Homogenization of cocoa beans fermentation to upgrade quality using an original improved fermenter

Cocoa beans (Theobroma cocoa L.) are the main components for chocolate manufacturing. The beans must be correctly fermented at first. Traditional process to perform the first fermentation (lactic fermentation) often consists in confining cacao beans using banana leaves or a fermentation basket, both of them leading to a poor product thermal insulation and to an inability to mix the product. Box fermenter reduces this loss by using a wood with large thickness (e>3cm), but mixing to homogenize the product is still hard to perform. Automatic fermenters are not rentable for most of producers. Heat (T>45°C) and acidity produced during the fermentation by microbiology activity of yeasts and bacteria are enabling the emergence of potential flavor and taste of future chocolate. In this study, a cylindro-rotative fermenter (FCR-V1) has been built and coconut fibers were used in its structure to confine heat. An axis of rotation (360°) has been integrated to facilitate the turning and homogenization of beans in the fermenter. This axis permits to put fermenter in a vertical position during the anaerobic alcoholic phase of fermentation, and horizontally during acetic phase to take advantage of the mid height filling. For circulation of air flow during turning in acetic phase, two woven rattan with grid have been made, one for the top and second for the bottom of the fermenter. In order to reduce air flow during acetic phase, two airtight covers are put on each grid cover. The efficiency of the turning by this kind of rotation, coupled with homogenization of the temperature, caused by the horizontal position in the acetic phase of the fermenter, contribute to having a good proportion of well-fermented beans (83.23%). In addition, beans'pH values ranged between 4.5 and 5.5. These values are ideal for enzymatic activity in the production of the aromatic compounds inside beans. The regularity of mass loss during all fermentation makes it possible to predict the drying surface corresponding to the amount being fermented. (Résumé d'auteur

Archéologie contemporaine et archéologie du catholicisme récent

Dans son principe, comme foi au transcendant et fréquentation personnelle de la divinité, une religion ne requiert ni bâtiment spécialement construit, ni vêtement particulier, ni imagerie, en un mot aucun artifice, aucun équipement technique. Mais, en fait, la plupart des religions s’équipent, et souvent profusément. C’est le cas du catholicisme, et non sans effet, car l’équipement affecte la croyance, l’image informant l’idée qu’on se fait de l’invisible ; et le culte, car l’église fait l’É..

Dynamical Resonances and SSF Singularities for a Magnetic Schrödinger Operator

We consider the Hamiltonian H of a 3D spinless non-relativistic quantum particle subject to parallel constant magnetic and non-constant electric field. The operator H has infinitely many eigenvalues of infinite multiplicity embedded in its continuous spectrum. We perturb H by appropriate scalar potentials V and investigate the transformation of these embedded eigenvalues into resonances. First, we assume that the electric potentials are dilation-analytic with respect to the variable along the magnetic field, and obtain an asymptotic expansion of the resonances as the coupling constant ϰ of the perturbation tends to zero. Further, under the assumption that the Fermi Golden Rule holds true, we deduce estimates for the time evolution of the resonance states with and without analyticity assumptions; in the second case we obtain these results as a corollary of suitable Mourre estimates and a recent article of Cattaneo, Graf and Hunziker [11]. Next, we describe sets of perturbations V for which the Fermi Golden Rule is valid at each embedded eigenvalue of H; these sets turn out to be dense in various suitable topologies. Finally, we assume that V decays fast enough at infinity and is of definite sign, introduce the Krein spectral shift function for the operator pair (H+V, H), and study its singularities at the energies which coincide with eigenvalues of infinite multiplicity of the unperturbed operator H

A three-level signature by graph for Reverse Engineering of mechanical assemblies

Several approaches exist to provide Reverse Engineering solutions on mechanical parts. Mechanical assemblies and the expertise information retrieved at the same time with the model geometry are not really taken into account in the literature. Thus, the main challenge of this contribution is to propose a methodology to retrieve the Digital Mock-Up of a mechanical assembly from its meshed data (from digitalization). The output DMU consists of expertise information and parameterized CAD models. The methodology proposed relies on a signature by a three-level graph. It enables to provide an adequate level of details by identifying the corresponding functional surfaces in meshed data. The first-level graph is a connectivity graph; the intermediate level is the same as the first with the geometric type of face added to each node (plane, cylinder and sphere) and the deepest level corresponds to a precedence graph. This one provides information such as functional surfaces and position between them (perpendicularity, coaxiality etc.). The solutions developed and the results are presented in this paper. The methodology is illustrated thanks to an industrial use-case with a scan of an assembly with a connecting rod and a piston. The conclusion and perspectives will complete this paper

