Abstract: Systems and methods for a semi-continuous, hydrocarbon pyrolysis process to simultaneously produce CO2-free H2 and high value carbon, wherein the value of the produced carbon offsets the cost of H2 production, are described. The methods comprise a process, wherein steps of: hydrocarbon pyrolysis over a metal-based catalyst to produce H2 and high value carbon; in-situ dislodging of the high value carbon from the catalyst with a vigorous gas stream fluidization; and the catalyst reductive regeneration are semi-continuously cycled such as to continuously recycle the catalyst.

Abstract: An animation system is provided for generating an animation control rig for character development, configured to manipulate a skeleton of an animated character. Hierarchical representation of puppets includes groups of functions related in a hierarchy according to character specialization for creating the animated rig are derived using base functions of a core component node. The hierarchical nodes may include an archetype node, at least one appendage node, and at least one feature node. In some implementations, portions of a hierarchical node, including the functions from the core component node, may be shared to generate different animation rigs for a variety of characters. In some implementations, portions of a hierarchical node, including the component node functions, may be reused to build similar appendages of a same animation rig.

Abstract: Systems and methods for creating presentation slides. A slide title is received and portions of source documents relevant to the title are identified based on a dense vector information retrieval machine learning process. An abstractive summary of the portions is generated based on a long form question answering machine learning process. A first presentation slide is created with the abstractive summary and the title. The first presentation slide is presented to an operator and an input indicating one of accepting or rejection the abstractive summary is received. Based on the input that indicating rejecting the abstractive summary, the abstractive summary is removed from the presentation slide and negative training feedback for the abstractive summary is provided to at least one of the dense vector information retrieval machine learning process or the long form question answering machine learning process.

Abstract: An animation system is provided for generating an animation control rig for character development, configured to manipulate a skeleton of an animated character. Hierarchical representation of puppets includes groups of functions related in a hierarchy according to character specialization for creating the animated rig are derived using base functions of a core component node. The hierarchical nodes may include an archetype node, at least one appendage node, and at least one feature node. In some implementations, portions of a hierarchical node, including the functions from the core component node, may be shared to generate different animation rigs for a variety of characters. In some implementations, portions of a hierarchical node, including the component node functions, may be reused to build similar appendages of a same animation rig.

Abstract: Systems and methods for creating presentation slides. A slide title is received and portions of source documents relevant to the title are identified based on a dense vector information retrieval machine learning process. An abstractive summary of the portions is generated based on a long form question answering machine learning process. A first presentation slide is created with the abstractive summary and the title. The first presentation slide is presented to an operator and an input indicating one of accepting or rejection the abstractive summary is received. Based on the input that indicating rejecting the abstractive summary, the abstractive summary is removed from the presentation slide and negative training feedback for the abstractive summary is provided to at least one of the dense vector information retrieval machine learning process or the long form question answering machine learning process.

Abstract: An animation system is provided for generating an animation control rig for character development, configured to manipulate a skeleton of an animated character. Hierarchical representation of puppets includes groups of functions related in a hierarchy according to character specialization for creating the animated rig are derived using base functions of a core component node. The hierarchical nodes may include an archetype node, at least one appendage node, and at least one feature node. In some implementations, portions of a hierarchical node, including the functions from the core component node, may be shared to generate different animation rigs for a variety of characters. In some implementations, portions of a hierarchical node, including the component node functions, may be reused to build similar appendages of a same animation rig.

Abstract: An animation system is provided for generating an animation control rig configured to manipulate a skeleton of an animated object. A partition separation process enables software changes to be inserted into uncompiled computer code associated with the animation control rig. Analysis of the uncompiled computer code is implemented relative to a performance metric. Based on the analysis in view of the performance matric, one or more partitions are determined in the uncompiled computer code to partition the code into separate code blocks. The uncompiled code is separated at the partition and updated with the software change. The updated code is compiled to generate the animation control rig.

Abstract: An animation system is provided for generating an animation control rig for character development, configured to manipulate a skeleton of an animated character. Hierarchical representation of puppets includes groups of functions related in a hierarchy according to character specialization for creating the animated rig are derived using base functions of a core component node. The hierarchical nodes may include an archetype node, at least one appendage node, and at least one feature node. In some implementations, portions of a hierarchical node, including the functions from the core component node, may be shared to generate different animation rigs for a variety of characters. In some implementations, portions of a hierarchical node, including the component node functions, may be reused to build similar appendages of a same animation rig.

Abstract: An animation system is provided for generating an animation control rig configured to manipulate a skeleton of an animated object. A partition separation process enables software changes to be inserted into uncompiled computer code associated with the animation control rig. Analysis of the uncompiled computer code is implemented relative to a performance metric. Based on the analysis in view of the performance matric, one or more partitions are determined in the uncompiled computer code to partition the code into separate code blocks. The uncompiled code is separated at the partition and updated with the software change. The updated code is compiled to generate the animation control rig.

