Interface Focus最新文献

{"title":"Fundamental constraints to the logic of living systems.","authors":"Ricard Solé, Christopher P Kempes, Bernat Corominas-Murtra, Manlio De Domenico, Artemy Kolchinsky, Michael Lachmann, Eric Libby, Serguei Saavedra, Eric Smith, David Wolpert","doi":"10.1098/rsfs.2024.0010","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsfs.2024.0010","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>It has been argued that the historical nature of evolution makes it a highly path-dependent process. Under this view, the outcome of evolutionary dynamics could have resulted in organisms with different forms and functions. At the same time, there is ample evidence that convergence and constraints strongly limit the domain of the potential design principles that evolution can achieve. Are these limitations relevant in shaping the fabric of the possible? Here, we argue that fundamental constraints are associated with the logic of living matter. We illustrate this idea by considering the thermodynamic properties of living systems, the linear nature of molecular information, the cellular nature of the building blocks of life, multicellularity and development, the threshold nature of computations in cognitive systems and the discrete nature of the architecture of ecosystems. In all these examples, we present available evidence and suggest potential avenues towards a well-defined theoretical formulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":13795,"journal":{"name":"Interface Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11503024/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142499863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The logic of monsters: development and morphological diversity in stem-cell-based embryo models.","authors":"Dominica Cao, Sumit Garai, James DiFrisco, Jesse V Veenvliet","doi":"10.1098/rsfs.2024.0023","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsfs.2024.0023","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Organoids and stem-cell-based embryo models (SEMs) are imperfect organ or embryo representations that explore a much larger space of possible forms, or morphospace, compared to their <i>in vivo</i> counterparts. Here, we discuss SEM biology in light of seminal work by Pere Alberch, a leading figure in early evo-devo, interpreting SEMs as developmental 'monstrosities' in the Alberchian sense. Alberch suggested that ordered patterns in aberrant development-i.e. 'the logic of monsters'-reveal developmental constraints on possible morphologies. In the same vein, we detail how SEMs have begun to shed light on structural features of normal development, such as developmental variability, the relative importance of internal versus external constraints, boundary conditions and design principles governing robustness and canalization. We argue that SEMs represent a powerful experimental tool to explore and expand developmental morphospace and propose that the 'monstrosity' of SEMs can be leveraged to uncover the 'hidden' rules and developmental constraints that robustly shape and pattern the embryo.</p>","PeriodicalId":13795,"journal":{"name":"Interface Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11503023/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142499865","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The legacy and evolvability of Pere Alberch's ideas.","authors":"Laura Nuño de la Rosa, Gerd B Müller","doi":"10.1098/rsfs.2024.0011","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsfs.2024.0011","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pere Alberch played a pivotal role in shaping the field of evolutionary developmental biology during the 1980s and 1990s. Whereas initially his contributions were sidelined by the empirical advancements of the molecular revolution in developmental and evolutionary biology, his theoretical insights have left a lasting impact on the discipline. This article provides a comprehensive review of the legacy and evolvability of Alberch's ideas in contemporary evo-devo, which included the study of morphogenesis as the proper level of developmental causation, the interplay between developmental constraints and natural selection, the epistemic role of teratologies, the origin of evolutionary novelties and the concept of evolvability.</p>","PeriodicalId":13795,"journal":{"name":"Interface Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11503022/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142499864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Materials modelling in the University of Limpopo.","authors":"Phuti E Ngoepe, Alan V Chadwick, Happy M Sithole, Khotso D K Mokhele, C Richard A Catlow","doi":"10.1098/rsfs.2024.0005","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsfs.2024.0005","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article provides insights into building research capacity in computational modelling of materials at the University of Limpopo (UL), formerly University of the North, in South Africa, through a collaboration with a consortium of universities in the United Kingdom (UK) through the support of the National Research Foundation (NRF), formerly the Foundation for Research and Development, and the Royal Society (RS). A background that led to the choice of building research capacity at historically disadvantaged universities in South Africa, including the UL, is given. The <i>modus operandi</i> of the collaboration between the UL and several UK universities on computational modelling of materials is outlined, together with the scientific highlights that were achieved in themes of minerals, energy storage and alloy development. The capacity built in terms of human capital and institutions set up is shared, which is followed by a discussion of the continuing research activities after the formal NRF-RS collaboration ceased with more alignment to industrial applications with national and international support. We conclude by highlighting the success of the project in capacity-building and consolidating the Materials Modelling Centre with developments of high-performance computing in South Africa and the African continent. We comment on the lessons learned regarding successful capacity-building programmes.</p>","PeriodicalId":13795,"journal":{"name":"Interface Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11310708/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141916624","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring the West African forest island phenomenon: scientific insights gained, successes achieved and capacities strengthened","authors":"Vincent Logah, J. Azeez, H. Compaore, S. Mesele, C. M. Ocansey, A. Bougma, E. N. Tetteh, E. Veenendaal, Jonathan Lloyd","doi":"10.1098/rsfs.2023.0078","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2023.0078","url":null,"abstract":"Anthropogenic activities around local villages in mesic savanna landscapes of West Africa have resulted in soil improvement and forest establishment outside their climatic zones. Such unique ‘forest islands’ have been reported to provide ecosystem services including biodiversity conservation. However, the science underpinning their formations is limitedly studied. In 2015 and with funding support from the Royal Society-DFID (now FCDO), we set out to investigate the biogeochemistry of the forest islands in comparison with adjacent natural savanna and farmlands across 11 locations in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Nigeria. Our results showed that the forest islands do not differ significantly from the adjoining ecosystems in soil mineralogy implying that their formation was anthropogenically driven. We observed greater soil organic carbon and nutrient distributions in the forest islands, which also had more stable macro (>500 μm) and meso-aggregates (500–250 μm) than the adjoining agricultural lands. We found that soil micro-aggregate (250–53 μm) stability was climate (precipitation) driven in the West African ecosystems while meso- and macro-aggregate stability was land-use driven. In one of the unique forest islands we studied in the Mole National Park of Ghana, we found its mineral-associated organic carbon over 40% greater than the adjoining natural savanna with potential implications for the achievement of the global initiative of the ‘4p1000’ in West Africa. We conclude that the North–South–South research collaboration has established clearly, the science underlying the age-long West African forest island phenomenon and has, among many successes, led to capacity building of young scientists driving cutting-edge research in climate change adaptation and food systems transformation in the sub-region.","PeriodicalId":13795,"journal":{"name":"Interface Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141923145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"RS-DFID Africa capacity-building initiative programme grant: harnessing unsteady phase-change heat exchange in high-performance concentrated solar power systems.","authors":"Benedict Winchester, Abdullah M Maghrabi, Christos N Markides","doi":"10.1098/rsfs.2023.0059","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsfs.2023.0059","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Royal Society and UK Department for International Development supported a consortium of three universities across sub-Saharan Africa and Imperial College London with the aim of developing new knowledge on direct-steam-generation concentrated solar power (CSP) plants and supporting relevant capacity building across the Universities of Lagos, Mauritius and Pretoria. Key research findings from the programme include an improved flow-classification scheme for two-phase, liquid-liquid flows; testing of advanced surfaces with much-improved steady-state heat transfer performance-the commercial nanoFLUX surface showed up to 200% higher heat-transfer coefficients (HTCs) in pool boiling compared with other surfaces with R-134a/R-245fa; first-of-a-kind measurements of transient flow boiling HTCs, which were up to 30% lower in step perturbations than quasi-steady-state expectations in horizontal pipes with R-245fa; error estimation and corrections for laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) measurements, leading to the development of an adapted planar LIF technique with uncertainty <10% for local, instantaneous film thickness measurements in annular flows, and the application of such diagnostic methods to pool, falling-film and flow boiling in pipes; and predictions of an ~80% increase in the net present value of a case-study CSP plant when integrated with solid storage media.