Chemical ripening and contaminations detection using neural networks-based image features and spectrometric signatures

In this pandemic-prone era, health is of utmost concern for everyone and hence eating good quality fruits is very much essential for sound health. Unfortunately, nowadays it is quite very difficult to obtain naturally ripened fruits, due to existence of chemically ripened fruits being ripened using hazardous chemicals such as calcium carbide. However, most of the state-of-the art techniques are primarily focusing on identification of chemically ripened fruits with the help of computer vision-based approaches, which are less effective towards quantification of chemical contaminations present in the sample fruits. To solve these issues, a new framework for chemical ripening and contamination detection is presented, which employs both visual and IR spectrometric signatures in two different stages. The experiments conducted on both the GUI tool as well as hardware-based setups, clearly demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed framework in terms of detection confidence levels followed by the percentage of presence of chemicals in the sample fruit.

TRINEXAPAC-ETHYL AS CHEMICAL RIPENING AGENT ON SWEET SORGHUM CROP

Literary references on the quality of juice of sweet sorghum crop following chemical ripening agents spraying are rarely found up, mostly concerning to the trinexapac-ethyl. Accordingly, this article shares an unpublished content about chemically-induced physiological ripening on the sweet sorghum cv. CMSXS-646 by spraying trinexapac-ethyl before the crop flowering. A CO2-pressurized backpack sprayer, with flat spray nozzles, was employed to exogenously spray the plant growth inhibitor at 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 l ha-1 on 90-days-old plants. Early after the crop harvesting, juice and lignocellulose samples were technologically assessed to total soluble solids, sucrose, purity, reducing sugars, total reducing sugars, fibers and yield of sugar. Sweet sorghum plants exposured to the trinexapacethyl at 0.4 and 0.8 l ha-1 produced juices with approximately 20.2 and 20.3 °Brix, 15.1 and 13.2% sucrose, 74.6 and 64.9% purity, as well as 107.7 and 98.2 kg t-1 sugar, respectively. Unlike, plants cultivated as control, juices with 21.0 °Brix, 16.0% sucrose, 76.9% purity and 118.0 kg t-1 sugar. Therefore, trinexapac-ethyl had suppressive effect on the quality of juice, mostly regarding to the total soluble solids and yield of sugar. Plants sprayed with trinexapac-ethyl at 1.6 l ha-1 developed the most fibrous stalks, as host-defense system response to stress induced on plant physiology. The conclusion is, therefore, that although does prejudices the quality of juice, making it unsustainable to the production of first-generation ethanol, trinexapac-ethyl as chemical ripening agent could lead the sweet sorghum cv. CMSXS-646, while lignocellulose renewable source, to the industrialization of cellulosic ethanol and bioelectricity.

The influence of salt concentration on the chemical, ripening and sensory characteristics of Iranian white cheese manufactured by UF-Treated milk

Iranian White cheese was manufactured from ultrafiltered cows’ milk using different concentrations of salt consisting of 1, 2·5, 4% and salt free. Chemical composition, proteolysis, counts for lactic acid bacteria and sensory evaluation were examined during 90 d of ripening. It was found that the use of different salt concentrations significantly influenced all chemical composition, proteolysis, total number of lactic acid bacteria and sensory characteristics of the cheeses. Increasing the salt concentrations caused a proportional decrease in proteolysis determined by both urea-PAGE of caseins and RP-HPLC of peptides. With increased salt concentration, total number of lactic acid bacteria decreased. Cheeses with 1 and 2·5% salt were suitable and acceptable in odour and flavour that may be due to the proportional level of proteolysis products. In conclusion, reducing salt concentration from 4 to 2·5 and 1% had no ineligible effect on the quality and acceptability of the cheese.

Herbicides as Ripeners for Sugarcane

Chemical ripening of sugarcane is an important component to profitable sugar production in the United States as well as other sugarcane industries throughout the world. Harvesting of sugarcane often begins before the sugarcane reaches the desirable maturity level. This is especially true in the Louisiana sugarcane industry where the window for harvesting is limited because of the risk of freezing temperatures encountered in a temperate climate. Research on the application of chemicals, mostly of herbicide origin, to enhance sucrose accumulation (ripening) or limit flowering to conserve stored sucrose has been conducted for more than 60 yr. The only sugarcane ripener currently registered for use in the United States is glyphosate applied before harvest. The herbicide fluazifop is used as the primary ripener of sugarcane in South Africa. The herbicides glyphosate, fluazifop, and sulfometuron-methyl and the growth regulators ethephon and trinexapac-ethyl are registered for use in Brazil. There is a continuing need to evaluate sugarcane ripeners to increase the utility of currently registered ripeners and to find additional ripeners for use by sugarcane industries. The need for alternatives to glyphosate is especially critical before a glyphosate-tolerant sugarcane can be utilized to improve control of problematic weeds.