The present invention relates to an electrical connector with grounding effect, which mainly has grounding part inserted inside the insulating body contacted with the jacket layer enclosed over the signal transmitting units with fixing and contacting effect for generating electrical characteristics, such that the cable assembly of the electrical connector has grounding effect without any grounding line positioned inside cable assembly; wherein, the grounding part has contacting part for providing the jacket layer to contact with, besides it further comprise predetermined grounding terminals extended directly from the grounding part for inserting into the insulating body; such that the cable assembly of the electrical connector of the present invention has grounding effect without any grounding line positioned inside the cable assembly; furthermore, it also can lessen the soldering process and prevent the mistaken probability of the soldering process generated such that the entire assembly process and the relative cost can be reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector with grounding structure suitable for high frequency transmitting, which mainly has the grounding part inserted inside the insulating body contacted with the jacket layer enclosed over the signal transmitting units with fixing and contacting effect for generating electrical characteristics, such that the cable assembly of the electrical connector has grounding effect without any grounding line positioned inside the cable assembly; furthermore, it also can shrink the soldering process such that the entire assembly process and the relative cost can be lessened.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, the most grounding structure of the prior art connector used on the motherboard of the computer mainly is soldered directly to the grounding line to the grounding terminals, however, due to the science and technology is increasing continuously and the environmental protection issue raising, the assembly process of the electronic industry is leading to lead-ness process progressively.
One of the grounding structures of the prior art connector has been found in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,563 B1 patent, wherein, the patent uses a grounding sleeve as a contact between the grounding line and grounding terminals; however, the grounding sleeve still needs to be soldered to the grounding terminals so as to form electrical contact.
However, the grounding design of the connector according to the U.S. Pat. No. 6,489,563 B1 patent may improve the electrical characteristics, but it has no contribution to the environmental protection considering and assembly process; besides easily generates environmental pollution during the soldering process, it also easily causes departing effect if the soldering process is not complete or not certain, further, decreases the grounding effect and electrical characteristics; meanwhile, the assembly structure of the prior art not only increases the cost and wastes man power, but has a poor yield rate, such that the manufacturing cost will be increased for no reason and not conform to cost effectiveness.

Electrical connector with grounding effect


It is possible to perform even pattern transfer with a high throughput. An imprint apparatus includes: a first press plate having a first press face on which a substrate to be transferred; a second press plate having a second press face opposed to the first press face, which is arranged such that the second press face presses a face of an imprint stamper which is opposed from a face thereof on which a concave and convex pattern is formed; a pressure applying unit which applies a pressure on a face of the second press plate which is opposed from the second press face; a first supporting member which supports a face of the first press plate which is opposed from the first press face and has a section equal to or smaller than a bottom face of the substrate in size; and a frame structure which has a second supporting member supporting the first supporting member, a third supporting member supporting the pressure applying unit, and coupling members coupling respective both ends of the second supporting member and the third supporting member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imprint apparatus and an imprint method.
2. Related Art
According to dramatic improvement in function of an information or data processing equipment such as a personal computer, an amount of information or data to be handled by a user is significantly increasing. Under such a condition, expectations are raised for an information or data recording/reproducing apparatus with a significantly high recording density and a semiconductor device with a significantly high integration degree as compared with conventional ones.
In order to improve the recording density, a further fine working technique is required. It is possible to perform a fine working on a large area at a time in a conventional lithography technique using an exposure process. However, since such a technique does not have a resolution with wavelength of light or less, it is difficult to produce a fine structure having a size of, for example 200 nm or less. As a technique for forming such a fine structure of 200 nm or less, there are approaches such as an electron beam lithography, a converging ion beam lithography. However, these approaches include such a problem as reduction in throughput.
As a approach for producing a fine structure having a size of wavelength of light or less, there is "NANO-IMPRINT LITHOGRAPHY (NIL) technique" described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,905. The nano-imprint lithography technique is a technique for pressing a stamper on which a fine concave and convex pattern is formed in advance by an electron beam lithography or the like on a substrate applied with resist to transfer the concave and convex pattern on a resist layer which is applied on the substrate. A time required for one time processing in the technique can be considerably reduced on, for example, an area of one square inch or more, as compared with the electron beam lithography technique or the converging ion beam lithography.
On the other hand, in recent magnetic recording apparatus, a magnetic disc apparatus, and a hard disc drive apparatus, it is necessary to increase a recording density in a magnetic recording medium in order to meet a demand for increase in a storage volume. However, according to increase in recording density, such a problem is arising that magnetic information recorded by a magnetic recording/reproducing head moving relative to a recording medium influence recording on a track adjacent to the magnetic information. Such a problem can be solved by utilizing a patterning technique separating magnetic materials in adjacent tracks physically (for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,723,033).
As the patterning technique for separating magnetic materials on a surface of the magnetic recording medium physically, the above nano-imprint method is effective. When the nano-imprint is used for patterning the magnetic materials on the magnetic recording medium, it is preferable that the imprint is performed at the room temperature and at the atmospheric pressure without performing heating or pressure reducing which requires time for increasing accuracy of pattern transfer at an imprint time and elevating a production efficiency.
Since it is necessary to transfer concave and convex on a resist layer at the room temperature for performing imprint without accompanying heating, it is necessary to make a press pressure higher than that in the imprint process accompanying heating. For example, pressure of at least 100 MPa is required in order to transfer convexconcave on a resist layer of a novolac type commercially available.
On the other hand, a size of a target magnetic recording medium has a doughnut shape with, for example, a diameter of 2.5 inches having a hole with an inner diameter of 20 mm, and a pressure of 30 t is required in order to apply pressure of 100 MPa on a whole face of the magnetic recording medium.
A conventional imprint apparatus is provided with a first press plate having a first press face on which a portion to be pressed including a substrate and an imprint stamper is placed, a pressure applying unit having a shaft and a shaft driving unit for driving the shaft, a second press plate which is connected to a distal end of the shaft and has a second press face opposed to the first press face, where the second press face presses the portion to be pressed placed on the first press face, when the shaft is driven by the shaft driving unit, a first supporting portion on which the first press plate is directly supported and which supports the first press plate, a second supporting portion which supports the pressure applying unit, and a frame structure having a connecting member which connects the first supporting portion and the second supporting portion. As material for the shaft, the first and second plates, and the frame structure, steel or stainless steel which has been subjected to heat treatment is generally used.
The imprint apparatus performs imprint in a state that the portion to be pressed where the imprint stamper and the substrate are opposed to each other is sandwiched between the first press face and the second press face. However, for example, when pressure is applied by a pressure applying unit in the state that the stamper and the substrate are sandwiched between the first press face and the second press face, a pressurizing force of the shaft which presses the portion to be pressed via the second press plate and a reaction force of the frame structure which presses back the portion to be pressed via the first press plate as an reaction to the pressurizing occur. Since acting points of the pressurizing force and the reaction force are different from each other, a structural member between the two acting points deforms.
The pressure acting on the substrate and the stamper becomes uneven within a substrate face due to deformation of the structure and a targeted concave and convex transfer can not be achieved evenly on the whole surface of the substrate, which results in defective transfer.
The defective transfer on the substrate surface occurring due to deformation of the structure causes a pressure concentration on an outer periphery of the substrate and pressure shortage on a central portion thereof.
When an imprint process is performed on a plurality of substrates by a single press working, such a method is effective that the plurality of substrates and stampers are arranged between the first press face and the second press face and a lump imprint is performed. However, pressure unevenness among respective substrates and pressure unevenness within each substrate occur.
The above problem is not exposed in an ordinary die forming work performing work for concave and convex shaping in a micron or millimeter order. However, such a problem has been first exposed in a nano-imprint step for patterning a magnetic recording medium which applies a pressure of 100 MPa or more on the whole face of a disc surface with a diameter of a several centimeters typified by a representative 2.5 inch disc to transfer a fine concave and convex pattern on the face.
As explained above, the nano-imprint approach is a technique which is suitable for producing a fine structure having a size of wavelength of light or less and allows production of a fine structure with a considerably high throughput as compared with a lithographic process performed by the electron beam lithography or the converging ion beam lithography, and it is a technique effective for patterning a magnetic recording medium. However, when a high pressure pressing is performed at the room temperature and at the atmospheric pressure in order to improve a working accuracy and a production efficiency, such a problem occurs that a pattern can not be transferred on a whole face of a medium evenly due to deformation of a pressing machine itself.


