COTGAME: Cotton Insect Pest Management Simulation Game

An interactive version of the Cotton and Insect Management (CIM) model was developed to aid individuals in improving their insect pest management decision making skills. This version, COTGAME, allowed the user to encounter situations and make decisions during the simulated cotton crop growing season. The intermediate results of these decisions were immediately delivered in the form of a report on the current status of the crop and insect populations. Based on the information presented in this status report, the user would make additional management decisions and take tactical actions. Once the harvest date had been reached, the economics of the simulated production season was presented to allow the user to evaluate the decisions. The use of COTGAME has been a way to apply the technology in a detailed crop growth model to improving insect pest management skills

Goal Programming for Estimating Initial Influx of Insect Pests

A method is presented to estimate the initial number of insect pests entering a field by using a goal programming routine coupled with an insect population dynamics simulation model. In this method, the observed insect population levels during the season are used as goals and the coupled routine and simulation model are used to estimate the initial emergence pattern. Enhancements to the method are described including weighting certain goals and allowing goals to be represented by ranges. An algorithm is presented by which entomological expertise can be utilized in an interactive mode

Studying Development and Explaining Policies

Development is an ideological project. It originated in the need to address the negative consequences of capitalism in metropolitan countries and was integral to the project of imperialism, whose legacy it bears. Development policies and development studies both confound the intention to develop with the process of development. Theorists of development and of state-directed development, and most of their critics, share dualist assumptions. They have been concerned to explain how to modernize backward and rural economies and to transfer resources to create modern industrial economies. They have drawn on and influenced commu nist, state-led and market-oriented development strategies.