1,380 results match your criteria: "Institute of Complex Systems[Affiliation]"

Sedimentation and structure of squirmer suspensions under gravity.

Soft Matter

January 2025

Departamento de Estructura de la Materia, Física Térmica y Electrónica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain.

The effect of gravity on the collective motion of living microswimmers, such as bacteria and micro-algae, is pivotal to unravel not only bio-convection patterns but also the settling of bacterial biofilms on solid surfaces. In this work, we investigate suspensions of microswimmers under the influence of a gravitational field and hydrodynamics, simulated the dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) coarse-grained model. We first study the collective sedimentation of passive colloids and microswimmers of the puller and pusher types upon increasing the imposed gravitational field and compare them with previous results.

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Statistical Mechanics of Directed Networks.

Entropy (Basel)

January 2025

Department of Condensed Matter Physics, University of Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain.

Directed networks are essential for representing complex systems, capturing the asymmetry of interactions in fields such as neuroscience, transportation, and social networks. Directionality reveals how influence, information, or resources flow within a network, fundamentally shaping the behavior of dynamical processes and distinguishing directed networks from their undirected counterparts. Robust null models are crucial for identifying meaningful patterns in these representations, yet designing models that preserve key features remains a significant challenge.

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The role of exploration and exploitation in primate communication.

Proc Biol Sci

January 2025

DFG Centre for Advanced Studies 'Words Bones, Genes, Tools', University of Tübingen, Rümelinstrasse 23, Tübingen 72070, Germany.

The concepts of social learning and exploration have been central to debates in comparative cognition research. While their roles in the origins of human cumulative culture on the one hand and creativity on the other have been highlighted, the two concepts have mostly been studied separately. In this article, we examine the relationship between adopting similar or different behaviours within a group, focusing on how exploration and exploitation shape primate communication systems.

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The 2025 Motile Active Matter Roadmap.

J Phys Condens Matter

January 2025

Biozentrum, University of Basel, Spitalstrasse 41, Basel, Basel-Stadt, 4056, SWITZERLAND.

Activity and autonomous motion are fundamental aspects of many living and engineering systems. Here, the scale of biological agents covers a wide range, from nanomotors, cytoskeleton, and cells, to insects, fish, birds, and people. Inspired by biological active systems, various types of autonomous synthetic nano- and micromachines have been designed, which provide the basis for multifunctional, highly responsive, intelligent active materials.

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Digital twins (DTs) in precision medicine are increasingly viable, propelled by extensive data collection and advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), alongside traditional biomedical methodologies. We argue that including mechanistic simulations that produce behavior based on explicitly defined biological hypotheses and multiscale mechanisms is beneficial. It enables the exploration of diverse therapeutic strategies and supports dynamic clinical decision-making through insights from network science, quantitative biology, and digital medicine.

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Use of Steered Molecular Dynamics to Explore the Conformational Changes of SNARE Proteins.

Methods Mol Biol

January 2025

Department of Chemistry, Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Multiscale Research Institute of Complex Systems, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

Steered Molecular Dynamics (SMD) simulation is a powerful computational simulation technique that enables the controlled manipulation of molecular systems by applying external forces. This method is frequently utilized to investigate the slow processes of biomolecular systems that occur within sub-second to second time scales, achieved through SMD simulations that only span nanoseconds. SMD simulation can be utilized to study the detailed mechanism of protein conformational changes, protein unfolding, and ligand dissociation, etc.

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Understanding the relation between cortical neuronal network structure and neuronal activity is a fundamental unresolved question in neuroscience, with implications to our understanding of the mechanism by which neuronal networks evolve over time, spontaneously or under stimulation. It requires a method for inferring the structure and composition of a network from neuronal activities. Tracking the evolution of networks and their changing functionality will provide invaluable insight into the occurrence of plasticity and the underlying learning process.

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Molecular and cellular dynamics of the developing human neocortex.

Nature

January 2025

The Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.

