AbdelGawad Saad | Agriculture Research Center, Egypt (original) (raw)

Papers by AbdelGawad Saad

Turkish Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research

Effective crop development modelling is essential for crop management, water resource planning, a... more Effective crop development modelling is essential for crop management, water resource planning, assessing climate change's influence on agricultural production, and yield prediction. Validation and simulation of the measured data indicated that AquaCrop software is an effective and reliable program for designing pressurized irrigation systems to increase water application efficiency, system performance and the future prediction. The AquaCrop model was evaluated through a solid-set sprinkler and surface drip irrigation systems at 100%, 80%, and 60% of evapotranspiration (ETo) for the potato crop. The AquaCrop model has shown better performance to simulate potato growth and predicting crop variables under various water systems. The surface drip-irrigation system's at 80% of ETo (48.00, 8.05 ton ha-1) Yield had a substantial impact on the yield of potato and water productivity (WP), matching the yield of potatoes that was irrigated with solid-set sprinklers at 100% of ETo (37.3...

Current Research in Agricultural Sciences

Strawberries have a relatively short postharvest life due to their quick softening and decay. Whe... more Strawberries have a relatively short postharvest life due to their quick softening and decay. When the supply chain is too far along to make logistical adjustments to meet shelf life, quality loss and shelf-life reduction often accelerates with rising temperature. The purpose of this study is to use kinetic modelling to explain how characteristics of strawberry quality vary while they are being stored. To measure the qualities of redness (a*), lightness (L*), chroma colour (C*), weight loss (WL), total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), and total phenolic content (TPC), fresh strawberries were obtained from a farm and stored for 8 days at 4°C and 10°C. The experimental results showed that strawberry quality characteristics stored at 10 °C had a strong and significant impact. After being stored at 10°C, the properties of redness (a*) and lightness (L*) quickly converted to darker zone. During storage at 10 °C, a significant rise in weight loss and chroma was seen with a l...

Processes

Fruit quality is a crucial factor in affecting shelf-life and purchase choice for customers. Prot... more Fruit quality is a crucial factor in affecting shelf-life and purchase choice for customers. Protecting the quality of cantaloupe fruits in the chain from harvest to marketing is a very important process. The objective of this study was to investigate the dynamic characteristics of cantaloupe fruit during excitation, to investigate the effect of vibration strength on the mechanical characteristics of cantaloupe fruit, and to show the effects of this strength on the mechanical damage of cantaloupe. Experiments were performed to measure the dynamic behavior of cantaloupe fruit during transportation and to evaluate the dynamic behavior of the packaging and the damage to the cantaloupes due to transient vibration during transportation. The results show that using the paper pulp tray packing method reduces cantaloupe damage and improves their quality during harvest and post-harvest processes. The range of resonance frequencies is important for the transporting of cantaloupes; a higher st...

Gluten free products remain the cornerstone for celiac patients. Insufficiency, poverty and littl... more Gluten free products remain the cornerstone for celiac patients. Insufficiency, poverty and little offered about gluten free products (quality and quantity) represented a high obstacle for Egyptian celiac patients. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to modify a single screw extruder to produce gluten-free pasta (GFP) (tagliatelle type). The GFP was made from corn flour under screw rotation speed (N) of 10, 25 and 50 rpm at 40, 65, 90 and 115 ºC of barrel temperature (BT). Extruder performance was evaluated as specific mechanical energy (SME) and expansion ratio (Er). The cooking quality of GFP as optimum cooking time (OCT), cooked yield (CY), swelling (Sw), cooking losses (CL) and sensory characteristics (appearance, colour, taste, mouth feel and overall acceptability) were evaluated. The better results of the GFP sensory evaluation were obtained at BT= 80 ºC, N =25 rpm and Er ≈ 1.38 with OCT ≈ 3.3 min, CY= 196%, Sw = 210% and CL= 16.3%. All parameters were given a direct proportion with processing variables N and BT, except CL. Furthermore, it can be predicted cooking properties values for GFP by SME value using the following equation; SME  1.8675 (Er) + 0.8037  0.0608 (OCT) 1.5984  8×10-17 (CY) 6.7878  2×10-9 (Sw) 3.494 -0.0306 (CL) + 0.7877.

