eChapters

Abstract

Carrying out effective and sustainable agriculture has become an important issue in recent years. A key to this is the usage of modern technologies for precision agriculture. Recent technological developments allowed envisioning sensor devices with distributed ambient sensory network, which could be a potential technology for monitoring various natural phenomena (weather parameters, soil moisture, etc.) at micro level. As more and more agricultural data are virtually being harvested along with the crops and are being collected/ stored in databases, the same can be used in productive decision making if appropriate data mining techniques are developed/applied. As a case study for this, an experiment was conducted with four consecutive agricultural (Kharif and Rabi) seasons in a semi-arid region of India to understand the crop-weather-environment-pest/diseases relations using wireless sensory and field-level surveillance data on closely related and interdependent pest/disease dynamics of groundnut crop. Association rule and multivariate regression mining techniques/algorithms were propose developed /tailor-made to turn the data into useful information/ knowledge/relations/trends to know crop-weather- environment-pest/disease continuum. These findings have been used for development of prediction models (cumulative and non-cumulative) followed by a web based pest/disease decision support system.

Keywords : Data Mining, Pest/Disease Management, Precession Protection, Wireless Sensor Networks

Thoracic Vertebrae

Ox: Thoracic vertebrae characterized by well developed neural spines, short bodies with capitular facets and transverse processes with tubercular facets for articulation with the ribs (Fig.4.1).

Entrepreneurial climate depends on the existing economic system. Existing social and political establishment and existing economic policies of Government determine the economic system. Entrepreneurial development is largely due to the existence of this economic system. Business development functioning as a new component, economic structure and economic transformation. The economic system varies from country to country, so the business development process varies.

4.1 Introduction

With the birth of the new millennium and the advent of Information and Communication Technology, the outlook of academia towards research has completely metamorphosed into a more productive and vibrant activity. Digitalization of data, the convergence of new and challenging insights in one’s own research fields at the world-wide-web and technology generation are being made faster and more reliable. With the arrival of Laptops and Smartphones simultaneously with the facility Wi-Fi, the demand for information of any kind has become unquantifiable! The academic world is no exception, indeed! Such a pang of hunger for information led to considerable investments in infrastructure development. The virtual, electronic, automated world became inseparable from academic and research institutions. Small wonder that with these, the pressures on the institutional and specialized and dedicated libraries are on the increase.

Carbohydrates are the most abundant biomolecules on earth. They occur in nature as glucose, starch and cellulose etc. Each year, photosynthesis converts more than 100 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide and water into starch, cellulose and other plant products. Carbohydrates are polyhydroxy aldehydes or ketones and their derivatives. They provide 4K calories of energy per gram. They promote utilization of lipids and reduce wastage of proteins. They are readily available in roots, tubers, cereal grains, sugarcane and sugar beet.

GREEN GRAM (Vigna radiata) & BLACK GRAM (Vigna mungo)
Fungal diseases
1) Seed and seedling rot
Symptoms: The seeds rot before germination and after germination the seedlings also show rotting. The disease can be easily identified by poor germination and poor stand of the crop.
Causal organisms
i) Fusarium sp
ii) Pythium sp
iii) Rhizoctonia solani
iv) Macrophomina phaseoli
 

Introduction

One of the triumphs of modern agriculture is the increase achieved in the productiveness of land, measured by yield of crops per hectare or per acre. This has enabled the earth to support a much greater population than would have been possible in past centuries. The increased productivity of the land is a result of scientific and technological progress in plant breeding, in control of pests and weeds, in irrigation and in fertilizers to supplement natural reserves of plant foods. But this progress makes it more difficult to fulfill one specific requirement of many crops: pollination. Pollination of flowers is an essential step in the sexual reproduction of angiosperms. Most angiosperm species rely on insects or other animals, rather than wind, for transfer of pollen among individual plants. The pollinators in turn benefit by obtaining floral resources such as nectar or pollen. Pollination is not only mutually beneficial to the interacting plants and animals, but also serves humanity directly through the yield of many crops, and indirectly by contributing to the healthy functioning of unmanaged terrestrial ecosystems (Costanza et al.,1997; Nabhan and Buchmann, 1997; Klein et al., 2007; Abrol, 2007 and 2008).

