The Topological Weighted Centroid (TWC): A topological approach to the time-space structure of epidemic and pseudo-epidemic processes

摘要

This paper offers the first systematic presentation of the topologicalapproach to the analysis of epidemic and pseudo-epidemic spatial processes. Weintroduce the basic concepts and proofs, at test the approach on a diversecollection of case studies of historically documented epidemic andpseudo-epidemic processes. The approach is found to consistently providereliable estimates of the structural features of epidemic processes, and toprovide useful analytical insights and interpretations of fragmentarypseudo-epidemic processes. Although this analysis has to be regarded aspreliminary, we find that the approach's basic tenets are strongly corroboratedby this first test and warrant future research in this vein.