Comparison of immunization strategies in geographical networks

The epidemic spread and immunizations in geographically embedded scale-free (SF) and Watts-Strogatz (WS) networks are numerically investigated. We make a realistic assumption that it takes time which we call the detection time, for a vertex to be identified as infected, and implement two different immunization strategies: one is based on connection neighbors (CN) of the infected vertex with the exact information of the network structure utilized and the other is based on spatial neighbors (SN) with only geographical distances taken into account. We find that the decrease of the detection time is crucial for a successful immunization in general. Simulation results show that for both SF networks and WS networks, the SN strategy always performs better than the CN strategy, especially for more heterogeneous SF networks at long detection time. The observation is verified by checking the number of the infected nodes being immunized. We found that in geographical space, the distance preferences in the network construction process and the geographically decaying infection rate are key factors that make the SN immunization strategy outperforms the CN strategy. It indicates that even in the absence of the full knowledge of network connectivity we can still stop the epidemic spread efficiently only by using geographical information as in the SN strategy, which may have potential applications for preventing the real epidemic spread.     

The most common friend first immunization

In this paper, a standard susceptible-infected-recovered-susceptible(SIRS) epidemic model based on the Watts–Strogatz(WS) small-world network model and the Barabsi–Albert(BA) scale-free network model is established, and a new immunization scheme — "the most common friend first immunization" is proposed, in which the most common friend's node is described as being the first immune on the second layer protection of complex networks. The propagation situations of three different immunization schemes — random immunization, high-risk immunization, and the most common friend first immunization are studied. At the same time, the dynamic behaviors are also studied on the WS small-world and the BA scale-free network. Moreover, the analytic and simulated results indicate that the immune effect of the most common friend first immunization is better than random immunization, but slightly worse than high-risk immunization. However,high-risk immunization still has some limitations. For example, it is difficult to accurately define who a direct neighbor in the life is. Compared with the traditional immunization strategies having some shortcomings, the most common friend first immunization is effective, and it is nicely consistent with the actual situation.     

可变聚类无标度网络上的谣言免疫策略

提出一种聚类免疫策略,使用改进的经典谣言传播模型,在可变聚类无标度网络上研究其免疫效果.研究发现,聚类免疫的效果随着网络聚类系数的增加而变好.在不同聚类系数下,比较目标免疫、介数免疫、紧密度免疫和聚类免疫的免疫效果发现,无论网络的聚类特性如何,介数免疫始终是几种免疫策略中效果最好的,当网络聚类系数较大时,聚类免疫的效果超过紧密度免疫接近目标免疫,进一步增大网络的聚类系数,聚类免疫的效果超过目标免疫而接近介数免疫.     

考虑谣言清除过程的网络谣言传播与抑制

网络谣言传播是网络传播动力学的重要课题之一. 网络谣言传播常常同时混杂谣言感染和谣言清除两个过程, 对这一现象的分析可以帮助我们更好地认识社会网络中的信息传播. 本文在susceptible-infective-refractory谣言传播模型的基础上增加谣言清除者, 定义了谣言感染和谣言清除的规则, 提出SIERsEs谣言传播模型, 建立了模型的平均场方程, 从理论上分析了谣言传播的稳态, 并求解出谣言传播的感染阈值和清除阈值. 仿真计算分析了感染和清除过程同时作用时, 感染率、清除率和网络平均度对谣言传播的影响. 研究发现, 网络平均度过小或过大, 谣言传播稳定后的影响力都将处于低水平. 分析了目标免疫和熟人免疫等传统免疫策略的不足, 针对网络环境下谣言抑制的特点, 提出主动免疫和被动免疫两种网络谣言免疫策略, 并研究了传播者遗忘率、清除者遗忘率和开始免疫时间参数对这两种谣言免疫策略有效性的影响. 需要重视的是: 研究发现一些直观看来有效的谣言抑制措施反而可能提高谣言的影响力. 研究结果有助于深化对于网络传播动力学的理解, 同时为发展有效的网络谣言抑制策略提供新的思路.     

