abstract: Previous literature on synchronization to music using finger tapping tasks in a laboratory or otherwise controlled setting has led to some invaluable, albeit dated, theories about time and synchronization. In an effort to modernize some of the approaches utilized in research on music synchronization, this study applies established theories of music entrainment to a fieldwork study. Specifically, this study focuses on the extent to which participants of Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art disguised as a dance, synchronize to external timekeepers by analyzing icti in several types of movements and comparing them to musical rhythmic beats. Sports psychology studies have shown that the presence of music can have involuntary effects on exercise. For example, walkers and runners will spontaneously synchronize gait to auditory signals. However, runners do not normally focus on choreology, acrobatics, and environmental stimuli while exercising. This study contributes to this field of research by adding observations and analyzing degrees of synchronization in a martial art, which may be more cognitively demanding than running. In Capoeira, participants are still expected to attend to music. The degree of synchronization that occurs in a Capoeira class can then be compared with synchronization in martial arts that have music solely as a background component. These future studies would be analyzing music entrainment in real-life environments with physical activities that are more cognitively complex than running. Moreover, these future studies can help to confirm or challenge current theories of attention and music entrainment and synchronization. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Music 2020

Cette thèse porte sur une analyse diachronique du rapport entre l'anarchisme, les techniques du corps sorcellerie dans la pratique du Mesing et arts martiaux au Gabon. Cette étude porte exclusivement sur le groupe ethno linguistique fang du Gabon. Le but de ce travail est de démontrer le lien existant entre ses deux domaines d'étude. en effet, quels rapports les sports de combat et la sorcellerie des fangs du Gabon pourraient ils bien entretenir avec un projet politique né en Europe, au lendemain des lumières et au moment où cette même Europe se préparait, au nom des lumières justement (du progrès et de la raison), à imposer à l'ensemble de l'Afrique la morgue et la bassesse mercantile de sa domination. l'anarchisme est apparu au XIXe siècle, en Europe. et on perçoit mieux, avec le temps, en quoi, de par son lieu, son époque et sa nature, il a constitué, à l'échelle de l'ensemble des expérimentations humaines, une alternative radicale au monde où il naissait, l'affirmation et l'espérance d'une altérité à la fois intérieure et extérieure, dans les coursives de l'Europe et des amériques comme dans l'intensité des résistances à l'impérialisme et aux dominations des entreprises coloniales. ce travail s'efforce à montrer comment les fangs du Gabon et d'ailleurs, aux côtés de beaucoup d'autres et de multiple façon, mobilisaient tous leurs savoirs magiques et guerriers sous forme anarchique pour résister à la domination coloniale. / This thesis focuses on a diachronic analysis of the relationship between anarchism, the techniques of body witchcraft in the practice of the Mesing and martial arts in Gabon. This study focuses exclusively on the fang ethno linguistic group of Gabon. The aim of this work is to demonstrate the link between his fields of study.Indeed, what combat sports reports and witchcraft of the Fang of Gabon could they keep with a political project born in Europe, in the wake of the enlightenment and the moment where this same Europe preparing,on behalf of the lights just (progress and reason), to impose on the whole of Africa the morgue and the mercantile baseness of his domination. Anarchism emerged in the 19th century in Europe. And there is better, over time, what, from his place, his time and his nature, he was across all the human experiments, a radical alternative to the world where he was born, the affirmation and the hope of an otherness, both indoor andoutdoor, in the corridors of Europe and the Americas as in the intensity of resistance to imperialism and domination of colonial enterprises. This work strives to show how the Fang of Gabon and elsewhere, along with many others and multiple way, mobilized all their knowledge magic and warriors in anarchic form to resist colonial rule.

