Zebrafish, a novel vertebrate model organism, has a high nucleotide sequence homology with human genes. Its transparent and fast developing embryo allows the analysis of physiological and anatomical characteristics, many of which are similar to those of mammals. Although the prolific nature of zebrafish can facilitate genetic studies, linking genes and behaviour is difficult because behaviour is not well investigated in zebrafish. The aim of this project is to develop robust behavioural tests that can quantify shoaling with conspecifics and fear responses to natural predators. Eight conditions using different computer-animated stimuli were used to induce behavioural responses. The results demonstrate that shoaling behaviours and fear responses can be successfully induced. More importantly, the behaviours caused by the computer-animated images confirm previous research findings using natural conspecifics and predators. Thus, computer-animated images will help standardize behavioural tests in zebrafish and will lead the way to more sophisticated and better controlled experiments.

Using Hebb’s (1961) paradigm, it has been shown that older adults (OAs) fail to learn recurrent visuospatial supra-span sequence information (Turcotte, Gagnon, & Poirier, 2005); a deficit which has not been demonstrated on verbal versions of the same task or in younger adults (YAs). Since the Hebb paradigm is thought to rely on working memory and thus attention (Conway & Engle, 1996), one interpretation concerns an OA’s capacity to allocate the necessary attentional resources to carry out the various components of the task. Five studies investigated this proposal. The first three (Article 1) examined attention in a general manner by reducing the amount of attentional resources that a YA could devote to carrying out the visuospatial Hebb supra-span sequence learning task through the implementation of a verbal dual task (DT) procedure. The fourth (Article 2) further investigated the role of attention by using a DT induced at retrieval that overlapped extensively with the requirements (spatial and response features) of the visuospatial Hebb task. The final study (Article 3) aimed to use our previous findings to demonstrate learning among OAs in a visuospatial Hebb learning paradigm in which the motor response was replaced by a verbal response. Our findings confirm that attentional resources employed at the retrieval phase of the task appear to be particularly important for the demonstration of visuospatial sequence learning. The inclusion of a spatial and motor based DT at recall eliminated learning of the repeated sequence in YAs. Interestingly, the learning deficit of OAs was partially eliminated when the motor and spatial requirements at retrieval were reduced. Our findings offer strong support to the contention that supra-span learning of the Hebb type is not altered by the effect of age. However, learning deficits can be observed among OAs when the retrieval component of the task overly taxes attention-related processes. In the case of the visuospatial sequences, the basis of the deficit likely concerns an individual’s capacity to discriminate between responses made to previously presented sequences versus those that need to be made in reaction to the just seen sequence.

The research has explored the reality of generational renewal in agriculture in order to understand the entry process, the agricultural practices of young people and their attitudes toward a new agrosocial paradigm. The methodology combined qualitative and quantitative techniques based on a comparative analysis between Southern Ontario (Canada) and Catalonia (Spain). The first result is that the pathway to become a farmer is a process consisting of different phases where each profile shows different needs and abilities. The second result verifies how the practices and attitudes of young people vary depending on the family origin. The thesis also analyzes the most relevant results in policy terms. Finally the research shows the reality of an emerging group of young farmers who put in practice a new agrosocial paradigm. This group is made up by continuers and newcomers and we have called them "New peasantry". / La tesi doctoral ha explorat la realitat del relleu generacional de l’activitat agrària per entendre el procés d’incorporació, les pràctiques agràries de les persones joves i les actituds vers un nou paradigma agrosocial. La metodologia combina tècniques qualitatives i quantitatives a partir d'una anàlisi comparatiu entre el sudoest d'Ontario (Canadà) i les comarques gironines (Catalunya). El primer resultat és que el camí d’incorporació és un procés format per diferents fases on cada perfil de jove mostra unes necessitats i unes aptituds diferents. El segon resultat verifica com les pràctiques i les actituds dels joves varien en funció de l’origen familiar. La tesi també analitza les implicacions en termes politics dels resultats més rellevants. Finalment es mostra la realitat d’un grup emergent de joves que s’incorporen a l’activitat agraria possant en pràctica un nou paradigma agrosocial. Aquest grup emergent està format per pagesia tradicional i nouvinguda i s’anomena “Nova pagesia”.

