NCCC170: Research Advances in Agricultural Statistics

(Multistate Research Coordinating Committee and Information Exchange Group)

Status: Active

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SAES-422 Reports

Annual/Termination Reports:

[08/26/2022] [09/01/2023] [08/13/2024]

Date of Annual Report: 08/26/2022

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 06/16/2022 - 06/17/2022
Period the Report Covers: 06/30/2021 - 06/30/2022

Participants

Participants Attachment:

2022 NCCC-170 Accomplishments Report 082622.pdf

Brief Summary of Minutes

Minutes Attachment:

NCCC-170_2022_Minutes.docx

Accomplishments

Accomplishments:   <ul> <li>Outputs: Workshops, short courses.</li> </ul>  A total of 13 workshops and short courses were delivered by members of NCCC-170 during this period. Both professional audiences and delivery venues spanned domestic and international settings. A selected subset of workshops and short courses is listed below for illustration purposes. Member co/authors are highlighted in bold.   <ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;"> <li>Invited Short Course on Mixed Models, 2021 American Dairy Science Association (Virtual) Annual Meeting. Co-instructors: Rob Tempelman, Michigan State University, Bruce Craig, Purdue University and Nora M. Bello, The Ohio State University. July 14, 2021. Virtual platform.</li> <li>Workshop/course: What They Forgot to Teach You About R (online). Instructor: Piaskowski, University of Idaho Carpentries, co-taught with Brianna Sipley and Yesol Yesol Sapozhnikov, March 1-10, 2022. <a href="https://imci-idaho.github.io/2022-03-01-WhatTheyForgot/">https://imci-idaho.github.io/2022-03-01-WhatTheyForgot/</a>  </li> <li>Invited Training: “Sampling Planning: Why does it matter?” Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety Training Sessions: Cambodia Project. Presenter: Nora M. Bello, The Ohio State University. Virtual platform. October 25-26, 2021.</li> <li>Invited Workshop: “Regression and Classification Applied to Precision Agriculture”. 2022 Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture and Natural Resources. Presenter: Guilherme J. M. Rosa, University of Wisconsin-Madison.Utah State University, May 16, 2022.</li> <li>Invited Short Course: Mixed Models in Quantitative at the 26th Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics, University of Washington, Seattle - WA. Presenter: Guilherme J. M. Rosa, University of Wisconsin-Madison (online; co-taught with Dr. Bruce Walsh). July 19-21, 2021</li> <li>Invited Short Course: Statistical Modeling in Animal Breeding and Genetics. Sao Paulo State University (UNESP) - Jaboticabal, Brazil. August 09-13, 2021. Presenter: Guilherme J. M. Rosa (online course)</li> <li>Invited Short Course: Principles of Data Science Applied to Livestock. University of Padova, Padova, Italy. Presenter: Guilherme J. M. Rosa (co-taught with Dr. Joao Dorea)Sept 13-17, 2021.</li> <li>Workshop: Experimental design and analysis of plant breeding trials. P. Piepho, KWS, Einbeck, Germany, 29-31 March 2022.</li> </ol>     <ul> <li>Presentations:</li> </ul>  A total of 24 presentations were delivered by members of NCCC-170 during this period to a varied professional audience. Delivery venues were both domestic and international. A selected subset is listed below for illustrative purposes.   <ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;"> <li>Invited talk: “Statistics for Reproducible Research in Companion Animal Nutrition”. Presenter: Nora M. Bello. Invited talk at the Companion Animal Symposium: Experimental Design and Statistics Applied to Companion Animal Nutrition, at the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) and Canadian Society of Animal Science (CSAS) Annual Meeting and Trade Show. Virtual platform. July 15, 2021.</li> <li>Invited Podcast: “Statistical Principles for Pig Research: Myths and Facts” <a href="https://www.swineit.com/blog/statistical-principles-in-pig-research-facts-and-myths-dr-nora-bello">https://www.swineit.com/blog/statistical-principles-in-pig-research-facts-and-myths-dr-nora-bello</a> Presenter: Nora M. Bello. Swine-it Podcast Show, hosted by Dr. Laura Greiner and Dr. Marcio Goncalves. Virtual Platform. June 21, 2021</li> <li>Invited talk: “Combining Big Data Analytics and Omics Techniques to Improve Beef Cattle Selection and Production”. Presenter Rosa, G. J. M. II International Livestock Studies Congress, Antalya, Turkey. Oct 29-30, 2021.</li> <li>Invited talk: “Deep Neural Network Applied to Genome-Enabled Prediction of Complex Phenotypic Traits: Why Its Performance Has Been Limited So Far?”. Presenter: Rosa, G. J. M. Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture and Natural Resources, Logan, Utah. May 17, 2022.</li> <li>Invited Panel: “The Changing Landscape of Academic Statistical Collaboration”. Presenter: BA Craig. International Conference on Advances in Interdisciplinary Statistics and Combinatorics, Greensboro, North Carolina. October 21, 2021. </li> <li>Invited talk: “AG2PI Agricultural Genome to Phenome Initiative: Shared Data Science Across Crop and Livestock Communities”. Presenter: J. Clarke. INFORMS Annual Meeting, Anaheim, California, October 24-27, 2021.</li> <li>Invited Panel “Challenges and Opportunities of Agricultural Statistics in The Big Data Era”. Presenters: J. Clarke and B. A. Craig. Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture and Natural Resources, May 17, 2022.</li> <li>Invited paper: “Using genetic relationships to improve the design and analysis of animal science studies”. Presenter: Tempelman, R.J. 56th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society of Animal Science. Virtual platform. August 19, 2021.</li> </ol>     <ul> <li>Books and Book Chapters: </li> </ul>   <ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;"> <li>Rosa, G. J. M. Quantitative Methods Applied to Animal Breeding. In: Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology. Meyers, R. A. (Editor). New York: Springer, 2022.</li> <li>Piaskowski, J & Price, W. Incorporating Spatial Analysis into Agricultural Field Experiments. Gitbook (2022): <a href="https://idahoagstats.github.io/guide-to-field-trial-spatial-analysis/">https://idahoagstats.github.io/guide-to-field-trial-spatial-analysis</a><a href="https://idahoagstats.github.io/guide-to-field-trial-spatial-analysis/">/</a></li> <li>Casanoves, Fernando; Raúl E. Macchiavelli, Mónica Balzarini, Julio Di Rienzo (2022). Modelos no lineales mixtos: aplicaciones en InfoStat. Digital Book, PDF. Córdoba: Grupo InfoStat, 2022. ISBN 978-987-27045-1-3</li> </ol>   <ul> <li>Other Project-related Activities: awards, grants</li> </ul>  Members of NCCC-170 served as principal investigators, co-principal investigators or collaborators for 17 grant awards active during the funding period totaling over $ 20.7 million. Funding sources included federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Institute of Health (NIH), as well as private organizations and intramural academics. Most grant awards were interdisciplinary in nature, and in several cases, involved multiple academic institutions. A selected subset of grant awards is listed below for illustrative purposes. Member co/authors are highlighted in bold.   <ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;"> <li>S. Department of Agriculture – National Institute of Food and Agriculture (AFRI), “A Coordinated Innovation Network for Advancing Computer Vision in Precision Livestock Farming. PI: Juan Pedro Steibel (Michigan St Univ.), Co-PI Guilherme J. M. Rosa among others. USDA FACT-CIN, $1,000,000, Duration July 15 2021 – July 14 2026.</li> <li>S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Feed the Future Innovation Laboratory on Food Safety at Purdue University. Project title: “Reducing foodborne pathogen contamination of vegetables in Cambodia: Innovative research, targeted interventions and impactful Cambodian-led engagement”. Lead investigators: Jessie Vipham, Animal Sciences and Industry, Kansas State University; and Paul Ebner, Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University. co-PI: Nora M. Bello. Timeline: 2020-2024. Award #: 21-0968, F.00048684.02.087. $ 760,000</li> <li>USDA NIFA (2020-68012-31824). Consortium for Cultivating Human and Naturally reGenerative Enterprises (C-CHANGE), 1 Sep 2020 to 31 Aug 2024 Role: Co-PI $10,000,000 (Jarad Niemi)</li> <li>USDA AFRI, Clarke, J. National Agricultural Producers Data Cooperative: Designing a Strategic Framework for Increasing Production and Driving Innovation, $499,421, 10/01/21–03/31/2023. Role: Principal Investigator</li> <li>S. Department of Agriculture – National Institute of Food and Agriculture (AFRI), Conference grant circumscribed to jump-start and relaunch the Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture and Natural Resources. The conference was held at Utah State University, Logan, Utah on May 16-19, 2022. PI: Xin Dai, Utah State University; co-PIs: Bruce Craig, Purdue University, Guilherme Rosa, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Robert Tempelman, Michigan State University and Nora M. Bello, The Ohio State University. Timeline: 2022. Award #: 2022-67022-36954. $ 22,575. Note of clarification: It was explicitly stated that the long-run maintenance of this conference, beyond its 2022 relaunch, would not involve a direct commitment from the NCCC-170, though individual members may choose to engage in organization and delivery of the conference.</li> </ol>   Also listed below are professional awards conferred to members of the NCCC-170 during the reporting period.   <ol> <li>NCCC-170 was awarded the 2021 American Society of Agronomy (ASA) Presidential Award in November 2021. The ASA Presidential Award is “given to an individual or team who have influenced agronomic sciences or crop production practices so greatly that the impact of their efforts on future science will be enduring.”</li> <li>Award: Kellett Mid-Career Award, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2021. $75,000 (to Guilherme J. M. Rosa)</li> <li>2022 Iowa State University Interdisciplinary Team Research Award (to C-CHANGE team including Jarad Niemi)</li> <li>Award: Holling Family Teaching Excellence Award Program. Sustained Excellence in Teaching and Learning. University of Nebraska-Lincoln. May 6, 2022. $5,000 (to Kathy Hanford)</li> </ol>   <ul> <li>Milestones: Implementation and dissemination efforts? Benchmarking? </li> </ul> <ol> <li>Nora M. Bello. Invited Podcast: “Statistical Principles for Pig Research: Myths and Facts” <a href="https://www.swineit.com/blog/statistical-principles-in-pig-research-facts-and-myths-dr-nora-bello">https://www.swineit.com/blog/statistical-principles-in-pig-research-facts-and-myths-dr-nora-bello</a> Swine-it Podcast Show, hosted by Dr. Laura Greiner and Dr. Marcio Goncalves, June 21, 2021.</li> <li>Piaskowski and W. Price: website launched: with content focused on agricultural statistical education.</li> <li>Piaskowski, Community Leader of Statistical Education, American Society of Agronomy (November, 2020 - November, 2021)</li> <li>BA Craig. Part of the team who developed a hybrid seminar course on systematic reviews in agriculture and the environment.  Part of an AFRI NIFA grant titled “FACT: An Innovative Cyber-Framework Integrating Public/ Private Data for Evidence-Based Recommendations.”  Involved students at Purdue University and University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Will be including students from the Ohio State University next year.  </li> <li>J Clarke. Chair, AgBioData working group on Data Federation. Part of an NSF RCN award “Reimagining a sustainable data network to accelerate agricultural research and discovery.” September 2021-August 2024. <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2126334">https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2126334</a></li> <li>Refer also to listing of workshops and short courses (i.e. bullet 1 above), presentations (i.e. bullet 2 above), and books (i.e. bullet 3 above).</li> </ol>

