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Hematuria is defined as the presence of an abnormal quantity of red blood cells in the urine and is categorized as microscopic or gross. Evaluation for hematuria requires distinguishing glomerular (intrinsic renal disease requiring nephrology evaluation) from nonglomerular (urinary tract disease requiring urologic evaluation). The clinician must consider risk factors for urinary tract malignancy and other mimics of hematuria to properly identify the patient who needs further evaluation. Once confirmed, referral to a urologist for evaluation with cross-sectional imaging, cystoscopy, and possible urine cytology is required for timely diagnosis and treatment to prevent patient morbidity and mortality.

Calculation of the productivity rate and optimization of the machining modes for machine tools today is complex, and in many cases an unresolved problem. Known equations for calculating the real productivity rate of machine tools and machining cost with changes in the machining modes consider only the change in the machining time and time losses owing to metal-cutting tool life change. These equations do not reflect the changes in productivity rate due to change of reliability of machine tool mechanisms with changes in the machining mode. This case study presents a new analytical dependency of the productivity rate for machine tools that includes changes in the reliability of the main mechanisms and components of the machine tools with changes in machining modes. A practical application of a new equation for the productivity rate for a machine tool with changes in the machining mode is presented.

This paper reports the main findings of a study of a sample of UK Doctorate Theses with a research focus on TQM. Amongst the main findings is that the research outputs are mainly in the form of guidelines and frameworks and little attempt is made to build upon previous research to create a meta model of TQM. It is also pointed out that the work undertaken is primarily retrospective and there is little attempt to speculate on what the next generation of quality tools, techniques, and paradigms will look like.

Despite the numerous changes made in accordance with the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative at the University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur, the low rates of breastfeeding have persisted. This study aims to examine the current trend in infant feeding, and the influences of some perinatal and sociodemographic factors on breastfeeding. Five-hundred mothers with singleton pregnancies and healthy infants were interviewed at 6 weeks post-partum. Only 124 (25 per cent) mothers were practising exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), and 132 (26 per cent) mothers were using exclusive infant formula feeding (EIF). On logistic regression analyses, mothers who followed EBF were more likely to have had antenatal plans to breastfeed (Odds ratio 2.44, 95 per cent confidence interval 1.75-3.45), not in paid employment post-natally (OR 1.76, 95 per cent CI 1.31-2.36), of older age group (> 27 years) (OR 1.48, 95 per cent CI 1.13-1.93), had female infants (OR 1.38, 95 per cent CI 1.05-1.80) and of Indian ethnicity (compared to Chinese) (OR 3.87, 95 per cent CI 2.16-6.89). Breastfeeding difficulties were associated with decreased odds of EBF (OR 0.21, 95 per cent CI 0.13-0.34). Parental education, fathers' ages and incomes, primigravida status, Caesarean section, present of episiotomy, late first breastfeed, phototherapy, and length of hospital stay were not significant predictors of failure of EBF. In comparison, predictive factors for increased use of EIF were mothers who have had breastfeeding difficulties, < or = 9 years of schooling, and of Chinese descent. In conclusions, the overall rate of EBF by 6 weeks of age in infants born in this urban hospital had remained poor. The adverse factors for EBF identified in this study warrant further in-depth studies to determine effective ways of improving EBF rates.

Swabs are often used to collect material for avian mycoplasma culture. Such swabs, when inoculated into broth medium, are usually discarded prior to incubation of the broth. In this study the effect on growth of low numbers of Mycoplasma gallisepticum and Mycoplasma synoviae was compared in broths with and without retention of the swab. Plain or charcoal cotton swabs on wooden or plastic sticks were more likely to give growth if retained in the medium for incubation, but rayon swabs on aluminium wire caused inhibition of growth. It was shown that despite thorough agitation of the swab in the broth, cotton and rayon swabs could retain a large percentage of the total numbers of colony-forming units.

Electrical resistance tomography (ERT) reconstructs internal resistance images of the field from electrical measurements on the surface. The objective of this paper is to obtain the tomogram of the liquid-gas regime of ERT system by using multiple excitation sources. A linear back projection algorithm was implemented as a basic algorithm. Then, it was modified to suit the implementation of multiple excitation sources. A liquid-gas regime in the steel pipe was used as a tested medium. The analysis and performance of the image reconstructed which applies multiple excitation sources were compared with the single excitation technique. As a common strategy applied a single excitation source and produce problem especially at the center of the pipe, this paper mainly focuses on image reconstruction of multiple excitation sources. As a conclusion, 50% of the excitation source cannot produce the image as expected. Tomograms that produced by using the single excitation source were much better than the images obtained by using 50% of the excitation source.