Les méthodes non-invasives de neuro-imagerie et de neurostimulation peuvent être combinées pour mieux comprendre les connexions dans le cerveau. Pour la première fois, une étude combine de façon séquentielle l’IRM fonctionnelle (fMRI) et un protocole de TMS associative pairée cortico-corticale (TMS-PAScc) sur le cortex moteur primaire (M1) et sur le lobule pariétal inférieur (LPI) dans l’hémisphère gauche. La TMS module-t-elle le couplage neurovasculaire et permet-elle de renforcer une connexion fonctionnelle qui soit détectable à la fMRI à l’état de repos (RS-fMRI)? 10 sujets droitiers et en santé font une session de TMS-PAScc LPI-M1 de courte durée (180 paires d’impulsions, fréquence de stimulation à 0.02 Hz). Les mêmes sujets font 2 sessions de la RS-fMRI, avant et après le protocole PAScc. Les résultats montrent que la corrélation du signal BOLD entre les régions LPI-M1 avant et après la PAScc ne change pas de façon significative (avant-PAS=0.10±0.07 et après-PAS=0.09±0.07, p=0.64), tout comme l’amplitude des potentiels évoqués moteurs (PEM) des impulsions pairées LPI-M1 ne change pas de façon significative du début de la PAScc à 25 minutes après la PAScc (PASdébut=0.71±0.46mV, PASpost25min=0.72±0.89mV, p=0.338). Toutefois, les PEM des impulsions pairées LPI-M1 sont réduites par rapport aux PEM des impulsions simples M1, avant la PAScc et après la PAScc (PEM simples_pré et PASdébut, réduction de 0.32mV, p=0.05; PEM simples_post et PASpost25min, réduction de 0.39mV p=0.008), illustrant la présence d’un lien fonctionnel de nature inhibitrice entre LPI et M1. Toutefois, l’amplitude de cette inhibition n’est pas modulée de façon significative par la TMS-PAScc (ratio mesures pairées/mesures simples préPAS=0.9 et ratio postPAS=0.6, p=0.257). Dans l’ensemble, la TMS-PAScc ne montre pas d’effet soutenu sur la connectivité cérébrale telle que mesurée par la RS-fMRI et la TMS et ce, bien que le LPI montre un lien inhibiteur sur M1 de façon aigue. Plusieurs hypothèses peuvent expliquer cette absence d’effet soutenu, notamment, il est possible que l’altération de la connectivité ne soit visible que lorsque le réseau LPI-M1 est activement sollicité, comme durant l’exécution d’une tâche motrice. Il est aussi possible que le nombre de pairages soit insuffisant pour induire des changements mesurables, mais que la connectivité fonctionnelle suite à des sessions répétées de protocole PAScc pourrait modifier le couplage neurovasculaire et la plasticité cérébrale. / Abstract : Noninvasive neuroimagery and neurostimulation methods can be combined to further the understanding of the human brain connections. For the first time, resting state functional MRI (RS-fMRI) and paired associative cortico-cortical TMS (TMS-PAScc) of the motor cortex (M1) and the cortex of the inferior parietal lobule (LPI) of the left hemisphere are combined in a serial manner. Is TMS able to modify the neurovascular coupling as to facilitate LPI-M1 functional connectivity and change the fMRI BOLD signal? 10 right-handed and healthy subjects did a LPI-M1 TMS-PAScc session of short duration (180 paired pulses at 0.02 Hz, 15 min total). The same subjects underwent 2 fMRI sessions, before and after TMS-PAScc LPI-M1. Results show that the BOLD signal correlation between LPI-M1 does not change significantly before and after PAS (prePAS=0.10±0.07 et postPAS=0.09±0.07, p=0.64). TMS measures of motor evoked potentials (PEM) were taken before and after PAS LPI-M1. The paired pulse PEM measures did not change significantly from the start of PAScc to 25 minutes postPAS (PASstart=0.71 ± 0.46 mV, PASpost25min=0.72±0.89 mV, p=0.338). Paired PEM measures are statistically reduced from PAS PEM single measures, before and afterPAS (sPEM_pre et PASstart, significant 0.32mV reduction, p=0.05; PEMs_post et PASpost25min, 0.39mV reduction, p=0.008). PAScc did not show any significant neuroplasticity effect after 20 minutes because paired pulses did not change before and after PAScc. The PEM reduction of paired pulses is most likely related to the inhibiting effect of the conditioning stimulus of LPI on the test stimulus of M1 at 8ms. This inhibition is an effect limited to the measure itself and does not increase significantly with time (pairedpulse/singlepulsemeasures prePASratio=0.9 and postPASratio=0.6, p=0.257). TMSPAScc did not show a sustained effect on cerebral connectivity as measured by RS-fMRI although stimulation of LPI showed an acute inhibiting effect on M1 during paired measures. LPI-M1 TMS-PAScc did not show sustained connectivity and it could be because no task was involved in our study to actively solicit both cerebral regions during PAS. It is also possible that the number of paired stimulation was not enough to bring a change of connectivity and that PAS needs to be repeated on different days to eventually have a sustainable effect.