Publications

A total of 123 scientific publications were authored or co-authors by NCCC-170 members during the reporting period. Publication venues spanned a wide range of scientific domains and included the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the PloS and BMC series, Journal of Dairy Science, Journal of Animal Science, Frontiers in Genetics, Frontiers in Veterinary Medicine, Frontiers in Agronomy, Crop Science, HortScience, Journal of Ecology, Evolutionary Applications, Stat, Biometrical Journal, Journal of Food Protection, Food Packaging and Shelf, Journal of Apicultural Research, G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics, Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Theoretical and Applied Genetics, and Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment, to name a few. A selected subset of publications is listed below for illustrative purposes. Member co/authors are highlighted in bold.   <ol style="list-style-type: lower-alpha;"> <li>Ribeiro, L. A. C., Bresolin, T., Rosa, G. J. M., Casagrande, D. M., Danes, M. A. C. and Dórea, J. R. R. Disentangling data dependency using cross-validation strategies to evaluate prediction quality of cattle grazing activities using machine learning algorithms and wearable sensor data. Journal of Animal Science 99(9): 1-8, 2021.</li> <li>Tepedino VJ, Parker FD, and Durham SL (2022) Mixed diapause duration in cohorts of four species of Osmia bees (Megachilidae) along an elevation and temperature gradient in Northern Utah (USA). Journal of Apicultural Research. DOI: 10.1080/00218839.2022.2042049</li> <li>Griffith, E. H., Sharp, J. L., Bridges, W. C., Craig, B. A., Hanford, K. J., and Stevens, J. R. “The academic collaborative statistician: research, training, and evaluation,” Stat 2022 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/sta4.483">https://doi.org/10.1002/sta4.483</a>.</li> <li>Lewis, M, Stock, M., Black, B., Drost, D., and Dai, X. (2021). Improving Snapdragon Cut Flower Production through High Tunnel Season Extension, Transplant Timing, and Cultivar Selection. HORTSCIENCE 56(10):1206–1212.</li> <li>Taghouti, M.; García, J.; Ibáñez, M.A.; Macchiavelli, R.E.; Nicodemus, N. (2021) Relationship between Body Chemical Composition and Reproductive Traits in Rabbit Does. Animals 2021, 11, 2299. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11082299</li> <li>Poudel, P., M. Bello, D. Marburger, B. F Carver, Y. Liang and P. D. Alderman*. 2022. “Ecophysiological modeling of yield and yield components in winter wheat using hierarchical Bayesian analysis”. Crop Science 62(1): 358-373. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20652">https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20652</a></li> <li>Brethauer, D. K., Sharma, A., Vogel, J. G., Miller, D. L., & Santen, E. v. (2021). Longleaf pine seedling growth and survival: effects of season and intensity of simulated prescribed burning. Forest Ecology and Management, 502. doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119719</li> <li>Dogan, O., Stratton, J., Arciniega, A., Clarke, J., Tamplin, M., Bianchini, A., and Wang, B. Quantitative modeling of the survival of Listeria monocytogenes in soy sauce-based acidified food products. International Journal of Food Microbiology, 370: 109635. June 2022</li> <li>Lawrence-Dill, C., Allscheid, R., Boaitey, A., Bauman, T., Buckler, E., Clarke, J., Cullis, C., Dekkers, J., Dorius, C., Dorius, S., Ertl, D., Homann, M., Hu, G., Losch, M., Lyons, E., Murdoch, B., Navabi, Z.-K., Punnuri, S., Rafiq, F., Reecy, J., Schnable, P., Scott, N., Sheehan, M., Sirault, X., Staton, M., Tuggle, C., Van Eenennaam, A., and Voas, R. Ten Simple Rules to Ruin a Collaborative Environment. PLoS Computational Biology, 18(4): e1009957. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009957">https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009957</a></li> <li>Wilson, H., V. Bremer, G. Erickson, T. Carr, K. Hanford, A. Watson, T. Klopfenstein, J. MacDonald. Digestion characteristics and prediction of digestible energy and total digestible nutrients in beef cattle finishing diets containing traditional and by-product lipid sources. Applied Animal Science. 2021. 7:377–387. <a href="https://doi.org/10.15232/aas.2020-02131">https://doi.org/10.15232/aas.2020-02131</a></li> <li>Estee Y Cramer, Evan L Ray, Velma K Lopez, Johannes Bracher, Andrea Brennen, Alvaro J Castro Ri- vadeneira, Aaron Gerding, Tilmann Gneiting, Katie H House, Yuxin Huang, Dasuni Jayawardena, Abdul H Kanji, Ayush Khandelwal, Khoa Le, Anja Muhlemann, Jarad Niemi, [256 other authors], Nicholas G Reich. (2022) “Evaluation of individual and ensemble probabilistic forecasts of COVID-19 mortality in the US” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(15), e2113561119. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2113561119">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2113561119</a></li> <li>Adam Martin-Schwarze*, Jarad Niemi, and Philip Dixon. (2021) “Joint modeling of distances and times in point-count surveys.” Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics. 26, 289-305. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13253-021-00437-3">https://doi.org/10.1007/s13253-021-00437-3</a></li> <li>Hensley, C., K.R. Brye, M.C. Savin, L.S. Wood and E. Gbur (2021). Earthworm density differences among tallgrass prairies over time in the Ozark Highlands. Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment. 4:e20136.</li> <li>Fernandes SB, Zhang KS, Jamann TM and Lipka AE (2021). “How Well Can Multivariate and Univariate GWAS Distinguish Between True and Spurious Pleiotropy?” Frontiers in Genetics: 11:1747 doi: 10.3389/fgene.2020.602526.</li> <li>Piepho, H.P., Boer, M., Williams, E.R. (2022): Two-dimensional P-spline smoothing for spatial analysis of field trials. Biometrical Journal 64, 835-857.</li> <li>Piepho, H.-P., and Madden, L. V. How to observe the principle of concurrent control in an arm-based meta-analysis using SAS procedures GLIMMIX and BGLIMM. Research Synthesis Methods. 1-8. doi:10.1002/jrsm.1576 .</li> <li>Larson, K.J., Bundy, A.N., Kuntz, T., Hur, J., Yeater, K.M., Casperson, S., Brunelle, D.C. and Roemmich, J.N., 2022. Effect of a maternal high fat diet with vegetable substitution on fetal brain transcriptome. The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, p.109088. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2022.109088">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2022.109088</a></li> <li>Runcie, D.E., Qu, J., Cheng, H., and L. Crawford. (2021). MegaLMM: Mega-scale linear mixed mod- els for genomic predictions with thousands of traits. Genome Biology 22(1), 1-25.</li> <li>Dunn, Bruce L., Stephen Stanphill, and Carla Goad (2021). Branching Response of Poinsettia ‘Orange Spice’ to a Combination of Pinching, No Pinching, and Atrimmec, HortScience, 56(10). <a href="https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI16105-21">https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI16105-21</a>  </li> <li>Perttu RK, Ventura BA, Rendahl AK and Endres MI. Public Views of Dairy Calf Welfare and Dairy Consumption Habits of American Youth and Adults. Front Vet Sci. 8:693173 (August 2021). doi:10.3389/fvets.2021.693173</li> <li>Khanal, P., and J. Tempelman. 2022. The use of milk Fourier transform mid-infrared spectroscopy to diagnose pregnancy and determine spectral regional associations with pregnancy in US dairy cows.  Journal of Dairy Science 105(4):3209-3221.</li> </ol>

