Skeleton key: Diverse complex networks have similar skeletons

ScienceDaily (June 1, 2012) ? Northwestern University researchers are the first to discover that very different complex networks -- ranging from global air traffic to neural networks -- share very similar backbones. By stripping each network down to its essential nodes and links, they found each network possesses a skeleton and these skeletons share common features, much like vertebrates do.

Mammals have evolved to look very different despite a common underlying structure (think of a human being and a bat), and now it appears real-world complex networks evolve in a similar way.

The researchers studied a variety of biological, technological and social networks and found that all these networks have evolved according to basic growth mechanisms. The findings could be particularly useful in understanding how something -- a disease, a rumor or information -- spreads across a network.

This surprising discovery -- that networks all have skeletons and that they are similar -- was published this week by the journal Nature Communications.

"Infectious diseases such as H₁N₁ and SARS spread in a similar way, and it turns out the network's skeleton played an important role in shaping the global spread," said Dirk Brockmann, senior author of the paper. "Now, with this new understanding and by looking at the skeleton, we should be able to use this knowledge in the future to predict how a new outbreak might spread."

Brockmann is associate professor of engineering sciences and applied mathematics at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and a member of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO).

Complex systems -- such as the Internet, Facebook, the power grid, human consciousness, even a termite colony -- generate complex behavior. A system's structure emerges locally; it is not designed or planned. Components of a network work together, interacting and influencing each other, driving the network's evolution.

For years, researchers have been trying to determine if different networks from different disciplines have hidden core structures -- backbones -- and, if so, what they look like. Extracting meaningful structural features from data is one of the most challenging tasks in network theory.

Brockmann and two of his graduate students, Christian Thiemann and first author Daniel Grady, developed a method to identify a network's hidden core structure and showed that the skeletons possess some underlying and universal features.

The networks they studied differed in size (from hundreds of nodes to thousands) and in connectivity (some were sparsely connected, others dense) but a simple and similar core skeleton was found in each one.

"The key to our approach was asking what network elements are important from each node's perspective," Brockmann said. "What links are most important to each node, and what is the consensus among nodes? Interestingly, we found that an unexpected degree of consensus exists among all nodes in a network. Nodes either agree that a link is important or they agree that it isn't. There is nearly no disagreement."

By computing this consensus -- the overall strength, or importance, of each link in the network -- the researchers were able to produce a skeleton for each network consisting of all those links that every node considers important. And these skeletons are similar across networks.

Because of this "consensus" property, the researchers' method does not have the drawbacks of other methods, which have degrees of arbitrariness in them and depend on parameters. The Northwestern approach is very robust and identifies essential hubs and links in a non-arbitrary universal way.

The Volkswagen Foundation supported the research.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Northwestern University. The original article was written by Megan Fellman.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Daniel Grady, Christian Thiemann, Dirk Brockmann. Robust classification of salient links in complex networks. Nature Communications, 2012; 3: 864 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1847

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Operating A Successful Enterprise Without Self Improvement Is Out ...

Provided that there has been trying and failing with business as well as other areas, you might want to look closely inside of you. The ones that are a success in business are alike in their emotions and behaviors. If you removed one or more of them, then success will immediately become more challenging. Additionally, if you were to lift off any of them but escalated the severity in a contradictory light, those hardships will become more negative. We all have our personal challenges that we live with, but those are the greatest obstacles to success in many areas including business.

Those that suffer from this type of situation need to ask whether or not these chronic problems will actually allow them to run a successful business. The answer to this question is beyond the scope of this article. As you may know, it is difficult to completely eradicate some issues, but we believe nothing is impossible.

You can learn to overcome fears, and you can improve your self esteem as well. Dealing with significant issues is not as difficult if you are clearly aware of what these problems truly are. You can build momentum as you distance yourself from your problems by writing down any successes that you have on a regular basis. Having a full time job can certainly make learning about internet marketing hard, especially if you?re trying to start an online business as well. Every type of businesses bares a great amount of responsibility. You have a lot more responsibility as well when you are attempting to get over any personal issues or challenges that could stop you from realizing your potential in business. Also, it can take a lot of effort on your behalf to spend time finding any hidden fears that may cause you to procrastinate. It is very important that you have a deep think about what might be the cause for your problems, and you must then identify them. That is not an easy thing to do, but doing so will make you more responsible and ultimately give you greater control over your business and personal life.

