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Since its discovery by Harold Urey in 1932, deuterium has attracted increased amounts of attention from the scientific community, with many previous works aimed to uncover its biological effects on living organisms. Existing studies indicate that deuterium, as a relatively rare isotope, is indispensable for maintaining normal cellular function, while its enrichment and depletion can affect living systems at multiple levels, including but not limited to molecules, organelles, cells, organs, and organisms. As an important compound of deuterium, deuterium-depleted water (DDW) possess various special effects, including but not limited to altering cellular metabolism and potentially inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, demonstrating anxiolytic-like behavior, enhancing long-term memory in rats, reducing free radical oxidation, regulating lipid metabolism, harmonizing indices related to diabetes and metabolic syndrome, and alleviating toxic effects caused by cadmium, manganese, and other harmful substances, implying its tremendous potential in anticancer, neuroprotective, antiaging, antioxidant, obesity alleviation, diabetes and metabolic syndrome treatment, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification, thereby drawing extensive attention from researchers. This review comprehensively summarizes the latest progress in deuterium acting on living organisms. We start by providing a snapshot of the distribution of deuterium in nature and the tolerance of various organisms to it. Then, we discussed the impact of deuterium excess and deprivation, in the form of deuterium-enriched water (DEW) and deuteriumdepleted water (DDW), on living organisms at different levels. Finally, we focused on the potential of DDWas an adjuvant therapeutic agent for various diseases and disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their anthology Everything Flows: Towards a Processual Philosophy of Biology, Daniel J. Nicholson and John Dupré argue that modern theories of biology imply that the fundamental structure of reality is processual at its core. In the present work, I first examine the implicit and explicit metaphysical presuppositions the editors make in order to allow for such an inference from scientific theory to ontology. After showing the difficulties of a naïve transfer of theoretical entities to fundamental ontology, I argue that the editors can nevertheless extend their claims beyond the mere articulation of different domain ontologies. This leads to the idea of a scientifically informed induction base for an ontology of processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living wall systems can provide biophilic value and ecosystem services. Despite their benefits and potential to mitigate global challenges such as cooling, air purification, sound absorption, and human well-being, their economic feasibility, resilience, maintenance, and sustainability impact on their application and use. This article gives an overview of a pragmatic study which synthesised the factors hampering LWSs’ performance as green infrastructure (GI) and analysed the performance of outdoor modular LWSs as GI. The study aims to establish criteria for selecting the most suitable LWSs as green infrastructure. Data capturing involved a mixed-method methodology. Local experts provided insight into local LWS typologies through questionnaires, which were analysed qualitatively. The six-month experimental study involved two selected LWSs of 4m2 each in extent on the University of Pretoria’s Future Africa campus in Pretoria, in South Africa’s Gauteng province. Variables included minimum and maximum daily temperatures, relative humidity, precipitation, soil temperature, water content and electrical conductivity, leaf biomass yield, and plant stress. Fresh and dry biomass yields with a calibrated laboratory balance was the primary performance indicator. Plant stress, the secondary performance indicator, was measured by chlorophyll fluorescence analysis. Experimental data were statistically analysed. The results favour locally produced, low-technology, outdoor modular LWSs with limited, robust, lightweight, recycled components entailing uncomplicated assembly. Systems must involve low-technology irrigation. The LWS position should consider the plant crops’ light requirements and pollution. Pots should receive limited sun exposure and have a soil volume of 3 litres and a minimum depth of 200mm.

