The many guises of R0 (a didactic note).
The basic reproduction number R0 is, by definition, the expected life time number of offspring of a newborn individual. An operationalization entails a specification of what events are considered as "reproduction" and what events are considered as "transitions from one individual-state to another". Thus, an element of choice can creep into the concretization of the definition. The aim of this note is to clearly expose this possibility by way of examples from both population dynamics and infectious disease epidemiology.
Department of Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Program in Applied Mathematics, University of Arizona, 617 N. Santa Rita, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. Electronic address: cushing@math.arizona.edu.
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Cushing
Mathematisch Instituut, Universiteit Utrecht, PO Box 80.010, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: O.Diekmann@uu.nl.
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Diekmann
D050936:Basic Reproduction Number; D008954:Models, Biological; D063245:Plant Development; D013997:Time Factors
Basic reproduction number; Infectious disease dynamics; Next-generation matrix; Population dynamics