Klotho in pregnancy and intrauterine development-potential clinical implications: a review from the European Renal Association CKD-MBD Working Group.

Intrauterine development is crucial for life-long health; therefore, elucidation of its key regulators is of interest for their potential prognostic and therapeutic implications. Originally described as a membrane-bound anti-aging protein, Klotho has evolved as a regulator of numerous functions in different organ systems. Circulating Klotho is generated by alternative splicing or active shedding from cell membranes.

Klotho: a potential therapeutic target in aging and neurodegeneration beyond chronic kidney disease-a comprehensive review from the ERA CKD-MBD working group.

Klotho, a multifunctional protein, acts as a co-receptor in fibroblast growth factor 23 and exerts its impact through various molecular pathways, including Wnt, hypoxia-inducible factor and insulin-like growth factor 1 pathways. The physiological significance of Klotho is the regulation of vitamin D and phosphate metabolism as well as serving as a vital component in aging and neurodegeneration. The role of Klotho in aging and neurodegeneration in particular has gained considerable attention.

Pancreatic steatosis is an independent risk factor for post-transplant diabetes mellitus in kidney transplant patients.

Background And Aim: Post-transplant diabetes mellitus (PTDM) is associated with an increased risk of post-transplant cardiovascular diseases, and several risk factors of PTDM have been shown in the literature. Yet, the relationship between hepatic and pancreatic steatosis with post-transplant diabetes mellitus remains vague. We aimed to evaluate pancreatic steatosis, a novel component of metabolic syndrome, and hepatic steatosis association with post-transplant diabetes mellitus in a single-center retrospective cohort study conducted on kidney transplant recipients.

Early aging and premature vascular aging in chronic kidney disease.

Aging is the progressive decline of body functions and a number of chronic conditions can lead to premature aging characterized by frailty, a diseased vasculature, osteoporosis, and muscle wasting. One of the major conditions associated with premature and accelerated aging is chronic kidney disease (CKD), which can also result in early vascular aging and the stiffening of the arteries. Premature vascular aging in CKD patients has been considered as a marker of prognosis of mortality and cardiovascular morbidity and therefore requires further attention.

Bacterial contamination of multi-use tear drops, gels, and ointments.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the bacterial contamination of multi-use tear drops, gels, and ointments that patients use at home.

Method: A total of 271 multi-use containers used by 168 patients were examined. Conjunctival culture samples were obtained from patients who used tear drops, gels, and ointments that were found to be contaminated.

A new immune disease: systemic hypertension.

Systemic hypertension is the most common medical comorbidity affecting the adult population globally, with multiple associated outcomes including cerebrovascular diseases, cardiovascular diseases, vascular calcification, chronic kidney disease, metabolic syndrome and mortality. Despite advancements in the therapeutic field approximately one in every five adult patients with hypertension is classified as having treatment-resistant hypertension, indicating the need for studies to provide better understanding of the underlying pathophysiology and the need for more therapeutic targets. Recent pre-clinical studies have demonstrated the role of the innate and adaptive immune system including various cell types and cytokines in the pathophysiology of hypertension.

Social isolation and loneliness: Undervalued risk factors for disease states and mortality.

Social isolation and loneliness are two common but undervalued conditions associated with a poor quality of life, decreased overall health and mortality. In this review, we aim to discuss the health consequences of social isolation and loneliness. We first provide the potential causes of these two conditions.

Resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic among people living with HIV: A cross-sectional study.

Background: This study aims to investigate the factors shaping resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic among people living with HIV (PLWH).

Methods: A total of 341 participants were included in this cross-sectional study. The online survey included scales of resilience, depression & anxiety, loneliness, social support, COVID-19 fear, stress, and sociodemographic information.

Lung Ultrasound Can Influence the Clinical Treatment of Pregnant Women With COVID-19.

Lung ultrasound (LUS) is an effective tool to detect and monitor patients infected with 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The use of LUS on pregnant women is an emerging trend, considering its effectiveness during the outbreak. Eight pregnant women with a diagnosis of COVID-19 confirmed by nasal/throat real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction testing who underwent point-of-care LUS examinations after routine obstetric ultrasound are described.

Hilbert Vibration Decomposition-based epileptic seizure prediction with neural network.

Epilepsy is one of the most prominent brain disorders in the world, and epileptic patients suffer from sudden seizures that have a substantial negative impact on their lives. A seizure prediction system, therefore, is essential in overcoming the difficulties that epileptic individuals experience. This study designs and demonstrates a non-patient specific seizure prediction system that uses the Hilbert Vibration Decomposition (HVD) method on surface EEG recordings of 10 patients from the CHB-MIT database.

Single-Image-Referenced Colorimetric Water Quality Detection Using a Smartphone.

In this paper, we present a smartphone platform for colorimetric water quality detection based on the use of built-in camera for capturing a single-use reference image. A custom-developed app processes this image for training and creates a reference model to be used later in real experimental conditions to calculate the concentration of the unknown solution. This platform has been tested on four different water quality colorimetric assays with various concentration levels, and results show that the presented platform provides approximately 100% accuracy for colorimetric assays with noticeable color difference.

Smartphone-based colorimetric detection via machine learning.

We report the application of machine learning to smartphone-based colorimetric detection of pH values. The strip images were used as the training set for Least Squares-Support Vector Machine (LS-SVM) classifier algorithms that were able to successfully classify the distinct pH values. The difference in the obtained image formats was found not to significantly affect the performance of the proposed machine learning approach.

A signal-processing-based approach to time-varying graph analysis for dynamic brain network identification.

In recent years, there has been a growing need to analyze the functional connectivity of the human brain. Previous studies have focused on extracting static or time-independent functional networks to describe the long-term behavior of brain activity. However, a static network is generally not sufficient to represent the long term communication patterns of the brain and is considered as an unreliable snapshot of functional connectivity.

Inferring effective connectivity in the brain from EEG time series using dynamic Bayesian networks.

Effective connectivity, defined as the influence of a neuronal population on another, is known to have great significance for understanding the organization of the brain. Disruptions in the effective connectivity patterns occur in the case of neurological and psychopathological diseases. Therefore, it is important to develop models of effective brain connectivity from non-invasive neuroimaging data.