A recent study found assisted reproductive therapy (ART) to be safe and effective for women with lupus who have stable disease activity. ART refers to any fertility treatments in which either eggs or embryos are handled, like in vitro fertilization (IVF). While ART techniques are well-developed and widely used in the general population, their effect on women with lupus remains unclear. In this study, nearly half (46.5%) of the women became pregnant through ART, and 83.3% of the women completed their pregnancy with a successful delivery.

Researchers looked at 142 women with lupus who had an ART procedure, including ovarian stimulation, IVF, and intrauterine insemination (IUI), among others. During a nearly 10-year period, there were 72 pregnancies recorded. Infertility (the inability to conceive) occurred in 66 women. Overall, 60 pregnancies ended successfully with the delivery of 65 babies.

The risk of negative events did not increase for women who had an ART procedure compared to women with a natural, planned pregnancy. In fact, women who got pregnant from ART had fewer negative outcomes than those with natural, unplanned pregnancies. Pregnancy complications included premature delivery (birth under 37 weeks gestational age) for 21 women (31.8%), gestational diabetes reported in 15 women (22.7%), and lupus flares experienced by 10 women (15.2%).

Learn more about planning for pregnancy with lupus.

Read the study

New York CNN  — 

America’s Frankenstein-like information environment has shattered trust.

On Wednesday, Gallup and the Knight Foundation released their annual report surveying Americans for insights into how they view the press — and the results were grim.

Only 26% of Americans hold a favorable opinion of the news media, Gallup and the Knight Foundation found — the lowest level recorded by the organizations over the last five years.

Perhaps more startling: the report found that 72% of Americans believe national newsrooms are capable of serving the public, but that they do not believe they’re well intentioned. Only 23% said that they believe national newsrooms care about the best interests of their audiences.

A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.

Meanwhile, Americans are having more difficulty than ever determining what to believe. 61% of respondents said the increase in information across the media landscape has made it harder to sort bad information from good.

None of this is particularly surprising, though it is, without question, alarming. The media landscape has fractured and it’s not uncommon to now see the same story presented in entirely different ways to different audiences.

Our shared reality has given way to algorithmically rendered realities. Some of the most popular media and political figures in the country actively pollute the information landscape. Many profit from propaganda that affirms the worldviews of their audiences and attacks the press in dishonest ways.

The study on Wednesday underscored this polarization. “Media trust continues to vary along predictable lines. Democrats express significantly more trust in news organizations than Republicans. Among Republicans, trust in news continues to decline,” Gallup and the Knight Foundation said.

It’s unclear how — or if — any single news organization can solve for this. MSNBC boss Rashida Jones offered her perspective on trust in media Wednesday at a New York event where she championed delivering the truth to audiences as the best path forward.

“Rather than looking at a political culture or a political perspective, what we focus on is the truth,” Jones said, outlining her editorial philosophy. “Are the angles that we’re hitting representative of truth and democracy and the rights of humans across the board? We can get stuck into both sides for a fair amount or however you look at it.”

“You can’t sacrifice the truth,” Jones continued. “Sometimes the truth isn’t pretty. Sometimes the truth might be critical of this group or that group. Rather than trying to keep a scorecard of, well, we had X number of perspectives in this party, and X number of perspectives in this party — it’s gotten a little bit more nuanced than that.”

Jones is correct. The truth isn’t pretty. And the truth can offend. What is also clear is that the truth will offend members of one political party far more than the other. That’s because the sad reality is that one party — operating in an entirely different media ecosystem largely void of fact-based journalism — tells lies and promotes misinformation at a far higher rate than the other.

Which begs the natural question: Can delivering the truth be at the heart of a news organization’s mission in 2023 if the aim is to not offend those on one end of the political spectrum at a far greater frequency than the other?

© 2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Terrestrial mollusks are considered as typical "index animals" due to their sensitivity to climate change. They are widely distributed in the semi-arid to arid region of China, including the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP).

Despite the wide application of geochemical proxies of fossil snail shells in paleoclimatic reconstruction, the extent that they were influenced by the diagenetic alteration remains unknown.

Researchers led by Associate Professor Li Tao from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS) and their collaborators investigated the U-series isotope geochemistry as well as the early diagenetic imprints of fossil land snail shells (Cathaica sp.) from the Mangshan loess-paleosol sequence in Henan province, central China.

They employed several geochemical techniques to investigate the mineralogy, chemical and isotopic compositions of both modern and fossil snail shells to the micrometer level.

The findings were published in Quaternary Geochronology.

"Land snail shells can be absolutely dated, and U-Th dating is a very powerful technique due to its wide age coverage (0 to 640,000 years) and solid theoretical foundation," said Li.

However, obtaining accurate U-series dates from both marine and terrestrial mollusk shells has remained challenging. A major issue is that a significant amount of U in the shell is incorporated during the diagenetic episode after the burial of the shell into the sediment.

