The technique of rapid evaporation of whole urine to standard osmolality has been studied further and quantitative measurements made of the calcium oxalate crystals resulting, firstly by a microscope method and secondly by isotope method using 14C-oxalate. It is confirmed that ultrafiltration of urine prior to evaporation leads to a large reduction in calcium oxalate crystal formation and that this is largely restored by addition of human urinary Tamm-Horsfall protein (uromucoid). Albumin does not have this effect.
BackgroundActivity based costing (ABC) is an approach to get insight of true costs and to solve accounting problems. It provides more accurate information on product cost than conventional accounting system. The purpose of this study was to identify detailed resource consumption for chest x-ray procedure.MethodsHuman resource cost was calculated by multiplying the mean time spent by employees doing specific activity to their per-minute salaries. The costs of consumables and clinical equipments were obtained from the procurement section of the Radiology Department. The cost of the building was calculated by multiplying the area of space used by the chest X-ray facility with the unit cost of public building department. Moreover, straight-line deprecation with a discount rate of 3% was assumed for calculation of equivalent annual costs for building and machines. Cost of electricity was calculated by multiplying number of kilo watts used by electrical appliance in the year 2010 with electricity tariff for Malaysian commercial consumers (MYR 0.31 per kWh).ResultsFive activities were identified which were required to develop one chest X-ray film. Human resource, capital, consumable and electricity cost was MYR 1.48, MYR 1.98, MYR 2.15 and MYR 0.04, respectively. Total cost of single chest X-ray was MYR 5.65 (USD 1.75).ConclusionBy applying ABC approach, we can have more detailed and precise estimate of cost for specific activity or service. Choice of repeating a chest X-ray can be based on our findings, when cost is a limiting factor.
Crystal formation in whole urine was studied by the technique of rapid evaporation to 1,250 mosmol/l with and without raising citrate concentration by 40–50%. The added citrate reduced calcium oxalate crystal formation at pH 5.3 by about 25 % and reduced calcium phosphate crystal formation at pH 6.8 by some 42%. These results support the view that citrate is important in maintaining calcium in solution in whole urine, and that raising the urinary citrate could be effective treatment for calcium oxalate/phosphate urolithiasis.
One of the roles of e-government portals is to provide a one-stop service to users. In order to fulfill this role, it requires collaboration with other government agencies and businesses to provide an effective one-stop center for users to access and perform various services. Current e-government portals are mostly lack of interoperability whereby users still need to access government services from various portals or websites. Interoperability is a technical requirement to achieve government services collaboration and integration. There are many challenges and approaches to achieve better interoperability in e-government portals. Architecture-based and model-based approaches are essential research areas that can improve interoperability starting from the planning stages. Architecture provides overall overview of e-government components and relationship between components. This paper systematically reviews current architecture-based approaches to find a suitable approach and its requirements to produce a better architecture for e-government portal based on the lessons learned from the previous works.
Fresh samples of human urine adjusted to pH 6.8 were rapidly evaporated at 37 degrees C to 1,250 mosmol/kg. The calcium phosphate precipitated was washed and the calcium measured by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. This procedure was found to be reasonably reproducible. When macromolecules were first removed by ultrafiltration the precipitated calcium was reduced by 76.9%. Addition of human Tamm-Horsfall mucoprotein (T-H) to the urine ultrafiltrates prior to evaporation largely but not completely restored the precipitated calcium. Clumping of crystals was studied quantitatively by passage through a nylon mesh. Mean retention on the mesh was strikingly reduced after ultrafiltration and increased by addition of T-H to the ultrafiltrates. These findings support the view that T-H triggers calcium phosphate crystal formation and clumping in whole urine.
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