npj ComplexityPub Date : 2025-01-01Epub Date: 2025-03-04DOI: 10.1038/s44260-025-00034-2
Elsa Andres, Gergely Ódor, Iacopo Iacopini, Márton Karsai
{"title":"Distinguishing mechanisms of social contagion from local network view.","authors":"Elsa Andres, Gergely Ódor, Iacopo Iacopini, Márton Karsai","doi":"10.1038/s44260-025-00034-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44260-025-00034-2","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The adoption of individual behavioural patterns is largely determined by stimuli arriving from peers via social interactions or from external sources. Based on these influences, individuals are commonly assumed to follow simple or complex adoption rules, inducing social contagion processes. In reality, multiple adoption rules may coexist even within the same social contagion process, introducing additional complexity to the spreading phenomena. Our goal is to understand whether coexisting adoption mechanisms can be distinguished from a microscopic view at the egocentric network level without requiring global information about the underlying network, or the unfolding spreading process. We formulate this question as a classification problem, and study it through a likelihood approach and with random forest classifiers in various synthetic and data-driven experiments. This study offers a novel perspective on the observations of propagation processes at the egocentric level and a better understanding of landmark contagion mechanisms from a local view.</p>","PeriodicalId":501707,"journal":{"name":"npj Complexity","volume":"2 1","pages":"8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11879858/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143575018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj ComplexityPub Date : 2024-12-18DOI: 10.1038/s44260-024-00024-w
Jeroen F. Uleman, Maartje Luijten, Wilson F. Abdo, Jana Vyrastekova, Andreas Gerhardus, Jakob Runge, Naja Hulvej Rod, Maaike Verhagen
{"title":"Author Correction: Triangulation for causal loop diagrams: constructing biopsychosocial models using group model building, literature review, and causal discovery","authors":"Jeroen F. Uleman, Maartje Luijten, Wilson F. Abdo, Jana Vyrastekova, Andreas Gerhardus, Jakob Runge, Naja Hulvej Rod, Maaike Verhagen","doi":"10.1038/s44260-024-00024-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44260-024-00024-w","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":501707,"journal":{"name":"npj Complexity","volume":" ","pages":"1-1"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44260-024-00024-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142845199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj ComplexityPub Date : 2024-12-12DOI: 10.1038/s44260-024-00023-x
Shanshan Wang, Henrik M. Bette, Michael Schreckenberg, Thomas Guhr
{"title":"How much longer do you have to drive than the crow has to fly?","authors":"Shanshan Wang, Henrik M. Bette, Michael Schreckenberg, Thomas Guhr","doi":"10.1038/s44260-024-00023-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44260-024-00023-x","url":null,"abstract":"When travelling by car from one location to another, our route is constrained by the road network. The network distance between the two locations is generally longer than the geodetic distance as the crow flies. We report a systematic relation between the statistical properties of these two distances. Empirically, we find a robust scaling between network and geodetic distance distributions for a variety of large motorway networks. A simple consequence is that we typically have to drive 1.3 ± 0.1 times longer than the crow flies. This scaling is not present in standard random networks; rather, it requires non-random adjacency. We develop a set of rules to build a realistic motorway network, also consistent with the above scaling. We hypothesise that the scaling reflects a compromise between two societal needs: high efficiency and accessibility on the one hand, and limitation of costs and other burdens on the other.","PeriodicalId":501707,"journal":{"name":"npj Complexity","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44260-024-00023-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142826490","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj ComplexityPub Date : 2024-12-04DOI: 10.1038/s44260-024-00021-z
P. Valgañón, A. F. Useche, F. Montes, A. Arenas, D. Soriano-Paños, J. Gómez-Gardeñes
{"title":"Human behavior-driven epidemic surveillance in urban landscapes","authors":"P. Valgañón, A. F. Useche, F. Montes, A. Arenas, D. Soriano-Paños, J. Gómez-Gardeñes","doi":"10.1038/s44260-024-00021-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44260-024-00021-z","url":null,"abstract":"We introduce a surveillance strategy specifically designed for urban areas to enhance preparedness and response to disease outbreaks by leveraging the unique characteristics of human behavior within urban contexts. By integrating data on individual residences and travel patterns, we construct a Mixing matrix that facilitates the identification of critical pathways that ease pathogen transmission across urban landscapes enabling targeted testing strategies. Our approach not only enhances public health systems’ ability to provide early epidemiological alerts but also underscores the variability in strategy effectiveness based on urban layout. We prove the feasibility of our mobility-informed policies by mapping essential mobility links to major transit stations, showing that few resources focused on specific stations yields a more effective surveillance than non-targeted approaches. This study emphasizes the critical role of integrating human behavioral patterns into epidemic management strategies to improve the preparedness and resilience of major cities against future outbreaks.","PeriodicalId":501707,"journal":{"name":"npj Complexity","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44260-024-00021-z.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142762930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj ComplexityPub Date : 2024-11-06DOI: 10.1038/s44260-024-00020-0
