He Was The Best of Kings; He Was the Worst of Kings: A Critique of the Literary Presentation of Richard I

In order to achieve a more holistic understanding of Mediterranean History during the Third Crusade, a critical analysis of Richard I is necessary. This paper questions how accurately Richard I was portrayed in literary sources during the Third Crusade and attempts to construct as complete an image of the various motivations that led to differing depictions of Richard I as possible through a critical analysis of literary sources. Focusing on how his actions during the Third Crusade were interpreted, this paper will show the various, often opposing, sentiments held by both Western and Muslim authors on Richard I. Once a comprehensive presentation of the literary representations of Richard I has been established, this paper will question motives behind authors’ characterizations of King Richard in order to create a greater understanding of the politics and cultural biases that were driving forces behind the actions of the Third Crusade and modern interpretation

Testing the potential of Twitter mining methods for data acquisition: Evaluating novel opportunities for ecological research in multiple taxa

Social media provides unique opportunities for data collection. Retrospective analysis of social media posts has been used in seismology, political science and public risk perception studies but has not been used extensively in ecological research. There is currently no assessment of whether such data are valid and robust in ecological contexts. We used “Twitter mining” methods to search Twitter (a microblogging site) for terms relevant to three nationwide UK ecological phenomena: winged ant emergence; autumnal house spider sightings; and starling murmurations. To determine the extent to which Twitter‐mined data were reliable and suitable for answering specific ecological questions the data so gathered were analysed and the results directly compared to the findings of three published studies based on primary data collected by citizen scientists during the same time period. Twitter‐mined data proved robust for quantifying temporal ecological patterns. There was striking similarity in the temporal patterns of winged ant emergence between previously published work and our analysis of Twitter‐mined data at national scales; this was also the case for house spider sightings. Spatial data were less available but analysis of Twitter‐mined data was able to replicate most spatial findings from all three studies. Baseline ecological findings, such as the sex ratio of house spider sightings, could also be replicated. Where Twitter mining was less successful was answering specific questions and testing hypotheses. Thus, we were unable to determine the influence of microhabitat on winged ants or test predation and weather hypotheses for initiation of murmuration behaviour. Twitter mining clearly has great potential to generate spatiotemporal ecological data and to answer specific ecological questions. However, we found that the types and usefulness of data differed substantially between the three phenomena. Consequently, we suggest that understanding users' behaviour when posting on ecological topics would be useful if using social media is to generate ecological data

Biogeochemical properties and transports in the North East Atlantic

The eastern subpolar North Atlantic is a source of nutrients to the Northwest European Shelf and Arctic; however, biogeochemical transports in this important region are unknown. We examine variability in nutrients and carbon at the eastern boundary of the subpolar North Atlantic between 2017 and 2020, and calculate their transport by a branch of the North Atlantic Current and the European Slope Current. By combining observations from moorings and ship-based surveys, we derive novel biogeochemical property transports at high temporal resolution. Data from 63 m provide new evidence of a strong seasonal signal with silicate declining between April and May (−2.3 μmol kg−1) and a concurrent increase in pH (0.04) and oxygen saturation (3.5%). Additionally, pH and oxygen saturation show a secondary peak in October during the autumn bloom. Biogeochemical transports are northwards and highly variable with volume transport dominating the variability over a multi-annual timescale. However, historical data suggests that nitrate and phosphate transports were 15% and 19% lower respectively in the late 2000s when the subpolar gyre circulation was weaker and lower nutrient source waters were dominant. These changes may have been amplified by concurrent reductions in volume transport. Changes in carbon and nutrient transports in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic may propagate downstream with potential effects on the Northwest European Shelf and Eurasian Arctic

AXR2 Encodes a Member of the Aux/IAA Protein Family

The dominant gain-of-function axr2-1 mutation of Arabidopsis causes agravitropic root and shoot growth, a short hypocotyl and stem, and auxin-resistant root growth. We have cloned the AXR2 gene using a map-based approach, and find that it is the same as IAA7, a member of the IAA (indole-3-acetic acid) family of auxin-inducible genes. The axr2-1 mutation changes a single amino acid in conserved domain II of AXR2/IAA7. We isolated loss-of-function mutations in AXR2/IAA7 as intragenic suppressors of axr2-1 or in a screen for insertion mutations in IAA genes. A null mutant has a slightly longer hypocotyl than wild-type plants, indicating that AXR2/IAA7 controls development in light-grown seedlings, perhaps in concert with other gene products. Dark-grown axr2-1 mutant plants have short hypocotyls and make leaves, suggesting that activation of AXR2/IAA7 is sufficient to induce morphological responses normally elicited by light. Previously described semidominant mutations in two other Arabidopsis IAA genes cause some of the same phenotypes as axr2-1, but also cause distinct phenotypes. These results illustrate functional differences among members of the Arabidopsis IAA gene family