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You might want to check out this paper:

Hamilton, D., Handcock, M. & Morris, M. 2008. Degree distributions in 
sexual networks:  A framework for evaluating evidence. Sex
Transm Dis, 35(1): 30-40.


On Tue, 24 Feb 2009, John McCreery wrote:

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>
> As I prepare my presentation for Sunbelt, I am checking the networks my data
> reveal for the kinds of properties that I read about in sources that include
> Newman, Barabási, and Watts (2006), The Structure and Dynamics of Networks.
>
>   1. Giant components?  Check
>   2. Giant bicomponents that approach the size of the giant components?
>   Check?
>   3. Right-skewed degree distributions? Check
>
> But then I read, in the introduction to Chapter 3, a discussion of Amaral,
> et. al. (2000), a paper that examines five networks and discovers that none
> have power-law degree distributions.
>
> Instead, all of them are right-skewed but with non-power-law distributions:
>> the power grid and air traffic networks have exponential distributions, the
>> high school and Mormon networks have Gaussian distributions, and the movie
>> actor network has an exponentially truncated power-law distribution.
>
>
> Here my mathematical ignorance blocks further understanding. I want to know
> how to do the calculations to determine which kind of distributions best fit
> my data. My rapid survey of Wikipedia articles on power laws, O
> descriptions, that sort of thing, leaves me with the impression that this is
> a black art; but, I suspect, I am missing something.
>
> Can anyone here direct me to a curve-fitting for dummies primer that will
> shed some light on my problem or some smart person who already knows how to
> do this sort of thing?
>
> Your help will be greatly appreciated.
>
> John McCreery
> The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
> Tel. +81-45-314-9324
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.wordworks.jp/
>
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