eChapters

Abstract

Pomegranate, Punica granatum L., is an ancient fruit tree native to the Middle East. All plant parts are rich source of the various secondary metabolites that accounts for its antioxidant and health-promoting activity. A strong genetic control on anthocyanin production is responsible for variability in the color of peel and arils of pomegranate. Characterization, cloning and expression of the genes related with anthocyanin and tannin production provides routes for engineering of these complex pathways. Recent studies on pomegranate genome sequencing have elucidated several biochemical pathways and candidate genes that could assist to increase production of potent bioactive compounds in near future. This will further facilitate our understanding to some exclusive biological processes that plays a significant role in pomegranate breeding.

Abstract

India with plethora of flora and fauna is a rich repository of cultural and ethnic diversity. Bestowed with varied biogeographically distributed ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots, the country has always been the torch bearer as far as ethnobotanical knowledge is concerned. Jammu and Kashmir in the North-Western part of India has a rich biological and cultural diversity. Owing to the distinct geographical location and varied climatic conditions, district Poonch represents a rich repository of biodiversity including the wealth of medicinal plants. This study aimed at documenting and examining the use of plants in various medicinal herbal preparations. A total of 223 plant species belonging to 77 families and 173 genera were documented to be used as ethnomedicine by people residing in the study area. The portion of plant parts used were leaves (28.14%), followed by root (16.33%), fruit (11.55%), whole plant (10.3%), stem (09.79%), flower (7.53%), seed (5.27% each), rhizome (4.77%), tuber (3.76%), bulb (1%) and bark and latex (0.75% each). These parts are utilized as herbal remedies for curing 109 human ailments such as abscess, acidity, asthma, back pain, body pain, boils, cancer, cholera, cold, cough, dandruff, erectile dysfunction, eye pain, fever, gastroenteritis, haemorrhoid, high blood pressure, menstrual disorders, sexual disorders, stomach pain, diabetes, diarrhoea, dysentery and weakness. The dominant disease was fever (52), followed by abdominal pain (30), cough (29), headache (22), constipation (20), diabetes (18), wounds (17), weakness (16) and others. There is need for proper documentation and an attempt has been made to highlight high value medicinal plants so that proper strategies could be made for their conservation.

Abstract

Mythology is a unique subject of religious or cultural traditions. Plants play a vital role in the practice of these traditions. The use of plants may be an approach towards their conservation by demonstrating their magico-religious importance or their efficiency in keeping away some infectious microbes. Reason may be any, but all such herbs needs scientific interventions with respect to their usage. In this manuscript 69 such plant species are enumerated which are used for magico-religious purposes. Maximum species were recorded from dicots and seeds have shown maximum percentage among the plant parts to be used for the purpose. The knowledge about the magico-religious usage among the inhabitants is communicated through oral, literature or practice. The quantitative indices like Cultural Significance Index and Factor Informant Consensus have been calculated for the collected data from 92 informants in the region. The calculated ethnobotanical quantitative indices indicate Capsicum annuum and Santalum album are the culturally more significant plants and there is a strong homogeneity in the practices among the people of different districts.

Abstract

Genus Chlorophytum is represented by approximately 300 species of rhizomatous plants, distributed predominantly in tropical and sub tropical forests of the world. Most of these are medicinally important. Chlorophytum borivilianum Santapau & R.R. Fern among these is highly valued because of high saponin content mainly concentrated in its tuberous roots. These steroidal saponins are important bioactive components responsible for aphrodisiac attributes of this species in addition to several other benefits. Present communication reviews the data available on medicinal properties and phytochemical constitution of the species.

Abstract

Medicinal plants growing around us are the biggest gift to mankind from the nature. They grow abundantly and over centuries, humans have learned how to utilise plants for the treatment of illness. The great Himalayan belt is home to many endemic medicinal plant species. These plants are the rich source of traditional medicines and form a basis for livelihood of rural and indigenous populations. The present study is aimed to investigate the medicinal wealth of Bani valley that lies in Kathua district, (J&K) which is a part of Western Himalaya. Due to varying climatic conditions, terrains and forest types, the valley is home to various endangered and endemic medicinal plant species. A total 231 plant species belonging to 69 families ranging from angiosperms, gymnosperms and cryptogams (lycophytes and ferns) were documented by frequent field surveys and reviewed by published literatures and floras. Out of 231 plant species, herb species were 142, shrub species were 43 and tree species were 46. Asteraceae was recorded as dominant family followed by Fabaceae, Lamiaceae, Rosaceae, Polygonaceae, Ranunculaceae, Poaceae, Solanaceae, Acanthaceae and Urticaceae. Ethnobotanical data used for various ailments and diseases were obtained from local tribes.

Abstract

Mentheae, one of the largest tribes of subfamily Nepetoideae of family Lamiaceae is represented by five genera (Mentha, Nepeta, Origanum, Salvia and Thymus) in Jammu and Udhampur districts (Jammu division). Frequent surveys made of these districts to generate ethnobotanical data revealed the existence of Mentha arvensis L., M. longifolia (L.) L., M. piperita L., M. spicata L., Nepeta cataria L., Origanum vulgare L., Salvia splendens Sellow ex Schult and Thymus serpyllum L. While the enlisted Mentha species are represented more or less equally in the two districts, N. cataria, O. vulgare, S. splendens and T. serpyllum are mainly adapted to temperate regions of Udhampur. The frequent interactions with the locals indicated that except M. spicata whose leaves are used for seasoning dishes or preparing refreshing drinks and those of O. vulgare which find utility in making herbal tea, others are largely used for therapeutic purposes. Amongst these species, maximum use value was noted for M. longifolia (0.81) followed by that for M. arvensis (0.69). So far as agreement among the informants regarding the usage of a species for curing a particular disease is concerned, it came out to be maximum for both M. longifolia and M. arvensis for treatment of respiratory (Fic=0.93) and gastrointestinal problems (Fic=0.93). In our study, most of the informants have predisposition towards using M. longifolia for treating respiratory disorders particularly cough and cold. For this species, fidelity level was found to be maximum equal to 33.33%. This indicates that M. longifolia carries great potential for using in new herbal formulations. Finding of lesser use value for O. vulgare (0.21) and T. serpyllum (0.30), reportedly having many medicinal important components, is a matter of concern. The probable reasons underlying quite less usage of these taxa have also been discussed in this communication along with the future prospects of cultivating these.

