“Seeking Information from the Lips of People”: oral history in the archives of Qatar and the Gulf region

The turn to oral history in Qatar and the Arabian (also known as Persian) Gulf is not a rejection of traditional archival authority as has been the case in other parts of the world. In the Gulf, oral history has been embraced out of a desire to fill the silences of the largely unwritten record attributable to previous low levels of literacy and strong oral traditions in the region. Today, oral history is seen as the best method to capture details about traditional ways of life during the pre-oil era. After discussing archival concerns about the evidentiary nature of oral histories, this paper explores how it has come to be a crucial documentation tool in the Gulf, adapted to the specific nation building and cultural heritage priorities of the region.     

A Geohistorical Study of ‘The Rise of Modern Science’: Mapping Scientific Practice Through Urban Networks, 1500–1900

Using data on the ‘career’ paths of one thousand ‘leading scientists’ from 1450 to 1900, what is conventionally called the ‘rise of modern science’ is mapped as a changing geography of scientific practice in urban networks. Four distinctive networks of scientific practice are identified. A primate network centred on Padua and central and northern Italy in the sixteenth century expands across the Alps to become a polycentric network in the seventeenth century, which in turn dissipates into a weak polycentric network in the eighteenth century. The nineteenth century marks a huge change of scale as a primate network centred on Berlin and dominated by German-speaking universities. These geographies are interpreted as core-producing processes in Wallerstein’s modern world-system; the rise of modern scientific practice is central to the development of structures of knowledge that relate to, but do not mirror, material changes in the system.

The cumulative and residual fatigue response associated with soccer-specific activity performed on different playing surfaces

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to assess the effect of playing surface (Natural [NT] and Artificial [AT] Turf) on the fatigue response to a soccer-specific exercise protocol (SSEP). Eighteen male soccer players completed the SSEP on NT and AT with pre-, post-, and 48 h post-assessments of eccentric knee flexor (eccKF) and concentric knee extensor peak torque (PT), peak countermovement (CMJ) and squat jump (SJ) height, and Nordic hamstring break angle. No significant main effects for surface or any surface and time interactions were observed for any of the outcome measures, except for eccKF PT recorded at 3.14 rad·s^-1, which was significantly lower 48 h post-trial in the AT condition (AT = 146.3 ± 20.4 Nm; NT = 158.8 ± 24.7 Nm). Main effects for time were observed between pre- and post-trial measures for eccKF PT at all angular velocities, Nordic break angle, CMJ and SJ height. Nordic break angle, and both CMJ and SJ height were significantly impaired 48 h post-trial when compared to pre-trial. The findings of the current study suggest surface dependent changes in eccKF PT which may have implications for recovery and subsequent performance after competition on AT.