title: Epidemic spread on interconnected metapopulation networks.
abstract: Numerous real-world networks have been observed to interact with each other, resulting in interconnected networks that exhibit diverse, nontrivial behavior with dynamical processes. Here we investigate epidemic spreading on interconnected networks at the level of metapopulation. Through a mean-field approximation for a metapopulation model, we find that both the interaction network topology and the mobility probabilities between subnetworks jointly influence the epidemic spread. Depending on the interaction between subnetworks, proper controls of mobility can efficiently mitigate epidemics, whereas an extremely biased mobility to one subnetwork will typically cause a severe outbreak and promote the epidemic spreading. Our analysis provides a basic framework for better understanding of epidemic behavior in related transportation systems as well as for better control of epidemics by guiding human mobility patterns.
authors.affiliation: FIRST, Aihara Innovative Mathematical Modelling Project, Japan Science and Technology Agency and Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Engineering, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
authors.forename: Gouhei
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.affiliation: Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan and Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.affiliation: Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuyuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aihara
mesh_terms: D058872:Epidemics; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D011336:Probability