The inorganic elements potentially migrating from cork to a food simulant [a hydroalcoholic solution containing 12 and 20% (v/v) ethanol] have been determined by means of inductively coupled plasma (ICP) with atomic emission and mass spectrometric detection. The experimental instrumental conditions were evaluated in depth, taking into account spectroscopic and nonspectroscopic interference caus...

In current Java implementations, Remote Method Invoca-tion is too slow for high performance computing. Since Java's object serialization often takes 25%{50% of the time needed for a remote in-vocation, an essential step towards a fast RMI is to reduce the cost of serialization. The paper presents a more eecient object serialization in detail and discusses several show-stoppers we have identiied...

Blood collection devices interact with blood to alter blood composition, serum, or plasma fractions and in some cases adversely affect laboratory tests. Vascular access devices may release coating substances and exert shear forces that lyse cells. Blood-dissolving tube additives can affect blood constituent stability and analytical systems. Blood tube stoppers, stopper lubricants, tube walls, s...

In current Java implementations, Remote Method Invocation is too slow for high performance computing. Since Java's object serialization often takes 25%{50% of the time needed for a remote invocation, an essential step towards a fast RMI is to reduce the cost of serialization. The paper presents a more e cient object serialization in detail and discusses several show-stoppers we have identi ed i...

This review work is an update of a previous work reporting the new cork based materials and new applications of cork based materials. Cork is a material which has been used for multiple applications. The most known uses of cork are in stoppers (natural and agglomerated cork) for alcoholic beverages, classic floor covering with composite cork tiles (made by the binding of cork particles with dif...

Many laboratory animals are known to be sensitive to sounds (ultrasounds) beyond the nominal upper limit (20 kHz) of the human hearing range. Sources of sound in laboratories and animal houses were examined to determine the extent of ambient ultrasound. Of 39 sources monitored, 24 were found to emit ultrasonic sounds. Many of these (e.g. cage washers and hoses) also produced sound in the audibl...

Many computing education studies have reported poor learning outcomes in programming courses for novices. Yet methods for measuring students’ ability to generate computer programs remains an open research problem. In this paper we review some limitations of existing approaches for assessing student programs. We then propose a set of valid and reliable metrics for the direct measurement of novic...

Software development benefits from systematic testing with respect to implementation, optimization, and maintenance. Automated testing makes it easy to execute a large number of tests efficiently on a regular basis, leading to faster development and more reliable software. Systematic testing is not widely adopted within the computer music community, where software patches tend to be continuousl...