On the CLP where fossil snail shells can be buried and isolated quickly from the influence of meteoric water due to the relatively high sedimentation rate of eolian dust and the semi-arid to the arid climate, it is possible that diagenesis might occur only in the very early stage when pore-water is still able to alter the composition and structure of the snail shells. Therefore, land snail shells on the CLP may serve as a datable archive that can be used for U-Th dating.

The Raman and SEM observations showed that the fossil shell was characterized by an elevated degree of porosity and a higher content of organic matter. The trace elemental composition of the fossil Cathaica sp. shell had also been largely reset, which is linked to the diffusion and adsorption of organic matter into the fossil shell during the early diagenetic alternation of fossil Cathaica sp. shells.

The U-series data showed that [²³⁴U/²³⁸U] and [²³⁰Th/²³⁸U] values were relatively homogeneous throughout the shell and the calculated apparent U-Th dates were within analytical error consistent with corresponding solution MC-ICPMS results, demonstrating the homogeneous distribution of [²³⁴U/²³⁸U] and [²³⁰Th/²³⁸U] within the fossil Cathaica sp. shells.

However, the apparent closed system U-Th ages of fossil Cathaica sp. shells are found to be systematically younger (~6,000 to 13,000 years) than their paired shell ¹⁴C ages. By evaluating possible U uptake scenarios, the researchers suggest that this apparent age discrepancy is related to the early diagenetic uptake of U and later close system behavior likely due to the isolation of fossil shells from the influence of pore waters.

© 2023 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

DENVER, Jan. 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A new therapeutic trial hopes to change the outcomes for dogs suffering from osteosarcoma, a deadly form of bone cancer. The study, funded by Morris Animal Foundation, will be conducted by a veterinary research team at the University of Minnesota.

Led by Dr. Jessica Lawrence, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology, the study team's goal is to test a novel immunotherapy first in the laboratory, and then in a select group of dogs with osteosarcoma to assess efficacy. If successful, the treatment could be a powerful new tool to treat osteosarcoma in dogs.

"Immunotherapy, or treatment that boosts the body's immune response against cancer, is one of the most exciting recent advances in the treatment of tumors," said Dr. Lawrence. "There are few immunotherapy options specifically for dogs; for this reason, we are incredibly grateful for support from Morris Animal Foundation to develop a new immunotherapy approach for giant-breed dogs with osteosarcoma. Osteosarcoma is good at masking itself to the body's immune system, so it can grow and spread. We hope this work will result in a new way to boost the immune system and provide hope for pet owners and oncologists faced with this terrible cancer."

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone tumor diagnosed in dogs. The cancer disproportionately affects the long bones of large- and giant-breed dogs. Current treatment regimens include limb amputation, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, but some dogs are poor candidates for surgery. Effective immunotherapy would be a welcome therapeutic option for these patients.

"New treatments are desperately needed for canine osteosarcoma, and immunotherapy treatments often have the advantage of fewer side effects," said Dr. Kathy Tietje, Morris Animal Foundation Vice President, Scientific Operations. "This study could help Excellerate outcomes and quality of life for dogs with osteosarcoma, particularly those that are poor surgical candidates."

Story continues

Cancer impacts animals worldwide and is a leading cause of death in dogs over the age of 2. Since 1962, Morris Animal Foundation has funded more than 300 cancer studies, invested nearly $40 million, and continues to make strides against the disease.

About Morris Animal Foundation

Morris Animal Foundation's mission is to bridge science and resources to advance the health of animals. Founded in 1948 and headquartered in Denver, it is one of the largest nonprofit animal health research organizations in the world, funding more than $149 million in nearly 3,000 critical studies across a broad range of species. Learn more at morrisanimalfoundation.org.

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SOURCE Morris Animal Foundation (MAF)

The study, published in the Journal of Public Health, analysed results from the MAVIDOS trial which involved 965 women being randomly allocated an extra 1,000 International Units (IU) per day of vitamin D during their pregnancy or a placebo.

Analysis showed that 65.6% of women who took extra Vitamin D had a spontaneous vaginal delivery, or “natural” delivery, compared to 57.9% in the placebo group.

Fewer women from the vitamin D group had an assisted delivery (13.2%) compared with the placebo group (19.4%).

However, the number of women in each group needing a caesarean operation to deliver their baby was similar (vitamin D 21.3%, placebo 22.7%).

Dr Rebecca Moon, a clinical lecturer at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Centre (MRC LEC), University of Southampton and NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, said: “Most women want to have a ‘natural delivery’ of their baby.

“Our work suggests that taking extra vitamin D during their pregnancy might help them to achieve this.

“The women taking the extra vitamin D also had less blood loss after delivery, highlighting why this is so important. Further evidence is now needed to more thoroughly inform public health policy and clinical practice.”

MAVIDOS involved researchers from the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHSFT) and is a large project looking at the benefits of vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy.

Professor Nicholas Harvey, MRC LEC deputy director and lead of MAVIDOS, said: “Vitamin D deficiency is very common in the UK. We have also shown that extra vitamin D in pregnancy can Excellerate the mother’s vitamin D level and has benefits to their child’s skeleton.

“Importantly, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance recommends that all pregnant women take 400 IU vitamin D per day.”