Diversity of yeasts involved in the fermentation of tchoukoutou, an opaque sorghum beer from Benin

Opaque sorghum beers are traditional alcoholic beverages in several African countries. Known as tchoukoutou in Benin, the beer is often obtained from an uncontrolled fermentation. It is consumed in an actively fermenting state and has a sour taste. The present study characterized and identified the yeasts involved in the fermentation process of this type of beer using the phenotypical approach. Of 12 beers from 4 different locations, the mean values of the pH, titratable acidity, dry matter content and refractive index were respectively 3.67, 0.70 (% as lactic acid) 18.08% and 7.00. Lactic acid bacteria and yeasts were the predominant microorganisms involved in the fermentation of tchoukoutou. Their counts were respectively 9.1 log cfu/ml and 9.1 logcfu/g. Enterobacteriaceae were not detectable in the beer. Based on the phenotypic characters and the assimilation profiles of 40 isolated yeasts, four genera with seven species of yeasts were identified. The yeast species predominant in the Benin opaque sorghum beer tchoukoutou was Saccharomyces cerevisa

Three Traditional Fermented Baobab Foods from Benin, Mutchayan, Dikouanyouri and Tayohounta: Preparation, Properties and Consumption

Forest food resources contribute significantly to food supply in areas where they grow. Three fermented baobab foods were studied: Dikouanyouri (from seeds, pH = 6.5); Tayohounta (from seed kernels, pH = 7), and Mutchayan (from baobab pulp and sorghum, pH = 4.2). Bacillus spp. (8.5 and 9.5 Log cfu /g) and lactic acid bacteria (8.9 and 8.4 Log cfu /g,) dominate in Dikouanyouri and Tayohounta, respectively. In Mutchayan, lactic acid bacteria (8.1 Log cfu/g) and yeasts (7.2 Log cfu/g) predominated. The arbitrary index of protein cleavage increases from 2.3% (unfermented products) to 13.7% in Dikouanyouri and 21.3% in Tayohounta, indicating significant protein degradation. Mutchayan is the most frequently consumed produc

Willingness to pay for market information received by mobile phone among smallholder pineapple farmers in Benin

Published online: 04 April 2016Access to up-to-date information on market prices and quality requirements remains a key issue for smallholder farmers’ access to high income markets. The aim of this chapter is to explore the problem of information asymmetry between farmers and buyers in the pineapple supply chain in Benin, and to assess strategies using mobile phones to overcome this problem. Data was collected from an exploratory case study in Ghana and a survey with 285 farmers in Benin. Results show that farmers face market information asymmetry leading to lower prices and income. In Ghana, market price alerts through mobile phones messaging allowed decreasing transaction costs for farmers. In Benin, farmers expressed a willingness to pay a premium of up to US$ 2.5 per month to get market price and quality information. Econometric analysis showed that decisive factors for the size of the premium include farm location, market channel, profit margin, contact with agricultural extension services, and technical support from buyers

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Beliefs, taboos and minor crop value chains: the case of Bambara Groundnut in Malawi

Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean) is a source of food for smallholder farmers that is increasingly promoted for its drought tolerance, soil enhancing qualities and nutritious properties. Being an accessible crop to smallholders, it has also recently been the focus of support to develop its value chain in Malawi. However, bambara groundnut is featured in the belief systems of rural people in Malawi, and may effect and be effected by market development. Beliefs and taboos reflect the life/death meanings symbolically represented in bambara groundnut, which influences how and by whom the crop is produced and consumed. These practices lend significant control over the crop to women. These findings have important implications for development and market related interventions that work with food crops, which need to be taken into account during the design phase

Measurement of D*+/- meson production in jets from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper reports a measurement of D*+/- meson production in jets from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is based on a data sample recorded with the ATLAS detector with an integrated luminosity of 0.30 pb^-1 for jets with transverse momentum between 25 and 70 GeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta| < 2.5. D*+/- mesons found in jets are fully reconstructed in the decay chain: D*+ -> D0pi+, D0 -> K-pi+, and its charge conjugate. The production rate is found to be N(D*+/-)/N(jet) = 0.025 +/- 0.001(stat.) +/- 0.004(syst.) for D*+/- mesons that carry a fraction z of the jet momentum in the range 0.3 < z < 1. Monte Carlo predictions fail to describe the data at small values of z, and this is most marked at low jet transverse momentum.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (22 pages total), 5 figures, 1 table, matches published version in Physical Review