The Relationship Between Social Media Use and Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation.

Numerous studies find associations between social media use and beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation. While such findings are often interpreted as evidence that social media causally promotes conspiracy beliefs, we theorize that this relationship is conditional on other individual-level predispositions. Across two studies, we examine the relationship between beliefs in conspiracy theories and media use, finding that individuals who get their news from social media and use social media frequently express more beliefs in some types of conspiracy theories and misinformation. However, we also find that these relationships are conditional on conspiracy thinking--the predisposition to interpret salient events as products of conspiracies--such that social media use becomes more strongly associated with conspiracy beliefs as conspiracy thinking intensifies. This pattern, which we observe across many beliefs from two studies, clarifies the relationship between social media use and beliefs in dubious ideas. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11109-021-09734-6.

Efficient Computation of Conditionals in the Dempster-Shafer Belief Theoretic Framework.

The Dempster-Shafer (DS) belief theory constitutes a powerful framework for modeling and reasoning with a wide variety of uncertainties due to its greater expressiveness and flexibility. As in the Bayesian probability theory, the DS theoretic (DST) conditional plays a pivotal role in DST strategies for evidence updating and fusion. However, a major limitation in employing the DST framework in practical implementations is the absence of an efficient and feasible computational framework to overcome the prohibitive computational burden DST operations entail. The work in this article addresses the pressing need for efficient DST conditional computation via the novel computational model DS-Conditional-All. It requires significantly less time and space complexity for computing the Dempster's conditional and the Fagin-Halpern conditional, the two most widely utilized DST conditional strategies. It also provides deeper insight into the DST conditional itself, and thus acts as a valuable tool for visualizing and analyzing the conditional computation. We provide a thorough analysis and experimental validation of the utility, efficiency, and implementation of the proposed data structure and algorithms. A new computational library, which we refer to as DS-Conditional-One and DS-Conditional-All (DS-COCA), is developed and harnessed in the simulations.

Global, Regional, and National Levels and Trends in Burden of Oral Conditions from 1990 to 2017: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease 2017 Study.

Government and nongovernmental organizations need national and global estimates on the descriptive epidemiology of common oral conditions for policy planning and evaluation. The aim of this component of the Global Burden of Disease study was to produce estimates on prevalence, incidence, and years lived with disability for oral conditions from 1990 to 2017 by sex, age, and countries. In addition, this study reports the global socioeconomic pattern in burden of oral conditions by the standard World Bank classification of economies as well as the Global Burden of Disease Socio-demographic Index. The findings show that oral conditions remain a substantial population health challenge. Globally, there were 3.5 billion cases (95% uncertainty interval [95% UI], 3.2 to 3.7 billion) of oral conditions, of which 2.3 billion (95% UI, 2.1 to 2.5 billion) had untreated caries in permanent teeth, 796 million (95% UI, 671 to 930 million) had severe periodontitis, 532 million (95% UI, 443 to 622 million) had untreated caries in deciduous teeth, 267 million (95% UI, 235 to 300 million) had total tooth loss, and 139 million (95% UI, 133 to 146 million) had other oral conditions in 2017. Several patterns emerged when the World Bank's classification of economies and the Socio-demographic Index were used as indicators of economic development. In general, more economically developed countries have the lowest burden of untreated dental caries and severe periodontitis and the highest burden of total tooth loss. The findings offer an opportunity for policy makers to identify successful oral health strategies and strengthen them; introduce and monitor different approaches where oral diseases are increasing; plan integration of oral health in the agenda for prevention of noncommunicable diseases; and estimate the cost of providing universal coverage for dental care.

Concomitant presentation of sarcoidosis and pulmonary tuberculosis with ARDS: A diagnostic dilemma and therapeutic challenge.

Tuberculosis and sarcoidosis are chronic multisystem granulomatous conditions which have different aetiology and management but may mimic each other clinically, radiologically and pathologically. Both these diseases usually have a sub acute or chronic presentation and it is rather uncommon for them to coexist or present with acute respiratory failure. We report a case of a 57-year-old male who presented with pyrexia of unknown origin with chronic cough. He was initially diagnosed to have sarcoidosis based on clinico-radiological and histologic evidence and was started on corticosteroids. However, he presented within two weeks with acute respiratory distress and on further investigation was diagnosed with co-existing pulmonary tuberculosis.

Curious Case of Acute Unilateral Deep Vein Thrombosis: May-Thurner Syndrome.