</p>","PeriodicalId":13795,"journal":{"name":"Interface Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11310711/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141916626","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Creating sustainable capacity for river science in the Congo basin through the CRuHM project.","authors":"Paul D Bates, Raphaël M Tshimanga, Mark A Trigg, Andy Carr, C A Mushi, Pierre M Kabuya, Gode Bola, Jeff Neal, Preksedis Nbomba, Felix Mtalo, Denis Hughes","doi":"10.1098/rsfs.2023.0079","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsfs.2023.0079","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this article, we examine the scientific and sustainable research capacity outcomes of the 'Congo River: user Hydraulics and Morphology' or CRuHM project, a six-year effort supported by the Royal Society's Africa Capacity Building Initiative. This project brought together a consortium of African and UK universities to undertake the first large-scale scientific expeditions to the Congo basin of the modern era in order to better understand the hydraulics and geomorphology of this understudied but globally important river. The river is essential for navigation, irrigation, drinking water and hydroelectric power generation for the 10 basin countries and is critically important for biodiversity and global nutrient, carbon and climatological cycles. This article summarizes the new scientific understanding contributed by the project and the steps taken to ensure a meaningful legacy that would continue long beyond the finite lifetime of available funding. Actions taken to achieve this include establishing a new hydrology research centre at the University of Kinshasa as well as steps to build a wider international community of Congo basin researchers. In this way, we hope to build momentum for future funding initiatives and collaboration.</p>","PeriodicalId":13795,"journal":{"name":"Interface Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11310709/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141916622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Capacity building in porous materials research for sustainable energy applications.","authors":"Henrietta W Langmi, Nicholas M Musyoka, Justin C Kemmegne-Mbouguen, Chrispin Kowenje, Fredrick Kengara, Robert Mokaya","doi":"10.1098/rsfs.2023.0067","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsfs.2023.0067","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The project aimed to develop porous materials for sustainable energy applications, namely, hydrogen storage, and valorization of biomass to renewable fuels. At the core of the project was a training programme for Africa-based researchers in (i) the exploitation of renewable locally available raw materials; (ii) the use of advanced state-of-the-art techniques for the design and synthesis of porous materials (zeolites and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)) for energy storage; and (iii) the valorization of sustainable low-value feedstock to renewable fuels. We found that compaction of the UiO-66 MOF at high pressure improves volumetric hydrogen storage capacity without any loss in gravimetric uptake, and experimentally demonstrated the temperature-dependent dynamic behaviour of UiO-66, which allowed us to propose an activation temperature of ≤ 150°C for UiO-66. Co-pelletization was used to fabricate UiO-66/nanofibre monoliths as hierarchical porous materials with enhanced usable (i.e. deliverable) hydrogen storage capacity. We clarified the use of naturally occurring kaolin as a source of silica and alumina species for zeolite synthesis. The kaolin-derived zeolite X was successfully used as a catalyst for the transesterification of <i>Jatropha curcas</i> oil (from non-edible biomass) to biodiesel. We also prepared porous composites (i.e. carbon/UiO-66, organoclay/UiO-66 and zeolite/carbon) that were successfully applied in electrochemical sensing.</p>","PeriodicalId":13795,"journal":{"name":"Interface Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11310698/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141916620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Chem4Energy: a consortium of the Royal Society Africa Capacity-Building Initiative.","authors":"Marietjie J Ungerer, Evans Adei, Theopolina Amakali, Cecil H Botchway, Likius S Daniel, James Darkwa, Nelson Y Dzade, Foster Mbaiwa, Mary Mensah, Maipelo Nyepetsi, Banothile Makhubela, Claire E Mitchell, Oluwasegun Emmanuel Olaoye, Olayinka A Oyetunji, Meenakshisundaram Sankar, Fortunate P Sejie, Jacobina Sheehama, Richard Tia, Veikko Uahengo, Aleksandar Živković, Nora H De Leeuw","doi":"10.1098/rsfs.2024.0001","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsfs.2024.0001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Africa Capacity-Building Initiative is a Royal Society programme funded by the