An agricultural bale cutter has a scoop shaped lower jaw frame supporting a first set of teeth at a lower end and is pivotally mounted to an upper jaw frame. A second set of teeth mounted on the upper jaw frame may therefore be moved between distal and proximal positions relative to the first set of horizontal teeth for cutting a bale that is held between the upper and lower jaw frames. The frames are manipulated by hydraulic linear actuators so that both the lower and upper frames may be lifted by a front end loader mounted on a tractor and the upper jaw may be moved relative to the lower jaw for picking up a bale, cutting the bale and dropping a first cut portion of the bale at a first location and a second portion at a different location.

1. Field of the Present Disclosure
This disclosure relates generally to mechanized farm equipment and more particularly to such equipment relating to hay bales or other crop bales, and specifically to the transport, cutting or splitting of such bales.
2. Description of Related Art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Ramer, U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,578, discloses a round bale cutter having an open bale loading side and a cut hay exhaust side with a bale receiving area on a floor in between. The cutter includes a housing with a gap on the hay exhaust side extending the length of the machine just above the floor and a hay reprocessing chamber attached to housing and extending outward and downward from the gap. A rotary cutter drum equipped with knives about its periphery is supported on a drive shaft which extends from end to end of the housing, with the cutter drum being positioned in the gap in contact with a hay bale in the bale receiving area. The hay bale is initially cut by the drum, propelling cut hay strands into the hay reprocessing chamber where they circulate long enough to hit the rotary drum knives again. The twice cut strands, which are small enough to be used in feed mixing operations, are then expelled through an exhaust side opening in the hay reprocessing chamber. Borgford, U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,326, discloses an apparatus for cutting baled crop materials particularly of the cylindrical bale type comprised of an apparatus in the form of a conventional chain saw in which the chain is modified so that either the slide links or the guide links include an outwardly projecting cutting plate. The cutting plate is shaped to form a cutting edge having a ramp shape commencing at a position intersecting the previous link and extending outwardly at a gradual inclination of the order of 20.degree. to an outermost point and then a trailing edge which extends backwardly toward the main body of the chain. The width of the cutting plate is less than the width of the chain itself in view of the tension in the bale which pulls the bale apart as it is cut. Bergkamp et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,042, discloses a horizontally oriented three sided frame that is adapted to hold a round hay bale. An endless chain driven conveyor in the floor of the frame causes the round bale to rotate about a longitudinal axis while simultaneously urging a portion of the perimeter of the bale against a sickle bar cutter arrayed just above the floor on one side of the frame. The cutter chops the hay bale into manageable portions for feeding to livestock. The sickle bar cutter includes a conventional reciprocating cutter bar with triangularly shaped cutting teeth arranged continuously along the bar. A specially designed blade guide allows the entire cutting surfaces of the teeth to extend past the blade guide as they reciprocate. This insures that the hay bale is fed rapidly into the reciprocating teeth since no blade guide teeth enter the cutting gaps between the cutting teeth as they reciprocate and thus do not interfere with the advancement of the hay bale into cutter. Neier, U.S. Pat. No. 5,242,121, discloses a frame work mounted on a 3 point hitch of a tractor and including on its lower end a pair of bale support forks extending rearwardly. A pair of vertically disposed rails carry a vertically movable sickle cutter which extends parallel to the support forks and is centered to move therebetween when cutting through a bale positioned on the forks with its longitudinal axis parallel to the forks and the sickle cutter. The round bale of hay can be cut into half sections and then again into quarter sections. The bale support and cutter may be used for transporting bales with the sickle cutter pressing down against the top of the bale. Wangsness, U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,448, discloses a bale saw for cutting up large, cylindrical hay bales including a frame for quick mounting on a tractor load bucket. The frame includes a cross member and rearwardly projecting upper and lower structures which slidably mount over the bottom of the load bucket. A top member on the frame bolts to the top of the load bucket. Cable winches further strap the frame to the load bucket. A hydraulic motor, powered by the tractor hydraulic system, rotates a chain saw mounted on the frame. The tractor is driven up to a large hay bale, and the bucket may be adjusted to any height to cut the bale into pieces small enough for easy handling. Henderson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,996,899, discloses a hay bale cutter and a method of cutting a hay bale open, particularly suited for large round bales. The cutter has an elongate generally horizontal blade with a sharpened cutting leading edge, a skid on a lower edge for keeping the blade above ground, an upward facing support surface for support of a cut bale on the blade, and structure for securing the trailing end of the blade to a motor vehicle. The method has the steps of mounting the blade on a vehicle, taking the vehicle and mounted blade to a hay bale, spearing the sharpened end of the blade into one end of the bale, and plunging the blade through the length of the bale to cut the bale open along a radius of the bale. Ostrowski, U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,128, discloses a shredder and dispensing device for baled crop materials comprises a frame having coupling arrangements for mounting upon the front end loader linkage of a tractor. The frame carries a horizontal conveyor construction which has an inclined ramp at a forward end so that the ramp can be inserted underneath a bale to slide the ramp and conveyor under the bale to lift the bale onto the conveyor. The conveyor moves the bale toward one side of the device at which a shredder roller is provided with a suitable duct housing to direct the material out to one side of the implement. A deflector can be used to direct the material into feed bunks. The conveyor is mounted on a conveyor frame which can be raised to an inclined angle toward the shredder. The implement enables the handling and shredding of the bale in a simplified manner using a single machine. Woerman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,670, discloses a method and apparatus for slicing, lifting and carrying round bales or the like. The method for slicing the bale consists of making a radial cut through the length of the bale. The radial cut causes the circumferentially wrapped bale fibers to be cut which causes bale to open up. A partial radial cut, leaving the outer bale fibers uncut, can be made leaving bale substantially in a cylindrical shape to facilitate easy transport with a forklift like carrier. The apparatus consists of a mast assembly mounted to raiseable three point hitch of an agricultural tractor or the like. A pair of parallel forks are directly attached to mast and engage the curved sides of bale so as to lift and support bale for easy transport. A hydraulically activated knife assembly is attached to mast and forks. The knife has serrated teeth which cut through bale when knife reciprocates. A bumper or work guide when attached to the end of forks holds bale during cutting process. Bartolini, U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,703, discloses a bale handling and hay distributing apparatus comprised of a round-bale holder equipped with a device for rotating the bale around its central axis and a hay shredding unit. The bale holder is supported by a lift mechanism having a pair of vertically movable, projecting arms at the end of which the holder is pivotally connected. A device for rotating the bale holder with respect to the supporting lift mechanism is provided, so that the holder can be positioned in a hay dispensing position and in two different bale loading positions respectively rotated of an angle of 90.degree. and 180.degree with respect to the hay dispensing position. Hooks projecting from the longitudinal sides of the holder are provided having a cooperating jaw-movement for grasping the bale during loading operation. Ogman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,163, discloses an apparatus for slicing a large round bale into two or more parts prior to discharge from the baler. Slicing is accomplished by inserting a knife blade into the bale-forming chamber during or subsequent to the tying-off event while the bale rotates. The cutting means is inserted into the sidewalls of the baler and into the baling chamber. As the bale is rotated, the cutting means cuts the bale. Typically, a ring and core are formed. The preferred configurations of the core are cylinders or conical structures. Morlock et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,449,672, discloses a machine for grinding large bales of forage material is provided with a cradle pivotably mounted on a frame. The cradle is movable to a lowered position in which lifting members can engage a bale of crop material lying on the ground. The cradle can be pivoted to a working position in which gravity directs the bale against a grinder. The discharge of the comminuted forage material from the grinder is controlled by an adjustable deflector. A conveyor urges the bale toward the grinder, and tends to rotate the bale to evenly grind or chop away the outer periphery of the bale. Townsend, U.S. Pat. No. 4,411,573, discloses a bale handling apparatus including a frame portion, a bale moving portion, a bale engaging portion and a control portion; the frame portion including a base section, the base section including a pair of substantially parallel spaced side members; the bale moving portion including rotatable mechanism extending between the side members of the base section, the rotatable mechanism being disposed along the side members of the base section; the bale engaging portion including hook mechanism pivotally connected to the frame portion adjacent one edge thereof, the hook mechanism being oriented substantially parallel to the side members of the base section, the hook mechanism being of a length substantially the same as the side members; the control portion including mechanism for driving the rotatable mechanism, mechanism for pivoting the hook mechanism with respect to the base section and mechanism for changing the position of the base section; whereby when the apparatus is attached to a vehicle, a round bale may be positioned on the apparatus by tilting the base section and grasping the bale between the hook mechanism and the base section, and the bale may be opened and distributed by raising the base section and driving the rotatable mechanism to unroll the bale. Cullimore, U.S. Pat. No. 3,490,214, discloses an agricultural cutting mechanism comprising a cutter support bar with guide means, a set of reciprocal knife blade elements, and a set of resilient static fingers mounted on the cutter support bar to exert a pressure on the abutting slidable surfaces of the knife blade elements. Cutting is performed between the edges of the knife blades and the resilient fingers on reciprocation of the knife blades.
The related art described above discloses a variety of machines for cutting crops, bale handling, loading and shredding bales, slicing bales, and opening bales. However, the prior art fails to disclose a machine that is able to lift and cut bales in the effective manner of the present apparatus. The present disclosure distinguishes over the prior art providing heretofore unknown advantages as described in the following summary.


