01414nas a2200145   4500008004100000245008300041210006900124260002800193520092600221100002001147700002201167700002101189700002201210856003601232       2012                        en  d00aDecompositions of large-scale biological systems based on dynamical properties0 aDecompositions of largescale biological systems based on dynamic  bOxford University Press3 aMOTIVATION: Given a large-scale biological network represented as an influence graph, in this article we investigate possible decompositions of the network aimed at highlighting specific dynamical properties.\\r\\nRESULTS: The first decomposition we study consists in finding a maximal directed acyclic subgraph of the network, which dynamically corresponds to searching for a maximal open-loop subsystem of the given system. Another dynamical property investigated is strong monotonicity. We propose two methods to deal with this property, both aimed at decomposing the system into strongly monotone subsystems, but with different structural characteristics: one method tends to produce a single large strongly monotone component, while the other typically generates a set of smaller disjoint strongly monotone subsystems.\\r\\nAVAILABILITY: Original heuristics for the methods investigated are described in the article.1 aSoranzo, Nicola1 aRamezani, Fahimeh1 aIacono, Giovanni1 aAltafini, Claudio  uhttp://hdl.handle.net/1963/5226