Agricultural Engineering International: The CIGR Journal, 2016

Nondestructive optical methods based on image analysis have been used for determining quality of ... more Nondestructive optical methods based on image analysis have been used for determining quality of tomato fruit. It is rapid and requires less sample preparation. A samples of fresh tomatoes were picked at different maturity stages, and determining chromaticity values (L*,a*,b*,a*/b*,h˚and ΔE) by image analysis and colorimeter. Total soluble solids (TSS), were measured by refractometer, lycopene extracting and expressed as mg/kg fresh tomato (FW). Results indicated that, during ripening both L*, b*, h˚, and ΔE tendency to decline, opposite tendency was determined with a*, a*/b* ratio, TSS and lycopene content. Chromaticity values have an important impact in internal quality parameters. Where, avg. of TSS, entire class and lycopene content had a positive linear correlation with a*/b* ratio. Contrary correlation was determined between avg. of TSS, entire class and both h˚ and ΔE. Meanwhile, h˚ and ΔE, had a negative logarithmic correlation with lycopene content. On the other hand, there...

Misr Journal of Agricultural Engineering

European Journal of Engineering Research and Science, 2017

Gluten free products remain the cornerstone for celiac patients. Insufficiency, poverty and littl... more Gluten free products remain the cornerstone for celiac patients. Insufficiency, poverty and little offered about gluten free products (quality and quantity) represented a high obstacle for Egyptian celiac patients. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to modify a single screw extruder to produce gluten–free pasta (GFP) (tagliatelle type). The GFP was made from corn flour under screw rotation speed (N) of 10, 25 and 50 rpm at 40, 65, 90 and 115 ºC of barrel temperature (BT). Extruder performance was evaluated as specific mechanical energy (SME) and expansion ratio (Er). The cooking quality of GFP as optimum cooking time (OCT), cooked yield (CY), swelling (Sw), cooking losses (CL) and sensory characteristics (appearance, colour, taste, mouth feel and overall acceptability) were evaluated. The better results of the GFP sensory evaluation were obtained at BT= 80 ºC, N =25 rpm and Er ≈ 1.38 with OCT ≈ 3.3 min, CY= 196%, Sw = 210% and CL= 16.3%. All parameters were given a direct pr...

The soil moisture and salinity distribution in the plant roots zone by the quantities of water ad... more The soil moisture and salinity distribution in the plant roots zone by the quantities of water added and the irrigation systems used. A field experiment was carried out in the sandy soil in the field of experiments of the Research and Production Station of the National Research Center in Nubaria Region, El-Buhaira province in the agricultural season 2017/2018. Is a study of the distribution of moisture and salts using different systems of drip irrigation at different depths of the soil 10, 20, 30 cm, under three water amounts a treatment from the field capacity, control 100, 75; 50%. The results were summarized as follows: There is a clear variation in the forms of moisture distribution between the various water treatments and also in the different soil depths where the treatment was 100% the largest in the values of soil moisture followed by the treatment 75% and less under the treatment 50% while the depth of 30 cm is the largest in the value of soil moisture followed by the depth...

Biofuel as a renewable energy, can be produced from many resources, but the easiest, safest, and ... more Biofuel as a renewable energy, can be produced from many resources, but the easiest, safest, and most economic resources used are organisms—natural materials like algae—especially microscopic organisms. Microalgae are characterized by their ability to be grown both naturally and quickly, and represent a source of carotenoids, lipids, and polysaccharides. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Dunaliella salina, and various Chlorella species permit the extraction of about 5–7% biodiesel from their cells. Producing bioethanol to a higher concentration of 60% can be obtained using Chlorococum sp. The best technique for using microalgae to produce biofuel as biodiesel and bioethanol is a biochemical technique, that is, the photo-fermentation technique used to produce biohydrogen. The biochemical technique uses a process known as pyrolysis in which biomass is heated, in the absence of air, to temperatures above 500 ℃ for short periods (a few minutes). Also, C. reinhardtii can generate high condensat...