India is the seventh largest country in the world with 17 per cent of the world’s population and with a total geographical area of 329 Mha, extending from 8°4’ to 37°6’ in the North and 68°7’ to 97°25’ in the East. It is bounded by the World’s highest mountains- the Himalayas in the North and surrounded by the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal in the South. The Indian Coastline along the southern part of the Country is over 7500 km long. The Country includes vast plains like the Indo-Gangetic Plains, and the Central Deccan Plateau, bordered by the Western Ghats on either side in the West and the South. The biodiversity in the terrain leads to a wide variety of climatic conditions, ranging from tropical to temperate climates across the Western Ghats. These range from permanent snowfields to tropical coastlands; areas of virtual desert in the northwest to fertile intensively cultivated rice fields in the northeast. A large proportion of India’s population continues to live in rural areas and depends heavily on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, animal agriculture and forestry for its livelihood. Agriculture is the mainstay of Indian economy. The Indian climate is dominated by the great wind system called the Monsoons, on which the Indian agriculture is dependant. The southwest monsoon is critical to the kharif crop (first crop), which accounts for more than 50% of the foodgrains production and 65% of the oilseeds production in the Country. The inter-annual monsoon rainfall variability in India leads to large-scale droughts and floods, resulting in a major effect on Indian foodgrain production (Parthasarathy and Pant, 1985; Parthasarathy et al., 1992; Selvaraju, 2003; Kumar et al., 2004) and on the economy of the Country (Gadgil et al., 1999a; Kumar and Parikh, 2001). Climatic variability and occurrence of extreme events are major concerns for the Indian subcontinent as they are inbuilt features under the projected climate change scenario. All the projections on climate change are based up on the General Circulation Models (GCMs). All the models project increase in temperature over the Country under different GHG emission scenarios. Rainfall variability is felt in different sub-meteorological divisions across the Country. Though the GCMs have been successful in depicting the gross features of the observed large scale climatological features, there is large uncertainty associated with these projections on regional scale, since the GCMs are yet to realistically reproduce the observed features at regional scale, particularly over the monsoon region (Kumar, et al., 2002). Several downscaling approaches are being used to derive the regional features from large scale model simulations. Under the projected climate change scenario, India will be one of the Countries facing the adverse impacts of climate change as agriculture is the mainstay of people of India. Hence, understanding of rainfall and temperature variability across the Country deserves attention in the projected climate change scenario.

The information that drives the process of life is encoded in the genome of the organism. Structurally defined, a genome is an organization of genetic information consisting of nucleic acids (deoxyribonucleic acid or ribonucleic acid). Arrangement of nitrogenous bases in the nucleic acid codes the information for execution of cellular processes. Four types of bases (Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine and Thymine) are present in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) while in RNA Uracil replaces thymine group of any three bases on transcribed RNA represent a codon. With four types of bases, sixty four types of codons can be formed. Genetic information encrypted in these codons is released in the form of arrangement of polypeptides consisting proteins via mRNA intermediate. This universal process of flow of genetic information from DNA to RNA to protein is known as the central dogma of life. The whole set of information coded in 64 codons, out of which 61 codes for one or more amino acids (building block of polypeptides/proteins) and three indicating where to stop is called the book of life or genetic code.

1.    Factors Causing Spoilage of Foods
    
2.    Methods of Preservation
    
3.    Preservation by use of Preservatives
    
4.    Preservation by Irradiation
    
5.    Preservation by Low Temperature
    
6.    Methods of Food Freezing
    
7.    Principles of Preservation by Fermentation
    
8.    Preservation by Dehydration
    
9.    Preservation by Thermal Processing
    
10.    Advantages of Processing
    
11.    Demand for Processed Products
        
References

Carbon assimilation or carbon fixation is the conversion of inorganic carbon (carbon dioxide) to organic compounds by living organisms. The most prominent example is photosynthesis, although chemosynthesis is another form of carbon fixation that can take place in the absence of sunlight. Organisms that grow by fixing carbon are called autotrophs. Autotrophs include photoautotrophs, which synthesize organic compounds using the energy of sunlight, and lithoautotrophs, which synthesize organic compounds using the energy of inorganic oxidation. Heterotrophs are organisms that grow using the carbon fixed by autotrophs. The organic compounds are used by heterotrophs to produce energy and to build body structures. “Fixed carbon”, “reduced carbon”, and “organic carbon” are equivalent terms for various organic compounds.

The H.C.F and L.C.M are very important and many questions are asked in almost all competitive examinations to judge the students ability and also capability to solve the problem. This concept is useful in the chapters of time and distance, time and work, pipes and cisterns, etc. The tricks used to find L.C.M and H.C.F of two or more numbers help in finding out quick solutions and thus reduce time during exams. L.C.M concept is important to solve problems related to racetracks, traffic lights, etc. H.C.F. concept is useful in calculating the largest size of tile/room in particular area, largest tape to measure the land, etc.

Simple interest?

Simple interest can be simply defined as the interest that is paid only on the principal amount. Unlike compound interest, simple interest does not consider “interest on interest” concept and the value is obtained by multiplying the interest rate by the principal amount and the number of days that elapse between payments.