[Display omitted] The effective measurement of temperature in living systems at the nano and microscopic scales continues to be a challenge to this day. Here, we study the use of 2-(anthracen-2-yl)-1,3-diisopropylguanidine, 1 , as a nanothermometer based on fluorescence lifetime measurements and its bioimaging applications. In aqueous solution, 1 is shown in aggregated form and the equilibrium between the two main aggregate types (T -shaped and π-π) is highly sensitive to the temperature. The heating of the medium shifts the equilibrium toward the formation of highly emissive T -shaped aggregates. This species shows a high fluorescence emission and a long lifetime in comparison with the π-π aggregates and the freé monomer. A linear relationship between the fluorescence lifetime and the temperature both in aqueous solution and in a synthetic intracellular buffer was found. Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) also showed a linear relationship between lifetime and temperature with an excellent sensitivity in MCF7 breast cancer cells, which opens the door for its potential use as FLIM nanothermometer in the biomedical field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we derive a system of Boltzmann-type equations to describe the spread of contact-based infections, such as SARS-CoV-2 virus, at the microscopic scale, that is, by modeling the human-to-human mechanisms of transmission. To this end, we consider two populations, characterized by specific distribution functions, made up of individuals without symptoms (population 1) and infected people with symptoms (population 2). The Boltzmann operators model the interactions between individuals within the same population and among different populations with a probability of transition from one to the other due to contagion or, vice versa, to recovery. In addition, the influence of innate and adaptive immune systems is taken into account. Then, starting from the Boltzmann microscopic description we derive a set of evolution equations for the size and mean state of each population considered. Mathematical properties of such macroscopic equations, as equilibria and their stability, are investigated, and some numerical simulations are performed in order to analyze the ability of our model to reproduce the characteristic features of Covid-19 type pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mainstream research on information theory within the field of living systems involves the application of analytical tools to understand a broad range of life processes. This paper is dedicated to an opposite problem: it explores the information theory and communication engineering methods that have counterparts in the data transmission process by way of DNA structures and neural fibers. Considering the requirements of modern multimedia, transmission methods chosen by nature may be different, suboptimal, or even far from optimal. However, nature is known for rational resource usage, so its methods have a significant advantage: they are proven to be sustainable. Perhaps understanding the engineering aspects of methods of nature can inspire a design of alternative green, stable, and low-cost transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary introduces additive and subtractive transformations as foundational human cognitive biases and proposes possible links to biological reasoning challenges in both novices and experts. These cognitive biases deserve more attention in biology and biology education given possible links to previously documented misconceptions, expert expectations, and student learning challenges. More educational attention (e.g. curriculum cases, pedagogical approaches) directed at subtractive biological transformations could serve as a novel conceptual framework for (i) uniting a series of deeply rooted learning challenges (e.g. ‘great chain of being’, teleological reasoning) and (ii) inducing cognitive dissonance about hard-to-access reasoning processes about the living world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on Herbert A. Simon's visionary theory of the Artificial World. The artificial world evolves over time as a result of various actions, including interactions with the external world as well as interactions among its internal components. This paper proposes a mathematical theory of the conceptual framework of the artificial world. This goal requires the development of new mathematical tools, inspired in some way by statistical physics and stochastic game theory. The mathematical theory is applied in particular to the study of the dynamics of organizational learning, where cooperation and competition evolve through decomposition and recombination of organizational structures; the effectiveness of the evolutionary changes depends on the dynamic prevalence of cooperative over selfish behaviors, showing features common to the evolution of all living systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research aimed at examining the effectiveness of using OE3R (Orientation - Exploration - Explanation - Elaboration - Reflection) Strategy in treating alternative conceptions of living systems unit in science course among fourth grade primary stage pupils.In order to achieve the research objective, a diagnostic test was administered to a group of fourthyear primary stage pupils (n=45) and a questionnaire was developed and administered to a group of science teachers (n=20) to identify alternative conceptions related to the unit. A student's book, teacher's handbook and alternative conceptions test have been also developed. The study group consisted