2,784 research outputs found
Comment on "Regularizing capacity of metabolic networks"
In a recent paper, Marr, Muller-Linow and Hutt [Phys. Rev. E 75, 041917
(2007)] investigate an artificial dynamic system on metabolic networks. They
find a less complex time evolution of this dynamic system in real networks,
compared to networks of reference models. The authors argue that this suggests
that metabolic network structure is a major factor behind the stability of
biochemical steady states. We reanalyze the same kind of data using a dynamic
system modeling actual reaction kinetics. The conclusions about stability, from
our analysis, are inconsistent with those of Marr et al. We argue that this
issue calls for a more detailed type of modeling
Efficient local strategies for vaccination and network attack
We study how a fraction of a population should be vaccinated to most
efficiently top epidemics. We argue that only local information (about the
neighborhood of specific vertices) is usable in practice, and hence we consider
only local vaccination strategies. The efficiency of the vaccination strategies
is investigated with both static and dynamical measures. Among other things we
find that the most efficient strategy for many real-world situations is to
iteratively vaccinate the neighbor of the previous vaccinee that has most links
out of the neighborhood
Role of Activity in Human Dynamics
The human society is a very complex system; still, there are several
non-trivial, general features. One type of them is the presence of power-law
distributed quantities in temporal statistics. In this Letter, we focus on the
origin of power-laws in rating of movies. We present a systematic empirical
exploration of the time between two consecutive ratings of movies (the
interevent time). At an aggregate level, we find a monotonous relation between
the activity of individuals and the power-law exponent of the interevent-time
distribution. At an individual level, we observe a heavy-tailed distribution
for each user, as well as a negative correlation between the activity and the
width of the distribution. We support these findings by a similar data set from
mobile phone text-message communication. Our results demonstrate a significant
role of the activity of individuals on the society-level patterns of human
behavior. We believe this is a common character in the interest-driven human
dynamics, corresponding to (but different from) the universality classes of
task-driven dynamics.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by EP
Network dynamics of ongoing social relationships
Many recent large-scale studies of interaction networks have focused on
networks of accumulated contacts. In this paper we explore social networks of
ongoing relationships with an emphasis on dynamical aspects. We find a
distribution of response times (times between consecutive contacts of different
direction between two actors) that has a power-law shape over a large range. We
also argue that the distribution of relationship duration (the time between the
first and last contacts between actors) is exponentially decaying. Methods to
reanalyze the data to compensate for the finite sampling time are proposed. We
find that the degree distribution for networks of ongoing contacts fits better
to a power-law than the degree distribution of the network of accumulated
contacts do. We see that the clustering and assortative mixing coefficients are
of the same order for networks of ongoing and accumulated contacts, and that
the structural fluctuations of the former are rather large.Comment: to appear in Europhys. Let
Modeling the Jovian magnetic field and its secular variation using all available magnetic field observations
We present new models of Jupiter's internal magnetic field and secular variation from all available direct measurements from three decades of spacecraft observation. A regularized minimum norm approach allows the creation of smooth, numerically stable models displaying a high degree of structure. External field from the magnetodisk is modeled iteratively for each orbit. Jupiter's inner magnetosphere is highly stable with time, with no evidence for variation with solar activity. We compare two spherical harmonic models, one assuming a field constant in time and a second allowing for linear time variation. Including secular variation improves data fit with fewer additional parameters than increasing field complexity. Our favored solution indicates a ∼0.012% yr−1 increase in Jupiter's dipole magnetic moment from 1973 to 2003; this value is roughly one quarter of that for Earth. Inaccuracies in determination of the planetary reference frame cannot explain all the observed secular variation. Should more structure be allowed in the solutions, we find the northern hemispherical configuration resembles recent models based on satellite auroral footprint locations, and there is also evidence of a possible patch of reversed polar flux seen at the expected depth of the dynamo region, resembling that found at Earth and with implications for the Jovian interior. Finally, using our preferred model, we infer flow dynamics at the top of Jupiter's dynamo source. Though highly speculative, the results produce several gyres with some symmetry about the equator, similar to those seen at Earth's core-mantle boundary, suggesting motion on cylinders aligned with the rotation axis
Exploring the assortativity-clustering space of a network's degree sequence
Nowadays there is a multitude of measures designed to capture different
aspects of network structure. To be able to say if the structure of certain
network is expected or not, one needs a reference model (null model). One
frequently used null model is the ensemble of graphs with the same set of
degrees as the original network. In this paper we argue that this ensemble can
be more than just a null model -- it also carries information about the
original network and factors that affect its evolution. By mapping out this
ensemble in the space of some low-level network structure -- in our case those
measured by the assortativity and clustering coefficients -- one can for
example study how close to the valid region of the parameter space the observed
networks are. Such analysis suggests which quantities are actively optimized
during the evolution of the network. We use four very different biological
networks to exemplify our method. Among other things, we find that high
clustering might be a force in the evolution of protein interaction networks.
