A p well serving as a channel region of a MOSFET is formed on one side of an n− layer and an n+ drain region is formed on the other side. Above the n− layer, a plurality of first floating field plates are formed with a first insulating film interposed therebetween. A plurality of second floating field plates are formed thereon with a second insulating film interposed therebetween. Assuming that the thickness of the first insulating film is “a” and the distance between the first floating field plates and the second floating field plates in a direction of thickness of the second insulating film is “b”, a relation a>b is held.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique to ensure improvement in stability of withstand voltage and an increase of withstand voltage in a semiconductor device, especially in a high breakdown voltage semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Background Art
In order to drive two power switching devices (MOSFET, IGBT or the like) of high side and low side, for example in a half-bridge type inverter, a power-device driving apparatus having a high side (high potential island) driving circuit for driving the high side power switching device and a low side driving circuit for driving the low side power switching device. Since the high side circuit is operated with its potential in a floating state with respect to the ground potential, such a power-device driving apparatus is provided with a level shifting circuit for transmitting a driving signal to the high side driving circuit. A general-type level shifting circuit consists of a high breakdown voltage switching element such as a MOSFET which is driven by a driving signal and a level shifting resistor connected thereto in series (see FIG. 2 discussed later). A voltage drop in the level shifting resistor is transmitted to the high side driving circuit as the driving signal. The high breakdown voltage switching element needs a stable and high withstand voltage for preventing a breakage in the power-device driving apparatus or generation of wrong signals in the level shifting circuit.
As a technique for improvement in stability and increase of withstand voltage of the high breakdown voltage switching element such as a diode, well known are, for example, a method of forming a plurality of field plates in a floating state (hereinafter, referred to simply as "floating field plates") on a semiconductor substrate with an insulating film interposed therebetween to uniformize an electric field distribution in a substrate surface (shown in e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Gazette No. 10-341018 (1998)) and a method of using a RESURF structure as a semiconductor element structure to accelerate depletion in a substrate (shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,292,642).
When a high voltage is applied to a high breakdown voltage semiconductor device in a cut-off state (OFF state), the high breakdown voltage semiconductor device keeps the voltage. At that time, if an electric field concentration (electric field peak) locally occurs in a semiconductor substrate on which the device is formed, it becomes easier to cause a breakdown in a pn junction or a breakage in an insulating film at that local portion and this causes deterioration of withstand voltage characteristic. In a case where the high breakdown voltage semiconductor device is an n-channel type MOSFET having a RESURF structure, for example, an electric field peak is likely to occur near a drain-side n layer in a junction depth between an n− layer formed on an upper portion of the semiconductor substrate and a p− substrate therebelow and a substrate of the semiconductor substrate below an electrode and an edge portion of the field plate (discussed in detail later).
In an actual use of the high breakdown voltage semiconductor device, its upper surface is covered with an overcoat insulating film or an epoxy resin for assembly. When a high voltage is applied between a drain and a source of the MOSFET in an OFF state and an electric field peak occurs inside thereof, for example, this causes polarization of the overcoat insulating film or the epoxy resin for assembly. Electric charges generated by the polarization are kept for a certain period of time after the application of the high voltage is finished. Then, when a high voltage is next applied between the drain and the source of the MOSFET, with the electric charges, extension of a depletion layer is suppressed locally (especially, near a surface of a silicon substrate). In the local portion where extension of the depletion layer is suppressed, the peak of electric field becomes higher. When the peak reaches a breakdown critical electric field in the silicon surface, this causes a decrease or variation in withstand voltage, or a breakage of the semiconductor device under certain circumstances.


This invention relates to an interactive medication container or console that hold or otherwise organizes one or more medication vials or containers. Each vial has a memory strip containing medication and prescription information. Each vial can also include a reminder unit that is attached to and portable with the individual vials. The console or reminder unit reads the information strip of the vial and communicates this information to or interacts with a patient to remind them to take the medication. The medication container or reminder unit also gathers or tracks information such as consumption time, quantity remaining, patient feedback, and contraindication information. The medication container or reminder unit interacts with the patient by displaying questions or receiving and recording input from the patient before, during or after a dose of medication is taken. The patient input can be used to modify the dosing regimen for future doses of medication. The medication container reorders medication when the quantity remaining reaches a threshold level. Contraindication information in the memory strip is downloaded to a personal home computer or a hospital or nursing home computer.

Medication containers that remind a patient to take their medication or keep track of the number of doses of medication in the container are well known. Examples of such automated containers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,127 (Gayle); U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,992 (Brown); U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,125 (Martindale); U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,626 (Noble); U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,153 (Schollmeyer); U.S. Pat. No. 4,526,474 (Simon); U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,606 (Lewis); U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,954 (Rose); U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,997 (Urguhart); U.S. Pat. No. 4,939,705 (Hamilton); U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,709 (Weinstein); U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,463 (Lloyd); U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,189 (Hafner); U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,332 (Kraft); U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,439 (Albeck); U.S. Pat. No. 5,392,952 (Bowden); U.S. Pat. No. 5,472,113 (Shaw) and U.S. Pat. No. 522,525 (McLaughlin), the disclosures of which are incorporated by reference.
The general purpose of an automated container is to improve patient compliance in taking the appropriate medication on schedule. While taking a particular medication on a regular schedule may seem a simple process, it is often difficult to accomplish, especially when the patient has been prescribed to take several medications. Dosing regimens that require the patient to take different doses of different medications at different times can be particularly confusing. For example, a prescription that requires a patient to take two doses of medication A and one dose of medication B can be confusing. A patient can inadvertently take one dose of medication A and two doses of medication B. In addition, some medications are taken in a paired dosing regimen, with medication A being taken on Monday, medication B being taken on Tuesday, medication A on Wednesday, etc. Other medications are not intended to be taken together at all because they either neutralize each other or cause adverse side effects that can result in illness or even death. This situation is particularly problematic when more than one physician is prescribing medication to the patient. Conventional medication containers designed for a patient's personal use on an out-patient basis do not assist the patient in taking the correct medication at the correct time, particularly when several medications have been prescribed.
The ability to comply with prescribed medication dosing requirements is complicated in situations where dosing amounts change over time. For example, prescribed dosing amounts are frequently a function of ongoing laboratory tests that determine the patient's medication needs. In these situations, physicians need to be able to easily communicate changes in dosing amounts to their patients as quickly as possible. Medication compliance is particularly important when powerful medications are prescribed, and over-medicating or under-medicating a patient can lead to serious side effects, illness and even death. Yet, keeping patients in hospitals for a prolonged period of time to ensure that dosing regimens are changed when necessary is not considered a practical solution.
The process of taking several medications at the appropriate time is further complicated if the medication or an illness causes the person to think less clearly or to be forgetful. There is the anxiety of being uncertain if you took the medication earlier in the day. Then, there is the problem of patients completely forgetting to take their medication. The first condition is alleviated by simply indicating when the medication is to be taken next. If the container indicates a future time or day to take the next medication, the patient knows that they have taken the current dosage. If the container indicates a present or past time, the patient knows that they should take the medication now. To solve the problem of completely forgetting to take a dosage of medication, a container will typically contain an alarm to remind the patient to take the medication. Unfortunately, the presently available products and the above patents suffer from one or more problems or limitations.
One problem in reminding patients to take their medication on time is that many automated medication systems are not transportable and not intended for use on an out-patient basis. This is especially true of systems that handle complicated dosing regimes, handle a variety of medications, or provide fairly detailed information about the medications being consumed. Yet, many patients are not home bound. In fact, the purpose of many medications is to enable people that would otherwise be incapacitated to live normal, ambulatory lives. To be effective, medication alerting methods must be easily transportable, not just an in-home alarming system.
An additional problem is childproofing the automated medication container. Childproofing is frequently necessary to prevent an infant, child, or mentally handicapped or medicated person from gaining unsupervised access to the medication. The childproofing features must cooperate with the automated features of the container.
A further problem is that some automated dispensers dispense a variety of different pills at the same time. Some dispensers empty a preloaded number of pills from the container as it passes over an open dispensing chute. If the patient does not take all the medication, there is no place to put the excess. The medication either remains in the dispensing area, possibly resulting in an accidental overdose at a later time or consumption by a child, or the medication is thrown out. If an attempt is made to reload the medication into the dispenser, the dispensing patterns can be inadvertently altered. This is particularly problematic if the dispenser is handling medications that are similar in appearance.
A still further problem is that errors can occur when a caregiver removes a variety of medications from the pharmacist supplied containers and inserts the medications into a different medication container or machine. An example being a container with separate compartments marked "breakfast, lunch and dinner", or "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc." In fact, there is some question regarding the legality of a care giver removing medications from pharmacist supplied containers and placing them into other containers. There is good reason for caution regarding the shuffling of medication from one container to another. Given the strength of many medications in use today, any confusion about the medications put in the secondary container or any confusion regarding the prescription regimens could have a significant adverse affect on the patient.
A still further problem is that the patient must program a timing or alarming mechanism in an automated dispenser by manual entry of additional coded data. A magnetic strip or smart card can also be used to enter the data. Unfortunately, the cards are easily misplaced and errors can result if the wrong data is entered into the dispensing machine manually or via an incorrect card. In addition, such dispensing machines have to be returned to the pharmacist frequently for reprogramming when a new medication is prescribed.
A still further problem is that many medication containers do not provide a means for counting the number of pills remaining in the container or the number of pills taken to date. The patient or caregiver must manually enter the amount of medication dispensed or account for the quantity of medication remaining after each dose is consumed. In situations where the unused portion of a prescribed medication is returned to the pharmacy, such as in a hospital setting, the pharmacist must manually count the number of pills left in the container.
A still further problem with conventional automated medication containers is that they do not record the actual dosing regimen taken by the patient. A patient could take the medication too early, too late or completely miss taking the medication at various times. This results in a sporadic actual consumption or dosing regimen for the medication. The containers in use today do not provide an easy method of communicating the sporadic extent of the actual consumption regimen to the patient, or his or her pharmacist or physician.
A still further problem in designing an automated medication container is that the container should be compatible with conventional, non-automated medication containers used by the pharmaceutical industry today. (See FIG. 1). A dramatic deviation from the conventional design would inhibit the adoption of the automated container design. A compatible design would enable the pharmacist to continue using conventional, non-automated containers in situations where such a container is appropriate, but would enable the pharmacist to provide an automated container in situations where this type of container is appropriate.
A still further problem with designing an automated medication container is that the more expensive automated components should be reusable. The increased cost of providing a microprocessor, memory displays, alarms and circuitry in a container would likely be prohibitive if the entire container disposed of after a single prescription is consumed. As many components as possible must be designed to be reused.
The present invention overcomes these and other limitations in existing medication dispensing products.


