2017 November ABeNotes
2017 November AgrAbility News
The National AgrAbility Project exhibited with nine other health and safety organizations at the 2017 National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. The NAP exhibit included NAP publications and videos, safety brochures, and youth safety videos and publications. Other displays provided information on grain safety, farm safety, PTO safety, and personal safety. The FFA members were given cards, which each group stamped following a short presentation. When the cards were returned, each member was given a T-shirt.
Steve Swain and Linda Tarr each attended a regional Rehabilitation Hospital of Indiana Brain Injury and Resource Facilitation Conference. The conference presented research conducted by RHI and supported by Indiana Vocational Rehabilitation Services for treatment of individuals incurring brain injuries such as stroke, TBI, PTSD, epilepsy, and others. AgrAbility had displays at both events. The audience included VR counselors, case coordinators, and agencies working with clients.
Steve Swain, Indiana rural rehabilitation specialist, attended the Purdue Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources educators retreat and training.
Steve Swain, Indiana rural rehabilitation specialist, and Cindy Chastain, AgrAbility veteran outreach coordinator, presented to 25 Purdue Agriculture and Natural Resource extension educators about AgrAbility and veterans in relation to the Beginning and Veteran Farmer grant program. Cindy spoke about veteran culture and how to work with veterans. Steve spoke on the services of AgrAbility.
2017 November Faculty News
Dennis Flanagan, USDA-ARS Research Agricultural Engineer and Purdue-ABE Adjunct Professor, visited Argentina from October 4 to 13 hosted by AACREA (Argentina Association of Consortiums of Regional Agricultural Experimentation) to provide information on water pollution and soil erosion prediction technologies in the United States. On October 5 he was one of 4 speakers in a seminar session on "Models for the Evaluation of Water Erosion" at the AACREA headquarters building in downtown Buenos Aires, with each speaker giving a 45-minute talk. Dennis then provided a full-day workshop on the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model, application, and use on October 6 there.
On October 9 he visited the University of Buenos Aires School of Agriculture, and provided a 45-minute talk on water pollution issues in the U.S., then traveled to the city of Cordoba the next day. AACREA sponsored a large 2-day meeting on agricultural research and technology, called CREA-TECH, at the Orfeo Superdome in Cordoba on October 11-12, with about 3000 farmers, farm consultants, researchers, and others participating. Dr. Flanagan provided a 30-minute presentation there on "Water Pollution: Issues and Strategies in the United States". Presentations were given either in Spanish or English, and all English talks by several foreign speakers were simultaneously translated to Spanish for the participants. All of the CREA-TECH presentations are now available at: http://www.agrositio.com/videoconferencias/createch/ (Currently all in Spanish language - English speaker versions may become available at a later date.)
The Purdue ABE Department and USDA-ARS are working together with AACREA (and alumni Dr. Gabriel Vazquez-Amabile) on development of a WEPP model version in Spanish, with databases to be developed for Argentina, Uruguay, and other South American countries, for improved soil erosion predictions there.
2017 November Grad Student News
Sarah Daly will have her undergraduate research at Cornell involving DNA sequences used in the Earth Microbiome Project published in Nature. Congratulations, Sarah!
Thompson, L.R., Sanders, J.G., McDonald, D., [et al, including Daly, S.E.] (2017). A communal catalogue reveals Earth's multiscale microbial diversity. Nature. In press.
Contact Us
Send your thoughts on what you’d like to see in this e-newsletter to Purdue ABE at cmweaver@purdue.edu.