Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Stability of electronic nose (e-nose) as determined by considering date-pits heated at different temperatures

Variability and sensitivity of a portable electronic nose (32 sensors) was assessed by considering different variables for measurement (i.e., reference, standard, first and second purges, sample draw time, waiting time for the volatiles released in the headspace, and mass of sample or headspace volume of the jar containing sample). In this study, dried date-pits were used a model sample. The highest stability was achieved when both reference and standard (i.e., dried date-pits, no heating treatment) were used before test sample measurement. Higher sample draw time more than 10 s significantly decreased the stability, whereas optimum second purge was observed at 50 s. Optimum time to generate volatile was observed as 24 h. A sample of 100 g increased the signal intensity compared to the 50 g sample for the 60°C and 100°C treated samples, while an opposite trend was observed for the 150°C treated sample. Finally, the responses of volatile components in date-pits heated at different temperatures (60°C, 100°C, and 150°C) were measured using the optimum operating conditions. Principal component analysis explored the relationships between the volatile features and classified date-pits heated at different temperatures. The results showed that an electronic nose was able to classify date-pits based on their volatile components generated by different degrees of heating (93.3% accuracy)

Effect of solar drying methods on color kinetics and texture of dates

The present work investigates the effect of solar drying methods on the color and textural attributes of Khalas dates at three ripening stages (khalal, rutab and tamr) and evaluates color change kinetics using three kinetic models. Three solar drying methods, namely, open sun drying (OSD), forced convective drying (FCD) and greenhouse tunnel drying (GTD) were studied. The drying methods and ripening stages had significant effect on all color attributes. Khalal stage dates dried in FCD had the lowest color variations (L*: −12%, a*: +4%, b*: −46%, chroma: −38%, hue angle: −21% and total color change, ΔE:14.05) and thus, the highest color stability. At the end of drying, color of rutab and tamr stage dates changed red-brown in all the three drying methods due to the massive loss of b* (88–92%) and hue angle (63–73%), and altering hue angle from 23° (tamr fresh) to 9–12° (dried), respectively. The most appropriate model to describe the color change kinetics of dates at the three ripening stages was the fractional conversion model. The texture profile analysis revealed that FCD produced the softest dates for all the three ripening stages (hardness ranged 2.52–3.42 N). Overall, dates dried in FCD had the best color and textural properties as compared to the OSD and GTD dried dates in all ripening stages