former UK Department for International Development to develop collaborative research between scientists in sub-Saharan Africa and the UK. Initially, four institutions were involved in the Chem4Energy consortium: Cardiff University in the UK and three African partners, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, the University of Namibia and the University of Botswana, soon also including the Botswana International University of Science and Technology. The Chem4Energy research programme focused on 'New materials for a sustainable energy future: linking computation with experiment', aiming to deploy the synergy between state-of-the-art computational and experimental techniques to design and optimize new catalysts and semiconductor materials for renewable energy applications, based on materials that are abundant and readily available in African countries. The Chem4Energy consortium has achieved ambitious research goals, graduated seven PhD students and delivered a high-quality cross-disciplinary training programme in materials science and simulation techniques relevant to renewable energy applications. Since 2021, the extended consortium, including North-West University and the Centre for High-Performance Computing in South Africa, has remained active through an annual Chem4Energy conference series, with the sixth meeting taking place in Namibia in April 2025.</p>","PeriodicalId":13795,"journal":{"name":"Interface Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11310705/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141916621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Doctoral training to support sustainable soil geochemistry research in Africa.","authors":"M G Manzeke-Kangara, I S Ligowe, B Kaninga, P Nalivata, V Kabambe, E Mbewe, B H Chishala, G M Sakala, P Mapfumo, F Mtambanengwe, T Tendayi, A Murwira, A D C Chilimba, F P Phiri, E L Ander, E H Bailey, R M Lark, K Millar, M J Watts, S D Young, M R Broadley","doi":"10.1098/rsfs.2023.0058","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rsfs.2023.0058","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Africa's potential for scientific research is not yet being realized, for various reasons including a lack of researchers in many fields and insufficient funding. Strengthened research capacity through doctoral training programmes in higher education institutes (HEIs) in Africa, to include collaboration with national, regional and international research institutions, can facilitate self-reliant and sustainable research to support socio-economic development. In 2012, the Royal Society and the UK's Department for International Development (now the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) launched the Africa Capacity Building Initiative (ACBI) Doctoral Training Network which aimed to strengthen research capacity and training across sub-Saharan Africa. The ACBI supported 30 core PhD scholarships, all registered/supervised within African HEIs with advisory support from the UK-based institutes. Our 'Soil geochemistry to inform agriculture and health policies' consortium project, which was part of the ACBI doctoral training programme network, was implemented in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe between 2014 and 2020. The aims of our consortium were to explore linkages between soil geochemistry, agriculture and public health for increased crop productivity, nutrition and safety of food systems and support wider training and research activities in soil science. Highlights from our consortium included: (i) the generation of new scientific evidence on linkages between soils, crops and human nutrition; (ii) securing new projects to translate science into policy and practice; and (iii) maintaining sustainable collaborative learning across the consortium. Our consortium delivered high-quality science outputs and secured new research and doctoral training funding from a variety of sources to ensure the continuation of research and training activities. For example, follow-on Global Challenges Research Funded Translation Award provided a strong evidence base on the prevalence of deficiencies in children under 5 years of age and women of reproductive age in Zimbabwe. This new evidence will contribute towards the design and implementation of a nationally representative micronutrient survey as an integral part of the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Surveys conducted by the Ministry of Health and Child Care. The award also generated new evidence and a road map for creating quality innovative doctorates through a doctoral training landscape activity led by the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education. Although our project and the wider ACBI has contributed to increasing the self-reliance and sustainability of research within the region, many challenges remain and ongoing investment is required.</p>","PeriodicalId":13795,"journal":{"name":"Interface Focus","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2024-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11310714/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141916623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}