World pineapple production: an overview

This review paper discusses the origin, production, cultivation practices, storage, transportation and uses of pineapple. The economic importance of pineapple is easily justified by its unique characteristics as a fruit, which ensured its rapid diffusion and adoption, in the tropics and subtropics. Pineapple is a perennial monocotyledonous plant with a terminal multiple fruit. This perishable fruit is usually stored only for 4-5 days after harvesting in normal conditions. Generally, ripened pineapple fruit is consumed fresh or as pineapple juice. Thailand, Philippines, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Hawaii, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Dominican Republic and South Africa are the leading pineapple producing countries. Among the countries Philippines, Thailand, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Chile, Ivory Coast and South Africa are the major exporters of pineapple in the world market. Quality of pineapple varies due to cultivation technique, growing environment and variety. Good quality pineapple grows well in acidic loams, sandy loams and clay loams soils under warm and humid climate with sunny days and cool nights. Pineapples need a neutral to mildly acidic soil ranging pH from 4.5 to 6.5. Pineapple reproduction is through vegetative propagation using suckers and crowns. Fertilizer requirement increases sharply after planting and peak at two to four months before floral initiation. Earthing up operation gives better anchorage to the plants. Mulch promotes rooting by concentrating moisture, increasing soil temperature in the root zone and controlling weeds. Irregular flowering behavior of pineapples also affects its commercial yield adversely. A variety of chemicals are available to achieve uniformity and control flowering. Storage and transportation facilities are the important factors for local and international marketing. Harvested fruits are packed in the crates and transported in refrigerated containers for quality assurance. The prospect of pineapple is bright due to increasing trend of total consumption and export potential.Key words: Pineapple, Origin, Distribution, Climate, Propagation, Intercultural operations, Post-harvest operations, Use

Crystal Symmetry Breaking in Few-Quintuple Bismuth Telluride Films: Applications in Nanometrology of Topological Insulators

We report results of micro-Raman spectroscopy investigation of the "graphene-like" mechanically exfoliated single-crystal bismuth telluride films with the thickness ranging from a few-nm-range to bulk limit. It is found that the optical phonon mode A1u, which is not-Raman active in bulk bismuth telluride crystals, appears in the atomically-thin films due to crystal-symmetry breaking. The intensity ratios of the out-of-plane A1u and A1g modes to the in-plane Eg mode grow with decreasing film thickness. The evolution of Raman signatures with the film thickness can be used for identification of bismuth telluride crystals with the thickness of few-quintuple layers, which are important for topological insulator and thermoelectric applications.Comment: 13 pages, 2 tables, 3 figures; to be presented at MRS Spring Meeting, 201

Cellular tracking in time-lapse phase contrast images

The quantitative analysis of live cells is a key issue in evaluating biological processes. The current clinical practice involves the application of a tedious and time consuming manual tracking procedure on large amount of data. As a result, automatic tracking systems are currently developed and evaluated. However, problems caused by cellular division, agglomeration, Brownian motion and topology changes are difficult issues that have to be accommodated by automatic tracking techniques. In this paper, we detail the development of a fully automated multi-target tracking system that is able to deal with Brownian motion and cellular division. During the tracking process our approach includes the neighbourhood relationship and motion history to enforce the cellular tracking continuity in the spatial and temporal domain. The experimental results reported in this paper indicate that our method is able to accurately track cellular structures in time-lapse data

Magnetic Transition in the Kondo Lattice System CeRhSn2

Our resistivity, magnetoresistance, magnetization and specific heat data provide unambiguous evidence that CeRhSn2 is a Kondo lattice system which undergoes magnetic transition below 4 K.Comment: 3 pages text and 5 figure