eChapters

4.1 DNA: The word means
    
4.2 Double Helical Structure: The Watson and Crick Model
    
4.3 Family of DNA 
    
4.4 The Chromosomes

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), the giant molecule that carries genetic information in living things, is made up of just a few chemical building blocks that bond together in very particular ways. A typical molecule of DNA consists of two strands that are linked together. A segment can be visualized as a ladder-like structure:

The DNA as made of two strands, a left and a right, which are linked in the middle. In reality, since the ladder is twisted, there really is no “right” or “left,” but we use that terminology here since it applies to the model graphs. The square shapes and diamonds you see in the middles of the “rungs” are the links, which are meant to represent the different chemical bonds between the two strands of DNA.

The selection of right dog for the required purposes like watching, hunting, guarding, showing, companionship and even animal associated therapies nowadays, warrants a detailed information on various dog breeds, like physical and other specific characteristics which may be different to each other. This  chapter  gives important characteristics of dog breeds and guidelines for buying a pup.

3.1    Crop Water Requirements
    
3.2    Water Distribution in Soils and Wetting Pattern
    
3.3    Selection of Number of Distributors per Plant
    
3.4    System Capacity
    Questions & Problems
        
References

1.1    Introduction

1.2    Histories and Development
    
1.3    Components of Drip Irrigation System
    
1.4    Types of Drip System
    
1.5     Advantages and Disadvantages
    
1.6    Evaluation and Futuristic Approach of Drip Irrigation in India Questions & Problems
        
References

2.1    Definition of Droughts
    
2.2    Types of Droughts
    2.2.1    Meteorological Droughts
    2.2.2    Agricultural Droughts
    2.2.3    Hydrological Droughts
    2.2.4    Socio-economic Droughts
    
2.3    Criteria for Classification of Droughts
    Meteorological Droughts
    Agricultural Droughts
    Hydrological Droughts
    
2.4    Data requirements in Drought Analysis
    
2.5    Drought Indices
    2.5.1    Rainfall-based Indices
    2.5.2    Climate Derivate Based Indices
    2.5.3    Remote Sensing Based Indices
    2.5.4    Processes Based Indicators
    
2.6    Assessment of Drought Prone Regions in India
    
2.7    Indicators for Declaration of  Droughts in India
    2.7.1     Rainfall Deficiency
    2.7.2    Area Under Sowing
    2.7.3    Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
    
2.8    Drought Management Procedures in India
    
2.9    Drought Code adopted by Local Governments
    
2.10    Spatial Variability of Droughts and their Frequency of Occurrence in India
    
2.11    Drought Vulnerability Assessment
    
2.12    Vulnerability of Society to Drought
        
References

Good Practices for Drought Management
    7.1    Drought Planning and Preparedness
    7.1.1    Drought Planning in India
    7.2    Global Experiences in Drought Planning
    7.2.1    USA
    7.2.2    South Africa
    7.2.3    African Nations
    7.2.4    Namibia
    7.2.5    Ethiopia
    7.2.6    Botswana
Drought management plans in Europe
    7.2.7    Spain
    7.2.8    England and Wales
    7.2.9    Portugal
    7.2.10    Australia
    7.2.11    China
    7.2.12    Palestine
    7.2.13    Global Initiatives
    7.3    Drought Preparedness Action Plans in India
    7.3.1    Drought Preparedness Checklist
    7.4    Drought Preparedness Action Plans in Different Countries
    7.4.1    Arizona State in USA
    7.4.2    Texas State in USA
    7.4.3    Italy
    7.4.4    Mediterranean Region
    7.4.5    Pakistan
    7.4.6    Darfur in Sudan
    7.4.7    Bangladesh
    7.5    Indigenous Knowledge for Drought Management
    7.5.1    Astro Meteorological Methods
    7.5.2    Traditional Knowledge in Weather Prediction
     7.5.3    Traditional wisdom in Drought Risk Region (DRR)
        Rajasthan and Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh
    7.5.4    Indigenous technologies for moisture conservation 
        in dry lands of semi-arid regions of India
    7.6    Traditional Wisdom for Drought Management in a few selected countries
    7.7    Role of Weather-based Agro-advisories
    7.7.1    Strategies for dissemination of advisories
    7.7.2    Role of ICAR and AICRPAM on Agromet Services
    7.7.3    Agromet Advisory services through mobile phone
    7.7.4    Status of Agromet Advisory Services in other Countries
    7.8    Value Addition to Agromet Information
    7.8.1    AICRP on Agrometeorology
    7.8.2    Thumb rules for weather-pest/diseases
    7.9    Contingency Crop Planning for Minimizing Risks
    7.9.1    Contingency Crop Planning for Rainfed Regions of India
    7.10    Drought Proofing Mechanisms
    7.10.1    Watershed Development for Drought Management
    7.10.2    Watershed Development in India
    7.10.3    The Success Stories of Watershed as a Drought Proofing Mechanism
    7.10.4    Watershed Policies and Recommendations
    7.10.5    Farm Ponds for Drought Management
    7.10.6    Success Stories of Farm Ponds
    7.11    Rainfed Technologies for the Drought Management in different agro climatic region
    7.12    Farmer’s Awareness on Climate Management
    7.12.1    India
    7.12.2    In other Countries
    7.13    Role of ICT in Climate Risk Management through AAS
    7.13.1    India
    7.13.2    Application of ICT in Providing Advisories in other Countries
    7.14    Integrated Drought Management Strategies through Farming Systems Approach
    7.14.1    Drought Adaptation Strategies in Rajasthan and in Maharashtra
    7.14.2    Improvement and Rural Livelihood
    7.15    Drought Mitigation Measures
    7.15.1    Drought Mitigation Plans
    7.15.2    Soil water Conservation and Recharging of Ground water Methods
    7.15.3    Traditional Water Harvesting and Conservation 
        Techniques
        References

