A novel molecular model assembly is provided herein for representing the structure of a molecule. That assembly includes a three dimensional body providing a physical representation of an atomic core, and a first cylindrical hole extending inwardly along a central longitudinal axis of such three dimensional body from each end of such three dimensional body. A plurality of connecting guiding elements, e.g. arcuate lobes project from such three dimensional body or a plurality of arcuate slots are inset into such three dimensional body, each being disposed equiangularly about the periphery of such three dimensional body core. An arm projects outwardly from a face of each such connecting guiding element, such arm being connected to an associated such connecting guiding element by a suitable mechanism so as to be arcuately movable only along a single predetermined plane relative to its associated connecting guiding element, elements inwardly along the central longitudinal axis of each of such arms from the distal end thereof. A plurality of axial conenctors is adapted to be inserted into selected ones of the first cylindrical holes and a plurality of equatorial connectors is adapted to be inserted into selected ones of the second cylindrical holes. This molecular model assembly provides a molecular model which can be used to demonstrate various torsional and configurational changes which commonly occur during chemical transformations. Thus, one can realistically simulate actual chemical processes using a "hands-on" model.

(i) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to models used for representing atoms and molecules, and in particular to a novel and improved model of this type including provision for dynamic representation of molecular and atomic orbitals.
(ii) Description of the Prior Art
Many patents are directed to such molecular models. For example U.S. Pat. No. 2,974,425, patented March 1961, by Dreiding, included a large number of different model building components. Since the components were formed from machined steel they were inflexible and thus models of certain molecules and compounds could not be constructed therefrom. In addition, inasmuch as machined steel was utilized, the overall cost of the set was quite high and could not be afforded by students and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,080,662, patented Mar. 2, 1963, by Bramlik, proposed to provide a chemical model which was capable of representing the volume orbitals and of demonstrating their spatial arrangement and interactions so as to exemplify the important role which they played in chemical reactions. The patentee also proposed to provide a chemical model which was capable of representing the greatest number of molecules, radicals and ions with the smallest number of different piece-types, so as to minimize the cost of a model set of any given size. By means of his inventive concept, the patentee proposed to provide a model assembly for representing the atomic and molecular orbital structure of atoms in a molecule. The assembly included at least one body representing the atom core, at least one body shaped to represent the three dimensional character of an atomic orbital, and means for selectively connecting the bodies the depict an atom having at least on unshared electron pair orbital.
Canadian Patent No. 712,758, patented July 6, 1965, by Bramlik, proposed to provide a molecular model assembly which comprised a plurality of coupling units each represented the center and the directed valence orbitals of a single atom. Each had arm sections angularly arranged in accordance with the symmetry axes of valence orbitals and bond angles of the atom to be depicted by the coupling unit. A plurality of elongated cylindrical sections were provided, each being sized for frictional-mounting at each end on respective arm sections of the coupling units. The cylindrical sections were respectively sized to represent accurately to scale the sigma bond distances between bonded atoms represented by the coupling units, and the Van der Waal's radii of unshared electron pair orbitals, pi orbitals and polynuclear pi orbitals. The cylindrical sections were colour-coded respectively to depict atoms of selected elements. The coupling units and cylindrical sections were thus capable of being coupled to form an accurate frame work model of a selected molecule including accurate scale representations of bond angles, bond distances, covalent radii, and Van der Waal's radii.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,230,643, patented January 1966, by Mathus, provided a combination of plastic parts for the atoms and metal tubing for the bonds. This set required the gluing of the plastic parts which comprised the atoms. Since the bonds were represented by metal tubing, the resulting molecular model members were relatively inflexible which resulted in the fracturing of these members across the glue line when the metal tubing was stressed. In addition, because of this inflexibility, the models of a number of different organic molecules and compounds, such as those requiring less than a five member ring, could not be formed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,333,349, patented Aug. 1, 1967, by Bramlik, provided a large number of different components and utilized tubing to connect such components. Since the user had to cut the tubing for his own needs, it was very possible that incorrect lengths would be cut which would result in the formation of a model of a molecule or compound with an incorrect spatial relationship between the atoms. In this case, dimensional accuracy between atoms would not exist and the resulting molecule or compound may have been impossible of actual existence.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,510,962, patented May 12, 1970, by Sato, attempted to solve two problems. The first problem to be met consisted of how to orient the various bond angles of the model to represent the actual bond angles of the molecules. The second problem resided in the connections between the spherical and polyhedral ball members and the bond members. A tight but rotatable telescopic engagement of these members was required. The patentee provided a molecular structure educational model for use in teaching stereo-chemistry comprising polyhedral block members each having fourteen facets and a cubic configuration with eight corners cut away along the straight lines connecting the centres of the adjacent ones of the twelve edges forming six square facets and eight equilateral triangular facets. Every pair of opposite facets of each polyhedral block member was parallel to each other, and each of the facets had a hole in the center thereof perpendicular to the plane of the facet. Rod members were insertable in the holes to interconnect the polyhedral block members.
Canadian Patent No. 871,230, patented May 18, 1971, by Bramlik, proposed to provide molecular orbital models by means of a model assembly for representing the atomic and molecular orbital structure of atoms in a molecule. The assembly comprised a plurality of units which represented atom cores, each of the units comprised a solid body having the form of a polyhedron with triangular planar faces and with a bore at each corner thereof arranged in accordance with the symmetry axes of the valence orbitals and bond angles of the atom to be depicted by the unit, the bodies of the plurality of atom core units were of three types respectively defining a tetrahedron, a trigonal bipyramid and an octahedron depicting the forms of the hybridization states of a single atom. A plurality of such units represented atomic orbital lobes and each comprises a hollow body of substantially ellipsoid-shape which had a terminal bore. Coupling means were provided in the form of elongated members which had end portions sized for frictional-mounting within the bores of the atom core units and orbital lobe units for interconnecting selected atom core units and for connecting selected orbital lobe units to the atom core units to form semi-skeletal models of selected molecules including scale representations of bond angles, bond distances, atomic orbitals and internuclear distances, with the molecules shown in ground states and excited states.
Canadian Patent No. 907,320, patented Aug. 15, 1972, by Forsstrom, attempted to provide a construction series for molecular models which comprised, in combination, a first unit in the form of a spherical segment which had a spherical surface of a size substantially greater than a semi-sphere, and which had a flat surface formed with a recess on the flat surface for receiving a portion of a spherical surface of another unit. An interengageable member, extended from the bottom of the recess centrally of the recess and approximately to the flat surface. The spherical surface of the first unit was formed with at least one aperture which had a cross-section corresponding to that of the cross-section of the interengageable member. Two units could thus be joined by inserting the interengageable member of the first unit into an aperture of the other unit.
Canadian patent No. 949,311, patented June 18, 1974, by Nicholson, proposed to provide a model representing a molecular structure which comprised atoms and interatomic bonds. A unit, which represented a multivalent, atom comprised a spherical body which had a single socket which comprised a cylindrical hole of circular cross-section diametrically-extending of the body with a depth greater than the radius of the body and a plurality of integral arms radiating from the body. Each of the atoms had a portion of polygonal cross-section at the sphere and the number of arms was one less than the valence number of the atom represented. The socket and the arms were oriented relative to one another at substantially the correct valency angles of the atom, each arm had, at its free end, a cylindrical portion of a diameter tightly to fit into a like socket of another unit of the model and a length at least as great as the depth of the socket. In this way, a plurality of units were assembled with an integral arm of one unit fitting into the socket of another unit without play to form a substantially-rigid structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,656, patented May 3, 1977, by Dreiding, proposed to provide a set of structural elements for forming stereo-chemical models of molecular bonds between polyvalent atoms. Each structural element had at least two connector arms representing the valences of at least one atom. Each of the connector arms had opposite inner and outer and portions and were coupled at its inner end portion with a corresponding end portion of at least one other of the connector arms of the same structural element. The outer of each connector arm comprised manually-operably means for pair-wise equiaxial coupling and uncoupling the arm to or from a corresponding outer end portion of another connector arm of the same structural element or of another one of the structural elements. The means for pair-wise coupling and uncoupling the outer end portions of the connector arms comprised identically-designed coupling devices at each outer end portion of all connector arms. The coupling devices were configured for direct coupling of any two outer end portion of all connector arms without auxiliary means, the connector arms each comprised a flexible element which was normally rectilinear when unloaded.
Canadian Patent No. 1,147,143, patented May 31, 1983, by LeBlanc, attempted to provide a model assembly which comprised two spaced spheres which represented carbon atoms. Each sphere carried a fixed blade extending toward the other sphere with the fixed blades representing a hybridized "sp.sup.2 " orbital, and each sphere carried a blade representing an unhydbridized "p"" orbital movable in a first plane toward the other sphere to at least partially overlap or contact the corresponding blade carried by the other sphere which had been moved toward the first sphere in the first plane. Each sphere carried a pair of blades which each represented hybridized "sp.sup.2 " oribtals and which were simultaneously-movable in a second plane which was normal to the first plane. In each sphere the inner end of the blade which represented the hybridized "p" orbital was interconnected with the inner ends of the blades movable in the second plane which represented hybridized "sp.sup.2 " orbitals whereby movement of the unhybridized "p" orbital blade towards the other sphere resulted in simultaneous movement of the related pair of hybridized "sp.sup.2 " orbitals away from the other sphere to a position in the second plane where the three hybridized "sp.sup.2 " blades were separated by 120.degree..
U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,888, patented Aug. 16, 1983, by Darling et al., proposed to provide a molecular model building member which comprised a first end portion, a second end portion, and two arms connecting the first end portion and the second end portion, each of the two arms were substantially-symmetrical about its axis. The first end portion and the second end portion each had an opening formed therein to receive another molecular model building member to form a model of a molecule. Each of the first and second end portions had a projection formed thereon oppositely-directed from the opening formed therein. The opening was provided with inwardly-extending lips of the entrance thereto for engagement with the projection provided on another molecular model building member to interlock with the other molecular model building member when received within the opening adjacent the inwardly-extending lips.
Canadian Patent No. 1,179,497, patented Dec. 18, 1984, by Barrett, proposed to provide an interlocking molecular model system which comprised: a first component representative of an atom and which included at least one elongated shank outwardly-extending from a part of the component which represented the nucleus of the atom. The shank had a first cylindrical section of one cross-sectional area at its outer end, a second cylindrical section of smaller cross-sectional area adjacent the end of the first cylindrical section which faced the part of the component which represented the nucleus, the surface of the shank between the first and second cylindrical sections defined a shoulder inwardly-extending from the surface of the first cylindrical section, and an abutment extending transversely-outwardly relative to the axial direction of the second cylindrical section and adjacent to the end of the second cylindrical section closer to the part of the component which represented the nucleus. A fastener component was provided which comprised a hollow tubular position longitudinally-slotted at one end and had an axial length representative of a predetermined portion of a covalent radius of the atom, the inner surface at one end of the slotted end portion comprised an inwardly-extending axial lock which fit over the second cylindrical section of the first component to be hooked behind the shoulder on the shank and had an axial length substantially equal to the axial length of the second cylindrical section. The fastener component could thus be axially-interlocked with the shank so that the distance between the part of the first component which represented the nucleus and the remote end of the tubular portion of the fastener component was representative of the covalent radius of that atom, and the inner surface of the part of the tubular position between the axial lock and the remote end had a cross-sectional area large enough to fit over the first cylindrical section.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,698, patented Apr. 28, 1987, by Darling et al., and its corresponding Canadian Patent No. 1,167,637, patented May 22, 1984, proposed to provide a molecular model building member which comprised a main portion with two arms connected to and emanating outwardly from the main portion. The member was formed of relatively flexible material which permitted the arms to be bendable relative to the main portion. One of the arms was comprised of a first section connected to the main portion and a second section connected to the first section so that the first section was interposed between the main portion and the second section. The second section of one of the arms had an annular rib around the periphery thereof and had a smaller cross-section than the first section so as to form a first annular shoulder at their intersection. The other of the arms had a bore therein to receive the second section of the one of the arms of another of the molecular model building members and to frictionally-engage the annular rib provided thereon.


