ACTA BIOTHEORETICA理论生物学学报
ACTA BIOTHEORETICA(英文缩写 ACTA BIOTHEOR),ISSN 0001-5342,eISSN 1572-8358,中文译名:理论生物学学报 是一本学术期刊。本页汇总该期刊的最新影响因子、分区信息以及最新收录于 PubMed 的文献,帮助您快速了解期刊全貌。
发文量统计区间：2025-11-01 至 2026-10-31，按本站收录文献的发表日期统计。
期刊介绍
历年影响因子趋势
| JCR 数据年份 | 影响因子 | JCR 分区 |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1.185 | Q4 |
| 2022 | 1.300 | Q4 |
| 2023 | 1.400 | Q4 |
| 2024 | 1.500 | Q4 |
| 2025 | 1.300 | Q4 |
ACTA BIOTHEORETICA 最新收录文献
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1. William Wimsatt, Donald Campbell, and the Idea of Robustness.
1. 威廉·维姆萨特、唐纳德·坎贝尔与稳健性观念PMID:日期:2026-10-04In this paper, I chart the influence of social scientist Donald Campbell's work on William Wimsatt's ideas of robustness reasoning. One reason is that Campbell's work is less familiar in the broader philosophy of science literature. Another is that Wimsatt's famous 1981 paper on robustness was originally published in a Festschrift for Campbell and cited the three major works discussed here: on pattern-matching, on definitional operationism, and on the multitrait, multimethod matrix analysis of construct validity. I highlight some questions in contemporary debates in robustness reasoning: what is (are) the function(s) of robustness, the problem of discordant evidence, and the unification of robustness reasoning. I argue that some debates can be traced back to ideas present in both Campbell's and Wimsatt's work. Here I appeal to some unpublished notes and correspondence from Campbell as support and to coherence with Wimsatt's larger philosophical framework. I propose that some resolution can be found there as well, through Wimsatt's idea of robustness as a heuristic.
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2. Balance Between Order and Disorder: Quantum-Epigenetic Pathways for the Emergence and Continuous Evolution of Life.
2. 有序与无序之间的平衡：生命涌现与持续演化的量子-表观遗传通路PMID:日期:2026-09-16The scientific restlessness surrounding the question of what life is (expressed in the provocations of Feynman and Schrödinger) guides this review article by integrating physics, chemistry, and biology into a multidimensional and emergent approach to the origin, evolution, and recreation of life. By exploring classical and quantum concepts, we discuss how synthetic biology, combined with epigenetics, ploidy variation, and quantum effects (such as coherence and tunneling) offers new possibilities for adapting and designing living systems. This review covers a spectrum of topics, from prebiotic chemistry experiments and the construction of protocells to practical applications in regenerative medicine, bioengineering, and astrobiology. It highlights how changes in the number of chromosome sets influence cellular plasticity and shape dynamic epigenetic environments, fostering the emergence of adaptive properties. It also explores how such factors could steer regeneration, aging, cancer development, and the expansion of life into extreme and extraplanetary environments. Based on an integrative review of scientific literature, relevant publications were selected on topics such as biological complexity, molecular organization, and adaptive strategies, with emphasis on the convergence between natural and artificial life. By considering the balance between disorder and order as a driving force of evolution, this review proposes that a deep understanding of life, anchored in a quantum-epigenetic perspective, is essential for its manipulation, restoration, and expansion. Thus, it suggests that the key to designing new forms of life lies in understanding complexity as the foundation for biotechnological innovation.
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3. Causal Explanation from a Conceptual Engineering Perspective: Non-Reductionism, Precision, and Pluralism.
3. 从概念工程视角看因果解释：非还原论、精确性与多元论PMID:日期:2026-09-06While projects in philosophy of science often focus on similar sorts of topics, there are often massive differences in how philosophers approach them. One approach that has enjoyed significant success-and that is modeled in the work of Wimsatt and others-involves taking a conceptual engineering perspective in analyzing these topics. In this paper, we outline main features of this conceptual engineering approach and use it to advance three emerging claims regarding causal explanation in biology and neuroscience. We suggest that causal explanation in these domains is non-reductive in contrast to always requiring (or improving with) lower-level details, that it is guided by precise explanatory targets in contrast to complete or multidimensional explanatory targets, and that it is pluralist in involving importantly distinct types of causal systems.
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4. Spatial Pattern Formation in a Reaction Diffusion Model of Lassa Fever with Adaptive Mobility and Environmental Spillover.
4. 拉沙热反应扩散模型中的空间格局形成：自适应流动性与环境溢出效应PMID:日期:2026-07-30Zoonotic diseases, such as Lassa fever, have complicated spatiotemporal dynamics that are influenced by human migration, behavioural responses to infection risk, and environmental transmission via animal reservoirs. Classical spatial epidemic models frequently assume static mobility and ignore the link between disease frequency and movement, limiting their ability to capture geographical variability. In this paper, we present a network-based reaction-diffusion model in which human mobility adjusts to local infection incidence, while infection pressure is maintained via zoonotic spillover and environmental contamination. The model analysis shows that adaptive mobility reorganizes epidemic spread into multiple dynamical regimes, such as homogenized diffusion, wave-like propagation, spatial localization, and suppression-driven extinction. Intermediate levels of mobility suppression encourage spatial heterogeneity, resulting in long-lasting infection hotspots even in well-connected networks. Environmental transmission further sustains infection in regimes where human-to-human transmission alone is insufficient for persistence. To quantify long-term outcomes, we introduce measures of cumulative infection burden, environmental exposure, and spatial dominance across parameter space. The findings underscore the possible limitations of mobility suppression as a management method in endemic zoonotic settings, as well as the importance of environmental transmission in determining disease dynamics. This concept sheds fresh light on spillover-driven persistence and hotspot generation in spatially structured populations.