Impact Statements

Selected publications and grant awards focused on the role and know-how of collaboration. Panel discussions articulated and evaluated emerging challenges to agricultural statistics. Taken together, these initiatives support the mentoring of upcoming agricultural statisticians and provide a foundation to educate other statisticians and administrators involved in the faculty evaluation process.

Date of Annual Report: 09/01/2023

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 06/15/2023 - 06/16/2023
Period the Report Covers: 06/01/2022 - 06/30/2023

Participants

Report Participants:
1. Nicholas Keuler, University of Wisconsin - Madison, nskeuler@wisc.edu
2. John R. Stevens, Utah State University, john.r.stevens@usu.edu
3. Samuel B. Fernandes, University of Arkansas, samuelbf@uark.edu
4. Susan L. Durham, Utah State University, susan.durham@usu.edu
5. Kathleen M. Yeater, USDA-ARS, kathleen.yeater@usda.gov
6. Jennifer L. Clarke, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, jclarke3@unl.edu
7. Julia Piaskowski, University of Idaho, jpiaskowski@uidaho.edu
8. Robert J. Tempelman, Michigan State University, tempelma@msu.edu
9. Philip M. Dixon, Iowa State University, pdixon@iastate.edu
10. Jarad Niemi, Iowa State University, niemi@iastate.edu
11. Carla L. Goad, Oklahoma State University, carla.goad@okstate.edu
12. Bruce Craig, Purdue University, bacraig@purdue.edu
13. Clark Kogan, Washington State University, clark.kogan@wsu.edu
14. Raul E. Macchiavelli, University of Puerto Rico, raul.macchiavelli@upr.edu
15. Xin Dai, Utah State Universty, xin.dai@usu.edu
16. Daniel E. Runcie, University of California-Davis, deruncie@ucdavis.edu
17. Guilherme J. M. Rosa, University of Wisconsin-Madison, grosa@wisc.edu
18. Edzard van Santen, University of Florida, evsanten@ufl.edu
19. Kathryn Hanford, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, kathy.hanford@unl.edu
20. Alexander E. Lipka, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, alipka@illinois.edu
21. Laurence V. Madden, The Ohio State University, madden.1@osu.edu
22. Aaron K. Rendahl, University of Minnesota, rend0020@umn.edu
23. Nora M. Bello, The Ohio State University, bello.69@osu.edu

Participants Attachment:

NCCC-170_2023_Minutes.pdf

Brief Summary of Minutes

See minutes attached

Minutes Attachment:

