Prediction of epidemics dynamics on networks with partial differential equations: A case study for COVID-19 in China

Since December 2019, the COVID-19 epidemic has repeatedly hit countries around the world due to various factors such as trade, national policies and the natural environment. To closely monitor the emergence of new COVID-19 clusters and ensure high prediction accuracy, we develop a new prediction framework for studying the spread of epidemic on networks based on partial differential equations (PDEs), which captures epidemic diffusion along the edges of a network driven by population flow data. In this paper, we focus on the effect of the population movement on the spread of COVID-19 in several cities from different geographic regions in China for describing the transmission characteristics of COVID-19. Experiment results show that the PDE model obtains relatively good prediction results compared with several typical mathematical models. Furthermore, we study the effectiveness of intervention measures, such as traffic lockdowns and social distancing, which provides a new approach for quantifying the effectiveness of the government policies toward controlling COVID-19 via the adaptive parameters of the model. To our knowledge, this work is the first attempt to apply the PDE model on networks with Baidu Migration Data for COVID-19 prediction.     

推荐重要节点部署防御策略的优化模型

当前网络安全防御策略集中部署于高连接度节点主要有2个方面的不足: 一是高连接度节点在很多场合中并不是网络通信的骨干节点; 二是该类节点对信息的转发和传播并非总是最有效的.针对以上传统部署策略的不足, 改进了恶意病毒程序传播的离散扩散模型并采用中间路径跳数来衡量网络节点的重要程度, 提出了基于介数中心控制力和接近中心控制力模型的重要节点优先推荐部署技术.实验结果显示具有高介数中心控制力和低接近中心控制力的节点相对于传统的高连接度节点无论在无标度网络还是小世界网络均能够对恶意病毒程序的疫情扩散和早期传播速度起到更加有效的抑制作用, 同时验证了网络分簇聚类行为产生的簇团特性也将对恶意程序的传播起到一定的负面影响.     

一种基于元胞自动机的自适应网络病毒传播模型

自适应网络是节点动力学和网络动力学相互作用和反馈的演化网络. 基于元胞自动机建立自适应网络中易感-感染-易感(susceptible-infected-susceptible)的病毒传播模型,研究节点为了规避病毒传播所采取的多种网络重连规则对病毒传播及网络统计特征的影响. 结果表明:自适应网络中的重连规则可以有效减缓病毒传播速度,降低病毒传播规模;随机重连规则使得网络统计特征趋于随机网络;基于元胞自动机建立的传播模型清晰地表达了病毒在传播过程中的双稳态现象. 关键词： 自适应网络 传播动力学 网络动力学 元胞自动机     

基于在线社交网络的信息传播模型

本文构造了一个基于在线社交网络的信息传播模型.该模型考虑了节点度和传播机理的影响,结合复杂网络和传染病动力学理论,进一步建立了动力学演化方程组.该方程组刻画了不同类型节点随着时间的演化关系,反映了传播动力学过程受到网络拓扑结构和传播机理的影响.本文模拟了在线社交网络中的信息传播过程,并分析了不同类型节点在网络中的行为规律.仿真结果表明:由于在线社交网络的高度连通性,信息在网络中传播的门槛几乎为零;初始传播节点的度越大,信息越容易在网络中迅速传播;中心节点具有较大的社会影响力;具有不同度数的节点在网络中的变 关键词： 在线社交网络 信息传播 微分方程 传染病动力学     

基于节点度信息的自愿免疫模型研究

疾病的广泛传播给人类带来了巨大的损失, 因此抑制疾病的传播非常重要. 本文考虑了个体接种疫苗意愿的差异性, 并结合博弈理论建立了一个基于节点度信息的自愿免疫模型. 理论解析结果证明当感染率超过某个阈值时, 该模型与忽略个体接种意愿差异性的经典模型(Zhang et al 2010 New J. Phys. 12 023015) 传播效果(感染节点数)一样. 继而考虑疫苗永久有效和有效期有限两种情况, 在Barabási-Albert网络中利用SIS传播模型对疾病的传播进程进行了数值模拟, 发现数值模拟结果与理论解析结果非常符合. 实验证明, 当感染耗费和接种疫苗耗费相同时, 该模型比忽略个体接种意愿差异性的经典模型能够更好的抑制疾病的传播, 且感染人数下降比例超过65%, 更重要的是,疫苗有效期越长本文的模型 (与忽略个体接种意愿差异性的经典模型相比)抑制疾病传播效果越好. 关键词： 疾病传播 自愿免疫 接种疫苗倾向 节点度     

Modeling the effects of social impact on epidemic spreading in complex networks

We investigate by mean-field analysis and extensive simulations the effects of social impact on epidemic spreading in various typical networks with two types of nodes: active nodes and passive nodes, of which the behavior patterns are modeled according to the social impact theory. In this study, nodes are not only the media to spread the virus, but also disseminate their opinions on the virus—whether there is a need for certain self-protection measures to be taken to reduce the risk of being infected. Our results indicate that the interaction between epidemic spreading and opinion dynamics can have significant influences on the spreading of infectious diseases and related applications, such as the implementation of prevention and control measures against the infectious diseases.     