4.1    Approaches for Drought Monitoring
    
4.2    Weather Network System in Different Countries
    
4.3    Drought Monitoring using Climatological, Hydrological and Combination Approaches in Different Countries
    
4.4    International Cooperation in Drought Monitoring
    
4.5    Drought Monitoring Mechanism in India
    
4.6    Early Warning and Decision Support System
    4.6.1    Software for Drought Detection, Monitoring and Early Warning
    4.6.2    Decision Support System for Droughts Developed Outside India
    
4.7    GIS and Drought Monitoring
        
References

Introduction

Stress is usually defined as an external factor that exerts a disadvantageous influence on the plant. In most cases, stress is measured in relation to plant survival, crop yield, biomass accumulation or the primary assimilation processes (CO₂ and mineral uptake), which are related to overall growth. Stresses can be biotic, imposed by other organisms or abiotic arising from an excess or deficit in the physical or chemical environment. Biotic stress arises by attack of bacteria, viruses, fungi, invertebrates and even other plants, whereas abiotic stress occurs due to drought, water logging, high or low temperatures, excessive soil salinity, imbalance of mineral nutrients in the soil, heavy metals and too much or too little light. Stresses trigger wide range of plant responses, from altered gene expression and cellular metabolism to changes in growth rates and crop yields.

Introduction

Drought is temporary reduction in water or moisture availability significantly below the normal or expected amount for a specific period. This condition occurs either due to inadequacy of rainfall or lack of irrigation facilities, unexploitation or deficient availability for meeting the normal crop requirement in the context of the agro-climatic conditions prevailing in any particular area. This has been scientifically computed as Moisture Index (MI). Drought in this context can be defined as adverse MI or adverse water balance which may be attributable not only to a prolonged dry spell due to lack or sufficient rainfall but also due to such other factors as excessive evapo-transpiration losses, high temperature, low soil holding etc.

Drugs acting on alimentary system

Drugs acting on respiratory system

Drugs acting on urinary system

Drugs acting on genital system

Drugs acting on musculoskeletal system

Antineoplastic drugs

Antimicrobials

Antifungal

Antiprotozoal

Anthelmintics

The drug action can be adversely affected by the presence/concomitant administration of another drug/ agent, may be inhibiting its absorption, metabolism or excretion. Some of the drugs are incompatible with IV fluids, resulting in their inefficacy. The important drug interactions to be taken into consideration while administering a drug, are tabulated in this chapter.

This statement signifies that the casualty of people is not due to the earthquake but due to the damage of buildings by earthquake forces. In developed countries, the casualty and loss of property is very minimal in comparison to the death toll and losses in India in the event of earthquakes of same magnitude. It has been experienced in the past that on the event of earthquakes of Richter magnitude scale of 6 or more, the death toll in India is in terms of thousands where as in Western Countries, it is multiple of tens. The less casualty is due to less damage of buildings and other infrastructures which in turn is due to the design and construction of Buildings and other structures as per the earthquake resistant theory. This paper discusses the issues related to the earthquake hazards in India and the concept of earthquake resistant structures.

