eChapters

Phlox is a perennial and annual flowering plant belongs to family Polemoniaceae. “Phlox” is a Greek word meaning “flame” and was most likely named thusly due to its bright and vivid colours. Phlox originally came from North America and was available in England by the early 1800s. It quickly grew in popularity and today it is still found growing wild in gardens across the world. Among perennials, Phlox paniculata, Phlox divariecata, Phlox glaberrima are earliest species to be cultivated and reached to England and France from Virginia (USA) in the early 18th century. Among annuals, Phlox drummondii is commonly grown in India. Annual phlox is propagated by seeds, whereas, cutting is used as propagating material for perennial species. Phlox is grown in the garden as bedding and border plant for its dramatic, fragrant, showy and long blooming flowers. The colour range includes white, rose, pink, purple, lavender, violet, pale blue, bright red and magenta. Some flowers are bicoloured.

Abstract
Quality management of fish and fishery encompass the several aspects such as ensuring of food safety, preserving of freshness, promotes consumer confidence, minimize the loss and enhance the traceability. While managing the whole food supply chain becomes the most difficult endeavour. Unfortunately, biosensor emerged to fulfil the requirement of quality management in seafood supply chain and these sensors consist of detection, discrimination and avoidance of risk. Novel sensors are being origin due to evolved in every phase of requirement. The sensor has primarily performed to tracking the level of freshness or spoilage of fish product and also detection of contaminant from time of processing of fishery product to point of consumer before they eat. Recently, various biosensor based on principles of nanosensor, graphene based biosensor and evanescent wave optical biosensor arising its role in fish quality management through monitoring,and tracking of significant compound.
Keyword: Fish quality, biosensor, nanosensor, graphene based sensor, freshness, biocompounds

Impromptu speaking, the skill of delivering an unprepared yet coherent and impactful speech, is a hallmark of effective communication and leadership. From workplace meetings to social gatherings, the ability to articulate thoughts spontaneously is invaluable. This chapter explores the essence of impromptu speaking, the challenges it presents, and practical strategies to excel at it.
The Importance of Impromptu Speaking
Impromptu speaking is a fundamental skill in personal, professional, and social settings. It reflects one’s ability to think critically, adapt quickly, and communicate ideas clearly without prior preparation. Mastering this skill builds confidence and enhances credibility, making it an invaluable asset for individuals across diverse fields.
Key Reasons Why Impromptu Speaking is Important
1. Demonstrates Confidence and Leadership Impromptu speaking showcases your ability to handle pressure and remain composed in unexpected situations. This quality is often associated with leadership and inspires trust among peers and audiences.
2. Fosters Quick Thinking and Adaptability Speaking without preparation hones your ability to process information swiftly and form coherent responses. This skill is crucial in dynamic environments, where adaptability is essential.
3. Builds Effective Communication Skills Impromptu speaking encourages clarity, conciseness, and relevance, sharpening overall communication abilities. These traits are beneficial in both formal and informal interactions.

Introduction
Identification of crop varieties is one of the major tasks required in modern agriculture, plant breeding, and seed certification systems. The correctness of identification ensures that the varietal purity is sustained, advocates the rights of plant breeders, and guarantees quality seeds that will perform expectedly under specified agro-climatic conditions to farmers (Yu and Chung, 2021). The growing number of crop varieties due to the intensive breeding programmes all over the world makes it equally important to be able to differentiate between cultivars. Variety identification serves several purposes, such as:
• Seed Quality Assurance: Used to prevent the sale of spurious or mislabeled seeds.
• Intellectual Property Rights (IPR): Legal protection of new plant varieties by acts like the Plant Variety Protection (PVP).
• Biodiversity Conservation: Tracking and documenting existing genetic resources.
• Regulatory Compliance: Aids in Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) testing protocols.
• Traceability in Food Supply Chains: Ensures safety for consumers and compliance with labeling standards.
Thus, crop variety identification forms the basis of integrity in agricultural systems and is the coordination mechanism for protecting innovations in plant breeding with regulatory frameworks both at national and international levels (Jones et al., 2013; Kage et al., 2016; Cockram et al., 2012).

