Abstract: Provided herein are heavy chain constant regions (referred to as “modified heavy chain constant regions”), or functionally equivalent fragments thereof, that enhance biological properties of antibodies relative to the same antibodies in unmodified form. An exemplary modified heavy chain constant region includes an IgG2 hinge and three constant domains (i.e., CH1, CH2, and CH3 domains), wherein one or more of the constant region domains are of a non-IgG2 isotype (e.g., IgG1, IgG3 or IgG4). The heavy chain constant region may comprise wildtype human IgG domain sequences, or variants of these sequences. Also provided herein are methods for enhancing certain biological properties of antibodies that comprise a non-IgG2 hinge, such as internalization, agonism and antagonism, wherein the method comprises replacing the non-IgG2 hinge of the antibody with an IgG2 hinge.

Abstract: Processes for depositing silicon-containing films (e.g., silicon, amorphous silicon, silicon oxide, silicon nitride, silicon carbide, silicon oxynitride, silicon carbonitride, doped silicon films, and metal-doped silicon nitride films) are performed using halidosilane precursors. Examples of halidosilane precursor compounds described herein, include, but are not limited to, monochlorodisilane (MCDS), monobromodisilane (MBDS), monoiododisilane (MIDS), monochlorotrisilane (MCTS), and monobromotrisilane (MBTS), monoiodotrisilane (MITS).

Abstract: Systems and methods for managing deployment of an update to computing devices, and for diagnosing issues with such deployment, are provided. An update deployment manager determines one or more initial computing devices to receive and execute an update. The update deployment manager further monitors a set of performance metrics with respect to the initial computing devices or a collection of computing devices. If a deployment issue is detected based on the monitored metrics, the update deployment manager may attempt to diagnosis the deployment issue. For example, the update deployment manager may determine that a specific characteristic of computing devices is associated with the deployment issue. Thereafter, the update deployment manager may modify future deployment based on the diagnosis (e.g., to exclude computing devices likely to experience the deployment issue).

Abstract: Physical (or prior virtual) machine volumes can be converted to virtual machines at a virtual machine host while the physical machines are running. In one implementation, a volume shadow copy service can be used to create an application (and/or file system)-consistent snapshot of one or more physical machine volumes while the one or more volumes are running. The snapshot data can then be transferred to a mounted virtual hard disk file (dynamic or fixed) at a virtual machine host. Operational information (e.g., boot record, system registry, drivers, devices, configuration preferences, etc.) associated with the virtual hard disk file and the operating system(s) within the virtual machine can then be modified as appropriate to ensure that the corresponding virtual machine is bootable and functional at the virtual machine host. The virtual hard disk file can then be un-mounted, and used as a new virtual machine.

Abstract: A method for computing an ACK timing interval for an ACK timer in a protocol layer LLC type 2 session first measures a time interval between transmission of a frame by a source computer joined to a to a destination computer by an intermediate link, and receipt of a corresponding acknowledgment frame by the source computer from the destination computer. The two events at the source computer, starting a timer upon commencement of transmission of a frame or sequence of frames and the later reception of an acknowledge message indicating receipt of those frames, permits calculation of a measured time interval. The measured time interval is used to compute the bandwidth of the intermediate link. The required ACK timing interval for the ACK timer is then computed in response to the bandwidth, the number of bytes transmitted after starting the ACK timer, and the return time for an acknowledgment message.