Although radio-frequency (RF) methods have been used for decades in many heating and drying processes, there is still a need for more engineering design data related to the design of the applicators and the performance of these systems before costly prototypes are built. Energy, temperature, and the effect produced by the high frequency field parameters on biological materials need to be examined with regard to their effects on the resulting processing requirements. / Wheat-seed infection by a fungus such as Fusarium graminearum can considerably lower the seed germination and the quality of the harvest. A study was thus conducted to determine the combined effect of different levels of RF power, temperature, and moisture content on the quality of seed-grade wheat and fungus inactivation. Similar treatment combinations were studied with seed-grade soybean in view on improving germination. With higher power, higher temperature (90°C) and higher moisture content (14%), the fungus mortality significantly increased, with a fungal vigour of less than 0.1, and the germination quality of the seeds decreased to a germination vigour below 0.3. For soybean seeds, only treatments of low RF intensity (60°C) were successful in improving germination vigour especially at lowest moisture content typically found in stored seeds. / RF treated wheat was studied to identify the relationship between heating conditions and grain quality categorized in terms of kernel viability and structural damage. / The potential of an RF thermal treatment to improve and extend the storability of vacuum packaged carrot sticks was investigated. The results have shown that it is possible to treat carrot sticks to 60°C in less than 2 min to reduce the initial microbial load. The RF-treatments maintained colour, the vacuum of the packages, and the excellent taste of the carrot sticks. / RF heating was studied for the pasteurization of prepared samples of ham. The ham samples were brought to internal temperatures of 75 and 85°C, by RF heating with a 10 min residence time. The study indicates that radio-frequency heating can improve the storability of re-packed hams by reducing the bacterial load, reducing moisture loss during storage and maintaining an overall greater product quality. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Ohmic heating is an electrical resistance heating resulting from the passage of electrical current through an electrically conductive material offering some resistance. Most food products possess sufficient electrical conductivity to be able to take advantage of ohmic heating. This research was undertaken to evaluate the quality changes associated with fine ham emulsions prepared under ohmic heating conditions as compared to those produced by conventional heating. / In the first part of the study, kinetics of quality changes (color, texture, water holding capacity, cooking loss and water activity) associated with fine ham emulsion subjected to conventional heating conditions were evaluated. The second part of the study was to standardize ohmic heating conditions for achieving target time-temperature combinations. It was desired to achieve cooking conditions (temperature come-up and hold times) both similar to and faster than conventional heating so that meaningful quality comparisons could be made between the two. / The final part of the study was to compare the quality changes of fine ham emulsion subjected to ohmic heating under different rates, and to compare them with conventional heating. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Bibliography: leaves 216-237 / vii, 327 leaves, [31] leaves of plates : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Plant Physiology, 1985

M.Sc. / Field grown plants are constantly challenged with a variety of stressful factors, such as high temperatures, drought and pathogen infection that adversely affect crop production and quality. These stresses seldom occur as single entities in plants and in warm climates, heat stress is often a common dominator in combinatorial stress. The heat shock (HS) response in plants has priority over other stress responses, including the pathogen-induced stress response. Activation of the HS response prevents the normal plant defence strategy, leaving the plant vulnerable to pathogen attack. However, prior exposure to elevated temperatures confers protection from subsequent, otherwise lethal, temperatures (thermotolerance) and a variety of other stress conditions including heavy-metals, chilling injury and certain pathogens (cross tolerance). In general, litterature supports a central role for heat shock proteins (HSP), in particular the 70 kDa HSP (Hsp70), in thermotolerance. Incompatible host-pathogen interactions lead to the activation of an array of defence mechanisms, including the promotion of phenylpropanoid metabolism. Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase is a key regulator of this metabolic pathway, influencing the production of salicylic acid, lignin and phytoalexins among other essential defence products. In this study it was hypothesised that prior exposure to non-lethal HS confers protection from subsequent heat-related suppression of the phenylpropanoid pathway, induced as a defence mechanism during an incompatible plant-pathogen interaction. This hypothesis was verified by analysing the effect of thermotolerance on pathogen-related stimulation of PAL promoter activity, enzyme activity and lignin deposition. The tomato, Lycopersicon esculentum cultivar UC82B and Ralstonia solanacearum, the causative agent of bacterial wilt, were used as host-pathogen model. Specific objectives in the study were: (1) Development of PAL promoter-GUS reporter transformed Lycopersicon esculentum. (2) Establishment of a thermotolerance protocol that ensures optimal Hsp70 levels at subsequent HS. (3) Evaluation of the influence of prior heat treatment on phenylpropanoid metabolism after exposure to HS in combination with Ralstonia solanacearum. Results obtained support the hypothesis indicating that thermotolerance protects phenylpropanoid metabolism, in particular PAL promoter and enzyme activity, and to a certain extent lignin production, induced by avirulent Ralstonia solanacearum during a second severe HS. In contrast, HS without a prior heat treatment, suppressed phenylpropanoid metabolism. The protective potential of prior heat treatment during subsequent infection under hyperthermic conditions support the application of HSP in the development of novel plant protection strategies.

