(Press-News.org) CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers at Oregon State University have helped develop new environmental monitoring technology that will allow farmers thousands of miles away, in west and central Asia, to save millions of dollars while more effectively combatting a pest that is threatening their wheat crops.
Twenty million acres of wheat in parts of Asia and North Africa are threatened by the "Sunn pest," a bug that can destroy the value of wheat. Speed in confronting this pest is essential – even minor delays in use of pesticides can cut wheat yield by 90 percent, and if just 2-5 percent of the grains have been affected, the entire crop becomes unusable for making bread.
A solution to that problem lies in an unusual collaboration between an entomologist, a rangeland specialist and an OSU computer scientist who are using mobile technology and cloud computing for better management of the devastating pests.
Mustapha El Bouhssini, a senior entomologist for the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, an organization based in Lebanon, learned about research done by Doug Johnson, an OSU professor of rangeland ecology and management, which uses geo-referenced photos of rangelands for environmental monitoring.
"When I heard about the OSU imaging system, I knew immediately we could use this for Sunn pests," El Bouhssini said. "Because of the Sunn pest, governments treat infested wheat fields with pesticides; $150 million is spent annually on chemical control. But it's not just the cost that is a concern.
"That's a lot of pesticide to dump in the environment," he added. "It kills the bees, and pollutes the water and the environment."
OSU professor and computer scientist Bechir Hamdaoui joined the project to develop an integrated data acquisition system that could collect and process photos from the field quickly and accurately. Now, smart phones or smart cameras will be used by workers in the field to capture location information and transmit it wirelessly to a remote OSU server for automatic processing.
Decision-makers in places like Turkey and Uzbekistan will be able to find out the number of Sunn pests in their fields and spray only when conditions warrant action. The data collected for pest management can also be examined year-to-year, along with other factors like temperature and weather for prediction modeling.
"We would like to have an impact for these countries where wheat is very important," Hamdaoui said. "It's an essential part of their lives."
The researchers expect the technology will expand to many other areas of research and management.
"Already we've had people talk to us about other applications such as rust on wheat," Johnson said. "People are quite interested."
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Editor's Note: Digital images are available to illustrate this story.
Sunn pest: http://bit.ly/172uUgp
Smart camera in wheat field: http://bit.ly/12LXtsD
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Philadelphia, Pa. (May 29, 2013) – Facial fractures are relatively common, and potentially serious, sports-related injuries among children participating in a wide range of sports, according to a study in the June issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
The five-year study provides insights into the characteristics of sports-related facial fractures in young athletes—including the causes and patterns of fractures in specific sports. "These data may allow targeted or sport-specific ...
MAYWOOD, Il. - Many patients who have experienced strokes or mini strokes take blood thinners such as aspirin or warfarin (Coumadin) to reduce the risk of blood clots that can cause strokes.
This can pose a dilemma when a patient needs to undergo a surgical procedure, because blood thinners can increase the risk of bleeding. But a new guideline from the American Academy of Neurology advises that it is likely safe to continue taking blood thinners before minor procedures such as dental procedures, cataract surgery or dermatologic procedures. The guideline is published ...
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — What started as a dinner-table conversation between a teen and his father has become a bonafide cancer research study for Matthew Lara, a Davis High School sophomore and the son of UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center medical oncologist and researcher Primo (Lucky) Lara Jr.
Matthew, 16, will put on a suit and present his findings on non-small-cell lung cancer during a poster session in Chicago on Saturday at the annual meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), a 30,000-member cancer research organization.
Matthew's poster, entitled ...
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Improvements in crop water productivity -- the amount of food produced per unit of water consumed -- have the potential to improve both food security and water sustainability in many...
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MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (05/29/2013) —Improvements in crop water productivity — the amount of food produced per unit of water consumed — have the potential to improve both food security and water sustainability in many parts of the world, according to ...
PITTSBURGH—Students preparing for final exams might want to wait before pulling an all-night cram session — at least as far as their neurons are concerned. Carnegie Mellon University neuroscientists have discovered a new intermediate phase in neuronal development during which repeated exposure to a stimulus shrinks synapses. The findings are published in the May 8 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
It's well known that synapses in the brain, the connections between neurons and other cells that allow for the transmission of information, grow when they're exposed to ...
Philadelphia, Pa. (May 29, 2013) – For women undergoing breast reconstruction after mastectomy, the weight of the tissue flap used affects the risk of an important complication called fat necrosis, reports a study in Plastic and Reconstruction Surgery-Global Open®, the official open-access medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Information on flap weight—and the number of blood vessels supplying the flap—can help plastic and reconstructive surgeons optimize outcomes for women undergoing breast reconstruction after mastectomy for breast cancer, ...
CHAMPAIGN, lll. — Honey bees don't start out knowing how to find flowers or even how to get around outside the hive. Before they can forage, they must learn how to navigate a changing landscape and orient themselves in relation to the sun.
In a new study, researchers report that a regulatory gene known to be involved in learning and the detection of novelty in vertebrates also kicks into high gear in the brains of honey bees when they are learning to how to find food and bring it home.
Activity of this gene, called Egr, quickly increases in a region of the brain known ...
Irvine, Calif., May 29, 2013 – Mexican American mothers' formal immigration status influences the educational achievement of their children and even their grandchildren, according to a new study led by a UC Irvine sociologist.
Researchers found – based on a large‐scale survey of young, second-generation Mexican American adults in Los Angeles – that those whose mothers were authorized immigrants or U.S. citizens had, on average, two more years of schooling than those whose mothers had entered the country illegally. The researchers estimate that at least a third of ...
New Rochelle, NY, May 29, 2013—A novel, targeted approach to chemotherapy that makes ovarian cancer cells more susceptible to the cytotoxic effects of an antitumor drug may offer a safer, more effective treatment option for this often deadly form of cancer. The research and results are published in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com). The article is available on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website (http://www.liebertpub.com/nat).
Ovarian cancer is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage ...
What will your kids remember about the life stories you tell them? New University of Alberta research shows that they're likely to be able to recall transitional moments you share with them, be it promotions or pets. The research offers strong evidence that societal values significantly affect how people think about and recall events in their lives—and how we potentially carry old values and beliefs forward in a new country.
Psychology researchers Connie Svob and Norman Brown conducted interviews with two groups of participants, split evenly between people born in Canada ...
