An instrument (1) and a method for measuring pulses of partial electrical discharges in an electrical system comprise data processing means (5) operatively associated both with an input stage (2), able to receive an analogue signal (3) representing said pulses and to provide a digital representation of the entire wave form of the pulses, to receive said digital representation, extract the value of predetermined parameters relating to the wave form of the pulses and transfer to and output stage (4) a processed digital signal comprising said values, the processing means (5) being able to operate substantially in real time, i.e. with no need for a memory for the intermediate storage of the data. Known solutions within the field of the measurement of partial discharge pulses for diagnostic purposes provide for the use of peak detector instruments, which are not able to measure all information useful for a diagnosis of the electrical system, and oscilloscopes interacting with a computer, disadvantageous in terms of costs and of calculation efficiency.

The present invention relates to an instrument and a method for measuring partial electrical discharges in an electrical system, the instrument comprising:                an input stage set up to receive an analogue signal representing one or more pulses of partial discharges to be measured and to generate at its output a digital representation of the entire wave form of said one or more pulses,        an output stage set up to transfer data in digital shape at the output from the instrument.
The technical sector of the present invention is that of the diagnostics of electrical systems (in particular in high voltage), by the measurement/processing of partial electrical discharges and possibly other quantities.
It should be noted that a partial discharge is an electrical discharge that involves a limited portion of an insulator of an electrical system, therefore it does not cause the immediate failure of the system, but its progressive degradation. Thus, partial discharges have, for their nature, a development that is substantially limited to a defect of the insulating system. In this light, diagnostic techniques based on the measurement and interpretation of partial discharges are among the most promising and they are widely studied in scientific research, because the study of partial discharges allows to investigate the nature of the defects of the insulating system in which the discharges themselves reside.
However, the measurement together with the subsequent evaluation of partial discharges for diagnostic purposes has not yet completely been included among industrial standards, as an instrument to plan the maintenance and/or replacement of electrical components operating at high voltage, because of the difficulty that is encountered in interpreting the results of the measurements.
With regard to the measurement of partial discharges, various types of techniques have been developed, exploiting the different physical phenomena associated to the arrival of the discharges, such as optical, acoustic and electrical techniques. The present invention relates, in particular but not exclusively, to electrical measuring techniques, which consist, as is well known, of measuring the current pulses that travel through a measuring circuit coupled with the electrical system in question. Said measured current pulses (hereafter called discharge pulses, for the sake of simplicity), have a time development, which depends on the dynamics with which the partial discharges occur (i.e. on the physics of the discharge phenomena) and on the nature of the means that the measured pulses traverse, in their path from the discharge site (in which the discharges originate) to the measurement site. Thus, the time development of the discharge pulses, consisting of the wave form of the pulses themselves, comprises information that is precious from the diagnostic viewpoint, both with regard to the physical phenomena associated with the discharges (correlated to the nature of the defects of the insulating system), and the nature of the medium which the measured pulses traverse (correlated to the location of the defects within the insulating system).
With regard to the difficulties in the interpretation of the results of the measurements of partial discharges, they depend not only on the need to have available a specific experience and case record, but also on the fact that the measured data could be unreliable or not significant.
In this light, the problems that can compromise diagnostics through the evaluation of the measurements of partial discharges are essentially two:                in the measurement of the signals associated with the partial discharges, there is a loss of information that is essential for a subsequent evaluation of the signals for diagnostic purposes (a loss of information can be constituted, for example, by a failure to measure an impulse, or by a failure to measure the wave form of a pulse);        during said measurement, noise may be superposed to the discharge signals, or signals due to different sources may be mutually superposed, with a consequent objective difficulty in interpreting the results, given the impossibility to perform significant statistical processing on heterogeneous data and/or on data that are not pertinent to the individual phenomena to be evaluated.
With regard to said loss of information while performing the measurement, it should be noted that the signals associated to the partial discharges are electrical impulses having a very high frequency content (they have up-ramps in the order of nanoseconds, or tens of nanoseconds) and, in certain cases, their repetition rate is quite high (e.g., hundreds of thousands of pulses per second).
Therefore, from the viewpoint of the instrument used to measure the signals associated with partial discharges, there is the problem of acquiring, very rapidly and efficiently, electrical signals having a high frequency content, preserving, as much as possible, the information content of the signals themselves. Moreover, said instrument should allow an effective separation of signals that are significant for the diagnosis from noise or from other "unwanted" signals.
The solution of the aforementioned problems is particularly difficult, considering the need to measure the partial discharges and to evaluate the state of the electrical system in unsupervised fashion, i.e. minimising the intervention of an operator (the operator, in certain cases, could be absent altogether, as is the case in line monitoring systems).
With regard to the state of the art in the sector instruments for measuring partial discharges (PD), the following is a list of known instruments, which can be subdivided in two categories: peak detectors (typically, narrow/selective band instruments) and software-controlled oscilloscopes (typically, wide band instruments). The main difference between peak detectors and controlled oscilloscopes is that peak detectors are not able to record the time dynamics of the detected pulse, because they do not perform an actual sampling of the signal, unlike oscilloscopes, which instead do perform said sampling. In this light, it should be noted that peak detectors are generally provided with a relatively narrow/selective band in order to be robust with respect to unwanted signals, in particular background noise.
Peak detectors are instruments that provide indications solely about the phase of occurrence and the amplitude of PD The amplitude of a PD is generally obtained passing the analogue signal through an FQI (quasi-integrator filter) and, hence, measuring the peak value. Within the field of peak detectors, the following types of instruments can be further distinguished:                Fully analogue instruments. The FQI is constituted by an analogue electrical grid. The output signal from the FQI is displayed on an oscilloscope. The available information is the known Lissajous figure, made available by the oscilloscope.        Mixed analogue/digital instruments. The FQI is still obtained by means of an analogue electrical grid and sent to a peak detector, also analogue, which provides the amplitude of the PD. The electronics of the instrument converts the amplitude signal of the PD (output by the peak detector) from analogue to digital. The available information is the set of the possible representations that can be obtained knowing phase and amplitude of the PDs, e.g., the known phase/amplitude pattern.        Fully digital instruments. The signal is filtered for the purpose of avoiding the known phenomenon of aliasing and, subsequently, it is sampled (analogue/digital transformation). The chain for calculating the amplitude of the PD (FQI filtering and detection of the peak of the signal output by the FQI) is obtained in this instruments by means of numeric algorithms. As in the previous case, the available information is the set of the possible representations that can be obtained knowing phase and amplitude of the PDs. It should be noted that said quasi-integrator filter FQI returns a signal whose information content (useful for a subsequent diagnosis of the electrical system to be evaluated) consists solely of a peak value of the wave form of the input signal, said value corresponding to the amplitude of the PD.
Instruments are known from WO2005/038475A and U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,447A which enable the measurement of PDs and the judgement of predetermined features of those PDs, possibly using a real-time approach.
With regard to controlled oscilloscopes (controlled so they can acquire the signal output by the analogue circuits used to capture the partial discharge signal), there are known technical solutions developed in universities, for scientific research purposes. Known instruments have the following limits and disadvantages.
Peak detectors entail a drastic loss of information in the detected signals, due to the strong compression of the information associated with the partial discharge signal, due to the fact that they do not sample the detected signal and to the presence of the quasi-integrator filter. In particular, they do not allow to acquire significant information about the wave form of the pulses of the detected partial discharges. Therefore, they do not allow to separate (especially in automatic, unsupervised fashion) the noise from the discharge signals and, to a greater extent, the discharge signals coming from different sources. Moreover, peak detectors have a limitation in the phase of attributing the sign to the measured amplitude for a pulse, said sign having considerable importance, as is well known, in interpreting the results of the measurements (which are carried out, in most applications, subjecting the electrical components in question to alternating voltage). In particular, peak detectors do not allow to verify said attribution (possibly by performing the sign attribution step again, on the basis of a different criterion/calculation algorithm). With regard to the attribution of the sign of the discharges, it should also be noted that an additional limitation is associated with the instruments that detect pulses using a narrow band; a limited bandwidth could alter the time dynamic of the pulse, especially when the pulse has very rapid changes over time.
Therefore, in order to carry out a correct evaluation of the state of the insulation, the operator has to have a considerable experience, such as to allow him/her to evaluate the different contributions, separate them and provide and indication of their dangerousness. The procedure is complex in itself and it provides a subjective evaluation of the state of the insulation. To this should be added that, in many case, the operator's experience is anyway not sufficient to compensate for the loss of information during the signal detection step.
It should also be noted that instruments are known which, in addition to the amplitude of the pulse, are able to measure the time width of the pulse itself; such instruments are substantially peak detectors provided with a plurality of comparators (with different thresholds). Therefore, said instruments carry out, in fact, a sort of sampling (in certain case, with variable frequency). However, said instruments do not allow to detect the wave form of the pulse, i.e. the profile of the pulse amplitude over time, said wave form instead having fundamental importance for the purposes of a subsequent diagnostic evaluation of the acquired data.
On the contrary, oscilloscopes allow to measure discharge signals in wide band, and to acquire the entire wave form of the detected pulses. However, they are definitely costly and poorly reliable, especially in on-site applications, because they are particularly exposed to failures (e.g., in the presence of overvoltages). In fact, use of oscilloscopes is quite limited as far as field applications are concerned. Moreover, they are generally not able to reject noise by means of algorithms programmable within them. They also require the presence of a software residing in a computer, hence with the need to manage a large quantity of data.
Moreover, from the viewpoint of a diagnostic evaluation of the electrical system to be assessed, it can be useful (if not indispensable) to acquire, in addition to the partial discharge signals, also other quantities, e.g. quantities correlated to environmental factors (such as temperature and humidity), to be used in synergetic fashion together with data about partial discharge activity. Typically, said quantities undergo variations over time that are relatively slow, with respect to partial discharge signals; therefore, acquisition channels specifically dedicated to measuring said quantities are called "slow channels". In this light, it should be noted that, in the oscilloscope/computer system, the need simultaneously to acquire through more than one channel and thus to proceed with a simultaneous detection of partial discharges and of said additional quantities entails considerable disadvantages, linked to calculation times and to the complexity of the software residing on the computer.
Therefore, the oscilloscope/computer system is penalising, not only from the cost viewpoint, but also from the performance viewpoint, because of the need to transfer enormous quantities of data from the oscilloscope to the computer.
With regard to the problems deriving from the need to transfer data from the oscilloscope to the computer, the following should also be noted.
The need to transfer a large quantity of data makes the whole data measurement/acquisition process very laborious. An additional problem is that the oscilloscope/PC communication is relatively slow and the storage memory is necessarily limited (this entailing a disadvantageous increase in dead time, i.e. of the time between the detection of one signal and the detection of the next signal), with the consequence that the oscilloscope/PC system is in distress when it has to measure in significant manner slow phenomena superposed to fast phenomena (i.e. signals with high repetition rates which are acquired simultaneously with signals with relatively low repetition rate). In practice, when it is necessary to measure a slow phenomenon (e.g., partial discharges that occur occasionally) simultaneously with a fast phenomenon (e.g. impulsive noise), the oscilloscope/PC allows only the two technical solutions that follow.                Measurement of a predetermined maximum number of signals (the maximum number allowed by the oscilloscope); in this way (in the best case), the slow phenomenon is also acquired, but there is the disadvantage of having to store an enormous quantity of data, with consequent slowing of all data measurement, transmission and, subsequently, processing operations.        Detection of a number of signals limited to a predetermined value; in this case, it is partially possible to speed up the process of measuring and subsequently processing the data, but there is the disadvantage of rapidly saturating the memory, with the risk of not acquiring the slow phenomenon in significant fashion.
Therefore, the oscilloscope/computer system does not allow to measure different signals having mutually different time dynamics in efficient, optimised fashion, for the purposes of a diagnostic evaluation of an electrical system by analysing partial discharge signals.

