title: Identifying the starting point of a spreading process in complex networks.
abstract: When dealing with the dissemination of epidemics, one important question that can be asked is the location where the contamination began. In this paper, we analyze three spreading schemes and propose and validate an effective methodology for the identification of the source nodes. The method is based on the calculation of the centrality of the nodes on the sampled network, expressed here by degree, betweenness, closeness, and eigenvector centrality. We show that the source node tends to have the highest measurement values. The potential of the methodology is illustrated with respect to three theoretical complex network models as well as a real-world network, the email network of the University Rovira i Virgili.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics of São Carlos-University of São Paulo, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil. chc@usp.br
authors.forename: Cesar Henrique
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Comin
authors.forename: Luciano da Fontoura
authors.initials: Lda F
authors.lastname: Costa
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D003198:Computer Simulation; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious; D058872:Epidemics; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D011336:Probability; D012944:Social Support