Misr Journal of Agricultural Engineering

An expelling machine for extracting wheat germ oil was designed and fabricated. The study include... more An expelling machine for extracting wheat germ oil was designed and fabricated. The study included the investigation of the design criteria relating to hopper dimension and screw shaft parameters (outer diameter, pitch, thread depth, thread width, thread length, lead, lead angle, tapered angle, and number of turns on the screw shaft). The expelling machine was tested and evaluated at five screw speeds (25, 35, 45, 55, and 65 rpm) and four levels of press head clearance (0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 mm) to determine the best machine capacity; percentage of oil recovery; percentage of residual oil; and specific energy consumption. The results showed that, the maximum machine capacity was 39 kg/h of raw material at 2mm outlet clearances, and 65 rpm of screw speed. The best operating pressing conditions for the wheat germ oil recovery was 45.7% at the 25 rpm of screw speed and 0.5 mm press head clearance, when the required specific energy was 0.0232 kWh/kg feed .

International Journal of Advanced Research, Dec 1, 2014

The potential of visible/near-infrared (VIS/NIR) absorbance spectroscopy in determining the quali... more The potential of visible/near-infrared (VIS/NIR) absorbance spectroscopy in determining the quality of intact tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum), at varying stage of maturity were evaluated in the wavelength range of 299 nm to 1100 nm. Prediction models were built between Vis/NIR spectra and the major fruit properties viz. total soluble solids (TSS), acidity (pH), titratable acidity (TA), and lycopene content by using partial least squares regression (PLS) method. Different pre-processing methods were applied to improve the predictability of the model for each parameter. The best prediction results were achieved using PLS model after orthogonal signal correction (OSC) data treatment at a wavelength range of 370-1040 nm for all tested parameters. The coefficient of determination (R 2) for majority of parameters were found to be higher than 0.82 except for TA (R 2 =0.77, RMSEP= 4.08), and lycopene (R 2 = 0.79, RMSEP = 4.94). The R 2 value for TSS and pH were found to be 0.85 and 0.82, respectively. For tomato samples good correlation was found between the quality properties (TSS, pH, TA, and lycopene content) parameters. The standard errors of calibration, prediction, biases and differences in them were low, which indicated that spectroscopy has the potential to predict quality of tomato non-destructively.

Engineering in Agriculture, Environment and Food, 2015

The postharvest quality and storage life of vegetables are controlled by maturity due to their ce... more The postharvest quality and storage life of vegetables are controlled by maturity due to their cells still alive after harvest and continue their physiological activity. The objective of this study was to monitoring physico–chemical quality parameters of intact tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum) during storage (18 °C, 85% RH) for 12 days, based upon visible/near-infrared (VIS/NIR) absorbance spectroscopy from 350 nm to 1050 nm. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) was applied to estimate soluble solids content (SSC), Titratable acidity (TA), and lycopene content of the tomatoes. The PLSR calibration model with SSC at 12 days storage, gave the highest coefficient of determination (R2) = 0.91, root mean squared error of prediction (RMSEP) = 0.285 and bias = −0.003. While the lowest R2 with lycopene (0.73) and bias of −0.002 at harvesting day. Changes of sweetness index (SI), SSC, TA and lycopene content varied from 7.16 to 11.39, 4.25 to 5.51 °Brix, 0.5936 to 0.4837% and 8.65–42.69 mg/kg fresh tomato, respectively. While, Hunter colour values L*, a*, and b* were changed from 60.5 to 38.86, −2.85 to 36.59 and 37.07 to 30.92, respectively. The results showed that physico–chemical quality parameters changes significantly during storage of turning maturity tomatoes and have potential application in the field of post-harvesting.

