Sweet cherry:composition, postharvest preservation, processing and trends for its future use

Background Sweet cherries (Prunus avium L.) are a nutritious fruit which are rich in polyphenols and have high antioxidant potential. Most sweet cherries are consumed fresh and a small proportion of the total sweet cherries production is value added to make processed food products. Sweet cherries are highly perishable fruit with a short harvest season, therefore extensive preservation and processing methods have been developed for the extension of their shelf-life and distribution of their products. Scope and Approach In this review, the main physicochemical properties of sweet cherries, as well as bioactive components and their determination methods are described. The study emphasises the recent progress of postharvest technology, such as controlled/modified atmosphere storage, edible coatings, irradiation, and biological control agents, to maintain sweet cherries for the fresh market. Valorisations of second-grade sweet cherries, as well as trends for the diversification of cherry products for future studies are also discussed. Key Findings and Conclusions Sweet cherry fruit have a short harvest period and marketing window. The major loss in quality after harvest include moisture loss, softening, decay and stem browning. Without compromising their eating quality, the extension in fruit quality and shelf-life for sweet cherries is feasible by means of combination of good handling practice and applications of appropriate postharvest technology. With the drive of health-food sector, the potential of using second class cherries including cherry stems as a source of bioactive compound extraction is high, as cherry fruit is well-known for being rich in health-promoting components

Unsafe Sewage Sludge or Beneficial Biosolids?: Liability, Planning, and Management Issues Regarding the Land Application of Sewage Treatment Residuals

Commentators have identified fear of liability as a major deterrent to the widespread land application of sewage sludge. Liability issues regarding land application include not only legal liability, but also market liability as a result of negative public perceptions of the land application of sewage sludge. Under current law, municipal sewage treatment facilities, landowners, farmers, and even lenders are potentially liable for risks arising from sewage sludge application, unless someone else assumes the risk through a clear and legally enforceable mechanism. This article introduces this complex, evolving, and contentious environmental issue. It investigates the various siting and toxic tort liability issues associated with the land application of sewage sludge, and explores some of the risk-sharing mechanisms developed to minimize the liabilities associated with the application of sewage sludge to farmland. It concludes with a recommendation for a public indemnification fund to compensate for losses caused by land application of sewage sludge

Growth requirements for multidiscipline research and development on the evolutionary space station

The NASA Space Station Freedom is being designed to facilitate on-orbit evolution and growth to accommodate changing user needs and future options for U.S. space exploration. In support of the Space Station Freedom Program Preliminary Requirements Review, The Langley Space Station Office has identified a set of resource requirements for Station growth which is deemed adequate for the various evolution options. As part of that effort, analysis was performed to scope requirements for Space Station as an expanding, multidiscipline facility for scientific research, technology development and commercial production. This report describes the assumptions, approach and results of the study

Interview with David Pruden

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/covid/1074/thumbnail.jp

Mars Aeronomy Observer: Report of the Science Working Team

The Mars Aeronomy Observer (MAO) is a candidate follow-on mission to Mars Observer (MO) in the Planetary Observer Program. The four Mariner and two Viking spacecraft sent to Mars between 1965 and 1976 have provided a wealth of information concerning Martian planetology. The Mars Observer, to be launched in 1990, will build on their results by further examining the elemental and mineralogical composition of the surface, the strength and multipolar composition of the planetary magnetic field, the gravitational field and topography, and the circulation of the lower atmosphere. The Mars Aeronomy Observer is intended to address the last major aspects of Martian environment which have yet to be investigated: the upper atmosphere, the ionsphere, and the solar wind interaction region

MAKING BOUNDARIES AND LINKING GLOBALLY: “MATERIAL POLITICS” OF PHYTOSANITARY REGULATION ON MEXICAN MANGOS

This dissertation illuminates how phytosanitary (PS) regulations enable mango exportation from Mexico to the United States. PS regulations are technical and legal measures to prevent plant pests from proliferating or being transported to other places and are important regulatory mechanisms enabling the globalization of agriculture. My case study investigates how PS regulations enable Mexican mango exportation as an aspect of the globalization of agriculture, illustrating the consequences of PS regulations to humans and non-humans. More specifically, three research questions are posed: (1) How does the PS regulation network operate to draw distinctions between pest/non-pest, thereby enabling the export of Mexican mangos to the United States? (2) What values are associated with the PS regulation network, and what are the normative, moral, or ethical implications of the regulations? And, (3) How are the PS regulations in transition in the state of Sinaloa changing economic prospects for mango growers and packers to tap into global mango markets? Theoretically, the analysis draws on a concept called “material politics,” which claims that politics is enacted through not only discursive measures, such as statutes, but also physical embodiment by material beings. Thus, PS regulations are conceptualized as a materially heterogeneous network that establishes boundaries between pest/non-pest, thereby connecting distinct places, such as mango orchards and consumers. The material politics concept also suggests the emergence of socio-material “ordering” effects by regulations, such as values, morals, and norms, as well as unequal economic opportunities. Nine months of ethnographic fieldwork in Mexico, which employed in-depth interviews, (participant) observations, and documentary research, yielded the following findings: (1) PS regulations as a network of governance (re)configured the production of the commodity, “disciplining” humans and non-humans to conform to the global regulatory order; (2) in this network, non-governmental entities played critical roles, fitting squarely with the recent neoliberal political-economic orientation in Mexico; and (3) although the government’s pest eradication program could improve market chances for growers, local political-economic circumstances, including small-scale growers’ dependence on packers for marketing, still left substantial challenges for such economic prospects to materialize