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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Phys.
Sec. Social Physics
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fphy.2024.1437341
This article is part of the Research Topic Network Learning and Propagation Dynamics Analysis View all 6 articles

The coupled awareness-epidemic dynamics with individualized self-initiated awareness in multiplex networks

Provisionally accepted
Wei Zhang Wei Zhang 1Yixuan Ye Yixuan Ye 1Zongyi Li Zongyi Li 1Jiajun Xian Jiajun Xian 2*Teng Wang Teng Wang 1Dandan Liu Dandan Liu 3Die Hu Die Hu 4Ming Liu Ming Liu 2
  • 1 Shantou University, Shantou, Guangdong Province, China
  • 2 Yangtze River Delta Research Institute, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Quzhou, China
  • 3 Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, Jiangsu, China
  • 4 Chengdu University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The outbreak of an epidemic often stimulates the generation of public awareness about epidemic prevention. This heightened awareness encourages individuals to take proactive protective measures, thereby curbing the transmission of the epidemic. Previous research commonly adopts an assumption that each individual has the same probability of awakening self-protection awareness after infection. However, in the real-world process, different individuals may generate varying awareness responses due to the differences in the amount of information received. Therefore, in this study, we first propose a coupled awareness-epidemic spreading model, where the self-initiated awareness of each individual can be influenced by the number of aware neighbors. Subsequently, we develop a Micro Markov Chain Approach to analyze the proposed model and explore the effects of different dynamic and structural parameters on the coupled dynamics. Findings indicate that individual awareness awakening can effectively promote awareness diffusion within the proposed coupled dynamics and inhibit epidemic transmission.Moreover, the influence of awareness diffusion on epidemic transmission exhibits a metacritical point, from which the epidemic threshold increases with the increase in the awareness diffusion probability. The research findings also suggest that the increase in the average degree of virtual-contact networks can reduce the value of the metacritical point, while the change in the average degree of the physical-contact networks does not affect the metacritical point. Finally, we conduct extensive experiments on four real networks and obtain results consistent with the above conclusions. The systematic research findings of this study provide new insights for exploring the interaction between individual awareness and epidemic transmission in the real world.

    Keywords: Multiplex Networks, Coupled Awareness-epidemic Dynamics, Self-initiated Awareness, Metacritical Point, complex networks

    Received: 23 May 2024; Accepted: 02 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhang, Ye, Li, Xian, Wang, Liu, Hu and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jiajun Xian, Yangtze River Delta Research Institute, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Quzhou, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.