Ph.D. / In plants, salicylic acid (SA) is a signaling molecule that regulates disease resistance responses such as systemic acquired resistance (SAR) and the hypersensitive response (HR), and has been implicated in both basal and acquired thermotolerance. It has also been shown that SA enhances heat-induced Hsp/Hsc70 accumulation in plants. In this study, temperature studies revealed that heat shock (HS) at 40 °C for 30 min significantly induced Hsp/Hsc70 accumulation in 3-week old tomato (UC82B) seedlings. Time- and dose-responsive studies showed that 0.1 mM SA for 17 hrs was unable to induce Hsp/Hsc70 but in combination with HS significantly (P > 0.001) potentiated this response. To investigate the mechanism of SA-mediated, heat-induced Hsp/Hsc70 potentiation, tomato seedlings were treated with either SA alone, HS or both, before analyses of hsp70 mRNA, Hsf DNA-binding and gene expression of hsp70, hsfAl, hsfA2 and hsfEll. SA alone established Hsf DNA-binding, but was not accompanied by increased Hsp70 accumulation or expression of hsp70 mRNA. SA had no significant effect on hsfA2 and hsf81 gene expression, but increased the basal levels of hsfAl. In heat-shocked plants, Hsf DNA-binding was enhanced, and increased hsfAl, hsfA2 and hsfB1 expression preceded accumulation of Hsp70. The combined treatment of SA and HS resulted in potentiated Hsf DNA-binding, enhanced expression of hsp70, hsfAl, hsfA2 and hsfB1, leading to potentiated levels of Hsp/Hsc70. Since increased hsp70 and hsf gene expression coincided with increased levels of Hsp70 accumulation, it is likely that the SA-mediated potentiation of Hsp70 is due to the ability of SA to regulate Hsfs during HS. This study therefore proposes a mechanism for the potentiation of Hsp70 by SA in the presence of heat, which might contribute to our understanding of the role SA plays in the heat shock response and thermotolerance.

Initially, protoplasts were isolated to detect various parameters using flow cytometric analysis. The most efficient ratio of cells to enzyme solution, for digestion of cell walls, needed to be established. To detect whether the time of incubation with the enzyme solution influenced the state or viability of the protoplasts, they were observed periodically under the light microscope during digestion at different concentrations of enzyme solution. After 2 h digestion with light swirling every 20 min, the protoplasts were still intact (Figure 1), and viable as detected with Trypan blue staining (results not shown). Increasing the digestion period led to a decrease in cell membrane integrity. The size of the protoplasts varied between 60 mm and 90 mm. Figure 1 shows the difference between cells before digestion with an enzyme solution and protoplasts after digestion. Size determination of protoplasts was important since the flow tip of the flow cytometer is limited to 100 mm and if the protoplasts exceeded this size, could lead to blockages in the flow tip of the flow cytometer, with ineffective readings and a time consuming clean-up process. / Dr. Marianne J. Cronje

Programmed cell death (PCD) is a universal event experienced by all eukaryotes and is an essential process for the maintenance of regular homeostasis. The careful regulation of PCD pathways is beneficial to all organisms and a better understanding of various PCD components and their interactions may enhance overall quality of life and increase longevity of defective organisms. Since a boom of interest was shown towards the study of PCD approximately thirty years prior, a comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms of apoptosis currently exists. Many of the key features involved in PCD have been shown to be conserved across the animal and plant kingdoms and although the overall process of cell death appears to occur in a similar manner in both plants and animals, subtle variations have been identified between these two kingdoms regarding various mechanisms of apoptosis. The major component of cell death in plants and animals appears to be the mitochondria where most of the PCD points of control converge. Heat shock proteins (Hsps) play a vital role in the regulation of PCD and act at an array of points along the PCD pathway. One of the crucial events of PCD is the release of cytochrome c from the mitochondria which proceeds to activate the protease cascade. Hsp70 has been shown to attenuate apoptosis by specifically preventing cytochrome c release into the cytosol of animal cells. A similar correlation between increases of Hsp70 and decreased PCD has been identified in plants, the mechanism of which remains unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the interaction between increased Hsp70 accumulation and decreased PCD, as indicated by reduced cytochrome c translocation and DNA laddering. The major observations of this study proceeded to show that an increased expression of Hsp70, induced by a mild heat shock, was able to protect tobacco cells against H2O2-mediated cell death. This protection appeared to commence at a mitochondrial level as cytochrome c translocation was clearly inhibited and was confirmed by the absence of downstream DNA laddering. The major findings obtained from this study provided a clearer picture of the mechanisms surrounding the cytoprotective properties of thermotolerant cells, the implications of which are beneficial to post harvest industries, as the ability to postpone PCD provides an advantage enables prolonged shelf lives of various crops. / Dr. Marianne J. Cronjé

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No description available.

The effect of a thermal effluent on the attached algae of the Provo River, Utah, USA, was studied from 1975 to 1977. Data for macroscopic and microscopic algae were collected and analyzed. Diatoms, Cladophora glomerata, and Hydrurus foetidus dominated the flora. The thermal effluent significantly affected the algal flora in a section of river 100 to 135 meters long immediately below the discharge point. Cladophora growth was increased and Hydrurus was absent in this area. In addition, diatom production was often higher and diversity lower than in the rest of the river. Community structure was unique from all other adjacent areas. Small temperature increases which occurred as effluent and river waters mixed farther downstream were apparently not as important to the algal flora as other environmental factors.