WMA: Wizard System Architecture for the execution of meta-analysis: A case study applied to verify the efficacy of fluquinconazole in the control of Asian soybean rust

Abstract

Meta-analysis is a probabilistic technique that combines results from several studies that approach the same topic and produce a result that sums up the whole. In the agricultural field, it is used to make empirical estimates of efficiency for the development of productivity and economic research on agriculture. Meta-analysis can be applied through software such as R, which is executed through commands, and produces results without providing user interactivity, nor does it reproduce a friendly and easy-to-understand interface. This paper presents the creation of a computer system, the WMA, which aims to simplify the execution of meta-analysis, providing a graphical interface and improves the display of the results through an interactive visualization using the Hierarchical Information Visualization Technique Bifocal Tree. For validation, the meta-analysis was applied in the agricultural area in a case study that grouped studies that used the fungicide fluquinconazole to combat the soybean rust disease, the results obtained through the application of the meta-analysis were analyzed using the WMA proposed tool.

Key words
Bifocal Tree; Hierarchical Information Visualization Technique; Interactive Visualization; R Software