An empirical study of Chinese language networks

Chinese is spoken by the largest number of people in the world, and it is regarded as one of the most important languages. In this paper, we explore the statistical properties of Chinese language networks (CLNs) within the framework of complex network theory. Based on one of the largest Chinese corpora, i.e. People’s Daily Corpus, we construct two networks (CLN1 and CLN2) from two different respects, with Chinese words as nodes. In CLN1, a link between two nodes exists if they appear next to each other in at least one sentence; in CLN2, a link represents that two nodes appear simultaneously in a sentence. We show that both networks exhibit small-world effect, scale-free structure, hierarchical organization and disassortative mixing. These results indicate that in many topological aspects Chinese language shapes complex networks with organizing principles similar to other previously studied language systems, which shows that different languages may have some common characteristics in their evolution processes. We believe that our research may shed some new light into the Chinese language and find some potentially significant implications.     

Comparison of co-occurrence networks of the Chinese and English languages

Co-occurrence networks of Chinese characters and words, and of English words, are constructed from collections of Chinese and English articles, respectively. Four types of collections are considered, namely, essays, novels, popular science articles, and news reports. Statistical parameters of the networks are studied, including diameter, average degree, degree distribution, clustering coefficient, average shortest path length, as well as the number of connected subnetworks. It is found that the character and word networks of each type of article in the Chinese language, and the word network of each type of article in the English language all exhibit scale-free and small-world features. The statistical parameters of these co-occurrence networks are compared within the same language and across the two languages. This study reveals some commonalities and differences between Chinese and English languages, and among the four types of articles in each language from a complex network perspective. In particular, it is shown that expressions in English are briefer than those in Chinese in a certain sense.     

English and Chinese languages as weighted complex networks

In this paper, we analyze statistical properties of English and Chinese written human language within the framework of weighted complex networks. The two language networks are based on an English novel and a Chinese biography, respectively, and both of the networks are constructed in the same way. By comparing the intensity and density of connections between the two networks, we find that high weight connections in Chinese language networks prevail more than those in English language networks. Furthermore, some of the topological and weighted quantities are compared. The results display some differences in the structural organizations between the two language networks. These observations indicate that the two languages may have different linguistic mechanisms and different combinatorial natures.     

Cascading Failures of Complex Networks Based on Two-Step Degree

We propose a new concept, two-step degree. Defining it as the capacity of a node of complex networks, we establish a novel capacity-load model of cascading failures of complex networks where the capacity of nodes decreases during the process of cascading failures. For scale-free networks, we find that the average two-step degree increases with the increase of the heterogeneity of the degree distribution, showing that the average two- step degree can be used for measuring the heterogeneity of the degree distribution of complex networks. In addition, under the condition that the average degree of a node is given, we can design a scale-free network with the optimal robustness to random failures by maximizing the average two-step degree.     

Connectivity degrees in the threshold preferential attachment model

In this paper we present a study of the connectivity degrees of the threshold preferential attachment model, a generalization of the Barabási-Albert model to heterogeneous complex networks. The threshold model incorporates the states of the nodes in its preferential linking rule and assumes that the affinity between network nodes follows an inverse relationship with the distance between their states. We numerically analyze the connectivity degrees of the model, studying the influence of the main parameters on the distribution of connectivity degrees and its statistics, the average degree and highest degree of the network. We show that such statistics exhibit markedly different behaviors in the dependence on the model parameters, particularly as regards the interaction threshold. Nevertheless, we show that the two statistics converge in the limit of null threshold and often exhibit scaling that can be described by power laws of the model parameters.     

Unified index to quantifying heterogeneity of complex networks

Although recent studies have revealed that degree heterogeneity of a complex network has significant impact on the network performance and function, a unified definition of the heterogeneity of a network with any degree distribution is absent. In this paper, we define a heterogeneity index 0≤H<1 to quantify the degree heterogeneity of any given network. We analytically show the existence of an upper bound of H=0.5 for exponential networks, thus explain why exponential networks are homogeneous. On the other hand, we also analytically show that the heterogeneity index of an infinite power law network is between 1 and 0.5 if and only if its degree exponent is between 2 and 2.5. We further show that for any power law network with a degree exponent greater than 2.5, there always exists an exponential network such that both networks have the same heterogeneity index. This may help to explain why 2.5 is a critical degree exponent for some dynamic behaviors on power law networks.     

Local Events and Dynamics on Weighted Complex Networks

We examine the weighted networks grown and evolved by local events, such as the addition of new vertices and links and we show that depending on frequency of the events, a generalized power-law distribution of strength can emerge. Continuum theory is used to predict the scaling function as well as the exponents, which is in good agreement with the numerical simulation results. Depending on event frequency, power-law distributions of degree and weight can also be expected. Probability saturation phenomena for small strength and degree in many real world networks can be reproduced. Particularly, the non-trivial clustering coefficient, assortativity coefficient and degree-strength correlation in our model are all consistent with empirical evidences.     

