eChapters

Introduction

Breeders expect a new variety to show high performance for yield and its contributing characters along with other physiological and nutritional traits. A variety is said to be superior not only for its higher economic yield, but also for its consistent performance over a wide range of environmental conditions. But the performance of a particular variety is the resultant of its genetic constitution and the environment in which it has been grown. Particular variety may not exhibit same phenotypic performance under different environments, or different varieties may perform differently to a specific environment.

The basic cause of differences in the stability of different genotypes is the interaction effect of genotype and environment, known as genotype × environment (G × E) interaction (GEI). The term environment refers to the uncontrolled external conditions that affect expression of genes of an individual genotype such as the annual rainfall, dry spells, soil fertility gradients, waterlogging, depth and texture of soil, and photoperiod and incidence of disease or pests. However, prediction of GEI is seldom possible with available and known factors. Therefore, the environmental factors can be categorized as predictable and unpredictable environmental factors (Table 1).

Introduction
Understanding the concepts of technology transfer, licensing, and commercialization is crucial as it plays an important role in understanding how scientific discoveries leads to generation of new technologies further making them the impactful solutions that benefit industries and society. In the context of Indian HEIs, this especially important because a large volume of impactful research often remains underutilized due to limited commercialization channels. This chapter explains the terminology, essential components of technology transfer, outlines its significance for the innovation ecosystem. It also outlines the evolution of India’s technology transfer ecosystem, and emphasizes while understanding its potential to boost India’s economy, encourage entrepreneurship, and strengthen global competitiveness. From initial idea to a market-ready product is complex and multiphased process. The stepwise process is shown in Figure 1. It highlights a structured pathway consisting of five core phases: Idea/Concept, Technology development, Intellectual Property (IP) rights, Technology transfer, and Technology commercialisation.
Phase 1: Idea/Concept stage
This process of technology transfer starts with the Idea/Concept phase, where an invention is created. Each phase plays an important role in transforming raw scientific knowledge into innovative solutions that benefit society and generate economic value. In this phase breakthrough ideas emerge, within labs. Researchers explore and develop initial proof-of-concept or prototypes to validate their ideas. At this stage, the focus is primarily on knowledge creation rather than commercialization. This pathway of technology transition is summarized in Figure 1.

18.1 Introduction

Nano – Science & Technology is design, fabrication and application of nanostructures or nanomaterials, and the fundamental understanding of the relationships between physical properties or phenomena and material dimensions at nano meter scales.

2.1 Introduction

The word Nanotechnology has originated from a Greek word which means “dwarf” and nanometer is one billionth of a meter (1 nm = 10^-9 meter). The nano-scale is not just another step toward miniaturization but a qualitatively new scale. The new behiviour of matter at nano-scale is dominated by quantum mechanics, material confinement, large interfacial volume fraction and other unique properties, phenomenon and processes. At nano-scale, physics, chemistry and biology converge towards the same principles and tools. Nanotechnology cannot be considered as a discipline in science or technology but it is domain in science and technology. Nanotechnology is a multidisciplinary area, any scientist, engineer, medical doctor can do research on nanotechnology. Presently, it is more of a science and less of a technology because of a lack of proper tools for studying the properties of nano-material. There is an immediate need to convert this science into technology and get out of this transition stage.

Introduction

Genetic variability is essential for the evolutionary success of all organisms. In diploid eukaryotic the processes of crossing over exchange of genetic material between homologous chromosomes and meiosis contributes to his variability. In haploid, asexually reproducing prokaryotic organisms, genetic recombination may occur by conjugation transduction, and transformation. In this experiment only the process of conjugation is considered.

Conjugation is a matting process during which a one direction transfer of genetic material occurs at physical contact between two sexually differentiated cell types. This differentiation or existence of different mating strains in some bacteria, is determined by the presence of a fertility factor of F factor, within the cell. Cells that lack the F factor are recipients (females) of the genetic material during conjugation and are designated as F^- . cells possessing the F factor have ability to act as genetic donors (males)during the mating. If this F factor is extra chromosomal (a Plasmid or episome), the cells are designated as F⁺; most commonly only the F factor is transferred during conjugation. If this factor becomes incorporated into the bacterial chromosome there is a transfer of chromosomal genes, although generally not involving the entire chromosome or the F factor. The resulting cells are designated as Hfr, for high frequency recombinants.

9.1 Introduction

According to FAO guideline, “Conservation Agriculture (CA) is an approach to managing agricultural ecosystems for enhanced and sustained productivity, improved returns, and food security while preserving and enhancing the resource base and the environment.”

