An aluminum heat exchanger is made from flat aluminum tubes formed with side edge projections having engaging surfaces and coated with brazing material on the outside surface but not on the inside surface of the tube or the projections. The opposite ends of the tubes are inserted into flat tube insertion holes in opposed header tanks which have a brazing material coated on the peripheral surface of the tank, so that, during brazing of the assembled heat exchanger components, brazing material flows from the header tanks to the engaging surfaces of the flat tubes.

This invention relates to methods for manufacturing heat exchangers such as radiators or condensers for motor vehicles and the like and, more particularly, to an improved process for brazing components of an aluminum heat exchanger.
There are conventional evaporators, condensers, radiators and the like, such as for motor vehicles, which consist of an aluminum heat exchanger manufactured by brazing. For such manufacture, the components of the heat exchanger are assembled together with brazing material, and the assembly is then heated in a furnace so that the components are brazed together. Each of the heat exchanger components includes an inner portion made of an aluminum alloy consisting of pure aluminum and a metal such as manganese and a coating portion containing brazing material cladded on the surface of the inner portion. The brazing material in the coating portion is an aluminum alloy which contains an element such as silicon and which has a lower melting point than the aluminum-manganese alloy. The brazing material is coated on that part of the inner portion which is to be brazed. The components consisting of the inner aluminum alloy portions and the outer coating portions are then assembled. Alternatively, the components of the heat exchanger may consist of the inner portions and layers of the brazing material which are simply placed on the parts of the inner portion which are to be brazed. After the components have been assembled, a flux is applied to those parts of the inner portions of the members to be brazed, and the components are then brazed in a furnace so that they are joined together. If the components are to be brazed to each other in a vacuum furnace, a flux need not be applied to them.
FIG. 5 of the drawings shows a conventional parallel flow aluminum heat exchanger 100 of the type disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-open No. 28,980/90 and Japanese patent application Laid-open No. 207,57287. In this case, the heat exchanger 100 include a core 104, a pair of spaced header tanks 101 made of aluminum, and some reinforcing plates 105. The core 104 includes a plurality of flat tubes 102 extending between the header tanks 101 so as to carry a fluid which is subjected to heat exchange by the heat exchanger, and a series of corrugated fins 103 mounted between the tubes to act as heat transfer members. The core 104 is disposed between the header tanks 101 so that the flat tubes 102 communicate with the tanks at both ends. The flat tubes 102, the corrugated fins 103, the header tanks 101, and the reinforcing plates 105 are brazed together in a furnace so as to form the heat exchanger 100.
Each of the header tanks 101 is formed from a pipe which has a circular cross-section, originally open at both ends, and has an inner portion 101a made of an aluminum alloy and a brazing material 101b coated on the peripheral surface of the inner portion so that the combination constitutes the pipe as shown in FIG. 6. At each end, the header tank 101 also includes a lid 106 made of an aluminum alloy and provided with a brazing material on the outside surface to braze it to the pipe so as to close the pipe at both ends. The pipe also has a series of flat tube insertion holes 107 into which the ends of the flat tubes 102 are inserted. The corrugated fins 103, which are made of an aluminum alloy and are not coated with brazing material, are inserted between the flat tubes 102. The pipes of the header tanks 101 have inlet and outlet tube-receiving holes in which inlet and outlet pipes 108 and 109 made of an aluminum alloy are inserted The reinforcing plates 105 are cladded with a brazing material on the sides which face the core 104.
As shown in FIG. 7, which is a cross-sectional view of a tube 102, each of the flat tubes 102 includes an inner portion 102a made of an aluminum alloy and a brazing material 102b cladded on the outer surface of the inner portion. An inner fin 110 is inserted into each of the flat tubes 102 so that the internal space R thereof is divided into a plurality of fluid passages r. The inner fin 110 functions to improve the transfer of heat from the fluid to the tube 102 and to enhance the strength of the tube against lateral pressure. The inner fin 110 includes a thin inner portion 110 made of an aluminum alloy and a brazing material 110b coated on both sides of the inner portion.
It is well known that, when a flat tube such as the flat tube 102 is manufactured, a band of sheet material is bent by forming rollers so as to butt both of the side edges of the sheet against each other, the side edges are then seam-welded to each other, and the bent and welded sheet is thereafter cut off to a prescribed length. This manufacturing process is illustrated in FIG. 8. As shown therein, the band of sheet material, which is flat and long, is bent at the centerline of the sheet to a U shape by forming rollers so that the sheet is gradually formed into a flat tube to butt the side edges 102c and 102d of the sheet against each other. Electric current is thereafter applied in an argon gas atmosphere to the abutting side edges 102c and 102d through a roller electrode 115 which engages the edges and is connected to a rotary welding transformer 114, and the sheet formed as the flat tube is pressed on both sides and at the bottom, so that the edges are welded to each other. This produces the flat tube 102.
When the heat exchanger 100 is manufactured, the surfaces of the inner fins 110 are coated with a noncorrosive flux and the fins are inserted into the tubes 102. The corrugated sheets 103 are inserted between the flat tubes to form the core 104 of the exchanger, and the ends of the tubes are inserted into the flat tube insertion holes 107 of the header tanks 101. In addition, the reinforcing plates 105 are mounted on the top and bottom of the body. All of these components are held together with jigs, a noncorrosive flux is applied to the brazed parts of the components in the usual manner, and the components are then brazed to each other in a furnace so that the flat tubes are joined to the inner fins and the corrugated fins and to the header tanks at the flat tube insertion holes thereof. Since the flat tubes 102 and the corrugated fins 103 are stacked alternately and the assembly is compressed so as to produce the spacing between the tubes, there is a relatively large variation in that spacing. Consequently, if the clearance between the ends of the flat tubes 102 and the header tank 101 at the flat tube insertion holes 107 thereof is not large enough, it is likely that one or more of the tubes cannot be inserted into its insertion hole. To overcome this problem, the clearance between the tube ends and the holes is increased However, if this clearance is increased too much, there will be insufficient brazing material 102b on the flat tube 102 to braze the tube securely to the header tank 101 at the tube insertion hole 107. As a result, the clearance will not be filled completely with brazing material, leaving a hole which will permit fluid to leak out of the heat exchanger. To deal with this problem, brazing material is provided on the header tanks 101 at the flat tube insertion holes 107 thereof by cladding of the tanks with the material or by placing it on the tanks prior to brazing.
Since butt-seam welding is performed in the above-described method of manufacturing the flat tube 102, the manufacturing efficiency is not good and expensive welding equipment is required.
To overcome this problem, a flat tube 116, shown in FIG. 9, is brazed to a header tank with which the tube is in surface contact. The flat tube 116 is of the type disclosed in Japanese published Application No. 35,830/91 and has side edge projections 116d extending from one side of the tube, as shown in FIG. 9. To manufacture the flat tube 116, a band of sheet material including an inner portion 116a and a brazing material 116b coated or cladded on the outer surface of the inner portion is folded and formed. The brazing material 116b is used to braze the tube 116 to corrugated fins 103 on opposite sides of the tube, as shown in FIG. 10, and to the header tanks and to fill the clearance between the tube ends and the tanks at the flat tube insertion holes therein. The tube 116 also includes another coating of brazing material 116c on the inner surface of the inner portion 116 to braze the engaging surfaces 116e of the side edge projections 116d to each other and to braze the tube to inner fins 117 which are inserted in the tube as shown in FIG. 10. Initially, the height h.sub.2 of the space within the flat tube 116 for the inner fin 117 is slightly greater than the height h.sub.1 of the inner sheet, and there is a gap S between the side edge projections 116d, as shown in FIG. 9. After a noncorrosive flux is applied to the inner fin 117, the fin is inserted into the flat tube 116 and the tube is then deformed slightly by pressing, so that the tube has a predetermined height H, as shown in FIG. 10.
Thereafter, all of the heat exchanger components including the flat tubes 116 are held together with jigs, a noncorrosive flux is applied to the coated parts of the components, and they are then heated in a furnace in the manner described above. As a result, the engaging surfaces 116e of the side edge projections 116d of the flat tubes 116 are brazed to each other, the tubes are brazed to the corrugated fins 103 and to the header tanks, and the inner fins 117 are brazed to the inner surfaces of the tubes.
However, it has been found that a minute hole is generated in the flat tube 116 near the end received in the header tank opening at the time of heating. It is believed that the minute hole is produced because the temperature of the flat tube 116 and the corrugated fin 103 rises more quickly than that of the header tank during heating in the furnace because the fin materials used for the tube and for the corrugated fin are thinner than the header tank material in order to enhance the heat-exchanging property of those components.
This phenomenon is described as follows. Since the temperature of the flat tube 116 and the corrugated fin 103 rises more quickly than that of the header tank, the brazing materials 116b and 116c of the tube melt sooner than the brazing material on the tank. When the brazing material on the tank does melt, there is a clearance between the tube 116 and the tank at the flat tube insertion hole. Consequently, the molten brazing material from the tank flows into that clearance and comes into contact with the ends of the engaging surfaces 116e of the side edge projections 116d of the tube so that much of the molten material flows between the engaging surfaces due to capillary attraction. As a result, the silicon from not only the brazing material 116c of the flat tube 116 but also from that of the brazing material of the header tank diffuses into the inner portion 116a of the tube at the engaging surfaces 116e so that the aluminum alloy of the inner portion at the engaging surfaces changes into an aluminum-silicon alloy having an excessive silicon content which is lower in melting point than the aluminum alloy. For that reason, the inner portion 116a is eroded by both the brazing materials so that a minute hole is generated in the flat tube 116. It is difficult to find the minute hole by the naked eye, and the hole usually cannot be found until the inspection after completion of the heat exchanger. This reduces the production yield of heat exchangers in the manufacturing process.

