Religious Discourse and Interdisciplinarity in Sport Studies

Religious and theological explorations of leisure have remained few and far between, as religious studies perceive sport and game related studies as trivial, and as leisure theorists find social scientific methods more compelling. And yet, religious traditions and thinkers have been offering accounts and ethics of leisure activities for thousands of years, and anthropological evidence suggests the origination of sport and game play arose in the context of religious cult activity (Huizinga, 1949; Guttmann, 2007). Further, contemporary research has indicated that religion plays an important role in structuring the thought and behavior of religious persons towards their leisure (Waller, 2009) and spiritual and transcendental explanations have been increasingly considered in phenomenologies of sport and play (Parry, Nesti, & Watson, 2011) as well as therapeutic recreational models (Wozencroft, Waller, Hayes, & Brown, 2012). With this evidence it seems time to recognize religious accounts or theologies of sport as a contributor to the greater field of sport studies, and one that will enable a richer understanding of the cultural context of sport. Along this tack, this paper will offer an introduction to such religious conceptions by looking specifically at the theology of sport discipline from the tradition of Western Christendom and showing how religious discourse on sport enriches the overall study of sport

More than One Way to Measure: Masculinity in the Zurkaneh of Safavid Iran

The zurkhaneh of early modern Safavid Iran was an institution where men undertook physical training, in some ways reminiscent of a modern-day gymn. This paper attempts to theorize the zurkhaneh as a public space in which primarily non-elite men participated in the social economy of early modern Safavid Iran based upon their pursuit of the ideal of javanmardi, or young manliness. To accomplish this, this paper will combine the themes of publicity, the social utility of the body, and the authority of textuality with an examination of the physical culture of the zurkhaneh to theorize the utility, representation, and experience of non-elite male bodies in early modern Safavid Iran. Insights gleaned from this will be applied to theories about the subjectivity of male commoners in early modern Indo-Persianate society and juxtaposed against scholars like who take masculine modes of comportment primarily as a construction of the imperial court for managing the nobility. Thus it will be argued that it is possible to observe through the zurkhaneh one way that the construction of Persian masculinity occurred non-hierarchically

A Student and Postqualitative Inquiry Walk Into a Bar: Syncretistic Methodology and Practices of Becoming-Researcher

In this essay, I playfully engage the reflections of scholars pursuing postqualitative inquiry by presenting how I employed methodological syncretism as a practice of figuration. I show how I enacted a “groping experimentation” with postqualitative research in the leisure context of a brewery, combining the conventional humanistic qualitative method of ethnographic observation with the new materialist and posthumanist sensibilities of postqualitative inquiry. I share how I engaged my body to join in the affective sociomateriality of a drinking establishment, attending to the object materiality and performativity of beer as it sluiced its way through tap lines, synced up with the sonic waves of background music, and danced its way around the silicate of pint glasses before sliding down esophagi, into capillaries, and slipping between the cracks of conversation. Ruminating on this syncretistic practice, I grapple with the multiple subjectivities of the researcher-literature-field assemblage, the possibility of “observing” material actors, and the incommensurability of methodological syncretism. I speculate that (1) methodological syncretism, while ontologically and epistemologically unintelligible, may work as a strategy of researcher-becoming and (2) a fallibilistic attitude fosters freedom to play with methodological knowledge/practice, recognizing the possibility that such play might produce different ways of knowing, being, and doing (research)

Surveying the Landscape of Theories and Frameworks Used in the Study of Sport and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Approach

Religion and sport is a bourgeoning and maturing interdisciplinary area of study. As the volume of research conducted about topics related to the interface of religion and sport, attention to sound research methods, including the use of relevant theories and theoretical/conceptual frameworks becomes essential. Scholars such as Stausberg and Engler (2014) have posited that the methods used in religious studies (including theory and frameworks) are not as rigorous as those utilized in social science related fields. The imperative then becomes to use theories and frameworks from social science related disciplines such as leisure studies, sports studies and sport psychology to strengthen scholarship in this emerging area. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of pertinent theories and theoretical/conceptual frameworks that are commonly used in the study of sport and religion. An interdisciplinary approach is taken to highlighting and expounding on a select group of theories and theoretical/conceptual frameworks

Treatment of patients with chronic thrombo embolic pulmonary hypertension: focus on riociguat

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is a disease of the pulmonary vascular bed that is characterized by elevations in the mean pulmonary artery pressure in the setting of perfusion defects on ventilation-perfusion scan, and subsequently confirmed by pulmonary angiography. CTEPH, or World Health Organization (WHO) group 4 pulmonary hypertension, is a result of unresolved thromboembolic obstruction in the pulmonary arteries. Pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA) is the treatment of choice for CTEPH as it is a potentially curative therapy. However, up to one-third of patients are not candidates for the surgery, either due to distal and inaccessible nature of the lesions or comorbid conditions. Due to remodeling that occurs in nonobstructed pulmonary vessels, a portion of patients who have undergone PEA have residual CTEPH after the procedure, attributable to high shear stress prior to PEA. This phenomenon has led to the understanding of a so-called two-compartment model of CTEPH, opening the door to pharmacologic treatment strategies. In 2013, riociguat, a soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator, was approved in the US and Europe for the treatment of inoperable or persistent/recurrent CTEPH. This article reviews the current management of CTEPH with a focus on riociguat

Evaluation of Bedding Application on Steroidal Ear Implant Abnormality Rate in Beef Steers

Objective: To evaluate the effects of bedding application on steroidal implant abnormalities (i.e. abscess, hard, knot, missing, partial, and soft inflammation)

3D fault architecture controls the dynamism of earthquake swarms

The vibrant evolutionary patterns made by earthquake swarms are incompatible with standard, effectively two-dimensional (2D) models for general fault architecture. We leverage advances in earthquake monitoring with a deep-learning algorithm to image a fault zone hosting a 4-year-long swarm in southern California. We infer that fluids are naturally injected into the fault zone from below and diffuse through strike-parallel channels while triggering earthquakes. A permeability barrier initially limits up-dip swarm migration but ultimately is circumvented. This enables fluid migration within a shallower section of the fault with fundamentally different mechanical properties. Our observations provide high-resolution constraints on the processes by which swarms initiate, grow, and arrest. These findings illustrate how swarm evolution is strongly controlled by 3D variations in fault architecture

3D fault architecture controls the dynamism of earthquake swarms

The vibrant evolutionary patterns made by earthquake swarms are incompatible with standard, effectively two-dimensional (2D) models for general fault architecture. We leverage advances in earthquake monitoring with a deep-learning algorithm to image a fault zone hosting a 4-year-long swarm in southern California. We infer that fluids are naturally injected into the fault zone from below and diffuse through strike-parallel channels while triggering earthquakes. A permeability barrier initially limits up-dip swarm migration but ultimately is circumvented. This enables fluid migration within a shallower section of the fault with fundamentally different mechanical properties. Our observations provide high-resolution constraints on the processes by which swarms initiate, grow, and arrest. These findings illustrate how swarm evolution is strongly controlled by 3D variations in fault architecture

Euro Americans and Latinos

Latino-Americans and Euro-Americans are not mutually exclusive groups as these groups have a great deal of overlap as this terminology is imperfect. That said, Hispanics/Latinos are the fastest growing ethnoracial group in the United States. By 2050 non-Hispanic whites will no longer have a majority share in the U.S. Population