Professional Development
In addition to the outstanding technical program assembled for the 2003 APS Annual Meeting, a number of technical workshops and tours have been arranged to provide you with educational opportunities in specific areas.
Workshops and tours have minimum and maximum participation requirements. Registrations will be made on a first-come, first-served basis. If a tour has an insufficient number of registrants, it may be cancelled in which case you will be promptly notified by an APS representative and issued a full refund. All buses depart from and return to the East Second Street entrance of the Charlotte Convention Center.
Innovative Issues in Seed Pathology
Friday, August 8 and Saturday,
August 9
8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
A workshop focusing on new methods and issues of interest in seed pathology is being sponsored by the Seed Pathology Committee. Topics may include immunomagnetic separation and PCR for detection of seedborne bacteria, comparison of ELISA methods, microarrays for seed health testing, and issues in standardization. This workshop is formulated with a strong emphasis on active participation by attendees. The workshop will be held away from the convention center and bus transportation will be provided. Meals will be on your own. Attendance is limited to 40 people. Tickets are $250. See #2 on the registration form.
Forest Pathology Field Trip
6:30 a.m. Friday, August 8 to 5:00 p.m. Saturday, August 9
Buses depart at 6:30 a.m. Friday, August 8, and travel north through the Piedmont and foothills of North Carolina and Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to the Meadowview Research Farms, home to the American Chestnut Foundation's chestnut blight resistance breeding program. Stops along the way could include littleleaf disease in southern pines with associated bark beetle infestations; hemlock wooly adelgid mortality near the Blue Ridge Parkway; Phytophthora root disease in Fraser fir Christmas tree plantations; and rhododendron nursery and field sites surveyed in the spring of 2003 for the sudden oak death pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum. In keeping with the theme of the Oak Disease Threats Worldwide Symposium co-sponsored by the APS Forest Pathology Committee later in the week, stops at an oak flooring manufacturing plant and an oak decline in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area will be included. The first day will end in Asheville, NC, after a catered dinner served at the North Carolina Arboretum.
On Saturday, participants will tour operations of the USFS Resistance Screening Center at Bent Creek and view tests evaluating genetic resistance to fusiform rust and pitch canker, as well as seed fungi screening. Southern Appalachian hardwood silviculture will be discussed with research scientists at Bent Creek Research and Demonstration Forest, and air quality effects on forest health will be addressed on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Lunch will be provided at the Cradle of Forestry in America on the Pisgah Ranger District, Pisgah National Forest, before returning to the conference hotels by 5:00 p.m. Boxed lunches will be served on both Friday and Saturday. Attendance is limited to 45 people. Participants are required to make their own room reservations for Friday night. A block of rooms has been reserved at a special rate of $89.00 plus state and local taxes (presently 11%; total cost = $98.79) for Friday night at the Courtyard by Marriott in Asheville, NC. Call +1.828.281.0041 and identify yourself as a participant of the "APS Forest Pathology Field Trip" to get the special rate. Tickets are $125. See #3 on the registration form.
Deciduous Tree Fruit Workers Field Trip
7:00 a.m. Friday, August 8 to 3:00 p.m. Saturday, August 9
On Friday we will look at stone fruit diseases, including oak root rot, bacterial spot, peach scab and brown rot in South Carolina, and a peach packing house operation. Later that day we will have a wine tasting and dinner at Biltmore Estates. Stops along the way to Biltmore could include diseases on apples, such as flyspeck, sooty blotch, Brooks spot, black pox, Glomerella leaf spot and Alternaria blotch. We may also see Pierce's disease and bitter rot on grapes. Attendance is limited and will be on a first-come, first-served basis. The ticket price includes all meals, transportation, and wine tasting fee. Participants are required to make their own room reservations for Friday night. A block of rooms has been reserved at the special rate of $69.95 plus state and local taxes (presently 11%; total cost = $77.65) for Friday night at the Holiday Inn near the Biltmore Estate. Call +1.828.684.1213 and identify yourself as a participant of the "APS Deciduous Tree Fruit Workers Field Trip" to get the special rate. Tickets are $125. See #4 on the registration form.
