Spectra of weighted scale-free networks

Path-dependent connectivity, not modularity, consistently predicts controllability of structural brain networks

The human brain displays rich communication dynamics that are thought to be particularly well-reflected in its marked community structure. Yet, the precise relationship between community structure in structural brain networks and the communication dynamics that can emerge therefrom is not well understood. In addition to offering insight into the structure-function relationship of networked systems, such an understanding is a critical step toward the ability to manipulate the brain's large-scale dynamical activity in a targeted manner. We investigate the role of community structure in the controllability of structural brain networks. At the region level, we find that certain network measures of community structure are sometimes statistically correlated with measures of linear controllability. However, we then demonstrate that this relationship depends on the distribution of network edge weights. We highlight the complexity of the relationship between community structure and controllability by performing numerical simulations using canonical graph models with varying mesoscale architectures and edge weight distributions. Finally, we demonstrate that weighted subgraph centrality, a measure rooted in the graph spectrum, and which captures higher order graph architecture, is a stronger and more consistent predictor of controllability. Our study contributes to an understanding of how the brain's diverse mesoscale structure supports transient communication dynamics.

Spectral analysis for weighted iterated q-triangulation networks

Deterministic weighted networks have been widely used to model real-world complex systems. In this paper, we study the weighted iterated q-triangulation networks, which are generated by iteration operation F(⋅). We add q(q∈N₊) new nodes on each old edge and connect them with two endpoints of the old edge. At the same time, the newly linked edges are given weight factor r(0<r≤1). From the construction of the network, we obtain all the eigenvalues and their multiplicities of its normalized Laplacian matrix from the two successive generations of the weighted iterated q-triangulation network. Further, as applications of spectra of the normalized Laplacian matrix, we study the Kemeny constant, the multiplicative degree-Kirchhoff index, and the number of weighted spanning trees and derive their exact closed-form expressions for weighted iterated q-triangulation networks.

Microbiome Multi-Omics Network Analysis: Statistical Considerations, Limitations, and Opportunities

The advent of large-scale microbiome studies affords newfound analytical opportunities to understand how these communities of microbes operate and relate to their environment. However, the analytical methodology needed to model microbiome data and integrate them with other data constructs remains nascent. This emergent analytical toolset frequently ports over techniques developed in other multi-omics investigations, especially the growing array of statistical and computational techniques for integrating and representing data through networks. While network analysis has emerged as a powerful approach to modeling microbiome data, oftentimes by integrating these data with other types of omics data to discern their functional linkages, it is not always evident if the statistical details of the approach being applied are consistent with the assumptions of microbiome data or how they impact data interpretation. In this review, we overview some of the most important network methods for integrative analysis, with an emphasis on methods that have been applied or have great potential to be applied to the analysis of multi-omics integration of microbiome data. We compare advantages and disadvantages of various statistical tools, assess their applicability to microbiome data, and discuss their biological interpretability. We also highlight on-going statistical challenges and opportunities for integrative network analysis of microbiome data.

Quantization Effects on Complex Networks

Weights of edges in many complex networks we constructed are quantized values of the real weights. To what extent does the quantization affect the properties of a network? In this work, quantization effects on network properties are investigated based on the spectrum of the corresponding Laplacian. In contrast to the intuition that larger quantization level always implies a better approximation of the quantized network to the original one, we find a ubiquitous periodic jumping phenomenon with peak-value decreasing in a power-law relationship in all the real-world weighted networks that we investigated. We supply theoretical analysis on the critical quantization level and the power laws.