Understanding how information propagation affects epidemic dynamics has become an emerging topic of interest. However, the influence of interpersonal relationship heterogeneity on information acquisition and disease transmission has been largely overlooked. In this work, we introduce a hypergraph structure for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) with two distinct layers. The upper layer, referred to as the cyber layer, consists of a mixed hypergraph, capturing both pairwise propagation and higher-order diffusion of epidemic-related information. The lower layer, referred to as the physical layer, employs a Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible (SIS) process to capture epidemic spreading. This work introduces an adaptive perception-protection mechanism based on Jaccard similarity, which accounts for interpersonal heterogeneity. In this mechanism, individuals receive information based on their relationships with neighbors and take protective measures accordingly. We analyze the impact of interpersonal relationships and the adoption of neighborhood-based self-protection strategies on epidemic dynamics. Furthermore, we conduct a theoretical analysis based on the Microscopic Markov Chain Approach (MMCA), analytically derive the outbreak threshold, and confirm the results with extensive Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. The results show that stronger interpersonal relationships can promote information propagation, significantly increase the threshold for epidemic outbreaks, and effectively suppress the scale of the epidemic. The study provides theoretical support for designing epidemic control strategies considering interpersonal heterogeneity and improves the understanding of epidemic spreading on hypergraphs.

Stochastic games form the foundational mathematical framework for describing multiagent interactions and underpin the theoretical foundations of multiagent reinforcement learning (MARL) and optimal decision making. However, previous research has typically focused on either two-agent settings or large-scale well-mixed agent populations, where the considered interaction scenarios were far from realistic. In this article, we consider structured populations where agents can interact with immediate neighbors. By using the pair-approximation method, we develop a new dynamical model to describe the $Q$ -learning dynamics in stochastic games on regular graphs. Through comparisons with agent-based simulation results, we validate the accuracy of our dynamical model across various stochastic games, population structures, and algorithm parameters. Our research thus provides both qualitative and quantitative insights into the effects of state transition rules and graph topologies in population dynamics. In particular, we show that, under certain conditions, state transitions can significantly promote the evolution of cooperation in social dilemmas. We also explored the effects of agent degree on cooperation, and unlike previous findings, we show that this can have either positive or negative implications for cooperation depending on the transition rules.

Understanding how human mobility and information propagation influence the course of an epidemic remains a key challenge in digital epidemiology. In this work, we develop a new awareness-based, event-triggered epidemic model embedded within a networked Cyber-Physical System (CPS). In our framework, disease transmission and the dissemination of epidemic-related information evolve together on two interconnected layers. In detail, the physical layer models dis ease spread through human movement between two types of locations–residences and transfer stations-forming a bipartite metapopulation network. This structure captures the rendezvous effect, which reflects how gatherings in shared locations contribute to infection spread. The cyber layer represents the flow of information through digital communication networks. We introduce an event-triggered migration regulation mechanism, whereby individuals adapt their movement patterns based on local awareness thresholds, leading to a decentralized control process embedded within the network. Using a microscopic Markov chain approach (MMCA), we derive the epidemic threshold analytically and validate our results through extensive Monte Carlo simulations. Our findings show that event-triggered migration effectively suppresses the overall spread of the disease and lowers infection peaks-especially in heterogeneous populations and densely connected gathering points. These results demonstrate the potential of CPS-based epidemic models to enable real-time, awareness-driven interventions and to inform the design of decentralized control strategies that leverage digital communication dynamics.

Collective cooperation is fundamental to individual survival and social development, and exploring its mechanism of emergence is of great significance. However, most existing studies related to the evolutionary dynamics on higher order networks assume that all agents within a population follow the same strategy updating rule. This assumption does not align with reality and is an oversimplification. To this end, we propose a higher order network game framework featuring a hybrid strategy updating rule. Specifically, we use scale-free random hypergraphs (SRHs) to characterize the underlying network topology of the population. Then, we categorize agents into two types: imitation learners and autonomous learners according to social learning and behaviorism theories. For imitation learners, we apply the Fermi rule to characterize their probabilistic imitation behaviors, while for autonomous learners, we adopt the reinforcement learning method to highlight their decision-making features. Through a series of simulation experiments and theoretical analyses, we find that autonomous learners have a dual impact on cooperation in groups: they inhibit cooperation at low dilemma intensities but promote cooperation at high dilemma intensities. In addition, we show that smaller group sizes are more conducive to cooperation. Our findings provide valuable insights for better understanding the impact of hybrid updating mechanisms on the evolutionary dynamics of collective cooperation in higher order networks.