Abstract

Wild medicinal plants have been major source of therapeutic agents for alleviation or cure of human diseases since time immemorial. These are extensively utilized throughout the world in two distinct areas of health management i.e., modern medicine and or folk medicine. Some of the important medicinal plants grown and cultivated in India for medicine, phytochemicals, nutraceuticals, cosmetics and others are Abelmoschus moschatus, Aristolochia bracteata, Cassia alexandrina, Caralluma fimbriata, Gymnema sylvestre, Withania somnifera and other species. They have become important sectors of trade and commerce. However, in India, about 90% collection of medicinal plants is form wild source and since 70% of collections involve destructive harvesting, many plants have become endangered or vulnerable or threatened. The increasing demands of the pharmaceutical industry have created problem of supply and one of the major difficulties being experienced by the industry is that of obtaining sufficient quantities of medicinal plants for the manufacture of genuine medicine.

Abstract

Crocus sativus L. commonly called as saffron is a Persian plant belonging to the Iridaceae family and is cultivated for more than 4000 years. It grows exclusively in India, the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean region. Saffron is traditionally used for, as a food supplement and its pharmacological properties such as antihypertensive, anticonvulsant, anxiolytic aphrodisiac, antioxidant, antidepressant etc. It comprises of the dried stigma which comprises of 150 different types of metabolites, of which some are responsible for the color, flavor and aroma of the Saffron. Saffron is a plant with great significance as an adaptogen and seems to be promising as a nutraceutical in barring several diseases. The current chapter explores the Ethnobiology, historical background, chemical constituents, ethnopharmacological properties, uses and toxicity of Saffron.

Abstract

Plants have been the source of food and medicine since time immemorial. Tribal people have been using several plants and their parts as source of alternative food that is conventionally not consumed by urban population. However recently, due to increasing population and reducing agriculture land, such alternative foods are gaining attention. Such alternative foods often also have medicinal value and are consumed by tribals for ameliorating certain disorders. Due to rising costs of modern medicine and associated side effects, general public perception is positive for alternative medicines and traditional therapies. Yams are an example of such alternative medicinal foods and are the focus of this chapter. Here we describe the ethnobotanical and nutraceutical potential of yams. We have discussed, in detail, some of the species that are consumed in various regions of India. During the compilation of this data, it was noticed that detailed molecular information is not available for most species, while for some species almost no molecular data exists. Further, many species have not been properly evaluated through modern natural product chemistry and pharmacological screening methods to validate the claims made in ethnobotanical surveys. These and other lacunas in knowledge pertaining to yams have also been pointed out towards the end of the chapter.

Abstract

Asteraceae, one of the largest families of flowering plants, is of worldwide distribution and inhabits almost every environment except Antarctica. The family exhibits various life forms and is known to harbour a wide variety of phytochemicals. The study aimed at systematically documenting the precious ethnobotanical knowledge (ethnomedicinal, ethnotoxic and wild edible plants) of Asteraceae in district Udhampur. A total of 42 infomants between the age group 21-90 years were interviewed and 28 plant species of Asteraceae belonging to 26 genera were observed to be of ethnobotanical significance in district Udhampur. All the taxa were growing in wild and majority of them were herbs. The ethnomedicinal formulations were prepared in the form of paste, decoction, powder, etc which were found to be effective against plethora of ailments. The ethnotoxic plants were observed to exert their adverse effects by causing different ailments or diseases. The present study may serve as a base line data for further research and will go a long way in the treatment of major and minor ailments, protecting people from being poisoned by substances that may have cured them and also serving as food source.

Abstract

Sikkim is part of the eastern Himalayan hotspot. Rich biological diversity of the region is owing to its wide range of topography, varied climatic condition and high annual precipitation, inhabited by three major ethnic communities, the Lepchas, Bhutias and Nepalese. With its unique ethno-cultural diversity and equally rich Phyto-diversity, the region holds an immense ethno-botanical knowledge and potential. The collection of food, fodder, fuel wood, timber, herbs for folk medicine from wild is an integral and deep-rooted cultural component and for sustaining socio-economic condition of the people. Medicinal plants of this region have potential for value addition as well as domestication. The folk medicine practices of three ethnic groups are different, but in general there are strong beliefs system in relation of folk medicine with supernatural forces and deities; local people consider its mountain peaks, forest, lakes as sacred hence it helps in sustainable management of its natural resources traditionally. Developments activities, urbanization, overexploitation of important plants and not giving due importance to the traditional knowledge in the past decades leads to the potential depletion in wild and that bring concern for their conservation. A proper strategic plan is needed for conservation of these valuable resources and promoting the indigenous traditional knowledge for sustainable development. Conservation-linked with people participation has been initiated in Sikkim through Sikkim State biodiversity board (SSBB), with its biodiversity management committees (BMCs), and local activist and stakeholders. The research institution of the region and researcher from outside has contributed immensely in documentations of the ethno-botanical knowledge and phyto-diversity of this region. This chapter reviews the current status of traditional ethno-botanical knowledge system of Sikkim state and highlights the current scenario of biological diversity; conservation practices, threats and challenges.

Abstract

The Himalaya is one of the youngest and the richest mountain ecosystems encompassed with a variety of species of both flora and fauna. Varying in climatic conditions coupled with altitudinal gradients and unique topography leads to the formation of different types of forests, which varies from tropical to the temperate and alpine to no timber line zone and snow-clad meadows. The present study aimed to investigate the potential of medicinal plants growing in valleys and mountains of district Doda to cure various ailments of the local inhabitants including animal health care. A total of 113 species belonging to 104 genera and 55 families of angiosperms, gymnosperms and cryptogams (lycophytes and ferns) were recorded and reviewed from published documents used for treatment of different diseases in the regions. Out of the total 113 species, 17 species were of trees, 14 species were shrubs, 78 types of herbaceous plants and 4 species of climbers. Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Rosaceae, Ranunculaceae, Polygonaceae, Solanaceae, Apiaceae, Pinaceae, Fabaceae and Berberidaceae were recorded as the dominant families of the study area. The data were collected while interacting with local people as they possess rich traditional knowledge regarding the use of different herbal plants and medicine.

Abstract

Ethnobotany as an academic discipline surfaced in the 19^th century. Traditional medicine is used globally and is of rapidly growing economic importance. In developing countries, traditional medicine is often the only accessible and affordable treatment available. The chapter deals with importance of plants in the life of people, value of collecting the plant samples and adding knowledge to plants based on their economic potential and issues related to ethnopharmacology.