A driving assist apparatus for a vehicle that guides the vehicle to a target position is provided. On the basis of the present direction of the vehicle and the direction of the vehicle at the target position, a basic path that changes the vehicle direction so as to coincide with the target direction of the vehicle at the target position is computed. A path from the present position to the target position is computed by adding a straight-line path to the basic path under a predetermined condition.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to vehicular driving assist apparatus and method for determining a locus of run to a target position and assisting the driving of a vehicle so that the vehicle follows the locus of run.
2. Description of the Related Art
A related-art technology for guiding a vehicle to a target position through the use of the automatic steering, the steering command, etc., is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 5-297935. In this related technology, in order to precisely guide a vehicle to a target position and cause the azimuth angle of the vehicle at the target position to coincide with a target azimuth angle, three basic track patterns are prepared. Then, in order to compensate for errors in position, azimuth angle and curvature, a cubic equation is solved. Using the thus-provided solution, the track patterns are similarity-transformed so as to set a target track.
However, in this related technology, since it is necessary to solve a cubic equation and therefore perform computation of complex numbers, the load of computation becomes great. Therefore, the real-time execution of this calculation is difficult for the existing computing units installed in vehicles. Furthermore, the use of a high-performance computing unit leads to a cost increase, and is therefore unfavorable.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Driving assist apparatus and method for vehicle


Flame retardant and heat resistant retroreflective structures are disclosed. Generally, the retroreflective structure includes a transparent plasticized polyvinyl chloride film, an array of retroreflective cube-corner elements underlying the transparent plasticized polyvinyl chloride film, a flame retardant and heat resistant adhesive underlying the array of retroreflective cube-corner elements, and a flame retardant woven fabric bonded to the flame retardant and heat resistant adhesive.

Retroreflective materials are employed for various safety and decorative purposes. Particularly, these materials are useful at nighttime when visibility is important under low light conditions. With perfect retroreflective materials, light rays are reflected essentially towards a light source in a substantially parallel path along an axis of retroreflectivity. Retroreflective materials can be used as reflective tapes and patches for clothing, such as vests and belts. Also, retroreflective materials can be used on posts, barrels, traffic cone collars, highway signs, vehicles, warning reflectors, etc. Retroreflective material can include arrays of randomly oriented micron diameter spheres or close packed cube-corner (prismatic) arrays.
Cube-corner or prismatic retroreflectors are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,712,706, issued to Stamm on Jan. 23, 1973, the teachings of which are incorporated by reference herein. Generally, the prisms can be made by forming a master negative die on a flat surface of a metal plate or other suitable material. To form grooves 60 degrees apart are inscribed in the flat plate. The die is then used to process the desired cube-corner array into a rigid flat plastic surface.
Further details concerning the structures and operation of cube-corner microprisms can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,684,348, issued to Rowland on Aug. 15, 1972, the teachings of which are incorporated by reference herein. A method for making retroreflective sheeting is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,689,346 issued to Rowland on Sep. 5, 1972, the teachings of which are incorporated by reference herein. For example, cube-corner microprisms can be formed in a cooperatively configured mold. The prisms can be bonded to sheeting, which is applied thereover to provide a composite structure in which the cube-corner elements project from one surface of the sheeting.
Retroreflective materials can be particularly useful when visibility is critical such as under emergency conditions. For example, retroreflective materials can be used for firefighters' coats and protective clothing. However, the conditions that firefighters are exposed to can be harsh, especially in regard to excessive heat and temperature conditions. Many retroreflective materials are made of plastics that soften at temperatures of about 100° C. The softened plastic in such materials can begin to flow causing the material to lose its retroreflectivity and thereby impair visibility. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has established standards that can be used to evaluate clothing and retroreflective structures intended to be worn by firefighters.

Flame retardant retroreflective film structure


A method for an online Web Server to process print requests for a remote printing. The request is sent by a client using the Internet Printing Protocol to the Server. The server then parses the request and determines the destination for the print job. The print job is then routed to the destination. If the destination printer does not support the Internet Printing Protocol, then the Server converts the print job to a format compatible with the destination printer and sends the job to the printer.

The present invention relates generally to printing systems, and more particularly to a universal printing system that facilitates printing to a remote printer via a print server.
Users of mobile devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), laptops or portable personal computers, two way pagers, mobile phones, and other mobile devices can often access information over the internet. However, to print this information, the users of these devices usually need to either have a printer physically connected to the device, or the user must pre-store the document on an internet based storage that can only be accessed by special types of print devices for printing.
Another problem with mobile devices is that many documents must be printed using print drivers or the software used to create the document. Some documents may contain multiple document formats, for example a word processing document containing a graphic document. The mobile device may not have the document's native software for all of the document's formats. As mobile devices often have limited storage capabilities, it is often not feasible to install all of the necessary software programs to handle all of the formats.
Because the device is mobile, a user may desire to print to the nearest printer, and the mobile device may not have a printer driver for the nearest printer installed. Most printers require that a document be converted to a print file containing printer control codes or commands. Thus for a mobile device to be able to print to any printer, it would have to have printer drivers for all known printers installed on it, which due to limited storage capabilities may degrade the usefulness of the device.
One solution to the aforementioned problems is a universal printing system that can enables a portable device, or any client, to select a printer and send a document to that printer via a server without having the native applications for the document or print drivers for the printer. However, this solutions requires the user to log into the server and upload the document to the server. Sometimes a user may prefer to utilize personal preferences such as print finish settings. If the user has a printer driver installed on the client computer, then the user can print the job using the Internet Print Protocol to print to the universal server.
The Internet Printing Protocol (IPP 1.0), described in Internet Printing Protocol/1.1: Model and Semantics and Internet Printing Protocol/1.1: Encoding and Transport, published by the Printer Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) allows an end user to remotely print to any Internet Print Protocol-enabled print through a communication network. The advantage of using the Internet Printing Protocol is that it provides the opportunity to transmit digital document print jobs anywhere in the world to printers coupled to the Internet without the long distance charges that a facsimile transmission can incur.
The Internet printing protocol may be bi-directional, allowing for communication between the printer and the client process transmitting print jobs to the printer. For example, the user can issue print jobs, inquire about a printer's capabilities, inquire about the status of a printer and the status of a print job, as well as remotely issue other printing commands such as canceling a print job.
However, to print to a remote printer via the Internet Printing Protocol, the printer must have an assigned URL address so that properly formatted print jobs may be sent directly to the printer's address and printed at the remote printer. Therefore, print jobs cannot be submitted to printers that do not have an assigned URL address using the Internet Printing Protocol.
Another problem often encountered when using the Internet Printing Protocol is that not every printer vendor has bi-directional Internet Printing Protocol. Therefore, users are unable to monitor the status of their submitted print jobs.
Thus, a need exists for a method to print using the Internet Printing Protocol to a server which can then appropriately route the print job to any printer regardless of whether it supports the Internet Printing Protocol. There is also a need for a method to retrieve printer job status from printers that do not support bi-directional Internet Printing Protocol.

