2020-09 Mobile Pesticide App SOW.pdf

Statement of Work

The Mobile Pesticide App and Website

Background

Vector control techniques used throughout the world against mosquitoes, sand flies, and filth-breeding flies have been over-generalized from limited trials in a single ecological region (southeast US). Research in our group has demonstrated that pesticide efficacy varies by environment, ecological region, target insect, application equipment, and application technique. Intense and ongoing globalization of vector borne pathogens, accompanied by expanding ranges of vectors themselves, has created diverse nuisance and vector-borne insect threats to public and veterinary health. A gap exists between end-user stakeholders and recent experimentally-derived pesticide delivery methods that are effective, efficient, and sustainable across a range of austere arid, temperate, and tropical environments. It is vital that the most current guidance on specific and innovative combinations of pesticides, equipment, and techniques optimized to reduce transmission risk in specific environments is immediately accessible to operational entomologists and public health agencies to plan sustainable, effective disease-vector control operations. The Mobile Pesticide App will bring together data from diverse scientific publications, technical guides, presentations, and unpublished reports that are not easily accessed or synthesized by stakeholders into easy-to-use operational pesticide application guidance specific to environment and target insect and readily accessible by stakeholders worldwide.

Overview of App Design

App development will be conducted by a dedicated team of professionals from a reputable and competent app development firm working closely with USDA personnel.

The Mobile Pesticide App will be a public, free of charge, and unlimited distribution application. A broad user population under this scenario will provide the most valuable, rapid, realistic feedback on user acceptance, usability, and utility. The App will draw from only publicly available content, including the existing portfolio of pesticide efficacy data from our group. User input that has a spatial component will be sufficiently broad to not identify the actual location of the user: for example, to build a guidance output the App will not ask for GPS or map location, only general ecological region (e.g., hot-arid, hot-humid, or warm-temperate). A back-end database and content management sustem will be developed to permit rapid and seamless updating of content and easy implementation and maintenance of the analytical framework that powers the App guidance output. The App will be configured to require users register for an account with user name, password, and, eventually, 2-factor authentication to protect both users and hosts.

The Mobile Pesticide App / Design & Development / Statement of Work

Overview of App Decision Support System

The App consists of databases of pesticide formulations and application equipment linked to environment-specific and target insect-specific aerosol and residual pesticide application guidance points driven by real world field and laboratory data developed by our group. A guidance point consists of an aerosol or residual technique and its expected efficacy. A technique is a specific combination of pesticide (and diluent) and pesticide application equipment used against a target insect at a given life stage, in a given ecological zone and environmental conditions. The expected efficacy is expressed as the frequency of target insect mortality or population reduction observed in a field trial of the technique.

The App is initiated from the home screen which contains the start button in addition to links and contact information for the agencies responsible for developing the application and links to instructions for using the application. The start button leads the user to drop-down menus to enter a series of variables that will be used by the App to determine and display guidance. The initial user-defined variables are the target organism (mosquito, sand fly, or filth fly) and its life stage (larval or adult), the environment in which the pesticide application will take place (desert/hot-arid, temperate/warm-humid, or tropical/hot-humid), and whether aerosol/quick knockdown or residual/long-term control methods will be used.

If aerosol is selected, for example, the user is prompted to indicate aerial or ground application, and ULV or thermal fog. In the case of ground applications, the user is also asked whether the application will be indoor or outdoor, or whether a misting system will be used. If residual is selected the user must indicate whether the mode of application will be standard cold mist, electrostatic cold mist, thermal fog, or foam, and whether the treatment will be indoor or outdoor. If the application will be outdoor residual, the user then selects the substrate; current options include desert camouflage netting, woodland camouflage netting, HESCO material, vegetation (desert or temperate), and rodent burrow (soil). The final group of user inputs is whether the pesticide or larvicide formulation needs to be synthetic, botanical, or biological and whether oil based or water based. Formulations are further divided, for instance synthetic options may include pyrethroid, organophosphate, or neonicotinoid.

The user then selects ‘Get Guidance’ and the App will return a screen showing three horizontal color coded panels, the top one marked with green (highly effective), the middle amber (moderately effective), and the bottom red (minimally effective or ineffective; not recommended). Each panel will contain text indicating a pesticide and a piece of equipment.

Expected efficacy is derived differently depending on aerosol or residual treatments. For an aerosol technique for example, high efficacy may be indicated by >80% mortality in sentinel mosquitoes up to 100 m from the spray line. For a residual technique on the other hand, high efficacy may be indicated by >60% reduction in wild sand flies for >6 months. The Pesticide App is naturally limited by available data and so will become more comprehensive over time. Certain combinations of user inputs may return ‘No Data Available’ until field studies are completed. In some cases, guidance may only consist of a single green, amber, or red panel or two panels if sufficient studies have not been carried out. Users may not have the specific pesticide and/or equipment indicated in the guidance, but may weigh the guidance in choosing similar available materials.