Instrument and method for measuring partial electrical discharges in an electrical system


A first excimer lamp includes: a quartz glass-made light-emitting tube containing an excimer emission gas sealed therein; and a pair of electrodes for generating dielectric barrier discharge. One of the pair of electrodes is disposed in the inner space of the light-emitting tube so as to extend in the direction of a tube axis of the light-emitting tube, and the other one of the pair of electrodes is embedded in the tube wall of the light-emitting tube so as to extend in the direction of the tube axis of the light-emitting tube. The one electrode is electrically connected to a conductive foil hermetically embedded in an end portion of the light-emitting tube.

Low-pressure mercury lamps have been widely used as light sources of water treatment apparatuses for, for example, performing so-called sterilization to decompose organic materials contained in water or to kill germs contained in water (see, for example, Patent Literatures 1 and 2).
However, when a low-pressure mercury lamp is used as the light source of a water treatment apparatus, the low-pressure mercury lamp is often placed in water to be treated. A problem that occurs under such use conditions is that the light-emission characteristics of the low-pressure mercury lamp are greatly affected by the temperature of water.
The reason that such a problem occurs is that the low-pressure mercury lamp contains mercury as a light-emitting material and the vapor pressure of mercury must reach a prescribed level during operation in order to obtain a favorable light-emitting state. When the temperature of water is extremely low, mercury is not sufficiently vaporized, and this causes a problem in that sufficient light emission is not obtained.
Recently, in view of such circumstances, so-called mercury-free lamps that do not use mercury as a light-emitting material receive attention as light source lamps constituting light sources of water treatment apparatuses. For example, a lamp using xenon as a light-emitting material has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Literature 3).
Specifically, Patent Literature 3 discloses, as a light source lamp of a water treatment apparatus, a discharge lamp including: a light-emitting tube made of a light-transmitting dielectric material such as quartz glass; and electrodes (external electrodes) disposed on the outer surface of the light-emitting tube (this discharge lamp may be hereinafter referred to as an "external electrode discharge lamp").
However, in this external electrode discharge lamp, the electrodes to which high voltage is applied are located outside and exposed, and this causes various problems depending on use environment conditions.
Specifically, when an external electrode discharge lamp is used as the light source of a water treatment apparatus and disposed in water to be treated, the external electrodes come into contact with water, so corrosion may occur in the external electrodes. Corrosion of the external electrodes causes not only a problem in that the external electrodes themselves wear and therefore adversely affect discharge but also a problem in that corrosion products falling from the surfaces of the corroded external electrodes are mixed into the water to be treated. Another problem is that since the external electrodes are exposed to the outside of the light-emitting tube, an electric leakage or an electric shock may occur, so that sufficient safety cannot be obtained.
These problems not only occur when the external electrode discharge lamp is used as the light source of a water treatment apparatus but also occur similarly when the external electrode discharge lamp is used as the light source of, for example, an air sterilization apparatus because water vapor is present in air.
In some types of external electrode discharge lamps, a light-emitting tube including electrodes (external electrodes) disposed on its outer surface is disposed inside a wrapper tube. In the external electrode discharge lamp having the above configuration, the external electrodes do not come into contact with water even when the lamp is placed in water. However, when air is present inside the wrapper tube, micro discharge may occur in the gaps between the light-emitting tube and the external electrodes, and therefore ozone may be generated. This causes a problem in that harmful effects such as corrosion of the electrodes occur.
One possible solution to the above problems is to dispose the pair of electrodes inside the light-emitting tube.
Excimer lamps having a configuration in which a pair of electrodes are disposed inside a light-emitting tube have been proposed as one type of mercury-free lamp (see, for example, Patent Literatures 4 and 5).
More specifically, Patent Literature 4 discloses an excimer lamp including: a cylindrical light-emitting tube having sealed portions at both ends; and metal rods constituting a pair of electrodes and disposed such that one ends of the rods are located inside the light-emitting tube and the other ends protrude outward from sealed portions and extend therefrom. In at least one of the metals rods constituting the electrodes of the above excimer lamp, the surface of the one end located inside the light-emitting tube and functioning as an electrode is covered with a dielectric layer made of a dielectric material.
Patent Literature 5 discloses an excimer lamp including: a light-emitting tube having a cylindrical outer tube that is made of a dielectric material and has closed opposite ends; and two cylindrical inner tubes that are made of a dielectric material and have open opposite ends. In the light-emitting tube of this excimer lamp, the two inner tubes extend along the tube axis of the outer tube, and the openings of the inner tubes are disposed so as to protrude outward from the ends of the outer tube. A light-emitting space is formed by the inner surface of the outer tube and the outer surfaces of the inner tubes located inside the outer tube. In this excimer lamp, a metal rod constituting one of electrodes is disposed inside one of the inner tubes, and a metal rod constituting the other electrode is disposed inside the other inner tube.
The excimer lamp disclosed in Patent Literature 4 has a configuration in which the surface of an electrode is covered with a dielectric layer. However, this excimer lamp has a problem in that, particularly when glass is used as the dielectric material and the dielectric layer is interposed between the light-emitting tube and the metal rod constituting the electrode at a seal portion of the light-emitting tube, the light-emitting tube may break at the seal portion because of the difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the material of the metal rod and the dielectric material. This problem also occurs in a seal portion of the light-emitting tube when the light-emitting tube and a metal rod constituting an electrode are in direct contact with each other and the light-emitting tube is made of the same material as the dielectric material (the material constituting the dielectric layer).
The excimer lamp disclosed in Patent Literature 5 has a configuration in which the electrodes are disposed inside the inner tubes having at both ends openings in communication with the outside. This excimer lamp has a problem in that, when the electrodes (metal rods) are spaced apart from the inner surfaces of the inner tubes, the capacitance of the inner tubes becomes small.
To prevent oxidation of the electrodes (metal rods) disposed inside the inner tubes, the inside of each inner tube must be reduced in pressure or have an inert gas atmosphere. For example, it is conceivable that an inert gas is caused to flow inside the inner tubes when the lamp emits light as shown in Patent Literature 5. Alternatively, it is conceivable that opposite ends of the inner tubes are sealed to form sealed spaces inside the inner tubes, and the sealed spaces are reduced in pressure or filled with an inert gas. However, the following problems occur in these cases.
To cause the inert gas to flow inside the inner tubes, means for causing the inert gas to flow must be provided separately. To seal the opposite ends of the inner tubes, hermetic seal structures must be formed by bringing the metal rods constituting the electrodes into intimate contact with the ends of the inner tubes. Therefore, particularly when glass is used as the dielectric material constituting the inner tubes, a problem occurs in that the seal portions may break because of the difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the material of the metal rods and material of the inner tubes (the dielectric material).