Many real-world scale-free networks, such as neural networks and online communication networks, consist of a fixed number of nodes but exhibit dynamic edge fluctuations. However, traditional models frequently overlook scenarios where the node count remains constant, instead prioritizing node growth. In this work, we depart from the assumptions of node number variation and preferential attachment to present an innovative model that conceptualizes node degree fluctuations as a state-dependent random walk process with stasis and variable diffusion coefficient. We show that this model yields stochastic dynamic networks with stable scale-free properties. Through comprehensive theoretical and numerical analyses, we demonstrate that the degree distribution converges to a power-law distribution, provided that the lowest degree state within the network is not an absorbing state. Furthermore, we investigate the resilience of the fraction of the largest component and the average shortest path length following deliberate attacks on the network. By using three real-world networks, we confirm that the proposed model accurately replicates actual data. The proposed model thus elucidates mechanisms by which networks, devoid of growth and preferential attachment features, can still exhibit power-law distributions and be used to simulate and study the resilience of attacked fixed-size scale-free networks.

Complex networks serve as abstract models for understanding real-world complex systems and provide frameworks for studying structured dynamical systems. This article addresses limitations in current studies on the exploration of individual birth-death and the development of community structures within dynamic systems. To bridge this gap, we propose a networked evolution model that includes the birth and death of individuals, incorporating reinforcement learning through games among individuals. Each individual has a lifespan following an arbitrary distribution, engages in games with network neighbors, selects actions using Q-learning in reinforcement learning, and moves within a two-dimensional space. The developed theories are validated through extensive experiments. Besides, we observe the evolution of cooperative behaviors and community structures in systems both with and without the birth-death process. The fitting of real-world populations and networks demonstrates the practicality of our model. Furthermore, comprehensive analyses of the model reveal that exploitation rates and payoff parameters determine the emergence of communities, learning rates affect the speed of community formation, discount factors influence stability, and two-dimensional space dimensions dictate community size. Our model offers a novel perspective on real-world community development and provides a valuable framework for studying population dynamics behaviors.

Simplicial complexes successfully resolve the limitation of social networks to describe the spread of infectious diseases in group interactions. However, the effects of quarantines in the context of group interactions remain largely unaddressed. In this article, we therefore propose a susceptible-infectious-quarantine- recovered-susceptible (SIQRS) model with quarantines and study its evolution on simplicial complexes. In the model, a fraction of infected individuals is subject to quarantine, but individuals leaving quarantine may still be contagious. Using mean-field (MF) methods, we derive the propagation threshold and the steady state infection densities as well as conditions for their stability. Numerical simulations moreover show that longer quarantine times and higher quarantine ratios tend to disrupt discontinuous phase transition and bistable phenomena that are commonly due to group interactions. Additionally, when epidemic outbreaks are recurrent, although quarantine measures can reduce the peak of the first wave and delay the onset of future waves, they may also lead to an increase in subsequent peak infected densities. This highlights the need to prepare sufficient resources to deal with periodic infections after the initial wave is over.

Dynamic processes in complex network are crucial for better understanding collective behavior in human societies, biological systems, and the Internet. In this article, we first focus on the continuous Markov-based modeling of evolving networks with the birth-death of individuals. A new individual arrives at the group by the Poisson process, while new links are established in the network through either uniform connection or preferential attachment. Moreover, an existing individual has a limited lifespan before leaving the network. We determine stationary topological properties of these networks, including their size and mean degree. To address the effect of the birth-death evolution, we further study the information dynamics in the proposed network model from the random drift and natural selection perspective, based on assumptions of total-stochastic and fitness-driven evolution, respectively. In simulations, we analyze the fixation probability of individual information and find that means of new connections affect the random drift process but do not affect the natural selection process.

The conflicts in human societies have often been studied through evolutionary games. In social dilemmas, for example, individuals fair best if they defect, but the society is best off if everybody cooperates. Cooperation therefore often requires a mechanism or third parties to evolve and remain viable. To study how third parties affect the evolution of cooperation, we develop a novel game theoretic framework composed of two layers. One layer contains cooperators and defectors, while the other, the third-party layer, contains interveners. Interveners can be peacemakers, troublemakers, or a hybrid of these two. Focusing on two-player two-strategy games, we show that intervention, as an exogenous factor, can stimulate (or inhibit) cooperation by weakening (or strengthening) the dilemma strength of the game the disputant plays. Moreover, the outcome in the disputant layer that is triggered by intervention, in turn, stimulates its own evolution. We analyze the co-evolution of intervention and cooperation and find that even a minority of interveners can promote higher cooperation. By conducting stability analyses, we derive the conditions for the emergence of cooperation and intervention. Our research unveils the potential of third parties to control the evolution of cooperation.

