A preferred embodiment may generally be construed as providing a method for storing fissile material, such as spent nuclear fuel (SNF), and includes the steps of: providing a storage container configured to receive the fissile material therein; and applying a coating to a surface of the storage container. Preferably, the coating is formed, at least in part, of a neutron-absorbing material and is adapted to reduce neutron multiplication and/or provide a shielding of the fissile material received within the storage container. Systems also are provided.

The present invention relates to a process to dissolve plutonium or a plutonium alloy, by placing it in contact with an aqueous dissolution mixture, wherein said dissolution mixture comprises nitric acid, a carboxylic acid with complexing properties with respect to plutonium, and a compound comprising at least one —NH2 radical such as urea. The invention also relates to a process to convert plutonium or a plutonium alloy into plutonium oxide and to manufacture nuclear fuel from said oxide.The invention particularly applies to the dismantling of plutonium contained in nuclear weapons with a view to its use in civilian nuclear reactors, particularly in the form of MOX fuel.

The present invention concerns a process for dissolving ruthenium deposits that are present on a surface and a process for decontaminating the internal circuits of nuclear fuel reprocessing plants using the said dissolution process. The process according to the invention comprises bringing the said surface into contact with an aqueous solution of perruthenate, with the said aqueous solution having a pH equal to or greater than 12, so that the ruthenium is oxidised.

Materials and methods of synthesizing mixed-layered bismuth oxy-iodine materials, which can be synthesized in the presence of aqueous radioactive iodine species found in caustic solutions (e.g. NaOH or KOH). This technology provides a one-step process for both iodine sequestration and storage from nuclear fuel cycles. It results in materials that will be durable for repository conditions much like those found in Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and estimated for Yucca Mountain (YMP). By controlled reactant concentrations, optimized compositions of these mixed-layered bismuth oxy-iodine inorganic materials are produced that have both a high iodine weight percentage and a low solubility in groundwater environments.

Illustrative embodiments provide a nuclear fission reactor, a vented nuclear fission fuel module, methods therefor and a vented nuclear fission fuel module system.

Illustrative embodiments provide a nuclear fission reactor, a vented nuclear fission fuel module, methods therefor and a vented nuclear fission fuel module system.

A fine motion control rod drive mechanism handling apparatus attaches a fine motion control rod drive mechanism having a control rod drive mechanism body, a spool piece, a motor bracket and a motor unit to a reactor pressure vessel, and detaches it from the reactor pressure vessel. The fine motion control rod drive mechanism handling apparatus is provided with a bolt wrench assembly, a motor unit attachment mounted to the bolt wrench assembly, for meshing a first gear of a first gear coupling on a spool piece side with a second gear of a second gear coupling on a motor unit side, and a rotation mechanism mounted to the bolt wrench assembly, for rotating the motor unit attachment.

Disclosed embodiments include methods of assembling a vented nuclear fission fuel module. Given by way of non-limiting example and not of limitation, an illustrative method of assembling a vented nuclear fission fuel module includes receiving a nuclear fission fuel element capable of generating a gaseous fission product. A valve body is coupled to the nuclear fission fuel element, and the valve body defines a plenum therein for receiving the gaseous fission product. A valve is disposed in communication with the plenum for controllably venting the gaseous fission product from the plenum. A flexible diaphragm is coupled to the valve for moving the valve. A cap is mounted on the valve, and a manipulator extendable to the cap for manipulating the cap is received.

The invention concerns a soluble pharmaceutical formulation comprising an insulin derivative wherein the formulation further comprises more than 4 zinc atoms per 6 molecules of the insulin derivative, and a citric acid monohydrate and/or a histidine compound used in an amount sufficient to increase the tendency of the insulin derivative to self-associate into dodecamers. The invention further comprises a process for preparing the soluble pharmaceutical formulation.

