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Geopolitical forecasting tournaments have stimulated the development of methods for improving probability judgments of real-world events. But these innovations have focused on easier-to-quantify variables, like personnel selection, training, teaming, and crowd aggregation—bypassing messier constructs, like qualitative properties of forecasters’ rationales. Here, we adapt methods from natural language processing (NLP) and computational text analysis to identify distinctive reasoning strategies in the rationales of top forecasters, including: (a) cognitive styles, such as dialectical complexity, that gauge tolerance of clashing perspectives and efforts to blend them into coherent conclusions and (b) the use of comparison classes or base rates to inform forecasts. In addition to these core metrics, we explore metrics derived from the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program. Applying these tools to multiple tournaments and to forecasters of widely varying skill (from Mechanical Turkers to carefully culled “superforecasters”) revealed that: (a) top forecasters show higher dialectical complexity in their rationales and use more comparison classes; (b) experimental interventions, like training and teaming, that boost accuracy also influence NLP profiles of rationales, nudging them in a “superforecaster” direction.

The images of galaxy Messier 87 provide evidence of magnetic field lines in its innermost region. Those lines likely trace the event horizon of a supermassive black hole.

Care is work, an attitude toward others, and an ethical ideal The intimate and necessary labor required to sustain those who are dependent, it is a limited resource unjustly extracted from women and people of color Care ethics provides robust arguments for recognizing human interdependency with and accountability to the environments in which we are embedded, however it often reaches an impasse when forced to determine hierarchies of need, especially when they expand their consideration to nonhuman lives This essay takes those places of confounding blockage as an invitation to explore the messier and morally ambiguous domain of the arts It considers works of literature, visual, and performance art that engage questions about care beyond the human, attempting to navigate with and through the impasses that so trouble moral philosophers Thought provoking and deeply imperfect, these imaginative works attempt to expand the contours of dignified and just interspecies care but also to generate new perspective on the places where that project fails

The first photograph of a black hole, seen around the world this April, was not a photograph in any conventional sense. Computer algorithms stitched together data from seven radio telescope observatories as far flung as Chile, Hawaii, Arizona, Mexico, and Spain and translated that data into shades of colored pixels to bring the dark center and hazy photon ring into view. No light can escape a black hole; it is, by definition, unseeable. What the world saw, then, was a color-enhanced computer representation (1). The first image of a black hole, released in April, comes from the center of a massive galaxy called Messier 87 located 55 million light-years from Earth. The image, which is based on data from seven telescope observatories, was stitched together by computer algorithms and required discussions among multiple researchers. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/Event Horizon Telescope. “It’s hard for people to understand that what we’re seeing is not the thing—it’s a representation of the data,” says Felice Frankel, a research scientist in the chemical engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and an award-winning science photographer. But if the image is a representation, then how truthful is that picture to reality, and how much artistic license do the creators take? If a person somehow floated at the maw of a black hole, would she see the same fuzzy, orange donut scientists published this spring? Whenever the unseeable is seen, whether a black hole, a nebula in the reaches of deep space, or even the contents of our own cells, we’re left to wonder how closely reality matches the image. To be clear, the researchers who generate these images use real and accurate data based on real phenomena. The final products are rooted in reality, not the imaginations of their authors. But the …

Attrition modeling is a direct application of extant turnover research that can favorably impact workforce planning and action planning. However, while academic research enables practitioners insights into understanding turnover phenomena, there is no single document that comprehensively translates this work to give guidance as to the many practical decisions that must be made when modeling turnover, as well as how to apply psychological research to messier operational data. This focal article introduces and provides guidance on attrition modeling by outlining early considerations when planning a study, describing how to mesh theory with operational considerations when identifying turnover predictors within organizational settings, highlighting analytical strategies to model turnover, and considering how to appropriately share results. Collectively, this article serves as a guide to conducting attrition modeling within organizations and offers suggestions for future research to inform best practices.

Today, auditors must consider the risks of material misstatement due to fraud during the financial statement audit (Messier, Glover, and Prawitt 2016). Current audit guidance recommends the use of data mining methods such as clustering to improve the likelihood of discovering irregularities during fraud risk assessment (ASB 2012). Unfortunately, significant challenges exist relative to using clustering in practice, including data preprocessing, model construction, model selection, and outlier detection. The traditional auditor is not trained to effectively address these complexities. One solution entails automation of clustering, thus eliminating the difficult, manual decision points within the clustering process. This would allow practitioners to focus on problem investigation and resolution, rather than being burdened with the technical aspects of clustering. In this paper, automated clustering is explored. In the process, each manual decision point is addressed, and a suitable automated solution is developed. Upon conclusion, a clustering application is formulated and demonstrated.

One of the more recent stellar discoveries was made by noticing something out of place in globular cluster Messier 3 (M3) (Fig. 19.1).

