A shifting device including at least one shifting element secured axially on the shaft longitudinally in at least one direction of extension of the longitudinal axis of the shaft by a bearing element on the shaft. The system may interpolate at least some of the style parameter values from the received map data to provide style parameter values over a range of zoom levels. The controller provides a message to a switch, responsive to the participation status data, instructing the switch to provide the apparatus with communication resources commensurate with the participation status data. This approach can be carried out in a high throughput format, allowing rapid screening of thousands of molecular species in a solid state array.