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The burden of epilepsy in poorer parts of the world could be readily alleviated by reducing the preventable causes and improving access to treatment, according to a review article published today in the Lancet.

The researchers call for greater recognition from international and national health agencies to address the management of epilepsy in the developing world.

Research: Accuracy of single progesterone test to predict early pregnancy outcome in women with pain or bleeding: meta-analysis of cohort studies

Measuring progesterone levels in women with pain or bleeding during early pregnancy is a useful way to help discriminate between a viable and a non-viable pregnancy, finds a study published on bmj.com today.

The results suggest that a low level of progesterone in these women can rule out a viable pregnancy in the vast majority of cases.

Research: Effectiveness of intervention on physical activity of children: systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled trials with objectively measured outcomes (EarlyBird 54)

Editorial: Are interventions to promote physical activity in children a waste of time?

Physical activity interventions for children have small impact on overall activity levels and consequently the body fat and mass of children, a study published on bmj.com today suggests.

Washington, DC (September 27, 2012) — Most Canadians view financial incentives for deceased kidney donation to be acceptable, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). Nearly half of the general public in Canada also find it acceptable for living kidney donation. Studies are now needed to determine whether acceptability of financial incentives translates to more available organs to patients in critical need of a transplant.

An isolated outbreak of a deadly disease known as acute hemorrhagic fever, which killed two people and left one gravely ill in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the summer of 2009, was probably caused by a novel virus scientists have never seen before.

Described this week in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, the new microbe has been named Bas-Congo virus (BASV) after the province in the southwest corner of the Congo where the three people lived.

Washington, D.C. - A study presented at the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery Foundation Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. shows that the MD Hearing Aid line offers a reasonable low-cost solution to those who are not using hearing aids or other amplification devices because of cost concerns.

The CRCgene database, which gathers all genetic association studies on colorectal cancer, allows for researchers to accurately interpret the risk factors of the disease and provides insight into the direction of further colorectal cancer research, according to a study published September 27 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Los Angeles, CA (September 27, 2012) – Since the newspaper industry started to experience a major decrease in readership in recent years, many people have deemed the internet and other forms of new media as the culprits. However, a recent study published in the Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, a SAGE Journal, finds that sales are down because readers need more engaging and stimulating content.

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 27, 2012 – Lymph nodes can provide a suitable home for a variety of cells and tissues from other organs, suggesting that a cell-based alternative to whole organ transplantation might one day be feasible, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and its McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

Fishing hooks aren't the only hooks found in east-central Mexican waters.

A new species of freshwater fish described by a North Carolina State University researcher has several interesting – and perhaps cringe-inducing – characteristics, including a series of four hooks on the male genitalia.

Females of the new species – the llanos mosquitofish, or Gambusia quadruncus – also have distinguishing characteristics, including a colorful anal spot.

Studying leukemia in mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have reduced a life-threatening complication of stem cell transplants, the only curative treatment when leukemia returns.

University of California, Berkeley, scientists have sequenced nearly all the genes in an underground community of microbes at a contaminated uranium mill site in Rifle, Colo., providing information that could help scientists better manipulate the microbes that remediate heavy metal contamination or those that take up and store carbon from the atmosphere.

Each of the 150,000 genes from the sample was assigned to one of 80 different microbes in the soil, an unprecedented computational feat made possible by new genomic tools developed at UC Berkeley.

Alexandria, Va., USA – Today, the International and American Associations for Dental Research (IADR/AADR) published a study titled "Enhancing Oral Health via Sense of Coherence: a Cluster Randomized Trial." This study by lead author Orawan Nammontri, University of Sheffield, UK, is published in the IADR/AADR Journal of Dental Research.

This press release is available in Spanish.

A grass fed to cattle throughout much of the tropics may become a biofuel crop that helps the nation meet its future energy needs, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientist.

A new regulator for heart formation has been discovered by studying how embryonic stem cells adjust the packaging of their DNA. This approach to finding genetic regulators, the scientists say, may have the power to provide insight into the development of any tissue in the body – liver, brain, blood and so on.

A stem cell has the potential to become any type of cell. Once the choice is made, the cell and other stem cells committed to the same fate divide to form organ tissue.