After a duration of time, have you ever taken heed to what your thoughts are? Do you think you would say they were contradictory or affirmative? You can make use of that view to enhance your chance of obtaining what you desire in your life and business if your thinking is overall negative. If you are negative in your thoughts, this shows a lot more than you understand. Thinking like that doesn?t just occur. Take for example, thinking about something on a frequent basis like an idea for business not working out, this shows proof of beliefs that run deep. It is the belief operating at your inner core that needs to be addressed in order for everything else to change. New online marketers are usually thinking about obtaining success, not thinking about self improvement. But to obtain success you must first figure out your problems and then overcome them.

For added information on computer memory there is a lot of details not detailed on this page, find those details at Author?s website to uncover more.

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Pa. priest-abuse case could reach jury Friday

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? A Roman Catholic church official should have called police or quit his job if he was truly troubled by the child sexual-abuse complaints pouring into his office in Philadelphia, a prosecutor argued Thursday in a landmark clergy-abuse trial.

Instead, Monsignor William Lynn remained secretary for clergy from 1992 to 2004. As such, he was the point person for meeting with accusers, the accused priests, psychotherapists, parents and even the occasional whistleblowing priest or nun.

Prosecutors argued that he helped cover up the growing scandal, while the defense insisted he did what he could, but took orders from his archbishop.

"He stayed there as long as he did because he was willing to carry out the program, to keep the secrets," Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington argued. "He liked being close to the throne."

Lynn, 61, faces up to 21 years in prison if convicted of child endangerment and conspiracy. He is the first U.S. church official charged for his handling of the abuse complaints. Jurors could begin deliberations Friday after receiving instructions on the law.

The defense complained that Lynn is being unfairly blamed for the sins of the church and the rogue conduct of predator priests. He alone tried to move the church forward in its evolving treatment of accused priests and clergy-abuse victims, only to be rebuffed by Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, his lawyer said. Bevilacqua died in January.

"You have witnessed evil in this courtroom. You have seen the dark side of the church. You've seen grown men come into this courtroom and weep because they were abused," lawyer Thomas Bergstrom argued. "And now, the sins of all these fathers that he laid bare ? that he laid bare ? are now laid at his feet."

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington said Lynn stuck to "the game plan" by helping to keep pedophile priests in ministry and the public in the dark. He described priests as "religious rock stars" with the power to lure vulnerable children, and keep them quiet, often while befriending their parents.

He argued that Lynn and his unindicted co-conspirators at the archdiocese put the need to avoid scandal above children's safety, at least until the abuse crisis exploded in Boston in 2002.

"Can you imagine any of this happening if a mother was in charge?" Blessington asked.

Lynn is specifically charged with endangering children by leaving the Rev. James Brennan and defrocked priest Edward Avery in ministry despite earlier complaints or red flags.

Lynn had deemed Avery "guilty" of abusing a minor based on a doctor's 1992 complaint to the archdiocese. The defense argued that Lynn was the one to get Avery into inpatient treatment in the mid-1990s. Bevilacqua then assigned Avery to work as a hospital chaplain, but he lived at a parish where he now admits sexually assaulting an altar boy in the church sacristy in 1999.

Avery pleaded guilty days before trial and is serving 2-1/2 to five years in prison.

Lynn apologized for that victim's suffering when he testified this past week.

Blessington scoffed at the apology Thursday, showing jurors a tender picture of the victim as an altar boy, and reminding them of the troubled adult they saw on the witness stand.

Lynn is also charged with endangering Brennan's alleged victim. Brennan, 48, is charged in a 1996 sexual assault. His lawyer called the accuser a "con man" motivated by legal and financial problems. He filed the abuse complaint from jail, and has sued the church and others.

"They're damaged people. They're damaged because of the abuse," Blessington countered, describing many of the alleged victims who have testified.

In a pivotal pretrial ruling, Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina allowed prosecutors to discuss complaints lodged against 20 other priests who were never charged, to demonstrate an alleged "common scheme" by Lynn to bury the complaints.

During three grueling days of testimony, Lynn insisted that he lacked the authority to remove or transfer priests. That power rested with the cardinal, he said.

"He's being prosecuted for something that he couldn't do," Bergstrom said.

Jurors have seen hundreds of confidential church documents, many of them written by Lynn for secret church archives.

"This is some conspiracy to conceal abuse in the archdiocese, when you are writing memos that are as detailed as this," Bergstrom said.