Keywords: Ethobotany, Ethnopharmacology, Drug discovery, Research ethics.

    1.    What is the percentage of water in an adult’s body weight
        a)    50%    b)    60%
        c)    90%    d)    70%
    2.    __________ is a direct reactant in hydrolytic processes of many foods
        a)    Water    b)    Moisture content
        c)    Both a&b    d)    None
    3.    The bond angle of the isolated water molecule (vapor state) is
        a)    109°    b)    104.5°
        c)    109°28'    d)     103.6°

INTRODUCTION

Mass production was the hallmark for improvement of productivity in early 20^th century. Subsequently the productivity development was driven by the use of information technology and related concepts like Entrepreise resource planning (ERP), Customer relationship Management (CRM), Business Process Reingineering, TQM etc. These technologies and concepts were instrumental in collection, codification, analysis, decision making and execution of decision which translated to better coordination and profitability. The ability to harness synergy out of the information systems, coordinated team and goal orientation helped in executing strategies with sharpness, proactively identifying customer need, responding to social context and competitive scenario with alacrity. As it stands now, with internet and multimedia technologies it is faster to form organization, reach out to the stakeholders. Technology mediation has improved the productivity and quality of economic activities. It has still lot more options to come in the 21^st century.

Sovereign state performances from different parts of the world have been going through a different set of social and performance context. Over last couple of decades multiple social issues have surfaced. Issues like “rich and poor divide”, “increase of least developed countries (LDCs)”, have forced a thinking about the efficacy and efficiency of governance processes. The social and economic context in multiple countries gave rise to the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) of the UN. Governments in most of the countries have short life span than before, and are now elected with lower margins. The recent Jasmine revolution has eliminated entrenched dictators, almost without bloodshed vastly due to the use of technology like, social-e-media platforms. Regional aspirations have become strong, vociferous and demanding. Splintering of USSR, Sudan, Unification of Germany, Iraq, overthrowing of monarchy in Nepal and closer home in India, there is clamour for more states. In a multi-party democracy, few national parties have got splintered into or have given rise to multiple regional political parties to represent the local aspirations. Governments are now grappling with economic crisis. Democracy as the form of the government, ironically, has not been able to live upto the expectations. On different facet, recently the issues like wikieleaks and exposure of snooping of different governments on its own citizens, have indicated the lack of trust of people.

INTRODUCTION

Intellectual Property Right (IPR) is described as a generic legal term for patents, copyrights, and trademarks, making the feasibility for legal rights to protect ideas, the expression of ideas, and the inventors and creators of such ideas (Brown, 2003). Two types of rights, first, associated with patents and second, associated with copyrights are included into the current IPR regimes. The social purpose behind the IPR is to reward the originator of an invention. Intellectual property serves as a strong foundation of the modern information economy since it promotes software, life sciences, and computer industries, and has becomes a part of most of the products we consume today (Gallini and Scotchmer, 2002).

1. INTRODUCTION

Science and Technology are vital for developing low-input and high-output agriculture and pharmaceutical. India needs frugal use of natural resources and diversification of agricultural activities. Transgenic technologies are highly misunderstood. Genetically modified crops are a result of them. In fact genetic modification of crops for human use is going on since their domestication. By introduction of Bt cotton in 2002, yields have doubled. American bollworm can no longer threaten Indian cotton crops. Insects can develop resistance to Bt gene or some virus attacking the crop needs more research. RNA-mediated gene suppression may aid the development of patent strategies that will support the next generation of genetically modified crops and enhance scope of patenting. Many fancy Organic farming, which will need 40 percent more agricultural land for present number of people on earth although it is ever increasing. Biotechnology has revolutionized agriculture, healthcare, industrial processing, environmental sustainability and is also a revenue generator. India is poised for a tremendous growth in BT sector. NanoBT has now entered into furthering the useful research on faster pace. It has scientific and technical pool of human resources, rich biodiversity, large agricultural and market base for new BT products and world recognition as a producer of low cost, high quality bulk drugs and formulations. Issues surrounding Intellectual Property Rights and BT inventions are varied but interrelated. Basic research has to be transferred to applied field and the resultant is to be commercialized. In some countries, plant varieties are protected by sui generis system. Post genome research has added fuel to the fire; new innovative fields, like ‘Bioinformatics’ with plenty of biology information and new processing methods have emerged. BT uses four tools of IPR, viz. Patents, Trademarks, Trade secrets and Copyright. At present, its contribution to the World’s patenting activity is less than three percent. As such there is a necessity to amend the IP laws to give better protection to R&D, and better enforcement of IP, technology transfer and licensing arrangements. Biotech industry in India is flourishing more in pharmaceuticals, particularly in healthcare. There is an urgent need for harmonization of administration and centralization of the patenting process in accordance with WIPO diktats.

ABSTRACT

Intellectual property rights (IPR) have, in recent years, emerged as perhaps the most important aspect of legal system as far as protection of inventions is concerned. Intellectual property rights have been created to ensure protection against unfair trade practices. The protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) could be a means to acknowledge a creator for something new or it could be means to recover the financial investments of a financer. IPR ensures that the knowledge, innovation and capital involved in the development of a product/ technology are compensated with highest rewards, insufficient protection of IP will lead to fewer rewards and even some of the inventions will be driven to extinction. As a result the innovators may conveniently relocate to regions where they can protect the IP they develop, the latter will result in intellectual loss to a particular country. Knowledge management on the other hand, emphasizes the challenge behind effective management of innovation systems by providing protection to databases, learning tools and sharing process that innovators have developed over a period of time. Effective Knowledge management provides platform for sharing of technologies through licensing and cross-licensing agreements between different countries. The chapter deals with the fundamentals of intellectual property, its types, the applications of different categories of intellectual property in the area of science and technology including biotechnology, literature and arts, and the commercial value of intellectual property assets. Moreover, protecting traditional knowledge through the intellectual property rights and identification, documentation transmission revitalization and promotion of cultural heritage by traditional knowledge has been discussed.

ABSTRACT

This paper broadly deals with salient applications of Information Technology in various areas related to Agriculture Research, Government’s digital initiatives, Indian Council of Agriculture Research IT initiatives in agriculture research as step, towards reaching agriculture knowledge and technology to small holders (Resource-Poor-Farmers). The present paper identifies new emerging areas of usage of computer application in Horticulture research and development.