新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情确诊病例的统计分析及自回归建模

基于安徽省卫生健康委员会截至2020年2月19日公布的800余例新型冠状病毒肺炎病例信息,根据病例中公布的接触史构建确诊患者间的有向传播关系,发现源传染患者中男性居多,被传染患者中女性居多.从病例信息中可知,安徽省新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情的发展从初期的具有武汉居住或接触史的输入病例转入后期本地传播为主的小范围社区传播,且严格的防控隔离措施有效切断了社区内的进一步传播.源传染患者与被传染患者的确诊时间间隔可用G分布拟合,确诊时间间隔的中位数为2 d,平均值为2.67 d.基于有向传播关系的统计特点,构建安徽省疫情发展后期的自回归传播模型,模型仿真结果与疫情发展数据符合.对除湖北省的全国确诊病例数据同样采取自回归建模与仿真,结果仍与疫情发展数据符合.这一发现为控制疫情在湖北省以外区域的防控提供了参考:通过严格的防控措施和隔离措施,疫情在湖北省之外的传播具有很大的黏滞性,多为家庭程度的密切接触传播,且能有效控制新型冠状病毒肺炎在当地的传播深度,有效控制了疫情的蔓延.     

Epidemic spreading on networks with vaccination

In this paper, a new susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) model on complex networks with imperfect vaccination is proposed. Two types of epidemic spreading patterns (the recovered individuals have or have not immunity) on scale-free networks are discussed. Both theoretical and numerical analyses are presented. The epidemic thresholds related to the vaccination rate, the vaccination-invalid rate and the vaccination success rate on scale-free networks are demonstrated, showing different results from the reported observations. This reveals that whether or not the epidemic can spread over a network under vaccination control is determined not only by the network structure but also by the medicine's effective duration. Moreover, for a given infective rate, the proportion of individuals to vaccinate can be calculated theoretically for the case that the recovered nodes have immunity. Finally, simulated results are presented to show how to control the disease prevalence.     

基于手机大数据的中国人口迁徙模式及疫情影响研究

新型冠状病毒感染的肺炎(COVID-19)可通过人员接触与流动迅速传播,因此研究人类迁徙和出行模式的变化对疫情防控至关重要.本文基于手机运营商2020年春运及疫情暴发前后连续两个月的全国地级市之间的人口流动数据,运用时序网络分析方法构建人口流动网络拓扑结构指标,并通过引入地理衰减因子提出Spatial-Louvain社团检测算法,研究平时、春运、疫情防控隔离和生产复工四阶段的人口迁徙模式的时空演化规律.研究发现:受各地疫情防控措施影响,武汉封城后全国城市间人口流量急剧下降,并持续至2月中旬.疫情期间人口流动网络结构呈现四阶段的时空演化模式;本文提出的空间网络社团检测算法比传统Louvain算法平均模块度值提高了14%;中国城市分布以经济交互和地理位置为基础,形成了以核心城市为中心,向周边辐射的城市群格局;疫情因素仅能在短暂时间内改变部分城市的城市群归属,当该因素消失或减弱后,城市群能迅速恢复原有格局.     

Epidemic dynamics behavior in some bus transport networks

We abstract bus transport networks (BTNs) to complex networks using the Space P approach. First, we select three actual BTNs in three major cities in China, namely, Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou. Using the SIS model, we simulate and study the epidemic spreading in the three BTNs. We obtain the density of infected vertices varying with time and the stationary density of infected vertices varying with infection rate. Second, we simulate and study the epidemic spreading in a recently introduced BTN evolution model, the network properties of which correspond well with those of actual BTNs. Third, we use mean-field theory to analyze the epidemic dynamics behavior of the BTN evolution model and obtain the theoretical epidemic threshold of this model. The theoretical value agrees well with the simulation results. Based on the work in this paper, we provide the following possible forecasts for epidemic dynamics in actual BTNs. An actual BTN should have a finite positive epidemic threshold. If the effective infection rate is above this threshold, the epidemic spread in the network and the density of infected vertices finally stabilizes in a balanced state. Below this threshold, the number of infected vertices decays exponentially fast and the epidemic cannot spread on a large scale.     