In embodiments there is described a method for reducing false positives and negatives in the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in suspected patients using mass spectroscopy employing the steps of mixing samples of collected saliva and nasopharyngeal secretions in a single sample container; adding universal transport medium to the mixed samples in said single sample container; transporting the single sample container at a temperature above 0° C. to a remote location; deactivation of viral content of the mixed sample; protein digestion of the mixed sample; concomitant separation of peptides, ionization by mass spectroscopy of the separated peptides, and comparison of peptide patterns to known SARS-CoV-2 peptides. Also set forth in an embodiment is a collection container for collecting saliva and/or sputum, as well as a swab member, with universal transport medium and/or virus inactivating agent housed in separate compartment communicable with sample compartment through a one-way valve.

A new coronavirus, designated SARS-CoV-2, has ravaged the world since December 2019. This virus first jumped into humans in Wahun, Hubei Province, China, and then quickly spread across the world. SARS-CoV-2 had never before the infections in China been reported in humans. On Jan. 31, 2020, the Secretary of HHS issued a declaration of public health emergency related to COVID-19. On Mar. 11, 2020 the WHO declared the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 to be a pandemic. It is estimated that somewhere around 20 percent of infected individuals may develop serious consequences. It is believed that the main cause of transmission is by respiratory droplets, albeit other routes have been hypothesized such as direct human to human contact and fecal to oral contamination. The incubation period of the disease is believed to be 14 days.
Coronaviruses (CoVs) are among the largest known group of viruses in the family Coronaviridae and order Nidovirales. SARS-CoV-2 belong to the Betacoronavirus genus. It has a genome size of approximately 30 kilobases, and is Baltimore class IV positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus. Four structural proteins are encoded in the RNA, spike (S) protein, envelope (E) protein, membrane (M) protein, and nucleocapsid (N) protein. Betacoronaviruses are spherical or pleomorphic in shape having an average diameter of about 125 nm.
On Feb. 4, 2020, the Human Health and Services Secretary determined that there was a public health emergency and therefore emergency use authorization (EUA) would be put into place for in vitro diagnostics for the detection and/or diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2. The FDA's EUA templates require only analytic sensitivity and specificity of analysis. Analytical sensitivity is the smallest amount of substance in a sample that can be reliably detected by an assay (limit of detection) while analytical specificity is the assay's ability to detect only the desired substance without cross reacting with other substances. The Food and Drug Administration requires 95% positive and negative agreement with a reference sample for a laboratory-developed test to be acceptable in a molecular diagnostic for a pathogen, such as SARS-CoV-2. These parameters do not necessarily result in an equivalent clinical sensitivity and specificity. Indeed, many clinically false positives and negatives are being uncovered with currently employed SARS-CoV-2 detection tests. Over 45 commercial COVID-19 test kits, and 10-laboratory developed tests had received FDA EUA approval by Apr. 24, 2020.
Molecular tests for SARS-CoV-2 presently are primarily based on reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) on cell-free fluid samples of respiratory tract specimens. RT-PCR analysis involves the reverse transcription of SARS-CoV-2 RNA into complementary DNA (cDNA) strands, followed by amplification of specific regions of the cDNA. The CDC test presently available measures the rate of florescent signal accumulation as a surrogate for direct nucleic acid determination. The gene target for the US CDC, National Institute of Infectious Diseases Japan, and the National Institute of Health, Thailand is the N gene, while the China CDC looks at a combination of ORFlab and the Ngene.
Other less widely used techniques are also available.
Immunofluorescence assays make use of fluorescently tagged antiviral antibodies to detect viral antigens, with the amount of binding of the antibody being directly correlated with the amount of florescence produced. Nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2 has been detected by fluorescence immunochromatography. See, Diao, et al., Diagnosis of Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection by Detection of Nucleocapsid Protein, medRxiv preprint Mar. 13, 2020 at https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.07.20032524.
Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) are also used for detection of SARS-CoV-2. In such testing antibodies specific to viral antigens are bound to a plastic surface and the sample overlaid. If the sample contains viral antigens it results in a positive reaction detectable by the marker changing color when an appropriate solution is added. Antibodies of SARS-CoV-2 that have been used in ELISA detection kits include spike antibody, envelope antibody, membrane antibody and nucleocapsid antibody.
Other biological techniques that are in development include molecularly imprinted polymer-based detection, aptamer-based detection, and CRISPR-Cas 12-based lateral flow detection of RNA extracts of SARS-CoV-2. Broughton, et al., CRISPR-Cas12 based detection of SARS-CoV2, Nature Biotechnology 38, 870-874 (Apr. 16, 2020). The CRISPR-Case 12 assay performs simultaneous reverse transcription and isothermal amplification using loop-mediated amplification (RT-LAMP) for RNA extracted from samples followed by Cas12 detection of predefined coronavirus sequences, after which cleavage of a reporter molecule confirms detection of the virus.
Mass spectrometry (MS) is a sensitive technique used to detect, identify and quantitate molecules based on their mass-to-charge (m/z) ratio. Originally developed almost 100 years ago to measure elemental atomic weights and the natural abundance of specific isotopes, MS was first used in the biological sciences to trace heavy isotopes through biological systems. In later years, MS was used to sequence oligonucleotides and peptides and analyze nucleotide structure.
MS has been used for the identification of peptides. Peptide mass fingerprinting is performed by using the masses of proteolytic peptides to search a database of predicted masses that should arise from the digestion of certain proteins. Mass spectrometry of proteins requires that proteins in solution or solid state be turned into an ionized form in a gas phase before injection and acceleration in the electric or magnetic field for analysis. Two primary methods of protein ionization are used, that is, electronspray ionization (ESI) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI).
Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) is frequently used in peptide and protein analysis. See, Trauger et al., Peptide and protein analysis with mass spectrometry, Spectroscopy 16: 15-28 (2002). In such approach, distinct ions of interest are in a quadrupole filter based on their m/z during the first round of MS and are fragmented by a number of different dissociation methods (such as colliding the ions with a stream of inert gas, also known as collision-induced dissociation (CID) or higher energy collision dissociation (HCD), or electron-transfer dissociation (ETD) and electron-capture dissociation (ECD)). In the second round of MS, the fragments are separated based on their individual m/z ratios. Comparison of the spectra is made to patterns stored in databases such as IPI, REfSeq and UniProtKB/Swiss-prot. The most widely used instrument for peptide mass analysis are the MALDI-TOF instruments as they permit the acquisition of peptide mass fingerprints (PMFs) at a high pace. The sensitivity of current mass spectrometers allows one to detect analytes at concentrations in the attomolar range (10-18).
Before MS identification can be performed peptides must be separated from one another to allow for single peptide analysis. Preparation includes removal of detergents and reduction in the complexity of the sample by, for example, lysate preparation and protein digestion. Proper sample preparation is critical for MS analysis, because the quality and reproducibility of sample extraction and preparation significantly impact results from MS instruments.
Gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC) are common methods of pre-mass spectrometry separation. With LC-MS, electron spray ionization (ESI) is commonly applied, resulting in the production of aerosolized ions. On the other hand with GC-MS, the sample may be ionized directly or indirectly via ESI. The development of macromolecule ionization methods, including electrospray ionization (ESI) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI), enabled the study of protein structure by MS.
Typically a sample is digested with proteolytic enzyme resulting in a complex mixture of proteins. Next, the digested sample is chromatographically separated in one or multiple dimensions and introduced to the mass spectrometer, for example, by nanoflow high-performance liquid chromatography (nHPLC) column integrated directly to an ESI source on the mass spectrometer. The ESI source then converts condensed phase ions eluting from the HPLC column, to multiply protonated molecules in the gas phase.
High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is likely the most common separation method to study biological samples by MS or MS/MS (termed LC-MS or LC-MS/MS, respectively), because the majority of biological samples are liquid and nonvolatile. LC columns have small diameters (e.g., 75 μm; nanoHPLC) and low flow rates (e.g., 200 nL/min), which are ideal for minute samples. Additionally, "in-line" liquid chromatography (LC linked directly to MS) provides a high-throughput approach to sample analysis, enabling the elution of multiple analytes through the column at different rates to be immediately analyzed by MS. For example, 1 to 5 peptides in a complex biological mixture can be sequenced per second by in-line LC-MS/MS.
All mass spectrometers have an ion source, a mass analyzer and an ion detector. Samples are loaded into the mass spectrometer in liquid, gas or dried form and then vaporized and ionized by the ion source (e.g., APCI, DART, ESI).
The charge on the molecules by the ionizer allows the mass spectrometer to accelerate the ions through the remainder of the system. Ions come into contact with electric and/or magnetic fields from the mass analyzer deflecting the ions based on their m/z. Commonly employed mass analyzers include ion traps, orbitraps, time-of-flight (TOF), and quadrupoles. The ions that have successfully been deflected by the mass analyzer then hits the ion detector. The mass spectrometer then records the mass/charge (m/z) of each peptide ion and then selects the peptide ions individually to obtain sequence information via, for example, MS/MS. Conventionally the process is performed under an extreme vacuum of 10−6 to 10−8 torr to remove gas molecules and neutral and contaminating non-sample ions. Mass spectrometers are connected to computer-based software platforms that measure ion oscillation frequencies and acquire mass spectra using image current detection. Data analysis programs detect ions and organize them by their individual m/z values and relative abundance. These ions can then be identified via established databases that predict the identity of the molecule based on its m/z value.
