However,some patients are refractory to these treatments,necessitating alternative approaches.Biological therapies have recently been explored for these difficult cases.AIM To assess the efficacy and safety of biologics in AIH,focusing on patients unresponsive to standard treatments and evaluating outcomes such as serological markers and histological remission.METHODS A case-based systematic review was performed following the PRISMA protocol to evaluate the efficacy and safety of biological therapies in AIH.The primary focus was on serological improvement and histological remission.The secondary focus was on assessing therapy safety and additional outcomes.A standardized search command was applied to MEDLINE,EMBASE,and Cochrane Library databases to identify relevant studies.Inclusion criteria encompassed adult AIH patients treated with biologics.Data were analyzed based on demographics,prior treatments,and therapy-related outcomes.A narrative synthesis was employed to address biases and provide a comprehensive overview of the evidence.RESULTS A total of 352 studies were reviewed,with 30 selected for detailed analysis.Key findings revealed that Belimumab led to a favourable response in five out of eight AIH patients across two studies.Rituximab demonstrated high efficacy,with 41 out of 45 patients showing significant improvement across six studies.Basiliximab was assessed in a single study,where the sole patient treated experienced a beneficial outcome.Additionally,a notable number of AIH cases were induced by anti-tumor necrosis factor(TNF)medications,including 16 cases associated with infliximab and four cases with adalimumab.All these cases showed improvement upon withdrawal of the biologic agent.CONCLUSION Belimumab and Rituximab show promise as effective alternatives for managing refractory AIH,demonstrating significant improvements in clinical outcomes and liver function.However,the variability in patient responses to different therapies highlights the need for personalized treatment strategies.The risk of AIH induced by anti-TNF therapies underscores the need for vigilant monitoring and prompt symptom recognition.These findings support the incorporation of biologic agents into AIH treatment protocols,particularly for patients who do not respond to conventional therapies.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(52321005,52293441,52293443,52230004)the Shenzhen Stability Support Key Program in Colleges and Universities of China(GXWD20231127195344001)+3 种基金the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation(2024A1515010085)the Shenzhen Overseas High-level Talents Research Startup Program(20200518750C)the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program(KQTD20190929172630447)the Open Project of the Key Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology,CAS(KF2021006).
文摘Engineered water systems such as wastewater treatment plants(WWTPs)are potential reservoirs of various biological risk factors(BRFs),including pathogens,antibiotic resistance genes(ARGs),and virulence factors(VFs).Currently,a BRF database relevant to engineered water systems on a global geographic scale is lacking.Here,we present the Global Wastewater Pathogen Database(GWPD),an online database that provides information on the diversity,abundance,and distribution of BRFs from 1302 metagenome samples obtained from 186 cities,68 countries,and six continents.We sorted these samples into six types:sewer networks,influent,anoxic activated sludge,oxic activated sludge,effluent,and receiving/natural waters.In total,476 pathogens,442 ARGs,and 246 VFs were identified.As a multifunctional database,GWPD provides an interactive visualization of these BRFs in a world map,an information retrieval interface,and an online one-click service for BRF annotation from metagenome sequencing data.GWPD is built on a web service framework,which can be readily extended to future versions of GWPD by adding more functional modules and connecting to other data sources,such as epidemic databases,to support risk assessment and control in the context of“One Health.”
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.52270119).
文摘The inhibitory effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles(ZnO NPs)and impacts of N-acylhomoserine lactone(AHL)-based quorum sensing(QS)on biological nitrogen removal(BNR)performance have beenwell-investigated.However,the effects of ammonia nitrogen(NH_(4)^(+)-N)concentrations on NP toxicity and AHL regulation have seldom been addressed yet.This study consulted on the impacts of ZnO NPs on BNR systems when high NH_(4)^(+)-N concentrationwas available.The synergistic toxic effects of high-strength NH_(4)^(+)-N(200 mg/L)and ZnO NPs resulted in decreased ammonia oxidation rates and dropped the nitrogen removal efficiencies by 17.5%±0.2%.The increased extracellular polymeric substances(EPS)production was observed in response to the high NH_(4)^(+)-N and ZnO NP stress,which indicated the defensemechanism against the toxic effects in the BNR systemswas stimulated.Furthermore,the regulatory effects of exogenous N-decanoyl-homoserine lactone(C_(10)-HSL)-mediated QS system on NP-stressed BNR systems were revealed to improve the BNR performance under different NH_(4)^(+)-N concentrations.The C_(10)-HSL regulated the intracellular reactive oxygen species levels,denitrification functional enzyme activities,and antioxidant enzyme activities,respectively.This probably synergistically enhanced the defense mechanism against NP toxicity.However,compared to the low NH_(4)^(+)-N concentration of 60 mg/L,the efficacy of C_(10)-HSL was inhibited at high NH_(4)^(+)-N levels of 200 mg/L.The findings provided the significant application potential of QS system for BNR when facing toxic compound shock threats.
基金supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation,HFRI,“2nd Call for HFRI Research Projects to support Faculty Members&Researchers”Project 02667 to GL.
文摘Lysophosphatidic acid(LPA)is a pleiotropic lipid agonist essential for functions of the central nervous system(CNS).It is abundant in the developing and adult brain while its concentration in biological fluids,including cerebrospinal fluid,varies significantly(Figure 1Α;Yung et al.,2014).LPA actually corresponds to a variety of lipid species that include different stereoisomers with either saturated or unsaturated fatty acids bearing likely differentiated biological activities(Figure 1Α;Yung et al.,2014;Hernández-Araiza et al.,2018).