American religious freedom arose in a political community that, although emphatically not the City of God, officially acknowledged God’s sovereignty. The nation’s commitment to religious freedom was grounded in that unambiguous (though perhaps not unambivalent) acknowledgment. And it was written into the nation’s constitutional law and tradition. Today, by contrast, religious freedom is required to make its way in what is demonstrably if not quite officially the City of Man. Although our situation is murky, the sovereignty of God is no longer officially acknowledged. Indeed, any such acknowledgment is forbidden in principle– actual practice is messier, as usual-- by the meaning currently ascribed to the First Amendment; and the inherited vestiges of such an acknowledgment are explained away as merely ceremonial. Instead, an almost opposite situation prevails: constitutional doctrines and the political order generally are regularly oriented to the sovereignty of human beings, or of “the people”– including both individual persons and the state to whom those persons are deemed to have delegated governing authority. So, can the inherited commitment to religious freedom be transplanted to, and maintained on, this new foundation of human sovereignty? It is a theoretical question with considerable practical urgency, and the answer is far from clear. This paper will reflect on that question.

Geopolitical forecasting tournaments have stimulated the development of methods for improving probability judgments of real-world events. But these innovations have focused on easier-to quantify variables, like personnel selection, training, teaming, and crowd aggregation—and bypassed messier constructs, like qualitative properties of forecasters’ rationales. Here we adapt methods from natural language processing (NLP) and computational text analysis to identify distinctive reasoning strategies in the rationales of top forecasters, including: (a) cognitive styles, such as dialectical complexity, that gauge tolerance of clashing perspectives and efforts to blend them into coherent conclusions; (b) the use of comparison classes or base rates to inform forecasts; (c) metrics derived from the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program. Applying these tools to multiple forecasting tournaments and to forecasters of widely varying skill (from Mechanical Turkers to carefully culled “superforecasters”) revealed that: (a) top forecasters show higher dialectical complexity in their rationales, use more comparison classes, and offer more past-focused rationales; (b) experimental interventions, like training and teaming, that boost accuracy also influence NLP profiles of rationales, nudging them in a “superforecaster-like” direction.

This chapter outlines how a participatory research project adjusted to the Covid-19 lockdown and imposed physical distancing regulations. We show how the initial ambitions to replace face to face meetings with remote research activities were re-evaluated and replaced with creative and less structured activities designed to promote wellbeing and connect the group during unprecedented times. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the benefits of the adapted approaches, drawing on a small number of interviews with the community research team, and identifies how moving to a messier approach to research resulted in unexpected outcomes for the group.

We present new near-infrared ($JHK_s$) time-series observations of RR Lyrae variables in the Messier 3 (NGC 5272) globular cluster using the WIRCam instrument at the 3.6-m Canada France Hawaii Telescope. Our observations cover a sky area of $\sim 21'\times 21'$ around the cluster center and provide an average of twenty epochs of homogeneous $JHK_s$-band photometry. New homogeneous photometry is used to estimate robust mean magnitudes for 175 fundamental-mode (RRab), 47 overtone-mode (RRc), and 11 mixed-mode (RRd) variables. Our sample of 233 RR Lyrae variables is the largest thus far obtained in a single cluster with time-resolved, multi-band near-infrared photometry. Near-infrared to optical amplitude ratios for RR Lyrae in Messier 3 exhibit a systematic increase moving from RRc to short-period ($P < 0.6$~days) and long-period ($P \gtrsim 0.6$~days) RRab variables. We derive $JHK_s$-band Period--Luminosity relations for RRab, RRc, and the combined sample of variables. Absolute calibrations based on the theoretically predicted Period--Luminosity--Metallicity relations for RR Lyrae stars yield a distance modulus, $��= 15.041 \pm 0.017~(\textrm{statistical}) \pm 0.036~(\textrm{systematic})$~mag, to Messier 3. When anchored to trigonometric parallaxes for nearby RR Lyrae stars from the {\it Hubble Space Telescope} and the {\it Gaia} mission, our distance estimates are consistent with those resulting from the theoretical calibrations, albeit with relatively larger systematic uncertainties., 22 pages, 14 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal

Introduction: For patients living with T1D, hypoglycemia is the most frequent complication and obstacle in achieving optimal glycemic control with potentially significant adverse implications on individuals’ quality of life. To improve hypoglycemia prevention and management, the BETTER registry for people living with T1D was launched in April 2019 in the province of Quebec, Canada. Methods: Participants self-register online in the BETTER registry and are asked to answer a series of questionnaires (3 phases). We report the preliminary results of phase I among participants of ≥14 years old, which aims to provide a comprehensive portrait of the population with T1D. Results: Mid-December 2019, 718 individuals (64.6% female, age 41.8±15.4 years old, duration of diabetes 22.4±14.7 years, 93.2% with T1D and 6.7% with LADA, 71.2% with HbA1c Conclusion: In a contemporary group of patients widely using technology for T1D management, hypoglycemia remains frequent. The growing BETTER registry will allow further understanding of this challenging reality and enable future research aiming to reduce hypoglycemia episodes. Disclosure R. Cheng: None. N. Taleb: None. V. Messier: Other Relationship; Self; Eli Lilly and Company. M.K. Talbo: None. A. Roy-Fleming: None. R. Rabasa-Lhoret: Advisory Panel; Self; AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Company, Insulet Corporation, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Board Member; Self; Merck & Co., Inc., Sanofi. Research Support; Self; Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Nordisk A/S, Sanofi. A. Brazeau: None. Funding Canadian Institutes of Health Research (JT1-157204); JDRF (4-SRA-2018-651-Q-R)

