Emergence of loop structure in scale-free networks and dynamical consequences

Controlled generation of self-sustained oscillations in complex artificial neural networks

Spatially distinct, self-sustained oscillations in artificial neural networks are fundamental to information encoding, storage, and processing in these systems. Here, we develop a method to induce a large variety of self-sustained oscillatory patterns in artificial neural networks and a controlling strategy to switch between different patterns. The basic principle is that, given a complex network, one can find a set of nodes-the minimum feedback vertex set (mFVS), whose removal or inhibition will result in a tree-like network without any loop structure. Reintroducing a few or even a single mFVS node into the tree-like artificial neural network can recover one or a few of the loops and lead to self-sustained oscillation patterns based on these loops. Reactivating various mFVS nodes or their combinations can then generate a large number of distinct neuronal firing patterns with a broad distribution of the oscillation period. When the system is near a critical state, chaos can arise, providing a natural platform for pattern switching with remarkable flexibility. With mFVS guided control, complex networks of artificial neurons can thus be exploited as potential prototypes for local, analog type of processing paradigms.

Competition between Homophily and Information Entropy Maximization in Social Networks

In social networks, it is conventionally thought that two individuals with more overlapped friends tend to establish a new friendship, which could be stated as homophily breeding new connections. While the recent hypothesis of maximum information entropy is presented as the possible origin of effective navigation in small-world networks. We find there exists a competition between information entropy maximization and homophily in local structure through both theoretical and experimental analysis. This competition suggests that a newly built relationship between two individuals with more common friends would lead to less information entropy gain for them. We demonstrate that in the evolution of the social network, both of the two assumptions coexist. The rule of maximum information entropy produces weak ties in the network, while the law of homophily makes the network highly clustered locally and the individuals would obtain strong and trust ties. A toy model is also presented to demonstrate the competition and evaluate the roles of different rules in the evolution of real networks. Our findings could shed light on the social network modeling from a new perspective.

Repeated-drive adaptive feedback identification of network topologies

The identification of the topological structures of complex networks from dynamical information is a significant inverse problem. How to infer the information of network topology from short-time dynamical data is a challenging topic. The presence of synchronization among nodes makes the identification of network topology difficult. In this paper we present an efficient method called the repeated-drive adaptive feedback scheme to reveal the network connectivity from short-time dynamics. By applying the short asynchronous transient data as a repeated drive, the adjacency matrix can be successfully determined in terms of the modified adaptive feedback scheme. This improved scheme is valid for both synchronous and asynchronous cases of the network and is especially efficient in the presence of global or local synchronization, where the transient drive can be obtained by perturbing the system to get a very short asynchronous transient. The detection speed of our scheme exhibits the optimized effect by adjusting the time-series segment length and the coupling strength among nodes in the network.

Unevenness of loop location in complex networks

The loop structure plays an important role in many aspects of complex networks and attracts much attention. Among the previous works, Bianconi [Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 118701 (2008)] found that real networks often have very few short loops as compared to random models. In this paper, we focus on the uneven location of loops which makes some parts of the network rich while some other parts sparse in loops. We propose a node removing process to analyze the unevenness and find rich loop cores can exist in many real networks such as neural networks and food web networks. Finally, an index is presented to quantify the unevenness of loop location in complex networks.