BACKGROUND Point-of-care hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA testing offers an advantage over antibody testing (which only indicates previous exposure), enabling diagnosis of active infection in a single visit. In this study, we evaluated the performance of the Xpert HCV Viral Load assay with venepuncture and finger-stick capillary whole-blood samples. METHODS Plasma and finger-stick capillary whole-...

In this issue of Diabetes Care, Liese et al. (1) report on the relation of dietary glycemic index, glycemic load, carbohydrate, and fiber intake to measures of insulin sensitivity, insulin secretion, and adiposity in the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study (IRAS). The evaluation was confined to those with normal or impaired glucose tolerance and did not include diabetic individuals. As the...

in the current engineering practices, buildings are commonly designed for an effective lifetime of 50 years. this lifetime can increase the cost of buildings with short lifetimes and can reduce the safety level of buildings with large lifetimes. in this paper, a “service-life factor” has been defined. applying this factor into the nominal values of live, earthquake, wind, and snow loads, the ef...