The role of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters in the efflux of the insecticide, temephos, was assessed in the larvae of Aedes aegypti. Bioassays were conducted using mosquito populations that were either susceptible or resistant to temephos by exposure to insecticide alone or in combination with sublethal doses of the ABC transporter inhibitor, verapamil (30, 35 and 40 μM). The best result in the series was obtained with the addition of verapamil (40 μM), which led to a 2x increase in the toxicity of temephos, suggesting that ABC transporters may be partially involved in conferring resistance to the populations evaluated.

Stress is a condition that has been related to the development of risk behaviors for health such as sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) consumption. The aim of this study was to examine the link between SSBs consumption and perceived stress level in university students. This was an observational, cross-sectional and single-time-point study where the subjects were recruited as a non-probabilistic sample of first-year university students. The students reported their SSBs consumption through a validated questionnaire, as well as their perceived stress level, evaluated through the Cohen scale. Comparisons were made between the means of all variables. Factorial analysis of variance was conducted to explore the effect of the variables’ interaction on the stress level. One-way analysis of variance was performed to assess differences between the sexes. Men consumed more SSBs (6101.17 ± 3772.50 mL/week) compared to women (4294.06 ± 3093.8 mL/week). However, women had higher scores of perceived stress and showed a strong association of stress with the SSBs consumption pattern (r and p-value). This study shows for the first time the association that exists between stress and SSBs consumption and indicates that it is related to sex in the young population.

It has been proposed that the consumption of foods high in sugar or fat may cause addictive behavior. The aim of this study was to adapt and validate a soft drink addiction scale that can be used in future studies and to strengthen the proposal of food addiction with the hypothesis that people with high consumption of soft drinks have similar characteristics to people who consume abuse drugs. A non-probabilistic convenience sample of 394 Mexican participants answered a soft drinks’ consumption frequency questionnaire, an addiction scale, and a self-efficacy scale for soft drinks’ consumption. Additionally, anthropometric measurements were taken. The addiction scale showed three factors with an adequate reliability (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient = 0.903), as well as construct validity and criterion validity with the self-efficacy scale and total body fat percentage on soft drinks, mainly those with substantial caloric content. Additionally, the results showed a predictive value for soft drink consumption, strengthening its validity. This scale is useful to identify and evaluate the characteristic patterns of a substance addiction. The total reliability indicates that the items as a whole are correlated with each other and that the scale is stable to be used over time. This is the first study that evaluates the addictive characteristics of soft drink consumption through a scale, and it represents an advance in the exploration of the behavioral sciences field and an important tool for the creation of public health policies, mainly in countries with a high consumption of these beverages.

We examined the degree of reproductive isolation in four populations of Triatoma mexicana Herrich-Schaeffer from Mexico along with fertility and the segregation of morphological characteristics in two generations of offspring from crosses between these populations. The percentage of couples with (fertile) offspring was high among all sets of crosses between cohorts from Peñamiller, Meztitlán, and Orizabita. It was low in crosses involving a cohort from Tierra Blanca, mainly in crosses with Meztitlán. Among sets of crosses involving Tierra Blanca specimens, whole first-generation (F1) individuals were morphologically similar to the specimens from other locations. All F1 individuals of crosses involving Peñamiller looked like Peñamiller. However, in crosses between F1 and F1 progeny of parental crosses, alleles for size, overall color, length of head, ante and post ocular distance, and humeral angle apparently had Mendelian dominant/recessive relationships. The cohorts from Peñamiller and Meztitlán seemed to be dominant with respect to Orizabita and Tierra Blanca. Results indicated that cohorts from Peñamiller, Meztitlán, and Orizabita were not reproductively isolated. In contrast, Tierra Blanca was reproductively isolated from the other three populations of T. mexicana and is apparently undergoing an early divergence process of speciation for allopatry.