There is an unprecedented need in neuroscience and medical research for the precise imaging of individual neurons and their interconnectivity in an effort to achieve a more complete understanding of neurological illness and cognitive growth. While several imaging architectures successfully detect active neural tissue, fluorescent imaging through head-mounted microscopes is becoming a standard method of imaging neural circuitry in freely behaving animals. At Boston University, the Gardner Group developed a miniaturized, open-source, single-photon ‘finch-scope’ to spur rapid prototyping in head-mounted miniscope technology. While experimentally convenient, the finch-scope and other miniscope platforms are limited by their native depth of field and may only detect a thin layer of active neurons in a neurological volume. In this Master’s Thesis Project, I will investigate utilizing optical phase masks integrated in the Fourier plane of the finch-scope to invoke a less-diffractive Bessel point spread function. Next, I will experimentally justify the extended depth of field nature of these phase masks by imaging the axial profile of a 10μm fluorescent pinhole object with a modified finch-scope.

This thesis deals with observation of pupil in Montessori system which was designed by Maria Montessori. One of the principles this education is individual approach of the teacher to the student and respecting his learning pace. Thus the teacher becomes an observer who must know he level of education of each pupil in his mixed class. But how to map individual student progress? The aim of the thesis is to describe and analyze the way and the importance of observation as professional activity of a teacher teaching in a heterogeneous class in Montessori school and to assess the possibilities of modifying observations for classical primary schools. The first part of the thesis describes alternative schools and the characteristics of Montessori pedagogy as an introduction to the main principles of the examined environment of the practical part. It also describes the pupil and teacher as the main participants in the educational process and describe their role in this alternative type of education. It maps observations in pedagogy in the end - in educational research, initial education and, finally, in the teacher's professional activity. Practical research has used methods of observation, interviewing, and analysis of school's materials to map the way, how individual observations are made in one...

Title: Relationship of a child with Asperger syndrome and his family to school Author: Tereza Měšťáková Department: Psychology Supervisor: PhDr. Veronika Pavlas Martanová, Ph.D. ABSTRACT This diploma thesis deals with the relationship of a child with Asperger's syndrome and his family to school. The work aims to map the nature of these relationships and factors that may affect this relationship in specific children with AS and their parents. The theoretical part of the work is divided into two main sections. The first chapter focuses on Asperger Syndrome and its specifics, which are manifested in the school environment, on the relationships of children with this syndrome to classmates and teachers. The second part deals with the relationship between family and school. Attention is paid to the dilemmas of this relationship, the possibilities of its development and the relationship of the family with a problematic child to school The empirical part of the thesis presents qualitative research, which was carried out by the method of semi-structured interviews with five second-graders with Asperger Syndrome educated in ordinary primary schools and their parents. Acquired data was analyzed and interpreted. The results of this research are presented at the end of the text. KEYWORDS Asperger Syndrome, pupil,...

In Diploma thesis, the author addresses the issue of educating a pupil with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). In the introduction, she explains her choice of the theme. In the theoretical part the author presents muscular dystrophy, its course, manifestations, treatment options and support, based on a study of professional medical, pedagogical, psychological and specifically pedagogical literature, It will also describe the specifics of the disease in relation to education of pupils with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and will list the educational possibilities for pupils with this disease in the Czech Republic. In the practical part, the author presents a qualitative research conducted through the analysis of a case study of a particular pupil, from his passive as well as participating observation in the classroom, from semi-structured interviews with the pupil's mother, with his teachers and his teaching assistant, with this particular pupil with DMD and his classmates. In addition to this the analysis of school documents, SPC reports and medical reports are considered. The author evaluates the possibilities of education of pupils with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This issue is viewed from the side of the pupil himself, his classmates, teachers, teaching assistants and parents. Based on her...

