Postharvest cold storage-induced oxidative stress in Japanese plums (Prunus salicina Lindl. cv. Amber Jewel) in relation to harvest maturity

Cold storage-induced oxidative stress in relation to harvest maturity and storage duration together with its implications on fruit quality and storage potential of Japanese plums (Prunus salicina Lindl.) were investigated. ‘Amber Jewel’ plums harvested at commercial maturity and one week after commercial maturity (delayed harvest) were stored at 0 °C for 7 weeks. Oxidative stress related parameters were determined at weekly intervals. Similar to lipid peroxidation, the incidence and severity of chilling injury (CI) was higher in fruit from the delayed harvest compared to commercial harvest. The activities of primary antioxidant enzymes and ascorbate-glutathione cycle enzymes were determined in context to the levels of antioxidant pools of ascorbate and glutathione and the development of CI symptoms. The predominance of the oxidized state of the tissue as reflected by lower ratios of ascorbate (AA) to dehydroascorbate (DHA) and reduced glutathione (GSH) to oxidized glutathione (GSSG) was linked to the severity of CI symptoms during the last 3-4 weeks of storage. The status of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidative system during cold storage of Japanese plums appeared to be more important in providing protection against oxidative injury expressed as CI than at-harvest antioxidant status. Delayed harvested fruit experienced more oxidative stress during cold storage compared to the fruit harvested at commercial maturity. In conclusion harvesting ‘Amber Jewel’ plums at commercial maturity is of paramount importance to ensure long-term cold storage with minimal adverse effects on fruit quality for better consumer experiences

Understanding the weedy Chenopodium complex in the north central states

The genus Chenopodium consists of several important weed species, including Chenopodium album, C. berlandieri, C. strictum, and C. ficifolium. All of these species share similar vegetative morphology and high phenotypic plasticity, which makes it difficult to correctly identify these species. All of these weedy Chenopodium species have developed resistance to one or more classes of herbicides. An experiment was conducted to determine if there is variability in response of Chenopodium species present in the North Central states to glyphosate. Our results indicate variable responses within and among the Chenopodium species. Species such as C. berlandieri and C. ficifolium had higher levels of tolerance to glyphosate than did various accessions of C. album. In another experiment, 33 populations of Chenopodium sampled across six North Central states were screened with glyphosate. The results showed variable responses to glyphosate within and among the Chenopodium populations. In general, the Chenopodium populations from Iowa were more tolerant, but some biotypes from North Dakota, Indiana and Kansas also had significantly high tolerance to glyphosate. Given there are species other than C. album that have high tolerance to glyphosate, and there are Chenopodium populations across the North Central states that showed tolerance to glyphosate, one intriguing question was to whether the Chenopodium populations were either biotypes of C. album were or are more closely related to other species such as C. berlandieri, C. strictum or C. ficifolium, which would indicate that there has been a species shift. To investigate which species are prevalent in North Central states, 12 Chenopodium species were investigated using morphological DNA content values and sequence data. With the exception of morphological characters such as pericarp covering the seeds, calyx shape (keeled or not) and DNA content of the species, most of the morphological characters were not phylogenetically informative. The morphological characters were useful in distinguishing some species from others, but with an increase in number of species under investigation, there was overlap of morphological characters within closely related species, and hence one cannot use morphological markers alone to differentiate the Chenopodium species. Three DNA sequence based markers, ITS (nuclear), matK and trnD-trnT (chloroplast) were explored. The sequence data were subjected to maximum parsimony and Bayesian analyses. Irrespective of the method used for tree estimation, all three markers gave similar tree topologies, but ITS markers gave the greatest number of polymorphic sites. The ITS based phylogenetic tree was well resolved. Some closely related species such as C. strictum, C. berlandieri and C. album shared high sequence similarity among homologous genes, but these species were easily differentiated with the support of the genome size data. Samples of C. strictum had a 2C value of 2.0 pg, which was different than C. album (3.6 pg/2C). Chenopodium populations from North Central states were also tested with ITS markers, and DNA content values were also obtained from a few samples. Based on the sequence data, results indicated that all the field samples were closely related to C. album, and also the genome sizes of all the populations were close to the genome size values of different accessions of C. album. In conclusion, all the Chenopodium samples that were sampled for our experiment were closely related to C. album, and the increase in reports of common lambsquarters populations developing tolerance to glyphosate most likely is due to evolution within C. album and not because of a shift in weed species

