eChapters

Naïve panel : It refers to the sensory evaluation panel that has not been trained specifically regarding the product evaluation being undertaken in the study.
Nano technology : It is the art of manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale to build microscopic devices. The word “nano’ meaning ‘dwarf” in Greek language refers to dimension / magnitude of the material / particle in the order of 10^-9. Nanotechnology is nothing but manipulating of particles into very small particles called nano-particles. These particles have dimensions in the scale of nano-meter and used to design / build materials and devices. Nanotechnology has been provisionally defined as relating to materials, systems and processes which operate at a scale of 100 nanometers (nm) or less. Nanotechnology is an anticipated manufacturing technology that allows through and inexpensive control of the structure of matter by working with atom. It will allow many things to be manufactured at low cost and with no pollution. The concept of nanotechnology was first given by Nobel Laureate physicist Richard P. Feynman in Southern California in 1959. Nanotechnology is sometimes termed as Molecular Manufacturing based nanotechnology “MNT”.

A new analytical technique called inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy has been used for simultaneous multi element analysis of biological materials and soils (Hou and Jones 2000; Wikipedia, 2010; Bradford and Cook, 1997). This technique offers advantages over AAS and other multi-element methods because matrix problems are eliminated or minimized through use of the high temperature argon plasma. Apart from multi- element capability at all concentration levels, plasmas are noted for relative freedom from chemical and ionization interferences that are common with AAS, and detection limits are equal to or better than AAS, depending on the element to be analyzed. Elements such as Al, P, S and B, which are either poorly measured at low concentrations or not possible by AAS, are readily determined with higher sensitivity by ICP.

Trees rise towards the sky, beautiful symbol of Nature’s aspiration for light. Sri Aurobindo writes “When the sun sets and all become silent, sit down under a tree for a moment and put yourself into communication with Nature: you will feel rising from the earth, from below roots of the trees and mounting upwards and coursing through their fibres upto the highest outstretching branches, the aspiration of an intense love and longing, - a longing for something that brings light and gives happiness. There is a yearning so pure and intense that if you can feel the movement in the trees, your own being too will go up in an ardent prayer for the peace and light and love that are unmanifested here”.

Abstract
 
The definition of quality is described from a very simpler one “fitness for purpose or use” to a comprehensive “the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs”. The concept of total quality management in food industry is adopted recently and it is the “integrated organization approach in delighting customer (both external and internal) by meeting their expectations on a continuous basis through everyone involved with the organization working on continuous improvement in all products/processes along with proper problem solving methodology”. TQM is concerned with the integration of all the efforts in organization towards quality improvement, quality development and quality maintenance to meet full customer satisfaction at economic levels. TQM enhances the work culture and employee’s satisfaction through participation and involvement and consequently the image of the organization.

Introduction

Genetic markers have assisted in genomic characterization of various crops species (Rafalski and Tingey, 1993). Most of the genetic marker systems rely upon DNA sequence polymorphisms (Staub et al., 1996). Each system has unique advantages and disadvantages based on cost, experimental objectives and type of information desired. Regardless of its inherent methodology, the effective use of any marker system for genetic analysis requires reliability and consistency.

The random amplified polymorphic DNA i.e. RAPD (Williams et al., 1990) or arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (Welsh and McClelland, 1990) marker identifies DNA sequence polymorphisms. In this technique, segments of genomic DNA are amplified in a polymerase chain reaction i.e. PCR (Mullis et al., 1986) with random primers followed by agarose gel electrophoresis. This is simple, relatively inexpensive and is amenable to high throughput investigation. RAPD markers are usually dominant and polymorphisms are observed as the presence or the absence of DNA bands of a particular size. RAPDs are common molecular approaches employed in plant breeding, genotypic differentiation, gene linkage analysis, assigning evolutionary and taxonomic affinities and relatedness and DNA fingerprinting analysis (Lin et al., 1996).

Abstract

This chapter explores farm management, a subfield of economics that addresses decision-making on the organization and operation of a farm. The goal is to secure maximum continuous net income while ensuring the welfare of the farm family.