An RF-discharge lamp stabilization system for preferred use in a Rubidium atomic clock, senses acoustic oscillations of plasma ions in the 20.0 kHz range to assess the performance of the lamp for determining radio frequency parameters of the lamp while the lamp is in operation and while the performance of an atomic clock is influenced by the plasma character, with lamp spectral outputs being actively stabilized for improved vapor-cell clock performance.

Vapor-cell atomic clocks employ an RF-discharge lamp to generate the atomic clock signal. As a consequence, the performance of the atomic clock depends on the spectral output of the RF-discharge lamp, which in turn is determined by the detailed properties of the light-generating plasma within the lamp. The light emission characteristics of discharge lamps can change slowly over time, and this can affect the accuracy of the atomic clock.
All clocks measure time intervals by determining the elapsed phase of some stable oscillation. Every precision clock requires a precision frequency standard. Consequently, variations in a reference oscillator frequency, Δωclk(t), will give rise to time-interval errors. The oscillator frequency provides a tick-rate for the clock, and errors in the tick-rate imply that the clock is running too fast or too slow. In a crystal clock, the oscillation frequency is defined by the output of a free-running quartz crystal oscillator. As is well known, the free-running oscillations may be perturbed by oscillator temperature variations, pressure variations, and radiation. In the case of an atomic clock, the output frequency of the crystal is locked to an atomic resonance so that the determination of time-intervals takes on the stability of an atomic energy-level structure. As a consequence, atomic clocks are much less sensitive to the effects of temperature, pressure, and radiation.
A magnetic dipole interaction exists in Rubidium between the single orbiting valence electron and the atomic nucleus of the Rubidium atom. This subatomic magnetic interaction, termed the hyperfine interaction, causes the electronic and nuclear magnetic moments to align either parallel or antiparallel with one another. In order to employ this interaction for precise timekeeping, the output frequency of a quartz crystal oscillator at about 10.0 MHz is first multiplied up into the microwave regime and then modulated at some low frequency. The microwave signal at 6834.7 MHz then interacts with a vapor of Rb87 atoms, probing the hyperfine interaction by causing the atoms to switch, back and forth, between two hyperfine states, that is, the electronic and nuclear magnetic moments are first parallel, then antiparallel, now parallel again, and so on. The probing process can detect very small microwave frequency excursions from the center frequency of 6834.7 MHz because the Q of the response of the Rubidium atoms to the probing process is very high, on the order of 107. Employing phase-sensitive-detection, a feedback correction signal is derived from the probing process and is used to lock the crystal oscillator output frequency to the hyperfine interaction of the Rb87 atoms.
A Rubidium atomic clock system using a generic vapor-phase atomic clock design includes a Rb RF-discharge lamp that is excited by a 102 MHz signal vrf, a filter cell containing Rb85 vapor, a resonance cell containing Rb87 vapor, and a photodetector. The Rb lamp emits spectral lines in the near-IR, at 780 nm and 795 nm, also known as the lamp emission. After passing through the Rb85 vapor in the filter cell, the spectrum of the lamp emission is altered slightly so that the light can efficiently generate an atomic clock signal. The filtered lamplight prepares the atoms in the Rb87 resonance cell for interaction with microwaves in a process known as optical pumping, and additionally monitors the Rb87 atomic interaction with the microwaves. The Rb87 atomic response to the microwaves is the essential atomic clock signal. When the microwaves are tuned to the appropriate frequency, so that the Rb87 atoms strongly absorb the microwaves, the intensity of lamplight transmitted by the resonance cell decreases. When the microwave frequency is not tuned appropriately, the Rb87 atoms do not absorb the microwaves and the intensity of the transmitted lamplight remains unaffected. As such, the microwaves must be within about one part in 107 of the resonance frequency of the Rb87 Rubidium atoms in order to affect the transmission of the lamplight through the resonance cell.
In addition to producing the atomic clock signal, the lamplight disadvantageously slightly perturbs the atoms, altering the atoms natural microwave absorption resonance frequency and thereby the atomic clock frequency ωclk. This phenomenon is known as the light shift effect. The light shift effect depends on the intensity and spectrum of the lamplight. The light shift effect is an important effect in determining atomic clock performance. In particular, recent GPS on-orbit clock data clearly show that the lamp intensity can experience relatively sudden changes, which in turn disadvantageously give rise to sudden changes in the frequency of the clock. As a consequence, stabilization of the lamp emission results in stabilization of the atomic clock frequency, which in turn results in stabilization of the tick-rate of the clock and hence the ability of the clock to keep accurate time.
The RF-discharge lamp generates light via a weakly ionized alkali and noble-gas plasma. The plasma can generate acoustic ion waves, which are essentially bulk motions of the positive ions in the plasma. Under normal lamp operating conditions, where the Debye length is very small, at about 10−3 cm, the frequency of these acoustic ion waves, faco, follows a relatively simple dispersion law defined by a dispersion equation faco≅√(KTe/Mionλ2). In the dispersion law, Te is the effective plasma electron temperature, Mion is the ion mass, and λ is the wavelength of the plasma oscillation. With Te equal 2×103°K, Mion equal to 100 gms/mole, and λ equal to 2 L, where L is equal 1.5 cm and is the length of the lamp, the frequency faco of the acoustic ion waves is 14 kHz. The frequency faco of the acoustic ion waves depends on the electron temperature. The electron temperature will change over time as more or less RF power is coupled into the plasma. As such, the frequency faco of the acoustic ion waves will vary with time as the plasma temperature and power changes over time. The plasma temperature and power changes also affect the lamplight, leading to poor atomic clock performance via the light shift effect. The plasma temperature and power changes of the RF-discharge lamp have not been characterized nor stabilized in an atomic clock system leading to inaccurate atomic clock performance. These and other disadvantages are solved or reduced using the invention.


Disclosed is a method for determining transmit power in a wireless communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention. The method, which is performed by a terminal, comprises the steps of: receiving a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) setting of a short transmission time interval (sTTI); receiving control information for SPS-related transmit power control according to the received setting; and determining an SPS-related transmit power by using a transmit power control (TPC) command included in the received control information, wherein the control information may include a TPC command for each of a plurality of TTI lengths, which includes an SPS-related TPC command of the sTTI.

The latency of packet data is one of important performance metrics. To reduce the latency of packet data and provide faster Internet access to end users is one of challenging issues in designing the next-generation mobile communication system called new radio access technology (new RAT) as well as long term evolution (LTE).
The present disclosure is intended to deal with contents related to techniques for transmitting or receiving uplink signals in a wireless communication system supporting latency reduction.