Social stimuli that function as reinforcers for most children generally do not function as reinforcers for children diagnosed with autism. These important social stimuli include smiles, head nods, thumb-ups, and okay signs. It should be an important goal of therapy for children with autism to condition these neutral social stimuli to function as reinforcers for children diagnosed with autism. There is empirical evidence to support both a pairing procedure (classical conditioning) and a discriminative stimulus procedure to condition neutral stimuli to function as reinforcers. However, there is no clear evidence as to the superiority of effectiveness for either procedure. Despite this most textbooks and curriculum guides for children with autism state only the pairing procedure to condition neutral stimuli to function as reinforcers. Recent studies suggest that the discriminative stimulus procedure may in fact be more effective in conditioning neutral stimuli to function as reinforcers for children diagnosed with autism. The present research is a further comparison of these two procedures. Results from one participant support recent findings that suggest the discriminative stimulus procedure is more effective in conditioning neutral stimuli to function as reinforcers. But the results from the other participant show no effects from either procedure, suggesting future research into conditions necessary to condition neutral social stimuli to function as reinforcers for children with autism.

Au cours de ma thèse j’ai étudié les néprilysines (Nep), des protéinases connues pour dégrader de petits neuropeptides, en particulier les peptides amyloïdes (Aβ). Lors de la maladie d’Alzheimer, les peptides Aβ s’agrègent pour former des plaques toxiques. Il a été montré que l’expression des Nep module l’effet toxique d’Aβ sur la mémoire chez les modèles murins. Néanmoins, le rôle des Nep dans la mémoire dans des conditions physiologiques reste à ce jour inconnu.La drosophile exprime 4 Nep dans le système nerveux central adulte. Nous avons analysé leur rôle dans la mémoire olfactive. Les 4 Nep sont requises pour 2 phases spécifiques de mémoire: à moyen terme (MTM) et à long terme (LTM). De plus, nous avons identifié les neurones dans lesquels elles sont requises : les Mushroom Bodies (MB) ainsi qu’une paire de neurones afférents, les Dorsal Paired Medial neurons (DPM). Nous avons ensuite cherché à savoir si Aβ était l’une des cibles des Nep. Nous avons montré que l’expression d’Aβ dans les DPM n’altère la MTM que lorsque l’expression de Nep1 est inhibée. De plus, le défaut de LTM de drosophiles exprimant Aβ dans les DPM est sauvé par la surexpression de Nep1. En conclusion, nos résultats suggèrent qu’Aβ est dégradé par Nep1 au cours des processus de mémorisation, et qu’Aβ est une cible de Nep1 en conditions non pathologiques.Enfin, nous nous sommes intéressés au neuropeptide amnesiac, décrit comme étant requis pour la mémoire dans les DPM. Nos travaux démontrent qu’amnesiac est en fait requis dans les DPM pour leur développement, et chez l’adulte dans les MB pour activer l’adénylate cyclase responsable de la détection de coïncidence permettant la formation de la MTM. / During my PhD, I studied neprilysins, proteinases known to degrade small neuropeptides, in particular mammalian amyloid-β peptides (Aβ). During Alzheimer’s disease, Aβ peptides aggregate to form toxic plaques. It has been shown that neprilysins expression modulates toxic effects of Aβ on memory in murine models of the disease. However, the role of neprilysins in memory under physiological conditions is still unknown. Drosophila expresses 4 neprilysins in the adult central nervous system. First we have analyzed their role in olfactive memory. We have shown that all of them are required for 2 specific memory phases: Middle-Term Memory (MTM) and Long-Term Memory (LTM). We also have identified the neurons in which they are required: the Mushroom Bodies (MB) and a pair of afferent neurons, the Dorsal Paired Medial (DPM) neurons. Then we investigated whether Aβ peptides could be one of the neprilysins’ targets. We have shown that Aβ expression in DPM neurons alters MTM only when Nep1 expression is inhibited. Furthermore, the LTM deficit of flies expressing Aβ in DPM neurons is rescued by Nep1 overexpression. To conclude, our results suggest that Nep1 degrades endogenous Aβ peptides during memory processes, and that Aβ is a physiological target for Nep1 under non-pathological condition.Finally, we became interested in the amnesiac neuropeptide, described as being required for memory in DPM neurons. Our work shows that amnesiac is actually required in DPM neurons for their development, and in the MB of adult flies in order to activate the adenylate cyclase responsible for coincidence detection leading to MTM formation.

