DATAPLOT - A GRAPHICAL DISPLAY PACKAGE FOR BACTERIAL MORPHOMETRY AND FLUOROMETRY DATA

A microbiological image processing system has been developed, which is used to determine both morphometry and fluorimetry data on (mainly fa ecal) bacteria. A special program for display of these data has been d eveloped for this system. Besides probability density estimates of any one or two parameters and scatter plots of any two or three parameter s in the distribution, it can generate scatter plots using the actual bacterial shapes, rather than arbitrary symbols. A particularly powerf ul feature of the program is the possibility to overlay a contour plot of the probability density distribution of the bacteria in parameter space, with a scatter plot of the actual bacterial shapes involved. In this paper, the program's organization, options, and the algorithms u sed are discussed.