This article studies the stability in probability of probabilistic Boolean networks and stabilization in the probability of probabilistic Boolean control networks. To simulate more realistic cellular systems, the probability of stability/stabilization is not required to be a strict one. In this situation, the target state is indefinite to have a probability of transferring to itself. Thus, it is a challenging extension of the traditional probability-one problem, in which the self-transfer probability of the target state must be one. Some necessary and sufficient conditions are proposed via the semitensor product of matrices. Illustrative examples are also given to show the effectiveness of the derived results.

The issue of resilient reliable dissipativity performance index for systems including actuator faults and probabilistic time-delay signals via sampled-data control approach is investigated. Specifically, random variables governed by the Bernoulli distribution are examined in detail for the random time-delay signals. By using the Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals together with the Wirtinger double integral inequality approach and reciprocally convex combination technique, which reflects complete information on the certain random sampling; as a result, a new set of sufficient criterion is launched to ensure that the proposed closed-loop system is strictly (Q, S, ℝ)-y-dissipative. The proposed criterion for dissipativity-based resilient reliable controller is expressed in the form of linear matrix inequalities. The major contributions of this paper is (Q, S, ℝ)-y-dissipativity concept can be adopted to analyze more dynamical performances simultaneously, such as H∞, passivity, mixed H∞, and passivity performance for the proposed system model by choosing the weighting matrices (Q, S, ℝ). Finally, an interesting simulation example is demonstrated to showing the applicability and effectiveness of the theoretical results together with proposed control law by taking the experimental values of the high-incidence research model and rotary servo system.

This paper is concerned with the synchronization of stochastic delayed multilayer networks with additive couplings. Multilayer networks are a kind of complex networks with different layers, which consist of different kinds of interactions or multiple subnetworks. Additive couplings are designed to capture the different layered connections. Based on additive couplings, several sufficient conditions are obtained to guarantee the synchronization of chaotic stochastic delayed coupled multilayer network. More specifically, on one hand, we obtain some sufficient conditions to guarantee that the stochastic multilayer network can be synchronized almost surely without control input. On the other hand, we propose three synchronization schemes by designing controllers. Scheme I: It is assumed that only a part of the nodes are allowed to be controlled directly. Scheme II: Control all nodes of the complex system by using only one controller. Scheme III: Pinning adaptive controller. Finally, an example and its simulations are given to show the effectiveness of our control schemes.

In this paper, we are concerned with exploring the theoretically and technically research outcomes for the conflict resolution (CR) of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by using the Internet of Things technologies. We propose a satisficing algorithm to mitigate the CR problem of multiple UAVs. Specifically, we first formulate the CR problem as a game model and design strategies of the game model based on flight characteristics of UAVs. Next, a satisficing game theory is used to mitigate the formulated problem. Furthermore, required time of arrival, which is a new judgment parameter of the strategy utility, is developed to ensure that the whole system can reach a socially acceptable compromise. Simulation results verify the effectiveness and adaptability of the proposed algorithm under complex environments.

In this paper, some efficient criteria for finite-time consensus of a class of nonsmooth opinion dynamics over a digraph are established. The lower and upper bounds on the finite settling time are obtained based respectively on the maximal and minimal cut capacity of the digraph. By using tools of the nonsmooth theory and algebraic graph theory, the Carathéodory and Filippov solutions of nonsmooth opinion dynamics are analyzed and compared in detail. In the sense of Filippov solutions, the dynamic consensus is demonstrated without a leader and the finite-time bipartite consensus is also investigated in a signed digraph correspondingly. To achieve a predetermined consensus, a leader agent is introduced to the considered agent networks. As an application, the nonsmooth compartmental dynamics in the presence of a leader is embedded in the proposed continuous-time protocol to solve the distributed optimization problems over an unbalanced digraph. The convergence to the optimal solution by using the proposed distributed algorithm is guaranteed with appropriately selected parameters. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed protocols, three numerical examples are performed.