Provided herein are pharmaceutical formulations containing exendins, exendin agonists, or exendin analog agonists that are administered at therapeutic plasma concentration levels over a sustained period of time to lower total cholesterol levels; to lower LDL-cholesterol levels; to lower triglyceride levels; to treat dyslipidemia; to treat and slow the progression of atherosclerosis; and to treat, prevent, and reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes in patients. In the pharmaceutical formulations and methods of the invention, the exendin may be exendin-4, an exendin-4 agonist, or an exendin-4 analog agonist. The pharmaceutical formulations may be polymer-based pharmaceutical formulations that may be administered once weekly. An exemplary pharmaceutical formulation comprises 5% (w/w) of exenatide, about 2% (w/w) of sucrose, and about 93% (w/w) of a poly(lactide-co-glycolide) polymer, wherein the poly(lactide-co-glycolide) polymer is in the form of microspheres encapsulating the exenatide.

Acylated insulins wherein an acyl moiety is attached to the parent insulin and wherein the acyl moiety comprises repeating units of alkylene glycol containing amino acids and wherein there is only one lysine residue (K & Lys) in the parent insulin, having satisfactory properties when administered pulmonary.

Cyclic CRF antagonist peptides having improved properties of “drugability”. The peptides are 33 residues in length with a lactam bond between the residues in position 22 and 25; however, they may be N-terminally shortened by up to 3 residues.

To provide a diagnostic and therapeutic medicament, a bombesin analog peptide antagonist conjugate is provided which has general Formula (I), wherein A is a metal chelator comprising at least one radionuclide metal, B is a spacer linked to N-terminal of C or a covalent bond and C is a bombesin analog peptide antagonist having a sequence as claimed, where further x is an integer from 1 to 3 and n is an integer from 1 to 6. [A-(B)n]x—C (I)

The present invention relates to CX3CR1-binding polypeptides, in particular polypeptides comprising specific immunoglobulin domains. The invention also relates to nucleic acids encoding such polypeptides; to methods for preparing such polypeptides; to host cells expressing or capable of expressing such polypeptides; to compositions comprising such polypeptides; and to uses of such polypeptides or such compositions, in particular for prophylactic, therapeutic and diagnostic purposes.

The present invention relates to isolation of whey proteins and the preparation of a whey product and a whey isolate. In particular the present invention relates to the isolation of a β-lactoglobulin product and the isolation of an α-enriched whey protein isolate from whey obtained from an animal. The α-enriched whey protein isolate provided by the present invention is besides from being low in β-lactoglobulin also high in α-lactalbumin and immunoglobulin G.

The present invention relates to a compound which is a polysaccharide derivative of GCSF, or of a GCSF like protein, wherein the polysaccharide is anionic and comprises between 2 and 200 saccharide units. The present invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising the novel compounds, and methods for making the novel compounds.

Methods for treating fatty liver disease, e.g., hepatic steatosis, using peptide fragments of the C-terminal end of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), e.g., GLP-1(28-36).

Provided are a support for affinity chromatography which has excellent alkali resistance, and a method for isolating immunoglobulin. A support for affinity chromatography, containing an immobilized protein ligand represented by the following formula (1): R—R2 (1) wherein R represents a polypeptide consisting of 4 to 30 amino acid residues that contains an amino acid sequence represented by ATK or ASK; and R2 represents a polypeptide consisting of 50 to 500 amino acid residues containing an immunoglobulin-binding domain consisting of an amino acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO: 1 or SEQ ID NO: 2, the partial sequence thereof, or an amino acid sequence having 70% or more identity to these sequences; with the proviso that a terminus at which R2 binds to R is C-terminus or N-terminus of the immunoglobulin-binding domain.

In an aspect, the invention relates to compositions and methods for permeabilizing membranes of cells. In an aspect, the invention relates to compositions and methods for killing cells. In an aspect, the invention relates to compositions and methods of permeabilizing the membranes of cancer cells or microbial cells.

The present invention relates to methods for forming dicarba bridges in organic compounds. This involves the use of a pair of complementary metathesisable groups on the organic compound, and subjecting the compound to cross-metathesis under microwave radiation conditions. In an alternative, the compounds contain a turn-inducing group between the pair of cross-metathesisable groups to facilitate the cross-metathesis.