Irrigation water management is the act of timing and regulating irrigation water application in a... more Irrigation water management is the act of timing and regulating irrigation water application in a manner that will meet the water requirement of the crop without wasteful of water, fertilizers, and soil degrading. This research work was carried out at Research Station of National Research Center, El-Noubaria, El-Behaira Governorate, Egypt, during the two successive seasons of 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 to study the effect of three water consumptive use levels (100, 75, and 50 %) from (ETc) and four Egyptian wheat varieties (Giza 168, Sids 12, Misr 1, and Misr 2) on irrigation system uniformity, growth, yield and water productivity of wheat. The design experiment was factorial in complete randomized blocks with three replications. Results could be summarized as following: Uniformity coefficients (% UC) Distribution uniformity (% DU) had been practical evaluated in the experimental field for irrigation system types under studying and resulted were 86.7 % and 78.8 %, respectively. In gene...

1.1.1 Objectives Land resources are not infinite. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the Un... more 1.1.1 Objectives Land resources are not infinite. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO, 1993) has indicated that there is an urgent need to match land types and land uses in the most practicable and logical way to continue a sustainable production and to meet the needs of society while conserving fragile ecosystems. Land evaluation is concerned with the assessment of land performance when used for a specified purpose ( FAO, 1977). In other words, land evaluation is likely to be the prediction of land potential for productive land use types, and then generally a comparison or match of the requirements of each potential land use with the characteristics of each kind of land. The results are a measure of the suitability of each kind of land use for each type of land (Dent, 1981; Beek, 1978). A distinction is made between qualitative land evaluation, mainly based on expert judgment, and quantitative land evaluation based on process simulation models. Land ev...

Misr Journal of Agricultural Engineering

Vegetables are consider as the one of the most valuable group of food which play a vital role in ... more Vegetables are consider as the one of the most valuable group of food which play a vital role in human health by preventing diseases and repair body via maintaining its alkaline reserve (FSSAI 2012). Different vegetables are used in different forms such as roots, stems, leaves, fruits and seeds and contribute to a healthy diet (USDA 2012). Therefore, the maintenance of quality of vegetables is the main concern. However, both quantitative (such as decrease in weight or volume) and qualitative (such as reduced nutrient value and unwanted changes in taste, color, texture, or cosmetic features of food) losses in vegetables occur between harvest and consumption (Buzby and Hyman 2012). Majority of them occur during harvest, and postharvest presses (Kader 2005; Hodges et al. 2011). The qualitative losses, of fresh produce, are although difficult to assess than quantitative losses (Kader 2005; Kitinoja et al. 2011), yet they significantly affect the overall acceptability of the produce. Qua...

Gluten free products remain the cornerstone for celiac patients. Insufficiency, poverty and littl... more Gluten free products remain the cornerstone for celiac patients. Insufficiency, poverty and little offered about gluten free products (quality and quantity) represented a high obstacle for Egyptian celiac patients. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to modify a single screw extruder to produce gluten–free pasta (GFP) (tagliatelle type). The GFP was made from corn flour under screw rotation speed (N) of 10, 25 and 50 rpm at 40, 65, 90 and 115 ºC of barrel temperature (BT). Extruder performance was evaluated as specific mechanical energy (SME) and expansion ratio (Er). The cooking quality of GFP as optimum cooking time (OCT), cooked yield (CY), swelling (Sw), cooking losses (CL) and sensory characteristics (appearance, colour, taste, mouth feel and overall acceptability) were evaluated. The better results of the GFP sensory evaluation were obtained at BT= 80 ºC, N =25 rpm and Er ≈ 1.38 with OCT ≈ 3.3 min, CY= 196%, Sw = 210% and CL= 16.3%. All parameters were given a direct proportion with processing variables N and BT, except CL. Furthermore, it can be predicted cooking properties values for GFP by SME value using the following equation; SME  1.8675 (Er) + 0.8037  0.0608 (OCT) 1.5984  8×10-17 (CY) 6.7878  2×10-9 (Sw) 3.494 -0.0306 (CL) + 0.7877.

