Complex network perspective on modelling chaotic systems via machine learning

Recent advances have demonstrated that a machine learning technique known as "reservoir computing" is a significantly effective method for modelling chaotic systems. Going beyond short-term prediction, we show that long-term behaviors of an observed chaotic system are also preserved in the trained reservoir system by virtue of network measurements. Specifically, we find that a broad range of network statistics induced from the trained reservoir system is nearly identical with that of a learned chaotic system of interest. Moreover, we show that network measurements of the trained reservoir system are sensitive to distinct dynamics and can in turn detect the dynamical transitions in complex systems. Our findings further support that rather than dynamical equations, reservoir computing approach in fact provides an alternative way for modelling chaotic systems.     

两相流流型复杂网络社团结构及其统计特性

利用气液两相流电导波动信号构建了流型复杂网络. 基于K均值聚类的社团探寻算法对该网络的社团结构进行了分析,发现该网络存在分别对应于泡状流、段塞流及混状流的三个社团,并且两个社团间联系紧密的点分别对应于相应的过渡流型. 基于复杂网络理论从全新的角度探讨了两相流流型复杂网络社团结构及统计特性问题,并取得了满意的流型识别效果,与此同时,在对该网络特性进一步分析的基础上,发现了对两相流流动参数变化敏感的相关复杂网络统计量,为更好地理解两相流流型动力学特性提供了参考. 关键词： 两相流流型 复杂网络 社团探寻算法 网络统计特性     

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.     

Inactivation of Staphylococcus aureus using high hydrostatic pressure

The aim of this work was to develop a high-pressure decontamination and sterilization process for pharmaceutical treatments as was developed in food processing in the late eighties. The lack of normalized biological indicators able to validate sterilizing treatments under high pressure led us to select representative pathogenic strains from flora and the European Pharmacopoeia. We selected the following four bacterial strains: Candida albicans (ATCC 10231), Psuedomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 9027), spores of Aspergillus niger (ATCC 16404) and Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538).

This present study is focussed on S. aureus. Successive pressurization and depressurization cycles appeared to be more efficient than a continuous high-pressure treatment. Importantly, these pressure conditions, temperature and process duration are perfectly compatible with current industrial plants. These results show that HHP technology is a new alternative to inactivate pathogenic strains in accordance with pharmaceutical requirements.     

Research on spatial economic structure for different economic sectors from a perspective of a complex network

The economy system is a complex system, and the complex network is a powerful tool to study its complexity. Here we calculate the economic distance matrices based on annual GDP of nine economic sectors from 1995–2010 in 31 Chinese provinces and autonomous regions,¹ then build several spatial economic networks through the threshold method and the Minimal Spanning Tree method. After the analysis on the structure of the networks and the influence of geographic distance, some conclusions are drawn. First, connectivity distribution of a spatial economic network does not follow the power law. Second, according to the network structure, nine economic sectors could be divided into two groups, and there is significant discrepancy of network structure between these two groups. Moreover, the influence of the geographic distance plays an important role on the structure of a spatial economic network, network parameters are changed with the influence of the geographic distance. At last, 2000 km is the critical value for geographic distance: for real estate and finance, the spearman’s rho with l<2000$l<2000$ is bigger than that with l>2000$l>2000$, and the case is opposite for other economic sectors.     

Ultrasound and heat treatment effects on Staphylococcus aureus cell viability in orange juice

Ultrasounds are being considered an excellent alternative technology in juice preservation. Yet, when combined with heat treatment, the process seems to be further intensified. This work aimed to evaluate and compare the impact of ultrasounds and heat treatments, when applied alone or in combination, on Staphylococcus aureus survival in orange juice. Inoculated commercial pasteurized orange juice was treated at different times at 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 °C. SEM analyses were applied to identify morphological changes in S. aureus cells appearance. The microbial inactivation data were fitted using two mathematical models, depending on the behaviour observed.Sonication at 20, 30, and 40 °C induced 4.02 ± 0.52, 3.80 ± 0.49 and 4.30 ± 0.74 log cycles reduction of S. aureus after treatments of 90, 60 and 60 min, respectively. The heat treatments at the same temperatures had no impact on S. aureus survival. When 50 and 60 °C were applied, more than 5-log reductions were attained for both thermosonication and heat treatments alone. A synergistic effect was observed between sonication and high temperatures. At 50 °C, the thermosonication reduced the treatment time from 60 to 35 min and the microbial load from 5.14 ± 0.08 to 10.76 ± 0.28 log cycles reduction, compared to heat treatment alone. Results from SEM images showed that cells undergo membrane damage during sonication exposure. This was observed by collapsed cells, cell disruption, and holes in the cell’s membrane.Thermosonication proved to be a viable alternative to thermal pasteurization of orange juice since milder treatments can be safely applied, improving the final product quality.     