The work is focused on current available options and efforts to make education of pupils from different socio-cultural environment accessible. It contains recommendations for educators who come into daily contact with these pupils. The pitfalls and obstacles encountered by teachers, pupils and their parents are also described, who often face a language and communication gap in communication with school facilities themselves. KEY WORDS Alien, pupil, educational system, Czech Republic, Czech language

The overarching purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of pupil-linked arousal systems and heart rate-linked arousal systems on behavior and the use of pupil dynamics as an index for adaptive behavior. These arousal systems are correlated with behavior states which have modulatory effects on perception and neural coding and are therefore integral in carrying out complex behaviors, such as decision-making. Additionally, cholinergic transmission is proposed to be critical for adaptive behavior via its modulation of thalamic neurons. While the first two chapters focus on the behavior output and the non-invasive ways to index arousal and behavior, the third aim attempts to investigate the neural circuits that underlie arousal’s effect on adaptive behavior by studying the pattern of cholinergic axons between brainstem nuclei and the thalamus, opening avenues for future investigation of their mechanistic impact on adaptive behavior. For characterization of the influence of arousal indexed by pupil dynamics and heartbeat dynamics, we simultaneously recorded electrocardiogram (ECG) and pupil size in head-fixed rats performing tactile discrimination tasks. We found both heartbeat dynamics and pupil size co-varied with behavioral outcomes, indicating behavior was dependent upon arousal indexed by both physiological signals. The potential difference between the effects of pupil-linked arousal and heart-rate linked arousal on behavior were estimated by constructing a Bayesian decoder predicting animals’ behavior from both signals prior to stimulus presentation. The decoder performed significantly better when using both physiological signals as inputs, suggesting both arousal systems, pupil-linked and heart rate-linked are not completely redundant. Additionally, the pupil size-based decoder failed to correctly predict animals’ behavior on a substantial portion of trials correctly predicted by the heart rate-based decoder, furthermore suggesting that both arousal systems exert different influences on animals’ behavior (Y.Liu, S. Narasimhan, B.J.Schriver, & Q.Wang, 2021). For characterization of how adaptive behavior in response to changing sensory environments depends on pupil-linked arousal, we recorded pupil size and behavioral output simultaneously during a similar tactile Go/No-Go discrimination task while systematically varying the statistics of the sensory environment. For each session, the probability of the presence of reward linked-stimuli (S+/Go) was randomly set at 80%, 50% or 20%. Animals adapted their behavioral responses and the task evoked pupil responses were bigger when the probability of S+ was lower. Impulsive licking (pre-stimulus response) decreased as the probability of S+ was lower. Animals became more liberal as the probability of S+ increased, in line with signal detection theory, indexed by a decrease in the decision criterion. We additionally found that reaction time decreased as the probability of S+ increased. A hierarchical drift diffusion model (HDDM) was used to model the decision-making process in these paradigms. We found the drift rate to monotonically vary with task difficulty. Animals performed sub-optimally to adaptively change their action in response to changes in the sensory environment and this adaptive adjustment in decision-making was indexed by their pupil dynamics. For studying the pattern of cholinergic axons between brainstem nuclei and the thalamus, we used two different AAV-retrograde constructs with two different reporters (mCherry and GFP) injected in the left and right hemisphere of the ventral-posterior-medial (VPM) thalamic nucleus of recombinant ChAT-cre mice. In agreement with previous studies done with conventional tracing methods, labelled projecting cells were traced to the LDT and PPN in the brainstem. Labelled cells were found in a clustered area of the LDT, suggesting a topographic distribution of the projections between the LDT and the VPM. A larger quantity of labelled cells was found in the PPN than the LDT. Additionally, bilateral injections with double reporters enabled us to find that a majority of cells project from the brainstem to the VPM project ipsilaterally while still displaying lateralization. This work provides methods and tools for future investigation of the functional impact of these projections between LDT, PPN and the VPM.

