A functional division of Drosophila sweet taste neurons that is value-based and task-specific

Sucrose is an attractive feeding substance and a positive reinforcer for Drosophila. But Drosophila females have been shown to robustly reject a sucrose-containing option for egg-laying when given a choice between a plain and a sucrose-containing option in specific contexts. How the sweet taste system of Drosophila promotes context-dependent devaluation of an egg-laying option that contains sucrose, an otherwise highly appetitive tastant, is unknown. Here, we report that devaluation of sweetness/sucrose for egg-laying is executed by a sensory pathway recruited specifically by the sweet neurons on the legs of Drosophila. First, silencing just the leg sweet neurons caused acceptance of the sucrose option in a sucrose versus plain decision, whereas expressing the channelrhodopsin CsChrimson in them caused rejection of a plain option that was “baited” with light over another that was not. Analogous bidirectional manipulations of other sweet neurons did not produce these effects. Second, circuit tracing revealed that the leg sweet neurons receive different presynaptic neuromodulations compared to some other sweet neurons and were the only ones with postsynaptic partners that projected prominently to the superior lateral protocerebrum (SLP) in the brain. Third, silencing one specific SLP-projecting postsynaptic partner of the leg sweet neurons reduced sucrose rejection, whereas expressing CsChrimson in it promoted rejection of a light-baited option during egg-laying. These results uncover that the Drosophila sweet taste system exhibits a functional division that is value-based and task-specific, challenging the conventional view that the system adheres to a simple labeled-line coding scheme.

Political Journalism Content in a New Era: The Case of Finnish Newspapers, 1995–2015

This article observes how developments in politics, society, the media, and journalistic ethos impact political journalism content in Finland between 1995 and 2015. The focus is on three newspapers: the dailies Helsingin Sanomat and Aamulehti, and the tabloid Iltalehti. Using a coding scheme developed by Benson and Hallin (2007) and utilizing earlier findings by Kunelius and Väliverronen (2012), the analysis indicates two different approaches to politics at story level: a neutral and policy-oriented style in the two dailies, and a more diverse take by Iltalehti. Within stories, journalistic interventionism increases in all papers until 2010 and then diminishes. Differences emerge between the dailies and Iltalehti in journalistic presence, reporting patterns and sources used. Notably, in recent years, Iltalehti’s approach has become more reminiscent of the dailies both at story level and within stories. The findings highlight the impact of the general journalistic ethos and the differing market considerations on the journalistic content.

Manifestos and ideology: methodological issues and applications to Latin America

In this paper we compare the recent dataset of Latin American country party manifestos as coded by the Manifest Project database to other estimations of position on the left-right scale and to another coding of the same documents, discussing their limits and potentialities. The differences found between results offer an interesting opportunity to discuss the method, its reliability, and the validity of the coding scheme and the scales. Our findings suggest that the fragile reliability of the hand-coded content analysis could be circumvented by employing intercoder reliability tests and that users must be cautious when basing conclusions on this project’s results.

The Commuting Behavior Evolution in Suburban Express Line after Operation: Based on Multi-Source Space-Time Big Data

Virtual Reality news (VR news) provides news reports relying on virtual reality technology, creating a strong sense of immersion and presence. It is a new format of news and a new application for immersive media. Previous researches studies on VR news mainly focus on the range of topics and the media effect, and point out the advantages and disadvantages of them. However, the content of VR news is usually neglected. This research aims to conduct a content analysis on the VR news from CCTV.com by applying the framing theory. The coding scheme is designed based on Zang Guoren’s three-level structures theory, analyzing 220 pieces of news in total. According to the objective data obtained through the analysis, the conclusion is drawn on significant features about VR news, including theme, source, tendency, narrative structure, multimodal presentation, and framework. This research has theoretical significance for it applies the framework theory to analyze the VR news, and also provides inspiration for the production of VR news and the media industry.

