eChapters

Characters

Mouthparts biting type

Wing venation usually well developed with numerous cross veins.

Cerci present

The success of any country’s agricultural sector depends on the strength of its farmer producer companies (FPCs) or farmer producer organizations (FPOs). These organizations, formed by farmers for farmers, are essential for ensuring the fair and sustainable production and distribution of food. However, many FPCs face significant challenges, including lack of access to finance, technology, and markets. To address these challenges, governments and other institutions have implemented various schemes and programs to support FPCs. 

Schultz Method for Cholesterol
Frozen sections; cold calcium-cadmium-formalin fixed sections
Protocol
1) Thoroughly wash the sections in distilled water for 24 hours, changing the water several times.
2) Incubate the sections in 2.5% ferric ammonium sulphate solution at 37oC for 7 hours.
3) Wash the sections three times in fresh acetate buffer, allowing 1 hour for each wash.
4) Rinse briefly in distilled water.
5) Immerse in 5% formalin for 10 minutes.
6) Mount the sections onto slides, blotting the edges to remove excess water. Do not let the sections dry out.
7) Place a drop of a 1:1 mixture of sulphuric and acetic acids on a coverslip. Invert the slide and lower it onto the coverslip. Then turn the slide rightside up and gently press the coverslip to flatten the section. Hold the coverslip by its corners and gently oscillate it a few times to ensure even spreading.

Temperature regulates germination, plant growth, flowering, maturity and many insect and disease processes. Thermal indices integrate temperature over time to quantify biological development more effectively than simple temperature averages. This chapter introduces growing degree days, heat units, photothermal units, heliothermal units and related measures. It explains base, optimum and maximum temperatures and connects accumulated thermal time with crop phenology. These indices help predict development stages, adjust sowing dates, estimate harvest periods, schedule farm operations and assess varietal suitability. Thermal-index analysis is particularly valuable under climate variability because it enables researchers and farmers to anticipate shifts in crop development and improve climate-responsive agricultural management.

Introduction

Food packaging is a critical technology addressing the ever-increasing demands for convenience, freshness, ease, shelf-life, safety and security of food products.
 
The main purpose of food packaging is to protect the food from microbial and chemical contamination, oxygen, water vapor and light. The type of packaging used therefore has an important role in determining the shelf-life of the food. Nanotechnology can be intervened to achieve the purpose of food packaging and it will become one of the most powerful forces for innovation in the food packaging industry.

Introduction

Pearls have been favourite jewel of humanbeing since ancient times. Pearl is a natural gem and is produced by living organisms, the pearl oysters and mussels (Molluscs), unlike other precious stones. It is perhaps, the only gem that does not require the treatment by lapidary. According to our Indian system of gemmology, of the nine maharatnas (Heera, Mukta, Manikya, Pravala/Munga, Gomeda, Indra-neela, Vaidurya, Pushyaraga, and Panna) pearl (Mukta) is only next to diamond (Heera). The science of pearl culture has not been widely popular, however, the art and trade form has reached the zenith.

With the turn of the last century, the demand for pearls increased, but their supplies from the existing fishing grounds have diminished due to overexploitation and pollution. Such a situation necessitated tremendous research attention in the following decades with support from state and trade sectors, the world over. This led to the evolution of culture pearl technology as a booming aquaculture enterprise in Japan and China. These two countries have a monopolistic control over pearl trade.

1.    Damping off
        
2.    Early blight
        
3.    Fusarium wilt
        
4.    Bacterial wilt
        
5.    Mosaic
        
6.    Leaf furl
        
7.    Root knot nematode

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.

Common characters

Modification of mandiblate mouth parts into sucking-piercing or suctorial type.

Absence of anal lobe in hind wing.

Introduction

The various reactions of nitrogen (N₂) cycle, transform one form of the element to another. Mineralization liberates nitrogen in inorganic form, immobilization converts its back to an unavailable state, while nitrification changes the nitrogen from a reduced to oxidized state. Certain transformations of nitrogen lead to a net loss of element from the soil through volatilization. For the purpose of crop production, nitrogen volatilization has a deleterious influence because it depletes part of soils reserve of an essential nutrient. The sequence of steps that results in gaseous loss is called denitrification. So denitrification refers to the reduction of nitrates and nitrites to gaseous nitrogen products, principally di-nitrogen and nitrous oxide, coupled to energy production through oxidative phosphorylation.

