Type II diabetes is booming in the developed world and obviously obesity is the primary driver. A new paper contends sugar is a primary driver of that obesity, rather than consuming too many calories and not exercising, and so sugar addiction should be treated just like cigarettes.

While pharmaceutical companies will be delighted by the efforts of scholars in the pay-to-publish journal PLOS ONE to give them a brand new market, claims of sugar addiction, while a popular fad for the last few years, have not really held up. Nonetheless, neuroscience Professor Selena Bartlett from 
Queensland University of Technology

Sequencing the genomes of hundreds of strains of the wine yeast S. cerevisiae has revealed little genetic diversity and high levels of inbreeding. In many cases, yeast strains sold by different companies were almost genetically identical. The results, published in the April issue of G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics, a publication of the Genetics Society of America, suggest that winemakers attempting to develop improved wine yeasts will need to look to creating hybrids with more exotic strains.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by mutations in the chloride channel CFTR, which disrupts fluid transport in the lungs. CF patients have a variety of complications, including airway obstruction, infection, and pathological tissue remodeling. Alterations in airway smooth muscle have been observed in CF patients but it is not clear if these abnormalities are directly due to loss of CFTR in airway smooth muscle cells. In this issue of JCI Insight, David Stoltz of the University of Iowa and colleagues provide evidence that CTFR dysfunction directly alters the elasticity and blood supply of the airway. The authors evaluated smooth muscle function in a cohort of CF patients before and immediately after treatment with ivacaftor, which restores CFTR function in this set of patients.

While in America, Mexican-Americans tend to favor amnesty for illegal immigrants and unlimited entry, not so with Syrians in Germany. There, 80 percent of Syrian immigrants are fine with a humanitarian policy but want an admission cap. 

The survey by the University of Münster and the polling institute TNS Emnid showed 46 percent ask themselves whether there might be numerous terrorists among the newly arriving refugees.

Public Health England (PHE), the UK governmental body the equivalent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says that its review of the evidence has found that e-cigarettes are 95 percent less harmful to health than combustible cigarettes and they should be recommended for smoking cessation and harm reduction.

This is the opposite stance taken by anti-smoking activists who have morphed into anti-nicotine activists, and demand that cigarette smokers engage in "abstinence only" when it comes to nicotine, an approach that works with almost nothing. 

Food should be labeled with the equivalent exercise to expend its calories to help people change their behavior, argues Shirley Cramer, Chief Executive at the Royal Society of Public Health,
in The BMJ. Giving consumers an immediate link between foods' energy content and physical activity might help to reduce obesity, she believes.

Two-thirds of the UK population either overweight or obese yet little evidence indicates that the current information on food and drink packaging, including traffic light labeling, actually changes behavior. No one obeys nutrition guidelines as dutifully as Canadians and they have become just as fat as anyone else.

RICHLAND, Wash. - When water levels in rivers rise, an area known as the "river's liver" kicks into action, cleansing river water of pollutants and altering the flow of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Now, in a paper published April 7 in Nature Communications, scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory present evidence suggesting that rising river waters deliver a feast of carbon to hungry microbes where water meets land, triggering increased activity, which could naturally boost emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases.

LAWRENCE -- The public's understanding of genetics, particularly as a cause of sexual orientation, can influence the level of stereotypical behavior, according to a new study by two University of Kansas researchers.

Mark Joslyn and Don Haider-Markel, professors in the KU Department of Political Science, found that genetic attributions strongly shape perceptions of whether a person's sexual orientation could change and likely made same-sex marriage and other policies more widely acceptable in the past decade.

London, UK (April 06, 2016). A new report from Index on Censorship exposes how many LGBT activists in Honduras risk torture, prison and assassination.

The research from Index on Censorship, published by SAGE, carried out by journalist Duncan Tucker and utilising data collected by on-the-ground NGOs, delves into some shocking statistics:

• 215 LGBT people were murdered in Honduras between 2009 and 2015
• 37 deaths occurred in 2015 alone

Of the?235 murders of LGBT people since 1994, only?48?cases (20%) have gone to court.

Two studies published by The BMJ today evaluate treatments for patients with cardiac arrest in hospital.

The first study suggests that advice to delay giving a second heart shock, known as defibrillation, to patients with cardiac arrest in hospital is not associated with improved survival.

Guidelines previously called for "stacked" shocks with minimal time delay between defibrillation attempts. But in 2005 the guidelines were revised to recommend deferring a second attempt at defibrillation to allow time for chest compressions.

However, data on the effect of these changes on survival for patients with cardiac arrest in hospital are lacking.