Abstract: The disclosed invention is directed to a method and system which allows publishers to create hybrid elearning courses and to publish the courses to a variety of environments including to an LMS, a web interface, or a CD-ROM. Through a “syndication” process, the hybrid elearning courses are associated with consuming organizations downstream of the publisher; such consuming organizations and/or roles within such organizations may be allowed to edit or customize those portions of the courses which have been labeled as “consumer editable.

Abstract: The disclosed invention is directed to a method and system which allows publishers to create hybrid elearning courses and to publish the courses to a variety of environments including to an LMS, a web interface, or a CD-ROM. Through a “syndication” process, the hybrid elearning courses are associated with consuming organizations downstream of the publisher; such consuming organizations and/or roles within such organizations may be allowed to edit or customize those portions of the courses which have been labeled as “consumer editable.

Abstract: The disclosed invention is directed to a method and system which allows publishers to create hybrid elearning courses and to publish the courses to a variety of environments including to an LMS, a web interface, or a CD-ROM. Through a “syndication” process, the hybrid elearning courses are associated with consuming organizations downstream of the publisher; such consuming organizations and/or roles within such organizations may be allowed to edit or customize those portions of the courses which have been labeled as “consumer editable.

Abstract: The disclosed invention is directed to a method and system which allows publishers to create hybrid elearning courses and to publish the courses to a variety of environments including to an LMS, a web interface, or a CD-ROM. Through a “syndication” process, the hybrid elearning courses are associated with consuming organizations downstream of the publisher; such consuming organizations and/or roles within such organizations may be allowed to edit or customize those portions of the courses which have been labeled as “consumer editable.

Abstract: Provided are precipitation hardened high strength nickel based alloy welds that yield improved properties and performance in joining high strength metals. The advantageous weldments include two or more segments of ferrous or non-ferrous components, and fusion welds, friction stir welds, electron beam welds, laser beam welds, or a combination thereof bonding adjacent segments of the components together, wherein the welds comprise a precipitation hardened nickel based alloy weld metal composition including greater than or equal to 1.4 wt % of combined aluminum and titanium based on the total weight of the nickel based alloy weld metal composition. Also provided are methods for forming the welds from the nickel based alloy weld compositions, wherein the precipitation hardening occurs in the as-welded condition. The nickel based welds do not require a separate heat treatment step after welding to produce advantageous strength properties.

Abstract: A very compact interactive animated character is provided that provides highly life-like and intelligent seeming interaction with the user thereof. The animated character can take the form of a small animal-like creature having a variety of moving body parts including a smile/emotion assembly which are coordinated to exhibit life-like emotional states by precisely controlling and synchronizing their movements in response to external sensed conditions. The animated character also includes sound generating circuitry to generate speech sounds as well as sounds associated with various emotional states, which are coordinated with a lip sync assembly simulating speech mouth movement. The drive system utilizes first and second reversible motors which are able to power and precisely coordinate the lip sync assembly producing speech mouth movement, with the movable parts and the smile/emotion assembly to produce life-like interactions and emotional expressions.

Abstract: The invention relates to an adhesive composition comprising a formaldehyde-containing aminoplast resin and a catalysing compound, with the catalysing compound being an acid or is able to release an acid with a pKa lower than 4 and with the formaldehyde-containing aminoplast resin having a F/(NH2)2 ratio lower than or equal to 1. The catalysing compound comprises at most 11 wt. % of an ammonium salt. The invention also relates to a process for the preparation of board material using the adhesive composition according to the invention and to the board material thus obtainable.

Abstract: An apparatus for forming a continuous preparation ply of the type used to make vehicle tires from preparation ply sections having nonmetallic cords. An infeed conveyor successively feeds the preparation ply sections to a butt splicing machine that joins the ends of the two preparation ply sections to form a butt joint. A gum strip applier receives the continuous preparation ply from an outfeed conveyor and applies a gum strip over the butt joint. A method is provided for forming a continuous preparation ply by first automatically forming a butt joint, and thereafter automatically placing a gum strip on the butt joint.

Abstract: A system and method to allow valid profiles in autonomic computing discover is presented. A client accesses a network and sends a profile information request to a central computing device, such as a server. The server identifies client properties, such as the client's location and a user functionality description which corresponds to the client's user. The server uses the identified client properties to select an appropriate master profile from a master profile look-up table. The server sends master profile information, such as the master profile's pathname and revision time, to the client. In turn, the client determines whether it already has a valid profile or whether it should download an up-to-date version. If the client requires an up-to-date profile version, the client downloads the master profile from the server and uses the downloaded profile for various computing tasks.

Abstract: A novel software application development aid comprises a web portal that provides aggregated and prioritized application issue data to ISVs in an ISV-specific and ISV-customizable manner so that the ISVs may improve their applications or correct errors therein and may know which application issues are causing the greatest reductions in customer satisfaction. So informed, the ISV may efficiently focus limited corrective resources on the most pressing problems. The application issue data sources for the ISV portal may include logo testing data, user crash report data, and other testing data.

Abstract: An apparatus for forming a continuous preparation ply of the type used to make vehicle tires from preparation ply sections having nonmetallic cords. An infeed conveyor successively feeds the preparation ply sections to a butt splicing machine that joins the ends of the two preparation ply sections to form a butt joint. A gum strip applier receives the continuous preparation ply from an outfeed conveyor and applies a gum strip over the butt joint. A method is provided for forming a continuous preparation ply by first automatically forming a butt joint, and thereafter automatically placing a gum strip on the butt joint.