Inhibition of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus by a plasma needle

In numerous recent papers plasma chemistry of non equilibrium plasma sources operating at atmospheric pressure has been linked to plasma medical effects including sterilization. In this paper we present a study of the effectiveness of an atmospheric pressure plasma source, known as plasma needle, in inhibition of the growth of biofilm produced by methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Even at the lowest powers the biofilms formed by inoculi of MRSA of 10⁴ and 10⁵ CFU have been strongly affected by plasma and growth in biofilms was inhibited. The eradication of the already formed biofilm was not achieved and it is required to go to more effective sources.     

Complex structure of monopoles

Instanton techniques are applied to the classical monopole equations. The Prasad-Sommerfield monopole is rederived in a curious way, and new complex solutions are found, representing a distorted monopole     

Synergistic antibacterial and antibiofilm effects of ultrasound and MEL-A against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is drug-resistant and biofilm-forming pathogenic bacteria with severe morbidity and mortality, and has been continuously detected in food products in recent years. Mannosylerythritol lipids (MELs) are novel biosurfactants and perform antibacterial property against gram-positive bacteria. Ultrasound has been applied into food sterilization as non-thermal techniques and has advantage of maintaining food nutrition and flavor over heat pasteurization. In this work, the synergistic treatment of ultrasound and MEL-A was used to combat planktonic cells and biofilm of MRSA. As a result, the combined treatment has exhibited remarkable antibacterial effect proved by enumeration of viable microbes. Furthermore, flow cytometry, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy revealed ultrasound has enhanced the inhibitory effect of MEL-A through exacerbating cell membrane damage. On the other hand, the collaborating working modes to eradicate MRSA biofilm were disturbing cell adhesion to surface by MEL-A and destructing mature biofilm mechanically by ultrasound, reaching to over 90% of clearance rate. The findings of this study illustrated the synergistic antimicrobial mechanism of ultrasound and MEL-A treatments, and offered theoretical basis for their potential applications in food preservation.     

Percolation in a network with long-range connections: Implications for cytoskeletal structure and function

Cell shape, signaling, and integrity depend on cytoskeletal organization. In this study we describe the cytoskeleton as a simple network of filamentary proteins (links) anchored by complex protein structures (nodes). The structure of this network is regulated by a distance-dependent probability of link formation as P=p/d^s, where p regulates the network density and s controls how fast the probability for link formation decays with node distance (d). It was previously shown that the regulation of the link lengths is crucial for the mechanical behavior of the cells. Here we examined the ability of the two-dimensional network to percolate (i.e. to have end-to-end connectivity), and found that the percolation threshold depends strongly on s. The system undergoes a transition around s=2. The percolation threshold of networks with s<2 decreases with increasing system size L, while the percolation threshold for networks with s>2 converges to a finite value. We speculate that s<2 may represent a condition in which cells can accommodate deformation while still preserving their mechanical integrity. Additionally, we measured the length distribution of F-actin filaments from publicly available images of a variety of cell types. In agreement with model predictions, cells originating from more deformable tissues show longer F-actin cytoskeletal filaments.     

