Is the Malnutrition-Inflammation Complex the Secret behind Greater Survival of African-American Dialysis Patients?

Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh,Keith C Norris

doi:10.1681/asn.2011101002

Abstract

Analysing large numbers of brain samples is challenging but can reveal minor but statistically and biologically relevant variations, that provide important insights into animal behaviour, ecology and evolution. Here, we used micro-CT imaging and deep learning to perform automatic analyses of 187 bee brains (honey bees and bumblebees). This large-scale quantitative comparative analysis of 3D brain data revealed strong inter-individual variations in overall bee brain size that is consistent across colonies and species, suggesting selection processes supporting behavioural variability. In addition, analyses of bumblebee brains revealed a significant level of lateralization in the optic lobes, likely related to reported variations in visual learning. Our fast and accurate deep learning-based approach to process bee brain data is user friendly and holds considerable promises for conducting large-scale quantitative neuroanatomical comparisons across a wide range of species beyond insects. Ultimately, this will help address fundamental unsolved questions related to the evolution of animal brains and cognition.

Highlights

Chronic dialysis therapy legislated in the United States through the ESRD program was started in the early 1970s as an early prototype of universal health care coverage for a chronic disease
Racial and ethnic discrepancies in ESRD patients have their roots in the earlier stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD), among others, because of access to care[2] and the higher likelihood of hypertension and diabetes in African Americans.[1,3]
There is a unique connection between the two aforementioned distinctive features of the ESRD patients in that, for reasons that have remained unexplained, dialysis patients from minority groups have greater longevity than non-Hispanic whites

Summary

Introduction

Chronic dialysis therapy legislated in the United States through the ESRD program was started in the early 1970s as an early prototype of universal health care coverage for a chronic disease.

Results

Conclusion