Purpose: To pilot test the efficacy of a documented 5-week karate training intervention for rehabilitation and neuroprotection in older adults. Methods: eleven older adults (4 male, 7 female, age 59-90y; 168.4±5.8cm; 67.2±10.7kg), five older adults (4 male, 1 female, age 67-76y;176.8±6.4 cm; 69.9±17.6kg) with chronic conditions, and two young adults (2 female, age 23; 165.1±4.9cm; 60.1±6.7 kg) participated. A commercial balance board was used to assess balance through dynamic posture. Arm and leg strength, Timed Up and Go (TUG), and spinal cord excitability (via the soleus H- reflex) were assessed. Results: Over the intervention participants completed approximately 2437 steps, 1762 turns, 3585 stance changes, 2047 punches, 2757 blocks, and 1253 strikes. Dynamic postural performance improved after the intervention (tTarget (18%, p=0.128), tCenter (9%, p<0.01), and tTotal (14%, p=0.073)), with 9 participants showing improvements in balance. No significant changes were found in TUG group data (p=0.539) but 5 neurologically intact participants (4-9%; p<0.05) and 1 Parkinson’s Disease participant (3%, p<0.05) improved. There was significant improvement to strength in the left hand (2%, p=0.037) and right leg (40%, p=0.050). Spinal cord excitability remained unchanged across the group a but 5 (3 neurologically intact (195%, 215%, 48% (avg= 153%); p<0.05); 2 Parkinson’s Disease participants (19%, 23%; p<0.05)) had significantly modulated H-reflex amplitudes following the intervention. Conclusion: Five weeks of training caused improvements in balance reactions and strength suggesting that neuromechanical integrity improved. Whole-body training in martial arts enhanced neuromuscular function and postural integration. The observations of this pilot investigation provide quantitative groundwork for explorations of dose and development of martial arts interventions as functional fitness intervention for older adults. / Graduate / 2022-01-01

The aim of this thesis is to explore and analyze what the effects capoeira has on its practitioners when it comes to how it interacts in their everyday life, what capoeira means to them, what feelings they attach to the practice and what meaning they make of the historical aspect of capoeira. This study is based on 7 interviews with people who practice capoeira and 2 observations of capoeira training. The main theoretical framework applied in the thesis is phenomenology, with an overall focus on the phenomenology of the body, as well as critical race theory. The result shows that the impact on the practitioner was positive not only when it came to the physical aspect of working out, but gave them an insight regarding differences between the two cultures. The one they live their lives in, and the one capoeira offered them. The discussion highlights how the practitioners valuing capoeira as something positive that enriched their lives, but also became a tool that made them reflect on their role as consumers of a culture rooted in oppression.

Concerns regarding political ‘enslavement’ and imperial constraints on free speech are especially palpable in the literature that follows the emperor Domitian’s assassination in 96 C.E. Under his successors, Nerva and Trajan, authors worked to differentiate the post-Domitianic age from the prior era of metaphorical enslavement and suppressed speech. Scholars have studied some of the ways in which Neronian and Flavian authors employed literary accounts of the Saturnalia, a festival characterized by temporary license and the notional transformation of social roles, to criticize individual rulers and thematize issues of imperial control. Yet they have not fully appreciated the pervasive use of literary Saturnalia in Flavian and post-Flavian political discourse. I examine the Saturnalia as a political metaphor in five texts: Martial’s Domitianic Epigrams 5 and Nervan Epigrams 11, Pliny’s Trajanic Epistles and Panegyricus, and Dio Chrysostom’s Trajanic fourth Oration. In Epigrams 5, Martial thematizes the circumscription of Saturnalian freedom to highlight limits to his poetic expression under Domitian. Later, in his Epigrams 11, Martial’s presentation of the Nervan regime as an age of ‘Saturnalia,’ a festival whose freedoms are inherently temporary, signifies anxiety about whether post-Domitianic freedom from imperial ‘enslavement’ will be short-lived. In the Panegyricus, Pliny praises Trajan for reasserting the social hierarchies that had become troublingly eroded under the dystopic ‘Saturnalia’ of Domitian. Through Pliny’s depiction of domestic Saturnalian celebrations in Epistles 2.17, the senator proves that the perverse ‘Saturnalia’ that plagued imperial life before Trajan are no more. Finally, in Orations 4, Dio Chrysostom uses circumscribed Saturnalian freedom not only as a metaphor for the limited political authority available to Greeks, but also to valorize his own Greek wisdom as essential to Trajan’s correction of shameful ‘Saturnalian’ rule. The authors in this study, although writing from different personal and generic perspectives, depict metaphorical Saturnalia to articulate the distressing limits of freedom under imperial rule or—in the case of Pliny and Dio—to burnish the image of the anti-Saturnalian ruler Trajan. My dissertation demonstrates that literary representations of the Saturnalia occupy a far more important role in imperial Greek and Roman understandings of autocracy than has been previously appreciated.

