Data-based detection and quantification of causation in complex, nonlinear dynamical systems is of paramount importance to science, engineering, and beyond. Inspired by the widely used methodology in recent years, the cross-map-based techniques, we develop a general framework to advance towards a comprehensive understanding of dynamical causal mechanisms, which is consistent with the natural interpretation of causality. In particular, instead of measuring the smoothness of the cross-map as conventionally implemented, we define causation through measuring the scaling law for the continuity of the investigated dynamical system directly. The uncovered scaling law enables accurate, reliable, and efficient detection of causation and assessment of its strength in general complex dynamical systems, outperforming those existing representative methods. The continuity scaling-based framework is rigorously established and demonstrated using datasets from model complex systems and the real world.

This paper studies a two-strain SIS epidemic model with a competing mechanism and a saturating incidence rate on complex networks. This type of incidence rate could be used to reflect the crowding effect of the infective individuals. We first obtain the associated reproduction numbers for each of the two strains which determine the existence of the boundary equilibria. Stability of the disease-free and boundary equilibria are further examined. Besides, we also show that the two competing strains can coexist under certain conditions. Interestingly, the saturating incidence rate can have specific effects on not only the stability of the boundary equilibria, but also the existence of the coexistence equilibrium. Numerical simulations are presented to support the theoretical results.

The commonly used spatial entropy hr(U) of the multi-dimensional shift space U is the limit of growth rate of admissible local patterns on finite rectangular sublattices which expands to whole space Zd, d ≥ 2. This work studies spatial entropy hΩ(U) of shift space U on general expanding system Ω = {Ω(n)}∞ n=1 where Ω(n) is increasing finite sublattices and expands to Zd. Ω is called genuinely d-dimensional if Ω(n) contains no lower-dimensional part whose size is comparable to that of its d-dimensional part. We show that hr(U) is the supremum of hΩ(U) for all genuinely two-dimensional Ω. Furthermore, when Ω is genuinely d-dimensional and satisfies certain conditions, then hΩ(U) = hr(U). On the contrary, when Ω(n) contains a lower-dimensional part, then hr(U) < hΩ(U) for some U. Therefore, hr(U) is appropriate to be the d-dimensional spatial entropy.