Attack vulnerability of scale-free networks due to cascading failures

In this paper, adopting the initial load of a node i to be with k_i being the degree of the node i, we propose a cascading model based on a load local redistribution rule and examine cascading failures on the typical network, i.e., the BA network with the scale-free property. We find that the BA scale-free network reaches the strongest robustness level in the case of α=1 and the robustness of the network has a positive correlation with the average degree 〈k〉, where the robustness is quantified by a transition from normal state to collapse. In addition, we further discuss the effects of two different attacks for the robustness against cascading failures on our cascading model and find an interesting result, i.e., the effects of two different attacks, strongly depending to the value α. These results may be very helpful for real-life networks to avoid cascading-failure-induced disasters.     

Sandpile Dynamics Driven by Degree on Scale-Free Networks

We introduce a sandpile model driven by degree on scale-free networks, where the perturbation is triggered at nodes with the same degree. We numerically investigate the avalanche behaviour of sandpile driven by different degrees on scale-free networks. It is observed that the avalanche area has the same behaviour with avalanche size. When the sandpile is driven at nodes with the minimal degree, the avalanches of our model behave similarly to those of the original Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld （BTW） model on scale-free networks. As the degree of driven nodes increases from the minimal value to the maximal value, the avalanche distribution gradually changes from a clean power law, then a mixture of Poissonian and power laws, finally to a Poisson-like distribution. The average avalanche area is found to increase with the degree of driven nodes so that perturbation triggered on higher-degree nodes will result in broader spreading of avalanche propagation.     

Network evolution by different rewiring schemes

Many real world networks, such as social networks, are characterized by rearrangements of the links between nodes (rewiring). Indeed, very few natural networks are static in time, and it is therefore important to study the properties of networks in which rewiring occurs. In this paper, two different rewiring schemes are formulated and compared using a general ordinary differential equation (ODE) model. The equilibrium distributions are analytically derived. It is found that by uniformly choosing a node and a link connected to it, rewiring from different ends of the link yields different equilibrium degree distributions. Rewiring from the neighbor generally produces more high degree nodes. The equilibrium distributions of the ODE model are compared with simulation results of the corresponding stochastic process for rewiring. Conditions are discussed under which our ODE provides a good approximation for the mean of the corresponding stochastic process.     

Networks that optimize a trade-off between efficiency and dynamical resilience

In this Letter we study networks that have been optimized to realize a trade-off between communication efficiency and dynamical resilience. While the first is related to the average shortest pathlength, we argue that the second can be measured by the largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of the network. Best efficiency is realized in star-like configurations, while enhanced resilience is related to the avoidance of short loops and degree homogeneity. Thus crucially, very efficient networks are not resilient while very resilient networks lack in efficiency. Networks that realize a trade-off between both limiting cases exhibit core-periphery structures, where the average degree of core nodes decreases but core size increases as the weight is gradually shifted from a strong requirement for efficiency and limited resilience towards a smaller requirement for efficiency and a strong demand for resilience. We argue that both, efficiency and resilience are important requirements for network design and highlight how networks can be constructed that allow for both.     

Complex Behaviour for the Origin and Destination Matrix Estimation Problem

The origin and destination （O-D） matrix estimation is an important problem in traffic networks. We apply the gravitation model to express the preference attachment and to analyse the statistical characteristics of the traffic flow in each O-D pair in theory. It is found that the distribution of the future O-D matrix decays as a power law. Additionally, different exponents are obtained for both the constant and variable link cost.     

Robustness of Complex Networks under Attack and Repair

To study the robustness of complex networks under attack and repair, we introduce a repair model of complex networks. Based on the model, we introduce two new quantities, i.e. attack fraction fa and the maximum degree of the nodes that have never been attacked ~Ka, to study analytically the critical attack fraction and the relative size of the giant component of complex networks under attack and repair, using the method of generating function. We show analytically and numerically that the repair strategy significantly enhances the robustness of the scale-free network and the effect of robustness improvement is better for the scale-free networks with a smaller degree exponent. We discuss the application of our theory in relation to the
understanding of robustness of complex networks with reparability.     

Walks on Weighted Networks

We investigate the dynamics of random walks on weighted networks. Assuming that the edge weight and the node strength are used as local information by a random walker. Two kinds of walks, weight-dependent walk and strength-dependent walk, are studied. Exact expressions for stationary distribution and average return time are derived and confirmed by computer simulations. The distribution of average return time and the mean-square displacement are calculated for two walks on the Barrat-Barthelemy-Vespignani （BBV） networks. It is found that a weight-dependent walker can arrive at a new territory more easily than a strength-dependent one.     

