Googling Referendum Campaigns: Analyzing Online Search Patterns Regarding Swiss Direct-Democratic Votes

In direct democracies, voters are faced with considerable information demands. Although search engines are an important gateway to political information, it is still unclear what role they play in citizens’ information behavior regarding referendum campaigns. Moreover, few studies have examined the search terms that citizens use when searching for political information and the potential “user-input biases” in this regard. Therefore, we investigate to what extent citizens search online for information about upcoming referendums and what differences emerge between proponents, opponents, and non-voters regarding the search terms they used and the results they visited, related to three national ballot proposals voted on in Switzerland on November 28, 2021. The study combines cross-sectional survey data with longitudinal digital trace data containing participants’ Google Search histories obtained through data donations. Our findings show that participants rarely used Google to search for information about upcoming referendums. Moreover, most ballot-related searches employed rather neutral search terms. Nevertheless, a qualitative analysis of the search terms points to differences between different voting groups, particularly for the most prominent proposal around a Covid-19 law. The study provides interesting insight into how citizens search for information online during national referendum campaigns

Googling Referendum Campaigns: Analyzing Online Search Patterns Regarding Swiss Direct-Democratic Votes

In direct democracies, voters are faced with considerable information demands. Although search engines are an important gateway to political information, it is still unclear what role they play in citizens’ information behavior regarding referendum campaigns. Moreover, few studies have examined the search terms that citizens use when searching for political information and the potential “user-input biases” in this regard. Therefore, we investigate to what extent citizens search online for information about upcoming referendums and what differences emerge between proponents, opponents, and non-voters regarding the search terms they used and the results they visited, related to three national ballot proposals voted on in Switzerland on November 28, 2021. The study combines cross-sectional survey data with longitudinal digital trace data containing participants’ Google Search histories obtained through data donations. Our findings show that participants rarely used Google to search for information about upcoming referendums. Moreover, most ballot-related searches employed rather neutral search terms. Nevertheless, a qualitative analysis of the search terms points to differences between different voting groups, particularly for the most prominent proposal around a Covid-19 law. The study provides interesting insight into how citizens search for information online during national referendum campaigns

Small bowel carcinoma associated with Crohn`s disease: clinical review and case report

Crohn`s disease is a chronic relapsing and remitting inflammation of the bowel involving all its layers. A small bowel adenocarcinoma in Crohn`s disease is a rare entity. The literature about this disease is reviewed. A case report of a 41-year male patient illustrates the significance of the diagnostic and therapeutic procedures

Standing in a Garden of Forking Paths

According to the Path Principle, it is permissible to expand your set of beliefs iff (and because) the evidence you possess provides adequate support for such beliefs. If there is no path from here to there, you cannot add a belief to your belief set. If some thinker with the same type of evidential support has a path that they can take, so do you. The paths exist because of the evidence you possess and the support it provides. Evidential support grounds propositional justification. The principle is mistaken. There are permissible steps you may take that others may not even if you have the very same evidence. There are permissible steps that you cannot take that others can even if your beliefs receive the same type of evidential support. Because we have to assume almost nothing about the nature of evidential support to establish these results, we should reject evidentialism

False Beliefs and Misleading Evidence

False beliefs and misleading evidence have striking similarities. In many regards, they are both epistemically bad or undesirable. Yet, some epistemologists think that, while one’s evidence is normative (i.e., one’s available evidence affects the doxastic states one is epistemically permitted or required to have), one’s false beliefs cannot be evidence and cannot be normative. They have offered various motivations for treating false beliefs differently from true misleading beliefs, and holding that only the latter may be evidence. I argue that this is puzzling: If misleading evidence and false beliefs share so many important similarities, why treat them differently? I also argue that, given the striking similarities between false beliefs and misleading evidence, many arguments for the factivity of evidence overgeneralize. That is, if these arguments were conclusive, they would also entail that the evidence cannot be misleading. But this is an overgeneralization, since the evidence can be misleading

Why pragmatic justifications of epistemic norms don't work

No Abstract.South African Journal of Philosophy Vol. 27 (2) 2008: pp. 139-15

Why W. K. Clifford was a Closet Pragmatist

No Abstract Philosophical Papers Vol. 37 (3) 2008: pp. 471-48

Management of Mesh-Related Infections After Hernia Repair

Hernia repairs are the most common elective abdominal wall procedures in general surgery. The use of a prosthetic material (mesh) has become the gold standard in hernia repair surgery worldwide because of the concept of tension-free plastics and the benefits they provide.However, the more frequent use of meshes has led to an increase of the various mesh-related complications. The most common are: seroma, postoperative pain, migration of the mesh, bleeding, infections, adhesions, etc.One of the most unfavorable and difficult to treat complications is the infection of the prosthetic material (mesh). The incidence of mesh-related infections after incisional hernia repair is about 1% for endoscopic techniques and can be more than 15% in open techniques.There are a lot of risk factors associated with this type of complication. The management depends precisely on these factors, on morphological findings, general condition of the patient and others.We present a case report of the therapeutic approach in infected polypropylene mesh after hernia repair. The patient is a 56-year-old man with obesity, diabetes mellitus and after abdominoperineal resection of rectum. The combination of the mesh-related infection and the many preceding surgeries, the general condition of the patient and his comorbidities are a real therapeutic and surgical challenge

Energy Devices in Surgery - Principles and Specifics of Use

The expansive development of surgery in the past two decades has been accompanied by the establishment and improvement of a number of energy devices. They reduce intraoperative blood loss and lead to better postoperative results. Their proper use allows the surgeon to perform a wide range of procedures safely, efficiently and with a minimal tissue trauma. The main goals are: reduction of intra- and postoperative complications, shortening of the intraoperative time and improvement of the outcome of the surgery. The knowledge of the mechanisms of action, the indications and contra-indications for usage of the specific devices have a main role in achieving these goals.The most commonly used energy devices in surgery are: mono- and bipolar, ultrasonic destructor, Argon plasma coagulation, CUSA, devices for reducing smoke in laparoscopic surgery, and others. Their use without prior training, however, can lead to many negative consequences. Therefore, the surgical team should be encouraged to study the fundamental biophysical effects and the specificity of use of such devices