Effective Inhibitor Removal from Wastewater Samples Increases Sensitivity of RT-dPCR and Sequencing Analyses and Enhances the Stability of Wastewater-Based Surveillance.

Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) is a proven tool for monitoring population-level infection events. Wastewater contains high concentrations of inhibitors, which contaminate the total nucleic acids (TNA) extracted from these samples. We found that TNA extracts from raw influent of Berlin wastewater treatment plants contained highly variable amounts of inhibitors that impaired molecular analyses like dPCR and next-generation sequencing (NGS).

Assessing Genders Separately in Nondiabetic Persons Regarding Links Between Insulin Resistance and Fat Mass With Elements Related to the Metabolic Syndrome.

Objective: Initial results gathered from previously published observations dealing with nondiabetic volunteers reveal that both the fasting blood glucose (FBG) level employed as a surrogate for insulin resistance (IR) and the amount of body fat mass (FM) correlate significantly with the strength and pathological direction of many harmful elements making up the metabolic syndrome (MS). These initial results were obtained using combined data from both females and males. How the two markers correlate with specific metabolic parameters in each gender separately was not established.

Probing the Relationship Between Declining Renal Glomerular Filtration Over the Life Span and General Biological Aging: Does the Former Provide Means to Estimate the Latter?

While a consistent, gradual decline in the renal glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is a characteristic occurrence over the human life span, the exact pathophysiology behind this event remains unresolved. Evidence to date suggests that the endogenous glucose-insulin system could be involved at some level. Diabetic-induced nephropathy, one of the most prevalent chronic renal diseases, is closely linked to a severe form of insulin resistance (IR).

Analyzing Blood Pressure Ascent during Aging in Non-Diabetics: Focusing on Links to Insulin Resistance and Body Fat Mass.

Background: A gradual upward progression of blood pressure (BP) occurs regularly in most humans during aging. This is unfortunate, because it is generally recognized that elevation of BP, even when relatively mild, is eventually detrimental to human health. Accordingly, considerably more understanding of the pathophysiology behind such a phenomenon is important in order to institute the correct remedies.

Cognitive reappraisal and self-compassion as emotion regulation strategies for parents during COVID-19: An online randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Parenting during pandemic restrictions places extreme demands on everyday family life, leading to increased stress levels for parents and distressed parent-child interactions. This RCT aimed to investigate whether cognitive reappraisal and self-compassion are helpful emotion regulation (ER) strategies to reduce individual and parental stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method: An online intervention for parents was developed focusing on the application of ER strategies to pandemic requirements of families.