A laundry dryer has a casing (1) accommodating therein a drying air circuit and operational devices for carrying out a drying treatment on laundry. The dryer further includes a basement (8, 108) having a condensate draining path (21, 121) for conveying moisture condensed from drying air towards a reservoir (24, 124). At least one condensate retaining region (29A, 29B; 129A, 129B) is provided in the condensate draining path (21, 121) and/or on reservoir (24, 124) thereby forming a liquid trap for preventing drying air dispersing along path (21, 121) from entering reservoir (24, 124).

Laundry dryers generally comprise a casing that houses a laundry container, like a rotating drum, where laundry to be treated is received, and an air circuit for carrying out drying operation by circulating hot air through the laundry container. In a heat pump laundry dryer, drying air coming out from the laundry container is first dehumidified through a first heat exchanging portion (a refrigerant fluid evaporating unit) of a heat pump circuit, and then heated through a second heat exchanging portion (a refrigerant fluid condensing unit) of the same heat pump circuit thereby achieving a considerable energy saving compared to a condenser type laundry dryer. In the latter type of laundry dryer, condensing means in the form of an air-air heat exchanger are provided in the drying air circuit for removing moisture from laundry drying air while heat is generated by an electric resistance placed within the drying air circuit.
Both in heat pump and in condenser dryers moisture removed from drying air is collected within a reservoir located in the cabinet bottom part and then pumped up to a removable container placed on a front upper portion of the cabinet by pumping means. Since condensed moisture is drained from the drying air circuit, in prior art dryers part of such air may be drained together with moisture and being sucked into said pumping means thereby causing damages and/or a malfunction of the draining system.
In addition, even when filtered, drying air may comprise fluff particles that can cause pump clogging in case an amount of drying air mixes with condensed moisture. Fluff accumulated on those parts of the drying air circuit just downstream of the main air filter, which is generally provided in proximity of an air outlet port in the laundry container, may be flushed away by moisture contained in drying air when the latter passes through cold surfaces. This problem may arise especially after a relatively large number of cycles or when drying air filters and/or condensing devices are not periodically cleaned.
Furthermore, prior art laundry dryers generally provides draining arrangements in correspondence of elements, such as an evaporator in a heat pump type dryer or a condenser in a condenser type dryer, where moisture is effectively condensed but such dryers have no provision for collecting condensate in other regions of the drying air circuit where temperature may be favorable to moisture condensation. In a laundry dryer of heat pump type, one of the above said regions has been found to be the heat exchanger (a refrigerant fluid condensing unit) provided for heating the drying air flow. This is due to the fact that, in a heat pump type dryer, the position of the condensing unit is quite near to that of the cold surfaces of the evaporating unit and therefore moisture can be further condensed on a region of the condensing unit adjacent to the evaporating unit. Presence of condensate on a heat pump circuit condenser is particularly undesired because the condensing unit yield drops dramatically.
In a heat pump type dryer, a further potential moisture condensing surface may be the region in front of the evaporating unit, i.e. a region upstream of such unit considering the flow direction of laundry drying air, because the drying air enters that region with the highest amount of humidity with respect to the whole drying air circuit. Since that region may feel the evaporator low temperature, a moisture condensation becomes highly probable. In addition, in said region facing the evaporator unit, drying air flow changes its direction from a substantially vertical plane to a substantially horizontal plane. This causes air to contact drying air conduit walls thereby increasing possibility for a moisture condensation on such walls. A moisture condensation in that region may disadvantageously cause undesired and uncontrolled water shedding.

Electrolux Home Products Corporation N.V.


Optimization of test stimulus verification by analyzing test stimulus timing information against restriction rules derived from a static analysis of a digital system. The result of this analysis is used to determine test stimulus timing which cannot cause a timing violation and to remove the associated vectors from further checking. Only those vectors which can violate timing constraint rules are checked individually to find states which violate the timing rules.

The present invention relates, in general, to optimization of the verification of the validity of automated test procedures, and more particularly to electrical function and timing tests of application specific integrated circuit parts (ASIC parts).
Electrical testing of ASIC parts utilizes complex and expensive automated test equipment, special purpose machines designed to apply a set of input stimuli to an ASIC part and to compare the resultant set of output states with a set of expected output states. The set of stimuli and expected output state for each time step is unique to each design of an ASIC part. The set of stimuli and expected output states to be used for a given design is typically generated by use of event based digital simulation software such as LASAR (trademark of Teradyne, Inc.), Verilog (trademark of Cadence, Inc.), or Quicksim (trademark of Mentor Graphics, Inc.). This software accurately simulates the internal functioning and timing of the ASIC part, creating time-based stimulus and expected response information as a combination of timing information and state information.
The timing information can specify a unique timing for each potential state change of each signal within the state based vector if required, but typically only a relatively small amount of timing information is needed. Due to the design of automated test equipment, a single set of timing information is typically applied to a large number of state based vectors at one time and is encoded separately as a uniquely identified timing statement. Timing information is typically defined as being relative to a master clock signal, the leading edge of the clock pulse is typically used for a timing reference. This reference is used internally by the test equipment to accurately trigger the application of signals to the pins of the ASIC device or to enable sensors for output signals.
Timing constraints are placed on the state based vector information and timing information due to the internal design of the ASIC part as well as limitations of the test equipment. Timing constraint information typically consists of a Set of times when a given signal must remain in a stable state relative to another signal and is derived by a static timing analysis of each ASIC part. Static timing analysis is a procedure whereby the internal logic paths of an ASIC part are traced to determine the internal logic path delays from each input to each time critical functional block such as a flip-flop. This internal logic path delay information is used to derive a set of timing restriction rules for each input of the ASIC part. The set of timing restriction rules specify the times at which a signal applied to each input must remain stable relative to another signal for the ASIC part to operate correctly. In order to assure that the part is being tested with a valid stimulus set, both the state information must be verified and the timing restriction rules must be compared with the time-based stimulus information to ensure that no constraints are violated during the testing procedure.
The prior art method is to process the mixed stimulus information for each vector of the mixed time and state based vector information; identify the times when a state transition is not allowed from the timing constraint information; then check for state changes in the state-based stimulus information during those times. This method is straightforward and thorough, but performs a great many unnecessary checks. A typical ASIC part will have more than 10,000 vectors and some ASIC parts have 500,000 or more. So any reduction in the number of verification steps required is highly desirable. In addition, it is highly desirable to allow different automated test equipment to be selected immediately before the tests are performed rather than some weeks earlier during the design activity.


A reference channel maintenance method for a wide area paging system connected to a public telephone network and having at least one reference frequency channel through which a paging signal can be transmitted is provided. When an incoming paging signal is not received from a public telephone network and transmitted to a desired wide area radio pager through the reference frequency channel within a predetermined time period, a dummy paging signal is generated and transmitted to the wide area radio pager through the reference frequency channel.

The present invention relates to a method for controlling a paging system, and more particularly to a method for controlling transmission in a wide area radio paging system to thereby maintain a reference channel of the wide area radio paging system.
A conventional radio pager (i.e., paging receiver) has a disadvantage in that paging service can only be provided to a single localized area, but cannot be provided nationwide. To solve this problem, a wide area paging system (PS) has been developed which can provide a wide area paging service. In other words, the conventional local area paging service has been expanded to provide service throughout the country. Accordingly, a wide area paging system configuration has been developed to accommodate the wide area paging service.
Wide area paging systems can be classified into two general types. With the first type of system, radio frequency channels (RFCH) are utilized for local paging areas, and an exclusive radio frequency channel (RFCH) is separately utilized for providing the wide area paging service. Channel transmitters are provided for transmitting paging frequencies of the radio frequency channels (RFCH). This first type of system, however, has a problem in that the exclusive radio frequency channel (RFCH) is responsible for providing paging service to all areas. Accordingly, the number of subscribers to which the wide area paging service can be provided is limited since only one exclusive radio frequency channel (RFCH) is utilized, thereby resulting in a limited frequency band.
With the second type of paging system, an exclusive radio frequency channel (RFCH) is not utilized for providing the wide area paging service. Instead, several radio frequency channels (RFCHs) utilized for various local areas are used to form a paging network over the entire country. In other words, the radio pager in this type of system is provided with radio frequency channels (RFCHs) for paging service in a local area, and is additionally provided with radio frequency channels (RFCH) for paging service in other areas outside the local area. The radio pager is provided with a plurality of reference channels (about 10 reference channels) which each represent a different local area, and is also provided with a plurality of service channels (about 10 service channels).
The reference channel is a channel for a frequency that allows the radio pager to discern a desired paging service area. That is, the reference channel refers to a radio frequency channel (RFCH) for searching for a desired paging service area. The service channel is a channel utilized as a message receiving channel by an incoming call after the desired paging service area is searched for according to the reference channel, in cases where subscribers carrying the radio pagers move around the paging service areas.
The second type of paging system described above, however, has a problem in that when a radio pager determines the desired paging service area by receiving a reference frequency of the reference channel, if an incoming paging signal of the reference channel is not generated in the desired paging service area, paging service cannot be provided to the radio pager.
For example, when the incoming paging signal is not generated through the reference channel of a given paging service area in the paging system within a given time period (e.g., incoming paging signals are not frequently generated between 4 o'clock and 7 o'clock in the morning), the paging signal cannot be transmitted to the desired radio pager through the radio frequency channel (RFCH) of the reference channel. Accordingly, there is a problem in that if the paging signal is not transmitted through the reference channel of the desired paging service area, the radio pager determining the desired paging service area by receiving the reference frequency through its reference channel automatically changes the reference channel of the desired paging service area to other reference channels of other paging service areas as a receiving channel to thereby receive other reference frequencies through the reference channels of other paging service areas. As a result, the radio pager cannot be provided with paging service in a given area in which it is actually situated. For example, if the incoming paging signal is not received within a given period of time (typically, about 10 seconds), the radio pager automatically changes the reference channel corresponding to an `A` area to a reference channel corresponding to a "B" area, thereby making it impossible for the radio pager to be provided with paging service in the "A" area even when the radio pager is actually situated in the "A" area.

