Artificially sweetened beverages and the response to the global obesity crisis

In March 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) published revised guidelines on sugar intake that call on national governments to institute policies to reduce sugar intake and increase the scope for regulation of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). • In face of the growing threat of regulatory action on SSBs, transnational beverage companies are responding in multiple ways, including investing in the formulation and sales of artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs), promoted as healthier alternatives to SSBs. • The absence of consistent evidence to support the role of ASBs in preventing weight gain and the lack of studies on other long-term effects on health strengthen the position that ASBs should not be promoted as part of a healthy diet. • The promotion of ASBs must be discussed in a broader context of the additional potential impacts on health and the environment. In addition, a more robust evidence base, free of conflicts of interest, is needed

Sclerites and possible mouthparts of Wiwaxia from the temperate palaeolatitudes of Colombia, South America

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/let.12154The problematic mollusc Wiwaxia is perhaps the most widely distributed non-mineralized Cambrian metazoan, but has only been reported from palaeotropical latitudes. Here we describe mid Cambrian (Drumian, c. 504 Ma) sclerites and possible tooth arrays from the northern Llanos Basin, Colombia, recovered from drilled ditch cuttings by palynological processing – demonstrating that pristine material and low manipulation processing are not essential to the recovery of Small Carbonaceous Fossils. This, the first report of Wiwaxia from South America, substantially expands Wiwaxia’s geographic range into the high palaeolatitudes.We thank the two referees for their constructive comments, and Ecopetrol SA for permission to publish the wellbore material. Jean Bernard Caron, Peter Fenton, Doug Erwin and Mark Florence provided access to Burgess Shale material, which was funded in part by a Geological Society of America research grant to M.R.S. M.R.S. is supported by Clare College, Cambridge

Composición del material particulado-PM 2.5 del aire de Cucuta-Colombia:Cuantificación de Hidrocarburos Aromaticos Policiclicos

El creciente interés existente en la actualidad por la investigación en el campo del material particulado atmosférico, se debe a la identificación de efectos adversos de este contaminante sobre la salud y los ecosistemas. El conocimiento de la composición química de las partículas que se encuentran en el aire es importante desde el punto de vista epidemiológico y técnico, ya que permite determinar el potencial efecto en la salud humana por la presencia de sustancias tóxicas y cancerígenas adheridas a este diminuto material. La razón más importante que motiva el estudio de estos compuestos, tanto en la cantidad como en el tipo, son los peligros para la salud que presentan o pueden presentar las exposiciones a largo plazo. En este estudio se realizó la cuantificación de hidrocarburos aromáticos poli cíclicos (HAP) presentes en muestras de material particulado fracción respirable PM2.5 del aire de la ciudad de Cúcuta - Norte deSantander- Colombia, inicialmente la materia orgánica presente en el material particulado PM2.5 se extrajo por ultrasonido con DCM como solvente de extracción,seguido de la concentración en un rotaevaporador, obteniéndose el extracto global,parte del cual se sometió a un proceso de fraccionamiento en una columna de silicagel ,obteniéndose finalmente tres fracciones. El contenido del extracto global y las tres fracciones se analizó en un cromatografo de gases Agilent 6890 plus con detector FIDpara realizar la cuantificación de los HAP presentes en el material particulado PM2.5.Entre los HAPs  identificados se encuentran: Naftaleno, Fluoreno, Fenantreno, Benzo(a)antraceno, Pireno, Dibenzo(a,h) antraceno e Indeno (1,2,3,c-d-pireno),estos HAPs son compuestos  tóxicos, mutágenos y carcinógenos para los animales y los seres humanossegún la agencia internacional de investigación del cáncer (IARC

Severity and duration of allergic conjunctivitis: are they associated with severity and duration of allergic rhinitis and asthma?

