eChapters

• Introduction
• Features of Genetic Algorithm 
• Steps in Executing the Genetic Algorithm
• Applications of Genetic Algorithm
• Artificial Ant Problem

Reproductive process involves many events that have to occur in a well balanced manner if satisfactory fertility rate is to be achieved. Any adverse  effect of  physiological, morphological  or environmental effect on the male  or  female may result  in failure  of  fertility  or reduced fertility  depending  on the severity of the cause. Apart from this, the role of person who stands between the cow and the bull play an important role. The efficiency of the person handling the semen and depositing in the reproductive tract of domestic animal will influence to a great extent on the conception rate in A.I. programme. It is observed that certain bovine population fails to conceive at a single service or series of services.   Some times there is loss of conceptus during gestation or produces a dead calf or weak calf that will die soon after birth.
 
Consequences of these factors affect cows and may have long calving interval, abortion or sterility, all of which tend to decrease the average daily production of milk.

Introduction

There is a growing interest in the role of different types of land use systems in stabilizing the atmospheric CO₂ concentration and reducing the CO₂ emissions or on increasing the carbon sink of forestry and agroforestry systems. Forestry has been recognized as a means to reduce CO₂ emissions as well as enhancing carbon sinks. There is considerable interest to increase the carbon storage capacity of terrestrial vegetation through land-use practices such as afforestation, reforestation, and natural regeneration of forests, silvicultural systems and agroforestry (Brown 1996; Canadell and Raupach 2008). Agroforestry systems are very important given the area currently under agriculture, the number of people who depend on land for their livelihoods, and the need for integrating food production with environmental services (Garrity 2004; Makundi and Sathaye 2004).

Conservation agriculture (CA) refers to a set of agricultural practices involving three basic principles of proven scientific soundness. These include continuous minimum mechanical soil disturbance; permanent organic soil cover with crop residues or cover crops; and diversified, efficient, economically viable, appropriate spatial and temporal crop sequences providing opportunities for saving on inputs (labor, fuel, machinery etc.), improving resource use efficiency (water, nutrient, energy etc.) and mitigating GHGs emission with climate change adaptation. Recently research efforts have been made to refine the crop management technologies which are more resource efficient, improve production and income, and reduce GHGs emission compared to the conventional practices. Resource conserving technologies (RCTs) are increasingly being adopted by farmers in the rice-wheat belt of the Indo-Gangetic Plains because of advantages of saving on labor, water, fuel and cost along with timeliness in operations particularly early planting of wheat.

1. The plaster-bandage wrap cast :(Negative cast)

The amputee was restrained on lateral recumbency keeping the amputed leg upwards.

A thin, moistened stockinet was pulled over the stump and it was maintained snugly in place by tying with a string at the top.

The moistened cast stockinet was marked with indeliable pencil indicating prominences with a cross and other sensitive areas with a circle (Fig.1).

Plaster bandages were then wrapped as pen requirement unit I the shell has a thickness of approximately 3mm in proximal third.

After plaster hardened, it was removed either by pulling out or longitudinal splitting with a cutter (Fig.2).

SEX IS VERY COSTLY

Large amounts of energy required to find a mate and do the mating: specialized structures and behavior required

Intimate contact provides route for infection by parasites (AIDS, syphillis, etc.)

Genetic costs: in sex you pass on only half your genes to your children

Males are an expensive luxury- in most species they contribute little to rearing offspring

But There are Some Advantages

More genetic diversity: more potential for survival of species when environmental conditions change

Shuffling of genes in meiosis (random separation of homologous chromosomes)

Crossing-over in meiosis (see below)

Fertilization (genes from 2 individuals brought together)

Cell Genotypes

A large variety of bacterial strains, like E. coli, are frequently used in molecular biological experiments. Students should choose the strain or strains required for an experiment on the basis of genetic properties of the strains. It is thus pertinent that a sound knowledge of the genetic makeup of the E. coli stains is acquired.