Internet print protocol print dispatch server


A coating composition for lubrication film is disclosed. The coating composition comprises (A) a high energy beam-curable resin, (B) silicone elastomer fine particles, and (C) a gum-like polysiloxane. The coating composition is capable of forming a lubrication film that suppresses the occurrence of stick-slip phenomenon, has good feel, adheres to a substrate, and has excellent followability (i.e. ability to follow the elastic transformation) to conform to deformation of the substrate.

The formation, of a lubrication film on the surface of various types of substrates by coating the surface of the substrate with a resin capable of being cured by high energy beams such as ultraviolet radiation or the like, and irradiating the coated substrate with the high energy beams, is known. Various proposals have been made previously for coating compositions for lubrication film to form a lubrication film in this manner.
A composition for forming a lubrication film including a UV curable resin is proposed in Patent Document 1. Finely powdered polytetrafluoroethylene is further blended in this composition as a friction reducing agent. According to this composition, a finely powdered polytetrafluoroethylene (i.e. fluoro resin fine particles) is included in this composition, and thus it is possible to maintain good sliding characteristics over a long time interval, and it is possible to lower the coefficient of friction during sliding.
Patent Documents 2 and 3 disclose high energy beam-curable coating compositions that include 100 parts by mass of a high energy beam-curable polymerizable monomer (A), 0.01 to 10 parts by mass of a lubricating agent (B), and 0.1 to 10 parts by mass of a high energy beam polymerization initiator (C). By using this composition, these documents teach that it is possible to form a coating that has excellent wear resistance, surface lubrication, and excellent transparency over a long time interval.
Patent Document 4 discloses a coating composition for a film formed by blending 10 to 100 parts by weight of a silicone rubber spherical fine powder (average particle diameter of 1 to 20 μm, JIS A hardness of 60 to 80) per 100 parts by weight of a curable silicone polymer. According to this composition, a film can be formed that has good visual appearance (i.e. mat), and has excellent lubrication ability, wear resistance, and coating surface scratch resistance.

Coating composition for lubrication film


A method of enabling key handling for a handover between different domains may include determining whether an indication of a potential key mismatch is present responsive to an attempt to conduct a handover between a first domain and a second domain, and defining validity of a most recent key set used for ciphering communication between a mobile terminal and a network device based on a result of the determining.

The modern communications era has brought about a tremendous expansion of wireline and wireless networks. Computer networks, television networks, and telephony networks are experiencing an unprecedented technological expansion, fueled by consumer demand. Wireless and mobile networking technologies have addressed related consumer demands, while providing more flexibility and immediacy of information transfer.
Current and future networking technologies continue to facilitate ease of information transfer and convenience to users. Such increased ease of information transfer and convenience to users has recently been accompanied by an increased ability to provide mobile communications at a relatively low cost. Accordingly, mobile communication devices are becoming ubiquitous in the modern world. With the rapid expansion of mobile communications technology, there has been a related rapid expansion in those services that are demanded and provided via mobile communication devices.
Over the history of mobile communications, there have been many different generations of systems developed to enable the use of such communication devices. The first generations of these systems were sometimes developed independently and, at least initially, were not necessarily usable in cooperation with other systems. However, cooperation between communication system developers began to be employed so that new technologies could be enabled to have the potential for synergistic cooperation with other technologies in order to increase overall capacity. Thus, a mobile terminal operable in second generation (for example, 2G) systems such as GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) or IS-95, which replaced the first generation of systems, may in some cases be useable in cooperation with newer generation systems such as third generation systems (for example, 3G) and others that are currently being developed (for example, E-UTRAN (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network)).
The ability of a particular mobile terminal to access multiple systems or communicate via multiple radio access technologies (multi-RATs) is sometimes referred to as "multi-radio access" (MRA). An MRA capable terminal may therefore be enabled to transfer between different RATs (for example, UTRAN (Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network), E-UTRAN, GERAN (GSM EDGE Radio Access Network), HSPA (High Speed Packet Access)). The goal of such transfers is, of course, to maintain communication continuity through each transfer. The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has defined various specifications to attempt to standardize aspects of the mechanisms used to achieve this and other goals. One provision of the 3GPP standards provides for handing over of a voice session over E-UTRAN to GERAN as a circuit switched (CS) voice call (e.g., handing over from a packet switched (PS) connection to a CS connection). In other words, for example, SR-VCC provides a mechanism by which to handover from a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call over a data bearer to a traditional voice call over a CS bearer. However, SR-VCC is also capable of operation in a single RAT environment. For example, a device may be handed over from HSPA to UTRAN where HSPA is part of the UTRAN.
Additionally, other inter-domain handover situations beyond SR-VCC are also possible. One principle or goal for implementation of standards related solutions is to avoid or reduce impacts on a target access network (for example, GERAN). In particular, with respect to SR-VCC from E-UTRAN toward a pre-release 8 target network, it may be desirable to utilize deployed target MSC (mobile switching center) and BSS (base station system) nodes without requiring substantial changes to such nodes to support the SR-VCC solution. However, in some cases, problems may arise due to the fact that the network and the user equipment (UE) being handed over may have different concepts of when a handover has been successfully completed. For example, in each of various different SR-VCC handover scenarios, the UE may consider the handover complete and then send a message indicating as much to the network. The network typically considers the handover complete after receipt of the message sent by the UE. Accordingly, with the difference in handover completion determination conditions established, it is possible for one side to store the new CS key set and the other side to dispose of the new CS key set and instead retain the previously stored CS key set. This scenario may occur, for example, in a handover failure case. More specifically, if the UE provides a transmission (e.g., a handover complete message) that is not received by the network, the UE will store the new CS key set, but the network will retain the old CS key set.
A key set mismatch is normally handled by checking for matching key set identity (KSI (key set identifier) or CKSN (ciphering key sequence number)) in the network and at the UE at a subsequent CS and/or PS connection, where a mismatch triggers a new key exchange (e.g., via authentication and key agreement (AKA)) procedure. A failure may occur when the newly mapped key set has a mapped identity that is the same as an existing stored key set. In particular, for example, if it is not known which of the two possible key sets is stored under the key set identity in the network and at the UE, a mismatch of key sets may be a very serious condition resulting in connection failure or badly ciphered audio. The above listed example is merely one situation where a key mismatch may result following a handover between specific different domains involving SR-VCC. However, it should be appreciated that similar problems related to key mismatches may occur in relation to other inter-domain handovers as well that may not necessarily involve SR-VCC or MRA.
Accordingly, changes to the key handling procedures for inter-domain handovers may be desirable.

Method and apparatus for source identification for key handling following a handover failure


A brake component for retarding a rotor includes a wearable friction segment having a thickness, wherein the friction segment is configured to be pressed into contact with the rotor. The brake component also includes a first resistive sensor having an electric resistance and a feature determinative of the electric resistance. The first resistive sensor is mounted on the friction segment and includes an electric connection for communication with an external device. The feature is configured to wear along with the friction segment thereby increasing the electric resistance of the first resistive sensor. A braking system employing the friction brake component to retard rotation of a wheel and for decelerating a motor vehicle is also disclosed.

