A new test of vestibular function, video head impulse testing (vHIT), evaluates function of the anterior and posterior vertical semicircular canals as well as the horizontal canals. Our goal was to collect normative data for vHIT in both horizontal and vertical planes. Horizontal data was compared to bithermal calorics. Data was collected from 19 participants with normal auditory function and no complaints regarding dizziness or balance. All occulomotor results were normal. Bithermal water caloric irrigations revealed an average unilateral weakness and directional preponderance of < 10%. For vHIT, average velocity gains (comparison of head velocity to compensatory eye velocity) were calculated for right lateral and left lateral maneuvers using instantaneous velocity measurements at 40, 60, and 80 ms and using the velocity regression measurement from 1-100 ms. Average instantaneous velocity gain at 60 ms was 1.175 for right lateral and 1.159 for left lateral. Average velocity regression gain (1-100 ms) was 1.147 for right lateral and 1.172 for left lateral, with an average gain asymmetry of 2.6%. The RALP average velocity gain, based on the velocity regression measurement from 1-100 ms, was 1.514 for right anterior and 1.665 for left posterior, with an average gain asymmetry of 7.26%. The LARP average velocity gain, based on the velocity regression measurement from 1-100 ms, was 0.923 for left anterior and 0.876 for right posterior, with an average gain asymmetry of 7.11%. Unlike with laterals, consistent vertical responses were more difficult to obtain. Contributing factors are camera slippage, inexperience, technique, and the constrained eye movement in the vertical plane.

Online LARPing has been practiced for a long time, but gained its popularity as the Covid-19 pandemic hit. However, online platforms have some drawbacks and limitations in various aspects, for example, in embodiment, in accessibility, etc. This thesis aims to gain deeper insights into factors influencing players in terms of embodiment during online LARPing and important features that future online LARP designers should pay attention to. This thesis is a qualitative research aiming to create design guidelines through empirical investigations of online LARPing. For the empirical investigations, the study embraced an ethnographic approach through participatory observations, complimented by analysis of scripts and interviews with writers. The study then used the findings from the empirical investigations to understand what make players feel more embodied during an online LARPing and let the results inform the creation of design guidelines that could bring a higher degree of embodiment to online LARPing. The work is mainly a design proposal or a design guidance intended for future online LARP designers, instead of building a new technology or a new prototype. The design guidelines aim to create comprehensive recommendations to bring out more embodiment while LARPing online.

Live action role-playing (larp) is a form of narrative play that engages participants in fictional words within the dialectic of experience (unorganized time) and narrative (organized time). In this thesis I explore the complexities of the fictional worlds created by larps and how the participation in larps constructs requires a different engagement with traditional thoughts about narrative. Discussing fictional worlds theory, Aristotle, Frye, and Ricoeur along side concepts from game studies, such as the magic circle and the frames of exogeny, endogeny, and diegesis, I propose an alternative approach to understanding narrative within larps that looks at the larp worlds and plot as being driven by a process of affirming the identities constructed to participate within the fictional worlds through the mimetic process. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This thesis deals with the creation of larp-based educational games intended for the secondary school literary education. The aim was to introduce larp as a possible teaching method, anchored in the existing theoretical framework and the extension of its recognition. The theoretical part defines the position of literary education and educational games, explains the key term larp and describes the process of its creation. The focus of the thesis' practical part are five educational games ranging from 1 to 2 lessons and based in Czech literary works, are presented. The games are designed to encourage pupils to reading and for development of their reading literacy. The practical outcome of this thesis is a set of materials (methodological instructions for teachers and materials for pupils) necessary for the realization of these games in teaching of literature, which are contained in the annexes. In the end of the thesis, there are comments on individual games, which bring the characteristics of the game, outline the possibilities of its use in teaching and reflect on the process of creation and testing.

In my diploma thesis I deal with the phenomenon of chamber LARP and through it I get to the reflection of my studies at the Department of Authorial Creativity and Pedagogy [KATaP]. My first approach to the writing assumed that the live action role playing (LARP) is based on similar assumptions and motivations as the basic disciplines of the department. The more detailed I looked at this game, I had to modify the original hypothesis of similarity. Process that I describe in my thesis has finally reverse trend. I do not describe LARP with regard to the experience of KATaP, but the LARP experience leads me to the reflection and exploration of the five-year study. Gradually, (Inter) acting With the Inner Partner, authorship and game become the subject of my research. I also think of the possibility of an authentic experience and try to answer the question of for what is the truth in own creation and access to myself. It is largely a subjective view and an offer of my personal experiences and experience from University and from the practice of LARP.

