News from Wagamaga
Fake news on Facebook increased 2020 election doubts. Individuals who got election news by navigating directly to mainstream news websites rather than through social media were less likely to consume fake news. This in turn made them more likely to believe in the results of the election.
- By - Wagamaga
Hi everyone! I am a professor of Interactive Computing and do research on content moderation, social movements online, and understanding across difference.
Hello. This is a fascinating subject to study. Just wondering, in your opinion, how easy is misinformation used to manipulate social movements on a forum like Reddit with an upvote system? Would bots try and upvote a certain narrative, for example post misinformation to discredit a study on
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) severity can vary markedly from night-to-night. However, the impact of night-to-night variability in OSA severity on key cardiovascular outcomes such as hypertension is unknown. Thus, the primary aim of this study is to determine the effects of night-to-night variability in OSA severity on hypertension likelihood. This study uses in-home monitoring of 15,526 adults with ~180 nights per participant with an under-mattress sleep sensor device, plus ~30 repeat blood pressure measures. OSA severity is defined from the mean estimated apnea–hypopnoea index (AHI) over the ~6-month recording period for each participant. Night-to-night variability in severity is determined from the standard deviation of the estimated AHI across recording nights. Uncontrolled hypertension is defined as mean systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg and/or mean diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg. Regression analyses are performed adjusted for age, sex, and body mass index. A total of 12,287 participants (12% female) are included in the analyses. Participants in the highest night-to-night variability quartile within each OSA severity category, have a 50–70% increase in uncontrolled hypertension likelihood versus the lowest variability quartile, independent of OSA severity. This study demonstrates that high night-to-night variability in OSA severity is a predictor of uncontrolled hypertension, independent of OSA severity. These findings have important implications for the identification of which OSA patients are most at risk of cardiovascular harm.
Since 9/11, security staff have been trained to recognise no less than 92 signals that someone might be lying. Bruno Verschuere, associate professor of Forensic Psychology: ‘This is nonsensical, because it’s an impossible task. People can't assess all those signals in a short time, let alone integrate multiple signals into an accurate and truthful judgment.’
Boffins working on a mathematical model to predict future human lifespans say that longevity records may be broken by 2060 – and the sky's the limit from there. They don't think we've even approached the ceiling of how long a well cared-for human can live.
Researchers at Boston University, USA report that the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain is linked to waking brain activity. Led by Stephanie Williams, and publishing in the open access journal PLOS Biology on March 30th, the study demonstrates that manipulating blood flow in the brain with visual stimulation induces complementary fluid flow. The findings could impact treatment for conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, which have been associated with declines in cerebrospinal fluid flow.
Facebook users were more likely to read fake news about the 2020 U.S. presidential election than users of Twitter and other social media websites, a Washington State University-led analysis found.
Sitting on the beach, taking in the breeze, you might think the sea air is better for you than its inland equivalent. But researchers at the University of Houston have found that the air along the Gulf of Mexico coast in Texas can be more polluted due to its highly processed and acidic chemical components of particulate matter, which are microscopic solid or liquid particles in the air.