A brake is typically a mechanical device designed to inhibit motion. Brakes commonly use friction to convert kinetic energy into heat, though other methods of energy conversion may be employed. For example regenerative braking converts much of the energy to electric energy, which may be stored for later use.
On vehicles, braking systems are employed to apply a retarding force, typically via frictional elements at the vehicle's rotating axles or wheels, to inhibit vehicle motion. Friction brakes often include stationary shoes or pads that are lined with friction material and configured to be engaged with a rotating wear surface, such as a rotor or a drum. Common configurations include shoes that contact to rub on the outside of a rotating drum, commonly called a "band brake", a rotating drum with shoes that expand to rub the inside of a drum, commonly called a "drum brake", and pads that pinch a rotating disc, commonly called a "disc brake".
Modern vehicles typically use a hydraulic force to press the aforementioned shoes or pads against the respective rotating disc or drum, which slows the disc or drum and its attendant wheel. Generally, vehicle friction brakes store thermal energy in the disc brake or drum brake while the brakes are being applied and then gradually conduct the stored heat to the ambient. Additionally, during the process of retarding a vehicle, the friction surfaces of shoes or pads, as well as of the respective drums and rotors, experience wear. Accordingly, such friction surfaces must be periodically renewed or replaced.


An approach is provided for fully-automated learning to match heterogeneous feature spaces for mapping. The approach involves determining a first feature space comprising first features and a second feature space comprising second features, and classified by a feature detector into a first attribution category and a second attribution category, respectively. The approach further involves calculating a first similarity score for the first feature space based on a first distance metric applied to the first features, and a second similarity score for the second feature space based on a second distance metric applied to the second features. The approach also involves determining a transformation space comprising a first weight to be applied to the first similarity score and a second weight to be applied to the second similarity score based on matching the first attribution category and the second attribution category.

Conventionally, constructing a map from different data sources for autonomous driving includes pre-processing raw sensor data by an onboard perception system. The onboard perception system interprets the raw sensor data as attributed to certain pre-defined sensor categories, e.g., road lanes, road signs, poles, or any other terrain features. However, to match the data sources collected from different sensor sets, the semantic categories need to be compared and assigned a similarity score. Since different semantic categories are detected with varying distance metrics resulting in varying degrees of confidence and similarity scores, service providers face significant technical challenges in efficiently comparing these semantic categories.

Method and apparatus for matching heterogeneous feature spaces


In general, in one aspect, the invention relates to a system for providing identity protection that, in one embodiment, includes a fraud model for specifying patterns of events indicative of identity fraud and a business rules subsystem used to identify fraud that is specified by the fraud models. The system aggregates data from a variety of sources, and has an analytical engine that operates on the aggregated data and determines, using the business rules, whether there are events that are correlative with the fraud models that are indicative of fraud.

In today's society, people generally do not know where their private and privileged information may be used, by whom, and for what purpose. This gap in "identity awareness" gives rise to identity theft, which is growing at epidemic proportions.
The concept of identity is not restricted to only persons, but applies also to devices, applications, and physical assets that comprise additional identities to manage and protect in an increasingly networked, interconnected and always-on world.


The invention relates to a ballistic-resistant molded article containing a compressed stack of monolayers, with each monolayer containing unidirectionally oriented reinforcing fibers and at most 30 wt. % of a plastic matrix material and with the fiber direction in each monolayer being rotated with respect to the fiber direction in an adjacent monolayer, characterized in that the density (.rho..sub.P) of the compressed stack is at least 98.0% of the theoretical maximum density. The invention also relates to a process for manufacturing the molded article. The ballistic-resistant article may be used in, for instance, helmets, as inserts in bullet-proof vests, as armoring on military vehicles and in ballistic-resistant panels.

A ballistic-resistant moulded article of this type is disclosed in WO 89/06190. The known ballistic-resistant moulded article affords fairly good protection against impacts of projectiles such as shrapnel or bullets. The level of protection is quantified by means of the Specific Energy Absorption (SEA), a measure of the amount of energy that can be absorbed by a moulded article on impact of a projectile per unit areal weight of the moulded article. Fairly good protection by the known moulded article on impact of a bullet is intended to mean an SEA value of from about 30 Jm.sup.2 /kg to maximum 65 Jm.sup.2 /kg. The March 1992 "Ballistics" leaflet of Messrs Allied-Signal Inc., Petersburg, Va., quotes as highest SEA level an SEA of 65 Jm.sup.2 /kg on impact of a 7.62.times.39 Mild Steel Core P.S. Ball M1943. This SEA level has been achieved after years of optimization and was regarded by ballistics experts as being very high.
Nevertheless, there continues to be a great need for ballistic-resistant moulded articles that can offer increased protection against impacts of projectiles of various kinds, especially against projectiles in the form of bullets.

Balistic-resistant moulded article and a process for the manufacture of the moulded article


A method of diagnosing central nervous system injuries such as acquired brain injury (ABI) and/or acquired spinal cord injury (ASI), including mild TBI (concussion or blast wave), mild ASI (contusion, stretch or partial cord transection), non-TBI brain injury and/or non-TSI spinal cord injury in a subject (animal or human). The method includes (a) obtaining a biological test sample from the subject, identifying metabolites in the subject's sample using metabolomics thereby obtaining a subject's metabolite matrix and generating a subject's profile using the patient's metabolite matrix; and (b) using multivariate statistical analysis and machine learning to compare the subject's profile with predetermined set of profiles of CNS injuries and a predetermined set of profiles of controls to determine if the subject has a CNS injury.

Acquired brain injury (ABI) and Acquired Spinal Cord Injury (ASI) are brain and spinal damage, respectively, caused by events that occur in utero, perinatal and post-natal. These impairments result from either traumatic brain injury (e.g. mechanical, pressure-wave, etc.) or non-traumatic injury derived from either an internal or external source (e.g. stroke, tumors, infection, poisoning, hypoxia, ischemia, radiation, substance abuse, etc.).
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an insult to the brain from an external mechanical force, leading to permanent or temporary impairment of cognitive, physical, and psychosocial functions, with an associated diminished or altered state of consciousness (includes both concussion and blast injury). The Head Injury Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine defines "mild" TBI as "a traumatically induced physiologic disruption of brain function, as manifested by one of the following: any period of loss of consciousness (LOC), any loss of memory for events immediately before or after the event, any alteration in mental state at the time of the event and focal neurologic deficits, which may or may not be transient. The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) helps defines the severity of a TBI (3-8, severe; 9-12 moderate; 13-15 mild), based on eye, verbal and motor responses. TBI is a major public health concern of epidemic proportions, with an annual incidence of 1.6 to 3.2 million in the United States. Mild TBI or mTBI, of which concussion and blast wave injury are subsets, is the most common form, representing nearly 75% of all TBIs [www.cdc.gov/]. Mild TBI may be caused by impact forces in which the head strikes or is struck by something, o impulsive forces, in which the head moves without itself being subject to trauma (for example, when the chest hits something and the head snaps forward). All age groups suffer concussions, from the very young to the elderly. Certain activities are more frequently associated with concussions, including athletics and military service, but they also result from general trauma caused by motor vehicle collisions, falls from height and assaults. Concussions often result in significant acute symptoms and in some individuals, long-term neurological dysfunction.
A pressure-wave (e.g., bomb blast) may cause the full severity range of TBI, from mild to severe, and may include penetrating injury from projectiles. The pathophysiology of blast-related TBI is distinctive, with injury magnitude dependent on several factors, including blast energy and distance from the blast epicenter (Rosenfeld, et al., Lancet Neurol. 2013 September; 12(9):882-93.). A blast injury is a complex type of physical trauma resulting from direct or indirect exposure to an explosion. (Rosenfeld, et al., Lancet Neurol. 2013 September; 12(9):882-93.) Primary injuries are caused by blast overpressure waves, or shock waves. These are especially likely when a person is close to an exploding munition, such as a land mine. Animal models suggest that the brain is vulnerable to primary blast injury. Shear and stress waves from the over-pressurization could potentially cause TBI directly (e.g., concussion, hemorrhage, edema, diffuse axonal injury). The primary blast mechanism can also result in cerebral infarction due to blast lung injury and consequent formation of gas emboli. ["Blast Injuries: Traumatic Brain Injuries from Explosions", Brainline.org]
While diagnosis of moderate to severe TBI is straightforward, mild TBI is under-diagnosed following concussion and explosive events. ["Blast Injuries: Traumatic Brain Injuries from Explosions", Brainline.org] That is, while moderate and severe TBI are easily diagnosed based on clinical signs, mild TBI can be missed due to subtle, transient or absent clinical signs. The latter require an objective diagnostic, such as a blood test that is sensitive, specific and reproducible.
Diagnosis of clinically significant mTBI can be difficult, as are the decisions to stop play or activities. It is also unclear when mTBI patients should return to daily activities. Thus, there is great interest in discovery of biomarkers to aid in mTBI, including primary brain blast injury and concussion diagnoses, prognoses and rehabilitation. At present, no single biomarker has sufficient sensitivity and specificity.
Non-traumatic brain injuries (non-TBI) can also result in mildly abnormal neurological symptoms. Given the often subtle nature of non-TBI injuries, they could be better identified with an objective diagnostic test, such as a blood test, that is sensitive, specific and reproducible.
Traumatic spinal cord injuries (TSI; e.g injuries from spine hyperflexion, hyperextension, lateral stress, rotation, compression, distraction and partial spinal cord transection; often from motor vehicle collisions, falls from height, sports, etc.) and non-traumatic spinal cord injuries (non-TSI; e.g, intervertebral disk disease, interruption of blood supply, infection, electrocution, cancer, radiation, etc) can also result in mild peripheral symptoms (e.g., an "incomplete" injury). Given the often subtle nature of TSI and non-TSI injuries, they could be better identified with an objective diagnostic test, such as a blood test, that is sensitive, specific and reproducible.
Metabolomics is relatively new field of study that measures a person's small metabolite profile (<1500 Daltons). Two common methods for metabolomics are nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry (MS). The former measures a large number of metabolites, but lacks sensitivity (micromolar range), while the latter is very sensitive for quantifying amino acids, acylcarnitines, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids and sugars (picomolar range). The allure of metabolomics lies with the concept that metabolites fall downstream of genetic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and environmental variation, thus providing the most integrated and dynamic measure of phenotype and medical condition.

