A trade-off in evolution: the adaptive landscape of spiders without venom glands.

Background: Venom glands play a key role in the predation and defense strategies of almost all spider groups. However, the spider family Uloboridae lacks venom glands and has evolved an adaptive strategy: they excessively wrap their prey directly with spider silk instead of paralyzing it first with toxins. This shift in survival strategy is very fascinating, but the genetic underpinnings behind it are poorly understood.

Long-term renal function after burn-related acute kidney injury with continuous renal replacement therapy.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication of severe burn injury and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) is the preferred treatment for stage 3 AKI due to severe burn. This retrospective cohort study at a single institution aimed to examine the long-term renal outcomes after discharge of burn survivors who underwent CRRT during their ICU stay between 2012-2021 due to burn-related AKI, hypothesizing a return to baseline renal function in the long term.

Opportunities for Improving the Transplant Assessment and Education Process in British Columbia: Patient and Health Care Provider Perspective.

Background: There are several steps patients and their health care providers must navigate to access kidney transplantation in British Columbia (BC).

Objective: We explored perceptions and experiences with the pretransplant process across BC to determine where process improvements can be made to enhance access to transplantation.

Design: Anonymous surveys were sent online and via post to health care providers (including nephrologists, registered nurses, and coordinators) and patients across BC.

Oral Nutritional Supplement Prescription and Patient-Reported Symptom Burden Among Patients With Late-Stage Non-Dialysis Chronic Kidney Disease.

Background: Malnutrition and protein-energy wasting (PEW) are nutritional complications of advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) that contribute to morbidity, mortality, and decreased quality of life. No previous studies have assessed the effect of oral nutritional supplements (ONSs) on patient-reported symptom burden among patients with non-dialysis CKD (CKD-ND) who have or are at risk of malnutrition/PEW.

Objective: The objective of this study was (1) to quantify the associations between baseline nutritional parameters and patient-reported symptom scores for wellbeing, tiredness, nausea, and appetite and (2) to compare the change in symptom scores among patients prescribed ONS with patients who did not receive ONS in a propensity-score-matched analysis.

Kidney Failure Risk Equation in vascular access planning: a population-based study supporting value in decision making.

Background: The Kidney Failure Risk Equation (KFRE) can play a better role in vascular access (VA) planning in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) requiring hemodialysis (HD). We described the VA creation and utilization pattern under existing estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)-based referral, and investigated the utility of KFRE score as an adjunct variable in VA planning.

Methods: Patients with CKD aged ≥18 years with eGFR <20 mL/min/1.

Single-cell transcriptomics reveals the brain evolution of web-building spiders.

Spiders are renowned for their efficient capture of flying insects using intricate aerial webs. How the spider nervous systems evolved to cope with this specialized hunting strategy and various environmental clues in an aerial space remains unknown. Here we report a brain-cell atlas of >30,000 single-cell transcriptomes from a web-building spider (Hylyphantes graminicola).

Genomic and transcriptomic analyses support a silk gland origin of spider venom glands.

Background: Spiders comprise a hyperdiverse lineage of predators with venom systems, yet the origin of functionally novel spider venom glands remains unclear. Previous studies have hypothesized that spider venom glands originated from salivary glands or evolved from silk-producing glands present in early chelicerates. However, there is insufficient molecular evidence to indicate similarity among them.

Chromosomal-level genome of a sheet-web spider provides insight into the composition and evolution of venom.

Spiders are the most abundant venomous predators in the world. Previous research related to spider venom has mostly relied on transcriptomes and proteomes, with only a few high-quality genomes available. This is far from consistent with the species diversity of spiders.

A new species of Pelthydrus (s. str.) Orchymont, 1919 from Yunnan, China (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae: Hydrophilinae: Laccobiini).

Pelthydrus schoenmanni sp. nov. (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae) belonging to the Pelthydrus jendeki species group is described from Yunnan Province, China.

A new species and a new record of Pelthydrus Orchymont, 1919 from Yunnan, China (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae: Hydrophilinae).

The members of the genus Pelthydrus are small-sized aquatic beetles which belong to the water scavenger beetle family Hydrophilidae. At present the lineage includes 63 valid species mainly occurring in Asia, with 21 known from China (Bian et al. 2008, 2009; Hansen 1999; Schönmann 1995).