Abstract: A method for calculating a coagulation characteristic of a sample of blood, a blood fraction, or a control comprises generating an output signal indicative of coagulation of the sample, sampling the output signal at a sampling rate for a predetermined time to provide a plurality of sampled signal values, storing the sampled signal values, rectifying the stored sampled signal values to provide a plurality of envelope values, and storing the envelope values. The stored envelope values are examined in reverse time order to determine a slope of the envelope at each of the stored envelope values. All relative maxima in the stored envelope values are identified. A range of stored envelope values corresponding to each relative maximum is determined. The identified relative maxima are compared to locate an absolute maximum in the stored envelope values.

Abstract: The staling of sweet baked goods comprising starch, water and sweetener is reduced from conventional levels. This may be accomplished by incorporating a preservative agent sugar having high unit anti-staling activity into the sweetener and/or by increasing the total amount of sugar in the sweetener.