A method includes receiving first information identifying profile information associated with a customer, habit information associated with the customer's television viewing habits, or Internet usage information associated with the customer. The method also includes receiving preference information from the customer, wherein the preference information identifies advertisements or types of advertisements that the customer would like to view or would not like to view. The method further includes identifying advertisements based on the received first information and the received preference information, inserting, by a service provider, the identified advertisements in a television programming data stream and providing the identified advertisements to the customer.

An automatic content recognition (ACR)-enabled connected TV device may be associated with a paired device and the paired device may comprise a browser. The ACR-enabled connected TV device may be operable to enable, utilizing an ACR system, the browser to display, within a section of a browser window, interactive content related to certain content being presented by the ACR-enabled connected TV device. The ACR-enabled connected TV device may be operable to enable, utilizing the ACR system, a viewer to interact with the interactive content. The section of the browser window may be changed dynamically. The certain content may comprise an advertisement of a particular product and the interactive content may comprise a link to a website and/or other information related to the particular product. The certain content may comprise a program associated with a network and the interactive content may comprise information on polling questions related to the program.

A digital television system is connected to a mobile computing and communication device through an ad hoc communication link. A program broadcasted by the television system includes a plurality frames delivered in a sequential manner. A user can freeze a frame by employing the mobile device. The frame can then be transmitted to the mobile device and be redisplayed on the mobile device. The redisplayed frame includes visible symbols pointing to displayed items associated with advertising messages. The frame can also be stored in a photograph folder for the user to view the frame and associated advertising messages in a later time.

A system and method in a television system for presenting information associated with a user-selected object in a television program is provided. An identity of a user-selected object in a television program being presented to a user is determined. Based at least in part on the identity of the user-selected object in the television program, information to present to the user is determined. The determined information is presented to the user on a television display.

An exemplary method includes a media service provider system 1) providing an end user of an integrated media service with access to a media program by way of a plurality of different media distribution models, 2) maintaining a catalog that includes comprehensive information about the media program, the comprehensive information being an aggregate of non-redundant information about the media program obtained from a plurality of independent source catalogs corresponding to the plurality of different media distribution models, and 3) providing, based on the comprehensive information included in the catalog, a media service user interface that supports discovery of the comprehensive information about the media program regardless of a user interface context from which a user request for information about the media program is received. Corresponding systems and methods are also described.

A system and method are described that provide television content broadcast system subscribers with convenient access to aggregated web feed content. In one embodiment, a television content broadcast system (20) maintains a database (21) linking one or more particular subscribers with one or more sources of web feed content. The television content broadcast system (20) downloads web feed content for a subscriber from the one or more sources associated with the subscriber, either at the user's request or to a cache (22). The television content broadcast system (20) sends the downloaded web feed content through a web content interface (30(2)) to a television receiver (41), or through a web content interface (30(3)) to a local memory (51) in a set-top box (50). In another embodiment, the television content broadcast subscribers also have accounts on a web content aggregation system (10). Web content aggregation system (10) retrieves web feed content associated with the user, and sends the web feed content to television content broadcast system (20) for forwarding to the appropriate subscriber.

An interactive television program guide system with program series reminder and recording capabilities is provided. The system allows a user to set a reminder or schedule a recording for a single episode or for each episode of a program series. In addition, other options may be provided that allow the user to determine, for example, whether to schedule reminders/recordings for episodes on all channels on which the program airs or only on a selected channels, whether to schedule reminders/recordings for all episodes including reruns or only new episodes, whether to schedule reminders/recordings for network or syndicated episodes, and whether to schedule reminders/recordings for episodes on all days or only on selected days of the week. Before the scheduled broadcast time of each episode of each selected program series, the system sends a reminder message to the user that reminds the user of the program episode or sends a record command to a videocassette recorder to initiate recording of the episode. The system allows a user to view a list of all currently requested program reminders and scheduled program recordings. The user may update, change, or cancel any entry in either list or the system may automatically update the lists to match new broadcast schedule information. If the user sets a reminder or schedules a recording that conflicts with an existing reminder or recording, the system may inform the user of the conflict and allow the user to resolve the conflict or the system may resolve the conflict.

