Networking - A Statistical Physics Perspective

Efficient networking has a substantial economic and societal impact in a broad range of areas including transportation systems, wired and wireless communications and a range of Internet applications. As transportation and communication networks become increasingly more complex, the ever increasing demand for congestion control, higher traffic capacity, quality of service, robustness and reduced energy consumption require new tools and methods to meet these conflicting requirements. The new methodology should serve for gaining better understanding of the properties of networking systems at the macroscopic level, as well as for the development of new principled optimization and management algorithms at the microscopic level. Methods of statistical physics seem best placed to provide new approaches as they have been developed specifically to deal with non-linear large scale systems. This paper aims at presenting an overview of tools and methods that have been developed within the statistical physics community and that can be readily applied to address the emerging problems in networking. These include diffusion processes, methods from disordered systems and polymer physics, probabilistic inference, which have direct relevance to network routing, file and frequency distribution, the exploration of network structures and vulnerability, and various other practical networking applications.Comment: (Review article) 71 pages, 14 figure

Error baseline rates of five sample preparation methods used to characterize RNA virus populations.

Individual RNA viruses typically occur as populations of genomes that differ slightly from each other due to mutations introduced by the error-prone viral polymerase. Understanding the variability of RNA virus genome populations is critical for understanding virus evolution because individual mutant genomes may gain evolutionary selective advantages and give rise to dominant subpopulations, possibly even leading to the emergence of viruses resistant to medical countermeasures. Reverse transcription of virus genome populations followed by next-generation sequencing is the only available method to characterize variation for RNA viruses. However, both steps may lead to the introduction of artificial mutations, thereby skewing the data. To better understand how such errors are introduced during sample preparation, we determined and compared error baseline rates of five different sample preparation methods by analyzing in vitro transcribed Ebola virus RNA from an artificial plasmid-based system. These methods included: shotgun sequencing from plasmid DNA or in vitro transcribed RNA as a basic "no amplification" method, amplicon sequencing from the plasmid DNA or in vitro transcribed RNA as a "targeted" amplification method, sequence-independent single-primer amplification (SISPA) as a "random" amplification method, rolling circle reverse transcription sequencing (CirSeq) as an advanced "no amplification" method, and Illumina TruSeq RNA Access as a "targeted" enrichment method. The measured error frequencies indicate that RNA Access offers the best tradeoff between sensitivity and sample preparation error (1.4-5) of all compared methods

Percentage of errors by type of acquired diversity determined during sample preparation.

<p>(A) Percentage of error attributed to synonymous vs. non-synonymous variants. (B) Percentage of errors attributed to transitions vs. transversions. (C) Percentage of errors attributed to insertions or deletions vs. Intra-host single nucleotide variants (iSNV).</p

Study sample diagram.

<p>Study sample diagram.</p

Sources of error per sample preparation method.

<p>(A) Intra-host single nucleotide variants (iSNVs) that were present in multiple samples at greater than 1% of population are shown in a heat map format to visualize patterned diversity acquired during sample preparation. The total number of samples containing iSNVs in greater than 1% of population are summarized in the column “#> 1% of Pop” in green. “Codon” column (second column from right) provides both the nucleotide and protein translation of the site. (B) The detected mean error rates of iSNVs greater than 0. 2% of population (error/site/copy) are stratified by presence in the plasmid (Origin), detection after transcription/reverse transcription (Transc) or preparation, and preparation/sequencer error (Prep). (C) Error profiles are expressed as the number of iSNVs per percent of population obtained from each of the 5 sample preparation methods.</p

Total error by sample preparation method.

<p>(A) The mean read depth per position from two DNA controls (PLASMID and P_AMP) and five RNA sample preparation methods (n = 2 of replicate experiments). (B) Errors calculated as error/site/copy (plasmid or transcript) are presented as the average of duplicate experiments as in A. Intra-host single nucleotide variants present in the original plasmid were removed from the calculation of the error (reference positions: 4,697 and 4,725). Student t-tests were performed to demonstrate differences between the mean error per site per copy in the control plasmid (* = <i>p</i><0.05) and each sample preparation method. (C) The error calculated in B is converted to fold change over the control (“PLASMID”). Error bars in all panels represent standard deviation of the mean.</p

Codes of Ethics and the Pursuit of Organizational Legitimacy: Theoretical and Empirical Contributions

codes of ethics, isomorphism, organizational legitimacy, strategic legitimacy,

Sensitivity of revised diagnostic criteria for the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia

Based on the recent literature and collective experience, an international consortium developed revised guidelines for the diagnosis of behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia. The validation process retrospectively reviewed clinical records and compared the sensitivity of proposed and earlier criteria in a multi-site sample of patients with pathologically verified frontotemporal lobar degeneration. According to the revised criteria, 'possible' behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia requires three of six clinically discriminating features (disinhibition, apathy/inertia, loss of sympathy/empathy, perseverative/compulsive behaviours, hyperorality and dysexecutive neuropsychological profile). 'Probable' behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia adds functional disability and characteristic neuroimaging, while behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia 'with definite frontotemporal lobar degeneration' requires histopathological confirmation or a pathogenic mutation. Sixteen brain banks contributed cases meeting histopathological criteria for frontotemporal lobar degeneration and a clinical diagnosis of behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies or vascular dementia at presentation. Cases with predominant primary progressive aphasia or extra-pyramidal syndromes were excluded. In these autopsy-confirmed cases, an experienced neurologist or psychiatrist ascertained clinical features necessary for making a diagnosis according to previous and proposed criteria at presentation. Of 137 cases where features were available for both proposed and previously established criteria, 118 (86%) met 'possible' criteria, and 104 (76%) met criteria for 'probable' behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia. In contrast, 72 cases (53%) met previously established criteria for the syndrome (P < 0.001 for comparison with 'possible' and 'probable' criteria). Patients who failed to meet revised criteria were significantly older and most had atypical presentations with marked memory impairment. In conclusion, the revised criteria for behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia improve diagnostic accuracy compared with previously established criteria in a sample with known frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Greater sensitivity of the proposed criteria may reflect the optimized diagnostic features, less restrictive exclusion features and a flexible structure that accommodates different initial clinical presentations. Future studies will be needed to establish the reliability and specificity of these revised diagnostic guidelines