“Remote sensing, predictable storage of agricultural commodities and advances in hermetic storage”: Poster

Modified atmosphere hermetic storage, now used in over 115 countries for fumigant-free storage of dry commodities from coffee to rice and maize, has been available for almost three decades. This paper describes the progress in the field use of hermetic postharvest storage systems and of recent innovations in this technology which include the introduction of remote monitoring of temperature, humidity and O2 or CO2 levels in large, sealed hermetic containers. Also, introduced in 2018, is the Cocoon Lite™, a 2nd generation multi-tonne container with major improvements in the permeability, weight and cost of high performance, large hermetic storage systems. Early examples of the uses of these innovations and data obtained from their study is expected by year end. The GrainPro EcoWiSe™ is a remote sensing system that enables monitoring of temperature, moisture and oxygen/carbon dioxide levels, thus providing real-time data on the conditions of the stored commodity involved without manual intervention. One (or more) low-cost, remote, wireless sensors/transmitters placed inside sealed. Postharvest hermetic storage units can be read remotely on laptops or cellphones. Data collected and accumulated over time enables development of an “algorithm” for a stored commodity to define an alarm, where the user can be notified immediately of any unsafe humidity or oxygen storage conditions. A substantial advance in large hermetic storage containers known as Cocoons™ is the new Cocoon Lite, a 500:1 improvement in permeability to oxygen as well as a unit weight only 28% of existing Cocoons with the same capacity and a significantly lower cost. The paper also discusses prevention of the public health hazard of exponential growth of aflatoxin levels in conventional postharvest storage such as in rice, maize, and groundnuts; field data is provided on the control achieved through hermetic storage.Modified atmosphere hermetic storage, now used in over 115 countries for fumigant-free storage of dry commodities from coffee to rice and maize, has been available for almost three decades. This paper describes the progress in the field use of hermetic postharvest storage systems and of recent innovations in this technology which include the introduction of remote monitoring of temperature, humidity and O2 or CO2 levels in large, sealed hermetic containers. Also, introduced in 2018, is the Cocoon Lite™, a 2nd generation multi-tonne container with major improvements in the permeability, weight and cost of high performance, large hermetic storage systems. Early examples of the uses of these innovations and data obtained from their study is expected by year end. The GrainPro EcoWiSe™ is a remote sensing system that enables monitoring of temperature, moisture and oxygen/carbon dioxide levels, thus providing real-time data on the conditions of the stored commodity involved without manual intervention. One (or more) low-cost, remote, wireless sensors/transmitters placed inside sealed. Postharvest hermetic storage units can be read remotely on laptops or cellphones. Data collected and accumulated over time enables development of an “algorithm” for a stored commodity to define an alarm, where the user can be notified immediately of any unsafe humidity or oxygen storage conditions. A substantial advance in large hermetic storage containers known as Cocoons™ is the new Cocoon Lite, a 500:1 improvement in permeability to oxygen as well as a unit weight only 28% of existing Cocoons with the same capacity and a significantly lower cost. The paper also discusses prevention of the public health hazard of exponential growth of aflatoxin levels in conventional postharvest storage such as in rice, maize, and groundnuts; field data is provided on the control achieved through hermetic storage

Food preference of oryzaephilus surinamensis (coleoptera: silvanidae) to different types of plant products

Oryzaephilus surinamensis is one of the stored product insect that commonly found in Malaysia. The biological study through host range or food preferences of O. surinamensis is important for the development of sustainable management practice to control its infestation. The objective of this study was to identify the food preference of O. surinamensis to different plant products in relation to food type and moisture content. Twenty adult of O. surinamensis were exposed to three different group of food; dried fruits (date, raisin, apricot, fig), grain/cereals (rice, barley, oat grout, dried maize), and nuts (almond, ground nut, walnut, cashew nut) for 240h in laboratory Kulliyyah of Science, IIUM Kuantan. Moisture content in each food was also measured. It was found out that the most preferred food by O. surinamensis is oat groat of cereal grain group with medium level of moisture content. Further analysis on food moisture suggested that under current experimental conditions (temperature of 27℃ and 64% relative humidity within 240h of exposure), food moisture content does not affect pest infestation and distribution