INTRODUCTION

The horticultural sector is facing the challenges of dwindling land resources, increasing biotic and abiotic stresses, indications of factor productivity decline, threatened loss of bio-diversity, new IPR regime etc, (Adiguru and Mruthyunaja, 2004). Further, Indian agriculture has come under significant adjustment pressure from market liberalization and globalization. Farmers need reliable and timely information about best practices of production, processing, marketing, input and output prices, financial markets and risk-covering institutions. Existing public extension system has become outdated and ineffective in spite of the fact that it has been a catalyst in successfully heralding the Green Revolution in the country. This is partly due to an inadequate use of new means of information dissemination (Adhiguru et al., 2003). The public extension system follows a top-down approach and has become less interactive, more time-consuming and costly and fails to meet the expectations of those involved in the agricultural production and other involved in the value chain. Therefore, a new extension system re-oriented to meet the information needs of the farmers should be put in place across the country by using ICT.

1. INTRODUCTION

Until the 1990s, the phrase Corporate Governance (CG) was relatively unknown but since then it has gained a huge importance when the corporate sector was surrounded with problems of unethical practicesand flagrant violations of rules and regulations in a number of countries. CG has received increased attention as multiple cases of risk of corporate failures both for public and private sectors. Multiple corporate failures worldwide, such as those of Maxwell, Enron, Global crossing, and Sunbeam forced the regulatory authorities to set up codes and standards on CG.The Indian market has also faced a number of scams since early nineties.Harshad Mehta Stock Scam in 1992 is one of the corporate frauds in the country which finally resulted in setting up of Kumar Mangalam Birla Committee in 1999. Based on their recommendations in 2000, Clause 49 on CG was inserted in the listing agreement of every stock exchange in India. The purpose was to promote and raise standards of CG of listed companies. CG has now become most common phrase in the business world of 21^st century. It is important for financial health of the corporations and relationshipwith the public at large; may it be an individual or community especially after the collapse of Satyam Software Services Ltd. in 2008.It has been made mandatory for the Indian companies to comply with CG norms, to give reports and disclosures as per the listing agreement and various provisions of the Companies Act in their annual reports. The importance ofCG in the 21^st century keeps on increasing as the economy is growing.

In today’s technology driven 21^st century, software has become an integral part of our day to day work. Starting from checking day’s schedule in tablet after waking up in the morning till setting up alarm before going to bed at night, we are using numerous software applications in a day without even realizing the efforts spent to make those applications work perfectly every time we use it. If we look deeply, each software application in computer or in any electronic/computer controlled device go through multiple rigorous cycles of testing to ensure that it is working as intended after it was built by developers and before it was launched in market for public use. In software industry, this process is termed as software quality assurance (QA) or software testing which is being considered as one of the most flourishing verticals of IT software services sectors in 21^st century.

Software testing is one of the most important phases of software development life cycle and it consumes anything between 10% to 45% of project budget depending on the type of the software and methodology followed in the development and testing life cycle. There are different types testing e.g. unit testing, integration testing, system testing, user acceptance testing, alpha, beta testing which are exercised during the testing phase and QA team needs to provide the sign off before any product is released and implemented in production or in consumer market. With the ever increasing complexity of today’s software products along with the competitive market due to easy availability of multiple product options/vendors, the importance and awareness of software quality assurance has increased over years. Consequently, various software testing methodologies have been evolved in last two decades in order to perform testing in more structured and controlled manner. In addition, there is a continuous urge for improving the operational efficiency of the testing process in the organizations in order to produce better quality software at less cost.

INTRODUCTION

The role for economic theory is no longer simply to explain how the existing system works, but also to explore how the economic system can be changed to become more adaptive and resilient in the face of the challenges of the 21st century, and how it can be more directly designed to support human well-being, in the present and the future. Simultaneous changes are needed, in both the actual economy and also in theoretical approaches of economics. The economic theory that was accepted as standard in the non-communist world during the second half of the twentieth century erects serious impediments to meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century. In order to redirect economics to be more useful, and more truly reflect the world we now face, a good starting point is to go back to the goals that are embedded in economic thinking. Here it is useful to make the distinction between intermediate and final goals. Final goals are ends that are worth achieving in themselves, while intermediate goals are pursued because they are expected to contribute to the final goals. As final goals for any economy are ‘well-being and equity in the present’ and second is ‘productive capital for the future’. Productive capital needed to maintain well-being also necessarily includes natural resources, as well as human health and education, and cohesive social systems. Increasing production and consumption are important intermediate goals for humankind in some times and places. Other obviously critical intermediate goals include climate mitigation, and promoting resilience and adaptation within both human society and ecological systems. Responding to global inequity as well as global climate change requires coordinated public policy to fundamentally redirect existing economic systems. In addition to a much greater emphasis on equity, economic theory that is appropriate to the needs of the twenty-first century will need to be more concerned with the meta-externalities of the economic system. The business sphere is currently creating meta-externalities of culture and politics that place great burdens on the core sphere, and that tie the hands of governments. This does not necessarily imply that the for-profit sphere is “bad” and the others “good”—rather that institutional changes must be made to bring the purposes and functions of all three spheres into better harmony. To address such a complex issues, economic theories and models that developed in the past should embedded with new advent in computational technologies. In venturing a vision of technological possibilities rather than simply projecting linear or exponential changes in performance, it is crucial to think not only of how technical improvements lead to the substitution of a new generation of tools for existing ones, but also of how entirely new uses, and indeed new needs, might emerge.

INTRODUCTION

Agricultural systems and the environment in which it operates have become increasingly complex which encompass both agricultural production and marketing systems. Both of them are rich in complexity and diversity (Spedding, 1975) and to understand the complexity and structure of such systems and their functions require the use of mathematical modelling frameworks that represent their key features. Disciplines that are required to develop and solve such models include: biology, computer programming, statistics, mathematics, economics, and social science. Models are being developed to investigate specific issues such as weed infestation, soil health, nitrogen cycling, the effects of climate change, climate variability, and to assist developing countries to improve their production at their farm gate. During the first half of 20th Century, most agricultural products were produced by means of labour and the majority of the produce was used for own consumption. However, as time progressed labour was substituted for machines, production became more market-oriented and consequently the practice of farming also transformed from “a way of living” to business enterprises run on business principles.