Comparison of cascading failures in small-world and scale-free networks subject to vertex and edge attacks

Complex networks may undergo a global cascade of overload failures when a single highly loaded vertex or edge is intentionally attacked. Here we use the recent load model of cascading failures to investigate the performance of the small-world (SW) and scale-free (SF) networks subject to deliberate attacks on vertex and edge. Simulation results suggest that compared with the SW network, the SF network is more vulnerable to deliberate vertex attacks and more robust to deliberate edge attacks. In the SF network, deliberate vertex attacks can result in larger cascading failures than deliberate edge attacks; however, in the SW network the situation is opposite. Furthermore, with the increase of the rewiring probability the SW network becomes more and more robust to deliberate vertex and edge attacks.     

一种无线传感器网络簇间拓扑演化模型及其免疫研究

基于复杂网络理论, 研究由于节点失效所导致的无线传感器网络性能下降的问题, 提出一种新的簇间拓扑演化模型, 在此基础上讨论病毒的免疫策略, 并给出一种新的免疫机理. 理论分析表明, 该模型演化生成的网络不仅具有较强的容错性, 而且还可以有效避免节点因能量很快耗尽而过早死亡. 研究还发现, 对于网络全局信息未知的情况, 与随机免疫和熟人免疫策略相比, 本文所提免疫策略能够获得较好的免疫效果. 通过数值仿真对理论分析进行验证.     

Cooperative superfluorescence in nanoclusters

The features of superfluorescence (SF) in nanoclusters, which consist of a few neighboring particles interacting with each other by exchange or/and electrostatic forces, are investigated theoretically. It is shown that there are two types of cooperatively SF depending on the ratio between the linear size of a nanocluster and the cooperative interaction range. Experiments on cooperative luminescence in Ytterbium-doped silica fibers are analyzed. It is shown that the intensity of cooperative SF in such a system should be proportional to the fourth degree of Ytterbium concentration.     

The field induced magnetization reorientation in weak ferromagnets—III: The case of non-equivalent single ion anisotropy

The phase transitions in a single-ion anisotropy type weak ferromagnet at 0°K are studied using a two sublattice model and molecular field theory. In an external field applied along the antiferromagnetic axis, there exist three stable phases, denoted as weak ferromagnetic (WF), spin-flop (SF), and metamagnetic (MM). The character of the WF to SF transition changes from first to second order as the angle between a sublattice uniaxial anisotropy axis and the antiferromagnetic axis is increased. The tricritical field for this phase transition is proportional to the one-half power of the uniaxial anisotropy field, when the latter is much smaller than the exchange field. The transitions to and from the MM phase are always of first order. The former can result from either a WF or a SF phase instability threshold being reached. The latter always results in a transition to the WF phase. All three phases can, under specified conditions, coexist for a range of applied field values. In this case, an instability of the WF phase always results in a first order transition to the SF phase.     

On competitive relationship networks: A new method for industrial competition analysis

Other than co-operation, competition is a central issue in industry and commerce today, which always exists among enterprises that provide homogeneous products or services. The competitive relationships of enterprises determine the rivalry nature of dominant interactions among them; that is, rivalry actions are the main interactions while co-operation actions generally occur on an occasional basis and do not essentially change this competitive nature of their relationships. This paper reports a detailed study of a competitive relationship network of 578 certified Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) in Guangzhou city, China, which shows some prominent scale-free (SF) structural properties and complex dynamical behaviors. In this report, the economic background and the significance the competitive relationship network model will be described; the underlying dynamical mechanism of the network model will be analyzed, showing some advantages of the new model for industrial organization theory (IO) over the traditional ones. Finally, some related issues, such as the static properties of the competitive relationship network and some of its graph properties, will be discussed.     