This chapter explores the complex relationship between stuff and place as a way of interrogating the contemporary media obsession with decluttering. While the very idea of place connotes order (as in the maxim ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’), place is also made via material means, made inhabitable with stuff. Things might get in the way, becoming clutter, but, equally, there is no getting way from things. By critically examining the five common steps to a decluttered life, the chapter shows how the wildness of things is drastically underestimated in bestselling self-help guides. More, the magic of decluttering and of remaining clutter-free for life can be critically reframed as the operations of what Michel Foucault terms ‘technologies of the self’. Doreen Massey, with her notion of ‘throwntogetherness’, is, further, brought in to offer an object lesson to the likes of Kondo, showing how a messier encounter between people and things might help to allow clutter to speak back to, rather than simply unsettle, place.

What and where is ‘the asylum’ today? To what extent do mental healthcare facilities stand out as clearly bounded entities in the modern urban landscape, perhaps reflecting their history as deliberately set-apart and then often stigmatised places? To what extent have they maybe become less obtrusive, more sunk into and interacting with their urban surroundings? What issues of urban ethics are at stake: concerning who/what is starkly demarcated in the city, perhaps subjected to exclusionary logics and pressures, or more sensitively integrated into the city, planned for inclusion and co-dwelling? These questions underscore our article, rooted in an in-depth case study of Gartnavel Royal Hospital, Glasgow, opened as a ‘lunatic asylum’ on its present, originally greenfield, site in the 1840s and remaining open today surrounded by dense urban expansion. Building from the ‘voices’ of patients, staff and others familiar with the site, we discuss the sense of this asylum as ‘other’ to, as ‘outside’ of, or merely ’beside’ the urban fabric. Drawing from concepts of ‘orientations’ (Ahmed, 2006), sites as spatial constructions (Burns & Kahn, 2005), the power of borders and boundaries (Haselsberger, 2014; Sennett, 2018), issues of site, stigma and related urban ethical matters will be foregrounded. Where are the boundaries that divide the hospital campus from the urban context? What are the material signifiers, the cultural associations or the emotional attachments that continue to set the boundaries? Or, in practice, do boundaries melt into messier, overlapping, intersecting border zones, textured by diverse, sometimes contradictory, bordering practices? And, if so, what are the implications? open access GART-PSYSPAC: discourse, dwelling, doing

This chapter examines the Greek and Hebrew etymologies of hypocrisy, the former related to stage acting and the wearing of masks, while the latter concerns blending into one’s environment as chameleons do. Using five examples that on their face exhibit the characteristics of deception and pretense, manipulation and gaining advantage over others, the two different etymologies are deployed to sharpen the contrast between their applicability. Examining some standard interpretations offered by analytic moral and political philosophers, primarily reliant on masking and unmasking, shows their limitations. As an alternative, literary and psychological readings are presented, where chameleon-like conduct is culturally contextualized. Keeping in mind a variety of interpretations might thwart snap judgments and encourage more considered, perhaps messier ones, when bringing up the charge of hypocrisy.

In the course of the eighteenth century, Charles Messier and William Herschel catalogued nebulae that comprise what we today recognize as six distinct classes of objects in the realm of the stars, as defined by their physical composition: gaseous nebulae including planetary nebulae and hot hydrogen clouds; dusty clouds delineated as dark nebulae and reflection nebulae; and open and globular star clusters actually composed of stars. That a seventh class turned out to be an entirely new realm of objects—galaxies—as far removed from our own galaxy as the sidereal realm was from the planets, was beyond Herschel’s considerable abilities to prove even with the power of his new telescopes. It was only in the twentieth century that Edwin Hubble solved this problem. His research reveals much about the nature of discovery and classification.

At least one good thing may have emerged from the crisis: new international lending institutions led by developing nations are challenging and complementing the old US-dominated regime.

Hammer Film Productions’ move to colour in the 1950s has often been discussed in terms of their application of blood and gore becoming the primary concern for the British Board of Film Censors who sought to remove a number of shots deemed to be more objectionable when seen in colour rather than black-and-white. In order to circumvent these restrictions, it has been suggested that Hammer went against the BBFC’s wishes by submitting work prints of their colour films in black-and-white in the hope that the examiner would be unable to detect the objectionable material. However, records from the period suggest that the BBFC were not entirely against this process, and that using black-and-white stock during post-production had more to do with cost-cutting than an attempt to out-do the censor. Primarily through an analysis of BBFC reports from this period, this article will therefore address the complexities surrounding the censorship of Hammer’s early colour films, paying specific attention to what this practice of submitting black-and-white prints reveals about the decisions taken by the Board when viewing horror in both monochrome and colour.

