Abstract: A method of quantifying the removal of hydrocarbon component from a soiled fabric by a washing process, wherein the soiled fabric includes at least about 0.5 wt % hydrocarbon component wherein the method uses near infra-red (NIR) analysis, wherein the method includes the steps of: (a) performing non-contact NIR analysis of the soiled fabric to determine the concentration of hydrocarbon component present on the soiled fabric at multiple points; (b) washing the soiled fabric to obtain a washed fabric; (c) performing non-contact NIR analysis of the washed fabric to determine the concentration of hydrocarbon component present on the washed fabric at the same multiple points that were used in step (a); and (d) quantifying the removal of hydrocarbon component from the soiled fabric by the washing process.

Abstract: A data storage service implements encoding techniques for generating compound partition keys, compound clustering keys, or a combination for more flexibility in storing data in a key-value database system. In some aspects a request to store data with multiple partition keys and/or multiple clustering keys may be received. Length information may be added to the partition keys, and the results concatenated together to form a compound partition key used to store the data in the database. Ordering information may be added to the clustering keys, and the results concatenated together to form a compound clustering key, to be used in storing and sorting data in the database. In some cases, the clustering keys may be made a uniform length, such as by padding keys, as necessary, to have a length that is a multiple of an arbitrary number, and then dividing the clustering keys into chunks of that arbitrary number.