Does a Recession have an Impact on Alcohol Consumption?

The hypothesis of this paper is alcohol consumption will decrease when a country experiences a recession. We have used data covering the yearly consumption (in litres per capita) of alcohol from the World Health Organization (2015), combined with yearly & quarterly GDP data from the OECD website (2015) to firstly identify years where there have been more than 2 periods of negative growth (recession), and to compare these data sets to see if any relationship exists.We have used correlation analysis between the financial data and the consumption data, as well as scatter graphs to see if there is a high correlation (0.7) or a trend, for 3 countries that have experienced a recession over the last 15 years (US, Finland & Greece). What we found is that some types of alcohol did appear to show both positive and negative relationships to GDP or recession but this relationship differed between countries. There are other factors that must be considered including cultural relationship to alcohol in different locations, as well as any government or social programs

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

Test of lepton flavour universality with Bs0→ϕℓ+ℓ−B_s^0 \rightarrow \phi \ell^+\ell^- decays

International audienceLepton flavour universality in rare $b\rightarrow s$ transitions is tested for the first time using $B_s^0$ meson decays. The measurements are performed using $pp$ collision data collected by the LHCb experiment between 2011 and 2018, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 9$\,{\rm fb}^{-1}$. Branching fraction ratios between the $B_s^0 \rightarrow \phi e^+e^-$ and $B_s^0 \rightarrow \phi \mu^+\mu^-$ decays are measured in three regions of dilepton mass squared, $q^2$, with $0.1 < q^2 < 1.1$, $1.1 < q^2 < 6.0$, and $15 < q^2 < 19\,{\rm GeV}^2/c^4$. The results agree with the Standard Model expectation of lepton flavour universality