Introduction Hokersar wetland (34°06’ N latitude, 74°05’ E longitude), a Ramsar site and a protected wildlife reserve is located in the northwest Himalayan bio geographic province of Kashmir, back of the snow-draped Pir Panchal. The wetland shelters about two million migratory water-fowl during winter that migrate from Siberia and the Central Asian region. The wetland is fed by two inlet streams Doodhganga (from east) and Sukhnag Nalla (from west). It is the only site in Kashmir with remaining reed beds and serves as a migration route for specifically 68 waterfowl species from Siberia, China, Central Asia,and Northern Europe, including the Large Egret, Great Crested Grebe, Little Cormorant, Common Shelduck, Tufted Duck, and endangered White-eyed Pochard (Ramsar, 2021).

12.1 Introduction

The eggs represent very good basis that can be enriched with useful and beneficial substances and become functional food, since certain beneficial substances which layers consume in their daily diets transfer relatively easily into their products. However, enrichment of poultry meat and eggs can have adverse consequences in regard to their quality. Functional food is interesting also from the economical aspect, because it opens for poultry producers the possibility to introduce new products into their product range. Of course, main assumption is that consumers of enriched products are willing to pay premium price for these products, which is by 15-20% higher than average product price. On a global basis, eggs are one of the most recognized and accepted foods by consumers.

Forests are valuable renewable resources for humanity on Earth. The country’s forest cover has been estimated to comprise 19.39% of its entire geographical area. Forests consist primarily of trees that offer wood that can be transformed into solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels. Forests play a crucial role in regulating the Earth’s temperature by serving as carbon dioxide filters. They provide habitats and shelters for numerous species and also contribute to the visual beauty of the environment. Forests supply the necessary resources for a range of wood related industries, including pulp and paper, composite wood, rayon and other synthetic fibers, sporting goods, furniture, boat
construction, and matches. Timber plays a crucial role in the construction of buildings.Various products, such as bamboos, resins, gums, oils, fibers, medicines, katha, lac, shellac, etc., are derived from forests.
The country’s forest cover has been calculated to be 637,293 square kilometers, accounting for 19.39% of the country’s total geographic area. This falls short of the stipulated requirement, which is 30% of the entire land area. The geographic region is comprised of 11.48% dense forest, 7.76% open forest, and 0.15% mangrove. World Forest Day is observed on March 21st, while National Forest Day is celebrated on September 11th.

Nerium (Nerium oleander), commonly known as oleander or Kaner, is an evergreen flowering shrub cultivated for loose flowers, landscaping and religious uses. Its flowers are widely used for garlands and temple offerings, while the plant is valued in landscaping because of its drought tolerance and adaptability to poor soils. The chapter presents its origin, distribution, genetics, botanical description and important varieties. It explains climate and soil requirements, propagation, planting, nutrient management, irrigation, pruning and other cultural operations. Pest and disease management is also covered. Special attention is given to harvesting fully open flowers, postharvest handling and shelf-life improvement. The chapter also discusses yield and the plant’s toxic nature.

The cultural history of India is associated with religious believes and any emphasis on arguments dealing with plant-man-God relationship appeals to people even today. This attitude prevails throughout India and many places of worship have continued to preserve in situ biodiversity of specific species of plants.

Cohn (1875) first observed and described a branching filamentous micro-organism in the concretions (coagulated mass) taken from a lacrimal canal, latter identified as Actinomyces israelii. Bollinger first reported the yellow granules in jaw tissues of the cattle in 1877 and established the significance of the organisms as an etiological agent. In 1878, Israel described the first human case. In 1879, Hartz observed the microscopic appearance of granules of Actinomyces infection and suggested the name Actinomyces bovis. Mosselman & Lihnaux (1890) and Wolf &Israel (1891) first isolated the bacteria in artificial laboratory media from lumpy jaw cases of cattle and human Actinomycosis, respectively.

