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Encyclopedia > Sexual network

A sexual network is a social network that is defined by the sexual relationships within a set of individuals. Not to be confused with social network services such as MySpace, etc. ... An intimate relationship is a interpersonal relationship where there is a great deal of physical or emotional intimacy. ...

Contents

Studies & Discoveries in Sexual Networking

Like other forms of social networks, sexual networks can be formally studied using the mathematics of graph theory. A pictorial representation of a graph In mathematics and computer science, graph theory is the study of graphs, mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects from a certain collection. ...


Recent epidemiological studies (see below) have investigated sexual networks, and discovered that the statistical properties of sexual networks are crucial to the spread of venereal disease (VD). Sub-graphs, both large and small, can be defined within the overall sexual network graph; for example, people who frequent particular bars or clubs, belong to a particular ethnic group or take part in a particular type of sexual activity, or are part of a particular outbreak of a VD. In particular, assortative mixing between people with large numbers of sexual partners seems to be an important factor in the spread of VD. Epidemiology is the study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations, and serves as the foundation and logic of interventions made in the interest of public health and preventive medicine. ... Sexually-transmitted infections (STIs), also known as sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs), are diseases that are commonly transmitted between partners through some form of sexual activity, most commonly vaginal intercourse, oral sex, or anal sex. ... Assortative mixing is a kind of sexual network characteristic that influences epidemic spread, mainly HIV. It simply means the extent to which individuals choose sexual partners who are similar in age, race, sexual orientation, marital status, socioeconomic status, religion, or locale. ...


In a surprising result, mathematical models predict that the sexual network graph for the entire human race appears to have a single giant component that indirectly links almost all people who have had more than one sexual partner, and a great many of those who have had only one sexual partner (if their one sexual partner was themselves part of the giant component). Most people who are not part of the giant component are either virgins, or couples who have never had sex with anyone except each other. Giant component is a network theory term referring to a connected subgraph that contains a majority of the entire graphs nodes. ... “Virgin” redirects here. ...


For serious epidemiological work, the time sequence of sexual contacts is important.


See also

The small world phenomenon is the theory that everyone in the world can be reached through a short chain of social acquaintances. ... Not to be confused with social network services such as MySpace, etc. ... Transmission of an infection requires three conditions: an infectious individual a susceptible individual an effective contact between them An effective contact is defined as any kind of contact between two individuals such that, if one individual is infectious and the other susceptible, then the first individual infects the second. ... In epidemiology, contact tracing is the identification and diagnosis of persons who may have come into contact with an infected person. ...

References

  • Kretzschmar, Mirjam. "Sexual network structure and sexually transmitted disease prevention: a modeling perspective". Sexually Transmitted Diseases volume 27, number 10 (November 2000): pages 627– 35.
  • F. Liljeros et al., "The web of human sexual contacts", ‘‘Nature, Vol. 411, No.6840, 2001 June
  • P. De et al. Sexual network analysis of a gonorrhea outbreak Sex Transm Infect 2004;80:280-285
  • Bearman PS, Moody J, Stovel K. "Chains of affection: The structure of adolescent romantic and sexual networks,” American Journal of Sociology , Vol. 110, No. 1, 2004.

Nature is a prominent scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869. ...

External links


  Results from FactBites:
 
Sexual network - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (414 words)
A sexual network is a social network that is defined by the sexual relationships within a set of individuals.
Like other forms of social network, sexual networks can be formally studied using the mathematics of graph theory.
Sexual network analysis of a gonorrhea outbreak Sex Transm Infect 2004;80:280-285
  More results at FactBites »

 

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