Method for controlling transmit power in wireless communication system and apparatus therefor


To detect and store occurrence of a reverse connection when the reverse connection has occurred, and to restricts a power assist at the next startup of a controller. In an ECU for controlling an electric motor that applies a steering assist torque on a steering mechanism, a microcomputer transmits a drive signal to a driver that drives an inverter, which controls current of the electric motor, in accordance with the drive signal. A reverse connection storage circuit is attached in parallel with the inverter, and detects and stores the occurrence of the reverse connection when the reverse connection of the ECU and a battery has occurred, and notifies the microcomputer of the occurrence of the reverse connection at the next startup of the ECU. The microcomputer transmits a signal indicating non-permission to the driver in accordance with the notification. The driver restricts the power assist upon receiving the signal.

For a steering device of a vehicle, an electric power steering (EPS) apparatus is conventionally known that applies a steering assist force on a steering mechanism by driving an electric motor in accordance with a steering force exerted by a driver who steers a steering wheel.
The electric power steering apparatus includes a reverse connection protecting device configured to protect a controller (ECU: Electronic Control Unit) from an overcurrent when a battery (rechargeable battery) is reversely connected. The reverse connection means a connection in which a positive pole and a negative pole of the battery are connected reversely with respect to normal connection for controller ECU). The reverse connection protecting device includes an in-vehicle relay and a driving circuit thereof. The in-vehicle relay incorporates a contact-type mechanical switch and an electromagnetic coil, and an excitation current flowing through the electromagnetic coil makes the coil an electromagnet thus attracting an iron piece of the switch, bringing movable and fixed contacts into contact, and turning on the switch. When the excitation current is no longer flowed to the electromagnetic coil, the movable and fixed contacts are separated by a return spring provided on the iron piece of the switch. The reverse connection protecting device is a typical method of protecting the reverse connection since the switch of the in-vehicle relay is not turned on in the reverse connection.
However, the in-vehicle relay used for the reverse connection protecting device is for large currents, and thus is of large scale compared to other elements, and is also expensive. With reduction in the price of vehicles in recent years, demands to reduce the price of the electric power steering apparatus is also becoming stronger, and the electric power steering apparatus of a type that does not include the reverse connection protecting device is being demanded as part of the price reduction. In the general electric power steering apparatus of a type that does not include the reverse connection protecting device, a fuse arranged in the vehicle is blown when the battery and the controller (ECU) are reverse connected, thus preventing smoking and ignition of the controller (ECU). For example, in an abnormality history retention device described in PTL 1, an abnormality of a secondary battery is detected based on an output of the secondary battery and the detection result is output, and when the switching element permits electric conduction depending on the detection result, a discharging current flows from the secondary battery thus causing heat generation in a heat generating element, and a temperature fuse is blown by the heat from the heat generating element.


A modular building panel having an interlock mechanism for connecting building panels in series is disclosed, includes two metal sheets separated by an insulating foam core bonded to the sheets and a first interlocking member on one side and a second interlocking member on the other side. The male connector configuration as well as the female connector configuration in this invention are both formed of curvilinear surfaces. The male connector as well as the female connector extends outwardly from the side faces of the foam so that the foam is protected from damage. The male connector is formed by bending the metal edge almost back upon itself. The female connector includes a V-shaped valley to ultimately receive the male connectors when the male connectors are in a nested position. The male and female connectors provide a double gutter system to improve the prevention of leakage and condensation.

Insulated building panels for modular construction of walls, ceilings, or the like are well known in the art. Such insulated panels are generally formed of two outer, thin-skinned metal layers of aluminum or steel having an internal, relatively thick insulating core. The concept of insulated panels has been known for many years and various types of connections have been used to connect such panels together. For example, connection was made in many such panels utilizing an additional support member, such as a cleat, to actually connect together mating edge-to-edge outer skin members of the panel in order to provide connection. In the past, efforts have been made to eliminate such cleats and to provide edge connections which are formed by the edge structure itself so that no additional cleat or other connecting member is required.
An example of such an insulated panel is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,963 of Meyerson. This patent discloses insulated panels wherein one edge, the male connector, is formed of right-angled surfaces in a U-shaped configuration and the other edge, the female connector, comprises a right-angled U-shaped groove behind an inclined ramp. The core between the ramp and groove connectors has a shaped wedge core face which extends outwardly from between the ramp and groove elements. The core face between the U-shaped male connectors is cup-like in shape and is positioned inside of the U-shaped interlock elements so that when adjacent panels are snapped together, the edges or faces of the core have a tight edge-to-edge insulating seal. In order to lock together the panels of the '963 Meyerson patent using this male and female metal edge configuration, it is necessary for the panel having the male edge configuration to approach the panel having the female edge configuration at an angle so that the edge-to-edge configurations can be snapped into position. When snapped together, the U-shaped male member fits face-to-face in surface-to-surface engagement within the U-shaped groove in the female member. The interlock fit is very tight so that it is practically impossible to separate the now connected panel members by pulling them apart in the same general direction as they were put together. The only way to disconnect the panel members of the Meyerson '963 patent is to slide one panel member with respect to the other along its length, which is a very difficult and cumbersome process since the panels may be up to thirty feet long.
Another disadvantage of the panel member illustrated in the '963 patent is condensation caused by water settling on the bottom skin of the roof panel. In the situation where the panel members are connected together to form a ceiling for a room such as a patio enclosure, the upper, outer metallic skin becomes the roof and the bottom or inner metallic skin becomes the ceiling. Any leakage which travels from the top edge-to-edge connection to the bottom edge-to-edge connection actually lands and puddles on the very bottom metallic skin, which is the ceiling in the room. If the settled or accumulated liquid is cold (such as cold rain in winter) as compared to the temperature within the room, the cold liquid can cause the thin-skinned inside panel metallic skin to be reduced in temperature to the point that condensation forms on the outside of this bottom skin member (which is actually within the enclosed room). Of course, any condensation on the bottom skin member, which is the interior or ceiling side of the room, is extremely undesirable since the water may then drip onto furniture, carpet, etc. and cause the various problems caused by a leaky roof.
The same inventor, Meyerson, also has U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,599 which was evidently an attempt to eliminate some of the problems found in the panel manufactured in accordance with the '963 patent. In the '599 patent, the male portions of the edge connections include an extra wing known as a sealant press in conjunction with a smaller size male U-shaped connection member such that upon placement of the male U-shaped member in the female U-shaped groove, a space known as a sealant pocket is provided. The sealant pocket is taught as being filled with some type of sealant to prevent the passage of liquid such as rain water. The connector edge design of the '599 patent does allow the panels to be joined together while in the same plane and the panels can be taken apart the same way. One disadvantage of the design of the '599 patent relates to reliance on caulking material generally, which is undesirable since caulking or other sealant material will, over time, age, shrink, and crack and thereby begin to leak. Further, filling the U-shaped groove of the female connector with caulk eliminates a potential gutter for outward flow of rain water. Another disadvantage of the panels of both the '963 and '599 patents is that the inner core section has a nose which extends beyond the end of the metal connector and is thus exposed for potential damage.
Another type of insulated foam panel known in the art utilizes curvilinear male and female connector members to provide edge-to-edge connections. In U.K. Patent Application GB 2 168 732A, the panel disclosed includes foamed in place insulating core material and outside metal skin tongue and groove edge connectors which mate together such that the internal core of insulating material touches. In the design of GB 2 168 732A, the lug forming the male portion is a curved member where the outer edge has been curved upon itself and the female grooved connector is internally bent to form a generally rounded groove which is adapted to receive the generally rounded end of the lug edge portion thereby providing an edge-to-edge flush connection. This type of panel has a desirable feature in that the connection may be made by pushing the panels together while the panels are in the same general plane rather than having to pivot one panel into place against the other. The lug edge connector has upper and lower internal chambers. The upper chamber is said to collect any dampness which occurs in the external face so that the droplets of water run away from the bottom of the roof element due to gravity. Further the bottom recess has a sealant reservoir; however, if the seal fails and the water entering the edge connection is greater in volume than mere dampness, the water will quickly collect on the upper surface of the lower lug and overflow in the room. Another panel of similar construction is GB 2 142 670A.
The utilization of the general concept of a male edge connector on a panel to be pressed into position in a groove, recess or valley in a female edge connector in a flush fit is well known in the art, dating back at least to U.S. Pat. No. 2,682,938 of MacDonald where the internal structure is provided by wood strips rather than with an expanded insulating material.
It therefore continues to remain a challenge in the development of edge-to-edge connectors for insulated roof panels to provide insulated roof panels which may be easily installed by pushing the panels together and may be easily be taken apart, and which will avoid leaking and condensation on the interior metallic skin.
Metal to metal edge male and female configurations have been used for many years to connect together "single skin" panels. Single skin panels are single sheets of thin-skinned material such as aluminum connected together edge-to-edge to form a ceiling or wall. The use of edge-to-edge connectors for such panels is well known. Such technology is adaptable to insulated panels by inverting one connector edge configuration and then evaluating the connection made between the potentially new edge-to-edge design. However, the characteristics and advantages in an insulated panel derived from a single skin edge connector design in the instance of this invention exceeds the mere routine evaluation and experimentation.
These and other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description.


