MATHEMATICAL-MODELS OF BACTERIAL-GROWTH, INHIBITION AND DEATH UNDER COMBINED STRESS CONDITIONS

In this report we review the history of growth theories. We show how classical growth models may be derived as special cases of a generic growth rate equation. We show how growth models may be modified to represent survival data. We use linear combinations of growth and survival models to represent complex growth/survival curves and give practical examples utilizing nonlinear regression analysis. We show that traditional methods of estimating D values are inappropriate for complex, multiphase growth/survival data. We show how such data may be modeled mathematically and illustrate methods for estimating true D values from such data.