Method of manufacturing an aluminum heat exchanger


A fatty acid ester of cellulose having excellent transparency, filterability and spinnability in spite of its high content of mannose and xylose, wherein the total molar content of mannose and xylose accounts for at least 7% of that of glucose, mannose and xylose, and the amount of filtration satisfies a specified requirement. Such a fatty acid ester of cellulose is prepared by using a pulp having a low .alpha.-cellulose content as a raw material and a fatty acid corresponding to the ester as a diluent and adding an organic solvent in an amount of at least 10% by weight based on the diluent in any step during the preparation. In the preparation of cellulose diacetate, which excellent filterability and transparency, by the acetic acid process, the cellulose diacetate obtained by aging is dissolved in a solvent which can dissolve it and the resulting cellulose diacetate is recovered.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fatty acid ester of cellulose and a process for the preparation thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a fatty acid ester of cellulose having excellent transparency, filterability and spinnability, and a process for the preparation thereof from a low-grade dissolving pulp as the raw cellulose material.
Furthermore, the present invention relates to cellulose diacetate and a process for the preparation thereof, more particularly, cellulose diacetate which has excellent filterability and hue, and yields few insolubles when dissolved in a solvent and in which the particle size of glucomannan acetate contained in the sediment formed by centrifuging is very small, and a process for the preparation thereof from, for example, a low-grade dissolving wood pulp.
2. Description of the Related Art
Among cellulose derivatives, fatty acid esters of cellulose, particularly cellulose acetate hold an important position industrially by virtue of their wide fields of applications including fibers for clothes, cigarette filters, plastics, film, coating materials, etc.
Although wood pulps are mainly used as the raw material for preparing fatty acid esters of cellulose, a highly purified high-grade dissolving pulp is particularly useful. This is because when the conventional, common process for the preparation thereof is applied to a low-grade wood dissolving pulp, a large amount of insoluble matters in a solvent, i.e., so-called insoluble residues are formed to impair its spinnability and transparency as a plastic, remarkably, so that filtration is required to secure these qualities.
The standard process for the preparation of cellulose acetate, which is a representative fatty acid ester of cellulose, basically comprises (1) a pretreatment step of disaggregating and disintegrating a starting pulp having a relatively high .alpha.-cellulose content, spraying the resulting pulp with acetic acid and mixing, (2) an acetylation step of reacting the pretreated pulp obtained in (1) with a mixed acid comprising acetic anhydride, acetic acid and an acetylation catalyst (e.g., sulfuric acid), (3) an aging step, i.e., a hydrolysis step, of hydrolyzing the obtained cellulose acetate to a desired degree of acetylation, and (4) a post-treatment step of precipitating the hydrolyed cellulose acetate, recovering the precipitates and subjecting the precipitates to purification, stabilization and drying, successively.
Improvement techniques for the above standard process from various standpoints have been reported in order to enable the preparation of a high-quality cellulose ester from a low-grade dissolving pulp which is available at a low cost.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,642 (patented on Oct. 23, 1973; Assignee: CELANESE Corp.) discloses that cellulose acetate having excellent transparency, filterability and spinnability is prepared by disintegrating a wood dissolving pulp having an .alpha.-cellulose content of 92 to 93% in a dilute aqueous solution of acetic acid to obtain a slurry, subjecting the slurry to a so-called slurry pretreatment wherein the removal of liquid and replacement of the liquid by acetic acid are repeated alternately, acetylating the resulting pulp according to the process of the prior art, neutralizing the sulfuric acid catalyst contained in the reaction system, and subjecting the reaction mixture to saponification and aging at 125 to 170.degree. C.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,060 (patented on Dec. 15, 1981; Assignee: DAICEL CHEMICAL Ind., Ltd.) discloses a process for preparing cellulose acetate having excellent transparency, filterability and spinnability which comprises disintegrating a high-grade dissolving pulp having a high .alpha.-cellulose content by a common dry process, acetylating the resulting pulp in the presence of a small amount of sulfuric acid as the catalyst at high temperature to complete the acetylation in a short time, completely neutralizing the sulfuric acid catalyst contained in the system, and subjecting the reaction mixture to saponification at 110 to 120.degree. C. Further, it is also disclosed that this process enables the utilization of a low-grade dissolving pulp having a low .alpha.-cellulose content.
The characteristic common to the above techniques is that the saponification is conducted at high temperature. Such high-temperature saponification promotes the destruction and/or deformation of a hemicellulose acetate which otherwise damages the characteristics of cellulose acetate, whereby the hemicellulose acetate is converted into a harmless substance.
Attempts are disclosed to solve the above problem with attention being paid to the phenomenon that a low-grade wood dissolving pulp sheet is generally difficult to disintegrate due to its high density, which leads to the poor dispersibility of the pulp in the reaction medium to result in the formation of an insoluble residue. More specifically, there is disclosed a process wherein a pulp sheet is softened by wet disintegration to remove the heat generated in the disintegration as latent heat of evaporation, by which the thermal degradation of the pulp is inhibited to yield cellulose as a raw material having a rich reactivity, thus enabling the acetylation of the cellulose free from gel formation due to unreacted matters and insufficient reaction. Further, there is disclosed a process which comprises conducting the dry disintegration of a starting pulp in an improved disintegrator to thereby depress the deterioration of the reactivity of the pulp during disintegration to such an extent as not to have any effect on the acetylation, thus enabling the acetylation of cellulose free from the gel formation due to unreacted matters and insufficient reaction.
However, when the above-mentioned techniques are applied to the acetylation of a pulp having an .alpha.-cellulose content as especially low as 85 to 93%, the effect is too insufficient to avoid the lowering in the filterability of the resulting cellulose acetate.
Meanwhile, cellulose acetate is one of the organic acid esters of cellulose, the use of which is spread over many fields including the materials for clothes, cigarette filter tips, plastics, films, coating materials, medicines, foods, cosmetics and building materials and the production of which is the highest among cellulose derivatives, thus being industrially important.
The so-called acetic acid process using acetic anhydride as an acetylating agent, acetic acid as a diluent and sulfuric acid as a catalyst is a representative one as the industrial process for the preparation of cellulose diacetate. This process comprises (1) an acetylation step of pretreating a starting pulp having a relatively high .alpha.-cellulose content as the raw material by disaggregation, disintegration and spraying with acetic acid to activate the starting pulp and thereafter treating the activated pulp with a mixed acid comprising acetic anhydride, acetic acid and sulfuric acid to give cellulose triacetate; (2) an aging step, i.e., the hydrolysis step, of hydrolyzing the obtained cellulose triacetate into cellulose diacetate having a desired degree of acetylation; and (3) a post-treatment step of separating the cellulose diacetate from the reaction mixture by precipitation, followed by purification, stabilization and drying. The term "cellulose diacetate" used in this specification refers to one having a degree of acetylation of 50 to 57%. Further, the term "degree of acetylation" refers to a value as determined and calculated according to the method stipulated in ASTM-D-871, i.e., a value obtained by calculating the acetyl group content of cellulose acetate as the amount of acetic acid.
The cellulose diacetate prepared by the above process is again dissolved in a solvent such as acetone, molded and thereafter used as a commercial product.
Improvement techniques have been proposed from various standpoints to prepare a high-quality cellulose diacetate from a low-grade wood dissolving pulp having a low .alpha.-cellulose content through the above-mentioned essential steps.
Japanese Patent Publication-A No. 501/1987 (published on Jan. 6th, 1987) discloses that cellulose acetate having a very excellent hue can be prepared from a starting pulp having a low .alpha.-cellulose content for the preparation of viscose and cellulose ether by preliminarily swelling the pulp with a solvent.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 3,846,403 (patented on Nov. 5th, 1974; Assignee: CANADIAN CELLULOSE CO.) discloses that in the preparation of a cellulose ester, a cellulose ester having characteristics not inferior to those prepared from a purer cellulose source is obtained by reacting a pulp with an esterifying agent other than an objective one, i.e., a lower alkanoic acid, to form hemicellulose ester prior to the reaction with the objective lower alkanoic anhydride. According to this technique, a high-quality cellulose ester can be obtained even from a starting pulp having a hemicellulose content far higher than 5%, i.e., as high as 8%, 10% or even above.
However, the technique described in the above Japanese Patent Publication-A No. 501/1987 is one for improving the hue of the cellulose acetate prepared from a low-grade wood dissolving pulp, so that it is silent upon the effect of improving other physical properties. Further, the technique has a defect that little effect is attained when a pulp having an .alpha.-cellulose content of 90% or below is used.
On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 3,846,403 discloses that even when the hemicellulose content of a starting pulp is 10% or above, the physical properties can be improved, and involves the description on the improvement in the filterability and the effect of reducing the weight of the insoluble residue with respect to cellulose triacetate, which is, however, different from the subject matter of the present invention, i.e., cellulose diacetate. Thus, it is unclear with respect to the properties of the cellulose diacetate.
Generally, a high-grade wood dissolving pulp having a high .alpha.-cellulose content is used as the raw cellulose material. However, obtaining high-grade pulp in quantity will become difficult because of the saving of resources on the global scale and the environmental pollution by pulp factories, so that the changeover to a low-grade wood dissolving pulp is believed to be unavoidable.
When cellulose diacetate is prepared from a low-grade wood dissolving pulp by the process of the prior art, the obtained cellulose diacetate produces a large amount of insolubles when dissolved in a solvent, which causes various problems such as lowering in the transparency of the product, an increase in the yellowness and a remarkable lowering in the characteristics in the filtration prior to the spinning step. There is a correlation between the .alpha.-cellulose content of a starting pulp and the properties of cellulose diacetate prepared from the pulp, so that when the adaptability to acetylation of a pulp is discussed only from the standpoint of chemical factors, the use of a starting pulp having an .alpha.-cellulose content of 93% or below gives only a very poor cellulose diacetate which is practically unusable as a commercial product owing to a remarkable increase in the amount of insolubles in a solvent such as acetone.
Various studies have been made on the above insolubles and abundant literature thereon can be found. Further, it is pointed out that the hemicellulose contained in a starting pulp may participate in the formation of the insolubles [see, e.g., Ueda et al., J. Japan Wood Research Soc., 34(4), 346-353 (1988)].
In order to prepare cellulose diacetate containing few insoluble components, therefore, it is thought necessary to employ either the means (1) of using a highly-purified, high-grade wood dissolving pulp having a low hemicellulose content as the raw material or the means (2) of reducing or removing the insolubles in the cellulose diacetate prepared from a low-grade dissolving pulp.
The former means, i.e., the use of a high-grade wood dissolving pulp as the raw material is actually industrially employed. However, the purification of a pulp by the removal of hemicellulose therefrom not only involves a lowering in the yield in preparing pulp from wood as the raw material to result in an increase in the production cost, but also is thought to be undesirable from the standpoint of the effective utilization of resources on the global scale. Further, even the content of solvent insolubles in the cellulose acetate prepared from a high-purity pulp cannot be said to be low enough, but is expected to be further lowered for an improvement in the quality.