The header pipes 3 and 4 of a heat exchanger 1, wherein each of the header pipes is provided with a plurality of tube insertion holes 9 in a longitudinal direction; the ends of tubes 2 are inserted into the tube insertion holes; the extended portions 3a and 4a respectively include longitudinally extended portions respectively extending from the portion provided with the tube insertion holes; further, the extended portions are provided with the reinforcing beads 13 respectively. The beads 13, each having a width equal to the opening width of each of the tube insertion holes 9, are pitched substantially equally as the tube insertion holes. Further, the header pipes 3 and 4 are formed by shaping a flat-sheet header pipe material H into pipes having a predetermined diameter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to header pipes for a heat exchanger with tubes connected thereto for heat exchange through a medium and designed to distribute and collect the medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, any conventionally known heat exchanger comprises a plurality of tubes laminated with fins interposed and header pipes disposed at opposite ends of tubes, the header pipes respectively having tube insertion holes into which opposite ends of each tube are inserted respectively to be connected with the header pipes, an inlet joint and an outlet joint respectively connected to a header pipe so that heat exchange can be effected while the heat exchange medium flows by meandering a plurality of times through the tubes disposed between the inlet joint and the outlet joint of the header pipes.
In the header pipe used in this type of heat exchanger, a plurality of tube insertion holes are longitudinally formed by being pitched at predetermined intervals, and the inside of each header pipe is divided by partitions provided at predetermined positions, whereby heat exchange medium is distributed and collected for circulation by units of tube groups.
Such a header pipe is provided with an extended portion longitudinally extending from the portion where tube insertion holes are formed. The extended portion serves for providing the inlet joint and the output joint and also for supporting a bracket for installation of heat exchanger.
However, as shown in FIG. 7, for example, in the case of a conventional heat exchanger 20, for the purpose of using a common mold, common header pipes 21 (only one of them is shown) are used for both the left and right header pipes. As a result, in the header pipe not provided with neither the output joint nor the inlet joint, an extended portion 21a extending outside of a side plate 8 which is not provided with either the output joint or the inlet joint.
Such an extended portion as the extended portion 21a of the header pipe 21 is much inferior in strength to the portion provided with tube insertion holes 9, 9 and, of such header pipes, those obtained by forming the flat-sheet material into pipes are particularly apt to be deformed or ruptured.
This results from (1) that while the portion having the tube insertion holes is reinforced by being connected to the tubes, the extended portion without the tube insertion holes is not reinforced by the tubes. That is, the end of each tube inserted into the tube insertion hole acts as a reinforcement to resist deformation or internal pressure, so that the portion provided with the tube insertion holes is reinforced by the units of the intervals of the tube insertion holes. On the other hand, such an extended portion, lacking in the reinforcement by being connected to the tubes, is weaker in relative strength.
Further, (2) the peripheral region of each tube insertion hole is formed with a projecting edge (hereinafter referred to as a burring) for the purpose of increasing a brazing area with the end of tube. The portion formed with the tube insertion holes are reinforced with the burring and brazing material deposited on the burring. For this reason, therefore, the header pipe material having a thickness of more than necessary has to be used merely for increasing the strength of such extended portion.
Furthermore, (3) in forming the header pipe by shaping the header pipe material with the tube insertion holes and burrings, the recoiling force (hereinafter referred to as spring back) of the header pipe material can be suppressed to a certain extent due to the existence of the burrings. As a result, there occurs some differences in the spring back between the portion provided with the tube insertion holes and the extended portion without the tube insertion holes, causing an inconvenience such that the opposite ends of the portion provided with the tube insertion holes can be fit snugly along the seam, while the opposite edges of the extended portion are apt to separate along the seam to a degree that the joining along the seam become impossible, or the cap cannot be fitted.
In order to avoid such inconvenience, the material having a thickness large enough to increase the strength of the extended portion has to be used despite that the portion of the header pipe provided with the tube insertion holes need not be formed by using the material of such thickness, causing, as a result, the whole header pipe should be formed using the material having a thickness and rigidity more than necessary.


Techniques are presented for mapping a physical table to multiple virtual tables. One or more fields within a results set from a query are mapped or associated to one or more virtual tables. The virtual tables are organized as sub graphs and connected together as a set. A reference to the set is provided to a table join analysis service and a join is performed against the set to produce a single logical reference to a table. The single table reference may be treated as a single table for purposes of subsequent search and retrieval by a searcher.

Modern databases provided a convenient mechanism for enterprises to store and organize their information or data. Generally, logical data or information associated with one aspect of the enterprise is organized within its own independent table. A table includes its own schema or definition and includes a plurality of fields organized within the table as rows and columns.
Query languages permit users to search the database against a single table or against multiple tables for purposes of returning results that comply with the search criteria or search terms. In some cases, the results may be voluminous or may span multiple disparate tables housed in the database.
In such situations, the users often like to issue new searches against the results returned. But, in order for this to be achieved the results have to be defined as a single table within the database. The problem is each result may be associated with an entirely different database table definition. This also necessitates that services of the database perform a join on the different associated table definitions that are included within the results.
One technique to address this entails pre-establishing within the database definitions or schemas for likely combinations of fields that a search may yield by way of results. This may work for a general or popular search on a few different database tables, but it will not work for all possible combinations. Moreover, the permutations associated with various combinations of fields included within the database may not practically be accounted for in predefined table definitions. As a result, often results from a custom search are not available as a unique single table from which the user can continue to search and interact with. This means the user may have to issue more creative searches or be more technically savvy to achieve what he/she originally intended to do with the original search and its subsequent results.
Thus, it can be seen that improved techniques for processing results associated with search queries are desirable.

Techniques for mapping a physical table to multiple virtual tables


A device for discharging rod-like products each having one end that is large sized. The device includes a hopper having an opening in its bottom surface, a drive mechanism for oscillating the hopper, and a bottom cover for closing the opening of the hopper. An upper surface of the bottom cover is shaped such that the cover closes the opening of the hopper so that the products do not drop from the opening. The bottom cover has a slit opened in the upper surface thereof, and the slit extends in a direction perpendicular to a direction of the oscillating motion. The slit has a width that allows all but a maximum size portion of the rod-like products to pass therethrough. The drive mechanism oscillates the hopper so that the rod-like products received in the hopper are guided to the slit of the bottom cover, arranged in the slit in order, and subsequently discharged from the slit.