Appendix-'C'    :    Damage Prevention and Rehabilitation by Retrofitting
    
Appendix-'D'    :    Dos and Don'ts While Constructing Buildings
    
Case Study    :    Bhuj Earthquake 26th January, 2001
            Eyjafjallajoekull (Iceland) Volcano - 2010

Introduction

The literatures and researcher data showed that there is negative impacts of agricultural expansion, landscape modification and deforestation on biodiversity, ecosystem services, alteringthe species composition and their ecological functions (Tscharntke et al. 2005; Priess et al. 2007; Flynn et al. 2009; Senior et al. 2013; Deguines et al. 2014; Kumar 2016) which can lead to considerable changes in critical ecosystem processes. On the other hand, an increasingly industrialized global economy, rapid population growth, land degradation, land use pattern and role of various human activities have led to dramatically increased the pressure on the natural resources such as the available land for sustaining the livelihoods, and with over exploitation and extraction of the natural resources the ecosystems are becoming unsustainable and fragile since last century (Kumar 2017). Standardization of cultural practices is one of the primary objectives to make the system ecologically, sustainable and economically viable (Gill et al.2009).

Abstract: The Santhals of Orissa raise Teak (Tectona grandis) and Cashew nut(Anacardium occidentale) on their marginal and wastelands randomly to meet their contingencies. Upland is utilized for short duration upland paddy cultivation for food. The sporadically grown Teak and Cashew is used as insurance crops for meeting the high risk of dry land paddy. This work is unique and innovative as it was carried out in participatory mode on the pooled land from 14 Santhal households.  It is a maiden attempt in Orissa to develop Agroforestry models using forestry (teak) and horticulture (cashewnut) interventions into the paddy cultivation on uplands by Santhals without much alteration in their age old traditional agricultural practice. The basic objective of this research is to develop most profitable Agroforestry system(s) to provide best land use option for the risk prone dry land paddy cultivation to improve the farmers’ economy with simultaneous natural resource conservation.
 
The Agroforestry models Silvi-horticulture (Teak and Cashewnut)  Agri-silviculture (Paddy and Teak), Agri-horticulture (Paddy and Cashewnut) and Agri-silvi-horticulture (Teak, Cashew nut and Paddy) were developed by the Santhal tribe in Mayurbhanj District of Orissa. The inputs and planting material were sponsored by a leading NGO- Gamin Vikas Trust, which is working on poverty alleviation through Natural Resource Management of the State.

2.1    Ecosystem
    2.1.1 Major Components of Ecosystems
    2.1.2 Energy and Matter Flow in Ecosystems
    2.1.3 Various Types of Ecosystems
    
2.2    Biodiversity
    2.2.1 Genetic Diversity
    2.2.2 Species Diversity
    2.2.3 Ecosystem Biodiversity
    2.2.4 Values of Biodiversity
    2.2.5 Threats of Biodiversity
    2.2.6 Endangered and Endemica Species of India
    2.2.7 Biodiversity Conservation

1. Introduction

The culinary banana (Musa ABB) of Assam and North East India (locally known as kachkal) is an important and cheap source of vegetable in the diet of local people. It is considered as one of the potential sources of carbohydrates, starch, polyphenols, micronutrients and functionally important bioactive compounds (Khawas et al., 2016). Native starches have limited use in food application as it has many weakness such as narrow peak viscosity range, poor process tolerance, low shear stress resistance, hydrophilicity, thermal decomposition, high retro gradation, and synersis and cooked starches will formed a weak, cohesive and rubbery paste. These facts motivated the employment of modified starches as important functional ingredients in processed foods in recent years because of their improved functional properties over unmodified starches (Fleche et al., 1985).

To overcome these problems physical. Chemical and enzymatic modification of Starch is done. Chemical modification of starch generally involves esterification, cross linking, etherification or oxidation of the available hydroxyl groups on the β-D-glucopyranosyl units that make up the starch polymer.

Introduction

In India out of the total 142 million ha of arable land around 67 per cent of them are affected by some form of land degradation due to development of salinity/sodicity or acidification, erosion by water or wind or chemical contamination. Frequent use of tillage operation under conventional cultivation system particularly in rolling terrain is one of the major causes of land degradation through accelerated water and wind erosion. The basic purpose of primary tillage operations are to control weeds, increase the availability of nutrient to plant through accelerated mineralization of organic matter, and to keep the field clean and pulverized for ease of sowing of the next crop. However the bare and pulverized top soil made them vulnerable to accelerated soil loss through runoff and also to erosion loss of soil by wind in drier agro-climatic regions. Besides soil loss, conventional tillage operation breaks the soil aggregates and exposes the soil organic carbon locked inside the aggregates to accelerated microbial degradation and thus results in net loss of organic carbon from the arable ecosystem.