Reference channel maintenance method for a wide area paging system


The brake system employs a ring braking member and a suspended brake caliper having a responsive linkage correcting the caliper and a knuckle support arrangement. The ring braking member is preferably die cast as a single component with a control hub and is of a lightweight, high temperature aluminum composite material. The brake system is designed to have a relatively thick ring brake member of this lightweight material to provide sufficient capacity to absorb the heat of braking and transfer of this heat to the surrounding air prior to the ring brake reaching a temperature where damage is likely to occur. The normal operating temperature is well below the theoretical maximum temperature or rated temperature of the composite material.

Over the last number of years of disc brakes have proven very popular for cars and in most cases are provided as standard equipment on at least the front wheels. These brakes often include an anti-lock braking feature to provide maximum braking effect without lock up. This typically increases the heat required to be dissipated by the system.
The auto industry has also almost completely shifted to front wheel drive cars and the space available at the front wheels has been reduced and, in many cases, the size of the brake components has been reduced.
Many car braking systems, during even normal use of the car, will cause the disc rotors to become very hot leaving them vulnerable to brake fade and also vulnerable to damage from high temperature warping or high temperature stress. Anti-lock braking systems also contribute to the problem, in that, the brakes do not lock and, therefore, the brakes continue to absorb a large amount of heat during heavy braking.
Another factor to consider in vehicle brakes is the weight of the rotating braking member as this can appreciably effect the gas mileage of the vehicle. It is desirable to provide a brake system which is relatively light weight. Unfortunately, this normally affects the ability of the brake system to absorb heat energy without subjecting the braking system to temperatures where failure or damage to the braking system are likely to occur. With braking systems, the energy required to brake the vehicle is essentially transferred into heat absorbed by the braking system and eventually transferred to the surrounding air. There are a number of braking systems which are ventilated to improve the amount of heat which is transferred to the surrounding air.
In recent years, there have been a number of high temperature, lightweight, aluminum composite materials and there have been a number of attempts to design a braking system which has the rotating braking member, for example the disc, made of this high temperature composite material. Unfortunately, these prior disc systems do not have sufficient ability to absorb the heat produced during the braking and effectively distribute this heat to the surrounding air to maintain a satisfactory operating temperature of the braking system. These high temperature aluminum composite materials, to date, have not worked satisfactory in a braking system involving disc brakes.
Ring brakes as opposed to a disc brake have a ring braking member where the actual braking member is at a fixed radial distance from the axis of rotation. The ring braking member has opposed inner and outer braking surfaces and a caliper arrangement is used to apply force to these braking surfaces. By applying force to both braking surfaces, the problems associated with the high strength and high weight of a drum-type braking arrangement is avoided.


A cloud-based Wi-Fi network architecture consisting of a CU and RAUs is proposed as an improvement on the conventional Wi-Fi architecture with traditional access points (APs). In addition, a method for uplink data transmission in a cloud-based Wi-Fi network is proposed. In a conventional Wi-Fi network with independently operating APs, APs close to each other may not be able to utilize the same frequency band efficiently because of significant amounts of interference. However, in a cloud-based Wi-Fi network, the CU coordinates RAUs so that they can operate in the same frequency band by transmitting or receiving signals through the shared wireless medium to improve spectral efficiency. For each frequency band, the proposed system utilizes a diversity combining that combines multiple signals and introduces a single improved signal with high signal-to-noise ratio for uplink transmission in the cloud-based Wi-Fi network. In proposed uplink transmission method for a cloud-based Wi-Fi network, diversity combining is utilized with the immediate acknowledgement (ACK) transmission method that transmits the ACK frame to the client immediately before decoding. The proposed uplink data transmission method mitigates the performance degradation caused by the fronthaul propagation delay between the CU and RAUs, without significant modification of the IEEE 802.11 standard.

The present disclosure relates to a centralized or cloud-based radio access network system. Specifically, the present disclosure relates to a cloud-based Wi-Fi network system.
A centralized or cloud-based radio access network is a new type of next generation communication network technology constituted by a remote radio heads (RRHs) equipped with radio-frequency (RF) modules located at the ends of the network and a central unit (CU) in the cloud coordinates network traffic, manages network resources, and performs signal processing. The central processing at the CU facilitates efficient communication resource management to improve wireless connectivity performance by globally controlling communication resources of RRHs such as RF or transmission power allocation.
Since most operations for providing data services including baseband signal processing or wireless medium access control (MAC) are performed at the CU in the cloud, service maintenance and updating new communication protocols of a cloud-based network are easier than those of the conventional decentralized network. Due to these advantages, much recent research has focused on centralized or cloud-based radio access network architecture and related methods for resource management in wireless networks. (Non-Patent Literatures 1 and 2)

Cloud-based Wi-Fi network system using immediate ACK in uplink data transmission

GWANGJU INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


The thrust reverser is used with an aircraft gas turbine engine and includes upper and lower doors pivotable between a stowed position and a deployed position. When deployed, the doors redirect a portion of the efflux to generate a nose-down pitching moment on an aircraft to improve handling during thrust reversing on a runway.

It is generally desired to assist wheel braking using aerodynamic decelerating means on aircrafts equipped with gas turbine engines because of the high landing speeds of these aircrafts. The aerodynamic decelerating means are especially useful on wet or icy runways to enhance the stopping capability of aircrafts. A thrust reverser is one example of such aerodynamic decelerating means. A thrust reverser deflects at least a portion of the efflux from a gas turbine engine to create a braking force slowing down the aircraft.
Many different models of thrust reversers have been suggested since they exist. However, it always remains desirable to, among other things, improve the design of the thrust reversers so as to obtain additional benefits during their operation, one example being an improved handling of the aircraft on the ground during braking.


A data structure, added to a modified form of the Blink-tree data structure, tracks delete states for nodes. The index delete state (DX) indicates whether it is safe to directly access an index node without re-traversing the B-tree. The DX state is maintained globally, outside of the tree structure. The data delete state (DD) indicates whether it is safe to post an index term for a new leaf node. A DD state is maintained in each level 1 node for its leaf nodes. Delete states indicate whether a specific node has not been deleted, or whether it may have been deleted. Delete states are used to remove the necessity for atomic node splits and chains of latches for deletes, while not requiring retraversal. This property of not requiring a retraversal is exploited to simplify the tree modification operations.