1. INTRODUCTION

Agriculture plays a crucial role in addressing the needs of a growing global population, and is inextricably linked to poverty eradication, especially in developing countries. Sustainable agriculture and rural development are essential to the implementation of an integrated approach to increasing food production and enhancing food security and food safety in an environmentally sustainable way. Attaining food security has been our major concern since independence. Appropriate policy measures in agriculture made it possible to achieve food security as well as required national confidence to meet the growing food demands, despite a growing population. The increased agricultural production has been achieved largely through an increase in the yield of grain per hectare, rather than from an increased cultivated area. The increase in production has been the result of widespread cultivation of new high-yielding varieties coupled with a package of agricultural inputs that permit the genetic expression of their high yield potential. India is now even in a position to export agricultural commodities, fish products, milk products and earns a lot of foreign exchange. The present share of the agricultural sector in total exports is 15 to 17 percent. However, the export of many agricultural commodities show a high degree of fluctuations, caused by time lags between production decisions and delivery to the market. For the Government, unforeseen variations in export can complicate budgetary planning and increase risks for attainment of debt targets. For exporters, price volatility increases cash flow variability and reduces collateral value in the market. There is a need for an aggressive export growth-oriented policy to raise the share of agricultural sector in total exports to 25%. This should come through diversification of agriculture. In our country, the exports have been allowed only after domestic requirements are met, which is the major cause of fluctuations in exports from year to year. Modelling and forecasting such fluctuating data of commodities is crucial for the sake of Government as well as for the exporters.

1. INTRODUCTION

Growth is a complex biological process that must be evaluated carefully if a profitable combination of growth and efficiency is to be realized. Knowledge relating to birth weight, mature weight, maturity rate and the point of infection of the growth curve in various breeds and crosses is very useful in selecting breed combinations that can produce the most efficient growth pattern. The effect of cow size on economy of production has been a discussing subject among cattlemen and animal scientists. Growth models are used to predict rates and change in the shape of the organism. They can be applied to determine the food requirements so as to get a desired growth. The estimated parameters of growth function can evaluate various growth characteristics of animal like rate of maturing, rate of gain, mature size and related characters.

1. INTRODUCTION

The concept of product management in market research is all about tradeoffs. Whether the objective is to increase market share, profit margin or revenue, every product manager makes trade-offs—quality vs. cost, time to market vs. breadth of features, richness of the offering vs. ease of use, etc. So, how does anybody know what the market wants? What market segments exist? What those segments prefer? What will they pay? or what trade-offs to make? The answer is to get the market to make the trade-offs. The conjoint analysis is the tool to measure the trade-off i.e. to understand customer preferences, values and choices. Conjoint analysis is used for many marketing decisions, including new product development process, selecting among alternative product designs, targeting, and pricing. It is also used to predict their choices for future products and services. Conjoint Analysis assumes that a product can be “broken down” into its component attributes. For example, a car has attributes such as colour, price, size, miles-per-gallon, and model style. Using Conjoint Analysis, the value that individuals place on any product is equivalent to the sum of the utility they derive from all the attributes making up a product. Further, it assumes that the preference for a product and the likelihood to purchase it are in proportion to the utility an individual gains from the product. It is generally inappropriate for products which are evaluated by consumers on the basis of their “image”, such as beer or cigarettes, rather than on the basis of their constituent attributes. It is so widely used in market research that helps to understand the market’s preferences including product development, competitive positioning, pricing, product line analysis, segmentation and resource allocation.That gives the better insight to the market revenue, share, profit which in turn helps to provide the better market intelligence. The present chapter deals with the genesis, usefulness and analysis procedure of conjoint analysis in different software with example.

ABSTRACT

Wavelet analysis is a technique possessing mathematical properties and it has been used by the scientific research community for its power to analyse rapidly changing transient signals used to represent data or functions - the wavelets used in the analysis are, however, functions that break the data down into different scales or resolutions. Wavelets possess the competence to handle spikes and discontinuities than traditional Fourier analysis and make the noisy data to de-noisy. Though traditional applications of wavelets have focused on image compression and analysis, wave propagation but they are also being used to analyse time series, biological processes, spectroscopic data of chemical compounds, seismic signals for earthquake prediction, atmospheric data for weather prediction, computer graphics, medical image technology, detection of aircraft and submarines, non-parametric regression, density estimation, and long memory wavelet models. Indeed, wavelets permit complex information such as music, speech, images and patterns to be decomposed into elementary forms at different positions and scales and subsequently being reconstructed with high precision. Signal transmission is based on the transmission of a series of numbers, indeed, the series representation of a function is important in all types of signal transmission.Wavelet transform of function is the improved version of Fourier transform. Fourier transform is a powerful tool for analysing the components of a stationary signal. But the Fourier transform fails to analyse the non-stationary signal where as a wavelet transform allows the components of a non-stationary signal to be analysed.

INTRODUCTION

According to analyst firm Gartner, Big Data is at the portion of the hype cycle called the "peak of inflated expectations." The business world is awash with all sorts of claims about the magic of Big Data and how it will transform industries by increasing productivity and profits and opening up opportunities that nobody even knew existed. But this will only happen if companies are able to hire enough people who actually understand what Big Data is, how to collect it, and preserve it. Computing and analytical skills are also required to get Big Data to reveal its hidden secrets and visualise it in novel ways. And there unfortunately, is the rub. There are just not enough data scientists, people with the required skills to satisfy this unmet demand. The shortfall in Big Data experts is set to rise and in the UK alone, one digital industries employer body has predicted there will be a need for 69,000 of these experts in the next five years. This claim is not original. Back in 2011, McKinsey & Co was claiming a US shortfall in Big Data experts of 140,000 - 190,000 by 2018.The shortfall in Big Data experts is being manifested in a number of ways. The first and most obvious is through recruiters casting an ever-widening net in their search for appropriate talent. There is some agreement that Big Data analysis and data visualisation requires skills in computing as well as statistics and mathematics. This has meant that university graduates with statistics, computer science and engineering have been the main source of potential employees. Lately this has widened to include subject areas such as astrophysics and computational chemistry.

ABSTRACT

The details of a frame work for development of data warehouse are discussed in this paper. The concepts of data ware housing, its data ware house process, its architecture, components, data sources, data transformation, apart from free and shareware and commercial software available are described. The details of power of Data Warehouse are also described with a procedure for a better reporting of data and analysed results. The data Warehouse should be made to deliver clear indications on how the research or business enterprise is performing. There is a need to plot out the expected users for the Data Warehouse in the enterprise so that they will have the appropriate reports in a format which is quickly understandable.