Turkish Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research

Effective crop development modelling is essential for crop management, water resource planning, a... more Effective crop development modelling is essential for crop management, water resource planning, assessing climate change's influence on agricultural production, and yield prediction. Validation and simulation of the measured data indicated that AquaCrop software is an effective and reliable program for designing pressurized irrigation systems to increase water application efficiency, system performance and the future prediction. The AquaCrop model was evaluated through a solid-set sprinkler and surface drip irrigation systems at 100%, 80%, and 60% of evapotranspiration (ETo) for the potato crop. The AquaCrop model has shown better performance to simulate potato growth and predicting crop variables under various water systems. The surface drip-irrigation system's at 80% of ETo (48.00, 8.05 ton ha-1) Yield had a substantial impact on the yield of potato and water productivity (WP), matching the yield of potatoes that was irrigated with solid-set sprinklers at 100% of ETo (37.3...

Current Research in Agricultural Sciences

Strawberries have a relatively short postharvest life due to their quick softening and decay. Whe... more Strawberries have a relatively short postharvest life due to their quick softening and decay. When the supply chain is too far along to make logistical adjustments to meet shelf life, quality loss and shelf-life reduction often accelerates with rising temperature. The purpose of this study is to use kinetic modelling to explain how characteristics of strawberry quality vary while they are being stored. To measure the qualities of redness (a*), lightness (L*), chroma colour (C*), weight loss (WL), total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), and total phenolic content (TPC), fresh strawberries were obtained from a farm and stored for 8 days at 4°C and 10°C. The experimental results showed that strawberry quality characteristics stored at 10 °C had a strong and significant impact. After being stored at 10°C, the properties of redness (a*) and lightness (L*) quickly converted to darker zone. During storage at 10 °C, a significant rise in weight loss and chroma was seen with a l...

Processes

Fruit quality is a crucial factor in affecting shelf-life and purchase choice for customers. Prot... more Fruit quality is a crucial factor in affecting shelf-life and purchase choice for customers. Protecting the quality of cantaloupe fruits in the chain from harvest to marketing is a very important process. The objective of this study was to investigate the dynamic characteristics of cantaloupe fruit during excitation, to investigate the effect of vibration strength on the mechanical characteristics of cantaloupe fruit, and to show the effects of this strength on the mechanical damage of cantaloupe. Experiments were performed to measure the dynamic behavior of cantaloupe fruit during transportation and to evaluate the dynamic behavior of the packaging and the damage to the cantaloupes due to transient vibration during transportation. The results show that using the paper pulp tray packing method reduces cantaloupe damage and improves their quality during harvest and post-harvest processes. The range of resonance frequencies is important for the transporting of cantaloupes; a higher st...

Gluten free products remain the cornerstone for celiac patients. Insufficiency, poverty and littl... more Gluten free products remain the cornerstone for celiac patients. Insufficiency, poverty and little offered about gluten free products (quality and quantity) represented a high obstacle for Egyptian celiac patients. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to modify a single screw extruder to produce gluten-free pasta (GFP) (tagliatelle type). The GFP was made from corn flour under screw rotation speed (N) of 10, 25 and 50 rpm at 40, 65, 90 and 115 ºC of barrel temperature (BT). Extruder performance was evaluated as specific mechanical energy (SME) and expansion ratio (Er). The cooking quality of GFP as optimum cooking time (OCT), cooked yield (CY), swelling (Sw), cooking losses (CL) and sensory characteristics (appearance, colour, taste, mouth feel and overall acceptability) were evaluated. The better results of the GFP sensory evaluation were obtained at BT= 80 ºC, N =25 rpm and Er ≈ 1.38 with OCT ≈ 3.3 min, CY= 196%, Sw = 210% and CL= 16.3%. All parameters were given a direct proportion with processing variables N and BT, except CL. Furthermore, it can be predicted cooking properties values for GFP by SME value using the following equation; SME  1.8675 (Er) + 0.8037  0.0608 (OCT) 1.5984  8×10-17 (CY) 6.7878  2×10-9 (Sw) 3.494 -0.0306 (CL) + 0.7877.

