The purpose of this exploratory study is threefold: first, to analytically explore the boundary conditions of the robust existence of spiral of silence; second, to gauge how social interactions influence the formation of spiral of silence; third, to analyze the dynamic characteristics of the process in the aspect of size-dependent and time heterogeneity. By proposing an agent-based model of spi...

A perturbative analysis is used to investigate the effect of rotation on the instability of a steady accretion shock (SASI) in a simple toy-model, in view of better understanding supernova explosions in which the collapsing core contains angular momentum. A cylindrical geometry is chosen for the sake of simplicity. Even when the centrifugal force is very small, rotation can have a strong effect...

Fibroblast Growth Factor 8 (FGF8) plays a critical role in promoting the growth of axons in the brain, and it may also be a potentially important regulatory factor in the auditory system. However, no report has yet studied the expression patterns of FGF8 in spiral ganglions. Therefore, we evaluated the expressions of FGF8 and its receptors in the spiral ganglion of rats’ cochleae using immunocy...

This is a study of the pattern known as spiral phyllotaxis-literally, "leaf-arrangement", but applied to the arrangement of seeds, florets, petals, scales, twigs and so on-and which is very widespread in plants. A number of stages in the refinement of model-making are recorded. In particular, the model illustrated in the literature on the subject indicating uniform growth is taken a step furthe...

Asymmetric cell shape depends on the ability of oriented layers of cellulose microfibrils to channel the nondirectional drive of turgor pressure. Tough microfibrils encircling the cell resist increases in girth and redirect the swelling force to a direction perpendicular to the alignment of the microfibrils. This transformation of an isotropic force into directional growth is crucial for settin...

Asymmetric cell shape depends on the ability of oriented layers of cellulose microfibrils to channel the nondirectional drive of turgor pressure. Tough microfibrils encircling the cell resist increases in girth and redirect the swelling force to a direction perpendicular to the alignment of the microfibrils. This transformation of an isotropic force into directional growth is crucial for settin...

A broad class of soil fungi form the annular patterns known as 'fairy rings' and provide one of the only means to observe spatio-temporal dynamics of otherwise cryptic fungal growth processes in natural environments. We present observations of novel spiral and rotor patterns produced by fairy ring fungi and explain these behaviors mathematically by first showing that a well known model of fairy...

We have developed a reliable protocol for the serum-free dissociation and culture of spiral ganglion neurons from adult mice, an important animal model for patients with post-lingual hearing loss. Pilot experiments indicated that the viability of spiral ganglion cells in vitro depended critically on the use of Hibernate medium with B27 supplement. With an optimized protocol, we obtained 2 x 10(...