Piergiorgio Castioni, Sergio Gómez, Clara Granell, Alex Arenas
{"title":"Rebound in epidemic control: how misaligned vaccination timing amplifies infection peaks","authors":"Piergiorgio Castioni, Sergio Gómez, Clara Granell, Alex Arenas","doi":"10.1038/s44260-024-00020-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44260-024-00020-0","url":null,"abstract":"In this study, we explore the dynamic interplay between the timing of vaccination campaigns and the trajectory of disease spread in a population. Through modeling and comprehensive data analysis of model output, we have uncovered a counter-intuitive phenomenon: initiating a vaccination process at an inopportune moment can paradoxically result in a more pronounced second peak of infections. This “rebound” phenomenon challenges the conventional understanding of vaccination impacts on epidemic dynamics. We provide a detailed examination of how improperly timed vaccination efforts can inadvertently reduce the overall immunity level in a population, considering both natural and vaccine-induced immunity. Our findings reveal that such a decrease in population-wide immunity can lead to a delayed, yet more severe, resurgence of cases. This study not only adds a critical dimension to our understanding of vaccination strategies in controlling pandemics but also underscores the necessity for strategically timed interventions to optimize public health outcomes. Furthermore, we compute which vaccination strategies are optimal for a COVID-19 tailored mathematical model, and find that there are two types of optimal strategies. The first type prioritizes vaccinating early and rapidly to reduce the number of deaths, while the second type acts later and more slowly to reduce the number of cases; both of them target primarily the elderly population. Our results hold significant implications for the formulation of vaccination policies, particularly in the context of rapidly evolving infectious diseases.","PeriodicalId":501707,"journal":{"name":"npj Complexity","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44260-024-00020-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142588302","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj ComplexityPub Date : 2024-11-05DOI: 10.1038/s44260-024-00017-9
Jeroen F. Uleman, Maartje Luijten, Wilson F. Abdo, Jana Vyrastekova, Andreas Gerhardus, Jakob Runge, Naja Hulvej Rod, Maaike Verhagen
{"title":"Triangulation for causal loop diagrams: constructing biopsychosocial models using group model building, literature review, and causal discovery","authors":"Jeroen F. Uleman, Maartje Luijten, Wilson F. Abdo, Jana Vyrastekova, Andreas Gerhardus, Jakob Runge, Naja Hulvej Rod, Maaike Verhagen","doi":"10.1038/s44260-024-00017-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44260-024-00017-9","url":null,"abstract":"The complex nature of many health problems necessitates the use of systems thinking tools like causal loop diagrams (CLDs) to visualize the underlying causal network and facilitate computational simulations of potential interventions. However, the construction of CLDs is limited by the constraints and biases of specific sources of evidence. To address this, we propose a triangulation approach that integrates expert and theory-driven group model building, literature review, and data-driven causal discovery. We demonstrate the utility of this triangulation approach using a case example focused on the trajectory of depressive symptoms in response to a stressor in healthy adults. After triangulation with causal discovery, the CLD exhibited (1) greater comprehensiveness, encompassing multiple research fields; (2) a modified feedback structure; and (3) increased transparency regarding the uncertainty of evidence in the model structure. These findings suggest that triangulation can produce higher-quality CLDs, potentially advancing our understanding of complex diseases.","PeriodicalId":501707,"journal":{"name":"npj Complexity","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44260-024-00017-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142579801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj ComplexityPub Date : 2024-10-29DOI: 10.1038/s44260-024-00018-8
Akshay Verma, Richard Sear, Neil Johnson
