Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Theory of Networks
Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Theory of Networks
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Critical threshold is one of the most important epidemiological indicators of whether or not an epidemic outbreak has occurred. Recent studies have been overly focused on ways that the power-law connectivity distribution features of social networks affect epidemic dynamics and spreading situations. Two important factors have been overlooked as a result: resource limitations and transmission costs associated with face-to-face interactions and daily contact. Our two main findings are: (a) a significant critical threshold does exist when resources and costs are taken into consideration, and that threshold has a lower bound whenever contagion events occur in scale-free social networks; and (b) the spread of epidemics in scale-free social networks remains controllable as long as resources are properly restricted and consumed costs in the form of public health strategies are significantly increased.