Soil and nutrients are important factors for sustainable crop production in agriculture. Water erosion contributes more than 60% to the area under soil degradation in India. Soil erosion has been a serious threat to sustainable agriculture. However, soil and water conservation measures plays important role in improving the productivity of natural resources. India presently supports 17% of the global population with a geographical area of 329 Mha on merely 2.5% world’s land area and 4% fresh water resources. The net cultivable area in the country is about 140Mha is remaining constant or even squeezing from the pressures of urbanization, industrialization, infrastructure development and to house the ever increasing population. The loss of productive soil is another concern. The loss of fertile top soil by water erosion is estimated to be about 5334 Mt per year with it nearly 8.4 million tonnes (mt) of nutrients was estimated in eroded soil still holds true about in i.e. 2.5 mt nitrogen, 3.3 mt phosphorus and 2.6 mt potassium per hectare is lost due to ill soil and water management practices (Dhruvanarayana and Ram Babu, 1983).

1. Introduction

The Refractance Window drying system uses circulating hot water, usually at 90°C and at atmospheric pressure, so that it can carry the thermal energy to the material to be dehydrated. Thermal energy is transferred to the wet product from circulating hot water through a plastic interface which is transparent to the infrared radiation. The actual product temperature is kept below 70°C. The heated water is recycled and reused, which helps in improving the thermal efficiency of the system. The use of hot water as the heat transfer medium and at temperatures just below boiling is a design feature that is unique to this drying method. In RW drying, there are three modes of heat transfer, namely conduction, convection, and radiation. The process water is heated by steam within an insulated tank and then circulated in shallow troughs to transfer thermal energy to the plastic conveyor. As the plastic conveyor is very thin, it reaches the temperature of hot water flowing beneath it almost immediately. By conduction and radiation, the thermal energy from the hot water is transmitted through the plastic conveyor. The use of process water at temperatures just below boiling and a thin plastic conveyor with infrared transmission in the wavelength range that matches the absorption spectrum for water all work together to facilitate rapid drying.

1. Introduction

Purple colour passion fruit (Passifora edulis Sims) is a tropical fruit and is well known for its nutritional content and medicinal properties (Patel, 2009). Various type of vitamin E such as α-tocopherol (5,7,8 trimethyl), β-tocopherol (5,8 dimethyl),g-tocopherol (7, 8-dimethyl),d-tocopherol (8-methyl) and α-tocotrienol, b-tocotrienol,g–tocotrierol and d- tocotrienol were quantified in passion fruit as antioxidant molecules with various health benefits (Ramaiya et al., 2013).

Foam mat drying convert thin pulp into stable foam by whipping. Eventually, the whipping process increases surface area, and speed up the drying rates which yield dried foam mat powder of acceptable quality in reduced time span (Kudra and Ratti, 2006). Rheology plays a vital role in food manufacture and marketing nowadays viz., design of handling systems, quality control and evaluation of sensory stimuli of viscosity (Barnes, 2001). It also concerns with how all food materials respond to applied forces and deformations. Basic concepts of stress (force per area) and strain (deformation per length) are keys to all rheological evaluations. Stress(r) is always a measurement of force per unit of surface area and is expressed in units of Pascals (Pa). The direction of the force with respect to the impacted surface area determines the type of stress. Normal stress occurs when the force is directly perpendicular to a surface and can be achieved during tension or compression. Shear stress occurs when the forces act in parallel to a surface. Various food shows different rheological behavior and categorized into solid and liquids stages. It basically means that food varies their characteristic in viscous and elastic behaviors commonly known as viscoelasticity of food, caused by entanglement of long chain molecules with other molecules (Abang, 2010). The dough rheology of various flour has been investigated by various research. Although, there has not been any published literature about dough rheology with incorporated passion fruit powder. To the best of our knowledge, there are no published reports regarding the shear stress properties of passion fruit powder incorporated rice dough.

1. Introduction

Underutilized fruits and vegetables are commercially neglected but recognized as rich sources of nutrients and non-nutrient bioactive compounds (Ali et al., 2008). These crops are very popular among local communities in many parts of the world and well accepted in their traditional diets and therapeutic medicines (Animesh et al., 2010). Nowadays, these are gaining significance in research and development programs of many organizations. Meghalaya is endowed with rich and unique diversity of indigenous wild edible fruit species of which most of them are less known and underutilized (Haque et al., 2009). There are rich in functional bioactive components such as vitamins and minerals are the much talked dietary nutrient for women and children health. It is being supplied to body through tablets, vegetables, fruits and other food items (Islam et al., 2012).