Pipet tips each in the shape of a rod-like product, one end of which is larger sized, are transported on a tray on which they are longitudinally and laterally arranged and take a vertically erect posture. The pipet tips are provided to an automatic tester in a state of being accommodated in the tray. Since the tray remains behind after the pipet tips are used, the tray has to be discarded. There has been a tremendously large quantity of pipet tips consumed in the entire country. Hence, trays have also been discarded in an extremely great quantity, which has resulted in high disposal expenses. This harmful influence of the disposal can be eliminated by adoption of a scheme in which pipet tips are not accommodated in a tray while taking a specific posture, but the pipet tips are transported, for example in bags or boxes and then set in a tester. When a tray is adopted, however, pipet tips are arranged in specific positions while taking a specific posture, which can allow a discharge mechanism with a simple construction for pipet tips in an automatic tester to be attained. On the other hand, pipet tips transported in bags or boxes are not arranged in a particular posture and position prior to setting them into an automatic tester leading to setting them therein in a non-controlled manner. Hence, the tester is required to take out each of the pipet tips in an individually particular posture fed into the tester in a non-controlled manner.
There has been developed a mechanism in which pipet tips, each taking a random posture, are taken out and arranged in a specific posture (see JP-A Nos. 2000-19182 and 2001-187629).
A discharge device for pipet tips described in JP-A No. 2000-19182 is constructed so that pipet tips fed at random are taken out individually by lifting up a single pipet tip at a time with a conveyor having a belt in an almost vertical posture and the separated pipet tip is dropped down and fed by the conveyor onto a slope. The slope is inclined at a downward gradient toward a slit and the pipet tip drops down into the slit. The slit is a clearance that prevents the flange of a pipet tip to pass therethrough. Therefore, a pipet tip is discharged from the slit while taking a posture in which the flange of the pipet tip is caught by the slit. The discharge device is complex in structure and high in manufacturing cost. An expensive discharge device can be employed as a device for feeding pipet tips fed at random into a tray. A complex, expensive mechanism is difficult to be adopted for a tester. This is because the number of testers are significantly more than the number of devices feeding pipet tips into trays. Therefore, a simple, inexpensive discharge device is required in order to omit a tray by installing a discharge device to a tester. Moreover, since, in this device, conventionally, a pipet tip is dropped down onto a slope, this device has a fault that a pipet tip can be damaged due to the shock.
A discharge device described in JP-A No. 2001-187629 is equipped with a rotary drum feeding pipet tips at random. The rotary drum has a scooping trough for pipet tips on the inner surface thereof. While the rotary drum is rotated, pipet tips are lifted up by the scooping trough and thereafter, dropped down from the scooping trough on slide rails. A pipet tip on the slide rails passes through a falling-down guide and then is dropped down at a determined position on the tray. The discharge device with this structure is also complex in structure and high in manufacturing cost. In addition, since a pipet tip is dropped, there has been a fault that a pipet tip can be easily damaged because of the shock.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the faults that the conventional discharge devices have had and it is an important object of the invention to provide a device for discharging a rod-like product one end of which is larger sized, such as a pipet tip, fed at random, capable of arranging rod-like products in a specific posture and discharging them with a extremely simple structure and at a reduced manufacturing cost.
It is another important object of the invention to provide a device for discharging a rod-like product, one end of which is larger sized, that is capable of arranging rod-like products fed at random in order and discharge them with reduction in shock and the consequent damage on the rod-like products.

Device for discharge rod-like product having one end that is larger sized


A mixed gas supply device includes a plurality of gas supply lines arranged in parallel that include flow rate control devices and outlet side switching valves, wherein gas outlets of respective outlet side switching valves communicate with a manifold, and another gas supply line at a position close to a mixed gas outlet of the manifold supplies a low flow rate gas, wherein an outlet side of the flow rate control device and an inlet side of the outlet side switching valve are hermetically connected via an outlet side connecting fitting of the flow rate control device and a mounting table having a gas passage, wherein a small hole portion is provided at a part of a flow passage at the outlet side connecting fitting and/or a flow passage, which makes the outlet side switching valve and a mixed gas flow passage in the manifold communicate with one another.

In recent years, in the field of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, downsizing of the apparatus, lowering of manufacturing cost, improvement in product quality, and the like, have been strongly demanded. In order to respond to those requirements, the development of an integrated processing apparatus that continuously carries out oxide film processing and polysilicon film processing, with respect to a wafer, has been proposed as a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus for the next generation.
However, in such an integrated processing apparatus, gaseous species to be supplied include thirty types of gases, which are varied in character, that is, in addition to gaseous species for etching in oxide film processing, corrosive gaseous species, such as HBr and C, as well are to be included in the gaseous species supplied. Therefore, prevention of backflow and back-diffusion in so-called switching between gaseous species, and improvement in the rate of gas utilization due to gas displacement at high speed, have grown to become more important matters.
Additionally, the applicant for the present patent has thus far developed many technologies relating to prevention of backflow and back-diffusion in switching of gaseous species to be supplied, such as those technologies disclosed below.
For example, Japanese Patent No. 3442604 shows an example thereof. As shown in FIG. 18, in the case where a plurality of gaseous species G1 to Gn to be supplied are switched by operating switching valves V1 to Vn, with (1) the supply line Ln of gaseous species at a minimum flow rate, which is disposed at a position most distant from a gas-out portion Go, (2) orifices S1 to Sn are provided to make the ratios between the passage areas of the respective lines L1 to Ln and the gas flow rates of the respective lines constant, or (3) a valve having an orifice OL built-in as shown in FIG. 19 is used as the switching valve Vn of the minimum flow rate line Ln. In order to increase a flow velocity of the gaseous species at the minimum flow rate, an attempt is made to prevent backflow and back-diffusion of another gas caused at the time of changing gaseous species by switching the switching valves V1 to Vn. For example, at the time of changing a gaseous species from the gas G3 to the gas G1 by simultaneously operating the switching valve V3 from open to close and the switching valve V1 from close to open, the gas G1 is prevented from flowing back to the upstream side of the switching valve V3.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent No. 3,387,777 is the invention in which all the switching valves V1 to Vn of FIG. 18 are orifice built-in type valves having a configuration as in FIG. 19, in which ratios of gas flow rates between the flow passage cross-sectional areas of the respective lines L1 to Ln of the respective gaseous species G1 to Gn and the gas flow rates of the respective lines L1 to Ln are made constant by changing the calibers of the orifices built in the respective switching valves V1 to Vn, to prevent backflow and back-diffusion caused by switching operations of the switching valves V1 to Vn. In FIG. 18, MFC denotes a thermal type flow rate control device, F denotes a filter, and RG denotes a pressure regulator.
In addition, it has been well-known that when an orifice is interposed in a flow passage, orifice built-in type valves are used, or a gasket type orifice is used as an orifice in a gas flow rate control device. However, a configuration in which orifices, or orifice built-in type valves, are used with the goal to prevent a high flow rate gas from flowing back and back-diffusing to the inside of a low flow rate gas line, in operation of the switching valves in a mixed gas supply device in which a plurality of gas supply lines are connected in parallel, and a mixed gas from the respective gas supply lines is supplied to a gas using place through a manifold, is limited to Japanese Patent No. 3442604 and Japanese Patent No. 3,387,777.


An apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving a paging message in a frequency overlay communication system are provided. The method includes determining if information is to be transmitted to a Mobile Station (MS) that is in an idle state, determining a sub frequency band for allocation to the MS, and transmitting a paging message to the MS using the determined sub frequency band.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication system using a frequency overlay scheme. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for transmitting/receiving a paging message in a frequency overlay communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As communication systems are evolving, the services they provide are expanding and diversifying. For example, while previous communication systems provided only voice communication between users, current communication systems provide additional services such as video communication, digital broadcasting, Internet communication, and the like. To support these advanced features and services, additional bandwidth is necessary to provide the additional information. Accordingly, research and development in the field of broadband communication is very active.
To support broadband communication, at least two issues must be considered. First, frequency resources for any communication system are limited. That is, only a limited number of frequencies are available for a given system. Accordingly, as communication technology is developed, demand for the use of a frequency band increases, especially for frequency bands supporting broadband service. Thus, a license cost for the frequency band use increases. Second, compatibility with existing systems must be considered. That is, a new broadband communication system must be implemented with consideration of user equipment that was designed for an older system. Because both the limited frequency resources and the backward compatibility with previously installed communication systems must be considered, design of a broadband communication system can be difficult. Moreover, due to the increase in the license cost for the frequency band and the difficulty in backward compatibility, various schemes that are proposed to provide a broadband service may be delayed and potentially not implemented at all.
To address the consequences of the limited frequency bands, that is, to address the problem of the increased license costs and to smoothly provide the new broadband services without interruption to existing services, various schemes have been proposed. In one such scheme, a frequency overlay system is proposed. A frequency overlay system is a system in which some or all frequency bands of an advanced broadband communication system are overlapped with some or all frequency bands of legacy communication system. That is, both the new broadband communication system and the existing legacy communication system use at least one common frequency band. For example, a Code Division Multiple Access 2000 3x (CDMA2000 3x) communication system, an overlay Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication system, etc. may be considered. In such a case, a Mobile Station (MS) designed for use in the broadband communication system and an MS designed for use in the legacy communication system can either exist together in the legacy communication system or can exist together in the broadband communication system.
In a frequency overlay system, a Base Station (BS) providing service to an MS periodically transmits a paging message to the MS. The paging message is used to instruct the MS, which is in an idle state, to update its position information or initialize service with the BS. Thus, the MS in the idle state periodically wakes up, receives the paging message, and performs the received instruction. More specifically, if a BS detects that traffic exists which needs to be sent to the MS, the BS sends a paging message to the MS indicating that traffic exists for the MS. Periodically, the MS wakes up to detect whether the paging message exists and, if it does exist, receives the paging message.
In a frequency overlay system, when a legacy MS connects to an advanced BS, the legacy MS may utilize any frequency band of the advanced BS. In such a situation, if the BS detects that traffic exists which needs to be sent to the MS, the advanced BS sends a paging message to the MS through all frequency bands used by the advanced BS. In this case, by sending the paging message over all frequency bands used by the advanced BS, the frequency bands are inefficiently used since the MS needs to receive the paging message on only a single frequency band. Because the frequency bands of an advanced system have high costs, their inefficient use causes great concern.
To address the frequency band inefficiency problem, the advanced BS can allocate a specific frequency band for sending paging messages. However, when a plurality of paging messages for different MSs are sent through the specific frequency band, it causes a problem of collision among the paging messages.
Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus and method for efficiently transmitting a paging message to an MS of a broadband communication system and an MS of a legacy communication system by a BS of a broadband communication system forming a communication channel with each MS.

Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving a paging message in a frequency overlay communication system


Systems and methods are provided for generating business process test elements for automated testing of business process application configurations. A business process application executes business processes, which are typically automated operations involving users and information systems, and are typically specific to a type of business. A business process test is a set of instructions for invoking a business process. The test invokes one or more test elements, which are building blocks that codify interactions with business processes. Each element includes a description of the input data accepted by an associated transaction or screen of the business process. The element can receive input from a user or simulated user via an input interface of the application, and can invoke the associated business process with the input. The element is generated based upon metadata information retrieved from the business process application. The element provides input to and retrieves output from the application for the associated business process. The element refers to fields of the business process transactions or screens by names associated with the fields. The names may be internal application names, which are independent of a particular language.

The invention relates generally to testing of software, and more specifically to systems and methods for automated testing of software that executes business processes.
Business process application software allows for the definition and execution of business processes in a computer system. Examples of business processes include updating customer information, receiving and fulfilling orders, synchronizing customer information stored on multiple computer systems, and generating a price quote. Business processes are often associated with data descriptions and transformation rules for accessing individual data items, such as a customer name or a unit price. A business process specifies a sequence of activities to be performed in a specified order, and may specify conditional and repeated execution of activities. Business process application software can execute a business process, prompting for or retrieving input data as needed, and produce results or effects, such as output data or execution of database transactions. A business process application configuration includes a set of business processes and associated data, including data descriptions and transformation descriptions, which specify how to execute one or more particular business processes using general-purpose business process application software, such as SAP™ or Siebel™. Configuration information is typically represented as data stored in disk files or in an online repository, depending on the particular business process application software. The business process software can load the configuration information, including the business process, and subsequently execute the business processes. For example, a shipping company may have a business process application configuration including a computer system running SAP™ software with a ShipmentReceived business process, which is to be executed when a shipping container arrives at a transit hub. The ShipmentReceived business process updates an inventory database of shipping container locations and invokes another computer system to route the shipping container to its destination. The shipping company may have a second business process application configuration consisting of another computer system running Siebel software with a ConfirmOrder business process, which is to be executed when an order has been processed. The ConfirmOrder business process, which is invoked by an order processing system, retrieves the customer's e-mail address from Siebel and sends an e-mail notice to the customer describing the order.
It is desirable to be able to automatically test the execution of a business process application configuration by a business process application for correctness. Testing a software program involves interacting with the program in a test environment and verifying that the program operates correctly, based on the program's behavior in response to input supplied during the interaction. The interaction may be manual testing performed by a human or automated testing performed by a test program. Automated testing is desirable because human effort is not necessary to perform the testing, so automated testing can be less expensive and more consistent than manual testing, once the tests have been developed. However, substantial time and effort may still be involved in creating the tests, which are typically computer programs, that will perform the automated testing. Test automation systems, which are typically computer programs, have been developed to reduce the time and effort involved in creating automated tests.
Co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/251,281, System And Method For Testing Business Process Configurations, B. Larab, et al., discloses systems and methods for testing business process configurations, in which the testing is based upon complex test elements, which interact with specific screens or transactions of a specific application, e.g., SAP™ or Siebel™, to provide input data and read output data from the application. A complex test element includes a parameter list, which describes the names and types of input and output parameters that are expected and produced, respectively, by the transaction, and a list of elements to be invoked to perform the transaction. The complex test element passes values received from the user for the input parameters to the transaction when the test is executed, and passes values produced by the transaction back to the testing system so that the user can verify that the test's output is correct, or perform an action based upon the test's output. The test elements can be used as building blocks to create automated tests. For example, a user may select a test element associated with a specific Purchase Order transaction, add the element to a test, and provide input data for the element. The test automation system can then execute a test of the Purchase Order transaction using the element and input data. Multiple test elements can be strung together in a sequence to create tests of multiple features, e.g., multiple transactions, and test elements that perform conditional branching can be used to create tests that execute certain elements conditionally or repeatedly. An element that performs an application-specific action, such as a transaction, is created by combining simpler elements that perform actions such as setting or getting a value of a text field or selection box in an application user interface. For example, an element that performs a Purchase Order transaction could be created by combining elements that set the values of each field of the Purchase Order transaction in a user interface. If the Purchase Order transaction includes input fields for an item name and quantity, the Purchase Order element would be able to indicate to a user of the testing system that an item name and a quantity are expected as input parameters to the transaction. The Purchase Order element would also be able to invoke field setting elements that set the item name and quantity input fields to parameter values provided by a user of the test automation system.
Test elements can be created manually by a user interacting with the testing system. To create a new test element for a transaction, the user first perceives the format of the input data, i.e., the names and types of the input fields of the transaction. Then the user may add field setting elements to the new test element to set values of the transaction's input fields. The user may also add field getting elements to retrieve output values produced by the transaction. The test element can then be used by the testing system to invoke the transaction. For example, a user could create a Purchase Order test element by first looking at the Purchase Order transaction screen or documentation to determine that the purchase order transaction's input includes an item name and a quantity. The user would then create an empty complex element and add field setting elements for the item name and quantity fields to the empty complex element. The Purchase Order test element could then be included in business process tests to invoke the Purchase Order transaction.
This manual process of creating test elements can be resource-intensive and error-prone because it depends on a human user. A human user may make mistakes or omissions in creating the test elements, and the time taken by a human user to create test elements for an application may be substantial and costly. An application may have hundreds or thousands of possible transaction screens or types, in which case the expense and possibility of error may be substantial.
One way to automate the test creation process is to introduce a recording feature, in which the test system records the user's actions when a transaction screen is filled in. However, this approach sometimes can lead to difficulties, such as tests being overly dependent upon details of the application screens or the version of the application, as described in the above-referenced patent application Ser. No. 11/251,281.
Furthermore, the manual process of creating a test element generally produces test elements that are dependent on the particular language version (e.g., English or Japanese) of the application, because the descriptive text associated with each field on the application screen is used to identify the field in the test elements. If the descriptive text changes, for example, as a result of switching from an English-language version of the application to a Japanese-language version, then the test element will become inoperable. The descriptive text may also change for other reasons, e.g., if the application vendor changes the text in a new version of the application.
Because of the resource-intensive, error-prone, and language-dependent nature of the manual process for generating test elements, it would be desirable to be able to automatically generate test elements.

System and method for generating business process test elements


A parallel execution runtime allows tasks to be executed concurrently in a runtime environment. The parallel execution runtime delegates the implementation of task queuing, dispatch, and thread management to one or more plug-in schedulers in a runtime environment of a computer system. The plug-in schedulers may be provided by user code or other suitable sources and include interfaces that operate in conjunction with the runtime. The runtime tracks the schedulers and maintains control of all aspects of the execution of tasks from user code including task initialization, task status, task waiting, task cancellation, task continuations, and task exception handling.

Computer systems often have the ability to execute different parts of the same process, e.g., different tasks, concurrently. A scheduler or other programming entity in the computer system may manage the concurrent execution of the tasks of a process. As the use of the concurrent execution ability by processes increases, the scheduling demands of different processes may become markedly different such that a scheduler may not execute all processes as efficiently as possible. While some schedulers may have parameters or policies that may be configured by a process, the parameters and policies may not be sufficient to optimize the scheduler for execution of a particular process.
A scheduler often forms an integral portion of a runtime environment of the computer system. As a result, the ability of runtime developers to implement increased flexibility in the scheduler may be limited by the overall complexity of the runtime environment. This difficulty reduces the likelihood that improvements to a scheduler can keep pace with increasing process demands for flexibility in concurrent execution.