NCCC-170_2023_Minutes.pdf

Accomplishments

Accomplishments:   1) Outputs: Workshops, short courses   A total of 15 workshops and short courses were delivered by members of NCCC170 during this period. Both professional audiences and delivery venues spanned domestic and international settings. The list of workshops and short courses is provided below for illustration purposes. Member co/instructors are highlighted in bold.   <ol> <li>Invited Mixed Models Workshop, sponsored by American Dairy Science Association at its Annual Meeting, Ottawa, Canada. Instructors: Nora M. Bello, Bruce A. Craig, and Robert J. Tempelman.  Approximately 70 participants.  June 28-June 29, 2023. </li> <li>Invited workshop presentations on “GWAS to identify QTLs and gene targets” and “Implementing genomic selection”. African Plant Breeding Academy, Class V, Session 3, World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi, Kenya. Instructor: E. Lipka. Approximately 40 participants. May 15-16, 2023.</li> <li>Short course on Modern Programming in Genome to Phenome. University of California, Davis. Co-Instructor: Daniel Runcie. Approximately 30 participants, including graduate students and postdocs. August 1-5, 2022</li> <li>Short course: Introduction to Scientific Programming in R. University of Idaho. Instructor: Julia Piaskowski. 45 participants, 4 weeks, 16 hours of instruction. <a href="https://idahoagstats.github.io/r-for-ag-scientists/">https://idahoagstats.github.io/r-for-ag-scientists/</a> January 17 to February 9, 2023.</li> <li>Short course: Meta Analysis. National Animal Nutrition Program (NANP), Journal of Dairy Science, and JDS Communications Joint Workshop: Modeling Methods. Ottawa, Canada. Instructor: J. Tempelman. June 25, 2023</li> <li>Invited Short Course on Modern Statistics for the Agricultural Sciences. Colleges of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, National University of the Republic (UdelaR), Montevideo, Uruguay. Instructor: Nora M. Bello. Approximately 30 participants, including graduate students, faculty and researchers. July 5-16, 2022.</li> <li>Invited Short Course on Modern Statistics for the Agricultural Sciences. Center of Excellence for Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition (CE SAIN), Royal University of Agriculture (RUA), Institute of Technology Cambodia (ITC) and Pasteur Institute Cambodia (IPC), Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Instructor: Nora M. Bello. Audience: approximately 30 faculty, researchers and graduate students. May 29 to June 6, 2023.</li> <li>Invited Short course: Precision Livestock Farming and Big Data Management. University of Bari, Bari - Italy. Instructor: J. M. Rosa. June 12 - 13, 2023.</li> <li>Invited Short course: Big Data and Digital Tools Applied to Livestock Production. Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV), Valencia - Spain. Instructor: J. M. Rosa (co-taught with Dr. Joao Dorea). June 05 - 09, 2023.</li> <li>Invited Short course: Big Data and Digital Tools Applied to Livestock Production. National Agricultural Research Institute (INIA), Montevideo - Uruguay. Instructor: J. M. Rosa (co-taught with Dr. Joao Dorea). March 13 - 17, 2023.</li> <li>Invited Short course: Statistical Modeling in Animal Breeding and Genetics. Sao Paulo State University (UNESP) - Jaboticabal, Brazil. Instructor: J. M. Rosa. November 07-11, 2022.</li> <li>Invited Short course: Big Data and Digital Tools Applied to Livestock Production. University of Padova, Padova - Italy. Instructor: J. M. Rosa (co-taught with Dr. Joao Dorea). Sept 26 - 30, 2022.</li> <li>Invited Short course: Regression and Classification Applied to Precision Agriculture, Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), Goiania – Brazil. Instructor: J. M. Rosa. Sept 05, 2022.</li> <li>Invited Short course: Quantitative Genetics, at the 27th Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics, University of Washington, Seattle - WA. Instructor: J. M. Rosa (co-taught with Dr. Bruce Walsh). July 18-20, 2022.</li> <li>Short course: Mixed Models in Quantitative Genetics, at the 27th Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics, University of Washington, Seattle - WA. Instructor: J. M. Rosa (co-taught with Dr. Bruce Walsh). July 20-22, 2022.</li> </ol>   2) Presentations:   A total of 39 presentations, 30 of them by invitation, were delivered by members of NCCC170 during this period to a varied professional audience consisting both of statisticians and domain scientists. Delivery venues were both domestic and international. A selected subset is listed below for illustrative purposes.   <ol> <li>“Applied Statistics with ChatGPT: Boons and Banes”. Presentation at Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture and Natural Resources, West Lafayette, IN. May 16-18, 2023.  Presented by John R. Stevens.</li> <li>“Assessment of the suitability of variance genome-wide association studies to identify GxE loci in plants”. Invited talk at Plant and Animal Genome (PAG) Conference, Gene Mapping by Segregation, San Diego, CA.  January 17, 2023. Presented by Lipka AE and Murphy MD.</li> <li>“Including High-Throughput Phenotyping Derived Traits in Multi-Trait Genomic Analysis”. Invited talk at the Plant and Animal Genome (PAG) Conference, CSSA: Translational Genomics Workshop, San Diego, CA. Jan 14, 2023. Presented by Fernandes, SB.</li> <li>“Statistics in Plant Phenotyping: Study Design and Data Management”. Invited talk at the Conference on Statistical Practice.CS02: Flora & Fauna: Data Management for the Biological World. San Francisco, DA. February 2-5, 2023. Presented by Clarke, J. </li> <li> “Using Git: Tales of Peril, Pain and Protection”. Invited talk at the Annual meeting of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA) and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA), Baltimore, MD. November 8, 2023. Presented by J. Piaskowski.</li> <li> “Addressing reproducibility in cross-validation schemes for heterogeneous field data”. Invited talk at the Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture and Natural Resources, West Lafayette IN, May 16-18, 2023. Presented by R.J. Tempelman.</li> <li>“Toward emulators for agricultural computer models”. Invited talk at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA. November 3, 2022. Presented by Jarad Niemi.</li> <li>“Is it possible to predict deoxynivalenol contamination of grain based on field disease severity?”. Invited talk at a special session of the Annual Meeting of the American Phytopathological Society (APS), Pittsburgh, PA. August 2022. Presented by  L.V. Madden</li> <li> “Development of indices to quantify community capitals”. XIX Conferencia Española y VIII Encuentro Iberoamericano de Biometría (CEB-EIB 2023). Vigo (Spain), June 27-30, 2023. Presented by Macchiavelli, R.</li> <li>“Hierarchical Modeling of Heterogeneous Networks for Animal Production Systems”. Invited talk at the 2022 International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA) World Meeting, invited session on “Interventions in Complex Systems”. Montreal, Canada. June 30, 2022. Presented by Nora M. Bello.</li> <li>“Data Analytics Applied to Animal Husbandry”. Invited seminar at. Department of Animal Science, Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), Jaboticabal – SP, Brazil. Nov 09, 2022. Presented by Guilherme J. M. Rosa. </li> </ol>     3) Books and Book Chapters:   <ol> <li>Clarke, J., Qiu, Y., and Schnable, J. (2022) Experimental Design for Controlled Environment High Throughput Plant Phenotyping. In: Lorence, A., Medina Jimenez, K. (eds). High Throughput Plant Phenotyping. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 2539. Humana, New York, NY. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2537-8_7">https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2537-8_7</a> . ISBN: 978-1-0716-2537-8</li> <li>Casanoves, Fernando; Raúl E. Macchiavelli, Mónica Balzarini, Julio Di Rienzo (2022). Modelos no lineales mixtos: aplicaciones en InfoStat. Digital Book, PDF. Córdoba: Grupo InfoStat, 2022. ISBN 978-987-27045-1-3</li> <li>Rosa, G. J. M. Quantitative Methods Applied to Animal Breeding. In: Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology. Meyers, R. A. (Editor). New York: Springer, 2022.