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Introduction: We aimed to evaluate the relationship between carotid intima‐media thickness (CIMT), which is a known indicator of cardiovascular risk and atherosclerosis, and uric acid level, which may be an easy marker for cardiovascular diseases due to its antioxidant and pro‐oxidant properties in hemodialysis patients. Methods: In this cross‐sectional study, we evaluated 77 hemodialysis patients. The mean CIMT of these patients was measured and recorded by Doppler ultrasonography. Patients were divided into two groups according to their serum uric acid levels. Correlation analysis and linear regression analysis were used to define the relationship between study parameters. Findings: The mean CIMT levels in the normouricemic group and the hyperuricemic group were 0.95 ± 0.15 and 1.07 ± 0.15, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.001). There was a statistically significant and moderate linear correlation between serum uric acid level and mean CIMT (r = 0.402; p = 0.002). Univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses were performed to identify variables that could independently affect the mean CIMT value. According to analysis, uric acid (p < 0.001), hypertension (p = 0.008), albumin (p = 0.029), and C‐reactive protein (p = 0.042) were found independent risk factors for mean CIMT value. Discussion: We found a significant relationship between serum uric acid level and CIMT, which indicates carotid atherosclerosis. Serum uric acid level is a low‐cost laboratory parameter that can be measured in almost all laboratories, and it may be valuable in the hemodialysis patient group to identify patients at high risk of carotid atherosclerosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we examine the topological phases of the spring-mass lattices when the spatial inversion symmetry of the system is broken and prove the existence of edge modes when two lattices with different topological phases are glued together. In particular, for the one-dimensional lattice consisting of an infinite array of masses connected by springs, we show that the Zak phase of the lattice is quantized, only taking the value 0 or π. We also prove the existence of an edge mode when two semi-infinite lattices with distinct Zak phases are connected. For the two-dimensional honeycomb lattice, we characterize the valley Chern numbers of the lattice when the masses on the lattice vertices are uneven. The existence of edge modes is proved for a joint honeycomb lattice formed by gluing two semi-infinite lattices with opposite valley Chern numbers together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]