Bakgrund: För att ge vägledning till hur samhället skall värdera nutida effekter gentemotframtida, exempelvis att rädda liv eller fördela samhälleliga investeringar, har ekonomergenomfört stated preference-studier med syfte att undersöka individers samhälleligatidspreferenser. Studiernas resultat har producerat en stor variation kring hur individervärderar framtida utfall jämfört med nutida. Resultaten har dock tolkats som att individer,även om tidspreferenserna varierar i storlek, värderar framtida utfall lägre än nutida. ShaneFrederick genomförde 1999 en studie, som Frederick benämnde som ett ”robusthetstest” avden dittills använda metodiken, där han i motsats till tidigare studier inte bara erbjödrespondenterna ett nutida utfall jämfört med ett framtida, utan även erbjöd respondenternaolika sekventiella fördelningar över tid. Resultaten kontrasterade tydligt tidigare studiersresultat, respondenterna föredrog exempelvis att rädda liv fördelat på tre generationer iställetför endast i deras egen – vilket indikerade att respondenterna hade negativa tidspreferenser!Inga uppföljningsstudier har därefter genomförts.Syfte: Att undersöka individers samhälleliga tidspreferenser när de erbjuds sekventiellafördelningar över tid.Metod: Två enkätundersökningar genomfördes vid Linköpings universitet. Respondenternaställdes inför olika sekventiella fördelningar för räddandet av liv och samhälleligaupprustningar, såväl i ett intra- som ett intergenerationsperspektiv.Slutsats: Vi finner ej stöd för att en majoritet av individerna värderar framtida samhälleligaupprustningar eller att rädda framtida liv, lägre än nutida. Vi finner heller ej stöd för attindividers tidspreferenser endast innefattar en preferens för den tidshorisontella absolutafördelningen (nutid gentemot framtid). I både ett intra- och ett intergenerationsperspektivföredrog den största andelen av respondenterna en jämn fördelning över tid. I ettintragenerationsperspektiv, där vi erbjöd individerna olika sekventiella fördelningar över tid,påverkades respondenternas val av den relativa fördelningen över tid. Alla resultatuppvisades för både räddandet av liv och samhälleliga upprustningar. / Background: To give guidance for societal policy decisions on how to value future effectscompared to present, economists have used stated preference methodology to measureindividuals’ societal time preferences. The results have produced a great variety in the size ofindividuals’ time preferences, but have in general at least concluded that individuals valuefuture effects less then present. Shane Frederick performed in 1999 what he called a “test ofrobustness” of the methodology used in previous studies. Instead of just offering individualsto choose from an outcome today towards an outcome x years from now, he also offeredrespondents outcomes sequentially spread out across time. The results contradicted those ofprevious studies. For example 80% of the respondents preferred to save 300 lives across 3generations instead of 300 in their own – which implied negative time preferences! Nofurther follow up studies have been performed.Objective: Investigate individuals’ societal time preferences, when they are offeredsequential outcomes over time.Methodology: Two questionnaires where handed out at Linköpings university. Therespondents where offered different sequential outcomes over time for saving lives and whenpublic investments should occur, in as well an intra- as an intergenerational perspective.Conclusion: Our findings do not indicate that a majority of the individuals value savingfuture lives less then present lives, or that they value future public investments less thenfuture investments. Neither do they indicate that individuals’ societal time preferences onlyincorporate the absolute time horizontal aspect. In both an intra- and an intergenerationalperspective the largest fraction of the individuals preferred an equal distribution over time. Inan intragenerational perspective, where we offered individuals different sequentialdistributions, the individuals choice where affected by the relative distribution over time. Allfindings where present both for saving lives and public investments.

Adolescence is a period of development that is associated with increased risk taking behaviors and experimenting with drugs of abuse, including alcohol and nicotine. Early onset of use of these agents may be associated with long-term changes in behavior and enhanced sensitivity to the subsequent effects of alcohol in adulthood. The present experiment was designed to assess the long-term behavioral alterations that occur due to adolescent exposure to ethanol and nicotine, either alone or in combination, on adulthood responsivity to the rewarding properties of environmental cues paired with ethanol. It was hypothesized that adolescent rats exposed to the combination of ethanol and nicotine would exhibit enhanced novelty seeking behaviors in adulthood. When assessing the rewarding properties of environmental cues paired with ethanol in adulthood using the CPP paradigm, it was hypothesized that adolescent rats exposed to the combination of a moderate dose of alcohol (0.75 g/kg) and nicotine (0.4 mg/kg) would more readily acquire a CPP in adulthood as compared to animals exposed to either drug alone. However, no changes in novelty seeking behaviors or conditioned place preference in adulthood were observed due to exposure to ethanol and/or nicotine during adolescence .Methodological considerations are discussed. Currently, other experiments are being conducted to assess the effects of nicotine on voluntary ethanol treatment in adolescent and adult male rats.