of (n=41) male and female pupils in the fourth-grade primary stage. The research tool (alternative conceptions test) was administered before and after experimentation of the unit. The following findings have been reached : Qualitative Result : The analysis of students' responses showed the effectiveness of OE3R strategy in treating alternative conceptions of living systems unit in science, And Quantity Findings : There were statistically significant differences at (0.01) level between the pupils’ scores means in the pre-testing and those in the post-testing of alternative conceptions on living systems test, in favour of the post-application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While sustainable design practice is working to reduce the ecological impacts of development, many of the earth's already damaged life support systems require repair and regeneration. Regenerative design theory embraces this challenge using an ecological worldview that recognizes all life as intertwined and interdependent to deliver restorative outcomes that heal. Central to regenerative design theory is the mutually beneficial and coevolving 'stewardship' relationship between community and place, the success of which requires local ecological knowledge. However, there is a lack of understanding about how—within the design process—practitioners are integrating 'innate knowledge' of place held by local people. This rapid practice review sought to collate and evaluate current 'regenerative design practice' methods towards ensuring good practice in the integration of place-based ecological knowledge. A comprehensive online search retrieved 345 related articles from the grey literature, academic book chapters, and government reports, from which 83 articles were analyzed. The authors conclude that regenerative design practice is emergent, with the design practice of including community knowledge of ecological systems of place remaining ad hoc, highly variable, and champion-based. The findings have immediate implications for regenerative design practitioners, researchers, and developers, documenting the state of progress in methods that explore innate ecological knowledge and foster co-evolving ecological stewardship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mainstream research on information theory within the field of living systems involves the application of analytical tools to understand a broad range of life processes. This paper is dedicated to an opposite problem: it explores the information theory and communication engineering methods that have counterparts in the data transmission process by way of DNA structures and neural fibers. Considering the requirements of modern multimedia, transmission methods chosen by nature may be different, suboptimal, or even far from optimal. However, nature is known for rational resource usage, so its methods have a significant advantage: they are proven to be sustainable. Perhaps understanding the engineering aspects of methods of nature can inspire a design of alternative green, stable, and low-cost transmission.

This paper presents a survey and critical analysis of the mathematical literature on modeling and simulation of human crowds taking into account behavioral dynamics. The main focus is on research papers published after the review [N. Bellomo and C. Dogbè, On the modeling of traffic and crowds: A survey of models, speculations, and perspectives, SIAM Rev. 53 (2011) 409–463], thus providing important research perspectives related to new, emerging trends. The presentation addresses the scaling problem corresponding to microscopic (individual-based), mesoscopic (kinetic), and macroscopic (hydrodynamic) modeling and analysis. A multiscale vision guides the overall content of the paper. The critical analysis of the overall content naturally leads to research perspectives. A selection of them is brought to the attention of the interested reader together with hints on how to deal with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the difference between the ways that nature functions and the way that the built environment is currently produced and operates, and if and how they can be realigned. While regenerative approaches can apply to a range of human enterprises, the paper focuses on their application to the production of the urban built environment. It examines if and how they may move into mainstream building practice and how long this may take given the inherent inertias in the building industry. Key issues include the recasting and interrogating of the accumulated knowledge held by design professionals within a broader living systems frame, and rethinking what constitutes a successful outcome of building design. Such efforts are set against the diminishing time available before a series of climate tipping points are crossed and further short- to mid-term constraints posed by a host of other powerful countervailing forces. Practice relevance A critique of emerging regenerative practices is provided with an overview of both the challenges facing design professionals moving them into mainstream building practices, and the opportunities it provides them. Rather than viewing their work as solely reducing environmental impact, regenerative practices offer architects and planners a positive casting and expansion of their responsibilities. They enable design professionals to both contribute in the bringing about of systems-level change and to provide inhabitants with greater opportunities and pathways to both navigate an uncertain future and re-establish, reconnect and co-evolve with natural systems.