Metabolomics profiling of central nervous system injury

LONDON HEALTH SCIENCES CENTRE RESEARCH INC.


Systems and methods for advanced energy settlements in electric power grid are proposed. At least one energy customer, at least one retail electric provider and at least one distributed generator connect to an advanced energy settlement platform communicatively. The advanced energy settlement platform is operable to summate a customer balance from all the settlement blocks during a billing period and collect payments from the at least one energy customer automatically; aggregate and settle distributed energy charges with distributed generators and fixed energy charges with the energy retailer or retail energy provider for the at least one energy customer during the billing period. The advanced energy settlement platform also provides interactive graphical user interface for different participants in the advanced energy settlement and for advanced energy settlements application development kit (ADK) for access to functionality within the advanced energy settlement platform.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electric power messaging and settlements, and more particularly, to advanced energy settlements, messaging, and applications for electric power supply, load, and/or curtailment and data analytics associated with the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally, it is known in the prior art to provide electric power systems management including financial settlements and messaging. However, limited information is available to electric power consumers regarding their past, present, and future projected use of power with sufficient details to make informed choices about types of power supply and pricing alternatives. Furthermore, retail electric providers (REPs) in prior art systems and methods have no access to data and analytics to provide optimal pricing for power supply to business and/or residential electricity customers, and do not have the ability to provide advanced energy settlements to provide the lowest pricing for power supplied at predetermined times, due at least in part to costs associated with obtaining power agreements without visibility to the data and analytics that provides reduced risk of capital and performance associated with the supply and demand sides.
Examples of prior art documents include the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,978,931 for Energy credit card system by inventor Brobeck issued Dec. 27, 2005 describes a method of providing an energy credit system for providing redeemable energy or mass transit credits to consumers who contribute power to a shared electric power grid, wherein at least some of the consumers have their own local renewable energy source connected to the power grid including the steps of measuring the excess power generated by each consumer's energy source that is fed into the electric power grid, awarding energy credits to each of the consumers in relation to the excess power contributed to the electric power grid by the consumer, allowing each consumer receiving the energy credits to redeem them by acquiring fuel, power, or mass transit tickets from a fuel or power provider or mass transit system, and requiring the operator of the electric power grid to compensate the fuel for energy provided or mass transit system in direct relation to the energy credits redeemed by each consumer. Additionally, it claims recording the credits at an energy brokerage house, requiring the operator of the power grid to compensate the brokerage house for the expenses generated by the consumers, and allowing the brokerage house to retain as profit a portion of the compensation received from the operator of the power grid. See also, US Patent Application Publication No. 20040206813.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,900,556 by Provanzana, and assigned on the face of the patent to American Electric Power Company, Inc., for Power load-leveling system and packet electrical storage issued May 31, 2005, describing a large-scale, capacitor-based electrical energy storage and distribution system capable of effectuating load-leveling during periods of peak demand and a cost savings associated with the purchase of electrical energy; and disclosing a method of storing and distributing electrical energy to achieve a cost savings associated with the purchase thereof including the steps of providing a source of electrical energy, providing at least one electrical energy storage capacitor capable of storing a significant amount of energy, the capacitor in communication with the source, providing control equipment adapted to analyze and monitor the real-time cost of purchasing electrical energy from the source and to predict a future cost, supplying an amount of electrical energy to the capacitor to charge it in response to a charge signal from control equipment, discharging at least a portion of the stored energy to a load, and repeating to maximize cost savings; also disclosing deducting the value of the electrical energy sold back to the source for any costs of purchasing energy from the source. See also US Patent Application Pub. No. 20030160595.
US Patent Application Pub. No. 20090177548 for Cooperative environmental and life benefit exchange system by Eisnlohr filed Jan. 9, 2009 and published Jul. 9, 2009 describing a cooperative environmental and life benefit system including a grid transmitting available energy, a plurality of rate payers using energy generated from available energy sources, a plurality of utility companies providing the grid, a plurality of credits redeemable for acquiring one or more of a plurality of life benefits, and an administrator overseeing a redemption process, wherein credits are accumulated by the rate payers based on either a predetermined amount of electrical energy purchased from or sold back to the grid; further describing the redemption process wherein credits accumulated by the payers are redeemed at a redemption rate to provide a redemption value, which is remitted by the rate payers to satisfy benefit cost for acquiring the benefits, or portions thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,274,975 for Optimized energy management system by Miller and assigned to Gridpoint, Inc., issued Sep. 25, 2007 describing methods and systems for optimizing the control of energy supply and demand, including activating battery storage and alternative energy sources to sell energy to the power grid during favorable cost conditions, including method steps for allocating energy at a location where the electrical energy is consumed, with computer-implemented steps of: determining a marginal cost for each of a plurality of energy sources available at the location, at least one of which is a non-grid source of electricity; determining a capacity of electrical energy available from each non-grid energy source; determining a demand for electrical energy at the location; dynamically allocating, in order of lowest marginal cost to highest marginal cost, electrical energy capacity from each of the plurality of energy sources to meet the demand; reducing demand at the location by automatically deferring electrical consumption for a device for which consumption can be deferred from a higher-cost time period to a lower-cost time period, including the computer-implemented step of issuing a command to the device to cause the deferral to occur, and further including determining projected marginal costs in each of a plurality of future time frames and deferring electrical consumption for the device to one of the plurality of future time frames, while conforming to an operational constraint for the device, the operational constraint for the device comprising a maximum time duration for which the device can be switched off; further including step of determining, on the basis of time-varying cost of grid-based electrical energy, whether it is cost-effective to sell electrical energy back to a grid-based source, and if so, automatically initiating such sale; and the step of selling electrical energy from a battery to the grid-based source. See also US Patent Application Pub. Nos. 20110208365, 20070276547, and 20060276938.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,890,436 for Billing and payment methods and systems enabling consumer premises equipment by Kremen and assigned to Clean Power Finance, Inc. issued Feb. 15, 2011 and describes a variety of systems and methods enabling renewable energy consumer premises equipment (CPE) such as dual metering techniques, and disclosing supporting by increasing a likelihood of meeting financing obligations, a consumer purchasing, leasing, installing, and/or maintaining renewable energy CPE for power generation at a consumer premises; coupling the CPE to a power grid operable to receive at least a portion of the power generated by the CPE, measuring power generated by the CPE and delivered onto the power grid of a utility, and processing receivables from the utility associated with the power generated and delivered onto the power grid directly to the lender at times corresponding to power measurement to fulfill the consumer's obligation to repay the loan. See also US Patent Ap. Pub. Nos. 20080091625, 20080091581, 20080091626, 20080091590, 20080091580.
Thus, there remains a need for improved information, controls, real-time or near-real-time data on power consumption for electric power market participants, REPs, customers, data centers, microgrid owners, and messaging and management of financial settlement therefor.