While RT-qPCR tests are still consider the gold standard of testing for SARS-CoV-2 infectivity, a number of researchers have reported both false positives and negatives when automated full DNA sequencing is not used. The CDC RT-qPCR assay panel uses TaqMan probes to bind to only 2 or 3 target nucleotide sequences if such are present in the sample. The probes are labeled with a fluorescent dye reporter at the 5′ end and a quencher at the 3′ end. The 5′-3′ exonuclease activity of Taq polymerase is used to cleave and degrade the dual-labeled probes which have annealed to the complementary target sequences during hybridization. Degradation of the probe releases the fluorophore from it and breaks its proximity to the quencher, thus relieving the quenching effect and allowing fluorescence of the fluorophore.
In an article by Sin Hang Lee, Test for SARS in cellular components by routine nested RT-PCR followed by DNA Sequencing, Int. J. Ger. & Rehab. 2(1):69-96 (Jul. 17, 2020), the author found that 10 samples out of 20 samples classified as negative, 2 were actually positive when a 398-bp hemi-nested PCR amplicon was used as a template for direct DNA sequencing (each patient was found to have a novel single nucleotide insertion in the N gene). Likewise, out of the 10 originally classified as positive, three were found to be actually negative (that is, a 30% false positive rate and a 20% false negative rate). Yang et al., Viral RNA level, serum antibody responses, and transmission risk in discharged COVID-19 patients with recurrent positive SARS-CoV-2 RNA test results: a population-based observational cohort study, medRXiv Jul. 26, 2020, doi: https//doi.prg/10.1101/2020.07.21.20125138, attribute false positives as being due to the presence of low levels of viral RNA fragments and not the shedding of infectious virus particles.
No mass spectrometry test method for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis has yet received EUA approval. However, the detection of SARS-CoV-2 by mass spectroscopy has been recently proposed by a few groups. See, Cardozo, et al., Fast and low-cost Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Peptides by Tandem Mass Spectrometry in Clinical Samples, May 17, 2020 Research Square DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-28883/v1; Nikolaev, et al., Mass Spectrometric Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Virus in Scrapings of the Epithelium of the Nasopharynx of Infected Patients Via Nucleocapsid N Protein, bioRxIV preprint, at https//doi.org/10.1101/2020, 05.24.113043, posted May 25, 2020; Ihling et al., Mass Spectrometric Identification of SARS-CoV-2 Proteins from Gargle Solution Samples of COVID-19 Patients, Proteome, Jun. 22, 2020 at https://dx.doi.org/10.1021.acs.jproteome.0C00280; Gouveia et al., Proteotyping SARS-CoV-2 Virus from Nasopharyngeal Swabs: A Proof-of-Concepts Focused on a 3 Min Mass Spectrometry Window, Jul. 22, 2020 at https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.0c00535.
The present inventors have noted a deficiency in each proposed mass spectrometry system reported to date in that each depends on analysis of samples from a single corporal source situs. Three of such proposed analysis systems use only samples from the nasopharynx region of the body, while one uses a gargle sample obtained by swishing the liquid through the whole mouth and gargling the same.
The present inventors note that antigens associated with a specific pathogen may or may not be detectable in different biological samples obtained from different corporal sources, such as blood, urine, sweat, saliva or nasal secretions, at any particular time point. They have recognized that clinically false positive and negatives can be dramatically reduced by testing for a pathogen, particularly SARS-CoV-2, by analyzing concurrently multiple distinct corporally obtained samples known to be associated with a prominent situs of pathogen entry and/or exit. They set forth herein a method of collecting and processing multiple samples obtained from clinically distinct sites in the body in conjunction with one another and in the concomitant preparation of the peptide libraries for mass spectrometry analysis.
Wang et al., Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Different Types of Clinical Specimens, JAMA 323(18):1843-1844 (May 12, 2020 published on line Mar. 11, 2020) report that in a study of 1070 specimens collected from 205 patients with COVID-19, dramatic differences were seen in positive rates of infectivity based on rRT-PCR (targeting the open reading frame lab gene) depending on the biological sample analyzed. While bronchioalveolar lavage fluid specimens were found to elicit a positive result in 93 percent of patients from which such samples were taken (14), sputum elicited a positive response in 72% of patients (72 out of 105), and nasal swabs elicited a positive response in 63% of patients (5 out of 8), all other samples taken from other bodily sites provided less than 50% positivity—biobronchoscope brush biopsy (46%: 6 out of 13), pharyngeal swabs (32%—126 out of 398), feces (29%—44 out of 152), blood (1%—3 out of 307) and urine (0%—out of 72 tested). In another study performed at a different hospital (Guangzhou Medical University), looking at 16 critically ill patients with COVID-19 (using a RT-PCR assay looking at two target genes, ORFlab (open reading frame lab) and N (nucleocapsid protein)), the authors found throat swabs to demonstrate 63% positivity ( 10/16), nasal swabs to provide for 80% positivity ( 13/16) and sputum/endotracheal aspirate (ETA) 100% positivity, while each of urine, blood, conjunctival, and anal swabs showed less than 50% positivity.
The present inventors have recognized that in regard to SARS-CoV-2 false negatives may be a result of limiting analysis to only samples sourced from one clinical site within the human body as the duration of shedding from different clinically different bodily sites may be significantly different from one another. They note that in a study by 30 patients by Wang et al., Differences of SARS-CoV-2 Shedding Duration in Sputum and Nasopharyngeal Swab Specimens Among Adult Inpatients with COVID-19, Chest prepublication Jul. 3, 2020, 2-9, that 14 patients who were positive for SARS-CoV2-RNA (using rRT-PCR assay as well as antibody detection) did not demonstrate positivity in both nasopharyngeal samples (NPS) and sputum (SP) samples, but rather only in one or the other samples. Furthermore, in the 16 cases wherein positivity was noted both in NPS and SP samples, nine patients had positive testing for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the sputum after NPS turned negative, six patients had positive sputum before NPS turned negative, and one patient had positive sputum on the day when NPS turned negative. In short, the study found that median duration of SARS-CoV-2 from sputum was significantly longer than from NPS. As noted by the present inventors all patients would have been found positive over the analysis period if testing was performed on samples from each clinically separate bodily sample (that is, NPS and SP).
The present inventors have recognized that nucleoprotein fingerprinting has a number of advantages over nucleic acid detection techniques, in particular sequencing that using less than 398-bp hemi-nested PCR amplicon as template for direct DNA sequencing. First, nucleoprotein MS sequencing does not employ amplification. With rRT-PCR small samples of nucleic acid residues may be found to be indicative of an active viral infection via amplification when such are just by product of a prior infection. Nucleoprotein concentration will naturally reduce when an infection is complete and a negative finding of the same means the infection has passed. Second nucleoprotein fingerprinting is robust in that many peptide fragments may be monitored for at the same time. By using samples from biological locations with distinct nucleoprotein profiles, such as seen in saliva and the nasopharynx, one can get a much better understanding of whether the viral disease is active or not. Lastly, the present inventors note that nucleoprotein fingerprinting holds a further advantage in that nucleoproteins transport also does not require dry ice shipment as associated with non-dried or pretreated RNA samples for analysis. In fact, they are generally stable at room temperature.
Saliva means the clear slightly alkaline liquid secreted into the mouth by the salivary glands and mucous glands, and consists of water, mucin, protein and enzymes. Sputum on the other hand means matter coughed up and expectorated from the mouth, and comprises both saliva and discharges from the respiratory passages such as mucus, phlegm or pus. The mean value of the RESID plus volume normally swallowed in males is about 1.2 ml and females 0.96 ml. Therefore sample containers should have the ability to hold somewhere between 0-5 ml of saliva. See, Lagerlof et al., The volume of saliva in the mouth before and after swallowing, J. Dent. Res. 63(5): 618-21 (1984).
The present inventors have recognized that saliva and sputum have many of the same nucleoproteins of SARS-CoV-2 in them. The importance of the same is that saliva is generally much easier to garner from patients. It is reported by at least one group that 72% of COVID-19 patients were not able to produce sputum for collection. Huang et al., Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Lancet 395:497-506 (2020). The salivary gland is believed to be a reservoir harboring the latent infection. In fact, it has been shown that ACE2 epithelial cells of the salivary glands can be the initial target for SARS-CoV in rhesus monkeys. Liu et al., Epithelial cells lining salivary gland ducts are early target cells of severe acute respiratory tracts of rhesus macaques. J. Virol. 85: 4025-30 (2011).
Studies have shown that saliva at least in regard to RNA detection is somewhat lower in sensitivity than nasopharyngeal swabs. Jamal, et al., Sensitivity of nasopharyngeal swabs and saliva for the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), medRxiv, May 5, 2020 at https://doi.org/10.110/2020.05.01.20081026, report a sensitivity of about 89% for nasopharyngeal swab detection, with 72% for saliva based on 91 patients (indicating NP swabs being 17% more sensitive than saliva at the time point measured—with only 6% difference at week 1 and a 20% difference at week 2 or later). Azzi et al., Saliva is a reliable tool to detect SARS-CoV-2, J. Infect. PubMed PMID:32298676 (Apr. 14, 2020), on the other hand, found among 76 patients with 10 patients having COVID-19 that the concordance rate between both samples was about 97% again using RT-qPCR.
The present inventors have recognized that in mixing samples obtained from the nasopharynx and those from saliva, that the mixed sample provides significantly better clinical detection of SARS-CoV-2 infectivity than analysis of either sample alone, significantly reducing false negatives. They have also recognized that false negatives can be reduced by mixing further samples wherein SARS-COV-2 has been found to be prominent in the sample, such as bronchioalveolar lavage fluid or throat swab. On the other hand, the use of protein analysis via mass spectrometry greatly reduces false positives seen in RT-PCR due to amplification of residual RNA that is associated with dead viral components. The inventors have also recognized false positives may also be reduced when positive/negative findings of peptides of prominent active infection in two different clinical samples do not correlate. In such case, re-running analysis may further reduce false positives.