Methods, devices, and computer program products for providing instant messaging in conjunction with an audiovisual, video, or audio program are provided. The methods include providing an audiovisual, video, or audio program to a user. Viewer/listener input is received requesting activation of a program-based instant messaging function. A viewer/listener identifier corresponding to the viewer/listener is associated with a program identifier that uniquely identifies the audiovisual, video, or audio program being provided to the user to thereby generate a program viewer/listener record. The program viewer/listener record is transmitted to an electronic database. A list of other users who are viewing or listening to the program in addition to the viewer/listener is acquired from the electronic database. The list of other users is transmitted to the viewer/listener.

Systems and methods for optimizing system performance of capacity and spectrum constrained, multiple-access communication systems by selectively discarding packets are provided. The systems and methods provided herein can drive changes in the communication system using control responses. One such control responses includes the optimal discard (also referred to herein as “intelligent discard”) of network packets under capacity constrained conditions. Some embodiments inspect a video stream to determine priorities for various elements of the video stream. The elements may be discarding using the priorities. In various embodiments, the elements include frames, slices, macroblocks, and data partitions.

A method of provisioning a set-top box (STB) with a provisioning server is disclosed. In the method, a provisioning request is received from a STB, where the provisioning request includes a provisioning stream identifier, an authorization server identifier, and a STB address. The provisioning server requests a provisioning system generate a configuration for the STB, where the configuration includes a channel map and basic code. The provisioning server receives the configuration from the provisioning system. The provisioning server prepares provisioning information, including the configuration for the STB and sends the provisioning information to the STB using the identifier for the STB.

A method and apparatus for extracting advertisement keywords in association with situations of scenes of video include: establishing a knowledge database including a classification hierarchy for classifying situations of scenes of video and an advertisement keyword list, segmenting a video script corresponding to a received video in units of scenes, and determining a situation corresponding to each scene with reference to the knowledge database, and extracting an advertisement keyword corresponding to the situation of a scene of the received video with reference to the knowledge database.

A video-on-demand (VOD) content delivery system has a VOD Application Server which manages a database of templates ordered in a hierarchy for presentation of video content elements of different selected types categorized in hierarchical order. The templates include those for higher-order displays which have one or more links to lower-order displays of specific content. The VOD Application Server, in response to viewer request, displays a high-order templatized display, and in response to viewer selection of a link, displays the lower-order display of specific content. The hierarchical templatized displays enable viewers to navigate to an end subject of interest while having a unique visual experience of moving through a series of displays to the end subject of interest.

A video-on-demand (VOD) content delivery system has a VOD Application Server which manages a database of templates ordered in a hierarchy for presentation of video content elements of different selected types categorized in hierarchical order. The templates include those for higher-order displays which have one or more links to lower-order displays of specific content. The VOD Application Server, in response to viewer request, displays a high-order templatized display, and in response to viewer selection of a link, displays the lower-order display of specific content. The hierarchical templatized displays enable viewers to navigate to an end subject of interest while having a unique visual experience of moving through a series of displays to the end subject of interest. For example, the higher-order display may be a product ad and the lower-order display may be an ad for a local retailer of the product. Similarly, a viewer can navigate from national product to local product ad, or classified ad category to specific classified ad, or bulletin board topic category to specific posting. In another embodiment, the VOD content delivery system is used to deliver consumer-generated classified ads on TV. A web-based Content Management System receives consumer-generated content uploaded online in industry-standard file formats with metadata for title and topical area, and automatically converts it into video data format compatible with the VOD content delivery system indexed by title and topical area. A User Interface for the system delivers listings data to the viewer's TV indexed by title and topical area, and displays a requested classified ad in response to viewer selection.

A heterocyclic compound represented by Formula 1 or Formula 2 below and an organic light-emitting device including the heterocyclic compound: wherein X1, X2, and R1 through R16 are defined as in the specification.

The present invention relates to a triphenylene-based compound represented by the following Formula 1 and an organic electroluminescent device including the same, and the compound of the present invention has excellent hole injection and/or transporting ability, electron transporting ability, and/or light emitting ability, and particularly, green and red light emitting ability, and thus in an organic electroluminescent device containing the same as a light emitting host material, characteristics such as luminous efficiency, luminance, thermal stability, driving voltage, service life and the like may be improved. In the formula, each of A, L, X and R1 to R19 is the same as those as defined in Detailed Description.

