eChapters

The demand for lightweight, high-performance, and environmentally responsible materials is particularly strong in automotive, aerospace, and defence applications. This chapter examines biomass-derived green nanocomposites as potential materials for lightweight systems and energy-storage-related applications. It discusses material fundamentals, design requirements, sector-specific performance expectations, material systems, and performance benchmarks. Green processing and circular economy integration are considered alongside current technological challenges and strategic research gaps. Biomass-derived resources provide opportunities to reduce dependence on non-renewable feedstocks while developing functional composite materials. The chapter emphasizes the need to balance lightweight design, mechanical and functional performance, manufacturing feasibility, sustainability, and end-of-life considerations for demanding engineering applications.

Probiotic Fermented food products
 
An individual requires adequate nutrients like proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals to maintain diet. There has been an explosion of the consumer interest in the role of enhancing the health by some specific foods or physiologically active food components, so called functional foods (Hasler, 1998). The concept of functional foods evolved in the year 1990 in Japan.

Many farmer participatory field  experiments were designed and conducted in different states of India having large area under acid soils, with locally available soil ameliorants to study their effect on soil health and crop performance. This work was done during 2000 & 2005 under an ICAR network project on “Soil characterization and resource management of acid soil regions for increasing productivity”. The details of the field locations are presented in table 1.

It is an established fact that there is no further scope for horizontal expansion of area under plough, as the per capita land is decreasing every year due to unabated increase in human population. Hence, the future need of food has to be met through vertical expansion i.e. more intensification of agriculture. Nearly 40 million tonnes of nutrients in the form of chemical fertilizers will have to be utilized to feed upon an estimated population of 1.5 billion by 2050 AD (Sakai, 2001). However, presently the crop productivity especially rice and wheat has stagnated not only in India but in other South Asian countries also (Mahajan and Gupta, 2009). 

Antibodies are a group of glycoproteins having a globular compact structure. They are known as immunoglobulins. On the basis of their experiments, Tiselius and Kabat, in 1939, demonstrated that most antibodies are found in the g globulin fraction of serum proteins. When serum from rabbit, immunized with ova albumin, was subjected to electrophoresis, it showed a peak for g globulin (Fig. 4.1). Studies have revealed that the major part of IgG is found in the g globulin fraction of the serum proteins. Other fractions, a and b, too, have other immunoglobulins along with small part of IgG.

Chromatography was first employed by Ramsay (1905) to separate mixtures of gases and vapours. The first scientist to recognize chromatography as an efficient method of separation was the Russian botanist Tswett (1906), who demonstrated that, when a plant extract was carried by petroleum ether through a column consisting of a glass tube packed with calcium carbonate powder, a number of dyes were separated, as shown in Figure 1. He named this analysis method “Chromatographie” after “chroma” and “graphos”, which are Greek words meaning “color” and “to draw,” respectively.

Rust

The rust of wheat has been studied more than any other disease in the world. In India, K.C Mehta and his associates studied this disease with exemplary zeal. Three rusts of wheat are known. These are Black stem rust, caused by Puccinia graminis tritici, Brown rust (leaf rust), caused by Puccinia recondita, and Yellow rust, caused by P? striiformis. Brown and yellow rusts cause more damage thant the black rust, because of early appearance in the season.

Introduction 
As we have journeyed through the preceding chapters, meticulously examining the foundational understanding of crop-weather interactions, the sophisticated development of crop simulation models and decision support systems, the invaluable contributions of indigenous technical knowledge, and the systematic formulation of precise and customized agroadvisories, we now arrive at the decisive stage of this entire endeavor of dissemination of Agromet Advisories. The profound scientific insights and meticulously crafted recommendations, no matter how accurate or relevant, remain inert unless they effectively reach the hands, ears, or screens of the farmers who need them most, in a format they can readily understand and apply. This chapter, therefore, is dedicated to unraveling the complex, yet essential, process of ensuring that crucial agrometeorological information successfully traverses the last mile to translate into tangible impact on agricultural practices and outcomes across diverse landscapes. The challenge of effective dissemination extends far beyond a simple broadcast; it necessitates the establishment of a robust, dynamic, and multichannel communication ecosystem. This ecosystem must be meticulously designed to account for the rich tapestry of socio-economic, technological, and literacy disparities prevalent within farming communities. Historically, traditional methods such as the communal gathering around a radio for a farmer‘s bulletin or face-to-face discussions during village meetings formed the bedrock of knowledge transfer, leveraging established social networks and widely accessible, albeit low-tech, communication tools. However, the relentless march of the digital revolution has fundamentally reshaped this landscape, unveiling an unprecedented potential for expansive reach, enhanced personalization, and rapid delivery of information, thereby opening a myriad of new avenues for disseminating critical advisories with remarkable speed and specificity.

