A method for identifying hierarchical sub-networks / modules and weighting network links based on their similarity in sub-network / module affiliation

摘要

Some networks, including biological networks, consist of hierarchical sub-networks / modules. Based on myprevious study, in present study a method for both identifying hierarchical sub-networks / modules andweighting network links is proposed. It is based on the cluster analysis in which between-node similarity insets of adjacency nodes is used. Two matrices, linkWeightMat and linkClusterIDs, are achieved by using thealgorithm. Two links with both the same weight in linkWeightMat and the same cluster ID in linkClusterIDsbelong to the same sub-network / module. Two links with the same weight in linkWeightMat but differentcluster IDs in linkClusterIDs belong to two sub-networks / modules at the same hirarchical level. However, alink with an unique cluster ID in linkClusterIDs does not belong to any sub-networks / modules. Asub-network / module of the greater weight is the more connected sub-network / modules. Matlab codes ofthe algorithm are presented.