104 research outputs found
Trends and Innovations in Value Chain Management of Tropical Fruits
India produced about 97.35 million tons of fruits during 2017-18, of which less than 1% fruits were exported. In India, less than 5% of the total fruits produced are sold by the organized supply chain management and E-commerce companies and 3% of the total produce gets processed, indicating that more than 90% of fruits follow the traditional route of supply chain involving farmers, auctioneers, agents/intermediaries, wholesalers, sub-wholesalers, retailers, cart vendors before they reach the consumers. Post-Harvest (PH) losses occur at each stage of the supply chain and are compounded with each operation. A study on PH loss estimation has shown maximum loss of 15.88% in guava among fruits while other studies have reported much higher PH lossesin fruits. Value of tropical fruits, both in monetary terms and quality reduces during harvesting, handling, transportation from the farmer’s field, packaging, storage, retail and even at the consumer’s level. Important interventions that reduce the PH losses and improve the supply chain management are establishment of pre-cooling facilities and short term storage facilities through evaporative cooling/refrigeration mechanisms at the farm gate, primary processing and packaging provision at the farm gate or nearby collection centres, transportation of fruits in refrigerated/evaporative cooled vans with the use of alternate energy sources and provision for low temperature and high humidity storage at the retail centres. Establishment of a Postharvest management system for sorting, washing, partial drying, edible coating, if required and grading at the collection centres will help in reducing the PH losses in the supply chain and help farmers get a better value for their produce. Formation of farmer clusters or Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs) provides farmers a better bargaining power because of higher volumes. Educating and bringing awareness among the farmers about the good agricultural practices (GAP), mechanization in field operations, availability of seeds for different seasons, eliminating the problem of seasonality are also important in production of quality output. Transportation of fruits, such as mango, banana and guava in vans/wagons operating through evaporative cooling/cooling mechanism using phase change material will help in improving the shelf life of such fruits. An integrated radio frequency identification (RFID) system along with the sensors for ethylene, temperature and RH monitoring is likely to help in easy tracking and traceability of the fresh produce. Establishment of primary and secondary processing facility at the farmer cluster/ FPO levels will help in transforming the farmers to primary processors
Preparation & Nature of Complexes of Trichlorotin(IV) Ethoxide with Oxygen & Nitrogen Donors
121-12
Successful Ablation of Antero-septal Accessory Pathway in the Non-Coronary Cusp in a Child
A 15-year-old boy with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome underwent an electrophysiology study for symptoms of palpitations and persistence of pre-excitation during peak exercise. He was detected to have right antero-septal accessory pathway with relatively long effective refractory period and no inducible tachycardia. He had only transient normalization with cryoablation. Eight months later, he presented again with two episodes of seizures with preceding palpitations. Neurology evaluation was unremarkable with a normal electroencephalogram. In view of his symptoms in association with evidence of pre-excitation, he underwent a second electrophysiology study with ablation. Cryoablation in the anterior septum again achieved only transient normalization. Mapping in the non-coronary cusp identified an earliest accessory pathway potential. RF ablation was performed in the non-coronary cusp with immediate normalization of his electrocardiogram. At 6 month follow-up, he continues to have no pre-excitation on his EKG. Ablation of the anteroseptal accessory pathway in the non-coronary cusp can be safely performed in patients' refractory to conventional ablation sites and techniques
Automated Classification of 2000 Bright IRAS Sources
An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has been employed using a supervised
back-propagation scheme to classify 2000 bright sources from the Calgary
database of IRAS (Infrared Astronomy Satellite) spectra in the wavelength
region of 8-23 microns. The data base has been classified into 17
pre-determined classes based on spectral morphology. We have been able to
classify more than 80 percent of the 2000 sources correctly at the first
instance. The speed and robustness of the scheme will allow us to classify the
whole of LRS database, containing more than 50,000 sources in the future.Comment: 26 pages, To appear in ApJS after July 200
Large Magellanic Cloud Near-Infrared Synoptic Survey. II. The Wesenheit relations and their application to the Distance scale
We present new near-infrared Cepheid Period-Wesenheit relations in the LMC
using time-series observations from the Large Magellanic Cloud Near-Infrared
Synoptic Survey. We also derive opticalnear-infrared P-W relations using
and ~magnitudes from OGLE-III. We employ our new data to determine
an independent distance to the LMC of ~mag, using an absolute calibration of the Galactic
relations based on several distance determination methods and accounting for
the intrinsic scatter of each technique. We also derive new near-infrared
Period-Luminosity and Wesenheit relations for Cepheids in M31 using
observations from the PHAT survey. We use the absolute calibrations of the
Galactic and LMC relations to determine the distance modulus of M31,
~mag. We apply a simultaneous fit to Cepheids in
several Local Group galaxies covering a range of metallicities
(~dex) to determine a global slope of
-~mag/dex for the relation and obtain robust
distance estimates. Our distances are in good agreement with recent TRGB based
distance estimates and we do not find any evidence for a metallicity dependence
in the near-infrared P-W relations.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astronomical
Journa
Complexes of Triphenylarsine Oxide with Trichlorotin(IV) & Trichlorotitanium(IV) Alkoxides & Dichlorotitanium(IV) Dialkoxides
653-65
The Indo-U.S. Library of Coude Feed Stellar Spectra
We have obtained spectra for 1273 stars using the 0.9m Coud\'e Feed telescope
at Kitt Peak National Observatory. This telescope feeds the coud\'e
spectrograph of the 2.1m telescope. The spectra have been obtained with the #5
camera of the coud\'e spectrograph and a Loral 3K X 1K CCD. Two gratings have
been used to provide spectral coverage from 3460 \AA to 9464 \AA, at a
resolution of 1\AA FWHM and at an original dispersion of 0.44 \AA/pixel.
For 885 stars we have complete spectra over the entire 3460 \AA to 9464 \AA
wavelength region (neglecting small gaps of 50 \AA), and partial spectral
coverage for the remaining stars. The 1273 stars have been selected to provide
broad coverage of the atmospheric parameters T, log g, and [Fe/H], as
well as spectral type. The goal of the project is to provide a comprehensive
library of stellar spectra for use in the automated classification of stellar
and galaxy spectra and in galaxy population synthesis. In this paper we discuss
the characteristics of the spectral library, viz., details of the observations,
data reduction procedures, and selection of stars. We also present a few
illustrations of the quality and information available in the spectra. The
first version of the complete spectral library is now publicly available from
the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) via FTP and HTTP.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, 4 table
An incoherent regulatory network architecture that orchestrates B cell diversification in response to antigen signaling
B cell receptor signaling controls the expression of IRF-4, a transcription factor required for B cell differentiation. This study shows that IRF-4 regulates divergent B cell fates via a ‘kinetic-control' mechanism that determines the duration of a transient developmental state
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