L’ARN non-codant 7SK forme la charpente d’un complexe, 7SK snRNP, qui régule l’activité du facteur d’élongation de la transcription P-TEFb, intervenant dans la levée des pauses transcriptionelles chez les métazoaires. Le 7SK snRNP comprend les protéines LARP7, essentielle pour la stabilité de l’ARN 7SK et MePCE, participant à sa coiffe. Dans le cadre d’une investigation du rapport entre structure et fonction de l’ARN7SK, le projet était de comprendre commen la protéine LARP7 reconnait et assemble l’ARN dans le 7SK snRNP. La protéine LARP7, membre d’une famille reliée à laprotéine La, est spécifique de 7SK. Les éléments responsables de l’interaction ont été analysés par des méthodes biochimiques dans des complexes reconstitués à partir d’ARN synthétique et de protéines recombinantes. Le module La, dans la région N-terminale, reconnaît et lie les trois uridines à l’extrémité 3’ de l’ARN et, additionellement,une séquence conservée au pied de la tigeboucle en 3’, induisant une conformation fermée de l’ARN. L’autre extrémité de la protéine comprend un domain RRM de reconnaissance de l’ARN, qui se lie à la boucle apicale de la tige-boucle 3’. La protéine LARP7 reconnaît également une région conservée au centre de l’ARN. Dans l’ensemble, LARP7 utiliserait ses domaines terminaux et central pour envelopper l’ARN et le stabiliser. Au cours de ces travaux, une interaction directe du domaine C-terminal avec la tige-boucle 5’ a également été mise en évidence. Celle-ci comprend le site de liaison à la HEXIM, la protéine qui déclenche l’interaction avec P-TEFb et un rôle fonctionnel de LARP7 est envisagé. / The non-coding RNA 7SK is the scaffold for the 7SK snRNP complex that regulates PTEFb, the positive transcription elongation factor, which relieves transcription pauses in metazoans. The 7SK snRNP comprises the proteins LARP7, essential for 7SK stability and MePCE, involved in capping. In the frame of an investigation of how the structure of the7SK RNA sustains its function, the project was to understand how is the RNA recognized and assembled in the 7SK snRNPby the associated protein LARP7. LARP7, a La-related protein is specific for 7SK. The elements responsible for the interaction were investigated by biochemical approaches in vitro with complexes reconstituted from purified recombinant proteins and transcribed RNA. The La-module of LARP7 recognizes and binds the triplet of uridines at the 3’-end of the 7SK RNA and additionally binds to a conserved region at the foot of the 3’-hairpin.This may stabilize a closed conformation of the 7SK. On the other end of the LARP7molecule, the C-terminal domain comprising a RRM (RNA Recognition Motif) binds to the apical loop of the 3’hairpin. Further investigations showed that a conserved region in the core of the RNA is also involved. On the whole, this strongly suggests thatLARP7 wraps around 7SK using its N terminal, C-terminal and linker domains to ensure the RNA stabilization into a functional core. In the course of the investigation, was revealed a direct interaction of the C-terminal domain of LARP7 with the 5’-hairpin of the RNA, which is responsible for 7SK function as it contains the binding site of HEXIM, the protein which bridges 7SK and P-TEFb. A possible functional role of LARP7 is envisioned.

This thesis examines how trans people explore gender in live action role-playing games (hereafter: larps). It asks how larps function as spaces for gender exploration, in what ways trans people explore and express gender in larps, as well as how they make sense of, and articulate, this exploration and expression. In addition, the thesis has the secondary aim of exploring the use of larp design as an embodied data collection method. The research design consisted of the larp (Lost and) FOUND which was designed for the participants to play as part of the study, followed by a focus group interview as well as individual semi-structured interviews. The materials used in the thesis are the transcribed interviews as well as the larp. Four trans larpers from Europe participated in the study. They were all part of a specific larping tradition called Nordic larp. Through the design of the larp (Lost and) FOUND, as well as the theoretical and methodological work that underpins it, this thesis develops the method Research with Design, and situates it in relation to other research methods that include design practice. It argues for the method’s applicability beyond this study for research projects where participants’ recollection of and reflections on the research subject is of interest.  The analysis of the interview data suggests that the framing produced by the magic circle of a larp under the right circumstances can support trans larpers in exploring gender in larps. In addition, the thesis argues that validation from other larpers is important for positive experiences of gender exploration, and that such validation is intricately tied to matters of intelligibility. Finally, it illustrates the implications of larping being an embodied activity, by discussing how this simultaneously provides certain opportunities for gender exploration, while complicating others.

This diploma thesis "New urban games and their players" treats the new phenomenon of urban games. The text is based on the classical games theory joined with the latest developments in the area and some relevant concepts of urban sociology. From a sociological point of view this thesis explores urban games as a new leisure time phenomenon and clearly states its characteristics as well as its definition. The main focus lies in examining the recent developments in Czech urban games and describing the variety present in urban games today. Other related topics of urban activities are also explained. The mechanics of urban games is explored in the case study of Compagnie, an urban game that took place in Prague in 2010. In the case study, the urban game basics are shown in order to help the general public to understand it. This work is concluded with a socio-demographic analysis of urban game players based on an enquiry done with the participants of the game. The whole text mixes theoretic approach with practical study of urban games, sociological analysis and participatory observation.

This master’s thesis is focused on Talent management. First part is devoted to theoretical knowledge which includes description of basic terms like „talent”, „Talent management” or „motivation”. The practical part which uses these findings is processed in collaboration with a selected company interested in talent management implementation.

This essay explores experiences of religion in role-playing games; table-top role-playing and live-action role-playing in the Nordic Larp and roleplay-tradition. Semi-structured interviews were used within an explorative qualitative method inspired by grounded theory. The informants were all role-players who each have acted as religious characters within the spheres of the games, half of the informants were non-religious and the other half religious to some extent. A model of three spheres was constructed for the analysis, consisting of Huizingas definition of play and Caillois critic of the aforementioned by adding Durkheims definition of religion, were both play and religion is viewed as something set apart from the ordinary world. The informant’s experiences of religion in role-play were then examined in the light of three separate spheres: the play, the ordinary world and religion. The study showed the importance of keeping the separation between the spheres intact and the players showed a desire to make play as authentic as possible, including the psychological experience, but emphasized that play never can be or should be perceived as equal to actual experience gained in one of the two other spheres.