Precipitation is a vital component of the Earth’s water cycle, playing a crucial role in shaping our climate, weather, and ecosystems. It occurs when water vapor in the atmosphere condenses and falls to the ground as rain, snow, sleet, or hail. Precipitation is a key driver of weather patterns, influencing everything from local weather events to global climate trends.
In this chapter, we will explore the various forms of precipitation, including rain, snow, sleet, and hail, and examine the factors that influence their formation and distribution. We will also discuss the importance of precipitation in sustaining life on Earth, from supporting plant growth and agriculture to shaping landscapes and ecosystems. The key topics are:
• Forms of precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, hail)
• Precipitation processes (formation, distribution, intensity)
• Factors influencing precipitation (temperature, humidity, wind patterns)
• Importance of precipitation (ecosystems, agriculture, water resources)
• Precipitation measurement and prediction (methods, challenges, applications)
By understanding precipitation, we can better appreciate the complex interactions between the atmosphere, oceans, and land surfaces that shape our planet’s climate and weather patterns.

Performance metrics and indicators
Traditionally, in the past, TTOs’ performance was measured in monetary terms, such as universities’ revenues derived through commercialization. The methodology, however, is prone to shortcomings, in light of the fact that various TTOs do not receive significant amounts of financial proceeds through their technology transfers. In addition, relying on income does not depict a TTO’s true potential, in light of the fact that it does not account for the total range of outputs of research and commercialization opportunities. Recognizing these limitations, academics have found innovative ways to measure TTO efficiency, such as monetary and non-monetary indicators. Financial indicators typically entail measurable outcomes such as number of signed licenses, income from licenses, royalties collected, equity income, and number of spin-offs or startups created. These are actual gauges of the economic returns from commercialization efforts, and in the majority of instances are used in the context of benchmarking the performance of a TTO in a comparative context, perhaps against peer institutions or industry averages. Non-financial indicators consist of royalty distributions to academics, having an integral role in encouraging academics to participate in commercialisation activity. By incorporating monetary and non-financial metrics, universities might have an enhanced, comprehensive evaluation system for their TTOs. Such evaluation is sure to ensure assessment extends beyond short-run monetary metrics and looks to incorporate several organization, institutional, and research-oriented determinants in driving successful technology transfer.

Data cleaning is one of the most important parts of machine learning. It plays an important role in building a machine learning model. Data quality is a significant aspect to train the ML model. Inaccurate data can have an impact on results. Data quality problems can occur anywhere in information systems. A technique that helps to convert improper data into meaningful data. Machine Learning is datadriven. With the data cleaning techniques, your Machine Learning model will perform better. So, it is important to process data before use. Without quality data, it is unwise to expect a correct output. Data cleaning refers to identifying and correcting errors in the dataset that may negatively impact a predictive model. It is used to refer to all kinds of tasks and activities to detect and repair errors in the data. These problems can be solved by using various data cleaning techniques. The process of fixing or removing incorrect, corrupted, incorrectly formatted, duplicate, or incomplete data within a dataset. When combining multiple data

3.1 Overview of the Global Carbon Market in Pre-Kyoto Protocol Phase

At the First COP in Berlin in 1995, the UNFCCC launched a pilot phase of projects to build experience and “learning by doing”. The pilot phase was termed Activities Implemented Jointly (http://unfccc.int/program/coop/aij/aij_np.html). Under the Activities Implemented Jointly, Annex I Parties could implement projects in other countries that reduced emission of greenhouse gases or enhanced removals of sinks. The number of projects registered under Activities Implemented Jointly has been growing since its launch and as of 2002 (the latest report available) there were 157 projects – 45 percent of which are in developing countries. The total amount of money invested by private sector companies as of 2000 was about $160 million. Because of the expectations that sink projects would be included as a mechanism for achieving targets, several pilot projects were voluntarily implemented involving mostly private sector entities (e.g., electric utility companies, oil companies and environmental non-governmental organisations). Between the beginning of 1996 and the end of 2003, 76 transactions involving carbon sequestration in the LULUCF sector were signed, representing 40 million tCO2-e. Relative to all of the carbon transactions that took place over the same period, sink projects accounted for 21 percent of the total number and 23 percent of the total volume. In volume terms, carbon sequestration projects were the single largest project category, and more than three-quarters of this volume was transacted between 1996 and 1999.