Disease Assessment Workshop
1:00 p.m. Friday, August 8 to 5:00 p.m. Saturday, August 9
The Plant Pathology Society of North Carolina and the Industry Committee of APS are pleased to sponsor a hands-on workshop on methods used to assess disease. Participants in the workshop will evaluate different types of diseases in field plots, discuss rating methods that can be used to differentiate treatments and/or varieties, and learn recommended methods from expert evaluators. There will also be a session on trial design and statistical analysis and a discussion on factors that affect data quality and usability. The tour will be held at the Mountain Horticultural Research Station in Fletcher, NC. A bus will depart from Charlotte on Friday, August 8, at 1:00 p.m. and drive to beautiful Asheville, North Carolina, where we will tour the home and grounds of the Biltmore Estate (a magnificent 250-room chateau).
Overnight arrangements have been made at a rustic retreat where hiking trails and volleyball are available and a great cookout is planned. The workshop will begin on Saturday, August 9, at 8:00 a.m. After the workshop concludes at 2:00 p.m., the bus will depart and return to Charlotte by 5:00 p.m. A minimum of 30 participants is required and a maximum of 98 can be accommodated. Most rooms are doubles, but a limited number of single rooms are available. The cost is $130 for the Biltmore, housing, workshop, and meals. If you choose to join the workshop on Saturday, the cost is $75. Event organizers will assign rooms, but if would like to share a room with someone in particular, please e-mail your request to Debra Brown at debra.brown@syngenta.com. See #5 on the registration form.
Nursery and Greenhouse Tour
Saturday, August 9, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
On this day-long tour of nursery and greenhouse production of ornamental crops in and around the Charlotte area, you can expect to see the latest in technology as growers develop new methods for success in the highly competitive ornamentals industry. Buses will depart at 8:00 a.m. and return by 5:00 p.m., and a box lunch will be provided. Attendance is limited to 45 people. Tickets are $25. See #6 on the registration form.
Linear Mixed Models for Analyzing Data Obtained in Designed Experiments
Saturday, August 9, 3:00
- 7:00 p.m.
Organizers: L.V. Madden, Ohio State University, Wooster, and D.A.
Shah, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Cornell University,
Geneva, NY
It is traditional to use fixed-effects analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine if experimental factors (e.g., treatments) significantly affect the results. However, it has become more common to use linear mixed models (LMMs) to analyze data from planned experiments. True LMMs formally handle experiments with both fixed (e.g., fungicide treatment) and random (e.g., block, location) effects. With LMMs, test statistics for the effects of factors and their interactions, as well as the standard errors for means and other contrasts, are calculated correctly. Until recently, most so-called LMM analyses reported in the literature were actually fixed-effects analyses with limited (and inadequate) corrections for random effects. Although computationally intensive, it is now straightforward with (true) LMMs to: directly analyze experiments with two or more source of variation (e.g., split plots), quantify the effects of variable heterogeneity (e.g., variation dependent on factor levels) on responses, properly test for the effects of repeated measures (such as time during the growing season), and account for the correlation of spatially-referenced data. Registrants will learn to use PROC MIXED of the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) to properly analyze a range of data sets with linear mixed models. This session will follow the tradition of the epidemiology committee's workshops on "bringing statistical analysis to the masses". All registrants must bring a laptop computer with version 8 of SAS installed. The workshop is limited to 40 participants. See #8 on registration form.
Bartlett Tree Research Lab Tour
Tuesday, August 12, 3:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Visit Bartlett Tree Research Labs located in Charlotte. In addition to tours of the site, concurrent presentations and demonstrations may include: 1) Dutch elm disease chemotherapy and mechanical control methods; 2) evaluation of decay in trees and quantification of the extent of decay; 3) web-based diagnostics; 4) fireblight on landscape plants: growth regulators and other options; 5) the effect of various treatments on bacterial leaf scorch; and 6) tree diagnostics using chlorophyll fluorescence. The tour will finish with a reception courtesy of Bartlett Tree Research. Registration is limited to 100. Tickets: $15. See #17 on registration form.
