The editors of the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering would like to express their sincere gratitude to the following reviewers for assessing manuscripts in 2014:[...]

The editors of the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering would like to express their sincere gratitude to the following reviewers for assessing manuscripts in 2014:[...]

Nghi et al., 'Technical, economic and environmental evaluation on mechanical rice straw gathering method', Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering B, 4 (2015): 614-619.

The National Research Council (NRC) recently highlighted the dual role of NASA to support both science and applications in planning Earth observations. This article reports the efforts of the NASA Applied Sciences Program and NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission to integrate applications with science and engineering in prelaunch planning. The SMAP Early Adopter program supported the prelaunch applied research that comprises the SMAP Special Collection of the Journal of Hydrometeorology. This research, in turn, has resulted in unprecedented prelaunch preparation for SMAP applications and critical feedback to the mission to improve product specifications and distribution for postlaunch applications. These efforts have been a learning experience that should provide direction for upcoming missions and set some context for the next NRC decadal survey.

Thesis submitted to the Department of Agricultural Engineering Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PhD, Food and Postharvest Engineering | In this thesis, the influence of moisture on selected physical, compressive and thermal properties of cocoa beans, shea and cashew nut and kernel were studied. Standard methodologies that have been accepted internationally and used by several researchers globally were used for the determination of the selected properties in moisture content ranges normally used for the postharvest processing of the selected crops. The results of moisture variation on physical properties of cocoa beans and cashew kernels such as 1000-bean mass, true density, porosity, emptying angle of repose and static coefficient of friction showed increasing trends with linear relationships while bulk density decreased linearly for cocoa bean and cashew kernel samples. The compressive strain and Young’s Modulus for cocoa beans decreased linearly with moisture from 0.009 to 0.0045, and 1300 to 205 MPa respectively. However the compressive stress decreased exponentially with increasing moisture content from 1.5 - 0.3 MPa while the crushing energy had more positive linear function with moisture content and increased from 0.013 - 0.2 J. For shea kernel, compressive stress, compressive strain and Young’s Modulus decreased linearly from 2.0 - 0.8 MPa, 0.0085 - 0.002 mm/mm and 2000 – 100 MPa with increasing moisture content. Crushing energy increased non-linearly from 0.005 - 0.13 mJ in the moisture content range of 5% - 24% w.b. The compressive stress, strain, and Young’s modulus for the cashew kernel increased from 0.214 - 1.214 MPa, 0.355 - 0.472 mm/mm, and 2.446 - 6.416 MPa respectively as moisture content increased from 5.0 - 9.0% wb. Thermal conductivity increased linearly for ground cocoa beans sample from 0.0243 - 0.0311 W/oCm and for ground shea kernels from 0.0165 - 0.0458 W/oCm in the moisture content range of 12.59 - 43.84%w.b. at a constant bulk density of 295 kg/m3. Specific heat, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity for ground cashew kernel were found to increase linearly from 1586 – 1756 J/kgº., 0.2103 - 0.2296 W/mK and 2.369×10-7 - 2.588×10-7 m2/s with increasing moisture content from 5.0 - 9.0% w.b. Keywords: Cocoa beans, shea kernel, cashew kernel, physical properties, compressive properties, thermal properties, moisture content. iii Contribution to Science and Technology From this study, the following have been established and therefore added onto the scientific knowledge on engineering properties of food materials: 1. The publication on the physical properties of cocoa beans has been cited by 96 related articles as found in google thus contributing to information on physical properties of food grains. 2. The findings on crushing energy provide useful information for food and agricultural engineers in the design of suitable cocoa beans, shea and cashew nut crackers. 3. In a bid to mechanize the various unit operations involved in the postharvest processing of shea and cashew kernel, information and data on the behaviour of these strength properties as a function of moisture is needed. These data when utilised fully will not only save energy but will promote the design and development of effective and efficient processing machines. 4. Attempts have been made to optimize the drying process and to minimize internal cracking during drying of food grains with the aid of mathematical and numerical drying models, but estimation of the thermal properties of the material being dried, is also required. Data generated on specific heat, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity could be used in the analysis of drying processes and storage conditions. iv Publications from Candidate’s Work 1. Bart-Plange, A., Dzisi, K. A., Addo, A., Teye, E. and Kumi, F. (2012). A comparative study of some physical properties of large and medium size Cocoa beans from Ghana. ARPN Journal of Science and Technology. 2(3): 135-141, March.www.ejournalofscience.org. ISSN NO.: 2225-7217. 2. Bart-Plange, A. P. Mohammed-Kamil, A. Addo and E. Teye (2012). Some Physical and Mechanical Properties of Cashew Nut and Kernel Grown in Ghana. International Journal of Science and Nature (IJSN). 3(2): 406-415, May 2012.www.scienceandnature.org. ISSN NO.: 2229-6441. 3. Bart-Plange, A., Addo, A., Abano, E.E. and Akowuah, J.O. (2012). Compressive Properties of Cocoa Beans Considering the Effect of Moisture Content Variations. International Journal of Engineering and Technology (IJET UK). 2(5): 850-858 http:/www.iet-journals.org. ISSN NO.: 2049-3444. 4. Bart-Plange, A. Addo, J. O. Akowuah and J. Ampah (2012). Some moisture dependent compressive properties of Shea Kernel (vitellaria Paradoxa L). Canadian Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences (CJPAS), 6(3): 2113-2119, www.cjpas.net. ISSN NO.: 1920-3853. 5. Bart-Plange, A. Addo, F. Kumi, and A. K. Piegu (2012). Some moisture dependent thermal properties of Cashew kernel (Anarcardium occidentale L.). Australian Journal of Agricultural Engineering. AJAE 3(2): 65-69. ISSN NO.: 1836-9448. 6. Bart-Plange, A. Addo, S. K. Amponsah and J. Ampah (2012). Effect of Moisture, Bulk Density and Temperature on Thermal Conductivity of Ground Cocoa Beans and Ground Sheanut Kernels. Global Journal of Science Frontier Research (GJSFR). 12( 8). ISSN NO.: 2249-4626. | KNUST