Enzymes are organic catalysts produced by living organisms. They make possible biochemical reactions. Hence they are called biocatalysts. They are mostly a specialized class of proteins. However, there are some non-protein enzymes like ribozymes, which are RNAses. Enzymes speed up reactions at ambient temperatures. This is in contrast to chemical reactions like saponification of lipids which take place when lipids are boiled for a few hours with concentrated alkali. Enzymes, namely, lipases, hydrolyze lipids at body temperatures in minutes. They are superior to chemical catalysts by a factor of 10⁷ to 10¹⁴ . An enzyme may be a simple protein or a complex protein. They are produced by cells and are mostly globular proteins. Each cell contains an estimated 3000 different enzymes.

Key facts
    
•    Dioxins are the most dangerous and ‘super toxic’ chemicals so far known on the earth and three closely related families are collectively known as dioxins. These are Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin or dioxins (PCDDs), Polychlorinated dibenzofurans or furans (PCDFs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
    
•    2, 3, 7, 8-TCDD (or called TCDD) is the most potent of all the congeners. The toxicity equivalency factor or TEF of TCDD has been assigned as 1, while all other congeners assigned in order of toxicity ranking magnitude relative to TCDD.
    
•    There are 75 compounds/congeners in the dioxin family (PCDD), 135 compounds in the furan family (PCDF) and 209 possible compounds in the PCBs based on the possible number of chlorine atoms.
    
•    The toxicity of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds vary substantially among the different PCDDs, PCDFs and PCBs. It is generally accepted that only 29 out of the 419 congeners of dibenzo-p-dioxins, dibenzofurans and polychlorinated biphenyls are toxic to humans and other organisms. The TCDD is most toxic and registered by the WHO as carcinogenic for humans.

Basic Definitions

Percent means ‘hundred’ and the sign % is read as percentage and x % is read as x percent. In other words, a fraction with denominator 100 is called a percent. In other words, “Percent” can be understood as “per 100” or “out of 100”. Percentage in itself is a dimensionless number used to tell how many parts per hundred are being considered. It is often denoted using the percent sign, “%”. The reference point for calculating percentage is taken as 100.

For example, 20% means 20/100 (i.e. 20 parts from 100). This can also be written as 0.2.

3.1. Introduction

Various procedures performed on reptiles often necessitate chemical restraint or general anesthesia. Even routine tasks like physical examination and transportation can pose challenges, particularly with large or uncooperative reptilian patients. For safety reasons, venomous species are typically evaluated under chemical restraint. The respiratory anatomy and physiology of reptiles differ significantly from those of more familiar mammals, influencing their response to commonly used anesthetic agents. Historically, anesthetics recommended for reptiles had notable metabolic effects, but inhalant anesthesia has become more popular in recent times. Nonetheless, in species capable of anaerobic metabolism, induction with these agents may not be feasible (Girling 2013).

Estimates of heritability use statistical analyses to help to identify the causes of differences between individuals. Because heritability is concerned with variance, it is necessarily an account of the differences between individuals in a population. Heritability can be univariate–examining a single trait – or multivariate – examining the genetic and environmental associations between multiple traits at once. This allows a test of the genetic overlap between different phenotypes: for instance hair colour and eye colour. Environment and genetics may also interact, and heritability analyses can test for and examine these interactions (GxE models).

Time, Speed and Distance

This section consists of problems on calculating speed, distance, time, head start and relative speed etc.

4.1 Introduction

The present chapter starts with a brief description about the history of commodity futures market and emergence of commodity futures market in India. There after it highlights various functions of commodity futures market and their impact on farmers and various other stake holders in the supply chain. Finally, it tries to evaluate the utility of futures from the platform of commodity exchanges especially from MCX and NCDEX of India.

A simple definition of a commodity is a physical substance that can be extracted directly from the environment, processed and sold commercially. Natural resource is another term often used to describe commodities which occur naturally in or on the ground. Commodities fall into three main categories such as energy, metals and agriculture. As commodities can be sold, they have a price which is governed by supply and demand. Compared to many manufactured items, for example flat screen TVs, the question of supply and demand is paramount to how commodities are priced. The commodities that have always been a part of our day-to-day existence are also one of the finest investment avenues available. The wheat in our bread, the cotton in our clothes, our gold jewels, the oil that runs our vehicles etc are all traded across the world in major exchanges. Commodities can be traded on either spot markets, or in the form of futures. Spot markets are those in which the commodity is traded immediately in exchange for cash or some other good. In the form of futures (or options), what is traded is not the goods itself, but a contract to buy or sell the commodity for a certain price by a stated date in the future. Over the ages, commodities have been the basis for trade and industry. They have prompted commerce, encouraged exploration and altered the histories of nations. Today, they play a very important role in the world economy with billions of dollars of these commodities traded each day on exchanges across the world. Commodities today have become an attractive investment vehicle. In the current investment scenario, it is increasingly getting difficult for individuals and institutions to create a well-balanced investment portfolio. With uncertainty in interest ratio, it is tough for the investor to beat the ever-rising inflation. Averse to being over exposed to equity markets, the investors are left with limited choices… well no more!