2011, Zamora-López, Gorka, Zhou, Changsong, Kurths, Jürgen

The intrinsic relationship between the architecture of the brain and the range of sensory and behavioral phenomena it produces is a relevant question in neuroscience. Here, we review recent knowledge gained on the architecture of the anatomical connectivity by means of complex network analysis. It has been found that cortico-cortical networks display a few prominent characteristics: (i) modular organization, (ii) abundant alternative processing paths, and (iii) the presence of highly connected hubs. Additionally, we present a novel classification of cortical areas of the cat according to the role they play in multisensory connectivity. All these properties represent an ideal anatomical substrate supporting rich dynamical behaviors, facilitating the capacity of the brain to process sensory information of different modalities segregated and to integrate them toward a comprehensive perception of the real world. The results here exposed are mainly based on anatomical data of cats’ brain, but further observations suggest that, from worms to humans, the nervous system of all animals might share these fundamental principles of organization.

2010, Zamora-López, Gorka, Zhou, Changsong, Kurths, Jürgen

Sensory stimuli entering the nervous system follow particular paths of processing, typically separated (segregated) from the paths of other modal information. However, sensory perception, awareness and cognition emerge from the combination of information (integration). The corticocortical networks of cats and macaque monkeys display three prominent characteristics: (i) modular organisation (facilitating the segregation), (ii) abundant alternative processing paths and (iii) the presence of highly connected hubs. Here, we study in detail the organisation and potential function of the cortical hubs by graph analysis and information theoretical methods. We find that the cortical hubs form a spatially delocalised, but topologically central module with the capacity to integrate multisensory information in a collaborative manner. With this, we resolve the underlying anatomical substrate that supports the simultaneous capacity of the cortex to segregate and to integrate multisensory information.

2018, Maluck, Julian, Glanemann, Nicole, Donner, Reik V.

Over the last decades, bilateral trade agreements (BTAs) have increased considerably in number and economic relevance. Notably, such agreements substantially affect global trade, since the reorganization of flows of goods and services has prominent impacts on the contracting countries' economies, but also on other parties that are (directly or indirectly) engaged in trade with these countries. Here, we empirically study the effect of BTAs on the input-output linkages between the contractual parties' national economic sectors by defining a new measure of Trade Interconnectedness (TI), which describes the relative importance of direct and indirect production linkages between the two countries in the international trade network. By analyzing its time evolution for each pair of trade agreement partners, we demonstrate that while most BTAs are succeeded by an increase in TI between the contractors, there are some notable exceptions. In particular, comparing the trade profiles of China and the United States (US), we find indications that both countries have been pursuing fundamentally different objectives and strategies related to the negotiation of BTAs.

2013, Camargo, Sabrina, Riedl, Maik, Anteneodo, Celia, Kurths, Jürgen, Wessel, Niels

Studies on heart rate variability (HRV) have become popular and the possibility of diagnosis based on non-invasive techniques compels us to overcome the difficulties originated on the environmental changes that can affect the signal. We perform a non-parametric segmentation which consists of locating the points where the signal can be split into stationary segments. By finding stationary segments we are able to analyze the size of these segments and evaluate how the signal changes from one segment to another, looking at the statistical moments given in each patch, for example, mean and variance. We analyze HRV data for 15 patients with congestive heart failure (CHF; 11 males, 4 females, age 56±11 years), 18 elderly healthy subjects (EH; 11 males, 7 females, age 50±7 years), and 15 young healthy subjects (YH; 11 females, 4 males, age 31±6 years). Our results confirm higher variance for YH, and EH, while CHF displays diminished variance with p-values <0.01, when compared to the healthy groups, presenting higher HRV in healthy subjects. Moreover, it is possible to distinguish between YH and EH with p < 0.05 through the segmentation outcomes. We found high correlations between the results of segmentation and standard measures of HRV analysis and a connection to results of detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). The segmentation applied to HRV studies detects aging and pathological conditions effects on the non-stationary behavior of the analyzed groups, promising to contribute in complexity analysis and providing risk stratification measures.

2020, Wang, Chunyu, Deng, Yue, Yuan, Ziheng, Zhang, Chijun, Zhang, Fan, Cai, Qing, Gao, Chao, Kurths, Jürgen

The solutions to the supply and allocation of medical emergency resources during public health emergencies greatly affect the efficiency of epidemic prevention and control. Currently, the main problem in computational epidemiology is how the allocation scheme should be adjusted in accordance with epidemic trends to satisfy the needs of population coverage, epidemic propagation prevention, and the social allocation balance. More specifically, the metropolitan demand for medical emergency resources varies depending on different local epidemic situations. It is therefore difficult to satisfy all objectives at the same time in real applications. In this paper, a data-driven multi-objective optimization method, called as GA-PSO, is proposed to address such problem. It adopts the one-way crossover and mutation operations to modify the particle updating framework in order to escape the local optimum. Taking the megacity Shenzhen in China as an example, experiments show that GA-PSO effectively balances different objectives and generates a feasible allocation strategy. Such a strategy does not only support the decision-making process of the Shenzhen center in terms of disease control and prevention, but it also enables us to control the potential propagation of COVID-19 and other epidemics. © Copyright © 2020 Wang, Deng, Yuan, Zhang, Zhang, Cai, Gao and Kurths.