A perpendicular magnetic recording disk has a graded-anisotropy recording layer (RL) formed of at least two ferromagnetically exchange coupled CoPtCr-oxide magnetic layers (MAG1 and MAG2) with two nucleation films (NF1 and NF2) between the magnetic layers. NF1 is a metal film, preferably Ru or a Ru-based alloy like RuCr, sputter deposited on MAG1 at low pressure to a thickness between about 0.1-1.5 nm. NF2 is a metal oxide film, preferably an oxide of Ta, sputter deposited on NF1 at high pressure to a thickness between about 0.2-1.0 nm. MAG2 is sputter deposited over NF2. NF1 and NF2 provide a significant reduction in average grain size in the RL from a graded-anisotropy RL without nucleation films between MAG1 and MAG2, while also assuring that MAG1 and MAG2 are strongly exchange coupled.

An optical film has a cellulose acylate film base material containing cellulose acylate and a plurality of sugar ester compounds having different ester substitution degrees in which an average ester substitution degree of the plurality of sugar ester compounds is from 60 to 94%, and an antistatic hardcoat layer formed from a coating composition containing at least an organic antistatic agent and a curable compound having a (meth)acryloyl group in a molecule of the curable compound.

Provided is a zinc-plated steel sheet for hot pressing having outstanding surface characteristics, comprising: a steel foundation plate comprising a metal surface diffusion layer of which the Gibbs free energy reduction per mole of oxygen during oxidation is less than that of Cr; an aluminum-rich layer containing at least 30 wt. % of aluminum formed on the surface diffusion layer, and a zinc plating layer formed on the aluminum-rich layer. In this way, a metal having a low affinity for oxygen is coated to an effective thickness prior to annealing and thus the creation of annealing oxides at the surface of the steel sheet is suppressed and a uniform zinc plating layer is formed, and alloying of the zinc plating layer is promoted during press-processing heat treatment. Cracking in the steel foundation plate during hot press molding is prevented.

A method of controlling a pump for a hybrid transmission includes commanding a first line pressure of the transmission and deriving a first torque value—an open-loop torque value—from the first line pressure command, and commanding the pump to operate at the first torque value. The method monitors actual speed of the pump and derives a second torque value—a closed-loop torque value—therefrom. A third torque value is derived from the first and second torque values, and the pump commanded to operate at the third torque value. A first speed value may be derived from the first line pressure command, and the second torque value derived from the difference between the monitored and the first speed values. Deriving the third torque value may include a substantially-linear combination of the first and second torque values.

A method for controlling a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission and engine includes automatically engaging a brake, locking the transmission in neutral and starting the engine, in response to a signal whose origin is remote from the vehicle representing a desired engine start; and automatically engaging a brake and locking the transmission in neutral in response to a second signal indicating that the driver has exited the vehicle while the engine is running.

In a motor vehicle having a manual transmission, for, in particular, limiting the engine speed during the start-up operation when fulfilling at least one permission criterion for the engine torque, the criterion depending on the driving state of the motor vehicle, a default engine torque is preset, which is specified according to at least one engine characteristic value and which can be reduced with regard to the set engine torque called for by the position of the accelerator pedal of the motor vehicle.

A transmission assembly in a vehicle includes a transmission configured to receive a transmission fluid. A controller operatively connected to the transmission and configured to store a first look-up table defining respective warm-up calibration factors (Fw) for a respective first set of ambient temperatures. The controller has a processor and tangible, non-transitory memory on which is recorded instructions for executing a method for determining a current temperature (TTF) of the transmission fluid. The vehicle is keyed off and then keyed on after a key-off time duration (te), the controller being deactivated when the vehicle is keyed off and activated when the vehicle is keyed on. The controller is configured to determine the current temperature of the transmission fluid (TTF) based at least partially on the first look-up table and a key-on temperature (TTFkey-on) of the transmission fluid.

