"The Use of Multilayer Network Analysis in Animal Behaviour"

One of my articles came out in final form today. Here are some details.

Title: The Use of Multilayer Network Analysis in Animal Behaviour

Authors: Kelly R. Finn, Matthew J. Silk, Mason A. Porter, and Noa Pinter-Wollman

Abstract: Network analysis has driven key developments in research on animal behaviour by providing quantitative methods to study the social structures of animal groups and populations. A recent formalism, known as multilayer network analysis, has advanced the study of multifaceted networked systems in many disciplines. It offers novel ways to study and quantify animal behaviour through connected ‘layers’ of interactions. In this article, we review common questions in animal behaviour that can be studied using a multilayer approach, and we link these questions to specific analyses. We outline the types of behavioural data and questions that may be suitable to study using multilayer network analysis. We detail several multilayer methods, which can provide new insights into questions about animal sociality at individual, group, population and evolutionary levels of organization. We give examples for how to implement multilayer methods to demonstrate how taking a multilayer approach can alter inferences about social structure and the positions of individuals within such a structure. Finally, we discuss caveats to undertaking multilayer network analysis in the study of animal social networks, and we call attention to methodological challenges for the application of these approaches. Our aim is to instigate the study of new questions about animal sociality using the new toolbox of multilayer network analysis.


P.S. There is an easter egg in the paper. Let me know when you find it!

"Can Multilayer Networks Advance Animal Behavior Research?"

The final version of a new paper of mine now has its final coordinates in a journal. Here are some details.

Title: Can Multilayer Networks Advance Animal Behavior Research?

Authors: Matthew J. Silk, Kelly R. Finn, Mason A. Porter, and Noa Pinter-Wollman

Abstract: Interactions among individual animals — and between these individuals and their environment — yield complex, multifaceted systems. The development of multilayer network analysis offers a promising new approach for studying animal social behavior and its relation to eco-evolutionary dynamics.

Beware of "Echolocating Insectivorous Hats"

Seriously.

And this is why we still need editors in the age of text-scanning software. pic.twitter.com/EiDeW4FiGZ

— Markus Eichhorn (@markus_eichhorn) February 8, 2018

(Tip of the cap to Jennifer Ouelette.)

United States Senators and Social Licking Among Cows

I am amused by this 2002 paper by Faust and Skvoretz, called Comparing Networks Across Space and Time, Size and Species.

Here is a choice quote: "The model of social licking among cows best predicts, as a target, cosponsorship among U.S. senators in the Ninety-Third Congress."

Note: The sentence is highly amusing, and I understand it in the context of the paper, but (1) the term "predicts" is misleading with respect to the analysis performed, and (2) one of course has to ask how the result changes if a different sample of networks is used. There has, of course, been a bunch of work (including by my collaborators and me) in the last decade and a half on examining similarities among networks.

(Tip of the cap to Brian Keegan.)

The Bee Nailed It

Bee removes a nail to make a nest in a wall 🐝 pic.twitter.com/CXSjZAkVLA

— Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) September 12, 2017

(I saw this Tweet because Sabine Hossenfelder liked it.)

Headline: "Weasel Apparently Shuts Down World's Most Powerful Particle Collider"

Here's a headline you don't see every day.

Choice quote: "There have been previous incidents, including one in 2009, when a bird is believed to have dropped a baguette onto critical electrical systems."

(Tip of the cap to Graeme Smith.)

Birds on a Wire

On the taxi ride to the airport, I saw a set of three power lines that were parallel to each other and arrayed vertically.

The bottom one had 1 bird perched on it, the middle one has 3 perched birds, and the top one had a large number of birds on it (too many for me to count).

Any ideas what the mechanism is for this? Is there a preference for height? Does it have a bit of a DLA-like flavor in that a bird lands on the first available wire from something like a random walk or Levy flight such that it's more likely to "stick" on the top one? Does anybody know if somebody has tried to model this?

Also: Mine.

Trojan Butterflies

I recently wrote a blurb for the Improbable Research blog on what I like to call "trojan butterflies". As you will see from my blurb and the article to which I link therein, the monicker is apt and the phenomenon is fascinating.

Ant Fight Club

In my latest post for the Improbable Research blog, I discuss modeling of combat in ants.

One of the reasons I chose to write about this paper is that it also allowed me to introduce modeling issues (e.g., the choice of a differential-equation model versus an agent-based model).

Next time, maybe I'll even use a Mortal Kombat reference. Finish him!

Goats in a Tree

At the recommendation of yesterday's speaker Nina Fefferman (of the clan that mathematicians know well), I searched on YouTube for goats that flock in trees. As she promised, this is indeed pretty damn cool!

And don't forget about fainting goats.

One of my Somerville students once fainted in the middle of explaining a problem at the whiteboard when I discussed "narcoleptic goats" in the middle of a tutorial. (The marker slid along the whiteboard with a descending streak and everything. He was ok, thankfully; this was definitely one of the all-time classics.)

Emotional-Support Pig

Make sure, when you are on a flight, that your emotional-support pig doesn't become disruptive. Yes, really.

Nevermore!

Apparently, ravens keep track of the rank order of other ravens in dominance hierarchies.

We need to add a citation to this paper in our revision of our own work related to dominance hierarchies, if for no other reason than to be able to make Edgar Allan Poe jokes in our presentations.

Dogs Have a Preferred Pooping Orientation

Yup, you read that correctly: apparently, dogs prefer to take a dump in roughly a north-south orientation. It's science --- and also a strong contender for an Ig Nobel Prize.

(Tip of the cap to Julius Su.)

New UK Knighthoods

The new UK knighthoods have been announced in the New Year's Honours lists.

One of the recipients is my zoologist coauthor (and Somerville colleague) Marian Dawkins, who was honored for "services to Animal Welfare". Clearly, it must have been our joint work on cow synchronization that put her over the top. :) Yeah right. (My other two papers with Marian are another one on cow synchrony and a recent one on dominance relationships in animals.)

Another of the recipients is my Mathematical Institute colleague Frances Kirwan, who was named a DBE for "services to Mathematics".

Major congratulations!

Gangs of Crabs

When you go to the beach, be careful about gangs of crabs. (One of our referees for this paper seems to be a crabby dude and suggested that we should bring up empirical evidence from animals like crabs. If for no other reason, we should add such comments to the paper just because of the jokes that it will enable.)

(Tip of the cap to I Fucking Love Science.)