1,355 research outputs found
Module identification in bipartite and directed networks
Modularity is one of the most prominent properties of real-world complex
networks. Here, we address the issue of module identification in two important
classes of networks: bipartite networks and directed unipartite networks. Nodes
in bipartite networks are divided into two non-overlapping sets, and the links
must have one end node from each set. Directed unipartite networks only have
one type of nodes, but links have an origin and an end. We show that directed
unipartite networks can be conviniently represented as bipartite networks for
module identification purposes. We report a novel approach especially suited
for module detection in bipartite networks, and define a set of random networks
that enable us to validate the new approach
Social encounter networks : collective properties and disease transmission
A fundamental challenge of modern infectious disease epidemiology is to quantify the networks of social and physical contacts through which transmission can occur. Understanding the collective properties of these interactions is critical for both accurate prediction of the spread of infection and determining optimal control measures. However, even the basic properties of such networks are poorly quantified, forcing predictions to be made based on strong assumptions concerning network structure. Here, we report on the results of a large-scale survey of social encounters mainly conducted in Great Britain. First, we characterize the distribution of contacts, which possesses a lognormal body and a power-law tail with an exponent of â2.45; we provide a plausible mechanistic model that captures this form. Analysis of the high level of local clustering of contacts reveals additional structure within the network, implying that social contacts are degree assortative. Finally, we describe the epidemiological implications of this local network structure: these contradict the usual predictions from networks with heavy-tailed degree distributions and contain public-health messages about control. Our findings help us to determine the types of realistic network structure that should be assumed in future population level studies of infection transmission, leading to better interpretations of epidemiological data and more appropriate policy decisions
Social encounter networks : characterizing Great Britain
A major goal of infectious disease epidemiology is to understand and predict the spread of infections within human populations, with the intention of better informing decisions regarding control and intervention. However, the development of fully mechanistic models of transmission requires a quantitative understanding of social interactions and collective properties of social networks. We performed a cross-sectional study of the social contacts on given days for more than 5000 respondents in England, Scotland and Wales, through postal and online survey methods. The survey was designed to elicit detailed and previously unreported measures of the immediate social network of participants relevant to infection spread. Here, we describe individual-level contact patterns, focusing on the range of heterogeneity observed and discuss the correlations between contact patterns and other socio-demographic factors. We find that the distribution of the number of contacts approximates a power-law distribution, but postulate that total contact time (which has a shorter-tailed distribution) is more epidemiologically relevant. We observe that children, public-sector and healthcare workers have the highest number of total contact hours and are therefore most likely to catch and transmit infectious disease. Our study also quantifies the transitive connections made between an individual's contacts (or clustering); this is a key structural characteristic of social networks with important implications for disease transmission and control efficacy. Respondents' networks exhibit high levels of clustering, which varies across social settings and increases with duration, frequency of contact and distance from home. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings for the transmission and control of pathogens spread through close contact
Evaluating Local Community Methods in Networks
We present a new benchmarking procedure that is unambiguous and specific to
local community-finding methods, allowing one to compare the accuracy of
various methods. We apply this to new and existing algorithms. A simple class
of synthetic benchmark networks is also developed, capable of testing
properties specific to these local methods.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, code included with sourc
Identifying network communities with a high resolution
Community structure is an important property of complex networks. An
automatic discovery of such structure is a fundamental task in many
disciplines, including sociology, biology, engineering, and computer science.
Recently, several community discovery algorithms have been proposed based on
the optimization of a quantity called modularity (Q). However, the problem of
modularity optimization is NP-hard, and the existing approaches often suffer
from prohibitively long running time or poor quality. Furthermore, it has been
recently pointed out that algorithms based on optimizing Q will have a
resolution limit, i.e., communities below a certain scale may not be detected.
In this research, we first propose an efficient heuristic algorithm, Qcut,
which combines spectral graph partitioning and local search to optimize Q.
Using both synthetic and real networks, we show that Qcut can find higher
modularities and is more scalable than the existing algorithms. Furthermore,
using Qcut as an essential component, we propose a recursive algorithm, HQcut,
to solve the resolution limit problem. We show that HQcut can successfully
detect communities at a much finer scale and with a higher accuracy than the
existing algorithms. Finally, we apply Qcut and HQcut to study a
protein-protein interaction network, and show that the combination of the two
algorithms can reveal interesting biological results that may be otherwise
undetectable.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures. 1 supplemental file at
http://cic.cs.wustl.edu/qcut/supplemental.pd
Benchmarks for testing community detection algorithms on directed and weighted graphs with overlapping communities
Many complex networks display a mesoscopic structure with groups of nodes
sharing many links with the other nodes in their group and comparatively few
with nodes of different groups. This feature is known as community structure
and encodes precious information about the organization and the function of the
nodes. Many algorithms have been proposed but it is not yet clear how they
should be tested. Recently we have proposed a general class of undirected and
unweighted benchmark graphs, with heterogenous distributions of node degree and
community size. An increasing attention has been recently devoted to develop
algorithms able to consider the direction and the weight of the links, which
require suitable benchmark graphs for testing. In this paper we extend the
basic ideas behind our previous benchmark to generate directed and weighted
networks with built-in community structure. We also consider the possibility
that nodes belong to more communities, a feature occurring in real systems,
like, e. g., social networks. As a practical application, we show how
modularity optimization performs on our new benchmark.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures. Final version published in Physical Review E.
The code to create the benchmark graphs can be freely downloaded from
http://santo.fortunato.googlepages.com/inthepress
Optimal map of the modular structure of complex networks
Modular structure is pervasive in many complex networks of interactions
observed in natural, social and technological sciences. Its study sheds light
on the relation between the structure and function of complex systems.
Generally speaking, modules are islands of highly connected nodes separated by
a relatively small number of links. Every module can have contributions of
links from any node in the network. The challenge is to disentangle these
contributions to understand how the modular structure is built. The main
problem is that the analysis of a certain partition into modules involves, in
principle, as many data as number of modules times number of nodes. To confront
this challenge, here we first define the contribution matrix, the mathematical
object containing all the information about the partition of interest, and
after, we use a Truncated Singular Value Decomposition to extract the best
representation of this matrix in a plane. The analysis of this projection allow
us to scrutinize the skeleton of the modular structure, revealing the structure
of individual modules and their interrelations.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figure
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