Fatty acid ester of cellulose, cellulose diacetate and processes for the preparation thereof


This Invention provides a compound of the Formula:

Eight viruses have been identified which are members of the family Herpesviridae (reviewed in Roizman, B. 1996. Herpesviridae, p. 2221–2230. In B. N. Fields, D. M. Knipe, and P. M. Howley (ed.), Fields Virology, 3rd ed. Lippincott-Raven Publishers, Philadelphia, Pa.). Each member of this family is characterized by an enveloped virus containing a proteinaceous segment and nucleocapsid, the latter of which houses the viruses' relatively large double-stranded DNA genome (i.e. approximately 80–250 kilobases). Members of the human alpha-herpes-virus subfamily are neurotropic and include herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and type 2 (HSV-2), and varicella-zoster virus (VZV). The human beta-herpes-viruses are cytomegalovirus (HCMV), human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) and human herpesvirus 7 (HHV-7). The gamma-herpes-viruses are lymphotropic and include Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and Kaposi's herpes-virus (HHV-8). Each of these herpes-viruses is causally related to human disease, including herpes labialis and herpes genitalis (HSV-1 and HSV-2), [Whitley, R. J. 1996, Herpes Simplex Viruses, p. 2297–2342, in B. N. Fields, D. M. Knipe, and P. M. Howley (ed.), Fields Virology, 3rd ed. Lippincott-Raven Publishers, Philadelphia, Pa.]; chicken pox and shingles VZV), [Arvin, A. 1996. Varicella-Zoster Virus, p. 2547–2585, In B. N. Fields, D. M. Knipe, and P. M. Howley (ed.), Fields Virology, 3rd ed, Lippincott-Raven Publishers, Philadelphia, Pa.]; infectious mononucleosis (EBV), [Rickinson, A. B. and Kieff, E. 1996, Epstein-Barr Virus, p. 2397–2446, In B. N. Fields, D. M. Knipe, and P. M. Howley (ed.), Fields Virology, 3rd ed, Lippincott-Raven Publishers, Philadelphia, Pa.]; pneumonia and retinitis (HCMV), [Britt, W. J., and Alford, C. A. 1996, Cytomegalovirus, p. 2493–2523, In B. N. Fields, D. M. Knipe, and P. M. Howley (ed.), Fields Virology, 3rd ed, Lippincott-Raven Publishers, Philadelphia, Pa.]; exanthem subitum (HHV-6), [Pellet, P. E, and Black, J. B. 1996, Human Herpes-virus 6, p. 2587–2608, In B. N. Fields, D. M. Knipe, and P. M. Howley (ed.), Fields Virology, 3rd ed. Lippincott-Raven Publishers, Philadelphia, Pa.] and (HHV-7), [Frenkel, N., and Roffman, E. 1996, Human Herpes-virus 7, p. 2609–2622, In B. N. Fields, D. M. Knipe, and P. M. Howley (ed.), Fields Virology, 3rd ed. Lippincott-Raven Publishers, Philadelphia, Pa.]; and Kaposi's sarcoma (HHV-8), [Neipel, F., Albrecht, J. C., and Fleckenstein, B. 1997, Cell-homologous genes in the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated rhadinovirus human herpes-virus 8: determinants of its pathogenicity? J. Virol. 71:4187–92,1997]. HCMV is considered in more detail below. Following the primary infection, herpes-viruses establish latency within the infected individual and remain there for the remainder of his/her life. Periodic reactivation of latent virus is clinically relevant. In the case of HSV, reactivated virus can be transmitted to infants during birth, causing either skin or eye infection, central nervous system infection, or disseminated infection (i.e. multiple organs or systems). Shingles is the clinical manifestation of VZV reactivation. Treatment of HSV and VZV is generally with antiviral drugs such as acyclovir (Glaxo Wellcome), ganciclovir (Roche) and foscarnet (Asta) which target viral encoded DNA polymerase.
HCMV is a ubiquitous opportunistic pathogen infecting 50–90% of the adult population [Britt, W. J., and Alford, C. A. 1996, Cytomegalovirus, p. 2493–2523, In B. N. Fields, D. M. Knipe, and P. M. Howley (ed.), Fields Virology, 3rd ed. Lippincott-Raven Publishers, Philadelphia, Pa.]. Primary infection with HCMV is usually asymptomatic, although heterophile negative mononucleosis has been observed. The virus is horizontally transmitted by sexual contact, breast milk, and saliva. Intrauterine transmission of HCMV from the pregnant mother to the fetus occurs and is often the cause of serious clinical consequences. HCMV remains in a latent state within the infected person for the remainder of his/her life. Cell-mediated immunity plays a central role in controlling reactivation from latency. Impaired cellular immunity leads to reactivation of latent HCMV in seropositive persons.
HCMV disease is associated with deficient or immature cellular immunity. There are 3 major categories of persons with HCMV disease (reviewed by Britt and Alford, 1996). (1) In immunocompromised (AIDS) patients, HCMV is one of the two most common pathogens causing clinical disease (the other is Pneumocystis). The most common manifestation of HCMV in AIDS is retinitis, although infection of other organs including the adrenal glands, lungs, GI tract, and central nervous system are also reported frequently. 90% of AIDS patients have active HCMV infection; 25–40% (˜85,000 patients in the United States) have life- or sight-threatening HCMV disease. HCMV is the cause of death in 10% of persons with AIDS. (2) Due to immune system suppression to reduce the risk of graft rejection, HCMV reactivation or reinfection is common amongst kidney, liver, heart, and allogeneic bone marrow transplant patients. Pneumonia is the most common HCMV disease in these patients, occurring in up to 70% of these transplant patients. (3) Congenital infection due to HCMV occurs in 1% of all births, about 40K per year. Up to 25% of these infants are symptomatic for HCMV disease between ages 0–3 years. HCMV disease is progressive, causing mental retardation and neurological abnormalities in children. Recent studies suggest that treatment with anti-HCMV drugs may reduce morbidity in these children.
Several antiviral drugs are currently being marketed [D. Bron, R. Snoeck, and L. Lagneaux 1996, New insights into the pathogenesis and treatment of cytomegalovirus, Exp. Opin. Invest. Drugs 5:337–344; Crumpacker, C. 1996, Ganciclovir, New Eng. J. Med. 335:721–729; Sachs, S., and F. Alrabiah, 1996, Novel herpes treatments: a review. Exp. Opin. Invest. Drugs 5:169–183]. These include: ganciclovir (Roche), a nucleoside analog with hemopoietic cell toxicity; foscarnet (Astra), a pyrophosphate analog with nephrotoxicity; and cidofovir; (Gilead), a nucleoside phosphonate with acute nephrotoxicity. Each of these drugs target the viral-encoded DNA polymerase, are typically administered intravenously due to their low bioavailability, and, as noted above, are the source of significant toxicity. Ganciclovir-resistant mutants which arise clinically are often cross-resistant with cidofovir. Hence, there is a need for safer (i.e. less toxic), orally bioavailable anti-viral drugs which are directed against novel viral targets.
Phenyl thioureas are disclosed for use in a variety of pharmaceutical applications. Armistead, et al., WO 97/40028, teaches phenyl ureas and thioureas as inhibitors of the inosine monophosphate dehydrogenase (IMPDH) enzyme which is thought to play a role in viral replication diseases such as herpes.
Widdowson, et al., WO 96/25157, teaches phenyl urea and thiourea compounds of the below formula for treating diseases mediated by the chemokine, interleukin-8.
Morin, Jr., et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,993 teaches certain phenyl thiourea compounds for treatment of AIDS and the inhibition of the replication of HIV and related viruses.
The compounds of this invention are potent structurally unique VZV inhibitors.

