Basis of self-organized proportion regulation resulting from local contacts.

One of the fundamental problems in biology concerns the method by which a cluster of organisms can regulate the proportion of individuals that perform various roles or modes as if each individual is aware of the overall situation without a leader. In various species, a specific ratio exists at multiple levels, from the process of cell differentiation in multicellular organisms to the situation of social dilemma in a group of human beings. This study determines a common basis for regulating collective behavior that is realized by a series of local contacts between individuals.

Evolution of Self-Propelled Objects: From the Viewpoint of Nonlinear Science.

A variety of moving objects driven by chemical energy have been reported. In this Minireview, we focus on self-propelled objects driven by interfacial tension and explain three types of basic mechanisms for such self-propelled motion, that is, driven by a) surface tension difference, b) contact angle difference, and c) axisymmetric swirling flow in a droplet. Simple behavior induced from the basic mechanisms is then extended by coupling to a chemical reaction or increasing the number of moving objects.

Asymmetries in leaf branch are associated with differential speeds along growth axes: A theoretical prediction.

Background: Morphogenesis, when accompanied by continuous growth, requires stable positional information to create a balanced shape in an organism. Evenly spaced branches are examples of such morphogenesis. Previously, we created a model that showed when a one-dimensional (1D) ring (a boundary of a 2D field) was periodically deformed based on a stable, doubled iterative pattern during expansion; a nested, regularly spaced, symmetrically branched structure was generated.

Mathematical approach to nonlocal interactions using a reaction-diffusion system.

In recent years, spatial long range interactions during developmental processes have been introduced as a result of the integration of microscopic information, such as molecular events and signaling networks. They are often called nonlocal interactions. If the profile of a nonlocal interaction is determined by experiments, we can easily investigate how patterns generate by numerical simulations without detailed microscopic events.

The effect of fecundity derivatives on the condition of evolutionary branching in spatial models.

By investigating metapopulation fitness, we present analytical expressions for the selection gradient and conditions for convergence stability and evolutionary stability in Wright's island model in terms of fecundity function. Coefficients of each derivative of fecundity function appearing in these conditions have fixed signs. This illustrates which kind of interaction promotes or inhibits evolutionary branching in spatial models.

Local noise sensitivity: Insight into the noise effect on chaotic dynamics.

Noise contamination in experimental data with underlying chaotic dynamics is one of the significant problems limiting the application of many nonlinear time series analysis methods. Although numerous studies have been devoted to the investigation of different aspects of noise-nonlinear dynamics interactions, the effects produced by noise on chaotic dynamics are not fully understood. This study sought to analyze the local effects produced by noise on chaotic dynamics with a smooth attractor.

The Flux of Euglena gracilis Cells Depends on the Gradient of Light Intensity.

We have quantified the photomovement behavior of a suspension of Euglena gracilis representing a behavioral response to a light gradient. Despite recent measurements of phototaxis and photophobicity, the details of macroscopic behavior of cell photomovements under conditions of light intensity gradients, which are critical to understand recent experiments on spatially localized bioconvection patterns, have not been fully understood. In this paper, the flux of cell number density under a light intensity gradient was measured by the following two experiments.

Parameter Scaling for Epidemic Size in a Spatial Epidemic Model with Mobile Individuals.

In recent years, serious infectious diseases tend to transcend national borders and widely spread in a global scale. The incidence and prevalence of epidemics are highly influenced not only by pathogen-dependent disease characteristics such as the force of infection, the latent period, and the infectious period, but also by human mobility and contact patterns. However, the effect of heterogeneous mobility of individuals on epidemic outcomes is not fully understood.

The Driving Forces of Cultural Complexity : Neanderthals, Modern Humans, and the Question of Population Size.