2.1. The Physical environment
    Light
    Soil temperature
    Water dynamics

2.2. Chemical environment
    Production of phytotoxins

2.3. Biological environment
    Trophic dynamics
    Community structure
    Biodiversity

1. Introduction

Ohmic heating is an emerging method of thermal processing which have the feature of HTST treatment (Halden et al., 1990) with lower energy inputs (Choi et al., 2011; Sastry et al., 2011). During ohmic heating (Fig. 1) the alternating current is passed through the food material, where food acts as a resistor to the flow of electric current and leads to the instant volumetric heat generation by following the Joules first law of heating (Pereira & Vicente 2010; Lima et al., 1999 and 2001; Wang, 2014). Ohmic heat treatment of food material has been found to reduce microbial load of the food material simultaneously with the inactivation of the inherent enzymes (Demirdoven & Baysal 2014; Yildiz & Baysal 2006; Jakob et al., 2010). Despite the problems of electrochemical degradation associated with it, ohmic heating has been successfully studied for its use in preheating, blanching, pasteurization and extraction (Leizerson, & Shimoni, 2005; Lima & Sastry, 1999; Lakkakula et al., 2004). A majority of studies that have explored the effect of ohmic treatment have focused on a number of commercial products from pulp (strawberry), or puree (pea) to juice (grape), etc. (Castro et al, 2004; Icier et al, 2008; Icier et al., 2006). However, the present chapter is confined to put some light on the studies conducted on ohmic heating of various liquid food material and its effects on various parameters of the food material.

1. Introduction

Organophosphate (OP) and organocarbamate (OC) pesticides are highly used in modern agriculture due to their low persistence and high insecticidal activity. Although they are relatively less persistent than the organochlorines, they have greater acute toxicity with tolerance level ranging from 1 to 8 μg mL-1 (Mulchandani et al., 2001). The high toxicity of OP and OC neurotoxins and their large use in modern agriculture practices has increased public concern, health risk and the consequent contamination of water and food sources (Buonasera et al., 2010). Development of fast and cost effective analytical tools for onsite monitoring of OP and OC contaminations in food, water and in the environment is highly necessary. An approach toward that has resulted the evolution of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) based biosensors for OP and OC pesticides. Ample literature is available on AChE based biosensors (Zhou et al., 2013). But some intrinsic disadvantages remain that limits its utility and field deployment. The most influencing ones are their inability to sustain in organic solvents and the limited class selectivity that demands alternate bioreceptor for pesticide detection. Given the diversity in mode of action of different classes of pesticide, it is quite challenging to come up with different sensor molecules for each class of pesticides. As a continuous effort towards that goal, attempts have been made to use the Glutathione S –transferses (GSTs; EC 2.5.1. 18) for the purpose. GSTs are a multigenic family of cytosolic proteins with multifunctional biological roles, widely distributed throughout the body and found in the liver, kidney, brain, pancreas, testis, heart, lung, small intestine, skeletal muscles, prostate and spleen (Jancova et al., 2010). The important biological functions those are making GSTs the focus of current research includes its catalytic role in detoxification reaction (Lumjuan et al., 2011) over expressions during phase II metabolism as well as drug resistance associated with anticancer therapies of human and the resistance acquired by certain insects while getting exposure to pesticides (Borah et al., 2016).

ABSTRACT
The rapid industrialisation and speedy progress towards urbanisation across the world have created the huge demand for energy moreover creating enormous quantity of wastes. The latter is in charge for polluting the environment in an exponential manner, resulting out of the harmful and poisonous compounds released by them. In recent years, there has been a pattern change from ‘waste-to-wealth’, considering the value of high organic fraction accessible in the wastes. The best-accomplished methods are that of anaerobic digestion; contribute to the production of methane (CH₄). Similar biotransformation has partial net energy harvests. Recently, fermentation industries steering their interest towards the production of value added products, viz., biohydrogen (H₂), biopolymers, ethanol, vitamins, acetic acid, enzymes, butanediols, etc. from carbon rich organic waste like cellulosic substrates have been envisioned to flourish in a multi-step process, such as the ‘Biorefinery’. A contemporary development in fermentation technology holds the key to overcome the constraints for such processes that may lead to a sustainable economy. One related technology is electrofermentation that has attracted significant attention recently owing to its capacity to boost the metabolic activities of microbes by means of extracellular electron transfer.

1.     Maintaining Embryonic Stem (ES) Cells
    
2.     Establishing ES Cells
    
3.     Freezing of ES Cells
    
4.     Thawing of Frozen ES Cells
    
5.     Production of Transgenic using ES Cells
    
6.     MTT Assay for Cell Viability

Introduction

Climate change is of great concern to India in view of food and nutritional security of its ever growing population. The impacts of climate change are global, but Indian subcontinent is more vulnerable due to dependence of its large population on agriculture. It can cause millions of deaths a year worldwide and costing more than a trillion of US dollar. Climate change has direct effect on agriculture due to 0.74°C average global increase in temperature in the last 100 years and atmospheric CO₂ concentration having increased from 280 ppm (1750) to 400 ppm (2013). These changes have direct effect on growth and multiplication/fecundity, spread and severity/infestation of many plant pathogens/insect pests, which in turn are affecting the pattern of incidence of pests (including diseases). Changing pest scenario due to climate change has warranted the need for future studies on such models which can predict the severity of important pathogens of major crops in real-field conditions. Simultaneously, pest management strategies may be reoriented to cope up with changing scenario for sustainable food production.