The development of the human neocortex is highly dynamic, involving complex cellular trajectories controlled by gene regulation. Here we collected paired single-nucleus chromatin accessibility and transcriptome data from 38 human neocortical samples encompassing both the prefrontal cortex and the primary visual cortex. These samples span five main developmental stages, ranging from the first trimester to adolescence.

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Gout, a common chronic disease, is characterized by the formation and deposition of monosodium urate (MSU) crystal deposition in articular and nonarticular structures. Osteoarthritis (OA), the most prevalent type of arthritis, is a progressive degenerative joint disease. Previous clinical studies have reported that gout frequently affects OA joints; however, the underlying mechanism remains unidentified.

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Theoretical Studies on Assembly, Physical Stability, and Dynamics of Viruses.

Subcell Biochem

December 2024

Department of Physics of the Condensed Matter, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.

All matter must obey the general laws of physics and living matter is not an exception. Viruses have not only learnt how to cope with them but have managed to use them for their own survival. In this chapter, we will review some of the exciting physics that are behind viruses and discuss simple physical models that can shed some light on different aspects of the viral life cycle and viral properties.

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Mechanisms of alignment of lamellar-forming block copolymer under shear flow.

Soft Matter

January 2025

Departament de Física de la Matèria Condensada, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franqués 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.

The potential applications of block copolymer thin films, utilising their self-assembly capabilities, are enhanced when achieving long-range ordering. In this study we explain the experimental alignment of lamellae under shear flow findings [S. Pujari , 2012, , 5258] and classify the alignment mechanisms based on shear rate and segregation, uncovering similarities to the systems subjected to electric fields, suggesting a common pathway of lamellae orientations.

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Tile by tile: capturing the evolutionary mosaic of human conditions.

Curr Opin Genet Dev

February 2025

Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Via Santa Sofia 9, 20122 Milan, Italy; Human Technopole, Viale Rita Levi-Montalcini 1, 20157 Milan, Italy. Electronic address:

The collection of Homo sapiens anatomical hallmarks hypothesized to support the 'human condition' did not appear at one specific time and place, but gradually, creating a reticulate evolutionary trajectory. The recent reconstruction of migration patterns and gene flows across different hominin species and populations draws a mosaic that we contend can be illuminated by genomic comparisons and specific experiments. Here, we first review key discoveries that could allow this experimental endeavor by describing recent advances in a variety of fields, stressing the importance of charting the current human neurodiversity as an interpretive substrate for evolutionary changes.

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Detection of germline CNVs from gene panel data: benchmarking the state of the art.

Brief Bioinform

November 2024

Hereditary Cancer Program, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge - IDIBELL-ONCOBELL, Avinguda de la Granvia de l'Hospitalet, 199, 08908 L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain.

Germline copy number variants (CNVs) play a significant role in hereditary diseases. However, the accurate detection of CNVs from targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS) gene panel data remains a challenging task. Several tools for calling CNVs within this context have been published to date, but the available benchmarks suffer from limitations, including testing on simulated data, testing on small datasets, and testing a small subset of published tools.

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Chitinase 3-like 1 is neurotoxic in multiple sclerosis patient-derived cortical neurons.

Clin Transl Med

December 2024

Servei de Neurologia, Centre d´Esclerosi Múltiple de Catalunya (Cemcat), Institut de Recerca Vall d´Hebron (VHIR), Hospital Universitari Vall d´Hebron, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Barcelona, Spain.

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Spontaneous capillary imbibition has the potential to improve the performance of many micro and nanodevices since it does not require an external energy source to drive a fluid flow. Despite this advantage, controlling and reducing the friction exerted by the channel walls, which limits the speed of the liquid, remains a challenge. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that infusing the walls of a channel with a liquid lubricant substantially speeds up the imbibition process and reduces the overall viscous friction.

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We investigate the link between the internal microstructure of poly(-isopropylacrylamide)-poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (PNIPAM-PEGMA) microgels, their bulk moduli and the rheological response and structural arrangement in dense suspensions. The low degree of crosslinking combined with the increased hydrophilicity induced by the presence of PEGMA results in a diffuse, star-like density profile of the particle and very low values of the bulk modulus in dilute conditions, as determined by small angle neutron scattering (SANS). The ultrasoft nature of the particle is reflected in the changes of the structural arrangement in dense suspensions, which evidence a strong deswelling and a sharp rise of the bulk modulus at moderate packing fractions.

