The Becker-DeGroot-Marschak method (BDM) is an auction-like mechanism widely used in behavioural economics, marketing research, and, more recently, in neuroimaging studies of human decision making. The BDM has never been used with animal subjects before, yet its application in monkeys would allow for comparison of studies across species while providing a direct measure of what a reward is worth to a monkey in a single experimental trial. In the BDM, a subject is given a budget with which they can place a bid for some reward, and a computer then randomly selects a competing bid. If the subject’s bid is higher than the computer’s bid then the subject pays an amount equal to the computer’s bid, receives the reward object, and gets to keep the remaining budget. If the subject’s bid is lower than the computer’s bid, the subject does not gain the reward object but retains the entire budget. To adapt the task for monkeys, two rhesus macaques were taught to use water as a budget, and to use a joystick to place a bid in terms of this budget for different volumes of fruit-juice reward. The BDM ensures that the subject’s optimal action is to place a bid equal to their value for the reward-object. This property of truthful value revelation is the BDM’s most important feature in the context of value-based decision making. Currently, the only method of eliciting a monkey’s value for one reward in terms of another depends upon inference of the magnitudes at which the two rewards are chosen with equal probability. Using this ‘binary-choice’ method, many trials are needed to infer a single value: pairwise comparisons of many different magnitudes must be made and choices of each pair must be repeated so that the probability of choosing a reward can be estimated. In contrast, the BDM provides a direct measure of the monkey’s value for the reward as they explicitly state this value on each trial by selecting an equivalent bid. Therefore, the BDM more efficiently utilises the limited time in which a monkey’s behaviour can be assessed in each experimental session, as animals lose the motivation to participate when they become sated. The thesis summarised here describes the training and performance of two rhesus macaques on a novel version of the BDM, specifically designed for a subject that cannot be instructed on the optimal strategy. The technical steps and intermediate tasks that are needed to train a monkey to flexibly place bids by operating a joystick are also detailed, as well as the development of different versions of the task over three years of testing. The results of the final version of the BDM are then presented for both monkeys, showing rational bidding behaviour consistent with an understanding of the method’s contingencies. Theoretical concerns and limitations of the BDM in such a setting are also discussed and the thesis outlines how future experiments can make use of and adapt this version of the BDM for neuronal recording experiments.

The master's thesis deals with problems which is associated with rough detection of distance between wireless modules based on ZigBee technology. In the first logical part it theoretically describes this technology and their characteristics. This section gives basic informations needed to understand the operation of wireless communications and also acquaint him with some of the terms from this sphere. Next thing is description of the medium access together with a detailed description of functions that are crucial for deter-mining the signal strength. The second part is devoted to describe the 1321XDSK-BDM development kit. Another section is devoted to the design of the user's interface for displaying measured data. It consists of a theoretical design, which describes the initial vision of the device accompanied by solution of communication between wireless module and the proposed device. Follows the design of the involvement in Eagle software and explanation of the various components. In the last two chapters of the whole logical structure is described construction of the device and simple user's guide. The following chapter talks about the selection of suited application, necessary changes and own implementation of source code. There is even a description of important features and components of the application. The penultimate chapter contains a distance measurement in terrain using wireless modules and designed device. Here are tested different influences on the final distance measurement accuracy. In conclusion there is a debate over the results achieved. Particular, this section includes an assessment of precision measuring methods and evaluates aplicability of this method in practice.

Immunofluorescence and quantitative flow cytometry was used to determine if alterations in cytoskeletal proteins (vinculin and tubulin) occur during metabolic inhibition and ischemic incubation of isolated adult rat cardiomyocytes. Effects of cell shape changes on fluorescence, were controlled for by the contractile inhibitor, butanedione monoxime (BDM) and gated analysis. Flow cytometry differentiated rod- and round-shaped myocytes on the basis of forward and side scattering. Severe contracture of metabolically inhibited (iodoacetic acid and amytal) myocytes caused an artefactual increase in fluorescence intensity and a redistribution of tubulin into microblebs on the cell surface, which tended to mask specific losses of fluorescence. Fluorescence microscopy showed that round cells stained intensely for vinculin, but not for tubulin and that vinculin redistributed into coarse patches between 60 and 90 min, times which corresponded to small rebounds of fluorescence. With gated analysis, to exclude severely contracted round and squared cells, and with BDM inhibition of contracture, both metabolically inhibited and ischemic pelleted myocytes showed an early decrease in specific immunofluorescence staining for tubulin and vinculin, which preceded loss of cell viability, as determined by trypan blue staining. In both ischemic and metabolically inhibited cells, decreases of vinculin fluorescence preceded or coincided with increasing osmotic fragility. It is concluded that early cytoskeletal alterations of vinculin in ischemic and anoxic injury correlate with the development of osmotic fragility and irreversible myocyte injury.

The relationship between myocardial cell contracture and injury during total metabolic inhibition (amylobarbital and iodacetic acid) and ischemia was examined, using 5-50 mm butanedione monoxime (BDM) as an inhibitor of contracture. BDM had no apparent effect on control myocytes during 180 min incubations, but inhibited contracture following anoxia or ischemia in a dose-dependent fashion, as directly quantitated by length/width ratios. Cellular ATP levels decreased at a similar rate in the absence or presence of BDM, following metabolic inhibition. BDM-mediated inhibition of contracture was associated with accelerated cell injury, as defined by: the uptake of an extracellular marker (trypan blue) by the cardiomyocytes, by direct analysis of myoglobin released into the supernatant and by ultrastructural demonstration of defects in sarcolemmal membrane integrity. Calcium was not required for BDM's enhancement of injury, in that cells incubated in calcium free-EGTA buffer showed a similar BDM-mediated acceleration of injury. In the presence or absence of calcium, enhancement of injury was more marked in cells osmotically stressed with a brief incubation in hypotonic buffer, than in cells resuspended in isotonic media. It is concluded that BDM enhances development of osmotic fragility of inhibited or ischemic cardiomyocytes and that contracture is not a necessary contributing factor to myocardial cell death.

This research focuses on estimating the shift in consumer willingness to pay (WTP) a price premium/discount for Native warm season grassed beef and for Bermuda grassed beef, an exotic species to the U.S. We utilized sensory analysis and the Becker-Degroot-Marschak (BDM) mechanism to elicit consumers’ preference for four different types of beef to determine how the premiums/discounts consumers place on these differentiated products change across information regimes: perception, experience, and complete information. Subjects participated in the BDM mechanism three times to determine their WTP: once after observing the raw packaged product with standard labeling information, once after a blind taste sample of the products, and once after complete information has been provided that links the raw packaged product to the blind taste sample. Results revealed strong preferences for NWSGed beef regardless of finishing methods, and positive impacts of the sensory results and label information on grassinished beef steaks.

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