Biosystems

Climate control for housed animals is of substantial importance but it is also a difficult and complicated task. The animals in a livestock building affect temperature and humidity conditions inside the building in a non-linear way, and add long time constants to the system response. Moreover, the inherent coupling of temperature and humidity through psychrometric laws as well as the thermally dynamic nature of livestock buildings suggest that disturbance attenuation (load control of external environmental conditions, heat emanated by the animals and water-vapour production of animals) is far more important than is the case of other types of buildings. To settle these concerns, a non-linear control design method, resulting in an inherently robust adaptive non-linear proportional integral control law for simultaneous temperature/humidity control of livestock buildings in both summer and winter conditions, is presented in this paper. The proposed method, successfully tested here through extensive simulation, relies on: (a) a model-based feedback/feed-forward compensation of measured external disturbances on the basis of input–output linearisation, decoupling and Lyapunov theory; (b) a robust non-linear compensation of unknown external system disturbances and parametric uncertainties, on the basis of non-linear damping terms, to guarantee small output deviations from desired set-point values; and (c) an adaptive non-linear control law incorporating integral action to cope for parametric model uncertainty and unknown disturbances and to guarantee zero steady-state offset in the system response. Its ability to track varying set-points provides the possibility to combine it with higher level control modules useful for the transformation of user-defined settings for temperature and humidity into feasible controller set-points, taking into account the constraints imposed by the capacities of the actuators, the psychrometric laws, animal welfare, etc. The proposed method is applicable to any air-conditioning system and is expected to gain wide acceptance in modern climate control systems.

Because most recent treatments of the protists (‘lower’ eukaryotes comprising the kingdom PROTISTA Haeckel, 1866) have been preoccupied with either a ‘phylogenetic-tree’ approach or a discussion of the impact of possible endosymbiotic origins of major intracellular organelles, the overall systematics of the group, from taxonomic and nomenclatural points of view, has been almost totally neglected. As a result, confusion over contained phyla, their places in a classification scheme, and even their names (and authorships) is growing; the situation could become chaotic. The principal objective of the present paper is to recognize the taxonomic interrelationships among all protist groups; and it includes the specific proposal that some 45 phyla, defined and characterized, be assigned to 18 supraphyletic assemblages within the kingdom PROTISTA (itself redefined and contrasted with the other eukaryotic kingdoms recognized here: ANIMALIA, PLANTAE and FUNGI). Vernacular terms are employed for identification of the 18 assemblages, but defensible formal names are proposed at the level of phylum. None is presented as new: authorship-and-date credits are given to preceding workers on the taxonomy of the many groups involved. By presenting taxonomic characterizations as well as relevant nomenclatural data for each taxon described, a comprehensive scheme of overall higher-level classification within the kingdom emerges that may be considered to serve as a solid base or ‘taking-off point’ for future discussions.The 18 supraphyletic groups and their phyla (in parentheses and including authorships and dates of their formal names) are as follows: I. The rhizopods (phyla Karyoblastea Margulis, 1974; Amoebozoa Lühe, 1913; Acrasia Van Tieghem, 1880; Eumycetozoa Zopf, 1885; Plasmodiophorea Zopf, 1885; Granuloreticulosa De Saedeleer, 1934; incertae sedisXenophyophora Schulze, 1904). II. The mastigomycetes (Hypochytridiomycota Sparrow, 1959; Oomycota Winter, 1897; incert. sed.Chytridiomycota Sparrow, 1959). III. The chlorobionts (Chlorophyta Pascher, 1914; Prasinophyta Christensen, 1962; Conjugatophyta Engler, 1892; Charophyta Rabenhorst, 1863; incert. sed.Glaucophyta Bohlin, 1901). IV. The euglenozoa (Euglenophyta Pascher, 1931; Kinetoplastidea Honigberg, 1963; incert. sed.Pseudociliata Corliss & Lipscomb, 1982). V. The rhodophytes (Rhodophyta Rabenhorst, 1863). VI. The cryptomonads (Cryptophyta Pascher, 1914). VII. The choanoflagellates (Choanoflagellata Kent, 1880). VIII. The chromobionts (Chrysophyta Pascher, 1914; Haptophyta Christensen, 1962; Bacillariophyta Engler & Gild, 1924; Xanthophyta Allorge in Fritsch, 1935; Eustigmatophyta Hibberd & Leedale, 1970; Phaeophyta Kjellman, 1891; incert. sed.Proteromonadea Grassé in Grassé, 1952). IX. The labyrinthomorphs (Labyrinthulea Cienkowski, 1867; Thraustochytriacea Sparrow, 1943 [possibly infraphyletic rank?]). X The polymastigotes (Metamonadea Grassé in Grassé, 1952; Parabasalia Honigberg, 1973). XI. The paraflagellates (Opalinata Wenyon, 1926). XII. The actinopods (Heliozoa Haeckel, 1866; Taxopoda Fol, 1883; Acantharia Haeckel, 1879; Polycystina Ehrenberg, 1839; Phaeodaria Haeckel, 1879). XIII. The dinoflagellates (Peridinea Ehrenberg, 1830; Syndinea Chatton, 1920). XIV. The ciliates (Ciliophora Doflein, 1901). XV. The sporozoa (Sporozoa Leuckart, 1879). XVI. The microsporidia (Microsporidia Balbiani, 1882). XVII. The haplosporidia (Haplosporidia Caullery & Mesnil, 1899). XVIII. The myxosporidia (Myxosporidia Bütschli, 1881; incert. sed.Actinomyxidea Štolc, 1899 [perhaps not separate phylum?]).

Microtubules, actin, and collagen are macromolecular structures that compose a large percentage of the proteins in the human body, helping form and maintain both intracellular and extracellular structure. They are biological wires and are structurally connected through various other proteins. Microtubules (MTs) have been theorized to be involved in classical and quantum information processing, and evidence continues to suggest possible semiconduction through MTs. The previous Dendritic Cytoskeleton Information Processing Model has hypothesized how MTs and actin form a communication network in neurons. Here, we review information transfer possibilities involving MTs, actin, and collagen, and the evidence of an organism-wide high-speed communication network that may regulate morphogenesis and cellular proliferation. The direct and indirect evidence in support of this hypothesis, and implications for chronic diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative diseases are discussed.

Although machines may be good at mimicking, they are not currently able, as organisms are, to act creatively. We offer an understanding of the emergent qualities of biological sign processing in terms of generalization, association, and encryption. We use slime mold as a model of minimal cognition and compare it to deep-learning video game bots, which some claim have evolved beyond their merely quantitative algorithms. We find that these discrete Turing machine bots are not able to make productive, yet unanticipated, "errors"-necessary for biological learning-which, based on the physicality of signs, their relatively similar shapes, and relative physical positions spatially and temporally, lead to emergent effects and make learning and evolution possible. In organisms, stochastic resonance at the local level can be leveraged for self-organization at the global level. We contrast all this to the symbolic processing of today's machine learning, whereby each logic node an...

The objective of this study was to conduct an experimental analysis to investigate the performance of a mixed mode type forced convection solar tunnel dryer (STD) which was used to dry silkworm pupae under tropical weather conditions of Mahasarakham, Thailand. The dryer ...