FILTRONS AND THEIR ASSOCIATED RING COMPUTATIONS

Certain special computational models called the filter automata (FA) are presented. We use them in iterative, pipelined processing of discrete sequences. Such computations reveal characteristic moving, periodic objects, with soliton-like properties referred to as the filtrons. Filter automata play the role of a transmitting medium or a field, while filtrons behave like waves or particles

We characterise FA by showing their distinguishing features, and fillrons—by introducing some parameters, such as edge numbers, number of FA cycles involved, distribution of internal idle pulses, etc. We show that filtrons may be generated in parallel by a multiprocessor ring net. This means that each filtron has its associated ring computation. If such a computation succeeds then its companion filtron exists, too. The link between filtrons and their ring computations is established simply by the filtron edge numbers. This gives a method of calculating a whole filtron if its edge number and supporting FA are known, and of looking for possible filter automata capable of supporting a prescribed filtron

A number of FA computational phenomena, recently discovered, are also presented. Some of them call for physical experiments to verify to what extent the filter automata may model physical reality. We believe that such experiments could be performed in optical fibres using solitons of light.     

Centrifugation of bacterial cells on slide surface improves the spatial distribution, cell recovery and reduces the time of enumeration for fluorescence in situ hybridization

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), which is used for the enumeration of bacteria in various ecosystems including the human intestinal tract, has several limitations. One of the major problems encountered is the uneven distribution of bacterial cells on the slide surface, which increases the coefficient of variation between repetitions and thereby increase the time required for enumeration. In order to improve the spatial distribution, we designed a centrifugation device, which allows the direct centrifugation of bacterial cells onto the slide surface. Another problem is the loss of bacterial cells during the hybridization procedure. This leads to an underestimation of the true cell numbers in the sample. To overcome this problem we tested the use of silanized or chrome gelatine coated slides. Our study indicates that the use of the centrifugation device in conjunction with chrome gelatine coated slides highly improves the quality of enumeration data obtained by manual and automated microscopic counting and shortens the time of analysis.