Effect of exogenous fludioxonil postharvest treatment on physiological response,physico-chemical,textural, phytochemical and sensory characteristics of pomegranate fruit

The study investigated the effects of fludioxonil (FLU) on the postharvest quality of pomegranate fruit (cv. Wonderful). Fruits were dipped in FLU concentrations (control, 150, 300 and 600 mg/L) and stored for 4 months at 5?°C and 90–95% relative humidity (RH) plus an additional 4 days at 20?°C and 65% RH. Effects of FLU were evaluated on physiological responses, quality and sensory attributes. Results showed that fruit weight loss and decay incidence were reduced by FLU treatment, with fruit treated with 600 mg/L concentration showing the best results. Fruit respiration rate was more influenced by storage duration than FLU concentration. The severity and occurrence of physiological disorders increased with storage duration but were more pronounced in fruits treated with FLU. Storage duration influenced fruit colour whereas aril colour was affected by FLU concentration. Untreated fruit showed better aril redness and chroma although treated fruit also had acceptable red colour. Chemical quality attributes of fruit juice were not significantly affected by FLU concentrations. Fruit treated with FLU had significantly (p?<?0.05) higher total phenolic content during storage although lower ascorbic acid content was observed compared to untreated fruit. Treating fruit with FLU resulted in better sensory attributes with regards to crispness, juiciness and sweetness. Overall, this study showed that fruit treated with FLU at 600 mg/L had the best quality with respect to decay incidence, weight loss, total phenolics and sensory attributes.     

How liquid is biological signalling?

This paper proposes an investigation of the global statistics of synthetic protein networks—a step towards a systemic understanding of their design space. We derive a liquidity index which describes the onset of the phase transition where an ensemble of agents aggregates into a giant cluster. This index captures the influence of both the domain distribution of agents and the binding strengths of their various domains in the limit of infinite populations. In simple cases it is possible to derive an explicit analytical expression of this index, which allows one to compare with simulations, and get a sense of how it transfers to the concrete finite case.     

Five Equivalent d Orbitals: A Continuum of Sets

A continuum of sets of five equivalent d orbitals is derived and discussed. A discussion of five equivalent sd orbitals is also presented.     

Processing of bidirectional exponential stimulus in ADC testing

ADC histogram test methods with exponential stimulus are ADC test methods alternative to sine wave testing. Exponential stimulus test methods published until now were based on simple, single-component exponential pulses. This can sometimes partially mask nonlinearity of ADC transfer characteristics. Moreover, estimation of pulse parameters in time domain requires memorizing and processing long records. The new approach is based on the exponential ADC stimulus with two or more different exponential components, e.g., rising and falling slopes of exponential pulses that can be generated very simply and with low costs. Moreover, the different way of signal processing using histograms instead of time record is introduced. Unknown parameters needed for estimation of INL and DNL are calculated by LS fitting using simplified Newton method. The new test method was verified by simulations and experiment.     

抛弃单核，进入双核时代：主流双核处理器导购

双核处理器作为06年发展的重点，它由一个新名词发展到人人皆知的处理器卖点，当中经历的时间可以说是相当短，仅仅用了不到1年的时间。然而让人老想不到的是，在短短的时间内，“双核”竟能迅速地蔓延开来，在这种趋势影响下，目前将CPU的选购目标放在双核上面的电脑用户越来越多。不过，要选择一款合适的双核CPU，还真不是一件容易的事，下面就让我们看看当前市场上有哪些双核处理器值得选购。     

NIR Spectroscopy Applications for Internal and External Quality Analysis of Citrus Fruit—A Review

The global citrus industry is continually confronted by new technological challenges to meet the ever-increasing consumer awareness and demand for quality-assured fruit. To face these challenges, recent trend in agribusiness is declining reliance on subjective assessment of quality and increasing adoption of objective, quantitative and non-destructive techniques of quality assessment. Non-destructive instrument-based methods are preferred to destructive techniques because they allow the measurement and analysis of individual fruit, reduce waste and permit repeated measures on the same item over time. A wide range of objective instruments for sensing and measuring the quality attributes of fresh produce have been reported. Among non-destructive quality assessment techniques, near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy (NIRS) is arguably the most advanced with regard to instrumentation, applications, accessories and chemometric software packages. This paper reviews research progress on NIRS applications in internal and external quality measurement of citrus fruit, including the selection of NIR characteristics for spectra capture, analysis and interpretation. A brief overview on the fundamental theory, history, chemometrics of NIRS including spectral pre-processing methods, model calibration, validation and robustness is included. Finally, future prospects for NIRS-based imaging systems such as multispectral and hyperspectral imaging as well as optical coherence tomography as potential non-destructive techniques for citrus quality assessment are explored.     

Colour Measurement and Analysis in Fresh and Processed Foods: A Review

Colour is an important quality attribute in the food and bioprocess industries, and it influences consumer’s choice and preferences. Food colour is governed by the chemical, biochemical, microbial and physical changes which occur during growth, maturation, postharvest handling and processing. Colour measurement of food products has been used as an indirect measure of other quality attributes such as flavour and contents of pigments because it is simpler, faster and correlates well with other physicochemical properties. This review discusses the techniques and procedures for the measurement and analysis of colour in food and other biomaterial materials. It focuses on the instrumental (objective) and visual (subjective) measurements for quantifying colour attributes and highlights the range of primary and derived objective colour indices used to characterise the maturity and quality of a wide range of food products and beverages. Different approaches applied to model food colour are described, including reaction mechanisms, response surface methodology and others based on probabilistic and non-isothermal kinetics. Colour is one of the most widely measured product quality attributes in postharvest handling and in the food processing research and industry. Apart from differences in instrumentation, colour measurements are often reported based on different colour indices even for the same product, making it difficult to compare results in the literature. There is a need for standardisation to improve the traceability and transferability of measurements. The correlation between colour and other sensory quality attributes is well established, but future prospects exist in the application of objective non-destructive colour measurement in predictive modelling of the nutritional quality of fresh and processed food products.     

Evaluating the Impacts of Selected Packaging Materials on the Quality Attributes of Cassava Flour (cvs. TME 419 and UMUCASS 36)

The influence of packaging materials (plastic bucket, low density polyethylene [LDPE] bags and paper bags) on quality attributes of the flour of 2 cassava cultivars (TME 419 and UMUCASS 36) stored at 23 ± 2 °C and 60% relative humidity (RH) were investigated for 12 wk. Cassava flour from each package type was evaluated for proximate composition, physicochemical properties and microbial growth at 4‐wk intervals. Total color difference (?E) of both cassava flour cultivars increased with storage duration. Flour packed in plastic bucket had the lowest change in color (3.2 ± 0.42) for cv. “TME 419? and (4.1 ± 0.87) for cv. “UMUCASS 36? at the end of week 12. Total carotenoid decreased across all treatment, and after the 12 wk storage, the highest total carotenoid retention (1.7 ± 0.02 and 2.0 ± 0.05 μg/mL) was observed in flour packed in plastic bucket. However, cassava flour in paper bag had the lowest microbial count of 3.4 ± 0.03 and 3.4 ± 0.08 log cfu/g for total aerobic mesophilic bacteria and fungi, respectively.