Effect of node deleting on network structure

The ever-increasing knowledge of the structure of various real-world networks has uncovered their complex multi-mechanism-governed evolution processes. Therefore, a better understanding of the structure and evolution of these networked complex systems requires us to describe such processes in a more detailed and realistic manner. In this paper, we introduce a new type of network growth rule which comprises addition and deletion of nodes, and propose an evolving network model to investigate the effect of node deleting on network structure. It is found that, with the introduction of node deleting, network structure is significantly transformed. In particular, degree distribution of the network undergoes a transition from scale-free to exponential forms as the intensity of node deleting increases. At the same time, nontrivial disassortative degree correlation develops spontaneously as a natural result of network evolution in the model. We also demonstrate that node deleting introduced in the model does not destroy the connectedness of a growing network so long as the increasing rate of edges is not excessively small. In addition, it is found that node deleting will weaken but not eliminate the small-world effect of a growing network, and generally it will decrease the clustering coefficient in a network.     

Influence of network structure on rumor propagation

Rumor propagation in complex networks is studied analytically and numerically by using the SIR model. Analytically, a mean-field theory is worked out by considering the influence of network topological structure and the unequal footings of neighbors of an infected node in propagating the rumor. It is found that the final infected density of population with degree k   is ρ(k)=1−exp(−αk)$\rho (k)=1-\exp (-\alpha k)$, where α is a parameter related to network structure. The number of the total final infected nodes depends on the network topological structure and will decrease when the structure changes from random to scale-free network. Numerical simulations confirm the theoretical predictions.     

On network form and function

Moving from the observation that drainage network configurations minimizing total energy dissipation are stationary solutions of the general equation describing landscape evolution, we review theoretical and observational evidence on river patterns and their scale-invariant structure. Exact results complemented by numerical annealing of the basic equation in the presence of additive noise suggest that configurations at (or very close to) the global minimum of energy dissipation differ from dynamically accessible states, which have rather different scaling properties and conform much better to natural forms. Thus we argue that, at least in the fluvial landscape, Nature works through imperfect searches for dynamically accessible optimal configurations. We also show that optimal networks are spanning loopless configurations only under precise physical requirements. This is stated in a form applicable to generic networks, suggesting that other branching structures occurring in Nature (e.g. scale-free and looping) may possibly arise through optimality to selective pressures. Indeed, we show that this is the case.     

Atmospheric plasma discharge sterilization effects on whole cell fatty acid profiles of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus

As an alternative to conventional sterilization methods the plasma ions created from high voltage produce radicals which have a direct impact on microorganisms in water. Cell membrane fluidity is an important factor in survival as the fluidity allows for essential cell functions in which pH and fatty acids play a major role. This study investigated the effect of plasma application upon pH and fatty acid profiles of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Results showed that plasma sterilization is not predominantly a result of changes to pH levels or fatty acid contents in the bacterial cell membrane.     

Complex network analysis of water distribution systems

This paper explores a variety of strategies for understanding the formation, structure, efficiency, and vulnerability of water distribution networks. Water supply systems are studied as spatially organized networks for which the practical applications of abstract evaluation methods are critically evaluated. Empirical data from benchmark networks are used to study the interplay between network structure and operational efficiency, reliability, and robustness. Structural measurements are undertaken to quantify properties such as redundancy and optimal-connectivity, herein proposed as constraints in network design optimization problems. The role of the supply demand structure toward system efficiency is studied, and an assessment of the vulnerability to failures based on the disconnection of nodes from the source(s) is undertaken. The absence of conventional degree-based hubs (observed through uncorrelated nonheterogeneous sparse topologies) prompts an alternative approach to studying structural vulnerability based on the identification of network cut-sets and optimal-connectivity invariants. A discussion on the scope, limitations, and possible future directions of this research is provided.     

Complex network study of Asian Go players

Tournaments of the game of Go can be represented as a directed network in which the vertices are players and a directed link is pointing from the winner to the loser for each game. In this article, we present some interesting results for the network of Asian Go players, which is composed of 756 Go players and 9473 tournaments. It is found that the topological structure of this network displays the small-world property and a significant rich-club phenomenon where high-degree nodes are tightly interconnected. In addition, we consider the weighted version of the network, and find the weights obey power-law distributions, while the strengths follow stretched exponential distributions. The time evolution of the network structure is studied and the corresponding results discussed. The analysis of this work provides a deeper understanding for the competition network structure of Asian Go players.