WORLD HISTORY

Work on ornamental crops was first initiated in Krelage Nursery founded by Ernst Heinrich Krelage for bulbs, lilium and dahlias in 1811. During 1895, Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute was established for ornamental crops. The first yellow corn Golden Bnatam was listed in Burpee’s Catalogue in 1902. In 1909 Primadonna F₁ hybrid variety of begonia was released by the Benary Seed Company in Germany and in the same year Atlee established seed farms at Floradale in California, Erfurt in Germany Anglia in UK and Kashmir valley in India for annual garden flowers. Luther Burbank did excellent breeding works on ornamental trees, flowers and fruits in 1926.

David developed the first successful hybrid in Nasturtium (1934) and Red and Gold hybrids of marigold (1937). In 1940, Burpee was successful in chromosome doubling and transformation of wild flowers and developed “Bright Scarlet” and “Super Tetra Series” in antirrhinum and “Jumbo Scarlet” in zinnia. He produced new strains of marigold, zinnia, nasturtium and snapdragon. William Houston in 1940 initiated the Ageratum breeding. Morden Research station was set up in Western Canada in 1945 for ornamental crop breeding. In 1968, Dr. Gustav A.L., Mehlquist was recognized as an international authority on breeding of ornamental plants. George J. Ball breeder of peas, asters and calendulas was a pioneer for the supply of dwarf impatiens and orange impatiens ‘Super Elfin’ in 1968. Israeli breeders during 1990 gave more attention towards the development of carnation, lily and anemone varieties. Longwood Gardens in 2008 got success in breeding of stock. The first record of chrysanthemum hybridization, germination and selection of superior seedlings occurred in 1827 by M. Bernet.

2.1    Reynolds Number
    
2.2    Darcy-Weisbach Equation
    
2.3    Hazen-William Formula
    
2.4    Hydraulic Characteristics of Distributors
    
2.5    Manufacturing Variation of Distributors
    
2.6    Irrigation Uniformity and Efficiency
        
Questions and Problems
        
References

Plant nutrition is the study of the chemical elements and compounds that are necessary for plant growth, and also of their external supply and internal metabolism. The criteria for an element to be essential for plant growth:

In its absence the plant is unable to complete a normal life cycle; or

That the element is part of some essential plant constituent or metabolite.

INTRODUCTION

The use of chemical for protecting plants from the ravages of the pathogens is not an innovation of the 20th century. Chemicals have been used for over 200 years to protect plants against fungal diseases. At present about 150 chemicals belonging to different classes are used as fungicides in world agriculture. Most of the recommended treatments generally provide 90% or greater control of target diseses. Even when a crop has been grown from pathogen free soil and the crop seems superficially healthy, the use of fungicides in some circumstances become unavoidable. Resistant varieties of potato are attacked by late blight if rain occurs during tuber formation. To control this disease use of fungicides become vital to avoid any loss of the crop. Thus, even in the case of resistant varieties, judicious use of chemical protection will extend the life of resistance in the variety. For killing different groups of pathogens, different types of chemicals are required. The chemicals mainly used for controlling diseases are: fungicides for killing fungus, bactericide for killing barteria, nematicides for killing nematodes, and viricides for killing viruses.

7.1 Introduction

Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy and almost 70 per cent of the total population depends on it. After independence, India achieved self-sufficiency in primary agriculture like food grains, fruits, vegetables and milk, etc. Now it is time to think and focus on secondary agriculture. It is assumed that with the adaption of secondary agriculture, India can achieve the goal of doubling the income of farmers. The secondary agriculture can be defined as, value addition to agricultural products, generating basic facilities for primary processing and add value to the basic agro commodities to allow farmers to get better revenues from their farm produce. It also has job creation opportunity in the rural sector to grow rural economy, which is purely based on agriculture. Further, it can also be elaborated that secondary agriculture as a production activity and invented strategy which includes sustainability of production, monetisation of farmer’s produce, straightening of extension service and recognising agriculture as an enterprise. Secondary agriculture can help drive growth of primary agriculture in the three areas i.e. (i) value addition to primary agriculture production, (ii) farmer – industrial linked and (iii) effective utilization of crop residues of primary agriculture.