Method for reducing clinical false positives and negatives in the detection of SARS-CoV-2


A mobile device and associated methods are disclosed that allow a mobile device subject to a communication restriction from a wireless network to respond to a priority call. If a call in the wireless network is destined for the mobile device, then the mobile device receives a paging request message for the call from the wireless network. The mobile device then determines if the call is a priority call. If the call is a priority call, then the mobile device determines that it is exempt from the communication restriction. The mobile device may be exempt for this particular call, for a defined time period, etc. The mobile device may then transmit a response message to the wireless network to initiate the setup of the priority call to the mobile device.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to the field of communications, and in particular, to allow a mobile device that is subject to a communication restriction to respond to a priority call.
2. Statement of the Problem
Wireless networks have integrated methods of issuing communication restrictions to control the network flow during special circumstances, such as a network malfunction, overload, or at other times when the performance of the network is jeopardized. A communication restriction when applied to a mobile device of a wireless network restricts its ability to initiate or respond to network communications to connect a call. One example of a communication restriction is the access class barring technique used by Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and other compatible communication service providers. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; Service accessibility (Release 7) document discusses this in Chapter 4, Access Control (3GPP TS 22.011 V7.1.0, found at www.3gpp.org). The specification allocates a set of access classes and requires that a GSM compatible mobile device be a member of at least one access class. A mobile device is under a communication restriction/access class bar when the mobile device receives an access control restriction broadcast by the wireless network which contains the access class for the mobile device. While the GSM compatible mobile device is subject to an access class bar the mobile device will continue to receive and monitor paging requests from the wireless network. However, the mobile device is prohibited from responding to a paging request and cannot make or receive a call. The wireless network will continue to monitor the network traffic and as the situation improves the wireless network will take steps to remove the communication restrictions.
The special circumstances resulting in the use of a communication restriction are varied. A malfunction caused by component failure, physical damage to the network, or other electro-mechanical failure may result in a need to restrict network traffic. An overload can be caused by something as simple as a shopping mall around the holiday season or as complex as an emergency situation, but in any case is caused by a large number of users in a particular area concurrently attempting to place phone calls. Whether malfunction or overload, users are subject to a communication restriction and cannot make or receive calls.
At the same time the need to provide individuals and organizations who respond to man-made and natural disasters with priority communication has long been recognized. Priority services are made available to authorized government, emergency and other key personnel so that in times of network congestion priority calls can be placed. Priority calls receive specialized processing from the wireless network to assure that each priority call is connected over the next available channel. By doing so both the expediency and probability of establishing a connection with crucial personnel is much improved. One example of a priority service is Wireless Priority Services (WPS). WPS is an enhancement to wireless communication services that provides for National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NS/EP) calls. Another example is Government Emergency Telecommunications System (GETS). GETS is for primarily handling landline initiated priority calls. WPS and GETS are complementary to each other and both use the same NS/EP protocol to initiate a priority call. WPS and GETS are discussed as just two examples of priority services.
Thus, a potential conflict may occur between communication restrictions and priority services. As an example, a wireless network may be congested as users close to an emergency initiate calls, thereby causing the network to invoke communication restrictions. But at the same time authorized personnel (i.e., priority service users) may be attempting to contact a public service user who may be close to the same incident by using a priority service. This situation would cause the mobile device being used by the public service user to restrict communication such that the public service user could not respond to the priority call in a timely manner.

Mobile device subject to a communication restriction responding to a priority call


An automatic adjustment delay technique for a simulcast of a paging system includes: a reference clock supplying unit for supplying a synchronization signal used as a reference clock, a page data transmission board installed within the paging system for receiving the page data and transmitting the page data in synchronism with the reference clock supplied from the reference clock supplying unit, a plurality of transmission lines and transmission facilities installed between respective base stations and the page data transmission board for transmitting the page data to the base stations, and respective transmitters installed within the respective base stations for receiving the page data transmitted via the transmission lines and transmission facilities and for externally transmitting the page data in synchronism with the reference clock generated by the reference clock supplying unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a simulcast technique which can prevent the reception ratio from being lowered due to a phase difference of signals generated by data transmission time differences from a base station at a signal overlapping area between base stations in a paging system having a plurality of base stations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in an earlier paging system, as shown in FIG. 1, page data is transmitted from a paging system 10 to transmitters 24 and 26 of base stations 20 and 22 connected via transmission lines 12 and 14 and transmission equipment 16 and 18, time delays between the transmission lines 12 and 14 and transmission equipment are generated. The deviation in the time delay depends on the characteristics of various respective equipment, and the time delay becomes different depending on the number of transmission equipment and the length of the transmission line. Because of the time delay, a plurality of transmitters 24 and 26, contained within a plurality of base stations, have a time deviation for each transmission time so as to generate the overlapping area of signals generated by the transmitters 24 and 26 of the respective base stations 20 and 22, as shown in FIG. 2. The signals received from the overlapping area 28 exhibit a phase difference between two signals received from a first base station and a second base station, as shown in FIG. 3. A signal distortion is generated at the overlapping area of two signals different in their phases, thereby lowering the reception ratio of a pager receiver 25.
An earlier technique for solving the problem that the reception rate is lowered at the overlapping area will now be described with reference to FIG. 4. First, a main transmission line 12 for transmitting page data and first and second reserve lines 32 and 34 are connected between a line delay time measuring device 30 installed within a paging system 10 and a line switching unit 46 installed within a first base station 20. The line switching unit 46 is controlled by a base station controller 44 installed in the first base station 20. The line delay time measuring device 30 transmits a command to the base station controller 44 so that loops between the main transmission line 12 and first reserve line 32 and between the main transmission line 12 and second reserve line 32 are connected, and then transmits predetermined data to measure each loop delay time. A method of calculating the measured loop delay time is explained as follows. Assuming that the loop delay time T.sub.XY between the main transmission line 12 and first reserve line 32 is 2000 .mu.sec, the loop delay time T.sub.XZ between the main transmission line 12 and second reserve line 34 is 2500 .mu.sec, and the loop delay time T.sub.YZ between the first reserve line 32 and second reserve line 34 is 2200 .mu.sec, the delay time T.sub.X of the main transmission line 12 will be calculated as follows. EQU T.sub.XY =T.sub.X +T.sub.Y ( 1) EQU T.sub.XZ =T.sub.X +T.sub.Z ( 2) EQU T.sub.YZ =T.sub.Y +T.sub.Z ( 3)
Now, T.sub.X is obtained by manipulating the above noted simultaneous equations. ##EQU1##
It has been my observation that these types of systems inherently delay transmission of data. By way of explanation, T.sub.X is the delay time from the paging system 10 of the main transmission line 12 to the first base station 20, T.sub.Y is the delay time from the paging system 10 of the first reserve line 32 to the first base station 20, and T.sub.Z is the delay time from the paging system 10 of the second reserve line 34 to the first base station 20. As described above, the respective delay times from the main transmission line 12 to the plurality of base stations 20 are measured and then a reference value is set. Since the remainder obtained by subtracting the respective delay times from the reference value is the time delayed by the transmitters, all of the base stations can simultaneously transmit data. Therefore, in the case of three base stations, it is assumed that the delay time from the paging system 10 to a first base station is 2500 .mu.sec, the delay time from the paging system to a second base station is 3000 .mu.sec, the delay time from the paging system to a third first base station is 3500 .mu.sec, and the reference value is set to 5000 .mu.sec, the delay time of the transmitter of the first base station becomes 5000-2500=2000(.mu.sec),the delay time of the transmitter of the second base station becomes 5000-3000=2000(.mu.sec), and the delay time of the transmitter of the third base station becomes 5000-3500=1500(.mu.sec). In accordance my observation, it is demonstrated therefore, that since the data is delayed constantly, i.e., by 5000.mu.sec, to be transmitted from the paging system, irrespective of the delays of the transmission lines, the transmitters of the base stations can transmit data simultaneously.
I have found however, that according to such technology, a separate line delay time measuring device must be provided within the paging system to calculate the loss generated between the respective lines and transmitters. Also, a predetermined reference value is set and a delay time given in transmitting page data corresponding to the reference value. Thus, complex operations for calculating every transmission loss must be performed.
I have also found that, when the page data is transmitted from the paging system to base stations, the transmission loss is different for respective base stations. Thus, even if delay time is given using reserve lines, based on a reference loss, the transmission delay is not constant.
The following patents each disclose adjustment techniques for simulcast arrangements in paging systems but do not teach or suggest the specifically recited features of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,808 to Witsaman, et al. entitled Apparatus For Synchronizing A Plurality Of Clocks In A Simulcast Network To A Reference Clock. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,481,258 to Fawcett, et al. Entitled Method And Apparatus For Coordinating Clocks In A Simulcast Network. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,701 to Ichikawa entitled Radio Paging System Having A Plurality Of Transmitter Stations. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,239,671 to Linquist, et al. entitled Simulcast Satellite Paging System With Provision For Signal Interruption. PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,665 to Linquist, et al. entitled Simulcast Satellite paging System With Over Lapping Paging Reception Locales.