Damage to a bearing section and cases is able to be prevented in a portable terminal device in which two cases are mutually and rotatably coupled about an axis that extends in the direction in which they overlap, and the range of the relative movement of the two cases is restricted. This portable terminal device is provided with two cases arranged so as to be able to be mutually overlapped, a coupling unit that mutually and rotatably couples the two cases about an axis extending in the direction of overlapping, and a reinforcing member that is fixed within one case of the two cases. The coupling unit is provided on the other case of the two cases, has a hollow rotation shaft having the axis for its center line and a bearing section that rotatably axially supports the rotation shaft, and the bearing section is attached to the reinforcing member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable terminal device such as a cellular telephone or personal digital assistant (PDA) comprised by mutually and pivotally coupling two cases.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-307224, filed on Aug. 29, 2003, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
An example of a conventional portable terminal device had two cases and was provided with a coupling section that mutually and pivotally couples the two cases arranged so as to be able to be mutually overlapped about an axis along the direction in which both cases are overlapped (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H07-288860). In a portable terminal device employing this type of constitution, a through hole is formed in a rotation shaft that composes the coupling section that allows the inner space of the two cases to mutually pass through. A cable is disposed in this through hole that mutually electrically connects circuit boards arranged within the two cases. This cable transmits electrical signals which are exchanged between the circuit boards arranged in both cases, and power is supplied to one of the cases from a battery provided in the other case.
In this type of portable terminal device, since the cable is twisted in the pivoting direction when the two cases are mutually pivoted, the relative pivoting range of the two cases is restricted for the purpose of preventing disconnection of the cable as a result of this twisting. In addition, the rotation shaft is rotatably supported relative to one case by a bearing section provided in the other case.
However, in a conventional portable terminal device, when a user has applied external force that causes the two cases to mutually pivot beyond the predetermined pivoting range, force acts which attempts to incline the center line of the rotation shaft towards the axis, and since stress concentrates in the bearing section and case mounting section that anchors the bearing section, there was the risk of damage to the case mounting section because its strength was not that particularly high.
Furthermore, although forming the case provided with the bearing section to have greater thickness was considered as a way of resolving this problem, due to the requirements in recent years for reduced size and thickness of portable terminal devices for the purpose of improving the portability of portable terminal devices, this solution is not desirable.


A door latch system for a heating system is provided. The door latch system may be installed with a fireplace, wood stove, pellet stove, or other suitable system. The door latch system comprises a handle, a handle head and a catch. The handle head may be configured to engage the catch. Moreover, the catch may be configured with a self adjusting tension system, such that when the handle head engages the catch, the catch is configured to exert a tension force on the handle head. This tension force also causes the handle head to compress the seal of a fireplace door where the door latch system is installed.

Heating systems, and more specifically fireplaces, wood stoves and the like have been designed to burn more efficiently and provide greater heat output. The systems have employed doors to provide more efficient combustion environments. The doors are equipped with handles that allow for the doors to be operated in order to add fuel, clean the firebox, or otherwise access the firebox. Generally, these handles are fixedly attached the firebox door. They are also made of materials that are resistant to thermal stress, but typically conduct thermal loads. As such, the handle can become very hot and there is an increased risk of a user being burned while operating the door. Moreover, in order for the handle to provide sufficient force to operate the door, the handles are often large and visually unappealing. As such, there is a need to provide a fireplace door handle system that can stay cool when not being used and can provide sufficient force to operate the door.

FPI Fireplace Products International Ltd.


A traffic collar cone has a delineator having a reflection sheet attached on its upper part. A plug is placed under the sheet having an air inlet and outlet extending upwardly and downwardly therethrough. A conical body member is provided, having in its upper end wall an insertion hole in which the plug is mounted. A support panel is provided at the bottom of the body and cone collars are attached on the outer surface of the body member, with vertical spacing between them. The traffic collar cone is made of flexible material and designed to recover its original shape after being impacted, so that injury to collar cone is eliminated or minimized. The support panel can be adhered onto a roadway.

This invention relates to the traffic collar cone, in particular, to the self-recovering traffic collar cone that is more effective for drawing the driver's attention and thus can guarantee the safety of driving, and that is so built as to be able to get crushed when impacted and to recover its original shape after lapse of impact so that its product life span can be fully extended and the vehicle collided therewith is also kept substantially unharmed.
Generally, the traffic collar cone has been used as the indicator to let the driver recognize the changing state of traffic lane more accurately, especially at the place where the road becomes narrow in case of the road repair work or is curved.
However, the conventional traffic cone is normally made of the non-recovery materials such as rubber, polyethylene, vinyl chloride resin or the like and the reflection sheet is attached thereon so that upon the even small impacts, the collar cone or the vehicles are easily damaged. As the result of it, replacement of the traffic collar cone is frequently required and therefrom the economic loss is greatly happened.


An optic speed sensor for sensing the speed of a rotating component such as a gear includes a sensor such as an electromagnetic speed sensor disposed in proximity to teeth of the gear. Within the housing of the sensor are one or more electrical signal lines having electrical signals imposed thereon, the electrical signals being indicative of the rotational speed of the gear. Physically connected to the sensor housing is a mating connector. Disposed within the housing of the mating connector are corresponding one or more LEDs, each LED being electrically connected to the electrical speed signals provided by the sensor. Each LED provides an optical signal indicative of the speed of the gear, each LED having fiber optic cable connected thereto which transmits the optical energy output by the associated LED to an optical receiver disposed away from the sensor, such as a control unit for the device incorporating the gear. The optical receiver transforms the optical signal into a form, such as to an electrical signal, more suitable for the type of signal processing performed at the predetermined location.

In the art of speed sensing, it is known to use an electromagnetic sensor to magnetically sense the proximate presence and absence, in relation to the sensor, of, e.g., teeth on a metallic rotating gear. The sensor generates electrical signal pulses that correspond to the presence of gear teeth as they rotate in proximate vicinity to the sensor. The gear is typically an integral component of, e.g., an automotive or aircraft engine having a plurality of rotating components, the rotating speed of said engine being the overall engine parameter desired to be measured.
In a specific example of a speed sensor for a jet aircraft engine, the electromagnetic sensor must operate in a severe environment. The sensor provides electrical signals through signal wires over a distance of several feet or more to an engine control. The engine control processes the electrical signals to derive speed information therefrom.
Due to the severe environment that the aircraft engine and associated sensing and control components reside in, the aforementioned signal wires carrying the speed information are subject to a number of forms of interference. The most common form of electromagnetic interference is due to lightning, high power RADAR signals or other electrical transmitters. Such interference may be detected as false speed information.
It is known to detect the speed of rotation of the shaft using a fiber optic sensor, as exemplified in U.S Pat. No. 4,746,791 to Forkel. This patent describes a number of embodiments of such a sensor. In only one of the embodiments is an optical source, such as a light emitting diode ("LED"), provided in the housing of the sensor. However, in this embodiment, the LED must be supplied with power from an external power supply. Such external power lead wires are a weight penalty and may be subject to the aforementioned interference effects. Further, the remaining embodiments require optical energy to be transmitted from an external source disposed away from the sensor housing. Thus additional components are required, adding undesirable cost, weight and complexity to the sensor.
In addition, for use with fiber optic sensors, the present day optic signal fibers have a major reliability problem in the optical connector associated therewith. Every time the optic connector is disconnected and reconnected, the engine environment poses the jeopardy of significant or total loss of the optic signals due to contamination. Oil fumes, water vapor, dust and grit can readily block or degrade the optic path which, for a 100 micron diameter fiber is about 0.004 inches across.

Magnetic speed sensor with optical conversion


The present invention discloses a system and method to evaluate intrusive repair. The method and system is based on analyzing data from the field and drawing causal diagrams (cause-consequence diagrams). In an aspect of the present invention, a method and system for evaluating intrusive repair for a class of devices comprises providing a threshold time window for analyzing failure data. The system and method further includes utilizing a causal diagram based on the analysis of the failure data for the class of devices to indicate the probability of intrusive repair. In the present invention, two measures are defined to evaluate intrusive repair--intrusivability and one-fixability. Intrusivability is defined as the probability that a repair action will cause a new fault. One-fixability is defined as the probability that the diagnostic process will fix the fault on the first repair attempt. Both of these measures are determined by using the causal diagram in accordance with the present invention.

Repairs do not always fix a problem on the first attempt. This is particularly important when attempting to determine how repair actions effect classes of devices. For example, certain classes of computers may exhibit certain failure characteristics based upon the repair action. If these failure characteristics could be accurately measured, then the class of computers could be more easily maintained over their useful life. In addition, if these failure characteristics could be adequately quantified, the diagnosis of the reasons for failure may be more easily obtained. There are many factors that contribute to inadequate repair actions. Primarily, inadequate diagnostics, low maintainability design, and inadequate repair-person education can be causes of inadequate repair actions. This problem is further compounded if the repair action causes more repair actions independent of the normal failure rate driven faults. This is the phenomena of intrusive repair. Intrusive repair negatively impacts warranty cost and therefore needs to be evaluated. A significant intrusive repair factor indication provides a warning of inadequate maintainability of a machine and provides for justification for better maintainability design, and better education.
Therefore, it is desirable to be able to detect and diagnose failure characteristics in classes of machines. It is important that this detection and diagnosis be relatively simple, cost effective and applicable to existing failure analysis systems and methods. The present invention addresses such a need.

