Hi Team, Hi Walt! ----- I don't know if Joe's PSRD edits ever came back, but we did some minor editing on the deliverable today.  I plan to go ahead and upload that one to the exchange before COB tomorrow just to make the deadline; however, Walt mentioned replacing it Friday with a more revised version.  Also, from SSC tomorrow I plan to get started drafting the weekly quad chart (Walt this is mostly for you, but I did get a picture of James working diligently on coordinates today!!)  Thank you James for all your hard work on that - and Sid for all your work on the deliverable - and Shikher thank you for all your work on data processing.  See you all next week. :-)

Shikher - Today

I finished processing of all input parameters except land cover. I was learning land cover classification implementation and now I am all set to begin downloading and processing landsat imagery for creating land cover raster for out study area.
I shall come on Friday instead of tomorrow if Walt agrees because I shall frequently need guidance and advise of Walt during the process of land cover raster creation.

Shikher-Today

I started my day with literature review. Then Sid gave me a link to website for data download and fortunately I found all data (i.e. all 20 parameters except topographic index) in that website. I have downloaded the data.
Then, I was trying to figure out how to merge two raster in ArcGis. Finally I figured it out. Now, I am hoping to finish data processing by tomorrow using ArcGis. After that we only need Reservoir Distribution data to run the model.

Cha-Cha Chagas :-)

Hi team.  I just wanted to take a moment to say it was nice meeting most of you today.  Some of you not so much - because I had already met you before! haha.  Seems like you all have a lot of great ideas and have your scientific minds on a great path for this project.  I look forward to working more closely with you throughout the term.  :-) -amber

first off, apologies for everything running together last post-as i forgot you have to use html tags in blogger.


im posting to give everyone a heads up that i will need to address an aspect of the SLEUTH project for a portion of the afternoon on Monday. it's that consultant again, but on the upside, we are being cited in their technical report so congrats on having a direct impact!

tentative monday schedule:
800-935: lit review, continue where last week left off
935: i should be hitting the door. a huge welcome to amber, and Sid and Amber will be doing badging (finally). i also would like to do the quick MCHD walking tour. Shikher and James, you're welcome to join.
1015: project planning. i want to do this to realign ourselves for the week and get amber up to speed on the project. I'm expecting Shikher will have some things to say about GARP and i'm imagining we will be having the same 3ish big questions that we fleshed out last week
1100: software installations? other than that, a solid work period for the afternoon. need to get a running start on the project summary and start tackling our big questions. this will probably result in a partner meeting by the end of the week. i may have some paperwork to tidy up but i think karen has everything she needs from last week.
230: im going to set aside some time in the afternoon to do one thing: run the zonal histogram tool for some of the SLEUTH results. this was specifically asked for by the firm, i didnt get to it over the interim (or i did twice and neither time could i get the tool to work) and my deadline is up.

Develop is a blank check to do research with an impact. lets use our time wisely.

a monday kick start if you need (music):

Hey Everyone! Congrats again on being a part of the team and having what seems to be a pretty good first week. Hope everyone isn't too overwhelmed. Announcements: --Amber will be joining us next week to primarily help out with the project. I sent her the most recent proposal but she will probably need to check out some of our initial lit review. No worries-we'll be up to speed by Tuesday. --Our first science advisor telecon with Mr. Spruce will be sometime next week. Not sure when yet, but I'd suspect Friday. --All documentation from the orientation material, contracts, and first round of invoices is in to NPO. With direct deposit, that payment will be processed next weekend. You should have it for sure by Monday, the 23rd. --Until we get time clocks and badges worked out on Monday, I'm not going to bother balancing everyones time. --If you're interested in ordering the official line of DEVELOP apparel, see the develop_swag excel sheet in the student folder on the drive. --It is my intention to install Erdas this afternoon. Hopefully it will cooperate. After i take a look at how different Erdas 2013 is, we may be able to use some of my old tutorial material. Project: I've had some time to take a look at the initial lit review and looks like everyone is on track so far. Try to zero in on what environmental factors (that is, stuff we can observe) these insects are sensitive to. I know we're not sure what we're going to do about the different species, but this will be a question for Dr. Mujica early next week. Also, now is the time to start filling in project background for the project summary and tech paper. Keep an eye out for papers that cite sample data as we will need this data to train the model for Triatominae. Start making a contact list and I will help you all compose the emails to these people. Cheers everyone, have a most excellent weekend.

Shikher-Today

I feel the biggest challenge for this project  is the terminology used in Biology. During literature review, often I had to put "COMMENDABLE EFFORT" to pronounce certain words ... :D .... but I think its quite normal. Now , I am sure that I have been so sensible in my life that I never thought of being a doctor!! Well jokes apart .................
I worked on the theory and working of GARP. Implementation of GARP is easy but the selection of variables for the model need research. I also read paper on Chagas' disease but I need to dig deep into the it's basics. I downloaded ERDAS installation file and will install it tomorrow.