Assessment of safety and efficacy of a dietary supplement KaraLiv™ in supporting liver health: a double-blind, parallel, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial

Background: The liver is responsible for many critical functions within the body. If the liver becomes diseased or injured, loss of those critical functions can cause significant damage to the body. KaraLivTM is a novel herbal formulation which contains a blend of different herbal extract ingredients. The current study tested the safety and efficacy of KaraLivTM versus a placebo control in supporting liver function.Methods: The study is a randomized, double-blind, parallel, and placebo-controlled study. A total of 60 patients were divided into 2 groups of 30 each. One group was given KaraLivTM and the other group was given a placebo for a period of 56 days. Treatment results were assessed by evaluating the levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), bilirubin, and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) in both groups.Results: The herbal supplement KaraLivTM significantly supported healthy liver function compared to the placebo following the 56 days of treatment. The treatment (KaraLivTM) group showed a statistically significant improvement in assessed liver enzyme levels compared to the placebo group.Conclusions: The all-natural herbal supplement KaraLivTM is a safe and effective product that can significantly help support healthy liver function

User needs elicitation via analytic hierarchy process (AHP). A case study on a Computed Tomography (CT) scanner

Background: The rigorous elicitation of user needs is a crucial step for both medical device design and purchasing. However, user needs elicitation is often based on qualitative methods whose findings can be difficult to integrate into medical decision-making. This paper describes the application of AHP to elicit user needs for a new CT scanner for use in a public hospital. Methods: AHP was used to design a hierarchy of 12 needs for a new CT scanner, grouped into 4 homogenous categories, and to prepare a paper questionnaire to investigate the relative priorities of these. The questionnaire was completed by 5 senior clinicians working in a variety of clinical specialisations and departments in the same Italian public hospital. Results: Although safety and performance were considered the most important issues, user needs changed according to clinical scenario. For elective surgery, the five most important needs were: spatial resolution, processing software, radiation dose, patient monitoring, and contrast medium. For emergency, the top five most important needs were: patient monitoring, radiation dose, contrast medium control, speed run, spatial resolution. Conclusions: AHP effectively supported user need elicitation, helping to develop an analytic and intelligible framework of decision-making. User needs varied according to working scenario (elective versus emergency medicine) more than clinical specialization. This method should be considered by practitioners involved in decisions about new medical technology, whether that be during device design or before deciding whether to allocate budgets for new medical devices according to clinical functions or according to hospital department

Comparative risk-based seismic assessment of 1970s vs modern tall steel moment frames

This study benchmarks the performance of older existing tall steel moment resisting frame buildings designed following historic code-prescriptive requirements (1973 Uniform Building Code) against modern design standards (2015 International Building Code). The comparison is based on seismic risk assessments of alternative designs of a 50-story archetype office building, located at a site in San Francisco, CA. The mean annual frequency collapse risk of the 1973 building is 28 times greater than the equivalent 2015 building (28 × 10^{-4} versus 1 × 10^{-4}), or approximately 13% versus 0.5% probability of collapse in 50 years. The average annual economic loss (based on cost of repair) is 65% higher for the 1973 as compared to the 2015 building (0.66% versus 0.40% of building replacement cost). The average annual downtime to re-occupancy for the 1973 building is 72% longer (8.1 vs 4.7 days) and to functional recovery is about 100% longer (10.4 vs 5.0 days). Building performance evaluations at the design basis earthquake (DBE) and the maximum considered earthquake (MCE) shaking intensities further suggest that 1970s tall steel moment frames have much higher risks of collapse under extreme ground motions and risks of damage and building closure in moderate earthquakes. Furthermore, while modern building code requirements provide acceptable seismic collapse safety, they do not necessarily ensure a level of damage control to assure a swift recovery after a damaging earthquake due to extensive downtime. A set of vulnerability functions are proposed for both archetype buildings considered in the assessment

A User-Focused Reference Model for Wireless Systems Beyond 3G

This whitepaper describes a proposal from Working Group 1, the Human Perspective of the Wireless World, for a user-focused reference model for systems beyond 3G. The general structure of the proposed model involves two "planes": the Value Plane and the Capability Plane. The characteristics of these planes are discussed in detail and an example application of the model to a specific scenario for the wireless world is provided

Cuckoo: a Language for Implementing Memory- and Thread-safe System Services

This paper is centered around the design of a thread- and memory-safe language, primarily for the compilation of application-specific services for extensible operating systems. We describe various issues that have influenced the design of our language, called Cuckoo, that guarantees safety of programs with potentially asynchronous flows of control. Comparisons are drawn between Cuckoo and related software safety techniques, including Cyclone and software-based fault isolation (SFI), and performance results suggest our prototype compiler is capable of generating safe code that executes with low runtime overheads, even without potential code optimizations. Compared to Cyclone, Cuckoo is able to safely guard accesses to memory when programs are multithreaded. Similarly, Cuckoo is capable of enforcing memory safety in situations that are potentially troublesome for techniques such as SFI

A contextual behavioral approach to the study of (persecutory) delusions

Throughout the past century the topic of delusions has mainly been studied by researchers operating at the mental level of analysis. According to this perspective, delusional beliefs, as well as their emergence and persistence, stem from an interplay between (dysfunctional) mental representations and processes. Our paper aims to provide a starting point for researchers and clinicians interested in examining the topic of delusions from a functional-analytic perspective. We begin with a brief review of the research literature with a particular focus on persecutory delusions. Thereafter we introduce Contextual Behavioral Science (CBS), Relational Frame Theory (RFT) and a behavioral phenomenon known as arbitrarily applicable relational responding (AARR). Drawing upon AARR, and recent empirical developments within CBS, we argue that (persecutory) delusions may be conceptualized, studied and influenced using a functional-analytic approach. We consider future directions for research in this area as well as clinical interventions aimed at influencing delusions and their expression