Agricultural Engineering International: The CIGR Journal, 2016

Nondestructive optical methods based on image analysis have been used for determining quality of ... more Nondestructive optical methods based on image analysis have been used for determining quality of tomato fruit. It is rapid and requires less sample preparation. A samples of fresh tomatoes were picked at different maturity stages, and determining chromaticity values (L*,a*,b*,a*/b*,h˚and ΔE) by image analysis and colorimeter. Total soluble solids (TSS), were measured by refractometer, lycopene extracting and expressed as mg/kg fresh tomato (FW). Results indicated that, during ripening both L*, b*, h˚, and ΔE tendency to decline, opposite tendency was determined with a*, a*/b* ratio, TSS and lycopene content. Chromaticity values have an important impact in internal quality parameters. Where, avg. of TSS, entire class and lycopene content had a positive linear correlation with a*/b* ratio. Contrary correlation was determined between avg. of TSS, entire class and both h˚ and ΔE. Meanwhile, h˚ and ΔE, had a negative logarithmic correlation with lycopene content. On the other hand, there...

Misr Journal of Agricultural Engineering

European Journal of Engineering Research and Science, 2017

Gluten free products remain the cornerstone for celiac patients. Insufficiency, poverty and littl... more Gluten free products remain the cornerstone for celiac patients. Insufficiency, poverty and little offered about gluten free products (quality and quantity) represented a high obstacle for Egyptian celiac patients. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to modify a single screw extruder to produce gluten–free pasta (GFP) (tagliatelle type). The GFP was made from corn flour under screw rotation speed (N) of 10, 25 and 50 rpm at 40, 65, 90 and 115 ºC of barrel temperature (BT). Extruder performance was evaluated as specific mechanical energy (SME) and expansion ratio (Er). The cooking quality of GFP as optimum cooking time (OCT), cooked yield (CY), swelling (Sw), cooking losses (CL) and sensory characteristics (appearance, colour, taste, mouth feel and overall acceptability) were evaluated. The better results of the GFP sensory evaluation were obtained at BT= 80 ºC, N =25 rpm and Er ≈ 1.38 with OCT ≈ 3.3 min, CY= 196%, Sw = 210% and CL= 16.3%. All parameters were given a direct pr...

The soil moisture and salinity distribution in the plant roots zone by the quantities of water ad... more The soil moisture and salinity distribution in the plant roots zone by the quantities of water added and the irrigation systems used. A field experiment was carried out in the sandy soil in the field of experiments of the Research and Production Station of the National Research Center in Nubaria Region, El-Buhaira province in the agricultural season 2017/2018. Is a study of the distribution of moisture and salts using different systems of drip irrigation at different depths of the soil 10, 20, 30 cm, under three water amounts a treatment from the field capacity, control 100, 75; 50%. The results were summarized as follows: There is a clear variation in the forms of moisture distribution between the various water treatments and also in the different soil depths where the treatment was 100% the largest in the values of soil moisture followed by the treatment 75% and less under the treatment 50% while the depth of 30 cm is the largest in the value of soil moisture followed by the depth...

Biofuel as a renewable energy, can be produced from many resources, but the easiest, safest, and ... more Biofuel as a renewable energy, can be produced from many resources, but the easiest, safest, and most economic resources used are organisms—natural materials like algae—especially microscopic organisms. Microalgae are characterized by their ability to be grown both naturally and quickly, and represent a source of carotenoids, lipids, and polysaccharides. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Dunaliella salina, and various Chlorella species permit the extraction of about 5–7% biodiesel from their cells. Producing bioethanol to a higher concentration of 60% can be obtained using Chlorococum sp. The best technique for using microalgae to produce biofuel as biodiesel and bioethanol is a biochemical technique, that is, the photo-fermentation technique used to produce biohydrogen. The biochemical technique uses a process known as pyrolysis in which biomass is heated, in the absence of air, to temperatures above 500 ℃ for short periods (a few minutes). Also, C. reinhardtii can generate high condensat...