A B-tree is a tree structure which stores data, and allows operations to find, delete, insert, and browse the data. Each data record stored in a B-tree has an associated key. In order to be used for a B-tree, these keys must be orderable according to a predetermined function. For example, the keys may be numeric, in which case the ordering may be from least to greatest. As another example, the keys may be names, in which case the ordering may be alphabetical.
A B-tree is height-balanced, so all leaves are at the same level of the tree. Insertions and deletions of records to the B-tree are managed so that the height-balanced property of the B-tree is maintained. The insertion of a new data record may require the split of a node into two nodes; a deletion may require the deletion of a node. Insertion and deletion procedures must maintain the properties of the B-tree (e.g. height balance) in order to ensure that they result in valid B-trees.
Each B-tree leaf contains one or more of the stored records in one of a disjoint set of ranges of key values, while each index node (non-leaf node) of a B-tree provides access to a range of key values stored in one or more adjacent key ranges contained in data nodes. Each index node of the B-tree stores, for each of its child nodes, an ordered pair consisting of a key value within the range and a pointer to the child node. The key values break the range of key values represented by the node into sub-ranges, and the pointers to a leaf within the sub-range (if the index node is one level above the leaf level) or point to an index node corresponding to that sub-range.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary subtree in a B-tree data structure. As shown in FIG. 1, a sub-tree of a B-tree contains leaves 1010 storing records with the keys shown in those leaves 1010. Leaf nodes are also known as data nodes. Index node 1000 corresponds to the range between 21 and 133. Index node 1000 contains three ordered pairs (index pairs). The first ordered pair contains the key value 21 and first pointer 1020 of index node 1000, which points to index node 1025. A second ordered pair contains the key value 49 and second pointer 1030. This indicates that the pointer in the first ordered pair should be followed to reach any record with a key greater than or equal to 21 (the key value in the first pair) and less than 49 (the key value in the second pair). The key value in the second ordered pair, along with the key value of 93 in the third ordered pair, indicates that any record with a key greater than or equal to 49 and less than 93 will be found in the sub-tree whose root is index node 1035. The third ordered pair, containing third pointer 1040, indicates that any record with a key greater than or equal to 93 will be found in the sub-tree whose root is index node 1045.
It can be seen that an index node will have as many ordered pairs of <key, pointer> as it has child nodes. The range represented by each index node need not be explicitly stored in the index node. In the sub-tree of FIG. 1, node 1035 corresponds to the range of key values v where 49≦v<93, though this range is not be explicitly stored in node 1035 in the example. Any search for key values in the range 49≦v<93, though, will reach node 1035. In addition to being height-balanced, another B-tree constraint concerns the number of nodes which can exist below a given node which is determined by the order assigned to the B-tree. When an additional node is being added below a parent node which already has the maximum number of nodes, the result would violate this constraint. In practice, the order of a B-tree is determined dynamically, when a node of the tree fills up. In this case, a node split occurs, as described below.
To search a B-tree for a record, the search begins at the root node and follows pointers from node to node based on the key value for the record being sought, descending down the tree, until either the key is located or the search fails because a leaf node is reached which does not contain a record with the key being searched for. For example, if the record with key value 113 is being sought, when index node 1000 is reached, the key values are consulted. Since the key value being sought is greater than the key value in the rightmost pair in node 1000, the pointer 1040 from that pair is followed. Node 1045 is reached. When the key values are consulted, it can be seen that pointer 1048 should be followed to find any record with a key value 109≦v≦122. This pointer 1048 leads to the appropriate leaf from leaves 1010 which contains the record for the specified key value. If a record was searched for with a key value of 112, the search would end in the same location, but because no record is found with that key value in the leaf node, the search would return an unsuccessful result.
When a node has the maximum number of key values (when there is not sufficient space for any additional index term or data record), if a new key value must be inserted into the range covered by the node, the node will be split. In order to ensure that concurrent accesses are not reading data from the node during the split, it is necessary to deny concurrent access to the node being changed. Because two nodes will now hold the information previously held by the node being split, an additional link is necessary in the parent node of the node being split. Concurrent accesses to that parent node must therefore be denied while the parent is updated. If the addition of a new key value and pointer in the parent node will overfill the parent node, the parent node will be split as well. It can be seen that node insertions may cause splits recursively up the B-tree. This may require that a node high in the tree be locked while nodes much further down in the tree are being split, and while the split slowly propagates its way up to the locked node. This greatly impairs concurrent access to the tree. The necessity for a number of locks or latches to prevent concurrent accesses to nodes being changed slows access to the information stored in the B-tree by limiting concurrent access.
A Blink-tree is a modification of the B-tree which addresses this issue. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary subtree in a Blink-tree data structure. Each non-leaf node contains an additional ordered pair, a side pair, including a side key value and a pointer (termed the "side pointer") which points to the next node at the same level of the tree as the current node. The side pointer of the rightmost node on a level is a null pointer. Thus, as shown in FIG. 2, the subtree of a B-tree shown in FIG. 1 may be converted into a subtree of a Blink-tree with the addition of side pairs 1107, 1127, 1137, and 1147. Side pointer from side pair 1147, because it is the side pointer of a rightmost node on a level, is null. Side pointer from side pair 1107 is also shown as null, this could indicate that node 1000 is the root node or that it is the rightmost node on a level. The side key value indicates the lowest value found in the next node at the same level of the tree. Therefore, the range of values in a node may be seen by examining the index term for the node in its parent node (which is the lower bound and is included in the range) and the side key value (which is the upper bound but is not included in the range). The purpose of the side pointer is to provide an additional method for reaching a node. Each leaf node also contains a side pointer which points at the next leaf node, such as side pointer 1117.
One benefit of using these side pointers is to enable highly concurrent operation by allowing splits to occur with each atomic action of the split involving only one level of the tree. With B-link trees, in order for a split to occur on a full node the contents of the full node are divided (one atomic action), and a new index term is posted to the parent (second atomic action). This avoids the situation in which multiple levels of the tree are involved in a single atomic action. If a split is occurring in a node at the same time that a search is being performed for a key value in the range for that node, and the node has been split, with the lefthand node replacing the node which has been split, the tree can be traversed to find data even if no index term has yet been inserted into the parent of the node for the righthand node from the new pair. In such a case, the parent node will point to the lefthand node, and if the data is not found in the lefthand node, the side pointer of the lefthand node provides access to the righthand node. Thus a node split need not be a single atomic operation with the parent and child nodes both inaccessible until the split is completed.
In B-trees and Blink-trees, latches are used in order to provide mutual exclusion when a node split or node deletion is occurring. A latch is a low-cost, usually short-duration lock, one which does not include deadlock control. Hence, it is not necessary to access a lock manager in order to acquire or release a latch. Latches are therefore more lightweight than locks; they typically require only tens of instructions, not hundreds like locks. They prevent access of incorrect or outdated data during concurrent access of the data structure by allowing only an updater holding the latch to use the resource that has been latched.
Because no deadlock control exists for latches, a partial ordering is imposed on latches. The holder of a latch on a parent node may request the latch for a child node of that parent node. Latches can propagate downward. However, the holder of a latch on a child node can not request the latch for the parent without first releasing its latch on the child; latches do not propagate upwards. In this way, the deadlock situation in which the holder of a latch for parent node A is requesting a latch for child node B at the same time that the holder of a latch for child node B requests a latch for parent node A is avoided. In a standard B-tree, the latch must be maintained for the node being updated, and for the parent of that node (and possibly for multiple ancestors up the tree, even perhaps to the root), so the pointers and key values in the parent can be modified to reflect the change. If the latch is not maintained for the parent, the tree can become inconsistent. The latches must typically be maintained for all the nodes on the path to a leaf node that may need to be updated because of a node split at the leaf.
In a Blink-tree, however, a latch is not required on the parent node (and any further ancestors) while the child node is being split. As described above, where the child node has been latched for the node split, the parent latch need not be held during the child node split, while the new nodes have been created but the parent node for these new nodes has not yet been updated. A node split therefore need not be an atomic operation that includes posting the index term to the parent, but can be divided into two parts ("half splits"), the first "half split" where a child node is split, moving some data from an old node to a new node, and setting up a side link from the old node to the new node. After such a "half split" the Blink-tree will be well formed. A subsequent second "half split" posts an index term to the parent node.
However, there is a risk that several changes (node deletes, described below, and splits) will occur, and that when the parent node is changed to reflect the new child node, that that child node will no longer exist. To guard against this requires that the existence of the child node be re-verified, which requires re-visiting the left-hand (originally full) node and ensuring that the side pointer for that node still references the right-hand (new) node. Additionally, when a node split occurs, the path to the node being split is remembered. There is a risk that when the key value and pointer for the split is to be added to the remembered parent node, that parent node no longer exists because it may have been deleted. Guarding against this requires a tree re-traversal which is resource intensive. Thus, the prior art methods of B-link node splitting incur extra execution costs, which in turn limit concurrency and throughput, and increase the complexity of the implementation.

Concurrency control for B-trees with node deletion


Disclosed are methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for characterizing an electronic design with real-time modeling. An electronic design may be prepared for an analysis that programmatically sweeps across multiple values of a new parameter for multiple instances in the electronic design. The analysis may be performed on the electronic design at least by adding the new parameter to the analysis engine and by sweeping the new parameter across the multiple values to generate an analysis result. The electronic design may then be updated based at least in part upon the analysis result.

A semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) has a large number of electronic components, such as transistors, logic gates, diodes, wires, etc., that are fabricated by forming layers of different materials and of different geometric shapes on various regions of a silicon wafer. Many phases of physical design may be performed with computer aided design (CAD) tools or electronic design automation (EDA) systems. To design an integrated circuit, a designer first creates high level behavior descriptions of the IC device using a high-level hardware design language. An EDA system typically receives the high-level behavior description of the IC device and translates this high-level design description into netlists at various levels of abstraction using a computer synthesis process. A netlist describes interconnections of nodes and components on the chip and includes information of circuit primitives such as transistors and diodes, their sizes and interconnections, for example.
An integrated circuit designer may use a set of layout EDA application programs to create a physical integrated circuit design layout from a logical circuit design. The layout EDA application uses geometric shapes of different materials to create the various electrical components on an integrated circuit and to represent electronic and circuit IC components as geometric objects with varying shapes and sizes. After an integrated circuit designer has created an initial integrated circuit layout, the integrated circuit designer then verifies and optimizes the integrated circuit layout using a set of EDA testing and analysis tools.
Modern electronic designs proceed through a series of design implementation tasks prior to manufacturing. These design implementation tasks involve multiple rounds of analyses, simulation, verification, error fixes, optimizations, ECOs (Engineering Change Orders), etc. at various stages of the electronic design implementation in several different abstractions (e.g., schematic, layout, etc.) Analyzing an electronic circuit design include various simulations, statistical analyses (e.g., regression analysis, Monte-Carlo analysis, etc.), various checks and verifications (e.g., between a design specification and circuit behavior), etc.
Conventional approaches require designers to identify the schematic design of an electronic design, implement the schematic design in a layout, extract values (e.g., electromagnetic (EM) behaviors, s-parameters, parasitics, etc.) from the layout, annotate the schematic design, a schematic view, or a simulation view with the extracted values, and provide the annotated view or design to a simulator to predict whether the electronic design performs as designed. If the predicted behaviors of the electronic design do not meet requirements, designs need to perform one or more fixes and repeat the aforementioned steps. This repeated flow not only delays the time to market but also wastes unnecessary computing resources and thus presents a challenge to electronic design implementations.
Moreover, modern electronic designs may employ parameterized cells or pcells that model a circuit component in terms of one or more parameters. One or more corresponding values may be passed along into a parameterized cell or pcell during instantiation. Although various simulators may automatically sweep across a set or range of values for such a parameter captured in a parameterized cell or pcell, such sweeping capability is indeed limited by how complete the parameterized cell or pcell models the underlying circuit component. Often, designs find that a parameterized cell or pcell does not necessarily model one or more characteristics that may correspond to a specific set or range of values during implementation. As a result, simulators are thus unable to programmatically acquire this specific set or range of values, let alone sweep across the specific set or range of values. In order to sweep across this specific set or range of values, designers are thus required to manually specify this specific set or range of values. Considering the fact that an electronic design may contain a large number of parameterized cells and even more instances thereof, such manual efforts are not only inefficient and wasteful but also prone to human errors.
To further exacerbate the aforementioned challenges and shortcomings of conventional approaches, a circuit component in an electronic design may be affected by a parameter that corresponds to a range of values or a set of discrete values that is not captured in or reflected by a model representing the circuit component. Modern simulators provide some basic functions for the simulators to sweep across the range or set of values during simulation. Nonetheless, as such a parameter may not necessarily be captured in or reflected by the model representing the circuit component, simulators will not be able to automatically determine various configurations that respectively correspond to individual values in the range or set.
Moreover, a modern electronic design not only needs to satisfy various design and market requirements, which may be reflected in or captured by electronic designs or models therein, but also various requirements from, for example, foundries that eventually fabricate the underlying electronic design. For example, a foundry may impose a processing or manufacturing requirement that allows two instances to be spaced apart from each other with a continuous range or discrete set of spacing values rather than simply a minimum spacing value. As another example, a foundry may further impose one or more permissible orientation requirements for instances of a cell. These processing or manufacturing requirements often are not, however, captured or reflected at all or at least not completely captured or represented in a circuit model or in modern simulators so as to enable modern simulators to programmatically, automatically sweep across such a range or set of values.
Conventional approaches again require designers to manually define such a parameter, constraint, or requirement and specify a set or range of values therefor and provide parameter, constraint, or requirement as well as its set or range of values to the simulator for the simulator to sweep across the multiple values in the set or range. Given the multitude of such processing or manufacturing requirements (and different foundries may impose different constraints or requirements), especially when coupled to the numerous parameters that may not be captured in or reflected by various models, such manual efforts waste unnecessary computing resources, are prone to human errors, and cause undesirable delays in the implementations of electronic designs.
Therefore, there is a need for methods, systems, and computer program products for real-time modeling an electronic design in a more accurate, efficient, and/or effective manner as well as to address at least the aforementioned issues and shortcomings.

Method, system, and computer program product for characterizing electronic designs with real-time modeling


A one-piece grid assembly for use in an electron gun for a miniature cathode-ray tube application that consists of a core made of an electrically insulating material, a first grid deposited on the core, and a second grid deposited on the core that is spaced apart from the first grid, and a method of making the one-piece grid assembly by first compression molding the core and then depositing the grid by plating are disclosed.

Cathode-ray tubes (CRT) have been used for many years for the display of information such as texts and images in the electronics industry. Two important elements to be considered when designing CRTs are the construction of the electron gun and the phosphor screen which glows when struck by an electron beam.
A basic structure of a cathode-ray tube is shown in FIG. 1. The elements that make up the section of the electron gun is shown in more detail in FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 1, cathode-ray tube 10 is constructed of an electron gun 12, a deflection coil 14 and a screen 8 coated with phosphor particles 16 contained in a vacuum glass tube 18. A cathode 20 (shown in FIG. 2) is heated and emits a stream of electrons 22 toward the screen 8. The cathode 20 in the CRT 10, in contrast to ordinary tubes which have cathodes that emit electrons from their sides, is designed such that it emits electrons primarily from the end facing the phosphor particle coated screen 8.
As shown in FIG. 2, the cathode 20 is enclosed in a metal cylinder which acts as a control grid 24. A small opening 26 at the center of the grid 24 which faces the phosphor coated screen 8 allows the electrons 22 to pass through. The small opening 26 forces the electrons to travel in a narrow beam due to its small size. The control grid 24 is normally charged with a negative voltage with respect to the cathode 20 so that some of the electrons emitted by the cathode are not allowed to pass through the opening 26. The intensity of the electron beam 22 is therefore controlled by changing the voltage to the control grid 24 with respect to the cathode voltage and determined by the difference between the two voltages. Since the more intense of the electron beam or the larger the number of electrons striking the phosphor, the brighter the phosphor screen will glow, the brightness of the display screen can be controlled by modulating the cathode-control grid voltages.
Once the electron beam 22 passes through the small opening 26 in the control grid 24, it moves through a second grid element 28, also called a focussing grid or focussing anode. The function of the focussing grid, which has a small opening 30 to allow the electron beam to pass through, is to further tighten the stream of electrons into a finer beam.
In a conventional CRT, as that shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, an electron gun 12 is constructed of several major components, i.e., a cathode 20, a cathode support 32, grids 24, 28 and a grid spacer 34. In the manufacturing process for an electron gun, it is difficult to produce a high quality, reliable focussing gun. This is especially true in a miniature CRT where the exact alignment of the two grids is very important. A typical manufacturing process can be carried out by first metalizing the grid spacer 34, and then welding two grids 24 and 28 to the spacer. Several drawbacks are inherent in this process. First, the process is complicated and requires the use of a large number of components. Secondly, the alignment of the two grids is difficult to carry out, and thirdly, since the position of the electron gun is not fixed in the CRT, any vibration of the tube will cause the formation of distorted images.
In miniature CRTs, these problems become more severe due to the small screen size, i.e., at between 0.5 inches and 1.5 inch, and the high resolution required to display texts and images on the screen. A miniature CRT must be capable of displaying information from VGA, SVGA, as well as video texts and TV images. They are normally used in applications where the CRTs are mounted on helmets, headbands and spectacles.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an electron gun for a miniature CRT and a method of making the gun.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a one-piece grid assembly for use in an electron gun for a miniature CRT and a method of making the grid assembly.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a one-piece grid assembly for an electron gun for use in a miniature CRT that has a simplified construction and a method of making the grid assembly.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a one-piece grid assembly for an electron gun for use in a miniature CRT that utilizes reduced number of components and a method of making the grid assembly.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a one-piece grid assembly for an electron gun for use in a miniature CRT that does not require alignment between two grids and a method of making the grid assembly.
It is another further object of the present invention to provide an electron gun for use in a miniature CRT that can be securely mounted to the CRT such that any vibration of the tube would not cause image distortion and a method of making the electron gun.
It is still another further object of the present invention to provide a one-piece grid assembly for an electron gun for use in a miniature CRT wherein a control grid and a focusing grid are formed on a ceramic core and a method of making the grid assembly.
It is yet another further object of the present invention to provide a one-piece grid assembly for an electron gun for use in a miniature CRT wherein the grid assembly is formed by plating metal grids on a ceramic core.

Grid assembly for cathode-ray tubes and method of making

Industrial Technology Research Institute


Systems and methods are provided for indicating an audience member's perception of a speaker's speech by receiving a speech sample associated with a speaker and then by analyzing the speech to predict whether an audience would perceive the speech as exemplary of good or poor behavior. This can be also used to notify people when they exhibit good or poor behaviors. For example, good or poor behaviors could include: condescending, whining, nagging, weak, strong, refined, kind, dull, energetic, interesting, boring, engaging, manipulative, likeable, not likeable, sincere, artificial, soothing, abrasive, pleasing, aggravating, inspiring, unexciting, opaque, clear, etc. This invention has applicability to areas such as consumer self-improvement, corporate training, presentation skills training, counseling, and novelty.