The genetic makeup of the strains of E.coli is distinctly different from the wild type (K12 or B strains) strains from which they are derived and contains genes that can be modified. Genes are supposed to be mutated when they are not listed in a genotype. In most cases, the genes listed are mutated to the point of inactivity. In a few cases, a “-” (indicating inactive or absent or deleted), “+” (indicating active). , The genotype is a factor in choosing a bacterial strain. Chosen strains should be ascertained for their utility for the specific experiment.

Small Scale Cultures

Fresh culture from a freshly streaked plate should be taken while experimenting with E. coli cells. For preparing a small scale culture of E. coli , prepare 3-5 ml of LB medium/broth (or appropriate broth include antibiotic if the culture contains a plasmid) in two sterile 50 ml tubes. Inoculate one tube with a single colony from a fresh plate. The second tube is used as a broth control. Incubate both tubes at 37°C, shaking vigorously overnight. Inspect the tubes the next morning. The broth control should be clear and the inoculated culture should be very turbid. Make a note of any debris found in the tubes and only incubate longer if the culture is not dense. Never allow cells to overgrow. For some applications, cells can be stored at 4°C for short periods prior to use.

9.1 Introduction

Depleting natural resources, regulations on synthetic material, growing environmental awareness and economic considerations today happens to be major driving force for utilization of wastes from the agricultural crops and their residues throughout world [1]. These challenges have led to the introduction of sustainable waste management practices via optimization of processing technologies for minimization and creative conversion of the plant and the processing industries biowastes the world over [2,3,4,5]. Although world prices for sugar and petroleum products have shown spectacular variations during the last few decades, the long term outlook is very likely to be a continuous increase in the price of all fossil fuels and stagnation, at best, for the price of sugar [6]. This gloomy prospect led to the renewed interest in the wastes of the sugarcane industry during the last 50 years and has proved that the optimal use of wastes can provide not only a non-negligible support to the sugarcane industry but will also be able to redress the difficult situation sugar is presently experiencing [7]. Reliable statistics are not available to show the detailed end uses of these wastes on a world basis, but from a very rough picture of their trade, we can say that the wastes from the sugar and jaggery industry serve to be amongst the richest bioresource in this era of recycling of biowastes for renewable wealth generation [8].

1. INTRODUCTION

Sudan lays close to the east-centre of Africa between Latitudes 4° and 2° and longitude 22° and 28° east. It is the largest country in African continent (8.3 per cent) and Arab world and the ninth largest in the world (1.75) covering 2.59 million square kilometers of twenty six states (El Mustafa, 2005). It shares borders with Egypt, Libya, Chad, Central Africa, Zaire, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia. It is a criterion for absolute continent in terms of the extent and variety of vast agricultural lands, vast agricultural and pastoral country with rich cultural diversity. It homes about forty million people, seventy five per cent of which inhabit rural areas, speaking over a hundred and thirty indigenous languages and dialects. The country is a gentle sloping land with the exception of Jebel Marra Massif, Red Sea hills, Ingessena hills and the Nuba Mountains (Ahmed et al., 2004).

The Nile and its tributaries traverse it for about 900 km. The rainfall ranges from less than 50 mm in the northern desert to more than 1500 mm in the tropical rain forest in the south.

In general, the soils include aridsols (sand dunes and sandy soils), aridisols and vertisols (clay pockets in the valleys) in the North, vertisols in the central and southern clay plains and oxisols in the south. Variations in rainfall, vegetation and soils resulted in the formation of seven main ecological zones classified as follows: desert (0-75 mm, 28.1 per cent,), semi-desert (75-300 mm, 19 per cent), low rainfall savanna on sand (300-400 mm, 26.6 per cent), low rainfall savanna on clay (400-800 mm, 13.3 per cent), high rainfall savanna (800-1300 mm, 9.5 per cent), Montana vegetation region (800-1000 mm, 0.3 per cent) and flood region (800-1000 mm, 3.2 per cent) which embedded in twenty six states.

