Modeling of drying kinetic of pretreated sour cherry.
The effects of pretreatment solution (dipping in boiling water, salty boiling water, ethil oleat) were studied on drying kinetic of sour cherry. The thin-layer drying of sour cherries were carried out at three air temperatures of 50, 60 and 70°C and airflow velocity of 1 m/s. The experimental data were fitted to several thin-layer drying models such as Newton, Henderson and Pabis, Page, Logarithmic, Approximate Diffusion, Two-term exponential, and Midilli et al.. Three statistical tools coefficient of determination (R2), reduced chi-square (x2) and root means square error (RMSE) were used to quantify the goodness of fit. According to the results, drying time of sour cherry samples dipped in salty boiling water solution was shorter than the pretreated samples and control treatments. Besids, The Midilli et al. and Logarithmic models were found to be most suitable in describing the drying characteristics of sour cherry respectively. The effective moisture diffusivity of sour cherries based on the analytical solution of Fick’s second law ranged from 2.07×10-11 to 2.33×10-10 m2/s. Using of pretreated solutions caused to decreasing activation energy in sour cherry drying process. Activation energy values varied from 23.74 to 83.05 kJ/mol.
Hot-air drying characteristics of red pepper
This work presents a theoretical and experimental study of the drying kinetics of red peppers under different pretreatment and air drying conditions. Red peppers, Capsicum annuum, grown in the region of Kahramanmaras, Turkey, were pretreated with various solutions of alkaline emulsion of ethyl oleate (AEEO) and dried afterwards. To date, there has been no work that studied the effect of AEEO pretreatment solution on the drying of red peppers. Our results indicated that pretreated peppers dried faster and had higher Hunter L (lightness), +a (redness) and +b (yellowness) values than the untreated and dried peppers. 2% ethyl oleate and 5% K2CO3 solution was found to be the most effective dipping solution that provided for whole peppers dried at 50 °C, and yielded best color quality. Drying curves of sliced peppers were obtained using the Page and exponential equations. Comparing the r2 values of both equations, it was concluded that the Page equation represents drying characteristics better than the exponential equation.
Fluctuating asymmetry as an indicator of stress: Implications for conservation biology.
Extinction can be attributed broadly to environmental or genetic stress. The ability to detect such stresses before they seriously affect a population can enhance the effectiveness of conservation programs. Recent studies have shown that within-individual morphological variability may provide a valuable early indicator of environmental and genetic stress.