Open Farm Information System data-exchange platform for interaction with agricultural information systems

Information systems for agriculture have been developed from simple data storage and management. They have been designed to support farm-automations or services that employ optimal decision-making techniques by integrating data from other information systems. The interfacing capability of an information system is critical to realizing additional values. Open Farm Information System (OFIS), which is an integrated system for farm management, uses a data-exchange platform to communicate with other information systems based on web-service technology. OFIS data-exchange platform consists of two services: data collection and sharing. For these services, an abstract data collection procedure for external data and data sharing interface used to access internal data stored in OFIS were designed as open interface. In order to evaluate OFIS data-exchange platform, two use cases were illustrated and a data consistency test was conducted. The use cases revealed that the platform was flexible in collecting from various data sources such as web services and serial communication devices. For the data consistency test, the data-collection service collected data from target data sources without any data loss, while the data-sharing service provided all expected data without error

Impacts of salt stress on locomotor and transcriptomic responses in the intertidal Gastropod Batillaria attramentaria

Salinity is one of the most crucial environmental factors that structures biogeographic boundaries of aquatic organisms, affecting distribution, abundance, and behavior. However, the association between behavior and gene regulation underlying acclimation to changes in salinity remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the effects of salinity stress on behavior (movement distance) and patterns of gene expression (using RNA sequencing) of the intertidal gastropod Batillaria attramentaria. We examined responses to short-term (1-hour) and long-term (30-day) acclimation to a range of salinities (43, 33 [control], 23, 13, and 3 psu). We found that the intertidal B. attramentaria is able to tolerate a broad range of salinity from 13 to 43 psu but not the acute low salinity of 3 psu. Behavioral experiments showed that salt stress significantly influenced snails’ movement, with lower salinity resulting in shorter movement distance. Transcriptomic analyses revealed critical metabolic pathways and genes potentially involved in acclimation to salinity stress, including ionic and osmotic regulation, signal and hormonal transduction pathways, water exchange, cell protection, and gene regulation or epigenetic modification. In general, our study presents a robust, integrative laboratory-based approach to investigate the effects of salt stress on a nonmodel gastropod facing detrimental consequences of environmental change. The current genetic results provide a wealth of reference data for further research on mechanisms of ionic and osmotic regulation and adaptive evolution of this coastal gastropod

Triage Method for Out-of-Hospital Poisoned Patients

The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a triage method to prevent unnecessary emergency department visits of out-of-hospital poisoned patients. From October 2003 to September 2004, the calls that lay persons gave to the Seoul Emergency Medical Information Center to seek advices on the out-of-hospital poisoned patients were enrolled. We designed a triage protocol that consisted of five factors and applied it to the patients. According to the medical outcomes, we classified the patients into two groups, the toxicity-positive and the toxicity-negative. We arranged the factors on the basis of the priority that was determined in order of the odds ratio of each factor for the toxicity-positive and made a flow chart as a triage method. Then we calculated a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the method. We regarded the specificity as the ability of the method and the sensitivity as the safety. A total of 220 patients were enrolled in this study. The method showed a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of 99.2%, 53.4%, 76.2%, and 97.9%, respectively. Our triage method prevented 53.4% of the unnecessary emergency department visits of out-of-hospital acutely poisoned patients, safely

Transport and deposition of spray droplets above and within a soybean canopy

Chemical application is the most effective and feasible method of pest control. However, the process of transport and deposition of spray droplets during application are not fully understood. Particularly, the effect of turbulence on spray transport and deposition is not clear.The goal of this research was to develop a spray transport and deposition model that considers the effect of turbulence above and within a plant canopy. A Random Walk model which includes droplet evaporation and high initial droplet velocity and entrained air flow was used for the transport and deposition model. Data on turbulent wind velocities in a soybean field and droplet characteristics from a XR8002 flat-fan nozzle were collected, analyzed and used as an input for the model. Also, a new Random Walk model was proposed which considers skewness of turbulent velocity in the z-direction. Data for verification of the model was collected in a soybean field using water sensitive cards and analyzed by a machine vision system.A simple Markov chain that includes Reynolds stress, displayed the best performance for mass conservation among the models that were tried. The developed model showed reasonable predictions for spray transport but deposition in top region of the canopy seemed to be overestimated.Turbulence of air flow within and above a soybean canopy were measured and modeled as simple linear equation. Also, the data shows the possibility of a transition height above the canopy where the existence of the canopy affects turbulence characteristics.Sensitivity analysis of the transport model indicated that 150 microns is a critical droplet diameter which balances droplet coverage and evaporation loss.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio

Effects of Unmanned Aerial Spray System Flight Altitude and Collector Height on Spray Deposition Measured Using a Food Dye Tracer

The use of unmanned aerial spray systems (UASS) has increased owing to their many advantages. However, studies related to a standardized method to evaluate the spray performance of UASS are lacking. Therefore, in the present study, a quantitative analytical method using a food dye tracer was compared with the image analysis method, and the effects of experimental conditions on spray deposition were assessed. Concordance between the results of quantitative and image analyses was examined. The coverage of water-sensitive paper (WSP) and Medley Velvet (MV) was compared using image analysis. Moreover, the effects of flight altitude and collector height on spray deposition amount and effective spray width were evaluated. The results showed a significant correlation between the deposition and the coverage of MV (R2 = 0.6782, p-level < 0.001). The coverage of MV is different from that of WSP. In addition, the correlation coefficient between the coverage of WSP and that of MV was smaller than the correlation coefficient between depositions and the coverage of MV. Therefore, MV should be used instead of WSP for more accurate analysis. The lower the collector height, the smaller the deposition amount. The effective spray width increased as the distance between the collector and UASS increased, whereas the total deposition amount decreased when the collector was close to the ground. Overall, using a food dye tracer, both quantitative and qualitative analyses can be applied simultaneously, and this method may replace analysis using WSP

Surplus thermal energy model of greenhouses and coefficient analysis for effective utilization

If a greenhouse in the temperate and subtropical regions is maintained in a closed condition, the indoor temperature commonly exceeds that required for optimal plant growth, even in the cold season. This study considered this excess energy as surplus thermal energy (STE), which can be recovered, stored and used when heating is necessary. To use the STE economically and effectively, the amount of STE must be estimated before designing a utilization system. Therefore, this study proposed an STE model using energy balance equations for the three steps of the STE generation process. The coefficients in the model were determined by the results of previous research and experiments using the test greenhouse. The proposed STE model produced monthly errors of 17.9%, 10.4% and 7.4% for December, January and February, respectively. Furthermore, the effects of the coefficients on the model accuracy were revealed by the estimation error assessment and linear regression analysis through fixing dynamic coefficients. A sensitivity analysis of the model coefficients indicated that the coefficients have to be determined carefully. This study also provides effective ways to increase the amount of STE