Overview of Expanded App Features

We plan to develop several expanded App features to enhance the core platform. The core App platform will be able to handle streaming of video, and storage and display of images and PDFs. The core App platform described in the previous section will be enhanced to allow the user to enter into the query system from any perspective – for instance, from application equipment or from environment, not just from target insect.

Also, the App will be integrated vector management (IVM)-centric, not simply providing formulation and equipment recommendations but also prompting the user to consider relevant concurrent key IVM strategies to build an effective system sensitive to mitigating resistance and more likely for long term success.

Although structured feedback will be solicited from limited key stakeholders during the App development process we will include a Notation feature within the App. The Notation feature will allow a user to save notes on any aspect of their use of the App and either post them to their personal App account (default) or upload them to a feedback folder in the cloud database. These uploaded comments will be monitored by USDA to form curated feedback loops to constantly improve the app. Some of this feedback could be in the form of new efficacy data from users in the field that will be extremely valuable to the Mobile Pesticide App, especially in the form of relative efficacy (green, amber, and red as above): for example from user-submitted notes we could learn that X + Y works best in a certain environment, because they also tried X + A, Z + B, and so on, which did not work as well. Users could also submit efficacy data for other target insects that our group has not yet investigated, such as for Culicoides, ticks, bed bugs, or cockroaches. Another aspect of the Notation reporting feature is that it could be leveraged to form a channel to submit pesticide usage data for later population of a pesticide use reporting form.

We will also develop a Mobile Pesticide App Website web interface that mirrors the entire functionality of the Mobile App for situations where mobile devices are prohibited or not available. The user account will preserve settings and data between the mobile and web versions to provide efficiency and flexibility to users. The web version will also allow a user to export disk images to, for example, a rewritable CD of a set of guidance points for pre-determined combinations of environment, target insect, equipment, and other parameters.

Statement of Work: Mobile Pesticide App Design & Development In this Statement of Work we outline our requirements for the production of the Mobile Pesticide App.

The Mobile Pesticide App (the “App”) must:

1) be a light, streamlined no-cost app designed for clarity and ease of use

2) function, once installed, without network connection

3) contain a core curated database of field pesticide efficacy data from our group

4) be easily and quickly updateable with current, ongoing, and future pesticide field efficacy data from our group

5) use algorithms to transform efficacy data into clear guidance points to users structured by queries on environment/ecological region, target insect, pesticide application equipment, pesticide formulation and diluent, pesticide substrate, and control technique

6) be configured for future expansion that may be in the form of additional layers of core data, analysis, and guidance points, additional functional modules, or links (informational or analytical) to other relevant information systems or databases

7) be mirrored in the Mobile Pesticide App Website (the “Website”), a full-featured web-browser version to support situations where mobile devices are not available or prohibited

The app developer, in a 6 month timeframe for design and development, must be capable of:

1) developing the Mobile Pesticide App with an existing, proven, and secure modular framework and content management system that will

a. provide current and legacy multi-platform support (i.e., supporting the majority of both iOS and Android platforms in use today)

b. produce push notifications to devices such that the App can receive push notifications that inform users about new updates to software or content

c. provide a content import and processing system to import pesticide efficacy data from spreadsheets or a specific content management system

d. support periodic and startup background updates to App content that do not interfere with the user experience

e. support web browsing to display external websites from within the app and also display Mobile Pesticide App Website-hosted content

2) developing the Mobile Pesticide App Website using the WordPress content management system which will

a. serve both the App and the Website

b. allow USDA principal investigators to have admin control of the content management system to enable creation and updating of content and manage user accounts of both the App and Website versions

3) developing the Mobile Pesticide App Website to

a. auto-format to a layout that is optimal for the size of the screen of the mobile device or desktop device

b. contain a simple analytics tool to capture usage data to improve the layout, content, and functionality of the Website

c. be able to export a subset of Website content and functionality to a standalone html package that can run from a rewriteable CD, thumb drive, or other portable storage option so that users can take a user-selected portion of the content and functionality of the Website, to include the user’s notes. to remote areas that may lack an internet connection, that still allows the user to query the decision support system and/or capture new notes

4) developing the App and Website to

a. host and display PDF documents

b. stream video from commonly used sites such as YouTube or Vimeo.

c. contain a user notes capability that allows users to write and save a note, add a photo to the note, submit the note to the USDA principal investigators, export or import notes, and access notes produced on either App or Web platforms from either platform

d. support user accounts for App and Web access, to include provisions for new users to request access via the App and the Website and for USDA principal investigators to approve new users to have access as well as maintain full administrative control over user accounts

The app developer, for no fewer than 5 years from the project start date, must be capable of:

1) maintaining the Mobile Pesticide App and Website, to include updating and/or modifying the App and Website to be fully functional on latest and future iOS, Android, Safari, Firefox, and Explorer platforms, fixing and correcting software bugs, and making the App back-compatible on the majority of legacy iOS and Android devices and software versions currently in use

2) providing end user technical support for both the App and the Website

3) hosting and monitoring the App, Website, and content management system