A system for determining disablement of driving of a hybrid vehicle is disclosed. The system for determining disablement of driving of a hybrid vehicle may include: power electronic components having a battery at which DC electricity is stored, an inverter converting the DC electricity of the battery into AC electricity, and a motor receiving the AC electricity from the inverter and generating driving torque; an engine burning a fuel so as to generate driving torque and being selectively connected to the motor; an engine clutch selectively connecting the engine to the motor; a transmission connected to the motor to receive the driving torque of the motor or the driving torque of the engine; and a control portion controlling operations of the power electronic components, the engine, and the engine clutch, wherein the control portion turns off a system ready indication in a case that driving of the vehicle is disabled.

A control device continuously variable transmission for vehicle according to the present invention includes a continuously variable transmission mechanism capable of continuously changing a speed ratio, a sub-transmission mechanism provided in series with the continuously variable transmission mechanism, including a first gear position and a second gear position having a smaller speed ratio than the first gear position as forward gear positions and adapted to switch between the first gear position and the second gear position by selectively engaging or releasing a plurality of frictional engagement elements, and a transmission control unit wherein a vehicle is stopped with the gear position of the sub-transmission mechanism kept in the second gear position when being stopped in a state where the gear position of the sub-transmission mechanism is in the second gear position.

A method and transmission control unit configured to improve shift event performance in a vehicle with an automatic transmission by determining a vent time for release of a clutch assembly in a transmission of a vehicle. The vehicle must be stopped and a gear selector in the vehicle must be set to a drive condition. If these conditions are met, the clutch assembly is vented. The vent time from when venting begins to when a turbine (or input shift) speed of the transmission rises is tracked. Once the turbine speed of the transmission rises, the clutch assembly is reapplied. The clutch assembly vent time is set based on the tracked vent time.

A transmission controller increases an indicated hydraulic pressure to a starting frictional engagement element to a normal hydraulic pressure, causes a hydraulic piston to stroke and executes a learning control of the indicated hydraulic pressure so that a time until the starting frictional engagement element starts generating a transmission capacity after the range is switched from the neutral range to the drive range becomes a target time when a range is switched from a neutral range to a drive range. The transmission controller further detects a driver's starting intention and increases the indicated hydraulic pressure to the starting frictional engagement element to a starting time hydraulic pressure higher than the normal hydraulic pressure and prohibits the learning control if the starting intention is detected before the starting frictional engagement element starts generating the transmission capacity.

A control apparatus for an automatic transmission including three frictional engagement elements is configured to set engagement pressures of first and second frictional engagement elements at the time when a predetermined shift speed is established such that a torque capacity of a third frictional engagement element becomes smaller than torque capacities of the first and second frictional engagement elements in the case where an engagement pressure is generated in the third frictional engagement element at the time when the predetermined shift speed is established.

A transmission includes an input member, an output member, four planetary gear sets, and a plurality of torque transmitting mechanisms that are selectively engageable to establish at least ten forward speed ratios and at least one reverse speed ratio between the input member and the output member. The transmission further includes one or more locking mechanisms that engage one or more of the plurality of torque transmitting mechanisms during a start/stop event.

A control device of an automatic transmission comprises a torque converter and a lock-up clutch which are arranged between an engine and an automatic transmission; and an up-shift control means that, when an up-shift is required with an accelerator pedal kept depressed by a driver, lowers an engaging capacity of releasing side engaging elements engaged at a speed stage before a gear shifting and then increases an engaging capacity of engaging side engaging elements engaged at a speed stage after the gear shifting thereby to establish a power-on up-shift, wherein the up-shift control means is configured in that when the acceleration pedal is released from the driver during the time when the power-on up-shift is being carried out, the power-on up-shift is continued while lowering the engaging capacity of the lock-up clutch.

A method of controlling a multiple step downshift is disclosed. Two offgoing shift elements are released and two oncoming shift elements are engaged to complete the downshift. During a first phase of the downshift, one of the offgoing shift elements controls the rate of increase of input shaft speed. During a second phase of the downshift, one of the oncoming shift elements controls the rate of increase of the input shaft speed. The method computes target torque capacities such that output torque and input shaft acceleration are continuous during the transition between phases. Furthermore, the method computes target torque capacities such that both oncoming clutches reach zero relative speed simultaneously as the input shaft reaches the final speed ratio.