This study provides a representation of the lived transitional experiences of a group of student-cricketers on a passage toward professional cricket. Set in the local context of a university cricket academy, the investigation focused on players’ adoption of a cricketing role that they used in combination with their structured cricketing environment to explore what it might be like to be professional cricketers. The aim of the research, therefore, was to portray a culturally embedded process of identity-exploration through which a group of young men arrived at a conception of themselves as ‘cricketers’. The data on which the study is based have been drawn from research conducted over twenty seven months from November 2010 to March 2013 where I, as a researcher, became immersed in the research context as an active member of the participant group. The methodological approach of ethnography was used to obtain an insider’s account of the student-cricket experience as seen from the point of view of the actors involved. Application of traditional ethnographic techniques such as participant observation, note taking and unstructured, field-based ‘interviews’ provided the means through which situated, day-to-day experiences were captured and explored. What is presented, therefore, reflects some of the contextual responses to real-life situations experienced by the group and its individuals, mediated through a developing analytical interest in players’ identity engagements with their cricketing environment from the theoretical standpoint of ‘emerging adulthood’ (Arnett, 2000, 2004). Adding to the ethnographic accounts offered within this thesis, the study contributes a conceptual framework that plots players’ transitional pathways through the academy to share the key points of interaction that impinged on individual participants ‘finding their level’ in the game. Through contact and exposure to a cricketing way of life, players’ involvement with the academy saw their cricketing experiences intensify and their attachments to the game transform. This resulted in individuals either accepting or rejecting cricket based on what they came to know about themselves and the game, with the findings of the research helping to further understanding on how a group of ‘emerging adults’ engaged with the ‘project’ of their self-identities to reach a point of self-understanding on which to base prospective identity-decisions.

Orientador: Edson Zefa / Banca: Maria Kátia Matiotti da Costa / Banca: Francisco de Assis Ganeo de Mello / Resumo: O gênero Gryllus Linnaeus, 1758 compreende 78 espécies descritas, ocorrendo na América desde o Canadá até a Argentina, bem como em diversas regiões da África, Europa e Ásia. Na América do Sul existem registros da ocorrência de 12 espécies que foram descritas no século XIX e desde então pouca informação foi adicionada à taxonomia desses insetos. Trata-se de um dos gêneros mais complexos de Grylloidea devido à presença de espécies crípticas e à taxonomia confusa, gerada por diferentes critérios taxonômicos e baseada em amostragens reduzidas, desprezando as variações intraespecíficas. O objetivo deste trabalho foi aplicar diversas ferramentas, com destaque à bioacústica e à morfologia da fileira estridulatória, retomando o trabalho taxonômico nos Gryllus da América do Sul, a partir de uma área restrita do extremo sul do Brasil. O trabalho foi dividido em três capítulos: I - Taxonomia de Gryllus Linnaeus, 1758 (Orthoptera, Gryllidae) do extremo sul do Brasil: duas novas espécies e Gryllus argentinus Saussure, 1874; II - Revisão do som de chamado e da fileira estridulatória de Gryllus Linnaeus, 1758 (Orthoptera, Gryllidae); III - Variação intraespecífica no som de chamado de Gryllus sp. n.2 (Orthoptera, Gryllidae): implicações taxonômicas. Os resultados deste trabalho servirão como base para os estudos taxonômicos em Gryllus na América do Sul e facilitarão as revisões do som de chamado e da fileira estridulatória neste gênero. A análise de proles provenientes de fêmeas fecundadas na natureza permitiu delimitar a variação no som de chamado de Gryllus sp. n.2, assegurando a determinação específica desse táxon. / Abstract: The genus Gryllus Linnaeus, 1758 includes 78 described species, occurring in America from Canada to Argentina, as well as in several areas of Africa, Europe and Asia. There are 12 species in South America described in nineteenth century. Since few data were added to the taxonomy of these insects. This genus is among the most complex of Grylloidea due cryptic species and ancient taxonomy erected by different criteria and based on small samples, despising intraspecific variations. The aim of this work was to apply tools such as bioacoustics and stridulatory file morphology, retaking the taxonomic study in South America's Gryllus, in a restricted area of Southern Brazil. The work was structured in three chapters: I - Taxonomy of Gryllus Linnaeus, 1758 (Orthoptera, Gryllidae) of the southern Brazil: two new species and Gryllus argentinus Saussure, 1874; II - Revision of the calling song and stridulatory file of Gryllus Linnaeus, 1758 (Orthoptera, Gryllidae); III - Intraespecific variation in the calling song of Gryllus n. sp.2 (Orthoptera, Gryllidae): taxonomic implications. This work presents information about calling song and stridilatory file features supporting new taxonomic studies on Gryllus. The offspring from field inseminated females confirmed that variations on the calling song of Gryllus n. sp.2 were intraspecific improving specific determination of this taxon. / Mestre

