Traditional Processing and Characterization of “Alme Ardeb”, an Indigenous Beverage from Far North Region, Cameroon

“Alme ardeb” is a conventional beverage made from sugar and tamarind, season with other ingredients and highly prized by the population of the northern regions of Cameroon. Despite the importance of this traditional drink, the manufacturing process and quality attributes are still unknown. As such, a study was undertaken to describe the manufacturing process and characterise the quality of “Alme ardeb”. A survey was conducted in the Diamaré division of the Far north region. An ethnographical technique accompanied with semi-structured questionnaires and interviewing were used for collecting data needed to elaborate the production process. Forty-nine (49) samples of “Alme ardeb” were taken from 49 women producers in the different sites representing 10 samples per site and the sensory, physicochemical, phytochemical and microbiological properties were assessed according referenced techniques. The field survey reveals that the production of “Alme ardeb” is conventional and rudimentary involving two classical units of operation, caramelisation and boiling. The pH and titratable acidity of “Alme ardeb” were insignificant (p ≥ 0.05) except for the soluble solids, electrical conductivity and total sugar. The pH is acidic ranging between 4.06 ± 0.01 and 4.74 ± 0.05 with an oscillating titratable acidity ranging from 0.61% ± 0.022% to 0.65% ± 0.01% and an average soluble solids content of about 10.74 °Brix. Similarly, the total sugar content varies between 51.25 ± 0.18g·L-1 and 61.37 ± 0.18 g·L-1 with a conductivity that fluctuates around 351 μS·cm-1 and 707 μS·cm-1. In addition, the average polyphenol, flavonoid and tannin contents were 2.2g EAG·L-1, 0.58 g·EQL-1 and 0.36 g·ECL-1 respectively, with a free radical scavenging capacity of 52.18%. The beverage revealed a complete absence of Salmonella with a doubtful hygienic quality. The total aerobic plate count varied from (4.1 ± 0.014) × 104 CFU·mL-1 to (8.2 ± 0.007) × 107 CFU·mL-1, total coliforms from (4.3 ± 0.6) × 102 CFU·mL-1 to (1.05 ± 0.7) × 105 CFU·mL-1, faecal coliforms from non-detected to (4.1 ± 0.07) × 102 CFU·mL-1 and the fungal flora ranged from 0.0 to (6.5 ± 0.7) × 103 CFU·mL-1. However, the panelists judged the beverage as being acidic with a brownish colour and a sweet caramelized taste. Consequently, the beverage was highly palatable and consumed with an overall score that went from 13.48 ± 3.32 to 15.81 ± 4.47.

The dynamic changes and mechanisms of Rehmanniae radix processing based on Maillard reaction

Background:Traditional Chinese medicines are usually processed before they are used for clinical treatment.This is done in a way associated with the Maillard reaction.Methods:Based on the Maillard reaction,this paper analyzed the degree of processing of rehmannia root(Rehmanniae radix)relative to the dynamic variation rules of Maillard reaction index parameters,including pH,A420,amino acids,and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural.Furthermore,this study introduced thermal analysis techniques and pyrolysis kinetics to assess the influence of the correlation between processing raw rehmannia root and the Maillard reaction during carbonization.It then went through the whole process of transforming the raw material to end-product in order to explain the scientific connotation of processing it.Results:The results showed that each time rehmannia root was processed,its pH value and amino acid content decreased,while the A420 value and 5-HMF increased.Processing with wine shows a significant difference in these experimental indexes.The position and intensity of the maximum thermal weight loss rate peak of processed rehmannia root at different degrees of processing are different.Comprehensive quantitative 221±0.2°C for processed rehmannia root carbonization was the processing temperature limit.Moreover,the kinetic solution verified that the activation energy corresponding to the carbonization temperature was close to the maximum value of the activation energy of the whole carbonization process,and the optimal mechanism function was g(α)=((1−α)−1/3−1)2.Conclusion:The Maillard reaction occurred during the processing of rehmannia root mixed with carbonization.With each increase of the number of steaming and drying cycles involved in the processing,the level of Maillard reaction increased significantly.The wine-steaming method had a significant effect on the quality of the processed product.