Enforceability: Foreign Arbitral Awards in Chinese Courts

Enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in China has always been a widespread concern. There is not only a fear of deficiency in the Chinese legal system, but also a disconnection between foreign perception and Chinese reality. Since the nation joined the New York Convention in the 1980’s, China has made efforts to fulfill its treaty obligations. Foreign parties, however, remain skeptical about whether foreign arbitral awards will be fairly enforced in the country. In 2015, the Supreme People’s Court of China (SPC) issued a judicial interpretation that contains provisions explicitly addressing several confusing and controversial matters on foreign arbitration. In 2017, the SPC adopted several new rules concerning the judicial review of arbitration. Both the judicial interpretation and the new rules represent the nation’s burgeoning development in foreign arbitral award enforcement. There are several matters critical to the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in China. In order to overcome the enforcement hurdles, it is important to understand the factors affecting the enforceability and the approaches taken in people’s courts. The enforcement mechanisms and cases denying enforcement reflect the conceptual distinctions and practical features underlying the treatment of the arbitral awards that are characterized as “foreign” in the country. China faces challenges in a number of aspects in light of handling foreign arbitral awards properly in the country, and certain issues that affect their enforcement remain to be resolved

Space-Efficient Approximation Scheme for Maximum Matching in Sparse Graphs

We present a Logspace Approximation Scheme (LSAS), i.e. an approximation algorithm for maximum matching in planar graphs (not necessarily bipartite) that achieves an approximation ratio arbitrarily close to one, using only logarithmic space. This deviates from the well known Baker\u27s approach for approximation in planar graphs by avoiding the use of distance computation - which is not known to be in Logspace. Our algorithm actually works for any "recursively sparse" graph class which contains a linear size matching and also for certain other classes like bounded genus graphs. The scheme is based on an LSAS in bounded degree graphs which are not known to be amenable to Baker\u27s method. We solve the bounded degree case by parallel augmentation of short augmenting paths. Finding a large number of such disjoint paths can, in turn, be reduced to finding a large independent set in a bounded degree graph. The bounded degree assumption allows us to obtain a Logspace algorithm

Quantitative Identification of Adulterated Sichuan Pepper Powder by Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Coupled with Chemometrics

Sichuan pepper is a traditional and important flavoring of Chinese cuisine. It has attracted increasing interest in recent years owning to its unique taste and aroma. However, some cheap adulterants have been illegally found in Sichuan pepper powder in the market due to merchants trying to cut costs and gain an extra profit. In order to determine the compositions of Sichuan pepper powder quickly and effectively, a direct detection method using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has been developed. 462 samples of adulterated Sichuan pepper powder mixed with different amounts of wheat bran, rice bran, corn flour, and rosin powder were studied. The NIR spectra data was studied using partial least squares (PLS) analysis. The method was found to be capable of predicting the compositions of adulterated Sichuan pepper powder. The determination coefficients of prediction set (Rp2) with the best pretreatments were 0.971 for Sichuan pepper powder, 0.948 for rice bran, 0.969 for wheat bran, 0.967 for corn flour, and 0.994 for rosin powder, respectively. The standard errors of prediction (SEP) were 2.81%, 2.38%, 3.19%, 2.46%, and 1.10%, respectively. The results showed that NIR spectroscopy with chemometrics is a rapid and nondestructive tool for the quantitative analysis of adulterated Sichuan pepper powder

Asia-Europe Sustainable Connectivity Scientific Conference - Book of Abstracts

This publication is a collection of extended abstracts submitted to the Asia-Europe Sustainable Connectivity Scientific Conference. The conference is jointly organised by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, the Asia-Europe Foundation, the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia and the Center for China and Globalization. It aims at creating a forum to share the latest research as well as to discuss the global and local challenges associated to connectivity.JRC.I.1-Monitoring, Indicators & Impact Evaluatio