LCH: A local clustering H-index centrality measure for identifying and ranking influential nodes in complex networks

Identifying influential nodes in complex networks is one of the most significant and challenging issues, which may contribute to optimizing the network structure, controlling the process of epidemic spreading and accelerating information diffusion. The node importance ranking measures based on global information are not suitable for large-scale networks due to their high computational complexity. Moreover, they do not take into account the impact of network topology evolution over time, resulting in limitations in some applications. Based on local information of networks, a local clustering H-index (LCH) centrality measure is proposed, which considers neighborhood topology, the quantity and quality of neighbor nodes simultaneously. The proposed measure only needs the information of first-order and second-order neighbor nodes of networks, thus it has nearly linear time complexity and can be applicable to large-scale networks. In order to test the proposed measure, we adopt the susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) and susceptible-infected (SI) models to simulate the spreading process. A series of experimental results on eight real-world networks illustrate that the proposed LCH can identify and rank influential nodes more accurately than several classical and state-of-the-art measures.     

考虑网络流量的无标度网络病毒免疫策略研究

考虑网络交通流量对病毒传播行为的影响,基于平均场理论研究无标度网络上的病毒免疫策略,提出一种改进的熟人免疫机理.理论分析表明,在考虑网络交通流量影响的情况下,当免疫节点密度较小时,随机免疫几乎不能降低病毒的传播速率,而对网络实施目标免疫则能够有效抑制病毒的传播,并且选择度最大的节点进行免疫与选择介数最大的节点进行免疫的效果基本相同.研究还发现,对于网络全局信息未知的情况,与经典熟人免疫策略相比,所提出的免疫策略能够获得更好的免疫效果.通过数值仿真对理论分析进行了验证. 关键词： 无标度网络 病毒传播 交通流量 免疫策略     

自适应网络中病毒传播的稳定性和分岔行为研究

自适应复杂网络是以节点状态与拓扑结构之间存在反馈回路为特征的网络. 针对自适应网络病毒传播模型, 利用非线性微分动力学系统研究病毒传播行为; 通过分析非线性系统对应雅可比矩阵的特征方程, 研究其平衡点的局部稳定性和分岔行为, 并推导出各种分岔点的计算公式. 研究表明, 当病毒传播阈值小于病毒存在阈值, 即R₀0^c时, 网络中病毒逐渐消除, 系统的无病毒平衡点是局部渐近稳定的; R₀^c0<1时, 网络出现滞后分岔, 产生双稳态现象, 系统存在稳定的无病毒平衡点、较大稳定的地方病平衡点和较小不稳定的地方病平衡点; R₀>1时, 网络中病毒持续存在, 系统唯一的地方病平衡点是局部渐近稳定的. 研究发现, 系统先后出现了鞍结分岔、跨临界分岔、霍普夫分岔等分岔行为. 最后通过数值仿真验证所得结论的正确性. 关键词： 自适应网络 稳定性 分岔 基本再生数     

基于有向渗流理论的关联微博转发网络信息传播研究

微博网络的快速性、爆发性和时效性, 以及用户复杂的行为模式, 使得研究其信息传播模型及影响因素成为网络舆情的热点方向. 利用压缩映射定理, 分析不动点迭代过程的收敛条件, 得到有向网络信息传播过程的渗流阈值和巨出向分支的数值解法; 通过可变同配系数生成模型, 分析关联特征对信息传播的影响; 最后利用微博转发网络数据进行仿真对比实验. 结果表明: 虽然四类关联特征同时体现出同配、异配特征, 但信息传播结果更多受入度-入度相关性、入度-出度相关性影响; 通过删除少量节点的方法, 提取边同配比例, 验证大部分节点的四类关联特征呈现一致性.     

基于区域密度曲线识别网络上的多影响力节点

复杂网络多影响力节点的识别可以帮助理解网络的结构和功能,具有重要的理论意义和应用价值.本文提出一种基于网络区域密度曲线的多影响力节点的识别方法.应用两种不同的传播模型,在不同网络上与其他中心性指标进行了比较.结果表明,基于区域密度曲线的识别方法能够更好地识别网络中的多影响力节点,选中的影响力节点之间的分布较为分散,自身也比较重要.本文所提方法是基于网络的局部信息,计算的时间复杂度较低.     

Epidemic centrality — is there an underestimated epidemic impact of network peripheral nodes?