Several definitions of plant breeding have been put forward. All of these have a core component of the definition that is “the art and science of improving the heredity of plants for the benefit of the humankind” as mentioned by famous plant breeding teacher and a popular plant breeding text book author, J. M. Poehlman. N. I. Vavilov has defined plant breeding as “evolution directed by the will of the man”. The most modern definition of plant breeding by Bernardo (2002) is “plant breeding is the science, art, and business of improving plants for human benefit”. A few more definitions on these lines given by several other famous plant breeders are as follows.

Introduction
With advancements in molecular biology, DNA-based technologies have shown great potential in enhancing the efficiency of crop breeding programs, preserving germplasm resources, improving the quality and yield of agricultural products, and protecting the environment. As a result, their role in modern agriculture is becoming increasingly important.
DNA is the main genetic materials of all cellular organisms; preserving DNA itself is one way of preserving germplasm resources (Geptset al.,2006). The advancement of biotechnology and molecular biology has made it possible to regulate or even control plant traits using DNA sequence information, including its structure, function, and mechanisms.DNA technologies based on DNA molecular markers, transgenic technology and gene expression have been widely used in agricultural production which have showed great potential in improving agricultural yields and quality, reducing the loss that various biotic and abiotic stress caused, promoting the utilization of germplasm resource, improving breeding efficiency and strengthening the regulation of plant growth. (Garciaet al.,2005)
These modern DNA technologies, with their high feasibility and necessity, play a crucial role in ensuring the sustainable development of agriculture. Although agriculture encompasses both plant and animal production, DNA technologies in these fields share similar technical purposes and types. Therefore, this study focuses on reviewing the agricultural applications of DNA technologies by exploring their utilization in plant production. Numerous reports have documented the application of various DNA technologies in agricultural production. However, as these technologies continue to evolve and advance, it becomes challenging to cover every DNA technique in detail..DNA technology holds immense promise for the future of crop identification, enabling precise and efficient breeding, accelerating the development of improved varieties, and contributing to sustainable food systems. Here’s a breakdown of the key future prospects:

Seed is the most important component for productive agriculture. Significant advances have been made in production of food crops in India during the last four decades. The quantum jump in the food production primarily accounted for by increased productivity and production in rice and wheat was the result of introduction of improved varieties and their seeds often nicknamed as Green Revolution. The food production which was nearly 50 million tones during 1950 – 51 reached to a level of 210 million tones during 2003 – 04. During the same period the productivity increased about 3 folds (Table 20.1).

Pulses, grown on marginal and poor soils under low input management with very low yields, are the integral part of dryland farming systems and cover 12.8% of the total cropped area in Andhra Pradesh. There are no pulse based cropping systems in the state and they are only component crops of cereals or commercial based cropping systems as intercrops or catch crops in between two main crops or as sequence crops after exhaustive cereal or commercial crops raised on residual fertility and receding soil moisture. The important pulse crops grown are Chickpea, Pigeonpea (Redgram), Mung bean (Greengram) and Urd bean (Blackgram) which contribute to 97.7% of total pulse production in the state. Pigeonpea is mostly grown as intercrop under rainfed conditions with crops like sorghum, maize, castor, cotton etc. It is also grown as sole crop and at times, pigeonpea is intercropped with greengram/ blackgram.

As a developing country, India does not have any emission reduction target, but it is able to sell CERs pursuant to the CDM, to large emitters covered by the EU ETS, countries that have emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol, or any other entity that wishes to purchase such CERs for compliance purposes. It can also supply ERs and VERs for the growing voluntary markets.