ABSTRACT

A Distributed Database is a database that is under the control of a central database management system (DBMS) in which storage devices are not all attached to a common CPU and may be dispersed over a network of computers interconnected through internet. To ensure that the Distributive databases are up to date and current, there are two processes: replication and duplication. Replication involves using specialized software that looks for changes in the distributive database. Once the changes have been identified, the replication process makes all the databases look alike. The replication process can be very complex and time consuming depending on the size and number of the distributive databases. Duplication on the other hand is not as complicated. It would basically identify one database as a master and then duplicates that database. This is to ensure that each distributed location has the same data. In the duplication process, changes to the master database only are allowed. This is to ensure that local data will not be overwritten. Both of the processes can keep the data current in all distributive locations. The most commonly used databases are DB2, MySQL, Oracle, MS-Access, Ingres, Firebird, MS SQL Server, Teradata, Sybase, Informix and Postgre SQL. Use of single or combination of databases depending on the requirement is key to success. This distributed data management with different levels of transparency like network transparency, fragmentation transparency, replication transparency, etc. Increase reliability and availability of data to the users as well as reduces the database downtime and increase the database performance, reduces network failure due to reduction of network traffic.

SUMMARY

The vast amounts of biological data generated from various studies have become the cornerstone of bioinformatics. The very first challenge of this enormous data is to store and handle this large volume of information through the establishment and use of computer databases. These data describe a unique array of information on biological entities such as DNA, protein and other molecules. However, still a large amount of data remains hidden which needs to be explored by accessing these data from databases.

Biological databases play a vital role in the biological research from the fundamental molecular biology to the applied areas of biology viz. medicine, agriculture, biochemical industries etc. This chapter introduces some basic concepts related to databases such as features, construction and classification of biological databases, submission and retrieving of data from biological databases.

INTRODUCTION

Functional genomics is the science where genes are employed to determine their function. The gene expression is an approach to analyze the functional changes in the genes. The expression level for a gene across different experimental conditions are cumulatively called the gene expression profile and the expression levels for all the genes under an experimental condition are cumulatively called the sample expression profile. Different techniques for gene expression analysis have been used so far. cDNA-AFLP (Bachem et al., 1996), SAGE (Serial Analysis of Gene Expression) (Neto, Neto & Costa, 2012) and MPSS (Massive Parallel Signature Sequencing) (Brenner et al., 2000) are the techniques for expression analysis where the genomic or transcriptome sequence of the organism is not needed. Some advanced and largely used techniques are Microarrays (Schena et al., 1995) and Real-time PCR (Higuchi et al., 1993) where the previous knowledge of the sequence is required. These two techniques are most frequently used for gene expression analysis (Perez-Torres et al., 2009). DNA microarray technology has made it possible to simultaneously monitor the expression levels of thousands of genes during important biological processes and across collections of related samples (Jiang, Tang & Zhang, 2004).

Energy is vital for the whole universe. Since the formation of the universe, energy acts a specific role. Steven Hawkins, George Ellis and Roger explained “The Theory of Relativity “Time and space had a finite beginning than corresponded to the origin of matter and energy from the time of BIG BANG.”. Before invention of fire, energy hovers everywhere but people did not have any knowledge about that. Living being requires energy for every day work which cells of the body provide them. Energy is also a basic requirement for the existence and development of human life. Energy plays an important role in the entire process of evolution, growth and survival of all living being and also in the social –economic development and human welfare of country. Energy is defined as the ability to work. Then we run or walk or do any type of work, we burn the energy in our body produced in cells by transforming food. Cars,planes,trolleys,ships, aeroplanes etc and all kind of machineries require energy to run. There are many sources to get energy as coal, natural oil, natural gas, wind, water, wave, sun and nuclear etc. The commercial sources of energy as fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) hydro-power and then nuclear power provide the need of energy now of the world. The demand of energy is growing an alarming rate. As for example, according to International Energy Agency the Global consumption of energy has increased from 4606 Mtoe (Million Ton Oil equivalent) in 1973 to 7287 Mtoe in 2003.

INTRODUCTION

The evolution of National Natural Resource Management System (NNRMS) towards fully harnessing the potentials of space remote sensing and the development of the series of Indian Remote Sensing Satellites, besides establishment of necessary ground based data establishment of necessary ground based data reception processing and dissemination systems as well as remote sensing facilities at National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Space Applications Centre (SAC) and Regional Remote Sensing Service Centers (RRSSCs) for efficient and effective analysis of remotely sensed data are the major steps accomplished in pursuit of this goal. With the establishment of Remote Sensing Applications Centers in several States under many Governmental organizations, remote sensing today has come to stay as an integral part of the national development efforts in the vital sectors of agriculture, hydrology, geology, forestry, oceanography, mineral resources and disaster management like drought, flood, cyclone, earthquake, landslides crop pests, forest fires etc., thus touching every facet of national development. Today, India has acquired a strong self-reliant base to harness the full potential of this technology and as a result, the national objective of achieving sustainable development at micro level is being addressed through the integration of remotely sensed data with other relevant collateral information to arrive at locale specific, environment friendly, economically viable and culturally acceptable treatment packages (Rao, 1991 and Jayaraman, el at. 1993).

1. INTRODUCTION

Water is the source that upholds every part of life on earth and is a key element of sustainable development. It is essential to the survival of healthy and safe lives of mankind. Ecosystems are inevitably linked with water. Lack of access to ample and safe drinking water is a serious setback among human population. Noxious substances from industries when enter into lakes, streams, rivers, oceans, and other water bodies, they get dissolved or lie suspended in water or get deposited on the bed. This results in the pollution of water whereby the quality of the water deteriorates, affecting aquatic ecosystems.

The strain of escalating population, growth of industries, urbanization, energy intensive life style, loss of forest cover, lack of environmental awareness and implementation of environmental rules and regulations, environment improvement plans, untreated effluent discharge from industries and municipalities, use of non-biodegradable pesticides/fungicides/herbicides/ insecticides, use of chemical fertilizers instead of organic manures, etc are basis of water pollution. The pollutants from industrial discharge and sewage, besides finding their way to surface water reservoirs and rivers are also percolating into ground to pollute ground water sources, threatening food security, access to safe drinking and bathing water and providing a major health and environmental management challenge. Contaminated water from inadequate waste water management provides one of the greatest health challenges restricting development and increasing poverty through costs to health care.