Automatic adjustment delay technique for simulcast of paging system


Provided is a control unit (1) for an internal combustion engine (10) including a direct injector (11) directly injecting fuel into a cylinder (20) and a port injector (12) injecting fuel into an intake port (17). The control unit (1) includes an injection volume calculator (5) to calculate a volume of the fuel injected from the direct injector (11), a port injection controller (2) to control a volume of the fuel injected from the port injector (12), an overlap period controller (4) to control an overlap period during which both an intake valve (27) and an exhaust valve (28) are open, and a changer (6) to vary both the volume of the port injection from the port injector (12) and the overlap period based on the volume of the direct injection.

Some conventional engines (internal combustion engines) have two parallel modes of cylinder injection (direct injection (DI)) and port injection. The engines achieve homogeneous combustion in the cylinder having a uniform concentration distribution of air-fuel mixture therein, and stratified combustion in the cylinder containing a dense air-fuel mixture concentrated around a spark plug in a layered form.
The typical fuel injection control mainly involves the port injection during the homogeneous combustion, and the direct injection during the stratified combustion. The selection of an appropriate fuel injection mode depending on the operating state of an engine and the load thereon can improve the fuel economy while maintaining the output of the engine and combustion stability.
In some of the engines, the period of opening of the intake valve overlaps with that of the exhaust valve to improve the efficiency of scavenging the exhaust air from the cylinder and the efficiency of air intake. In particular, an engine including a turbocharger in its intake and exhaust system can improve in the charging efficiency and engine output by increasing the valve overlap (overlap period). This prompts the development of techniques to vary the timings of opening and closure of the intake and exhaust valves of the engine, to control the valve overlap in response to parameters such as the engine load.
The increased valve overlap, however, causes blow-by more often, which means that the intake air introduced from the intake path directly flows into the exhaust path. Then, the engine in the port injection mode, which injects the fuel into the intake system, makes a flow of the fuel passing through the cylinder to the exhaust path. This phenomenon may impair the engine output and environmental performance.
To solve the above problem, techniques have been disclosed for preventing the blow-by of fuel by regulating the volume of fuel of the port injection. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a control to determine whether the current operating state causes blow-by of fuel and inhibit the port injection in response to the results of determination. The determination depends on the intake pressure, the exhaust pressure, and the number of revolutions of the engine (the engine speed). The control based on such determination can regulate blow-by of fuel caused by the valve overlap.

Control unit for internal combustion engine

Mitsubishi Jisdosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha


An induction tool includes a conductive mandrel; at least one array including a transmitter, a bucking coil, and a receiver disposed in an insulating tool body surrounding the conductive mandrel; and an electrode disposed on the insulating tool body at a selected location between the bucking coil and the receiver, wherein the selected location is spaced from the transmitter at a distance corresponding approximately to the harmonic mean of the distance between the transmitter and the bucking coil and the distance between the transmitter and the receiver, and wherein the electrode includes a contact forming a conductive path to the conductive mandrel. Additional electrodes may be disposed above and below each transmitter and receiver coil to reduce sensitivity to eccentricity of the tool in the borehole.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to techniques for formation resistivity logging using induction tools. More particularly, the invention relates to induction tools and methods for reducing borehole effects in resistivity measurements.
2. Background Art
Electromagnetic (EM) induction tools are used in the oil and gas industry to determine the resistivity of earth formations surrounding a borehole. Induction tools work by using a transmitting coil (transmitter) to set up an alternating magnetic field in the earth formations. This alternating magnetic field induces eddy currents in the formations. One or more receiving coils (receivers), disposed at a distance from the transmitter, are used to detect the current flowing in the earth formation. The magnitudes of the received signals are approximately proportional to the formation conductivity. Therefore, formation conductivities may be derived from the received signals.
Conventional wireline and LWD EM induction tools are implemented with coils (antennas) that may function as sources and/or sensors. On wireline EM induction tools, the antennas are typically enclosed by a housing (or tool body) constructed of a tough plastic (insulating) material, e.g., a laminated fiberglass material impregnated with epoxy resin. On LWD EM induction tools, the antennas are generally mounted on metallic supports (collars) to withstand the hash environments encountered during drilling.
On both wireline and LWD induction tools, the antennas are typically spaced apart from each other along the axis of the tool. These antennas are generally coils of the solenoid type that comprise one or more turns of insulated conductor wire wound around a support. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,873,488 and 5,235,285 (both assigned to the present assignee), for example, disclose instruments equipped with antennas disposed along a central metallic support (a conductive mandrel).
A coil (or antenna) carrying a current can be represented as a magnetic moment proportional to the current and the area. The direction and magnitude of the magnetic moment can be represented by a vector perpendicular to the plane of the coil. In conventional induction and propagation logging instruments, the transmitter and receiver antennas are mounted with their magnetic moments aligned with the longitudinal axis of the instruments. That is, these instruments have longitudinal magnetic dipoles (LMD). When an LMD tool is placed in a borehole and energized to transmit EM energy, the induced eddy currents flow in loops around the antenna in the borehole and in the surrounding formation. These eddy currents flow in planes that are perpendicular to the tool axis (hence, borehole axis). Therefore, no eddy current flows up or down the borehole when the tool is centralized in the borehole.
An emerging technique in the field of EM induction well logging is the use of instruments incorporating antennas having tilted or transverse antennas, i.e., the magnetic dipoles of the antennas are tilted or perpendicular to the tool axis. That is, these instruments have transverse or tilted magnetic dipoles (TMD). These TMD instruments can induce eddy currents that flow up and down the borehole and, thus, provide measurements that are sensitive to dipping planes, formation fractures, or formation anisotropy. Modern induction tools typically include triaxial arrays, in which the transmitter and receivers may each comprise three coils arranged in different orientations (typically in orthogonal directions). Two of the coils in a triaxial transmitter or receiver may be TMD antennas. Logging instruments equipped with TMDs are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,319,191, 5,508,616, 5,757,191, 5,781,436, 6,044,325, and 6,147,496.
While the TMD tools (including triaxial tools) are capable of providing additional information about the formation resistivity, these tools are more strongly affected by the borehole, particularly in high contrast situations, i.e., when the mud in the borehole is more conductive than the formation. When a TMD tool is energized at the center of a borehole (shown as 20 in FIG. 1a), it can induce eddy currents flowing up and down the borehole. However, due to the symmetry, the up and down currents cancel out and there is no net current flowing up or down the borehole. When a TMD tool is eccentered, the symmetry may disappear. If the TMD tool is eccentered in a direction parallel to the direction of the magnetic dipole of its antenna (shown as 22 in FIG. 1a), the symmetry with respect to the antenna is maintained and there is still no net current flowing along the borehole axis, when the antenna is energized. However, if a TMD is eccentered in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic dipole of its antenna (shown as 21 in FIG. 1a), the symmetry no longer exists and there will be net currents flowing up or down the borehole, when the antenna is energized. In high contrast situations (i.e., conductive mud and resistive formation), the borehole currents can flow a long distance along the borehole. The current flow in the formation will also be asymmetric in this case. These asymmetric currents induce undesired signals in the TMD receivers that can be many times larger than the expected signals from the formation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,041,975 (assigned to the present assignee) discloses a technique for processing data from downhole measurements to correct for borehole effects. U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,077 discloses a technique for processing downhole sensor data to compensate for the effect of eccentric rotation on the sensor while drilling. U.S. Pat. No. 6,541,979 (assigned to the present assignee) discloses techniques for reducing the effect of borehole eccentricity, using mathematical corrections for the borehole currents effects.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,573,722 (assigned to the present assignee) discloses methods to reduce the effect of tool eccentricity in the borehole by minimizing the borehole currents passing the TMD antennas. This patent is hereby incorporated by reference. In one embodiment, an electrode located below the TMD antenna is hard-wired to another electrode located above the TMD antenna to provide a conductive path behind the TMD antenna. This additional conductive path reduces the amount of borehole currents passing in front of the TMD antenna, and thus minimizes the undesirable effects. In another embodiment, a tool is disclosed that generates a localized current in the borehole (between the two electrodes located on either side of a TMD antenna) that counteracts or cancels out the undesirable borehole currents. Further examples of methods and apparatus for reducing the borehole current effects include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,573,722 B2, 6,624,634 B2, 6,693,430 B2, 6,680,613 B2, 6,710,601 B2, all of which are issued to Rosthal et al. and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and published U.S. Patent Applications Ser. Nos. 2003/0146753 A1 and 2003/0155924 A1, both of which are by Rosthal et al. and assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
While these prior art methods are effective in reducing borehole effects on induction tools, there remains a need for further improvements in the design of induction tools that are less affected by tool eccentricity in the borehole. Experimental studies showed that the strategy of canceling current flow up and down the borehole did not give satisfactory performance. Large electrodes can produce a temperature-dependent error signal, so it is preferable to use small electrodes.

