Open AccessSpread dynamics of infectious disease in growing scale-free networks
Author(s) -
Shijun Ni,
Wenguo Weng,
Weicheng Fan
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
wuli xuebao
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 47
ISSN - 1000-3290
DOI - 10.7498/aps.58.3707
Subject(s) - scale free network , degree distribution , preferential attachment , epidemic model , computer science , complex network , statistical physics , power law , network structure , exponent , degree (music) , population , distributed computing , mathematics , physics , statistics , demography , world wide web , acoustics , linguistics , philosophy , sociology
Some fundamental social structures in human population, such as household, dormitory, and colleague, are of significant importance for epidemic spreading. In this paper, a growth model of scale-free network incorporating these local structures is introduced, in which both the node degree and the local structure degree follow a power-law distribution with the exponent depending on the size of the local structure. The existence of the local structures also results in the positive correlation between the nodes degree, which is a particularly key feature of social networks. By means of analysis and simulation, we study the effects of network structure on the SISsusceptible-infected-susceptible epidemic dynamics, and obtain the epidemic threshold and the phase diagram of prevalence, indicating that the propagation is coupled by the local infection process within local structure and the global infection process between local structures, both of which are governed by the network features and the transmission mechanism. These results are of scientific significance to the control of infectious diseases.