Determination of physical properties of apricot fruit and proper box height for storing and handling the apricot fruit

In avoiding damage to fruit species, the permissible falling height and permissible static pressure are of great importance.  The former is important in planning harvesting and handling operations, the latter in selecting the height of transport containers.  Fruits are generally transported in containers.  The static and dynamic forces which then act on the fruit will cause damage if they exceed given value.  The static force may be calculated from the weight of the fruit column being transported while the dynamic load is a consequence of vibration caused by transport.  The permitted static load for a given fruit may be determined experimentally.  The aim of this study was design of a suitable height based on the measured properties using Ross and Isaacs’s theory by determination of physical and mechanical properties of fresh apricot fruit.  Maximum height for packing and storing of fresh apricot fruit in the box was determined to be less than 49.5 cm based on a rupture force of 6.5 N.   Keywords: apricot fruit; static force; height box; physical propertie

Bus Route Operational Efficiency Evaluation in Milwaukee County

ABSTRACT BUS ROUTE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY EVALUATION IN MILWAUKEE COUNTY by Ebtesam Hazbavi The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015 Under the Supervision of Professor Yue Liu Public transit systems are expanding in the majority of cities in the United States due to the increasing numbers of people who use public transportation as their main commute facility. Evaluating the efficiency of public transit systems results in providing better services for the residents on one hand and reduces the unnecessary costs on the other hand. In this research, the efficiencies of bus routes options in County are evaluated. After reviewing different literature, Fuzzy AHP model is selected as the main decision making model. AHP is one of the preferred methods of decision making in solving complex problems, which provides the opportunity of involving all provided criteria in the final decisions. In this research, the efficiency was calculated for Fixed Routes and Free Flyer Routes, daily and during the peak hours. The data of this research are obtained from Milwaukee county 2013 annual ridership report as routine reports published by Milwaukee county transit system (MCTS). In conclusion, various solutions are suggested for improving the transit system in Milwaukee County

Pre-harvest Application of Chitosan with Carvacrol on Biochemical, Qualitative and Shelf Life Characteristics of Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch)

IntroductionThe increase in people's awareness of the negative effects of chemical preservatives has led to more research on the antimicrobial effect of plant essential oils and their potential to be used as preservative compounds. Strawberry (Fragaria   ananassa cv. qingxiang) is one of the most popular and widely consumed berries due to its taste, sweetness and healthy function. The taste of strawberry is related to its hardness, viscosity, sugars, protein, total soluble solid, titratable acidity content and minerals like P, K, Ca and Fe. It is a good source of polyphenolic compounds such as flavanols and has antioxidant activity. This, together with higher vitamin C content in strawberries, contributes beneficial effects on the maintenance of consumer health. Strawberry has higher antioxidant activities than orange, grape, banana, apple, etc. Strawberries are among the fruits sensitive to mechanical and physiological damage and have a fast metabolism and deterioration during the storage period. For this reason, it is necessary to use safe methods to control spoilage and maintain the quality of strawberry fruit during storage. Materials and Methods The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design, in a 5 x 4 factorial scheme (5 treatments x 4 periods evaluated), with four replications The first variable was the type of material with different concentrations in five levels including 0, 0.3%, 0.6% carvacrol, the combination of chitosan with 0.3% and 0.6% carvacrol, and the second variable was storage time in four periods including 0, 10, 20, 30 days of storage. The harvested fruits were kept at  4°C and with a relative humidity of 90±5% and parameters such as weight loss, pH, firmness of the fruit tissue, acidity (TA), soluble solids (TSS) and taste index, vitamin C, phenol and flavonoid, fruit shelf life (number of days) during the storage period were investigated and studied. Results and Discussion The ANOVA results showed that the effect of the type of treatment and storage time on all investigated traits except for the firmness of the fruit texture was significant at the probability level of 1%. The fruits treated with the combination of chitosan and carvacrol 0.6% had more texture firmness, vitamin C, total phenol content and the amount of soluble solids and better shelf life than the control. In all four storage times, the highest content of total phenol (2.49 mg of gallic acid per 100 gr FW), total flavonoid (0.435 mg of Quercetin per 100 gr FW) and firmness (3.80 N) was related to the combined treatment of chitosan with carvacrol 0.6% and the lowest amount was related to the control. The firmness of the fruit tissue gradually decreased during storage, but this process was observed at a significantly slower rate in the treated fruits. ConclusionConsidering the increase of 10 and 12 days of shelf life post- harvest of the combined treatment of chitosan + 0.6% carvacrol compared to other treatments and the control, hence the application of chitosan pre harvest and the use of 0.6% carvacrol edible coatings can be recommended as a safe and low-cost strategy to increase the shelf life post harvesting of 'Parus ' strawberry cultivar

Estimation of Effective Doses and Lifetime Risk of Exposure-induced Cancer Death in Pediatric CT Scans