Method and system for evaluating intrusive repair for plurality of devices

International Business Machines Corporation


A motor-noise absorbing apparatus of a vacuum cleaner is disclosed. The motor-noise absorbing apparatus includes a body seated and fixed on a peripheral part of an opening of a motor housing to close between the motor housing and a stator core and, thus, to restrict an amount of the air discharged between the motor housing and the stator core, a first air discharging part formed in the middle of the body, so that most of the air comes out of the guide vein is discharged between the stator core and a rotor, and at least one second air discharging part formed to penetrate a peripheral part of the body, so that a portion of the air coming out of the guide vein is discharged between the motor housing and the stator core.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a motor of a vacuum cleaner, and more particularly, to a motor-noise absorbing apparatus of a vacuum cleaner capable of absorbing and reducing flow noise generating by air, which is discharged in a high speed from an impeller, in a discharge section from a guide vein to windows of a motor housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a vacuum cleaner takes in air laden with foreign substance, such as dust or the like, and separates the foreign substance from the air. Such vacuum cleaners include a cleaner motor mounted therein to generate a suction force. Such a conventional cleaner motor is explained as follows with reference to FIG. 1.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the conventional cleaner motor is provided with a cup-shaped motor housing 10. A front bearing 19a, which is fixed by a front cover 21, is installed on an opened front end of the motor housing 10. A rear bearing 19b is installed on the middle of a closed rear end of the motor housing 10. In addition, to supply electric power, a plurality of brushes 13 is symmetrically joined to both sides of the motor housing 10, and to discharge air taken into the motor housing 10, a plurality of windows are formed in a circumferential direction of the motor housing 10.
Also, a core 11 on which a coil 12 is wound is forcibly inserted into a bracket 14 and supported and fixed by the bracket 14 in the motor housing 10. A rotor 17 is inserted into and rotatably coupled to the stator core 11. In this case, a motor axis 18 is forcibly inserted into and fixed to a rotor 17 to move in combination therewith, and a commutator 15 with which the brushes 13 is fixed to come in close contact is forcibly inserted into and fixed to a rear side of the rotor 17. The motor axis 18 at both ends thereof is supported and fixed by the front and the rear bearing 19a and 19b. In addition, an impeller 23 is connected with one end of the motor axis 18 to move in combination with the motor axis 18 and thus to generate a suction force. A diffuser 25 is disposed in the vicinity of an outer circumferential surface of the impeller 23, and a guide vein 27 is integrally formed with a rear side of the diffuser 25. An impeller cover 29, which is joined with the opened front end of the motor housing 10 to accommodate the impeller 23, the diffuser 25 and the guide vein 27, is provided with an air inlet 29a at the middle thereof and forms an air discharging passage to discharge air taken in by a rotation of the impeller 23.
An operation of the cleaner motor constructed as described above is as follows. The rotor 17 is rotated by electrical interaction between a stator 11, 12 and the rotor 17 caused by applied electrical power. A rotating force of the rotor 17 is transmitted to the impeller 23 through the motor axis 18 supporting the rotor 17. After air is taken into the impeller cover 29 through the air inlet 29a thereof by the rotating force of the impeller 23, it is forced out in a high speed from the impeller 23 by an impeller vein formed in the impeller 23, which rotates in a high speed, and then flows into the guide vein 27 along a bent air passage formed by the impeller cover 29 via the diffuser 25 fixed in the vicinity of a peripheral part of the impeller 23. The air forced into the guide vein 27 flows out through a space S1 between the stator core 11 and the rotor 17 in the motor housing 10 and a space S2 between the motor housing 10 and the stator core 11. At this time, the air cools the stator core 11 and the rotor 17. The air is discharged outside the motor housing 10 through the plurality of windows of the motor housing 10 to produce a suction force required for the vacuum cleaner.
However, according to the cleaner motor as described above, a problem occurs, in that noise is generated as the air, the positive pressure of which is increased while passing through the impeller 23 and the diffuser 25 in turn by rotation movement of the impeller 23, flows out in a high speed through the spaces S1 and S2. Particularly, since the brushes 13 and the bracket 14 supporting the stator core 11 are complicatedly formed in the space S2, the air generates collision noise while colliding with the complicated structures as described above.
To address the problem, in Korean patent No. 474344 is disclosed a motor-noise absorbing apparatus in which a noise absorbing member formed of a metal net having certain meshes is inserted between a rear side of a housing cover and a front side of a protector to disturb the flow of air, which is discharged in a high speed toward a plurality of windows through the inside of a motor housing and, thus, to absorb and reduce flow noise.
However, since such a conventional motor-noise absorbing apparatus is made up of the metal net as described above, there is a limit to how far collision noise may be absorbed and reduced. This is because as described above, the collision noise is generated as most of the air moving toward the windows from the guide vein 27 passes through the space S2 between the motor housing 10 and the stator core 11 and thus collides with the complicated structures, such as the brushes 13 and the bracket 14. Thus, an amount of the collision noise, which can be absorbed and reduced by the conventional motor-noise absorbing apparatus, is restricted.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Motor-noise absorbing apparatus of vacuum cleaner


A near memory system is provided for the calculation of a layer in a machine learning application. The near memory system includes an array of memory cells for storing an array of filter weights. A multiply-and-accumulate circuit couples to columns of the array to form the calculation of the layer.

Computer processing of data typically uses a Von Neumann architecture in which the data is retrieved from a memory to be processed in an arithmetic and logic unit. In computation-intensive applications such as machine learning, the data flow from and to the memory becomes a bottleneck for processing speed. To address this data movement bottleneck, near memory architectures have been developed in which the data processing hardware is adjacent the memory cells.

Power efficient near memory analog multiply-and-accumulate (MAC)


The present invention relates to a contents reception device and method, a contents transmission device and method, a program, and a recording medium, whereby a Push-type NRT service can be realized.

In recent years, reception of multi-channel, or high-resolution television broadcast has become commonplace due to the spread of digital broadcasting.
On the other hand, technological study and method determination for enabling not only normal television broadcast but also a further advanced broadcasting service that viewer demand are being undertaken, taking advantage of a band available for digital broadcasting.
Examples of a function that viewers demand include on-demand viewing and listening for allowing a viewer to view contents whenever desired. However, it has been thought difficult to realize on-demand viewing and listening in one-way transmission broadcasting instead of bidirectional transmission broadcasting.
Therefore, in order to enable on-demand viewing and listening in one-way transmission broadcasting, an NRT service for playing a broadcasted content after temporarily recording in storage has been studied, assuming that a reception terminal would have large-capacity storage. The NRT (Non-RealTime) service is a service, which does not assume viewing and listening in real time, for transmitting a content as data using broadcast signals without viewing and listening of the content in sync with the broadcast point-in-time of the content.
Specifically, with the NRT service, unlike conventional recording reservation of a broadcast program content or the like, for example, in the event that the transmission band of a signal according to broadcast waves is great, recording (downloading) can be completed in a shorter time. Alternatively, for example, in the event that the transmission band of a signal according to broadcast waves is small, downloading is completed in a longer time.
Also, in recent years, content providing methods have diversified. For example, conventionally, it has been mainstream for a user to request a desired content, and the content thereof is provided. However, in recent years, a providing method called Push-type distribution has been employed wherein the server side one-sidedly distributes a content to a user even if there is no request (e.g., see PTL 1).
With the NRT service as well, there can be conceived the two methods of a method for a user selecting an individual content, and then receiving and accumulating this, and a method for a user registering a particular content group to be viewed, and then a terminal automatically receiving and accumulating these contents. The former method is, for example, referred to as a Pull-type NRT service, and the latter method is, for example, referred to as a Push-type NRT service.

Contents reception device and method, contents transmission device and method, program, and recording medium

Abstract: “Ch. 4” is taken as a broadcasting channel for normal broadcasting, and “Ch. 5” and “Ch. 6” are taken as broadcasting channels for NRT. The broadcasting channel “Ch. 5” is multiplexed on logical channels “VC5-1”, “VC5-2”, and “VC5-3”. The logical channel “VC5-1” is assigned to a single Push-type NRT broadcasting service, and “VC5-2” is assigned to a Pull-type NRT broadcast. The logical channel “VC5-3” is assigned to another Push-type NRT broadcasting service. Three FLUTE sessions are provided to “VC5-2”.