The Spread of Disease Using Spatial Networks
Researchers studying the transmission of disease and gossip throughout London paying special attention to the effects of “shortcuts”. In this scenario shortcuts, such as subways and transit lines that can connect areas of long distances with ease. Certain characteristics of disease spread were considered such as the stubbornness (how easily the disease spread) and holes (areas where the disease was not present after a sufficiently long time). In class, we considered the effect that this stubbornness would have (as the “k” value) but not the effect that holes or “shortcuts” would have.
In the simulation featured in the article, there are two types of transmission represented, the fast “hopping” model and the slower wave-propagation model. The hopping model shows each train station as a source of its own wave that spreads independently of the others, covering more ground than the wave-propagation that is more stubborn and resists shortcuts and only spreads out from one initial source, and naturally takes longer to cover the same ground. Holes, which were only discussed briefly come in two forms: false and real. False holes are holes in the network that exist by chance whereas real holes exist due to some kind of immunity to the disease. This can be related to our class discussion because someone might carry a disease without exhibiting symptoms (because they’re immune).
Source: http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-07-21-how-do-networks-shape-spread-disease-and-gossip#