Evaluating Performance of Beacon Enabled 802.15.4 Network with Different Bit Error Rate and Power Models

This research finds the most suited Bit Error Rate (BER) and Power Model for IEEE 802.15.4 network. A total of three BER models and three Power Models were used for testing purposes. Their respective algorithms have been developed as well. alt_ber was found to be most suited as BER model and dra_power was found to be most suited for power model for 802.15.4 based networks. The relationship between BER and throughput has been established and the same has been confirmed by simulating the network. The most suited BER and power model settings were confirmed from the graphs obtained from network performance. This research paper can further be used for future references by all the researchers who aim to study this particular aspect of 802.15.4 based networks

Postharvest oxidative stress in plums : mechanism and implications for storage and fruit quality

Postharvest life and susceptibility to chilling injury (CI) in Japanese plums (Prunus salicina Lindl.) are greatly influenced by preharvest and postharvest factors. The phenomenon of postharvest oxidative stress has been implicated in affecting fruit quality, potential storability and susceptibility to development of physiological disorders during storage of fruits. Therefore, the investigations were carried out to understand the role of various factors, such as cultivar, harvest maturity, storage conditions (temperature and atmosphere composition), duration of storage and postharvest treatments, in the development of oxidative stress in Japanese plums, in relation to fruit quality and CI. The degree of lipid peroxidation and membrane integrity was measured by determining the activity of lipoxygenase enzyme, concentration of thiobarbituric acid–reactive substances, and amount of electrolyte leakage. The activities of antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase, catalase, and peroxidase, were determined as a direct measure of the enzymatic antioxidant capacity. The activities of enzymes (ascorbate peroxidase, monodehydroascorbate reductase, dehydroascorbate reductase, glutathione reductase, and glutathione–S–transferase) involved in the oxidation and regeneration of ascorbate (AA) and glutathione (GSH) were also determined to underpin the dynamics of the AA–GSH cycle. The concentrations of AA, dehydroascorbate (DHA), GSH, and oxidized glutathione (GSSG) were determined to compute the AA:DHA and GSH:GSSG ratios as the indicators of redox potential of fruit tissue. The total phenolics concentration and total antioxidant capacity were also determined as a part of the non–enzymatic antioxidants.The experimental data suggest that postharvest oxidative stress developed during fruit ripening in Japanese plums, but the rate was dependent on the climacteric behaviour of fruit. The climacteric cultivars, ‘Blackamber’ and ‘Amber Jewel’, showed a faster decline in the ability of antioxidative system to encounter the oxidative stress during fruit ripening as compared to ‘Angeleno’, a suppressed–climacteric cultivar. The delay in harvesting of ‘Amber Jewel’ plums by one week slightly improved fruit quality and the initial status of antioxidants than the commercial harvest. However, the fruit harvested at commercial maturity had better retention of antioxidative system during cold storage at 0°C for 3–4 weeks compared to the fruit from the delayed harvest. The changes in enzymatic and non–enzymatic antioxidants as a function of storage duration appear to be more prominent in providing protection against oxidative injury expressed as CI than their at–harvest status. The response of the antioxidative system in ‘Amber Jewel’ plums at 5°C was significantly better than at 0°C. But, the storage temperature of 5°C was not sufficiently low to inhibit the process of fruit ripening, resulting in limited storage life of 2 weeks. The multiple–point time course analysis of lipid peroxidation and changes in enzymatic and non–enzymatic antioxidants of ‘Blackamber’ plums revealed that the third week of storage is the critical point beyond which the capacity of antioxidative system to cope with the increasing oxidative stress from CI and fruit ripening began to decline, resulting in increased incidence and severity of CI during the extended periods of storage. Controlled atmospheres (CA) were found beneficial to reduce the levels of oxidative stress in ‘Blackamber’ plums.CA containing 1% O[subscript]2 + 3% CO[subscript]2 were effective in mitigating the oxidative stress during the 5 weeks of cold storage at 0–1°C, plus 6 days of shelf life at 21±1°C. The efficacy of CA (1% or 2.5% O[subscript]2 + 3% CO[subscript]2) in alleviating CI in ‘Blackamber’ plums could be further enhanced by the pre–storage treatment of fruit with 1–methylcyclopropene (1–MCP, 0.6 μL L[superscript]–[superscript]1). The combination of CA and 1–MCP exhibited synergistic effects on the alleviation of oxidative stress, resulting in enhanced storage life up to 8 weeks, plus 6 days of shelf–life. The role of nitric oxide (NO) as an antioxidant was also investigated in order to retard fruit ripening, delay the onset of senescence and development of oxidative stress in the Japanese plums. Postharvest NO fumigation (10 or 20 μL L[superscript]–[superscript]1) delayed the fruit ripening and maintained quality for 9–12 days in ‘Amber Jewel’ and ‘Blackamber’ plums at 21±1°C. NO fumigation was also beneficial to reduce the symptoms of CI during cold storage of ‘Amber Jewel’ and ‘Blackamber’ plums for 5–6 weeks at 0°C, plus 5 days of shelf–life at 21±1°C. The positive effects of NO fumigation on the enzymatic and non–enzymatic antioxidants in addition to reduced rates of lipid peroxidation were associated with the enhanced chilling tolerance in Japanese plums. The response of ‘Amber Jewel’ to postharvest NO fumigation was significantly better than ‘Blackamber’.In conclusion, the development of oxidative stress in Japanese plums was influenced by cultivar, harvest maturity, cold storage (temperature, duration and atmosphere composition), and postharvest treatments with NO and 1–MCP. The mitigation of oxidative stress by manipulation of postharvest storage conditions and treatments can be achieved to maintain fruit quality and reduce the incidence and severity of CI in Japanese plums

