Game among Interdependent Networks: The Impact of Rationality on System Robustness

Many real-world systems are composed of interdependent networks that rely on one another. Such networks are typically designed and operated by different entities, who aim at maximizing their own payoffs. There exists a game among these entities when designing their own networks. In this paper, we study the game investigating how the rational behaviors of entities impact the system robustness. We first introduce a mathematical model to quantify the interacting payoffs among varying entities. Then we study the Nash equilibrium of the game and compare it with the optimal social welfare. We reveal that the cooperation among different entities can be reached to maximize the social welfare in continuous game only when the average degree of each network is constant. Therefore, the huge gap between Nash equilibrium and optimal social welfare generally exists. The rationality of entities makes the system inherently deficient and even renders it extremely vulnerable in some cases. We analyze our model for two concrete systems with continuous strategy space and discrete strategy space, respectively. Furthermore, we uncover some factors (such as weakening coupled strength of interdependent networks, designing suitable topology dependency of the system) that help reduce the gap and the system vulnerability

Intervention in public spaces as a strategy for spatial development. The Madrid experience in spanish context

Since the 1980s, public polices of support and investment in public spaces, as well as strategic interventions with all sort of scale raised Spain into a prominent place concerning the specialized debate between improvement of public spaces and urban development, spreading an image of several Spanish cities connected with its public spaces and propagating the idea of a Spanish livability, with intensive use of public space, dynamic city centers, and a wide range of touristic attractions and outdoor activities. Taking Madrid as a case study, the paper presents how this system of public spaces affects local spatial development and social dynamics, and how these areas perform a system that support cultural facilities, enhance the historical heritage, organize the mobility and encourage the development of economic activities in a strategy of spatial organization that improves the city for both tourists and inhabitants

Wireless Transmission of Images With The Assistance of Multi-level Semantic Information

Semantic-oriented communication has been considered as a promising to boost the bandwidth efficiency by only transmitting the semantics of the data. In this paper, we propose a multi-level semantic aware communication system for wireless image transmission, named MLSC-image, which is based on the deep learning techniques and trained in an end to end manner. In particular, the proposed model includes a multilevel semantic feature extractor, that extracts both the highlevel semantic information, such as the text semantics and the segmentation semantics, and the low-level semantic information, such as local spatial details of the images. We employ a pretrained image caption to capture the text semantics and a pretrained image segmentation model to obtain the segmentation semantics. These high-level and low-level semantic features are then combined and encoded by a joint semantic and channel encoder into symbols to transmit over the physical channel. The numerical results validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed semantic communication system, especially under the limited bandwidth condition, which indicates the advantages of the high-level semantics in the compression of images

A Tensor-Based Framework for Studying Eigenvector Multicentrality in Multilayer Networks

Centrality is widely recognized as one of the most critical measures to provide insight in the structure and function of complex networks. While various centrality measures have been proposed for single-layer networks, a general framework for studying centrality in multilayer networks (i.e., multicentrality) is still lacking. In this study, a tensor-based framework is introduced to study eigenvector multicentrality, which enables the quantification of the impact of interlayer influence on multicentrality, providing a systematic way to describe how multicentrality propagates across different layers. This framework can leverage prior knowledge about the interplay among layers to better characterize multicentrality for varying scenarios. Two interesting cases are presented to illustrate how to model multilayer influence by choosing appropriate functions of interlayer influence and design algorithms to calculate eigenvector multicentrality. This framework is applied to analyze several empirical multilayer networks, and the results corroborate that it can quantify the influence among layers and multicentrality of nodes effectively.Comment: 57 pages, 10 figure

La vida del lado de fuera de las paredes: La manera española de vivir los espacios públicos

The paper analyzes the importance of public spaces as structuring element of sociability and organization of the territory in Spanish cities. Taking as a case study a path and a plaza in the city of Madrid, it aims to explore how these different typologies and scales of public space influence the spatial organization, the mobility and the sociability of these cities. To perform the analysis of these spaces were explored the concepts of imageability, liveability and local management, through the methodologies developed respectively by Lynch (1960), Gehl (2013) and Carmona (2008). The paper looks to comprehend how each typology of public space contributes with local dynamics, and which are the characteristics that should be more studied in order to achieve dynamics public spaces in the city.El paper analiza la importancia de los espacios públicos como elementos estructurantes de la sociabilidad y la organización del territorio en las ciudades españolas. Tomando como caso de estudio un camino y una plaza en la ciudad de Madrid, se pretende explorar cómo esas diferentes tipologías y escalas de espacio público influencian la organización espacial, la movilidad y la sociabilidad de estas ciudades. Para realizar el análisis de estos espacios fueron explorados los conceptos de imageability, liveability y local management, a través de las metodologías desarrolladas respectivamente por Lynch (1960), Gehl (2013) y Carmona (2008). El trabajo quiere comprender cómo cada tipología de espacio público contribuye con la dinámica local, y cuáles son las características que deben ser estudiadas más profundamente a fin de lograr espacios públicos más dinámicos en la ciudad

Characterization of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome in rural regions of Zhejiang, China.

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) infections have recently been found in rural regions of Zhejiang. A severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) surveillance and sero-epidemiological investigation was conducted in the districts with outbreaks. During the study period of 2011-2014, a total of 51 SFTSV infection cases were identified and the case fatality rate was 12% (6/51). Ninety two percent of the patients (47/51) were over 50 years of age, and 63% (32/51) of laboratory confirmed cases occurred from May to July. Nine percent (11/120) of the serum samples from local healthy people without symptoms were found to be positive for antibodies to the SFTS virus. SFTSV strains were isolated by culture using Vero, and the whole genomic sequences of two SFTSV strains (01 and Zhao) were sequenced and submitted to the GenBank. Homology analysis showed that the similarity of the target nucleocapsid gene from the SFTSV strains from different geographic areas was 94.2-100%. From the constructed phylogenetic tree, it was found that all the SFTSV strains diverged into two main clusters. Only the SFTSV strains from the Zhejiang (Daishan) region of China and the Yamaguchi, Miyazakj regions of Japan, were clustered into lineage II, consistent with both of these regions being isolated areas with similar geographic features. Two out of eight predicted linear B cell epitopes from the nucleocapsid protein showed mutations between the SFTSV strains of different clusters, but did not contribute to the binding ability of the specific SFTSV antibodies. This study confirmed that SFTSV has been circulating naturally and can cause a seasonal prevalence in Daishan, China. The results also suggest that the molecular characteristics of SFTSV are associated with the geographic region and all SFTSV strains can be divided into two genotypes