Critical behavior of a stochastic anisotropic Bak-Sneppen model

In this paper we present our study on the critical behavior of a stochastic anisotropic Bak-Sneppen (saBS) model, in which a parameter $\alpha$ is introduced to describe the interaction strength among nearest species. We estimate the threshold fitness $f_c$ and the critical exponent $\tau_r$ by numerically integrating a master equation for the distribution of avalanche spatial sizes. Other critical exponents are then evaluated from previously known scaling relations. The numerical results are in good agreement with the counterparts yielded by the Monte Carlo simulations. Our results indicate that all saBS models with nonzero interaction strength exhibit self-organized criticality, and fall into the same universality class, by sharing the universal critical exponents.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:cond-mat/9803068 by other author

Community detection by label propagation with compression of flow

The label propagation algorithm (LPA) has been proved to be a fast and effective method for detecting communities in large complex networks. However, its performance is subject to the non-stable and trivial solutions of the problem. In this paper, we propose a modified label propagation algorithm LPAf to efficiently detect community structures in networks. Instead of the majority voting rule of the basic LPA, LPAf updates the label of a node by considering the compression of a description of random walks on a network. A multi-step greedy agglomerative strategy is employed to enable LPAf to escape the local optimum. Furthermore, an incomplete update condition is also adopted to speed up the convergence. Experimental results on both synthetic and real-world networks confirm the effectiveness of our algorithm

Community Detection in Dynamic Networks via Adaptive Label Propagation

An adaptive label propagation algorithm (ALPA) is proposed to detect and monitor communities in dynamic networks. Unlike the traditional methods by re-computing the whole community decomposition after each modification of the network, ALPA takes into account the information of historical communities and updates its solution according to the network modifications via a local label propagation process, which generally affects only a small portion of the network. This makes it respond to network changes at low computational cost. The effectiveness of ALPA has been tested on both synthetic and real-world networks, which shows that it can successfully identify and track dynamic communities. Moreover, ALPA could detect communities with high quality and accuracy compared to other methods. Therefore, being low-complexity and parameter-free, ALPA is a scalable and promising solution for some real-world applications of community detection in dynamic networks.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figure

The effects of overtaking strategy in the Nagel-Schreckenberg model

Based on the Nagel-Schreckenberg (NS) model with periodic boundary conditions, we proposed the NSOS model by adding the overtaking strategy (OS). In our model, overtaking vehicles are randomly selected with probability $q$ at each time step, and the successful overtaking is determined by their velocities. We observed that (i) traffic jams still occur in the NSOS model; (ii) OS increases the traffic flow in the regime where the densities exceed the maximum flow density. We also studied the phase transition (from free flow phase to jammed phase) of the NSOS model by analyzing the overtaking success rate, order parameter, relaxation time and correlation function, respectively. It was shown that the NSOS model differs from the NS model mainly in the jammed regime, and the influence of OS on the transition density is dominated by the braking probability $p$Comment: 9 pages, 20 figures, to be published in The European Physical Journal B (EPJB

Multifractal and Network Analysis of Phase Transition

Many models and real complex systems possess critical thresholds at which the systems shift from one sate to another. The discovery of the early warnings of the systems in the vicinity of critical point are of great importance to estimate how far a system is from a critical threshold. Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA) and visibility graph method have been employed to investigate the fluctuation and geometrical structures of magnetization time series of two-dimensional Ising model around critical point. The Hurst exponent has been confirmed to be a good indicator of phase transition. Increase of the multifractality of the time series have been observed from generalized Hurst exponents and singularity spectrum. Both Long-term correlation and broad probability density function are identified to be the sources of multifractality of time series near critical regime. Heterogeneous nature of the networks constructed from magnetization time series have validated the fractal properties of magnetization time series from complex network perspective. Evolution of the topology quantities such as clustering coefficient, average degree, average shortest path length, density, assortativity and heterogeneity serve as early warnings of phase transition. Those methods and results can provide new insights about analysis of phase transition problems and can be used as early warnings for various complex systems.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figure

