Conspiracy mentality and health-related behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic: a multiwave survey in Italy.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to (1) explore the changes in conspiracy mentality across the four waves of the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) assess the relationship between conspirative mentality and psychological/behavioural variables; (3) identify the predictors of conspirative mentality; and (4) explore the effect of conspirative mentality on COVID-19 protective behaviour. STUDY DESIGN: This was a multiwave survey. METHODS: A total of 10,013 Italian individuals, aged 18-70 years, were assessed across the four waves (from January to May 2021) through online survey. We collected information about the sociodemographic characteristics of participants, personal experiences of COVID-19 infection, trust, COVID-19 protective behaviours, COVID-19 risk perception, arousal, auto-efficacy, resilience and well-being. Conspiracy mentality was assessed with the Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire. The statistical analyses included exploratory factorial analyses, Pearson correlations and multiple linear regressions. RESULTS: The conspiracy mentality score during the COVID-19 pandemic was medium-high (mean 59.0 on a 0-100 scale) and slightly increased from 58.2 to 59.9 across months, in parallel with a slight decrease in trust in health institutions and scientific informational sources. Individuals aged >35 years, poorly educated and particularly scared about their financial situation were at risk of showing higher levels of conspirative mentality. Higher levels of conspirative mentality were risk factors for low levels of COVID-19 protective behaviours. CONCLUSIONS: Clear and effective communication may improve trust in health institutions and informational sources, decrease conspirative theories and increase compliance with protective behaviour.

4,6,4'-trimethylangelicin shows high anti-proliferative activity on DU145 cells under both UVA and blue light.

OBJECTIVES: Furocoumarins (psoralens and angelicins) have been already used under ultraviolet A light (UVA) for the treatment of skin diseases and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. Besides their high anti-proliferative activity, some severe long-term side effects have been observed, for example genotoxicity and mutagenicity, likely strictly related to the formation of crosslinks. It has been demonstrated that blue light (BL) activation of 8-methoxypsoralen, an FDA-approved drug, leads to less mutagenic monoadducts in the DNA. So far, in this work the less toxic and more penetrating BL is proposed to activate 4,6,4'-trimethylangelicin (TMA), an already known UVA photoactivatable compound. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Photocleavage, crosslink formation and oxidative damage were detected in pBR322 plasmid DNA treated with 300.0 µmol/L TMA activated with various exposures of BL. Anti-proliferative activity, reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation and activation status of some signalling pathways involved in cell growth and apoptosis were verified on DU145 cells treated with 5.0 µmol/L TMA plus 2.0 J/cm2 of BL. RESULTS: Under BL-TMA, no mutagenic crosslinks, no photocleavage and neither photooxidative lesions were detected on isolated plasmid DNA. TMA showed high anti-proliferative activity on DU145 cells through induction of apoptosis. Besides ROS generation, the proapoptotic effect seemed to be related to activation of p38 and inhibition of p44/42 phosphorylation. Interestingly, the decrease in nuclear ß-catenin was coupled with a significant dropping of CD44-positive cells. CONCLUSION: Overall, our results indicate that TMA can be activated by BL and may be considered for targeted phototherapy of prostate cancer lesions.

Poly-ε-caprolactone composite scaffolds for bone repair.

Synthetic biomaterials combined with cells and osteogenic factors represent a promising approach for the treatment of a number of orthopedic diseases, such as bone trauma and congenital malformations. To guarantee optimal biological properties, bone substitutes are prepared with a 3D structure and porosity grade functional to drive cell migration and proliferation, diffusion of factors, vascularization and cell waste expulsion. In this study, synthetic hydroxyapatite (HA) or rat bone extracellular matrix (BP) were examined in an effort to optimize the mechanical properties and osteogenic activity of poly-ε-caprolactone scaffolds prepared with alginate threads (PCL-AT). Using rabbit bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (rMSCs), the effects of PCL composite substrates on cell adhesion, growth and osteogenic differentiation were evaluated. Micro-CT analysis and scanning electron microscopy evidenced that porous PCL scaffolds containing HA or BP acquire a trabecular bone-like structure with interconnected pores homogenously distributed and are characterized by a pore diameter of approximately 10 µm (PCL-AT-BP) or ranging from 10 to 100 µm. Although the porosity grade of both PCL-AT-HA and PCL-AT-BP promoted optimal conditions for the cell growth of rMSCs at the early phase, the presence of BP was crucial to prolong the cell viability at the late phase. Moreover, a precocious expression of Runx2 (at 7 days) was observed in PCL-AT-BP in combination with osteogenic soluble factors suggesting that BP controls better than HA the osteogenic maturation process in bone substitutes.

