Comprehensive information on Nitrogen Use Efficiency for cereal crop production, N use Efficiency

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Research Methods in Agriculture
Research Methods in Plant and Soil Sciences
SOIL 5111

Last update: April 03, 2008
Lecture
Tuesday a.m. at 8:00, Ag Hall 263		 Good Researchers aren't characterized by being smart, but by asking the right question.
Class Project:  Identify problem, formulate hypothesis, implement treatment structure/experiment and generate hypothetical observations that prove or disprove hypothesis. When is Research in a specific field justified?  The applied versus basic quagmire.

Basic Research (defined)

Applied Research (defined) (Borlaug)
  Can society justify basic research when 33,000 people die each day due to starvation?  Who is "society?"
Syllabus

Soil Plant Nutrient Cycling and Environmental Quality, Soil 5813
Soil Plant Nutrient Cycling and Environmental Quality

 Precision Agriculture
 Precision Agriculture

Soil Nutrient Management
Soil Nutrient Management
  Experimental Method should attempt to remove all sources of variability other than the effects being evaluated within the treatment structure.
  Assumptions of analysis of variance

1.  Experimental error is random independent and normally distributed about a zero mean with a common variance.

2.  Treatment and environmental effects are additive.
Introduction to SAS

Output, Log, and Editor Screens (how are they used)
Error messages, Log messages

creating data sets
     infile statement (see program below on combining sites)
     combining sites
data set structure
character variables
missing data
rep-trt in the same cell
how to identify outliers (SD about a mean)
    rules associated with removing outliers

Applied Procedures
    Proc Plot
    Proc Means (var statement)
    Proc Corr (var statement)
   

Topics:
1. The "Experimental Method" (defined)
2. The "Scientific Method"
3. Formulation of hypotheses
  3b. 15 Steps to Good Research (Georgetown)
  3c. How to Have a Bad Career in Research
  3d. Advice on Research and Writing
4. By-Plant Corn Studies

5. -When should I block, How should I block?

6. Experimental Design: Implementation
      
       -RCBD vs CRD, and Contrasts

7. Covariance, Autocorrelation

           Discussion (Testing)
              Univariate, Testing for a Normal Distribution
              Jana Disease Data
              New Algorithm 2007

8. Regression Analysis

9. Applied Statistical Procedures
       -regression versus ANOVA
       -Cate-Nelson and Linear-Plateau

10. Special Topics
Stability Analysis (excel)