</li> </ol>   4) Other Project Related Activities: awards, grants.   Members of NCCC170 served as principal investigators, co-principal investigators or collaborators for 20 grant awards active during the funding period totaling over $ 20 million. Funding sources included federal agencies such as the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as private organizations and intramural academics. Most grant awards were interdisciplinary in nature, and in several cases, involved multiple academic institutions. A selected subset of grant awards is listed below for illustrative purposes. Member co/authors are highlighted in bold.   Grants:   <ol> <li>S. Department of Agriculture – National Institute of Food and Agriculture (AFRI) A1141. Total cost: $ 629,392. Project title: "Integrating Sensory, Genomic, and Metabolomic Data to Breed Blackberries for Improved Flavor". Principal Investigator: Margaret Worthington, University of Arkansas. co-PI: Samuel B. Fernandes. Timeline: 2023 -2027. Status: Awarded</li> <li>AG2PI coconut grant - USDA NIFA-AG2PI. Total cost: $177,744. Project title: “Delivering Resource Allocation Guidelines for Optimizing High-Throughput Phenotyping and Genotyping in Modern Breeding Programs”. Co-PI Runcie, D.E. Timeline: 2023-2024. Status: Awarded.</li> <li>S. Department of Agriculture – National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Total cost: $920,000. Project title: "ODF: National Agricultural Producers Data Cooperative: A Strategic Framework for Innovation. PI Clarke, J. Timeline: 2022-2024. Status: Awarded</li> <li>USDA AFRI. Total cost: $10,000,000 NIFA Consortium For Cultivating Human And Naturally Regenerative Enterprises (C-CHANGE). co-PI Jarad Niemi. Timeline 2020-09-01 to 2025-08-31. Status: Awarded</li> <li>United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Total cost: $ 760,000. Feed the Future Innovation Laboratory on Food Safety at Purdue University. Project title: “Reducing foodborne pathogen contamination of vegetables in Cambodia: Innovative research, targeted interventions and impactful Cambodian-led engagement”. Lead investigators: Jessie Vipham, Animal Sciences and Industry, Kansas State University; and Paul Ebner, Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University. co-PI: Nora M. Bello. Timeline: 2020-2024. Award #: 21-0968, F.00048684.02.087.</li> <li>S. Department of Agriculture – National Institute of Food and Agriculture (AFRI), “A Coordinated Innovation Network for Advancing Computer Vision in Precision Livestock Farming. PI: Juan Pedro Steibel (Michigan St Univ.), Co-PI Guilherme J. M. Rosa among others. USDA FACT-CIN, $1,000,000, Duration July 15 2021 – July 14 2026.</li> </ol>   Also listed below are professional awards conferred to members of the NCCC170 during the reporting period.   <ol> <li>Iowa State University College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Outstanding Achievement in Extension or Professional Practice Award. Awardee: Jarad Niemi. Fall 2022</li> <li>The Ohio State University Office for International Affairs Faculty Travel Award              Project title: “Statistical capacity building for agricultural research through interdisciplinary US-Argentina collaborations”. Awardee: Nora M. Bello. Amount: $3,700. Summer 2023.</li> <li>The Ohio State University Center for Latin American Studies Faculty Travel Award. Project title: “Statistical capacity building for agricultural research through interdisciplinary US-Uruguay collaborations”. Awardee: Nora M. Bello. Amount: $5,250. Summer 2023.</li> <li>Tools for polyploids Travel Award. Awardee: Samuel B. Fernandes. Amount: $1,100. January 2023.</li> </ol>   5) Milestones: Implementation and dissemination efforts? Benchmarking?   <ol> <li>BA Craig andM. Bello. Part of the multi-institution interdisciplinary team that developed a seminar course on “Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis in Agriculture and the Environment”. Part of an AFRI NIFA grant titled “FACT: An Innovative Cyber-Framework Integrating Public/ Private Data for Evidence-Based Recommendations.” This was a 3-credit graduate-level course that was delivered in a hybrid format (i.e. in-person and online) during Spring 2023. The course engaged students, faculty and staff from Purdue University, University of Wisconsin-Madison and The Ohio State University.</li> <li>BA Craig, Xin Dai, Neil Patton, Nora M. Bello and others. Organizing committee and local host (Craig) for the 2023 Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture and Natural Resources, held in West Lafayette, Indiana on May 15-18, 2023. <a href="https://www.stat.purdue.edu/conferences/agstats2023/index.html">https://www.stat.purdue.edu/conferences/agstats2023/index.html</a></li> <li> Clarke. “How to Get the Most Out of Data”. Interview by Laurie Bedford, Successful Farming. Published in Farm Focus, A Publication of Monterey Country Farm Bureau, Summer 2022 Issue, p.06, June 21, 2022.</li> <li> Clarke. Lead Organizer and Host, National Agricultural Producer Data Cooperative Conference, Lincoln, NE, May 10-12, 2023.</li> <li> Clarke. Lead Organizer, Special Session on Digital Agriculture, 20th Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB), International Society for Computational Biology. July 10-14, 2022, Madison, WI.</li> <li> Piaskowski, blog post: Mind the Gap: Mixed Models in R. <a href="https://jpiaskowski.gitlab.io/posts/r-state-of-mlm/">https://jpiaskowski.gitlab.io/posts/r-state-of-mlm/</a></li> <li> Piaskowski & W. Price, instructional blog posts: Introduction to Data Cleaning with the Tidyverse; Introduction to Creating Awesome Plots with ggplot; Interpreting P-values; Design and Anatomy of a Study; Common Errors and Solutions in SAS; Graphical User Interfaces for R; Resources for Learning R; Finding Help in R; How to Write Custom Functions in R; R packages for Agricultural Research. https://agstats.io/post/</li> <li> Price, SAS tutorials: Data Import and Manipulation; Linear Regression; Mixed Model ANOVA; Mixed Model ANCOVA and Dummy Variable Regression; Generalized Mixed Model ANOVA; Modeling Categorical Data; Nonlinear Modeling; Power and Sample Size Estimation; Graphics and Plotting. https://agstats.io/tutorials/</li> <li>Agriculture CRAN Task View launched and co-maintained by Julia Piaskowki: https://cran.r-project.org/web/views/Agriculture.html</li> <li>Mixed Model CRAN Task View launched and co-maintained by Julia Piaskowki: https://cran.r-project.org/web/views/MixedModels.html</li> <li>YouTube channel (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/jaradniemi">https://www.youtube.com/jaradniemi</a>) 6,107 subscribers, 1.2 million views. Jarad Niemi</li> <li>Philip Dixon. Organized Rgronomist/LunchinatoRs weekly discussion group on R applications for agronomists and ecologists.</li> <li>Maintenance of website with SAS and other programs for data analysis in plant pathology and the plant sciences, together with Powerpoint presentations on mixed models and other modeling topics. V. Madden. <a href="https://u.osu.edu/agstatworkshops/">https://u.osu.edu/agstatworkshops/</a></li> <li>Nora M. Bello. Newsletter article for dissemination of community extension activity focused on statistical capacity building held in Uruguay, July 2022. Published in The Ohio State University OnCampus Today Newsletter: <a href="https://oia.osu.edu/news/statistical-capacity-building-an-ohio-state-uruguay-partnership/?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=umar_faculty-staff-newsletter_fy23_oncampus-today-20230224&sfmc_id=75402773">https://oia.osu.edu/news/statistical-capacity-building-an-ohio-state-uruguay-partnership/?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=umar_faculty-staff-newsletter_fy23_oncampus-today-20230224&sfmc_id=75402773</a></li> </ol>   Refer also to listing of workshops and short courses (i.e. bullet 1 above), presentations (i.e. bullet 2 above), and books (i.e. bullet 3 above).