We also find that all four networks are conspicuously robust to both random
errors and targeted attacks
Are Opinions Based on Science: Modelling Social Response to Scientific Facts
As scientists we like to think that modern societies and their members base
their views, opinions and behaviour on scientific facts. This is not
necessarily the case, even though we are all (over-) exposed to information
flow through various channels of media, i.e. newspapers, television, radio,
internet, and web. It is thought that this is mainly due to the conflicting
information on the mass media and to the individual attitude (formed by
cultural, educational and environmental factors), that is, one external factor
and another personal factor. In this paper we will investigate the dynamical
development of opinion in a small population of agents by means of a
computational model of opinion formation in a co-evolving network of socially
linked agents. The personal and external factors are taken into account by
assigning an individual attitude parameter to each agent, and by subjecting all
to an external but homogeneous field to simulate the effect of the media. We
then adjust the field strength in the model by using actual data on scientific
perception surveys carried out in two different populations, which allow us to
compare two different societies. We interpret the model findings with the aid
of simple mean field calculations. Our results suggest that scientifically
sound concepts are more difficult to acquire than concepts not validated by
science, since opposing individuals organize themselves in close communities
that prevent opinion consensus.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to PLoS ON
A network-based threshold model for the spreading of fads in society and markets
We investigate the behavior of a threshold model for the spreading of fads
and similar phenomena in society. The model is giving the fad dynamics and is
intended to be confined to an underlying network structure. We investigate the
whole parameter space of the fad dynamics on three types of network models. The
dynamics we discover is rich and highly dependent on the underlying network
structure. For some range of the parameter space, for all types of substrate
networks, there are a great variety of sizes and life-lengths of the fads --
what one see in real-world social and economical systems
Shock-like Freeze-out in Relativistic Hydrodynamics
We have formulated a self-consistent model of freeze-out on an arbitrary
hypersurface. It conserves energy and momentum across the discontinuity between
ideal fluid and the gas of free particles. Energy and momentum of those free
particles have non-equilibrium values that could be a signal for the formation
of hot and dense matter in heavy ion collisions.Comment: 13 pages, 2 plot
Nonequilibrium phase transition in the coevolution of networks and opinions
Models of the convergence of opinion in social systems have been the subject
of a considerable amount of recent attention in the physics literature. These
models divide into two classes, those in which individuals form their beliefs
based on the opinions of their neighbors in a social network of personal
acquaintances, and those in which, conversely, network connections form between
individuals of similar beliefs. While both of these processes can give rise to
realistic levels of agreement between acquaintances, practical experience
suggests that opinion formation in the real world is not a result of one
process or the other, but a combination of the two. Here we present a simple
model of this combination, with a single parameter controlling the balance of
the two processes. We find that the model undergoes a continuous phase
transition as this parameter is varied, from a regime in which opinions are
arbitrarily diverse to one in which most individuals hold the same opinion. We
characterize the static and dynamical properties of this transition
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