Bakgrund: Att vara fysisk aktiv från tidig ålder har positiv effekt på hälsa och välbefinnande. Forskning visar en allt lägre tendens till fysisk aktivitet hos barn och unga vilket kan medföra en ökad risk för ohälsa. Skolan utgör en viktig arena för att främja fysisk aktivitet. Då forskning visar ett starkt samband mellan fysisk aktivitet, lärande och utveckling är det viktigt att främja faktorer i skolan som bidrar till bättre möjligheter för elever att vara fysiskt aktiva. Skolsköterskors kunskap om hälsofrämjande och förebyggande arbete kring elever kan bidra till en fysiskt aktiv livsstil som främjar hälsa.  Syfte: Att belysa skolsköterskors upplevelse av vad som påverkar elevers möjligheter till fysisk aktivitet. Metod: En kvalitativ metod med induktiv ansats användes. Datainsamlingen skedde genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Analysen genomfördes med kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Analysen resulterade i fyra huvudkategorier med underkategorier; Betydelse av stöd, Betydelse av samarbete, Betydelse av motivation samt Betydelse av förutsättningar. Ur resultatet framträdde temat; Ett gemensamt arbete och engagemang på alla nivåer behövs. Konklusion: Genom ett gemensamt arbete och engagemang från skolledning, skol-och fritidspersonal, vårdnadshavare och skolsköterskor kan elevers motivation till fysisk aktivitet öka samt elevers förutsättningar till fysisk aktivitet göras mer jämställd. / Background: To be physically active from an early age has a positive impact on health and wellbeing. Research shows an ever lower tendency of physical activity among children and youth which can result in an increased risk of illness. The school is an important place to promote physical activity. Since research shows a strong connection between physical activity, learning and development it is important to promote factors in school that contribute to better opportunities for pupils to be physically active. School nurses’ knowledge of health promotive and preventive work for pupils can contribute to a physically active lifestyle that promotes health. Aim: To illustrate school nurses’ experience of what affects pupils' opportunities for physical activity. Method: A qualitative method with an inductive approach was used. The data collection was conducted with semi structured interviews. The analysis was performed using qualitative analysis of content. Results: The analysis resulted in four main categories with subcategories; Meaning of support, Meaning of cooperation, Meaning of motivation and Meaning of prerequisites. From the result a theme appeared; A joint work and engagement on every level is needed. Conclusion: Through joint work and engagement from school management, school staff, guardians and school nurses the pupils’ motivation to physical activity can increase and the pupils’ conditions for physical activity be more equal.

Classroom lighting has been installed in the same way since the 1960s, in straight lines offluorescent tubes, even if the teaching values have changed remarkably. There is a need for knowledge exchange that bridges lighting design theory and pedagogy and studies on how the current situation impacts education. Furthermore, there are few studies on new ways of illuminating classrooms. This thesis explores two case studies: one standard classroom built in the 1960s and a classroom redesigned in 2020 with adaptable lighting. The two case studies are used to derive a design concept that can be installed in any standard classroom. Moreover, during the autumn and winter in Sweden, electric light is crucial to support circadian rhythms, and there is a need for adaptability and change throughout the day.

”But what does it mean in practice?” is a phenomenographic study that aims to examine how music teachers experience inclusion of pupil influence in their teaching and if there is a connection between pupil influence and motivation. The study leans on previous research that has been done in both pupil influence and motivation. The method in this study consists of five semi-structured interviews with active music teachers in different high schools. The results show that most of the music teachers in question use the curriculum as an assurance to include the proper elements to each semester’s work areas. The interviewed teachers’ teams work actively on including pupil influence in their respective schools, but some of them express a desire to talk more about pupil influence and how it may be executed in practice. There are times when the music teachers choose to decrease the pupils’ influence depending on their age. The results additionally show that lack of time is an influential factor for whether music teachers choose to include pupil influence in their teaching or not. Furthermore all of the music teachers agree that there is a connection between pupil influence and keeping the lesson material up to date. This is due to the music teachers seeing a rise of the pupils’ motivation when given influence to choose songs and music genres for the music lessons.

The diploma thesis "Teacher-Pupil Relation in Religious Education and Catechesis" presents some aspects of relations in religious education and catechesis. In the first part of the thesis, some general characteristics of teacher-pupil relation are described from the perspective of pedagogy and psychology and some ethic aspects of this relation are outlined. The second part deals with the specific features of the relations developed in religious education and catechesis. The subject and aim of catechesis (which is the growth of the catechised's faith) and of the religious education (the developement of mature and responsible attitude towards religious belief and Christianity) both imply the conclusion, that the teacher-pupil relation is much closer and more personal than in other school subjects teaching. This relation should be, above all, based on mutual love and respect. This proximity can become the source of mutual enrichment, but it also brings a considerable risk of failure and abuse. The damages caused this way have grave consequences for the personal developement of the catechised, their relation towards themselves, other people and God. The responsibility in such cases always lies upon the catechist (teacher). The healthy relation between the subjects of catechesis presumes high level of...