We determine upper bounds on the ratios of several domination parameters in trees.

Syftet med fallstudien är att bidra med didaktisk förståelse för relationerna mellan skrivande och andra former av kommunikation, liksom för sådana faktorer som möjliggör och/eller hindrar yngre elevers gemensamma textskapande i klassrummet. Forskningsfrågorna berör hur dialogiskt parskrivande tar form, när tre elevpar planerar och parskriver en berättelse samt hur de stödstrukturer som erbjuds fungerar för dessa elever. Elevernas samtal om texterna och textkonstruktionerna förstås i studien som beroende av de sammanhang med lärare, elever och aktiviteter i vilka de uppstår. Resultatet visar att berättelseskrivande är en komplex och mödosam process för de unga eleverna. Komplexiteten består i att hantera skrivandet utifrån att beskriva ett händelseförlopp och att samtidigt förhålla sig till sådant som att ljuda och skriva/konstruera en mening, verbalt och på digital skrivplatta. Resultatet belyser att elevernas dialoger innebär ett verbaliserande av textskapandet. Under parskrivandet synliggörs skrivprocessen såväl som berättelseskrivandets kreativa möjligheter. Elevdialogerna visar att eleverna förhandlar om – vad de ska skriva om, och hur detta ska konstrueras/transformeras skriftligt. I förhandlingarna strävar eleverna efter ömsesidighet i beslutsfattandet. Eleverna använder förutom samtal även andra semiotiska resurser, såsom sång och simultant tal, vilket visar på engagemang i textskapandet. Eleverna visar också engagemang genom att fantisera om och agera ut berättelsen muntligt på sätt som liknar barns lek, vilket leder till att den verbala berättelsen blir större än den skriftliga. Övergripande visade sig parskrivandet, inramat av lärarens instruktioner och intervenerande i skrivaktiviteterna, stötta elevernas berättelseskrivande. Eleverna stöttade varandra med sådant som att generera idéer, komma ihåg idéer, behandla berättelsens övergripande struktur samt ljudande, stavning och meningsbyggnad. Elevdialogerna visade även exempel på spänningar och motstånd och då i samtalen om innehåll och textkonstruktioner. Den slutsats som kan dras av detta är att lärare behöver ställa frågor som kan ge dem ledtrådar till hur spänningarna mellan eleverna har uppstått, för att få guidning i hur elevernas samtal och skrivande kan stöttas. / This case study examines eight-year-old students’ talk about storytelling within a Swedish primary school classroom and the subsequent meaning-making that they engage in. The study aims to establish a pedagogical understanding of the relationships between writing and other forms of communication and identify enabling and/or hindering factors in writing classes that include younger students. The research questions interrogate how dialogic co-writing develops when three students plan and co-write a story. Furthermore, the study address how the offered scaffolding functioned for these students. In terms of theory, the study draws on New Literacy Studies and dialogical learning. Students’ talk about text and text constructions are taken as situated within a social practice that is constituted by the context of teachers, students, and the enacted activities. The study is informed by action research which, among other things, entails that the lessons that were observed for this study were planned in collaboration with two teachers and the teacher-researcher. The empirical data consists of video recordings, audio recordings, photographs, and field notes. The writing activities were analyzed using qualitative content analysis, primarily with reference to transcriptions of the students’ dialogues which concerned the students’ planning and writing on digital writing pads. The results of this study reveal that story writing is a complex and demanding process for young students. The complexity consists of dealing with the act of writing in terms of describing the plot whilst simultaneously relating language sounds to letters and constructing sentences. Also, results show, that the students’ dialogues implied a verbalization of the students’ text-making. During the co-writing activity, the writing process and the creative possibilities of story writing were made visible. Furthermore, the students’ dialogues demonstrate that their collaboration was carried out through negotiations concerning What? and How? they might write and how the results of these negotiations should be transformed into text. During these negotiations, the students strove to achieve a sense of reciprocity with regards to their decisions. While negotiating, the students also used semiotic resources in addition to talk, including singing and simultaneous speech, thus revealing writing engagement. The students also showed engagement by fantasising and acting the story out verbally similar to children’s play. Consequently, this made the verbal story wider than the written one. Overall, when framed by the teacher’s instruction and intervention during the writing activities, the paired writing activities lent support to the students’ story writing. Moreover, the students supported each other in contexts where they were tasked to generate ideas, remember ideas, develop the story's overall structure, and address issues related to phonics, spelling, and sentence construction. The students’ dialogues also contained examples of tension and resistance in their interactions that dealt with the story content and text construction. One conclusion is that teachers should ask questions that can provide them with clues to the basis for the tensions and thereby guide the teacher in how to scaffold their student’s interaction and writing.

