Taylor's law on abundance unravels the role of traits and environmental conditions on population dynamics.

The variance-mean scaling in population abundance or Taylor's power law (TPL) has been reported hundreds of times and is related to ecological processes such as competition, dispersal or territoriality. In this sense, the TPL was extensively validated to resume population variability and to show the action of ecological mechanisms. Baumgartner and Peláez (2024) combine databases of fish dynamics along the United States, species traits, species phylogeny and climatic conditions, estimating the TPL for 180 species along 972 populations. The observed scaling suggests that the variability of the population decreases with abundance. Notably, 68% of the variation in the variance-mean scaling was explained by species traits and environmental conditions. Specifically, the life history of the species, associated with its body size, was the main explanation for the TPL, also reporting that the variability of the population increased faster with mean abundance in the headwaters than in other river sections. Equally important, the diversity of the community in which the species were inserted did not affect the scaling. These results provide overwhelming evidence on the nature of TPL on large geographic scales and how they are affected by species biology and environmental conditions. A contribution that should motivate further empirical and theoretical analysis of the TPL and its determinants.

El escalamiento en varianza con la media de la abundancia poblacional, ha sido reportado en cientos de sistemas y es conocido como Ley Poder de Taylor (TPL, de sus siglas en inglés). Este escalamiento se ha relacionado con la importancia de la competencia, dispersión o territorialidad, resumiendo la dinámica poblacional y su conexión con distintos mecanismos ecológicos. El estudio publicado por Baumgartner y Peláez (2024) combina bases de datos de dinámica de peces en los Estados Unidos de América, de sus rasgos, filogenia y ambientales, estimando la TPL para un total de 180 especies a lo largo de 972 poblaciones. El escalamiento observado sugiere que la variabilidad disminuye con la abundancia de las poblaciones. Notablemente, el 68% de la variación en el escalamiento fue explicado por los rasgos de las especies (historia de vida y tamaño corporal) y las condiciones ambientales. Aumentando más rápidamente la variabilidad en la dinámica poblacional con la abundancia media en las cabeceras que en otras secciones del río. Igualmente importante fue la falta de efectos significativos de la biodiversidad de la comunidad sobre el escalamiento varianza­media de sus poblaciones. Estos resultados proporcionan una contundente evidencia sobre la naturaleza de la TPL en grandes escalas geográficas y cómo se ve afectada por la biología de las especies y las condiciones ambientales. Resultados y abordajes que sugieren futuros análisis empíricos y teóricos sobre la TPL y sus determinantes.

Evaluation of 1,9-Dimethyl-Methylene Blue nanoencapsulation using rhamnolipid nanoparticles to potentiate the Photodynamic Therapy technique in Candida albicans: In vitro study.

With the rapid development of nanotechnology, various functional nanomaterials have shown exciting potential in biomedical areas such as drug delivery, antitumor, and antibacterial therapy. These nanomaterials improve the stability and selectivity of loaded drugs, reduce drug-induced side effects, realize controlled and targeted drug release, and increase therapeutic efficacy. The increased resistance to antifungal microbicides in medical practice and their side effects stimulate interest in new therapies, such as Photodynamic Therapy (PDT), which do not generate resistance in microorganisms and effectively control the pathology. The present study aimed to evaluate, in vitro, the efficacy of photodynamic therapy on Candida albicans using 1,9-Dimethyl-Methylene Blue (DMMB) as photosensitizer, red LED (λ630), and nanoencapsulation of DMMB (RL-NPs/DMMB) using rhamnolipids produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa to evaluate if there is better performance of DMMB + RL particles compared to DMMB alone via the characterization of DMMB + RL and colony forming count. The tests were carried out across six experimental groups (Control, DMMB, RL-NPs, RL-NPs/DMMB, PDT and PDT + RL-NPs/DMMB) using in the groups with nanoparticles, DMMB (750 ng/mL) encapsulated with rhamnolipids in a 1:1 ratio, the light source consisted of a prototype built with a set of red LEDs with an energy density of 20 J/cm2. The results showed that applying PDT combined with encapsulation (RL-NPs/DMMB) was a more practical approach to inhibit Candida albicans (2 log reduction) than conventional applications, with a possible clinical application protocol.

