Semi-Sweet Biscuits: 2. Alternatives to the Use of Sodium Metabisulphite in Semi-Sweet Biscuit Production

The influence of sodium metabisulphite (SMS) and other gluten-modifying agents on the performance of a commercial biscuit flour in the production of semi-sweet biscuits has been studied. Use of a proteolytic enzyme as a gluten-modifying agent resulted in a dough with a longer mixing time than other doughs, partly as a result of mixing to a higher temperature. The extrusion time of doughs containing the proteolytic enzyme was closest to the extrusion time of doughs containing SMS. Doughs containing SMS or proteolytic enzyme produced significantly shorter extrusion times than doughs containing l -cysteine hydrochloride. Dynamic oscillatory measurements showed that for doughs made at a constant water level the lowest elastic and viscous moduli were produced by doughs containing sodium metabisulphite. Doughs containing the other gluten-modifying agents produced stronger elastic properties than those containing SMS but weaker elastic properties than doughs containing no gluten-modifying agent. The hardness of the semi-sweet biscuits produced was found to be reduced by a weakening of the rheological properties of the dough. All gluten-modifying agents reduced dough piece contraction in length during processing, although SMS was the most effective. A decrease in dough piece length during processing caused an increase in dough piece thickness and width. Use of a proteolytic enzyme or the enzyme and l -cysteine hydrochloride in combination, as gluten-modifying agents, produced biscuits closest in quality to those produced from doughs containing SMS.     

Preparation and characterization of LaCrO3 and Cr2O3 methane combustion catalysts supported on LaAl11O18- and Al2O3-coated monoliths

A series of LaAl₁₁O₁₈- and Al₂O₃-supported LaCrO₃ and Cr₂O₃ combustion catalysts was prepared. Different active phase–support combinations were prepared and applied to cordierite monoliths. The washcoat materials were aged in flowing humid air at temperatures between 1100°C and 1400°C, after which they were characterized by BET, XRD, TPR, and EDS. The monolith catalysts were evaluated in methane combustion. The presence of an active phase retarded sintering of the Al₂O₃ support, whereas the active phase slightly decreased the thermal stability of LaAl₁₁O₁₈. X-ray measurements revealed extensive interaction between support and active phase in the washcoat materials. A substituted perovskite, LaCr_1−xAl_xO₃, is proposed to be formed in nearly all samples containing both lanthanum and chromium. The accessibility of chromium decreased rapidly after aging. The activities of the Al₂O₃-supported catalysts were higher than of those supported on LaAl₁₁O₁₈, which was related to the higher surface area of the former.     

Individual differences in components of reaction time distributions and their relations to working memory and intelligence.

The authors bring together approaches from cognitive and individual differences psychology to model characteristics of reaction time distributions beyond measures of central tendency. Ex-Gaussian distributions and a diffusion model approach are used to describe individuals' reaction time data. The authors identified common latent factors for each of the 3 ex-Gaussian parameters and for 3 parameters central to the diffusion model using structural equation modeling for a battery of choice reaction tasks. These factors had differential relations to criterion constructs. Parameters reflecting the tail of the distribution (i.e., τ in the ex-Gaussian and drift rate in the diffusion model) were the strongest unique predictors of working memory, reasoning, and psychometric speed. Theories of controlled attention and binding are discussed as potential theoretical explanations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotions over time: Synchronicity and development of subjective, physiological, and facial affective reactions to music.

Most people are able to identify basic emotions expressed in music and experience affective reactions to music. But does music generally induce emotion? Does it elicit subjective feelings, physiological arousal, and motor reactions reliably in different individuals? In this interdisciplinary study, measurement of skin conductance, facial muscle activity, and self-monitoring were synchronized with musical stimuli. A group of 38 participants listened to classical, rock, and pop music and reported their feelings in a two-dimensional emotion space during listening. The first entrance of a solo voice or choir and the beginning of new sections were found to elicit interindividual changes in subjective feelings and physiological arousal. Quincy Jones' "Bossa Nova" motivated movement and laughing in more than half of the participants. Bodily reactions such as "goose bumps" and "shivers" could be stimulated by the "Tuba Mirum" from Mozart's Requiem in 7 of 38 participants. In addition, the authors repeated the experiment seven times with one participant to examine intraindividual stability of effects. This exploratory combination of approaches throws a new light on the astonishing complexity of affective music listening. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Degree distribution of the FKP network model

Power laws, in particular power-law degree distributions, have been observed in real-world networks in a very wide range of contexts, including social networks, biological networks, and artificial networks such as the physical internet or abstract world wide web. Recently, these observations have triggered much work attempting to explain the power laws in terms of new ‘scale-free’ random graph models. So far, perhaps the most effective mechanism for explaining power laws is the combination of growth and preferential attachment. In [A. Fabrikant, E. Koutsoupias, C.H. Papadimitriou, Heuristically optimized trade-offs: A new paradigm for power laws in the internet ICALP 2002, in: LNCS, vol. 2380, pp. 110–122], Fabrikant, Koutsoupias and Papadimitriou propose a new ‘paradigm’ for explaining power laws, based on trade-offs between competing objectives. They also introduce a new, simple and elegant parametrized model for the internet, and prove some kind of power-law bound on the degree sequence for a wide range of scalings of the trade-off parameter.     

The accessibility of dental treatment to adults with physical disabilities in northeast England

The study was carried out to gain information about the availability and the accessibility of dental services to adults with physical disabilities in Gateshead, an industrial town with a population of 199,588 situated in northeast England. Questionnaires were sent to all general dental practices to ascertain the dental staff's perceptions of the accessibility of their premises, their willingness to treat people with disabilities, and the types of treatment offered. The main problem for access was caused by stairs and other physical barriers within buildings. Lack of portable equipment limited the scope of domiciliary treatment offered.     

Microsoft als Initialzünder für mehr Datenschutz in den USA?

Zusammenfassung  Die Forderung von Microsoft nach einem einheitlichen Datenschutzrecht in den USA auf Bundesebene hat viele hier in Deutschland überrascht. Ein Gezeitenwechsel ausgerechnet in den zun?chst auf Marktmechanismen setzenden USA? ... und dann noch von Microsoft, einem Unternehmen, dessen de facto Standard schon fast selbst Gesetzeskraft zukommt. Die Motive und Hintergründe kl?ren in diesem Beitrag Axel Spies und Oliver Stutz auf.