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

Differences in life-history traits in two clonal strains of the self-fertilizing fish, Rivulus marmoratus

We compared life-history traits such as fecundity, sex ratio, reproductive cycle, age at sexual maturity, embryonic period, egg size, early growth and morphology in two clonal strains (PAN-RS and DAN) of the mangrove killifish, Rivulus marmoratus, under constant rearing conditions. We found a positive relationship between growth and reproductive effort. Fecundity was significantly higher in the PAN-RS strain than in the DAN strain. The sex ratio was significantly different, with DAN producing more primary males than PAN-RS. Spawning and ovulation cycle did not clearly differ between the strains. PAN-RS showed a significantly higher growth rate than DAN from 0 to 100 days after hatching, however, age at sexual maturity, embryonic period, egg size, and morphometric and meristic characteristics (vertebral and fin-ray counts) did not differ between the two strains. The high fecundity of PAN-RS may provide an increased chance of offspring survival, while the attainment of sexual maturity at a smaller size in DAN may allow them to invest earlier in reproduction to increase breeding success. Variations in the life-history traits of PAN-RS and DAN may be adaptive strategies for life in their natural habitat, which consists of mangrove estuaries with a highly variable environment