The forces driving cultural accumulation in human populations, both modern and ancient, are hotly debated. Did genetic, demographic, or cognitive features of behaviorally modern humans (as opposed to, say, early modern humans or Neanderthals) allow culture to accumulate to its current, unprecedented levels of complexity? Theoretical explanations for patterns of accumulation often invoke demographic factors such as population size or density, whereas statistical analyses of variation in cultural complexity often point to the importance of environmental factors such as food stability, in determining cultural complexity. Here we use both an analytical model and an agent-based simulation model to show that a full understanding of the emergence of behavioral modernity, and the cultural evolution that has followed, depends on understanding and untangling the complex relationships among culture, genetically determined cognitive ability, and demographic history.

Self-assembly of like-charged nanoparticles into Voronoi diagrams.

The self-assembly of nanoscopic building blocks into higher order macroscopic patterns is one possible approach for the bottom-up fabrication of complex functional systems. Macroscopic pattern formation, in general, is determined by the reaction and diffusion of ions and molecules. In some cases macroscopic patterns emerge from diffusion and interactions existing between nanoscopic or microscopic building blocks.

Spotting Epidemic Keystones by R0 Sensitivity Analysis: High-Risk Stations in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area.

How can we identify the epidemiologically high-risk communities in a metapopulation network? The network centrality measure, which quantifies the relative importance of each location, is commonly utilized for this purpose. As the disease invasion condition is given from the basic reproductive ratio R0, we have introduced a novel centrality measure based on the sensitivity analysis of this R0 and shown its capability of revealing the characteristics that has been overlooked by the conventional centrality measures. The epidemic dynamics over the commute network of the Tokyo metropolitan area is theoretically analyzed by using this centrality measure.

Population size vs. social connectedness - A gene-culture coevolutionary approach to cumulative cultural evolution.

It has long been debated if population size is a crucial determinant of the level of culture. While empirical results are mixed, recent theoretical studies suggest that social connectedness between people may be a more important factor than the size of the entire population. These models, however, do not take into account evolutionary responses of learning strategies determining the mode of transmission and innovation and are hence not suitable for predicting the long-term implications of parameters of interest.

Financial Knudsen number: Breakdown of continuous price dynamics and asymmetric buy-and-sell structures confirmed by high-precision order-book information.

We generalize the description of the dynamics of the order book of financial markets in terms of a Brownian particle embedded in a fluid of incoming, exiting, and annihilating particles by presenting a model of the velocity on each side (buy and sell) independently. The improved model builds on the time-averaged number of particles in the inner layer and its change per unit time, where the inner layer is revealed by the correlations between price velocity and change in the number of particles (limit orders). This allows us to introduce the Knudsen number of the financial Brownian particle motion and its asymmetric version (on the buy and sell sides).

Characteristic oscillatory motion of a camphor boat sensitive to physicochemical environment.

A self-propelled camphor boat on water was investigated from the viewpoint of characteristic features of motion and mode-bifurcation depending on the diffusion length of camphor molecules. When a camphor disk was connected to the bottom of a larger plastic plate and then was placed on water, either oscillatory motion (repetition between rest and motion) or continuous motion was observed. In this paper, we report the novel features of this motion and mode-bifurcation as a function of the diffusion length of camphor molecules, e.

A paradox of cumulative culture.

Culture can grow cumulatively if socially learnt behaviors are improved by individual learning before being passed on to the next generation. Previous authors showed that this kind of learning strategy is unlikely to be evolutionarily stable in the presence of a trade-off between learning and reproduction. This is because culture is a public good that is freely exploited by any member of the population in their model (cultural social dilemma).

Extraction of conjugate main-stream structures from a complex network flow.

We introduce a method to extract main-stream structures for a given complex network flow by trimming less effective links. As the resulting main streams generally have an almost loopless treelike structure, we can define the stream basin size for each node, which characterizes the importance of the node with regard to the flow. As a real-world example, we apply this method to an interfirm trading network, both for the money flow and its conjugate-the material or service flow-confirming that both basin size distributions follow a similar power law that differs significantly from the basin size distributions of rivers in nature.

BetaCavityWeb: a webserver for molecular voids and channels.

