The Web of Human Sexual Contacts
TLDR
In this article, the authors analyze data on the sexual behavior of a random sample of individuals, and find that the cumulative distributions of the number of sexual partners during the twelve months prior to the survey decays as a power law with similar exponents for females and males.Abstract:
Many ``real-world'' networks are clearly defined while most ``social'' networks are to some extent subjective. Indeed, the accuracy of empirically-determined social networks is a question of some concern because individuals may have distinct perceptions of what constitutes a social link. One unambiguous type of connection is sexual contact. Here we analyze data on the sexual behavior of a random sample of individuals, and find that the cumulative distributions of the number of sexual partners during the twelve months prior to the survey decays as a power law with similar exponents $\alpha \approx 2.4$ for females and males. The scale-free nature of the web of human sexual contacts suggests that strategic interventions aimed at preventing the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases may be the most efficient approach.read more
Citations
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Information horizons in a complex world
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Pathogen spread on coupled networks: effect of host and network properties on transmission thresholds.
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Gaining scale-free and high clustering complex networks
TL;DR: It is shown that the given model can successfully capture two generic topological properties of many real networks: they are scale-free and they display a high degree of clustering.
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A characterization of internet dating network structures among nordic men who have sex with men.
Antonella Villani,Arnoldo Frigessi,Fredrik Liljeros,Monica K. Nordvik,Monica K. Nordvik,Birgitte Freiesleben de Blasio,Birgitte Freiesleben de Blasio +6 more
TL;DR: The flirt network showed high degree heterogeneity similar to the structural properties of real sexual contact networks with a single central core, and possession of a webcam was strongly associated with both sending flirt messages and being a flirt target.
Proceedings ArticleDOI
Complex Innovation Networks, Patent Citations and Power Laws
T.F. Brantle,M.H. Fallah +1 more
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the citation network is a scale free network and the network node degree probability distribution follows a power law, meaning the probability that a patent is highly connected to other patents is statistically more likely than would be expected via random connections and associations.
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