Speech analysis for the determination or classification of aspects of the speaker is well known in the prior art. Multiple patents describe speech analysis for the purposes of detecting the emotion in a user and providing feedback (e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,151,571, 5,647,834). Other patents describe detection of stress (U.S. Pat. No. 3,855,416), deception (U.S. Pat. No. 3,855,416), nervousness (U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,137), suicidal predisposition (U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,904), etc. Common to all this prior art is the concept of detecting autonomic responses in the user voice (i.e. while speaking, the user's current physiological state appears in features within their voices).
While these prior systems utilize speech analysis to determine the emotion or physiological state of a speaker, it is desirable to understand the impact of a user's speech behavior on an audience of one or more. Generally, speech behavior is not an autonomic response. For example, a speaker can be angry and condescending as well as neutral and condescending. In both cases, the speaker's audience would ascribe a condescending speaking behavior to the speaker.
Devices, Systems, and methods for detecting and notifying the user of poor speech behavior have been disclosed in prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,869 discloses a "system and method for interactive communications skill training" that "includes the steps of analyzing the user interaction by an expert and providing the expert analysis to the user via the communication network for review by the user to interactively learn the communication skill."
U.S. Pat. No. 7,818,179 discloses devices and methods "for automatically analyzing a user's conversation or verbal presentation and providing feedback to the user, in real-time and/or off-line, to make the user aware of improper speech habits and thus enable the user to acquire better language habits while speaking." Where "An identified speech habit comprises exceeding a range of volume of speaking a word or expression specified in the vocabulary list that are identified during the speech session."
U.S. Pat. No. 7,941,318 discloses a "public speaking self-evaluation tool that helps a user practice public speaking in terms of avoiding undesirable words or sounds, maintaining a desirable speech rhythm, and ensuring that the user is regularly glancing at the audience."
U.S. Pat. No. 8,340,968 discloses a "computer-implemented method for automatically training diction of a person" based on "detection of one of the predefined undesirable phrases in the speech data stream".
U.S. Pat. No. 8,457,967 discloses a "procedure to automatically evaluate the spoken fluency of a speaker by prompting the speaker to talk on a given topic, recording the speaker's speech to get a recorded sample of speech, and then analyzing the patterns of disfluencies in the speech to compute a numerical score to quantify the spoken fluency skills of the speakers".
U.S. Application US2007/0250318 discloses a "system for providing automatic quality management regarding a level of conformity to a specific accent".
While these prior systems provide methods for the evaluation or identification of certain aspects of speaking behavior, it is desirable for users to be made aware of the impact of their behavior on an audience. In this context, speaking behavior can cause an audience of 1 or more people to view the speaker as condescending, whining, nagging, weak, manipulative, likeable, confident, arrogant, aggressive, tentative, energetic, engaging, instructional, sincere, etc. It is further desirable that this awareness of the impact of user's historical speech behavior be made available for the user to review sometime in the future at their leisure. It is yet further desirable for the awareness to be automatic and without the need of human experts evaluating user behavior so that the cost to users for this invention is limited.

Automatic prediction and notification of audience-perceived speaking behavior


A video camera system stores operating parameter information for reading by the system to provide optimum operating conditions, collects information reflecting system uses for later reading by the system to provide a performance history, and is relatively small and operates with a reduced number of electrical lines to transmit electrical information.

The field of the invention relates generally to video cameras, and more specifically to video camera systems which may store operating parameter information, and which may collect information reflecting uses of the system. The camera system may then use the information to operate at optimum conditions, to provide a performance history or for other reasons.
In the recent past, the need for small, lightweight video cameras using a solid state image sensor such as a charge coupled device ("CCD"), charge injection device ("CID") or metal oxide semiconductor ("MOS") has rapidly developed for both medical and industrial applications. One medical application involves a CCD which is attached to an endoscope to observe a surgical site. In this arrangement, the CCD may be contained in a small camera head and attached to the endoscope eyepiece so that the camera head/endoscope combination, or video-endoscope, is lightweight and easily manipulable by a surgeon. A flexible cable connects the camera head to the rest of the camera electronics which are usually included in a camera control unit located at a remote location. The camera control unit includes control and video processing circuitry which send operating signals to the CCD and receive signals from the CCD which are processed for video display. The camera control unit is also coupled to a video monitor for viewing of the surgical site by one or more physicians.
An industrial application employing a CCD involves observation of industrial processes where direct observation by a person is unsafe or otherwise impractical. Such processes include those occurring in nuclear power generating stations, furnaces or engine compartments, or other processes which are generally inaccessible. Here, a camera head including a CCD may be attached to a hole in the wall of the vessel in which the process occurs. The camera head is then connected by cable to a camera control unit and video monitor at a remote location in similar fashion described above.
The type of CCD or other solid state image sensor used for various medical or industrial applications may differ. However, all solid state imagers are not exactly alike, and to achieve peak or even acceptable performance, each solid state imager must be operated by the camera control unit at the imager's particular operating parameters. For example, different CCDs operate at varying substrate voltages and if the control unit supplies too much voltage to the CCD, the resulting video display exhibits noise and interference. Essentially, each CCD or other imager has its own personality that should be known to the camera control unit for the CCD to produce an optimum video picture signal. While it may be possible to provide different control units to accommodate the varying operating parameters of various imagers, such an arrangement is expensive and generally impractical. Thus an existing problem is poor interchangeability of imagers with camera control units or the sacrifice of optimum imager operating conditions and video display. This problem is significant because for example, different CCDs are typically used in connection with the same camera control unit.
For example, during a surgical procedure a problem may arise with the camera head requiring its, and the CCD's, replacement. Also, video-endoscopes where the camera head is permanently attached to the endoscope are now used but a surgical procedure may require more than one type of endoscope and thus more than one CCD. To avoid changing the control unit, and to avoid sacrificing video quality, time-consuming adjustments to the control unit to vary the signals it sends to operate the CCD are necessary. However, because the control unit is typically located outside the arbitrary sterile area surrounding the patient, an additional technician is necessary to effect adjustments, or a physician effects adjustments who then must again undergo sterilization or risk contamination. Accordingly, there is a need for interchangeability of CCDs or other imagers (and the camera heads or other devices which contain them) with camera control units without sacrificing video display, and without the need for time-consuming control unit adjustments.
In addition to the lack of interchangeability, existing camera systems are generally incapable of collecting information to record uses of the camera system to provide a performance history. Such information may be useful for example, to determine when the camera system needs maintenance. Accordingly, there is also a need for a video camera system which may collect operating history information during the camera system's life so that this information may be later used by the system or operator. There is also a need for a camera system which provides these benefits but is relatively small and manipulable.

Remote CCD video camera with non-volatile digital memory


A fog-resistant microporous transparent film and the method of manufacturing the same are described. The fog-resistant film is made of SiOH which can absorb water molecules by both of a polar --Si--OH functional group and microporosity, and is hence provided with excellent and stable wettability. The SiOH film is coated on a PMMA or PC substrate by ion-assisted plasma-enhanced e-beam or thermal evaporation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fog-resistant film which can be applied on plastic or glass substrates, and more particularly relates to a fog-resistant microporous SiOH film which can absorb water molecules by both the polar --Si--OH functional group and microporosity, and the method for manufacturing the SiOH film.
2. Description of Prior Art
Water vapor is easily condensed on both glass or plastic surfaces due to a thermal or moisture differential, thereby degrading the transparency and function of a lens made of glass or plastic. However, the above problem can be solved by coating a fog-resistant film on the surface of the lens.
There are, some different ways of forming a fog-resistant film in prior arts. For example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,242,412, 4,332,859 and 5,075,133, they disclose a dipping method which coats a layer of high molecular-weight mixed film including many --C--OH functional groups on a substrate by dipping the substrate into the coating solution. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,214,908 describes a composite film of an inorganic salt and an ionic surface-active agent of long-chained molecular structure including a --SO.sub.3 base. Moreover, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,478,909 and 5,134,021 provide a single layer or multiple layers of composite film including polyvinyl alcohol, silica nodules and organic silicon compound, the film generates a part of --Si--OH functional group after hydrolysis, therefore it has excellent anti-fogging ability. Another prior art is described in Application of plasma polymerization on ophthalmic lenses: equipment and processes'written by Christian Wohlrab et al. in OPTICAL ENGINEERING, Sep. 1995, Vol. 34, No. 9, which discloses a polymer anti-fogging film including --C.dbd.O and --C--OH functional groups incorporated on ophthalmic lenses by plasma polymerization.

Fog-resistant microporous SiOH films and the method of manufacturing the same


A control method includes sending, by a controller, a created context-aware model to a context-aware engine. The context-aware model is used to define a preset control performed when target data meets a trigger condition and to instruct the context-aware engine to send indication information to the controller when the context-aware engine determines that the target data meets the trigger condition. The preset control is used to implement a context-aware function. The indication information is used to indicate that the target data meets the trigger condition. The method also includes receiving, by the controller, the indication information. The method further includes performing, by the controller, the preset control based on the indication information.