Misr Journal of Agricultural Engineering

An expelling machine for extracting wheat germ oil was designed and fabricated. The study include... more An expelling machine for extracting wheat germ oil was designed and fabricated. The study included the investigation of the design criteria relating to hopper dimension and screw shaft parameters (outer diameter, pitch, thread depth, thread width, thread length, lead, lead angle, tapered angle, and number of turns on the screw shaft). The expelling machine was tested and evaluated at five screw speeds (25, 35, 45, 55, and 65 rpm) and four levels of press head clearance (0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 mm) to determine the best machine capacity; percentage of oil recovery; percentage of residual oil; and specific energy consumption. The results showed that, the maximum machine capacity was 39 kg/h of raw material at 2mm outlet clearances, and 65 rpm of screw speed. The best operating pressing conditions for the wheat germ oil recovery was 45.7% at the 25 rpm of screw speed and 0.5 mm press head clearance, when the required specific energy was 0.0232 kWh/kg feed .

International Journal of Advanced Research, Dec 1, 2014

The potential of visible/near-infrared (VIS/NIR) absorbance spectroscopy in determining the quali... more The potential of visible/near-infrared (VIS/NIR) absorbance spectroscopy in determining the quality of intact tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum), at varying stage of maturity were evaluated in the wavelength range of 299 nm to 1100 nm. Prediction models were built between Vis/NIR spectra and the major fruit properties viz. total soluble solids (TSS), acidity (pH), titratable acidity (TA), and lycopene content by using partial least squares regression (PLS) method. Different pre-processing methods were applied to improve the predictability of the model for each parameter. The best prediction results were achieved using PLS model after orthogonal signal correction (OSC) data treatment at a wavelength range of 370-1040 nm for all tested parameters. The coefficient of determination (R 2) for majority of parameters were found to be higher than 0.82 except for TA (R 2 =0.77, RMSEP= 4.08), and lycopene (R 2 = 0.79, RMSEP = 4.94). The R 2 value for TSS and pH were found to be 0.85 and 0.82, respectively. For tomato samples good correlation was found between the quality properties (TSS, pH, TA, and lycopene content) parameters. The standard errors of calibration, prediction, biases and differences in them were low, which indicated that spectroscopy has the potential to predict quality of tomato non-destructively.

Engineering in Agriculture, Environment and Food, 2015

The postharvest quality and storage life of vegetables are controlled by maturity due to their ce... more The postharvest quality and storage life of vegetables are controlled by maturity due to their cells still alive after harvest and continue their physiological activity. The objective of this study was to monitoring physico–chemical quality parameters of intact tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum) during storage (18 °C, 85% RH) for 12 days, based upon visible/near-infrared (VIS/NIR) absorbance spectroscopy from 350 nm to 1050 nm. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) was applied to estimate soluble solids content (SSC), Titratable acidity (TA), and lycopene content of the tomatoes. The PLSR calibration model with SSC at 12 days storage, gave the highest coefficient of determination (R2) = 0.91, root mean squared error of prediction (RMSEP) = 0.285 and bias = −0.003. While the lowest R2 with lycopene (0.73) and bias of −0.002 at harvesting day. Changes of sweetness index (SI), SSC, TA and lycopene content varied from 7.16 to 11.39, 4.25 to 5.51 °Brix, 0.5936 to 0.4837% and 8.65–42.69 mg/kg fresh tomato, respectively. While, Hunter colour values L*, a*, and b* were changed from 60.5 to 38.86, −2.85 to 36.59 and 37.07 to 30.92, respectively. The results showed that physico–chemical quality parameters changes significantly during storage of turning maturity tomatoes and have potential application in the field of post-harvesting.