Induction measurements with reduced borehole effects


Aspects of a method and system for controlling data distribution via cellular communications with an integrated femtocell and set-top-box (IFSTB) device are provided. In this regard, a cellular enabled communication device may detect when it is within cellular communication range of a femtocell. Upon detection of the femtocell, the cellular enabled communication device may communicate instructions to a content source instructing the content source to deliver multimedia content to the femtocell. In instances that multimedia content is already being delivered to the cellular enabled communication device prior to the detection, the instructions from the cellular enabled communication device may instruct the content source to redirect the multimedia content to the femtocell. In this regard, the multimedia content may be delivered from the content source to the cellular enabled communication device via the femtocell. The femtocell may deliver at least a portion of the multimedia content to other communication devices.

A femtocell may be placed in a customer's residence or in a small business environment, for example. Femtocells may be utilized for off-loading macro radio network facilities, improving coverage locally in a cost-effective manner, and/or implementing home-zone services to increase revenue. Femtocells, like macro base stations, may be enabled to connect "standard" phones to a cellular provider's network by a physical broadband connection which may be a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection and/or a cable connection, for example. Since the traffic between a customer's premises femtocell equipment and the operator's network may be traversing a public network, the traffic may be prone to various risks.
Communication between femtocells and one or more cellular provider's networks enables operation in private and public areas. The capacity of a femtocell may be adequate to address a typical family use model supporting two to four simultaneous voice calls and/or data, for example.
An important characteristic of femtocells is their ability to control access. In an open access scenario, any terminal and/or subscriber may be allowed to communicate with the femtocell. Accordingly, the femtocell usage may somewhat resemble that of a macrocellular system. In a closed access scenario, the femtocell may serve a limited number of terminals and/or subscribers that may be subscribed to a given cellular base station. In this regard, the cellular base station may be perceived as being deployed for private usage.
A regulatory issue with regard to femtocells is that they use licensed frequencies that radiate at a very low power in a controlled environment. It may be likely that they may not require a license from a local authority, as macrocellular base stations do. An additional regulatory issue may arise from the relationship between a femtocell operator and a broadband services operator. One possible scenario may include the broadband operator being unaware of the existence of a femtocell operator. Conversely, the broadband operator and femtocell operator may have an agreement or they may be the same operator, for example. Interference between femtocells may be an issue for femtocell deployments based on wideband technologies such as WCDMA, for example, because initial operator deployments may use the same frequency for both the femtocell and the macrocellular networks or due to the proximity of femtocell base stations in dense urban areas.
There are a plurality of design models for deployment and integration of femtocells, for example, an IP based lu-b interface, a session initiation protocol (SIP) based approach using an lu/A interface, use of unlicensed spectrum in a technique known as unlicensed mobile access (UMA) and/or use of IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) voice call continuity (VCC), for example.
In an lu-b model based femtocell deployment approach, femtocells may be fully integrated into the wireless carrier's network and may be treated like any other remote node in a network. The lu-b protocol may have a plurality of responsibilities, such as the management of common channels, common resources, and radio links along with configuration management, including cell configuration management, measurement handling and control, time division duplex (TDD) synchronization, and/or error reporting, for example. In lu-b configurations, mobile devices may access the network and its services via the Node B link, and femtocells may be treated as traditional base stations.
In a SIP based femtocell deployment approach, a SIP client, embedded in the femtocell may be enabled to utilize SIP to communicate with the SIP-enabled mobile switching center (MSC). The MSC may perform the operational translation between the IP SIP network and the traditional mobile network, for example.
In a UMA based femtocell deployment approach, a generic access network (GAN) may offer an alternative way to access GSM and GPRS core network services over broadband. To support this approach, a UMA Network Controller (UNC) and protocols that guarantee secure transport of signaling and user traffic over IP may be utilized. The UNC may be enabled to interface into a core network via existing 3GPP interfaces, for example, to support core network integration of femtocell based services by delivering a standards based, scalable IP interface for mobile core networks.
In an IMS VCC based femtocell deployment approach, VCC may provide for a network design that may extend an IMS network to include cellular coverage and address the handoff process. The IMS VCC may be designed to provide seamless call continuity between cellular networks and any network that supports VoIP, for example. The VCC may also provide for interoperability between GSM, UMTS, and CDMA cellular networks and any IP capable wireless access network, for example. The IMS VCC may also support the use of a single phone number or SIP identity and may offer a broad collection of functional advantages, for example, support for multiple markets and market segments, provisioning of enhanced IMS multimedia services, including greater service personalization and control, seamless handoff between circuit-switched and IMS networks, and/or access to services from any IP device.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and system for controlling data distribution via cellular communications utilizing an integrated femtocell and set-top-box device


A clock modulator can include two configurable delay units and can receive a baseband signal and a clock signal. The two configurable delay units can generate two delayed clock signals, each with different delay amounts. The delay amounts can be based on the baseband signal. The delayed clock signals can be combined to generate a modulated clock signal. A quadrature modulated clock signal can be generated when a first clock modulator receives a first baseband signal and a first clock signal and a second clock modulator receives a second baseband signal and a second clock signal. The first clock signal can be a ninety-degree phase shifted version of the second clock signal. The modulated clock signal from the first clock modulator can be combined with the modulated clock signal from the second clock modulator to generate the quadrature modulated clock signal.

Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to the field of communications and, more particularly, to generating a modulated signal using differentially delayed clock signals.
Modulation techniques typically involve a baseband signal and a carrier signal. The baseband signal is a signal that can include information intended for transmission through a medium. The baseband signal can be used to modulate the carrier signal and generate a modulated signal. The modulated signal, carrying the information from the baseband signal, can be transmitted to a receiver. A number of modulation techniques can be used to modulate the carrier signal with the baseband signal. For example, a wireless device, such as an access point, can modulate a signal using Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation techniques in accordance with IEEE 802.11 specifications. The wireless device can include an OFDM modulator to generate the modulated signal and a transmitter to transmit the modulated signal through the medium.
Transmitting the modulated signal can consume a large amount of power, especially when compared to other circuits and components that may be included in a device with the modulator. Transmitter designs that are more power efficient, such as switched mode transmitters, are often used to reduce power consumption. However, the switching nature of the switched mode transmitter is inherently complex, and does not lend itself to easy implementation with typical signal modulation techniques.

Modulation through differentially delayed clocks


The present invention provides a bottom lighting backlight module comprising: a light reflecting plate, a plurality of light sources such as lamp and LED; and a diffusion sheet; wherein said diffusion sheet has an excavated structure of shape with cross-section of an inverted triangle having a specific apex angle ranging from 110 degrees to 130 degrees. Some of the light incident on the excavated structure inside the diffusion sheet can be totally reflected and redirected sideways, so that it is possible to reduce the local brightness for area around each light source but significantly improve the evenness of brightness for the whole module.

The LCD light source module is one of the critical components in LCD technology responsible for providing uniform and sufficient light on LCD panel. Since the light source module consumes more than 50% of the power in a LCD, it is a relative important subject of LCD technology to provide uniform light of desired brightness under limited power available.
There are two types, i.e., back lighting and front lighting, of light source module; the back lighting type can be classified into edge lighting form and bottom lighting form in accordance with different incident position while the front type can only be an edge lighting form. Currently, two to eight edge lighting lamps are used together with a light guiding plate and an optical film to provide light source of high evenness and efficiency for LCD products of less than 20 inches in size. Bottom lighting backlight module has become the main stream in the light source of large LCD monitors/televisions due to more rigorous characteristics on brightness and view angle are required on such products. However, the bottom lighting backlight module needs more lamps and greatly increases the cost in comparison to an edge lighting module. On the other hand, adding the number of lamps may result in problems on heat dissipation and power consumption, thereby making improvement on the structure design has become a key factor for the manufacturer to success in the development of new product.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a bottom lighting light source module of prior art. As shown in the figure, a twelve-lamp backlight module used in a twenty-three inches panel has a total thickness of 25 to 30 mm and a 4.8 mm space between adjacent lamps. In general, such light source module can provide brightness evenness from 65 to 75%, while a high standard module of such kind can provide a brightness evenness of up to 85%.
A typical bottom lighting backlight module as shown in FIG. 1 comprises a light reflecting plate 1 one side of the lamp array and a light diffusion sheet 2 on the opposite side of the light reflecting plate, wherein prisms are adhered to the upper or lower surface of the diffusion sheet. In some case, modifications of patented shapes such as triangular or circular pillars are made on the light reflecting plate to redirect the light from a bright area or position right beneath the lamp to a dark area or a position located between bright areas. Most of the manufacturers simply use a flat light reflecting plate (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,253,151 and 5,720,545); reduce the brightness of the diffusion sheet on area right above each lamp by applying certain material to these areas and increase light emitted from dark area by mixing highly reflective material such as titanium dioxide in said diffusion sheet; or average the brightness evenness on the diffusion sheet by forming microstructures on the diffusion sheet (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,986,728 and 6,421,103). Furthermore, it is difficult to reduce the thickness of entire backlight module 4 to less than 1 cm while maintaining high evenness in its brightness. It is also difficult to achieve a brightness with evenness higher than 80% by means of a diffusion plate thicker than 2 cm.

