John Keats at Winchester

Nicholas Roe reflects on why Keats came to Winchester, and what he wrote while staying there. His chapter explores the range of meanings that Winchester’s founding father King Alfred took on for Keats, bringing new pressure to bear on the poem most closely associated with the market city: ‘To Autumn’. Roe’s concern is to place the ode in relation both to Winchester’s historical associations and to its great presider, King Alfred. In fascinating detail, Roe’s sensitively attuned reading allows us to see how the ode’s language and imagery are closely related to Alfred’s Anglo-Saxon language and liberties, in often surprising ways.Postprin

'Mr. Keats'

Full exploration of the implications of the surgical episode involving 'Mr Keats, one of the Surgeons belonging to Guy's Hospital' in March-April 1816.PostprintPeer reviewe

English restored : John Keats's To Autumn

This essay argues that on the threshold of winter in 1819 the ‘condition of the language’ itself proved to be a remarkable resource for Keats and that, as Miriam Allott suggested, he was continuing to reflect upon and respond creatively to an earlier period as he set about remaking himself once again as a poet.PostprintPeer reviewe

Charles Armitage Brown, John Keats and Plymouth

This article explores Charles Armitage Brown's residence at Laira, Plymouth, 1835-41. His cottage at Laira survives and is explored, as are Brown's activities at the Plymouth Institution. His friendship with Keats is discussed, and his publication of some fifteen of Keats's poems in Plymouth newspapers, The Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse News and The Plymouth and Devonport Weekly Journal. The purpose of the article is to draw attention to Brown's Keats-related activities at Plymouth as a significant stage in the development of the poet's reputation.PostprintPeer reviewe

Notes and Discussion Piece: Status of the Topeka Shiner in Iowa

The Topeka shiner Notropis topeka is native to Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota and has been federally listed as endangered since 1998. Our goals were to determine the present distribution and qualitative status of Topeka shiners throughout its current range in Iowa and characterize the extent of decline in relation to its historic distribution. We compared the current (2016–2017) distribution to distributions portrayed in three earlier time periods. In 2016–2017 Topeka shiners were found in 12 of 20 HUC10 watersheds where they occurred historically. Their status was classified as stable in 21% of the HUC10 watersheds, possibly stable in 25%, possibly recovering in 8%, at risk in 33%, and possibly extirpated in 13% of the watersheds. The increasing trend in percent decline evident in earlier time periods reversed, going from 68% in 2010–11 to 40% in the most recent surveys. Following decades of decline, the status of Topeka shiners in Iowa appears to be improving. One potential reason for the reversal in the distributional decline of Topeka shiners in Iowa is the increasing number of oxbow restorations. Until a standardized monitoring program is established for Iowa, periodic status assessments such as this will be necessary to chronicle progress toward conserving this endangered fish species

Last words

Review of 'Deaths of the Poets' by Paul Farley and Michael Symmons RobertsPublisher PD

The birth of romance

Review of Rachel Hewitt's book 'A revolution of feeling: the decade that forged the modern mind'Publisher PD

Genomic plasticity of pathogenic Escherichia coli mediates D-serine tolerance via multiple adaptive mechanisms

Significance Pathogens ensure infection of favored sites in the body by responding to chemical signals. One chemical abundant in urine, the amino acid d -Ser, is toxic to EHEC and reduces expression of the machinery used for host cell attachment, making the bladder an unfavorable environment. We observed that under d -Ser stress, EHEC acquires genetic changes that lead to blocking d -Ser uptake into the cell or activating a silent enzyme for degrading d -Ser. This prevents growth inhibition and, critically, inhibits the repression of attachment machinery normally caused by d -Ser. These findings highlight the importance of pathogen evolution in determining how host molecules regulate colonization. These interactions underpin a process known as niche restriction that is important for pathogen success within the host

NIHTS: the near-infrared high throughput spectrograph for the Discovery Channel Telescope

NIHTS is a first-generation instrument now in use on Lowell Observatory’s Discovery Channel Telescope. It is a nearinfrared prism spectrograph of the BASS design featuring high throughput and low dispersion that is intended for observations of faint solar system and astrophysical objects over the YJHK spectral range. An unusual feature is its ability to observe simultaneously with the Large Monolithic Imager, an optical CCD camera, by means of a dichroic fold mirror. This is particularly valuable for time-variable targets such as Kuiper Belt Objects, asteroids, exoplanet transits, and brown dwarfs. We describe its design details and performance both in the lab and on the telescope