Non-specific uterine infections reduce the reproductive efficiency of livestock.  They are called nonspecific because the initial colonizing bacterium is not known and the specific bacteria causing the signs of infection are not known.  Even though numerous bacteria, in a variety of combinations, have been isolated from infected uteri, Corynebacterium pyogenes and Escherichia coli are usually associated with uterine infections in cattle and sheep.  Empirical therapeutic approach, prescriptions without scientific validation (extra-label use) or inadequate clinical judgment itself to ascertain the nature of uterine infection, obviously due to lack of diagnostic tools are the prime reasons for therapeutic failure for the unsuccessful treatment of uterine infection by large animal practitioners.

In contrast to the earlier and existing non-sustainable land use practices, agro forestry presents a more dynamic, productive and sustainable solution to the increasing demand of food, fodder, timber and other agricultural and tree goods. According to the United Nations,the world population was more than 7 billion in 2011 which is expected to go up to 9.3 billion by the mid-century. Consequently food production needs to be increased by over 60% by the year 2050. Agroforestry, which is a multifunctional, ecologically based, natural resource management system can help in dealing with such environmental, economic or social issues.

3.1    Air Pollution
    3.1.1 Classification of Air Pollutants
    3.1.2  Properties of Air Pollutants
    3.1.3  Health Effects
    3.1.4 Particulate Pollution Control Equipments
    3.1.5 Gaseous Pollution Control Equipments
    
3.2    Water Pollution
    3.2.1 Causes of Pollution
    3.2.2 Origin of Wastewater
    3.2.3 Waste Water Composition
    3.2.4 Types of Water Pollutants
    3.2.5 Basic Processes of Water Treatment
    
3.3    Land
    
3.4    Marine Pollution
    3.4.1 Sources and Effects of Marine Pollution Toxics
    3.4.2 Control Measures
    
3.5    Noise
    3.5.1 Effects of Noise
    3.5.2 Major Noise Sources
    3.5.3 Noise Control Measures
    
3.6    Thermal Pollution
    3.6.1 Effects of Thermal Pollution
    
3.7     Nuclear Hazards
    3.7.1 Nuclear Weapons
    3.7.2 Types of Nuclear Bursts
    3.7.3 Nuclear Injuries
    3.7.4 Residual Radiation
    
3.8    Nuclear Waste and their Treatment
    
3.9    Solid Waste Management
    3.9.1 Role of Human in Prevention of Pollution
    
3.10    Disaster Management
    3.10.1 Floods
    3.10.2 Earthquake
    3.10.3 Cyclone
    3.10.4 Landslides

We are living in a world that is in a grim state of environmental disruptions. Callous developmental activities resulting in pollution of all environmental components and gradually culminating in global warming, climate change, and species extinction are responsible for triggering the processes of environmental disruption. Pollution of air, water, and soil is rapidly assuming alarming proportions.

The very processes of socioeconomic development are now posing threat to economic progress as well as to human health. Ominous changes in global climate are posing threat to life on Earth. The irony is that the major cause of environmental disruptions is anthropogenic rather than natural. Human’s materialistic progress and environmental pollution in our contemporary world go hand in hand.

1.     Asssay for Catalase
    
2.     Assay for Peroxidase
    
3.     Assay for Poly Phenol Oxidase
    
4.     Assay for Phosphatases

1.     Extraction of b-galactosidase from Yeast Cells
    
2.     Measurement of Enzyme Activity
    
3.     Immobilization of Enzymes
    
4.     Precipitation of Enzyme and Proteins
    
5.     Protien Purification by Dialysis

9.1 Methylases
    
9.2 Polymerases
    
9.3 Nucleases
    
9.4 Ligases
    
9.5 Phosphatase
    
9.6 Topoisomerase
    
9.7 Restriction enzymes

Enzymes are biocatalysts composed of amino acids. Enzyme reactions are highly specific. It binds to the substrate to form a reversible intermediate product called enzyme substrate complex. As the concentration of the substrate increases the rate of formation of the intermediate complex also increases. This increase in velocity of the reaction is in a hyperbolic manner till it achieves the maximum velocity called Vmax .At this point all the enzymes will be in the form of ES complex. Substrate concentration will be in at its optimum level i.e. further increase in substrate concentration will not affect the rate of the reaction. The substrate concentration at which the rate of the reaction is half the maximum velocity Vmax is called the Michaelis-Menten constant, Km. This is constant for the given enzyme acting on the same substrate.