Systems and methods for advanced energy settlements, network-based messaging, and software applications for electric power grids, microgrids, grid elements, and/or electric power networks


The inner-rotor motor of the invention includes a rotor having plural magnetic poles disposed circumferentially, and a stator having a stator core with plural magnetic pole teeth facing to the rotor, located outside a circumference of the rotor, which have coils each wound around thereof. In this construction, the stator is placed within a central angel 180xc2x0 with regard to a rotational center of the rotor, and the coils are set such that the numbers of turns of adjacent coils are unequal, and respective sums of the numbers of turns of the coils in respective phases are equal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique suitable for use in a thin-type inner-rotor motor for driving to rotate a media used in, for example, a floppy disk drive and so forth.
2. Description of the Related Art
The floppy disk drive and other disk drives are widely employed in the field from the personal computer to the office computer and the word processor, and so forth, which shows remarkable popularization. This type of disk drive is made up as shown in FIG. 10, for example.
This will be outlined on the basis of the drawing. In FIG. 10, the symbol 101 signifies a chassis, which possesses a spindle center 102 as the rotational center of a disk, which is housed in, for example, an equipment enclosure (not illustrated) of the personal computer. On the whole, the chassis opens to the front and to the upper, and is formed into a box with the bottom having a space to house a disk cartridge 103.
The chassis 101 has a stepping motor 124 for feeding a head carriage on the rear thereof, and the stepping motor 124 freely travels the head carriage forward backward. The head carriage holds a first head 130 on the front thereof, which reads information recorded on a disk. On the rear upper of the head carriage is attached a head arm 132 that freely swings through an elastic body, which has a second head 131 corresponding to the first head 130. The head arm 132 is energized in the direction that the second head 131 approaches to the first head 130. This type of disk drive is furnished with a cartridge holder 136 that holds the disk cartridge 103 to be freely pulled out, and a mechanism that opens and shuts the shutter of the disk cartridge 103.
Now, in order to satisfy the demand for a thinner type in recent years, this type of disk drive has been adopting one provided with an inner-rotor motor as illustrated in FIG. 11A and FIG. 11B as the motor for rotating a disk.
The inner-rotor motor is composed of a stator 164 and a rotor 166. The stator 164 has an annular yoke 161 extending circumferentially, and multiple cores 163 having coils 162 wound, which are provided radially on the inner periphery of the yoke 161. The rotor 166 has an annular magnet 165 installed to freely rotate on the inside of the stator 164, which faces to the cores 163. And, the symbol 168 denotes a circuit board on which is mounted a holder 170 incorporating bearings 169. The symbol 171 denotes a spindle for fixing the rotor that is pivoted to freely rotate through the bearings 169 on the holder 170 on the circuit board 168, which has the vertically extending axis. Further, the rotor 166 of this inner-rotor motor functions as a turntable having a disk chucking magnet (not illustrated) and a disk chucking swing lever (not illustrated).
In the stator for this type of inner-rotor motor, the yoke 161 and the cores 163 are placed to surround almost all the circumferences of the round rotor 166 except for the moving range of the heads 130 and 131. From the requirements of the magnetic characteristics of these, the yoke 161 and the cores 163 are formed of, for example, a silicon steel plate that is expensive in comparison to a galvanized sheet iron to form the chassis 101 and so forth.
However, in this type of disk drive, there has been an unremitting demand for reducing the production cost thereof, and still a strong demand for a smaller size and lighter weight of the drive.
Therefore, the inventor considers that there has been a demand for reducing the area of the yoke 161 and the cores 163 made of the expensive silicon steel plate, in the stator for the inner-rotor motor.
However, when the area of the yoke 161 and the cores 163 is reduced according to the foregoing demand, there has been found a possibility that the magnetic mutual effect to the rotor 166 becomes circumferentially nonuniform and the operational stability of the disk cannot be maintained accordingly.
Further, it is conceivable to divide the cores so as to have three yokes, in order to reduce the area of the cores 163. In this case, since the yokes each are placed in parallel, the spacings of the fronts each of the yokes become too narrow, and the coil winding cannot be performed, which is a problem.
The present invention has been made in view of the aforementioned circumstances, and the object of the invention is to achieve the following:
(a) reducing the production cost,
(b) making the drive smaller and lighter,
(c) maintaining the rotational stability of the motor,
(d) enhancing the operational stability of the disk drive,
(e) stepping up miniaturization of the stator.
According to one aspect of the invention, to accomplish the above object, the inner-rotor motor includes a rotor having plural magnetic poles disposed circumferentially, and a stator having a stator core with plural magnetic pole teeth facing to the rotor, located outside a circumference of the rotor, which have coils each wound around thereof.
In this construction, the coils are set such that the numbers of turns of adjacent coils are unequal, and respective sums of the numbers of turns of the coils in respective phases are equal.
In the invention, the windings of the coils may be set such that lengths of adjacent windings of the coils are unequal, and respective sums of the lengths of the windings corresponding to respective phases of the coils are equal.
In the invention, the coils may be placed such that at least one of points at which the extensions of lines connecting base end centers and front end centers of the adjacent coils intersect is positioned on an opposite side to the coils with regard to a rotational center of the rotor.
Further, in the invention, preferably the coils are arranged such that the base end centers of the adjacent coils are each placed with an equal spacing.
Further, in the invention, preferably the stator is placed within a central angel 180xc2x0 with regard to a rotational center of the rotor.
Further, in the invention, preferably the stator is provided with six of the coils.
The disk drive of the invention may be configured with the aforementioned inner-rotor motor.
According to this invention, the coils of the stator is configured by setting the numbers of turns of adjacent coils to be unequal, and respective sums of the numbers of turns of the coils in respective phases to be equal. Thereby, even when the lengths of the magnetic pole teeth are made unequally because the spacings of the adjacent coils are reduced for miniaturization, the uniformity of drive in respective phases of the coils can be achieved, the decrease of torque can be prevented, and the effective drive and rotational stability of the rotor can be accomplished.
According to this invention, the windings of the coils are made up by setting the lengths of adjacent windings to be unequal, and respective sums of the lengths of the windings corresponding to respective phases of the coils to be equal. Thereby, it is possible to avoid a situation where the coil winding becomes impossible even when the spacings of the adjacent magnetic pole teeth become extremely small, and to achieve miniaturization of the coil portion with a constant thickness of the coils in the coil windings.
Here, the base end center represents the center position of a part where the magnetic pole teeth with the coil formed thereon is connected to the yoke in the circumferential direction of the rotor, and the front end center represents the center position of the rotor facing side of the magnetic pole teeth of the front of the coil in the circumferential direction of the rotor.
The coils according to the invention can be placed such that at least one of the points at which the extensions of the lines connecting the base end centers and front end centers of the adjacent coils intersect is positioned on the opposite side to the coils with regard to the rotational center of the rotor. Thereby, in correspondence with the front end centers of the coils arranged with an equal spacing along the circumference of the rotor, further miniaturization of the stator can be achieved, and also the spacing of the magnetic pole teeth can be set so as to make the coil winding possible.
Further, in the invention, the coils can be placed in a state that the base end centers of the adjacent coils are each set with an equal spacing. Thereby, the magnetic pole teeth can be placed symmetrically with the points at which the extensions of the lines connecting the base end centers and front end centers of the adjacent coils intersect. Thereby, in correspondence with the front end centers of the magnetic pole teeth arranged with an equal spacing along the circumference of the rotor, still further miniaturization of the stator can be achieved, and also the spacing of the magnetic pole teeth can be set so as to make the coil winding possible.
Further, the base end centers of the coils can be set with an equal distance from the point positioned on the opposite side to the coils with regard to the rotational center of the rotor. Thereby, the shape of the yoke where the magnetic pole teeth are connected can be made into a simple circle to reduce the production cost.
Further, according to the invention, since the stator is located within the central angel 180xc2x0 with regard to the rotational center of the rotor, it becomes possible to reduce the area of the stator core less than about half, compared to the structure in which the stator is provided on the whole circumference of the rotor, such as a conventional inner-rotor motor. This construction reduces the cost of the stator core made of, for example, a silicon steel plate, and the cost of the coil winding and so forth, whereby the production cost of the inner-rotor motor can be cut down. Also, compared to the structure in which the stator is provided on the whole circumference of the rotor, it becomes possible to shrink the area for mounting the motor, to miniaturize the motor, and to lighten the motor by reducing the number of the magnetic pole teeth.
Further, the stator can take on a structure having a continuous central angel less than 180xc2x0 with regard to the rotational center of the rotor, or the stator can be made up with plural stator portions with intervals in-between, where the total sum of the central angles of the stator portions is within 180xc2x0. And, since the stator can be placed within the central angel 90xc2x0 with regard to the rotational center of the rotor, it becomes possible to achieve still further reduction of the production cost and the weight, and further miniaturization.
Further, since the stator is provided with six coils, the motor of the invention can be applied to the three-phase inner-rotor motor.

Inner-rotor motor implementing rotor with effective drive, and disk drive using the same


In a subcutaneous implantable cardioverter/defibrillator, cardiac arrhythmias are detected to determine necessary therapeutic action. Cardiac signal information is sensed from far field electrodes implanted in a patient. The sensed cardiac signal information is then amplified and filtered. Parameters such as rate, QRS pulse width, cardiac QRS slew rate, amplitude and stability measures of these parameters from the filtered cardiac signal information are measured, processed and integrated to determine if the cardioverter/defibrillator needs to initiate therapeutic action.