This paper investigates the dynamical multisynchronization and static multisynchronization problem for delayed coupled multistable neural networks with fixed and switching topologies. To begin with, a class of activation functions as well as several sufficient conditions are introduced to ensure that every subnetwork has multiple equilibrium states. By constructing an appropriate Lyapunov function and by employing impulsive control theory and the average impulsive interval method, several sufficient conditions for multisynchronization in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) are obtained. Moreover, a unified impulsive controller is designed by means of the established LMIs. Finally, a numerical example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented impulsive control strategy.

We propose a network representation of electrically coupled beta cells in islets of Langerhans. Beta cells are functionally connected on the basis of correlations between calcium dynamics of individual cells, obtained by means of confocal laser-scanning calcium imaging in islets from acute mouse pancreas tissue slices. Obtained functional networks are analyzed in the light of known structural and physiological properties of islets. Focusing on the temporal evolution of the network under stimulation with glucose, we show that the dynamics are more correlated under stimulation than under non-stimulated conditions and that the highest overall correlation, largely independent of Euclidean distances between cells, is observed in the activation and deactivation phases when cells are driven by the external stimulus. Moreover, we find that the range of interactions in networks during activity shows a clear dependence on the Euclidean distance, lending support to previous observations that beta cells are synchronized via calcium waves spreading throughout islets. Most interestingly, the functional connectivity patterns between beta cells exhibit small-world properties, suggesting that beta cells do not form a homogeneous geometric network but are connected in a functionally more efficient way. Presented results provide support for the existing knowledge of beta cell physiology from a network perspective and shed important new light on the functional organization of beta cell syncitia whose structural topology is probably not as trivial as believed so far.

The dynamics of circadian rhythms needs to be adapted to day length changes between summer and winter. It has been observed experimentally, however, that the dynamics of individual neurons of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) does not change as the seasons change. Rather, the seasonal adaptation of the circadian clock is hypothesized to be a consequence of changes in the intercellular dynamics, which leads to a phase distribution of electrical activity of SCN neurons that is narrower in winter and broader during summer. Yet to understand this complex intercellular dynamics, a more thorough understanding of the impact of the network structure formed by the SCN neurons is needed. To that effect, we propose a mathematical model for the dynamics of the SCN neuronal architecture in which the structure of the network plays a pivotal role. Using our model we show that the fraction of long-range cell-to-cell connections and the seasonal changes in the daily rhythms may be tightly related. In particular, simulations of the proposed mathematical model indicate that the fraction of long-range connections between the cells adjusts the phase distribution and consequently the length of the behavioral activity as follows: dense long-range connections during winter lead to a narrow activity phase, while rare long-range connections during summer lead to a broad activity phase. Our model is also able to account for the experimental observations indicating a larger light-induced phase-shift of the circadian clock during winter, which we show to be a consequence of higher synchronization between neurons. Our model thus provides evidence that the variations in the seasonal dynamics of circadian clocks can in part also be understood and regulated by the plasticity of the SCN network structure.

Situations where individuals have to contribute to joint efforts or share scarce resources are ubiquitous. Yet, without proper mechanisms to ensure cooperation, the evolutionary pressure to maximize individual success tends to create a tragedy of the commons (such as over-fishing or the destruction of our environment). This contribution addresses a number of related puzzles of human behavior with an evolutionary game theoretical approach as it has been successfully used to explain the behavior of other biological species many times, from bacteria to vertebrates. Our agent-based model distinguishes individuals applying four different behavioral strategies: non-cooperative individuals ("defectors"), cooperative individuals abstaining from punishment efforts (called "cooperators" or "second-order free-riders"), cooperators who punish non-cooperative behavior ("moralists"), and defectors, who punish other defectors despite being non-cooperative themselves ("immoralists"). By considering spatial interactions with neighboring individuals, our model reveals several interesting effects: First, moralists can fully eliminate cooperators. This spreading of punishing behavior requires a segregation of behavioral strategies and solves the "second-order free-rider problem". Second, the system behavior changes its character significantly even after very long times ("who laughs last laughs best effect"). Third, the presence of a number of defectors can largely accelerate the victory of moralists over non-punishing cooperators. Fourth, in order to succeed, moralists may profit from immoralists in a way that appears like an "unholy collaboration". Our findings suggest that the consideration of punishment strategies allows one to understand the establishment and spreading of "moral behavior" by means of game-theoretical concepts. This demonstrates that quantitative biological modeling approaches are powerful even in domains that have been addressed with non-mathematical concepts so far. The complex dynamics of certain social behaviors become understandable as the result of an evolutionary competition between different behavioral strategies.