Abstract
The rapid increase in global food demand, driven by fast population growth, has made it challenging to provide nutritionally balanced diets. Pulses offer a promising solution to these challenges by delivering significant nutritional and physiological benefits. Pulses such as chickpeas, green gram, peas, horse gram, beans, lentils, black gram, and others are excellent sources of protein (190-260 g kg−1), carbohydrates (600-630 g kg−1), dietary fibers, and bioactive compounds. The phytochemicals found in pulses, including flavonoids, phenolics, tannins, phytates, saponins, oxalates, peptides, and enzyme inhibitors, offer numerous health benefits. Pulses, essential to human diets for centuries, have seen historically low consumption levels due to underappreciation of their nutritional value. Recognizing their significance, the United Nations designated 10 February as World Pulses Day, and declared the year, 2016 as International Year of Pulses emphasizing their role in promoting healthy diets, sustainable food production, and food security. India is the largest producer of pulses in the world accounting for 25% of the global pulse production. The production and productivity of pulses have slightly decreased due to great emphasis to rice and wheat crops. To boost pulse production, India has implemented initiatives like the National Food Security Mission and policies to support farmers, including Minimum Support Prices (MSP) and welfare schemes integrating pulses. These efforts aim to enhance pulse cultivation, ensure food security, and improve farmer incomes, addressing the demand-supply gap and declining per capita availability of pulses.
Keywords: legumes, sustainable, oxalates, inhibitors, phytochemicals

Bielschowsky’s Method for Axis Cylinders and Dendrites
Tissues fix in 10% neutral buffered formalin and process for routine paraffin sections Protocol:
1) Deparaffinise the paraffin sections with two changes (10 minutes each) of xylene.
2) Descending grades of ethanol from absolute to 50% solution (2 minutes each).
3) Hydrate the sections with distilled water 5 minutes.
4) 2% Silver nitrate solution for 48 hours, in the dark.
5) Rinse quickly in double distilled water.
6) Ammoniacal silver solution 10-20 minutes or until sections turn a deep brown.
7) Rinse in distilled water.
8) Reduce in 20% formalin solution for 5 minutes. Sections appear a dark brownish black.
9) Rinse thoroughly in distilled water.
10) Tone in gold chloride solution for 1 hour. Sections will be a reddish violet colour.
11) Rinse thoroughly in distilled water.
12) Sodium thiosulfate solution for 1 minute.
13) Wash in tap water.
14) Dehydrate in ascending grades of 90% to absolute ethanol (one minute each).

Crop performance depends on how closely environmental conditions match genetic requirements. Cardinal temperatures define the minimum, optimum and maximum thresholds within which germination, growth and development occur. This chapter explains these thresholds and presents their relevance to major crops. It also examines rainfall, sunshine, humidity, photoperiod and other agroclimatic requirements determining where and when crops can be cultivated successfully. Knowledge of crop-specific requirements supports agroclimatic zoning, variety selection, sowing-date adjustment and assessment of climate-change impacts. Matching crops and cultivars to suitable environmental conditions reduces weather-related risk, improves resource efficiency and helps realize crop-yield potential under present and changing climatic conditions.

Introduction

Aquaculture has been shown to offer high potential to fill the gap between supply and demand for fish and fish products to mitigate the problems of malnutrition with ever increasing world population. Globally, aquaculture has been growing rapidly in the last decade, approximately at 10-15% per year. The total aquaculture production, which was 26.7 million metric tonnes in 1996 increased to 37.5 million metric tonnes in 2001, in which tropical countries have been particularly contributing well, with the Asian component exceeding 80% (Ayyappan and Jayanthi, 2004).

The country has varied and enormous aquatic resources (coastline: 8041kms, EEZ: 2.02 million sq. km., river & canals: 171334 km., brackish water area: 1.422 million ha., reservoirs: 2.050 million ha., ponds: 2.855 million ha., beels & oxbow lakes: 0.788 million ha) (Gopakumar, 2000). The North-Eastern region of India is endowed with rich diversity of aquatic and biotic resources, which needs judicious and scientific exploitation for diversification of farm practices so as to mitigate the problem of demand and supply of quality food.