The terms “conservation agriculture” (CA) and “resource-conserving technologies” (RCTs) are not synonyms, but sometimes both words are used for a similar meaning. Therefore, the practices which improve resource or input-use efficiency are termed as RCTs. RCT is a wider term than CA which is used for nitrogen-efficient varieties; fuel-, money-, and time-efficient techniques; and improvement in plot-level water productivity including CA.

Complementary DNA (cDNA) is a double stranded DNA which is an exact copy of the mRNA, i.e. it consists of group of molecules possessing the information contained in various mRNAs but with termini equivalent to or related to those produced by restriction endonucleases. The use of cDNA is an absolute prerequisite for the expression of eukaryotic proteins in bacteria.

Exchange of genetic material rarely occurs between unreleated organisms and even similar species may not exchange chromosomal genes. A certain degree of DNA sequence homology is a prerequisite for genetic recombination in vivo. However, recombination between DNA molecules in vitro is not subject to such taxonomic restrictions.

1. Introduction
 Laboratories form the backbone of research, clinical diagnostics and industrial quality control. Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) serve as the foundation for ensuring the quality, integrity, and reliability of scientific research, particularly in different pharmaceuticals drug testing, environmental studies and chemical testing. Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) in animal husbandry and dairy research play a crucial role in ensuring the accuracy and reproducibility of scientific studies related to livestock management, dairy production animal health and promoting animal welfare. Originally developed to prevent fraud and ensure regulatory compliance, GLP has evolved in response to advancements in technology, increased regulatory demands and the growing human and animals need for sustainability in laboratory operations. Laboratory settings are inherently fluid, with regulatory frameworks and technological progress constantly reshaping the environment. Studies indicate that even minor lapses in quality control can trigger significant inconsistencies in test results, outcomes that can have serious repercussions in both clinical and research domains. Therefore, cultivating a philosophy of ongoing improvement is crucial for addressing these evolving challenges, meeting the rising demand for safe, superior dairy products and embracing innovation. This article, synthesize the latest research findings and guidelines, delve into trusted best practices and outline practical strategies for embedding continuous improvement into everyday laboratory operations. A study published in the Journal of Laboratory Quality demonstrated that the adoption of structured quality indicators significantly minimized error rates and bolstered patient safety in clinical laboratories. Their research also provided a comparative analysis of different continuous improvement strategies, including the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle and Lean Six Sigma, highlighting their respective benefits in lab environments. Based on these insights, the authors advocate for a comprehensive quality management system that seamlessly integrates automation, comprehensive staff training and routine audits to enhance process efficiency. Ultimately, the findings underscore that continuous improvement is an enduring journey, one that evolves along with advances in science, technology and regulatory standards.

Search for genetic material—nucleic acid or protein/DNA or RNA?

• Griffith’s Transformation Experiment
• Avery’s Transformation Experiment
• Hershey-Chase Bacteriophage Experiment
• Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) Experiment

Timeline of Events

• 1890 Weismann - substance in the cell nuclei controls development.
• 1900 Chromosomes shown to contain hereditary information, later shown to be composed of protein & nucleic acids.
• 1928 Griffith’s Transformation Experiment
• 1944 Avery’s Transformation Experiment
• 1953 Hershey-Chase Bacteriophage Experiment
• 1953 Watson & Crick propose double-helix model of DNA
• 1956 Gierer & Schramm/Fraenkel-Conrat & Singer Demonstrate RNA is viral genetic material

Components of biodiversity are all the various forms of life on Earth including ecosystems, animals, plants, fungi, microorganisms, and genetic diversity. Ecosystems, species and genetic resources should be used for the benefit of humans, but in a way that does not lead to the decline of biodiversity. Substantial investments are required to conserve biodiversity, but it will bring significant environmental, economic and social benefits in return. To address these challenges various initiatives were taken in the past such as Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 1971, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1973, 1979 Bonn Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) in 1979.

The ever mounting population in 21^st century is a great challenge for the researchers to provide ample food and that has to be achieved within the context of existing challenges such as deteriorated arable land along with increasing adverse affects of changing climate. There is demand to increase food production to the tune of 70% by 2050 (Wani and Sah, 2014). Although major crops have achieved good progress, vulneRability to climatic variability emerged as a serious concern in crop improvement which could be attributed to higher sowing densities that in turn lead to more competition for water and nutrients. Abiotic stresses can be considered as major yield restraining factors among different crops. The projected estimations for changes in abiotic stresses such as drought, water logging and heat reveals far serious concerns for crop productivity (Qin et al., 2011; Bailey-Serres et al., 2012). Therefore, the concern of global food security in the era of climate change has compelled plant scientists in different crops to shift to breeding for climate resilient genotypes. Maize, being a hardy crop has an inherent potential to perform well under sub-optimal environments with minimum crop management (Kole et al., 2015). Abiotic stresses such as drought, heat and water logging affects maize yield adversely.

