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Degeneracy is the ability of structurally different elements to perform the same function or yield the same output under certain constraints. In contrast to redundancy, which implies identical backups, degeneracy allows diverse components…
Robustness, the insensitivity of some of a biological system's functionalities to a set of distinct conditions, is intimately linked to fitness. Recent studies suggest that it may also play a vital role in enabling the evolution of species.…
Engineered systems are designed to deftly operate under predetermined conditions yet are notoriously fragile when unexpected perturbations arise. In contrast, biological systems operate in a highly flexible manner; learn quickly adequate…
The response of complex networks to perturbations is of utmost importance in areas as diverse as ecosystem management, emergency response, and cell reprogramming. A fundamental property of networks is that the perturbation of one node can…
Degeneration and adaptation are two competing sides of the same coin called resilience in the progressive processes of brain aging or diseases. Degeneration accumulates during brain aging and other cerebral activities, causing structural…
A full accounting of biological robustness remains elusive; both in terms of the mechanisms by which robustness is achieved and the forces that have caused robustness to grow over evolutionary time. Although its importance to topics such as…
Understanding the origins of complexity is a fundamental challenge with implications for biological and technological systems. Network theory emerges as a powerful tool to model complex systems. Networks are an intuitive framework to…
Complex networks are ubiquitous: a cell, the human brain, a group of people and the Internet are all examples of interconnected many-body systems characterized by macroscopic properties that cannot be trivially deduced from those of their…
A stochastic reaction-diffusion model is studied on a networked support. In each patch of the network two species are assumed to interact following a non-normal reaction scheme. When the interaction unit is replicated on a directed linear…
Besides the complexity in time or in number of messages, a common approach for analyzing distributed algorithms is to look at the assumptions they make on the underlying network. We investigate this question from the perspective of network…
This paper is Part II of a two-part series devoting to the study of systematic measures in a complex bio-network modeled by a system of ordinary differential equations. In this part, we quantify several systematic measures of a biological…
Most complex systems are nonlinear, relying on emergent behavior from interacting subsystems, often characterized by oscillatory dynamics. Collective oscillatory behavior is essential for the proper functioning of many real world systems.…
One of the characteristic features of genetic networks is their inherent robustness, that is, their ability to retain functionality in spite of the introduction of random errors. In this paper, we seek to better understand how robustness is…
A networked system can be made resilient against adversaries and attacks if the underlying network graph is structurally robust. For instance, to achieve distributed consensus in the presence of adversaries, the underlying network graph…
This paper presents the foundation for a decomposition theory for Boolean networks, a type of discrete dynamical system that has found a wide range of applications in the life sciences, engineering, and physics. Given a Boolean network…
A common trait of complex systems is that they can be represented by means of a network of interacting parts. It is, in fact, the network organisation (more than the parts) what largely conditions most higher-level properties, which are not…
Living organisms must respond to environmental changes. Generally, accurate and rapid responses are provided by simple, unidirectional networks that connect inputs with outputs. Besides accuracy and speed, biological responses should also…
The capacity to adapt can greatly influence the success of systems that need to compensate for damaged parts, learn how to achieve robust performance in new environments, or exploit novel opportunities that originate from new technological…
A networked dynamical system is composed of subsystems interconnected through prescribed interactions. In many engineering applications, however, one subsystem can also affect others through "unintended" interactions that can significantly…
Aging is analyzed as the spontaneous loss of adaptivity and increase in fragility that characterizes dynamic systems. Cybernetics defines the general regulatory mechanisms that a system can use to prevent or repair the damage produced by…