A Polar Codes-Based Distributed UEP Scheme for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT), which is expected to support a massive number of devices, is a promising communication scenario. Usually, the data of different devices has different reliability requirements. Channel codes with the unequal error protection (UEP) property are rather appealing for such applications. Due to the power-constrained characteristic of the IoT services, most of the data has short packets; therefore, channel codes are of short lengths. Consequently, how to transmit such nonuniform data from multisources efficiently and reliably becomes an issue be solved urgently. To address this issue, in this paper, a distributed coding scheme based on polar codes which can provide UEP property is proposed. The distributed polar codes are realized by the groundbreaking combination method of noisy coded bits. With the proposed coding scheme, the various data from multisources can be recovered with a single common decoder. Various reliability can be achieved; thus, UEP is provided. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed coding scheme is viable.

Are preschoolers expected to learn difficult science constructs? A content analysis of U.S. standards

In the current paper, we report on the recommendations for preschool science put forward in the educational standards of U.S. states. Our focus was specifically on whether educational standards recommend abstract science constructs—constructs that are difficult to learn. In Study 1, we focused on science constructs related to inquiry (i.e., activities geared towards the generation of scientific knowledge). And in Study 2, we focused on science constructs related to facts (i.e., established scientific knowledge). In each study, we developed a coding scheme to distinguish between concrete and abstract constructs and then determined the relative prevalence of each. Our findings show that preschoolers are indeed expected to learn abstract science constructs. At the same time, educational standards varied considerably across U.S. states. Implications for the field of early science learning are discussed.

To #medbikini or not to #medbikini: Potentially Unprofessional Behavior on Social Media for Healthcare Professionals – The Devil is in the Details (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Social media (SM) presence among healthcare professionals (HCPs) is ubiquitous and largely beneficial for their personal and professional lives. New standards are forming in the context of e-professionalism, which are loosening the predefined older and “offline” terms. With these benefits also come dangers, with exposure to evaluation on all levels from peers, superiors and the general public, as witnessed in the #medbikini affair. The “devils in the details” of e-professionalism boundaries are explored in this paper. OBJECTIVE Objectives of this study are: a) to develop a new coding scheme for the assessment of unprofessional behavior on Facebook (FB) of medical/dental students and faculty, b) to compare reliability between the old and new coding schemes, c) to compare gender-based differences for the assessment of the professional content on FB, d) to validate the new coding scheme, and e) to assess the level of and to characterize online professionalism on publicly available FB profiles of medical/dental students and faculty. METHODS A search was performed via a new FB account using systematic probabilistic sample of students and faculty in the University of Zagreb School of Medicine and School of Dental Medicine. Each profile was subsequently assessed with regard to professionalism based on previously published criteria, and compared using the “new coding scheme”, developed for this study. RESULTS Inter-coder reliability (ICR) shows an increase when “new coding matrix” was used for the comparison of gender-based coding results. Results show an increase in the gender-based agreement of the final codes for the category professionalism, from 85% in the 1st phase to 96.2% in the 2nd phase. Final results of the 2nd phase show there was almost no difference between women and men for coding “potentially unprofessional” content (2.9% vs. 2.6%), nor for coding “unprofessional” content (4.6% vs. 4.9%). For the definitive results, significant differences between students and faculty were identified regarding the existence of identifiable FB accounts (49.2% vs. 20.2%; χ21=30.73, P<.001) and affiliation of the school was revealed (93.7% vs. 65.2%, χ21=20.1, P<.001). In professionalism variable, students had less “potentially objectionable” content than faculty (2.9% vs. 4.2%), however more “unprofessional” content (5.8% vs. 0%). CONCLUSIONS “New coding matrix” for assessing professionalism of HCPs on FB is a validated and a more objective instrument. Gender of coders did not affect results for coding “unprofessional” nor “potentially objectionable” content using the newly developed methodology and criteria. This research emphasizes the role that context plays in perception of “unprofessional” and “potentially unprofessional/objectionable” content, and provides insight into the existence of different sets of rules for online and offline interaction, that marks behavior as e-(un)professional. The level of e-professionalism on FB profiles available for public viewing of medical/dental students and faculty has shown a high level of understanding of e-professionalism.