May-Thurner syndrome (MTS) or iliac vein compression syndrome is an uncommon cause of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) of the lower limb occurring, especially on the left side. It occurs due to compression of the left common iliac vein by the right common iliac artery and occurs predominantly in young females. The awareness of such a presentation is essential to guide therapy. We report one such unusual case of acute-onset DVT of the left lower limb due to MTS.

Advancement of puberty and enhancement of seminal characteristics by supplementation of trace minerals to bucks.

Attainment of puberty in animals is dependent on their age, body weight, nutritional status, genetic and environmental conditions. Nutritionally, organic minerals are suggested to improve semen production, sperm motility and male fertility. In this context, role of organic zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) in advancing male puberty and semen characters in Osmanabadi goats were studied. Forty one (n = 41) bucks (Aged 5 months) were divided into ten groups and the dietary treatments comprised of a control group (basal diet; without additional trace mineral supplementation) and nine treatment groups that received, in addition to the basal diet, various doses of trace minerals (mg) on per kg dry matter basis, organic Zn as low Zn20, medium Zn40 and high Zn60, organic Cu as low Cu12.5, medium Cu25, high Cu37.5 and combination of organic Zn + Cu as low Zn20 + Cu12.5, medium Zn40 + Cu25, high Zn60 + Cu37.5, respectively fed for a period of 8 months. Bucks fed organic trace minerals reached puberty 28-35 days earlier than control group. In addition, improvement (P < .01) in testosterone hormone (ng/ml) levels (control: 1.63 ± 0.07 VS Zn60: 2.54 ± 0.02; Cu12.5: 6.17 ± 0.05; Cu25: 3.01 ± 0.04; Cu37.5: 2.39 ± 0.06; Zn20 + Cu12.5: 1.94 ± 0.02; Zn60 + Cu37.5: 2.44 ± 0.16 at 240 days), semen production capacity (sperm concentration, volume, mass motility) and semen quality (higher progressive motility, velocity, sperm membrane integrity and acrosome integrity) were observed in supplemented groups (P < .05) than the control bucks. The present study demonstrated that, additional feeding of organic Zn and Cu to growing male goats advanced onset of puberty and improved quantitative and qualitative semen characteristics. The results also implied that the organic Cu had a significant effect on overall performances of bucks as compared to Zn alone or Zn and Cu in combination.

A potential utilization of end-of-life tyres as recycled carbon black in EPDM rubber.

End-of-life (EOL) tyres and their decomposition present severe environmental concern due to their resistance to moisture, oxygen, natural degradation, etc. Pyrolysis is considered to be the most effective and sustainable process for recycling, due to its eco-friendly process. The current work studied the effect of recycled carbon black (rCB), obtained from the pyrolysis of EOL tyres, on the properties of ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM). The rCB was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and chemical methods. rCB was incorporated solely, into a conventional EPDM formulation and also in combination with N550 carbon black. The physico-mechanical properties of the EPDM vulcanizates, before and after aging, were succinctly studied by SEM, TGA, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), tensile tests and cross-link density. The average particle size of rCB was observed to be 8 µm and the ash content was observed to be higher when compared to the conventional N550 carbon black, which was evident, by the TGA and SEM-EDX analyses. The reinforcing effect and the cross-link density of the rCB-filled vulcanizates were found to be marginally inferior in comparison to the conventional carbon black (N550). The morphology of the tensile- and tear-fractured surfaces were studied by SEM and it was observed that the breaking mechanism follows the rubber chain detachment from the surface mode.

Gross anatomy of the horseshoe kidney: a case report with brief review of literature

The various congenital malformations of the kidney are important as they may cause renal failure in middle-age groups. The horseshoe kidney (HSK) was originally regarded as a rare anatomical curiosity which was seen only on post-mortem. Horseshoe kidneys are congenital fusion anomalies with a prevalence of 1/400 to 1/800 and incidence of 0.25% in general population. HSK is more prevalent in men than women in a 2:1 relation.During routine anatomical dissection in the formal course for undergraduate students of our college, the gross anomaly of a horseshoe kidney was found. The horseshoe kidney was arrested inferior to the inferior mesenteric artery in a middle-aged male cadaver. The kidneys were fused inferiorly by an isthmus of parenchymatous tissue, both the hila were wide and the right kidney was supplied by two and the left by three arteries. A review of the embryology and clinical importance of this rare anomaly are also discussed

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Toward Efficient Computation of the Dempster-Shafer Belief Theoretic Conditionals.

