Chocolate campaigns in the United States have focused on the production of premier quality and healthy blend chocolate bars. We expect that merchandising efforts will offer a higher price for fruit or nut blend chocolates. Using online retail data from Amazon, eBay, and Walmart, we applied the hedonic function to estimate retailers offer price for a blended bar. The findings show that online re...

This randomized prospective trial aimed to assess the feasibility and efficacy of a team-based worksite health and safety intervention for law enforcement personnel. Four-hundred and eight subjects were enrolled and half were randomized to meet for weekly, peer-led sessions delivered from a scripted team-based health and safety curriculum. Curriculum addressed: exercise, nutrition, stress, slee...

Wild animals substantially support crop production by providing ecosystem services, such as pollination and natural pest control. However, the strengths of synergies between ecosystem services and their dependencies on land-use management are largely unknown. Here, we took an experimental approach to test the impact of land-use intensification on both individual and combined pollination and pes...

'Comice' is among the pear varieties most difficult to ripen after harvest. Ethylene, cold temperature, and intermediate (10 °C) temperature conditioning have been successfully used to stimulate the ability of 'Comice' pears to ripen. However, the sensory quality of pears stimulated to ripen by different conditioning treatments has not been evaluated. In this study, a descriptive sensory analys...

The effects of different-colored polyethylene mulches on the quantity and spectra of reflected light, earliness of fruit set, fruit yield and quality, and root-knot disease were studied in field-grown, staked tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum). White mulch reflected more photosynthetic light and a lower far-red-to-red ratio than red mulch, whereas black mulch reflected less than 5 percent of any ...

Pathogens feed on fruits and vegetables causing great food losses or at least reduction of their shelf life. These pathogens can cause losses of the final product or in the farms were the products are grown, attacking leaves, stems and trees. This review analyses disease detection sensors and algorithms for both the farm and postharvest management of fruit and vegetable quality. Mango, avocado,...

The ability of some crops to accumulate selenium (Se) is crucial for human nutrition and health. Selenium has been identified as a cofactor of the enzyme glutathione peroxidase, which is a catalyzer in the reduction of peroxides that can damage cells and tissues, and can act as an antioxidant. Plants are the first link in the food chain, which ends with humans. Increasing the Se quantity in pla...

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of flooding on two tomato cultivars and two wild related species. Forty days old tomato plants were subjected to a continuous flooding stress of different durations: 0, 2, 4 and 8 days. Plant pots were placed inside larger plastic pots; they were irrigated with excessive quantity of tap water at 25C so that the level of water above...

Excessive sugar consumption could lead to high blood glucose levels that are harmful to mammalian health and life. Despite consuming large amounts of sugar-rich food, fruit bats have a longer lifespan, raising the question of how these bats overcome potential hyperglycemia. We investigated the change of blood glucose level in nectar-feeding bats (Eonycteris spelaea) and fruit-eating bats (Cynop...

The star fruit is a perennial woody tree, which can blossom and bear many times year. time quantity of flowering are the key indicators its economic value. However, molecular mechanism still unknown. This study provides genome-wide analysis genes fruit. Based on previous morphological flower bud differentiation, reproductive buds, vegetative buds mature leaves were sampled for transcriptome ana...