Water pollution is a sensitive problem all over the world. In the wake of increasing urbanization and industrialization, the pollution potential is gaining thrust day by day. Monitoring of waste water quality parameters is currently a subject of growing concern globally. Oxygen, although poorly soluble in water, is fundamental to aquatic life. In the absence of free dissolved oxygen, aquatic systems become inhabitable to most aquatic flora and fauna. Because the solubility of oxygen in water is so low, even little decrease in dissolved oxygen levels can compromise the health of natural water systems. Organic pollutants requiring oxygen for their decomposition exert a rapid and direct influence on the ecology of these environments. Therefore it is required to monitor the load of organic pollutants in the waste water.

ABSTRACT

Supercritical fluid extraction technology specifically employing carbon dioxide as an extracting solvent under supercritical conditions have gained tremendous importance in the commercial applications as well as academic fields. The basic advantage is its operation above pressure and critical temperature. The most convenient things are variations of pressure, temperatures, batch time, flow rate and fractionation of important constituents of essential oils, herbs and petrochemicals. In the recent times most of the researchers have studied the Organic synthesis under supercritical conditions with the improved yield and reaction selectivity. The chapter also describes the thermodynamics also.

Sustainable development and environment friendly technologies in agriculture are the need of the time. It is also necessary that these technologies should be able to solve farmers’ problems that vary according to his socioeconomic and ecological condition. To reach the wide as well as diverse section of our producers, the extension system should be location specific and very fast. The technology must be based on farmer’ need, existing resources of farmers, appropriate marketing and should be considered the cost benefit ratio. Sustainable development of producers, efficient technology as well as effective transfer of technology within a short period of time is thus utmost important in recent period. These require larger proportion of human skill combined with electronic information system. In this connection, expert system can be effective in transfer of technology to meet the need of the time. Expert system is the turning point and breaking through of artificial intelligence developing, it is breaking through from generic thinking to special knowledge applying, from theory method to actual system design. Over the years the field of application of expert system has been widening rapidly. Many countries have made expert system in different field, such as: financial decision-making, medical treatment and diagnose, diagnose on breakdown of machinery, chemical engineering, geological prospecting, military affairs, and other agricultural domain. Recently, many researchers in India has been identified the advantage of this system and already developed expert system in several commodities in agricultural crops.

ABSTRACT

Expert systems are very popular computer programs designed to simulate the problem solving behavior of human thinking in a narrow domain. The world has changed into a global village. Information has become a powerful commodity and agricultural production has evolved into a complex business requiring the accumulation and integration of knowledge and information from many diverse sources. Rice is the staple food of over half the world’s population. India is the second largest producer and consumer of rice in the world. In order to remain competitive, the modern farmer often relies on agricultural specialists and advisors to provide information for decision making. In order to alleviate this problem, expert systems were identified as a powerful tool with extensive potential in agriculture. Rapid development of web technology benefits our decision-making and various activities in agriculture. With this background, web based rice expert system has been developed for diagnosing pest and disease problems of rice crop.

Key Words: Rice, Expert system, Knowledge, Decision making

INTRODUCTION

There is growing concern in both the scientific community and the general public over the possibility of important climatic changes due to increases in relatively active gases in the atmosphere, a phenomenon commonly referred to as “climate change.” In the past century, the activities of a rapidly expanding and industrializing human population have added significant quantities of heat retaining gases to the atmosphere. For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that by 2100 increases in greenhouse gases will likely lead to an increase in temperature of between I0⁰ C and 3.50⁰ C (Houghton et al., 1996) and an increase in sea level of between 13 and 94 cm (Warrick et al., 1996). The IPCC also reports that warmer temperatures will most likely intensify the hydrological cycle, leading to an increase in the precipitation intensity and number of storm events (Houghton et al., 1996). Our results of this study also agree with it.

INTRODUCTION

Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is a branch of the field in computer science known as “Artificial Intelligence (AI)”. The field goes by many names, such as connectionism, parallel distributed processing, neuro-computing, machine learning, and artificial neural networks. A tremendous growth in interest of this computational mechanism has occurred since Rumelhart(1986) rediscovered a mathematically rigorous theoretical framework neural network. Traditional (physically-based) modeling of physical processes tries to explain the underlying processes. On the contrary, the data-driven models are based on a limited knowledge of the modeling process and rely on the data describing input and output characteristics. Data-driven models are based on pure relationships between input and output data and not the physical principle linking input and output. They offer real advantages over conventional methods, including the ability to handle large amounts of dynamic, non-linear or noisy data and such tools can be especially useful when the underlying relationship are not fully understood. Data-driven modeling uses results from such overlapping fields as data mining, artificial neural networks, rule-based type approaches such as expert systems, fuzzy logic concepts, and machine learning systems.

Artificial neural networks are suited to problems where relationships between the variables to be modeled are not well understood. Mathematically, an ANN may be treated as a universal approximator. The ability to learn and generalize ‘Knowledge’ from sufficient data pairs make it possible for ANN to solve large-scale complex problems such as non-linear modeling, pattern recognition, classification, control and others – all of which find application in water resources management today. Since the early nineties, ANNs have been successfully used in water management area such as rainfall-runoff modeling, stream flow prediction, groundwater modeling, water quality, hydrologic time series, and reservoir operation.

ABSTRACT

Nanomaterials will potentially play an important role in water quality. Production and applications of nanomaterials in industry are increasing. Furthermore, there are a handsome number of marketed nanomaterial-based consumer products. Therefore, how nanomaterials diagnose and function and how they perturb normal biological systems all become a top concern. In recent years, researchers are actively engaged in such investigations and discussions. At the same time, technologies and methods are developed to make more targeting nanoparticles for use in water.

Key words: Nanomaterial, Applications,Water quality

INTRODUCTION

Plant diseases caused by microbial plant pathogens and sub microscopic entities including virus and viroids induce both quantitative and qualitative losses of high magnitude in yields. The extent of loss may range from slight to 100% depending on the susceptibility/resistant level of the cultivars and prevailing favourable environmental conditions (Narayanasamy, 2011). With the introduction of high yielding cultivars, adoption of modern production techniques such as high input agronomic practices, changes in cultural practices, free movement of planting materials and changes in weather conditions over the years have led to increase in pest and disease problems, several of which have become major constraints in their successful cultivation (Gupta and Thind, 2006). The challenge is how to feed the growing population by producing more on a stagnant or shrinking landscape; with lesser input cost and with lesser hazards to the eco-system. The detection and management of diseases prior to economic loss will help to minimize the yield loss of the crops. Physical and chemical techniques have been applied either alone or in combination with certain cultural practices to enhance the effectiveness of reducing pathogen inoculums and consequent reduction in disease incidence.