Disclosed is a signal path searching method in a mobile communication system provided with a plurality of array antenna elements. According to the method and apparatus, the path search is performed using a signal of a chip level or a signal of a symbol level, and it is decided whether to first perform a temporal process or a spatial process according to the level.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile communication system, and more particularly, to a signal path searching method and an apparatus thereof in a mobile communication system provided with a plurality of array antenna elements.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, if a smart antenna technique is applied to a base station, a gain through an array process is produced. Thus, if the power of a signal that a mobile station transmits is reduced by 1/N (where N is the number of antenna elements) or if an additional gain obtained by nulling an interference signal, the gain is reduced by 1/N or less where the base station uses a power control mechanism, and thus the power of the signals received through respective antenna elements of the base station is reduced in proportion to N.
FIG. 1 is a view illustrating the construction of a conventional base station receiver.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional receiver of a base station includes a scanning correlator 101 for searching a multi-path signals, a baseband processing section 102 for down-converting frequencies of respective path signals and converting the down-converted signals into digital signals, and a combiner 103 for combining the respective signals after compensating for a delay and a phase of the digital signals for each path.
The scanning correlator 101 obtains a partial correlation value between the digital signal and a Pseudo Noise code (e.g., a scrambling code) for searching each signal path at a specific time hypothesis. If the partial correlation value exceeds a specified threshold value, the scanning correlator recognizes that there is a new communication path at the specific time hypothesis. The receiver of the base station allocates a new rake finger to the new path. Each finger obtains an energy value of a symbol in each path on a temporal axis.
The combiner 103 maximal-ratio-combines the obtained symbol energy values obtained in all the paths, and a demodulator (not illustrated) demodulates the maximal-ratio-combined values.
The scanning correlator 101 serves as a searcher, is allocated for each antenna element, and searches successively identified signal paths.
For instance, in the path search algorithm of a scanning correlator of the conventional 3G asynchronous Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), the chip length of a scrambling code period used in one frame (assuming 15 slots) is of 38,400 chips, and thus a chip segment corresponding to one slot is of 2560. If it is assumed that a spreading factor of a certain control channel is of 256, the partial correlation value for a period of 256 chips is obtained at each time hypothesis for checking existence/nonexistence of a new signal path.
During the search process, the scanning correlator compares the partial correlation values with a specified threshold value. If the partial correlation value is larger than the threshold value, it decides that a new signal path exists.
Herein, the specified threshold value is set so as to satisfy a false alarm probability determined in the standard. If the threshold value is set to be high, the false alarm probability is lowered, but a detection capability becomes lowered.
On the contrary, if the threshold value is set to be low, the false alarm probability is heightened, but the detection capability becomes improved.
Meanwhile, in the 3G asynchronous WCDMA system, in order to match the synchronization of the scrambling code, the base station uses a Dedicated Physical Control Channel (DPCCH) of an reverse link dedicated physical data channel (DPDCH). The DPCCH, as shown in FIG. 2, is composed of pilot symbols for estimating channel information, a Transport Format Combination Indicator (TFCI) including Spreading Factor (SF) information of a reverse link channel, a FeedBack information (FBI) that is a feedback signal including information for a transmission diversity of a mobile station, and a Transmit Power Control (TPC) field including power control information. One frame of this DPCCH is composed of 15 slots.
However, according to the frame format, the number of slots transmitted for each frame may be changed, of which an example will now be explained.
Where a mobile station should perform an inter-frequency handoff, a base station should generate at least one empty slot that has no data bits. Since the at least one empty slot is generated with a different pattern for each frame, the number of the slots which each frame includes is changed.
Accordingly, during the path search by a receiver of the base station, a transmitted signal from the mobile station still includes its square component even if it is modulated. Thus, the transmitted signal is effective on the changed number of the slots. Accordingly, if it is known which slot is empty, the corresponding slot is skipped, and the slot where the data exists is searched.
This operation is applied to the respective elements of an array antenna in the same manner as the existing system.
A base station includes two kinds of searchers. One is a random access channel (RACH) path searcher, and the other is a traffic channel path searcher. Where a mobile station performs an initial connection to the base station through an up link channel, i.e., where the mobile station transmits an originating call or a destination call to the base station through a Random Access Channel (RACH), the searcher of the base station receives at least one preamble of the RACH and then transmits a confirmation signal for the preamble through a down link channel.
Accordingly, the mobile station transmits the signal subject to transmission to the base station.
During the above process, it is required that the base station accurately searches the preamble transmitted from the mobile station. For this, the RACH searcher of the base station successively performs a search operation. Herein, the searcher has a searching window of a specified size to search the RACH preamble.
When a call is established between the mobile station and the base station, the traffic channel path searcher successively performs a search in order to know whether a new signal path exists or not.
The traffic channel path searcher receives the time hypothesis when to be searched according to a control signal of a controller. The traffic channel path searcher obtains the partial correlation value at a specific time hypothesis, and compares the partial correlation value with a threshold value. If the correlation value is larger than the threshold value, the traffic channel path searcher recognizes that a new signal exists at the specific time hypothesis. Then the traffic channel path searcher allocates this new path to a finger of the rake receiver. A combiner combines the multi-path signals to maintain the performance of the receiver in an optimum state.
At this time, the base station obtains a combined gain by a method of combining the signals received from the respective antennas using two diversity receiving antennas. That is, a receiver of the base station includes the searchers that are independently operated for the two antennas. A modem of the base station finally combines the signals received through the antennas.
As described above, the base station including the conventional RACH searcher and the traffic channel searcher performs searches of the new signal paths using the separate searchers for the receiving antennas without using spatial information of the received signal. Therefore, the performance of the receiver of the base station is maintained by the maximum ratio combination according to the searched paths.
Where the searchers identical to those of the existing system are applied to the system that adopts the smart antenna, the Signal-to-Interference & Noise Ratio (SINR) of a combination signal of signals received through one antenna satisfies the signal quality to be requested on the link channel, but each SINR of the signals received through the respective antennas is reduced.
Accordingly, the method of receiving signals using one antenna cannot avoid the deterioration of the new path search performance. Consequently, the symbol error rate of the received signals is heightened due to the late search of the signal path for the optimum combination of the signals.
If the path search is performed by using the signal received through one antenna element, the deterioration of the new path search performance also becomes severe due to decrease of a power level of the received signal. Consequently, the deterioration causes the deterioration of the performance of the rake receiver due to a long search time.

Signal path searching method and apparatus thereof in mobile communication system provided with plurality of array antenna elements


A stereomicroscope comprising a pair of observation systems each comprising an objective lens and an eyepiece lens, a pair of light sources disposed above the objective lens for emitting a pair of light beams through a pair of beam splitters into the observation systems coaxially therewith, pairs of polarizers disposed on the side of the eyepiece lenses and the side of the light sources respectively so as to have polarizing surfaces perpendicular to each other, a quarter wavelength plate interposed between the objective lens and a sample to be observed, and a pair of light beam deflecting members disposed between the beam splitters and the objective lens. The polarizers disposed on the side of the eyepiece lenses are removable from optical paths and eyepiece tubes are arranged with the polarizers disposed on the side of the eyepiece lenses interposed between the eyepiece tubes and an intermediate tube containing the pair of light beam deflecting members and the polarizers disposed on the side of the eyepiece lenses. This stereomicroscope permits locating eye points thereof at low positions close to microscopists and quickly switching microscopic modes from one to another.

