Network Science

Illustrated throughout in full colour, this pioneering text is the only book you need for an introduction to network science.

A comprehensive look at the emerging science of networks Network science helps you design faster, more resilient communication networks; revise infrastructure systems such as electrical power grids, telecommunications networks, and airline routes; model market dynamics; understand synchronization in biological systems; and analyze social interactions among people. This is the first book to take a comprehensive look at this emerging science. It examines the various kinds of networks (regular, random, small-world, influence, scale-free, and social) and applies network processes and behaviors to emergence, epidemics, synchrony, and risk. The book's uniqueness lies in its integration of concepts across computer science, biology, physics, social network analysis, economics, and marketing. The book is divided into easy-to-understand topical chapters and the presentation is augmented with clear illustrations, problems and answers, examples, applications, tutorials, and a discussion of related Java software. Chapters cover: Origins Graphs Regular Networks Random Networks Small-World Networks Scale-Free Networks Emergence Epidemics Synchrony Influence Networks Vulnerability Net Gain Biology This book offers a new understanding and interpretation of the field of network science. It is an indispensable resource for researchers, professionals, and technicians in engineering, computing, and biology. It also serves as a valuable textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in related fields of study.

A practical introduction to network science for students across business, cognitive science, neuroscience, sociology, biology, engineering and other disciplines.

Network Science is the emerging field concerned with the study of large, realistic networks. This interdisciplinary endeavor, focusing on the patterns of interactions that arise between individual components of natural and engineered systems, has been applied to data sets from activities as diverse as high-throughput biological experiments, online trading information, smart-meter utility supplies, and pervasive telecommunications and surveillance technologies. This unique text/reference provides a fascinating insight into the state of the art in network science, highlighting the commonality across very different areas of application and the ways in which each area can be advanced by injecting ideas and techniques from another. The book includes contributions from an international selection of experts, providing viewpoints from a broad range of disciplines. It emphasizes networks that arise in nature—such as food webs, protein interactions, gene expression, and neural connections—and in technology—such as finance, airline transport, urban development and global trade. Topics and Features: begins with a clear overview chapter to introduce this interdisciplinary field; discusses the classic network science of fixed connectivity structures, including empirical studies, mathematical models and computational algorithms; examines time-dependent processes that take place over networks, covering topics such as synchronisation, and message passing algorithms; investigates time-evolving networks, such as the World Wide Web and shifts in topological properties (connectivity, spectrum, percolation); explores applications of complex networks in the physical and engineering sciences, looking ahead to new developments in the field. Researchers and professionals from disciplines as varied as computer science, mathematics, engineering, physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, neuroscience, epidemiology, and the social sciences will all benefit from this topical and broad overview of current activities and grand challenges in the unfolding field of network science.

The emerging field of network science represents a new style of research that can unify such traditionally-diverse fields as sociology, economics, physics, biology, and computer science. It is a powerful tool in analyzing both natural and man-made systems, using the relationships between players within these networks and between the networks themselves to gain insight into the nature of each field. Until now, studies in network science have been focused on particular relationships that require varied and sometimes-incompatible datasets, which has kept it from being a truly universal discipline. Computational Network Science seeks to unify the methods used to analyze these diverse fields. This book provides an introduction to the field of Network Science and provides the groundwork for a computational, algorithm-based approach to network and system analysis in a new and important way. This new approach would remove the need for tedious human-based analysis of different datasets and help researchers spend more time on the qualitative aspects of network science research. Demystifies media hype regarding Network Science and serves as a fast-paced introduction to state-of-the-art concepts and systems related to network science Comprehensive coverage of Network Science algorithms, methodologies, and common problems Includes references to formative and updated developments in the field Coverage spans mathematical sociology, economics, political science, and biological networks

This book provides an overview of network science from the perspective of diverse academic fields, offering insights into the various research areas within network science. The authoritative contributions on statistical network analysis, mathematical network science, genetic networks, Bayesian networks, network visualisation, and systemic risk in networks explore the main questions in the respective fields: What has been achieved to date? What are the research challenges and obstacles? What are the possible interconnections with other fields? And how can cross-fertilization between these fields be promoted? Network science comprises numerous scientific disciplines, including computer science, economics, mathematics, statistics, social sciences, bioinformatics, and medicine, among many others. These diverse research areas require and use different data-analytic and numerical methods as well as different theoretical approaches. Nevertheless, they all examine and describe interdependencies, associations, and relationships of entities in different kinds of networks. The book is intended for researchers as well as interested readers working in network science who want to learn more about the field – beyond their own research or work niche. Presenting network science from different perspectives without going into too much technical detail, it allows readers to gain an overview without having to be a specialist in any or all of these disciplines.

Around the globe, there is an increasingly urgent need to provide opportunities for learners to embrace complexity; to develop the many skills and habits of mind that are relevant to today's complex and interconnected world; and to make learning more connected to our rapidly changing workplace and society. This presents an opportunity to (1) leverage new paradigms for understanding the structure and function of teaching and learning communities, and (2) to promote new approaches to developing methods, curricular materials, and resources. Network science - the study of connectivity - can play an important role in these activities, both as an important subject in teaching and learning and as a way to develop interconnected curricula. Since 2010, an international community of network science researchers and educators has come together to raise the global level of network literacy by applying ideas from network science to teaching and learning. Network Science in Education - which refers to both this community and to its activities - has evolved in response to the escalating activity in the field of network science and the need for people to be able to access the field through education channels. Network Science In Education: Transformational Approaches in Teaching and Learning appeals to both instructors and professionals, while offering case studies from a wide variety of activities that have been developed around the globe: the creation of entirely new courses and degree programs; tools for K-20 learners, teachers, and the general public; and in-depth analysis of selected programs. As network-based pedagogy and the community of practice continues to grow, we hope that the book's readers will join this vibrant network education community to build on these nascent ideas and help deepen the understanding of networks for all learners.

Fundamentals of Brain Network Analysis is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to methods for unraveling the extraordinary complexity of neuronal connectivity. From the perspective of graph theory and network science, this book introduces, motivates and explains techniques for modeling brain networks as graphs of nodes connected by edges, and covers a diverse array of measures for quantifying their topological and spatial organization. It builds intuition for key concepts and methods by illustrating how they can be practically applied in diverse areas of neuroscience, ranging from the analysis of synaptic networks in the nematode worm to the characterization of large-scale human brain networks constructed with magnetic resonance imaging. This text is ideally suited to neuroscientists wanting to develop expertise in the rapidly developing field of neural connectomics, and to physical and computational scientists wanting to understand how these quantitative methods can be used to understand brain organization. Extensively illustrated throughout by graphical representations of key mathematical concepts and their practical applications to analyses of nervous systems Comprehensively covers graph theoretical analyses of structural and functional brain networks, from microscopic to macroscopic scales, using examples based on a wide variety of experimental methods in neuroscience Designed to inform and empower scientists at all levels of experience, and from any specialist background, wanting to use modern methods of network science to understand the organization of the brain