Abstract: A method of controlling an agricultural facility for housing a plurality of animals includes the step of regulating the environment within the agricultural facility with an automated building operational system. An automated thermal event controller is operationally coupled with the automated building operational system and generates a thermal event signal in response to a thermal event in progress, whereby the automated thermal event controller, upon receipt of the thermal event signal indicating that the thermal event is in progress, activates an alarm state. In the alarm state, the automated thermal event controller: sends an alarm signal to a system administrator; places the automated building operational system in a safety-mode condition for a first predetermined time interval; and places the automated building operational system in a normal-mode operational condition after the first predetermined time interval and if a confirmatory signal is not yet then received from the system administrator.

Abstract: An apparatus includes a directive handling module configured to implement a directive, wherein the directive defines requirements for locating, establishing, and maintaining a network connection with a remote host, and a content acquisition module configured to acquire content over a network according to the directive. A system includes a client module having the apparatus, and a directive server configured to parse a content-related request and generate a directive in response to the request. The directive may be based upon potentially sensitive business, network, location, or other policies that remain securely maintained by the directive server. A method includes implementing a directive, defining requirements for locating, establishing, and maintaining a network connection with a remote host, and acquiring content over a network according to the directive.

Abstract: A system and method accelerates the distribution of digital content of a global communications network such as the Internet. A central proxy server selects popular digital objects for transmission over a communication medium to provide content filling of cache databases attendant to local proxy servers. The communication medium may comprise satellite transmission using an IP multicast protocol. The local proxy servers concurrently receive the digital objects at a high rate of speed and store the digital objects in the attendant local cache databases. The local proxy servers may utilize a localized priority determination scheme to determine whether to keep or discard the transmitted digital objects. The priority determination scheme may utilize global demand data and/or local demand data. The demand data may include hits and/or misses on digital objects and may also include quantitative data about the digital objects.