Publications

A total of 86 scientific publications were authored or co-authors by NCCC170 members during the reporting period. Publication venues spanned a wide range of scientific domains and included Nature Communications Earth & Environment, Plos One, Journal of Dairy Science, Journal of Animal Science, Translational Animal Sciences, Applied Animal Behavior, Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Agronomy Journal, Crop Science, HortScience, Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics, Frontiers in Genetics, Journal of Apicultural Research, Vaccine, Computational Statistics, Stat, Research Synthesis Methods, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, to name a few.   A selected subset of publications is listed below for illustrative purposes. Member co/authors are highlighted in bold.   <ol> <li>Griffith E.H., Sharp J.L., Bridges W.C., Craig B.A., Hanford K.J., and Stevens J.R. (2022) The Academic Collaborative Statistician: Research, Training, and Evaluation. Stat 11(1):e483. doi:10.1002/sta4.483</li> <li>Rafael Della Coletta, Sharon E Liese, Samuel B Fernandes, Mark A Mikel, Martin O Bohn, Alexander E Lipka, Candice N Hirsc, Linking genetic and environmental factors through marker effect networks to understand trait plasticity, Genetics, 2023;, iyad103, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyad103">https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyad103</a></li> <li>Christie H. Guetling CH, Jones LC, Strand EK, Morishita DW, Piaskowski J and TS Prather. 2023 Susceptibility models and habitat typing of two invasive Hieracium species in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Biological Invasions. DOI: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10530-023-03037-z</li> <li>Hayes, H. A., Wallau, M. O., Caram, N., Sollenberger, L. E., Kenworthy, K. E., & van Santen, E. (2023). Early-stage evaluation of grazed tetraploid bahiagrass experimental entries. Crop Science, n/a(n/a). doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20930</li> <li>Crookston B.S., Yost M.A., Bowman M., Veum K., and Stevens J.R. (2023) Microbial respiration gives early indication of soil health improvement following cover crops. The Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 78(3):1-10. doi:10.2489/jswc.2023.00015</li> <li>Coppock DL, Crowley L, Durham SL, Groves D, Jamison JC, Karlan D, Norton BE, and Ramsey RD (2022) Community-based rangeland management in Namibia improves resource governance but not environmental and economic outcomes. Nature Communications Earth & Environment 3:32. doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00361-5</li> <li>Rosario, C.M.A., R.J. Miller, G.M. Klafke, C. Coates, W.E. Grant, G. Samenuk, K. Yeater, J. Tidwell, S. Bach, A.A.P. de León, and P.D. Teel. 2022. Interaction between anti-tick vaccine and a macrocyclic lactone improves acaricidal efficacy against Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (Canestrini)(Acari: Ixodidae) in experimentally infested cattle. Vaccine, 40(47), 6795-6801.</li> <li>Odell, Sarah G, Hudson, Asher I, Praud, Sébastien, Dubreuil, Pierre, Tixier, Marie-Hélène, Ross-Ibarra, Jeffrey, Runcie, Daniel E. Modeling allelic diversity of multiparent mapping populations affects detection of quantitative trait loci . G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics, 12(3).</li> <li>Dustin, D., Clarke, B., and Clarke, J. Predictive Criteria for Prior Selection Using Shrinkage in Linear Models. Computational Statistics, online ahead of print, March 2023 <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00180-023-01342-8">https://doi.org/10.1007/s00180-023-01342-8</a></li> <li>Khanal, P., K.L. Parker Gaddis, M.J. Vandehaar, K.A. Weigel, H.M. White, F. Peñagaricano, J.E. Koltes, J.E.P. Santos, R.L. Baldwin, J.F. Burchard, J.W. Dürr and R.J. Tempelman. 2022.  Multiple trait random regression modeling of feed efficiency in US Holsteins. Journal of Dairy Science 105(7):5954-5971.</li> <li>Matt Nowatzke, Luis Damiano, Fernando Miguez, Gabe McNunn, Jarad Niemi, Lisa Schulte-Moore, Emily Heaton, Andy VanLoocke. (2022) Augmenting agroecosystem models with remote sensing data and machine learning changes overall estimates of nitrate-nitrogen leaching. Environmental Research Letters, 17:11, 114010.</li> <li>Annear, A.R., Simonson, M.A., Dixon, P.M. and Weber, M.J. 2023.  Intra-annual variability of common carp and bigmouth buffalo electrofishing data in shallow lakes.  North American Journal of Fisheries Management 43(2):556-568.</li> <li>Holder, Amanda, Megan A. Gross, Alexandra n. Moehlenpah, Carla Goad, Megan Rolf, Ryon Walker, James K. Rogers, David Lalman (2022) Effects of Diet on Feed Intake, Weight Change, and Gas Emissions in Beef Cows, Journal of Animal Science 100(10). DOI: 10.1093/jas/skac257</li> <li>DeVetter, L.W., S. Chabert, M.O. Milbrath, R.E. Mallinger, J. Walters, R. Isaacs, S.P Galinato, C. Kogan, K. Brouwer, A. Melathopoulos, and M. Eeraerts. (2022). Towards evidence-based decision support systems to optimize pollination and yields in highbush blueberry. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. <a href="https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Furldefense.com%2Fv3%2F__https%3A%2Fdoi.org%2F10.3389%2Ffsufs.2022.1006201__%3B!!KGKeukY!1YS29E00s-UeDTuC1zNqu8k0Hz33VV_nMBIFPsbBV5EIQ06QOLLqPrFkWs8kHII38GGMlqeePjah1yDZkzoi8GM%24&data=05%7C01%7Cclark.kogan%40wsu.edu%7C20f94cac6efa4830192608db81abfae6%7Cb52be471f7f147b4a8790c799bb53db5%7C0%7C0%7C638246349971464111%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=npIh3n3vU9AEr9OmNrIhsmxSmwwhZqxi%2BpNpDNFBrUE%3D&reserved=0">https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2022.1006201</a></li> <li>Piepho, H.-P., and Madden, L. V. 2022. How to observe the principle of concurrent control in an arm-based meta-analysis using SAS procedures GLIMMIX and BGLIMM. Research Synthesis Methods 13: 821-828.</li> <li>Rauter S, Stock M, Black B, Drost D, Dai X, Ward R. (2022). Overwintering Improves Ranunculus Cut Flower Production in the US Intermountain West. Horticulturae. 2022; 8(12):1128.  </li> <li>Brewer, G., M. Kentaro, and K. Hanford. (2023). Measuring bee effect on seed traits of hybrid sunflower. Plants. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12142662">https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12142662</a>.</li> </ol> <ol start="18"> <li>Ferreira, R. E. P., Bresolin, T., Rosa, G. J. M. and Dórea, J. R. R. (2022) Using dorsal surface for individual identification of dairy calves through 3D deep learning algorithms. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 201: 107272.</li> <li>Mosimann, S., K. Ouk, N. M. Bello, M. Chhoeun, J. Vipham, L. Hok and P. Ebner. 2023. “Describing capability, opportunity, and motivation for food safety practices among actors in Cambodian informal vegetable market”. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. Volume 7, 2023:  <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1060876">https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1060876</a>.</li> </ol>

Impact Statements

Selected publications and grant awards focused on the role and know-how of research collaborations. Panel discussions articulated and evaluated emerging challenges to agricultural statistics. Taken together, these initiatives support the mentoring of upcoming agricultural statisticians and provide a foundation to educate other statisticians and administrators involved in the faculty evaluation process.