Defibrillation/cardioversion is a technique employed to counter arrhythmic heart conditions including some tachycardias or fast heart rhythms originating in the atria and/or ventricles. Typically, electrodes are employed to stimulate the heart with electrical impulses or shocks of a magnitude substantially greater than pulses used in cardiac pacing. A variety of shock waveforms are used for both defibrillation and pacing, including truncated exponentially decaying monophasic and biphasic waveform pulses as well as pulses where the waveform maintains a relatively constant current over the duration of delivery to the myocardium.
Defibrillation/cardioversion systems include body implantable electrodes that are connected to a hermetically sealed container housing the electronics, battery supply and capacitors. The entire system is referred to as an implantable cardioverter/defibrillator (ICD). The electrodes used in ICDs can be in the form of patches applied directly to epicardium, or, more commonly, the electrodes are located on the distal regions of small cylindrical insulated catheters that typically enter the subclavian venous system, pass through the superior vena cava, and into one or more endocardial areas of the heart. Such electrode systems are called intravascular or transvenous electrodes. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,603,705; 4,693,253; 4,944,300; and 5,105,810, the disclosures of which are all incorporated herein by reference, disclose intravascular or transvenous electrodes, employed either alone, in combination with other intravascular or transvenous electrodes, or in combination with an epicardial patch or subcutaneous electrodes. Compliant epicardial defibrillator electrodes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,567,900 and 5,618,287, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. A sensing epicardial electrode configuration is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,503, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In addition to epicardial and transvenous electrodes, subcutaneous electrode systems have also been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,342,407 and 5,603,732, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, teach the use of a pulse monitor/generator surgically implanted into the abdomen and subcutaneous electrodes implanted in the thorax. This system is far more complicated to use than current ICD systems using transvenous lead systems together with an active canister electrode, and therefore, it has no practical use. It has, in fact, never been used because of the surgical difficulty of applying such a device (3 incisions), the impractical abdominal location of the generator and the electrically poor sensing and defibrillation aspects of such a system.
Recent efforts to improve the efficiency of ICDs have led manufacturers to produce ICDs that are small enough to be implanted in the infraclavicular pectoral region, a site allowing access to the subclavian venous system. In addition, advances in circuit design have enabled the housing of the ICD to form a subcutaneous electrode. Some examples of ICDs in which the housing of the ICD serves as an optional additional electrode are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,133,353; 5,261,400; 5,620,477; and 5,658,321 the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
ICDs are now an established therapy for the management of life-threatening cardiac rhythm disorders, primarily ventricular fibrillation (VF) and also ventricular tachycardia (VT). ICDs are very effective at treating VF and VT, but traditional ICD implantation still requires significant surgery and surgical skill, especially regarding lead insertion into the venous system and lead positioning in the heart.
As ICD therapy becomes more prophylactic in nature and used in progressively less ill individuals, including children, the requirement of ICD therapy to use intravenous catheters and transvenous leads is a major impediment to very long-term management as most individuals will develop complications related to lead system malfunction, fracture or infection sometime in the 5- to 10-year time frame, often earlier. In addition, chronic transvenous lead systems, their removal and reimplantation, can damage major cardiovascular venous systems and the tricuspid valve, as well as result in life-threatening perforations of the great vessels and heart. Consequently, use of transvenous lead systems, despite their many known advantages, are not without their chronic patient management limitations in those with life expectancies of >5 years. The problem of lead complications is even greater in children where body growth can substantially alter transvenous lead function and lead to additional cardiovascular problems and revisions. Moreover, transvenous ICD systems also increase cost and require specialized interventional rooms and equipment as well as special skill for insertion. These systems are typically implanted by cardiac electrophysiologists who have had a great deal of extra training.
In addition to the background related to ICD therapy, the present invention requires a brief understanding of a related therapy, the automatic external defibrillator (AED). AEDs employ the use of cutaneous patch electrodes, rather than implantable lead systems, to effect defibrillation under the direction of a bystander user who treats the patient suffering from VF with a portable device containing the necessary electronics and power supply that allows defibrillation. AEDs can be nearly as effective as an ICD for defibrillation if applied to the victim of ventricular fibrillation promptly, i.e., within 2 to 3 minutes of the onset of the ventricular fibrillation. AEDs, unlike ICDs, only make shock/no-shock decisions, as they are relieved of the burden of needing to deliver complicated tiered therapeutic responses that the ICD encumbers as a consequence of detecting and treating a multitude of rhythm problems with a multitude of therapies. AEDs either shock for a life-threatening event or they do not shock. ICDs, on the other hand, are designed for a variety of interventions and use a different technological approach for arrhythmia detection, redetection, assessment of effectiveness and therapy.
AED therapy has great appeal as a tool for diminishing the risk of death in public venues such as in airplanes. However, an AED must be used by another individual, not the person suffering from the potential fatal rhythm. It is more of a public health tool than a patient-specific tool like an ICD. Because >75% of cardiac arrests occur in the home, and over half occur in the bedroom, patients at risk of cardiac arrest are often alone or asleep and cannot be helped in time with an AED. Moreover, its success depends to a reasonable degree on an acceptable level of skill and calm by the bystander user.
What is needed, therefore, for life-threatening arrhythmias, especially for children and for prophylactic long-term use for adults at risk of cardiac arrest, is a novel combination of the two forms of therapy which would provide prompt and near-certain defibrillation, like an ICD, but without the long-term adverse sequelae of a transvenous lead system while simultaneously harboring most of the simpler diagnostic and therapeutic technological approaches of an AED. What is also needed is a cardioverter/defibrillator that is of simple design and can be comfortably implanted in a patient for many years.
Further, an ICD is needed that can detect various types of cardiac arrhythmias to provide a patient with adequate therapy according to the type of cardiac arrhythmia experienced by the patient. Although ICDs have multiple secondary functions, they primarily have two key functions: detection and therapy of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias. ICDs constantly monitor a patient's cardiac activity and analyze the cardiac activity to determine the appropriate therapy that should be delivered to the patient. The type of therapies available to be delivered to the patient include pacing, which can be single or dual chamber, therapy to correct slow heart rates or bradycardia called anti-bradycardia pacing, therapy to correct slow and moderately fast ventricular tachycardia (VT) and sometimes atrial tachyarrhythmias, called anti-tachycardia pacing (ATP), and therapy to correct ventricular fibrillation (VF) or high energy shocks. Thus, given the various types of therapies available, it is very important to classify the type of cardiac arrhythmias appropriately.
Detection schemes of cardiac arrhythmias are characterized using two indexes of performance: sensitivity and specificity. Sensitivity generally refers to the ability of the detection scheme or algorithm to accurately detect an abnormal heart rhythm for which the physician desires the device to treat. Specificity generally refers to the ability of the detection scheme or algorithm to not treat rhythms that the physician determines the device should not treat, such as sinus tachycardia. Sensitivity values for VT/VF are typically between 90% to 98%. There is constantly a tradeoff between the ability to detect an abnormal rhythm and the desire to prevent treatment of a normal rhythm. The higher the sensitivity, the more likely the detection algorithm will result in an inappropriate therapy of a normal rhythm and, thus, lower specificity. The higher the specificity, the less likely the device will be able to detect rhythms that should be treated and, thus, the lower the sensitivity. Despite a desire to limit false positive interventions, specificity values are typically only between 70% to 90% in order to not miss therapy of a life-threatening disorder. In practice, there is a constant tension between sensitivity and specificity.
Factors influencing detection algorithm performance include hardware performance, lead electrode placement, electrode design, electrode shape, inter-electrode spacing and the analytical capabilities and design of the detection scheme itself. Because ICDs are battery powered and, therefore, an unlimited supply of power is not available to perform complex and power intensive analytical functions, the energy required to perform the analytical functions is also a factor influencing detection scheme performance.
Another factor that influences the sensitivity and specificity performance of a detection algorithm is the clinical balance between false negatives and false positives for each arrhythmia that the detection algorithm is required to detect. The more arrhythmias required to detect, the more overlap and complexity in the algorithm. For example, one might require a very high sensitivity for fast VT/VF, given its lethality, and therefore accept a lower specificity compared to the relatively benign arrhythmia of atrial fibrillation (AF).
A false negative therapeutic decision results from a detection scheme that calls a bona fide treatable event "normal". But, depending upon the arrhythmia, some false negatives are more tolerable than others. On the other end of the spectrum is a false positive therapeutic decision that results from a detection algorithm that calls a "normal" event an "abnormal" event, thus inappropriately indicating that therapy should be delivered. False positives for therapy of VT are more clinically acceptable than false positives for rhythms like AF where the former is immediately life-threatening and the later is seldom so.
A false negative can result in a missed arrhythmia and can lead to death, and a false positive may result in an inappropriate shock that will be uncomfortable, but not life threatening. Therefore, it is understandable that detection algorithms are skewed to result in false positives and reduce the occurrence of false negatives to zero for rhythms like fast VT but are more common for rhythms like AF where lower sensitivity is more clinically acceptable. Performance of typical detection schemes in current devices result in approximately 15% to 45% false positives for life-threatening disorders like VF and fast VT.
Typically, ICDs primarily use a rate-based classification scheme. That is, the intervals between successive heart beats are measured and, depending on their values, they are classified as slow, normal, or fast. Slow heart beats are treated with pacing (i.e., anti-bradycardia pacing), when the rate reaches a critically low level, according to a physician's direction via the programming of the device. Programmable parameters for slow heart rates include primarily rate and hysteresis. Normal heart rates are left alone, where normal is usually defined in the range of 40-100 bpm. Fast heart beats are often further classified into three zones with various therapies ascribed to each zone. For example, the lowest zone may have a series of anti-tachycardia pacing (ATP) therapies maneuvers programmed for rhythms like monomorphic VT that may fall in this lowest tachycardia rate zone. The next higher zone may integrate a limited number of ATP attempts with a moderate energy shock therapy of approximately between 5-10 Joules for that zone. Finally, the highest zone may have a scheme programmed to deliver the highest output shock energy for rhythms falling in this zone having VF or VT with the fastest and therefore most life-threatening rates.
Additional rate-based qualifiers have been used to improve the specificity of detection schemes. Examples of such qualifiers include parameters like sudden onset to eliminate false positive detection of sinus tachycardia and heart rate interval stability to eliminate false positive detection of rapid AF for VT. Sudden onset refers to tachyarrhythmias that are a result of a precipitous increase in heart rate as opposed to sinus tachycardia where the higher rates tend to come on gradually. The term stability in detection algorithms usually, but not always, refers to the coupling interval between heart beats as a way to distinguish the characteristically irregular interval-to-interval time sequence of AF from more regular cardiac rhythms like sinus tachycardia or monomorphic ventricular tachycardia where the interval-to-interval time sequence is more regular and rarely varies by more than 30 ms unlike AF where variation by 40 ms or more is the rule. Although typically faster in rate, VF does, like AF, exhibit interval-to-interval instability. It can be distinguished from AF in a detection algorithm mostly by its typically much faster rate but also by overlaying other measures in addition to rate and interval-to-interval stability that result from an examination of the electrocardiographic QRS features.
The term stability, when used in detection algorithms, can have another meaning and refer to electrocardiogram (ECG) QRS signal stability, i.e., the ability of the QRS to have identical or at least very similar signal characteristics on a beat-to-beat basis. In one example of stability, one can examine QRS duration or width, QRS amplitude, QRS slew rate (rate of change of the voltage signal), QRS signal template matching, and/or QRS signal frequency content as an indicator of beat-to-beat stability. VF, for example, under this example of stability would be highly unstable as the QRS is constantly changing in all of the ways indicated above in this paragraph. Confirming the presence of VF, regardless of rate, would aid dramatically in applying a shock/no-shock decision-making process.
Recent developments in QRS morphology measurements involve a scheme in which certain areas within a cardiac QRS complex are measured and compared against a normal set as defined by the physician at the time of implant or as defined automatically by the device during preset follow-up measurement intervals.
There are other issues that enter into the ability of ICDs to detect abnormal heart rhythms depending on the cardiac information that is actually presented to the device's sensing electrodes (which may represent only part of the complete set of cardiac information at any point in time), the ICD energy available to analyze the information, the time required or allowed to make the analysis, and the ability or lack thereof for the device to modify itself over time with respect to changes in the patient's underlying cardiac disease process or even such shorter duration events as changes in body positioning.
With respect to limitations in cardiac information available to the device's sensing electrodes, current devices use a first electrode at the tip deep inside the right ventricle as one half of an electrode sensing pair. The second electrode of the pair can be a shocking coil also in the right ventricle and in close proximity to the first electrode, a second cylindrical electrode approximately 0.5 to 2 cm away from the first tip electrode, or the metallic housing of the device itself. Because the first electrode is in close proximity to cardiac tissue, it is more sensitive to electric fields present in the tissue closest to it and less sensitive to the entire electric field generated by all of the cardiac tissue. This contrast to a subcutaneous ICD sensing pair that has the advantage of a true far-field cardiac signal.
With respect to the energy limitations of current devices, the ability to process and analyze cardiac signals depends on the energy available to the devices. Current devices are limited on the amount of energy available for analyzing signals because the devices must reserve a significant portion of the energy for pacing and shocking over the course of several years. For example, one measure of a device's performance is its ability to filter out unwanted signals, this is called common mode rejection ratio (CMRR). The higher the CMRR of a device, the better able it is to reject signals common to both electrodes. Current devices have a CMRR of about 50 db. Energy is required to achieve higher CMRR values. Another aspect of the analysis requiring energy is the use of a microprocessor with appropriate software inside the device to analyze cardiac information. Continuous running of a microprocessor in an implantable device would result in a rapid battery drain with unacceptably short battery longevity. As a result, current devices reserve a portion of hardware dedicated to crude analysis of the underlying rhythm on a continuous basis and only activate the microprocessor when further analysis is needed. Once activated, the microprocessor, along with its software programming, further analyze the cardiac information, decide on a course of action and, when finished, go back to inactive mode.
For a subcutaneous only ICD, these issues of arrhythmia detection sensitivity and specificity, false positives and false negatives, battery depletion, and algorithm design require significantly different considerations and unique hardware considerations and algorithm design compared to typical ICDs with 1-2 sensing leads in immediate contact with the myocardium.
What is then needed is an implantable cardioverter/defibrillator that has different sensing capabilities to ensure that an ICD using only subcutaneous shocking and sensing electrodes performs at acceptable levels as well as has the ability to adapt itself to changes over time.