a) Field of the invention
The present invention relates to an optical microscope, and more specifically to a highly systemized stereomicroscope.
b) Description of the prior art
There are available conventional most systemized high performance stereomicroscopes which are exemplified by the microscope disclosed by Japanese Patent Preliminary Publication No. Sho 55-113014 (hereinafter referred to as prior art No. 1) and that disclosed by Japanese Patent Preliminary Publication No. Sho 60-227214 (hereinafter referred to as prior art No. 2).
FIG. 1 illustrates an optical system of the microscope according to prior art No. 1, wherein a light beam emitted from a light source 1 of a first optical system I is linearly polarized by a polarizer 2, reflected by a polarizing beam splitter 3 which functions to reflect light in a polarizing direction thereof and allow light in a direction perpendicular to the polarizing direction to pass therethrough, and allowed to transmit through a variable magnification system 4 and an objective lens 5, whereafter the light beam is circularly polarized by a quarter wavelength plate 6 and illuminates a sample S. The circularly polarized light beam is reflected by the sample S, linearly polarized by the quarter wavelength plate 6 in the direction perpendicular to the polarized direction at the stage of the illumination, and allowed to pass through the objective lens 5 and another variable magnification system 4' of a second optical system II, whereafter the light beam attains to another beam splitter 3'. This polarizing beam splitter 3' is oriented in the same direction as that of the polarizing beam splitter 3 of the first optical system I so that the reflected light beam is allowed to transmit through the polarizing beam splitter 3' of the second optical system II and attains to an analyzer 7'. Since this analyzer 7' is oriented so that it allows to pass the linearly polarized light beam incident thereon, the reflected light beam which has passed through the analyzer 7' of the second optical system II is imaged by an eyepiece lens system 8' and can be observed therethrough.
A light beam emitted from a light source 1' of the second optical system II is, like the light beam emitted from the light source 1 of the first optical system I, imaged by an eyepiece lens 8 disposed in the first optical system I.
On the other hand, a polarizer 2' is oriented in the second optical system II in the same direction as that of the polarizer 2 of the first optical system so that rays which are reflected by the surfaces of the variable magnification system 4' of the second optical system II, the objective lens and so on, out of linearly polarized rays emitted from a light source 1' of the second optical system II and allowed to transmit through the polarizer 2' of the second optical system II, are perpendicular to the oscillating direction of the analyzer 7' of the second optical system II, whereby a light beam emitted from the light source 1' of the second optical system II is cut off by the polarizing beam splitter 3' and the analyzer 7' of the second optical system, and cannot attain to an image surface of the second optical system II. Since the analyzer 7 of the first optical system I functions to cut off rays reflected by lens surfaces, the microscope according to the prior art No. 1 provides an image which is to be observed with high contrast.
Further, in a stereomicroscope according to the prior art No. 2 which comprises the Gallelian optical system described above and a coaxial vertical illumination system, the quarter wavelength plate 6, the objective lens system 5, the variable magnification systems 4 and 4', a coaxial vertical illumination system EI (1, 2, 3, 7; 1', 2', 3', 7'), a photographing system PH, the eyepiece lens systems 8 and 8', and an intermediate tube allowing simultaneous observation by two microscopists are designed as independent units respectively as illustrated in FIG. 2 for permitting optional combinations of these units in conjunction with microscopy modes desired by users and enhancement in operability as well as convenience of the combinations.
In the conventional stereomicroscope described above, the coaxial vertical illumination unit is placed right over the objective lens system including the variable magnification systems (on the side of the eyepiece lens systems), the photographing unit and the simultaneous microscopy unit are set on the coaxial vertical illumination unit, and the eyepiece lens units including imaging systems are arranged on the simultaneous microscopy unit and the photographing unit. This configuration provides, first of all, a merit to assure a smaller loss of quantity of axial vertical illumination light. In other words, this configuration makes it possible to allow almost all of the rays which are reflected by the beam splitters 3 and 3' to transmit through the variable magnification systems 4, 4' and the objective lens unit 5 for illuminating a sample S. Further, since the objective lens unit 5 (including the variable magnification systems 4, 4') is located right under the coaxial vertical illumination unit, rays reflected by the lens surfaces are cut off effectively by the polarizers built in the beam splitters. Accordingly, it is unnecessary to arrange a reflected light cut-off filter in any one of the units located over the polarizers. Consequently, it is possible to use an observation unit for a transmission illumination mode with no additional device or obtain a highly systemized stereomicroscope.
When the intermediate tube, the photographing unit, etc. are piled over the coaxial vertical illumination unit, however, the conventional stereomicroscope poses a problem that an eye point EP is made higher than required as illustrated in FIG. 3A. In order to solve this problem, it was obliged to prepare a special tube which has an optical path modified so as to direct an afocal light beam coming from the objective lens system 5 downward as illustrated in FIG. 3B for obtaining an eye point located at a predetermined height. In FIG. 3A illustrating an example of a configuration of the ordinary type eyepiece tube, the reference symbol a represents a distance in the horizontal direction as measured from an optical axis to the eye point EP and the reference symbol b designates a distance in the vertical direction as measured from a base plane BP of the eyepiece tube unit to the eye point EP. Further, since the eyepiece tube unit uses an imaging lens IL which has a focal length shorter than the infinite focal length of the ordinary type objective lens system for microscopes, the eye point EP is inevitably located close to the optical axis of the objective lens system 5, thereby posing a problem that a microscopist must assume an unnatural posture (incline an upper half of his body forward) when the stereomicroscope has a large sample stage. In industries of LC's and LCD's wherein large wafers, liquid crystal panels and so on are manufactured in these days, for example, a stereomicroscope incorporating a large sample stage prolongs the distance a as indicated by a reference symbol a' in FIG. 4B and produces great inconvenience for inspectors of the IC's and LSD's. Since the coaxial vertical illumination unit is disposed right over the variable magnification units 4, 4' and the objective lens unit 5 in the configuration of the stereomicroscope described above, location of the eye point EP is enhanced and operability of the stereomicroscope is remarkably degraded when the microscope system is complicated by piling the photographing unit and the eyepiece tube unit over the coaxial vertical illumination unit.
Furthermore, since the coaxial vertical illumination unit prolongs the optical path length in the stereomicroscope, the afocal light beam coming from the objective lens system is expanded especially when the intermediate tube is interposed for photographing. Accordingly, it was conventionally obliged to prepare imaging lenses IL having a large diameter and use a large prism in the eyepiece tube unit or reduce a real field number on an intermediate image surface for observation. In this case, it is general to cut off rays to attain to marginal portions of a visual field and expand light beams to attain to central portions of the visual fields, or to perform contraction and relaying of a light beam by disposing relay lenses RL before and after the beam splitters 3, 3' arranged in the coaxial vertical illumination unit (see FIG. 5). However, this contraction-relaying method magnifies causes magnification of intermediate image, thereby producing inconvenience that an image is observed at different magnifications even with the same eyepiece tube dependently on whether or not the coaxial vertical illumination is used.
Moreover, when the coaxial vertical illumination mode is switched to the transmission illumination mode while the stereomicroscope is equipped with coaxial vertical illumination unit, there are posed problems that a quantity of the transmitted illumination light for forming an image is reduced to approximately 30% by the beam splitters 3, 3' and analyzers 7, 7' arranged in the first optical system I and the second optical system II respectively, and that flare unwanted for observation is produced by the beam splitters and the analyzers. When the illumination modes are switched as described above, the real field number in the transmission illumination mode restricts that on the side of the coaxial vertical illumination unit, thereby making it impossible to fully utilize the visual field of the stereomicroscope which should originally be large.
Moreover, it is theoretically possible with ease to observe an image formed with a transmitted polarized light beam through the stereomicroscope which is equipped with the coaxial vertical illumination unit by removing the quarter wavelength plate and setting a polarizer instead on the light source side of the sample S, but it is practically necessary for such observation to set the polarizing planes of the analyzers 7, 7' arranged in the coaxial vertical illumination unit accurately perpendicularly to the oscillating direction of the incident light beam. In addition, it is difficult to observe a correct image since polarized light produced by the sample S is further polarized due to shaping and assembling errors as well as internal deformation, radii of curvature, etc. of the objective lens 5 and the variable magnification lens 4. In such a case, it is obliged to arrange an analyzer in place of the quarter wavelength plate in the objective lens system 5 after dismounting the coaxial vertical illumination unit, thereby making it practically impossible to perform the so-called quick switching between the transmission-polarization illumination mode and the coaxial vertical illumination mode.

Stereomicroscope including two pair of polarizers and a quarter wavelength plate


According to the present invention, there is provided a system and method for the collection, capture, processing, storage, and tracking of data for both electronic clinical trial and electronic source health records for purposes, based upon a single data collection instance. Upon the collection of data at a clinical trial site, the data are transmitted to a central server where it is captured as an electronic source document(s) in human readable format. The system then transmits the captured electronic source document to a trusted third-party's electronic document repository. Then, the system uses the same captured data to populate the clinical trial's electronic data capture database. The system incorporates security and encryption features to ensure that privacy information requirements are not violated. In the preferred embodiment, the electronic data capture provider for a clinical trial has no control over the server of the trusted third-party vendor, complying with regulatory requirements. Additionally, the collected data can be pushed into a clinical site's electronic health record system or any equivalent system which houses electronic data. Throughout the operation of the system, an audit trail is maintained which records information relating to all data recording, modifying, and accessing events.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally related to the field of data collection and processing. Specifically the invention relates to the areas of collecting a single set of data, capturing the data as a source document, processing the data into a variety of formats, and storing the various processed data records in discrete databases.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, direct electronic data entry of patient information in clinical trials is rare except for some dedicated Phase 1 units. This is due to the fact that current electronic data capture systems, particularly those that are web-based, often fail to comply with the regulations pertaining to the capture and management of source documents as related to clinical trial data. Regulatory agencies, such as the FDA, require that clinical trial data be compiled in a source document, in order to verify the quality and integrity of the trial being conducted.
Electronic data capture tools are currently available which allow the user to collect clinical trial data. However, the clinical research sites still predominantly use paper source documents as the source data when the data are entered into the electronic data capture system. For instance, generally clinical research data are collected and recorded on a paper patient record form, and only later is the form transcribed into an electronic data capture system for clinical trial purposes. As a result, the clinical trial's case report form (CRF) is an abstraction of selected information from the patient record, not the patient record itself. This current industry practice necessitates substantial duplication of effort, and also creates potential for data inaccuracy. Furthermore, the review and processing of these paper records by regulatory agencies (such as the FDA) is a time-consuming and error-prone process.
Thus, there exists a significant need for a system capable of both electronic data capture with electronic source document capabilities. A system which provides such a range of functionalities will significantly enhance speed, efficiency and cost savings due to the elimination of transcription errors, source document verification and double-key data entry.

