High-accuracy differential image motion monitor measurements for the Thirty Meter Telescope site testing program.

Differential image motion monitors (DIMMs) have become the industry standard for astronomical site characterization. The calibration of DIMMs is generally considered to be routine, but we show that particular care must be paid to this issue if high-accuracy measurements are to be achieved. In a side by side comparison of several DIMMs, we demonstrate that with proper care we can achieve an agreement between the seeing measurements of two DIMMS operating under the same conditions to better than +/-0.

A novel midstream urine-collection device reduces contamination rates in urine cultures amongst women.

Objective: To evaluate a novel urine-collection device (UCD) that automatically collects a midstream urine (MSU) sample, and compare contamination rates to those of the conventional MSU sampling method, as the contamination of urine samples for microbiological analysis in women leads to diagnostic ambiguity and unnecessary costs, and may result in part from an incorrect collection procedure.

Patients And Methods: In all, 2823 women from four centres, most from antenatal clinics, were randomized to two urine-collection methods: conventional MSU collection and collection with a novel MSU UCD (the Whiz, JBOL Ltd, Oxford, UK). Semi-quantitative growth and user acceptability were compared between the collection methods.