Apparatus and method for identifying atrial arrhythmia by far-field sensing


A wiring verification system is disclosed for testing the correct pairing of a plurality of subscriber lines between an existing line termination system and a replacement line termination system to assist in the transfer of the subscriber line terminations from the existing line termination system to the replacement system. The wiring verification system comprising a controller and two testheads, one of which places test calls from the line under test to a designated test line that is terminated by the second testhead. The electrical qualities of the wye splices between lines associated with new line termination system and those of the existing line termination system are analyzed for correctness and possible hazardous conditions. The directory number of the line under test can be verified by decoding the calling line ID. Automated test strategies provide details related to which splices require attention and suggestions for remediation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of telephony. More specifically, the present invention discloses a test system that enables the automated testing of line termination systems when they are replaced with newer or more capable technology.
2. Statement of the Problem
In the applications considered herein, line termination systems interface on the network side with the traditional copper twisted pair telephone line which provides telephone service to subscribers at the other terminus. These line termination systems may take the form of conventional central office line frames associated with the local switching system or may be "access systems" which reside in a remote location such as a field cabinet. In any case, when an existing line termination system that is providing service to subscribers is to be replaced with a different line termination system, it is imperative that the designation of subscriber pairs on the new system and those of the existing system be consistent for the conversion from the first system to the second to be seamless. For example, a subscriber pair that is known to the existing line termination system as a given Directory Number (DN) must be physically associated with a pair in the replacement line termination system that corresponds to that same DN for service to be uninterrupted upon transfer to the replacement system. In the prior art, insuring the proper association of the new and existing line termination system pairs either relies on proprietary functionality within the replacement switching system or entails laborious manual testing and verification. The instant invention discloses a method and system for testing the accuracy of installation of replacement line termination systems independently of equipment vendors and technology in a manual or fully automated manner.
Wireline telephone service providers use line termination systems to interconnect between a subscriber's conventional telephone station equipment and the greater telephone network generally through a local switching system. Commonly these line termination systems take the form of proprietary line frames which are integrated into, and a part of, the local switching system. When technological advances, obsolescence, or other factors necessitate the conversion from the existing line termination system to another one, the correct association of subscriber pairs between the two systems presents an installation challenge. The conversions from older electromechanical switching systems to newer electronic switching systems that took place generally between the years 1980 and 2000 in North America exemplify this problem. It was customary to connect the subscriber pairs terminating on the older switching system simultaneously to those of the replacement system's subscriber pairs. The line termination systems on the replacement systems were designed so as not to interfere with the installed system's operation nor provide service to these subscribers until such time as testing is complete and all subscribers can be simultaneously transferred to the new system, a procedure known as a "flash cutover".
These conversions of local switching systems frequently involve many thousands of subscriber pairs and to facilitate the test process automation is highly desirable. Modern switch vendors have incorporated this functionality in their proprietary line termination systems (line frames) in association with the proprietary control and test facilities which constitute the switching system. For example, in the commonly deployed Alcatel-Lucent 5ESS®, this capability is referred to as "Office To Office" (OTO) testing. When a 5ESS is installed to replace an existing switch, OTO testing employs the internal "test trunk" assets of the existing switch and that of the replacement 5ESS to verify that the physical subscriber pairs that the existing switch associates with a given directory number are identical to that of the replacement switch.
As the currently deployed central office technology is now itself becoming obsolete, telephone companies are replacing traditional local switching systems with general purpose line termination systems, such as access systems, which do not have these internal testing capabilities and do not accommodate these proprietary installation verification methodologies. Herein lies a problem in the art.

System for installation testing of telephone line terminations