The physics of communicability in complex networks

A fundamental problem in the study of complex networks is to provide quantitative measures of correlation and information flow between different parts of a system. To this end, several notions of communicability have been introduced and applied to a wide variety of real-world networks in recent years. Several such communicability functions are reviewed in this paper. It is emphasized that communication and correlation in networks can take place through many more routes than the shortest paths, a fact that may not have been sufficiently appreciated in previously proposed correlation measures. In contrast to these, the communicability measures reviewed in this paper are defined by taking into account all possible routes between two nodes, assigning smaller weights to longer ones. This point of view naturally leads to the definition of communicability in terms of matrix functions, such as the exponential, resolvent, and hyperbolic functions, in which the matrix argument is either the adjacency matrix or the graph Laplacian associated with the network.     

Dynamic Analysis of Prestressed Cables with Uncertain Pretension

This paper deals with finite element dynamic analysis of prestressed cables with uncertain pretension subjected to deterministic excitations. The theoretical model addressed for cable modeling is a two-dimensional finite-strain beam theory, which allows us to eliminate any restriction on the magnitude of displacements and rotations. The dynamic problem is formulated by referring the motion to the inertial frame, which leads to a simple uncoupled quadratic form for the kinetic energy. The effect of the externally applied stochastic pretension is approximately described by means of an uncertain axial component of stress resultant, which is assumed constant along the cable in its dead load configuration. The so-called improved perturbation approach is employed to solve this stochastic problem, obtaining two coupled systems of nonlinear deterministic ordinary differential equations, governing the mean value and deviation of response. An efficient and accurate iterative procedure is proposed to obtain the solution of these equations. In order to investigate the influence of random pretension on structural response, few numerical applications are presented and results are discussed.     

A statistical mechanics description of environmental variability in metabolic networks

Many of the chemical reactions that take place within a living cell are irreversible. Due to evolutionary pressures, the number of allowable reactions within these systems are highly constrained and thus the resulting metabolic networks display considerable asymmetry. In this paper, we explore possible evolutionary factors pertaining to the reduced symmetry observed in these networks, and demonstrate the important role environmental variability plays in shaping their structural organization. Interpreting the returnability index as an equilibrium constant for a reaction network in equilibrium with a hypothetical reference system, enables us to quantify the extent to which a metabolic network is in disequilibrium. Further, by introducing a new directed centrality measure via an extension of the subgraph centrality metric to directed networks, we are able to characterise individual metabolites by their participation within metabolic pathways. To demonstrate these ideas, we study 116 metabolic networks of bacteria. In particular, we find that the equilibrium constant for the metabolic networks decreases significantly in-line with variability in bacterial habitats, supporting the view that environmental variability promotes disequilibrium within these biochemical reaction systems.     

Light‐Driven Organocatalysis Using Inexpensive,Nontoxic Bi2O3 as the Photocatalyst

The development of enantioselective catalytic processes that make use of sunlight as the energy source and nontoxic, affordable materials as catalysts represents one of the new and rapidly evolving areas in chemical research. The direct asymmetric α‐alkylation of aldehydes with α‐bromocarbonyl compounds can be successfully achieved by combining bismuth‐based materials as low‐band‐gap photocatalysts with the second‐generation MacMillan imidazolidinone as the chiral catalyst and simulated sunlight as a low‐cost and clean energy source. This reaction also proceeded with high efficiency when the reaction vial was exposed to the morning sunlight on a clear September day in Tarragona, Spain.     

On the Binding of Congo Red to Amyloid Fibrils

Amyloids are characterized by their capacity to bind Congo red (CR), one of the most used amyloid‐specific dyes. The structural features of CR binding were unknown for years, mainly because of the lack of amyloid structures solved at high resolution. In the last few years, solid‐state NMR spectroscopy enabled the determination of the structural features of amyloids, such as the HET‐s prion forming domain (HET‐s PFD), which also has recently been used to determine the amyloid–CR interface at atomic resolution. Herein, we combine spectroscopic data with molecular docking, molecular dynamics, and excitonic quantum/molecular mechanics calculations to examine and rationalize CR binding to amyloids. In contrast to a previous assumption on the binding mode, our results suggest that CR binding to the HET‐s PFD involves a cooperative process entailing the formation of a complex with 1:1 stoichiometry. This provides a molecular basis to explain the bathochromic shift in the maximal absorbance wavelength when CR is bound to amyloids.     

Development of a procedure for the multiresidue analysis of pesticides in vineyard soils and its application to real samples

A procedure for multiresidue analysis was developed for the extraction and determination of 17 pesticides, including herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides, as well as certain degradation products, in vineyard soils from La Rioja region (Spain). Different solvents and mixtures were tested in spiked pesticide‐free soils, and pesticides were comparatively evaluated by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry. Recoveries >70%, with relative standard deviations <9%, were obtained when a mixture of methanol/acetone or a mixture of methanol/CaCl₂ 0.01 M for the most polar compounds was selected as the extraction solvent. Method validation was accomplished with acceptable linearity (r² ≥ 0.987) within the concentration range of 0.005–1 μg/mL corresponding to 1.667–333.4 μg/kg and 0.835–167.1 μg/kg for liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry, respectively, and detection limits <0.4 μg/kg for the compounds were studied. The extraction method was applied to 17 real vineyard soil samples, and terbuthylazine and its metabolite desethylterbuthylazine were the most ubiquitous compounds, as they were detected in the 100% of the soils analyzed. The presence of fungicides was also high, and the presence of insecticides was lower than other pesticides. The results confirm the usefulness of the optimized procedure for monitoring residues in vineyard soils.     

Distributional boundary values of harmonic and analytic functions

A theory for distributional boundary values of harmonic and analytic functions is presented. In this analysis there arise several indicators that measure the growth of these functions near the boundaries. An extension of the Phragmén-Lindelöf maximum principle is derived. Furthermore, the algebraic properties of the space of real periodic distributions are studied. By introducing a new product, the harmonic product, the boundary conditions involving harmonic functions are transformed into ordinary differential equations.     

q-Trigonal Klein surfaces

In this paperq-trigonal Klein surfaces are introduced in a similar way to that ofq-hyperelliptic surfaces. They are characterized by means of non-Euclidean crystallographic groups (NEC groups in short). As a consequence of this characterization, given a family of Klein surfaces (orientable or not) with topological genusg andk boundary components the admissible values forq are calculated. In particular, the families for which there is no admissibleq or families with uniqueq are obtained. The authors are partially supported by DGICYT PB98 0017.