System and method for collecting, processing, and storing discrete data records based upon a single data input


A holding clip is designed to be fixed in a holding contour of a housing part of a sterile container and/or to be removed from the holding contour without tools. The holding clip has at least one at least partly spring-elastic clamping section designed to provide a clamping force to secure the identifying element and at least two holding sections that adjoin the clamping section on both sides and that are designed to engage into an undercut of the holding contour in a form-fitting and/or force-fitting manner. A sterile container can include such a holding clip.

Sterile containers are used in the medical field, in particular in surgery, to sterilize objects such as surgical instruments or implants, and to briefly store and transport the same after sterilization. The objects to be sterilized are arranged in the sterile container. Subsequently, the sterile container and the objects to be sterilized, which are contained within the sterile container, are inserted into a sterilizer, inside which a sterilizing gas, such as water vapor, is applied to the objects to be sterilized. In order to avoid re-contamination after the completed sterilization and to be able to ensure the sterility of the objects within the container, the sterile container is sealed. Furthermore, one or multiple labels are affixed to the sterile container, which can be imprinted with information regarding the objects within the container, a date, a recipient or other data, for example.
Already known in the art are sterile containers, which include a housing part and a holding clip permanently connected to the housing part. The holding clip is permanently connected to the housing part during an installation. The holding clip is not designed to be removed, in particular, it is not designed to be removed during use without tools.
Thus, the technical problem underlying the invention particularly is to provide a sterile container with improved identification capabilities.


The invention relates to an internal-combustion engine, notably an indirect-injection supercharged engine, that can run with a burnt gas scavenging stage, comprising at least a cylinder (10) including a combustion chamber (12), non-carbureted air intake passage (16) with an air intake valve (24), carbureted air intake passage (14) with a carbureted air intake valve (22), burnt gas exhaust passage (28) with an exhaust valve (32), an exhaust camshaft (36) for controlling the exhaust passage (28), an intake camshaft (44) for controlling the air intake passage (16) and the carbureted air intake passage (14).

As it is well known, the power delivered by an internal-combustion engine depends on the amount of air fed into the combustion chamber of this engine, and this amount of air is itself proportional to the density of this air.
If high engine power is required, this amount of air is increased by compression of the air by means of a supercharging device (turbosupercharger or driven compressor such as a screw compressor) before it is fed into the combustion chamber.
In order to increase this amount of compressed air allowed to pass into the cylinder, a stage of scavenging the residual burnt gas present in the combustion chamber is provided. This scavenging stage allows, before the end of the engine exhaust cycle, to discharge the burnt gas present in the combustion chamber and to replace it by compressed (or supercharged) air.
As described in patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,217,866, this scavenging stage consists in carrying out, at the end of the exhaust cycle and at the start of the intake cycle of a cylinder, overlapping of the exhaust and intake valves of this cylinder. This overlap is obtained by opening simultaneously these exhaust and intake valves for some degrees to some ten degrees of crankshaft rotation angle.
In the indirect fuel injection supercharged engine example described in this document, a burnt gas exhaust means with an exhaust valve controlling an exhaust pipe and two intake means are provided. One of the intake means is a non-carbureted supercharged air intake means with a pipe and a valve, and the other intake means is a carbureted air intake means consisting of a pipe carrying a fuel injection nozzle and a valve.
Burnt gas scavenging is carried out, on the one hand, by overlap of the exhaust valve and of the non-carbureted supercharged air intake valve, the carbureted air intake valve remaining closed and, on the other hand, by the fact that the pressure of the air at the open intake valve is higher than the pressure of the exhaust gas still present in the combustion chamber The non-carbureted supercharged air that is allowed into the combustion chamber scavenges this gas and discharges it through the exhaust valve. Non-carbureted supercharged air therefore occupies the volume freed by this exhaust gas, which allows a significant increase in the amount of air introduced during the engine intake cycle. In the vicinity of the end of the scavenging stage, the exhaust valve closes, the carbureted supercharged air intake valve opens, the fuel injection nozzle is activated and carbureted supercharged air is fed into the combustion chamber through the other intake means as a complement to the non-carbureted supercharged air that is allowed therein.
Although this type of engine runs satisfactorily, it however involves drawbacks that are by no means insignificant.
In fact, during the burnt gas scavenging stage, it is necessary to use a single control means controlling the two intake valves, such as those known as VVT (Variable Valve Timing), which allow to vary the lift laws of these valves, in particular at their time of opening/closing.
A camshaft with actuating cams having each a very precise profile and with an angular shift in relation to one another, which allow to work with and without a scavenging stage, notably under engine idle speed conditions, is provided.
Such a camshaft type is delicate to achieve and it requires many attempts to obtain the suitable profiles and angular shifts. Furthermore, it has a relatively great apparent spread.
Besides, outside the scavenging stage, the offset cams penalize running of the engine, notably its filling at high speeds. Furthermore, to obtain this cam shift, it is necessary to reach a compromise between the engine running mode with scavenging stage and the running mode without scavenging stage.
The present invention aims to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks by means of an engine with devices allowing the valves to be actuated without requiring complex and expensive control means.

Indirect-injection internal-combustion engine, notably spark-ignition supercharged engine, with two intake means for carrying out a burnt gas scavenging stage


A toolkit includes a handle and at least one bit set. The handle is in the form of a plate including a first cavity defined in a middle portion and a second cavity defined in a terminal portion. The bit set includes a bit and a cap non-rotationally provided on the bit. The cap is non-rotationally inserted through the first cavity where only a mild torque is needed. The cap is non-rotationally inserted through the second cavity where a large torque is needed.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a toolkit and, more particularly, to a small but effective toolkit.
2. Related Prior Art
A conventional screwdriver includes a handle and a bit. The bit includes a connecting tip fit in the handle and a working tip for engagement with a head of a screw. To drive various shapes and sizes of screws, many conventional screwdrivers are needed, and this is an expensive and inconvenient process.
As disclosed in Taiwanese Patent M3187904, a screwdriver 10 includes a handle 10 and a bit 20. The handle 10 includes a socket 12 formed on an S-shaped plate 13. The bit 20 includes a connecting tip 21 for non-rotationally insertion in the socket 12 and a working tip 22 for engagement with a head of a screw. The socket 12 is located in a middle portion of the S-shaped plate 13 so that only half of the length is useful in providing a torque. The length of the handle 10 is small for convenient operation and storage of the handle 10. Therefore, it is not easy to exert a large torque with the handle 10. To exert a large torque, it is desirable to make the handle 10 large; however this would render the operation and storage of the handle 10 inconvenient.
The present invention is therefore intended to obviate or at least alleviate the problems encountered in prior art.