Properties of genus

1.         Morphology :  Actinomyces are gram positive filamentous organisms with branching rods. In artificial media, short bacilli or cocci forms are also observed. During infection, they can produce yellow coloured granules (sulphur granule), commonly found in the pus as ‘opaque speck’ and are visible under naked eye (1-2 mm in diameter). The granules are usually soft and easily broken under light pressure, but they may occasionally be tough or even calcified. They are composed of club shaped bodies, arranged radially with their narrow ends towards the centre. So the organisms are also known as ‘ray fungus’. In the centre of the club, filamentous masses of gram positive organisms with some bacilli or cocci form are found. Together the club like processes and bacterial masses are known as ‘rosette’ (Fig.1). This club is composed of calcium phosphate and inflammatory debris
.

ABSTRACT

Pests and diseases cause serious economic losses in yield and quality of many cultivated crops. Detection and assessment of their damage symptoms is very crucial to initiate timely control interventions. The conventional scouting technique adopted for assessment of pest and disease in field crops is very laborious and time consuming. Remote sensing may provide a better means to objectively quantify disease stress than visual methods and it can be used to repeatedly collect sample measurements non-destructively and non-invasively. In this paper we report the changes in the reflectance spectra due to pest and disease incidence in three crops viz., groundnut, castor and rice. Canopy reflectance measurements were made with a hand held multispectral radiometer (MSR 16-R, CropScan Inc) which records incoming radiation and light reflectance with up looking and down looking sensors, respectively in 16 pass bands. Data of percent reflectance at each pass band were processed subsequently using the calibration and correlation constants through a mini computer connected to the sensor. A total of 10 samples were selected for each level of pest/disease. At each sampling, six measurements were recorded and the resulting data were averaged. The reflectance spectra varied for different biotic stresses in the three test crops. Higher absorption in the NIR region between 760-1240 nm was observed for healthy plants compared to the diseased plants in all the three crops tested. The spectral signatures from severely defoliated (by semilooper pest) castor crop showed that the percent reflectance in the visible region between 560-710 nm was higher in the defoliated crop compared to healthy and reverse is true in the NIR region between 810-1100 nm. In case of rice, spectral reflectance in the region between 760-1100 nm could differentiate the healthy and brown plant hopper affected plants. Decrease in reflectance in this region was proportion to the number of hoppers per plant. This could be due to collapse of leaf tissues by hopper damage. The higher reflectance in the visible region (560-710 nm) was observed only when the damage is very severe (hopper burn). Different spectral indices viz., SR (simple ratio), NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index), NPCI (normalized total pigment to chlorophyll index), DWSI (disease water stress index) and WBI (water band index) were compared to distinguish healthy and diseased plants. NDVI was found useful in distinguishing semilooper damaged (defoliated) castor crop from healthy castor. All the indices tested were useful to differentiate the rice plants damaged by sap-sucking pest, BPH at different levels of infestation. Incase of groundnut, the differences in the spectral indices between different disease incidence levels were not significant. Results of the present study demonstrated that by comparing the reflectance spectra generated using ground based high-resolution radiometer, it is possible to distinguish healthy and pest/disease affected crops.

13.1 Introduction

Many changes have occurred in egg production and processing, as well as in the egg itself, over the last 40 years. All of these changes have contributed to the microbial challenges of the egg that we face today. In the past, production traits including egg size, feed conversion and egg output have received the majority of attention in genetic selection of laying hens. Microbial integrity hasn’t been given much attention. Until the 1990s, food safety concerns associated with shell eggs were not considered. Eggs were thought to be pathogen free until they were cracked.

The contribution of dairy sector in the Indian economy has tremendous impact on the country’s GDP. India being the world’s highest milk producing country, dairy industry has a major role in changing the twin problem of the nation that is poverty and unemployment. Dairy sector also involves the under privileged group, especially the dairy farm women. There are many success stories regarding the life changing experiences gained by the farm women, who had taken dairy farming as a means to sustain their livelihood. In the area of gender equality, dairy sector has proved to be a women centric enterprise. Most of the activities pertaining to dairy farming are mostly carried out by the farm women. The dairy farming activities carried out by the farm women are tedious and in major cases their contribution remains unnoticed. They are usually carrying out activities, where most of their energy is drained, resulting in drudgery. Matters related to decision making, their opinion about adopting new technologies, starting an enterprise are not given importance by their family members. This leads to a greater setback in the emergence of success of dairy sector. Therefore, empowerment of farm women in dairy sector is one of the important criteria for the dairy industry to reach a greater height and for overall development of nation.