Epigenetics is the study of reversible heritable changes in gene function that occur without a change in the sequence of nuclear DNA and Gene-regulatory information that is not expressed in DNA sequences is transmitted from one generation (of cells or organisms) to the next. Epigenetics has become an integral part of the study of evolution and development during the past 50 years. It was originally defined by Conrad Hal Waddington in 1942 (Waddington, 1942), but it is currently referred to any mechanism that affects genes without changing the nucleotide sequence. These mechanisms are involved in deploying the genetic program for the many processes operating during the lifespan of a cell: development, differentiation, stress response, and pathological conditions, and by the environment to adapt to those situations (Rakyan and Beck, 2006). Epigenetic mechanisms include covalent chemical modification of DNA (methylation) and chromatin (covalent histone modifications), non-coding RNAs, and polycomb group (PcG) genes, and are ultimately related to the regulation of gene expression and chromatin structure.

1.     Equipments

Preliminaries
    
Minimum Variance Unbiased Estimator and Cramer, Rao Inequality
    
Minimum Variance Unbiased Estimator (M.V.U.E.) and Black Wellisation
    
Results on UMVUE and MVUE
    
Efficiency and Consistency
    
Consistency
    
Sufficiency and Completeness
    
Distribution Possessing Sufficient Statistics
    
Sufficient Statistic for Several Parameters
    
Completeness of a Sufficient Statistic
    
Some Important Results in Theorem Forms
    
Minimal Sufficient Statistic
    
Results on Complete Sufficient Statistic

Estrous cycle

After puberty the female enters a period of reproductive cyclicity, which continues throughout most of her productive life.  Estrous cycle is the rhythmic sexual behavioral pattern exhibited by the female, which begins at one estrus (heat) and ends at subsequent estrus.   It is the period between two estruses of the regular cycle.  The reproductive activity of the female is maintained by the co- ordinated functioning of different organs of reproduction (Table: 1.1). Estrous cycle provides repeated opportunities for the females to become pregnant. When conception does occur, the female enters a period of anestrous during pregnancy, which ends after parturition (giving birth) and uterine involution (repair and returning to normal size).

Faulty estrus detection is the most important problem in reproductive management.  There are two requirements for good estrus detection: a skilled observer must spend sufficient time to make observations and cows must show overt signs of estrus during the period of observation.  There are various ways to detect the estrus signs in cows and buffaloes as detailed below.

1.    Palpation of reproductive organs:  Routine rectal examination of all cows between 30-40 days after calving and individual cow that has not been inseminated within two months after calving should be encouraged.   This is to confirm that the reproductive tract is normal and to predict when the next estrus will occur or to identify cows for prostaglandin treatment when estrous cycles are occurring, but estrus has not been detected. 

2.     Teaser bulls:  Teaser bulls are useful in identifying estrus in large number of animals especially buffalo cows.   Teaser bulls can be prepared by vasectomy or by applying apron to a bull. 

3.     Heat detector animals:  Sexually active animals like bulls, cystic cows, hormone treated steer, cows and heifers can be used to identify estrus cows.    They may be fitted with halters containing ink- filled reservoirs and ball paint pen type devices (chin ball markers) that will mark animals that mounted or they can be used without these devices to increase the sexually activity and make visual detection programs more effective.

Synchronization of estrus is making a group of cows to come into estrus at the same time.  Effective estrus detection requires much time, labour, skill and expense and it is a major limiting factor in artificial insemination programme in cattle.  It was the principal stimulus that led to research in the development of progestational and prostaglandin compounds. 

Advantages

1.     Improve the efficiency of heat detection

2.     Management tool, better planning of breeding activities and wider use of artificial insemination 

3.     Solve problem of unobserved estrus

4.     Maintain short calving interval

5.     Overall improvement in herd productivity and reproductive efficiency

6.     Controlled lactation

7.     Management of replacement heifers

8.     Useful in embryo transfer programmes

9.     Reduce labour

10.     Possibly reduce involuntary culling for reproductive reasons

Conservation agriculture (CA) has benefits to farmers in overcoming labor shortages associated with other tillage practices. With the introduction mechanized CA practices, farmers are able to finalize planting earlier, and can even free the equipment for service hire to neighbors. These CA equipment can reduce the delays in planting and also benefit neighbors who can hire this equipment and be able to plant within the first planting window, commonly associated with better yield gains. Smallholder farmers can also form groups to mobilize resources for equipment purchase to overcome the equipment cost problem. Local production of CA equipment for the smallholder agricultural sector has been almost non-existent prior to 2005.

