Strawberry jelly as a universal design food was developed using strawberry juice (SJ), sugar, xanthan gum (XG), and locust bean gum (LBG). Experimental variables included SJ concentration (30-40% (w/w)), sugar concentration (7.5-10.0% (w/w)), and the ratio of XG/LBG (0.3-4.0% (w/w)), and response variables were textural (hardness, gumminess, chewiness) and color properties. The formulation of strawberry jelly was optimized against hardness and the interactions among variables were predicted using the response surface methodology. Controlled storage test at 5 or 15°C was conducted to determine the values of the jelly at different temperatures. The optimal SJ and sugar concentrations and the ratio of XG/LBG against hardness were 40, 10, and 1.5%, respectively. The color did not change significantly during storage at 5 and 15°C (p>0.05). However, the textural characteristics during storage increased significantly at 5°C (p<0.05) and the hardness was appropriate to be used as a criterion for determining the shelf life of the jelly. The shelf life at 5°C generated from a zero-order kinetics (R²=0.96) was 40 d according to a criterial value, 1.8 N, of hardness. The Q10 value was calculated as 0.6, which allowed prediction of the shelf life values at different temperatures. The results from this study suggested a formulation of strawberry jelly as a universal design food and allowed determination of the shelf life of the food product.

Understanding how researchers are tackling globally important issues, such as climate change, is crucial to identify whether current research is comprehensive enough to make substantive predictions about general responses to climate change. We assessed the type of studies being conducted by researchers to understand the impacts of climate change on insects, published. Most published research is generated from Europe and North America and being dedicated to core data analysis, with reviews being highly produced. Temperature – only is the main climate change factor being analysed, with most researchers are assessing changes in abundance or distribution/range shifts. Of most concern is the number of studies which do not specifically identify a climate change factor (ie just arm wave), the lack of studies on Hemimetabolous insects and the need for more studies to assess specific mechanistic responses to climate change.

Temperature and humidity are the vital environmental factors influencing the distribution and abundance of ectothermal organisms. Also, these variables often determine the efficacy of biological control of spider mites using phytoseiid mites N. californicus, N. womersleyi and P. persimilis are promising biocontrol agents of spider mites. The combined effects of temperatures (15,20,25,30 & 35oC) and relative humidity (33,51,75 & 95%) on egg hatch, incubation period from single egg and cannibalism from five eggs experiment were tested for three phytoseiid mites. Photoperiod was set to 16L:8D and neither water nor diet was provided. The result showed that higher temperatures (30&35oC) and lower relative humidity (33&51%) caused increased egg mortality by shrinking and desiccation. The egg hatch of N. californicus and P. persimilis were higher than N. womersleyi in all conditions with the exception of 35oC and 95% RH treatment where P. persimilis did not hatch at all. The incubation periods of egg decreased as the humidity level increased even under the same temperature. The cannibalism, habit of feeding the same species was found from protonymphal and deutonymphal stages under higher humidity levels (75&95%) in the three phytoseiid species. This tendency was higher in N. californicus and N. womersleyi than in P. persimilis. The results partially explain the lower predator performance during hot summer by P. persimilis and the possibility to sustain the predator population when the prey population is low.

UDP-glucose 4-epimerase (UGE) catalyzes the reversible conversion of UDP-glucose to UDP-galactose. To understand the biological function of UGE from Brassica rapa, the gene hereinafter referred to as was cloned and overexpressed into Japonica rice cv. Gopum. Transcriptional profiling showed that the is specific to stem of rice plant. Morphological evaluation of the overexpression lines revealed altered phenotype characters particularly in panicle length, number of productive tillers and filled spikelets which account for an increase in yield. This remarkable agronomic performance was ascribed to higher photosynthetic rate complemented with higher CO2 assimilation. Interestingly, BrUGE1 did not only improve plant fitness under optimal condition but also under water deficit stress. The enhanced drought tolerance may be due to the induction of soluble sugar which may act as osmolyte to compensate dehydration during drought stress.