Challenges to Selective Exposure: Selective Seeking and Avoidance in a Multitasking Media Environment

The present research investigated selective exposure online, treating selective seeking and selective avoidance as independent phenomena. A behavior tracking measure was employed. Study 1 used an online quasi-experiment with voluntary national samples (n = 271). Consistent with early reviews on selective exposure, participants sought out attitude consonant information but did not systematically avoid attitude dissonant information compared to neutral information. Study 2 involved an experiment with student samples (n = 185) to examine the impact of cognitive load on selective behavior. The results revealed that those who were asked to multitask during an information search did not exercise any selectivity in information selection. The implications of information selection behavior in a multitasking media environment are discussed.     

基于Zigbee和LabVIEW的新型城市照明监控系统

基于CC2530模块、Zigbee协议栈和LabVIEW编程设计了一种新型城市照明监控系统。该系统由自组织网络支撑,根据能量均衡的原则设计系统的基本架构;基于Zigbee协议栈进行功能定制,从而采集光照强度和链路质量强度,并为各节点设置自定义标签和睡眠周期;利用LabVIEW编程开发监控中心客户端。该系统首先由各监控节点采集信息,然后将这些信息发送给路由器或基站,最后上传给监控中心客户端,从而实现了城市照明系统精准、快速地监控与维护,此外,客户端还能在节点出现异常时报警。     

Compositional question answering: A divide and conquer approach

This paper describes how questions can be characterized for question answering (QA) along different facets and focuses on questions that cannot be answered directly but can be divided into simpler ones so that they can be answered directly using existing QA capabilities. Since individual answers are composed to generate the final answer, we call this process as compositional QA. The goal of the proposed QA method is to answer a composite question by dividing it into atomic ones, instead of developing an entirely new method tailored for the new question type. A question is analyzed automatically to determine its class, and its sub-questions are sent to the relevant QA modules. Answers returned from the individual QA modules are composed based on the predetermined plan corresponding to the question type. The experimental results based on 615 questions show that the compositional QA approach outperforms the simple routing method by about 17%. Considering 115 composite questions only, the F-score was almost tripled from the baseline.     

Motivation Terminology in Reading Research: A Conceptual Review

Despite the importance of motivation in understanding the development and practices of reading, problems persist in how motivation-related constructs are defined and investigated. This article reports a concept analysis of how 12 terms have been used in current reading research. Selection criteria resulted in the identification of 92 data-based articles published in 28 peer-reviewed journals from 2003 to 2013. Over the period examined, there was a steady increase in the number of studies reported. Most were conducted in North America and Europe. Only 17 % of the studies offered explicit definitions of the target constructs they examined. Another 64 % relied on various forms of implicit definitions, and 19 % provided no definitions of any kind. Usage problems frequently occurred as well. These included instances of vague associations among terms, occurring in 20 % of the studies, synonymous reference to distinctly different constructs in 32 %, and inaccurate statements made about constructs in 20 %. Although a variety of motivation theories were used to ground the investigations, some 22 % were essentially atheoretical. These difficulties were unrelated to the impact factor of the journals in which they appeared. Possible causes are discussed, together with suggestions for improvement.     

Framing “world class” differently: international and Korean participants’ perceptions of the world class university project

This study analyzes how the world class university (WCU) project in Korea is perceived by participating international scholars and Korean principal investigators by conducting focus group interviews and utilizing semantic network analysis. While international scholars and Korean principal investigators agree that the success of WCU depends on mutual collaboration, the expansion of qualitative evaluation, and effective student education, their core interests and values differ. International scholars place much weight on core educational values that are tied with students and research. On the other hand, Korean principal investigators take greater interest in the administrative side, including formal evaluation, regulation, and attendance for the required number of class days. This difference in assessing the WCU project emerges as an obstacle to mutual understanding and collaboration. Rather than judging which group’s frame of reference is better or more relevant, our analysis focuses on offering a context-specific understanding of frame while avoiding the cliché of “cultural difference.” Lastly, the analysis of frames offers some useful implications for the Korean higher education research and policy community.     

On-chip three-dimensional cell culture in phaseguides improves hepatocyte functions in vitro

The in vitro study of liver functions and liver cell specific responses to external stimuli deals with the problem to preserve the in vivo functions of primary hepatocytes. In this study, we used the biochip OrganoPlate^TM (MIMETAS) that combines different advantages for the cultivation of hepatocytes in vitro: (1) the perfusion flow is achieved without a pump allowing easy handling and placement in the incubator; (2) the phaseguides allow plating of matrix-embedded cells in lanes adjacent to the perfusion flow without physical barrier; and (3) the matrix-embedding ensures indirect contact of the cells to the flow. In order to evaluate the applicability of this biochip for the study of hepatocyte''s functions, Matrigel^TM-embedded HepG2 cells were cultured over three weeks in this biochip and compared to a static Matrigel culture (3D) and a monolayer culture (2D). Chip-cultured cells grew in spheroid-like structures and were characterized by the formation of bile canaliculi and a high viability over 14 days. Hepatocyte-specific physiology was achieved as determined by an increase in albumin production. Improved detoxification metabolism was demonstrated by strongly increased cytochrome P450 activity and urea production. Additionally, chip-cultured cells displayed increased sensitivity to acetaminophen. Altogether, the OrganoPlate seems to be a very useful alternative for the cultivation of hepatocytes, as their behavior was strongly improved over 2D and static 3D cultures and the results were largely comparable and partly superior to the previous reports on biochip-cultured hepatocytes. As for the low technical needs, this platform has the appearance of being highly applicable for further studies of hepatocytes'' responses to external stimuli.     

Start the‘Write’Way

Since this article was written,‘English in the National Curriculum’has been published, so references to it need to be updated.