The culturally diverse region of Moananui Oceania, is where many of the world's nations that are most impacted by climate change are located, including Samoa. Nature-based solutions (NbS) offer significant potential for effective climate change adaptation and are increasingly being explored and utilized in the region both in terms of (re)exploring traditional human designed living-systems created over connected land and oceanscapes, and in relation to contemporary NbS strategies. To explore nature-based adaptation agendas that link closely to Indigenous ecological knowledge and understandings of wellbeing, and that can enhance cultural connections to NbS in an urban climate change adaptation context, the Nature-based Urban design for Wellbeing and Adaptation in Oceania (NUWAO) Vaisigano Project in Samoa was conceived. The project examines and draws upon contemporary and traditional relationships between human settlements and nature in Samoa, as a means to advocate for regenerative urban environments that enhance entwined socio-ecological wellbeing and resilience as a climate change adaptation measure. We conducted a series of household interviews along a ridge-to-reef transect in the Vaisigano Catchment and then conducted fa'afaletui focus groups to ascertain community understandings and priorities related to NbS for climate change adaptation. Findings include that there is great potential in combining local Indigenous knowledges and worldviews with contemporary nature-based approaches to create culturally effective, just, and resilient climate change adaptation measures in Samoa, and in wider Moananui Oceania.

The physical and relational structure of the biologic continuum (both internal and external to the organism) creates the information signature that is the basis for the origination of meaning in the living system. A meaning metric can be grounded in the significance of that information to the stability of the system during the process of adaptive reconciliation of divergences from the steady state condition. From this perspective, an information-theoretic formulation of the process for translating incident information into adaptive action is proposed that can be practically used in defining and quantifying the meaning of that information for the living system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The molecular mechanisms that govern biological evolution have not been fully elucidated so far. Recent studies indicate that regulatory proteins, acting as decision-making complex devices, can accelerate or retard the evolution of cells. Such biochemically controlled evolution may be considered as an optimization process of logical nature aimed at developing fitter species that can better survive in a specific environment. Therefore, we may assume that new genetic information can be stored in the cell memory (i.e., genome) by a sophisticated biomolecular process that resembles writing in computer memory. Such a hypothesis is theoretically supported by a recent work showing that logic is a necessary component of life, so living systems process information in the same way as computers. The current study summarizes existing evidence showing that cells can intentionally modify their stored data by biochemical processes resembling stochastic algorithms to avoid environmental stress and increase their chances of survival. Furthermore, the mathematical and physical considerations that render a read-write memory a necessary component of biological systems are presented. • Cell genome is a logically controlled read-write memory. • Cells can write on their genome by molecular stochastic optimization mechanisms. • Proteins dominate regulatory biochemical processes that write on the cell genome. • Mutations may focus on targeted DNA segments that need optimization. • Evolution is governed by biochemical mechanisms that process information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a survey of advanced concepts and research perspectives, of a philosophical-mathematical approach to describe the dynamics of systems of many interacting living entities. The first part introduces the general conceptual framework. Then, a critical analysis of the existing literature is developed and referred to a multiscale view of a mathematics of living organisms. This paper attempts to understand how far the present state-of-the-art is far from the achievement of such challenging objective. The overall study leads to identify research perspectives and possible hints to deal with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The too general definition established by Bertalanffy L. (1968), has been used as the only system concept from 1968 to date and this led to the publication of many unscientific statements, which have never been verified with reality and which, nevertheless, continue to be accepted and used as a basis for reasoning and explanatory arguments from real situations. Here, a system definition is proposed that effectively replaces that of Bertalanffy and allows to explain in a logical, simple and practical way what systems are and opens the opportunity for new research and the rethinking of many concepts until now accepted in spite of its logical and methodological inconsistencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the difference between the ways that nature functions and the way that the built environment is currently produced and operates, and if and how they can be realigned. While regenerative approaches can apply to a range of human enterprises, the paper focuses on their application to the production of the urban built environment. It examines if and how they may move into mainstream building practice and how long this may take given the inherent inertias in the building