Probability learning is the ability to establish a relationship between stimulus and outcomes based on occurrence probabilities using repetitive feedbacks. Participants learn the task according to the cue-outcome relationship, and try to gain in depth understanding of this relationship throughout the experiment. While learning is at the highest level, people rely on their working memory. In this study 20 participants were presented a probability learning task, and their prefrontal cortex activity was measured with functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy. It was hypothesized that as participants gain more knowledge of the probabilities they will learn cue-outcome relationships and therefore rely less on their working memory. Therefore as learning precedes a drop in the fNIRS signal is expected. We obtained results confirming our hypothesis: Significant negative correlation between dorsolateral prefrontal cortex activity and learning was found. Similarly, response time also decreased through the task, indicating that as learning precedes participants made decisions faster. Participants used either the frequency matching or the maximization strategy in order to solve the task in which they had to decide whether the blue or the red color was winning. When they use the frequency matching strategy they chose blue at the rate of winning for the blue choice. When they use the maximization strategy they chosed blue almost always. Our task was designed such that the frequency for blue to win was 80%. We had hypothesized that the people in frequency matching and maximization groups would show working memory differences which could be observed from the fNIRS signal. However, we were unable to detect this type of behavioral difference in the fNIRS signal. Overall, our study showed the relationship between probability learning and working memory as depicted by brain activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex which widely known as the central executive component of working memory.

This thesis studies Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451 using Critical Discourse Analysis as the primary tool. It argues that the narrative develops through the supporting characters’ actions, and the different societal discourses of hegemony, otherness and class struggle they represent. Basing the analysis on Althusserian and Gramscian ideas and discussing citizen’s transformation from subjects to individuals, this study concludes that although a subject may be power-less and wary, it is by learning to act through being given information through discourse that personal development occurs.

In 1953 Ray Bradbury wrote the novel Fahrenheit 451. The plot is set in a fictional, North American future. This essay aims to show that what is considered normal regarding fundamental values such as knowledge, love, and respect in this imaginary future society is different from what was considered normal in North America in the 1950s when Bradbury wrote the book. The norms differ to such an extent that it is possible to claim that Fahrenheit 451 is set in a new episteme. Episteme is a term used by the French philosopher Michel Foucault. It designates a time in which society has an underlying understanding of what is considered normal. According to Michel Foucault, the year 1953 when Bradbury wrote the book, belonged to the episteme of Modernity. This essay aims to illustrate that in the future fictional society of Fahrenheit 451, the norm regarding some aspects of the culture has changed to the extent that there is reason to call the era a new episteme, and that a proper name would be the episteme of Ignorance. This name signals the lack of regard for knowledge in the society of Fahrenheit 451. This essay's analytical tools are Michel Foucault’s terms, theories, and concepts.  Keywords: Episteme, Michel Foucault, Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, knowledge, ignorance, norms, power.

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Convex cycles play a role e.g. in the context of product graphs. We introduce convex cycle bases and describe a polynomial-time algorithm that recognizes whether a given graph has a convex cycle basis and provides an explicit construction in the positive case. Relations between convex cycles bases and other types of cycles bases are discussed. In particular we show that if G has a unique minimal cycle bases, this basis is convex. Furthermore, we characterize a class of graphs with convex cycles bases that includes partial cubes and hence median graphs. (authors' abstract) / Series: Research Report Series / Department of Statistics and Mathematics

This study basically analyzes timing, sequencing and pace of the financial liberalization experience of the Turkish economy in the 1980s and evaluates its implications for the crises in the Turkish economy since the 1990s. The objectives of this study are threefold: Firstly, it aims to reveal the main policy objectives and political factors pushing the government to take capital account liberalization decision in 1989. It is concluded that domestic decision makers have shaped and taken the decision of capital account liberalization in 1989, while the interaction of economic and political factors has played a major role in its timing. Secondly, it examines the extent to which economic and political institutional weaknesses in the Turkish economy, which generated inappropriate sequencing of financial liberalization policies in the 1980s, can be held responsible for the crises of 2000 and 2001 crises. It is concluded that financial liberalization policies were inappropriately sequenced, as domestic financial market and capital account liberalization were not accompanied or preceded by macroeconomic stability and financial sector institutional reforms such as prudential regulation and supervision of the banking sector. These factors have been instrumental in the crises episodes in Turkey through contributing to an environment conducive to crises. Thirdly, it aims to analyze whether there exists a clear association between weaknesses in the regulation and supervision of the banking sector and banking crises through an empirical analysis. It is concluded that the nature of the banking crises is more associated with the institutional structure of the financial system rather than macroeconomic conditions of the economy.

