Merge networks and edge scores
To combine the output of several methods, different strategies can be considered, which are listed below.
Independently of the merge strategy choice, the method(s) supporting a link between two items are
always listed in the resulting network as edge attribute values.
Multigraph
When the "multi-graph" checkbox is enabled, outputs of different methods
are not combined, but displayed in a multi-graph, i.e. if more than one method
supports a link between two items, those items are linked by more than one edge.
If "multi-graph" is not enabled, the default score merge strategy is carried out instead.
"Multi-graph" is currently by default enabled.
Score merge
When different methods support the same item pair, their scores can be combined into one score in different ways.
Thus, the score merge is carried out edge-wise. It is only carried out when more than one network inference method has been selected.
Note that in case of restoring networks from randomization files, the contributing methods and their individual scores cannot be restored.
- scoremethodnum Simply put the number of supporting methods as score.
- scoremean First, distances (D) are converted to similarities (S) by: S = maximum_observed_value - D. Each method-specific score is then converted into a percentage with respect to its maximal observed score, even for bounded measures. Finally, the combined score is obtained as the mean over the modified method scores.
- scoresum As for scoremean, but instead of the mean the sum is computed.
Network merge
The results of the different measures can be considered as alternative networks, which can be merged in various ways
(with and without enabling "multi-graph").
The following options are available:
- union The network union keeps all edges contributed by all methods.
- intersection The network intersection keeps only edges supported by all methods.
- separate Separate networks are instantiated for each method. If this option is selected, no score merging is carried out.
- majority Only edges supported by a majority of methods are kept.
- minsupport An edge is only kept if supported at least by the specified method number (see input field below). The default minimal support is 2.
The minimum number of methods that should support a link is only taken into account if the network merge strategy is set to minsupport.