industry. Key issues include the recasting and interrogating of the accumulated knowledge held by design professionals within a broader living systems frame, and rethinking what constitutes a successful outcome of building design. Such efforts are set against the diminishing time available before a series of climate tipping points are crossed and further short- to mid-term constraints posed by a host of other powerful countervailing forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a system consisting of a number of interacting living entities whose state at the microscopic scale is heterogeneously distributed among the said entities. This state includes, in addition, the classical mechanical variables, such as position and velocity, also a behavioral variable which is modified by interactions. It is shown how the pioneering ideas proposed in Bellomo et al. [Towards a mathematical theory of behavioral swarms, ESAIM Control Optim. Calc. Var. 26 (2020) 125] can be developed towards modeling behavioral swarms within a quest towards a mathematical theory of living systems. The first part of the paper presents a qualitative analysis of the emerging behaviors predicted by the model in aforementioned work. Some simulations follow to depict the said emerging behaviors. The last part of the paper is devoted to derive a new, more general theory in view of applications to model living systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living systems are complex dynamic information processing energy consuming entities with properties of consciousness, intelligence, sapience, and sentience. Sapience and sentience are autonomous attributes of consciousness. While sapience has been well studied over the years, that of sentience is relatively rare. The nature of sapience and sentience will be considered, and a metacybernetic framework using structural information will be adopted to explore the metaphysics of consciousness. Metacybernetics delivers a cyberintrinsic model that is cybernetic in nature, but also uses the theory of structural information arising from Frieden's work with Fisher information. This will be used to model sapience and sentience and their relationship. Since living systems are energy-consuming entities, it is also natural for thermodynamic metaphysical models to arise, and most of the theoretical studies of sentience have been set within a thermodynamic framework. Hence, a thermodynamic approach will also be introduced and connected to cyberintrinsic theory. In metaphysical contexts, thermodynamics uses free-energy, which plays the same role in cyberintrinsic modelling as intrinsic structural information. Since living systems exist at the dynamical interface of information and thermodynamics, the overall purpose of this paper is to explore sentience from the alternative cyberintrinsic perspective of metacybernetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper theoretically explores the limitations of the statistical method. Specifically, we point to the inapplicability of statistics in the studies on living systems. Western interdisciplinary sciences, natural sciences and humanities, often analyze data and develop the lines of argumentation as endorsed by the statistical analysis. In the present study, we select several theoretical, applicational problems which question this methodological in the studies on living systems. Paradigmatic/philosophical considerations, the improbability principle, or the correlation between the variables in the research are among the themes we focus on in our paper. The underlying idea is that life processes and the living world operate in a reality which is both linear and nonlinear, local and nonlocal. Hence, the methodology of research into these living realms needs to bypass the computational approaches and algorithmic modelling. We argue that statistics (as a branch of mathematics) cannot be decisive as regards research and applicational programs on living systems.

In addition to the deterministic models, the stochastic models are successfully used for mathematical description of real-world processes and phenomena. They use knowledge from the mathematical theories of probability and statistics to analyze specific properties of complex living systems. This paper considers some stochastic models of various processes and phenomena in genetics. Basic knowledge used in classical stochastic models is considered and applied to real problems from medical genetics with their solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ervin Bauer was Hungarian and Soviet scientist, who had a short, but bright and talented life. In 1935, working at the Institute of Experimental Medicine in the USSR, he published the book «Theoretical Biology», in which he proposed an idea of a special "non-equilibrium" state of living systems and the existence of internal machineries in the organism that work against thermodynamic equilibrium and increase the organism's capacity for work. Currently, this idea is called "the principle of sustainable non-equilibrium" or "Bauer's principle". During the repressions of the 1930s in the USSR, Bauer was executed, the book « Theoretical Biology» was banned. Currently, his works are poorly known, especially outside the post-socialist region. We believe that his ideas could help in rethinking not only the biochemistry and bioenergetics of cells and tissues of living organisms, but also biogeochemical and civilizational processes on a planetary scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, 'regenerative tourism' has emerged as a promising alternative to the unsustainable growth paradigm underpinning traditional tourism practices. While this topic is increasingly explored in conceptual terms, what this approach means conceptually