Comparison of Different Processing Methods of Ziziphus jujuba Mill.

[Objectives]To study and compare the processing methods of Ziziphus jujuba Mill.[Methods]Z.jujuba was processed by seven methods:cleaning,yellowish frying,burnt frying,carbonized frying,moistening by hot sand,steaming,and boiling.Ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry was used to determine the content of total flavonoids in each processed Z.jujuba.[Results]The content of total flavonoids measured by various processing methods was different.The content of total flavonoids in the processed Z.jujuba by moistening by hot sand was relatively high and the absorption peak spectrum was almost the same as that of the cleaned processed Z.jujuba and the rutin reference substance.[Conclusions]The moistening by hot sand is the optimal method for processing of Z.jujuba.

Adaptive Boundary and Semantic Composite Segmentation Method for Individual Objects in Aerial Images

There are two types of methods for image segmentation.One is traditional image processing methods,which are sensitive to details and boundaries,yet fail to recognize semantic information.The other is deep learning methods,which can locate and identify different objects,but boundary identifications are not accurate enough.Both of them cannot generate entire segmentation information.In order to obtain accurate edge detection and semantic information,an Adaptive Boundary and Semantic Composite Segmentation method(ABSCS)is proposed.This method can precisely semantic segment individual objects in large-size aerial images with limited GPU performances.It includes adaptively dividing and modifying the aerial images with the proposed principles and methods,using the deep learning method to semantic segment and preprocess the small divided pieces,using three traditional methods to segment and preprocess original-size aerial images,adaptively selecting traditional results tomodify the boundaries of individual objects in deep learning results,and combining the results of different objects.Individual object semantic segmentation experiments are conducted by using the AeroScapes dataset,and their results are analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively.The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve more promising object boundaries than the original deep learning method.This work also demonstrates the advantages of the proposed method in applications of point cloud semantic segmentation and image inpainting.

Non-thermal plasma treatment of Radix aconiti wastewater generated by traditional Chinese medicine processing

The wastewater effluent from Radix aconiti processing, an important step in the production processes of traditional Chinese medicine（TCM）, is a type of toxic wastewater and difficult to treat. Plasma oxidation methods have emerged as feasible techniques for effective decomposition of toxic organic pollutants. This study examined the performance of a plasma reactor operated in a dielectric barrier discharge（DBD） to degrade the effluent from R. aconiti processing. The effects of treatment time, discharge voltage, initial pH value and the feeding gas for the reactor on the degradation of this TCM wastewater were investigated. A bacterium bioluminescence assay was adopted in this study to test the toxicity of the TCM wastewater after non-thermal plasma treatment. The degradation ratio of the main toxic component was 87.77% after 60 min treatment with oxygen used as feed gas and it was 99.59% when the initial p H value was 8.0. High discharge voltage and alkaline solution environment were beneficial for improving the degradation ratio. The treatment process was found to be capable of reducing the toxicity of the wastewater to a low level or even render it non-toxic. These experimental results suggested that the DBD plasma method may be a competitive technology for primary decomposition of biologically undegradable toxic organic pollutants in TCM wastewater.

INTEGRATION OF TRADITIONAL CHINESE WRITING AND PROCESS WRITING APPROACHES IN TEACHING EFL WRITING

This paper adopts a pedagogical approach to theteaching of English writing to EFL learners of interme-diate or advanced level in China.The teaching ofwriting has been a problem to Chinese EFL teachers fora long time.On the one hand,they want to make anattempt to adopt fashionable and effective Englishwriting approaches,like process writing.On the otherhand,they are frustrated by the traditional Chinesewriting method.Some of our language educators arealways struggling against the influence of our tradi-tional Chinese writing method.A negative attitudetowards our mother tongue writing approach has beenestablished or accepted by most of our EFL teachers,which result in the EFL learners’panic in their Eng-lish writing course because they are afraid of being ac-cused of writing a Chinese composition in Englishwords.Needless to say,this kind of teaching stylecannot be effective and is frustrating instead.The au-thor presents an integrated and practical solution tothis problem and discusses the applicability of the ap-proach.The author discusses how we can effectivelyintegrate the traditional Chinese writing method andthe popular process writing approach in teaching Eng-lish writing.