Isoxazole-containing thiourea inhibitors useful for treatment of varicella zoster virus

Abstract: wherein                X is

Abstract: R1, R2, R3 and R4 are described in the specification and a pharmaceutical composition comprising the compound used for inhibiting replication of a herpes virus.


Provided are a composition for stimulating differentiation of MSCs into osteoblasts, which includes cryptotanshinone, and an osteogenesis stimulator including cryptotanshinone and MSCs. When the cryptotanshinone is treated to the MSCs, the differentiation into osteoblasts is stimulated, and thus osteogenesis of a patient may be stimulated by directly transplanting the differentiation-induced MSCs to the patient. Accordingly, the composition or osteogenesis stimulator may be used to treat patients having disability requiring stimulation of osteogenesis such as osteoporosis, bone fracture, bone grafting including alveolar bone grafting for implant placement, or other bone defects.

As a technique for treating tissues and organs damaged by various kinds of diseases, a method of injecting self-renewable and differentiable cells to the tissues and organs to be renewed is receiving attention. A representative example of the cells may be mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs).
The MSCs are multipotent stem cells, which can be differentiated into various kinds of cells. Since the MSCs may be differentiated into various cells and tissues constituting a human body such as osteoblasts, chondrocytes, adipocytes, neuronal cells, epithelial cells, muscles, etc., they are in the limelight as the most critical cells in terms of practice of regenerative medicine. However, to obtain a satisfactory therapeutic effect, it is important the MSCs injected to a tissue are suitably differentiated, and engrafted to a corresponding tissue.
Adipocytes originate from mesoderm-originating stem cells, which can be differentiated into osteoblasts, as well as the adipocytes. According to various studies, it was shown that there is a contrary relationship between differentiations of bone marrow-derived stem cells into adipocytes and osteoblasts (Dorheim M A, et al., J Cell Physiol 1993; 154:317-28.; Beresford J N, et al., J Cell Sci 1992; 102:341-51.). That is, as the differentiation into adipocytes is inhibited, osteogenesis can be increased. It was shown that many transcription factors and intracellular and extracellular signal transduction pathways are closely associated and regulated in the process of differentiating stem cells into adipocytes and osteoblasts. Among the transcription factors, a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) serves to increase the differentiation into adipocytes, but decrease the differentiation into osteoblasts (Schwartz A V, et al., J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2006; 91:3349-54.; Gimble J M, et al., Mol Pharmacol 1996; 50:1087-94.).
Meanwhile, cryptotanshinone, which is a fat-soluble diterpene-based compound extracted from a dried root of Salvia militorrhiza Bunge, was known to have a pharmacological action of declining an appetite. In an animal test with respect to obese rats, the decline in an appetite and 30% loss of a weight were observed after administration of the cryptotanshinone. However, there were no reports that the cryptotanshinone stimulates the differentiation of stem cells into osteoblasts.

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY INDUSTRY ACADEMIC COOPERATION FOUNDATION


A method of microwave treatment of wood with a moisture content (based on dry weight) of at least 12% for rapid drying and stress relief which includes determining an area of the wood that is not to be treated, selectively subjecting a surface of the wood outside said determined area to microwave radiation at a frequency (f) in the range of from about 0.1 to about 24 GHz to provide a modified wood zone having increased permeability relative to the untreated wood, wherein said zone is located in an exterior shell of the wood and has wooden rays directed from the core of the wood to the irradiated surface.

The treatment of wood by impregnating it with preservatives and other agents, such as for fire-proofing, is very well known. One of the problems of the impregnation treatment is ensuring that the agent has impregnated the wood fully or at least sufficiently.
It is also known to prepare wood for impregnation by using steam to raise the temperature and pressure in the wood and break down some of the wood cells (after the pressure is rapidly reduced) and thereby to improve the natural permeability of the wood. Updated steaming specifications for, for example, round wood radiata pine steam conditioning recommend the use of steam at a temperature of 127° C. and pressure of 138 kPa for a period of from 1.5 to 18 hours depending upon the thickness of the wood before the pressure is rapidly reduced. While this treatment does help to improve the impregnation process, it has several disadvantages, particularly the duration of the treatment and the requirement for high pressure steam.
It is also known to dry wood and to form fibres by destroying the wood structure using microwave energy. It is important in drying the wood using microwave energy not to damage the wood and special drying schedules have been proposed for different wood species. In all of these schedules the microwave radiation intensity is very low, below 5 to 10 W/cm2, in order to avoid damage to the wood.
Destruction of wood using microwave energy to form fibres is performed at a considerably higher radiation intensity, for example up to 150 kW/cm2, with the aim of heating the moisture in the wood to form steam very quickly and in sufficient quantity to entirely break down the structure of the wood.
International Patent Publication No. WO99/64213 discloses a method which comprises subjecting wood to microwave radiation to cause water in the wood to vaporise resulting in an internal pressure in the wood such that the permeability of the wood is increased by partial or complete destruction of ray cell tissue, softening and replacement of wood resin, formation of pathways in the radial direction of the wood and/or by creating, on the base of destroyed rays, cavities in the wood, said cavities being primarily in radial-longitudinal planes of the wood. This reference also suggests that the microwave modified timber can have regions of different permeability which can alternate in radial, tangential and longitudinal directions.
The use of this method for pre-drying treatment may lead to 6–25% reduction of strength properties of the timber. As such, in some cases it is not adoptable. For example, the working side of parquet boards must have high hardness. After the MW treatment considered by the above prior art, that surface may lose its hardness to an extent which would make it unsuitable for use as an exposed surface.
During the MW treatment of large cross section sawn timber the core is heated faster than the shell (if supplying MW energy to the timber from all sides). As such, the vapour pressure may be high in the core, but the surface layers still may have no pathways in the radial directions for releasing vapours created in the core. This situation leads to the appearance of big checks in shell layers of the timber which spoil the material.
The growth and shrinkage stresses which take place in the wood may lead to losses of timber and may also lower the quality of the material. For example, during wood drying the shrinkage in the tangential direction is much higher compared with the shrinkage in the radial direction. Therefore, back-sawn lumber may experience cupping (transverse warping) after drying.
These shortcomings are advantageously alleviated using the method of microwave treatment according to the invention.


A data storage system having a number of disk drives is disclosed. Each disk drive is provided with a disk spindle driven by a spindle motor. The disk spindle is utilized for mounting one or more disks whose surface is used for data storage. A read/write head mounted on an actuator is provided for each disk surface. Each read/write head is positioned over a desired location on the disk surface by a control mechanism in order to transfer data to and from the disk surface. Data and position information are encoded on each disk surface according to a pre-specified format. The rotation of the disk spindle is controlled to maintain a desired angular position and velocity. A sensor signal indicative of the disk spindle angular position and velocity is obtained independently of the position information encoded on the disk surface. A reference signal, which is obtained from the disk surface, is combined with the sensor signal to adjust the angular position of the disk spindle.

