Revealing In-Block Nestedness: detection and benchmarking

Abstract

As new instances of nested organization --beyond ecological networks-- are discovered, scholars are debating around the co-existence of two apparently incompatible macroscale architectures: nestedness and modularity. The discussion is far from being solved, mainly for two reasons. First, nestedness and modularity appear to emerge from two contradictory dynamics, cooperation and competition. Second, existing methods to assess the presence of nestedness and modularity are flawed when it comes to the evaluation of concurrently nested and modular structures. In this work, we tackle the latter problem, presenting the concept of \textit{in-block nestedness}, a structural property determining to what extent a network is composed of blocks whose internal connectivity exhibits nestedness. We then put forward a set of optimization methods that allow us to identify such organization successfully, both in synthetic and in a large number of real networks. These findings challenge our understanding of the topology of ecological and social systems, calling for new models to explain how such patterns emerge.

16 pages, 5 figures, 1 Table

References in corpus (8)

• Resolution limit in community detection
• Statistical Mechanics of Community Detection
• Community detection in networks: A user guide
• Modularity and community detection in bipartite networks
• Analysis of the structure of complex networks at different resolution levels
• The Scientific Competitiveness of Nations
• Ranking species in mutualistic networks
• Finding multiple core-periphery pairs in networks

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Nestedness in complex networks: Observation, emergence, and implications
• Breaking the spell of nestedness
• The Weighted Bitcoin Lightning Network
• Structural dynamics of plant-pollinator mutualistic networks
• Colombian export capabilities: building the firms-products network
• The Evolution of Competitiveness across Economic, Innovation and Knowledge production activities
• Absence of a resolution limit in in-block nestedness
• Emergence of Nestedness in the Public Internet Peering Ecosystem