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Effect of fermentation conditions (time and temperature) on the physicochemical, bacteria community and nutritional composition of amasi (a Southern African fermented dairy product)
Full text linkAbstract: Amasi is one of the most popular traditional fermented milk product in the Southern African region produced through a natural fermentation process. In South Africa unpasteurized milk is sold in local areas and can be used to make amasi at a household level. The most critical parameters in the processing of amasi are fermentation time and temperature, these are responsible for giving a standardized and good quality product. The aim of this study was to optimize the fermentation condition (time and temperature) of amasi and to investigate further its physicochemical, bacteria community, nutritional and health properties. The optimal conditions of amasi were carried out through a tool known as response surface methodology with assistance from k-means clustering, a machine learning technique. The optimal conditions obtained based on the physicochemical properties studied were (pH, titratable acidity (TTA), total soluble solids (TSS) and consistency) were 25 ℃ for 120 hr which is represented as optimal 25 (OP25) and 32 ℃ for 140 hr as optimal 32 (OP32). These were further used to produce starter culture-fermented amasi. The microbiological evaluation of raw milk and optimized amasi (OP25 and OP32) was performed using Amplicon sequencing. The nutritional properties were carried out by proximate composition following the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) methods, mineral (Inductively-coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES)) and amino acid composition. While for health properties, phytochemical was measured using total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) as well as antioxidant activities using (2,2-Azinobis (3-Ethyl-Benzothiazone-6-Sulfonic acid)) (ABTS) and (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) (DPPH) measurements. The fatty acids present in the samples were analysed using base-catalysed methanolysis of glycerides based on the International Organization for Standardization-International Dairy Federation (ISO-IDF) method. The results showed significant inverse relationship between the pH and TTA among the samples. The pH reduced from 6.64 in raw milk to 3.44 in OP25 while TTA increased from 0.02% in raw milk to 0.23% in OP25. A reduction of the TSS and consistency was also observed with the increasing fermentation time and temperature. The study also revealed that the bacteria predominantly associated with amasi fermentation was the lactic acid bacteria from the family Lactobacillaceae while the strains most abundant in raw milk belong to the Prevotellaceae family. The results further showed that fermentation conditions significantly improved the moisture, ash, protein, carbohydrates and energy content of both fermented ii samples but the fat content fluctuated between the investigated samples (RM, OP25, OP32, SC25, SC32). The fermentation, however, increased most of the essential and non-essential amino acids with glutamic acid being the most abundant in all of the samples ranging from RM-SC32 with amounts ranging from 4.46 - 6.30 g/100 g. A similar trend was also observed in the mineral composition, in this case, potassium was the most abundant in all samples having values ranging from 110.18 - 134.46 μg/g. The phenols and flavonoids (TPC and TFC) in all samples as well as the antioxidant capacity (ABTS) were significantly (p≤0.05) improved by optimized fermentation. The free fatty acids were significantly decreased during the fermentation process. Thus, this study demonstrated the importance of the optimization of fermentation conditions in producing a standardized and good quality amasi. The overall results depicted the amasi with enhanced nutritional and health promoting properties than the raw milk which can be of utmost health benefits to consumers. Keywords: Amasi, fermentation, optimization, physicochemical, nutritional properties, health properties.M.Sc. (Food Technology
Methodology and Practicum: Accounting (Supp)
No full textExam paper (Supplementary) for second semester 202
Strategic Communication Management 1B (Supp)
No full textExam paper (Supplementary) for second semester 202
Search for a heavy Higgs boson decaying into a boson and another heavy Higgs boson in the ℓℓ and ℓℓ final states in collisions at √ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
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Search for new phenomena with top quark pairs in final states with one lepton, jets, and missing transverse momentum in collisions at √ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
No full textAbstract: Please refer to full text to view abstract
Understanding memorable tourism experiences and behavioural intentions of heritage tourists
Full text linkAbstract: This study aims to investigate the interplay of visitor engagement, authenticity, and destination image in driving revisit and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) intentions of heritage tourists through the mediating role of Memorable Tourism Experiences (MTE). The data for this research were collected from tourists in the UNESCOlisted heritage city of Kashan, Iran. Using a convergent parallel mixed methods approach, the study’s findings highlighted the importance of MTE as a mediator of these interrelationships. The results also identified the positive direct and indirect effects of visitor engagement on revisit and eWOM intentions. The indirect effects of authenticity on revisit and eWOM intentions through MTE were also significant. The findings also showed the positive direct and indirect effects of destination image on eWOM intention, with the indirect effect on revisit intention being significant. The practical implications of the study and potential future directions for research are also discussed in the conclusion section