Although, conventional breeding approaches have exploited its fullest potential for production of elite maize hybrids but still little success attained for breeding climate resilient genotypes or varieties owing to the fact that stress tolerance is multi-genic or quantitative in nature. Therefore, the best option is to utilize the molecular breeding along with the conventional approaches for development of climate smart varieties.

Abstract

Intellectual property right (IPR) is the most serious, new branch of law and a legal right conferred by federal government in accordance with International conventions and treaties. IPR protects some of the finer manifestations of human achievement. IPR safeguards the application of ideas and information that are of commercial value. The exploitable ideas become more sophisticated and hope for a successful economic future depends increasingly upon the superior corpus of new knowledge and fashionable conceits.  Copyright law is one of the effective tools of IPR. Copyright law provides an incentive to creative activity of author and permits the society to benefit from those inventions. However, the technological advancement has made violation of copyright very easy and regulation very difficult. This paper aims at familiarizing  copyright laws and the powers enshrined in copyright laws.

I. INTRODUCTION

The Websites are soaked in information, much of it with varying degrees of copyright protection. In fact, the reality is that almost everything on the Net is protected by copyright law. E-business Websites are a composition of materials, often consisting of words, graphics, audio, and video that are expressed to the consumer as information content. The owners and Website developers carefully select the content to sell the company’s product or service. The subject matter expressed in the site is an electronic publication of this content. Since, designing, producing, and maintaining a sophisticated Website is very expensive, protecting content ownership is extremely important. Electronic commerce will continue to be highly competitive. As Websites become more and more interactive with consumers, their creation, design, and maintenance place enormous demands on innovative marketing techniques that should be legally protected.

Never before has it been so easy to violate a copyright owner’s exclusive right to copy the material. Everyone with a computer and an Internet connection creates his own Web pages and thus become a publisher. Hence the rules that once applied to only a few companies bind million of people now. Imagine having paid a Website developer hundreds of thousands of rupees to launch a killer application and acquiring millions of Rupees from a venture capitalist firm, only to discover that another e—business is using your online material. Or consider a scenario where your Website is linked to an e-business that displayed copyrighted material without the owner’s consent. Could your company be liable under a theory of copyright infringement? This paper highlights the scenario when contents of your Website are exploited by others without your permission or knowledge. The discussion is centered on copyright issues involved in the practices of linking, inlining and framing technologies which are normally being used on the Internet.

Copyright is a legal entitlement granted to creators of literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, as well as producers of cinematographic films and sound recordings. This legal right encompasses various privileges, including the reproduction, adaptation, translation, and communication to the public of the work. The composition of these rights may vary slightly, depending on the nature of the work. Along with Intellectual Property (IP), Copyright is a legal concept that safeguards the rights of creators and inventors. Copyright confers upon creators the exclusive legal right to reproduce, distribute, and exhibit their work, while IP comprises other legal rights such as patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. Copyright applies to a diverse range of creative works, including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, as well as sound recordings and cinematographic films. Piracy is a worldwide issue that adversely affects various content industries, such as software, television, recording, and movies.

Copyright and IP laws play a crucial role in promoting creativity and innovation by safeguarding the rights of creators and inventors. These laws grant exclusive rights to creators and inventors, allowing them to financially benefit from their work. This encourages investment in research and development, leading to the creation of new ideas, products, and services. Without copyright and IP protection, creators and inventors may be discouraged from investing their time and resources into creating new works, resulting in a decline in innovation and economic growth. These laws also protect consumers by ensuring that they receive original, high-quality products and services instead of counterfeit or low-quality imitations.

“Small is beautiful”, today we know that small is not only beautiful but also powerful. With the range of applications that nanoparticles find in varied fields of engineering and science, nanoparticles seem a promising option when compared to the conventional materials used. Nanoparticles are particles that have at least one dimension in less than 100nm range. They have a high surface to volume ratio and thus mass transfer and heat transfer properties are better than bulk materials. Recently; core/shell nanoparticles are finding widespread application. There is a class of core/shell nanoparticle that has its entire constituent in the nanometer range. Core/shell nanoparticles are nanostructures that have core made of a material coated with another material. They are in the size range of 20nm-200nm. Also, composite structures with these core/shell particles embedded in a matrix material are in use. The necessity to shift to core/shell nanoparticles is the improvement in the properties. Taking into consideration the size of the nanoparticles, the shell material can be chosen such that the agglomeration of particle can be prevented. This implies that the monodispersity of the particles can be improved. The core/shell structure enhances the thermal and chemical stability of the nanoparticles, improves solubility, makes them less cytotoxic and allows conjugation of other molecules to these particles. The shell can also prevent the oxidation of the core material. “When a core nanoparticle is coated with a polymeric layer or an inorganic layer like silicabecausethe polymeric orinorganiclayerwould endow the hybrid structure with an additional function/property on top of the function/property of the core hence synergistically emerged functions can be envisioned”.

