Barabasi

J. G. Oliveira, A.-L. Barabási

Correspondence patterns - mechanisms and models of human dynamics - Reply

Nature 441, E5-E6 (2006)

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Kentsis notes that the response time to an email or a letter depends on the semantic content of the correspondence, as well as the social context in which the communication arises1. We would add that it also depends on deadlines, the time dependence of priorities and the dropping of past-deadline messages2, making human response dynamics sufficiently complicated that no simple model could fully account for it3–6. However, the advantage of the proposed modelling framework is that most of these effects can be incorporated into it, and their impact on the queuing process can be systematically evaluated. Addressing some of these additional mechanisms, including those suggested by Kentsis, requires information that is beyond reach for most researchers at this point.
Barabasi

Z. Neda, E. Ravasz, T. Vicsek, Y. Brechet, A.-L. Barabási

Physics of the rhythmic applause

Physical Review E 61, 6987-6992 (2000)

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We report on a series of measurements aimed to characterize the development and the dynamics of the rhythmic applause in concert halls. Our results demonstrate that while this process shares many characteristics of other systems that are known to synchronize, it also has features that are unexpected and unaccounted for in many other systems. In particular, we find that the mechanism lying at the heart of the synchronization process is the period doubling of the clapping rhythm. The characteristic interplay between synchronized and unsynchronized regimes during the applause is the result of a frustration in the system. All results are understandable in the framework of the Kuramoto model.