Fresh fruits and vegetables have higher moisture contents and deteriorate over a short period of time if not handled appropriately. Available storage technologies such as refrigeration and controlled atmospheres are expensive as these need continuous energy for system operation throughout the whole supply chain. So, the use of drying techniques is being encouraged as it reduces the postharvest losses and provides easiness in storage, transport, and ensures product availability round the year. Drying of fruits and vegetables through conventional approaches such as sun or open‐air drying found a slow process and may lead to the inferior quality product due to contamination. Various advanced drying techniques such as solar, microwave, vacuum, infrared, freeze, oven drying, and different hybrid drying technologies have been developed around the globe as being successfully used for various fruits and vegetables. This paper mainly focuses to review crop‐specific operations, its impact on quality, efficiency, cost‐effectiveness, and nutrient retention ability. Practical applications Dried products are broadly used by the industries related to confectionery, bakery, and sweet and distilling industries in the development of versatile by‐products including sauces, teas, puddings, garnishments, and food supplements for infants as well as children. Fruits and vegetables can be dried with suitable retention of nutrients and health‐promoting compounds. Crop‐specific drying technologies have been optimized for the quality conservation of dehydrated products. Several novel drying techniques discussed in this review could be helpful to researchers and relevant industry stakeholders for application and improvement.

Chilling injury in cucumber is the major issue under low temperature storage, which substantially affects cosmetic quality and market value of fruits. Present study was aimed to assess the effect of L-arginine to alleviate surface pitting caused due to chilling injury and response of various quality attributes during cold storage (5 ± 1 °C; RH 90 ± 5%). Cucumber cv. ‘7003’ fruits were treated with different concentrations of L-arginine (0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 mM) and stored for 16 days. Fruits were removed at 4 days storage interval followed by 1 day of conditioning (22 ± 2 °C) before quality analysis. Visual quality, fruit colour, decay, fruit weight loss, firmness, chilling injury (CI), electrolyte leakage, taste, texture, flavour, aroma, soluble solids content (SSC), titratable acidity (TA), sugar: acid ratio (SSC/TA ratio) and ascorbic acid content were measured for cucumber fruits. Overall, it was noted that L-arginine treated fruits showed lower fruit weight loss and electrolyte leakage, and maintained taste, texture, aroma, SSC, and sugar: acid ratio during storage. Fruits treated with 0.5 mM L-arginine had significantly reduced chilling injury and decay, maintained fruit colour, firmness and flavour, and displayed higher ascorbic acid content compared with control. Conclusively, pre-storage application of L-arginine (0.5 mM) can be employed as promising technique to alleviate postharvest chilling injury and maintain fruit quality of cucumber under cold storage.

Aloe vera (ALV) with its unique nutritional profile is being used for food, health, and nutraceutical industries globally. Due to its organic nature, ALV gel coating has created lot of interest for exploring its potential in extending the shelf and storage life of fresh produce. ALV gel coating plays imperative role in delaying fruit ripening by lowering ethylene biosynthesis, respiration rate, and internal metabolic activities associated with fruit softening, color development, enzymatic browning, and decay. ALV gel coating reduces the microbial spoilage due to its antifungal properties and maintains visual appearance, firmness, sugar: acid ratio, total antioxidants, and phenolic contents with conserved eating quality. ALV coated fruits and vegetables showed reduced weight loss, superoxide ion (O − • 2 ), hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ), ion leakage, and soluble solids content and exhibited higher acidity, anthocyanins, ascorbic acid, catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activities. It also delayed the enzymatic browning by inducing peroxidase (POD) activity during storage. Recent local studies also revealed that ALV gel coating markedly conserved higher consuming quality and extended storage period (>1.34-fold) of different fruits and vegetables. Overall, Aloe vera gel coating alone or in combination with other organic compounds has shown great potential as a food-safe and eco-friendly coating for maintaining the quality of fruits and vegetables over extended period and reducing postharvest losses in the supply chain. Practical applicationsALV gel is a plant-based natural coating of eco-friendly nature. The present review summarizes the updated information of ALV gel coating application, methods of extraction, combinations with other postharvest coatings, and its impact on quality of various fruits and vegetables. It also provides future insights for the development of commercially applicable ALV gel coating protocols through simulation studies. So, being a natural coating, ALV gel has tremendous potential to be used in fruit and vegetable industries around the globe.

Abstract-This paper describes the design of RFID based security and access control system for use in hostels inside the Punjab University premises. The system combines RFID technology and biometrics to accomplish the required task. When the RFID reader installed at the entrance of hostel detects a number, the system captures the user image and scans the database for a match. If both the card and captured image belong to a registered user, access is granted; otherwise the system turns on the alarm and makes an emergency call to the security van through GSM modem. In this way, the suspicious persons can be caught.Index Terms-Security and access control, RFID, face recognition.

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• DW-MRN provides adequate image quality for wrist and palm neurography • DW-MRN performs similarly to FS-PDWI in nerve visualisation at the wrist • DW-MRN provides improved visualisation of small nerves in the palm • DW-MRN serves as a supplementary method to evaluate peripheral neuropathies.

The research covenants amid the evaluation and analysis of the weather data in regards to mean monthlytemperature, precipitation, rainy days, relative humidity, wind direction, atmospheric pressure, evaporation, solarradiation and with the literature cited. The components getting fluctuation in the atmospheric condition comprise ofglobal location, vicinity to ocean, geomorphic reliefs and continental extent, maritime affects, forests and landuse.Based on the daily and monthly temperature, the study area has divided into five localities consisting of hot, warm,mild, cool, and cold. Besides, the five precipitation zones namely arid, semi-arid, sub-humid, humid andundifferentiated highlands have been distinguished during course of work. Generally, eastern longitudes of the countryget substantial downpours amid summers (monsoon season). Though the western areas in winters excluding GilgitBaltistan, where it is from local thunderstorms. Pakistan encounters four precipitation seasons namely winter, premonsoon, monsoon, and post monsoon rainfall. Because of sub-tropical vicinity, the country has experienced twofundamental seasons explicitly winter and summer. Generally, the summer period goes on for five months in mountainsand seven months in plains, whilst the winter period differs for seven months in mountains and five months in plains.The stated two essential rainy periods are auxiliary sub-isolated into four sub-spells to be precisely hot, warm, monsoonand cold season. Based on appropriation and fluctuation of climate variables, Pakistan is classified in five macro areasthat auxiliary sub-curved up into 18 meso and 46 micro scale climate regions.