During adolescent brain maturation, there are likely sensitive periods where environmental conditions, including drug exposure, may influence development by modifying neuronal connections. Altering neuronal function may produce different phenotypes than expected under normal conditions that may influence subsequent responding to drugs of abuse after the brain is fully mature. Experiment one investigated the relationship between novelty preference and cocaine place preference in adolescent and adult rats. High responding adolescent rats displaying greater free choice novelty exploration (but not forced novelty locomotion) expressed decreased cocaine place conditioning compared to low responding rats. No relationship was found in adult rats. Experiment two evaluated novelty-induced behaviors in adulthood after adolescent cocaine exposure. Repeated cocaine administration produced greater stress and anxiogenic behavioral responses to novelty in adult rats. Repeated alcohol administration produced less-inhibited novelty-induced behaviors in adulthood. Experiment three and four evaluated the consequence of developmental cocaine exposure on the rewarding efficacy of cocaine in adolescence and adulthood. Additionally, the interaction of D2 receptors and the rewarding efficacy of cocaine were investigated. After developmental cocaine exposure, adolescent and adult rats demonstrate decreased rewarding efficacy to cocaine. Importantly, blockade of the D2 receptor prevents cocaine-induced neurochemical changes, potentially regulating the behavioral and neurochemical alterations that occur after repeated drug use that increases the likelihood of dependence. Together, these data implicate both short and long-term behavioral adaptations that occur after developmental cocaine exposure that may result in a predisposition to develop adulthood drug dependence.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Human Ecology-Personal Financial Planning / Maurice MacDonald / Clifford Robb / Americans seem to be financially vulnerable and lack sufficient net worth to overcome financial obstacles such as unforeseen medical issues, temporary job loss, or changing economic conditions. Americans aren’t saving enough, have too much debt, and tend to have a short-sighted view on their finances. Wealth is a primary indicator of financial and economic security and maintaining and improving standard of living are two important financial goals. Aggregate net worth can be used to gauge the financial well-being of Americans because it includes both assets and liabilities. It is hypothesized that part of the instability which results in the lack of accumulating adequate wealth, is time preference. Time preference is an important psychological construct which examines the ability to defer gratification. Time preference represents the intertemporal choice between immediate versus delayed utility. A low rate of time preference implies a low rate of intertemporal discounting. Individuals with low discounting do not heavily discount the future and are able to defer gratification. A high rate of time preference or a high rate of intertemporal discounting, suggests that individuals are more present oriented, heavily discount the future, prefer immediate gratification. This research study takes a unique approach to examining time preference since the experimental community lacks a clear consensus on how to best measure this construct. Standard risk and time preferences measures are typically achieved through responses to financially incentivized choice questions. Researchers have argued that incentivized choice questions may be common but they lack precision. Therefore, combining behaviors that involve intertemporal tradeoffs into a scale to measure time preference is believed to be a more accurate indicator of time preference. However, there is little research that has reliably developed and tested its use. This research examines time preference by comparing incentive choice questions as a proxy for time preference as well as an additive scale of intertemporal behaviors using a national representative sample. Regression analysis revealed that that time preference measured using an additive scale of intertemporal behaviors was significantly associated with net worth. The incentive choice questions as a measure of time preference were not significantly associated with net worth. The respondents with a high rate of intertemporal discounting as measured by the time preference scale accumulated less net-worth than respondents with a lower rate of intertemporal discounting. In addition, in the regression model when individual behaviors involving intertemporal tradeoffs such as smoking, drinking, and not taking physical exams were added as individual behaviors, the model was the preferred predictor of net worth.

THE INFLUENCE OF CENTRAL SEROTONINERGIC AND DOPAMINERGIC ACTIVITY ON NUTRITIONAL AND METABOLIC PARAMETERS MUDr. Ludmila Brunerová SUMMARY Introduction: Neuromediators dopamine and serotonin play a significant role in homeostatic and hedonic regulation of food intake, may exert direct metabolic effects and particularly serotonin influences affectivity. Their central activity could be quantified by functional tests. Common regulatory mediators of metabolism and affectivity represent an interesting research goal. Aims of study: The first aim was to describe the relationship between central serotoninergic activity measured by citalopram challenge test, affectivity, preference of macronutrients in food and metabolic profile in healthy men. The second aim was to confirm the use of sublingual apomorphine test as a functional test for assessment of central dopaminergic activity. The third aim was to reveal the relationship between central dopaminergic activity measured by sublingual apomorphine test, preference of macronutrients and metabolic profile. Methods: The study was performed on 42 healthy men (average age 43.5 ± 7.4 years and average BMI 27.4 ± 5.7 kg/mš) within 4 days with a week interval in between them. Anthropometric and...