Parallel Image Processing Concepts

Image processing is a task of analysing the image and produces a resultant output in linear way. Image processing tasks are widely used in many applications domains, including medical imaging, industrial manufacturing, entertainment and security systems. Often the size of the image is very large, the processing time has to be very small and usually real-time constraints have to be met. The image analysis requires a large amount of memory and cpu performance, to cope this problem image processing task is parallelized. Parallelism of image analysis task becomes a key factor for processing a huge raw image data. Parallelization allows a scalable and flexible resource management and reduces a time for developing image analysis program. This paper presenting, the automatic parallelization of image processing task in a distributed system, in which suitable subtasks for parallel processing are extracted and mapped with the components of distributed system. This paper presents different design issues of parallel image processing in distributed system. Which helps the image analysis tasks that how to post processing the image in parallel. This technique is quite interactive especially when developing parallel program, as this requires little efforts for finding a suitable distribution of program module and data

Optimization of extraction conditions and enhancement of phenolic content and antioxidant activity of pearl millet fermented with Aspergillus awamori MTCC-548

The present study envisaged two stage optimization of conditions using RSM for extraction of total phenolic compounds from pearl millet koji prepared with Aspergillus awamori. Antioxidant activity was determined by employing DPPH and radical cation of ABTS. In phase-1, fermentation time (5-8 days), extraction temperature (40-60 °C), extraction time (45-60 min.) and solvent (ethanol, 50%; 0.5 ml HCL + 99.5 ml methanol) were tested for maximizing extraction process. The optimum conditions of phenolic recovery were achieved at 8 days fermentation time, 40 °C extraction temperature, 45 min. extraction time with 50% ethanol as solvent, with values of 169.19 mg GAE/g for TPC, 262.7 VCEAC μmol/g for DPPH and 281.86 VCEAC μmol/g for ABTS. TPC were found to be positively correlated (p < 0.05) with DPPH and ABTS under these conditions. In phase-2, a central composite design was applied for design of experiments and model building using extraction time and extraction temperature as process variables for further maximizing the extraction of TPC. The optimized conditions using RSM for maximizing the extraction of total phenolic compounds were: ethanol concentration, 50%; extraction temperature, 44.5 °C and extraction time, 23.8 mins. Under these conditions, 176.82 mg GAE/g of total phenolic compounds were extracted which was very close to the predicted value of 173.2 mg GAE/g. The model was validated at these optimal points

Pupils as leaders: the role of science, technology, engineering and mathematics leadership qualification in promoting pupil leadership