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Incidents and awareness of sports-related concussion have grown in recent years, attracting attention in both the academic and popular press. These concussions can lead to the rapid onset of neurological dysfunctions, as well as a variety of subjective symptoms. Although concussive sequelae are typically considered transient, debate remains about the persistent effects of repeated traumatic contact during sport participation. Although research has examined the complications of head trauma found in traditionally popular sports (e.g., football, soccer, boxing), little research has focused on the growing sport of mixed-martial-arts (MMA). Research specifically pertaining to MMA is in nascent stages, but to-date studies suggest that concussive injuries for this sport are prevalent and the training regimens of these athletes may place them at a high risk for concussive or subconcussive head traumas—as well as the accompanying neurological difficulties. The current study is the first to assess cognitive profiles of MMA athletes using an objective neuropsychological assessment instrument. Among 56 athletes (28 MMA athletes and 28 athletes not exposed to head traumas), no neuropsychological differences were found between groups of athletes. Additionally, no aspects of MMA training regimen shared a reliable relationship with neuropsychological performance or subjective concussive symptoms. This suggests non-professional participation in MMA may not typically pose a significant risk for cumulative concussions and associated adverse neuropsychological consequences.

Wu Huaiting. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-130). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction and Analytical Framework --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Local Agents and Global Alliance --- p.28 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Particularization and Universalization --- p.51 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- "Distribution, Marketing and Exhibition" --- p.75 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- The Globalization of a Local Culture --- p.94 / "Appendix 1 Awards for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" --- p.104 / "Appendix 2 Credits for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" --- p.106 / Appendix 3 Ang Lee's Features --- p.108 / Appendix 4 Source List for Database --- p.110 / "Appendix 5 The Story of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" --- p.113 / "Appendix 6 Release dates for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" --- p.119 / Bibliography --- p.122

”Never!” That was the answer UFC President Dana White gave when asked when women would be seen in the UFC. Two years later the first fight between two women took place and now there’s more than 50 female competitors in the UFC - an organisation that earlier was reserved only for men. ”Women will never fight in the UFC” – A qualitative content analysis of the depiction of women’s MMA in media is a study which focuses on how women’s MMA and Ronda Rousey as an individual athlete are portrayed in american internet based MMA media, with a gender research perspective. This study also investigates how the introduction of the first women’s division in the UFC might have affected the depiction women’s MMA in media. The theoretical framework consists of gender theory concepts such as gender performativity, the man as norm, sports and masculinity. With this theoretical framework as foundation, a directed content analysis was used as research method. The results of this analysis shows a frequent emphasis on the appearance of female athletes in the material. An attractive woman is preferable, and a muscular and more masculine woman is considered as deviant. Female athletes are constantly in comparison to male athletes, both in a positive sense, when their athleticism or talent is compared, and in a negative sense to downgrade their appearance. It is clear that the man is the starting-point, which the women are compared to. The material shows that before the introduction of a female division in the UFC there were strong concerns about women entering the organisation - would it be received as a positive or a negative change and thus if it was economically sustainable. After the first women’s fight in the UFC, the appearances of the competitors weren’t referenced as frequently in the material as before, and their performances were highlighted in a much higher degree. Ronda Rousey is portrayed as the most important individual competitor in women’s MMA. She’s got “everything”, both the looks and talent. But to some extent her talent is marginalized. A resistance that may be based in the unfamiliarity of seeing a woman in the spotlight of the MMA-world.

Thesis concerns of creation and verification of Aikido basic techniques training programme, which is applied on children attending first to four year of elementary school. Diploma work consists of theoretical and research part and is completed with photographic documentation. Theoretical part of the work covers history, methodology and didactics of Aikido training. This part of the work is further focused on analysis and methodology of fall techniques, which are necessary for managing aikido techniques. Research part of the work concerns on programme application on pupils attending first to four year of elementary school. Lenght of the programme is three months and pupil´s physical ability is after it verified by Eurofit test.\\