and in practice for a range of destination management stakeholders remains unclear. The present study analysed the meanings, conceptualisations and practices associated with regenerative tourism for destination planners in Aotearoa New Zealand. Eighteen interviews were conducted with a diverse range of destination planners at regional and national levels. The findings indicate that regenerative tourism involves improving places, which comprises giving back to communities economically, socially and culturally, and enhancing local environments; as well as fostering a connection with place for both visitors and local residents, and focusing on how tourism can improve quality of life (human and nonhuman) for future generations. Other prominent themes include the holistic and interconnected nature of regenerative tourism practices; and the importance of shifting mindsets and tourism practices from mechanistic and siloed, to those aligned with living systems approaches. Another key finding was destination planners' ambivalence towards the regenerative tourism concept, which ranged from a sense of uncertainty and vagueness about this approach to strong sentiments of resistance. Further studies, particularly those that integrate indigenous worldviews, are needed to consolidate our understanding of regenerative tourism approaches in practice. • Discusses how destination planners in Aotearoa New Zealand conceptualise regenerative tourism. • Regenerative tourism viewed as improvement, not maintenance, of people and places. • Lack of clarity elicits uncertainty and resistance to 'regenerative tourism' for destination planners. • Indigenous worldviews and values should be integrated into regenerative tourism conceptualisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organisms live not as discrete entities on which an independent environment acts, but as members of a reproductive lineage in an ongoing series of interactions between that lineage and a dynamic ecological niche. These interactions continuously shape both systems in a reciprocal manner, resulting in the emergence of reliably co-occurring configurations within and between both systems. The enactive approach to cognition describes this relationship as the structural coupling between an organism and its environment; similarly, Developmental Systems Theory emphasizes the reciprocal nature of structurally coupled systems in its analysis of organisms as developmental processes embedded within a developmental system. Through an enactive-developmental systems framing, this paper identifies the organizational features of cognizing systems in order to motivate a picture of how organism and environment co-determine and co-construct one another. I argue that organisms can be characterized as self-organizing, operationally closed, plastic systems ecologically embedded within a developmental system. In virtue of this organizational makeup, organisms actively engage in the modulation and assessment of their coupling with their environment: cognitive strategies that entail contextualized responses to variations across the web of interactions that comprises the developmental system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of entropy, long known in thermodynamics, has not yet been widely used in biophysics. In this paper, analysis of the possibilities of using the concepts of entropy (negentropy) and information as tools that can describe the essential aspects of biosystems was attempted. This study highlights the importance of statistical entropy for describing local nonequilibrium distributions, which are a necessary condition for the existence of a living system. The application of statistical methods to the analysis of entropy in biosystems is associated with L.A. Blumenfeld. We consider the development of these concepts in the context of nonequilibrium processes. The concept of entropy can play an essential role in the construction of theories of aging, where degradation is a manifestation of the second law of thermodynamics for open nonequilibrium systems. This paper presents a discussion of various stationary and nonstationary processes for biosystems, for which the concepts of information and entropy are very significant. Particular attention is paid to symbiosis in living systems, a phenomenon that plays a crucial evolutionary role. Symbiosis shares a number of common features with the phenomena of self-organization; the concept of a cooperon associated with this phenomenon is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is shown, how early successes of science fostered the expectation of life in more security. However, describing unsecure situations in trivial systems and even more in living systems, the principal lack of security in life is described as an existential fact. On this basis it is discussed how humans try to establish a solid basis for living. A rigid and destructive script is explained as a strategy to gain security by the price of reduced quality of living. Uncertainty as an option for stimulation, surprise and personal growth is described as an often-discounted polarity to security. Navigation between both polarities, using intuition, empathy and curiosity, is explained as a competence for a rich life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today we can use physics to describe in great detail many of the phenomena intervening in the process of life. But no analogous unified description exists for the phenomenon of life itself. In spite of their complexity, all living creatures are out of equilibrium chemical systems sharing four fundamental properties: they (1) handle information, (2) metabolize, (3) self-reproduce and (4) evolve. This small number of features, which in terran life are implemented with