The predictive model of hydrobiological diversity in the Asana-Tumilaca basin, Peru based on water physicochemical parameters and sediment metal content.

The hydrobiological diversity in the basin depends on biotic and abiotic factors. A predictive model of hydrobiological diversity for periphyton and macrobenthos was developed through multiple linear regression analysis (MLRA) based on the physicochemical parameters of water (PPW) and metal content in sediments (MCS) from eight monitoring stations in the Asana-Tumilaca Basin during the dry and wet seasons. The electrical conductivity presented values between 47.9 and 3617 µS/cm, showing the highest value in the Capillune River due to the influence of geothermal waters. According to Piper's diagram, the water in the basin had a composition of calcium sulfate and calcium bicarbonate-sulfate. According to the Wilcox diagram, the water was found to be between good and very good quality, except for in the Capillune River. The Shannon-Wiener diversity indices (H') were 2.62 and 2.88 for periphyton, and 2.10 and 2.44 for macrobenthos, indicating moderate diversity; for the Pielou's evenness index (J'), they were 0.68 and 0.70 for periphyton, and 0.68 and 0.59 for macrobenthos, indicating similar equity, in the dry and wet seasons, respectively, for both indices. In the model there were three cases, where the first two cases only worked with PPW or MCS, and case 3 worked with PPW and MCS. For case 3, the predicted values for H' and J' of periphyton and macrobenthos concerning those observed presented correlation coefficients of 0.7437 and 0.6523 for periphyton and 0.9321 and 0.8570 for macrobenthos, respectively, which were better than those of cases 1 and 2. In addition, principal component analysis revealed that the As, Pb, and Zn contents in the sediments negatively influenced the diversity, uniformity, and richness of the macrobenthos. In contrast, Cu and Cr had positive impacts because of the adaptation processes.

Spinning Reactors for Process Intensification of Flow Photochemistry.

The design of new and more sustainable synthetic protocols to access new materials or valuable compounds will have a high impact on the broader chemistry community. In this sense, continuous-flow photochemistry has emerged as a powerful technique which has been employed successfully in various areas such as biopharma, organic chemistry, as well as materials science. However, it is important to note that chemical processes must not only advance towards new or improved chemical transformations, but also implement new technologies that enable new process opportunities. For this reason, the design of novel photoreactors is key to advancing photochemical strategies. In this sense, the use of equipment and techniques embracing processes intensification is important in developing more sustainable protocols. Among the most recent applications, spinning continuous flow reactors, such as rotor reactors or vortex reactors, have shown promising performance as new synthetic tools. Nevertheless, there is currently no review in the literature that effectively summarizes and showcases the most recent applications of such type of photoreactors. Herein, we highlight fundamental aspects and applications of two categories of spinning reactors, the Spinning Disc Reactors (SDRs) and Thin Film Vortex reactors, critiquing the scope and limitations of these advanced processing technologies. Further, we take a view on the future of spinning reactors in flow as a synthetic toolbox to explore new photochemical transformations.

Tuning into Harmut Rosa's systematic romanticism.

The article reconstructs the intellectual itinerary of the German social theorist Hartmut Rosa. It follows the development of his oeuvre, from his doctoral thesis on Charles Taylor and his book on social acceleration to his more recent work on resonance and responsivity. It shows that throughout the four phases of his career, the social philosophy of Charles Taylor has had a decisive influence on his philosophical anthropology, theory of society and moral sociology. It calls for a new rapprochement between the different generations of critical theory to think through societal pathologies without giving up on the promises of modernity.

O problema do naturalismo na psicologia da religião de William James segundo Charles Taylor / The problem of naturalism in William James's psychology of religion according to Charles Taylor

A partir da obra de Charles Taylor, tratamos das repercussões do naturalismo na obra de William James. Primeiro apresentamos a noção tayloriana de naturalismo (ético-moral), ao que ele contrapõe sua teoria hermenêutica. A seguir, tratamos do conceito jamesiano de experiência religiosa e discorremos sobre suas principais características apontadas por Taylor. Em seguida, apresentamos as críticas de Taylor a esse conceito e discutimos em que sentido James teria esposado algumas das teses do naturalismo ético-moral.