Date of Annual Report: 08/13/2024

Report Information

Annual Meeting Dates: 06/13/2024 - 06/14/2024
Period the Report Covers: 06/01/2023 - 06/30/2024

Participants

1) Nora M. Bello, USDA Agricultural Research Service, nora.bello@usda.gov
2) Jennifer Clarke, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, jclarke3@unl.edu
3) Nicholas Keuler, University of Wisconsin-Madison, nskeuler@wisc.edu
4) Raul E. Macchiavelli, University of Puerto Rico, raul.macchiavelli@upr.edu
5) Xin Dai, Utah State University, xin.dai@usu.edu
6) Larry Madden, The Ohio State University (retired), madden1@osu.edu
7) Quentin Read, USDA Agricultural Research Service, quentin.read@usda.gov
8) Conor Fair, University of Georgia, cfair13@uga.edu
9) Guilherme J. M. Rosa, University of Wisconsin-Madison, grosa@wisc.edu
10) Robert J. Tempelman, Michigan State University, tempelma@msu.edu
11) Philip M. Dixon, Iowa State University, pdixon@iastate.edu
12) Bruce A. Craig, Purdue University, bacraig@purdue.edu
13) Kathleen M. Yeater, USDA Agricultural Research Service, kathleen.yeater@usda.gov
14) Carla L. Goad, Oklahoma State University, carla.goad@okstate.edu
15) Clark Kogan, Washington State University, clark.kogan@wsu.edu
16) Gayla R. Olbricht, Missouri University of Science and Technology, olbrichtg@mst.edu
17) Daniel Runcie, University of California Davis, deruncie@ucdavis.edu
18) Alexander E. Lipka, University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign, alipka@illinois.edu
19) Samuel B Fernandes, University of Arkansas, samuelbf@uark.edu
20) Réka Howard, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, rekahoward@unl.edu
21) Susan Durham, Utah State University (retired), sldurham61@gmail.com
22) Jarad Niemi, Iowa State University, niemi@iastate.edu

Brief Summary of Minutes

Accomplishments

Accomplishments:  1) Outputs: Workshops, short courses A total of 17 workshops and short courses were delivered by members of NCCC170 during this period. Audiences ranged from academic trainees (i.e. graduate students and post-docs) to professional peers. Delivery venues spanned domestic and international settings, ranging from Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, Louisiana, Illinois and Washington in the US, to Brazil, Argentina, Cambodia, Canada, Italy, Japan and South Korea abroad. The complete list of workshops and short courses is provided below for illustration purposes. Member co/instructors are highlighted in bold.   <ol> <li>Invited Mixed Models Workshop, sponsored by American Dairy Science Association at its Annual Meeting, Ottawa, Canada. Instructors: Nora M. Bello, Bruce A. Craig, and Robert J. Tempelman.  Approximately 70 participants.  June 28-29, 2023. </li> <li>Workshop on Phenotyping, hosted by Universidad Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil, in partnership with U.S. Department of State Professional Exchange Program. Instructors: Jennifer Clark and Filipe Matias Brul, Syngenta LATAM. August 28-30, 2023.</li> <li>Short Course on Mixed Models in Quantitative Genetics. 28th Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics, University of Washington, Seattle - WA. Instructor: Guilherme Rosa. July 19-21, 2023.</li> <li>Hybrid 3-credit semester course on Systematic Reviews involving students from Purdue University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, The Ohio State University, and Iowa State University. Virtual platform. Co-Instructor: Bruce Craig. January through May 2024.</li> <li>Invited lecture at Workshop on Introduction to Computational Genomics: “Polymorphisms and Association Tests”. Institute for Genomic Biology, Urbana, IL. Instructor: Alex Lipka. June 24, 2024.</li> <li>Invited Course on Design of Experiments. University of Tokyo, Japan (Virtual platform). Instructor: Réka Howard. Series of 13 lectures between September 2023 and May, 2024.</li> <li>Invited workshop: “My first GLMMs in R for SAS Users.” New Orleans, LA. Instructor: Quentin Read. Target audience: USDA Agricultural Research Service staff scientists and postdocs. March 6, 2024.</li> <li>Invited Workshop on Non-linear Mixed Models. Annual Conference of the Argentinean Region of the International Biometric Society. Salta, Argentina. Instructor: Raul Macchiavelli. Approximately 60 participants. October 10-11, 2023.</li> <li>Workshop: How to Specify a Statistical Model? Developed and presented to US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service scientists and associates. Instructor: Nora M. Bello. Ithaca, NY. March 26-27, 2024. Approximately 15 participants.</li> <li>Workshop: How to Specify a Statistical Model? Developed and presented to US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service scientists and associates. Instructor: Nora M. Bello. Beltsville, MD. April 22-23, 2024. Approximately 30 participants.</li> <li>Workshop: How to Specify a Statistical Model? Developed and presented to US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service scientists and associates. Instructors: Nora M. Bello and Bryan Vinyard. Wyndmoor, PA. June 25-26, 2024. Approximately 25 participants.</li> <li>Invited Short Course: Mixed Models at the Frontier - Scope, limitations and challenges. National University of the NorthEast (UNNE) - Corrientes, Argentina. Instructor: Nora M. Bello. Approximately 20 faculty and graduate students from Colleges of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicin. July 17-21, 2023.</li> <li>Invited Short Course: Mixed Models at the Frontier - Scope, limitations and challenges. National University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina. Instructor: Nora M. Bello. Approximately 25 faculty and graduate students from Colleges of Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine and Ecology, Genetics and Evolutionary Sciences. July 10-14, 2023.</li> <li>Invited Short Course on Modern Statistics for the Agricultural Sciences. Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Instructor: Nora M. Bello. Approximately 30 faculty, researchers and graduate students from the Center of Excellence for Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition (CE SAIN), Royal University of Agriculture (RUA), Institute of Technology Cambodia (ITC) and Pasteur Institute Cambodia (IPC). May 29 to June 6, 2023.</li> <li>Short Course on Mixed Models in Quantitative Genetics. Bruce Weir Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics (SISG), Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA. Instructor: Guilherme Rosa. June 5-7, 2024.</li> <li>Short Course on Linear Models in Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, Chungnam National University (CNU), Daejeon, South Korea. Instructor: Guilherme Rosa. February 5-7, 2024.</li> <li>Short Course on Big Data and Digital Tools Applied to Livestock Production. University of Padova, Padova - Italy. Instructor: Guilherme Rosa. Sept 25 - 29, 2023.</li> </ol>   2) Presentations A total of 44 presentations, 31 of them by invitation, were delivered by members of NCCC170 during this period to a varied professional audience consisting both of statisticians and domain scientists. Delivery venues were both domestic and international. A selected subset is listed below for illustrative purposes.   <ol> <li>(Jennifer Clarke) Invited Presentation, Opportunities and Challenges in High-Throughput Digital Plant Phenotyping for Sustainable Crop Production, EMBRAPA Digital Agriculture, Campinas, Brasil. U.S. Department of State Professional Exchange Program. August 31, 2023.</li> <li>(Nora Bello) Invited Seminar: “Systems Modeling: A Step-by-Step Example in Livestock Production”. Invited seminar for the Department of Biomedical Informatics Seminar Series at The Ohio State University. Columbus, Ohio. Virtual platform. September 8, 2023.</li> <li>(Raul Macchiavelli) Keynote Lecture: Applications of Generalized Additive Mixed Models for Long-term Monitoring of Water Quality in Streams in Puerto Rico. Annual Conference of the Argentinean Region of the International Biometric Society. Salta (Argentina), October 11, 2023.</li> <li>(Laurence Madden) Invited webinar: “Models and methods for network meta-analysis”. International Webinar on Meta-Analysis. Sponsored by Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE). December 2023.</li> <li>(Guilherme Rosa) Invited Talk: “The Use of AI and Statistics in Optimising the Use of Livestock Big Data”. Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics for Improved Veterinary Care. University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. December 11, 2023. (online)</li> <li>(Robert Tempelman) Invited Talk: “Integrating quantitative data analyses: Application to the dairy sciences”. American Dairy Science Association Meetings, West Palm Beach, FL June 17, 2024.</li> <li>(Edzard van Santen) Invited presentation: “To combine experiments or not - that is the question.” 2023 ASA, CSSA, SSA International Annual Meeting. Oct 29 - Nov 1, 2023. St Louis, Mo.</li> <li>(Daniel Runcie) Modeling Gene-Environment Interactions across Large-Scale Field Trials. Plant and Animal Genome Conference. January 13, 2024</li> <li>(Alex Lipka) Invited speaker. University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany. “Lipka Lab: addressing key challenges of crop sciences through quantitative genetics”, Lipka AE. March 11, 2024.</li> <li>(Réka Howard) “Integrating Genomic, Weather, and Secondary Trait Data for Multiclass Classification” Invited speaker. ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meeting. October 30, 2023</li> </ol>   3) Books and Book Chapters None listed this year.   4) Other Project Related Activities: awards, grants  Members of NCCC170 served as principal investigators, co-principal investigators or collaborators for 20 grant awards active during the funding period totaling over $ 18 million. Funding sources included federal agencies such as the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as private organizations and intramural academics. Most grant awards were interdisciplinary in nature, and in several cases, involved multiple academic institutions. A selected subset of grant awards is listed below for illustrative purposes. Member co/authors are highlighted in bold.   Grants: <ol> <li>USDA AFRI Schnable, P. (with Clarke) NIFA AG2PI Collaborative: Continuing to Seed the Future of Agriculture Genome to Phenome Research, $1,920,000, 09/01/22 – 08/31/24. Role: co-Principal Investigator and Lead Site PI</li> <li>Nora Bello, role: invited collaborator. National Science Foundation - ADVANCE Partnership Program NSF 20-554: “STEM Intersectional Equity in Departments (SIEDS): A Partnership for Inclusive Work Cultures Michigan State University with The Ohio State University and Wayne State University”. $ 1,250,000. Timeline: 2023-2024. Status: Awarded.</li> <li>Raul Macchiavelli, role: Collaborator. Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board (PREQB). “Development of an integrated platform for monitoring and forecasting Harmful Algal Blooms at San José Lagoon and documenting the history of PFAS pollution in selected watersheds of Puerto Rico” Timeline: 2023-2026. $2,450,000.</li> <li>Rosa, G. J. M., Lourenco, D., Rowan, T., Brito, L., Gondro, C., Huang, J., and Valle de Souza, S. “Integrating Enviromics, Genomics, and Machine Learning for Precision Breeding of Resilient Beef Cattle”, USDA-IDEAS, 05/2023-04/2027, $1,000,000.</li> <li>Penagaricano, F., H. C. Mantovani, H.M. White, K.A. Weigel, J.E.P. Santos, K.C. Jeong, J.E. Koltes, J.A.D.R.N. Appuhamy, M.J. Vandehaar, R.J. Tempelman, R.L. Baldwin and P. VanRaden. Integrating genomic ,nutritional, and microbial strategies to mitigate enteric methane emissions from dairy cattle. Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research and Council for Dairy Cattle Breeding. 01/01/2023-12/31/2025 $3,200,000</li> <li>Brouder, S, Barford, C, Berg, W, Bossaer, G, Brandt, DS, Craig, BA, Fiock, T, Murrell, TS, Ruark, M, Scott, J, Thompson, NM, Volenec, J, and Zhu, J. FACT: AN Innovative Cyber-Framework Integrating Public/Private Data for Evidence-Based Recommendations. USDA - National Inst of Food & Agriculture. 08/01/2019 - 07/31/2024. $1,000,000</li> <li>Clark Kogan, role: Principal Investigator (PI). USDA APHIS Cooperative Agreement. "Statistical Methods for Risk-based Surveillance Strategies." $132,000. Timeline: 2023-2024.</li> <li>Edzard van Santen. Role Collaborator: Fostering Resilience and Ecosystem Services in Landscapes by Integrating Diverse Perennial Circular Systems (RESILIENCE CAP). Valentin Picasso (PI).</li> <li>De Guzman, C., Srivastava, V.; Fernandes, S. B. USDA-NIFA-AFRI, Breeding for Rice Yield and Grain Quality Under High Night Temperature Conditions Using Conventional Breeding, Genomics and Gene Editing Approach. $585,650, 04/01/24 – 03/31/28. Role: co-Principal Investigator</li> </ol>   Also listed below are professional awards conferred to members of the NCCC170 during the reporting period. <ol> <li>Bruce A Craig, 2023 National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Cooperator of the Year Award.</li> </ol>   5) Milestones: Implementation and dissemination efforts. Benchmarking. <ol start="2024"> <li>Philip Dixon, Jarad Niemi, Bruce Craig, Julia Piaskowski, Kathleen Yeater and Guilherme Rosa. Planning committee and local hosts (Dixon and Niemi) for the 2024 Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture and Natural Resources, held in Ames, Iowa on May 13-16, 2024. <a href="https://www.regcytes.extension.iastate.edu/appliedstatistics/">https://www.regcytes.extension.iastate.edu/appliedstatistics/</a></li> <li>Samuel Fernandes. The Crop Science Podcast Show: Statistical Models in Plant Breeding: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TpjUryYQPs&list=PLTrrKh380P6DbRJ3quwBYWM4uOEzfRbNi&index=3">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TpjUryYQPs&list=PLTrrKh380P6DbRJ3quwBYWM4uOEzfRbNi&index=3</a> June 25, 2024.</li> <li> Piaskowski, blog post: Mind the Gap: Mixed Models in R. <a href="https://jpiaskowski.gitlab.io/posts/r-state-of-mlm/">https://jpiaskowski.gitlab.io/posts/r-state-of-mlm/</a></li> <li> Piaskowski & W. Price, instructional blog posts: Introduction to Data Cleaning with the Tidyverse; Introduction to Creating Awesome Plots with ggplot; Interpreting P-values; Design and Anatomy of a Study; Common Errors and Solutions in SAS; Graphical User Interfaces for R; Resources for Learning R; Finding Help in R; How to Write Custom Functions in R; R packages for Agricultural Research. <a href="https://agstats.io/post/">https://agstats.io/post/</a></li> <li>Agriculture CRAN Task View launched and co-maintained by Julia Piaskowki: <a href="https://cran.r-project.org/web/views/Agriculture.html">https://cran.r-project.org/web/views/Agriculture.html</a></li> <li>Mixed Model CRAN Task View launched and co-maintained by Julia Piaskowki: <a href="https://cran.r-project.org/web/views/MixedModels.html">https://cran.r-project.org/web/views/MixedModels.html</a></li> <li>YouTube channel (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/jaradniemi">https://www.youtube.com/jaradniemi</a>) 6,107 subscribers, 1.2 million views. Jarad Niemi</li> </ol>

