Introduction: Tricksters, humour and activism

This special issue, entitled ‘The Trickster Activist in Global Humour and Comedy’, investigates the relevance of the concept of the trickster for explaining activist expressions that emanate from comedians, or that appear in comedy and humour more generally. Comedy has traditionally been viewed as an aesthetic or entertainment medium. It has often been charged with encouraging stereotype and the affirmation of mainstream audience beliefs. Despite this, we argue, there have been moments in recent history where comedians have given their performances an increased level of social and political consciousness that resonates with the public at large, or with sections of the public. Comedians, we argue, are able to reach this level of social commentary due to their potential to become tricksters. Paradoxically, the mythical trickster is a liminal entity, one that is adept at destruction as well as creation, or at conservativism as well radicalism. The articles in this issue explore the complexity of the trickster concept, showing some of the polysemy involved in the social activism enabled by comedy and humour

The role of population movement in the epidemiology and control of schistosomiasis in Brazil: a preliminary typology of population movement

This paper examines recent developments in migration studies. It reviews literature related to the potential role of internal population movement in the occurrence of schistosomiasis in Brazil and modifies Prothero's typology of population movement for use in Brazil. This modified classification system may contribute to a better understanding of schistosome transmission as well as improved research and control programs. The results of this study indicate that population movement in Brazil primarily involves economically-motivated rural-urban and interregional movement. However, several movement patterns have become increasingly important in recent years as a result of changing socioeconomic and urbanisation dynamics. These patterns include urban-urban, intracity and urban-rural movement as well as the movement of environmental refugees and tourists. Little is known about the epidemiological significance of these patterns. This paper also highlights the role of social networks in the decision to migrate and to settle. Prothero's classic population movement typology categorises movement as either one-way migrations or circulations and examines them along spatial and temporal scales. However, the typology must be modified as epidemiological information about new patterns becomes available. This paper identifies areas that require further research and offers recommendations that can improve the measurement and spatial analysis of the relationship between population movement and schistosomiasis

Transfer of complex skill learning from virtual to real rowing

Simulators are commonly used to train complex tasks. In particular, simulators are applied to train dangerous tasks, to save costs, and to investigate the impact of different factors on task performance. However, in most cases, the transfer of simulator training to the real task has not been investigated. Without a proof for successful skill transfer, simulators might not be helpful at all or even counter-productive for learning the real task. In this paper, the skill transfer of complex technical aspects trained on a scull rowing simulator to sculling on water was investigated. We assume if a simulator provides high fidelity rendering of the interactions with the environment even without augmented feedback, training on such a realistic simulator would allow similar skill gains as training in the real environment. These learned skills were expected to transfer to the real environment. Two groups of four recreational rowers participated. One group trained on water, the other group trained on a simulator. Within two weeks, both groups performed four training sessions with the same licensed rowing trainer. The development in performance was assessed by quantitative biomechanical performance measures and by a qualitative video evaluation of an independent, blinded trainer. In general, both groups could improve their performance on water. The used biomechanical measures seem to allow only a limited insight into the rowers' development, while the independent trainer could also rate the rowers' overall impression. The simulator quality and naturalism was confirmed by the participants in a questionnaire. In conclusion, realistic simulator training fostered skill gains to a similar extent as training in the real environment and enabled skill transfer to the real environment. In combination with augmented feedback, simulator training can be further exploited to foster motor learning even to a higher extent, which is subject to future work