The temporality effect in counterfactual thinking about what might have been.

When people think about what might have been, they undo an outcome by changing events in regular ways. Suppose two contestants could win 1,000 Pounds if they picked the same color card; the first picks black, the second red, and they lose. The temporality effect refers to the tendency to think they would have won if the second player had picked black. Individuals also think that the second player will experience more guilt and be blamed more by the first. We report the results of five experiments that examine the nature of this effect. The first three experiments examine the temporality effect in scenarios in which the game is stopped after the first contestant's card selection because of a technical hitch, and then is restarted. When the first player picks a different card, the temporality effect is eliminated, for scenarios based on implicit and explicit negation and for good outcomes. When the first player picks the same card, the temporality effect occurs in each of these situations. The second two experiments show that it depends on the order of events in the world, not their descriptive order. It occurs for scenarios without preconceptions about normal descriptive order; it occurs whether the second event is mentioned in second place or first. The results are consistent with the idea that the temporality effect arises because the first event is presupposed and so it is immutable; and the elimination of the temporality effect arises because the availability of a counterfactual alternative to the first event creates an opposing tendency to mutate it. We sketch a putative account of these effects based on characteristics of the mental models people construct when they think counterfactually.

Deductive reasoning with factual, possible, and counterfactual conditionals.

We compared reasoners' inferences from conditionals based on possibilities in the present or the past (e.g., "If Linda had been in Dublin then Cathy would have been in Galway") with their inferences based on facts in the present or the past (e.g., "If Linda was in Dublin then Cathy was in Galway"). We propose that people construct a richer representation of conditionals that deal with possibilities rather than facts: Their models make explicit not only the suppositional case, in which Linda is in Dublin and Cathy is in Galway, but also the presupposed case, in which Linda is not in Dublin and Cathy is not in Galway. We report the results of four experiments that corroborate this model theory. The experiments show that reasoners make more inferences from conditionals based on possibilities rather than on facts when the inferences depend on the presupposed case. The results also show that reasoners generate different situations to verify and falsify conditionals based on possibilities and facts.

The effect of premise order in conditional reasoning: a test of the mental model theory.

The difference in difficulty between modus ponens (if p then q; p; therefore q) and modus tollens (if p then q; not-q; therefore not-p) arguments has been traditionally explained by assuming that the mind contains a rule for modus ponens, but not for modus tollens. According to the mental model theory, modus tollens is a more difficult deduction than modus ponens because people do not represent the case not-q in their initial model of the conditional. On the basis of this theory, we predicted that conditions in which reasoners are forced to represent the not-q case should improve correct performance on modus tollens. In particular, we predicted that the presentation of the minor premise (not-q) as the initial premise should produce facilitation. Experiment 1 showed that this is the case: whereas the inversion of the premise order did not affect modus ponens, it produced a significant increase of valid conclusions for modus tollens. Experiment 2 showed that this facilitation does not depend on the negative form (contrary vs. contradictory) of the minor premise. Experiments 3 and 4 (and/or some of their replications) demonstrated that facilitation also occurs when participants are asked to find the cases compatible with not-q or to evaluate a p conclusion. No premise order effect was found for sentences which make explicit the not-q case right from the start, i.e. p only if q conditionals and biconditionals (Experiments 5 and 6). Finally, Experiments 7 and 8 showed that the conditional fallacies are not significantly affected by the premise order.

Common prevalence of alanine and glycine in mobile reactive centre loops of serpins and viral fusion peptides: do prions possess a fusion peptide?

Serpin reactive centre loops and fusion peptides released by proteolytic cleavage are particularly mobile. Their amino acid compositions reveal a common and unusual abundance of alanine, accompanied by high levels of glycine. These two small residues, which are not simultaneously abundant in stable helices (standard or transmembrane), probably play an important role in mobility. Threonine and valine (also relatively small amino acids) are also abundant in these two kinds of peptides. Moreover, the known 3D structures of an uncleaved serpin reactive centre and a fusion peptide are strikingly similar. Such sequences possess many small residues and are found in several signal peptides and in PrP, a protein associated with spongiform encephalopathies and resembling virus envelope proteins. These properties may be related to the infection mechanisms of these diseases.