Starting from the work of Charles Taylor, we deal with the repercussions of naturalism in the works of William James. First, we present Taylor's notion of naturalism (ethical-moral), to which he opposes his hermeneutic theory. Next, we deal with the Jamesian concept of religious experience and discuss its main characteristics pointed out by Taylor. Then, we present Taylor's criticisms of this concept and discuss in what sense James would have espoused some of the theses of ethical-moral naturalism.

Interactions of Sodium Salicylate with ß-Cyclodextrin and an Anionic Resorcin[4]arene: Mutual Diffusion Coefficients and Computational Study.

The interaction between sodium salicylate (NaSal) and the two macrocycles 5,11,17,23-tetrakissulfonatomethylene-2,8,14,20-tetra(ethyl)resorcinarene (Na4EtRA) and ß-cyclodextrin (ß-CD) has been studied by the determination of ternary mutual diffusion coefficients, and spectroscopic and computational techniques. The results obtained by the Job method suggest that the complex formation is given in a 1:1 ratio for all systems. The mutual diffusion coefficients and the computational experiments have shown that the ß-CD-NaSal system presents an inclusion process, whereas the Na4EtRA-NaSal system forms an outer-side complex. This fact is also in line with the results obtained from the computational experiments, where the calculated solvation free energy has been found to be more negative for the Na4EtRA-NaSal complex because of the partial entry of the drug inside the Na4EtRA cavity.

Evaluation of dual application of photodynamic therapy-PDT in Candida albicans.

This study aimed to evaluate, in vitro, the efficacy of photodynamic therapy - PDT using dimethyl methylene blue zinc chloride double salt (DMMB) and red LED light on planktonic cultures of Candida albicans. The tests were performed using the ATCC 90,028 strain grown at 37 °C for 24 h, according to a growth curve of C. albicans. The colonies were resuspended in sterile saline adjusted to a concentration of 2 × 108 cells / mL, with three experimental protocols being tested (Protocol 1, 2 and 3) with a fixed concentration of 750 ɳg/mL obtained through the IC50, and energy density 20 J/cm2. Protocol 1 was carried out using conventional PDT, Protocol 2 was applied double PDT in a single session, and Protocol 3 was applied double PDT in two sessions with a 24 h interval. The results showed logarithmic reductions of 3 (4.252575 ± 0.068526) and 4 logs (2.669533 ± 0.058592) of total fungal load in protocols 3 and 2 respectively in comparison to the Control (6.633547 ± 0.065384). Our results indicated that double application in a single session of PDT was the most effective approach for inhibiting the proliferation of Candida albicans (99.991% inhibition).

O problema do naturalismo na psicologia da religião de William James segundo Charles Taylor / The problem of naturalism in William James’s psychology of religion according to Charles Taylor

A partir da obra de Charles Taylor, tratamos das repercussões do naturalismo na obra de William James. Primeiro apresentamos a noção tayloriana de naturalismo (ético-moral), ao que ele contrapõe sua teoria hermenêutica. A seguir, tratamos do conceito jamesiano de experiência religiosa e discorremos sobre suas principais características apontadas por Taylor. Em seguida, apresentamos as críticas de Taylor a esse conceito e discutimos em que sentido James teria esposado algumas das teses do naturalismo ético-moral. (AU)

Starting from the work of Charles Taylor, we deal with the repercussions of naturalism in the works of William James. First, we present Taylor’s notion of naturalism (ethical-moral), to which he opposes his hermeneutic theory. Next, we deal with the Jamesian concept of religious experience and discuss its main characteristics pointed out by Taylor. Then, we present Taylor’s criticisms of this concept and discuss in what sense James would have espoused some of the theses of ethical-moral naturalism. (AU)

Brazilian version of the Jebsen Taylor Hand Function test: An observational cross-sectional study on standardization, reliability and normative data.

