Divinity School receives $1 million
The Divinity School recently received two $500,000 gifts. One donation comes from the Foundation for End of Life Care and the other from the Dade Community Foundation, both of which are located in Miami, Fla. The gifts will help create the Donald J. Gaetz Professorship in Theology and Medicine, President Richard Brodhead announced Wednesday.
The gifts will be matched with $500,000 under the terms of the Nicholas Faculty Leadership Initiative in order to complete the $1.5 million in funding needed for the professorship.
The scholar selected will give primary service through the Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life, based in the Divinity School. The institute seeks to improve care at the end of life through interdisciplinary practice, scholarship, teaching and outreach.
Researchers link inactivity with fat
Duke University Medical Center scientists have found that inactivity leads to significant increases in visceral fat and that a moderate exercise regimen can keep this potentially dangerous form of fat at bay.
The findings, which were announced Wednesday, are the result of the first randomized clinical trial evaluating the effects of exercise amount and intensity in sedentary overweight men and women.
Additionally, the DUMC researchers found that increasing amounts of exercise can reduce visceral fat. In terms of overall weight gain, the patients who did not exercise would gain approximately four pounds per year, the researchers said.
Visceral fat, which accumulates around the organs inside the belly, particularly concerns physicians because increased levels have been associated with insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease and other metabolic syndromes. Visceral fat is located deeper in the body than subcutaneous fat, which lies just under the skin.
War protester, mother comes to Durham
Following a nearly month-long vigil outside President George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, Cindy Sheehan will join the Bring Them Home Now Tour stop in Durham, North Carolina Sept. 15.
A delegation of military and Gold Star families including Cindy Sheehan as well as veterans of the fighting in Iraq and veterans of previous wars will participate in a variety of events around the Triangle, speaking from first-hand experience about the devastating effects of the war.
Melcher Award winner announced
The DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy selected senior Andrew Gerst as the 2005 winner of the Melcher Family Award for Excellence in Journalism. Gerst's winning submission was "Building Comunidad," an article about the burgeoning Latino community in Durham that was published in the May 2005 issue of Towerview, The Chronicle's news and perspectives magazine.
The Melcher Award Committee also awarded an Honorable Mention for Investigative Reporting to seniors Jake Poses and Matt Sullivan for their April 2005 Chronicle article on possible steroid use by some Duke baseball players.
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