Complex network structure of musical compositions: Algorithmic generation of appealing music

In this paper we construct networks for music and attempt to compose music artificially. Networks are constructed with nodes and edges corresponding to musical notes and their co-occurring connections. We analyze classical music from Bach, Mozart, Chopin, as well as other types of music such as Chinese pop music. We observe remarkably similar properties in all networks constructed from the selected compositions. We conjecture that preserving the universal network properties is a necessary step in artificial composition of music. Power-law exponents of node degree, node strength and/or edge weight distributions, mean degrees, clustering coefficients, mean geodesic distances, etc. are reported. With the network constructed, music can be composed artificially using a controlled random walk algorithm, which begins with a randomly chosen note and selects the subsequent notes according to a simple set of rules that compares the weights of the edges, weights of the nodes, and/or the degrees of nodes. By generating a large number of compositions, we find that this algorithm generates music which has the necessary qualities to be subjectively judged as appealing.     

Generalized Projective Synchronization between Two Complex Networks with Time-Varying Coupling Delay

Generalized projective synchronization （GPS） between two complex networks with time-varying coupling delay is investigated. Based on the Lyapunov stability theory, a nonlinear controller and adaptive updated laws are designed. Feasibility of the proposed scheme is proven in theory. Moreover, two numerical examples are presented, using the energy resource system and Lü＇s system [Physica A 382 （2007） 672] as the nodes of the networks. GPS between two energy resource complex networks with time-varying coupling delay is achieved. This study can widen the application range of the generalized synchronization methods and will be instructive for the demand supply of energy resource in some regions of China.     

A unified model for Sierpinski networks with scale-free scaling and small-world effect

In this paper, we propose an evolving Sierpinski gasket, based on which we establish a model of evolutionary Sierpinski networks (ESNs) that unifies deterministic Sierpinski network [Z.Z. Zhang, S.G. Zhou, T. Zou, L.C. Chen, J.H. Guan, Eur. Phys. J. B 60 (2007) 259] and random Sierpinski network [Z.Z. Zhang, S.G. Zhou, Z. Su, T. Zou, J.H. Guan, Eur. Phys. J. B 65 (2008) 141] to the same framework. We suggest an iterative algorithm generating the ESNs. On the basis of the algorithm, some relevant properties of presented networks are calculated or predicted analytically. Analytical solution shows that the networks under consideration follow a power-law degree distribution, with the distribution exponent continuously tuned in a wide range. The obtained accurate expression of clustering coefficient, together with the prediction of average path length reveals that the ESNs possess small-world effect. All our theoretical results are successfully contrasted by numerical simulations. Moreover, the evolutionary prisoner’s dilemma game is also studied on some limitations of the ESNs, i.e., deterministic Sierpinski network and random Sierpinski network.     

Adjusting from disjoint to overlapping community detection of complex networks

The investigation of community structures is one of the most important problems in the field of complex networks and has countless applications in different disciplines: biology, computer, social sciences, etc. Many community detection algorithms have been developed in various fields recently. The vast majority of these algorithms only find disjoint communities; however, in many real-world networks communities often overlap to some extent. In this paper, we propose an efficient method for adjusting these classical algorithms to match the requirement for discovering overlapping communities in complex networks, which is based on a local definition of community strength. The method can in principle be applied with any clustering algorithm. Tests on a set of computer generated and real-world networks give excellent results. In particular, we show that the method can also allow one to availably analyze the problem of unstable nodes in community detection, which is very helpful for understanding the structural properties of the networks correctly and comprehensively.     

Incompatibility networks as models of scale-free small-world graphs

We make a mapping from Sierpinski fractals to a new class of networks, the incompatibility networks, which are scale-free, small-world, disassortative, and maximal planar graphs. Some relevant characteristics of the networks such as degree distribution, clustering coefficient, average path length, and degree correlations are computed analytically and found to be peculiarly rich. The method of network representation can be applied to some real-life systems making it possible to study the complexity of real networked systems within the framework of complex network theory.     

Universal power laws in the threshold network model: A theoretical analysis based on extreme value theory

We theoretically and numerically investigated the threshold network model with a generic weight function where there were a large number of nodes and a high threshold. Our analysis was based on extreme value theory, which gave us a theoretical understanding of the distribution of independent and identically distributed random variables within a sufficiently high range. Specifically, the distribution could be generally expressed by a generalized Pareto distribution, which enabled us to formulate the generic weight distribution function. By using the theorem, we obtained the exact expressions of degree distribution and clustering coefficient which behaved as universal power laws within certain ranges of degrees. We also compared the theoretical predictions with numerical results and found that they were extremely consistent.