Comorbiditat al·lèrgica; Conjuntivitis al·lèrgica; Malaltia respiratòria al·lèrgicaAllergic comorbidity; Allergic conjunctivitis; Allergic respiratory diseaseComorbilidad alérgica; Conjuntivitis alérgica; Enfermedad respiratoria alérgicaObjective. The association of allergic conjunctivitis (AC) with rhinitis and/or asthma is poorly understood. The objective of this study was to apply the Consensus Document for Allergic Conjunctivitis (DECA) criteria for the classification of AC to a population of patients with AC to assess the association between the severity and duration of AC and rhinitis and/or asthma. Methods. Patients with ocular symptoms of AC who participated in the 'Alergológica 2015' study were included. The demographics, classification according to the DECA criteria, etiology, and comorbidities were evaluated by age groups (less or equal than 14 and greater than 14 years). Results. A total of 2,914 patients (age range, 1-90 years) were included in the "Alergológica 2015" study. Of these, 965 patients (33.1%) were diagnosed with AC (77.5% > 14 years). AC was classified as severe, moderate, or mild in 1.8%, 46.4%, and 51.8%, respectively; and as intermittent or persistent in 51.6% and 48.4% of the patients. AC alone occurred in 4% of patients. AC was mainly associated with rhinitis (88.4%), asthma (38.2%), food allergy (8.3%) and atopic dermatitis (3.5%). In allergic respiratory disease rhinitis preceded AC and asthma developed later. The severity and duration of AC was significantly associated with severity and duration of rhinitis (p less than 0.001 for both age groups) and asthma (p less than 0.001 only in adults). Conclusions. The application of the new DECA classification for AC reveals a direct relationship between AC, rhinitis and asthma respect to severity and duration. These relationships suggest that AC should be considered an integral part of the "one airway, one disease" hypothesis

Spillover events of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus 2 (recombinant GI.4P-GI.2) from Lagomorpha to Eurasian badger

Rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) is a major threat to domestic and wild European rabbits. Presently, in Europe, the disease is caused mainly by Rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus 2 (RHDV2/b or Lagovirus europaeus GI.2), the origin of which is still unclear, as no RHDV2 reservoir hosts were identified. After the RHDV2 emergence in 2010, viral RNA was detected in a few rodent species. Furthermore, RHDV2 was found to cause disease in some hare species resembling the disease in rabbits, evidencing the ability of the virus to cross the species barrier. In this study, through molecular, histopathologic, antigenic and morphological evidences, we demonstrate the presence and replication of RHDV2 in Eurasian badgers (Meles meles) found dead in the district of Santarém, Portugal, between March 2017 and January 2020. In two of these seven animals, we further classify the RHDV2 as a Lagovirus europaeus recombinant GI.4P‐GI.2. Our results indicate that Meles meles is susceptible to RHDV2, developing systemic infection, and excreting the virus in the faeces. Given the high viral loads seen in several organs and matrices, we believe that transmission to the wild rabbit is likely. Furthermore, transmission electron microscopy data shows the presence of Calicivirus compatible virions in the nucleus of hepatocytes, which has not been demonstrated before and constitutes a paradigm shift for caliciviruses’s replication cycle

The Effect of Tear Supplementation on Ocular Surface Sensations during the Interblink Interval in Patients with Dry Eye.

PURPOSE: To investigate the characteristics of ocular surface sensations and corneal sensitivity during the interblink interval before and after tear supplementation in dry eye patients. METHODS: Twenty subjects (41.88+/-14.37 years) with dry eye symptoms were included in the dry eye group. Fourteen subjects (39.13+/-11.27 years) without any clinical signs and/or symptoms of dry eye were included in the control group. Tear film dynamics was assessed by non-invasive tear film breakup time (NI-BUT) in parallel with continuous recordings of ocular sensations during forced blinking. Corneal sensitivity to selective stimulation of corneal mechano-, cold and chemical receptors was assessed using a gas esthesiometer. All the measurements were made before and 5 min after saline and hydroxypropyl-guar (HP-guar) drops. RESULTS: In dry eye patients the intensity of irritation increased rapidly after the last blink during forced blinking, while in controls there was no alteration in the intensity during the first 10 sec followed by an exponential increase. Irritation scores were significantly higher in dry eye patients throughout the entire interblink interval compared to controls (p0.05). CONCLUSION: Ocular surface irritation responses due to tear film drying are considerably increased in dry eye patients compared to normal subjects. Although tear supplementation improves the protective tear film layer, and thus reduce unpleasant sensory responses, the rapid rise in discomfort is still maintained and might be responsible for the remaining complaints of dry eye patients despite the treatment

Scale-invariant avalanche dynamics in the temperature-driven martensitic transition of a Cu-Al-Be single crystal

