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India is the second largest producer of tomato with 11 per cent global share and cultivated on an estimated area of 0.76 million hectares with productivity of 24 tonnes per hectare. Less than 1% of the produce is processed when compared to 26% in other major producing countries. Of the estimated more than 41 million tonnes of tomato processed globally, only 130,000 tonnes were processed in India and domestic demand for processed tomato products is expanding at an estimated 30% annually. At present traditional fresh market tomato cultivars are being processed though such cultivars are unsuitable for processing. Processors in India are looking for high yielding tomato cultivars with high total soluble solids (5-6 º Brix), acidity not less than 0.4%, pH less than 4.5 and uniform red colour with a/b colour value of at least 2. In addition, firm fruited tomato cultivars with joint less pedicel (j2) which facilitate mechanical harvesting or rapid hand picking. ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research has recently developed two high yielding F1 hybrids in tomato viz: Arka Apeksha and Arka Vishesh suitable for processing. On evaluation for three years, both the hybrids recorded good level of total soluble solids (4.5-5º Brix) and colour value of 2. Further, both the hybrids had high yield potential (80-90 tonnes / hectare) with triple disease resistance to tomato leaf curl disease, bacterial wilt and early blight. Arka Apeksha and Arka Vishesh were also bred with jointless pedicel making them suitable for mechanical harvesting. Our experimental studies on vine storability revealed that all the fruits were intact on plants even 110 days after transplanting in the main field facilitating once over harvest.

Optimization of process parameters is a critical requirement in food processing and food product industries for the development of highly acceptable product. Quantification of mass transfer kinetics under different processing conditions is essential step for optimizing the osmotic dehydration process. A Box-Behnken Design (BBD), adopted from response surface methodology (RSM) approach was used for evaluating and quantifying the moisture loss and solids gain kinetics of aonla segments in salt solution during the osmotic dehydration process. The independent variables were fixed at three levels (salt concentration- 2, 4, 6%; process temperature - 45, 50, 55 OC and process time - 60, 120, 180 minutes). The process responses were water loss percentage (WL%) and solids gain percentage (SG%). Validation experiments were conducted at optimum conditions to verify predictions and adequacy of the models. The optimum conditions predicted were 5.02% salt concentration, 54.8 OC temperature and 60.64 minutes process time to attain a desired effect of maximum water loss (6.42%) and minimum solid gain (1.09%) in osmotic dehydration of aonla in salt medium.

We retrospectively analysed overall survival (OS) and potential predictive biomarkers of OS in patients with metastatic melanoma treated with ipilimumab plus nivolumab in a single institution. Electronic medical records of patients with advanced melanoma receiving ≥ 1 dose of a combined ipilimumab plus nivolumab regimen between March 3, 2016 and March 7, 2020 in a single institution, were reviewed. OS was analysed using the Kaplan–Meier method. Sub-group analyses were conducted to examine several endpoints according to relevant clinical, molecular and pathological variables using logistic and Cox models. Forty-four cases were reviewed, 38 (86.4%), of whom had cutaneous melanoma, 21 (47.7%) were BRAF mutant, 21 (47.7%) presented high lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) values, 23 (52.3%) had ≥ 3 disease sites, and 10 (22.7%) patients had brain metastases. The median follow-up was 37.7 months, and the median OS was 21.1 months (95% CI 8.2–NR). In the multivariate analysis, the OS was significantly longer in patients with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score of 0, LDH ≤ upper limit of normal, absence of liver metastases and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR)

We retrospectively analysed overall survival (OS) and potential predictive biomarkers of OS in patients with metastatic melanoma treated with ipilimumab plus nivolumab in a single institution.Electronic medical records of patients with advanced melanoma receiving ≥ 1 dose of a combined ipilimumab plus nivolumab regimen between March 3, 2016 and March 7, 2020 in a single institution, were reviewed. OS was analysed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Sub-group analyses were conducted to examine several endpoints according to relevant clinical, molecular and pathological variables using logistic and Cox models.Forty-four cases were reviewed, 38 (86.4%), of whom had cutaneous melanoma, 21 (47.7%) were BRAF mutant, 21 (47.7%) presented high lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) values, 23 (52.3%) had ≥ 3 disease sites, and 10 (22.7%) patients had brain metastases. The median follow-up was 37.7 months, and the median OS was 21.1 months (95% CI 8.2-NR). In the multivariate analysis, the OS was significantly longer in patients with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score of 0, LDH ≤ upper limit of normal, absence of liver metastases and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) 5 (all p ≤ 0.05, log-rank test). These factors allowed the classification of patients into three prognostic risk groups (low/intermediate/high risk) for death.Overall survival of real-world patients from our cohort receiving ipilimumab plus nivolumab was lower than in previous studies. The ECOG score, LDH values, the presence of liver metastases and the NLR were independent prognostic factors for survival.