In the study of disease spreading on empirical complex networks in SIR model, initially infected nodes can be ranked according to some measure of their epidemic impact. The highest ranked nodes, also referred to as “superspreaders”, are associated to dominant epidemic risks and therefore deserve special attention. In simulations on studied empirical complex networks, it is shown that the ranking depends on the dynamical regime of the disease spreading. A possible mechanism leading to this dependence is illustrated in an analytically tractable example. In systems where the allocation of resources to counter disease spreading to individual nodes is based on their ranking, the dynamical regime of disease spreading is frequently not known before the outbreak of the disease. Therefore, we introduce a quantity called epidemic centrality as an average over all relevant regimes of disease spreading as a basis of the ranking. A recently introduced concept of phase diagram of epidemic spreading is used as a framework in which several types of averaging are studied. The epidemic centrality is compared to structural properties of nodes such as node degree, k-cores and betweenness. There is a growing trend of epidemic centrality with degree and k-cores values, but the variation of epidemic centrality is much smaller than the variation of degree or k-cores value. It is found that the epidemic centrality of the structurally peripheral nodes is of the same order of magnitude as the epidemic centrality of the structurally central nodes. The implications of these findings for the distributions of resources to counter disease spreading are discussed.     

Small World Properties Generated by a New Algorithm Under Same Degree of All Nodes

Based on the model of the same degree of all nodes we proposed before, a new algorithm, the so-called “spread all over vertices” (SAV) algorithm, is proposed for generating small-world properties from a regular ring lattices. During randomly rewiring connections the SAV is used to keep the unchanged number of links. Comparing the SAV algorithm with the Watts-Strogatz model and the “spread all over boundaries” algorithm, three methods can have the same topological properties of the small world networks. These results offer diverse formation of small world networks. It is helpful to the research of some applications for dynamics of mutual oscillator inside nodes and interacting automata associated with networks.     

Understanding the Impact of Walkability,Population Density,and Population Size on COVID-19 Spread: A Pilot Study of the Early Contagion in the United States

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is an unprecedented global event that has been challenging governments, health systems, and communities worldwide. Available data from the first months indicated varying patterns of the spread of COVID-19 within American cities, when the spread was faster in high-density and walkable cities such as New York than in low-density and car-oriented cities such as Los Angeles. Subsequent containment efforts, underlying population characteristics, variants, and other factors likely affected the spread significantly. However, this work investigates the hypothesis that urban configuration and associated spatial use patterns directly impact how the disease spreads and infects a population. It follows work that has shown how the spatial configuration of urban spaces impacts the social behavior of people moving through those spaces. It addresses the first 60 days of contagion (before containment measures were widely adopted and had time to affect spread) in 93 urban counties in the United States, considering population size, population density, walkability, here evaluated through walkscore, an indicator that measures the density of amenities, and, therefore, opportunities for population mixing, and the number of confirmed cases and deaths. Our findings indicate correlations between walkability, population density, and COVID-19 spreading patterns but no clear correlation between population size and the number of cases or deaths per 100 k habitants. Although virus spread beyond these initial cases may provide additional data for analysis, this study is an initial step in understanding the relationship between COVID-19 and urban configuration.     

The spreading of opposite opinions on online social networks with authoritative nodes

The study of opinion dynamics, such as spreading and controlling of rumors, has become an important issue on social networks. Numerous models have been devised to describe this process, including epidemic models and spin models, which mainly focus on how opinions spread and interact with each other, respectively. In this paper, we propose a model that combines the spreading stage and the interaction stage for opinions to illustrate the process of dispelling a rumor. Moreover, we set up authoritative nodes, which disseminate positive opinion to counterbalance the negative opinion prevailing on online social networking sites. With analysis of the relationship among positive opinion proportion, opinion strength and the density of authoritative nodes in networks with different topologies, we demonstrate that the positive opinion proportion grows with the density of authoritative nodes until the positive opinion prevails in the entire network. In particular, the relationship is linear in homogeneous topologies. Besides, it is also noteworthy that initial locations of the negative opinion source and authoritative nodes do not influence positive opinion proportion in homogeneous networks but have a significant impact on heterogeneous networks. The results are verified by numerical simulations and are helpful to understand the mechanism of two different opinions interacting with each other on online social networking sites.     

Boosting COVID-19 Image Classification Using MobileNetV3 and Aquila Optimizer Algorithm

Currently, the world is still facing a COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) classified as a highly infectious disease due to its rapid spreading. The shortage of X-ray machines may lead to critical situations and delay the diagnosis results, increasing the number of deaths. Therefore, the exploitation of deep learning (DL) and optimization algorithms can be advantageous in early diagnosis and COVID-19 detection. In this paper, we propose a framework for COVID-19 images classification using hybridization of DL and swarm-based algorithms. The MobileNetV3 is used as a backbone feature extraction to learn and extract relevant image representations as a DL model. As a swarm-based algorithm, the Aquila Optimizer (Aqu) is used as a feature selector to reduce the dimensionality of the image representations and improve the classification accuracy using only the most essential selected features. To validate the proposed framework, two datasets with X-ray and CT COVID-19 images are used. The obtained results from the experiments show a good performance of the proposed framework in terms of classification accuracy and dimensionality reduction during the feature extraction and selection phases. The Aqu feature selection algorithm achieves accuracy better than other methods in terms of performance metrics.