Bottom lighting backlight module having uniform illumination and process for manufacturing the same


An electroluminescent device comprising: a first charge carrier injecting layer for injecting positive charge carriers; a second charge carrier injecting layer for injecting negative charge carriers; and a light-emissive layer located between the charge carrier injecting layers and comprising a mixture of: a first component for accepting positive charge carriers from the first charge carrier injecting layer; a second component for accepting negative charge carriers from the second charge carrier injecting layer; and a third, organic light-emissive component for generating light as a result of combination of charge carriers from the first and second components; at least one of the first, second and third components forming a type II semiconductor interface with another of the first, second and third components.

Electroluminescent devices that employ an organic material for light emission are described in PCT/WO90/13148 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,507, the contents of both of which are incorporated herein by reference. The basic structure of these devices is a light-emissive organic layer, for instance a film of a poly(p-phenylenevinylene ("PPV"), sandwiched between two electrodes. One of the electrodes (the cathode) injects negative charge carriers (electrons) and the other electrode (the anode) injects positive charge carriers (holes). The electrons and holes combine in the organic layer generating photons. In PCT/WO90/13148 the organic light-emissive material is a polymer. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,507 the organic light-emissive material is of the class known as small molecule materials, such as (8-hydroxyquinolino)aluminium ("Alq"). In a practical device, one of the electrodes is typically transparent, to allow the photons to escape the device.
These devices have great potential for displays. However, there are several significant problems. One is to make the device efficient, particularly as measured by its power efficiency and its external efficiency. Another is to reduce the voltage at which peak efficiency is obtained.
As a preliminary point, it should be noted that the values stated here for energy levels, workfunctions etc. are generally illustrative rather than absolute. The workfunction of ITO can vary widely. Numbers quoted in the literature suggest a range between 4 and 5.2 eV. The 4.8 eV value used here serves as an illustrative rather than an absolute value. The applicant has carried out Kelvin probe measurements which suggest that 4.8 eV is a reasonable value. However, it is well known that the actual value can depend on ITO deposition process and history. For organic semiconductors important characteristics are the binding energies, measured with respect to the vacuum level of the electronic energy levels, particularly the "highest occupied molecular orbital" ("HOMO") and "lowest unoccupied molecular orbital" ("LUMO") levels. These can be estimated from measurements of photoemission and particularly measurements of the electrochemical potentials for oxidation and reduction. It is well understood in the field that such energies are affected by a number of factors, such as the local environment near an interface, and is the point on the curve (peak) from which the value is determined—e.g. peak, peak base, half-way point—so the use of such values is indicative rather than quantitative. However, the relative values are significant.
FIG. 1a shows a cross section of a typical device for emitting green light. FIG. 1b shows the energy levels across the device. The anode 1 is a layer of transparent indium-tin oxide ("ITO") with a workfunction of 4.8 eV. The cathode 2 is a LiAl layer of with a workfunction of 2.4 eV. Between the electrodes is a light-emissive layer 3 of PPV, having a LUMO energy level 5 at around 2.7 eV and a HOMO energy level 6 at around 5.2 eV. Holes and electrons that are injected into the device recombine radiatively in the PPV layer. A helpful but not essential feature of the device is the hole transport layer 4 of doped polyethylene dioxythiophene ("PEDOT") (see EP 0 686 662 and Bayer AG's Provisional Product Information Sheet for Trial Product Al 4071). This provides an intermediate energy level at 4.8 eV, which helps the holes injected from the ITO to reach the HOMO level in the PPV.
Other organic light-emissive materials, having different optical gaps, can take the place of the PPV in order to generate light of other colours. However, at larger optical gaps, towards the blue end of the visible spectrum, the HOMO level is generally well below the corresponding energy level of the ITO. This makes it difficult to inject holes into the emissive layer, i.e. high electric fields are required in order to encourage holes to inject into the semiconductor layer. One solution to this problem would be to choose another material for the anode, but it is difficult to find a preferable alternative because ITO has good transparency, low sheet resistance and established processing routes. Another solution is to add further hole transport layers, so as to provide a series of intermediate energy steps between the anode and the emissive layer. However, where the layers are deposited from solution it is difficult to avoid one layer being disrupted when the next is deposited, and problems can arise with voids or material trapped between the increased number of inter-layer boundaries.
Considerable advantages can be had from using a plurality of organic semiconductors within a diode structure; critical to the functioning of such structures is the nature of the interface electronic structure between any two components in contact with one another. A common starting point for such descriptions is that well-known for heterojunctions formed in epitaxially-grown III–V semiconductors. Heterojunctions are classified into classes which include: type I, in which the LUMO and HOMO levels of one material (material A) lie within the LUMO-HOMO energy gap of the second material (material B), as illustrated in FIG. 2a, and type II, in which the minimum energy difference between the highest HOMO state and the lowest LUMO state is between levels on different sides of the heterojunction, as illustrated in FIG. 2b. It is generally considered that an electron-hole pair that is in the immediate vicinity of such heterojunctions will arrange so that the electron occupies the lowest LUMO level, and the hole occupies the highest HOMO level. Thus, the electron and hole are present on the same side of the junction for a type I heterojunction, but are separated for the type II heterojunction. An important consequence of this is that electron-hole capture and subsequent light emission is expected for type I but not for type II heterojunctions.
There have been some attempts to combine components in blue-emissive layers. In "Highly Efficient Blue Electroluminescence from a Distyrylarylene Emitting Layer with a new Dopant", Hosokawa et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 67 (26), 25 Dec. 1995, pp 3853–5 a small molecule device has an emissive layer in which DPVBi is blended with BCzVB or BczVBi. The dopants have a slightly smaller bandgap and a displaced HOMO position compared to the host material.
The observed light emission is only from the dopant. This is explained by the authors as arising from Förster energy transfer due to the smaller energy of an exciton on the dopant molecules. "Efficient Blue-Light Emitting Devices from Conjugated Polymer Blends", Birgerson et al., Adv. Mater. 1996, 8, No. 12; pp 982–5 describes a blue-light emitting device which employs conjugated polymer blends. The emissive layer of the device consists of a blend of PDHPT with PDPP. These materials form a type I semiconductor interface (see FIG. 2a), so light emission is from the PDHPT alone. The paper emphasises that "it is a necessary but not sufficient requirement that the HOMO-LUMO gap of the light-emitting (guest) polymer be smaller than that of the host polymer. An additional condition is that . . . the HOMO energy level of the guest polymer must be at a lower binding energy than that of the host polymer, and the LUMO energy level of the guest polymer must be at a higher binding energy than that of the host polymer". Other devices having type I interfaces at the emissive layer are described in EP 0 532 798 A1 (Mori et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,519 (Kikuchi et al.).
Two-layer EL devices which exploit the high electron affinity of cyano-derivatives of PPV have shown high efficiencies, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,514,878. However, when mixtures are formed with CN-PPV and the soluble PPV, MEH-PPV, as described in "Efficient Photodiodes from Interpenetrating Polymer Networks", J J M Halls et al., Nature, Vol. 376, 10 Aug. 1995, pp 498–500 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,670,791, strong quenching of luminescence is observed.
"Oxadiazole-Containing Conjugated Polymers for Light-Emitting Diodes", Peng et al., Adv. Mater. 1998, 10, No. 9 describes a light-emitting device in which the emissive layer comprises an oxadiazole-containing PPV polymer. The oxadiazole is present to aid electron transport. It is noted that "the PPV segment can function as both the hole transporter and the emitter".
In "Efficient Blue LEDs from a Partially Conjugated Si-Containing PPV Copolymer in a Double-Layer Configuration", Garten et al., Adv. Mater., 1997, 9, No. 2, pp 127–131 a light-emissive device has an emissive layer in which Si-PPV is diluted with PVK to reduce aggregation. The photoluminescent efficiency of the device is observed to increase when aggregation is reduced.
"Blue Light-Emitting Devices Based on Novel Polymer Blends", Cimrová et al., Adv. Mater. 1998, 10, No. 9 describes light-emitting devices whose emitting layers comprise a blend of two polymers having "almost identical HOMO levels".
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided an electroluminescent device comprising: a first charge carrier injecting layer for injecting positive charge carriers; a second charge carrier injecting layer for injecting negative charge carriers; and a light-emissive layer located between the charge carrier injecting layers and comprising a mixture of: a first component for accepting positive charge carriers from the first charge carrier injecting layer; a second component for accepting negative charge carriers from the second charge carrier injecting layer; and a third, organic light-emissive component for generating light as a result of combination of charge carriers from the first and second components; at least one of the first, second and third components forming a type II semiconductor interface with another of the first, second and third components.


A method and apparatus for transferring bearing in a layered network are disclosed in the embodiments of the present application, which relate to wireless communications field and are used to avoid failure when transferring bearing in user layer so as to improve communications quality of users. In the present application, after judging the need for transferring a Data Wireless Bearing DRB of a terminal to a Closed Subscriber Group CSG Local eNB, a Macro eNB determines whether to allow the terminal to access the CSG Local eNB and initiates a bearing transferring process to the CSG Local eNB if so. The CSG Local eNB accepts a bearing transferring request carrying CSG member status information of the terminal sent by the Macro eNB and implements accessing control for the separated bearing of the terminal according to the CSG member status information. Thus it can be seen said problems can be avoided.