STUDY DESIGN: This is an observational cross-sectional study. BACKGROUND: To assess dexterity and hand function, it is important to use validated performance-based outcome measures, such as the Jebsen Taylor Hand Function test (JTHFT). There is no previous study that has used this test in asymptomatic individuals to establish normal values for the Brazilian population, or to assess its reliability. PURPOSE: The first aim of the study was to provide a standardized illustrated manual of the Brazilian version of the JTHFT. The second aim was to evaluate JTHFT test-retest reliability in asymptomatic adults, and the third aim was to determine normative values. METHODS: This study consists of 236 individuals aged 18-60 years, of both sexes, asymptomatic for pain or injury in the upper limbs. An illustrated manual of instructions was developed in Portuguese, test-retest reliability was assessed by determining the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and to evaluate the average of the correlations between the items, the Cronbach Alpha coefficient was used. The standard error of measurements of the test and retest of the JTHFT subtasks was also performed. RESULTS: The Cronbach Alpha coefficient, resulted in acceptable average values 0.75 for the dominant hand and 0.76 for the nondominant hand. JTHFT subtests reveal moderate to excellent test-retest reliability, varying from 0.53, 95% CI: 0.39-0.64; to 0.93, 95% CI: 0.91-0.95 for the dominant hand, and for the nondominant hand 0.66, 95%: 0.57-0.74; to 0.92, 95% CI: 0.90-0.94. CONCLUSION: JTHFT is reliable for a Brazilian sample in terms of test-retest measures and can be used both in research and in clinical practice. A standardized illustrated manual of application was provided.

Variance in Landscape Connectivity Shifts Microbial Population Scaling.

Understanding mechanisms shaping distributions and interactions of soil microbes is essential for determining their impact on large scale ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, climate regulation, waste decomposition, and nutrient cycling. As the functional unit of soil ecosystems, we focus our attention on the spatial structure of soil macroaggregates. Emulating this complex physico-chemical environment as a patchy habitat landscape we investigate on-chip the effect of changing the connectivity features of this landscape as Escherichia coli forms a metapopulation. We analyze the distributions of E. coli occupancy using Taylor's law, an empirical law in ecology which asserts that the fluctuations in populations is a power law function of the mean. We provide experimental evidence that bacterial metapopulations in patchy habitat landscapes on microchips follow this law. Furthermore, we find that increased variance of patch-corridor connectivity leads to a qualitative transition in the fluctuation scaling. We discuss these results in the context of the spatial ecology of microbes in soil.

Broken Bar Fault Detection Using Taylor-Fourier Filters and Statistical Analysis.

Broken rotor bars in induction motors make up one of the typical fault types that are challenging to detect. This type of damage can provoke adverse effects on the motors, such as mechanical and electrical stresses, together with an increase in electricity consumption, causing higher operative costs and losses related to the maintenance times or even the motor replacement if the damage has led to a complete failure. To prevent such situations, diverse signal processing algorithms have been applied to incipient fault detection, using different variables to analyze, such as vibrations, current, or flux. To counteract the broken rotor bar damage, this paper focuses on a motor current signal analysis for early broken bar detection and classification by using the digital Taylor-Fourier transform (DTFT), whose implementation allows fine filtering and amplitude estimation with the final purpose of achieving an incipient fault detection. The detection is based on an analysis of variance followed by a Tukey test of the estimated amplitude. The proposed methodology is implemented in Matlab using the O-splines of the DTFT to reduce the computational load compared with other methods. The analysis is focused on groups of 50-test of current signals corresponding to different damage levels for a motor operating at 50% and 75% of its full load.

Validation and application of the lattice Boltzmann algorithm for a turbulent immiscible Rayleigh-Taylor system.

We develop a multicomponent lattice Boltzmann (LB) model for the two-dimensional Rayleigh-Taylor turbulence with a Shan-Chen pseudopotential implemented on GPUs. In the immiscible case, this method is able to accurately overcome the inherent numerical complexity caused by the complicated structure of the interface that appears in the fully developed turbulent regime. The accuracy of the LB model is tested both for early and late stages of instability. For the developed turbulent motion, we analyse the balance between different terms describing variations of the kinetic and potential energies. Then we analyse the role of the interface in the energy balance and also the effects of the vorticity induced by the interface in the energy dissipation. Statistical properties are compared for miscible and immiscible flows. Our results can also be considered as a first validation step to extend the application of LB model to three-dimensional immiscible Rayleigh-Taylor turbulence. This article is part of the theme issue 'Progress in mesoscale methods for fluid dynamics simulation'.