Worldwide, agriculture is the foundation of early human civilization. Humans transitioned from hunting and gathering to farming when they settled near rivers. As a consistent source of food, agriculture aided in human evolution. From then on, the economy has been sustained by agriculture. Among other things, illnesses and natural disasters frequently have an impact on agriculture. Such a state required advisory. This explains the existence of the agricultural extension domain. A social innovation, agricultural extension has been copied, altered, and developed over the years.

Introduction

The current science and technology is highly developed and everything is at our fingertips. The drudgery that was involved earlier while doing any kind of activity is so much reduced at present. The use of technology is so important nowadays that it has become unavoidable in all fields. With the tools and techniques, most of the problems can be solved and so technology has become a part of our lives thereby making our lives better. Some of the trending technologies are Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotic process automation, 5G, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Machine Learning (ML), Virtual Reality (VR) etc. With the application of all these technologies, every discipline whether it is infrastructure, medical science, transport, communication, etc. has become stronger than ever. Even the field of agriculture has become so advanced with these technologies. The enhancement of agricultural activities has become so important with the depletion of natural resources, less human labor, and the changing climatic conditions. All over the world agricultural technologies are adopted, disseminated, and practiced to increase production and productivity, improve livelihood and alleviate poverty (Kilima et al., 2013). Similarly, the main reason for the growing demand for ICT in agriculture is for the farmers to get up-to-date knowledge and apply the tools and techniques to improve their livelihood. However, the ultimate aim is to adopt sustainability in agriculture. Through ICT, farmers can get updated information on the market prices, weather forecast, emergence of pest and diseases and their management practices, planting materials, varieties, etc. This knowledge not only gives the farmer an efficient method of farming for more production but also empowers them with modern agricultural ways. The use of ICT in combination with other techniques enables the farmer to save time, use resources efficiently, and produce better quality products.

A large population of endocrine cells secrete the same chemical messengers (bio-active animals and regulatory peptides) as do the neurons and therefore these endocrine dells are referred as “Paraneurons”.
However these messengers are not used as neurotransmitters, rather they are released into blood circulation and interstitial fluid as hormones/chemical mediators to act on the target cells in endocrine or paracrine manner. This subset of endocrine cells forms the “Neuroendocrine system” and its synonyms are the “diffuse neuroendocrine system (DNES)”, “APUD (amine precursor uptake and decarboxylation) cell system” and the “regulatory peptide secreting cell system”. The DNES consists of cell populations scattered throughout the body either to form a coherent tissue in some organs (e.g. anterior pituitary, pancreatic islets, adrenal medulla) or to form a diffuse scatter of single cells or group of 2-3 cells within the stroma of the other organs (e.g. C cells of thyroid, intra-epithelial endocrine cells of the gut, airway and urinogenital system, chief cells of parathyroid, glomus cells of carotid body, melanocytes of skin, some cells of pineal gland and placenta, modified cardiac myocytes, hypothalamic neurons synthesizing oxytocin and vasopressin as well as neurons synthesizing releasing factors controlling the secretion of hormones by the adenohyposis etc.). These cells synthesize and store the hormones in their secretion granules as neurosecretory granules which have characteristic ultrastructural morphology.
The cells of the DNES can be identified by: (i) the ultrastructural morphology of the cells and their secretion granules, (ii) the empirical histochemical staining techniques which stain the neurosecretory granules, (iii) the novel current day, immunohistochemical techniques, or more aptly (iv) a combination of

Canine mammary gland tumours are the most common type of tumour in the intact female dog. Of all species, dog develops neoplasm twice as frequently as humans, with incidence of skin and mammary tumours being the highest. Tumours of mammary gland are the most common tumours of female dog representing approximately 30-50% of all tumours in bitch and it is the second most common tumour in dog after skin neoplasm and most common malignant tumour in dog.

Defination

Mammary gland tumours arise primarily in the female animal from secretary epithelial, myoepithelial, or, less frequently, mesenchymal elements of mammary tissue.

1.    Damping off
        
2.    Fruit rot or Die back
        
3.    Powdery mildew
        
4.    Bacterial leaf spot
        
5.    Cercospora leaf spot
        
6.    Fusarium wilt
        
7.    Viral diseases

Sister Chromatid Exchange and Homologous Recombination

The staining of harlequin chromosomes can reveal recombination between sister chromatids

The holliday model describes a molecular mechanism for the recombination process

More recent models have refined the molecular steps of homologous recombination

Various proteins are necessary to facilitate homologous recombination

Gene conversion may result from DNA gap repair synthesis or DNA mismatch repair