biochemistry, point to an underlying simplicity that can be taken as a guide to motivate and implement a theoretical physics style unified description of life using tools from the non-equilibrium physical-chemistry of extended systems. Representing a system with general rules is a well stablished approach to model building and unification in physics, and we do this here to provide an abstract mathematical description of life. We start by reviewing the work of previous authors showing how the properties in the above list can be individually represented with stochastic reaction-diffusion kinetics using polynomial reaction terms. These include "switches" and computation, the kinetic representation of autocatalysis, Turing instability and adaptation in the presence of both deterministic and stochastic environments. Thinking of these properties as existing on a space-time lattice each of whose nodes are subject to a common mass-action kinetics compatible with the above, leads to a very rich dynamical system which, just as natural life, unifies the above properties and can therefore be interpreted as a high level or "outside-in" theoretical physics representation of life. Taking advantage of currently available advanced computational techniques and hardware, we compute the phase plane for this dynamical system both in the deterministic and stochastic cases. We do simulations and show numerically how the system works. We review how to extract useful information that can be mapped into emergent physical phenomena and attributes of importance in life such as the presence of a "membrane" or the time evolution of an individual system's negentropy or mass. Once these are available, we illustrate how to perform some basic phenomenology based on the model's numerical predictions. Applying the above to the idealization of the general Cell Division Cycle (CDC) given almost 25 years ago by Hunt and Murray, we show from the numerical simulations how this system executes a form of the idealized CDC. We also briefly discuss various simulations that show how other properties of living systems such as migration towards more favorable regions or the emergence of effective Lotka-Volterra populations are accounted for by this general and unified view from the "top" of the physics of life. The paper ends with some discussion, conclusions, and comments on some selected directions for future research. The mathematical techniques and powerful simulation tools we use are all well established and presented in a "didactical" style. We include a very rich but concise SI where the numerical details are thoroughly discussed in a way that anyone interested in studying or extending the results would be able to do so. • Living systems share small set of properties that can be represented by equations. • Equations involve stochastic reaction-diffusion kinetics of 3 abstract substances. • Mass-action kinetics on a lattice constrains equations to 3 and unifies properties. • Families of solutions generate a cell-division-cycle analogous to natural Life's. • Equations predict presence of membrane, adaptation, chemotaxis, competition, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Network science provides a toolset to study the structural design of living systems. • Interactions between cells and organs can be described with the network formalism. • Advances in imaging techniques enable us to assess morphology of biological systems. • Progress in tissue engineering advances the need for structural connectivity analysis. Technological advances in imaging techniques and biometric data acquisition have enabled us to apply methods of network science to study the morphology and structural design of organelles, organs, and tissues, as well as the coordinated interactions among them that yield a healthy physiology at the level of whole organisms. We here review research dedicated to these advances, in particular focusing on networks between cells, the topology of multicellular structures, neural interactions, fluid transportation networks, and anatomical networks. The percolation of blood vessels, structural connectivity within the brain, the porous structure of bones, and relations between different anatomical parts of the human body are just some of the examples that we explore in detail. We argue and show that the models, methods, and algorithms developed in the realm of network science are ushering in a new era of network-based inquiry into the morphology and structural design of living systems in the broadest possible terms. We also emphasize that the need and applicability of this research is likely to increase significantly in the years to come due to the rapid progress made in the development of bioartificial substitutes and tissue engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central aim of this Special Issue, devoted to a multifocal study of the geometry and phenomenology of the living, is to show the need of working with models that integrate geometrical and topological objects and operations, dynamical variables and specific biological mechanisms and their relationships with one another. A multilevel and integrative approach has essentially to consider the fact that simply knowing the parts list of genes and proteins does not tell us much about how life's many biological processes works. The cellular organization is a complex dynamical system with hundreds of thousands of bio-molecules interacting with one another to execute organism's many related functions. It is argued that the production of complex living organisms owes much of its working to some topological mechanisms (i.e. four-dimensional transformations and deformations) which operate markedly on the three levels of the organization, regulation and evolution of biological