TY - JOUR
T1 - Dynamics of social interactions, in the flow of information and disease spreading in social insects colonies
T2 - Effects of environmental events and spatial heterogeneity
AU - Guo, Xiaohui
AU - Chen, Jun
AU - Azizi, Asma
AU - Fewell, Jennifer
AU - Kang, Yun
N1 - Funding Information:
This research is partially supported by NSF-DMS (Award Number 1313312 & 1716802); NSF- IOS/DMS (Award Number 1558127); DARPA -SBIR 2016.2 SB162-005 Phase II; and The James S. McDonnell Foundation 21st Century Science Initiative in Studying Complex Systems Scholar Award (UHC Scholar Award 220020472).
Funding Information:
This research is partially supported by NSF -DMS (Award Number 1313312 & 1716802 ); NSF - IOS/DMS (Award Number 1558127 ); DARPA -SBIR 2016.2 SB162-005 Phase II; and The James S. McDonnell Foundation 21st Century Science Initiative in Studying Complex Systems Scholar Award ( UHC Scholar Award 220020472 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020
PY - 2020/5/7
Y1 - 2020/5/7
N2 - The relationship between division of labor and individuals’ spatial behavior in social insect colonies provides a useful context to study how social interactions influence the spreading of elements (which could be information, virus or food) across distributed agent systems. In social insect colonies, spatial heterogeneity associated with variations of individual task roles, affects social contacts, and thus the way in which agent moves through social contact networks. We used an Agent Based Model (ABM) to mimic three realistic scenarios of elements’ transmission, such as information, food or pathogens, via physical contact in social insect colonies. Our model suggests that individuals within a specific task interact more with consequences that elements could potentially spread rapidly within that group, while elements spread slower between task groups. Our simulations show a strong linear relationship between the degree of spatial heterogeneity and social contact rates, and that the spreading dynamics of elements follow a modified nonlinear logistic growth model with varied transmission rates for different scenarios. Our work provides important insights on the dual-functionality of physical contacts. This dual-functionality is often driven via variations of individual spatial behavior, and can have both inhibiting and facilitating effects on elements’ transmission rates depending on environment. The results from our proposed model not only provide important insights on mechanisms that generate spatial heterogeneity, but also deepen our understanding of how social insect colonies balance the benefit and cost of physical contacts on the elements’ transmission under varied environmental conditions.
AB - The relationship between division of labor and individuals’ spatial behavior in social insect colonies provides a useful context to study how social interactions influence the spreading of elements (which could be information, virus or food) across distributed agent systems. In social insect colonies, spatial heterogeneity associated with variations of individual task roles, affects social contacts, and thus the way in which agent moves through social contact networks. We used an Agent Based Model (ABM) to mimic three realistic scenarios of elements’ transmission, such as information, food or pathogens, via physical contact in social insect colonies. Our model suggests that individuals within a specific task interact more with consequences that elements could potentially spread rapidly within that group, while elements spread slower between task groups. Our simulations show a strong linear relationship between the degree of spatial heterogeneity and social contact rates, and that the spreading dynamics of elements follow a modified nonlinear logistic growth model with varied transmission rates for different scenarios. Our work provides important insights on the dual-functionality of physical contacts. This dual-functionality is often driven via variations of individual spatial behavior, and can have both inhibiting and facilitating effects on elements’ transmission rates depending on environment. The results from our proposed model not only provide important insights on mechanisms that generate spatial heterogeneity, but also deepen our understanding of how social insect colonies balance the benefit and cost of physical contacts on the elements’ transmission under varied environmental conditions.
KW - Agent-based modeling
KW - Distributed networks
KW - Division of labor
KW - Elements transmission
KW - Non-random walk
KW - Social insect colonies
KW - Social interaction
KW - Spatial fidelity
KW - Spatial heterogeneity
KW - Task groups
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jtbi.2020.110191
DO - 10.1016/j.jtbi.2020.110191
M3 - Article
C2 - 32035825
AN - SCOPUS:85079648247
SN - 0022-5193
VL - 492
JO - Journal of Theoretical Biology
JF - Journal of Theoretical Biology
M1 - 110191
ER -