November 30-December 1, 1990
Chubu Daigaku Techno-Cultural College, Nagoya, Japan
Many natural systems have characteristic patterns and forms, which are closely related to their functions. They are formed by their proper mechanisms. Recently, remarkable progress in the study of patterns and forms has been seen in various fields of science, e.g., biology, physics, applied mathematics and so on. As a result, we have become aware of the similarity seen in different kinds of patterns and forms. However, it is not always enough to understand the meaning of the similarity. Our wish to have a meeting on pattern formation was the first step to deeper understanding of the analogy between different kinds of mechanisms.
This volume contains the Proceedings of the Fourth Nagoya Meeting on Pattern Formation, held at Chubu Daigaku Techno-Cultural College, Nagoya, Japan from November 30 to December 1, 1990. The invited talks covered a variety of topics, from developmental biology to physics. All the participants were greatly impressed by the stimulating talks and discussions. It was a great pleasure to have many participants from various regions of Japan who are very interested in pattern problems.
We would like to thank Chubu Daigaku Techno-Cultural College for permitting to use the conference hall. We would also like to thank the Editor-in-Chief Professor Ryuji Takaki for his aggreement to publish the proceedings as the Vol. 7 of the journal "Forma". The contributions of graduate school students Y. Ohta, K. Kurachi and H. Murase are also acknowledged. Finally, we would to express sincere thanks to all authors for their kind cooperation in sending their manuscripts. This meeting was partly supported by the Daiko Foundation, Nagoya, and we also wish to express our gratitude to them.
September, 1991
T. Sekimura and S. Miyazima
Chubu University
Kasugai, Aichi 487, Japan