New research by the University of Texas within the Arlington and the US Department of Agriculture shows how mathematical modeling can predict the spread of toxic cookies in Texas corn crops – during which a possible lifeline may be offered to the farmers with billions of crops.
“Our research focuses on predicting alotoxine outbreaks in Texas,” said Angela Alela, a math documentary fellow within the UTA. “An important challenge is that there may be pollution with any clear symptoms of fungal infection. This makes it important to predict the preliminary risk, especially to allow target prevention and reduction strategies. “
Aplatoxin are toxic compounds which might be manufactured by some fungus within the Mycotoxy family and are commonly found on crops similar to corn (corn) and a few nuts. They are carcinenic and might pose serious health risks to humans and animals.
The research team included Jianzong SU, Professor and former Doctorate Patron of Dr. Ola's Mathematics Department of UT Arlington. Together, they developed the Aplotoxin Risk Index (ARI) and applied several methods of learning machine to predict the spread of ultocacles in Texas. ARI is a prediction model that measures the general pollution risk during crop growth.
“My main contribution was to calculate historic planting dates for every county in Texas, which used the Time series satellite imaging,” said Aella. “Since corn is the most sensitive to ablotoxine pollution at specific growth stages, the exact dates of planting are essential. My contribution to planting date has significantly improved our risk diagnosis, which has increased the accuracy of our machine learning model by 20 %.”
“As part of his contribution to our microtoxic research, Dr. Ola integrated a new input,” said Lena Castano Dok, the central writer of the Study In and Plant Pathologist on the USDA Agricultural Research Service Southern Research Center in New Orleans. “She will continue to increase her model to apply it to the rest of the United States”.
Ola noted that the study has widespread implications for farmers, processors and consumers, as micotoxic pollution causes billions of dollars of economic losses annually.
“Our research will help farmers make informed decisions, make crops safety, food safety, stability and economic stability, to implement the strategies for farmers,” said Ola.
“This modern research will revolutionize the management of micotoxine pollution in corn, and to deal with its challenges,” said Dr. Castano Dok. “Farmers will benefit from expert guidance on the risk level of micotoxic pollution that will help the future crop selection and the ability to adopt input variables, such as fungicide and biocontrolling applications.”