“For it Acordeth Noght to Kinde”: Remediating Gower’s Confessio Amantis in Machinima

Visual adaptation of a medieval text, as tempting as it is in film of any kind, is never an easy conversion, and all the more so if the original is as formally structured as John Gower’s Confessio Amantis. This essay examines the philosophy and difficulties of making a “medieval motion picture” (animated and narrated by the author) reflect the message of three of Gower’s tales (“The Travelers and the Angel,” “Canace and Machaire,” “Florent”) as well as the multimedia properties of the manuscripts that house them, their illuminations beckoning us into colorful virtual worlds. In referencing theories of adaptation, the frame, the “video-poem,” and also the challenges posed by filming in an actual virtual world, the essay analyzes each tale in its original and remediated contexts, discussing the film’s fidelity to and departure from them: for in adapting them to “machinima,” its maker uncovers new understandings of them, as well as renewed appreciation of a technical medium that interrogates contemporary concepts of nature, artifice, and representation

A STUDY OF THE STATISTICAL PROPERTIES OF TWO MEASURES OF COMPETITION

In competition studies, two species are studied, generally in ratios of 1:0, 3:1, 1:1, 1:3,and 0: 1. The standard measure of competition is the Relative Crowding Coefficient (RCC)..

Cover crop mixture diversity, biomass productivity, weed suppression, and stability

The diversity-productivity, diversity-invasibility, and diversity-stability hypotheses propose that increasing species diversity should lead, respectively, to increased average biomass productivity, invasion resistance, and stability. We tested these three hypotheses in the context of cover crop mixtures, evaluating the effects of increasing cover crop mixture diversity on above ground biomass, weed suppression, and biomass stability. Twenty to forty cover crop treatments were replicated three or four times at eleven sites using eighteen species representing three cover crop species each from six pre-defined functional groups: cool-season grasses, cool-season legumes, cool-season brassicas, warm-season grasses, warm-season legumes, and warm-season broadleaves. Each species was seeded as a pure stand, and the most diverse treatment contained all eighteen species. Remaining treatments included treatments representing intermediate levels of cover crop species and functional richness and a no cover crop control. Cover crop seeding dates ranged from late July to late September with both cover crop and weed aboveground biomass being sampled prior to winterkill. Stability was assessed by evaluating the variability in cover crop biomass for each treatment across plots within each site. While increasing cover crop mixture diversity was associated with increased average aboveground biomass, we assert that this was the result of the average biomass of the pure stands being drawn down by low biomass species rather than due to niche complementarity or increased resource use efficiency. At no site did the highest biomass mixture produce more than the highest biomass pure stand. Furthermore, while increases in cover crop mixture diversity were correlated with increases in weed suppression and biomass stability, we argue that this was largely the result of diversity co-varying with aboveground biomass, and that differences in aboveground biomass rather than differences in diversity drove the differences observed in weed suppression and stability

A grab-sample study of the benthic invertebrates of the Columbia River Estuary

The report provides benthic invertebrate densities and sediment texture data for 48 stations in the Columbia River estuary (Columbia River mile 0-28) sampled by grab sampler between 31 August 1975 and 22 January 1976

Photosynthesis, yield and raw material quality of sugarcane injured by multiple pests

Understanding sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) response to multiple pest injury, sugarcane borer (Diatraea saccharalis) and spittlebug (Mahanarva fimbriolata), is essential to make better management decisions. Moreover, the consequences of both pests on the sugarcane raw material quality have not yet been studied. A field experiment was performed in São Paulo State, Brazil, where sugarcane plants were exposed to pests individually or in combination. Plots consisted of a 2-m long row of caged sugarcane plants. Photosynthesis was measured once every 3 months (seasonal measurement). Yield and sugar production were assessed. The measured photosynthesis rate was negatively affected by both borer and spittlebug infestations. Photosynthesis reduction was similar on plants infested by both pests as well as by spittlebug individual infestation. Plants under spittlebug infestation resulted in yield losses and represented 17.6% (individual infestation) and 15.5% (multiple infestations). The sucrose content and the sucrose yield per area were reduced when plants were infested by multiple pests or spittlebug