Data storage systems often utilize several storage devices such as hard magnetic or optical disk drives to provide adequate permanent data storage capacity. Each hard disk drive incorporates a multiple hard magnetic or optical disk stack mounted on a spindle and driven by a motor operated at a predetermined rotational speed. Data transfer to and from each disk drive is effected by means of a plurality of read/write transducers, such as magnetic read/write heads, each one of which is associated with a disk surface and is mounted on a common actuator mechanism to enable transmission of data as well as accurate position information to and from the associated disk surface.
To ensure acceptable data access time and reliable read/write head positioning performance of the disk drive, disk spindle rotation must be accurately controlled. This objective is met by means of a phase locked loop servomechanism provided for each disk drive. The phase locked loop servomechanism operates to follow a periodic rotation reference signal provided by a command signal source. In the traditional implementation of the phase locked loop servomechanism both the frequency and the phase of a feedback signal and the periodic rotation reference signal are compared to generate an error which is regulated to an acceptably low level. Other implementations of the phase locked loop servomechanism rely only on frequency equalization or lock between the feedback signal and the periodic rotation reference signal. The frequency of the rotation reference signal corresponds to the desired rotational speed of the disk drive spindle.
With the spindle of each disk drive in the data storage system following its own rotation reference signal, the position of the currently selected read/write head relative to its disk surface at any moment of time varies from one disk drive to another. Disk surfaces of different disk drives can, therefore, be accessed only in a sequential manner and throughput is limited by the random spatial relationship between the selected read/write head and the desired location on the associated disk surface.
Significant increase in data throughput of a multiple disk drive storage system can be achieved by synchronizing the rotational motion of the spindles of a number of identical disk drives. In this arrangement the disk spindle of every disk drive in the data storage system is driven by a common reference signal. Consequently, individual disk drive spindles are accelerated and maintained at the same rotational speed. At all times, the currently enabled read/write head of each disk drive is spatially aligned relative to its disk surface in exactly the same manner as the read/write heads of all the other disk drives. This permits highly parallel data transfer operation to and from a number of the disk drives of the multiple disk drive storage system by utilizing an appropriate data storage format.
A known way of establishing identical angular alignment of the disk spindles of several disk drives with respect to the common reference signal relies on the use in each disk drive of a special disk surface and an associated read/write head which are dedicated to encoding and relaying position information for closed loop control of both the read/write head actuator and the disk spindle. A frame of reference for defining rotation of the disk spindle is given by an index signal written on the dedicated disk surface and detected once for every revolution of the disk spindle. Such an index signal can be easily recorded on every track along an appropriate radially coherent or continuous curve described by the dedicated read/write head as it is made to move across the dedicated disk surface. The radial index curve will generally take the form of a circular arc when the read/write head motion is obtained by means of a rotary actuator. Conversely, whenever the linear read/write head actuator mechanism is used, the radial index curve will be disposed along a radius on the dedicated disk surface. In any event, the resultant index signal, for example in the form of a pulse, is periodic and can be directly compared to an externally provided command signal waveform. The phase locked loop servomechanism determines the phase misalignment between the index signal and the external command signal and acts to reduce this error until the disk spindle attains the desired rotational speed and position orientation with respect to its index signal. At this time the phase locked loop servomechanism of the disk spindle is said to have acquired lock and tracks the command signal within an acceptable steady state phase error.
Phase alignment of the identical index signals, obtained from the dedicated surface of each disk drive, to a common command signal is a convenient way of synchronizing the rotational motion of the disk spindles from different disk drives. As new requests to transfer data are processed, one disk surface from each disk drive can be selected for immediate access simultaneously.
A difficulty of employing such disk surface recorded position information for disk spindle control arises with disk surface data formats that preclude the use of a disk surface and read/write head dedicated to position information processing. Instead, such position information is encoded on all disk surfaces of each disk drive along with the data. To utilize the data storage capacity of a disk drive efficiently, the position information may be embedded along the boundaries of circumferentially organized continuous sectors containing blocks of data. Data and position information can be placed on a disk surface in a variety of formats according, inter alia, to the disk drive performance characteristics. Since the position information is obtained from the currently selected disk surface, each surface of the disk drive must contain its own index signal for disk spindle control.
As the disk drive receives a request to access data located on another of its disk surfaces, a switch to the new read/write head is made and the phase locked loop servomechanism discontinues processing of the index signal from the previously selected disk surface and initiates detection of the new index signal on the newly accessed disk surface. Any angular misalignment between the two index signals which may be desirable, for example, to enhance the speed of formatting the disk surfaces, creates a phase error between the command signal and the feedback index signal which is acted upon by the phase locked loop servomechanism to create a corrective action. Consequently, data transfer is delayed until the process of re-acquiring lock with respect to the new index signal, occurring over a period of time dependent upon the dynamic characteristics of the phase locked loop servomechanism, is complete.
Another disadvantage of embedding the index information on the disk surface at the boundaries of the data blocks is the constraint imposed on the choice of data formats. Since such embedded index signal must be located along a radially coherent or continuous curve on each disk surface of the disk drive, any acceptable data format must ensure that the data area boundaries align along that curve. However, to ensure uniform aerial bit density throughout the disk surface, it may be desirable to have a greater number of data areas or sectors on outward tracks than on the tracks proximal to the center of the disk surface. To this end, bands of radially contiguous tracks can be grouped together to conform to a distinct sector format making sector alignment along any one radially coherent or continuous curve on the disk surface highly undesirable.

Spindle controller with startup correction of disk position


An implementation repeatedly updates data in a data structure, the data structure having a size larger than an atomic size. The implementation avoids locking the data structure on every update, however. One method accesses data in a first portion of a data structure and estimates, based on the accessed data, an impact on data in a second portion of the data structure arising from an update to data in the first portion. The method then determines, based on the estimated impact, whether to lock the data structure during an update to data in the data structure. In a more particular example, a counter is copied on a regular basis. If only the least significant bits of the counter have changed, then an atomic instruction is used to copy only the least significant bits. However, when the more significant bits have changed, a lock is used to copy the entire counter.

A data structure may be used to store data. If the data that is to be stored is changing, then the data structure may be updated according to a schedule to reflect the new values of the changing data. During such an update, it may be desirable to perform the entire update without allowing another process to access the data structure (for example, at a point in time at which a portion of the data structure has been updated, but another portion of the data structure has not been updated). Such mid-update access may be prevented by locking the data structure or by updating the data structure using an atomic operation.


An electrically insulating gas-tight penetration is provided for at least two electrical conductors passing through a metal shell of an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine, in particular a metal shell of an electrically heatable catalytic converter. The shell has a sheath in the region of the penetration and the conductors extend through the sheath. Electromagnetic impulses are avoided by running the conductors coaxially to one another.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention refers to an electrically insulating gas-tight penetration of at least two electrical conductors passing through a metal shell of an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine, in particular a metal shell of an electrically heatable catalytic converter.
Prior art electrically insulating gas-tight penetrations are known in large numbers for the most varied uses.
Due to the consequences resulting from atmospheric pollution, stricter and stricter regulations are being issued to limit exhaust emissions, in particular from motor vehicles. As the demands for the reduction of pollutants in exhausts from vehicles increase, more and more complex systems for exhaust cleaning are being used for internal combustion engines. In particular, electrically heated catalytic converters are being used alongside a three-way catalytic converter for the reduction of pollutant emissions during the cold starting phase of an internal combustion engine. Such a configuration is known, for instance, from International Application WO 92/02714, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,411,711. The problem with such electrically heated catalytic converters is the electrical penetration of an electrical conductor of a voltage source into the electrically heated catalytic converter. A proposed solution for an electrical penetration is known from International Application WO 94/18442. International Application WO 94/18442 suggests constructing the electrically insulating gas-tight penetration in such a way that it is divided into two sections lying one behind the other. The first section thereof, lying closer to the exhaust system, is constructed to be electrically insulating and temperature-resistant but not quite gas-tight, whereas the second section lying farther away from the exhaust system is constructed as a gas-tight and electrically insulating penetration for lower temperatures. In that known penetration, two electrical conductors pass through the shell adjacent one another.

Electrically insulating gas tight penetration

Emitec Gesellschaft fuer Emissionstechnologie mbH


A toilet apparatus has a waste material receiving bowl with an opening at a top of the waste material receiving bowl. A bag receives and retains waste material and an absorbent media introduced through the opening. An agitation device agitate the absorbent media and the waste material at a lower portion of the bag to cause the absorbent media to at least substantially cover the waste material while the agitation device is not contacting the absorbent media and the waste material.

Toilets, which may also be referred to as commodes, generally refer to devices used for the disposal of human waste. Flush toilets are a common type of toilet that uses water to facilitate removal of the waste to a processing site, such as a septic system, for its decomposition. More recently, however, other toilet designs have been implemented that can, among other things, reduce water usage levels required for their operation. Examples of such toilets include composting toilets that process the waste locally, and chemical based toilets that use chemicals to deodorize the waste until it can be moved to another location for processing. Nevertheless, each of these toilet designs require special handling techniques to ensure the safe movement of waste to a sanitary location for the toilet's continued use. It is with these problems in mind, among other problems, that embodiments of the present disclosure have been developed.


The present invention comprises a novel strain of Lactobacillus johnsonni FERM BP-2680, a lactic acid bacteria preparation using the Lactobacillus johnsonni FERM BP-2680, and a process of manufacturing the lactic acid bacteria preparation. The process includes the steps of inoculating the Lactobacillus johnsonni FERM BP-2680 into a medium containing fermentable sugar as a major carbon source, cultivating and proliferating under cultivation conditions adapted to anaerobes or facultative anaerobes, and further isolating the Lactobacillus johnsonni from the medium and drying the isolated Lactobacillus johnsonni with a protective agent to produce the lactic acid bacteria preparation. Optionally a bulking agent may be added to control cell concentration of the preparation. The preparation containing Lactobacillus johnsonni FERM BP-2680 is used to suppress harmful bacteria in the digestive tract of mammals.