We combine MUSE spectroscopy and Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet (UV) photometry to perform a study of the chemistry and dynamics of the Galactic globular cluster Messier 80 (M80, NGC 6093). Previous studies have revealed three stellar populations that not only vary in their light-element abundances, but also in their radial distributions, with concentration decreasing with increasing nitrogen enrichment. This remarkable trend, which sets M80 apart from the other Galactic globular clusters, points towards a complex formation and evolutionary history. To better understand how M80 formed and evolved, revealing its internal kinematics is key. We find that the most N-enriched population rotates faster than the other two populations at a 2 sigma confidence level. While our data further suggest that the intermediate population shows the least amount of rotation, this trend is rather marginal (1 - 2 sigma). Using axisymmetric Jeans models, we show that these findings can be explained from the radial distributions of the populations if they possess different angular momenta. Our findings suggest that the populations formed with primordial kinematical differences., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 13 pages, 7 figures

OriginalpublikationMessier SP, Mihalko SL, Beavers DP et al. Effect of High-Intensity Strength Training on Knee Pain and Knee Joint Compressive Forces Among Adults With Knee Osteoarthritis. The START Randomized Clinical Trial 2021; 325: 646–657

The astronomy team that 2 years ago captured the first close-up of a giant black hole, lurking at the center of the galaxy Messier 87, has now zoomed in on a second, somewhat smaller giant, in the nearby active galaxy Centaurus A. The Event Horizon Telescope merges dozens of widely dispersed radio dishes, from Hawaii to France and from Greenland to the South Pole, into a huge virtual telescope. Its latest image should help resolve questions about how such galactic centers funnel huge amounts of matter into powerful beams and fire them thousands of light-years into space. Together the images also support theorists9 belief that all black holes are essentially simple objects and operate the same way, despite huge variations in their masses.

Galactic outflows driven by starbursts can modify the galactic magnetic fields and drive them away from the galactic planes. Here, we quantify how these fields may magnetize the intergalactic medium. We estimate the strength and structure of the fields in the starburst galaxy M82 using thermal polarized emission observations from SOFIA/HAWC+ and a potential field extrapolation commonly used in solar physics. We modified the Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi method to account for the large-scale flow and the turbulent field. Results show that the observed magnetic fields arise from the combination of a large-scale ordered potential field associated with the outflow and a small-scale turbulent field associated with bow-shock-like features. Within the central $900$ pc radius, the large-scale field accounts for $53\pm4$% of the observed turbulent magnetic energy with a median field strength of $305\pm15$ $\mu$G, while small-scale turbulent magnetic fields account for the remaining $40\pm5$% with a median field strength of $222\pm19$ $\mu$G. We estimate that the turbulent kinetic and turbulent magnetic energies are in close equipartition up to $\sim2$ kpc (measured), while the turbulent kinetic energy dominates at $\sim7$ kpc (extrapolated). We conclude that the fields are frozen into the ionized outflowing medium and driven away kinetically. The magnetic field lines in the galactic wind of M82 are `open,' providing a direct channel between the starburst core and the intergalactic medium. Our novel approach offers the tools needed to quantify the effects of outflows on galactic magnetic fields as well as their influence on the intergalactic medium and evolution of energetic particles., Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ

John Flamsteed’s star catalogue, in the Historia Coelestis Britannica (1725), had already been in use for many decades, when in 1783 Jérôme de Lalande published a new edition, which introduced numbers for all the listed stars, a feature not found in Flamsteed’s own 1725 version of the catalogue. It is subject to debate, though, whether Lalande’s publication was indeed the first appearance of those “Flamsteed numbers.” In this paper, proof is given that the first excerpts of the new – and nowadays still used–numbering system of the Historia Coelestis Britannica occurred in print at least as early as 1765, in publications by Joseph-Nicolas Delisle and Charles Messier.

I am often asked these days, "Is IoT really as transformative as all the buzz suggests, or is it a lot of hype?" My answer is simply, "Yes." And the road to here has been a fascinating interplay of academic research accomplishments, industry advances (often with other drivers), and standardization processes (for lack of a better term). It was predictable that today we would be poised for the "next tier" of the Internet to take off, but the endgame seems to be even messier than expected.