systems. Thus, one can speak of a specific topology of the living acting very dynamically on the (non-fixed) substrate space of the physiological and metabolic activities of all complex living organisms. Philosophically, it is now clear that the genetic causality theory has several limitations, both intrinsic because of the multilevel complexity of biological processes, and extrinsic in that it disregards the influence of the phenotype on the genotype and in particular the possibility that certain acquired characteristics can be inherited. In a sense, we can say that the molecular biological conception of recent decades has limited or even misleadingly impacted our vision of the living world. New ideas are needed if we are to succeed in unravelling multifactorial genetic, epigenetic and environmental causation at higher levels of physiological function and so to explain fundamental living phenomena that genetics alone is unable to explain. Some of the most significant conclusions proposed in this issue are that (i) structural plasticity and biological functionality are deeply related, (ii) the biological information and signification is inherently spatial and temporal, it is not unidirectional, and it essentially evolve following a complex and changing network-like organization, (iii) finally, gene ontology is incomplete and it as to be supplied by integrating other fundamental levels of the organization and regulation of the living systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the multiscale modeling of the COVID-19 pandemic and presents further developments of the model [ 7 ] with the aim of showing how relaxations of the confinement rules can generate sequential waves. Subsequently, the dynamics of mutations into new variants can be modeled. Simulations are developed also to support the decision making of crisis managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its discovery by Harold Urey in 1932, deuterium has attracted increased amounts of attention from the scientific community, with many previous works aimed to uncover its biological effects on living organisms. Existing studies indicate that deuterium, as a relatively rare isotope, is indispensable for maintaining normal cellular function, while its enrichment and depletion can affect living systems at multiple levels, including but not limited to molecules, organelles, cells, organs, and organisms. As an important compound of deuterium, deuterium-depleted water (DDW) possess various special effects, including but not limited to altering cellular metabolism and potentially inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, demonstrating anxiolytic-like behavior, enhancing long-term memory in rats, reducing free radical oxidation, regulating lipid metabolism, harmonizing indices related to diabetes and metabolic syndrome, and alleviating toxic effects caused by cadmium, manganese, and other harmful substances, implying its tremendous potential in anticancer, neuroprotective, antiaging, antioxidant, obesity alleviation, diabetes and metabolic syndrome treatment, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification, thereby drawing extensive attention from researchers. This review comprehensively summarizes the latest progress in deuterium acting on living organisms. We start by providing a snapshot of the distribution of deuterium in nature and the tolerance of various organisms to it. Then, we discussed the impact of deuterium excess and deprivation, in the form of deuterium-enriched water (DEW) and deuterium-depleted water (DDW), on living organisms at different levels. Finally, we focused on the potential of DDW as an adjuvant therapeutic agent for various diseases and disorders., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Qu, Xu, Zhao, Xiong, Jing, Lui, Huang and Shi.)

In the last decade, the thermostatted kinetic theory has been proposed as a general paradigm for the modeling of complex systems of the active matter and, in particular, in biology. Homogeneous and inhomogeneous frameworks of the thermostatted kinetic theory have been employed for modeling phenomena that are the result of interactions among the elements, called active particles, composing the system. Functional subsystems contain heterogeneous active particles that are able to perform the same task, called activity. Active matter living systems usually operate out-of-equilibrium; accordingly, a mathematical thermostat is introduced in order to regulate the fluctuations of the activity of particles. The time evolution of the functional subsystems is obtained by introducing the conservative and the nonconservative interactions which represent activity-transition, natural birth/death, induced proliferation/destruction, and mutation of the active particles. This review paper is divided in two parts: In the first part the review deals with the mathematical frameworks of the thermostatted kinetic theory that can be found in the literature of the last decade and a unified approach is proposed; the second part of the review is devoted to the specific mathematical models derived within the thermostatted kinetic theory presented in the last decade for complex biological systems, such as wound healing diseases, the recognition process and the learning dynamics of the human immune system, the hiding-learning dynamics and the immunoediting process occurring during the cancer-immune system competition. Future research perspectives are discussed from the theoretical and application viewpoints, which suggest the important interplay among the different scholars of the applied sciences and the desire of a multidisciplinary approach or rather a theory for the modeling of every active matter system., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)