Body

DURHAM, N.C.— Aerobic exercise is your best bet when it comes to losing that dreaded belly fat, a new study finds.

When Duke University Medical Center researchers conducted a head-to-head comparison of aerobic exercise, resistance training, and a combination of the two, they found aerobic exercise to be the most efficient and most effective way to lose the belly fat that's most damaging to your health.

In one of the first taxonomic revisions of Neotropical butterflies that utilizes 'DNA barcoding', Andrei Sourakov of the University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History and Evgeny Zakharov of the University of Guelph, Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario have uncovered a spectacular degree of evolutionary divergence within the satyrine butterfly genus Calisto.

Current estimates of the impact of chemotherapy on women's reproductive health are too low, according to a University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) study. The researchers say their analysis of the age-specific, long-term effects of chemotherapy provides new insights that will help patients and clinicians make more informed decisions about future reproductive options, such as egg harvesting.

Cornstalks, wheat straw, and other rough, fibrous, harvest-time leftovers may soon be less expensive to convert into cellulosic ethanol, thanks to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists' studies of a promising new biorefinery yeast.

The role of national governments in ecological or environmental conservation remains contentious the world over. While scientists and campaigners alike often demand that governments regulate and encourage restoration projects; financial priorities and conflicts with land owners or corporations makes such interventions politically difficult.

Tropical plants may contain the basis of new and effective treatments for ovarian cancer, according to researchers at the Universities of Strathclyde and Portsmouth.

The scientists are developing a programme for testing plant extracts for the ability to stop cells from ovarian tumours growing. In initial tests, several plant extracts killed the tumour samples, taken from cancer patients.

Why different species have dissimilar sets of chromosomes? Why the differentiated species often conserve apparently identical chromosome complements? Furthermore, why, while chromosome rearrangements can considerably change the course of species evolution, certain variation among individuals and populations of some species persists indefinitely? Such questions motivate researchers to compare chromosomes in closely related species.

Los Angeles, CA (AUGUST 25, 2011) Suicide, child abuse, playground fights, gang violence, sexual assault, and domestic violence are just a few examples of violence that touch people in all walks of life and communities everywhere. Homicide and suicide remain in the top ten leading causes of death for people from birth to age 64. How do you combat an issue that takes so many forms and has so many causes?

Scientists at Yale University have developed the first practical method to create a compound called huperzine A in the lab. The compound, which occurs naturally in a species of moss found in China, is an enzyme inhibitor that has been used to treat Alzheimer's disease in China since the late 1990s and is sold in the U.S. as a dietary supplement to help maintain memory. Scientists believe it could also potentially combat the effects of chemical warfare agents.

New nationwide benchmarks representing current critical care practices for ICUs may highlight opportunities for care improvement. Researchers from the University of Massachusetts, the University of Maryland, and Maine Medical Center analyzed data representing 243,553 adult admissions from 271 ICUs and 188 US nonfederal hospitals during 2008. Using electronic medical records, they found that more than half of these critically ill adults were less than 65 years old and returned to their homes after discharge.

Since HIV infection rates began to rise again around 2000, researchers have been grasping for answers on what could be causing this change, especially in the homosexual community. The rising numbers are a stark contrast to the 1990's, when infection rates dropped due to increased awareness of the virus. A new study in Israel reveals that the number of new HIV cases diagnosed each year in the last decade saw a startling increase of almost 500% compared to the previous decade, and similar trends have been reported in a number of other developed nations, including the U.S.

Adventurous females choose mates with similar personalities, regardless of the male's appearance and other assets, according to research led by the University of Exeter. This is the first study to show that the non-sexual behaviour or personalities of both mates influences partner choice in non-humans.

New genetic evidence disputes previous research claiming most British men are descended from immigrant farmers who migrated east 5-10,000 years ago.

Instead, the scientists from the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh contend that most European men can trace their lineage to people, most likely hunter-gatherers, who had settled in Europe long before that time.

Adding a common antibiotic to the usual daily treatment regimen for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can reduce the occurrence of acute exacerbations and improve quality of life, reports new results from a clinical trial funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Research published by two teams of Army scientists and collaborators has identified a cellular protein that plays a critical role in Ebola virus infection. The findings, published online today in separate studies in the journal Nature, suggest a possible strategy for combating one of the world's most deadly viruses.