Plos One
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In 2014 an excise tax to non-alcoholic sweetened beverages (SSB) was implemented in Mexico. The objective of this paper is to study whether and to what degree these taxes passed-through onto SSB prices in urban areas overall and by region, type of beverage and package size. Prices were obtained from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography from 2011 to 2014. ⋯ Results suggest that the SSB tax passed along to consumers for all SSBs and we found overshifting for the carbonated SSBs. A greater effect is seen among the small package sizes, and we see heterogeneous effects by region. Estimating the effect of the tax on prices is important to understand the potential effect on consumption.
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Nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) controls several biological functions by selectively activating an opioid like receptor named N/OFQ peptide receptor (NOP). Biased agonism is emerging as an important and therapeutically relevant pharmacological concept in the field of G protein coupled receptors including opioids. To evaluate the relevance of this phenomenon in the NOP receptor, we used a bioluminescence resonance energy transfer technology to measure the interactions of the NOP receptor with either G proteins or β-arrestin 2 in the absence and in presence of increasing concentration of ligands. ⋯ Most partial agonists behaved as pure competitive antagonists of receptor/arrestin interaction. Antagonists displayed similar values of potency for NOP/Gβ1 or NOP/β-arrestin 2 interaction. Using N/OFQ as reference ligand we computed the bias factors of NOP ligands and a number of agonists with greater efficacy at G protein coupling were identified.
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Observationally, testosterone is negatively associated with systemic inflammation, but this association is open to both residual confounding and reverse causality. Large-scale randomized controlled trials (RCTs), assessing exogenous effects, are presently unavailable. We examined the association of endogenous testosterone with well-established systemic inflammatory markers (white blood cell, granulocyte, lymphocyte and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP)) using a separate-sample Mendelian randomization analysis to minimize reverse causality. ⋯ Our findings did not corroborate any anti-inflammatory effects of testosterone or corresponding potentially protective effects of testosterone on chronic diseases resulting from reduced low-grade systemic inflammation.
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The validity of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is well established in diabetic patients. CGM is also increasingly used for research purposes in normo-glycemic individuals, but the CGM validity in such individuals is unknown. We studied the accuracy of CGM measurements in normo-glycemic individuals by comparing CGM-derived versus venous blood-derived glucose levels and measures of glycemia and glycemic variability. ⋯ In normo-glycemic individuals, CGM-derived glucose measurements had good agreement with venous glucose levels. However, the measure of glycemia was higher during the day and most measures of glycemic variability were lower when derived from CGM.
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In August 2014, children's hospitals in Kansas City, Missouri and Chicago, Illinois notified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) about increased numbers of pediatric patients hospitalized with severe respiratory illness (SRI). In response to CDC reports, Public Health Ontario Laboratories (PHOL) launched an investigation of patients being tested for enterovirus D-68 (EV-D68) in Ontario, Canada. The purpose of this investigation was to enhance our understanding of EV-D68 epidemiology and clinical features. ⋯ Testing for EV-D68 in Ontario from July to December, 2014 detected the presence of EV-D68 virus among young children during September-October, 2014, with most cases detected in September. There was no difference in hospitalization status between cases and controls. In order to better understand the epidemiology of this virus, surveillance for EV-D68 should include testing of symptomatic individuals from all treatment settings and patient age groups, with collection and analysis of comprehensive clinical and epidemiological data.