Aflatoxins are polyketide secondary metabolites that are produced by certain fungal species in the Aspergillus section Flavi, particularly Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus which contaminate human food as well as animal feed. These are among the most carcinogenic substances known. Due to the toxic and carcinogenic properties of aflatoxins, there is a need to develop reliable methods to detect the presence of aflatoxigenic Aspergilli in contaminated food and feed. Not all Aspergillus strains are able to produce aflatoxins. It requires a detection methodology which can specifically distinguish between the aflatoxin producing and nonproducing strains of Aspergillus. Present communication reports validation of a PCR based detection system based on three genes viz., nor-1, apa-2 and omt-1 involved in aflatoxin biosynthesis, that can specifically distinguish the two aflatoxin producing species viz. Aspergillus flavus ,and Aspergillus parasiticus from non-producers i.e., A. niger, A. fumigates and A. oryzae.

During the period 1 October 1978 through 31 March 1979, the Chamberlain liquid-heating state-of-the-art flat-plate solar collector was evaluated for a complete heating season. The data acquisition and analysis was a continuation of the cooling season performance evaluation conducted during the summer and fall of 1978. Significant and important results of the systems evaluation include: (1) The demonstration of the critical importance of temperature differentials between the collector outlet and the absorption chiller generator inlet, the effects of alternative control strategies, the marginal feasibility of cool storage, the devastating effect on system performance due to heat losses from the thermal storage unit, and the importance of minimizing electrical parasitic power requirements in obtaining feasibility for solar absorption cooling systems. (2) The concept of overall system efficiency was shown to be essential in the determination of the feasibility of any solar installation. (3) Evaluation of acquired data on the performance of the CSU Solar House III system has provided the theoretical construction and experimental verification of the importance of solar operating threshold (i.e., the minimum solar radiation intensity at which the collector can collect useful solar heat).

The principal objective of the project is to test and evaluate the practicality of an integrated evacuated tube solar collector and absorption space cooling system installed in Colorado State University (CSU) Solar House III. This objective was to be accomplished by designing and installing a complete solar heating and cooling system (including appropriate instrumentation), performing detailed analysis and evaluation of all aspects of the system, and comparing seasonal performance with two other solar heating and cooling systems installed in adjacent buildings with virtually identical thermal characteristics. The two comparison system, installed in CSU Solar Houses I and II, consist of conventional solar water-heating and air-heating flat-plate collectors. The system in CSU Solar House III was comprised of a 48 m/sup 2/ (512 ft/sup 2/) liquid-heating evacuated tube solar collector array, 4550 liter (1200 gallon) thermal storage water tank, 7.03 kW (2-ton) lithium bromide absorption chiller, cool storage subsystem, and other components of the heating and cooling system.

The bulk of the technical effort was devoted to the evaluation of a residential solar heating and cooling system utilizing an array of evacuated tube solar collectors. In May 1978, the evacuated tube collectors were removed and replaced with a state-of-the-art liquid-heating flat-plate solar collector array. First, the installation, performance, and operating experience of the Owens-Illinois (O-I) evacuated tube solar collector integrated with the CSU Solar House III residential sized solar heating and cooling system is dealt with. The second section discusses four months of installation, operation, and evaluation of the Chamberlain flat-plate collectors installed on CSU Solar House III.

The objective of this study was to test and evaluate the practicality of an integrated flat-plate state-of-the-art liquid-heating solar collector and absorption cooling system installed on Colorado State University (CSU) Solar House III. This objective was accomplished by designing and installing a complete solar heating and cooling system (including appropriate data acquisition equipment and instrumentation), performing a detailed analysis and evaluation of all aspects of the solar system, and comparing the seasonal performance of the system with two other solar heating and cooling systems installed in adjacent buildings with virtually identical thermal characteristics.