.This chapter explores the social-psychological forces that destructive/authoritarian cults use as they apply to lone-actor terrorists influenced online. The authors contrast the methods used by authoritarian religious, political, commercial, and therapy groups to show that virtual sources—most notably the World Wide Web—can replace in-person recruitment and inclusion. These lone-actor terrorists adopted a worldview and became part of a virtual society. This virtual social bond can be as powerful as a real social bond. The authors consider case examples to show the dynamics of exploitative persuasion in the build-up to their violence. The BITE model of authoritarian control and influence continuum are presented as ways to evaluate undue influence.

Objective: To determine the feasibility, reliability, and acceptability of video teleconference (VTC)-based neuropsychological assessment using Addenbrooke’s cognitive examination-III (ACE-III). Methods: This study was performed from January 2022 to April 2022, during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. We administered ACE-III using video-teleconferencing and compared the scores to face-to-face (FTF) testing for the eligible participants. We also conducted a participant’s satisfaction survey of VTC-administered ACE-III compared to FTF-administered ACE-III, using a 7-point Likert scale. Results: We screened 37 participants and 24 (64.9%) successfully underwent ACE-III testing through VTC. We included 20 patients (mean age: 62.7 ± 10 years, mean education: 12.0 ± 4.6 years, 85% men) for final analysis, (who completed both VTC and FTF-administered ACE-III). Nine patients had major neurocognitive disorder (dementia), eight had mild neurocognitive disorder (MCI), and three had subjective cognitive decline (SCD). The two tests were administered at a median gap of 36 (18,74.5) days. The Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) of ACE-3 total scores (0.97) and the subdomain scores was high (>0.8). There was “very low” to “no” bias on the Bland–Altman plots, across all domains. The mean overall satisfaction score was 4.1, indicating that VTC is “as good as” FTF. Conclusions: Results support the feasibility and acceptability of remote administration of ACE-III via VTC. There is a good agreement between the ACE-III scores across VTC and in-person conditions.

Neural Networks may be made much faster and more efficient by reducing the amount of memory and computation used. In this paper, a new type of neural network called an Adaptive Neural Network is introduced. The proposed neural network is comprised of five unique pairings of events. Each pairing is a module and the modules are connected within a single neural network. The pairings are a simulation of respondent conditioning. The simulations do not necessarily represent conditioning in actual organisms. In the theory presented here, the pairings in respondent conditioning become aggregated together to form a basis for operant conditioning. The specific pairings are as follows. The first pairing is between the reinforcer and the neural stimulus that elicits the behavior. This pairing strengthens and makes salient that eliciting neural stimulus. The second pairing is that of the now salient neural stimulus with the external environmental stimulus that precedes the operant behavior. The third is the pairing of the environmental stimulus event with the reinforcing stimulus. The fourth is the pairing of the stimulus elicited by the drive with the reinforcement event, changing the strength of the reinforcer. The fifth pairing is that after repeated exposure the external environmental stimulus is paired with the drive stimulus. This drive stimulus is generated by an intensifying drive. Within each module, a “0” means no occurrence of a pairing A of Stimuli A and a “1” means an occurrence of a pairing A of Stimuli A. Similarly, a “0” means no occurrence of a pairing Band a “1” means an occurrence of a pairing B, and so on for all 5 pairings. To obtain an output one multiplies the values of pairings through E. In one trial or instance, all 5 pairings will occur. The results of the multiplications are then accumulated and divided by the number of instances. The use of these simple respondent pairings as a basis for neural networks reduces errors. Examples of problems that may be addressable by such networks are included.

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While laparoscopic cholecystectomy has become the treatment of choice for cholecystitis, complications such as abscess development can result even years after the intervention. We present a case of a patient with a remote history of laparoscopic cholecystectomy now diagnosed with gallbladder fossa abscess infected with Citrobacter freundii, a low-virulence pathogen typically seen in iatrogenic urinary tract infections. Subsequent conjoint percutaneous drainage and long-term antibiotics resulted in both clinical and radiological improvement for the patient. Therefore, in the absence of recent events or risk factors for developing an abdominal wall abscess, a previous remote history of surgical intervention needs to be considered for the possible etiology, especially those with low incidences and long latency periods such as Citrobacter.