The proposed transition to a low-carbon society faces challenges, as it is occurring too slowly to achieve the goals set by international and national governmental bodies, and gaps are found between available energy-efficiency technologies and their appropriate use. The governance of domestic energy systems has attracted European research attention, and the findings illustrate how materials, competence, and meaning influence energy productivity in domestic settings and how accountability is enacted by connecting people and technologies. The present research cites Swedish examples of how energy efficiency has been improved by involving multiple local actors, such as consumers, energy utilities, property companies, and local governments. Examples are analysed through the lens of social change and mundane governance theory, illustrating how spaces and places often overlooked as too mundane to be considered in policy prove, when analysed in more detail, to be important for energy efficiency. The results indicate that “governance pairs” (e.g., “households/lighting” and “caretakers/heating systems”) are more or less successfully held together and influence accountability and governance possibilities. The present analyses demonstrate that, while governance is often portrayed in terms of causality, everyday practices involving governance pairs are messier and less predictable than anticipated. These results call for the upgrading of research into everyday life and for bottom–up approaches to energy studies. Accountability – crucial to closing the energy-efficiency gap and understood in the context of mundane governance – can advance our energy-efficiency thinking and action.

Humanity’s supposed singular transition to modernity in the first millennium bc was much messier than previously thought, finds sweeping study of historical data. Humanity’s supposed singular transition to modernity in the first millennium bc was much messier than previously thought, finds sweeping study of historical data.

Ancient cranium discovered in Ethiopia suggests early hominin evolutionary tree is messier than we thought. Ancient cranium discovered in Ethiopia suggests early hominin evolutionary tree is messier than we thought.

The extremely low surface brightness sensitivity required to observe the ultra-low-surface brightness universe lead us to propose MESSIER, a space mission designed to drift-scan the entire sky in 6 filters covering the 200-1000 nm range and reaching unprecedented surface brightness levels of 34 and 37 mag arcsec2 in the optical and UV, respectively. Here, we present the ground-based MESSIER pathfinder aimed at testing several breakthrough technologies involved (e.g. curved detectors) and carrying out observations. We present here a detailed analysis of the optical quality achievable through photon Monte Carlo simulations of the system, including atmospheric effects.

There are many different ways in which one might describe the goal of Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program. For sponsors, though, one goal is clear: to get “their” refugees ready to handle the rigors of “month 13.” The supposed ideal is that, by month 13, newcomers are employed and living independently in Canada, as productive members of society. The reality is messier. The objective in this article is to offer an account of how sponsors think of their job, in relation to month 13. Using data collected via interviews with nearly sixty private sponsors in Ottawa, it is shown that sponsors are motivated by securing stability for newcomers by the time month 13 arrives, but that sponsors differently flesh out the meaning of the stability they are seeking to achieve on behalf of newcomers. In particular, the data suggest, sponsors believe that newcomers’ attitude to integration is especially strongly related to their actual integration, and newcomers do especially well by month 13 to the extent that sponsors are able to build and support a positive attitude towards it., Il y a plusieurs façons dont pourrait être décrit l’objectif du Programme de parrainage privé de réfugiés du Canada. Pour les parrains, toutefois, l’objectif est clair : il s’agit de préparer « leur » réfugié à gérer les rigueurs du « 13e mois ». L’idéal supposé est qu’à partir 13e mois, les réfugiés travaillent et vivent de façon indépendante en tant membres productifs de la société. La réalité est plus compliquée. Cet article a pour objectif de rendre compte de la façon dont les parrains envisagent leurs tâches en lien avec le 13e mois. S’appuyant sur des données recueilles auprès d’une soixantaine de parrains à Ottawa, cet article démontre que les parrains sont animés par le désir d’assurer la stabilité des réfugiées avant 13e mois. Cependant, les parrains définissent de manière différente ce qu’ils entendent par stabilité. Notamment, les données indiquent que les parrains estiment que le niveau d’intégration des nouveaux arrivants est particulièrement relié à leur attitude envers l’intégration. Les parrains estiment également que la réussite des nouveaux arrivants dépend de leur capacité à développer et soutenir chez eux une attitude positive envers l’intégration.

Higgins, Ryan T. We Don’t Eat Our Classmates. Disney-Hyperion, 2018 This is a messy book. Ryan Higgins' drawings are much messier and less precise than his earlier books about Bruce, the bear. However, when you are Pamela Rex, a Tyrannosaurus rex starting school with a room full of delicious human classmates, things get messy, particularly when you have to spit them out. Ryan Higgins taps the absurd in both his images and text to keep children laughing. Penelope still wants to eat the children, even though her father “packed her a lunch of three hundred tuna sandwiches." There is also an image of Penelope trying to “make friends at recess,” but she is standing at the bottom of the playground slide with her mouth open. Penelope does eventually learn a small lesson in empathy when Walter, the class goldfish, bites her. Higgins draws Penelope as a stuffed toy Tyrannosaurus rex, perhaps to prevent children from being frightened. The children are represented by the usual politically correct collection of stereotypes, often identified by clothing. There is one Jewish (yarmulke), one Muslim (hijab), two black (tight curly hair), one Indigenous (braids), one Japanese (the only child with a shirt and tie), and several generic “brown” children. All of the children have dark hair. Blue-eyed blonds are conspicuous by their absence. In addition to being a fun book, this volume allows every child to claim the moral high ground. Every child can say, “I wouldn’t ever do that!”, because all children know that “we don’t eat our classmates.” While this is a book about being different, clashes of values, and learning to get along, it is mainly a book that will amuse children. Recommended for elementary school and public libraries. Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Sandy Campbell Sandy is a Health Sciences Librarian at the University of Alberta, who has written hundreds of book reviews across many disciplines. Sandy thinks that sharing books with children is one of the greatest gifts anyone can give.