Recombinant antigen P29 of Echinococcus granulosus induces Th1, Tc1, and Th17 cell immune responses in sheep

Echinococcosis is a common human and animal parasitic disease that seriously endangers human health and animal husbandry. Although studies have been conducted on vaccines for echinococcosis, to date, there is no human vaccine available for use. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of in-depth research on basic immunization with vaccines. Our previous results confirmed that recombinant antigen P29 (rEg.P29) induced more than 90% immune protection in both mice and sheep, but data on its induction of sheep-associated cellular immune responses are lacking. In this study, we investigated the changes in CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, and antigen-specific cytokines IFN-γ, IL-4, and IL-17A after rEg.P29 immunization using enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and flow cytometry to investigate the cellular immune response induced by rEg.P29 in sheep. It was found that rEg.P29 immunization did not affect the percentage of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and was able to stimulate the proliferation of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells after immunization in vitro. Importantly, the results of both ELISPOT and ELISA showed that rEg.P29 can induce the production of the specific cytokines IFN-γ and IL-17A, and flow cytometry verified that rEg.P29 can induce the expression of IFN-γ in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and IL-17A in CD4+ T cells; however, no IL-4 expression was observed. These results indicate that rEg.P29 can induce Th1, Th17, and Tc1 cellular immune responses in sheep against echinococcosis infection, providing theoretical support for the translation of rEg.P29 vaccine applications

Analysis of appearance and active substances of Cordyceps militaris stromata on Antheraea pernyi pupae after optimization

Abstract Cordyceps militaris stromata on Antheraea pernyi pupae contain various active components, including cordycepin, adenosine, polysaccharides, and amino acids. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the liquid culture conditions for C. militaris before its injection into A. pernyi pupae. A pH of 7.56 ± 0.02, a culture temperature of 20.5 ± 0.1 °C, a culture time of 110.5 ± 0.5 h, and a KH2PO4 concentration of 1.11 ± 0.01 g l−1 resulted in a C. militaris dry weight of 1.0226 g l−1. Experimental and predicted values were similar. The RSM optimization increased the number of fruiting bodies (17 to 22) and the average fruiting body length (6.9 cm to 7.9 cm), while also deepening the yellow colouration of the fruiting bodies. The adenosine, cordycepin, polysaccharide, carotenoid, and cordycepic acid contents increased by 12.52%, 7.67%, 3.03%, 14.93%, and 0.02%, respectively, after the optimization. However, the optimization did not alter the number of different amino acids (18) or the total amino acid content, even though the contents of certain amino acids changed somewhat. These finding may be useful for increasing the yield of C. militaris stromata on A. pernyi pupae, which will increase the profitability of C. militaris production

Magnetoelectric interaction and transport behaviours in magnetic nanocomposite thermoelectric materials

How to suppress the performance deterioration of thermoelectric materials in the intrinsic excitation region remains a key challenge. The magnetic transition of permanent magnet nanoparticles from ferromagnetism to paramagnetism provides an effective approach to finding the solution to this challenge. Here, we have designed and prepared magnetic nanocomposite thermoelectric materials consisting of BaFe12O19 nanoparticles and Ba0.3In0.3Co4Sb12 matrix. It was found that the electrical transport behaviours of the nanocomposites are controlled by the magnetic transition of BaFe12O19 nanoparticles from ferromagnetism to paramagnetism. BaFe12O19 nanoparticles trap electrons below the Curie temperature (TC) and release the trapped electrons above the TC, playing an ‘electron repository’ role in maintaining high figure of merit ZT. BaFe12O19 nanoparticles produce two types of magnetoelectric effect—electron spiral motion and magnon-drag thermopower—as well as enhancing phonon scattering. Our work demonstrates that the performance deterioration of thermoelectric materials in the intrinsic excitation region can be suppressed through the magnetic transition of permanent magnet nanoparticles