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CARMA 3.3 (Case-based Range Management Advisor)
USING CARMA 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 contact: For questions regarding grasshopper management contact:
ABOUT CARMA CARMA: Case-based Range Management Adviser CARMA produces advice about the most economical responses to Wyoming 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 Wyoming 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).
CARMA LICENSE All commercial rights to CARMA are retained by the University of Wyoming Applied AI Lab, Professor L. Karl Branting, Director, Department of Computer Science, University of Wyoming, P.O. Box 3682, Laramie, WY 82071. CARMA is available free of charge to researchers, ranchers, and employees of government agencies. CARMA may be copied free of charge provided that each copy bears the University of Wyoming Applied AI Lab copyright notice and this license. 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 in Wyoming 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.
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. 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.
CARMA 3.3 Setup Instructions
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SYSTEM
REQUIREMENTS: CARMA requires Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, or 2000, 13MB
of disk space, and display settings of at least 800X600.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
