The Mathematics of Human Contact: Developing a Model for Social Interaction in School Children

• Authors: S. Ashton , E. Scalas , N. Georgiou , I. Kiss
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this paper, we provide a statistical analysis of high-resolution contact pattern data within primary and secondary schools as collected by the SocioPatterns collaboration. Students are graphically represented as nodes in a temporally evolving network, in which links represent proximity or interaction between students. This article focuses on link- and node-level statistics, such as the on- and off-durations of links as well as the activity potential of nodes and links. Parametric models are fitted to the on- and off-durations of links, inter-event times and node activity potentials and, based on these, we propose a number of theoretical models that are able to reproduce the collected data within varying levels of accuracy. By doing so, we aim to identify the minimal network-level properties that are needed to closely match the real-world data, with the aim of combining this contact pattern model with epidemic models in future work.

Keywords

EN

02.70.Uu; 87.10.Mn; 87.10.Rt; 87.23.Ge

Discipline

• 87.10.Mn: Stochastic modeling
• 87.10.Rt: Monte Carlo simulations
• 87.23.Ge: Dynamics of social systems
• 02.70.Uu: Applications of Monte Carlo methods(see also 02.50.Ng in probability theory, stochastic processes, and statistics, and 05.10.Ln in statistical physics)

• Publisher: Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Acta Physica Polonica A
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 133
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 1421-1432

Dates

published

2018-06

Contributors

author

S. Ashton

• School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QH, United Kingdom

author

E. Scalas

• School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QH, United Kingdom

author

N. Georgiou

• School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QH, United Kingdom

author

I. Kiss

• School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QH, United Kingdom

Identifiers

DOI

10.12693/APhysPolA.133.1421