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Collective motion of energy depot active disks.

Soft Matter

November 2024

Departamento de Estructura de la Materia, Física Térmica y Electrónica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid 28040, Spain.

In the present work we have studied collectives of active disks with an energy depot, moving in the two-dimensional plane and interacting an excluded volume. The energy depot accounts for the extraction of energy taking place at the level of each particle in order to perform self-propulsion, included in an underdamped Langevin dynamics. We show that this model undergoes a flocking transition, exhibiting some of the key features of the Vicsek model, namely, band formation and giant number fluctuations.

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Background: Varying obesogenic inherited predisposition in early to later life may differentially impact colorectal cancer (CRC) development. Previous Mendelian randomization (MR) studies, conducted in populations of European genetic similarity, have not observed any significant associations between early life body weight with CRC risk. However, it remains unclear whether body mass index (BMI) at different early lifetime points is causally related with CRC risk in both Europeans and East Asian populations.

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Language: A special cognitive gadget.

Phys Life Rev

November 2024

Section of General Linguistics, University of Barcelona, 08007 Barcelona, Spain; University of Barcelona Institute of Complex Systems, 08007 Barcelona, Spain; University of Barcelona Institute of Neurosciences, 08007 Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address:

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Molecular insights into AGS3's role in spindle orientation: a biochemical perspective.

J Mol Cell Biol

November 2024

Department of Chemistry, Institute of Biomedical Sciences and Multiscale Research Institute of Complex Systems, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China.

The intrinsic regulation of spindle orientation during asymmetric cell division depends on the evolutionarily conserved protein complex LGN (Pins)/NuMA (Mud)/Gα⋅GDP. While the role of LGN and its Drosophila orthologue Pins is well-established, the function of AGS3, the paralogue of LGN, in spindle orientation during cell division remains controversial. This study substantiates the contentious nature of AGS3's function through systematic biochemical characterizations.

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The alveolar trill is perceived as jagged/rough by speakers of different languagesa).

J Acoust Soc Am

November 2024

Department of Linguistics and Communication, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom.

Typological research shows that across languages, trilled [r] sounds are more common in adjectives describing rough as opposed to smooth surfaces. In this study, this lexical research is built on with an experiment with speakers of 28 different languages from 12 different families. Participants were presented with images of a jagged and a straight line and imagined running their finger along each.

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The statics of the Fredrickson-Andersen model (FAM) of the liquid-glass transition is solved on the Bethe lattice (BL). The kinetic constraints of the FAM imply on the BL an ergodicity-breaking transition to a (glassy) phase where a fraction of spins of the system is permanently blocked, and the remaining "free" spins become nontrivially correlated. We compute several observables of the ergodicity-broken phase, such as the self-overlap, the configurational entropy, and the spin-glass susceptibility, and we compare the analytical predictions with numerical experiments.

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Functional brain hubs are related to age: A primer study with rs-fMRI.

Int J Clin Health Psychol

October 2024

Department of Social Psychology & Quantitative Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.

Background/objective: Research on the ontogenetic development of brain networks using resting state has shown to be useful for understanding age-associated changes in brain connectivity. This work aimed to analyze the relationship between brain connectivity, age and intelligence.

Methods: A sample of 26 children and adolescents between 6 and 18 years of both sexes underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

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Photocatalytic Magnetic Microgyroscopes with Activity-Tunable Precessional Dynamics.

Nano Lett

November 2024

Departament de Física de la Matèria Condensada, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.

Magnetic nano/microrotors are passive elements spinning around an axis due to an external rotating field while remaining confined to a plane. They have been used to date in different applications related to fluid mixing, drug delivery, or biomedicine. Here we realize an active version of a magnetic microgyroscope which is simultaneously driven by a photoactivated catalytic reaction and a rotating magnetic field.

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