The diploma thesis deals with the topic of recommendation in culture. In the theoretical part, it compares the recommendation of digitally available works with event recommendations, which serves as the basis for describing recommendations on the cultural portal. Further, the thesis examines the domain model as several different interconnected types of objects. Using these relations to enrich data sets allows overcoming the low data density and improving the recommendations. The paper examines two common situations of practical recommendation, general user recommendation with minimal profile and recommendation to registered users with known history. As a part of the solution, hybrid algorithms have been implemented based on the introducing content information into existing collaborative filtering methods. The results are verified in offline tests on data sets consisting of both research and real-world data. The subjective quality of the resulting recommendations was examined through a user study.

Thesis "Personnel marketing" deals with the use of marketing approach in the management of human resources. The theoretical part is describing the role and growing importance of personnel marketing in the management of human resources. The practical part introduces all of the Big Four companies, including a description of their activities in the personnel marketing. Part of this work is formed by a survey of the attitudes and expectations of participants of the labour market in the form of a questionnaire. The survey results are analyzed from the perspective of students and graduates, as the target group of the Big Four as employers. Based on the analysis of attitudes of students and graduates recommendations for personnel marketing of the Big Four companies are suggested.

Colors and color-perception may play an important role in animal ethology (foraging, intra or inter-species communication). However, trichromatic color vision is quite rare among mammals and occurs only in some primate species. Humans, apes, and most of the Old World primates are trichromats, whereas color vision among New World primate species varies strikingly. The pigment gene perciving longer wavelenghts (red) have appeared most recently. Moreover, the pigment genes for the perception of red color have appear independently in these two primates lines (Old and New World) (Kainz et al, 1998). Although the genetic mechanism of trichromacy is quite understood, the question remains, what was the adaptive advantage responsible for the spreading of the above mentioned genes. The basic functions of trichromatic vision may be better detection of food (folivory and frugivory hypothesis), signaling or warning functions. The main goals of the thesis is to study spontaneous preference for color in children (pre- school and school age) and non-human Old World primates who have routine trichromic vision. Moreover, the thesis will focus on preference of red color to understand what was an adaptive function of red color perception. We assume that the spontaneous preference for color may reflect an adaptive...

Objectives: Our thesis is focused on correlation of lateral (side) preferencies of lower limbs and quality of sensorimotor control. Our aim is to figure out whether there is difference in laterality of sensorimotor control of lower limbs and if so, whether there is correlation with side preferency. Methods: Study is made on 18 volunteers. We tested somatosenzoric system, specifically two-point discrimination, graphesthesia, pallesthesia, statesthesia, kinesthesia. We used a questionnare to determine side preferency of lower limbs. We used paired sample t- tests, with level of importance p=0,05. Results: According to t-tests, there are no differencies in sensorimotor control in lower limbs. According to those results, it is not possible to determine the difference in sensorimotor control due to lower limb preferency. Summary: There is no difference in sides in sensorimotor control of lower limbs.

TITLE: Attachment regarding individuals with sexual preference disorder AUTHOR: Irena Golebiowská DEPARTMENT: Psychology SUPERVISOR: PhDr. Bc. Ivana Křížová, Ph.D. Abstract This Master's thesis deals with the nature of attachment regarding individuals with sexual preference disorder. The aim is to examine in depth early and later relationship experiences of selected individuals with sexual preference disorder and to evaluate their potential significance in the context of psychosexual development and sexually delinquent behaviour of these people. The theoretical part first introduces the concept of attachment and outlines the background and the basic concepts of the attachment theory. The following part describes types of attachment and selected methods of assessing adult attachment. The next section provides a summary of key information about sexual preference disorders. Attention is paid to the classification and basic theories of origin of the sexual preference disorders. The psychosexual development of individuals with paraphilia and the specifics of the concept of sexual delinquency are also briefly described. Finally, it outlines the possible significance of the nature of emotional attachment in the context of sexual preference disorders. The empirical part of the thesis presents life stories of three...