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

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

New interlaminar features and void distributions in advanced aerospace-grade composites revealed via automated algorithms using micro-computed tomography

X-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT) is used to quantify morphology in AS4/8552 (autoclave) and IM7/M56 (Out-of-Autoclave, OoA) aerospace-grade advanced unidirectional-ply carbon fiber prepreg composites, revealing several previously unreported features. The micron-scale (1 μm voxel size) three-dimensional datasets combined with automated, objective algorithms, revealed the following previously unreported features of AS4/8552 and IM7/M56 laminates, respectively: all ply interfaces analyzed have misplaced microfibers at densities of 1–2 per mm2 of interface area that can contribute to the mean thickness of the interlaminar regions of 8.6 μm and 14.4 μm; all ply interfaces have elongated (aspect ratio > 10 and presumed to extend indefinitely) periodic resin pockets along the microfiber direction of the plies bounding the interlaminar region that we term tow-aligned resin pockets (TARPs), with typical thicknesses that are 2–3X greater than the average interlaminar thickness; overall void fractions are low at ~0.002 vol% and ~0.001 vol%, comprised primarily of newly-quantified "sub-microvoids" with an average volume of 26–31 μm3 that are equally pervasive in both materials, numbering ~300 per mm3. The new interlaminar region and void tools were also utilized to analyze laminates with aligned carbon nanotubes (A-CNTs), termed "nanostitches", incorporated between plies to reinforce the interlaminar regions. The addition of A-CNTs increased the interlaminar thickness by 2.2 μm and 8.0 μm for the AS4/8552 and IM7/M56 systems, respectively, but did not affect the quantity or distribution of voids or TARPs. These newly-identified features are relevant to the mechanical performance of such composites, as they may have positive or negative effects on damage initiation and progression