Four Handel oratorio libretti published by John Gregory of Leicester, 1759 - 1774

George Frederic Handel had links with Leicestershire through the very wealthy writer and patron of music and literature Charles Jennens of Gopsall Hall, who, amongst other things wrote and prepared the texts for Messiah and several other important Handel works, and created the most comprehensive library of Handel scores and manuscripts. Between 1759 and 1774 the Leicester printer John Gregory, the founder and publisher of the Leicester Journal, printed and sold full texts of the libretti of four Handel oratorios: Messiah (ca. 1759), Judas Maccabaeus and Esther (both 1761) and Jephtha (1774). All were produced for specific Leicestershire performances of the works. The first three were part of the Church Langton ‘Music Meetings’ of William Hanbury, which included the first known church performance of Messiah in 1959. The fourth was printed for the 1774 Anniversary festival of the Leicester Infirmary. organised and funded by Joseph Cradock, one of Gregory’s fellow Governors of the Infirmary, and brought together many of the leading interpreters and scholars of Handel, creating what was widely regarded as the most important musical event ever held in Leicester

Introduction to the theoretical and philosophical basis of modern management

This “Introduction to the theoretical and philosophical basis of modern management” was developed, maintained and expanded by Professor Patrick Boylan between 1992 and 2004 to support teaching on the City University MA Courses in Arts Management, Museum and Gallery Management and Arts Management in Education in what was then the Department of Arts Policy and Management. From 1995 it was also made available on the Department’s resources website, formerly at http://www.city.ac.uk/artspol/, but soon became used much more widely by other institutions and courses to support their own students, particularly after it received a “Best of the Web” Award for Management Education in 1995. By request it was also it was also added to the learning resources website of the International Council of Museums’ International Committee for the Training of Personnel (ICOM-ICTOP). Since the Arts Policy and Management website was finally discontinued following recent major changes in the University’s structure there have been a number of requests from other institutions and individuals who still find the original text of value, it is now being made publicly available again, this time in PDF format, through the University’s new institutional repository, City Research Online: http://www.city.ac.uk/research/research-publications

Reproducibility in forecasting research

The importance of replication has been recognised across many scientific disciplines. Reproducibility is a necessary condition for replicability, because an inability to reproduce results implies that the methods have not been specified sufficiently, thus precluding replication. This paper describes how two independent teams of researchers attempted to reproduce the empirical findings of an important paper, ‘‘Shrinkage estimators of time series seasonal factors and their effect on forecasting accuracy’’ (Miller & Williams, 2003). The two teams proceeded systematically, reporting results both before and after receiving clarifications from the authors of the original study. The teams were able to approximately reproduce each other’s results, but not those of Miller and Williams. These discrepancies led to differences in the conclusions as to the conditions under which seasonal damping outperforms classical decomposition. The paper specifies the forecasting methods employed using a flowchart. It is argued that this approach to method documentation is complementary to the provision of computer code, as it is accessible to a broader audience of forecasting practitioners and researchers. The significance of this research lies not only in its lessons for seasonal forecasting but also, more generally, in its approach to the reproduction of forecasting research

Environmental Quenching of Low-Mass Field Galaxies

In the local Universe, there is a strong division in the star-forming properties of low-mass galaxies, with star formation largely ubiquitous amongst the field population while satellite systems are predominantly quenched. This dichotomy implies that environmental processes play the dominant role in suppressing star formation within this low-mass regime (${M}_{\star} \sim 10^{5.5-8}~{\rm M}_{\odot}$). As shown by observations of the Local Volume, however, there is a non-negligible population of passive systems in the field, which challenges our understanding of quenching at low masses. By applying the satellite quenching models of Fillingham et al. (2015) to subhalo populations in the Exploring the Local Volume In Simulations (ELVIS) suite, we investigate the role of environmental processes in quenching star formation within the nearby field. Using model parameters that reproduce the satellite quenched fraction in the Local Group, we predict a quenched fraction -- due solely to environmental effects -- of $\sim 0.52 \pm 0.26$ within $1< R/R_{\rm vir} < 2$ of the Milky Way and M31. This is in good agreement with current observations of the Local Volume and suggests that the majority of the passive field systems observed at these distances are quenched via environmental mechanisms. Beyond $2~R_{\rm vir}$, however, dwarf galaxy quenching becomes difficult to explain through an interaction with either the Milky Way or M31, such that more isolated, field dwarfs may be self-quenched as a result of star-formation feedback.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, MNRAS accepted version, comments welcome - RIP Ducky...gone but never forgotte