116 research outputs found
The use of multilayer network analysis in animal behaviour
Network analysis has driven key developments in research on animal behaviour
by providing quantitative methods to study the social structures of animal
groups and populations. A recent formalism, known as \emph{multilayer network
analysis}, has advanced the study of multifaceted networked systems in many
disciplines. It offers novel ways to study and quantify animal behaviour as
connected 'layers' of interactions. In this article, we review common questions
in animal behaviour that can be studied using a multilayer approach, and we
link these questions to specific analyses. We outline the types of behavioural
data and questions that may be suitable to study using multilayer network
analysis. We detail several multilayer methods, which can provide new insights
into questions about animal sociality at individual, group, population, and
evolutionary levels of organisation. We give examples for how to implement
multilayer methods to demonstrate how taking a multilayer approach can alter
inferences about social structure and the positions of individuals within such
a structure. Finally, we discuss caveats to undertaking multilayer network
analysis in the study of animal social networks, and we call attention to
methodological challenges for the application of these approaches. Our aim is
to instigate the study of new questions about animal sociality using the new
toolbox of multilayer network analysis.Comment: Thoroughly revised; title changed slightl
The use of multilayer network analysis in animal behaviour
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.We gratefully acknowledge the 806 supporters of MX16: the UC Davis Institute for Social Sciences, the U.S. Army Research Office 807 under Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative Award No. W911NF-13-1-0340, the UC 808 Davis Complexity Sciences Center, the UC Davis Anthropology Department, the UC Davis 809 Graduate Student Association, the UC Davis Department of Engineering, and the UC Davis 810 Office of Research.Network analysis has driven key developments in research on animal behaviour by providing quantitative methods to study the social structures of animal groups and populations. A recent formalism, known as multilayer network analysis, has advanced the study of multifaceted networked systems in many disciplines. It offers novel ways to study and quantify animal behaviour through connected ‘layers’ of interactions. In this article, we review common questions in animal behaviour that can be studied using a multilayer approach, and we link these questions to specific analyses. We outline the types of behavioural data and questions that may be suitable to study using multilayer network analysis. We detail several multilayer methods, which can provide new insights into questions about animal sociality at individual, group, population and evolutionary levels of organization. We give examples for how to implement multilayer methods to demonstrate how taking a multilayer approach can alter inferences about social structure and the positions of individuals within such a structure. Finally, we discuss caveats to undertaking multilayer network analysis in the study of animal social networks, and we call attention to methodological challenges for the application of these approaches. Our aim is to instigate the study of new questions about animal sociality using the new toolbox of multilayer network analysis.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research FellowshipNFS IOS grantNIH R01NERC standard gran
Analyses of a Virtual World
We present an overview of a series of results obtained from the analysis of
human behavior in a virtual environment. We focus on the massive multiplayer
online game (MMOG) Pardus which has a worldwide participant base of more than
400,000 registered players. We provide evidence for striking statistical
similarities between social structures and human-action dynamics in the real
and virtual worlds. In this sense MMOGs provide an extraordinary way for
accurate and falsifiable studies of social phenomena. We further discuss
possibilities to apply methods and concepts developed in the course of these
studies to analyse oral and written narratives.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. To appear in: "Maths Meets Myths:
Complexity-science approaches to folktales, myths, sagas, and histories."
Editors: R. Kenna, M. Mac Carron, P. Mac Carron. (Springer, 2016
Multilayer Networks
In most natural and engineered systems, a set of entities interact with each
other in complicated patterns that can encompass multiple types of
relationships, change in time, and include other types of complications. Such
systems include multiple subsystems and layers of connectivity, and it is
important to take such "multilayer" features into account to try to improve our
understanding of complex systems. Consequently, it is necessary to generalize
"traditional" network theory by developing (and validating) a framework and
associated tools to study multilayer systems in a comprehensive fashion. The
origins of such efforts date back several decades and arose in multiple
disciplines, and now the study of multilayer networks has become one of the
most important directions in network science. In this paper, we discuss the
history of multilayer networks (and related concepts) and review the exploding
body of work on such networks. To unify the disparate terminology in the large
body of recent work, we discuss a general framework for multilayer networks,
construct a dictionary of terminology to relate the numerous existing concepts
to each other, and provide a thorough discussion that compares, contrasts, and
translates between related notions such as multilayer networks, multiplex
networks, interdependent networks, networks of networks, and many others. We
also survey and discuss existing data sets that can be represented as
multilayer networks. We review attempts to generalize single-layer-network
diagnostics to multilayer networks. We also discuss the rapidly expanding
research on multilayer-network models and notions like community structure,
connected components, tensor decompositions, and various types of dynamical
processes on multilayer networks. We conclude with a summary and an outlook.Comment: Working paper; 59 pages, 8 figure
Gender homophily from spatial behavior in a primary school: a sociometric study
We investigate gender homophily in the spatial proximity of children (6 to 12
years old) in a French primary school, using time-resolved data on face-to-face
proximity recorded by means of wearable sensors. For strong ties, i.e., for
pairs of children who interact more than a defined threshold, we find
statistical evidence of gender preference that increases with grade. For weak
ties, conversely, gender homophily is negatively correlated with grade for
girls, and positively correlated with grade for boys. This different evolution
with grade of weak and strong ties exposes a contrasted picture of gender
homophily
Multilayer Network of Language: a Unified Framework for Structural Analysis of Linguistic Subsystems
Recently, the focus of complex networks research has shifted from the
analysis of isolated properties of a system toward a more realistic modeling of
multiple phenomena - multilayer networks. Motivated by the prosperity of
multilayer approach in social, transport or trade systems, we propose the
introduction of multilayer networks for language. The multilayer network of
language is a unified framework for modeling linguistic subsystems and their
structural properties enabling the exploration of their mutual interactions.
Various aspects of natural language systems can be represented as complex
networks, whose vertices depict linguistic units, while links model their
relations. The multilayer network of language is defined by three aspects: the
network construction principle, the linguistic subsystem and the language of
interest. More precisely, we construct a word-level (syntax, co-occurrence and
its shuffled counterpart) and a subword level (syllables and graphemes) network
layers, from five variations of original text (in the modeled language). The
obtained results suggest that there are substantial differences between the
networks structures of different language subsystems, which are hidden during
the exploration of an isolated layer. The word-level layers share structural
properties regardless of the language (e.g. Croatian or English), while the
syllabic subword level expresses more language dependent structural properties.
The preserved weighted overlap quantifies the similarity of word-level layers
in weighted and directed networks. Moreover, the analysis of motifs reveals a
close topological structure of the syntactic and syllabic layers for both
languages. The findings corroborate that the multilayer network framework is a
powerful, consistent and systematic approach to model several linguistic
subsystems simultaneously and hence to provide a more unified view on language
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