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Measurements of dielectrophoretic collection spectra of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus suspensions are used for obtaining dielectric characteristics of both types of bacteria. The experiments are interpreted using a numerical method that models the cells as compartmented spherical or rod-like particles. We show the usefulness of this simple method to extract significant information about the electrical properties of Gram-negative and -positive bacteria.

We present simple parametric equations in terms of Jacobi elliptic functions that provide a realistic model of abnormal variations in size which maintain the biconcave shape of a normal erythrocyte (anisocytosis) and abnormal variations in shape which maintain the original volume of the erythrocyte (poikilocytosis), as well as continuous deformations from the normal to the altered shapes. We illustrate our results with parameterizations of microcytes, macrocytes, and stomatocytes, and we apply these parameterizations to the numerical calculation of the induced transmembrane voltage in microcytes, macrocytes, and stomatocytes exposed to an external electromagnetic field of 1800 MHz.

In this article, the transmembrane voltage induced on erythrocyte, codocyte, ovalocyte and spherocyte cell models exposed to a linearly polarised electromagnetic plane wave of frequency 1800 MHz is calculated. For this purpose, a finite element (FE) numerical technique with adaptive meshing is used. The results show that the value of the induced voltage on the original erythrocyte shape is higher than the one observed on the rest of the altered cell geometries studied. The erythrocyte shape and the membrane electric permittivity are shown to play a fundamental role on the values of the induced transmembrane voltage.