1 INTRODUCTION

Aquaculture has been growing at higher rate than any other animal food-producing sector globally with Asia dominating the production. Considering the higher consumer demand for aquatic animal food, coupled with stagnating harvest from capture fisheries the rapid growth of aquaculture is expected to continue in the future. For instance, the global production of farmed food fish including finfishes, crustaceans, molluscs, amphibians (frogs), aquatic reptiles (except crocodiles) and other aquatic animals such as sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sea squirts and jellyfishes was 59.9 million metric tones (mmt), up by 7.5 percent from 55.7 mmt in 2009 (FAO, 2012). Asia accounted for 89 percent of world aquaculture production by volume in 2010 with China alone accounting for more than 60 percent of global aquaculture production volume in 2010. The other major producers in Asia are India (4.65 mmt), Viet Nam (2.67 mmt), Indonesia (2.30 mmt), Bangladesh (1.31mmt), Thailand (1.29 mmt), Myanmar (0.85mmt), the Philippines (0.74 mmt) and Japan (0.72 mmt). Further, in light of increasing population pressure on land, intensification of aquaculture practices has been taking place and now two-third of all food fish production aquaculture is achieved with artificial feeding (FAO, 2012). In recent years it also has become apparent that aquaculture production is vulnerable to adverse impacts of diseases and environmental conditions as farmed organisms are susceptible to a wide range of factors that can pose a major threat to a thriving aquaculture industry with considerable economical repercus-sions. For instance, in 2010, aquaculture in China suffered production losses of 1.7 million tonnes caused by natural disasters, diseases and pollution. Disease outbreaks virtually wiped out marine shrimp farming production in Mozambique in 2011 (FAO, 2012). In addition, impacts of culture environment, and harvest and post-harvest handlings on flesh quality are also increasingly becoming important issues.

1. INTRODUCTION

Motifs are patterns in biological sequences which can indicate the presence of certain biological characteristics and function. In general, these could represent patterns in any kind of biological sequences such as DNA sequences, RNA sequences and protein sequences. Evolutionary conserved regions (ECRs) are sequences with atleast 100 bp length alongwith minimum 70% identity, which includes most of the protein-coding exons, promoters, enhancers and repressors. ECRs are the preliminary step for finding TFBSs (Transcription factor binding sites) within the raw genome sequences of higher eukaryotes (large sizes of the genomes). DNA sequence motifs are short length, recurring patterns in DNA and are known to be associated with a biological function. These motifs sometimes indicate sequence specific binding sites for proteins such as nucleases and transcription factors (TF). Some sequence motifs are involved in biological processes at RNA level, such as ribosome binding, mRNA processing (splicing, editing, polyadenylation) and transcription termination. Motif identification is important at protein level for biological processes such as protein-subcellular localization, protein membrane, protein-protein interactions, identification of active site of enzyme(s) and post-translational modifications. Motif search is useful in understanding gene function, human disease, drug design, etc. Regulation of splicing in eukaryotes occurs through the coordinated action of multiple splicing factors. Sequence motifs are also useful in the study of genetic regulatory networks and regulatory program of individual genes.

INTRODUCTION

Soil is a very important component of the earth’s biosphere. It is the basis of agricultural production and also in the maintenance of local, regional and global environmental quality (Glanz 1995). The thin layer of soil covering the surface of the earth represents the difference between survival and extinction for most land-based life (Doran and Parkin 1996). Analysis of soil productive capacity point out human-induced degradation on nearly 40% of the world’s agricultural land as a result of soil erosion, atmospheric pollution, widespread soil cultivation, over-grazing, land clearing, salinization and desertification (Oldeman 1994). Degradation and loss of productive agricultural land is definitely one of our most pressing ecological concerns, similar to the other human caused environmental problems like global climate change, depletion of the protective ozone layer and serious reduction in biodiversity (Lal 1998).

INTRODUCTION

The field of virology is still not explored extensively. The use of bacterial and algal viruses till date are mostly restricted to areas like phage therapy (Sanmukh et al., 2012), whole genome sequencing, isolation and characterization of lytic enzymes (Paunikar et al., 2011), control of pathogenic multi drug resistant micro-organisms, structure elucidation through electron microscopy as well as NMR spectroscopic methods. Bioinformatics approach is also well explored for the gene annotation, sub cellular localization as well as structure prediction of various unknown as well as unclassified proteins in different viruses (Sanmukh et al., 2010). Our main concern while dealing with most viruses is limited to its classification and characterization but, we forget to reveal its true nature by exploring various budding applications which they may suffice. Moreover, very few viruses are sequenced and their genome is made available at ICTV (International Committee for Taxonomy of Viruses) which makes their information more unclear. Considering all above scenario, we can feel the urgent need for entering into a new area of “Applied Virology”. Due to various limitations with respect to funding and possible facility requirements, researchers are not yet optimizing on the applications of viruses for potential molecular biology applications as well as its industrial implementation in cost effective, time efficient and for commercial gain.

1. INTRODUCTION

Dielectric-barrier discharges (DBDs) also referred to as barrier discharges or silent discharges. DBDs have for a long time been regarded as the ozonizer discharge. In 1932 Buss observed that in a plane parallel gap with insulated electrodes air breakdown occurs in a number of individual tiny breakdown channels.^1,2 Recently, it was realised that plasma can be influenced, modelled and optimised for a given application through microdischarges. The most important characteristic of dielectric-barrier discharges is that non-equilibrium plasma conditions can be provided in a much simpler way than with other alternatives like low pressure discharges, fast pulsed high pressure discharges or electron beam injection. Moreover, the DBDs can breakdown most of the gases at about atmospheric pressure in a large number of independent current filaments or microdischarges. The dielectric barrier limits the amount of charge and energy deposited in a microdischarge and distributes the microdischarges over the entire electrode surface. When a dielectric-barrier discharge is operated in rare gases or a rare gas halogen mixture plasma conditions in a microdischarge channel are similar to those in pulsed excimer lasers. Consequently, each microdischarge can act as an intense source of ultraviolet (UV) or vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) radiation. The absorption coefficient of most substances increases at shorter wavelengths. So, in many cases the UV radiation is absorbed in a very thin surface layer. The xenon excimer lamp can induce photo-cleavage of water and oxygen.²