Despite the developing technology, extraction of Sulfured Dried Apricot (Prunus armeniaca) (SDA) stones is still done manually and thus requires a significant amount of labor and time and also causes serious problems in terms of hygiene. According to International Food Standards (CXS 130-1981) and Turkish Standard 485, the SDA stones must be extracted from the peduncle side of the apricot. Therefore, the correct position of the apricot peduncle and style side must be determined. In this study, a deep learning architecture was improved for the first time to determine the position of SDA stones as a component of the agricultural machine developed to extract SDA stones. In this study, a new Capsule Network architecture was used. With the original capsule network, SDA images were classified with 86.23% accuracy, while it increased to 94.47%with the improved capsule network. Also, the processing time of the developed network architecture was about twice as fast as the original. The result clearly demonstrates that the SDA stone positions are easily determined. Therefore, the designed agricultural machine can extract the SDA stones hygienically and rapidly, without any need for human power.

For evaluation and determination of genetic capacity of existing apricot genotypes in Iran, an experiment was performed in RCB design with seven treatments and three replications on August 2004 in Sahand Horticultural Research Station. Selected promising genotypes with numbers of 177, 190, 390, 414, 416, 464 and 269 were compared with Ordubad 90 cv. (as control) for a period of seven years. The results demonstrated that there was no significant difference between yielding and full blooming dates of the genotypes and control. The range of fruit maturation between the most early and the most late maturity genotypes was 45 days. Genotype 414 had the maximum fruit weight (57.6g) and the highest fruit to stone weight ratio (30.3). From the viewpoint of fruit flesh thickness, the lowest difference was observed between control and genotype 464, and the highest significant difference was detected between control and genotype 269 (p£0.05). Despite relative height of stigma to anthers in genotypes 269, 414, 464 and 177, no problem was observed in fruit setting of them. Based on the biochemical traits results, the highest significant differences were observed between TSS value of genotypes 416 and 177 with 7.7% and also between total organic acids content of genotypes 390 and 177 with 1.2% (p£0.05). Difference between fruit active acidity (pH) of genotypes was not significant. There was also a negative and significant correlation (r2=0.8) between total organic acids content and pH of the genotypes fruit. Based on all results, genotype 177 was recognized for fresh consumption, genotypes 464 and 390 for processing and genotypes 190, 414 and 269 for dual.

udate gums are the oldest stabilizers and thickening agents in foods that are widely used in food industry. Among tree gums, apricot trunk gum has not been studied in detail. In this study, chemical composision and effects of different temperatures (25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 and 80°C) on the stability and water holding capacity of apricot gum were evaluated. Effects of different concentrations (0.5, 1 and 1.5% w/v) of apricot trunk gum on emulsification capacity and stability of oil-in-water emulsion were studied. The results showed that an increase in temperature increased the solubility of apricot trunk gum while water holding capacity was reduced due to the reduction in the insoluble fraction of the gum. With increasing concentration of apricot trunk gum, emulsification capacity and stability of oil-in-water emulsion increased.

Aim and Background: Apricot is one of the economically important genera of woody plants in Iran and most of these important varieties grow in Azarbaijan region, because of its Mediterranean ecological factors. Apricot has a large stone seed. Seeds are naturally planted in early autumn and after a prolonged exposure to cold temperatures (winter), seeds germinate in the end of third month of spring or in the beginning of the summer taking sometimes 18 months. Germination occurs more rapidly after cold treatment (vernalization), thus it cannot germinate without prior cold exposure In. this study, an artificial way has been suggested; this method significantly decreases duration of germination. Furthermore, it increases percentage of germination, because seeds in the garden maybe moulded by microorganisms of soil. Materials and Methods: In this study, 10 seeds of each type of apricot (control) were first planted in the garden and then 10 seeds of each type of apricot were transferred on whattman paper inside each petri dish. All petri dishes were incubated to germinate. The condition of germinator was: 16h day light and 8h dark period with 20˚C and 16˚C respectively. The humidity condition inside germinator was 65%. And the percentage and the rate of germination was measured up to 12 days.Results: The findings showed that the percentage of germination was increased significantly in seeds when compared with control. Also, hundred percent of germination was obtained in D. However, artificial frost affects germination percentage. Therefore, the AVG used germination rate calculation is suggested and Artificial cold period is advised to be done in germination in order to increase percentage and velocity of stone seed germination.Conclusions: It is suggested to use artificial germination for better germination.

Self-incompatibility is believed to be a common attribute among the most of apricot (Prunus armeniaca L. ) cultivars. This research was conducted during 2015 and 2016 growing seasons to explore the selfcompatibility of 22 apricot genotypes (18 Iranian and four European) based on the field and microscopic examinations. Final fruit set following self-pollination in the field ranged from 1. 16% in ‘ Aybatan’ to 62. 0% in ‘ San Castrese’ cultivars which showed significant differences among evaluated apricots. The results revealed self-compatibility in the new Iranian promising apricot hybrid, ‘ AD731’ , as well as reconfirmed self-compatibility in the European cultivars; ‘ Canino’ , ‘ San Castrese’ , ‘ Palumella’ and ‘ Cafona’ . In all cases, fluorescence microscopy information supported the self-compatibility results obtained from the field, when at least one pollen tube entered the ovary by 96 hours after the controlled pollination. In addition, all other 17 apricot genotypes showed self-incompatibility feature. The hybrid ‘ AD731’ showed self-compatibility attribute, therefore further research on this genotype will warrant its future use in apricot breeding programs as well as to be considered as promising genotype for being released as a new cultivar.