Materializing digital collecting: an extended view of digital materiality

If digital objects are abundant and ubiquitous, why should consumers pay for, much less collect them? The qualities of digital code present numerous challenges for collecting, yet digital collecting can and does occur. We explore the role of companies in constructing digital consumption objects that encourage and support collecting behaviours, identifying material configuration techniques that materialise these objects as elusive and authentic. Such techniques, we argue, may facilitate those pleasures of collecting otherwise absent in the digital realm. We extend theories of collecting by highlighting the role of objects and the companies that construct them in materialising digital collecting. More broadly, we extend theories of digital materiality by highlighting processes of digital material configuration that occur in the pre-objectification phase of materialisation, acknowledging the role of marketing and design in shaping the qualities exhibited by digital consumption objects and consequently related consumption behaviours and experiences

Manejo da podridão-de-Sclerotium em pimentão em um argisolo no Amazonas

A podridão-de-Sclerotium é uma doença comum em plantas da família Solanaceae na Amazônia. Visando avaliar estratégias de manejo para esta doença em pimentão (Capsicum annuum, L. Solanaceae), foi conduzido experimento em campo em blocos casualizados com parcelas subdivididas e seis repetições, em Argissolo Vermelho-Amarelo artificialmente infestado com Sclerotium rolfsii. O tratamento principal foi a cobertura do solo (cobertura do solo com serragem ou solo nu). Os tratamentos secundários consistiram na adição ao solo de: 1) composto vegetal (3 L por cova), 2) arroz colonizado com Trichoderma harzianum (90 g por cova contendo ≈ 1,4 x 10(9) conídios g-1), 3) composto vegetal e T. harzianum nas mesmas proporções descritas anteriormente e 4) testemunha. Todas as plantas receberam apenas adubação orgânica com composto vegetal na proporção de 1,5 L por cova, exceto as dos tratamentos com 3 L de composto por cova. A parcela principal foi constituída de três fileiras com dez plantas de pimentão (0,50 x 1,0 m) e cada subparcela continha três fileiras com cinco plantas. A incidência da podridão-de-Sclerotium foi avaliada duas vezes por semana. A cobertura morta favoreceu significativamente a ocorrência da doença. Nas parcelas com esse tratamento o aumento da intensidade da doença, expressa em área abaixo da curva de progresso da doença (AACPD), foi 35,5% maior, em comparação com as parcelas sem cobertura morta. A aplicação de T. harzianum ou o incremento na quantidade de composto (de 1,5 para 3 L por cova) reduziu a AACPD em 38,1% e 37,5%, respectivamente. A aplicação de T. harzianum ou o incremento na quantidade de composto, mesmo nos tratamentos com cobertura morta, reduziu significativamente a AACPD em 52,8% e em 55,1%, respectivamente, em comparação com o tratamento apenas com cobertura morta. Esses resultados sugerem que a utilização de T. harzianum e o aumento na quantidade de composto por cova são estratégias eficientes de manejo da podridão-de-Sclerotium em pimentão. A cobertura morta com serragem não deve ser utilizada em áreas infestadas com S. rolfsii

Improved biocontrol efficacy of Trichoderma harzianum 1295-22 for foliar phases of turf diseases by use of spray applications

Trichoderma harzianum strain 1295-22 is an effective biocontrol agent for several fungal diseases. The efficacy of granule and spray applications of strain 1295-22 for control of Pythium root rot, brown patch, and dollar spot of creeping bentgrass was investigated. Spray applications of conidial suspensions (SA) of strain 1295-22 significantly reduced all three diseases of creeping bentgrass turf in both greenhouse and field experiments. Control was greatest when Triton X-100 at 0.1% was added to aqueous spray suspensions. When SA were applied weekly, the biocontrol treatments were equivalent to standard fungicides. Broadcast granule applications (GA) also significantly reduced foliar symptoms of Pythium root rot, dollar spot, and brown patch; turf quality also was enhanced. The populations of Trichoderma spp. in the root zone of a bentgrass putting green treated with SA or GA of strain 1295-22 increased 10- to 100-fold after treatment compared with untreated plots. However, strain 1295-22 was present at high levels on bentgrass leaves only following SA. Collectively, the results suggest that strain 1295-22 possesses both rhizosphere and phylloplane competence. The combination of broadcast applications of granules followed by spray applications of conidia reduced damage from both root and foliar diseases

Biological control of turfgrass diseases with a rhizosphere competent strain of Trichoderma harzianum

Trichoderma harzianum strain 1295 22 is a commercially available biocontrol agent that is strongly rhizosphere competent and able to control several plant pathogenic fungi. Two formulations were tested for their ability to control brown patch caused by Rhizoctonia solani, dollar spot caused by Sclerotinia homoeocarpa, and Pythium root rot and blight caused by Pythium graminicola. In growth chamber trials, soils planted with creeping bentgrass were amended with the granular formulation to give 106 cfu/g. All three diseases were significantly reduced by this treatment. Populations of Pythium spp. were suppressed under laboratory conditions by strain 1295-22. In field trials conducted over 4 years, strain 1295-22 reduced dollar spot severity relative to untreated plots. Monthly applications of granular or peat-based formulations of T. harzianum 1295-22 reduced initial disease severity by as much as 71% and delayed disease development by up to 30 days. The persistence of strain 1295-22 in soil core samples from treated creeping bentgrass greens was also measured. After application of strain 1295-22, soil populations of Trichoderma spp. increased 100-fold relative to populations in untreated plots. Population levels remained at least an order of magnitude greater in treated than in untreated plots. Even after overwintering, population levels remained at or above 105 cfu/g of dry weight of the sample