The value addition to a primary agriculture production can be achieved by establishing direct linkage of farmers with market through grading of agricultural produce, cluster farming, marketing skill and financial literacy. The farmer – industrial linkage is closely associated with rural off-farm activities such as bee keeping, livestock production, etc. it can be promoted as a part of an integrated farming system. The crop residues effectively can be utilized for energy generation. There is scope of establishing rural based agricultural entrepreneurship in the field of biofuel. Agribusiness incubation can help farming community and provide reliable market linkages to improve farmer’s realisations.

Small cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum Maton), popularly known as the “Queen of spices”, occupies an important position among the foreign exchange earning commodities. Cardamom is cultivated on a commercial scale in Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Tanzania and Papua New Guinea. Guatemala is the largest producer of cardamom in the World. In India, it is confined to the States of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, accounting for an area of 41588 ha, 25021 ha and 4561 ha, respectively (Spices Board, 2009). Among these States, Kerala accounts for the major portion of production (58.4 %), followed by Karnataka (35.2 %) and Tamil Nadu (6.4 %). In Kerala, Cardamom is mainly grown in the erstwhile Travancore area in the present Idukki district and it is known as the Cardamom Hill Reserve (CHR), which was specially reserved, denotified and removed from the control of forest development by the orders of the Travancore Government. By a Royal Proclamation in Medam 997(ME) 334 square miles (86,506 ha) area in Devikulam, Udumbanchola and Peermedu taluks of the present Idukki District was declared as CHR for the promotion of cardamom cultivation (Miniraj and Nybe, 2007). Cardamom is a native of the moist evergreen rain forests of the Western Ghats of South India and is grown extensively in the hilly regions at elevations of 700 to 1300 metres as an under crop in forest lands. Cardamom thrives well within certain thermal regimes. It is believed that diurnal symmetries in temperature trends, if any, have close links with the changes in cloudiness, humidity, atmospheric circulation pattern, winds and soil moisture (Kumar et al., 2002).

Metabolomic databases provide essential information for identifying metabolites, interpreting experimental results, analyzing pathways, and understanding biochemical relationships. This chapter introduces major databases used in metabolomics and explains their roles in modern biological research. Resources such as KEGG, BRENDA, HMDB, MetaboLights, METLIN, and LIPID MAPS provide information on metabolites, enzymes, pathways, structures, spectra, diseases, and experimental datasets. The chapter discusses their applications in metabolite identification, pathway analysis, biomarker discovery, systems biology, and translational research. It also considers challenges including data volume, database completeness, continuous updating, standardization, and integration with other omics resources.

Introduction

The entire living organism from the smaller creatures viruses to the advanced human beings are composed of a set up of biochemical reactions which form the metabolism. These set of metabolic reactions are responsible for the life of organism. The rate of these reactions is a major concern for effective working of organism which is governed by biocatalyst. These biocatalysts are known as enzymes, which accelerates rate of biochemical reaction. These are not utilized in reaction. In 1877, Wilhelm Friedrich Kuhne (Kuhne, 1877) proposed the term enzyme which means ‘in yeast’ and is derived from the Greek word; inzume “leavened” or “in yeast”. At the molecular level of study it is observed that enzymes are proteins which are functional as tertiary and quaratanary structures. Enzymes have active site for the binding to substrate. The active site has two positions; binding and catalytic site (Ogeston, 1948). The former help to bind the substrate with the enzyme followed by the catalysis of reaction by the catalytic site.

D gene segments, diversity gene segments     :    D gene segments, or diversity gene segments, are short DNA sequences that join the V and J gene segments in rearranged immunoglobulin heavy-chain genes and in T-cell receptor â and ä chain genes. See gene segments.    
D loop    :    An extended loop of single-stranded DNA displaced from a duplex structure by an oligonucleotide.

Electrocardiogram (ECG)

Electrocardiogram is a graphic record of electrical events of the heart recorded by the electrocardiograph. It represents the sum up surface voltage and direction of electrical activity produced during cardiac muscle depolarization and repolarization plotted against time (Fig. 33). The time is represented on the X- axis (horizontal line) and amplitude of voltage is represented on the Y-axis (vertical line) of the graph. The potential difference occurring over the surface of the body (at different lead placement locations) is associated with depolarization and repolarization of heart muscle (myocardium). The amplitude of the potential difference is measured as milli volt (mV) and their duration is measured in second or milliseconds.