This thesis investigates problems of performance modelling in sport. Mathematical models are used to evaluate the performance of individuals, teams, and the competition rules under which they compete. The thesis comprises a collection of papers on applications of modelling to Australian rules football, soccer and cricket. Using variations of the model wij = ui + hi - uj + eij where wij is the home team winning margin when home team i plays away team j, ui is a team rating, hi is an individual ground effect and eij is random error, the evaluation of team home ground advantage effect (HA) is studied in detail. Data from the Australian Football League and English Association Football for 1980 to 1995 are investigated. The necessity of individual team HAs is demonstrated. The usual methods of calculating HA for competitions is shown to be inappropriate for individual teams. The existence of a spurious HA when home and away performances are compared is discussed. For a balanced competition, fitting the above model by least squares is equivalent to a simple calculator method using only data from the final ladder. A method of calculating HA by pairing matches is demonstrated. Tables of HA and paired HA in terms of points/game for each year are given. The resultant HAs for both Australian rules football and soccer are analysed. Clearly there is an isolation effect, where teams that are isolated geographically have large HAs. For English soccer, the paired HA is shown to be linearly related to the distance between club grounds. As an application of these methods, the development and implementation of a computer tipping program used to forecast Australian rules football by rating teams is described. The need for ground effects for each team and ground, and the use of heuristic methods to optimise the program is discussed. The accuracy of the prediction model and its implementation by publication in the media is discussed. International comparisons show prediction methods are limited by the data. Methods for evaluating the fairness of the League draw and the finals systems are given. The thesis also investigates the use of dynamic programming to optimise tactics in football and cricket. The thesis develops tables giving the optimal run rate and the expected score or probability of winning at any stage of a one-day cricket innings. They show a common strategy in one-day cricket to be non-optimal, and a heuristic is developed that is near optimal under a range of parameter variations. A range of dynamic programming models are presented, allowing for batsmen of different abilities and various objective functions. Their application to performance modelling are shown by developing a radically different performance measure for one day cricket, and applying it to a one-day series.

The phonotactic steering behavior of tethered flying crickets (Teleogryllus oceanicus) was examined as a measure of the insect's attraction to temporal patterns of calling song at different frequencies and intensities. A stimulus with a 5 kHz carrier becomes less attractive the further its pulse repetition rate deviates from 16 pulses/s. Increasing the intensity increases selectivity for temporal pattern. At sufficiently high intensity level crickets cease to respond to stimuli with altered temporal patterns. / High frequency neurons were suspected to be behind cessation of responsiveness to stimuli with altered temporal features. This hypothesis predicts that the effect on selectivity of increasing the intensity of the 5 kHz stimulus might be mimicked by adding a high frequency to the stimulus. My results contradict this hypothesis. / The response to a 30 kHz carrier demonstrates a dependency on the duration and pulse repetition rate of the stimulus.

Crickets rely on binaural comparisons of intensity to locate sound. Intensity can be encoded by response magnitude as well as response latency. The effects of sound intensity and pulse repetition rate on the auditory responses of the tympanal nerve were investigated. Adaptation, a decline in the response due to repeated stimulation, is greater for higher pulse rates and higher intensities. Since sound intensity is louder at the ear closer to the sound source, adaptation is more pronounced in the ipsilateral ear. As a result, the interaural difference in response magnitude decreases. Therefore response magnitude cannot be a reliable cue for sound location. I found that response latency also adapts: it increases over time. However, this change is not intensity dependent. So interaural latency difference is stable over time. The results show that interaural latency difference is a more reliable cue than interaural magnitude difference to locate sound.

Diaspora invokes a way of living. Geographic displacement, either voluntary or forced, brings about heightened processes of negotiation between the past, the present and the future. Effectively, diaspora creates a space for dialogue about notions of individual subjectivity and group representation, as well as global and local belonging. These processes contribute pivotally to the identity development of diasporic people, and this plays out continually as is evident in the choices diasporic people make about the way they live. This thesis explores one aspect of the lives of elite diasporic Indian families in Singapore - cricket. The central question is how these diasporic people become 'Indian' through their participation in the sport. There are two major components - cricket and family. Firstly, I identify cricket as a site of diasporic negotiation in the lives of these Indians. I explore their practice of this activity as a physical and ideological space in and through which they negotiate their identity. In a country where cricket is not common practice, the Indian domination of the widespread 'public culture' of their country of origin reflects their intensified investment in Indianness. This results in the creation of a minoritized and largely exclusive social space. By participating in cricket, they play out their diasporic Indian identity. This is a myriad process of social construction and transformation of Indianness at individual and collective levels. Through active and concerted social labour in the cricket arena, translation of relevant Indianness into a foreign setting effectively creates a new Indian ethnicity. It is the very negotiation and mobilization of their ethnicity that facilitates the thriving of this elite Indian diaspora. The other major component in this thesis is that of the family in diaspora. This is important because most of the elite Indians moved to Singapore as nuclear family units. Decisions made and the structures of their lives take into account the impact upon the household at individual and collective levels. I explore and highlight the importance not only of families doing diaspora together, but that of the varied individual contributions of family members to cricket and how their various parts support one another's negotiation of their Indianness. Divided broadly into three categories of fathers, mothers and children (male and female), I look at their different ideals, attitudes and involvement in the sport. From my research, I found that fathers were the ideological spearhead and instigators of interest for cricket within families; mothers played support roles; and children participated for a variety of reasons. Boys played because it was deemed the natural thing for Indian boys as it is 'in their blood'. Girls on the other hand, played for a variety of different reasons which differed from their male counterparts. Their participation was a concerted effort in an attempt to get forms of Indianness that are reflected and constructed in cricket, 'into their blood'. This thesis is framed by the concept of doing Indian diaspora in Singapore. I explore the cricket arena as a key site of identity negotiation in three realms - the individual, the family, and the wider Indian network/community. This analysis seeks to highlight the importance of each realm in reinforcing and supporting one another's projects of constant and complex formation processes of Indianness.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M.Sc.). / Written for the Dept. of Biology. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/12/07). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2005. / Includes bibliography.