There has always been a significant interest in the development of leaders not least in the secondary school sector. However, little research exists on how pupils learn about leadership with a STEM focus. This thesis explores the perceived leadership skills and attributes gained when pupils undertake the STEM Leadership Qualification (SLq). The qualification is based on the leadership framework of ‘Personal Capabilities’ (Bianchi, 2002). This study uses a qualitative case study methodology utilising a semi-structured interview method to generate data. Interviews were held between May and July 2011. The findings show that not all ‘Personal Capabilities’ were achieved. The study concludes with seven empirical claims of the findings that are based on; Power, Experiential Learning, Emotional Intelligence, STEM activities, Specific Team Roles, Collaboration and Communication. An emerging theoretical framework is proposed to demonstrate the main conclusions of this study (Figure 5.4). STEM in secondary school education, as detailed in the Literature Review, is a supporting pillar to deliver the SLq programme. The use of activities and enrichment allowed pupils to contextualise leadership skills and attributes to their everyday school life. Thus, making a positive difference in helping them understand some of the principles of leadership but more important than this is potentially growing leaders of the future

3D Array Block Rotation Cipher: An Improvement using lateral shift

This paper on Cipher based on 3D Array Block Rotation is in continuation with our earlier paper titled A cipher based on 3D Array Block Rotation. It discusses a new rotation; lateral shift along with the earlier discussed rotation of the 3D Array block or circular shifting of plates of 3D Array in clockwise direction while enciphering and anticlockwise direction while deciphering. It also discusses the problem of relative bit positioning in the earlier specified algorithm and introduce shift rotations of the blocks as a possible solution to the problem. It uses a key of specified length which can be either transferred with the ciphertext or can be obtained by an agreed upon random bit generator. In all, it is a novel and effective cipher with good randomness property

Phytochemical analysis, phenolic compounds, condensed tannin content and antioxidant potential in Marwa (Origanum majorana) seed extracts

Antioxidant and free radical scavenging potential of seed extracts of Origanum majorana was evaluated and correlated with total phenolic content (TPC) and condensed tannin content (CTC). Ethanol, methanol, acetone and chloroform were used to extract bioactive compounds from seeds of Origanum majorana at 45 °С for 45 minutes. As compared to other solvents, methanol seems to be an important extraction solvent, as maximum amount of bioactive compounds (1.18 mg GAE/g dwb) with antioxidant potential was observed in methanolic extract. Total phenolic compounds in seeds were evaluated using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent (FC reagent) method. Total phenolic compounds in seeds were in the range of 0.10-1.18 mg gallic acid equivalent/g dry weight basis (mg GAE/g dwb). HPLC study confirmed the presence of catechin, cinnamic acid, gallic acid and ascorbic acid. The antioxidant potential in seed extracts of Origanum majorana confirmed the presence of nutraceutical properties in them which will further be helpful in the preparation of various functional food products

Productivity enhancement and popularization of improved production technologies in wheat through frontline demonstrations

Front line demonstrations (FLDs) on wheat were conducted on 150 farmers’ fields to demonstrate the impact of drought tolerant rainfed varieties (PBW 175 &amp; PBW 644) and other improved practices techniques (supplemental irrigation and sowing with seed drill) on production and economic benefits in the kandi region of Punjab state during rabi seasons from 2011-12 to 2013-14 under rainfed situation. The improved production technologies recorded additional mean yield of 27.8 q/ha and 28.4 q/ha for rainfed varieties and other improved practices. The per cent average increase in yield of rainfed over local cultivars was 35.3, while 29.1 for other improved practices. The average extension gap, technology gap and technology index were 7.3 q/ha, 8.4 q/ha and 22.5 per cent, respectively in different varieties. FLDs recorded higher B:C ratio of 2.32 and 2.52 for rainfed varieties and other improved practices, respectively. The FLDs conducted on improved technologies during the present study resulted in enhancement of yield, net returns and also increased the knowledge of the farmers. Thus, productivity of wheat could be increased by adopting recommended improved management practices with a suitable high yielding variety under rainfed conditions. The present study resulted in convincing the farming community about potentialities of improved production management technologies of wheat in productivity enhancement and for further adoption by the farming community