{"title":"How U.S. Presidential elections strengthen global hate networks","authors":"Akshay Verma, Richard Sear, Neil Johnson","doi":"10.1038/s44260-024-00018-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44260-024-00018-8","url":null,"abstract":"Local or national politics can be a catalyst for potentially dangerous hate speech. But with a third of the world’s population eligible to vote in 2024 elections, we need an understanding of how individual-level hate multiplies up to the collective global scale. We show, based on the most recent U.S. presidential election, that offline events are associated with rapid adaptations of the global online hate universe that strengthens both its network-of-networks structure and the types of hate content that it collectively produces. Approximately 50 million accounts in hate communities are drawn closer to each other and to a broad mainstream of billions. The election triggered new hate content at scale around immigration, ethnicity, and antisemitism that aligns with conspiracy theories about Jewish-led replacement. Telegram acts as a key hardening agent; yet, it is overlooked by U.S. Congressional hearings and new E.U. legislation. Because the hate universe has remained robust since 2020, anti-hate messaging surrounding global events (e.g., upcoming elections or the war in Gaza) should pivot to blending multiple hate types while targeting previously untouched social media structures.","PeriodicalId":501707,"journal":{"name":"npj Complexity","volume":" ","pages":"1-6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44260-024-00018-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142525750","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj ComplexityPub Date : 2024-10-07DOI: 10.1038/s44260-024-00019-7
Aparna Ananthasubramaniam, David Jurgens, Daniel M. Romero
{"title":"Author Correction: Networks and identity drive the spatial diffusion of linguistic innovation in urban and rural areas","authors":"Aparna Ananthasubramaniam, David Jurgens, Daniel M. Romero","doi":"10.1038/s44260-024-00019-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44260-024-00019-7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":501707,"journal":{"name":"npj Complexity","volume":" ","pages":"1-1"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44260-024-00019-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142383563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj ComplexityPub Date : 2024-10-03DOI: 10.1038/s44260-024-00016-w
Kunal Bhattacharya, Chandreyee Roy, Tuomas Takko, Anna Rotkirch, Kimmo Kaski
{"title":"Urban residential clustering and mobility of ethnic groups: impact of fertility","authors":"Kunal Bhattacharya, Chandreyee Roy, Tuomas Takko, Anna Rotkirch, Kimmo Kaski","doi":"10.1038/s44260-024-00016-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44260-024-00016-w","url":null,"abstract":"We studied residential clustering and mobility of ethnic minorities using a theoretical framework based on null models of spatial distributions and movements of populations. Using microdata from population registers we compared the patterns of clustering amongst various socioethnic groups living in and around the capital region of Finland. The models enabled us to connect the factors influencing intraurban migration to the spatial patterns that have developed over time. The observed clustering seems to be a combined effect of fertility and the tendency to migrate locally. The models also highlight the importance of factors like proximity to the city centre, neighbourhood income levels, and similarity of socioeconomic profiles. While the demonstrated relationship between clustering, mobility, and fertility is based on a limited number of observations, it could serve as a motivation for future research in different urban settings. Overall, these insights are expected to contribute to our understanding of demographic dynamics in culturally diverse environments.","PeriodicalId":501707,"journal":{"name":"npj Complexity","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44260-024-00016-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142368732","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
npj ComplexityPub Date : 2024-10-01DOI: 10.1038/s44260-024-00015-x
Zhuoying Xu, Yingjun Zhu, Binbin Hong, Xinlin Wu, Jingwen Zhang, Mufeng Cai, Da Zhou, Yu Liu
{"title":"Correlating measures of hierarchical structures in artificial neural networks with their performance","authors":"Zhuoying Xu, Yingjun Zhu, Binbin Hong, Xinlin Wu, Jingwen Zhang, Mufeng Cai, Da Zhou, Yu Liu","doi":"10.1038/s44260-024-00015-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44260-024-00015-x","url":null,"abstract":"This study employs the recently developed Ladderpath approach, within the broader category of Algorithmic Information Theory (AIT), which characterizes the hierarchical and nested relationships among repeating substructures, to explore the structure-function relationship in neural networks, multilayer perceptrons (MLP), in particular. The metric order-rate η, derived from the approach, is a measure of structural orderliness: when η is in the middle range (around 0.5), the structure exhibits the richest hierarchical relationships, corresponding to the highest complexity. We hypothesize that the highest structural complexity correlates with optimal functionality. Our experiments support this hypothesis in several ways: networks with η values in the middle range show superior performance, and the training processes tend to naturally adjust η towards this range; additionally, starting neural networks with η values in this middle range appears to boost performance. Intriguingly, these findings align with observations in other distinct systems, including chemical molecules and protein sequences, hinting at a hidden regularity encapsulated by this theoretical framework.","PeriodicalId":501707,"journal":{"name":"npj Complexity","volume":" ","pages":"1-8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s44260-024-00015-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142360064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}