Purpose: To evaluate sound quality preferences of participants wearing hearing aids with different strengths of nonlinear frequency compression (NFC) processing versus no NFC processing. Two analysis methods, one without and one with a qualifier as to the magnitude of preferences, were compared for their percent agreement to differentiate a small difference in perceived sound quality as a result of applied NFC processing. Research Design: A single-blind design was used with participants unaware of the presence or strength of NFC processing (independent variable). The National Acoustic Laboratories-Nonlinear 2 (NAL-NL2) prescription of amplification was chosen because audibility is intentionally not prescribed in the presence of larger sensorineural hearing loss thresholds. A lack of prescribed audibility, when present, was deemed an objective qualifier for NFC. NFC is known to improve the input bandwidth available to listeners when high-frequency audibility is not otherwise available and increasing strengths of NFC were examined. Experimental condition 3 (EC3) was stronger than the manufacturer default (EC2). More aggressive strengths (e.g., EC4 and EC5), however, were expected to include excessive distortion and even reduce the output bandwidth that had been prescribed as audible by NAL-NL2 (EC1). Study Sample: A total of 14 male Veterans with severe high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss. Data Collection and Analysis: Participant sound quality preference ratings (dependent variable) without a qualifier as to the magnitude of preference were analyzed based on binomial probability theory, as is traditional with paired comparison data. The ratings with a qualifier as to the magnitude of preference were analyzed based on the nonparametric statistic of the Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results: The binomial probability analysis method identified a sound quality preference as well as the nonparametric probability test method. As the strength of NFC increased, more participants preferred the EC with less NFC. Fourteen of 14 participants showed equal preference between EC1 and EC2 perhaps, in part, because EC2 showed no objective improvement in audibility for six of the 14 participants (42%). Thirteen of the 14 participants showed no preference between NAL-NL2 and EC3, but all participants had an objective improvement in audibility. With more NFC than EC3, more and more participants preferred the other EC with less NFC in the paired comparison. Conclusions: By referencing the recommended sensation levels of amplitude compression (e.g., NAL-NL2) in the ear canal of hearing aid wearers, the targeting of NFC parameters can likely be optimized with respect to improvements in effective audibility that may contribute to speech recognition without adversely impacting sound quality. After targeting of NFC parameters, providers can facilitate decisions about the use of NFC parameters (strengths of processing) via sound quality preference judgments using paired comparisons.

Teachers of foreign languages typically encourage their students to speak in the target language (TL) often, but due to various factors, this is not always achieved. Some reasons might include insufficient vocabulary, lack of topic knowledge, embarrassment, or simple unwillingness. Much of the existing research observes uses of the TL or native language (L1). The purpose of this study was to examine how often students use the TL in paired interactions and whether that amount has any relationship to the students' oral proficiency at the end of the course. In a SPAN 105 course at Brigham Young University, 27 students participated in this project by recording themselves during six in-class, paired interactions, after which they provided comments via questionnaires. This study was conducted using a mixed-methods approach, with both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data revealed information about the time spent in the TL, as well as the time spent in the L1, and what relationship these variables had with listening comprehension and oral proficiency. The qualitative data exposed emergent findings related to TL/L1 use: helpful tools, effects of task type, pitfalls the students experienced, struggles and benefits of partnering, effects of recording, and student perceptions about the L1. The results of the study indicate a need for teacher strategies to encourage TL use in the classroom.

