90,611 research outputs found
Understanding the internet topology evolution dynamics
The internet structure is extremely complex. The Positive-Feedback Preference
(PFP) model is a recently introduced internet topology generator. The model
uses two generic algorithms to replicate the evolution dynamics observed on the
internet historic data. The phenomenological model was originally designed to
match only two topology properties of the internet, i.e. the rich-club
connectivity and the exact form of degree distribution. Whereas numerical
evaluation has shown that the PFP model accurately reproduces a large set of
other nontrivial characteristics as well. This paper aims to investigate why
and how this generative model captures so many diverse properties of the
internet. Based on comprehensive simulation results, the paper presents a
detailed analysis on the exact origin of each of the topology properties
produced by the model. This work reveals how network evolution mechanisms
control the obtained topology properties and it also provides insights on
correlations between various structural characteristics of complex networks.Comment: 15 figure
On Minimum Violations Ranking in Paired Comparisons
Ranking a set of objects from the most dominant one to the least, based on
the results of paired comparisons, proves to be useful in many contexts. Using
the rankings of teams or individuals players in sports to seed tournaments is
an example. The quality of a ranking is often evaluated by the number of
violations, cases in which an object is ranked lower than another that it has
dominated in a comparison, that it contains. A minimum violations ranking (MVR)
method, as its name suggests, searches specifically for rankings that have the
minimum possible number of violations which may or may not be zero. In this
paper, we present a method based on statistical physics that overcomes
conceptual and practical difficulties faced by earlier studies of the problem.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures; typos corrected (v2
Clinicopathological determinants of an elevated systemic inflammatory response following elective potentially curative resection for colorectal cancer
Introduction:
The postoperative systemic inflammatory response (SIR) is related to both long- and short-term outcomes following surgery for colorectal cancer. However, it is not clear which clinicopathological factors are associated with the magnitude of the postoperative SIR. The present study was designed to determine the clinicopathological determinants of the postoperative systemic inflammatory response following colorectal cancer resection.
Methods:
Patients with a histologically proven diagnosis of colorectal cancer who underwent elective, potentially curative resection during a period from 1999 to 2013 were included in the study (n = 752). Clinicopathological data and the postoperative SIR, as evidenced by postoperative Glasgow Prognostic Score (poGPS), were recorded in a prospectively maintained database.
Results:
The majority of patients were aged 65 years or older, male, were overweight or obese, and had an open resection. After adjustment for year of operation, a high day 3 poGPS was independently associated with American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade (hazard ratio [HR] 1.96; confidence interval [CI] 1.25–3.09; p = 0.003), body mass index (BMI) (HR 1.60; CI 1.07–2.38; p = 0.001), mGPS (HR 2.03; CI 1.35–3.03; p = 0.001), and tumour site (HR 2.99; CI 1.56–5.71; p < 0.001). After adjustment for year of operation, a high day 4 poGPS was independently associated with ASA grade (HR 1.65; CI 1.06–2.57; p = 0.028), mGPS (HR 1.81; CI 1.22–2.68; p = 0.003), NLR (HR 0.50; CI 0.26–0.95; p = 0.034), and tumour site (HR 2.90; CI 1.49–5.65; p = 0.002).
Conclusions:
ASA grade, BMI, mGPS, and tumour site were consistently associated with the magnitude of the postoperative systemic inflammatory response, evidenced by a high poGPS on days 3 and 4, in patients undergoing elective potentially curative resection for colorectal cancer
Triadic motifs and dyadic self-organization in the World Trade Network
In self-organizing networks, topology and dynamics coevolve in a continuous
feedback, without exogenous driving. The World Trade Network (WTN) is one of
the few empirically well documented examples of self-organizing networks: its
topology strongly depends on the GDP of world countries, which in turn depends
on the structure of trade. Therefore, understanding which are the key
topological properties of the WTN that deviate from randomness provides direct
empirical information about the structural effects of self-organization. Here,
using an analytical pattern-detection method that we have recently proposed, we
study the occurrence of triadic "motifs" (subgraphs of three vertices) in the
WTN between 1950 and 2000. We find that, unlike other properties, motifs are
not explained by only the in- and out-degree sequences. By contrast, they are
completely explained if also the numbers of reciprocal edges are taken into
account. This implies that the self-organization process underlying the
evolution of the WTN is almost completely encoded into the dyadic structure,
which strongly depends on reciprocity.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; Best Paper Award at the 6th International
Conference on Self-Organizing Systems, Delft, The Netherlands, 15-16/03/201
Adjustable impedance, force feedback and command language aids for telerobotics (parts 1-4 of an 8-part MIT progress report)
Projects recently completed or in progress at MIT Man-Machine Systems Laboratory are summarized. (1) A 2-part impedance network model of a single degree of freedom remote manipulation system is presented in which a human operator at the master port interacts with a task object at the slave port in a remote location is presented. (2) The extension of the predictor concept to include force feedback and dynamic modeling of the manipulator and the environment is addressed. (3) A system was constructed to infer intent from the operator's commands and the teleoperation context, and generalize this information to interpret future commands. (4) A command language system is being designed that is robust, easy to learn, and has more natural man-machine communication. A general telerobot problem selected as an important command language context is finding a collision-free path for a robot
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