It has been well known that lactic acid bacteria are distributed as normal bacterial floras (enteric bacilli) in intestinal tracts and cavities of human beings or animals and are useful for maintaining their health. Recently, remarkable progress in study of intestinal micro-floras (hereinafter may be referred to as "floras") has gradually revealed a role of lactic acid bacteria.
In this connection, attention is drawn to the effects of lactic acid bacteria preparations and various kinds of food including lactic acid bacteria, such as fermented milk and sour milk beverage.
Generally speaking, such intestinal floras comprise a group of lactic acid bacteria, an anaerobic group, and an aerobic group.
These intestinal floras comprise useful bacteria, such as lactic acid bacteria, which are useful to human beings and animals, and harmful bacteria which are harmful to the contrary. Such useful and harmful bacteria both live in intestines with a specific balance kept therebetween.
Herein, the term "useful bacteria" indicates those bacteria which are useful to maintain the health of a host by various activities, for example, synthesis of vitamin and protein, promotion of digestion and absorption, suppression of proliferation of foreign bacteria, stimulation of immune functions, or the like. On the other hand, the term "harmful bacteria" indicates those bacteria which produce in intenstines various materials that are harmful to the host and are therefore considered to relate to the causes of various acute or chronic diseases, senility, and cancer.
Accordingly, it is understood that human diseases, senility, and cancer can be avoided and human being can stay being healthy, if harmful bacteria in intestines are suppressed and useful bacteria are increased to the contrary.
As regards livestock, it has been well known that administration of useful bacteria, such as lactic acid bacteria, or fermented products thereof is effective in promoting growth and in preventing and curing diseases such as diarrhea. Recently, such application has been widely made.
These preparations are called probiotics and has become into worldwide use.
In the meanwhile, infant animals are inherently germ-free when they are born. As soon as they are born, various bacteria begin enter into their bodies environment.
The balance between useful bacteria and harmful bacteria in intestinal floras of infant animals gradually become stable with the lapse of days after birth. However, the balance is often affected by environment and change of feed.
Specifically, in infant animals, useful bacteria are liable to decrease while opportunistic Escherichia coli is liable to profiferate rapidly.
Proliferation of opportunistic Escherichia coli breaks the balance in intestinal floras to often cause diseases.
If viable cell preparations such as lactic acid bacteria preparations are preventively administered to infant animals, the acidity of their intestines can be maintained. In this event, proliferation of Escherichia coli is suppressed so as to effectively prevent various diseases resulting from imbalance in intestinal floras.
Administration of such viable cell preparations generally has a remarkable effect on infant animals. If applied to healthy adult animals, a considerable effect is also observed.
Intestinal floras of adult animals maintain a delicate balance which is not always constant. The balance is easily broken due to stimulation by environment, such as stress.
Specifically, the balance in intestinal floras is highly dependent on a pH in intestines.
If lactic acid bacteria are predominant and produce lactic acid sufficiently, the acidity in intestines is maintained so as to suppress proliferation of Escherichia coli.
On the contrary, when the activity of lactic acid bacteria is diminished, organic acid such as lactic acid is reduced. In this event, Escherichia coli readily proliferates to thereby cause diseases such as diarrhea.
For viable cell preparations, use may be made of intestinal bacteria derivatives or other bacteria that are not belong to normal intestinal bacteria. Intestinal bacteria derivatives which can proliferate in intestines of animals dosed are desirable.
However, some intestinal bacteria cannot colonize in intestines of animals of different species because of specific characteristics.
In other words, even if particular intestinal bacteria are inherent to a particular animal, they are liable to be eliminated by indigenous bacteria in case when they are administered from outside. It is to be noted that colonization and proliferation in intestines would not always be expected.
Accordingly, if further administration of bacteria is stopped, the bacteria that have already been supplied disappear from intestines in a relatively short period of time.
It is reported that, even in such case, continuous administration of more than a predetermined amount of viable cell preparations is effective in preventing and curing diarrhea and in promoting growth, irrespective of colonization. This is because the administered bacteria themselves act in intestines or aid to maintain and proliferate useful bacteria that have indigenously existed in intestines.
Generally, in order to improve efficiency of viable cell preparations, a necessary amount of viable cells must reach intestines through a stomach.
Therefore, essential properties required to the bacteria are: to be stable in preparations; to be stable in feed or drinking water into which the preparations are mixed; to be acid-resistant in a stomach that shows high acidity among other digestive tracts; and to be resistant to sterilizing action of bile in small intestines.
In addition, recent and strong demand exists for viable cell preparations in that viable cells have high activity to perform intestinal action with high efficiency.
Desirably, viable cells sufficiently proliferate so as to colonize in intestines. It is at least necessary for viable cells to be highly effective in promoting proliferation of indigenous lactic acid bacteria.
Such viable cell preparations must have a high survival stability of bacteria in the preparations. In addition, the viable cell preparations must reach inside of intestines against severe conditions in digestive tracts.
Even though many viable cell preparations are commercially available at present, no preparations sufficiently meets these requirements.
It is an object of the present invention to find a lactic acid bacteria strain satisfying the requirements for viable cell preparations and to provide lactic acid bacteria preparations having a sufficient survival stability and satisfying various requirements, and a manufacturing process of the preparations.

Lactobacillus johnsonii ferm bp-2680 lactic acid bacteria preparations using the same and a process of manufacturing the preparations


The invention provides an edge detection circuit and a motion processing circuit which can prevent, upon motion detection between frames, erroneous detection at an edge portion, particularly a moving edge portion. A first edge detection section detects an edge of a pattern of an image provided by a first one of frames of a video signal and forwards a first edge detection signal. A second edge detection section detects the edge of the pattern of an image provided by a second one of the frames of the video signal at a time different from that of the first frame and forwards a second edge detection signal. An edge motion discrimination section receives the first and second edge detection signals and discriminates presence of absence of motion of the edge between the first and second frames based on the first and second edge detection signals. Consequently, any edge portion which exhibits motion between frames can be detected correctly.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a motion processing circuit for detecting and processing motion of an image provided by a video signal, and more particularly to an edge detection circuit for detecting presence or absence of motion of an edge provided by a video signal and a motion processing circuit which includes an edge detection circuit of the type mentioned.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, for color television signals of the NTSC system and the PAL system, a composite video signal which includes a brightness signal and a color signal for each frame is used. Further, for such a composite video signal as just mentioned, a technique of motion detection is used in order to efficiently effect decomposition of a brightness signal and a color signal (such decomposition will be hereinafter referred to as YC decomposition), noise reduction, double speed interpolation and signal compression processing.
According to the technique of motion detection, a variation (finite difference) between a current frame and a preceding frame is detected, and, based on presence or absence of such variation, a motion signal representative of whether or not there is motion between the frames is produced. By this technique, the adaptability of processing such as YC decomposition or signal compression processing mentioned above can be improved.
For example, in YC decomposition or double speed interpolation processing of the NTSC system, where an image exhibits a stationary state, a complete YC decomposition signal or interpolation signal can be obtained by inter-frame calculation and an image of a high quality can be obtained. On the other hand, in signal compression processing, where an image exhibits a stationary state, a signal of a preceding frame can be used as it is for a current frame, and consequently, the amount of signals to be transmitted can be reduced and the transmission band of the transmission signal can be made narrow. Accordingly, the technique of motion detection is a very important technique in video signal processing.
On the other hand, it is pointed out that, at an edge portion representative of a contour of a pattern on a screen, an error is likely to occur in detection of motion described above. Such erroneous detection is caused by crosstalk between a high brightness portion included in an edge component and a color signal portion, very small motion of a high brightness portion included in an edge component, and so forth. Of those factors, the crosstalk between a high brightness portion and a color signal portion arises from the fact that, while the brightness signal has a same phase between different frames, the color signal has opposite phases to each other between adjacent frames.
Since an edge portion includes crosstalk and very small motion in this manner, a motion adaptive YC decomposition circuit or a motion adaptive double speed conversion circuit which ignores an error upon motion detection at an edge portion has a drawback in that dot disturbance, cross color disturbance, fading of an image and so forth occur at an edge portion provided by a video signal, resulting in reproduction of an unbecoming image. Therefore, it is desirable to prevent erroneous detection of motion arising from very small motion at an edge portion.
A motion information signal detection circuit as a kind of motion processing circuit which prevents erroneous detection of motion at an edge portion is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. Heisei 3-220889. The motion information signal detection circuit disclosed in the document Just mentioned includes a motion detection circuit for detecting motion between frames from a video signal and outputting a motion signal, an edge detection circuit for discriminating an edge portion of a current frame and generating, when an edge portion is detected, an edge detection signal, and an adaptive processing circuit which is controlled in response to the edge detection signal. The edge detection circuit generates, if it detects an edge portion, an edge detection signal for a period of time corresponding to the detected edge portion, and forwards the edge detection signal as a masking signal to the adaptive processing circuit. Upon reception of the edge detection signal, the adaptive processing circuit attenuates the level of the motion signal from the motion detection circuit in accordance with the level of the edge detection signal.
Accordingly, the motion information signal detection circuit described above can eliminate erroneous detection of motion at an edge portion by either decreasing the level of or masking the motion signal at an edge portion in accordance with the level of the edge detection signal. This signifies that the motion signal is either decreased or substantially held from being outputted for a period of time of the edge portion provided for the duration of the edge detection signal, and consequently, very small motion between frames can be ignored. In other words, the conventional motion information signal detection circuit can prevent erroneous detection arising from very small motion at a stationary portion of a pattern.
However, where the construction of the motion information signal detection circuit described above is employed, also when an edge in a current frame exhibits a variation from that in the preceding frame over a time longer than the duration of the edge detection signal, that is, also when an edge portion actually exhibits motion, the edge detection signal is forwarded for each frame to the adaptive processing circuit. Consequently, although there actually is some motion between frames, an edge detection signal is forwarded to the adaptive processing circuit for each frame similarly as in the case wherein an image exhibits a stationary state, and an output for the edge portion of each frame is decreased or masked. Accordingly, although an edge portion exhibits motion between frames, the motion of the edge portion is ignored. This represents that, with the construction of the motion information signal detection circuit described above, such erroneous detection that motion is detected as a stationary state occurs.
Also it is possible to reduce erroneous detection at an edge portion to some degree by increasing, without using an edge detection circuit, the number of frames to be used for motion detection. However, as such number of frames increases, the number of frame memories, which are expensive, must be increased, which is not preferable for economy.

Video signal edge detection circuit and motion processing circuit


A rechargeable battery includes an electrode assembly that performs charging and discharging, a case in which the electrode assembly is located, a cap plate coupled to an opening of the case, and electrode terminals located in the cap plate and insulated from the cap plate by insulation members located at terminal holes of the cap plate, the electrode terminals being connected to electrodes of the electrode assembly and extending outside the cap plate and the electrode terminals including a fastening portion that receives at least a part of a bus bar to be welded.

1. Field
The present description relates to a rechargeable battery and a module of the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A rechargeable battery is a battery that repeatably performs charging and discharging, unlike a primary battery. A small capacity rechargeable battery may be used in a portable and small electronic device, such as a mobile phone, a notebook computer, or a camcorder. A large capacity rechargeable battery may be used as a power source for driving a motor of a hybrid car and an electric car.
For example, the rechargeable battery includes an electrode assembly that charges and discharges, a case for accommodating the electrode assembly, a cap plate coupled to an opening of the case, and an electrode terminal installed in the cap plate to be electrically connected to the electrode assembly.