An hanger apparatus including one or more extension elements with each extension element including a top portion and a bottom portion with the top portion having at least one flexible connector connection with the top portion also in communication with the bottom portion and the bottom portion including apertures for connecting a pool pole-head attachment, with the apparatus additionally including a flexible connector connecting to the at least one flexible connector connection of the top portion.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to organizational and hanger type devices which are uniquely useful for applications including organizing swimming pool pole-head attachments. More particularly, the present invention relates to an organizational device as well as to a portable device exhibiting compact characteristics for organizing swimming pool pole-head attachments. The invention may also be applicable to other head type units including attachments for vacuum cleaners and the like.
2. Background Art
A variety of devices exist useful for keeping articles in an organized fashion. Generally the ownership of a swimming pool in either a residential or commercial setting requires the use of a variety of different cleaning attachments with a cleaning device to adequately clean and maintain a swimming pool. In other applications, a variety of attachments are often needed with cleaning devices or other units for providing a different set of features or characteristics for a system. For organizing a variety of different apparatuses, a variety of different systems and devices have been provided. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,172,937 an article hanger is disclosed which may be used to make horizontal or suspended position. According to the '937 patent the apparatus includes members made of a length of wire bent to form a hook and furthermore are attached to strip so that the hooks project from the strip and are to be used to attach a variety of items.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,709,373 discloses a suspendable support for articles and methods which include an apparatus that has a plurality of individual articles of different shapes and sizes and which may be secured against accidental releases. Additionally, the '373 patent discloses elongated flexible main elements with loops of strong flexible plastic material which may be formed in conventional larks head hitches for encircling and releasably holding articles of different shapes and sizes.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,197 a hanging storage device is disclosed which includes multi-positional clip assemblies. Generally, the '197 patent discloses a plurality of clamps designed to be slidable along a length of rope or other support so that a user can vary the space between each clip assembly. Additionally, the '197 patent discloses that the user may hang items such as hats, ball caps and the like in various selectable displays.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,010,105 discloses a hanging device for suspending implements with appropriate ring sizes to engage Styrofoam float objects. Generally the invention of the '105 patent discloses an upright hanging storage arrangement of the Styrofoam objects.
While the prior art storage devices provide solutions for various problems, there appears to be a lack of equipment effective for many applications of organizing head type attachments. The prior art storage devices generally available are not easily attachable to head type apparatus's and furthermore do not organize them in a compact arrangement for a user. In addition, a variety of storage devices known with the prior art do not provide the portability and ease of use which should be available to a user.
In maintaining swimming pools, a variety of attachments are often necessary ranging from vacuum type attachments to a variety of differently shaped brushes for scrubbing the inside of the pool. Vacuum heads can range in size from a more standard 14 inch styled vacuum head to vinyl specific vacuum heads, to larger 22 inch commercial vacuum heads which are often utilized to clean the large public-styled pools.
Additionally, specific brush heads exist for various application ranging from cleaning the walls of a pool to brushes of a different size for scrubbing the floor of the pool. Often the brush heads range in width from about 36 inches to about 5 inches and thus provide for attributes in cleaning a swimming pool. For example, some brushes may be of a wire design which provide for harsher contact whereas other brushes may include combinations of bristle types or may alternatively include some manner of synthetic bristles. In addition to the various types of brushes that may be used on a pool, one may also need a variety of pool nets or the like. Pool nets can include varieties such as a standard skimmer net or alternatively a leaf rake or other styles of netting including varying degrees of mesh so that differently sized particles may be captured and removed from the pool.
The variety of attachments that are used with a swimming pool may be used with pole for utilization by a consumer. Generally, the pole may be of a substantial length so that the user can work with and utilize the attachments in cleaning or otherwise servicing the pool. In some instances, the pole may be of a telescopic variety, where the pole may be adjustable in size, for example, from about five feet to about fifteen feet. As such, a user would be able to clean the various depths of the swimming pool through the use of the pole and furthermore be able to attach the various attachments to the pole for cleaning Generally, the pool pole may include an end with a slightly larger diameter than that of the pool pole-head attachments with spring-pressured protrusions for maintaining the attachment on the pole until the protrusions are pressed inward by the user.
Most often, the pool pole-head attachments include an attaching end with about an exterior diameter slightly smaller than the interior diameter of the end of the pole for attaching thereto. The attachment end of the pool pole-head attachments may also include protrusions so that the protrusions on the end of the pool pole head attachment can insert within the apertures on a pool pole head. This maintains the pool pole-head attachments on the end of the pole until the user desires to remove and switch the pool pole-head attachment to another type.
What is desired therefore is an organizational device which is both compact easy to use and includes a combination of quick attachments and easy portability making the device suitable for use in organizing and attaching swimming pool pole-head attachments and the like. Indeed a combination of characteristics including a compact nature as well as quick attachments provide an organizational apparatus with mode for organizing head type attachments, which may optionally include the organization of pool-pole head attachments for use with the swimming pool. In further optional embodiments, the invention may include a type of swivel design that may be useful in aligning the attachments connected to the device so that the attachments may be more advantageously oriented for storage.


A method of estimating a trouble in a network is disclosed, including the following steps: displaying a model network in which the network is modeled by each combination of a network apparatus and a connection; inputting information of trouble portion in the model network and trouble symptom; registering at least trouble portion, trouble symptom, cause portion, and frequency of past trouble instances occurred in the model network to an instance database; retrieving the instance database using the input trouble portion and trouble symptom as retrieval keys; and estimating and displaying cause of the trouble based on the cause portion and frequency of a retrieved instances record. The past trouble instances accumulated in the instance database can be retrieved by the instance retrieval unit using the trouble portion and trouble symptom as the retrieval key. The network trouble estimation apparatus can estimate the cause portion at high accuracy.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method and an apparatus for estimating troubles in a network, and more particularly, to the estimating of a trouble portion in the network including network apparatuses and connections.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, troubles in a network system are resolved in the following manner:
(1) When a trouble occurs, various network apparatuses transmit alarm signals. The alarm signals are collected using a monitoring system, for example.
(2) Generally, plural alarm signals may be collected. Only the alarm signals transmitted by the network apparatus that has actually caused the trouble or is close to the actual cause are extracted, and the other alarm signals transmitted by the other network apparatuses that have been affected by the actual cause are discarded. This process is performed by a main cause determination system or manually by an operator, for example.
(3) The actual cause of the trouble is further pursued and estimated based on the extracted alarm signals with reference to past experiences and on trial and error basis. This process is performed by operators.
(4) The cause of the trouble is removed, and the network system is recovered by replacing the package of a causing network apparatus and/or repairing connections.
The above steps (1) and (2) in which the alarm signals are collected and extracted may be supported by a system. Conventionally, the above step (3) is not supported by a system in most cases, and rather performed by operators based on their experiences.
In some cases, a knowledge management system storing past trouble instances has been used for supporting the estimation of cause by the operators. However, such knowledge management system stores instances using natural sentences, and as a result, the operators need to retrieve the instances by natural sentences.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 5-114899 discloses a network trouble remote monitoring system that estimates trouble portion in a network by identifying a predefined set of possible trouble portions for each alarm signal based on the alarm signals, the connective relation of the network apparatuses, and a network connection configuration model, and obtaining a product of the identified predefined sets.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 7-245609 discloses a network trouble remote monitoring system that uses a trouble propagation model created based on the design knowledge of network elements constituting the network thereby to analyze the cause of trouble based on symptoms.
Japanese Translation of Published PCT International Application No. WO94/19888 discloses a network trouble remote monitoring system that retrieves a trouble ticket associated with unsolved trouble ticket using an information theory derived algorithm and neural network learning algorithm, for example.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application 5-260049 discloses a network trouble remote monitoring system that, when an alarm signal is transmitted, estimates which, malfunction or the influence of the malfunction, the alarm signal is caused by, based on the relative probabilities in which a channel or the apparatus to which the channel is accommodated malfunctions or is influenced by the malfunction for each trouble reason.
If the trouble cause is estimated by operators using their human skills and experiences, since each operator has different skill and experience, not all of them can estimate the trouble cause quickly and correctly.
In case of the conventional knowledge management system storing past trouble instances, most of them registers knowledge using natural sentences, and retrieves the knowledge by natural sentences. As a result, such a knowledge management system fails to uniquely represent the portion causing an alarm signal, symptoms, and trouble causes. Even if a similar trouble occurs at another portion, the knowledge management system cannot retrieve appropriate past trouble instance.

Method and apparatus for estimating network troubles


The invention relates to a method and a kit for preparing a radiopharmaceutical, the method comprising the steps:                elution of a 68Ge/68Ga-Generator using hydrochloric acid as an eluent for obtaining a generator eluate comprising 68Gallium,        feeding the generator eluate through a cation exchange cartridge, which collects the 68Gallium,        separating the used eluent,        eluting the 68Gallium from the cation exchange cartridge using a solution comprising sodium chloride and hydrochloric acid and feeding the resulting eluate into an aqueous precursor mixture comprising at least a labelling precursor thereby forming a reaction solution.

Functional imaging for medical diagnostics has been used for decades. In some functional imaging methods, e.g. PET (positron emission tomography) or SPECT (single-photon emission computed tomography) peptides such as Edotreotid (DOTATOC) are marked with radionuclides such as 68Gallium and used as radiopharmaceuticals (also referred to as tracers). When introduced into the human body the radiopharmaceutical binds to certain receptors which are particularly numerous in tumor cells. The functional imaging can detect and localize the increased beta-plus-decay of the 68Gallium. According to [I. Velikyan: Synthesis, Characterisation and Application of 68Ga-labelled Macromolecules. Dissertation, University Uppsala, 2005] the isotope 68Gallium decays with a radioactive half-life of 67.629 minutes in a proportion of 89% by emitting a positron with at most 1.9 MeV and of 11% by catching electrons; thereby respectively creating the daughter isotope 68Zink. In nuclear medical applications the emitted positron hits an electron after travelling a few millimeters so that both annihilate and create two photons with 511 keV each, wherein both photons are emitted at a relative angle of nearly 180° from the point of annihilation. The emitted photons can be detected by appropriate detectors. Reconstructing a number of detection events allows for quite precisely localising the point of annihilation.
Due to the short half-life of 68Gallium, the radiopharmaceutical cannot be shelved over long time periods but has to be prepared at relatively short notice prior to the intended application.
68Gallium is generated by means of so called 68Gallium-generators, also referred to as 68Ge/68Ga-generators, from 68Germanium. 68Germanium has a half life of 270.8 days and decays into the daughter isotope 68Gallium, which concentrates in the generator until reaching a cut-off concentration determined by its own decay. The generated 68Gallium is eluted by a solvent fed into the generator. The solvent eluting only Gallium but not Germanium, separates Gallium out of the stationary phase from the parent isotope 68Germanium.
Known methods use hydrochloric acid with a normality from 0.05 N to 0.4 N for elution, wherein the elution volume is between 5 ml and 10 ml. The eluate is therefore hydrochloric and cannot be directly used for labelling peptides.
This problem has been tackled by different approaches.
In a method known as anionic concentration, the eluate is mixed with a large volume of concentrated hydrochloric acid, 68Ga is then collected by an anion exchanger and subsequently eluted by means of water into a HEPES (4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid) buffer solution for labelling peptides or other ligands. This method requires a subsequent purification of the product, i.e. separation of unwanted substances. Furthermore, the method requires handling of large quantities of concentrated hydrochloric acid.
Another established method is the combined cationic/anionic concentration, wherein a cation exchange cartridge (SCX—strong cation exchanger) and an anion exchange cartridge (SAX—strong anion exchanger) are used.
In the cationic concentration of 68Gallium the 68Gallium is collected using a cation exchanger (SCX) and subsequently eluted with an acetone/hydrochloric acid solution. The obtained reaction mixture therefore contains acetone which has to be removed by distilling at temperatures of more than 90° C. prior to application of the product to the human body. The use of acetone requires additional quality control testing of the final product such as gas chromatography.
There remains a need for a kit for improved preparation of a radiopharmaceutical and for a respectively improved method for preparation of a radiopharmaceutical.