Finding a better immunization strategy

The problem of finding the best strategy to immunize a population or a computer network with a minimal number of immunization doses is of current interest. It has been accepted that the targeted strategies on most central nodes are most efficient for model and real networks. We present a newly developed graph-partitioning strategy which requires 5% to 50% fewer immunization doses compared to the targeted strategy and achieves the same degree of immunization of the network. We explicitly demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed strategy on several model networks and also on real networks.     

Excitable scale free networks

When a simple excitable system is continuously stimulated by a Poissonian external source, the response function (mean activity versus stimulus rate) generally shows a linear saturating shape. This is experimentally verified in some classes of sensory neurons, which accordingly present a small dynamic range (defined as the interval of stimulus intensity which can be appropriately coded by the mean activity of the excitable element), usually about one or two decades only. The brain, on the other hand, can handle a significantly broader range of stimulus intensity, and a collective phenomenon involving the interaction among excitable neurons has been suggested to account for the enhancement of the dynamic range. Since the role of the pattern of such interactions is still unclear, here we investigate the performance of a scale-free (SF) network topology in this dynamic range problem. Specifically, we study the transfer function of disordered SF networks of excitable Greenberg-Hastings cellular automata. We observe that the dynamic range is maximum when the coupling among the elements is critical, corroborating a general reasoning recently proposed. Although the maximum dynamic range yielded by general SF networks is slightly worse than that of random networks, for special SF networks which lack loops the enhancement of the dynamic range can be dramatic, reaching nearly five decades. In order to understand the role of loops on the transfer function we propose a simple model in which the density of loops in the network can be gradually increased, and show that this is accompanied by a gradual decrease of dynamic range.     

False Positive and False Negative Effects on Network Attacks

Robustness against attacks serves as evidence for complex network structures and failure mechanisms that lie behind them. Most often, due to detection capability limitation or good disguises, attacks on networks are subject to false positives and false negatives, meaning that functional nodes may be falsely regarded as compromised by the attacker and vice versa. In this work, we initiate a study of false positive/negative effects on network robustness against three fundamental types of attack strategies, namely, random attacks (RA), localized attacks (LA), and targeted attack (TA). By developing a general mathematical framework based upon the percolation model, we investigate analytically and by numerical simulations of attack robustness with false positive/negative rate (FPR/FNR) on three benchmark models including Erd?s-Rényi (ER) networks, random regular (RR) networks, and scale-free (SF) networks. We show that ER networks are equivalently robust against RA and LA only when FPR equals zero or the initial network is intact. We find several interesting crossovers in RR and SF networks when FPR is taken into consideration. By defining the cost of attack, we observe diminishing marginal attack efficiency for RA, LA, and TA. Our finding highlights the potential risk of underestimating or ignoring FPR in understanding attack robustness. The results may provide insights into ways of enhancing robustness of network architecture and improve the level of protection of critical infrastructures.     

Immunization of real complex communication networks

Most communication networks are complex. In this paper, we address one of the fundamental problems we are facing nowadays, namely, how we can efficiently protect these networks. To this end, we study an immunization strategy and found that it works almost as good as targeted immunization, but using only local information about the network topology. Our findings are supported with numerical simulations of the Susceptible-Infected-Removed (SIR) model on top of real communication networks, where immune nodes are previously identified by a covering algorithm. The results provide useful hints in the way to designing and deploying a digital immune system.     

An Efficient Control Strategy of Epidemic Spreading on Scale-Free Networks

We present a novel and effective method for controlling epidemic spreading on complex networks, especially on scale-free networks. The proposed strategy is performed by deleting edges according to their significances （the significance of an edge is defined as the product of the degrees of two nodes of this edge）. In contrast to other methods, e.g., random immunization, proportional immunization, targeted immunization, acquaintance immunization and so on, which mainly focus on how to delete nodes to realize the control of epidemic spreading on complex networks, our method is more effective in realizing the control of epidemic spreading on complex networks, moreover, such a method can better retain the integrity of complex networks.     

