Straw Itch Mite, \u3ci\u3ePyemotes Tritici\u3c/i\u3e, Infestation in Brome Seed Related to Acute Dermatitis in Michigan Granary Workers

An infestation of Pyemotes tritici, the straw itch mite, apparently caused dermatitis on the arms and trunks of four workers in south-central Michigan who had unloaded a shipment of brome seed bags. Sampling of bag surfaces and contents indicated that mites occurred inside and on the surface of brome seed bags, but not in bags of other seed present at the site. One bag of fescue in contact with brome seed bags had mites on its surface. Pyemotes tritici densities on the brome seed bags ranged from 0.7 -5.6 per cm , while infestations in brome seed ranged from 0.08-0.33 mites per ml of seed. An insect repellent containing DEET was effective in preventing mite bites

Gypsy Moth (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) Feeding on Purple Loosestrife \u3ci\u3e(Lythrum Salicaria)\u3c/i\u3e in Michigan

Purple loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria, is an exotic invasive weed which is currently the target of a biological control effort using introduced leaf-feeding beetles. In 1997-1998 we observed larvae of the gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar feeding on L. salicaria at several locations in south central Michigan. In one-minute timed counts conducted over a six-week period in 1998, densities of 0 to 8 larvae per 1-m2 quadrat were observed. Other observations indicated 23 L. dispar 2nd and 3rd instars on a single L. salicaria plant. Second and third instar L. dispar collected on L. salicaria in the field were successfully reared to the adult stage in the lab on a diet of L. salicaria foliage. This is the first report of L. dispar feeding and development on L. salicaria. In areas where they co-occur, distinguishing L. dispar damage from that of introduced natural enemies will be important so that estimates of biocontrol agent impact are not biased

Herbaceous Filter Strips in Agroecosystems: Implications for Ground Beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) Conservation and Invertebrate Weed Seed Predation

A 9.3-ha crop field flanked by two filter strips was selected to: 1) assess carabid beetle activity-density and community composition and 2) assess post-dispersal weed seed predation by invertebrates in these habitats. Over- all during 1997 and 1998, 12,937 carabid beetles comprising 58 species were collected. Greater species richness and activity-density was observed in filter strips than in the field. A multivariate ordination revealed that year of capture and habitat were important variables conditioning carabid beetle com­munities. While two omnivorous species known to eat weed seeds [Harpalus erraticus (Say), Anisodactylus sanctaecrucis (F.)] dominated the 1997 captures, two carnivorous [Pterostichus melanarius (Ill), Pterostichus permundus (Say)] were predominant in 1998. Two omnivorous species, Harpalus pensylvanicus (DeG) and H. erraticus, were primarily captured in filter strips. Weed seed removal was greater in filter strips than in the field. This study shows that habitat management represents a feasible approach to con­serve beneficial organisms in farmlands

Herbaceous Filter Strips in Agroecosystems: Implications for Ground Beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) Conservation and Invertebrate Weed Seed Predation

A 9.3-ha crop field flanked by two filter strips was selected to: 1) assess carabid beetle activity-density and community composition and 2) assess post-dispersal weed seed predation by invertebrates in these habitats. Over- all during 1997 and 1998, 12,937 carabid beetles comprising 58 species were collected. Greater species richness and activity-density was observed in filter strips than in the field. A multivariate ordination revealed that year of capture and habitat were important variables conditioning carabid beetle com­munities. While two omnivorous species known to eat weed seeds [Harpalus erraticus (Say), Anisodactylus sanctaecrucis (F.)] dominated the 1997 captures, two carnivorous [Pterostichus melanarius (Ill), Pterostichus permundus (Say)] were predominant in 1998. Two omnivorous species, Harpalus pensylvanicus (DeG) and H. erraticus, were primarily captured in filter strips. Weed seed removal was greater in filter strips than in the field. This study shows that habitat management represents a feasible approach to con­serve beneficial organisms in farmlands

Touchscreen task efficiency and learnability in an electronic medical record at the point-of-care.