Method and kit for preparing a radiopharmaceutical


Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods and devices for channel state information (CSI) transmission. In example embodiments, a method implemented in a terminal device includes performing a channel estimate between the terminal device and a network device across a predetermined frequency range for a set of beams having different spatial directions; determining, based on the channel estimate, first indication information indicating at least one beam selected from the set of beams and second indication information indicating frequency-related information for the at least one selected beam at a plurality of frequency locations in the predetermined frequency range; and transmitting to the network device the first indication information in a first part of a channel state information (CSI) report and the second indication information in a second part of the CSI report.

Communication technologies have been developed in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. An example of an emerging telecommunication standard is new radio (NR), for example, 5G radio access.
NR is a set of enhancements to the LTE mobile standard promulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). It is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of new spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using OFDMA with a cyclic prefix (CP) on the downlink (DL) and on the uplink (UL) as well as support beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.
However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, there exists a need for further improvements in NR technology. These improvements may be applicable to other multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies. For example, in the communication systems, generally Channel State Information (CSI) of a communication channel between a terminal device and a network device is estimated at the receiving terminal device and fed back to the network device to enable the network device to control transmission based on the current channel conditions indicated by the CSI. According to the NR technology, it has been proposed that channel properties for both wideband and subband and for different beams (in MIMO systems) are to be reported in the CSI, which results in a large overhead for the CSI transmission.

Methods and devices for channel state information transmission


A method for manufacturing a semiconductor light emitting device comprises steps of: arraying semiconductor light emitting elements on an adhesive sheet so that electrodes of the semiconductor light emitting elements face the adhesive sheet; forming a wafer thereof by filling spaces between side surfaces of the semiconductor light emitting elements arrayed on the adhesive sheet with a resin and curing the resin; peeling the adhesive sheet from the wafer; overlaying the wafer on a substrate from which numerous substrates can be obtained by subdivision into individual pieces and the electrodes of the semiconductor light emitting elements and electrodes formed on the large circuit substrate are joined; and subdividing the large circuit substrate, to which the wafer has been joined, into individual semiconductor light emitting devices so that the planar size of the semiconductor light emitting element and that of the circuit substrate are roughly equal.

A packaged semiconductor light emitting device (hereinafter, referred to as an "LED device" unless specified otherwise in particular) has been widely spread, in which a semiconductor light emitting element (hereinafter, referred to as an "LED die" unless specified otherwise in particular) cut out from a wafer is mounted on a lead frame or a circuit substrate and which is covered with a resin, glass, etc. There are a variety of aspects of the LED device in accordance with its use and there is a case where the planar size of the circuit substrate and that of the LED die are made substantially equal when the package is downsized. The package is one aspect of the chip size package (also referred to as CSP).
FIG. 10 is a section view illustrating a conventional light emitting diode.
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating FIG. 1 described in Patent Literature 1. The light emitting diode is connected onto a submount 118 (circuit substrate) by interconnection 117 in the state where a chip (LED die) is reversed (flip-chip). The chip is configured by stacking a substrate 110, an n-type semiconductor layer 112, an active region 114, a p-type region 115, and a contact 116 in the downward direction in FIG. 10. The top surface and the side surface of the chip are covered with phosphorescent layers 120 and 119 (phosphors).
The light emitting diode illustrated in FIG. 10 aims at improvement of light emission efficiency, and therefore, the sub mount 118 is drawn in a simplified manner, but the characteristic feature lies in that there is no underfill between the chip and the sub mount 118.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2005-136420

Semiconductor light emitting device and method for manufacturing same


A handover or cell change procedure in a cellular radio communications system starts with mobile user terminal present in a serving cell and having multiple radio resources simultaneously allocated for communication with a base station of the cell. When there is a need for a cell change, the multiple radio resources are sequentially replaced with radio resources allocated to the terminal for communication with at least one base station having an associated cell different from the serving cell. This cell change procedure provides macro diversity without requiring the complexity of soft handover and has enhanced service coverage and handover robustness compared to hard handover.

Functionality to handle user terminal mobility is a fundamental component in cellular networks. From a service quality perspective, such functionality must ensure that service continuity is maintained as users move from one cell to another during an active session, and that each new session is established in a sufficiently good radio environment. From a spectral efficiency perspective, such functionality should ensure that an active user is always served by the most appropriate base station or base stations, which typically means the closest base station(s) in a radio sense. The process of modifying the number or identity of base stations serving a given user during an active session is commonly referred to as (serving) cell change or "handover".
The provision of diversity against fading is a key method for improving the performance and efficiency of cellular networks. While there are numerous micro diversity techniques aimed at mitigating the effects of Rayleigh fading, (examples include receiver diversity, transmit diversity, interleaving and frequency hopping), macro diversity to combat the impact of shadow fading has fewer options. In order to obtain a macro diversity gain the possibility for simultaneous transmission and/or reception of related information in different base stations must be involved in some way. Macro diversity is particularly beneficial near the cell border, where it can dramatically improve service coverage, especially when the shadow fading from different base stations is uncorrelated.
A multi-carrier system utilizes multiple radio transmission resources to transmit data to and/or receive data from a given user terminal. Multi-carrier often means that multiple carrier frequencies are used, but more generally it can include all systems where a plurality of radio transmission resources can be simultaneously allocated to a given user terminal. Examples of radio transmission resources well-known in the art are frequencies, time slots, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) chunks, channelization codes, etc.
In existing cellular systems, including multi-carrier systems, the handover process is typically classed as "hard" or "soft". The hard handover procedure is schematically illustrated in FIGS. 1A to 1C for a multi-carrier system. In FIG. 1A, a mobile user terminal 10 present in a cell 25 of a serving base station 20 has two radio transmission resources 22, 24 simultaneously allocated for conducting uplink or downlink communication with the base station 20. The mobile user terminal 10 then starts to move away from the serving base station 20 and into a cell 35 of another base station 30. FIG. 1B illustrates the situation where the mobile terminal 10 is present within the coverage areas of both cells 25, 35. At this position, the resources 22, 24 allocated by the old base station 20 are still utilized for communication. If the movement continues, as in FIG. 1C, the single serving base station 20 passes on the connections in their entirety to another serving base station 30. The mobile user terminal 10 will then have two radio transmission resources 32, 34 allocated for communication with the new base station 30.
Soft handover in a multi-carrier system is schematically illustrated in FIGS. 2A-2C. In FIG. 2A, a mobile user terminal 10 has been simultaneously allocated two radio transmission resources 22, 24 for conducting uplink or downlink communication with a base station 20. This mobile user terminal starts to move away from the cell 25 served by the current active base station and into a new cell 35 of a new base station 30, see FIG. 2B. At this instance, two radio transmission resources 32, 34 are also simultaneously allocated to the user terminal 10 for communication with the new base station 30. This means that a so-called active set of multiple base stations 20, 30 maintains simultaneous connections 22, 24, 32, 34 with the mobile user terminal 10. Duplicate information is always simultaneously transmitted and/or received in the multiple base stations 20, 30 using the respective allocated resources 22, 24 and 32, 34. This means that the same raw (bit) data is transmitted on the allocated resources 22, 24 and 32, 34 in the two different cells 25, 35, though different physical layer processing, e.g. scrambling, of the raw data can be used in the two cells 25, 35. As the mobile user terminal 10 continues its movement into the new cell 35, see FIG. 2C, the old base station 20 is removed from the active set and the allocation of its resources 22, 24 is withdrawn. The user terminal 10 will then only have two simultaneously allocated radio transmission resources 32, 34 for conducting data communication.
Another less common handover method that can be regarded as a hybrid between soft and hard handover is "fast switching". It is similar to soft handover in that a potentially active set of multiple base stations is maintained, but only one base station in the potentially active set actually transmits or receives at any point in time, the choice of active base station being based on the instantaneous radio conditions.
Soft handover and fast switching solutions typically give better service coverage and a more robust handover process than hard handover because they inherently include a macro diversity gain since related, in this case duplicate, information is simultaneously transmitted and/or received in the multiple base stations. However, they involve higher complexity and cost in infrastructure and user terminals, and they demand more transmission and air interface resources (the number of resources allocated to the terminal is doubled during the handover). Their introduction is in many cases simply unfeasible.
Hard handover is easier and cheaper to implement and it utilizes fewer resources than soft handover and fast switching, but achieving the requisite robustness and service coverage can be difficult due to the lack of macro diversity.
An example of the service coverage difficulties experienced with hard handover can arise when a cell change is performed during a file download or similar data transfer. Data already in the buffer for the source cell may either need to be emptied before the handover can be performed, which delays the handover procedure, or discarded and then retransmitted in the target cell. Either way, service quality and system performance are adversely affected.