Rechargeable battery and module of the same


Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and apparatuses for quickly and easily configuring an application user interface using a flexible generic layout file. For one embodiment, a free-form grid layout is provided that allows an application provider to create a desired number of placeholders, each of a desired size, by positioning objects at desired locations on the free-form grid. In this way the application provider configures the application user interface. For one embodiment, the placeholders are created by dragging selected objects, from a provided set of objects, onto the grid layout. For such an embodiment, a set of parameters that describe the objects on the grid layout (e.g., indicating number, size, and location) is stored to a database. At run-time, the parameters are used to dynamically generate HTML code, which when executed presents the application user interface.

There has been a tremendous increase in the number and type of applications (user-oriented specific-function software) provided via internet-related networks (e.g., the World Wide Web ("WWW")) over the last decade. The application is created using an authoring language (e.g., HTML) that defines the structure and layout of the application UI. For example, HTML defines structure and layout using a variety of language element descriptors (e.g., tags and attributes). Typical web-based applications are presented using a client/server programming model. In such a model, an application provider provides the application on a server digital processing system ("DPS"), and an end-user of the application accesses the application via a client DPS. For example, for web-based applications, the server DPS houses a program that provides requested HTML to a client DPS when requested.
Typically a software vendor will create an application UI template. The HTML code that defines the structure and layout of the application UI template is contained in a generic layout file ("GLF"). The application UI template can be used to configure multiple different application UIs. The application provider obtains the application UI template from the software vendor and customizes the application UI configuration to meet their specific needs. However, the ability to easily modify the application UI template is often quite limited. That is, an application provider can configure the application UI, but modifications to the generic layout require editing the HTML code of the GLF. FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate an application UI template and requirements for customization and modification in accordance with the prior art. Application UI template 100, shown in FIG. 1A, contains a number of placeholders 101–106. The GLF specifies the number and position of the placeholders, the size of the placeholder is not fixed, and can expand or shrink depending on the UI object placed in it. Using a tools editor, the application provider can then drag objects, such as fields and controls (e.g., fields, push buttons, scroll bars, etc.), and drop them within the placeholders 101–106. That is, the tools editor allows the application provider to move an object from one place to another on a display screen to configure the application UI. This is accomplished, for example, by selecting the object with a pointing device (e.g., a mouse) and directing it to a new location. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, field names, "Account Number," "Date," and "Contact" are placed in placeholders, 101, 103, and 105, respectively. Edit fields corresponding to each field name are placed in placeholders 102, 104, and 106, respectively. A placeholder may be configured to show both the field name and edit field. Internally, only one object is mapped to the placeholder. The particular objects placed within the placeholders constitute an applet, which is a logical user interface entity that displays information to the end user (e.g., a form Applet), which dictates how the application is presented. Information regarding each object (e.g., description of the object) contained in the applet and the corresponding placeholder for each object is kept in a database. Determining the applet (e.g., moving various objects within the existing placeholders) can be accomplished fairly easily using a tools editor. In this way an application provider customizes the application UI template according to the specific needs of the particular application provider. However, the tools editor cannot be used where the application provider desires a more substantial modification to the application UI template (e.g., modifying the generic layout structure). Modifications to the size and position of any of the placeholders, as well as adding or removing placeholders, require editing the HTML code of the GLF. For example, FIG. 1B illustrates a customization of the application UI template 100. In application UI template 110, shown in FIG. 1B, placeholders 102, 104, and 106 have been repositioned so that they are beneath the placeholders containing the corresponding field names. Also, the size of placeholder 102 has been increased (e.g., to accommodate a larger account number). Further, additional placeholders, 107 and 108 have been added to the application UI template to provide a "Comments" field name and corresponding edit field, respectively. In order to make these modifications, the application provider would have to access and edit the HTML of the GLF. The application provider would use a text editor to access the GLF and then make appropriate additions to the HTML, including creating a new HTML to effect the desired layout of the application UI. Depending upon the nature of the modifications desired, this process may require a substantial amount of time and effort. Moreover, editing the GLF requires a fairly high level of expertise and commensurate expense. The cost and effort involved in configuring the application UI beyond the confines of the application UI template is a substantial drawback to current application UI layout schemes.
Another related drawback is the difficulty encountered in migrating applets created in one authoring language to applets formed in another (e.g., migrating non-HTML applets to HTML applets). For example, when mapping controls from, for example, a coordinate-based layout to the placeholders of a typical application UI template, it may not be possible to determine an application UI template that has a placeholder layout that closely matches the coordinate-based layout. Application providers are forced to expend a great deal of time and effort to modify the migrated applets to match the number, size, and position of the original applets.

Application user interface template with free-form layout


One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates reducing static power consumption of a processor. During operation, the system receives a signal indicating that instruction execution within the processor is to be temporarily halted. In response to this signal, the system halts an instruction-processing portion of the processor, and reduces the voltage supplied to the instruction-processing portion of the processor. Full voltage is maintained to a remaining portion of the processor, so that the remaining portion of the processor can continue to operate while the instruction-processing portion of the processor is in reduced power mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques for conserving power usage in computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for reducing power consumption in a processor by reducing voltage supplied to an instruction-processing portion of the processor, while maintaining voltage to other portions of the processor.
2. Related Art
Dramatic advances in integrated circuit technology have led to corresponding increases in processor clock speeds. Unfortunately, these increases in processor clock speeds have been accompanied by increased power consumption. Increased power consumption is undesirable, particularly in battery-operated devices such as laptop computers, for which there exists a limited supply of power. Any increase in power consumption decreases the battery life of the computing device.
Modern processors are typically fabricated using Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) circuits. CMOS circuits typically consume more power while the circuits are switching, and less power while the circuits are idle. Designers have taken advantage of this fact by reducing the frequency of (or halting) clock signals to certain portions of a processor when the processor is idle. Note that some portions of the processor must remain active, however. For example, a cache memory with its associated snoop circuitry will typically remain active, as well as interrupt circuitry and real-time clock circuitry.
Although reducing the frequency of (or halting) a system clock signal can reduce the dynamic power consumption of a processor, static power consumption is not significantly affected. This static power consumption is primarily caused by leakage currents through the CMOS devices. As integration densities of integrated circuits continue to increase, circuit devices are becoming progressively smaller. This tends to increase leakage currents, and thereby increases static power consumption. This increased static power consumption results in reduced battery life, and increases cooling system requirements for battery operated computing devices.
What is needed is a method and an apparatus that reduces static power consumption for a processor in a battery operated computing device.

Conserving power by reducing voltage supplied to an instruction-processing portion of a processor


A mobile communication device (MCD) receives at least a portion of a message redirected from a messaging system over a wireless network, with the message containing a notification of an attachment. The MCD queries local attachment displayers regarding their location, electronic address and the types of attachment files that can be processed. The MCD then generates a request for the attachment, with the request containing information regarding at least one local attachment displayer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed toward the field of replicating and redirecting information from a host system where the information is normally stored to a mobile data communication device. In particular, the system and method of the present invention provide an event-driven redirection computer program ("redirector program") operating at the host system, which, upon sensing a particular user-defined event has occurred, redirects user-selected data items from the host system to the user's mobile data communication device. Upon sensing a second user-defined event has occurred, the redirector program may discontinue redirecting information. The mobile data communication device is preferably coupled to the host system via a wireless network and one or more landline networks. Due to the bandwidth limitations of wireless networks, only a portion of a user-selected data item is generally redirected to the user's mobile device, with the user given the option of then retrieving the entire data item (or some other portion of the data item) from the host system.
The invention also provides a system and method for redirecting message attachments between the host system and the mobile data communication device. This system and method are particularly useful for mobile devices, such as pagers, PDAs, cellular telephones, etc., that have limited memory capacity and thus may have difficulty processing attachment files.
2. Description of the Related Art
Present systems and methods for replicating (or redirecting) information from a host system to a user's mobile data communication device are typically "synchronization" systems in which the user's data items are warehoused (or stored) at the host system for an indefinite period of time and then transmitted in bulk to the mobile device only in response to a user request. In these types of systems and methods, when replication of the warehoused data items to the mobile device is desired, the user typically places the mobile device in an interface cradle that is electrically connected to the host system via some form of local, dedicated communication. Software executing on the mobile device then transmits commands via the local communications link to the host system to cause the host to begin transmitting the user's data items for storage in a memory bank of the mobile device.
In these known synchronization schemes, the mobile unit "pulls" the warehoused information from the host system in a batch each time the user desires to replicate information between the two devices. Therefore, the two systems (host and mobile) only maintain the same data items after a user-initiated command sequence that causes the mobile device to download the data items from the host system. A general problem with these synchronization systems is that the only time that the user data items are replicated between the host system and the mobile data communication device is when the user commands the mobile device to download or pull the user data from the host system. Five minutes later a new message could be sent to the user, but the user would not receive that message until the next time the user fetches the user data items. Thus, a user may fail to respond to an emergency update or message because the user only periodically synchronizes the system, such as once per day. Other problems with these systems include: (1) the amount of data to be reconciled between the host and the mobile device can become large if the user does not "synchronize" on a daily or hourly basis, leading to bandwidth difficulties, particularly when the mobile device is communicating via a wireless packet-switched network; and (2) reconciling large amounts of data, as can accrue in these batch-mode synchronization systems, can require a great deal of communication between the host and the mobile device, thus leading to a more complex, costly and energy-inefficient system.
A more automated, continuous, efficient and reliable system of ensuring that user data items are replicated at the user's mobile device is therefore needed.
There remains an additional need for such a system and method that provides flexibility in the types and quantities of user data items that are pushed from the host system to the mobile data communication device and that also provides flexibility in the configuration and types of events that can serve to trigger the redirection of the user data items.
There remains yet an additional need for such a system and method that can operate locally on a user's desktop PC or at a distance via a network server.
There remains still another need for such a system and method that provides for secure, transparent delivery of the user-selected data items from the host system to the mobile device.
There remains an additional need for such a system and method in which the user is provided with a flexible means of processing message attachments that may be too large or incompatible with the configuration of the mobile device.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for redirecting message attachments between a host system and a mobile data communication device


Disclosed are various embodiments for managing radio-based private networks. In one embodiment, a cellular network comprises at least one cell that provides a radio-based private network coverage of a site of an organization. The system further comprises at least one computing device in a cloud provider network that implements one or more network functions for an associated core network of the radio-based private network.

