title: Suppressing disease spreading by using information diffusion on multiplex networks.
abstract: Although there is always an interplay between the dynamics of information diffusion and disease spreading, the empirical research on the systemic coevolution mechanisms connecting these two spreading dynamics is still lacking. Here we investigate the coevolution mechanisms and dynamics between information and disease spreading by utilizing real data and a proposed spreading model on multiplex network. Our empirical analysis finds asymmetrical interactions between the information and disease spreading dynamics. Our results obtained from both the theoretical framework and extensive stochastic numerical simulations suggest that an information outbreak can be triggered in a communication network by its own spreading dynamics or by a disease outbreak on a contact network, but that the disease threshold is not affected by information spreading. Our key finding is that there is an optimal information transmission rate that markedly suppresses the disease spreading. We find that the time evolution of the dynamics in the proposed model qualitatively agrees with the real-world spreading processes at the optimal information transmission rate.
authors.affiliation: Web Sciences Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.|Big Data Research Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.|Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Web Sciences Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.|Big Data Research Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
authors.forename: Quan-Hui
authors.initials: QH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Web Sciences Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.|Big Data Research Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
authors.forename: Shi-Min
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Web Sciences Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.|Big Data Research Center, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.|Instituto de Investigaciones Físicas de Mar del Plata (IFIMAR)-Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata-CONICET, Funes 3350, (7600) Mar del Plata, Argentina.
authors.forename: Lidia A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Braunstein
authors.affiliation: Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
authors.forename: H Eugene
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Stanley
mesh_terms: D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission*; D033181:Information Dissemination; D008962:Models, Theoretical