Sequential and Binomial Sampling Plans to Estimate Thrips tabaci Population Density on Onion.

Thrips tabaci Lindeman is a worldwide onion pest that causes economic losses of 10-60%, depending on many factors. Population sampling is essential for applying control tactics and preventing damage by the insect. Conventional sampling methods are criticized as time consuming, while fixed-precision binomial and sequential sampling plans may allow reliable estimations with a more efficient use of time. The aim of this work was to develop binomial and sequential sampling for fast reliable estimation of T. tabaci density on an onion. Forty-one commercial 1.0-ha onion plots were sampled (sample size n = 200) to characterize the spatial distribution of T. tabaci using Taylor's power law (a = 2.586 and b = 1.511). Binomial and sequential enumerative sampling plans were then developed with precision levels of 0.10, 0.15 and 0.25. Sampling plans were validated with bootstrap simulations (1000 samples) using 10 independent data sets. Bootstrap simulation indicated that precision was satisfactory for all repetitions of the sequential sampling plan, while binomial sampling met the fixed precision in 80% of cases. Both methods reduced sampling time by around 80% relative to conventional sampling. These precise and less time-consuming sampling methods can contribute to implementation of control tactics within the integrated pest management approach.

The novel Leal-polynomials for the multi-expansive approximation of nonlinear differential equations.

This work presents the novel Leal-polynomials (LP) for the approximation of nonlinear differential equations of different kind. The main characteristic of LPs is that they satisfy multiple expansion points and its derivatives as a mechanism to replicate behaviour of the nonlinear problem, giving more accuracy within the region of interest. Therefore, the main contribution of this work is that LP satisfies the successive derivatives in some specific points, resulting more accurate polynomials than Taylor expansion does for the same degree of their respective polynomials. Such characteristic makes of LPs a handy and powerful tool to approximate different kind of differential equations including: singular problems, initial condition and boundary-valued problems, equations with discontinuities, coupled differential equations, high-order equations, among others. Additionally, we show how the process to obtain the polynomials is straightforward and simple to implement; generating a compact, and easy to compute, expression. Even more, we present the process to approximate Gelfand's equation, an equation of an isothermal reaction, a model for chronic myelogenous leukemia, Thomas-Fermi equation, and a high order nonlinear differential equations with discontinuities getting, as result, accurate, fast and compact approximate solutions. In addition, we present the computational convergence and error studies for LPs resulting convergent polynomials and error tendency to zero as the order of LPs increases for all study cases. Finally, a study of CPU time shows that LPs require a few nano-seconds to be evaluated, which makes them suitable for intensive computing applications.

Remote sensing assessment of oil spills near a damaged platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

An oil platform in the Mississippi Canyon 20 (MC-20) site was damaged by Hurricane Ivan in September 2004. In this study, we use medium- to high-resolution (10-30 m) optical remote sensing imagery to systematically assess oil spills near this site for the period between 2004 and 2016. Image analysis detects no surface oil in 2004, but ~40% of the cloud-free images in 2005 show oil slicks, and this number increases to ~70% in 2006-2011, and >80% since 2012. For all cloud-free images from 2005 through 2016 (including those without oil slicks), delineated oil slicks show an average oil coverage of 14.9 km2/image, with an estimated oil discharge rate of 48 to ~1700 barrels/day, and a cumulative oil-contaminated area of 1900 km2 around the MC-20 site. Additional analysis suggests that the detected oil slick distribution can be largely explained by surface currents, winds, and density fronts.