The objective of this study was to determine the relative efficiency of novices compared to a prediction of skilled use when performing tasks using the touchscreen interface of an EMR developed in Malawi. We observed novice users performing touchscreen tasks and recorded timestamp data from their performances. Using a predictive human performance modeling tool, the authors predicted the skilled task performance time for each task. Efficiency and rates of error were evaluated with respect to user interface design. Nineteen participants performed 31 EMR tasks seven times for a total of 4,123 observed performances. We analyzed twelve representative tasks leaving 1,596 performances featuring six user interface designs. Mean novice performance time was significantly slower than mean predicted skilled performance time (p<0.001). However, novices performed faster than the predicted skilled level in 208 (13%) of successful task performances. These findings suggest the user interface design supports a primary design goal of the EMR--to allow novice users to perform tasks efficiently and effectively

Acquisition of Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Manufacturing and Science Laboratory

This action is in response to the Major Research Instrumentation Initiative MRI\u2798 (NSF-98-16). The purpose is to upgrade a Composite-Reinforced-Wood (CRW) Manufacturing Science Laboratory at the University of Maine. The laboratory is part of a new facility designed to develop the next generation of wood composites for construction. Recent research has shown that Composite Reinforced Wood (CRW) offers superior properties at reduced costs. As in the development of reinforced and prestressed concrete, basic research is needed to unlock the full potential of a wide variety of CRW structural members, e.g. joists, beams, columns, panel and connections. CRW hybrids are unique in that two very different classes of material, FRP and wood are used together; thus the principles governing the short and long-term structural behavior differ in many ways form those involving only one of the two materials. This project will focus on:Developing a new class of FRP reinforcing materials that are compatible with wood, particularly its hypoexpansion and visco-elastic properties.Developing and maintaining over time the interface (bond) between the two materials needed to ensure full composite action (this will require a basic understanding of the mechanisms of bond durability).Developing a basic understanding of the short and long-term behavior of CRW structural elements including performance over the full range of loading, ultimate strength, ductility, creep, fatigue, and moisture/temperature/UV cycling.The research is conducted at four different levels: micro, meso, macro and structural. A multi-disciplinary team will conduct the research composing ten engineers and scientists from three units at the University of Maine (civil/structural engineering, wood science and technology, and chemical engineering), the industry-supported SPI composites Institute, the Composites Materials Engineering Center (COMTEC) in Winona MN, and the USDA Forest Products laboratory in Madison

Far-field deformation resulting from rheologic differences interacting with tectonic stresses: an example from the Pacific/Australian plate boundary in Southern New Zealand

The Miocene in Southern New Zealand was dominated by strike-slip tectonics. Stratigraphic evidence from this time attests to two zones of subsidence in the south: (a) a middle Cenozoic pull-apart basin and (b) a regionally extensive subsiding lake complex, which developed east and distal to the developing plate boundary structure. The lake overlay a block of crust with a significantly weak mid-crustal section and we pose the question: can rheological transitions at an angle to a plate boundary produce distal subsidence and/or uplift? We use stratigraphic, structural and geophysical observations from Southern New Zealand to constrain three-dimensional numerical models for a variety of boundary conditions and rheological scenarios. We show that coincident subsidence and uplift can result from purely strike-slip boundary conditions interacting with a transition from strong to weak to strong mid-crustal rheology. The resulting pattern of vertical displacement is a function of the symmetry or asymmetry of the boundary conditions and the extent and orientation of the rheological transitions. For the Southern New Zealand case study, subsidence rates of ~0.1 mm/yr are predicted for a relative plate motion of 25 mm/yr, leading to ~500 m of subsidence over a 5 Ma time period, comparable to the thickness of preserved lacustrine sediments