A power source device that outputs a DC voltage includes a rectification unit configured to rectify an input pulse voltage, a voltage-current conversion unit disposed on a side where the pulse voltage is input into the rectification unit, a current-voltage conversion unit configured to convert a current from the voltage-current conversion unit into a voltage, and a comparison unit configured to compare the voltage from the current-voltage conversion unit with a reference voltage. An operation of the rectification unit is controlled based on an output from the comparison unit.

1. Field of the Invention
One disclosed aspect of the embodiments relates to a switching power source device based on a synchronous rectification method.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an example of a conventional switching power source, a configuration using a comparator illustrated in FIG. 10 is known. The switching power source illustrated in FIG. 10 detects voltages at both ends of a switching element field effect transistor (FET) for synchronous rectification by using the comparator to drive the FET. In FIG. 10, the switching power source includes a transformer 1001, a DC power source 1002, an FET 1003 on a primary side (metal-oxide semiconductor FET: MOSFET), an electrolytic capacitor 1004 on a secondary side, a load 1005, a circuit 1006 for controlling a switching operation, an FET 1007 for synchronous rectification, and a comparator 1008.
After the FET 1003 on the primary side is turned ON to store energy in the transformer 1001, when the FET 1003 is turned OFF, a source voltage of the FET 1007 for synchronous rectification rises, causing a voltage of a + terminal of the comparator 1008 to be higher than that of a − terminal. Accordingly, the FET 1007 for synchronous rectification is turned ON. Then, current flows to be 0 ampere (A). When the current starts to flow from the + terminal of the capacitor 1004 through the transformer 1001, a voltage at the − input terminal of the FET 1007 for synchronous rectification becomes higher than that at the + input terminal. Then, a gate voltage of the FET 1007 for synchronous rectification drops to turn OFF the FET 1007 for synchronous rectification.
Such a configuration and an operation enable control of the FET for synchronous rectification with a small number of components. FIG. 11 illustrates, as a similar circuit configuration, an example where a comparator includes a discrete circuit having a PNP transistor and a NPN transistor. Even in the circuit illustrated in FIG. 11, an operation similar to that illustrated in FIG. 10 may be performed.
As the synchronous rectification method, there is also a method that does not directly detect a current. As an example of such a method, use of ET products of transformers is discussed in Japanese Patent Nos. 4158054 and 4210868. FIG. 12 illustrates such an example of a synchronous rectification circuit. In FIG. 12, the synchronous rectification circuit includes a transformer 1201, a power source 1202, an FET 1203 on a primary side, an FET 1204 for synchronous rectification, an electrolytic capacitor 1205 on a secondary side, a load 1206, a first constant current source 1207, a capacitor 1208, a second constant current source 1209, a reference voltage 1210, a comparator 1211, resistances 1212 and 1213, a voltage detection circuit 1214, and a constant voltage source 1215.
The first constant current source 1207 generates current proportional to a voltage of the transformer 1201 during an ON-period of the FET 1203 on the primary side, and stores a time product (integrated value of the voltage during the ON-period) of the voltage generated at the transformer 1201 as a voltage of the capacitor during the ON-period of the FET 1203 on the primary side. The second constant current source 1209 generates current proportional to a voltage generated during an OFF-period of the FET 1203 on the primary side, and is turned ON to discharge the voltage in the capacitor 1208 when the FET 1203 on the primary side is turned OFF. When the voltage of the capacitor 1208 drops to a predetermined value set based on the reference voltage 1210, the comparator 1211 operates to reverse a logical circuit, and the FET 1204 for synchronous rectification is turned OFF.
As other methods, there are a method where the configuration illustrated in FIG. 10 further includes a reference voltage source disposed in series to the input terminal of the comparator, and a method where a plurality of reference voltages is set as a threshold value, and hysteresis characteristics are given to prevent erroneous operations.
However, in the above configuration of the conventional switching power source illustrated in FIG. 10, in the case of an element where ON-resistance of the FET for synchronous rectification is low and a voltage between a drain and a source thereof is low, a problem of an incorrect operation occurs.
Especially, during light-load running (also referred to as critical mode or discontinuous mode) of the switching power source, the current flowing through the FET for synchronous rectification roughly drops to 0 A. In other words, since the voltage between the drain and the source of the FET for synchronous rectification also drops to about 0 A, when the element of low ON-resistance is used as the FET for synchronous rectification, it is difficult to detect the current. This problem may be solved by using an element of high ON-resistance. However, when the element of a high ON-resistance is employed, efficiency during a synchronous rectification operation is reduced.
On the other hand, the methods discussed in Japanese Patent Nos. 4158054 and 4210868, which do not directly detect the current, do not depend on ON-resistance of the FET. These methods are advantageous in that erroneous operations are limited because of the voltage integration, and a circuit configuration is simple. However, it is difficult to set a threshold value for determining timing to match OFF-timing of the FET for synchronous rectification with 0 A. It is because in setting the threshold value, when output voltage fluctuation or load fluctuation is large, for example, at the time of turning ON power, an average value that is a center value of charging and discharging of the capacitor fluctuates, and thus the OFF-timing of the FET for synchronous rectification may not match the timing of the current 0 A.
In the case of the methods discussed in Japanese Patent Nos. 4158054 and 4210868, since no current is directly detected, the circuit operates based on prediction and presumption. Accordingly, the FET for synchronous rectification must be turned OFF early to provide a certain margin. When the FET for synchronous rectification is turned OFF providing the margin, a conduction period of a body diode of the FET for synchronous rectification is extended, which consequently reduces efficiency.

Power source device and image forming apparatus


Apparatus and method for depositing salt granular materials upon a highway pavement at practical speeds. The deposition forms two narrow bands of the salt through utilization of two impeller-based mechanisms which are canted downwardly at an acute angle toward the pavement. The dump bed of trucks utilizing the apparatus is maintained in a down orientation through the utilization of a salt transport mechanism implemented as dual augers extending the length of the truck bed. Two embodiments of the apparatus are described each being self-contained and mountable upon a truck bed with relative ease. In one embodiment, a brine formation tank of generally triangular cross-sectional configuration is combined with a brine holding tank to form the sides of a V-box hopper structure. The brine formation tank is charged with salt and water to form a saturated brine which is permitted to migrate through a baffling system to the brine holding tank. A liquid pump system then drives the liquid to a cross auger apparatus wherein auger components are used as the mixing mechanism for adding brine to granular salt prior to its ejection to form the continuous narrow bands which are effective to attack the ice/pavement bond typically encountered on winter highways. The second embodiment utilizes the full capacity of the dump bed in conjunction with hydraulically biased contractor assemblies to move salt into a bed auger assembly.

