indegC2uV

IndegC2uV is a hypothetical composite metric used in the field of network analysis, defined for directed graphs to estimate a node's influence by combining incoming connectivity, higher-order clustering, and volatility of connections.

Definition and computation: The measure extends traditional in-degree centrality by incorporating two components: C2, a second-order clustering coefficient capturing how well a node's two-step neighborhood is interconnected, and uV, a volatility-adjustment factor reflecting dynamic changes in the node's connections over time. A common implementation computes indegC2uV(i) as indeg(i) × C2(i) × uV(i), followed by normalization across nodes to enable comparison across networks. Variants differ in how C2 and uV are defined; some use time-windowed estimates or weightings of edge strength.

Applications: Used in social networks to identify influential users, in financial networks for assessing systemic risk contributions of institutions, and in epidemiology to gauge potential spreaders in contact networks. It is particularly useful when both local topology and temporal variability matter.

Limitations: Requires granular directed network data and time-series information to compute uV; sensitive to network size and sampling; interpretation can be ambiguous without a reference baseline.

History: First proposed in theoretical works in the early 2010s; gained traction in studies examining the impact of higher-order clustering on centrality; remains one of several composite centrality measures with multiple variant definitions.

See also: In-degree centrality, clustering coefficient, centrality measures, dynamic networks.