Boys and girls who played basketball for coaches trained to emphasize personal improvement, giving maximum effort, having fun and supporting their teammates reported lower levels of sport anxiety compared with athletes playing for untrained coaches. Further, athletes playing for trained coaches showed positive changes in their personal achievement goals, according to a pair of companion studies by University of Washington sport psychologists. [click link for full article]

Young people often get bad press with newspapers focussing on stories of ASBOs, gun crime and binge drinking. But is this portrayal of Britain’s youth today fair?This is the subject that was hotly debated by young people from Glasgow 9th March at Hampden Park. Organised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the nationwide Festival of Social Science, the event aims to engage teenagers, with the issues surrounding being a young person in Britain today. [click link for full article]

A new study suggests that ovarian cancer cells form by hijacking a developmental genetic process normally used to form fallopian tubes. Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Ovarian Cancer Institute discovered that the protein, PAX8, is involved in the development of fallopian tubes and is present in ovarian cancer cells, but not in normal ovarian tissue. [click link for full article]

In experiments with laboratory mice that bear aggressive human breast cancers, UC Davis researchers have used hot nanoprobes to slow the growth of tumors — without damage to surrounding healthy tissue. The researchers describe their work in the March issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.”We have demonstrated that the system is feasible in laboratory mice. [click link for full article]

Spring is the major time of the year for hayfever, or allergic rhinitis, to occur. Classically, people who suffer from this type of allergy are allergic to pollens in the…

Researchers at Michigan State University have added yet another piece to the puzzle that links cigarette smoking with cancer of the pancreas, one of the deadliest forms of cancer.In research published in the recent issue of the International Journal of Cancer, MSU’s James Trosko and colleagues zeroed in on the mechanism by which a healthy cell turns cancerous. [click link for full article]

A new study in the March issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, published by Cell Press, has identified a common link between multiple assaults on the body, including saturated fats, obesity, and certain types of drugs, all of which can lead to insulin resistance. The researchers found that these metabolic stresses lead to an upswing in production of a particular kind of fat molecule, known as ceramide. [click link for full article]

On March 13 and 14 a National Research Council committee will hold a meeting to gather information on the capacity of public transit to move people to or from critical locations in times of emergency in the 38 largest urbanized areas in the U.S. Public safety planners, national security coordinators, and representatives for the disabled will provide input to the committee, which will use the information in its development of a congressionally mandated report on this topic. [click link for full article]

New research led by scientists at the Oregon National Primate Research Center demonstrates how obesity causes the breakdown of a brain system that regulates appetite. The research provides a clear picture of some factors involved in obesity. More than 60 percent of American adults are overweight and more than 30 percent are obese The study results may have also identified possible targets for new drug therapies aimed at assisting individuals in weight loss. [click link for full article]

The protein p53 suppresses tumor development by potently inducing tumor cell death, making it an obvious target for anticancer therapeutics. However, this therapeutic approach is confounded by the fact that genetic mutations cause loss or inactivation of p53 in approximately 50% of human cancers. [click link for full article]