As the statistics shows, a constantly growing demand of people for a data service rate and capacity has failed to be accommodated in a single-layer coverage network consisted of traditional macro eNBs, so that layered network deployment has been introduced in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) to address this problem, that is, some low-power eNBs, i.e., local eNBs (including femto eNBs, pico eNBs, relay nodes or other forms) are deployed in a hotspot area, a home indoor environment, an office environment or other small-coverage environments to thereby split a cell so as to enable an operator to provide a user with a service at a higher data rate and a lower cost.
FIG. 1 illustrates a network architecture of an Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRNA) consisted of eNodeBs (eNBs), Home eNodeBs (HeNBs), etc.
A Mobility Management Entity (MME) is connected with an eNB via an S1-MME interface; and the eNB functions as an access network and communicates with a User Equipment (UE) via an air interface. Each UE attached to the network is served by an MME which is referred to as a serving MME of the UE. The S1-MME interface provides the UE with control plane services including mobility management and bearer management functions.
A HeNB can be connected directly with a core network node MME or can access the network through a HeNB Gateway (GW) node. Both the HeNB GW and the eNB are equivalent from the perspective of the MME, and both the HeNB GW and the MME are equivalent from the perspective of the HeNB.
An SGW is connected with an eNB via an S1-U interface, and each UE attached to the network is served by an SGW which is referred to as a serving SGW of the UE. The S1-U interface provides the UE with user plane services, and user plane data of the UE is transmitted between the SGW and the eNB over an S1-U General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol (GTP) bearer.
The S1-U interface of the HeNB can be terminated at the HeNB GW, or the S1-U interface can be set up directly between the HeNB and the SGW.
An X2 interface can be set up between HeNBs, and an X2 Interface can also be set up between the HeNB and the macro eNB.
Mobility scenario of the X2 interface supported by the HeNB are as depicted in Table 1 below:
TABLE 1SourceTargetNoteseNB or any HeNBOpen access HeNBeNB or any HeNBHybrid access HeNBHybrid access HeNBClosed access HeNBOnly applies for sameor closed accessClosed SubscriberHeNBGroup (CSG) ID andPublic Land MobileNetwork (PLMN),and if the UE is amember of the CSGcell.)Any HeNBeNB
In order to lower the frequency at which the UE is handed over between a macro eNB cell and a local eNB cell, a network deployment scheme in which the user plane is separated from the control plane has been introduced as illustrated in FIG. 2.
In this scheme, when the UE resides in an area covered only by the macro eNB cell, both control plane connections and user plane connections of the UE are active at the macro eNB; and when the UE is moved to an area covered by both the macro eNB cell and the local eNB cell, all or a part of the user plane connections (i.e., Data Radio Bearers (DRBs)) of the UE are transferred to the local eNB for a higher service transmission rate, and most of the control plane connections remain active at the macro eNB to thereby prevent a call of the UE from being dropped due to a handover failure of a control plane connection.
FIG. 3 illustrates a handover procedure of the UE in the traditional LTE network:
Operation 1. The source eNB configures the UE to make measurement, and the UE makes measurement according to received measurement configuration information;
Operation 2. The UE reports a measurement result over an uplink resource allocated by the source eNB for the UE, to assist the source eNB in making a handover decision;
Operation 3. The source eNB makes a handover decision. If the source eNB decides to perform handover, then the flow proceeds to the following operations;
Operation 4. The source eNB transmits a handover request message carrying handover preparation related information to the target eNB;
Operation 5. The target eNB refers to the handover request message and makes an admission decision according to QoS information of a bearer to be admitted. If the target eNB allows the UE to be admitted, then the target eNB configures a lower layer to prepare for handover;
Operation 6. The target eNB returns a handover request response message including an RRC container, which is particularly a handover command to trigger the handover of the UE, to the source eNB;
Operation 7. The source eNB transmits the received handover command transparently (without any modification thereto) to the UE over a scheduled downlink resource; and the UE stops data from being transmitted and received with the source eNB upon reception of the handover command;
Operation 8. The source eNB transmits sequence number (SN) status information of ongoing data transmission (e.g., a sequence number of an unsuccessfully transmitted downlink data packet, a first sequence number which can be allocated by the target eNB, etc.) to the target eNB so that sequence numbers of data transmitted and received by the source eNB and the target eNB are consecutive to thereby avoid any packet from being lost or retransmitted;
Subsequent to the operation 8, the source eNB can transmit its downlink data packets, received from the core network but unsuccessfully transmitted to the UE, to the target eNB so that the target eNB transmits them to the UE; and alike the source eNB can transmit uplink data packets of the UE, received via the air interface, with inconsecutive sequence numbers (a packet transmitted later by the UE may be received successfully by the DeNB before a packet transmitted earlier is received successfully by the DeNB due to an error in transmission via the air interface so that there may be inconsecutive sequence numbers of the packets received by the DeNB) to the target eNB so that the target eNB transmits the data packets with consecutive sequence numbers to the core network upon reception of absent data packets retransmitted by the UE.
Operation 9. The UE transmits a preamble to the target eNB for uplink synchronization with the target eNB;
Operation 10. The target eNB returns a response message carrying an uplink resource allocated for the UE (for subsequent transmission) and a timing advance of the UE (to adjust uplink transmission instance of time of the UE for uplink synchronization);
Operation 11. The UE returns a handover completion message to the target eNB;
Thereafter data can be transmitted and received between the UE and the target eNB.
Operation 12. The target eNB transmits to the MME a path switch request carrying user plane transport layer addresses (IP addresses) and downlink GTP tunnel identifiers (Tunnel Endpoint Identifiers (TEIDs)) specified by the target eNB respectively for respective Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearers of the UE;
Operation 13. The MME transmits to the SGW a bearer modification request carrying the user plane transport layer addresses (IP addresses) and the downlink GTP tunnel identifiers (TEIDs) specified by the target eNB respectively for the respective EPS bearers of the UE;
Operation 14. The SGW switches the path;
Operation 15. The SGW returns to the MME a bearer modification response carrying user plane transport layer addresses (IP addresses) and uplink GTP tunnel identifiers (TEIDs) specified by the SGW respectively for the respective EPS bearers of the UE;
Operation 16. The MME returns to the target eNB a path switch response carrying the user plane transport layer addresses (IP addresses) and the uplink GTP tunnel identifiers (TEIDs) specified by the SGW respectively for the respective EPS bearers of the UE;
The path has been switched so far. Thereafter for a downlink data packet transmitted to the UE, the SGW can transmit it to the corresponding user plane transport layer address (IP address) specified by the target eNB, and set the downlink GTP tunnel identifier (TEID), according to a bearer to which it belongs; and for an uplink data transmitted by the UE, the target eNB can transmit it to the corresponding user plane transport layer address (IP address) specified by the SGW, and set the uplink GTP tunnel identifier (TEID), according to a bearer to which it belongs;
Operation 17. The target eNB transmits a UE context release request to the source eNB;
Operation 18. The source eNB releases the related resources allocated for the handed over UE.
FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart of requesting by the UE for a service:
Operations 1 to 3: The UE initiates a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection setup procedure to the cell where it resides;
Operation 4: After an RRC connection is set up, the serving eNB initiates an S1 signaling setup procedure to the MME by transmitting S1 signaling which is an initial UE message carrying a Non-Access Stratum (NAS) service request message;
Operation 5. The MME trigger an initial context setup procedure of the UE upon reception of the initial UE message by transmitting an initial context setup request message carrying information about an Evolved Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) to be set up, e.g., Quality of Service (QoS) information, a transport layer address, etc.;
Operation 6. The serving eNB performs access control according to the QoS information of the E-RAB;
Operation 7. If the serving eNB allows the UE to access, then the serving eNB generates an RRC reconfiguration message and transmits it to the UE;
Operation 8. The UE reconfigures all the DRB resources and subsequently transmits an RRC reconfiguration completion message to the serving eNB;
Operation 9. The serving eNB transmits an initial context response message carrying a downlink transport layer address of the serving eNB to the MME; and
Operations 10 to 11: The MME updates the bearer with the SGW. Thereafter the UE starts transmission of uplink and downlink data with the network.
There has been absent in the prior art a process of transferring a user plane bearer when a target local eNB is a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) local eNB. If the process of transferring a bearer is applied where the target local eNB is a macro eNB, then a user plane bearer may fail to be transferred, thus degrading reception and transmission by the UE of the service, because when the CSG local eNB operates in the hybrid access mode, only a UE belonging to a CSG (which can be any CSG) can be allowed to access, and if a bearer of a UE which does not belong to the CSG is transferred to the CSG local eNB, then the UE bearer may fail to be transferred; and if the eNB operates in the closed access mode, then only a UE belonging to a CSG of the CSG local eNB can be allowed to access, and if a bearer of a UE which does not belong to the CSG of the CSG local eNB is transferred to the CSG local eNB, then the UE bearer may fail to be transferred.

Method and apparatus for transferring bearing in layered network

CHINA ACADEMY OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY