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Most of the bones of the skull are joined (articulated) with the adjacent bones by sutures. These are immovable joints (synarthroses). The uniting medium is a fibrous tissue and is called the sutural ligament. Most of these joints exist in the early life of the animals and as the age of the animal advances the adjacent bones fuse with each other.

The articulations of hind limb (pelvic limb) comprises the joints of pelvic region which include the sacro-iliac articulation, pelvic symphysis and the hip joint; the articulation of thigh region named as stifle joint; the articulation of tarsal or hock joint and the articulations of digits which include the metatarso-phalangeal joint (fetlock) joint, the proximal interphalangeal joint (pastern joint) and the distal interphalangeal joint (coffin joint). The joints of pelvic region especially the sacro-iliac joint and the pelvic symphysis have been described with the articulations of abdomen and pelvis.

The articulations of the neck are between the bones of the cervical vertebrae. The atlanto occipital articulation and the atlanto axial articulation are the special vertebral articulations while the articulations between the rest of the cervical vertebrae are common vertebral articulations.

Atlanto-occipital articulation

Type of joint: This is a condyloid type of hinge joint (Ginglymus).

Articular surfaces: The atlanto-occipital joint (Figure 2-3 B) is formed between the condyles of the occipital bone and the condyloid cavities of the atlas vertebra.

Articulations of thoracic vertebrae

These are (1) Intercentral articulations which are amphiarthroses formed between the bodies of the adjacent vertebrae and (2) Inter neural articulations which are diarthroses formed between the articular processes of the vertebrae. These articulations are similar to the articulations described for typical vertebrae of the cervical region. The only difference is that the supraspinous ligament in the thoracic part of vertebral column is single as against two parts the funicular and lamellar parts of the cervical part of this ligament. The supra spinous ligament in the thoracic part is the backward continuation of the funicular division of its cervical part which extends medially behind from the occipital eminence , passes through the cervical region as nuchal ligament and continues behind over the summits of the spinous processes of the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae and finally terminates on the sacrum.

Artificial flowers are a great source of handmade decorations. Beautiful handmade artificial flowers are suitable for banquets, weddings or to decorate any room in the home. They are generally made of paper or cloth and in a variety of colors. They come in either a bouquet form or can be ordered as individual stems. There are different kinds of artificial flowers including silk flower, latex flower, flowers made from natural leaves and embroidery flower.

Setting price is a critical component of successful marketing. Vegetable growers have a greater level of control than most other growers over marketable yields, input costs and price. The closer a grower is to the consumer, the more control over price the grower has. Buyers perceive price to represent value of the product. Underpricing, or pricing too low, gives the perception that the product is inferior, while setting the price too high often drives customers away. Many growers make the mistake of setting the price too low at the beginning of the marketing season when competition is less and demand is strong and then find it difficult to increase price later in the season. Before setting price, gauge the level of competition and the consumer demand for your product. For example, organic produce may have a stronger demand in urban areas, so prices can be set at a higher level. Also, early-season produce, such as tomatoes, has high demand with little competition in most markets, resulting in a higher price range.

• Artificial Insemination (AI) is the technique of deposition of semen (Fresh, Diluted or frozen thawed) in the female genital tract by artificial means for the purpose of conception. • It is first generation biotechnology technique. It is the most economical and best technique which has been widely accepted for genetic improvement and production (calf crop and milk production) in farm animals. • All the aspects like selection of bull, semen collection, semen evaluation, processing of semen, freezing, cryopreservation, thawing and insemination are equally important for making AI successful.History Related To AI • In the fourteenth century an Arabian placed a cotton ball in the mare's vagina and collect it after mating (soaked in semen) with a high-grade stallion; then by inserting this cotton ball into the vagina of desired mare and got it conceived. • Anton Van Leeuwenhoek (Dutch scientist, 1678) and his assistant, Hamm, discovered sperm cell and called it as “Animalcule”.

Artificial insemination (AI) is a technique in which sperm cells loaded in straws and stored in liquid nitrogen are thawed and manually deposited into the reproductive tract of a female animal at estrus. The recto-vaginal technique is the most commonly used method for artificial insemination in cattle. In order to increase the probability of pregnancy, the animal in estrus should be inseminated at proper time not too early or late.

Globally there is growing demand for small ruminant production especially, goats for meat and milk purposes to feed the ever-increasing human population. As per 20^th Livestock Census released by Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, the Goat population in the country in 2019 is 148.88 million showing an increase of 10.1% over the previous census Out of 148.88 million Indigenous Goats (Including Non-descript), 27.4% are pure breed, 9.1% are graded breeds and the remaining 63.5% are non-descript breeds. The goat population has increased at a faster growth rate in India and varied from 0.94 to 5.10% with an average of 3.05% during 1951-2013 in spite of about 41% slaughter and about 15% natural annual mortality. India produced 21.71% of the milk, 10.47% of the meat and 13.15% of the fresh skins of the world goat production worth of Rs. 1,06,335 million per annum. The goat husbandry also generates about 4.2% rural employment over 500,000 remote villages. It contributes nearly 8.5% of the total GDP from livestock sector to Indian agriculture production system. So, to increase the productivity per goat, we need to improve the breed quality scientifically.

Successful artificial insemination (AI) is necessary to maximise productivity on any pig farm. There are two types of breeding methods viz. natural mating and artificial insemination. Natural mating involves mating with a boar of superior breed qualities. On the field, only a few farmers have their own boar, and they are employed without regard for genetic merit, breed, or superiority of boar. Only the best quality breeding boar available in the area should be used to produce better piglets with larger litter sizes. Artificial insemination involves artificially collecting sperm from a proven boar, evaluating it for perfection, and depositing it into the cervix of a receptive sow. Artificial means are used for both collection and insemination. This expertise offers an extraordinary opportunity for the genetic upgrading of the animal species to which it is applied. Furthermore, it provides the most cost-effective approach of preserving genetic diversity in a population.

Artificial insemination (AI) is the deposition of the semen or male germ cells (spermatozoa) in the female genital tract by artificial means (instruments). Artificial insemination includes collection of semen from the male, preservation, handling and deposition into the female reproductive tract hygienically replacing natural mating by a male. In India this technique is gaining momentum in chickens due to improved animal husbandry practices and economic considerations, initiated by IVRI, Izatnagar and JNKVV, Jabalpur. In many parts of the world, turkey, ducks, goose and guinea fowl are bred solely by AI. Chicken species are endowed with the behaviour and capacity of each male to mate several females and also 25 to 40 times a day. Further, the process of ovulation in birds is almost daily and stimulated by intensity and duration of light.

In modern poultry managemental practices of using cages, environmentally controlled houses and breeding and hybridization techniques employed for developing highly economical chickens, selection for faster growth and heavy body weight in broilers, which has led to loss of fertility and hatchability and use of dwarf female parents in broiler industry have demanded the use of AI in poultry.

1. AI with liquid semen

The ampoule is thawed in ice water for 6-7 minutes. Then, the ampoule is dried and cut. The semen is drawn in a sterilized glass pipette (40-42 cm x 5 mm length diameter) fitted to a sterile glass/plastic syringe (2-5 mL) filled with 1 mL of semen with a rubber connecter. Artificial insemination is done by recto-vaginal method after securing cow/buffalo in standing position in the trevis.

The first buffalo AI progeny is reported at Allahabad in August 1943. Although AI is commonly used as a tool of breeding in buffaloes and complaints have appended that conception rate is not satisfactory. There are differences in the anatomy of the sexual organs, sexual physiology and general breeding behaviour that have to be known and taken into consideration when the same technique of AI used in cattle is applied in buffalo breeding. It explains the lower semen production capacity of male buffaloes compared to the cattle bulls. The buffalo bull’s penis is shorter and thinner than penis of the cattle bull. There is a pronounced tapering of the penile end and glans penis is rather poorly developed. The thrust is shorter and less forceful than the bulls. The sheath is tighter and closer to the abdomen than zebu cattle. These anatomical differences are of significance in the semen collection work and type of artificial vagina to be used. The weight of testis and epididymidis in the male buffalo is only ¼ of what it is in cattle. In addition, the seminal vesicles and the prostate are considerably smaller.

Artificial insemination technology is a valuable tool to inseminate 2000 to 3000 does by frozen semen instead of breeding 40 to 50 does by natural service in a year. Goat semen may be stored and frozen more successfully than ram semen. The buck will be sexually mature at 6-7 months of age.

Artificial insemination in horses is being practiced since many years in Russia and China for genetic up-gradation. The equine artificial insemination industry has evolved a system in which mares are inseminated with fresh or cooled semen (500 million motile sperm) every 48 hours until estrus is no longer detected or until ovulation is detected by trans-rectal palpation or ultrasonography of ovaries respectively. The advantages of AI include:

Artificial insemination (AI) technique in pigs is being performed since several decades in many countries but not widely accepted technology as in cattle due to reasons like sub-standard method of semen cryopreservation and lower fertility rate. The main idea is to increase the breeding efficiency by utilization of superior boars. The number of boars needed for breeding purposes can be reduced by use of AI and reduced transmission of infectious diseases. A minimum of 15 to 20 sows can be inseminated after dilution over a 2 days period with an ejaculate from a boar. Artificial insemination had considerable impact worldwide in its application to commercial pig production. The main advantage of using fresh liquid boar semen is that fertility is maintained even with low number of spermatozoa in the inseminate. AI provides unique opportunity for the genetic improvement of pig industry. Using fewer than 1 million sperm cells per breeding unit can achieve conception rates with liquid semen similar to those with frozen thawed semen containing approximately 15 million sperm and reduced fertility makes cryopreservation an uneconomical option in boars.

Artificial insemination Technology is a high cost and labour intensive technique in sheep and In India, sheep are reared by economically weaker sections of the society and any advanced technique may take much time to reach their flocks.  Considerably more research work has been done in AI with sheep than with goats. However, the equipment and techniques are very similar for the two species. Goat semen may be stored and frozen more successfully than ram semen.

Advantages and limitations of artificial insemination

Artificial insemination is the first great biotechnology applied to improve reproduction and genetics of domestic animals. Artificial insemination includes the collection of semen from the male, semen assessment for quantity and quality, dilution with extender, preservation and then insemination. Artificial insemination (A.I.) is a breeding technique where semen with living sperm is deposited into the reproductive tract of a female who is in estrus by use of instruments. Artificial insemination is the most important single technique widely used worldwide to upgrade the genetic makeup of the farm animals. Artificial insemination can be performed in most of the domestic animals like cow, buffalo, mare, sow, bitch, queen cat, lambs, does etc. Due to invention of frozen semen technology, the extended semen doses can be preserved for years together and permit wide spread use of superior germplasm. Artificial insemination is a powerful tool mostly employed for livestock improvement. The advantages and limitations of frozen semen technology are enlisted below:

9.1. Introduction

The human population of the world will reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, boosting agricultural order-in a situation of humble financial development (FAO, 2017). At present, approximately 37.7% of total land surface is being utilized for crop production. From employment generation to contribution to National Income, agriculture sector is contributing a significant role in economic prosperity of the developed nations and is playing an active part in the economy of the developing countries as well. The growth of agriculture has resulted in a significant increase in the per-capita income of the rural community. Thus, a greater emphasis on agricultural sector is the need of the hour. For countries, like India, the agricultural sector accounts for 18% of GDP and provides employment to 50% of the country’s workforce. Development in the agricultural sector will enrich the rural development which will lead toward rural transformation and ultimately the desired structural transformation (Mogili and Deepak, 2018; Shah et al., 2019). The role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been obvious in the agricultural sector recently. The sector needs the impetus from AI based technology to maximize its yield including improper soil treatment, disease and pest infestation, big data requirements, low output, and knowledge gap between farmers and technology.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and Data Analytics seem to be invading all the fields to bring in efficiencies in those respective fields. However, Toxicology field seems to be lagging behind in these areas although there is a huge scope to use these advanced technologies.

AI, data analytics and machine learning can be used for creating toxicology databases on chemicals, predictive modelling and AI for risk assessment, amongst other applications. One such effort was carried out for use of AI in creating a BOT, a ToxBot, for conducting risk assessments on chemicals which helped in gaining lot of efficiencies. The ToxBotwhich was created helped in conducting risk assessments and reducing time for such risk assessments from48 hours to 15 minutes. This also ensured using a uniform database, consistent output and helping toxicologists in arriving at unform conclusions. To begin with, the sponsors need to be very clear about the objective and expected outcome of the AI solution. The first step in creating these AI solutions is creation of a datasbase. While, creating AI solutions for risk assessment two aspects are important- source of Toxicology thresholds and the other one to derive exposure to population to assess safety. Creating a Toxicology data base for deriving thresholds is tedious. Toxicology studies generate huge data on multiple chemicals, drugs and botanicals. However, these data are scattered, not uniformly documented, and there is lack of efforts to compile them. Each constituent has data on each end point and these data are spread across multiple species. Hence the Toxicology data on each constituent has variables such as species, routes, doses, duration and end points. The efforts start with creating a complete Toxicological profile including all available data on each end point in each species by specific route of administration. These profiles then form the basis of a data base, which then enable to derive safety thresholds. The other database or system is to derive the exposure. This depends on the type of product, daily dose, frequency, route, concentration of chemical and the target population. These can be populated through an exposure matrix. For Al, these data need to be documented in uniform manner for subjecting it to Machine Learning and creating AI solutions. The AI experts would then be required to understand the entire process of the desired outcome and how the dataare used, at what points. This helps them in creating an algorithm. Once the algorithm and coding is created, the product is ready to be tested.