How To Get CARMA

Please go to the program developer’s, Dr. John Hastings, web site to get the latest version CARMA

http://carma.unk.edu/


Because our goal was to produce a piece of software that is so intuitive and accessible that it can be used with this brief set of instructions, there is no cumbersome and alienating "User's Manual".  To begin your first consultation, simply click on "Consultation" and then "New" and answer the questions as they appear.  The other buttons are intended to be self-explanatory and intuitive.  We believe that you will quickly become familiar and fluent in the simple processes of using this software, but should you encounter difficulties please feel free to contact us.

For questions regarding the performance of CARMA or about grasshopper management contact:
    Dr. Alexandre Latchininsky
    Extension Entomologist - University of Wyoming  
    College of Agriculture
    Dept. 3354
    1000 E. University Avenue
    Laramie, WY 82071
        Tel: (307) 766-2298
        FAX: (307) 766-5025
        Internet: latchini@uwyo.edu
 

**                   ABOUT CARMA                   **

 

CARMA: CAse-based Range Management Adviser

Version:  5.048 Sept, 2007

Copyright (C) 1996 - 2007 University of Wyoming and University of Nebraska

Program development:  John D. Hastings, L. Karl Branting, Brandon M. Hauff

Concept & design:  John D. Hastings, L. Karl Branting, Jeffrey A. Lockwood

Entomological & pest management expertise:  Jeffrey A. Lockwood, Alexandre V. Latchininsky, Scott P. Schell

CARMA produces advice about the most economical responses to Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana grasshopper infestations.  CARMA does this by predicting the proportion of available forage that will be consumed by grasshoppers and estimating the economic returns of various treatment options.  The information required to make the forage loss prediction includes the date, the infestation location on a state map, the range value and infestation history of the location, the number of grasshoppers per square yard, the grasshopper type and age distribution, the relative recent precipitation and temperatures, and the total area infested (including adjacent neighbors' lands).  It can also be used for states adjacent to WY, NE, SD, ND, and MT easily if the user knows of areas with similar range productivity in one of the states it has been specifically designed for.

CARMA has also been updated to provide some advice to deal with crop areas with grasshopper infestations.  When a new consultation is started the user is prompted to pick their location and whether the grasshopper problem is on rangeland or crop land.

 

**                  CARMA LICENSE                  **

All commercial rights to CARMA are retained by the University of Wyoming and the University of Nebraska. CARMA is available free of charge to researchers, ranchers, farmers, and employees of government agencies.

CARMA may be copied free of charge provided that each copy bears this license and copyright notice: Copyright (C) 1996-2007 University of Wyoming and University of Nebraska.

Because CARMA is licensed free of charge, there is no warranty for the program. CARMA is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program is with you. Should the program prove defective, you assume the cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction.

Due to the highly variable and unpredictable nature of weather and its effect on grasshopper infestations over an entire growing season and beyond, predictions from any source, including CARMA, cannot be expected to be 100% accurate.
 

**                ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS                 **


Development of CARMA was supported by grants from the University of Wyoming College of Agriculture, a Faculty Grant-in-Aid from the University of Wyoming Office of Research, and NSF Career Grant IRI-9502152, and Uniroyal, Inc. We gratefully acknowledge the advice and suggestions of Scott Schell.

Artwork is adapted from J. L. Capinera and T. S. Sechrist, Grasshoppers (Acrididae) of Colorado: Identification, Biology, and Management, Colorado State University Experiment Station Fort Collins Bulletin No. 584S, 1M, June 1982.
 

**                 HOW CARMA WORKS                 **


CARMA is a case-based reasoning system that gives advice about the most economical responses to Wyoming grasshopper infestations based on roughly 140 combined years of entomologist expertise shared among eight experts in Wyoming.  Tests have shown that CARMA's grasshopper forage consumption predictions, which are the core of determining the best course of action, very closely approximate the median predictions of the Wyoming experts.  CARMA gives advice by comparing the current infestation to previous infestations (i.e., cases) and adapting the recommendations of the experts to fit the current infestation. Infestation probabilities for your location and the effectiveness of each treatment type are used to predict the future probabilities of re-infestation for each treatment type, and statistical methods are used to predict the range of economic benefits for each treatment option. Finally, a set of rules are used to select the possible treatments. Further information about CARMA is contained in the following sources:

L. Karl Branting, John D. Hastings, and Jeffrey A. Lockwood, Integrating Cases and Models for Prediction in Biological Systems, AI Applications 11(1):29-48 (1997).

John D. Hastings, L. Karl Branting, and Jeffrey A. Lockwood, Case Adaptation Using an Incomplete Causal Model, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (Manueal Veloso and Agnar Aamodt, editors), Springer, 1995.

L. Karl Branting and John D. Hastings, An Empirical Evaluation of Model-Based Case Matching and Adaptation, Proceedings of the Workshop on Case-Based Reasoning, Twelfth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-94), July 31-August 4, 1994.

John D. Hastings, L. Karl Branting, and Jeffrey A. Lockwood, A Multi-Paradigm Reasoning System for Rangeland Management, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 16(1):47-67 (1996).

John D. Hastings and L. Karl Branting, An Empirical Evaluation of Model-Based Matching and Adaptation, Proceedings of the Workshop on Case-Based Reasoning, Twelfth National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-94), August 1994, AAAI Press.
 
 

**                     PROGRAM BUGS                        **

Java, version 1.6.0 is severely bugging and prevents most GUI applications (including CARMA) from working properly.  The most recent version of Java 1.6.0_03 (the third update) seems to work just fine.

It appears that the initial release of 1.6 was patched very quickly, so very few users should have it.  So, CARMA should run just fine on PCs with every version of Java since 1.4.2 except 1.6 (before the recent updates).  If your computer has trouble with CARMA please check what version of JAVA is installed on it. 

Updated Dec. 17th, 2007 by Jerod Smith and Scott Schell