Dempster-Shafer (DS) belief theory provides a convenient framework for the development of powerful data fusion engines by allowing for a convenient representation of a wide variety of data imperfections. The recent work on the DS theoretic (DST) conditional approach, which is based on the Fagin-Halpern (FH) DST conditionals, appears to demonstrate the suitability of DS theory for incorporating both soft (generated by human-based sensors) and hard (generated by physics-based sources) evidence into the fusion process. However, the computation of the FH conditionals imposes a significant computational burden. One reason for this is the difficulty in identifying the FH conditional core, i.e., the set of propositions receiving nonzero support after conditioning. The conditional core theorem (CCT) in this paper redresses this shortcoming by explicitly identifying the conditional focal elements with no recourse to numerical computations, thereby providing a complete characterization of the conditional core. In addition, we derive explicit results to identify those conditioning propositions that may have generated a given conditional core. This "converse" to the CCT is of significant practical value for studying the sensitivity of the updated knowledge base with respect to the evidence received. Based on the CCT, we also develop an algorithm to efficiently compute the conditional masses (generated by FH conditionals), provide bounds on its computational complexity, and employ extensive simulations to analyze its behavior.

Transmission rate allocation in multisensor target tracking over a shared network.

In a multisensor target tracking application running on a shared network, at what bit rates should the sensors send their measurements to the tracking fusion center? Clearly, the sensors cannot use arbitrary rates in a shared network, and a standard network rate control algorithm may not provide rates amenable to effective target tracking. For Kalman filter-based multisensor target tracking, we derive a utility function that captures the tracking quality of service as a function of the sensor bit rates. We incorporate this utility function into a network rate resource allocation framework, deriving a distributed rate control algorithm for a shared network that is suitable for current best effort packet networks, such as the Internet. In simulation studies, the new rate control algorithm engenders significantly better tracking performance than a standard rate control method, while the ordinary data transfer flows continue to effectively operate while using their standard rate control methods.

Protection from the nephrotoxicity of contrast dye.

Previous studies have reported a 4%-50% incidence of acute renal failure (ARF) following the use of radiocontrast media in patients with preexisting chronic renal insufficiency. In these studies, ARF was defined as a rise of the serum creatinine of at least 1 mg/dl above baseline. Using the same criteria, we studied 214 patients undergoing various intravascular radiocontrast media procedures. Patients were infused with a specially prepared cocktail solution (NSMF) containing 1000 ml half-normal saline, 12.5 g of mannitol (M), I ampule NaHCO3, and 200 mg of furosemide (F) at 100 ml/h from one hour prior to two hours after the procedure. Urinary output was replaced with normal saline for at least 6 h after the procedure. Seven percent of the patients developed acute renal insufficiency. Only 3% of the patients had a rise in serum creatinine greater than 2 mg/dl. No patient required dialysis therapy after the procedure. There was one unrelated death caused by acute myocardial infarction postangioplasty. Risk factors for development of ARF despite cocktail administration included the presence of diabetes mellitus and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor therapy. We concluded that the properly administered NSMF solution protects against radiocontrast dye induced renal failure. In select patients with chronic renal insufficiency, consideration should be given to withholding ACE inhibitor therapy for 24-48 h prior to administration of intravenous radiocontrast dye. A large controlled trial will be required to establish whether the NSMF solution offers benefit beyond that of saline hydration alone.

The use of fluconazole in the management of Candida peritonitis in patients on peritoneal dialysis.

In patients receiving peritoneal dialysis, fungal peritonitis is generally impossible to eradicate with previously available therapy in the absence of catheter removal. Corbella et al. described a patient with fungal peritonitis treated with fluconazole without catheter removal. We studied this drug's effectiveness in the treatment of 5 patients with peritonitis secondary to Candida species. Patients received a loading dose of 200-400 mg fluconazole, followed by 50-200 mg fluconazole daily. Patients improved initially after therapy with fluconazole. Abdominal pain and fever abated, dialysis returns cleared, cell counts decreased, and, in four cases, cultures were sterilized. Dialysate fluconazole levels were adequate. However, despite maintenance of fluconazole therapy, all patients had recurrent peritonitis within 1 month. Complete cure did not occur unless the Tenckhoff catheter was removed. When the catheter was removed, tip cultures grew pure Candida species, and microscopic examination of catheter sections revealed abundant yeast. Although there may be continued isolated reports of successful eradication of fungal peritonitis without catheter removal, we conclude that in the vast majority of cases catheter removal is required.