Publications

A total of 86 scientific publications were authored or co-authors by NCCC170 members during the reporting period. Publication venues spanned a wide range of scientific domains and included Scientific Reports, PLoS One and PLoS Computational Biology, The Plant Genome, Genetics, G3 Genes Genomes Genetics,  Frontiers in Genetics, Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Theoretical and Applied Genetics, BMC Bioinformatics, Genome Biology, Databases, Research Synthesis Methods, Spatial Statistics, Statistical Analysis and Data Mining, Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, International Journal of Food Science, Journal of Stored Products Research, Cereal Chemistry, Agronomy Journal, HortTechnology, Frontiers in Horticulture, Phytopathology, Pest Management Science, Agricultural Water Management, Nematology, Journal of Plant Interactions, Crop Science, International Journal of Vegetable Science, Frontiers in Agronomy, Biocontrol Science and Technology, Journal of experimental botany, Journal of Experimental Botany, Phytopathology, HortScience, Field Crops Research, Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, Journal of Animal Science, Journal of Dairy Science, Translational Animal Science, Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology, Poultry Science, Animal Feed Science and Technology, Preventive Veterinary Medicine, Research in Veterinary Science, Applied Animal Behaviour, Animals, Tropical Animal Health and Production, Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia, Cryobiology, Microorganisms, Ecosphere, Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, Journal of Environmental Quality, North American Journal of Fisheries Management, Forest Ecology and Management, amongst others. A selected subset of publications is listed below for illustrative purposes. Member co/authors are highlighted in bold. <ol> <li>Clarke, J., Cooper, L., Poelchau, M., Berardini, T, Elser, J., Farmer, A., Ficklin, S., Kumari, S., Laporte, M.-A., Nelson, R., Sadohara, R., Selby, S., Thessen, A., Whitehead, B., and Sen, T. Data sharing and ontology use among agricultural genetics, genomics, and breeding databases and resources of the AgBioData consortium. Databases, November 2023. https://doi.org/10.1093/database/baad076</li> <li>Wisnieski, L., M. W. Sanderson, D. G. Renter and M. Bello. 2023. Inferential implications of normalizing binomial proportions in a structural equation model: A simulation study motivated by feedlot data”. Preventive Veterinary Medicine 2023 Aug; 217:105963. doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2023.105963.</li> <li>Martínez-Rodríguez, G. A., Vázquez-Cartagena, M. A., Perdomo-García, C. R., Macchiavelli, R. E., Sotomayor-Ramírez, D., & Rosa, J. R. 2024. Water quality trends of streams in Puerto Rico: Evaluating 50 years of the Clean Water Act. Journal of Environmental Quality, 53, 253–264.<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jeq2.20550">https://doi.org/10.1002/jeq2.20550</a></li> <li>Madden, L.V., and Ojiambo, P.S. 2024. The value of generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) for data analysis in the plant sciences. Frontiers in Horticulture 3: 1423462. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fhort.2024.1423462">doi:10.3389/fhort.2024.1423462</a></li> <li>Koebernick, J., A. Gillen, R. Fett, S. Patel, B. Fallen, V. Pantalone, G. Shannon, Z. Li, A. Scaboo, W. Schapaugh, R. Mian, and Q. D. Read. 2024. Soybean test weight in relation to genotype, environment, and genotype × environment interaction in the southern USA. Agronomy Journal. DOI: 10.1002/agj2.21551 </li> <li>Mathews, J., Y. Sun, P. Harris, Dai, S. Price, D. McAvoy, M. Farrell, & K. Kopp (2024). Sap Yield and Sugar Content of Boxelder and Norway Maple Trees in Northern Utah. HortTechnology, 34(1), 52-59. <a href="https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTTECH05304-23">https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTTECH05304-23</a>.</li> <li>Mota, L. F. M., Arikawa, L. M., Santos, S. W. B., Junior, G. A. F., Alves, A. A. C., Rosa, G. J. M., Mercadante, M. E. Z., Cyrillo, J. N. S. G., Carvalheiro, R. and Albuquerque, L. G. Benchmarking machine learning and parametric methods for genomic prediction of feed efficiency‑related traits in Nellore cattle. Scientific Reports 14: 6404, 2024.</li> <li>Annear, A.R., Simonson, M.A., Dixon, P.M. and Weber, M.J. 2023. Intra-annual variability of common carp and bigmouth buffalo electrofishing data in shallow lakes.  North American Journal of Fisheries Management 43(2):556-568.</li> <li>Buczkowski, G, Wang, SH and Craig, BA (2023) Behavioral assays reveal mechanisms of supercolony formation in odorous house ants, Scientific Reports, 13(1): Article #9013</li> <li>Brabec, D., S. Grothe, M. Perez-Fajardo, L. Pordesimo, and Yeater. 2024. Potential of a flatbed scanner for evaluation of flour samples for dark specks and flour color. Cereal Chemistry, 101(3), pp.508-517. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cche.10758">https://doi.org/10.1002/cche.10758</a></li> <li>Deer, C, Dunn BL, Hu B, Goad C, Shoup DE (2023), Grafted and Nongrafted ‘Cherokee Purple’ Tomato Performance in Aquaponic and Hydroponic Greenhouse Production in Oklahoma, 1 Nov 2023, HortScience 58(11): 1332-1340. <a href="https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI17248-23">https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI17248-23</a></li> <li>Kogan, C., DeVetter, L. W., & Hoheisel, G.-A. (2023). Modeling Northern Highbush Blueberry Cold Hardiness for the Pacific Northwest. HortScience, 58(11), 1314-1320. <a href="https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI17320-23">https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI17320-23</a></li> <li>Vechia Jaqueline F. Della, Andrade Daniel J., Tassi Aline D., Roda Amy, van Santen Edzard, Carrillo Daniel. 2023. Can predatory mites aid in the management of the citrus leprosis mite? Frontiers in Agronomy 5. DOI=10.3389/fagro.2023.1304656</li> <li>Jiayi Qu, Daniel Runcie, Hao Cheng (2023). Mega-scale Bayesian regression methods for genome-wide prediction and association studies with thousands of traits, Genetics, Volume 223, Issue 3, March 2023, iyac183, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyac183">https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyac183</a></li> <li>Rafael Della Coletta, Sharon E Liese, Samuel B Fernandes, Mark A Mikel, Martin O Bohn, Alexander E Lipka, Candice N Hirsch. Linking genetic and environmental factors through marker effect networks to understand trait plasticity. Genetics, Volume 224, Issue 4, August 2023, iyad103, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyad103">https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyad103</a></li> <li>Nicolás Cafaro La Menza, Timothy J Arkebauer, John L Lindquist, Juan Pablo Monzon, Johannes MH Knops, George Graef, David Scoby, Réka Howard, Jennifer Rees, James E Specht, Patricio Grassini (2023). Decoupling between leaf nitrogen and radiation use efficiency in vegetative and early reproductive stages in high-yielding soybean. Journal of experimental botany. 74(1): 352-363</li> <li>Tepedino VJ, Griswold TL, and Durham SL (2023) Reproductive biology and flower visitors of two rare species of Sclerocactus (Cactaceae) in the southwestern United States. Western North American Naturalist 83(4): 445-453. DOI: 10.3398/064.083.0402</li> <li>Velma K. Lopez,Estee Y. Cramer,Robert Pagano,John M. Drake,Eamon B. O’Dea,Madeline Adee,Turgay Ayer,Jagpreet Chhatwal,Ozden O. Dalgic,Mary A. Ladd,Benjamin P. Linas,Peter P. Mueller,Jade Xiao,Johannes Bracher,Alvaro J. Castro Rivadeneira,Aaron Gerding,Tilmann Gneiting,Yuxin Huang,Dasuni Jayawardena,Abdul H. Kanji,Khoa Le,Anja Mühlemann,Jarad Niemi,Evan L. Ray,Ariane Stark,Yijin Wang,Nutcha Wattanachit,Martha W. Zorn,Sen Pei,Jeffrey Shaman,Teresa K. Yamana,Samuel R. Tarasewicz,Daniel J. Wilson,Sid Baccam,Heidi Gurung,Steve Stage,Brad Suchoski,Lei Gao,Zhiling Gu,Myungjin Kim,Xinyi Li,Guannan Wang,Lily Wang,Yueying Wang,Shan Yu,Lauren Gardner,Sonia Jindal,Maximilian Marshall,Kristen Nixon,Juan Dent,Alison L. Hill,Joshua Kaminsky,Elizabeth C. Lee,Joseph C. Lemaitre,Justin Lessler,Claire P. Smith,Shaun Truelove,Matt Kinsey,Luke C. Mullany,Kaitlin Rainwater-Lovett,Lauren Shin,Katharine Tallaksen,Shelby Wilson,Dean Karlen,Lauren Castro,Geoffrey Fairchild,Isaac Michaud,Dave Osthus,Jiang Bian,Wei Cao,Zhifeng Gao,Juan Lavista Ferres,Chaozhuo Li,Tie-Yan Liu,Xing Xie,Shun Zhang,Shun Zheng,Matteo Chinazzi,Jessica T. Davis,Kunpeng Mu,Ana Pastore y Piontti,Alessandro Vespignani,Xinyue Xiong,Robert Walraven,Jinghui Chen,Quanquan Gu,Lingxiao Wang,Pan Xu,Weitong Zhang,Difan Zou,Graham Casey Gibson,Daniel Sheldon,Ajitesh Srivastava,Aniruddha Adiga,Benjamin Hurt,Gursharn Kaur,Bryan Lewis,Madhav Marathe,Akhil Sai Peddireddy,Przemyslaw Porebski,Srinivasan Venkatramanan,Lijing Wang,Pragati V. Prasad,Jo W. Walker,Alexander E. Webber,Rachel B. Slayton,Matthew Biggerstaff,Nicholas G. Reich,Michael A. Johansson. (2024) Challenges of COVID-19 Case Forecasting in the US, 2020–2021. PLoS Computational Biology 20(5): e1011200. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011200</li> </ol>

Impact Statements

• The accomplishments listed include multiple workshops and short courses, as well as presentations, publications and in general, a diverse dissemination media. These accomplishments collectively speak to the influence of the NCCC170 amongst the community of statisticians serving food and agriculture research programs, as well as to their relevance to collaborative domain-specific research teams at their home institutions and beyond.
• The accomplishments further illustrate how members of the NCCC170, working both jointly and individually, enhanced research capacity and fostered the continuing professional education of the scientific community of a broad range of audiences, both domestic and international. This, in turn, demonstrates a broad reach of impact of NCCC170, ranging from local institutions to worldwide. Such broad impact is directly aligned with the global scope of agriculture and food production.
• The accomplishments also demonstrate a variety of innovative methodological developments and modern software implementations that directly address problems unique to current challenges in food and agricultural research, and further advance agricultural statistics as a broad quantitative platform for evidence-based decision making.
• The accomplishments and annual meeting minutes further illustrate substantial growth in NCCC170 membership by way of new junior members from academia, government and private industry recently joining the effort on agricultural statistics.
• Selected publications and grant awards focused on the role and know-how of research collaborations. Panel discussions articulated and evaluated emerging challenges to agricultural statistics. Taken together, these initiatives support the mentoring of upcoming agricultural statisticians and provide a foundation to educate other statisticians and administrators involved in the faculty evaluation process.