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.

Bowel function and quality of life after local excision or total mesorectal excision following chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: Local excision for rectal cancer is expected to offer a better functional outcome than conventional surgery. The aim of the present study was to compare quality of life and bowel function in patients with rectal cancer who underwent either local excision or conventional surgery after chemoradiotherapy. METHODS: This was a retrospective multicentre study. Patients who underwent local excision were compared with those who had mesorectal excision. Quality of life and bowel function were investigated using validated questionnaires (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30, EORTC QLQ-CR29 and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Bowel Function Instrument) at a median follow-up of 49 (range 13-95) months. Further analysis was undertaken of data from patients who underwent local excision alone compared with those requiring subsequent radical surgery. Statistical significance was set at P < 0·010. RESULTS: The mean constipation score was significantly better in the local excision group than in the mesorectal excision group (3·8 (95 per cent c.i. 0·3 to 7·2) versus 19·8 (12·1 to 27·4); P < 0·001). Compared with patients who underwent mesorectal excision, those who had local excision had less sensation of incomplete emptying (mean score 3·7 (3·4 to 4·0) versus 2·8 (2·5 to 3·1); P < 0·001) and second bowel movements within 15 min (mean score 3·6 (3·3 to 3·9) versus 3·0 (2·7 to 3·3); P = 0·006). Patients who underwent local excision alone scored better than those who had mesorectal excision, particularly for bowel function, who, in turn, scored better than patients requiring subsequent radical surgery following local excision. CONCLUSION: Patients who underwent local excision had a better quality of life and bowel function than those who underwent mesorectal excision.

Harm aversion explains utilitarian choices in moral decision-making in males but not in females.

In recent years, a great deal of research has relied on hypothetical sacrificial dilemmas to investigate decision-making processes involved in pro-social utilitarian choices. Recent evidence, however, has suggested that moral sacrificial choices may actually reflect reduced harm aversion and antisocial dispositions rather than an utilitarian inclination. Here, we used moral dilemmas to confront healthy volunteers with controversial action choices. We measured impulsiveness and venturesomeness personality traits, which have been shown to influence harm aversion, to test their role in utilitarian action and evaluation of moral acceptability. The results of the present study show that, in males, venturesomeness drives engagement in actions and increases moral acceptability. In contrast, in females no effects of venturesomeness were observed on moral action and evaluation. Rather, in females empathetic concern and personal distress, elicited by the vicarious experience of the other's emotional states, exerted an inhibitory effect on action. Taken together, these findings indicate that the "harm aversion hypothesis" may contribute to explain utilitarian choices in males but not in females. In both genders, no association was observed between impulsiveness and moral action.

Design of a cavity ring-down spectroscopy diagnostic for negative ion rf source SPIDER.

The rf source test facility SPIDER will test and optimize the source of the 1 MV neutral beam injection systems for ITER. Cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) will measure the absolute line-of-sight integrated density of negative (H(-) and D(-)) ions, produced in the extraction region of the source. CRDS takes advantage of the photodetachment process: negative ions are converted to neutral hydrogen atoms by electron stripping through absorption of a photon from a laser. The design of this diagnostic is presented with the corresponding simulation of the expected performance. A prototype operated without plasma has provided CRDS reference signals, design validation, and results concerning the signal-to-noise ratio.

Impurities removal by laser blow-off from in-vacuum optical surfaces on RFX-mod experiment.

An in situ window cleaning system by laser blow-off through optical fiber has been developed on the basis of a feasibility study previously presented. The beam generated by a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser is launched in a vacuum box into a high damage threshold optical fiber through a lens. The fiber output is focused on the impurities-coated surface of a vacuum window exposed to the plasma of the RFX-mod experiment, and it is remotely controlled with an xy motion system to scan the entire surface. We first investigate the energy density threshold necessary to ablate the deposited impurity substrate on removed dirty windows: above threshold, a single laser pulse recovers ∼95% of the window transmission before its exposure to the plasma, while below it the efficiency of the cleaning process is too poor. The system so conceived was then used to clean the three collection windows of the Main Thomson scattering diagnostic on RFX-mod. We also present results obtained applying the same technique to the SiO-protected Al mirror used for the Z(eff) diagnostic: an energy threshold for efficient impurity removal without mirror damage is first identified, then ablation tests are executed and analyzed in terms of recovered reflectivity. The SIMS technique is used both with windows and mirror to study the composition of surfaces before and after the ablation.

Naming times and standardized norms for the Italian PD/DPSS set of 266 pictures: direct comparisons with American, English, French, and Spanish published databases.

The present study provides Italian normative measures for 266 line drawings belonging to the new set of pictures developed by Lotto, Dell'Acqua, and Job (in press). The pictures have been standardized on the following measures: number of letters, number of syllables, name frequency, within-category typically, familiarity, age of acquisition, name agreement, and naming time. In addition to providing the measures, the present study focuses on indirect and direct comparisons (i.e., correlations) of the present norms with databases provided by comparable studies in Italian (in which normative data were collected with Snodgrass & Vanderwart's set of pictures; Nisi, Longoni, & Snodgrass, 2000), in British English (Barry, Morrison, & Ellis, 1997), in American English (Snodgrass & Vanderwart, 1980; Snodgrass & Yuditsky, 1996), in French (Alario & Ferrand, 1999), and in Spanish (Sanfeliu & Fernandez, 1996).

Visual effects in picture and word categorization.

Two experiments are reported in which participants categorized stimuli as belonging or not belonging to the category of fruits. Blocks of pictures and words were used, with items referring to exemplars having either high or low intercategory visual similarity and/or semantic relatedness. For both pictures and words, response time was longer in the semantically related conditions than in the unrelated condition. Furthermore, there was a strong effect of visual similarity for pictures but not for words when semantic relatedness was held constant: Participants took longer to classify pictures of fruits when these were mixed with visually similar vegetables than when they were mixed with visually dissimilar vegetables. Reducing the stimulus visibility by adding a dot pattern had an additive effect for words but an interactive effect for pictures. The results are explained in terms of a unique locus for category decisions about pictures and words.

The picture superiority effect in categorization: visual or semantic?

Two experiments are reported whose aim was to replicate and generalize the results presented by Snodgrass and McCullough (1986) on the effect of visual similarity in the categorization process. For pictures, Snodgrass and McCullough's results were replicated because Ss took longer to discriminate elements from 2 categories when they were visually similar than when they were visually dissimilar. However, unlike Snodgrass and McCullough, an analogous increase was also observed for word stimuli. The pattern of results obtained here can be explained most parsimoniously with reference to the effect of semantic similarity, or semantic and visual relatedness, rather than to visual similarity alone.