For some behavior there are consistent differences between individuals within a population, which is called animal personality. Across species, ranging from insects to mammals, personality has been described along behavioral gradients like activity, exploration, boldness and aggression. Monoamines such as dopamine have been shown to be essential for modulating animal behavior and could therefore be important also in explaining variation in animal personality. Supporting this, the dopaminergic system affect activity (in Confused flour beetles), and aggression (in Mediterranean field crickets). However, the causality and effect of dopamine on these behaviors, and also other behavioral traits used to describe personality is currently less explored. This study experimentally investigated how increased level of dopamine affects activity, boldness, exploration and aggression in Mediterranean field crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus). I show that dopamine manipulation had no effects on measured behavior. These results indicate that increased dopamine levels do not affect the scored personality traits in Mediterranean field crickets. The causality and generality of the relationship between dopamine and behavior used to score variation in personality is thus not clear in this species.

Os ortópteros neotropicais, com exceção aos de importância econômica, de maneira geral, são muito pouco conhecidos em relação aos demais ortópteros ao redor do mundo. Isso devido à carência de trabalhos científicos para esse grupo, principalmente os estudos taxonômicos; consequentemente, o número de espécies descritas atualmente é muito subestimado. Não diferente, o gênero Eidmanacris Chopard, 1956, possui atualmente 20 espécies descritas, distribuídas nos domínios de Mata Atlântica e Cerrado, que se estendem pelas regiões sul, sudeste e centro-oeste brasileiras, além de também serem encontrados na Bolívia e Paraguai. São grilos ativos no período noturno, habitantes cavidades naturais, como tocas, barrancos, troncos de árvores mortas, fendas de rochas e cavernas. Neste estudo, o gênero foi revisado, incluindo a redescrição de espécies pouco conhecidas, descrição de sete novas espécies (E. scopula Campos, sp. nov., E. gigas Campos, sp. nov., E. neomarmorata Campos, sp. nov., E. desutterae Campos, sp. nov., E. putuhra Campos, sp. nov., E. fontanettiae Nihei & de Mello, sp. nov. e E. melloi Campos, sp. nov.), três novas combinações (E. speluncae (Mello-Leitão, 1937) comb. nov., E. minuta (de Mello, 1990) comb. nov. e E. endophallica (de Mello, 1990) comb. nov.) e uma sinonímia nova (E. lencionii Bolfarini, 2016 = E. dissimilis Desutter-Grandcolas, 1995, syn. nov.), totalizando 29 espécies para o grupo. Também foram feitos uma chave de identificação para o gênero e mapas de distribuição de suas espécies. Uma análise filogenética é apresentada incluindo 38 terminais, dos quais 12 foram considerados como grupo externo, e 98 caracteres morfológicos. Essa análise suportou a monofilia do gênero, permitiu visualizar seu relacionamento com táxons próximos de Luzarinae e sustenta a proposta de sinonímia de Endophallusia de Mello, 1990 com Eidmanacris Chopard, 1956, de modo a sua taxonomia refletir a monofilia indicada na análise filogenética / The Neotropical Orthoptera, excluding those with economic importance, are poorly known, in comparison with the orthopterans around the world. The main reason is the lack of scientific studies on this group, mainly taxonomic studies, resulting in a underestimated number of described species. Likewise, Eidmanacris Chopard, 1956 comprises 20 described species, and is mostly distributed on Atlantic Forest and Cerrado areas, extending from south, southeast and midwest Brazilian regions, and beyond, reaching Bolivia and Paraguay. Eidmanacris species are active at night, and inhabit natural cavities as burrows, bounds, hollow trees trunks, cavities in rocks and caves. In this study, the genus was reviewed, including the redescription of seven new species (E. scopula Campos, sp. nov., E. gigas Campos, sp. nov., E. neomarmorata Campos, sp. nov., E. desutterae Campos, sp. nov., E. putuhra Campos, sp. nov., E. fontanettiae Nihei & de Mello, sp. nov. and E. melloi Campos, sp. nov.), three new combinations (E. speluncae (Mello-Leitão, 1937) comb. nov., E. minuta (de Mello, 1990) comb. nov. and E. endophallica (de Mello, 1990) comb. nov.) and one synonym (E. lencionii Bolfarini, 2016 = E. dissimilis Desutter-Grandcolas, 1995, syn. nov.), totalizing 29 species in this genus. An identification key for the genus and a distribution map of species were made. A phylogenetic analysis is presented including 38 terminals, 12 of them as outgroup and 98 morphological characters This analysis attested the monophyly of the genus, showed its relationships with another Luzarinae taxa, and supported the proposal of synonymy of Endophallusia de Mello, 1990 with Eidmanacris Chopard, 1956, so that its taxonomy reflected the monophyly indicated in the phylogenetic analysis

