Effect of Sorghum Variety on Baking Properties of U.S. Conventional Bread, Egyptian Pita "Balady" Bread and Cookies

Five genetically different sorghums were ground and partially substituted for bread and cookie flour in U.S. white pan bread, Egyptian “Balady” bread and sugar cookies. Except for brown sorghum, water absorption, peak time, stability and time to breakdown, decreased as sorghum increased in the formula. Brown sorghum produced a better quality dough and higher bread volume compared to other sorghums. Bread volume decreased with increasing level of sorghum substitution. Crumb and crust color were directly related to sorghum variety and level of substitution. Replacement of bread flour with up to 30% ground sorghum produced acceptable Egyptian “Balady” bread. Spread factor of sugar cookies increased with increasing levels of sorghum.     

Storage Stability of a Puff Pastry Dough with Reduced Water Activity

A puff pastry dough that remained stable at refrigerated temperatures was developed. Dry heat treatment was used to partially destroy amylase and lipoxygenase in wheat flour. Water activity of puff pastry dough was reduced from 0.98–0.90 by addition of 12g sorbitol/100g flour. The adverse effects of sorbitol on baking properties of puff pastry were alleviated by addition of sodium stearoyl lactylate and gum arabic. The puff pastry dough stored at 5°C in air or nitrogen was stable for 75 days without any significant loss in specific volume or pastry height in comparison with the frozen control.     

Minerals and Protein in Four Hard Red Winter Wheat Varieties and Fractions Derived Therefrom

Whole grain wheat from hard red winter wheat cultivars (Scout 66, Vona, TAM101, and TAM105) and six ground fractions separated according to particle size were analyzed for 25 elements by instrumental neutron activation analysis. The apparent concentrations established in the grain for As, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Eu, Hf, La, Sb, Sc, Sr, Th and U were below the detection limit. However, for the four varieties, average concentrations in the whole grain (μg/g on a dry weight basis) were as follows: Br 6.55; Ca 609; Cl 651; Fe 43.3; K 4090; Mg 1460; Mn 38.5; Na 17.7; Rb 2.26; Se 0.56; and Zn 20.7. Mercury was also detected in cultivar TAM101 at a concentration of 97 ng/g. The correlation between the elements appeared to depend on the particle size distribution.     

Genetic algorithms in integrated process planning and scheduling

Process planning and scheduling are actually interrelated and should be solved simultaneously. Most integrated process planning and scheduling methods only consider the time aspects of the alternative machines when constructing schedules. The initial part of this paper describes a genetic algorithm (GA) based algorithm that only considers the time aspect of the alternative machines. The scope of consideration is then further extended to include the processing capabilities of alternative machines, with different tolerance limits and processing costs. In the proposed method based on GAs, the processing capabilities of the machines, including processing costs as well as number of rejects produced in alternative machine are considered simultaneously with the scheduling of jobs. The formulation is based on multi-objective weighted-sums optimization, which are to minimize makespan, to minimize total rejects produced and to minimize the total cost of production. A comparison is done w ith the traditional sequential method and the multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) approach, based on the Pareto optimal concept.