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Russell Brand Plans Some Movie Awards Lady-Killing

Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart are definitely on our newly single host's radar for Sunday's show.
By Kara Warner, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Russell Brand
Photo: MTV News

When it was announced that all-around funnyman Russell Brand was hand-selected to host the 2012 MTV Movie Awards, no one was more excited about the news than Brand himself — particularly when we presented him with a list of the lovely leading ladies who would also be present at Sunday's show

When we let him know that Kristen Stewart, Emma Stone, Mila Kunis and Charlize Theron would all be on hand, there was a lot of whistling on his part.

"I don't watch things like ['Twilight']," Brand said when Stewart was mentioned, but he did offer up a nice whistle. "I don't know, I don't know why I would watch it. But for the people, I like the good-looking boys. Robert Pattinson and him with the tummy," he said, speaking of Taylor Lautner's storied abs. "I met him. He was really handsome."

Brand's tales of celebrity run-ins did not end there: It turns out the "Rock of Ages" star had a very memorable encounter with Stewart's "Snow White and the Huntsman" co-star, Charlize Theron.

"Oh my God. She's amazing, isn't she? [I met her], and it was embarrassing," Brand revealed. "I messed it up bad. I met her and didn't recognize her. I was at a party, and I was looking at birds. She came over and [said] something untoward. And I showed off like an idiot, not recognizing her."

Once Brand realized his mistake, he was distraught.

"I thought, 'Oh no! I didn't use any of my moves!' " he recalled, before adding that Sunday's awards show might present him with the perfect opportunity to reintroduce himself. "It's a new day, it's a new dawn, it's a new life," he said, wondering, "Is she single?"

Head over to MovieAwards.MTV.com to vote for your favorite flicks now! The 21st annual MTV Movie Awards air live this Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET.

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Drug bans hamper brain research, says neuroscientist

By Kate Kelland

LONDON | Thu May 31, 2012 7:35am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Bans on drugs like ecstasy, magic mushrooms and LSD have hampered scientific research on the brain and stalled the progress of medicine as much as George Bush's ban on stem cell research did, a leading British drug expert said on Thursday.

David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London and a former chief adviser on drugs to the British government, said the international prohibition of psychedelics and other mind-altering drugs over the past half century has had damaging and "perverse" consequences.

"When a drug becomes illegal, conducting experimental research on it becomes almost impossible," Nutt told reporters at a briefing in London ahead of the publication of his new book "Drugs - without the hot air".

He compared the situation with that in stem cell research under former U.S. President George W. Bush, who banned any new embryonic stem cell studies from 2001 to 2009 - a move many scientists consider held the field back for years.

Nutt said the problem with the current approach to drugs policy globally, which is centered on the banning of substances thought to be most harmful, "is that we lose sight of the fact that these drugs may well give us insights into areas of science which need to be explored and they also may give us new opportunities for treatment."

"Almost all the drugs which are of interest in terms of brain phenomena like consciousness, perception, mood, psychosis - drugs like psychedelics, ketamine, cannabis, magic mushrooms, MDMA - are currently illegal. So there's almost no (scientific)work in this field," Nutt said.

Nutt last year conducted a small human trial to study the effects of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, on the brain.

Contrary to scientists' expectations, the study found psilocybin doesn't increase but rather suppresses activity in areas of the brain linked to depression, suggesting the drug might be a useful treatment for the debilitating condition.

Nutt said he was forced to "jump through hundreds of hoops" to be able to conduct the study, having to comply with a level of complex, expensive and time-consuming security and regulation that would put most scientists off.

WHAT DRUGS ARE AND WHAT THEY DO

The professor, who was sacked in 2009 in a high-profile row with the British government after he compared the risks of smoking cannabis with those of riding a horse, said he was driven to write the book in the hope of improving understanding of drugs - both legal and illegal, medicinal and recreational.

"There is almost no one in society who doesn't take drugs of some sort. The choices you make in your drug-taking are driven by a complex mixture of fashion, habit, availability and advertising," he said.

"If we understand drugs more, and have a more rational approach to them, we will actually end up knowing more about how to deal with drug harms."

Published on Thursday, the book seeks to explore the science of what a drug is and how it works.

It discusses whether the "war on drugs" did more harm than good - Nutt thinks it did.