Molecular cavities, which include voids and channels, are critical for molecular function. We present a webserver, BetaCavityWeb, which computes these cavities for a given molecular structure and a given spherical probe, and reports their geometrical properties: volume, boundary area, buried area, etc. The server's algorithms are based on the Voronoi diagram of atoms and its derivative construct: the beta-complex.

Precise calculation of a bond percolation transition and survival rates of nodes in a complex network.

Through precise numerical analysis, we reveal a new type of universal loopless percolation transition in randomly removed complex networks. As an example of a real-world network, we apply our analysis to a business relation network consisting of approximately 3,000,000 links among 300,000 firms and observe the transition with critical exponents close to the mean-field values taking into account the finite size effect. We focus on the largest cluster at the critical point, and introduce survival probability as a new measure characterizing the robustness of each node.

Rumor diffusion and convergence during the 3.11 earthquake: a twitter case study.

We focus on Internet rumors and present an empirical analysis and simulation results of their diffusion and convergence during emergencies. In particular, we study one rumor that appeared in the immediate aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, which later turned out to be misinformation. By investigating whole Japanese tweets that were sent one week after the quake, we show that one correction tweet, which originated from a city hall account, diffused enormously.

A developmental model for branching morphogenesis of lake cress compound leaf.

Lake cress, Rorippa aquatica (Brassicaceae), is a semi-aquatic plant that exhibits a variety of leaf shapes, from simple leaves to highly branched compound leaves, depending on the environment. Leaf shape can vary within a single plant, suggesting that the variation can be explained by a simple model. In order to simulate the branched structure in the compound leaves of R.

Epidemic process over the commute network in a metropolitan area.

An understanding of epidemiological dynamics is important for prevention and control of epidemic outbreaks. However, previous studies tend to focus only on specific areas, indicating that application to another area or intervention strategy requires a similar time-consuming simulation. Here, we study the epidemic dynamics of the disease-spread over a commute network, using the Tokyo metropolitan area as an example, in an attempt to elucidate the general properties of epidemic spread over a commute network that could be used for a prediction in any metropolitan area.

Financial Brownian particle in the layered order-book fluid and fluctuation-dissipation relations.

We introduce a novel description of the dynamics of the order book of financial markets as that of an effective colloidal Brownian particle embedded in fluid particles. The analysis of comprehensive market data enables us to identify all motions of the fluid particles. Correlations between the motions of the Brownian particle and its surrounding fluid particles reflect specific layering interactions; in the inner layer the correlation is strong and with short memory, while in the outer layer it is weaker and with long memory.

The advantage of mucus for adhesive locomotion in gastropods.

For many gastropods, locomotion is driven by a succession of periodic muscular waves (contractions and relaxations) moving along the foot. The force generated by these waves is coupled to the substratum by a thin layer of pedal mucus. Gastropod pedal mucus has unusual physical properties: the mucus is a viscoelastic solid at small deformation and shows a sharp yield point; then, at greater strains, the mucus is a viscous liquid, although it will recover its solidity if allowed to heal for a certain period.

Evolutionary branching in deme-structured populations.

Adaptive dynamics shows that a continuous trait under frequency dependent selection may first converge to a singular point followed by spontaneous transition from a unimodal trait distribution into a bimodal one, which is called "evolutionary branching". Here, we study evolutionary branching in a deme-structured population by constructing a quantitative genetic model for the trait variance dynamics, which allows us to obtain an analytic condition for evolutionary branching. This is first shown to agree with previous conditions for branching expressed in terms of relatedness between interacting individuals within demes and obtained from mutant-resident systems.

Alternans and Spiral Breakup in an Excitable Reaction-Diffusion System: A Simulation Study.

The determination of the mechanisms of spiral breakup in excitable media is still an open problem for researchers. In the context of cardiac electrophysiological activities, spiral breakup exhibits complex spatiotemporal pattern known as ventricular fibrillation. The latter is the major cause of sudden cardiac deaths all over the world.