Mobile Agent-Based Distributed Fusion (MADFUSION) System

Abstract-This paper considers a system architecture referred to as the Mobile Agent-Based Distributed Fusion (MADFUSION) system. The system environment consists of a peer-to-peer ad-hoc network in which information may be dynamically distributed and collected via publish/subscribe functionality implemented at each node of the network to facilitate data sharing and decision making in Level 2 Fusion. The Level 2 decision making process implemented in the system consists of the Enhanced Doctrinal Template Matching (EDTM) algorithm which is shown to be an improvement over the pre-existing Doctrinal Template Matching algorithm. This algorithm is developed to operates on information obtained from lower layer fusion processes in order to identify aggregated groups of entities. The template matching algorithm is shown to be an improvement over a previously existing algorithm. The MADFUSION system is proposed to extend the client/server architecture of various publish/subscribe applications to an architecture providing decentralization, reconfigurability, mobility, attainability and prevention of single points of failure. The system is implemented in a wireless ad-hoc network (802.11b) and performs the publish/subscribe functionality through the implementation of a mobile agent based framework. The software agents travel deterministically from node-to-node carrying a data payload consisting of information which may be subscribed to by users within the network. Within this system, situation awareness (Level 2 fusion) can be sought by using these multi-domain information sources (GMTI, Video, or SAR) for evaluation at each node with different distributed information fusion algorithms

Farmer's behavior in pesticide use : insights study from smallholder and intensive agricultural farms in Bangladesh

Funding was provided fully by USAID-sponsored Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) Program's Cycle 6 project, entitled “Ecosystem services in a changing climate; assessing critical services in Bangladesh rice production landscapes.” PEER is implemented by U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) via USAID and NAS Prime Agreement No. AID-OAA-A-11-00012. D.L. (US partner on the PEER grant) acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation Long-term Ecological Research Program (DEB 1832042) at the Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University South Asia Partnership and MSU AgBioResearch.Since independence and over the years, pesticides have become a dominant feature of Bangladesh agriculture. To protect farmers' health, environment and to improve sustainability of chemical pest control quantitative understanding of farmers' behavior in pesticide use is critical. However, study on the levels of knowledge and awareness of farmers and the practices of pesticide use are often limited. We conducted a broad analysis on the effects of knowledge and awareness of farmers as well as the influence of the different associated stakeholders such as pesticide retailers and the government, on farmers' behavior in pesticide use from a detailed survey of 917 agricultural households in different regions of Bangladesh. Within eight protective behaviors (PBs) or PPEs were largely influenced by the crops growers and regions. Never discarding empty pesticide containers in the field, never applying pesticides more than prescribed by DAE or the instruction manual, selecting new types of pesticides recommended by DAE and purchasing low toxicity pesticides were the most adopted practices. Most farmers from the South-East region were adopting the PB of wearing mask, gloves and long sleeved clothes when spraying and farmers from South trusted the recommendations of pesticides by village leaders and neighbors. Majority of vegetables growers were well informed that pesticides were very harmful to the quality of agricultural products, the environment, and human health but not rice or mixed crops growers. Generally, PBs were positively affected by the perception of the consequences of farmers' behavior and knowledge of pesticide use but negatively influenced by action of governments and trust of retailers. It is important to recognize the differences that exist among different crops growers and locations. Attempt needs to bridge the gap among crop growers, locations and different stakeholder such as government agencies and retailers to develop policy.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Computer-supported feedback message tailoring: Theory-informed adaptation of clinical audit and feedback for learning and behavior change

Background: Evidence shows that clinical audit and feedback can significantly improve compliance with desired practice, but it is unclear when and how it is effective. Audit and feedback is likely to be more effective when feedback messages can influence barriers to behavior change, but barriers to change differ across individual health-care providers, stemming from differences in providers' individual characteristics. Discussion: The purpose of this article is to invite debate and direct research attention towards a novel audit and feedback component that could enable interventions to adapt to barriers to behavior change for individual health-care providers: computer-supported tailoring of feedback messages. We argue that, by leveraging available clinical data, theory-informed knowledge about behavior change, and the knowledge of clinical supervisors or peers who deliver feedback messages, a software application that supports feedback message tailoring could improve feedback message relevance for barriers to behavior change, thereby increasing the effectiveness of audit and feedback interventions. We describe a prototype system that supports the provision of tailored feedback messages by generating a menu of graphical and textual messages with associated descriptions of targeted barriers to behavior change. Supervisors could use the menu to select messages based on their awareness of each feedback recipient's specific barriers to behavior change. We anticipate that such a system, if designed appropriately, could guide supervisors towards giving more effective feedback for health-care providers. Summary: A foundation of evidence and knowledge in related health research domains supports the development of feedback message tailoring systems for clinical audit and feedback. Creating and evaluating computer-supported feedback tailoring tools is a promising approach to improving the effectiveness of clinical audit and feedback