<p>Istraživanja u okviru ove disertacije obuhvataju ispitivanje fizičkih, hemijskih i biolo&scaron;kih osobina svežeg i osu&scaron;enog ko&scaron;tičavog voća i razvoj inovativnog tehničkog re&scaron;enja su&scaron;enja voća u vakuumu. Dobijeni rezultati istraživanja daju doprinos formiranju baze naučnih znanja u vezi sa karakteristikama ko&scaron;tičavog voća osu&scaron;enog različitim tehnikama su&scaron;enja: konvektivnim su&scaron;enjem, vakuum su&scaron;enjem i liofilizacijom (su&scaron;enjem zamrzavanjem). Projektovan inovativni prototip vakuum su&scaron;are sa ejektorskim sistemom omogućava očuvanje biolo&scaron;ki aktivnih komponenata voća uz mogućnost smanjenja investicionih tro&scaron;kova i tro&scaron;kova održavanja opreme. Takođe je uspe&scaron;no prikazana mogućnost primene analize glavnih komponenata (eng. Principal Component Analysis, PCA), ve&scaron;tačke neuronske mreže (eng. Artificial Neural Networks, ANN) i matematičkog modelovanja za opisivanje funkcionalne zavisnosti primenjenih parametara su&scaron;enja i fizičkih, hemijskih i biolo&scaron;kih osobina osu&scaron;enog voća, optimizaciju procesa su&scaron;enja, kao i za pronalaženje modela koji najbolje opisuje proces su&scaron;enja.</p> / <p>Research in the framework of the thesis includes investigation of physical, chemical and biological properties of fresh and dried stone fruit and the development of an innovative technical solution for fruit vacuum drying. The obtained results contribute to the formation of the scientific base of knowledge, regarding the characteristics of stone fruit dried by different drying techniques: convective drying, vacuum drying and lyophilization (freeze drying). The designed innovative prototype of a vacuum dryer with an ejector system enables the preservation of biologically active fruit compounds with the possibility of reducing investment and equipment maintenance costs.<br />The possibility of application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and mathematical modeling for describing the functional dependence between applied drying parameters and physical, chemical and biological properties of dried fruit, optimization of the drying process, as well for finding the model that best describes the drying process was presented in this work.</p>