807 research outputs found
Traceroute sampling makes random graphs appear to have power law degree distributions
The topology of the Internet has typically been measured by sampling
traceroutes, which are roughly shortest paths from sources to destinations. The
resulting measurements have been used to infer that the Internet's degree
distribution is scale-free; however, many of these measurements have relied on
sampling traceroutes from a small number of sources. It was recently argued
that sampling in this way can introduce a fundamental bias in the degree
distribution, for instance, causing random (Erdos-Renyi) graphs to appear to
have power law degree distributions. We explain this phenomenon analytically
using differential equations to model the growth of a breadth-first tree in a
random graph G(n,p=c/n) of average degree c, and show that sampling from a
single source gives an apparent power law degree distribution P(k) ~ 1/k for k
< c
Colourings of cubic graphs inducing isomorphic monochromatic subgraphs
A -bisection of a bridgeless cubic graph is a -colouring of its
vertex set such that the colour classes have the same cardinality and all
connected components in the two subgraphs induced by the colour classes
(monochromatic components in what follows) have order at most . Ban and
Linial conjectured that every bridgeless cubic graph admits a -bisection
except for the Petersen graph. A similar problem for the edge set of cubic
graphs has been studied: Wormald conjectured that every cubic graph with
has a -edge colouring such that the two
monochromatic subgraphs are isomorphic linear forests (i.e. a forest whose
components are paths). Finally, Ando conjectured that every cubic graph admits
a bisection such that the two induced monochromatic subgraphs are isomorphic.
In this paper, we give a detailed insight into the conjectures of Ban-Linial
and Wormald and provide evidence of a strong relation of both of them with
Ando's conjecture. Furthermore, we also give computational and theoretical
evidence in their support. As a result, we pose some open problems stronger
than the above mentioned conjectures. Moreover, we prove Ban-Linial's
conjecture for cubic cycle permutation graphs.
As a by-product of studying -edge colourings of cubic graphs having linear
forests as monochromatic components, we also give a negative answer to a
problem posed by Jackson and Wormald about certain decompositions of cubic
graphs into linear forests.Comment: 33 pages; submitted for publicatio
Geographical variation in certification rates of blindness and sight impairment in England, 2008-2009
To examine and interpret the variation in the incidence of blindness and sight impairment in England by PCT, as reported by the Certificate of Vision Impairment (CVI).
Design:
Analysis of national certification data.
Setting:
All Primary Care Trusts, England.
Participants:
23 773 CVI certifications issued from 2008 to 2009.
Main Outcome measures:
Crude and Age standardised rates of CVI data for blindness and sight loss by PCT.
Methods:
The crude and age standardised CVI rates per 100 000 were calculated with Spearman's rank correlation used to assess whether there was any evidence of association between CVI rates with Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) and the Programme Spend for Vision.
Results:
There was high-level variation, almost 11-fold (coefficient of variation 38%) in standardised CVI blindness and sight impairment annual certification rates across PCTs. The mean rate was 43.7 and the SD 16.7. We found little evidence of an association between the rate of blindness and sight impairment with either the IMD or Programme Spend on Vision.
Conclusions:
The wide geographical variation we found raises questions about the quality of the data and whether there is genuine unmet need for prevention of sight loss. It is a concern for public health practitioners who will be interpreting these data locally and nationally as the CVI data will form the basis of the public health indicator ‘preventable sight loss’. Poor-quality data and inadequate interpretation will only create confusion if not addressed adequately from the outset. There is an urgent need to address the shortcomings of the current data collection system and to educate all public health practitioners
An algorithm for counting circuits: application to real-world and random graphs
We introduce an algorithm which estimates the number of circuits in a graph
as a function of their length. This approach provides analytical results for
the typical entropy of circuits in sparse random graphs. When applied to
real-world networks, it allows to estimate exponentially large numbers of
circuits in polynomial time. We illustrate the method by studying a graph of
the Internet structure.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, minor corrections, accepted versio
Ising Model on Networks with an Arbitrary Distribution of Connections
We find the exact critical temperature of the nearest-neighbor
ferromagnetic Ising model on an `equilibrium' random graph with an arbitrary
degree distribution . We observe an anomalous behavior of the
magnetization, magnetic susceptibility and specific heat, when is
fat-tailed, or, loosely speaking, when the fourth moment of the distribution
diverges in infinite networks. When the second moment becomes divergent,
approaches infinity, the phase transition is of infinite order, and size effect
is anomalously strong.Comment: 5 page
Self-organization of collaboration networks
We study collaboration networks in terms of evolving, self-organizing
bipartite graph models. We propose a model of a growing network, which combines
preferential edge attachment with the bipartite structure, generic for
collaboration networks. The model depends exclusively on basic properties of
the network, such as the total number of collaborators and acts of
collaboration, the mean size of collaborations, etc. The simplest model defined
within this framework already allows us to describe many of the main
topological characteristics (degree distribution, clustering coefficient, etc.)
of one-mode projections of several real collaboration networks, without
parameter fitting. We explain the observed dependence of the local clustering
on degree and the degree--degree correlations in terms of the ``aging'' of
collaborators and their physical impossibility to participate in an unlimited
number of collaborations.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure
Hydrogenotrophic Methanogenesis Under Alkaline Conditions
A cement-based geological disposal facility (GDF) is one potential option for the disposal of intermediate level radioactive wastes. The presence of both organic and metallic materials within a GDF provides the opportunity for both acetoclastic and hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis. However, for these processes to proceed, they need to adapt to the alkaline environment generated by the cementitious materials employed in backfilling and construction. Within the present study, a range of alkaline and neutral pH sediments were investigated to determine the upper pH limit and the preferred route of methane generation. In all cases, the acetoclastic route did not proceed above pH 9.0, and the hydrogenotrophic route dominated methane generation under alkaline conditions. In some alkaline sediments, acetate metabolism was coupled to hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis via syntrophic acetate oxidation, which was confirmed through inhibition studies employing fluoromethane. The absence of acetoclastic methanogenesis at alkaline pH values (>pH 9.0) is attributed to the dominance of the acetate anion over the uncharged, undissociated acid. Under these conditions, acetoclastic methanogens require an active transport system to access their substrate. The data indicate that hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis is the dominant methanogenic pathway under alkaline conditions (>pH 9.0)
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