AgroParisTech professors and librarians in Food Science and Technology have developed information literacy instruction to help students find and use relevant information. The course trains students to develop information literacy competencies: to identify the information needed and define its nature and extent; to access the information with efficiency because they select and use methods, resources and retrieval systems most appropriate to the topic; to evaluate the used methods, information, and sources; to search, access and use information ethically and legally; to read, use and write bibliographic references.AgroParisTech trains two kinds of students. For Higher Education students (engineering students), the training takes place at their arrival in AgroParisTech, including courses and practical classes: role and management of information in organizations; information on plagiarism; resources in environment, food science and technology; use of relevant tools and methods for searching in databases; reference writing.For students attending a Master of Science, the training prepares them to produce a literature review. The curriculum includes: information about scientific integrity, plagiarism; information needed for a researcher; critical reading of a journal article; how to manage a literature review: resources used, information search with databases, full text access; reference writing.The students will use these information literacy skills along their studies as well as in their future jobs.

AgroParisTech professors and librarians in Food Science and Technology have developed information literacy instruction to help students find and use relevant information. The course trains students to develop information literacy competencies: to identify the information needed and define its nature and extent; to access the information with efficiency because they select and use methods, resources and retrieval systems most appropriate to the topic; to evaluate the used methods, information, and sources; to search, access and use information ethically and legally; to read, use and write bibliographic references.AgroParisTech trains two kinds of students. For Higher Education students (engineering students), the training takes place at their arrival in AgroParisTech, including courses and practical classes: role and management of information in organizations; information on plagiarism; resources in environment, food science and technology; use of relevant tools and methods for searching in databases; reference writing.For students attending a Master of Science, the training prepares them to produce a literature review. The curriculum includes: information about scientific integrity, plagiarism; information needed for a researcher; critical reading of a journal article; how to manage a literature review: resources used, information search with databases, full text access; reference writing. The students will use these information literacy skills along their studies as well as in their future jobs.

The distribution of extracellular enzyme activities in particle-size fractions of sediments was investigated in a subtropical mangrove ecosystem. Five enzymes involved in carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) cycling were analyzed in the sand, silt, and clay of sediments. Among these fractions, the highest activities of phenol oxidase (PHO), β-D glucosidase (GLU), and N-acetyl-glucosiminidase (NAG) were found in sand, and greater than bulk sediments of both intertidal zone (IZ) and mangrove forest (MG). This result implied that sand fractions might protect selective enzymes through the adsorption without affecting their activities. Additionally, the enzyme-based resource allocation in various particle-size fractions demonstrated that nutirents availability varied with different particle-size fractions and only sand fraction of MG with highest total C showed high N and P availability among fractions. Besides, the analysis between elemental contents and enzymes activities in particle-size fractions suggested that enzymes could monitor the changes of nutrients availability and be good indicators of ecosystem responses to environmental changes. Thus, these results provided a means to assess the availability of different nutrients (C, N, and P) during decomposition of sediment organic matter (SOM), and thus helping to better manage the subtropical mangrove ecosystems to sequester C into SOM.

Present study dealt the removal of Cr(VI) in a tannery industry wastewater using rice husk silica powder as an adsorbent.The experimental investigations have been carried out by using rice husk silica powder for different adsorption dosage, different contact time and different pH against the initial Cr(VI) concentration of 292 mg/L. The maximum percentage removal of Cr(VI) in the tannery industrial wastewater (88.3 %) was found at an optimum adsorbent dosage of 15 g, contact time of 150 min., and pH of 4.  Further, the experimental data on removal of Cr(VI) from tannery industry wastewater was validated with the Cr(VI) aqueous solution of same initial concentration of tannery industry waster against the optimum process parameters. The results of the validation experiment showed that the experiments conducted for the removal of Cr(VI) in a tannery industry wastewater may be reproducing capability for analyzing various parameters along with Cr(VI) based water and industry wastewater.  The experimental data were fitted to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models.  Isotherm models result indicated that the equilibrium data fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm than Freundlich isotherm, because of higher correlation created between dependent and independent variables. Thus, the adsorption method using rice husk silica powder was used effectively for removing Cr(VI) in the tannery industrial wastewater, seems to be an economical and worthwhile alternative over other conventional methods, because of their abundant source, low price, multi-purposes and antimicrobial properties.

Inorganic polyphosphates (PolyP) are linear polymers of few to several hundred orthophosphate residues, linked by energy-rich phosphoanhydride bonds. Four isolates had been screened from soil sample. By MALDI-TOF analysis, they were identified as Bacillius cereus, Acinetobacter towneri, B. megaterium and B. cereus. The production of PolyP in four isolates was studied in phosphate uptake medium and sulfur deficient medium at pH 7. These organisms had shown significant production of PolyP after 22h of incubation. PolyP was extracted from the cells using alkaline lysis method. Among those isolates, Acinetobacter towneri was found to have high (24.57% w/w as P) accumulation of PolyP in sulfur deficient medium. The media optimization for sulfur deficiency was carried out using Response surface methodology (RSM). It was proven that increase in phosphate level in the presence of glucose, under sulfur limiting condition, enhanced the phosphate accumulation by Acinetobacter towneri and these condition can be simulated for the effective removal of phosphate from wastewater sources.