基金support of the National Natural Science Foun-dation of China (20821063 & 50972058)supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB933502)
文摘This review presents a simple introduction on the unique properties and general synthesis of quantum dots (QDs) in which we lay emphasis on the optical applications in the biological system. The detection of biological molecules such as DNA, protein and enzyme, the cell-based analysis and in vivo animal imaging are mainly discussed.
文摘Background:Since biological systems are complex and often involve multiple types of genomic relationships,tensor analysis methods can be utilized to elucidate these hidden complex relationships.There is a pressing need for this,as the interpretation of the results of high-throughput experiments has advanced at a much slower pace than the accumulation of data.Results:In this review we provide an overview of some tensor analysis methods for biological systems.Conclusions:Tensors are natural and powerful generalizations of vectors and matrices to higher dimensions and play a fundamental role in physics,mathematics and many other areas.Tensor analysis methods can be used to provide the foundations of systematic approaches to distinguish significant higher order correlations among the elements of a complex systems via finding ensembles of a small number of reduced systems that provide a concise and representative summary of these correlations.
文摘What makes biological systems different from man-made systems?One distinction is explored in this paper:Biological systems achieve reliable functions through randomness,i.e.,by both mitigating and exploiting the effects of randomness.The fundamental reason for biological systems to take such a random approach is the randomness of the microscopic world,which is dramatically different from the macroscopic world we are familiar with.To substantiate the idea,bacterial chemotaxis is used as an example.
基金the National Basic Research Program of China(“973”Program,grant No.2012CB721104)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(grant No.31170101).
文摘Natural products(NPs)continue to play a pivotal role in drug discovery programs.The rapid development of synthetic biology has conferred the strategies of NPs production.Synthetic biology is a new engineering discipline that aims to produce desirable products by rationally programming the biological parts and manipulating the pathways.However,there is still a challenge for integrating a heterologous pathway in chassis cells for overproduction purpose due to the limited characterized parts,modules incompatibility,and cell tolerance towards product.Enormous endeavors have been taken for mentioned issues.Herein,in this review,the progresses in naturally discovering novel biological parts and rational design of synthetic biological parts are reviewed,combining with the advanced assembly technologies,pathway engineering,and pathway optimization in global network guidance.The future perspectives are also presented.
基金supported by the National Institutes of Health(grant no.DP1-NS-105737).
文摘Rare-earth(RE)based luminescent probes exhibit rich optical properties including upconversion and down-conversion luminescence spanning a broad spectral range from 300 to 3,000 nm,and have generated great scientific and practical interest from telecommunication to biological imaging.While upconversion nanoparticles have been investigated for decades,down-conversion luminescence of RE-based probes in the second near-infrared(NIR-II,1,000-1,700 nm)window for in vivo biological imaging with sub-centimeter tissue penetration and micrometer image resolution has come into light only recently.In this review,we present recent progress on RE-based NIR-II probes for in vivo vasculature and molecular imaging with a focus on Er3+-based nanoparticles due to the down-conversion luminescence at the long-wavelength end of the NIR-II window(NIR-IIb,1,500-1,700 nm).Imaging in NIR-IIb is superior to imaging with organic probes such as ICG and IRDye800 in the^800 nm NIR range and the 1,000-1,300 nm short end of NIR-II range,owing to minimized light scattering and autofluorescence background.Doping by cerium and other ions and phase engineering of Er^3+-based nanoparticles,combined with surface hydrophilic coating optimization can afford ultrabright,biocompatible NIR-IIb probe towards clinical translation for human use.The Nd^3+-based probes with NIR-II emission at 1,050 and 1,330 nm are also discussed,including Nd^3+doped nanocrystals and Nd^3+-organic ligand complexes.This review also points out future directions for further development of multi-functional RE NIR-II probes for biological imaging.
基金funded by BASF (China)CorporationNational 973 Program of China(2006CB101907)863 Program of China(2008AA10Z414).
文摘Dimethomorph is a fungicide with high activity against Peronosporomycetes plant pathogens. The present study showed that dimethomorph is effective on controlling the oomycete fungal pathogen Pseudoperonospora cubensis causing downy mildew on cucumber. The fungicide did not affect zoospores discharge from sporangia of P. cubensis, but it strongly inhibited mycelial growth and sporangial production in vitro and increased lysis of zoospores. Dose of 2 mg L^-1 of dimethomorph was sufficient to inhibit mycelial growth and sporangial production of P. cubensis on leaf disks, 5 mg L^-1 was enough to lyse zoospores of P. cubensis, and 25 mg L^-1 was required to inhibit sporangial production on detached leaves. In whole plant tests, dimethomorph exhibited strong protective and curative activity. Dimethomorph when applied at a dose of 300 mg L^-1 for 1, 3, 5, 7 days before inoculation exhibited 100% efficacy on disease control. On the other hand, efficacies of 67.1 and 31.5% were obtained when the same dose of dimethomorph was applied for 1 and 3 days after inoculation, respectively. So dimethomorph had persistence effect on leaves for 7 days at least and exhibited strong protective and curative activity. Bioassay analyses showed that dimethomorph could be translocated in the xylem system, redistributed in the leaf, and penetrated from the upper surface to the lower surface of the leaf but could not be translocated in phloem system or transferred from the roots to leaves of cucumber plants in sufficient amounts for disease control. The biocharacteristics of dimethomorph make it well suitable for integration of a control programme against downy mildew disease on cucumber and as a component to delay other peronosporomycetes fungicide-resistance development.
