Evaluation of engineering properties for waste control of tomato during harvesting and postharvesting

Environmental Sustainability Analysis of Case Studies of Agriculture Residue Exploitation

The agriculture sector produces significant amounts of organic residues and the choice of the management strategy of these flows affects the environmental sustainability of the sector. The scientific literature is rich with innovative processes for the production of bio-based products (BBP) from agriculture residues, aimed at the implementation of circular economy principles. Based on literature data, the present paper performed a life cycle assessment and assessed the environmental sustainability of five processes for the exploitation of rice and wheat straw, tomato pomace, and orange peel. The analysis identified as significant issues the high energy demand and the use of high impact organic solvent. The comparison of BBP with conventional products showed higher environmental loads for the innovative processes that used organic residues (except for rice straw case). The obtained results do not want to discourage the circular strategy in the agriculture sector, but rather to draw the attention of all stakeholders to the environmental sustainability aspects, focusing on the necessity to decrease the electricity demand and identify ecological agents to use in BBP manufacturing, in agreement with the most recent European policies.

Overexpression of Pti4, Pti5, and Pti6 in tomato promote plant defense and fruit ripening

Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato (Pst) is a pathogenic microorganism that causes bacterial speck disease and affects tomato yield and quality. Pto is a disease resistant gene for plant to recognize and defense against Pst. Pto interacts with Pti (Pto interacting) proteins, which include three transcription factors, Pti4, Pti5, Pti6, and they were thought to be downstream of Pto-mediated pathway to promote the expression of disease-related genes. In the present work, the overexpression plants of Pti4, Pti5 or Pti6 were obtained by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in tomato. The Pti4/5/6-overexpressed lines indicated enhanced expression of pathogenesis-related genes and resistance to pathogenic bacteria Pst DC3000. Meanwhile, the transgenic plants showed that Pti4/5/6 function in ripening but performed no obvious adverse influence on flowering time, seed-setting rate, weight and soluble solids content of fruits. Furthermore, Pti-overexpressed fruits exhibited increased enzymatic activities of phenylalnine ammonialyase, catalase, peroxidase and decreased content of malondialdehyde. Additionally, cell-free and in vivo ubiquitination assay indicated that Pti4, Pti5 and Pti6 degraded by 26S proteasome which suggested that these Pti transcription regulators' functions could be regulated by ubiquitin-mediated post translational regulation in tomato.

Effects of biofertilizers and iron nano-oxide on maize yield and physiological properties under optimal irrigation and drought stress conditions

In this research, effects iron nano-oxide and biofertilizers and chemical was investigated on the yield and some traits of Maize under normal and drought stress conditions in two years (2018 and 2019). The experiment was performed in the form of split-spilt plot in a complete random block design with three replications. The studied irrigation treatment included three levels (normal, 85% and 65% optimum water requirement) in the main plots and iron nano-oxide at four levels (0, 0.5, 1, and 1.5 g/L) in subplots, and biofertilizers at four levels (noninoculation, inoculation with mycorrhiza, inoculation with pseudomonas and combined inoculation of mycorrhiza and pseudomonas) in sub-plots. The results showed that grain yield, 1000-grain weight, and leaf chlorophyll contents decreased by drought stress. Use of pseudomonas and mycorrhiza increased these traits in normal and stress conditions, but iron nano-oxide had no significant effect on the measured traits. Also, drought stress increased malondialdehyde, ion leakage, catalase, peroxidase, proline, and polyphenol oxidase in both light and severe stress regimes. The amount of antioxidant enzymes increased under drought stress conditions in corn. The results indicated that all the characteristics measured by double inoculation with Pseudomonas and Microoriza had the best performance in conditions of water shortage and the use of these biofertilizers increases yield, 1000-seed weight, and chlorophyll content of maize. Also, the use of biofertilizers modulates the effect of drought stress and reduces its negative effects.

Evaluation of ultrasound technology to break seed dormancy of common lambsquarters (Chenopodium album)

Although seed dormancy is advantageous for annual plants in the wild, unsynchronized germination in the laboratory leads to increased error in measurements. Therefore, techniques to promote and synchronize germination are routinely used. Ultrasound is one of the newest methods for breaking dormancy in weed seeds. We have investigated whether ultrasonic waves can be used to break seed dormancy of common lambsquarters (Chenopodium album), a highly competitive annual weed that leads to significant reduction of yields of corn, soybeans, and sugar beets. Ultrasonic waves with frequency of 35 kH were applied for 0 (control), 5, 10, 15, and 30 min using a completely randomized design. The results showed that the use of ultrasound waves generally enhanced the traits under investigation in the treated samples compared with the control sample. The maximum enhancement of germination percentage (180%), seedling dry weight (78%), and seedling vigor index I (271%) and II (392%) was seen in the common lambsquarters samples treated with ultrasound for 15 min and seedling length (40%) at 30 min compared with the control samples. Radical lengths were not statistically different from controls under any treatment and plumule length only increased marginally. These changes are reflected in seedling vigor index I and II measurements. For some of these traits, increasing the length of ultrasound treatment to 30 min had negative effects. These results demonstrate that ultrasound technology can be used as a quick, and efficient nondestructive method to break seed dormancy in common lambsquarters.

Prediction kinetic, energy and exergy of quince under hot air dryer using ANNs and ANFIS

This study aimed to predict the drying kinetics, energy utilization (Eu ), energy utilization ratio (EUR), exergy loss, and exergy efficiency of quince slice in a hot air (HA) dryer using artificial neural networks and ANFIS. The experiments were performed at air temperatures of 50, 60, and 70°C and air velocities of 0.6, 1.2, and 1.8 m/s. The thermal parameters were determined using thermodynamic relations. Increasing air temperature and air velocity increased the effective moisture diffusivity (Deff ), Eu , EUR, exergy efficiency, and exergy loss. The value of the Deff was varied from 4.19 × 10-10 to 1.18 × 10-9 m2/s. The highest value Eu , EUR, and exergy loss and exergy efficiency were calculated 0.0694 kJ/s, 0.882, 0.044 kJ/s, and 0.879, respectively. Midilli et al. model, ANNs, and ANFIS model, with a determination coefficient (R 2) of .9992, .9993, and .9997, provided the best performance for predicting the moisture ratio of quince fruit. Also, the ANFIS model, in comparison with the artificial neural networks model, was better able to predict Eu , EUR, exergy efficiency, and exergy loss, with R 2 of .9989, .9988, .9986, and .9978, respectively.