Preferential attachment in the protein network evolution

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein-protein interaction map, as well as many natural and man-made networks, shares the scale-free topology. The preferential attachment model was suggested as a generic network evolution model that yields this universal topology. However, it is not clear that the model assumptions hold for the protein interaction network. Using a cross-genome comparison, we show that (a) the older a protein, the better connected it is, and (b) the number of interactions a protein gains during its evolution is proportional to its connectivity. Therefore, preferential attachment governs the protein network evolution. Evolutionary mechanisms leading to such preference and some implications are discussed.     

基于传播免疫的复杂网络可控性研究

复杂网络控制反映了人类对复杂系统的认识深度和改造能力. 最新研究成果基于线性系统控制理论建立了复杂网络可控性的理论架构, 能够发现任意拓扑结构的线性时不变复杂网络中控制全部节点状态的最小驱动节点集, 但是该模型未考虑免疫节点或失效节点对控制信号传播的阻断.在继承该模型优点的前提下, 重新构建了基于传播免疫的复杂网络控制模型.在采用分属于随机免疫和目标免疫两种策略的 4个方法确定免疫节点的情况下,分析14个真实网络的可控性.结果表明:如果将网络中度数、 介数和紧密度指标较高的节点作为免疫节点,将极大地提高控制复杂网络的难度. 从而在一定程度上丰富了以往模型的结论.     

一种基于网络最大可控子图的导航搜索模型

基于网络可控性模型提出了最大可控子图的概念,在此基础上提出了一种基于最大可控子图的导航搜索模型. 模型中基于最大可控子图的加边策略用最小的代价解决了有向网络搜索中存在的粒子因“无路可走”而终止搜索的问题;基于最大可控子图部署导航节点,仅用节点总数2%左右的导航点,就使全网搜索时间接近导航网络的平均最短路径. 通过在ER和SF 网络上的实验表明,全网搜索时间与网络的可控性有关,可控性越好,添加的边数量越少,同时会使网络中导航节点分布越多,越能提高网络的搜索效率. 关键词： 导航搜索 有向网 网络可控性     

The BA model with finite-precision preferential attachment

Preferential attachment is an indispensable ingredient of the BA model and its variants. In this paper, we modify the BA model by considering the effect of finite-precision preferential attachment, which exists in many real networks. Finite-precision preferential attachment refers to existing nodes with preferential probability Π varying within a certain interval, which is determined by the value of a given precision, being considered to have an equal chance of capturing a new link. The new model reveals a transition from exponential scaling to a power-law distribution along with the increase of the precision. Epidemic dynamics and immunization on the new network are investigated and it is found that the finite-precision effect should be considered in tasks such as infection rate prediction or immunization policy making.     

Dynamical analysis of a sexually transmitted disease model on complex networks

In this paper, a sexually transmitted disease model is proposed on complex networks, where contacts between humans are treated as a scale-free social network. There are three groups in our model, which are dangerous male, non-dangerous male, and female. By mathematical analysis, we obtain the basic reproduction number for the existence of endemic equilibrium and study the effects of various immunization schemes about different groups. Furthermore, numerical simulations are undertook to reach and verify more conclusions.     

Optimal signal amplification in weighted scale-free networks

It has been revealed that un-weighted scale-free (SF) networks have an effect of amplifying weak signals [Acebro?n et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 128701 (2007)]. Such a property has potential applications in neural networks and artificial signaling devices. However, many real and artificial networks, including the neural networks, are weighted ones with adaptive and plastic couplings. For this reason, here we study how the weak signal can be amplified in weighted SF networks by introducing a parameter to self-tune the coupling weights. We find that the adaptive weights can significantly extend the range of coupling strength for signal amplification, in contrast to the relatively narrow range in un-weighted SF networks. As a consequence, the effect of finite network size occurred in un-weighted SF networks can be overcome. Finally, a theory is provided to confirm the numerical results.