5G is the fifth-generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks, which is planned eventually to take the place of the fourth-generation (4G) standard of Long-Term Evolution (LTE). 5G technology will offer greatly increased bandwidth, thereby broadening the cellular market beyond smartphones to provide last-mile connectivity to desktops, set-top boxes, laptops, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and so on. Some 5G cells may employ frequency spectrum similar to that of 4G, while other 5G cells may employ frequency spectrum in the millimeter wave band. Cells in the millimeter wave band will have a relatively small coverage area but will offer much higher throughput than 4G.


A system and method for reconstructing a three-dimensional (3D) model are described. The 3D model reconstruction system includes: a low resolution reconstruction unit that converts a first depth map, acquired by scanning a scene with a depth camera, into a second depth map having a low resolution, processes the second depth map to extract pose change information about a pose change of the depth camera, and reconstructs a low resolution 3D model in real-time; and a high resolution reconstruction unit that processes the first depth map by using the pose change information of the depth camera that is extracted from the second depth map and reconstructs a high resolution 3D model.

1. Field
One or more embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a system and method for reconstructing a three-dimensional (3D) model.
2. Related Art
Tracking an accurate movement of a camera from a series of photographed scenes is an area of great concern in such fields as 3D virtual reality or robotics. Among various methods of tracking movement of a camera, a technique of using distance information obtained from a depth camera provides excellent performance and is widely used in 3D scanners.

System and method for reconstructing 3D model


An aerobic exercise system for encouraging a person to exercise more which includes a doll having movable extremities which at least include arms and legs which are capable of moving in a predetermined aerobic manner. An aerobic video displays predetermined movements to be performed by the doll. There is a chip disposed within such doll which is connected to the arms and legs for causing predetermined aerobic movements of the doll which correspond to movements of the aerobic video. Additionally, there is at least one aerobic type bench for the doll to perform such predetermined aerobic exercises on.

In the United States and certain other parts of the world it is known that there are numerous overweight children today. This is especially the case where food is plentiful. It is even more the situation where sweets are available in great supply. It is believed that this is also caused in great part by children today watching too much television and not getting a normal amount of exercise. In other words, children today are becoming couch potatoes who eat far too many fattening type foods which are especially high in carbohydrates.
It can be seen from this discussion that there is a need for a some relatively inexpensive means to motivate children as well as adults to exercise more in order to promote a more healthy body.
Prior to the conception and development of the present invention, as is also generally well recognized in the prior art, exercise machines and toys have been taught in the prior art. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,124.


Performs a code elimination by DCE (dead code elimination) more effectively in optimizing a program by compiling. In an example embodiment, a method invocation to be a processing target is determined based on a state of a use of an object reference in a method invocation in an execution program. The method invocation, which has been determined to be a processing target, is inline-expanded. The instance variable of an object in the inline-expanded method invocation is scalarized, and dead code elimination is performed for the execution program, to which an inline-expansion and a scalarization is performed.

At present, complex software is designed with a separate component for each function. In this case, each component is designed to provide a common function to be used for various programs.
When such software is written in an object-oriented language as typified by JAVA, a high-level, object-oriented programming language developed by Sun Microsystems, each function is classified into class, object, and method to be provided. When a function is desired to be used, a program generates an object to invoke a method.
When such object-oriented software is designed, not all the calculation may be needed. For example, an object including two pieces of information is used for giving and receiving values, when only one piece of the information may actually be used, depending on where the program is located. In such a case, calculation for the information of no use would be performed in vain; the existence of such a useless performance may sometimes affect the performance of software significantly.
An approach called dead code elimination (DCE) (also called "dead store elimination") is well-known as an optimization technology for a program with a compiler. This is an optimization technology to eliminate a code, of which a calculation result is determined not to be used, by analyzing a method and the like within a compiling target. The codes include an unreachable code on a control flow, resolved conditionals, and a code defining a value not to be used (dead store). As a specific approach, backward dataflow optimization that analyses a reaching use of a definition value is performed in combination with forward dataflow optimization such as constant propagation and copy propagation on CFG (Control Flow Graph) or SSA form (Static Single Assignment Form).
However, while the above-described program optimization technology with DCE is effective in that it eliminates a waste of a complex equation such as mathematical calculation, it is defective in that it is not easy to function with an object-oriented language, which is divided into components, such as JAVA, a high-level, object-oriented programming language developed by Sun Microsystems. The primary two reasons for that will be shown as follows:
One of the reasons is that a target of DCE elimination is limited to a code within a method. Generally, for an object-oriented language such as JAVA, a high-level, object-oriented programming language developed by Sun Microsystems, a plurality of multilevel method invocations are performed to generate a piece of information. When such a multilevel method invocation is performed, it is not subject to the DCE elimination.
The other reason is that a value written on a heap can be globally referenced, and DCE cannot analyze a reaching use for such a global value. Generally, an object of JAVA, a high-level, object-oriented programming language developed by Sun Microsystems, is generated on a heap. As such, DCE cannot analyze a reaching use and a code cannot be eliminated.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a method invocation of a program with an object-oriented language.
A part of a program shown in FIG. 7 represents the case in which an object reference v is defined (v's def), and its use is an invocation of a method mtd1 for making an object v its receiver. In this example, a method mtd1 invokes a method mtd2 by substituting a value of 1 into an instance variable i1 of an object v, then a method mtd2 substitutes a value of 2 into an instance variable i2 of an object v.
In this case, even if a substituted result of a value into an instance variable of an object v is not used in the other places, this result is not eliminated by DCE because the object v is used for invoking a method mtd1.
Both substituted results of values into instance variables i1 and i2 of object v shown in FIG. 7 are not used. In other words, both of them are dead store and this substitution is useless.
However, even if an object is not actually used, the above-described calculation of no use cannot be eliminated only by a single optimization with DCE, because the calculation appears to be used for a method invocation and the writing into the object is treated globally.

Method, computer unit and program for converting a program

International Business Machines Corporation


The invention relates to millimetric packaged electronic components for applications at high frequencies greater than 45 GHz. According to the invention, to facilitate the design of a system including MMIC chips working at these frequencies, it is proposed to use packages containing one or more chips, these packages making it possible to work at these frequencies and including two types of port: a port with transition by contactless electromagnetic coupling providing a connection with an antenna at the high working frequency F via a waveguide; and a port with microstrip or coaxial line type transition enabling a connection at a subharmonic frequency F/N (preferably N=6 or 4 or, if necessary, 3) of the working frequency.

These electronic circuits are used for radar type applications in which an electromagnetic wave is sent at a millimetric frequency and a wave reflected by an obstacle is received by an antenna, to extract from this wave, on the one hand, distance information and, on the other hand, relative speed information, between this obstacle and the source that sent the wave.
The millimetric frequency circuits can also be used for short distance and very high bit rate communication applications.
Whatever the application, the electronic processing of the millimetric frequency signals comprises a low frequency processing part that can be implemented by silicon integrated circuits mounted on printed circuits. This part can be produced by very commonly used and inexpensive technologies, with connections that are simple to produce between circuit elements on one and the same integrated circuit chip or between different integrated circuit chips. The processing also comprises a very high frequency part (greater than 45 GHz), that can be implemented only by components and integrated circuits made of semiconductor materials other than silicon (gallium arsenide GaAs and its derivatives in particular, or even SiGe). These integrated circuits are called "microwave monolithic integrated circuits" or MMIC. This high-frequency part raises problems of production that are difficult and usually prove very expensive.
In practice, for relatively complex functions, it is necessary to use a large number of MMIC integrated circuit chips, since the quantity of circuit elements that can be placed in one and the same chip is far more limited for the MMIC circuits than for the low frequency circuits made of silicon. Also, these chips are mounted on a substrate with interconnections that are difficult to produce given the very high working frequencies. The design of the interconnections is difficult, and the production cost is high because of the precision required in maintaining tight tolerances to ensure the transmission of the millimetric frequency signals. This becomes all the more true as the number of MMIC chips increases in the system. Also, the increase in complexity of the functions that are to be produced brings with it an increase in the number of chips.
Mounting the chips on a hybrid substrate (normally mounting with wiring to link the chips to the hybrid substrate) is itself very expensive when the number of chips is high.

Packaged electronic components for producing a sub-harmonic frequency signal at millimetric frequencies