We have combined high sensitivity, extra-low differential temperature scanning rate calorimetry, and acoustic emission (AE) measurements to study avalanches during the cubic ↔ 18R martensitic transition of a Cu-Al-Be single crystalline shape memory alloy. Both AE and calorimetry corroborate a good power-law behavior for cooling with an exponent ɛ ≃ 1.6 . For heating, a slope is observed in the maximum likelihood curves, which confirms that our data are affected by an exponential cutoff. An effective energy exponent, ɛ ∼ 1.85 , and a cutoff, λ − 1 = 0.115 ( 38 ) × 10 − 3 aJ , were determined by fits of power-laws with exponential damping. The long tail observed in the low-temperature region by calorimetric measurements suggests the existence of significant elastic effects that constrain the progress of the transformation at low temperatures. While thermodynamic features such as transformation enthalpy and entropy are those expected for Cu-based shape-memory alloys undergoing a cubic ↔ 18R transition, the critical behavior deviates from the corresponding behavior expected from this symmetry change. These deviations are a consequence of the elastic hardening induced by the interplay of the transformation with dislocation jamming, which has the effect of effectively reducing the number of pathways connecting the parent and martensitic phase.EPSR

Molecular crowding defines a common origin for the Warburg effect in proliferating cells and the lactate threshold in muscle physiology

Aerobic glycolysis is a seemingly wasteful mode of ATP production that is seen both in rapidly proliferating mammalian cells and highly active contracting muscles, but whether there is a common origin for its presence in these widely different systems is unknown. To study this issue, here we develop a model of human central metabolism that incorporates a solvent capacity constraint of metabolic enzymes and mitochondria, accounting for their occupied volume densities, while assuming glucose and/or fatty acid utilization. The model demonstrates that activation of aerobic glycolysis is favored above a threshold metabolic rate in both rapidly proliferating cells and heavily contracting muscles, because it provides higher ATP yield per volume density than mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. In the case of muscle physiology, the model also predicts that before the lactate switch, fatty acid oxidation increases, reaches a maximum, and then decreases to zero with concomitant increase in glucose utilization, in agreement with the empirical evidence. These results are further corroborated by a larger scale model, including biosynthesis of major cell biomass components. The larger scale model also predicts that in proliferating cells the lactate switch is accompanied by activation of glutaminolysis, another distinctive feature of the Warburg effect. In conclusion, intracellular molecular crowding is a fundamental constraint for cell metabolism in both rapidly proliferating- and non-proliferating cells with high metabolic demand. Addition of this constraint to metabolic flux balance models can explain several observations of mammalian cell metabolism under steady state conditions

Corneal Sensitivity and Dry Eye Symptoms in Patients with Keratoconus.

PURPOSE: To investigate corneal sensitivity to selective mechanical, chemical, and thermal stimulation and to evaluate their relation to dry eye symptoms in patients with keratoconus. METHODS: Corneal sensitivity to mechanical, chemical, and thermal thresholds were determined using a gas esthesiometer in 19 patients with keratoconus (KC group) and in 20 age-matched healthy subjects (control group). Tear film dynamics was assessed by Schirmer I test and by the non-invasive tear film breakup time (NI-BUT). All eyes were examined with a rotating Scheimpflug camera to assess keratoconus severity. RESULTS: KC patients had significatly decreased tear secretion and significantly higher ocular surface disease index (OSDI) scores compared to controls (5.3+/-2.2 vs. 13.2+/-2.0 mm and 26.8+/-15.8 vs. 8.1+/-2.3; p0.05). The mean threshold for selective mechanical (KC: 139.2+/-25.8 vs. control: 109.1+/-24.0 ml/min), chemical (KC: 39.4+/-3.9 vs. control: 35.2+/-1.9%CO2), heat (KC: 0.91+/-0.32 vs. control: 0.54+/-0.26 Delta degrees C) and cold (KC: 1.28+/-0.27 vs. control: 0.98+/-0.25 Delta degrees C) stimulation in the KC patients were significantly higher than in the control subjects (p0.05), whereas in the control subjects both mechanical (r = 0.52, p = 0.02), chemical (r = 0.47, p = 0.04), heat (r = 0.26, p = 0.04) and cold threshold (r = 0.40, p = 0.03) increased with age. In the KC group, neither corneal thickness nor tear flow, NI-BUT or OSDI correlated significantly with mechanical, chemical, heat or cold thresholds (p>0.05 for all variables). CONCLUSIONS: Corneal sensitivity to different types of stimuli is decreased in patients with keratoconus independently of age and disease severity. The reduction of the sensory input from corneal nerves may contribute to the onset of unpleasant sensations in these patients and might lead to the impaired tear film dynamics