Proto – first; Zoon – animal

Protozoa are single celled eukaryotic organisms, which lack cell wall and ability to move at some stage of their life cycle.

They are referred as the first animals.

There are about 65000 described species grouped into 7 phyla. Among them, 50 per cent are not available as living forms (as fossils) and out of remaining 50%, 22,000 species are free-living and 10,000 species are parasitic forms.

The protozoa are distinguished from other organisms by following characters

1.1 Introduction

Water is the basis of all forms of life. It supports life system not only to the plants but also to all other animals. The embryo from the conception till birth floats in the liquid medium. Cell, the basic unit of life, contains as high as 95- 98% water. Cellular metabolism is controlled by content of water. Majority of this water requirement of the crops is met from different forms of precipitation. However, when the water requirement is not fully met from precipitation, then growth of the crops is affected. This results in reduction of yield of the crops. The reduction in yield depends on the amount of scarcity of water requirement of the crops. Water requirement of crops depend on many factors. It depends on the type of crops, irrigation schedules practiced, soil texture, position of groundwater table below the effective root zone of the crop and management practice followed in crop cultivation. The pulses, oilseeds, vegetables which are also otherwise termed as dry land crops need less water compared to rice which is a water loving crops and perennial crops like sugarcane and banana.

Water requirement of crops is partly met by the upward flux of groundwater. The capillary rise of shallow water table in the form of upward flux helps in meeting the water requirement of crops to some extent. The upward flux depends on the type of the soil, effective root zone depth of the crop, depth of water table below effective root zone depth of the crop and potential gradient of soil moisture suction. The residual soil moisture helps in supporting water requirement of crops also. The heavy soil like clay has more moisture retention capacity than the light soils like sandy soil. The residual soil moisture held in clay soil is released slowly and supports soil moisture to the crops for a longer period than the sandy soil which has less soil moisture retention capacity. After meeting the water requirement of crops from all sources including different forms of precipitation, ground water contribution by capillary rise and residual soil moisture, if there is any shortage of water, then this shortage should be met from other sources which is called as irrigation.

14.1 Introduction

Proteins are the substances formed from nitrogen containing amino acids and are principle structural components of body tissues and muscle. In addition, they are used to produce various hormones, enzymes and hemoglobin in human body. Due to the shift from agricultural to electronics and other fast paying industrial development, most of the countries around the world, ceased to be self-sufficient in their food production in particular protein, which is necessary to satisfy their optimum food demands. The biotechnology development and its usage to agriculture have brought hope to them. The need for food by modernization of agriculture has gained much attention throughout the world. However, the necessity for exploring unconventional and non-agricultural means of food production, especially of proteins rich food, cannot be over-emphasized due to the tremendous growth of human populations in several regions of the world. In addition to this, the importance of protein in food nutrient cannot be put aside because its shortage causes various malnutrition problems and the most lethal malnutrition problem is Protein-Energy-Malnutrition (PEM). The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that nearly 870 million people of the 7.1 billion people in the world, or one in eight, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2010-2012. There are 925 million people undernourished in developed countries (FAO October, 2010). This situation has created a demand for the formulation of innovative and alternative proteinaceous food sources having high nutritional value. These sources have to be non-competitive with food for human consumption, economically feasible and locally available. This demands a search for new protein sources, with high nutritional value, economically feasible and locally available. Use of microbes as a food source is one of the biotechnological innovations that will certainly increase the availability of affordable protein in the world to solve the global food and feed problems.

In recent decades there has been an increased interest in the industrial production of microbiological protein for use in both human and animal nutrition. The main reason behind it is that there has been the shortage of low cost protein sources in view of the increasing human population and living standards, resulting in famine in some parts of the world and increased demand for animal protein in others.

Before applying fungicides in field at large areas, it is required to be thoroughly investigated under laboratory conditions for its efficacy on pathogen, subjected. Basic methods of testing these chemicals against subjected pathogen, under laboratory conditions are described here.

