Stochastic Model of Microbial Injury and Mortality
Stochastic Model of Microbial Injury and Mortality
During microbial inactivation, especially under marginal or sub-lethal conditions, cells or spores of the targeted organism can exist in one of three states: dead (fully inactivated), injured, or intact, with corresponding time-dependent probabilities. In this Demonstration, the process is simulated starting with a chosen number of intact cells or spores, generating their Markov trees, recording their state after time increments, and displaying the results. The survival and injury curves so produced let you compare the stochastic behavior of small cell or spore populations and almost fully deterministic behavior of large populations. The curves can also be used to examine how the varying probabilities of each state affect the survival and injury patterns.