36,095 research outputs found
Robustness of large-scale stochastic matrices to localized perturbations
Upper bounds are derived on the total variation distance between the
invariant distributions of two stochastic matrices differing on a subset W of
rows. Such bounds depend on three parameters: the mixing time and the minimal
expected hitting time on W for the Markov chain associated to one of the
matrices; and the escape time from W for the Markov chain associated to the
other matrix. These results, obtained through coupling techniques, prove
particularly useful in scenarios where W is a small subset of the state space,
even if the difference between the two matrices is not small in any norm.
Several applications to large-scale network problems are discussed, including
robustness of Google's PageRank algorithm, distributed averaging and consensus
algorithms, and interacting particle systems.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
Marginal integration for nonparametric causal inference
We consider the problem of inferring the total causal effect of a single
variable intervention on a (response) variable of interest. We propose a
certain marginal integration regression technique for a very general class of
potentially nonlinear structural equation models (SEMs) with known structure,
or at least known superset of adjustment variables: we call the procedure
S-mint regression. We easily derive that it achieves the convergence rate as
for nonparametric regression: for example, single variable intervention effects
can be estimated with convergence rate assuming smoothness with
twice differentiable functions. Our result can also be seen as a major
robustness property with respect to model misspecification which goes much
beyond the notion of double robustness. Furthermore, when the structure of the
SEM is not known, we can estimate (the equivalence class of) the directed
acyclic graph corresponding to the SEM, and then proceed by using S-mint based
on these estimates. We empirically compare the S-mint regression method with
more classical approaches and argue that the former is indeed more robust, more
reliable and substantially simpler.Comment: 40 pages, 14 figure
Assessing the significance of knockout cascades in metabolic networks
Complex networks have been shown to be robust against random structural
perturbations, but vulnerable against targeted attacks. Robustness analysis
usually simulates the removal of individual or sets of nodes, followed by the
assessment of the inflicted damage. For complex metabolic networks, it has been
suggested that evolutionary pressure may favor robustness against reaction
removal. However, the removal of a reaction and its impact on the network may
as well be interpreted as selective regulation of pathway activities,
suggesting a tradeoff between the efficiency of regulation and vulnerability.
Here, we employ a cascading failure algorithm to simulate the removal of single
and pairs of reactions from the metabolic networks of two organisms, and
estimate the significance of the results using two different null models:
degree preserving and mass-balanced randomization. Our analysis suggests that
evolutionary pressure promotes larger cascades of non-viable reactions, and
thus favors the ability of efficient metabolic regulation at the expense of
robustness
Updating and downdating techniques for optimizing network communicability
The total communicability of a network (or graph) is defined as the sum of
the entries in the exponential of the adjacency matrix of the network, possibly
normalized by the number of nodes. This quantity offers a good measure of how
easily information spreads across the network, and can be useful in the design
of networks having certain desirable properties. The total communicability can
be computed quickly even for large networks using techniques based on the
Lanczos algorithm.
In this work we introduce some heuristics that can be used to add, delete, or
rewire a limited number of edges in a given sparse network so that the modified
network has a large total communicability. To this end, we introduce new edge
centrality measures which can be used to guide in the selection of edges to be
added or removed.
Moreover, we show experimentally that the total communicability provides an
effective and easily computable measure of how "well-connected" a sparse
network is.Comment: 20 pages, 9 pages Supplementary Materia
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