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5. Pitchfork Bifurcation in a Coupled Cell System.
PMID:日期:2026-07-26Various biological phenomena, like cell differentiation and pattern formation in multicellular organisms, are explained using bifurcation theory. Molecular network motifs such as positive feedback and mutual repression exhibit bifurcations and are responsible for the emergence of diverse cell types. Mathematical investigations of such problems usually focus on bifurcations in a molecular network within individual cells. However, in a multicellular organism, cells interact, and intercellular interactions affect individual cell dynamics. Therefore, bifurcations in an ensemble of cells could differ from those for a single cell. This work considers a ring of identical cells. When independent, each cell exhibits a supercritical pitchfork bifurcation. Using analytical and numerical tools, we investigate bifurcations in this ensemble when cells interact through positive or negative coupling. We show that within a specific parameter zone, an ensemble of positively coupled cells behaves like a single cell that can undergo a supercritical pitchfork bifurcation. In this regime, the system is homogeneous, with all cells at the same steady state. However, this unique behaviour is lost when cells interact through negative coupling. Apart from the homogeneous states, cell-cell coupling can lead to heterogeneous steady states with unique patterns. We also investigate the distribution of such heterogeneous states under positive and negative coupling.
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6. Neoteny and Evolutionary Strategy: Reconsidering Developmental Arrest in the Axolotl and the Olm.
PMID:日期:2026-07-23This article examines neoteny and regressive evolution in two emblematic amphibian species: Ambystoma mexicanum (axolotl) and Proteus anguinus (olm). Rather than framing larval persistence and trait loss as evolutionary shortcomings, the paper proposes an alternative interpretation in which developmental arrest functions as a viable population-level outcome of selection under specific ecological constraints, rather than as a developmental shortcoming. Drawing on evo-devo literature, endocrine regulation of metamorphosis, and comparative life-history analysis, the study argues that both species exemplify non-teleological evolutionary pathways. By foregrounding strategy over deficiency, the article contributes to broader debates on normativity, progress, and directionality in evolutionary biology.
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8. Re-Engineering Wimsatt for Limited Beings.
PMID:日期:2026-07-04Science is the best way to produce facts about reality. The best, at least, that limited human beings have devised so far. Yet, not even scientists quite seem to understand how scientific knowledge is generated. This is not only a philosophical but also a practical problem, as our misunderstandings affect the quality of our research and limit the directions it can take. In light of this, it may be good if we reflected a bit more on how we do science - to become better researchers through philosophy. Here, I provide an accessible introduction to a philosophical approach that achieves precisely this: William Wimsatt's multi-perspectival realism. It disabuses us of widespread but misleading myths and idealizations about science, such as the idea that everything in the world can be reduced to a fundamental level, or that we can approach a "view from nowhere" - complete and objectively detached knowledge of the world. Wismatt proposes an alternative view based on his thorough studies of actual research practice. It cuts deeply into the layered yet messy structure of reality, and the improvised but potent tools we have available, as limited and evolved beings, to explore it. Wimsatt reframes science as an irregular yet adaptive process rather than a cumulative repository of unalterable facts. His philosophy provides a workable and grounded middle way between radical skepticism and naïve belief in the objective truth of science. It explains how knowledge is conceptually constructed by humans, but still connects us to reality in a trustworthy way. We need such a new view of science, not only to improve our research practices and outcomes but, more generally, to gain a more realistic understanding of ourselves, the world, and our place and role within it.
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9. Permanent Scaffolding of Social Expertise.
PMID:日期:2026-06-25The metaphor of "scaffolding" originates from developmental psychology, and has become a central theoretical concept that plays explanatory roles in psychology, developmental biology, and evolutionary biology. In developmental psychology, the scaffolding process is typically characterized as a child's temporary reliance on external structure in training activities, which leads to long-term transformation of the child's capacities. In recent attempts to clarify this concept for wider usage (e.g., Caporael, Griesemer, and Wimsatt 2014a, b; Neto et al. 2023), the temporariness of dependence on scaffolds is still seen as a typical, if not defining, feature of scaffolding explanations. In this paper, we follow Bill Wimsatt's footsteps (Wimsatt 2014a, 2019; Wimsatt and Griesemer 2007) in examining the development of skills that require complex developmental trajectories. Our cases are jazz improvisation and scientific expertise, both of which are distinctively social and improvisational. We argue that the social scaffolds required to reach the maturity of such expertise are continually required thereafter for maintenance and further development. This is because improvisational training is somewhat indistinguishable from improvisational performance, and performance in social expertise aims at interactions, communications, and rapport between interlocutors.
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10. Who infects whom in an epidemic?
10. 在一场流行病中，谁传染了谁？PMID:日期:2026-06-04Epidemiological surveillance systems often provide data on specific characteristics of an infected population. For instance, sex, geographical location, socioeconomic level and age of the registered individuals. This allows us to study the population divided into groups. However, information on the dynamics of infected people classified by group is not usually exploited when analyzing the evolution of an epidemic. In this work, we propose a tool to analyze how the spread of an epidemic is heterogeneous among different population groups. Based on records of infected individuals we identify synchronicity and causality interactions among population groups. Describing this dynamics and which population groups are the first focus of infection is essential for decision makers. We represent time series by population group and their degree of similarity using a weighted graph, and we apply a community detection algorithm to partition this graph. Each community is composed of synchronized age groups. The direction of interaction among different communities is identified using sample cross-correlation in a domain that can indicate causality. This is illustrated by considering age groups and using datasets of COVID-19 in Jalisco, Mexico and influenza A(H1N1) in the USA. In both cases, the proposed methodology detected which age groups show synchronized behavior across time, and which age groups influence the subsequent appearance of epidemic outbreaks in other groups.