Advancing microbial sciences by individual-based modelling

Remarkable technological advances have revealed ever more properties and behaviours of individual microorganisms, but the novel data generated by these techniques have not yet been fully exploited. In this Opinion article, we explain how individual-based models (IBMs) can be constructed based on the findings of such techniques and how they help to explore competitive and cooperative microbial interactions. Furthermore, we describe how IBMs have provided insights into self-organized spatial patterns from biofilms to the oceans of the world, phage-CRISPR dynamics and other emergent phenomena. Finally, we discuss how combining individual-based observations with IBMs can advance our understanding at both the individual and population levels, leading to the new approach of microbial individual-based ecology (μIBE)

An outline of indirect holographic methods for antenna measurements and microwave imaging

Indirect microwave holographic techniques offer a simple, low cost technique for a range of microwave measurements including the determination of antenna characteristics and the ability to provide good quality images of passive objects. This work provides a brief outline of the basic theory of indirect microwave holography and how it can be used for the reconstruction of scattered complex fields at the measurement plane and how these results can be back propagated to provide the scattered fields at any preselected observation plane. It provides an outline of the different techniques required for antenna measurement and the imaging of passive objects. It demonstrates how indirect holography can be used to determine the far field radiation pattern of a high gain antenna and reconstruct the complex antenna aperture fields. This work also demonstrates the use of indirect holography for the imaging of passive objects. The techniques described have been validated by experimental results on a range of objects including buried objects