And it explores why Britain's Queen Victoria took cannabis - apparently her physician J.R. Reynolds wrote a paper in the Lancet medical journal saying that "when pure and administered carefully, it (cannabis) is one of the most valuable medicines we possess". He prescribed it to the monarch to help her with period pains and after childbirth.

The book also has chapters on why people take drugs now, how harmful they are, where and whether the danger lines should be drawn between legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol, and illegal ones like cannabis and magic mushrooms.

Nutt doesn't dispute that drugs are harmful, but he takes issue with what he says are un-scientific decisions to ban one, like cannabis, while allowing another, like alcohol, to be freely and cheaply available on supermarket shelves.

"Drugs are drugs. They may differ in terms of their brain effects, but fundamentally they are all psychotropic agents," he said. "And it's arbitrary whether we choose to keep alcohol legal and ban cannabis, or make tobacco legal and ban ecstasy. Those are not scientific decisions they are political, moral and maybe even religious decisions."

(Reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Paul Casciato)

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New tests shed no light on mystery of 'burning rocks'

Uncredited / AP file

A photo released by the Orange County Fire Authority on May 17 shows Lin Hiner's cargo pants after beach rocks ignited in the pocket of her shorts. The San Clemente, Calif., woman suffered third-degree burns in the incident.

By Mike Brunker, msnbc.com

Additional testing by a California state laboratory has failed to unravel the mystery of the ?burning rocks? that scorched a Southern California woman early this month after erupting into flames in her pocket.

Results of the tests by the state lab, released Thursday, confirmed initial testing by the Orange County Public Health Department that found elevated levels of phosphate on the rocks, but provided no explanation of its presence.

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Chemistry experts have said they do not believe the phosphate was naturally occurring and have speculated that the rocks could have been coated with phosphorus, which can spontaneously ignite when exposed to oxygen.

The victim of the bizarre incident, Lyn Hiner, 43, suffered third-degree burns on May 12 when the rocks burst into flames while in the pocket of her shorts as she stood in the kitchen of her San Clemente, Calif., home, with her husband, Rob, and their children.

The kids had collected the rocks -- one smooth, orange-colored one and a smaller green one -- along with others earlier in the day at Trestles Beach at San Onofre State Beach. Lyn Hiner told the Orange County Register afterward that she put the rocks in her shorts pocket because her daughters were in their swimsuits.

Related story:
Burning rocks victim tells of strange horror

At least four hours later as Hiner stood in the kitchen, two of the rocks ignited,?burning her upper thigh and her hand as she attempted to beat out the flames. Rob Hiner suffered burns to his hands as he struggled to free his wife from the burning shorts.

The Orange County Public Health Department, which took the case because the Hiners live in the county, said Thursday that its involvement in the investigation is concluded.

?Since the land is owned by the United States Marine Corps, operated by State Park Rangers, and the rocks were located in the County of San Diego, any future inquiries on this matter should be directed to the appropriate authorities,? it said in a statement.

After some rocks spontaneously ignite in woman's pocket, burning her and damaging her home, the hunt is on to find the cause of this unusual incident. KNBC's Vikki Vargas reports.

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93% Marvel's The Avengers

After five movies of build-up, four of Marvel's superheros finally assemble in this mega-blockbuster extravaganza. This movie is simply awesome and kick-ass in every aspect from the story, characters, acting, humor, and visual effects-driven spectacle. The final battle between the Avengers and Loki's army in the middle of a downtown area is summer blockbuster action at it's very best. Every member of the Avengers from Iron Man to even Hawkeye get their times to shine; in both the action sequences and character development. However, the true heart of the film is the joys of seeing larger-than-life figures interacting with each other. The film focuses on each of the superheros along with members of Shield learning to work together in order to take down a common enemy, and these scenes are just as compelling as the action sequences thanks to director Joss Whedon's signature witty dialogue and total respect for each individual character. Each member of the cast brings their A-game to their respective roles. One cast member that deserves special mention is Mark Ruffalo, who proves to be a great Bruce Banner. His interpretation of Banner is different from Edward Norton, but just as compelling. Another thing that deserves mention is how Whedon seamlessly nails the look of a comic book without looking cheesy or over-stylized, which is probably the first time I saw that done successfully in a comic book superhero movie. There are so many things that could have went wrong with this superhero all-star concept and Whedon pull it off with such slickness that he makes it look easy. Not only is "The Avengers" incredibly smart and fun, but it also manages to be not only the best Marvel movie but one of the greatest superhero movies of all time.

July 31, 2011

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