Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have generated considerable excitement and considerable skepticism since their recent inception (e.g., Kim, 2014; Perna et al., 2014). By fall 2015, approximately 35 million people had participated in 4200 courses offered by over 550 institutions (Shah, 2015). In addition to MOOCs’ potential for expanding access...
Rodents are an increasing problem in fields and pastures. Birds of prey play a vital part in integrated pest management of rodent pests. This publication succinctly describes the value to farmers and ranchers of barn owls and American kestrels for rodent control, and ways to help build up local populations...
Motion planning is a cornerstone of autonomous robots, enabling robots to safely and efficiently perform tasks such as package delivery, infrastructure inspection, and manipulation. However, as the field of robotics matures, robotic systems are being developed that (1) are challenging to analytically model, (2) require computationally expensive model-based controllers, and...
This newsletter comes as many of you anxiously await this year’s harvest. We have taken this opportunity to focus on berry development in the viticulture section. Laurent Deluc, Grape Researcher, writes about his research on berry ripening synchronization, and Viticulture Extension Specialist, Patty Skinkis, provides information on berry development and...
As the season progresses and all anticipate bloom, we hope you take the opportunity to read this issue. It is full of useful information on some pests of concern—both old and new—in the vineyard and winery: powdery mildew, grape rust mites, Spotted Wing Drosophila and Brettanomyces.
We include other useful...