1. Poisoned Food Technique

Principle

The principle involved in this technique is to poison the medium with fungicides and then allow a teat fungus to grow on such medium. The test may be conducted both on solid and liquid medium.

ABSTRACT

Magnolia campbelii Hook.f. & Thomson is a deciduous tree species belonging to Magnoliaceae and is highly valued for its ornamental uses. The species is threatened by habitat degradation as well as its utility as timber. It is distributed in the eastern Himalaya, southern Myanmar, and Yunnan province of China. However, its exact distribution in the eastern Himalaya is unknown owing to rough terrain and remote location of the Himalayas. We modelled the environmental niche and delineated the potential habitats and distribution areas of the species in this study using ENVIREM dataset and Maxent software. Thermicity Index and Topographic Wetness were the critical environmental variables determining the species distribution in the eastern Himalaya as revealed by Jackknife analysis. Geographical projection of the modelled environmental niche indicates that most suitable areas for its distribution are the western part of Arunachal Pradesh, few pockets in Sikkim, and the central part of Bhutan. The results of the study have implications for in situ conservation of the species as well as identifying suitable areas for reintroduction.

Abstract: Lotus, aquatic economic flower, associated with religion, art, and culture, is native to India. Most cultivars are diploid, seed and vegetatively propagated. Lotus is cross pollinated and progeny can segregate widely for traits due to heterozygosity. Low seed set often pose significant challenge to breeders. Breeding efficiency remains unknown. Flower breeders have created new colours with interspecific hybridization including yellow, pink, white and rose colour changing to creamy yellow. Traits of interest for crop transformation include environmental adaptation to stressful condition, low seed tannin, and flowering (colour, size, timing, etc.). Genetics of characters is unknown. Future breeding and genetic studies are needed for further transformation of this crop.

ABSTRACT

Recognizing the need to apply plant tissue culture tools for generating planting materials of important spice crops especially vanilla, the Spices Board started Biotech Production Unit at its head quarters building at Kochi with an annual production potential of 8 lakhs plantlets. Complete tissue culture protocols were developed and scaled up for large scale production of vanilla and other spices viz. large cardamom, small cardamom and tree spices. The laboratory is equipped with all modern facilities and is established in an area of about 2000 sft. Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India also participated in the venture by sanctioning a project entitled “Regional centre for large scale production of tissue culture plantlets of vanilla and other spices” with a financial out lay of Rs 95 lakhs equally shared by DBT, New Delhi and Spices Board, Cochin.

At present there is a stock of over 3.00 lakh vanilla cultures in the lab and already 1.25 lakh plant lets were sent for hardening. The Spices Board, in coll aboration with “Kudumbashree”, a poverty eradication mission of Govt. of Kerala, extend short term training in tissue culture techniques to undergraduates from ‘Below Poverty Line’ (BPL) families and engage them as long term trainees in the Biotech Production Unit. The Board also coordinates and extends support to Kudumbashree members for, establishing and maintaining hardening facilities for TC plantlets thus providing means for empowering women from BPL families.

Introduction

Spatial variation structure of soil properties is a key input for digital soil mapping and generally determined through geostatistical techniques (Webster and Oliver 2007). In geostatistics, spatial variation is expressed by semivariogram ?(h) , which measures the average dissimilarity between data separated by a vector h. It is generally computed as half of the average squared difference between the components of data pairs:

Root Rot or Charcoal Rot

Rhizoctonia bataticola

(Pycnidial stage: Macrophomina phaseolina)

Economic Importance

• Charcoal rot is of great economic importance in the World and has been found to reduce head weight and diameter, stem height and weight and in particular, the stem girth and root weight of sunflower plants.
• The first report of the occurrence of charcoal rot on sunflower was from Sri Lanka by Small (1927).
• Under favourable condition, losses can reach 60-90%.
• Infected plants generally die before seed set is finished.