Irrigation water management is the act of timing and regulating irrigation water application in a... more Irrigation water management is the act of timing and regulating irrigation water application in a manner that will meet the water requirement of the crop without wasteful of water, fertilizers, and soil degrading. This research work was carried out at Research Station of National Research Center, El-Noubaria, El-Behaira Governorate, Egypt, during the two successive seasons of 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 to study the effect of three water consumptive use levels (100, 75, and 50 %) from (ETc) and four Egyptian wheat varieties (Giza 168, Sids 12, Misr 1, and Misr 2) on irrigation system uniformity, growth, yield and water productivity of wheat. The design experiment was factorial in complete randomized blocks with three replications. Results could be summarized as following: Uniformity coefficients (% UC) Distribution uniformity (% DU) had been practical evaluated in the experimental field for irrigation system types under studying and resulted were 86.7 % and 78.8 %, respectively. In gene...

1.1.1 Objectives Land resources are not infinite. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the Un... more 1.1.1 Objectives Land resources are not infinite. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO, 1993) has indicated that there is an urgent need to match land types and land uses in the most practicable and logical way to continue a sustainable production and to meet the needs of society while conserving fragile ecosystems. Land evaluation is concerned with the assessment of land performance when used for a specified purpose ( FAO, 1977). In other words, land evaluation is likely to be the prediction of land potential for productive land use types, and then generally a comparison or match of the requirements of each potential land use with the characteristics of each kind of land. The results are a measure of the suitability of each kind of land use for each type of land (Dent, 1981; Beek, 1978). A distinction is made between qualitative land evaluation, mainly based on expert judgment, and quantitative land evaluation based on process simulation models. Land ev...

Misr Journal of Agricultural Engineering

Vegetables are consider as the one of the most valuable group of food which play a vital role in ... more Vegetables are consider as the one of the most valuable group of food which play a vital role in human health by preventing diseases and repair body via maintaining its alkaline reserve (FSSAI 2012). Different vegetables are used in different forms such as roots, stems, leaves, fruits and seeds and contribute to a healthy diet (USDA 2012). Therefore, the maintenance of quality of vegetables is the main concern. However, both quantitative (such as decrease in weight or volume) and qualitative (such as reduced nutrient value and unwanted changes in taste, color, texture, or cosmetic features of food) losses in vegetables occur between harvest and consumption (Buzby and Hyman 2012). Majority of them occur during harvest, and postharvest presses (Kader 2005; Hodges et al. 2011). The qualitative losses, of fresh produce, are although difficult to assess than quantitative losses (Kader 2005; Kitinoja et al. 2011), yet they significantly affect the overall acceptability of the produce. Qua...

Gluten free products remain the cornerstone for celiac patients. Insufficiency, poverty and littl... more Gluten free products remain the cornerstone for celiac patients. Insufficiency, poverty and little offered about gluten free products (quality and quantity) represented a high obstacle for Egyptian celiac patients. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to modify a single screw extruder to produce gluten–free pasta (GFP) (tagliatelle type). The GFP was made from corn flour under screw rotation speed (N) of 10, 25 and 50 rpm at 40, 65, 90 and 115 ºC of barrel temperature (BT). Extruder performance was evaluated as specific mechanical energy (SME) and expansion ratio (Er). The cooking quality of GFP as optimum cooking time (OCT), cooked yield (CY), swelling (Sw), cooking losses (CL) and sensory characteristics (appearance, colour, taste, mouth feel and overall acceptability) were evaluated. The better results of the GFP sensory evaluation were obtained at BT= 80 ºC, N =25 rpm and Er ≈ 1.38 with OCT ≈ 3.3 min, CY= 196%, Sw = 210% and CL= 16.3%. All parameters were given a direct proportion with processing variables N and BT, except CL. Furthermore, it can be predicted cooking properties values for GFP by SME value using the following equation; SME  1.8675 (Er) + 0.8037  0.0608 (OCT) 1.5984  8×10-17 (CY) 6.7878  2×10-9 (Sw) 3.494 -0.0306 (CL) + 0.7877.