The dissertation deals with the accounting aspects of assessing the financial health of a company with a focus on agriculture. The main objective of this study is to assess individual methods designed to evaluate the financial health of a company, to determine their sensitivity to risk data in accounting. The study is focused on the field of agriculture mainly as a result of knowledge about the difficult process of compiling and using agricultural accounting. Agriculture fall within the primary sector of the economy, is very important for landscaping and a lot of subsidies flow from the budget of state and the European Union. Due to the specifics and stated problematic areas, which cannot be fully captured by legislation, incomplete or distorted information is transmitted, being also transferred to the methods of the financial health assessment of the company. Attention is also paid to the influence of legislative changes on the values in accounting as well as creative accounting. Following the findings from the theoretical basis, the application part analyses the impact of different accounting solutions on the financial statements. A paired t-test, used for the analysis, was preceded by data normality testing using the histogram and Shapiro-Wilk test. According to these tests, statistically significant differences were found com-paring the current method of accounting used for investment subsidies and leases with the IFRS accounting, between the accounting of changes in inventories and capitalization before and after 1 January 2016, and in land valuation using historical cost and market price. All these areas influence the values of all the analysed methods of financial health assessment. Only the CH-index showed no statistically significant difference in land valuation and accounting solution of inventory activation and changes. Furthermore, the reliability and controllability of the selected methods used for the evaluation of financial health in the field of agriculture is assessed. According to the results, none of the evaluated models can be used in its original variant, but it is possible to use them to compare the company with similar enterprises or over time thanks to the proven dependence of partial indicators and even the whole models on the productivity. Another type of analysis is designed to determine the indicators that have a statistically significant impact on the actual financial situation of businesses. The method of generalized linear models - multinomial linear regression - is used for this test. To determine whether an enterprise is at risk or not, it would be possible to use the stock / income and short-term liabilities / income indicators, and the cash flow / assets indicator to determine the type of threat.

在任務性教學的研究裡，構思時間大都有助於口語表達流暢度，但構思時間對口語表達複雜度與正確度的影響，在研究中則尚無定論。本研究旨在探討引導式構思(guided planning)與配對構思(paired planning)對學童英語口語表達的影響，期能對以上爭論做出貢獻。此研究以90位新竹市國小高年級學生為研究對象，並依照構思情境的不同將學生分成三組進行口述故事任務: (1) 無引導構思 (2) 引導式構思 (3) 引導式配對構思。本研究主要結論如下: (1) 就流暢度與複雜度而言，引導式構思與配對構思對學生在口語表達無顯著影響。值得注意的是，配對構思組的學生，會使用較更高程度的字彙來說故事；(2) 就文法正確度而言，引導式構思組學生的表現顯著優於無引導式構思組與引導式配對構思組。而配對構思組的學生雖然沒有使用文法較正確的語言來說故事，卻對配對構思在文法正確度方面的影響持肯定態度。本研究最後針對不同構思情境在口語教學上的應用提供建議，做為教育者參考。 / A general finding of task planning studies was that planning time significantly facilitates fluency in oral production. When it comes to complexity and accuracy, however, the effects of planning time were less certain. This study aims to contribute to the contradictory results by considering how guided planning and paired planning may impact upon the fluency, complexity and accuracy in learners’ oral production. Subjects were three groups of EFL beginners in Taiwan; they performed oral narrative tasks. Statistical results revealed that these two implementation variables (i.e. guided planning and paired planning) did not aid learners to narrate a story with more fluent and complex language. One thing to be noted here is that paired planners used remarkably greater number of higher level words to tell a story. In terms of accuracy, guided planning led participants to perform tasks with more accurate utterances, while paired planning had no evident effects on speech accuracy. Interestingly, paired planners held a positive attitude towards the valuable role of paired planning on accuracy. This study yielded illuminative information for teachers to boost students’ oral performance by manipulating various task conditions.

<p><p><em>Making a decision today is quite important, especially in companies, where the consequences can bring benefits or costs. Sometimes the decisions to be made are complex and we need to evaluate many criterions that can involve several factors. In those cases, it is not easy to have a good overview of all choices and for this reason it is important to have a system that helps us in making complex decisions, when it is not possible to evaluate all the alternatives manually. This thesis describes different algorithms and tools that can aid in the process of making decisions. Based on the review of existing tools a new web based application is proposed. The new tool, Decision Maker, uses both the full Analytical Hierarchical Process approach and Chainwise Paired Comparisons method to evaluate different alternatives.</em></p></p>