Correlation of Fourier transforms of pulsed electric field waveform and microorganism inactivation

The real /spl Rfr/[F(/spl omega/)] and imaginary /spl Jfr/[F(/spl omega/)] Fourier transform parameters of temporal waveforms comparable to those used in PEF (pulsed electric field) studies of microorganism S/sub f/ (survival fraction) as a function of waveform have been calculated. log S/sub ft/ is a linear function of the log of the ratio of areas /spl Jfr/[F(/spl omega/)]//spl Rfr/[F(/spl omega/)] and log of /spl Jfr/[F(/spl omega/)]//spl Rfr/[F(/spl omega/)]+/spl Jfr/[F(/spl omega/)]. The correlation with the largest slope, was found for the latter ratio. The log (S/sub f/) also was found to correlate with the log of the integrated pulse magnitude M(/spl omega/) and log of temporal pulse area. The correlation coefficients are /spl ges/0.95.