A 3‐year study was made on genetic variability of seed oil content and seed index with 20 wild species, two cultivated species and six perennial races of Gossypium arboreum cotton maintained at the Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur, India. The mean seed oil content varied from 10.26 to 22.89% in 22 species of Gossypium and six races of G. arboreum. In this material the weight of delinted seed varied from 43.33 to 54.54 mg/seed. The highest seed oil content was recorded in the species G. lobatum followed by G. harknessii. On average, for both traits, the means were higher for G. arboreum and its races. However, G. africanum and G. harknessii reached the level of G. arboreum and its races for seed weight, while five wild species surpassed the best races and G. arboreum in seed oil content, among them was G. harknessii. To breed simultaneously for seed oil content and seed weight, crosses between races of G. arboreum and wild species of Gossypium seem to be promising.

14Skim milk powder (SMP) and milk protein concentrates (MPCs) are manufactured by 15 evaporation followed by spray drying and are widely used as functional and nutritional 16 ingredients. This study investigated the effects of temperature (40 to 60 °C) and total solids 17 content (TS) on the viscosity of reconstituted MPC (rMPC) (≥30 % TS) and SMP (rSMP) (≥46 18 % TS) in laboratory conditions. Additionally, the influence of sonication in batch (70 % 19 amplitude) and flow through systems (90% amplitude) was studied in a laboratory setting. The 20 viscosity increased for all treatments with an increase in TS and decreased with an increase in 21 temperatures. Overall, sonication in both batch (30 s) and flow through systems (10.1, 20.2, and 22 30.20 s) resulted in significant decreases in viscosity for both rSMP and rMPC. An increase in 23 viscosity was observed after post-sonication circulation; however, the viscosity did not return to 24 the pre-sonication values. 25 26

In this study two different seed lots were taken first seed lot having higher germination percentage and second seed lot having lower germination percentage. Seeds were dry dressed with nanoparticles of silver and iron with different concentration and kept for storage. Seed lots revealed significant variation of the seed quality and storability due to nanoparticles treatments on soybean cv. DSb-21. High vigour seed lot recorded higher seed germination and seedling vigour index-I than the low vigour seed lot at the end of storage. The nanoparticles treatment FeNPs @500 ppm which recorded significantly higher seed germination (92.5%) and seedling vigour index-I (3127) than control at the beginning, maintained the trend till the end of 10 month of storage period. The rate of reduction in quality parameters was much higher in the low vigour seed lot. The seed treatment with nanoparticles reduced the rate of deterioration of seed in the storage.

Increasing pasteurized milk shelf life has been a concern for the dairy industry. This study evaluated the effect of pasteurization (control) coupled with thermosonication (treatment) (11.1 s) in a continuous system on shelf‐life parameters during storage along with consumer liking. Treatment samples had significantly lower microbial counts than control during storage. Lower free fatty acid and higher pH and casein/total protein values were observed for treatment samples during storage. In a consumer panel, panelists commented on treatment samples having an unknown off‐flavor. This unknown flavor declined after 4 days and the consumer liking of treatment samples after 4 days in a second consumer panel was not significantly different than control. Thermosonication in a continuous system coupled with pasteurization successfully improved the overall quality of whole milk as compared to heat only. Future studies could investigate thermosonication conditions to minimize changes in milk sensory attributes. Practical applications Thermosonication when applied with pasteurization improves the microbial quality of milk during storage and may extend the shelf life by 2 weeks. Increased shelf life could possibly lead to reduced milk loss on the consumer level by extending the time milk can be consumed. Scale‐up systems will need to evaluate the effect of thermosonication at specific residence times and sonication power levels on milk quality during storage and consumer acceptance.

Thermosonication may help reduce bacteria counts responsible for spoilage in dairy products. Vegetative cells and spores of Geobacillus stearothermophilus, Anoxybacillus flavithermus and Bacillus subtilis (spores only) were treated with either heat alone or thermosonication in a batch system from 0 to 120 s in tryptic soy broth and 2% fat milk at 72 and 73 °C. D‐values for vegetative cells were calculated and were reduced after thermosonication. Maximum reduction in vegetative cells after thermosonication was 1 log after 30–45 s and for spores was ≤0.2 log after 120 s, which may not influence dairy product quality in scale‐up systems.