There is no rapid direct test to determine fertility of semen sample. During freezing and thawing of semen 20-80% of the spermatozoa become immotile or die. In addition to this, there may be damage to spermatozoa by disintegration of sperm cell membrane and acrosome leading to loss of intracellular enzymes.   The only reliable method to evaluate the semen is to inseminate a cow and get a calf at the end of gestation period.  Now-a-days new methods have been developed for in-vitro assessment of fertility of spermatozoa.  Some of these methods are exhaustive, time consuming, need for a full fledged analysis and difficult under field conditions.

Abstract

Jute is known as golden fibre of Bengal and the most important bast fibre of the world. Jute is a natural fibre crop and is second in the world after cotton in terms of global production, consumption and availability. It is a completely biodegradable, recyclable and eco-friendly lingo-cellulose fibre. The genus Corchorus belongs to the family Tiliaceae, which is composed of approximately 100 species. Two species (Corchorus capsularis L. and Corchorus olitorius L.) are widely cultivated for natural fibre. The field experiment was conducted in Pre-Kharif season of 2014 in Mondouri Research Farm, of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal. This farm is located very close to the tropic of cancer having approximately 89º E longitudes, 23 º N latitude and about 9.75 in altitude above the sea level. The experiment was in a Factorial Randomized Block Design replicated thrice with first factor variety i.e. V1-JRC 321, V2- JRC 698, V3- JRCJ 2 and V4-NDJC 2011 and Second factor fertilizers with three levels i.e. F1-60:13:25, F2-80:17.5: 33.3 and F3- 100:21.8:41.7. The plant height was not significant at the harvest stage. 

1. Introduction

Starch is present in the endosperm of cereal grains which provides the necessary energy during the process of germination and seedling establishment and rice starch is reported to supply 22% of global energy intake in humans (Sun et al, 2014). Starch is a semi-crystalline polymer composed mainly of linear and highly branched polymer viz. amylose and amylopectin respectively. Each polymer is composed of several D-glucose molecules and the difference lies only in the linkages between them. Amylose is a linear chain which is interlinked by α- (1→4) linkages and few branched chains (Kizil et al, 2002). Amylopectin subunits are linked by both-(1→4) and-(1→ 6), with about 95% of the glyosidic bonds being-(1→ 4) linkages and roughly 5% being-(1→ 6). The highly branched nature of amylopectin is attributed to the-(1→ 6) linkage.

The genetic code uses 64 codons to represent the 20 standard amino acids and the translation termination signal. Each codon is recognised by a subset of a cell’s transfer ribonucleotide acid molecules (tRNAs) and with the exception of a few codons that have been reassigned in some lineages (Osawa and Jukes 1989; Osawa et al., 1990) the genetic code is remarkably conserved, although it is still in a state of evolution (Osawa et al.,1992). The genetic code uses 64 codons to represent the 20 standard amino acids and the translation termination signal. Each codon is recognised by a subset of a cell’s transfer ribonucleotide acid molecules (tRNAs) and with the exception of a few codons that have been reassigned in some lineages (Osawa and Jukes 1989; Osawa et al., 1990) the genetic code is remarkably conserved, although it is still in a state of evolution (Osawa et al., 1992).

The annual milk production in Tamil Nadu during 2009-10 from crossbred cows, non-descript cows and buffaloes were 42.28,7.89 and 7.61 lakh tones, respectively. Tamil Nadu had 59.83 lakhs crossbred female cows in the year 2007 as against 41.47 lakhs in 2003 with an annual growth rate of 9.59 per cent (Anon, 2010). With the increasing crossbred cattle population and average annual production, better management of the high producers becomes a necessity. Production and health of animals depend mostly on environment in which they live. A satisfactory environment for any farm livestock is the one that ensures not only optimal productivity but also meets the health and behavioral needs of the animals. A satisfactory environment is the one that satisfies the following four criteria: thermal comfort, physical comfort, disease control and behavioral satisfaction. The most important environmental interventions done in recent days are those that have been done in housing and other attempts to ameliorate the thermal environment. The effort of the body to maintain a stable internal environment to challenges from widely variable environments was first described by Claude Bernard (1878) and later referred to as homeostasis (Cannon, 1932). An environment in which stressors are minimized would likely be favorable for efficient production of products derived from domestic farm animals and for helping ensure the well-being of those species.

The table gives the approximate date of parturition, based on the date of breeding/mating in the year as a easy ready reference table.