Paulin J. Hountondji : Africa’s quest for authentic knowledge
Full text linkAbstract: Beninois philosopher-politician, Paulin J. Hountondji, born on 11 April 1942 in Treichville, Côte d’Ivoire, is arguably Africa’s most influential philosopher, with an impact that spans Africa’s francophone-anglophone divide. Hountondji stands out as the most consistent and eloquent advocate for the scientific integrity and political efficacy of knowledge production in post-colonial Africa1. Beyond this, he belongs to a rare breed of African academics who have been able to combine their intellectual pursuits with political activism and public service. Schooled at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris in the philosophical works of Karl Marx and Edmund Husserl in the early 1960s by Louis Althusser, Jacques Derrida, and Paul Ricoeur (his doctoral supervisor at the University of Paris), Hountondji devoted himself to the contextualisation and application of this European intellectual heritage to the African problematique, and attained the status of one of the most rigorous proponents of African philosophy. He is renowned for his critique of the mode of thought that he seminally isolated as “ethnophilosophy”2 in his seminal 1983 work,3 African Philosophy: Myth and Reality. However, as this essay will demonstrate, Hountondji’s life and mission extend beyond the domain of the discipline of philosophy. His fundamental concern is how research and education in Africa, and on Africa, can be of such quality that it will enable and sustain the structural transformation of social life on the continent. Within his working problematique l’ Afrique, Hountondji posed practical questions such as: “How can the state be transformed . . . How can fear be overcome, and [how can] it be ensured that in this small corner of the globe . . . dictatorship and arbitrary rule become things of the past for ever?”4 . Hountondji is Emeritus Professor at the National University of Bénin, an institution he has been devoted to since 1975. Between 1991 and 1995, he held various government positions of minister of culture and communication, minister of education, and Chargé de Mission du Président de la République in Benin. This experience of a scholar-practitioner informs Hountondji’s life project, expressed in a 2009 lamentation that: Despite all progress . . . we are still a long way from what should be perceived as our final goal: an autonomous, self-reliant process of knowledge production and capitalisation that enables us to answer our own questions and meet both the intellectual and the material needs of African societies.5 Along this vein, Kenyan Professor of African Philosophy, Frederick Ochieng-Odhiambo has examined Hountondji’s work as an archetype of a revolutionary African academic within the tradition of Italian philosopher, Antonio Gramci,6 Hountondji is a crusader for the ontology7 of African intellection as a mode of knowledge that is self-dependent, scientifically rigorous, and emancipated from genitive entanglements with the colonial metropole. The examples of the titles of his research output bears this out: “Scientific Dependence: Its Nature and the Ways to Overcome It”8; and “Knowledge as a Development Issue”9..
The significance of big data in the success of SMEs
Full text linkAbstract: The purpose of this study is to examine how SMEs in emerging markets can benefit from the use of big data and to look at challenges that SMEs encounter when using big data. SMEs play a critical role in growing the economy of developing, emerging, and also developed countries. In South Africa, SMEs account for 98.5% of the total businesses. This study is exploratory and adopted a desk-review approach where journal articles and government reports were reviewed. It was found that SMEs that use big data are more profitable, productive, and innovative. SMEs find it difficult to use big data tools and technologies. This study recommends that institutions of higher learning should introduce short learning programs or continuous education programs to train SMEs on how to use big data tools and technologies. The government should provide both financial and non-financial support to SMEs so that they are able to use advanced technologies and compete with big corporations. Future studies should look at refining big data tools and technologies for SMEs to provide them with technologies and tools that they can easily use
Challenges and success factors of scaled agile adoption : a South African perspective
No full textAbstract: Agile methods and Agile scaling frameworks have become a solution for software-developing organizations striving to improve the success of software projects. Agile methods were developed for small projects, but due to their benefits, even large software-developing organizations have adopted them to scale their software projects. This quantitative study was undertaken to deepen the researchers’ understanding of the critical success factors and challenges of Scaled Agile from the South African perspective. A simple random sampling method was used. Data was collected with the use of an online structured questionnaire and the response rate was 70%. The results reveal that customer satisfaction remains at the epicenter of adopting Scaled Agile methods. Lack of top management support remains the major challenge in adopting Scaled Agile. The results reveal some notable changes when it comes to the most adopted Agile scaling framework
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