Mal-estar, autenticidade e religião em Charles Taylor / Malaise, authenticity and religion in Charles Taylor

O filósofo Charles Taylor destaca a perspectiva moral por meio de uma história da formação da subjetividade moderna. Segundo ele, tal perspectiva pode iluminar alguns dos seus mal-estares: o individualismo moral e a crise dos significados da secularização,além da persistência ambígua da religião na organização da vida pública contemporânea.Ao sentido desse movimento profundo da moral ocidental, Taylor dá o nome de ética da autenticidade, cujo valor positivo é contraposto a essa degradação através desses três sinais de decadência e sintomas de mal-estar. O objetivo do artigo é explorar a ambiguidade presente na modernidade conforme descrita por Taylor. Guiando-nos pelas relações entre autenticidade e religião, exploramos os temas do individualismo moderno,dos significados da secularização e do impacto da religião na formação política do Ocidente. (AU)

The philosopher Charles Taylor highlights the moral perspective in his history of the formation of modern subjectivity. According to him, such a perspective can illuminate some of its malaise: the moral individualism, the crisis of meanings of secularization and the ambiguous persistence of religion in the organization of contemporary life. The meaning of this deep movement of Western morality, Taylor calls it the ethics of authenticity, whose positive value is contrasted with its degradation through these three signs of decay and symptoms of malaise. The article explores this ambiguity present in modernity, guided by the relations between authenticity and religion. According to Taylor, modern freedom eroded religious imposition in the moral, scientific, and politicalfields. The challenge, according to him, is to recover the scope of moral or political goods that extrapolate an ethics of degraded authenticity, without, however, refusing its legitimacy or counteracting its profound movement.(AU)

Mal-estar, autenticidade e religião em Charles Taylor / Malaise, authenticity and religion in Charles Taylor

O filósofo Charles Taylor destaca a perspectiva moral por meio de uma história da formação da subjetividade moderna. Segundo ele, tal perspectiva pode iluminar alguns dos seus mal-estares: o individualismo moral e a crise dos significados da secularização, além da persistência ambígua da religião na organização da vida pública contemporânea. Ao sentido desse movimento profundo da moral ocidental, Taylor dá o nome de ética da autenticidade, cujo valor positivo é contraposto a essa degradação através desses três sinais de decadência e sintomas de mal-estar. O objetivo do artigo é explorar a ambiguidade presente na modernidade conforme descrita por Taylor. Guiando-nos pelas relações entre autenticidade e religião, exploramos os temas do individualismo moderno, dos significados da secularização e do impacto da religião na formação política do Ocidente.

The philosopher Charles Taylor highlights the moral perspective in his history of the formation of modern subjectivity. According to him, such a perspective can illuminate some of its malaise: the moral individualism, the crisis of meanings of secularization and the ambiguous persistence of religion in the organization of contemporary life. The meaning of this deep movement of Western morality, Taylor calls it the ethics of authenticity, whose positive value is contrasted with its degradation through these three signs of decay and symptoms of malaise. The article explores this ambiguity present in modernity, guided by the relations between authenticity and religion. According to Taylor, modern freedom eroded religious imposition in the moral, scientific, and political fields. The challenge, according to him, is to recover the scope of moral or political goods that extrapolate an ethics of degraded authenticity, without, however, refusing its legitimacy or counteracting its profound movement.

Deformity correction in Haiti with the Taylor Spatial Frame.

The Taylor Spatial Frame (TSF) is an external-fixator that corrects deformities in 6 axes, and can successfully manage disorders involving multiplanar deformities. In the developing-world, orthopaedic surgeons are often faced with deformities from neglected trauma and birth defects more severe than those typically seen in developed-countries. This article evaluates the applicability of TSF in the challenging medical environment of Haiti. At Haiti Adventist Hospital, the authors treated 80 cases using the TSF with a minimum follow-up of 1-year. Good results were observed in 99% of the cases (79 out of 80), approaching similar outcomes than those described in literature.

Modified Taylor series method for solving nonlinear differential equations with mixed boundary conditions defined on finite intervals.

ABSTRACT: In this article, we propose the application of a modified Taylor series method (MTSM) for the approximation of nonlinear problems described on finite intervals. The issue of Taylor series method with mixed boundary conditions is circumvented using shooting constants and extra derivatives of the problem. In order to show the benefits of this proposal, three different kinds of problems are solved: three-point boundary valued problem (BVP) of third-order with a hyperbolic sine nonlinearity, two-point BVP for a second-order nonlinear differential equation with an exponential nonlinearity, and a two-point BVP for a third-order nonlinear differential equation with a radical nonlinearity. The result shows that the MTSM method is capable to generate easily computable and highly accurate approximations for nonlinear equations. AMS SUBJECT CLASSIFICATION: 34L30.