Highway snow and ice control typically is carried out by governmental authorities with the use of dump trucks which are seasonally modified by the addition of snow-ice treatment components. These components will include the forwardly-mounted plows and rearwardly-mounted mechanisms for broadcasting materials such as salt or salt-aggregate mixtures. The classic configuration for the latter broadcasting mechanisms included a feed auger extending along the back edge of the dump bed of the truck. This hydraulically driven auger effects a metered movement of material from the bed of the truck onto a rotating spreader disk or "spinner" which functions to broadcast the salt across the pavement being treated. To maneuver the salt-based material into the auger, the dump bed of the truck is progressively elevated as the truck moves along the highway to be treated. Thus, when into a given run, the dump bed will be elevated, dangerously raising the center of gravity of the truck under inclement driving conditions.
An initial improvement in the controlled deposition of salt materials and the like has been achieved through the utilization of microprocessor driven controls over the hydraulics employed with the seasonally modified dump trucks. See Kime, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. Re33,835, entitled "Hydraulic System for Use with Snow-Ice Removal Vehicles", reissued Mar. 3, 1992. This Kime, et al. patent describes a microprocessor-driven hydraulic system for such trucks with a provision for digital hydraulic valving control which is responsive to the instantaneous speed of the truck. With the hydraulic system, improved controls over the extent of deposition of snow-ice materials is achieved. This patent is expressly incorporated herein by reference.
Investigations into techniques for controlling snow-ice pavement envelopment have recognized the importance of salt in breaking the bond between ice and the underlying pavement. Without a disruption of that bond, little improvement to highway traction will be achieved. For example, the plow merely will scrape off the snow and ice to the extent possible, only to leave a slippery coating which may be more dangerous to the motorist than the pre-plowed road condition.
When salt has been simply broadcast over the pavement from a typical spinner, it will have failed to melt sufficient ice to break the ice-road bond. The result usually is an ice coated pavement, in turn, coated with a highly dilute brine solution developed by too little salt, which will have melted an insufficient amount of ice for traction purposes. This condition is encountered often where granular salt material contains a substantial amount of "fines". Fines are very small salt particles typically generated in the course of transporting, stacking, and storing road maintenance salt in dome-shaped warehouses and the like.
Road snow-ice control studies have revealed that the activity of ice melting serving to break the noted ice-pavement bond is one of creating a saltwater brine of adequate concentration. In general, an adequate salt concentration using conventional dispersion methods requires the distribution of unacceptable quantities of salt on the pavement. Some investigators have employed a saturated brine as the normal treatment modality by simply pouring it on the highway surface from a lateral nozzle-containing spray bar mounted behind a truck. A result has been that the thus-deposited brine concentration essentially immediately dilutes to ineffectiveness at the ice surface, with a resultant dangerous liquid-coated ice highway condition.
Attempting to remove ice from pavement by dissolving the entire amount present over the entire expanse of pavement to be treated is considered not to be acceptable from an economical standpoint. For example, a one mile, 12 foot wide highway lane with a 1/4 inch thickness of ice over it should require approximately four tons of salt material to make a 10% brine solution and create bare pavement at 20.degree. F. Technical considerations for developing a salt brine effective to achieve adequate ice control are described, for example, by D. W. Kaufman in "Sodium Chloride: The Production and Properties of Salt and Brine", Monograph Series 145 (Amer. Chem. Soc. 1960).
The spreading of a combination of liquid salt brine and granular salt has been considered advantageous. In this regard, the granular salt may function to maintain a desired concentration of brine for attacking the ice-pavement bond and salt fines are more controlled by dissolution in the mix. The problem of excessive salt requirements remains, however, as well as difficulties in mixing a highly corrosive brine with particulate salt. Typically, nozzle injection of the brine is the procedure employed. However, attempts have been made to achieve the mix by resorting to the simple expedient of adding concentrated brine over the salt load in a dump bed. This approach is effective to an extent. However, as the brine passes through the granular salt material, it dissolves the granular salt such that the salt will not remain in solution and will recrystallize, causing bridging phenomena and the like inhibiting its movement into a distribution auger. Of course, the corrosive effect of the liquid brine upon the relatively mild steel forming the truck dump bed is not appreciated by truck operators.
The problem of the technique of deposition of salt in a properly distributed manner upon the highway surface also has been the subject of investigation. Particularly where bare pavement initially is encountered, snow/ice materials utilized in conventional equipment will remain on the highway surface at the time of deposition only where the depositing vehicles are traveling at dangerously slow speeds, for example about 15 mph. Above those slow speeds, the material essentially is lost to the roadside. Observation of materials attempted to be deposited at higher speeds shows the granular material bouncing forwardly, upwardly, and being broadcast over the pavement sides such that deposition at higher speeds is ineffective as well as dangerous and potentially damaging to approaching vehicles. That latter damage sometimes is referred to as "collateral damage". However, the broadcasting trucks themselves constitute a serious hazard when traveling, for example at 15 mph, particularly on dry pavement, which simultaneously is accommodating vehicles traveling, for example at 65 mph. The danger so posed has been considered to preclude the highly desirable procedure of depositing the salt material on dry pavement just before the onslaught of snow/ice conditions. Of course, operating at such higher speeds with elevated dump truck beds also poses a hazardous situation.
Kime, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,318,226 entitled "Deposition of Snow-Ice Treatment Material from a Vehicle with Controlled Scatter", issued Jun. 7, 1994, (incorporated herein by reference) describes an effective technique and mechanism for controlling the scatter of the so-called granules at higher speeds. With the method, the salt materials are propelled from the treatment vehicle at a velocity commensurate with that of the vehicle itself and in a direction opposite that of the vehicle. The result is an effective suspension of the projected materials over the surface under a condition of substantially zero velocity with respect to or relative to the surface of deposition. Depending upon vehicle speeds desired, material deposition may be provided in controlled widths ranging from narrow to wider bands to achieve a control over material placement. Another "zero-velocity" method for salt distribution employing a different apparatus approach has been introduced by Tyler Industries, Inc. of Benson, Minn. See "Roads & Bridges", December 1995, Scranton Gillette Communications, Inc., Des Plaines, Ill.
Thus, while the difficulties attendant with broadcasting granular salt at more acceptable highway speeds have been addressed with some success, the technical challenge of breaking the ice-pavement bond with a practical quantity of salt such that motor vehicles may achieve adequate traction has remained an elusive goal.

Method and apparatus for depositing snow-ice treatment material on pavement


A multi-speed internal bicycle hub transmission assembly includes a stationary hub axle, a driver, a hub shell, a power transmission mechanism and a shift control mechanism. The stationary hub axle includes a positioner that is movable in a radial direction. The driver and the hub shell are rotatably supported to the hub axle. The power transmission mechanism is operably disposed between the driver and the hub shell for transmitting rotational power from the driver to the hub shell through a plurality of power transmission paths. The shift control mechanism includes a pawl control member movable in rotational directions relative to the hub axle to a plurality of orientations. Each orientation corresponds to selection of a corresponding one of the plurality of power transmission paths of the power transmission mechanism. The positioner is disposed to urge the pawl control member to remain the selected orientation.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to an internal transmission hub assembly. More specifically, the present invention relates to an internal transmission hub assembly that includes an internal positioning member.
2. Background Information
Bicycling is becoming an increasingly more popular form of recreation as well as a means of transportation. Moreover, bicycling has become a very popular competitive sport for both amateurs and professionals. Whether the bicycle is used for recreation, transportation or competition, the bicycle industry is constantly improving the various components of the bicycle. One component that has been extensively redesigned is the bicycle internal transmission hub assembly.
The internal transmission hub assembly is typically a rear wheel hub that includes an internal gearing mechanism that can be shifted to provide a plurality of power transmission paths (gear ratios) for a cyclist.
With such an internal transmission hub assembly, a cyclist changes pedaling speeds by manipulating a conventional lever actuating shifting mechanism installed on or adjacent to the handlebars of the bicycle. Movement of the lever actuating shifting mechanism is transmitted to the internal transmission hub assembly by a Bowden-type cable that is operably connected to a shift mechanism within the internal transmission hub assembly. Changes in the position of the lever actuating shifting mechanism cause corresponding changes in the selection of a power transmission path (gear ratio).
A problem with such an internal transmission hub assembly and conventional lever actuating shifting mechanism is that positioning of the elements within the internal transmission hub assembly is accomplished solely by the positioning of the lever actuating shifting mechanism and the cable. If the lever actuating shifting mechanism is not set to exactly the correct position or orientation, the appropriate elements within in the internal transmission hub assembly may not properly align. Such an improper alignment of elements within the internal transmission hub assembly requires minute movements of the conventional lever actuating shifting mechanism in order for the desired selection of power transmission paths.
Internal transmission hub assemblies typically include a pawl control member that is shaped and dimensioned to move along an arcuate path around a hub axle. The pawl control member includes at least one control arm with pawl contacting recesses that engage and disengage one-way clutch pawls, thereby providing a means to select a desired power transmission path. Recently, a positioning mechanism has been developed that includes a ring with a plurality of gear teeth that contacts a protrusion at an axial end of the pawl control member. Internal transmission hub assemblies are typically compact mechanisms. A problem with the above described positioning mechanism is that the overall volume of the internal transmission hub assembly must be increased slightly to accommodate the positioning mechanism.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved internal transmission hub assembly that includes a more consistent means for establishing correct and complete shifting of the internal transmission hub assembly in the selection of the desired power transmission paths. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.