Seed yield is the foremost important attribute and is the end product of many complex component characters which singly or jointly influence the seed yield. Seed yield does not possess gene per se as such. It is the interaction phenotype of the harmonious understanding, mutual adjustment and manifestation of its component characters. As most of the component characters are polygenic, they are greatly influenced by the environment. So, the selection of genotypes based on yield as such is not likely to be effective. The information on the strength and direction of association of the component characters with seed yield and also among themselves will be very useful in formulating an effective breeding programme for seed yield improvement in a given time. Correlation studies provide about the magnitude and direction of genetic association between the seed yield and its component characters.

Correlation coefficients provide the measure of association between two characters. But, they do not provide the causal basis of such association. Further, correlation between seed yield and its component characters are often misleading due to the inter-relationship that exist among the component characters and the operation of size symmetry and component compensation that thwart the breeding progress. The direct contribution of each component to the seed yield and the indirect effects it has through its association with other components cannot be differentiated from mere correlation studies. This is how, it became necessary for a plant breeder to have information on the direct and indirect effects of these components on the seed yield to identify the key characters for improvement.

Germination between M₁ and M₂ had a non-significant relationship in germination between M₁ and its corresponding M₁ progenies in M₂ (Table 27). Probably the reduction in the germination in M₁ might be very highly and significantly influenced by the conditions prevailing in germination and physiological disturbances that would be strictly associated in M₁ alone. Whereas the survival of the seedlings between M₁ and M₂ showed a strong positive relationship. The differential behaviour of the mutagens affecting germination and survival was also evident as discussed elsewhere.

However, seedling height on 10^th day sorted a differential relationship between M₁ and M₂. It was negative and non-significant. A non-significant relationship was exhibited for seedling height on 30^th day between M₁ and M₂ in all the doses. It may be interpreted that extent of physiological disturbances that occurred in the early stages and the extend of recovery mechanism that operated subsequently may be the major cause for this; not withstanding the haplontic and diplontic selection that operated in the biological system. Further the type of physiological disturbances happened, whether the enzyme systems affected or a substantial amount of toxic substances produced besides the genetical causes have not been studied in the present investigation. Moreover if the reduced growth was due to mitotic arrest in the meristamatic regions of the roots of M₁ plants, the disorder may not be completely inherited to its offspring’s (M₂ plants), in that sense selection at the cell level damages might occur in the M₁ itself and the selection for a cell with normal mitosis and extent of chromosomal damages that will be tolerated alone might be selected and hence the effect in M₁ need not be always related with M₂; it also depends upon the potency of the cell to recover from the mutagen induced damages. The ability of the cell in general, should be more in M₁ than in M₂ recover the disorder after several cell generations.

This chapter begins with an introductory overview, providing a basic understanding of correlation and its types. It guides readers through in-depth analysis using R, demonstrating how to apply these concepts practically.

Correlation

Correlation analysis is a statistical method used to evaluate the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables. This analysis is vital in identifying and understanding how variables are interconnected within a dataset, providing insights into their mutual influences.

Key aspects of correlation include

• Range of the correlation coefficientThe value of the correlation coefficient (“r”) falls within the range of −1 to +1.

• Independence from origin and scaleThe correlation coefficient (“r”) remains consistent regardless of any changes in the origin or scale of the variables.

• Unit independenceThe correlation coefficient is independent of the units of measurement

of the variables.

• Relationship with independenceWhile uncorrelated variables are generally independent, the reverse is not necessarily true; independent variables will always be uncorrelated.

2.1 Introduction
As time passes, the customers are used to the practice of having short life for the products, which they buy and use. This is because of the globalization of business and growing global competition all over the world. The companies engaged in manufacturing and selling the products which are used at large volume by households and partly by industries, introduce new models to attract customers and to have more market share. This in turn has impacts on customer buying and retention decisions of those products. Though the companies introduce new models, they are expected to keep the prices of the products at affordable ranges so that there is always a larger customer segment to buy those products. This is like egg or chicken situation, because companies introduce many new models to out beat competition and in turn customers expect improved versions of those models in shorter time intervals. This forces companies to continuously engage themselves to come out with new models or improved models which have convergence of technologies to give maximal customer satisfaction. So, creativity in product design becomes an essential requirement of the product development teams of the companies.
2.2 Product Design
Product design aims to include the following tasks to solve the problems of the users or address expected needs of customers in a given market. These tasks are human intensive.
i. Understanding end-users’ requirements
ii. Imagining alternate product ideas to address their needs