Abstract: In an embodiment, an animator is provided with an indication when a model's component such as a joint or limb is being moved or twisted in a way that would be unnatural and cause unusual stress on the model component. For example, as a shoulder joint is stressed by moving an arm in an extreme position a yellow bar or coloring of the shoulder, arm or other component can grow increasingly bright and shift to red just before a breaking point is reached. An animator can choose to go past the breaking point and the breaking can be modeled and incorporated into the animation.

Abstract: An aspect provides a computer-implemented method for generating an animation control rig configured to manipulate a skeleton of an animated character. The method comprises associating 502 a plurality of animation control points to an animated skeleton; traversing (504, 512) a node graph representing the plurality of animation control points of the animated skeleton; analyzing 506 the hierarchical node graph to determine which nodes of the hierarchical node graph are inversely solvable; analyzing 508 the hierarchical node graph to determine which other nodes of the hierarchical node graph are solvable with at least one solution that violates a constraint of the animated skeleton; and modifying 510 an operation of at least one node of the other nodes that violates a constraint to approximate the constraint within a tolerance level.

Abstract: An animation system is provided for generating an animation control rig configured to manipulate a skeleton of an animated object. A partition separation process enables software changes to be inserted into uncompiled computer code associated with the animation control rig. Analysis of the uncompiled computer code is implemented relative to a performance metric. Based on the analysis in view of the performance matric, one or more partitions are determined in the uncompiled computer code to partition the code into separate code blocks. The uncompiled code is separated at the partition and updated with the software change. The updated code is compiled to generate the animation control rig.

Abstract: In an embodiment, an animator is provided with an indication when a model's component such as a joint or limb is being moved or twisted in a way that would be unnatural and cause unusual stress on the model component. For example, as a shoulder joint is stressed by moving an arm in an extreme position a yellow bar or coloring of the shoulder, arm or other component can grow increasingly bright and shift to red just before a breaking point is reached. An animator can choose to go past the breaking point and the breaking can be modeled and incorporated into the animation.

Abstract: Example systems and techniques for controlling thermal spray processes and for determining properties of thermal spray coatings. A computing device may control a thermal spray gun to thermally spray a substrate in a thermal spray cycle including a plurality of passes of a coating material to form a coating. The computing device may determine a change in curvature of the substrate during the thermal spraying, and determine properties of the coating based on the changes in the curvature. The computing device may control the thermal spray gun based on the determined properties.

Abstract: Scanning of the shadow copy instead of the hard disk of a computer (using an accessing interface instead of the file system interface or an API of the operating system) enables the scanning software to access any files that might have been locked by the malware on the hard disk and avoids root kits. Files cannot be locked because a disk parser is used instead of the operating system or normal file system interface. It is possible for malware to change or reinfect files during the scanning and cleaning process. Files on the hard disk in existence at the time a manual scan is begun are scanned and backed up to the cache if changed during scanning. Dropped malware is removed by reverting the hard disk to the shadow copy once scanning and cleaning has been performed. Even if a watchdog drops a file during the scanning and cleaning process (because it detects that other malware components are being affected) these dropped files will be removed.

Abstract: There is provided a system and method of disaster preparedness and restoration of service of damaged or destroyed telecommunication network elements. A computer-implemented method of disaster backup for network elements includes establishing connectivity to a plurality of network elements. A host computer may transmit one or more commands to the network elements for invoking a computer routine to create a plurality of computer readable service continuity data to a local memory of the network elements. An automated system of computer executable components for disaster recovery of network elements includes a computer executable controller component that is configured to select a plurality of network elements designated for disaster backup action. A computer executable engine component is configured to establish connectivity to the plurality of network elements and to transmit one or more commands to the network elements so as to replicate service continuity data for each of said network elements.

Abstract: There is provided a system and method of disaster restoration of service of damaged or destroyed telecommunication network elements. A controller component is configured to select a damaged or destroyed network element after a disaster event. An engine component is configured to establish connectivity to an alternative network element and to transmit the service continuity data associated with the damaged or destroyed network element from a computer readable storage. The engine component is configured to execute one or more computer commands to the alternative network element so as to operate it with the service continuity data of damaged or destroyed network element. A restoration service package is transmitted to a replacement network element and instructed to use that service package to re-acquire the original network element's identity and provisioning information in order to restore the traffic that originally existed on the damaged or destroyed network element.

Abstract: Overlaminated faceless PSA label constructions of this invention comprise a low material cost, thin prelaminate PSA construction having a layer of pressure-sensitive material disposed on a release surface of a removable substrate, and a nonblocking continuous film disposed over a surface of the layer of pressure-sensitive adhesive to render the pressure-sensitive adhesive tack free. An optically transparent overlaminate film layer is disposed over the nonblocking continuous film, and a printed indicia is interposed between the overlaminate film layer and nonblocking continuous film. The prelaminate PSA construction does not include a conventional facestock formed from paper, cardboard or plastic, and is highly conformable.

Abstract: This invention relates to die-cuttable stretch oriented films wherein the tensile modulus of the film in the machine direction is greater than the tensile modulus in the cross direction and the tensile modulus in the cross direction is about 150,000 psi or less. The oriented films are useful in particular for preparing adhesive containing labelstock for use in adhesive labels.