I takt med att internetinfrastrukturen växer har internet fått en allt större betydelse för människors liv och vardag. Vilket har orsakat ett problem för brottsförebyggande myndigheter och IT-organisationer att justera vad som är lagligt och olagligt på Internet då det inte existera rätt verktyg för justeringar. Tidigare forskning är framtagna ur ett allmänt perspektiv. Detta har medfört att blockera webbsidor i dagsläget är en utmaning då det inte finns något tekniskt stöd i form av http kod i Sverige, utan bara lagar och regler som ger anvisningar för ITorganisationerna. Med detta i åtanke blev det intressant att undersöka hur det allmänna perspektivet kan stödja Sveriges kamp mot illegala webbsidor. Frågeställningarna för denna studie är: Hur kan Sverige motverka och förebygga illegala webbsidor med och utan statuskod 451 och vilken arbetsgång/besultsprocess kan rekommenderas för svenska förhållanden för att motverka illegala webbsidor? Framtagningen av empiri har gjorts med hjälp av att intervjua berörda aktörer som rör området internet, det vill säga en internetleverantör, en expert om statuskoden 451 samt en person som har nyckel till .Se och .Nu. Det studien har kommit fram till är att det kommer vara en utmaning för Sveriges kamp mot illegala webbsidor, tills man har åtgärdat de juridiska grunderna för statuskod 451. Då de juridiska grunderna ligger i grunden till hur beslutsprocessen ska gå till när man ska geoblockera webbsidor, därefter kan man fördela rollerna i processen för ISP och webbhotellen samt brottsförebyggande myndigheterna. Skulle Sverige inte använda sig av statuskoden 451, kan man använda sig av tre olika metoder. Den första metoden är att varje land i världen samarbetar så att man förhindrar att webbsidorna dyker på Internet igen. Den andra metoden är att det bör finnas starkare samband och förklaring mellan brottsförebyggande myndigheterna om ISP och webbhotellens om deras roller. Sista metoden är att enbart webbhotellen och ISP är noga med att se till att varje kund verkligen följer upp villkoren. När d

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This study endeavors to set Christian writing about Islam from the period of the Islamic expansion in the broader context of Christian theological development in Late Antiquity. To this end, this study traces elements of continuity in Christian thought from the Christological debates of the fifth and sixth century, particularly from the Council of Chalcedon in 451and the resulting emergence of the communities of Chalcedonians and anti-Chalcedonian Monophysites as the dominant strands of Christianity in the Near East at the rise of Islam. In order to understand how Christians began to integrate the Islamic expansion into their thinking, this study focuses particularly on Christian writings about Islam and the descriptions of Muslims in Christian writings from the rise of lslam, through the seventh and early eighth centuries, up to the Abbasid revolution in 750. It also considers the contemporary descriptions of Christians in the Qur'an, in order to illustrate that these descriptions have both a different starting point and a different focus, suggesting that both Christian discussions about Muslims and Muslim discussions about Christians were internal discussions, taking place within each tradition, and do not represent true inter-religious dialogue. In this way, this study attempts to illustrate how the rise of lslam, the emergence of the caliphate and the resulting separation of the Near Eastern churches from the Christian hierarchy in Rome and Constantinople influenced Christian identity in the Near East. The writings of the seventh century, and the Christian identity they preserve, emerge as a hybrid, integrating elements of the competing, pre-Islamic concerns of doctrinal purity versus church unity, but also attempting to address, in a variety of ways, the initial fear over Muslim victory and the eventual acceptance of Muslim rule as the new status quo in the Near East.