Recent Advances In Stored Product Protection

This book aims to assess, evaluate and critically analyze the methods that are currently available for a judicious pest management in durable food. It presents and analyzes a vast amount of methods that are already in use in “real world” industrial applications. After the phase-out of methyl bromide, but also the withdrawal of several insecticides and the continuously updated food safety regulations, there is a significant knowledge gap on the use of risk-reduced, ecologically-compatible control methods that can be used with success against stored-product insect species and related arthropods. The importance of integrated pest management (IPM) is growing, but the concept as practiced for stored products might differ from IPM as historically developed for field crops. This book discusses a wide variety of control strategies used for stored product management and describes some of the IPM components. The editors included chemical and non-chemical methods, as both are essential in IPM. They set the scene for more information regarding emerging issues in stored product protection, such as emerging, alien and invasive species as threats for global food security, as well as the importance of stored-product arthropods for human health. Finally, the analysis of the economics of stored product protection is presented, from theory to practice.

The International Working Conference on Stored Product Protection, held every four years, is the premier world forum for the presentation of research results and reviews on the safe storage of durable foodstuffs, of which cereal grains, pulses and oilseeds make up the largest components. This book presents the proceedings of the 8th conference, held in York, UK, in July 2002. This book highlights work on the pests and diseases that may cause spoilage, adverse health effects and loss of the crop after harvest, and discusses new techniques for the safe, effective and environmentally friendly management of stored commodities. With nearly 200 keynote, oral and poster papers and contributions from leading experts from around the world, the contents cover the future of stored product protection and the impacts of global issues, food safety, chemical and physical control, and processing and applications. The volume will interest applied entomologists, plant pathologists, postharvest biologists, and agricultural engineers.

Diatoms are single cell algae composed of silica. They represent one of the most outstanding natural materials with exceptional structural, mechanical, optical, photonic and chemical properties optimized through millions of years of evolution. The unique nano and micro silica structures of the material combined with its availability as a low cost mineral from diatomaceous earth are attractive for solving many of today's environmental, energy and health problems. Diatom Nanotechnology provides a comprehensive overview of the material and its uses. The first part of the book looks at the distinctive porous silica structure of diatoms, the mechanism of their formation and their properties. Individual chapters then explore the broad range of their applications in nanotechnology including nanofabrication, optical biosensors, gas sensors, water purifications, photonics, drug delivery, batteries, solar cells, supercapacitors, new adsorbents and composite materials. With contributions from leading international experts, the book represents an important resource for academics, researchers, industry professionals, postgraduate and advanced level undergraduate students providing them with the latest developments on this emerging and dynamic field.

Insect infestations in grains and other stored food and fibre products cause annual losses worth many millions of dollars worldwide. This illustrated guide enables specialists and non-specialists to distinguish the major pests of durable stored products found throughout the world. It describes how to identify each pest group or species and summarises the latest information on their biology, ecology, geographical distribution, the damage they cause and their economic importance. Hundreds of colour photographs illustrate the identifying features of the most important beetles, moths, psocids, bugs and wasps found in stored products. Essential details on inspection and trapping are included to aid in the early detection of infestations, allowing more time to plan and undertake effective pest control. An extensive bibliography provides a convenient entry point to the specialised literature on these insects. This concise yet comprehensive reference is an essential tool for people responsible for the storage and handling of dried durable products of plant and animal origin worldwide.

High-quality seed is essential for healthy crops and greater agricultural productivity. At the same time, advances in breeding technology require equivalent advances in seed technology. In order to ensure food security, it is crucial to develop seeds that are high yielding, and resistant to drought, heat, cold, and insects. Gathering the latest research in seed sciences, the book includes contributions on seed production in crops such as legumes, sugar, rice, wheat and other cereals. It discusses a range of topics, like the effect of climate change on seed quality, production and storage; seed rouging; seed certification for different crop species; seed biology; and seed pathologies and their effective management. Integrating basic and applied research, this compendium provides valuable insights for researchers and students in agricultural and life sciences; professionals involved in seed certification and those working in quarantine laboratories; as well as plant pathologists.

This book describes innovative agricultural methods using thermal and non-thermal microwave or plasma energies. Humans that were nomadic in the past can now stably obtain food by developing agriculture. Cities were formed as a result of remarkable development. Later, chemicals were introduced to agriculture to stabilize the food supply further. Natural products were initially used, but various artificial compounds have been developed for agriculture since the 1900s. To further improve crop productivity and diversification, gene recombination (genetic engineering) using biotechnology has progressed in recent years and continues to develop further. However, these technologies contain pesticide residues and pose safety risks. The innovative new agriculture explained in this book is based on the use of microwaves and plasma that do not rely on chemicals and genetic modification. This is one of the first books focusing on the agricultural usage of microwaves. In addition, it is a technical book that incorporates plasma into agriculture from this perspective. The book covers microwaves and plasmas, which are completely different fields. Thus, it will be attractive to many readers who want to acquaint themselves with these alternative technologies and implement them. This book will be useful to a broad audience including researchers and technicians at Universities and practitioners in industries. It is made accessible to readers across different fields by including abundant figures and by limiting the use of equations to the possible extent.

Storage of Grains and Their Products, Fifth Edition, presents the most authoritative reference on the principles and practices of storing and handling grains and their products. Divided into four main sections, the book covers the range of storage systems available in both the developed and developing world, the practicalities of the design and implementation of grain storage systems, looking in detail at handling, cleaning, drying, aeration, instrumentation amongst other topics, specific threats to stored grains, pulses, oils and pseudocereals from chemicals, rodents, insects and biosecurity, and the economics of grain storage, government regulations and future considerations. Professionals responsible for the storage and handling of grains will find this book a great resource, however, it will also be of interest to academic researchers and postgraduate students in both cereal science and food processing. Presents an up-to-date, end-to-end overview of the processing and storage of grain and grain related products Includes eleven new chapters that provide the latest insights into grain storage Edited by active cereals researchers working in industry, with experts from both academia and industry supplying chapters Includes essential information on the design and operation of grain facilities Provides coverage of the preservation of grain quality against specific threats

This edited book brings together leading researchers, academic scientists and research scholars to put forward and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of an inspection system for detection analysis for various machine vision applications. It also provides a premier interdisciplinary platform to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, methodology, applications, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted in the inspection system in terms of image processing and analytics of machine vision for real and industrial application. Machine vision inspection systems (MVIS) utilized all industrial and non-industrial applications where the execution of their utilities based on the acquisition and processing of images. MVIS can be applicable in industry, governmental, defense, aerospace, remote sensing, medical, and academic/education applications but constraints are different. MVIS entails acceptable accuracy, high reliability, high robustness, and low cost. Image processing is a well-defined transformation between human vision and image digitization, and their techniques are the foremost way to experiment in the MVIS. The digital image technique furnishes improved pictorial information by processing the image data through machine vision perception. Digital image pro­cessing has widely been used in MVIS applications and it can be employed to a wide diversity of problems particularly in Non-Destructive testing (NDT), presence/absence detection, defect/fault detection (weld, textile, tiles, wood, etc.,), automated vision test & measurement, pattern matching, optical character recognition & verification (OCR/OCV), barcode reading and traceability, medical diagnosis, weather forecasting, face recognition, defence and space research, etc. This edited book is designed to address various aspects of recent methodologies, concepts and research plan out to the readers for giving more depth insights for perusing research on machine vision using image processing techniques.