Magister Sport, Recreation and Exercise Science - MSRES / Cricket is a highly technically skilled-based game, which consists of four distinct disciplines (batting, bowling, fielding, and wicket keeping) with varying physiological and biomechanical demands. There are three standardized professional versions of the game, namely, test match or multi-day cricket, limited overs or one-day cricket and Twenty-20 or T20 cricket. One-day games consist of two innings with each team getting a chance to bat and bowl. One innings encompasses fifty overs and the game generally lasts for approximately 6 hours. Although research has been conducted on the physical demands of cricket, not many studies compare the differences of these demands between different playing positions. Furthermore, there is a lack of research around the differences between professional and amateur level cricket players.

It was paramount for the English-speaking Caribbean to host a successful 2007 Cricket World Cup and field an outstanding West Indian cricket team for the international sporting mega-event. For CARICOM and the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), there were two principle goals – first, to exhibit regional Caribbean identity, and second, to be triumphant under the leadership of the West Indian cricket team’s captain, Trinidadian Brian Lara. Identities are multifaceted and intricate, negotiated and renegotiated, based on a history of economic, political and cultural forces. This thesis interrogates Caribbean identity through textual analysis of the broadcast of the opening ceremony and regional newspaper coverage of the spectacle as well as ensuing events that were held in eight of the Caribbean countries from 11 March to 28 April 2007. The thesis questions whether this mega-event served as a catalyst toward Caribbean identity construction.

The goal of this project was to design networked arrays of cricket biosensors capable of localizing sources such as footsteps within dangerous environments, with a possible application to earthquake detection. We utilize the cricket's natural ability to localize low frequency (5 Hz - 600 Hz) acoustic sources using hair-covered appendages called cerci. Whereas previous investigations explored crickets' neurological response to near field flows generated by single frequency steady-state sounds, we investigated the effects of transient waveforms, which better represent real world stimuli, and to which the cercal system appears to be most reactive. Extracellular recording electrodes are permanently implanted into a cricket's ventral nerve cord to record the action potentials emanating from the cerci. In order to calibrate this system, we attempt to find the relationships between the frequency and direction of acoustic stimuli and the neurological responses known as spike trains, which they elicit. The degree of habituation to repeated signals that exists in most neurological systems was also experimentally measured. We process the signals to estimate frequency and directionality of near field acoustic sources. The design goal is a bionic cricket-computer system design capable of localizing low frequency near field acoustic signals while going about its natural activities such as locomotion.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Supervisor: Michael J. Ryan. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available from UMI.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 202-219). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

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Thesis (M.Tech.: Chiropractic)- Dept. of Chiropractic, Durban University of Technology, 2008. x, 52 leaves, Appendices A-E, [25] leaves. / To determine whether a relationship exists between core stability and bowling speed in Action Cricket bowlers. Methods: Thirty asymptomatic indoor Action Cricket fast and fast-medium bowlers were divided into two groups of 15 each, with Group A having well-developed core stability and group B having poorly-developed core stability. The concept of matched pairs was used for age and cricket experience in order to maintain homogeneity between the groups. The core stability and bowling speed of each participant was measured using a pressure biofeedback unit (PBU) and speed sports radar respectively. SPSS version 15.0 was used to analyse the data.