The existing rights paradigm in Aboriginal law accepts Crown sovereignty claims grounded in ethnocentric conceptions of terra nullius and discovery, and views Aboriginal rights as arising out of prior occupation. The Supreme Court of Canada has shaken this paradigm by characterizing Crown sovereignty as merely de facto until reconciled with Aboriginal sovereignty and legitimated by a treaty, by developing the duty to consult, and by characterizing reconciliation as a process that is part of a generative constitutional order. The moves the Court toward a new paradigm rooted in the principle of the equality of peoples in which treaties provide a framework for sharing sovereignty. As part of the Canadian federation, Aboriginal sovereignty can strengthen Canadas territorial integrity and contribute to Canadas economic development.<p> In the past, courts allowed the act of state doctrine to shield Crown assertions of sovereignty from scrutiny. This doctrine protects Canadas territorial integrity, but does not shield the Crowns actions from legal and constitutional scrutiny. The fundamental constitutional principle of rule of law and the de facto doctrine will protect interests that relied on assumptions of Crown sovereignty that lacked constitutional legitimacy.<p> The transformation in the fundamental principles of Aboriginal law has parallels to Thomas Kuhns description of a paradigm shift in the natural sciences. The rights paradigm is in a crisis with moral and practical dimensions. It is incommensurable with the equality paradigm, and therefore the choice of paradigms will depend on normative criteria. Fundamental principles of the Canadian constitution, international standards of human rights and the perspectives of growing numbers of practitioners in the field that are of Aboriginal ancestry are all forces that will complete the shift to the equality paradigm.<p> An equality paradigm will result in the abandonment of some Aboriginal law doctrines, and the modification of others. Aboriginal title is inconsistent with an equality paradigm because it assumes the legitimacy of the Crowns claims to sovereignty, gives the Crown a superior title, and limits Aboriginal nations to a burden of only limited and subordinate rights. The fiduciary relationship rooted in the honour of the Crown will grow into a non-hierarchical relationship with reciprocal obligations.<p> Decisions of courts can play a supporting role, but only negotiations and treaties can build a genuine partnership, effective and equitable sharing of sovereignty and ultimately reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

Med globaliseringen har världen snabbt förändrats och designerns roll är inte längre lika självklar. Vi har tittat på hur man kan expandera begreppet design och utnyttja designerns kvalitéer inom nya områden. Magisterexamensarbetet "Design Thinking in Business Innovation" syftar till att undersöka hur man kan utnyttja designyrkets kreativa och innovativa processer inom affärsutveckling. I vårt exjobb har vi jobbat med ett av Storbritanniens ledande vitvaruföretag, GDHA, och har tillsammans med marknadsföringsstudenter från Stockholms Universitet tagit fram affärsstrategier för hur de kan agera på en framtida marknad. Kombinationen av kreativt tänkande och traditionell affärsutveckling genererade nya innovativa koncept med syfte att utifrån företagets förutsättningar stärka dess konkurrenskraft och skapa nya affärsmöjligheter. "Design Thinking in Business Innovation" resulterade i en ny arbetsmetod samt tre koncept som visualiserar resultatet av en kreativ affärsutvecklingsprocess. Dessa koncept sträckte sig från konventionell produktutveckling för differentiering till utveckling av nya försäljningskanaler samt en helt ny affärsidé som bygger vidare på GDHAs kärnverksamhet. Koncepten konkretiserades i form av en modell av ett kylskåpskoncept, samt tre stycken animerade kortfilmer.Som ett resultat av vårt exjobb har vi startat Remotel, ett design kontor som fokuserar på affärsutveckling genom användarorienterad research, kreativa processer och visuell kommunikation (mer info på www.remotel.se). / The world is undergoing change and the disintegration of the old economy is becoming evident. Production is moving to low cost countries and competition is growing fierce. In order to stay competitive, companies around the world recognises the need to become more innovative. In order to achieve this it is imperative to balance and compliment the linear business thinking that still rule the managerial body. Leading research in this area suggest that the key to innovation in business development lies within the creative thinking of the design field. This paper describes a joint master degree project that seeks to test these theories and develop methods and protocols to put them into practice. So the question is, what happens when one use industrial  design as a tool to innovate business in the Creative Economy? The research group consists of four industrial designers from Konstfack, University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm and four marketing students from School of Business, Stockholm University. During the project we applied action research and introspection in a case study where new business strategies where formulated for a live company as our empirical base. The process proved more difficult but also more rewarding than initially anticipated and resulted in several new potential strategies for the company while providing valuable insight and experience in interdisciplinary team work in this field. This paper presents suggestions to how design thinking and business thinking can be combined in the process of developing business strategies and accentuates some of the skills and qualities that inherently drive this process. The collaboration investigates the synergy between designers and business managers and illustrates the potential in combining these competences to find new ways to create, re-define and develop businesses in the creative economy.