15.1. Introduction

Meta-analysis is a statistical technique used to combine the results of multiple studies to produce a single, more precise estimate of the effect size of a particular intervention or association. It is a powerful tool in research, particularly in f ields such as medicine, psychology, education, and social sciences, where it is often necessary to synthesize evidence from numerous studies to draw meaningful conclusions. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of meta-analysis, including its history, methodology, advantages, limitations, and applications.

15.2. Historical Background

The concept of meta-analysis dates back to the early 20th century, but it was not until the 1970s that the term was coined by Gene V. Glass. Glass defined meta-analysis as “the statistical analysis of a large collection of analysis results from individual studies for the purpose of integrating the findings” (Glass, 1976). Since then, meta-analysis has evolved significantly, with advancements in statistical methods and software making it more accessible and robust.

15.3. The Need for Meta-Analysis

15.3.1. Accumulation of Evidence

In many fields, particularly in medicine and psychology, a large number of studies are conducted on the same or similar research questions. However, individual studies may have small sample sizes, leading to low statistical power and inconclusive results. Meta-analysis allows researchers to pool data from multiple studies, increasing the overall sample size and statistical power, thereby providing a more reliable estimate of the effect size.

It is represented by about 100 genera and over 2,200 species which are either annual or perennial, Caryophyllaceae are cosmopolitan in distribution, and mainly found in the north temperate or warm temperate regions of the world. Over 20 genera and about 100 species have so far been reported from India. Some of the larger genera, along with their common names and number of species in parenthesis include Silene (catchfly, 500), Dianthus (carnation, 300), Arenaria (sandwort, 250), Gypsophila (baby’s breath, 125), Stellaria (chickweed, 100), Cerastium (mouse-ear chickweed, 100), Drymaria (50), Spergula (40), Saponaria (30), etc.
Carnation, commonly named as ‘Divine flower’, ‘Clove pink’, and ‘Gilly flower’, is one of the most beautiful and commercially important flower crops of the world. It is excellent for cut flowers, bedding, pots, edging and rock gardens due to its exquisite shape, wide range of colours, light weight and good vase life. In Europe and USA, perpetual carnation is cultivated on large scale in greenhouses for production of cut flowers. In terrain parts of France and Holland, carnation flowers are used for perfume extraction and only light coloured flowers are useful for this purpose.
Description of Family
1. General habit: Mostly annual or perennial herbs, rarely suffrutescent shrubs; arctic forms are reduced and possess caespitose habit.
2. Stem: Herbaceous; rarely with a basal woody part; nodes swollen; branching usually dichotomous but sometimes monopodial.

Nyctanthes, commonly known as Harsingar or Parijata, is an important flowering shrub valued for its fragrant white flowers with orange centres. The flowers have long-standing cultural and religious significance and are traditionally collected for worship and other uses. This chapter presents the botanical identity, origin, distribution, genetics and characteristics of Harsingar. It discusses suitable climate and soil conditions, propagation, planting, nutrient management, irrigation and cultural practices. The chapter also covers pests and diseases affecting the crop and provides information on flower harvesting, particularly the importance of morning collection. Postharvest management, yield and traditional and modern uses of Harsingar flowers are included to support commercial and practical understanding

The information under this section is primarily based on Yordanov (1983). It is almost unanimously accepted that heterosis manifestation in tomato is in the form of the greater vigour, faster growth and development, greater earliness, and productivity, higher resistance to disease and adaptability unfavourable environmental conditions. The first step towards a large scale extension of hybrid tomato cultivars in the practice and proper organization of hybrid seed production took place in Bulgaria. After the second world war tomato heterosis breeding developed quickly in the Netherlands, England France, USA, Japan and other countries. In India, tomato hybrid cultivar on commercial scale was introduced in 1973 by Indo American Hybrid Seed Company.

In previous sections we discussed about the validity and estimation of validity. Now the question is whether the reliable and valid measuring instrument is sufficient condition to ensure the reliable and valid results in actual experiments? What if the measuring instruments are perfectly reliable and valid but the experiment is conducted in less controlled conditions? Can we expect accurate predictions under such conditions? The answer is No.