Indicateurs de durabilité pour la conception préliminaire de bureaux du point de vue énergétique

The building sector currently represents 40% of the energy consumption and one of the major emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. This, combined with the characteristic long lifespan of buildings, means that the decisions behind building design have long-term and multidimensional impacts on both society and the environment. As a result, there is a growing interest in the assessment of buildings based on the concept of sustainability, considering its three basic dimensions: economic, ecological and social. However, current evaluation systems are usually developed in the context of the declaration or certification of buildings, while only a limited number are designed to provide decision-support during the preliminary design phase. It is during these early design stages that key decisions such as construction principles and operation strategies are defined, usually with a limited amount of information available. In order to assist in decision-making during the preliminary building design, a set of indicators is proposed in this present work to evaluate early design alternatives by following a life-cycle analysis approach and according to the three pillars of sustainability. Indicator selection is based on consensus from the international projects and initiatives that compose the state of the art, as well as operational aspects such as database availability for calculation parameters, the evolution of information available and of specific design decisions at every stage of the design process. The conclusions of this study are focused on the energy design of commercial buildings, specifically offices, in the French context

Relation to Culture and Cultural Education on Students in High School French-as-a-First-Language Courses

To enhance the cultural content of the curriculum, several governments are increasing the presence of cultural education in schools. How do high school French-as-a-first-language teachers perceive this education? To answer this question, we relied on the relation to culture theoretical framework and analyzed 32 questionnaires answered by high school French-as-a-first-language teachers. Our results suggest that the teachers’ main role is to bring students to appreciate the cultural objects and practices associated with fine arts and literature and to develop their ability to distance themselves from their surroundings

IL28B SNP screening and distribution in the French Canadian population using a rapid PCR-based test

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the proximity of the interleukin-28B (IL28B) gene can predict spontaneous resolution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and response to interferon therapy. Screening for this polymorphism has become part of the standard criteria for the management of HCV-infected patients, hence the need for a rapid, cost-effective screening method. Here, we describe a rapid PCR-based test to screen for two IL28B SNPs (rs12979860 and rs8099917). We used this test to investigate IL28B polymorphism and prevalence in a cohort of French Canadian injection drug users who are part of a unique population known to have a strong genetic founder effect. This population had lower linkage disequilibrium between the two tested SNPs as compared to other cohorts (|d′| = 0.68, r = 0.59). The special genetic makeup should be considered in the management of HCV-infected patients within that population

Effect of Prenatal Exposure to Polychlorinated Biphenyls on Incidence of Acute Respiratory Infections in Preschool Inuit Children

OBJECTIVE: We set out to assess whether environmental prenatal exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) is associated with incidence of acute respiratory infections in preschool Inuit children. STUDY DESIGN: We reviewed the medical charts of 343 children from 0 to 5 years of age and evaluated the associations between PCB-153 concentration in umbilical cord plasma and the incidence rates of acute otitis media (AOM) and of upper and lower respiratory tract infections (URTIs and LRTIs, respectively). RESULTS: The incidence rates of AOM and LRTIs were positively associated with prenatal exposure to PCBs. Compared with children in the first quartile of exposure (least exposed), children in fourth quartile (most exposed) had rate ratios of 1.25 (p < 0.001) and 1.40 (p < 0.001) for AOM and LRTIs, respectively. There was no association between prenatal PCB exposure and incidence rate of URTIs or hospitalization. CONCLUSION: Prenatal exposure to PCBs could be responsible for a significant portion of respiratory infections in children of this population

Towards new processes to reverse engineering digital mock-ups from a set of heterogeneous data

Reverse-Engineering techniques are commonly used to generate or update the CAD model of a single physical object. However, the reverse engineering of a whole assembly is still very tedious and time-consuming. This is mainly due to the fact that the complete definition of the final digital mock-up relies on the integration of multiple sources of heterogeneous data, such as point clouds, images, schemes or any type of digital representations which are not yet fully supported by actual software. Thus, having new methods and tools to better process and integrate those multi-representations would speed up the reconstruction process which could therefore become adapted to the reconstruction of large mechanical assemblies such as in automotive field. This paper addresses such a difficult problem. Actually, starting from an analysis of three different use-cases, we first highlight the lack of software solutions for the considered problematic. Then, the proposed process-workflow is introduced together with the advanced mechanisms involved in the reconstruction. In our approach, the signatures of the components play a key role in the identification of the relationships and matching procedures between the heterogeneous data. This process-workflow is illustrated on an example in the automotive domain