Abstract: This disclosure relates to process for the preparation of a compound of formula (I) wherein R is hydrogen, a straight or branched C1-C6 alkyl-carbonyl group or a phenylcarbonyl group, or a salt thereof, comprising the following steps: a) adding to a suspension of Mg a compound of formula (II) R1(MgX)n—LiY wherein n is 1 or 2; R1 is an aromatic, aliphatic, carbocyclic or heterocyclic organic group having 1 to 24 carbon atoms; X and Y are independently selected from Cl, Br and I, b) reacting said reaction mixture with a suitable halogenated compound in a solvent to form a Grignard reagent, c) reacting said Grignard reagent with a suitable linear, branched or cyclic carbonate to obtain a compound of formula (IV) wherein A is a linear, branched or cyclic C1-C6 alkyl group, and preferably a methyl group, and then further reacting the compound of formula (IV) in a known manner to obtain a compound of formula (I) and optionally salt formation.

Abstract: This disclosure relates to process for the preparation of a compound of formula (I) wherein R is hydrogen, a straight or branched C1-C6 alkyl-carbonyl group or a phenylcarbonyl group, or a salt thereof, comprising the following steps: a) adding to a suspension of Mg a compound of formula (II) R1(MgX)n—LiY wherein n is 1 or 2; R1 is an aromatic, aliphatic, carbocyclic or heterocyclic organic group having 1 to 24 carbon atoms; X and Y are independently selected from Cl, Br and I, b) reacting said reaction mixture with a suitable halogenated compound in a solvent to form a Grignard reagent, c) reacting said Grignard reagent with a suitable linear, branched or cyclic carbonate to obtain a compound of formula (TV) wherein A is a linear, branched or cyclic C1-C6 alkyl group, and preferably a methyl group, and then further reacting the compound of formula (IV) in a known manner to obtain a compound of formula (I) and optionally salt formation.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for improving an image received from a endoscope having a flexible fiber optic bundle that produces an interstitial grid overlay due to the dead space between each fiber pixel. The interstitial grid pattern in the image, is substantially eliminated by processing the image through a linear digital filter to attenuate the first-order spatial frequency components that contribute most to the interstitial pattern. The filter employs relatively small convolution kernels that are optimized for specific fiber spacing. The image is then processed through the linear digital filter by convolving the respective pixels in the image by the derived coefficients. The image is improved and the grid pattern may also be reduced by a dilation process which involves processing the image through a dilation algorithm to "grow" the bright center of each fiber pixel in the image so that the effect of the grid pattern is reduced.