Whereas our earliest of ancestors tended to draw particular events or erroneous happenings in the night sky – the passage of a comet, the outburst of a star, or the darkening of the light during an eclipse – the importance of making accurate and detailed maps of the night sky became almost second nature to future generations who studied the stars, either for astrological purposes or weightier scientific understanding.

Researchers can become deeply committed to their interventions and to their research communities. This kind of long-term, sustained relationship between researchers and the people with whom they work is useful in communities where historical trauma or entrenched social disadvantage is evident and solutions will not be found quickly. Researchers cannot expect to unravel or alter, in the course of a 6-month or a 3-year grant period, social or health conditions that have been developing for years (or in some cases, centuries). A sustained research relationship can also lead to a degree of trust and flexibility that cannot be achieved in short-term projects. A research project that is less rigid and more open to change is somewhat messier to manage but also likely to be more responsive to changes in needs and communities. My association with the Aboriginal Family Wellbeing program has been a long one, as has my association with the community of Yarrabah. In this chapter, I use examples from my Family Wellbeing work in Yarrabah to demonstrate how a long-term approach has enabled us to achieve a critical mass of targeted groups to help address complex issues, such as transgenerational trauma and the associated issues of drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and suicide.

The specific ecology and political economy of the equatorial Atlantic island of Sao Tome made it the largest cocoa producer in the world by the 1900s. The environmental degradation of those cocoa plantations inspired conservationist discourses, opening possibilities to think about alternative colonial futures. This chapter discusses how encounters between people and the environment came into conflict with colonial power. By showing how human/nonhuman relations were messier and more contingent than what was acknowledged by actors—planters were not in full control of their enterprise, experts disagreed on how to organize their actions and the colonial state had to negotiate its authority—this chapter examines the multiple ways nature interfered with the aims of those who ruled, thus interrogating the concept of resistance.

Over the last couple of decades, theatre and dance by performers with learning disabilities has progressively moved from the domains of the therapeutic or community orientated to that of art. The movement is marked by a shift in venues (from private facilities or community halls to ‘mainstream’ theatres), a shift in funders, and – perhaps most fundamentally of all – a shift in audiences. In this chapter, I examine the relationship between the concept of spectatorship and theatres of learning disability, before applying this concept to the messier practice of audiencing. I draw upon interview material with learning disabled performers and other practitioners working in the field, alongside research with audiences to learning disabled theatre. These discourses are used to explore questions of quality, judgement, acts of looking and interpreting as the chapter considers the thorny issue of whether there is a distinct form of aesthetic looking that is invited by learning disabled theatre. While this possibility has the appeal of disrupting normative forms of performance, it also risks recapitulating problematic forms of looking at Otherness. In response to this risk, I propose a nuanced typology of the aesthetic positions – or ways of watching – that audiences adopt in relation to learning disability theatre.

Active optics techniques on large telescopes and astronomical instrumentations provide high imaging quality. For ground-based astronomy, the co-addition of adaptive optics again increases angular resolution up to providing diffraction-limited imaging at least in the infrared. Active and adaptive optics marked milestone progress in the detection of exoplanets, super-massive black holes, and large-scale structure of galaxies. This paper is dedicated to highly deformable active optics that can generate non-axisymmetric aspheric surfaces – or freeform surfaces – by use of a minimum number of actuators: a single uniform load acts over the surface of a vase-form substrate whilst under reaction to its elliptical perimeter ring. Two such instruments are presented: (1) the Faint Intergalactic Redshifted Emission Balloon (FIREBall) telescope and multi object spectrograph (MOS) where the freeform reflective diffraction grating is generated by replication of a deformable master grating, and (2) the MESSIER wide-field low-central-obstruction three-mirror-anastigmat (TMA) telescope proposal where the freeform mirror is generated by stress figuring and elastic relaxation. Freeform surfaces were obtained by plane super-polishing. Preliminary analysis required use of the optics theory of 3rd-order aberrations and elasticity theory of thin elliptical plates. Final cross-optimizations were carried out with Zemax raytracing code and Nastran FEA elasticity code in order to determine geometry of the deformable substrates.

