Indices of Synchrony in Cellular Cultures

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Abstract
An important biological technique is experimentation with cellular cultures, in which reproduction is more or less synchronous. Methods of inducing and maintaining synchrony are of particular interest. In this connection there arises the problem of quantifying synchrony and measuring its decay. Numerous indices were proposed, mainly for heuristic reasons, but little is known about the values they can be expected to take. Values of some of these indices were compared for a stochastic population model and proposals for their experimental use were made. The model is chosen to exhibit synchrony, and its decay due to stochastic fluctuations of individual lifelengths.