Background: The increasing frequency of computed tomography (CT) scans for a range of purposes, particularly pediatrics, has raised concerns regarding the population's radiation exposure and subsequent chances of cancers. This study aimed to estimate the effective doses of pediatrics radiation and induced cancer risks from five most common CT scan procedures in Yazd Province, Iran.Methods: Data of pediatric patients from four age groups of ≤1, 1-5, 5-10, and 10-15 years old were retrospectively collected from 6 educational institutions located in diverse areas of Yazd Province. For each participant, the effective doses and REID (risk of exposure-induced death) rate were estimated by Impact Dose and PCXMC software, respectively. Then, the findings were reported by categorizing the patients regarding their effective diameter.Results: The effective doses and REID values did not show any significant differences among the studied age groups. The highest mean of effective dose was recorded for the scan of abdomen-pelvis (average ± standard deviation, 5.24±3.19 mSv) followed by chest (3.76±2.28 mSv), brain (1.25±1.07 mSv), and sinus (0.65±0.4 mSv) examinations. The highest REID was documented for chest scan (490±314 excess deaths in one million scans) followed by abdomen-pelvis procedure (404±280).Conclusion: The radiation doses delivered to the pediatric patients and the associated fatal cancer risk with common CT procedures were comparably in the same range of the previous studies. Our findings can represent an estimation of the radiation-induced risks of CT scans and can be used for extending the knowledge of clinicians and researchers

Development and analysis of the Soil Water Infiltration Global database.

In this paper, we present and analyze a novel global database of soil infiltration measurements, the Soil Water Infiltration Global (SWIG) database. In total, 5023 infiltration curves were collected across all continents in the SWIG database. These data were either provided and quality checked by the scientists who performed the experiments or they were digitized from published articles. Data from 54 different countries were included in the database with major contributions from Iran, China, and the USA. In addition to its extensive geographical coverage, the collected infiltration curves cover research from 1976 to late 2017. Basic information on measurement location and method, soil properties, and land use was gathered along with the infiltration data, making the database valuable for the development of pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for estimating soil hydraulic properties, for the evaluation of infiltration measurement methods, and for developing and validating infiltration models. Soil textural information (clay, silt, and sand content) is available for 3842 out of 5023 infiltration measurements (~76%) covering nearly all soil USDA textural classes except for the sandy clay and silt classes. Information on land use is available for 76% of the experimental sites with agricultural land use as the dominant type (~40%). We are convinced that the SWIG database will allow for a better parameterization of the infiltration process in land surface models and for testing infiltration models. All collected data and related soil characteristics are provided online in *.xlsx and *.csv formats for reference, and we add a disclaimer that the database is for public domain use only and can be copied freely by referencing it. Supplementary data are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.885492 (Rahmati et al., 2018). Data quality assessment is strongly advised prior to any use of this database. Finally, we would like to encourage scientists to extend and update the SWIG database by uploading new data to it

Climate variability impact on the spatiotemporal characteristics of drought and aridity in arid and semi-arid regions

Investigating the spatiotemporal distribution of climate data and their impact on the allocation of the regional aridity and meteorological drought, particularly in semi-arid and arid climate, it is critical to evaluate the climate variability effect and propose sufficient adaptation strategies. The coefficient of variation, precipitation concentration index and anomaly index were used to evaluate the climate variability, while the Mann-Kendall and Sen’s slope were applied for trend analysis, together with homogeneity tests. The aridity was evaluated using the alpha form of the reconnaissance drought index (Mohammed & Scholz, Water Resour Manag 31(1):531–538, 2017c), whereas drought episodes were predicted by applying three of the commonly used meteorological drought indices, which are the standardised reconnaissance drought index, standardized precipitation index and standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index. The Upper Zab River Basin (UZRB), which is located in the northern part of Iraq and covers a high range of climate variability, has been considered as an illustrative basin for arid and semi-arid climatic conditions. There were general increasing trends in average temperature and potential evapotranspiration and decreasing trends in precipitation from the upstream to the downstream of the UZRB. The long-term analysis of climate data indicates that the number of dry years has temporally risen and the basin has experienced succeeding years of drought, particularly after 1994/1995. There was a potential link between drought, aridity and climate variability. Pettitt’s, SNHT, Buishand’s and von Neumann’s homogeneity test results demonstrated that there is an evident alteration in the mean of the drought and aridity between the pre- and post-alteration point (1994)

Development and analysis of the Soil Water Infiltration Global database

In this paper, we present and analyze a novel global database of soil infiltration measurements, the Soil Water Infiltration Global (SWIG) database. In total, 5023 infiltration curves were collected across all continents in the SWIG database. These data were either provided and quality checked by the scientists who performed the experiments or they were digitized from published articles. Data from 54 different countries were included in the database with major contributions from Iran, China, and the USA. In addition to its extensive geographical coverage, the collected infiltration curves cover research from 1976 to late 2017. Basic information on measurement location and method, soil properties, and land use was gathered along with the infiltration data, making the database valuable for the development of pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for estimating soil hydraulic properties, for the evaluation of infiltration measurement methods, and for developing and validating infiltration models. Soil textural information (clay, silt, and sand content) is available for 3842 out of 5023 infiltration measurements ( ∼ 76%) covering nearly all soil USDA textural classes except for the sandy clay and silt classes. Information on land use is available for 76% of the experimental sites with agricultural land use as the dominant type ( ∼ 40%). We are convinced that the SWIG database will allow for a better parameterization of the infiltration process in land surface models and for testing infiltration models. All collected data and related soil characteristics are provided online in *.xlsx and *.csv formats for reference, and we add a disclaimer that the database is for public domain use only and can be copied freely by referencing it. Supplementary data are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.885492 (Rahmati et al., 2018). Data quality assessment is strongly advised prior to any use of this database. Finally, we would like to encourage scientists to extend and update the SWIG database by uploading new data to it