We present new near-infrared, $JHK_s$, Period--Luminosity relations (PLRs) for RR Lyrae variables in the Messier 53 (M53 or NGC 5024) globular cluster. Multi-epoch $JHK_s$ observations, obtained with the WIRCam instrument on the 3.6-m Canada France Hawaii Telescope, are used for the first time to estimate precise mean-magnitudes for 63 RR Lyrae stars in M53 including 29 fundamental-mode (RRab) and 34 first-overtone modes (RRc) variables. The $JHK_s$-band PLRs for RR Lyrae stars are best constrained for RRab types with a minimal scatter of 22, 23, and 19 mmag, respectively. The combined sample of RR Lyrae is used to derive the $K_s$-band PLR, $K_s = -2.303 (0.063) \log P + 15.212 (0.016)$ exhibiting a $1\sigma$ dispersion of only $0.027$ mag. Theoretical Period--Luminosity--Metallicity (PLZ) relations are used to predict parallaxes for 400 Galactic RR Lyrae resulting in a median parallax zero-point offset of $-7\pm3~\mu$as in {\it Gaia} Early Data Release 3 (EDR3), which increases to $22\pm2~\mu$as if the parallax corrections are applied. We also estimate a robust distance modulus, $\mu_\textrm{M53} = 16.403 \pm 0.024$ (statistical) $\pm 0.033$ (systematic) mag, to M53 based on theoretical calibrations. Homogeneous and precise mean-magnitudes for RR Lyrae in M53 together with similar literature data for M3, M4, M5, and $\omega$ Cen are used to empirically calibrate a new RR Lyrae PLZ$_{K_s}$ relation, $K_s = -0.848 (0.007) -2.320 (0.006) \log P + 0.166 (0.011) {\rm[Fe/H]}$, anchored with {\it Gaia} EDR3 distances and theoretically predicted relations, and simultaneously estimate precise RR Lyrae based distances to these globular clusters., Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 4 Tables, Final Version, Accepted in The Astrophysical Journal

Mathematical models, such as those that forecast the spread of epidemics or predict the weather, must overcome the challenges of integrating incomplete and inaccurate data in computer simulations, estimating the probability of multiple possible scenarios, incorporating changes in human behavior and/or the pathogen, and environmental factors. In the past 3 decades, the weather forecasting community has made significant advances in data collection, assimilating heterogeneous data steams into models and communicating the uncertainty of their predictions to the general public. Epidemic modelers are struggling with these same issues in forecasting the spread of emerging diseases, such as Zika virus infection and Ebola virus disease. While weather models rely on physical systems, data from satellites, and weather stations, epidemic models rely on human interactions, multiple data sources such as clinical surveillance and Internet data, and environmental or biological factors that can change the pathogen dynamics. We describe some of similarities and differences between these 2 fields and how the epidemic modeling community is rising to the challenges posed by forecasting to help anticipate and guide the mitigation of epidemics. We conclude that some of the fundamental differences between these 2 fields, such as human behavior, make disease forecasting more challenging than weather forecasting.

This is a different essay from the one I set out to write. When I began, I had in mind a picture of my development as a teacher that was linear. I saw myself as a committed and enthusiastic teacher whose understanding about the nature of learning had developed over time. I had a theory that as a young teacher I was focused on content, on the idea that there were things about the world that I wanted students to learn, and that later I had come to understand the importance of the process of learning, that knowledge is constructed right there in the classroom with an input from all of us. It was a neat story with a beginning and an end. When I started to research the past, however, and found articles and essays I had written over the years, I discovered that the reality was much messier. My understanding had indeed developed and is still growing, but I was surprised at what I knew and was aware of as a young teacher. Moreover, my view about some of the aspects of my teaching that I had shelved in the...

Depending on who you ask, Britain’s Labour Party is either soaring, or in free-fall. There is evidence for both propositions, but the reality is messier. Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership should not be viewed as merely one example of a broader flourishing of populist anti-austerity politics across Europe. Corbyn’s victory owed much to the specific and local circumstances of British Labour in summer 2015, as the party reeled from an epochal electoral defeat. Whether Corbyn’s leadership can prosper outside this very specific moment remains an open question.

We report constraints on the nucleon-dark matter particle cross section using the internal luminosity of observed white dwarf stars in the globular cluster Messier 4. Our results cover the parameter space corresponding to relatively light dark matter particles, in the mass range $0.1~GeV-5~GeV$, which is known to be very difficult to be probed by direct dark matter searches. The additional luminosity coming from self-annihilations of dark matter particles captured inside the stars must not exceed the observed luminosity. Imposing that condition, we obtain for the spin independent cross section of light dark matter particles on baryons $\sigma_{N\chi}$ the upper bound: $\sigma_{N\chi} < 4 \times 10^{-41}{\rm cm^2}$., Comment: 11 pages, 2 tables, 2 figures, references added

