Release 1.0 of the CentiScaPe plug-in, a plug-in to calculate network
centralities.

CentiScaPe is available at:
http://profs.sci.univr.it/~scardoni <http://profs.sci.univr.it/%7Escardoni>

Complex biological networks, such as intracellular signaling networks, are
modeled by the evolution to accomplish a variety of different regulatory
functions. This is achieved by controlling the overall topology of the
network which, then, affects its dynamic behavior.
Biological networks are hierarchal, scale-free, modular structure in which
few nodes, the hubs, play a particularly relevant topological role and this
may reflect a critical role at biological level. However, also nodes with no
or lower hub role may have critical regulatory role in certain biological
phenomena. This could reflect node-specific topological properties. Thus, it
is of interest to categorize every nodes in a network by means of
topological parameters allowing scoring of the nodes according to their
individual topological relevance. Computation of centrality indexes may
accomplish this goal. The centrality indexes are topological parameters
allowing a node-by-node quantification of the reciprocal relationship
between the nodes. This provides a classification of the nodes according to
their capability to influence the function of other nodes in the network.
Combination of this analysis with experimental data (node attributes) may
help to identify critical nodes and regulatory circuits in a
context-specific manner.

Kind regards,
Giovanni Scardoni
Michele Petterlini
Carlo Laudanna