Synchronization in the presence of distributed delays
  We study systems of identical coupled oscillators introducing a distribution of delay times in the coupling. For arbitrary network topologies, we show that the frequency and stability of the fully synchronized states depend only on the mean of the delay distribution. However, synchronization dynamics is sensitive to the shape of the distribution. In the presence of coupling delays, the synchronization rate can be maximal for a specific value of the coupling strength. 
Lucas Wetzel, Luis G. Morelli, Andrew C. Oates, Frank Julicher and   Saul Ares
nlin.CD cond-mat.dis-nn