This chapter discusses the work of the enormously influential child psychoanalyst Melanie Klein. It shows the psychological difficulties in merely acknowledging the existence of complex, messy systems, let alone in dealing with them. To put it mildly, this makes the recognition of the crises that are associated with complex, messy systems even more difficult. The chapter shows how our minds are organized in such a way that we characteristically split the world into “good” versus “bad guys and/or forces.” For instance, recently Mark Zuckerberg has claimed, “Old people can’t do tech.” Similar claims have been made that “tech is a man’s game.” Needless to say, this makes the treatment of complex, messy systems—not to mention crises—even messier and more complex. There is a deeper implication still of Klein’s work. For instance, Facebook has rightly been accused of undermining trust in our institutions as a result of its serving as a platform for Fake News, salacious ads, etc. Klein’s work shows who the initial source of trust is for humans. The point is the violation of trust stirs up feelings and emotions that lie deep in the makeup of humans. In short, technologists are messing around with forces of which they have very little understanding. It’s the stuff of an immense backlash against technology and technologists. Most importantly, Klein’s works show what we need to do to overcome such difficulties.

Messier, Mireille. Fatima and the Clementine Thieves. Illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard. Red Deer Press, 2017Fatima helps her grandfather in their clementine orchard every day, caring not only for the trees and their harvest, but also for the spiders that protect the trees from insects. But when elephants ravage the orchard that she and her grandfather rely on, Fatima worries how they will save both the orchard and the elephants. Relying on advice from neighbours, Fatima’s grandfather determines to shoot the elephant mother and two calves, spending his last coins on a gun and ammunition. But Fatima seeks a solution outside human invention and rallies her spider friends to protect the orchard, saving both the orchard and the elephants from destruction.Messier’s Fatima is capable and inventive, driven not only by care for her family but also for the natural world: the spiders, the elephants, and the clementine trees. In a story otherwise populated by men, Fatima is a leader, embracing and befriending spiders who are usually feared or ignored, seeking solutions that will be best for all. Messier ensures that Fatima’s voice fills the pages; though the story is occasionally awkward in its transitions from scene to scene, her joy, her fear, her tenacity, and her words hold this story together. While the treatment of the orchard as the family’s sole livelihood is perhaps simplistic, Messier makes a strong statement about violence, in the end turning a gun into a support for a repaired clementine tree.Grimard’s beautifully warm illustrations are the star here, evoking Fatima’s joy and the grandfather’s devotion to her; the beauty and power of the elephants; and the strength of the smallest creatures, whether little girl or spider. Fatima and the Clementine Thieves is a lovely book that reminds readers how, with compassion and tenacity, someone small can make a powerful difference. Recommended for ages 5-7.Recommended: 3 out of 4 starsReviewer: Katherine SchockKatherine is a high school English teacher currently working on an MLIS at the University of Alberta. Her passion for children’s literature is kindled daily by her two small children and her much larger students.

The Hertzsprung Russell (HR) Diagram is one of the most important tools to study stellar evolution and classification. Messier 51 (M51) is a whirlpool galaxy located 25–35 million light years away. It is observed that M51 is a fairly new galaxy, and also highlights the possibility of a black hole (SNe IIb) in the centre of the spiral that could have engulfed the red giants formed from the initial stars in the galaxy. This paper focuses on deriving the spectral features of the star cluster using photometric calculations. The raw image of M51 was obtained from the Hubble Space Archive, and was processed using the Astronomical Tool of IRAF that is used for enhancement of raw images. The photometric data was processed in MATLAB to obtain and observe the HR Diagram of M51, where most of the stars lie in the Main Sequence Region.

The world is too complex and sloppy for such uncompromising attitudes. This chapter discusses the messier "hypothetical imperatives" that invoke desire, negotiation, and reciprocity Of these "lesser," but altogether wiser and deeper principles, one has stood out for its independent derivation, with different words but to the same effect, in culture after culture. Christians call this principle the "golden rule"; Plato, Daniel Hillel, and Confucius knew the same maxim by other names. Patience of this magnitude usually involves a deep understanding of a fundamental principle, central to profession of geology but all too rarely grasped in daily life—the effects of scale. Phenomena unfold on their own appropriate scales of space and time and may be invisible in our myopic world of dimensions assessed by comparison with human height and times metered by human lifespans. On geological scales, our planet will take good care of itself and let time clear the impact of any human malfeasance.

Chapter 2 goes into the details of the 17 telescopes and cameras used to take the Messier images. Telescope images of the actual telescopes used are included where possible when suitable images were available. In cases where they were not readily available images of the telescope models are included that were supplied courtesy of the manufacturers. Not all the telescopes/cameras available on the itelescope.net system were used but details of those that were are included and the Messier images taken with specific telescopes identified.

The year 1729 was an auspicious one for telescope optics. The English jurist and mathematician, Chester Moor Hall (1703–77), combined two different types of glass lenses to create the first achromatic doublet, thereby solving (or nearly so) a long-standing defect of refracting telescopes, chromatic aberration. We have learned in previous chapters that a single lens cannot bring all the rays present in white light to a single focus, owing to the differing refractive indices for different wavelengths of light as they pass through the glass. This led to dispersion, an effect that Newton himself thought impossible to ameliorate (Fig. 6.1).