A preliminary investigation of the dietary habits of Indian University students

No Abstract

Long-Term Storage Quality of Table Grapes as Influenced by Pre-Harvest Yeast Applications and Post-Harvest Use of Controlled Atmosphere

The effects of pre-harvest applications of antagonistic yeast and controlled atmosphere storage treatments on inhibiting Botrytis cinerea decay and maintaining the quality of table grapes were compared to identify a treatment that could replace the use of sulphur dioxide (SO2) during post-harvest handling. Treatments for this study included pre-harvest application of antagonistic yeasts Cryptococcus albidus (Yieldplus®), Cryptococcus sp. (LF) and Candida pelliculosa (R951) on table grapes (cvs. ‘Barlinka’, ‘Dauphine’, ‘Red Globe’, ‘Sunred Seedless’ and ‘ThompsonSeedless’) from 2001 to 2003. Grapes were stored under regular (air), controlled atmosphere (CA, O2 + CO2) and SO2 conditions at -0.5°C and subsequent storage at a 15°C to simulate shelf-life conditions. Results of this study showed that Botrytis decay levels did not develop rapidly due to low temperatures (-0.5°C vs 15°C), shorter storage periods (4 vs 8 weeks or 0 vs 7 vs 14 days), and CA treatment effects. The CA gas mixtures maintained commercially important low levels (less than 1%) of B. cinerea decay during the cold storage period at -0.5°C. However, during shelf-life storage at 15°C these low levels of decay could only be maintained by some of the SO2 treatments. A necessary commercial requirement is to maintain low decay levels for longer at higher shelf-life temperatures, forwhich this study cannot conclusively recommend a CA and/or antagonistic yeast treatment as an alternative to SO2.  However, pre-harvest applications of the yeast and CA limited the general quality deterioration of the grapes at -0.5°C and 15°C compared to SO2 treatments. Inclusion of macro- or micro-perforated polyethylene packaging liners in combination with CA and pre-harvest yeast treatments did not show obvious negative effects on quality parameters in this study. Discovery and selection of yeast strains that survive under low temperatures and CA conditions would make suitable candidates for continued control of decay development on the fruit surface during shelf-life storage periods

Efficacy of fungicides, plant resistance activators and biological control agents against guava wilt disease caused by Nalanthamala psidii

Guava wilt disease (GWD) caused by the fungus Nalanthamala psidii remains a major constraint to guava production in South Africa and South East Asia. In the current study, chemical and biological products as well as plant resistance activators were evaluated for control of GWD in shadehouse and glasshouse trials. In all trials, one-year-old ‘TS-G2’ guava plants were used. Plants were inoculated with a macerated culture suspension of a mixture of three isolates of N. psidii after artificial wounding of the roots. Products were applied as a soil drench or as a full cover spray. In trial 1 plants were evaluated according to a disease severity scale. In trial 2 and 3 data were recorded as number of dead plants at the termination of the trial. None of the chemical treatments caused a significant suppression of the disease. The best control was achieved with the combination of rhizobacterial strains Bacillus cereus S7 and Paenibacillus alvei T29 resulting in 53.4% and 50% disease control in trials 2 and 3 respectively. This treatment also seems to have a plant growth enhancing effect apart from disease suppression. This is to our knowledge the first report of control of GWD by means of bacterial antagonists.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tjps202017-11-30hb2017Microbiology and Plant Patholog

The unusual optical afterglow of the gamma-ray burst GRB 021004: Color changes and short-time-scale variability

We report UBVRI observations of the optical afterglow of the gamma-ray burst GRB 021004. We observed significant (10-20%) deviations from a power law decay on several time scales, ranging from a few hours down to 20-30 minutes. We also observed a significant color change starting ~1.5 days after the burst, confirming the spectroscopic results already reported by Matheson et al. (2002). We discuss these results in the context of several models that have recently been proposed to account for the anomalous photometric behavior of this event.Comment: Submitted to ApJL, 14 pages, 4 figures. Data available on anonymous ftp at ftp://cfa-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/kstanek/GRB02100

Probing the atmosphere of a solar-like star by galactic microlensing at high magnification

We report a measurement of limb darkening of a solar-like star in the very high magnification microlensing event MOA 2002-BLG-33. A 15 hour deviation from the light curve profile expected for a single lens was monitored intensively in V and I passbands by five telescopes spanning the globe. Our modelling of the light curve showed the lens to be a close binary system whose centre-of-mass passed almost directly in front of the source star. The source star was identified as an F8-G2 main sequence turn-off star. The measured stellar profiles agree with current stellar atmosphere theory to within ~4% in two passbands. The effective angular resolution of the measurements is <1 micro-arcsec. These are the first limb darkening measurements obtained by microlensing for a Solar-like star.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A Letters. 5 pages, 2 embedded colour ps figures plus 1 jpg figure. Version with all figures embedded available from: http://www.roe.ac.uk/~iab/moa33paper

Limits on additional planetary companions to OGLE-2005-BLG-390L

We investigate constraints on additional planets orbiting the distant M-dwarf star OGLE-2005-BLG-390L, around which photometric microlensing data has revealed the existence of the sub-Neptune-mass planet OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb. We specifically aim to study potential Jovian companions and compare our findings with predictions from core-accretion and disc-instability models of planet formation. We also obtain an estimate of the detection probability for sub-Neptune mass planets similar to OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb using a simplified simulation of a microlensing experiment. We compute the efficiency of our photometric data for detecting additional planets around OGLE-2005-BLG-390L, as a function of the microlensing model parameters and convert it into a function of the orbital axis and planet mass by means of an adopted model of the Milky Way. We find that more than 50 % of potential planets with a mass in excess of 1 M_J between 1.1 and 2.3 AU around OGLE-2005-BLG-390L would have revealed their existence, whereas for gas giants above 3 M_J in orbits between 1.5 and 2.2 AU, the detection efficiency reaches 70 %; however, no such companion was observed. Our photometric microlensing data therefore do not contradict the existence of gas giant planets at any separation orbiting OGLE-2005-BLG-390L. Furthermore we find a detection probability for an OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb-like planet of around 2-5 %. In agreement with current planet formation theories, this quantitatively supports the prediction that sub-Neptune mass planets are common around low-mass stars.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted by A&