With rapid development of the mobile internet, an increasingly high requirement is imposed on network intelligence. To implement intelligent control on a network, as shown in FIG. 1, a commonly used communications system is provided. The system includes a network device 101, a mobile device 103, a sensor 104, and a sensor signal processor 102.
A specific process of performing intelligent control by the communications system shown in FIG. 1 includes: The sensor 104 is embedded in the mobile device 103. The sensor 104 can collect sensor information, where the sensor information includes time information, location information, and the like. The mobile device 103 obtains the sensor information collected by the sensor 104 and sends the sensor information to the sensor signal processor 102. The sensor signal processor 102 determines the sensor information collected by the sensor 104, to generate a corresponding instruction based on a determining result, and sends the instruction to the network device 101. The network device 101 having a data forwarding and control capability can perform intelligent control on the communications system after analyzing the sensor information according to the instruction.
However, in the foregoing intelligent control process, the mobile device 103 needs to drive the network device 101. Specifically, the sensor 104 installed in the mobile device 103 drives the network device 101 by using the sensor information. The communications system cannot provide a proactive service or adaptively change based on a context, and the network device 101 integrates control and forwarding. Consequently, a network control capability is limited, and an entire network cannot be globally and intelligently controlled.

Control method, related device, and system


A method of synthesis of a material corresponding to the general formula:

This application claims the benefit of Great Britain Patent Application No. 95 25007.2, filed Dec. 7, 1995, and Great Britain Patent Application No. 96 13921.7 filed Jul. 3, 1996.
This invention relates to solid phase organic synthesis; more particularly, it relates to the use of certain linkers between reactant and support, which may be cleaved as desired by exo-enzymes.
As will be explained in more detail below, the present invention provides a method of synthesis of a material corresponding to the following general formula:
R3xe2x80x94Xxe2x80x94H
characterised in that it comprises a material corresponding to the following general formula:
being cleaved as indicated enzymatically or non-enzymatically using acid catalysis in the presence of a nucleophile;
wherein
R1 represents a group providing the site for exo-enzyme or acid hydrolysis;
R2 represents an optional intermediate linked to a solid support;
R3 represents a residue of a carbohydrate, (oligo-)saccharide, (glyco-)peptide, (glyco-) lipid or of an organic molecule which is heterocyclic and/or aromatic;
X represents O, N(H), N(Rxe2x80x3), C(O)O, S, C(O)N(H) or C(O)N(Rxe2x80x3), Rxe2x80x3 being a non-interfering substituent; and
Support represents a solid support.
Preferably R1 represents: monosaccharide, phosphate, sulphate, xe2x80x94NHxe2x80x94COxe2x80x94CH2xe2x80x94Ph,
wherein
x represents an integer; and
R5 and R6 each represents a non-interfering group.
Preferably, R2 represents:
Preferably R3 represents a residue of a (glyco-)peptide or (oligo-)saccharide.
Preferably, X represents O, N(H), N(Rxe2x80x3), C(O)O, C(O)N(H) or S.
Preferably Support represents xe2x80x9cEUPERGITxe2x80x9d, amino-xe2x80x9cTENTAGELxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cPEGAxe2x80x9d resin or aminopropyl silica.
For the present purposes, the preferred exo-enzyme is penicillin amidase.
The present invention also relates to the use of an exo-linker in a solid phase organic synthesis.
The present invention further relates to a reagent corresponding to the formula:

Abstract: characterized in that it comprises a material corresponding to the following general formula:

Abstract: being cleaved as indicated enzymatically or non-enzymatically using acid catalysis in the presence of a nucleophile, wherein: R1 represents a group providing the site for exo-enzyme or acid hydrolysis; R2 represents an intermediate linked to a solid support; R3 represents a carbohydrate, (oligo-)saccharide, (glyco-)peptide, (glyco-)lipid or an organic molecule which is at least one of heterocyclic and aromatic in structure; X represents O, N(H), N(Rxe2x80x3), C(O)O, S, C(O)N(H) or C(O)N(Rxe2x80x3), Rxe2x80x3 being a non-interfering group; and Support represents a solid support.


A battery protection IC using charging control pin, Cout, so as to reduce delay time during CP test or FT test for is disclosed. The battery protection IC has a delay time control circuit including a comparator and a delay signal selector. The comparator has a negative input terminal connected to VCC, a positive input terminal connected with the Cout pin and an output terminal connected to the delay signal selector. To perform foregoing test, a voltage source is added to activate the short delay time mode rather than a normal delay time one.

For protection a very popular but unfortunately expensive lithium-ion/lithium-polymer rechargeable battery against over-discharge and over-current occurrence, battery and battery protector or say battery protection IC (integrated circuit) are commonly embedded into a battery pack. For malfunction such as noise issue elimination, a generally strategy for battery producer is to combine a battery protector with an internal delay circuit therein. Typically, the delay time for overcharge condition varies in a range between about 0.1-2.0 seconds.
However, to set up the parameter for overcharge condition during the testing phase, a lot of test times to find out the value are usually demanded. As a result, the total time cost is significantly increased and inferior to do tests for protection IC mass production. Furthermore, a popular protection IC is, as shown in FIG. 1, including five external pins, VCC, VSS, DOUT, COUT, Vm and an additional testing pad DS to reduce the delay time while performing wafer level test, as called CP test, for the overcharge condition search. Hence, to do a final test (FT; packed IC), it is necessary to bring the test pad out of the protection IC package according to conventional method.
An object of the present invention is to disclose a delay time control circuit for battery protection IC by using charging control pin Cout to do FT test and wafer level test without using an extra testing pad or DS pin.
Another object of the present invention is to reduce the testing time.

Delay time control circuit in a battery protector to reduce delay time


An abseil rescue system with a velocity control system, allowing a user to descend on a rope, comprising two holders, two brakes, two retarders, and a frame. The retarder and the brake grip the rope of the abseil rescue system simultaneously, allowing to control the velocity of descent accurately. The weight of the user helps to grip the rope, such that for a tight grip the user is not required to apply much force.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an abseil rescue system with a velocity control system, particularly to an abseil rescue system with a velocity control system having a brake with an enlarged area, allowing single-hand control of the velocity of descent with increased sensitivity and stability.
2. Description of Related Art
In U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 08/987,002 an abseil rescue system with a velocity control system was disclosed, which allows descent from a high building along a rope. Descent is controlled by friction of the retarder on the rope, which in turn depends on the grip of the user and is hard to control.

Abseil rescue system with velocity control system


According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method includes receiving an object to be stored within a storage library, computing a hash value, utilizing the object, determining a storage location within the storage library to store the hash value, and sending the hash value to the storage location and neighbor locations of the storage location within the storage library.

The present invention relates to object storage, and more specifically, this invention relates to storing hash data in a protected manner within an object storage library.
Cloud-based storage libraries are a popular way to implement object storage within a computing environment. Within these storage libraries, stored object data is protected utilizing erasure coding. However, hashes/fingerprints used to perform deduplication within these storage libraries are not protected against component errors or failure.

Hash protection within an object storage library

International Business Machines Corporation


The invention provides surface emitting semiconductor laser where a transverse mode is controllable stably, a method of manufacturing it and a light module and a light transmission device including the surface emitting semiconductor laser are provided. A surface-emitting laser of the present invention can include a resonator formed on a substrate and can emit a laser from a emitting surface installed on the upper surface of a resonator toward the direction vertical to the substrate. This surface emitting semiconductor laser further includes first and second electrodes for injecting an electric current into the resonator. At least a part of the first electrode is formed on the upper surface of the resonator and includes an aperture in the resonator. The emitting surface is installed within the aperture. The reflectivity adjustment layer is formed on the emitting surface.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a surface emitting semiconductor laser, a manufacturing method thereof, a light module and a light transmission device including the surface emitting semiconductor laser.
2. Description of Related Art
A surface emitting semiconductor laser has a large amount of potential as a light source for optical communication and optical computing and various kinds of sensors. In the optical communication, a surface emitting semiconductor laser is currently tried to be applied to a light source for the short distance optical communication used with a multi modes fiber. Further, a surface emitting semiconductor laser will be applied as a light source for the long distance optical communication used with a single mode fiber in the future.
A transversal mode is a single mode (zero order fundamental mode), as a characteristic of a light source, which is suitable for a single mode fiber. Therefore, when applying a surface emitting semiconductor laser as a light source using a single mode fiber, a stabilized single mode is required.
As one of methods of obtaining light of a single mode with a surface emitting semiconductor laser, it is known that the current aperture is formed by selective oxidation and light is blocked at the same time of narrowing electric current by the current aperture. For example, in a surface emitting semiconductor laser composed of AlGaAs series, a layer having high composition ratio of aluminum can be formed in a multi-layered film mirror in advance and the side of this layer is oxidized thereafter so as to form the current aperture. This current aperture includes the region where composition ratio of Al remained in the center is high (an aperture) and an outskirt region including aluminum oxide (an oxidation blocking portion) which is formed around the above region. However, according to this method, there is a concern that the effect of blocking light is too large since the difference between a refractive index of the aperture and that of the oxidation-blocking portion is too large. Hence, it is desirable that the radius of the aperture is under 4 μm in order to obtain a stabilized single mode. However, in this case, there is the other concern that an element resistance is increased by restricting an electric current path in addition to deteriorating light emission efficiency.

Surface emitting semiconductor laser and manufacturing method thereof, light module, light transmission device