¡§Individual¡¨is the basic analytic unit in a pluralistic society. Especially, phenomenon of public affairs is essence of the problem and is based on individual cognition, hidden in group behavior. The individual cognition forms group judgment and interpersonal influence in the group. This interpersonal influence process may simplify as the power relations between group members, the communication network and the interaction form in the group, and the opinion relations within the group (French, 1956). The conflict is the essential situation of interpersonal influence and also is one kind of relational form and phenomenon for group judgment. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the interpersonal influence and conduct interpersonal mutual cooperation in the public affairs area. The group decision-making (or judgment) can be explored based on observable individual preference and group decision-making. That can infer unobservable interpersonal influence. This interpersonal influence process transforms the individual judgment into the group decision-making. There are two stages in interpersonal influence process, including opinion formation for individual members, and compromise among group members. Namely, the individual might revise his or her preference voluntarily. The group integrates the revised members¡¦ judgments into group decision-making. That is, the group process resembles the process which individual integrates multi-cues like information integration theory (IIT) (Friedkin, 2005; Sniezek et al., 1989). The average cognitive algebra pattern in IIT may measure the interpersonal influence effectively. The theories of group decision-making are still insufficient. For example, social power theory and social comparison theory explain the concept of choice shift, but not positivism. Social decision scheme (SDS) employs decision scheme to predict the group decision-making, but it is insufficient for explaining the group decision-making process. Although social dilemma explores both individual level and group level, it cannot provide the weighting method. Cognitive conflict paradigm (CCP) discusses judgment policy shift, but preference shift is still not mentioned. Although CCP focuses on interpersonal learning, it does not propose how to weight interpersonal influence. The functional measurement theory in IIT may supplement insufficiencies in these theories.. The research utilizes the concept and the method of IIT, which prodivides experimental validity for explaining the complex interpersonal influence process by using social weight. This research uses budget allocation as discussion cases. Interpersonal conflicts are divided by the cognitive conflict and the interest conflict. By using social judgment theory (SJT), this research can analyze cognitive difference in the case of cognitive conflict. Besides, using quasi-experimental procedure in IIT, the findings of this research include: 1. In the group process, group members¡¦ judgments are integrated to group decision-making based on unequal-weight rule mostly. Members¡¦ social weights are different and depend on the level of members¡¦ preferences. 2. The members in different groups have the same preferences initially. Although social weights of these members are not significant difference in statistic, these members still appear the differences between individuals. 3. In cognitive conflict case, the group consensus is not consistently accompanied by cognitive consensus. 4. The group influence results from normative social influence, rather than from informational social influence. 5. It shows that there is negative correlation between social weight and normative effect. Besides, social weight and comprise degree also show negative.correlation 6. The cognitive feedback and the outcome feedback don¡¦t affect decision-making result. 7. The relationship between social weight and the degree of satisfaction is not supported. The social weight and the fairness of decision-making process show significant correlation 8. The subjects¡¦ decision-making performances in the study don¡¦t show significant difference

In this study, a P300 based Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) system design is realized by the implementation of the Spelling Paradigm. The main challenge in these systems is to improve the speed of the prediction mechanisms by the application of different signal processing and pattern classification techniques in BCI problems. The thesis study includes the design and implementation of a 10 channel Electroencephalographic (EEG) data acquisition system to be practically used in BCI applications. The electrical measurements are realized with active electrodes for continuous EEG recording. The data is transferred via USB so that the device can be operated by any computer. v Wiener filtering is applied to P300 Speller as a signal enhancement tool for the first time in the literature. With this method, the optimum temporal frequency bands for user specific P300 responses are determined. The classification of the responses is performed by using Support Vector Machines (SVM&rsquo / s) and Bayesian decision. These methods are independently applied to the row-column intensification groups of P300 speller to observe the differences in human perception to these two visual stimulation types. It is observed from the investigated datasets that the prediction accuracies in these two groups are different for each subject even for optimum classification parameters. Furthermore, in these datasets, the classification accuracy was improved when the signals are preprocessed with Wiener filtering. With this method, the test characters are predicted with 100% accuracy in 4 trial repetitions in P300 Speller dataset of BCI Competition II. Besides, only 8 trials are needed to predict the target character with the designed BCI system.

Brain Computer Interfaces (BCIs) are systems developed in order to control devices by using only brain signals. In BCI systems, different mental activities to be performed by the users are associated with different actions on the device to be controlled. Spelling Paradigm is a BCI application which aims to construct the words by finding letters using P300 signals recorded via channel electrodes attached to the diverse points of the scalp. Reducing the letter detection error rates and increasing the speed of letter detection are crucial for Spelling Paradigm. By this way, disabled people can express their needs more easily using this application. In this thesis, two different methods, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and AdaBoost, are used for classification in the analysis. Classification and Regression Trees is used as the weak classifier of the AdaBoost. Time-frequency domain characteristics of P300 evoked potentials are analyzed in addition to time domain characteristics. Wigner-Ville Distribution is used for transforming time domain signals into time-frequency domain. It is observed that classification results are better in time domain. Furthermore, optimum subset of channels that models P300 signals with minimum error rate is searched. A method that uses both SVM and AdaBoost is proposed to select channels. 12 channels are selected in time domain with this method. Also, effect of dimension reduction is analyzed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and AdaBoost methods.

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Il lavoro prende parte al dibattito scientifico su quali siano le più corrette modalità di attuazione del concetto di "sviluppo sostenibile". Attraverso l'applicazione dell'approccio coevolutivo allo studio condotto a Santiago del Cile, abbiamo cercato di rispondere alle seguenti domande: 1) Quali sono i problemi ambientali locali e quali le relative ripercussioni sociali? 2) Quali sono gli strumenti a disposizione delle municipalità locali per risolverli? 3) Quali strumenti vengono realmente impiegati e quali le ripercussioni sociali del loro utilizzo? / The work takes part in the scientific debate about the most correct ways to affect the sustainable development concept. Through the coevolutive approach application to Santiago case (Chile) we tried to answer following questions: 1) what are local environmental problems and what are their social repercussions? 2) What are instruments in the local municipalities hands in order to resolve them? 3) Which instruments are really employed and what are social repercussions from their use?