4.1 Status and Trends

India’s participation in the carbon markets has contributed to the recognition that it is a useful tool in attracting climate friendly investments. India was an early player in the market, and it used the hosting of the Eighth Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC in Delhi in October 2002 to sensitize the business community about the opportunity provided by carbon finance and the modalities of the emerging CDM. In 2004, the growth in the Indian carbon market was fostered by a healthy number of indigenous management and technical consultants, which began to offer services to potential sellers of emission reductions, and the response from primarily the private sector to capacity building initiatives concerning the nascent market. In its capacity as the Designated National Authority (DNA) for the CDM, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) also had the foresight to develop simple and transparent rules, whereby project developers can obtain a Letter of Approval (LOA) theoretically within sixty days, which is a key step required for project registration. By the end of 2004, India was the market leader in the forward sale of emission reductions, with 50 % of the supply market. Early successes included the registration of two projects which consisted of the thermal oxidation of HFC-23 generated as a buy-product during the manufacturing of the refrigerant HCFC-22, but also a number of small scale co-generation projects using bagasse, rice husk and mustard crop residues as a source of biomass, and small scale hydropower projects.

1. Introduction

Microbial diversity is becoming increasingly essential with the requirement to preserve the integrity, function and long-term sustainability of natural and managed ecosystems. However, our knowledge of the diversity of microbes remains obscure due to lack of appropriate approaches to evaluate the contribution of different components of the soil microbes to ecosystem. This lack of approaches together with the complex and heterogeneous matrix that soil microbes are embedded in, poses great challenges to understand the dynamics of microbial communities in soils (Nautiyal et al. 2010; Chauhan et al. 2013).

In classical terms, diversity is described as the total number of species present, i.e. species richness or species abundance, and the distribution of individuals among those species i.e. species evenness or species equitability. However, the incorporation of these two components into diversity indices has led to much controversy among ecologists (Atlas 1984). The Shannon-Weaver index (Shannon and Weaver 1949) is probably the most widely used index for measuring diversity of a microbial community. But this index, as many others that have been proposed, has its own limitations. A major difficulty is that both richness and evenness play a role in determining the value of the index. Therefore, any diversity index is a single value and thus cannot indicate the total make-up of a community. It is recommended that evenness, richness and diversity values should be calculated in order to obtain an objective assessment of community structure (Atlas 1984). From molecular point of view, diversity often refers to the number of different sequence type present in a habitat e.g. a soil (Ogram 2000). Measuring this type of diversity does not give information about the frequency of individual species, but it can give valuable information about changes in the community structure and species richness in response to changes in the physico-chemical properties of the soil and soil management practices (Nautiyal et al. 2010).

Introduction

Biological, physical, chemical and other hazards associated with food have been detailed in Chapter 4. This chapter would address the risks associated with these hazards as well the scientific approach is assessing them. Risk analysis is an inevitable platform for food safety assurance which measures the impact of hazards on the health of consumers. To improve public health and maintain consumer trust in the food supply and to provide a sound regulatory foundation for national and international trade in food, an efficient food safety management system is essential. Therefore, World Trade Organization (WTO) developed food regulations governing international trade in foods based on science and risk assessment. A sound knowledge of food hazards and risks they pose to consumers, along with the capacity to take appropriate interventions, deserve top priority of a responsible authority and industry.

Risk

The word ‘risk’ is used to describe a situation that involves a possibility of something undesired to happen (Rowe, 1977). In food processing, hazards are considered as risks. Hazards are often thought of as synonyms of risks, however, hazards are quite different from risks.

A food borne hazard is defined by Codex as “a biological, chemical or physical agent in or condition of food, with the potential to cause an adverse health effect”. A risk is the chance, low or high, that any hazard will actually cause harm. Some of the emerging food hazards that must be assessed and managed are listed in table 1. Assessment and management of risks posed by these hazards is the responsibility to be urgently addressed by the scientific community.

Under natural conditions, the largest source of labile carbon (C) inputs to the soil is root exudates (Bertin et al., 2003; Hutsch et al., 2002; Kuzyakov 2002). Roots exude a variety of low-molecular weight organic compounds, including sugars, amino acids, organic acids (Bertin et al., 2003), but also contain hormones, vitamins, amino compounds, phenolics and sugar phosphate esters (Uren, 2001). These compounds are rapidly metabolized; for example, Hutsch et al., (2002) found that 64–86% of maize root exudates were respired by soil microorganisms. The effect of root exudates depends on the distance that they can diffuse away from rhizoplane (Gupta and Mukerji, 2002).

In 1882, Robert Koch first isolated the organism, stained with alkaline methylene blue and vesuvin as counter stain and proved its etiologic relationship with Tuberculosis.  Ehrlich first developed acid fast stain in 1882 and used for better staining of the bacteria which was adopted by Robert Koch. Later this staining technique was modified by Ziehl-Neelsen, accordingly it is now a day known as Z-N staining. In 1890, Koch prepared a glycerine broth extract of the tubercle bacillus, known as ‘tuberculin’.

      He tried to prepare it as a curative agent; however, it was used later in diagnosis. In 1895, Johne and Frothingham described the first case of paratuberculosis in cattle, later known as ‘Johne’s disease’. Although, the causative agent was first isolated by Twort and Ingram in 1910.

            In India, bovine Tuberculosis was reported from several states since 1959 (Dhanda and Lal, 1959). Whereas bovine paratuberculosis was first reported by Nanda and Singh (1940) in Hissar, Haryana.

INTRODUCTION

Loquat (Eriobotrya Japonica Lindl.) is an evergreen fruit tree and grown extensively in subtropical regions of world which belongs to family Rosaceae. It is also known as Japanese Plum or Japanese Medlar. The word Eriobotrya has been derived from two greek words i.e ‘erion’ and ‘botrys’ meaning wool and cluster respectively which stands for wooly inflorescence The plant is often planted in parks and gardens due to its ornamental appearance. The fruit of loquat is available in the months of March - April when very few fresh fruits are available and fetches maximum returns.

Introduction
 
The relationship between insects and animals is complex. Insects are injurious to animals in myriad ways, whereas a few are beneficial. Some carry deadly disease germs and transfer them mechanically; others serve as necessary hosts of disease germs. Insects injure livestock by several ways like biting, crawling and scratching. Some burrow in the tissues, which become inflamed or are actually destroyed. Many insects are more or less specific to a host while others attack all kinds. Cattle tick, for example, attacks cattle, horses, mules, and sometimes sheep, but it is only to bovines that it transmits cattle tick fever. It is almost impossible to group insects in a list having the same characteristics, habits and methods of injuring livestock. The losses are found due to infection or infestation of ectoparasites on animals. The ectoparasites sucks blood which causes development of anaemia.They irritate the skin of the animals creating itching resultantly loss of hairs/ wools occur. Irritation may also leads to restless that adversely affect the appetite and water intake. Some ticks are responsible to transmit dreadful disease like Red water, Theileriosis, Anaplasmosis etc. Fleas act as intermediate host for some worms eg. Diphylidium caninum.They causes skin diseases like mange, Flea bite dermatitis, and cutaneous myiasis. Loss of body weight in all animals, drop in milk production in milch animals, decrease in meat production, retarded growth of young animals can transmit bacterial, viral, protozoal and rickettsial diseases. They decrease immune response to diseases. They causes annoyance and wry to the animals. The insect bites and blood sucking flies causes direct injury to the animals.

Introduction The fish is an important source of protein as it constitute about 17 of the total animal protein (SOFIA, 2018) and the rising demand for fish has led to unsustainable exploitation of marine and inland water resources and fishstocks are getting overexploited, due to which the output from capture fisheries is uncertain. This has put difficulty for the management of our open water resources. It is now urgent to develop a management strategy for conservation of natural resources for future generation as our responsibility. Hilborn and Walters (1992) define stocks are arbitrary groups of fish large enough to be essentially self-reproducing, with members of each group having similar life history characteristics. Stock is defined as "a part of a fish population usually with a particular migration pattern, specific spawning grounds, and subject to a distinct fishery" by the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas. Understanding the importance of delineating the stocks and their boundaries which have become an essential part of fishery management and conservation.