eChapters

34. GEOPHYSICAL METHODS

This chapter gives important and useful methods for measurement of seismic signals.

Firstly a brief introduction of seismic signals is given. The P waves, S waves and L-waves are discussed in short.

The old methods of measuring seismic signals like mechanical geophones are replaced by electronic geophones. The discussion includes Electromagnetic type, Reluctance type, Capacitive type and pressure type of basic geophones. New methods of damping are included. New Recently developed amplifiers and filters are also included. Development in oscillographic elements and cameras are discussed. Other information includes, the recently reported Array Technology and Space Technology for measurement of seismic signals.

Abstract

In India, the allium groups (onion and garlic) are important bulb crops for home consumption as well as sources of income to many peasant farmers in many parts of the country. The garlic bulbs are valued for their flavor and have wide applications in food and their antimicrobial, antifungal, insecticidal and antioxidative properties. The engineering properties of garlic bulb, clove and skin plays important role in the planning of various post-harvest operations like drying, sorting, grading, bulb breaking, peeling and designing the process equipments like bulb breaker, clove separator and peeler. The aim of this chapter was to study the engineering properties viz., physical, mechanical, aerodynamic and frictional properties of garlic bulbs, and cloves in both peeled and unpeeled form.

Introduction

India is rightly the spice bowl of the world. India has the largest domestic market for spices in the world. Indian spices are the most sought-after globally, given their exquisite aroma, texture and taste. Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is a world’s favourite, versatile horticultural commodity consumed for culinary, medicinal and antimicrobial purposes and is being cultivated for over 5000 years. The most important part of the garlic plant is the compound bulb. Each bulb is made of 6-26 cloves and is wrapped in a white papery sheath. Some varieties have a radish or purplish sheath. The bulbs are valued for their flavour, command extensive commercial importance because of their wide application in food and pharmaceutical preparations. Garlic is still probably nature’s most powerful medicinal plant to us today. It is recognized to have remarkable preventive and curative abilities. Garlic is mainly used aromatic spices and pickles as it has digestive, carminative and anti-rheumatic properties. It is being used in ayurvedic formulation since a long for curing lungs, healing the intestinal ulcer and checking muscular pain and giddiness.

Objectives
• To explore the significance of word stress and its impact on pronunciation and meaning.
• To examine the role of intonation in conveying emotions, questions, and statements.
• To analyze different speech patterns in English and their practical applications.
• To discuss the composition of sounds in English, including vowel and consonant sounds, and how they form speech.
• To enhance students’ listening, speaking, and pronunciation skills through a deeper understanding of sound dynamics.
Introduction
The study of English sounds involves understanding how words are pronounced, the patterns they follow, and how these elements affect communication. Mastering the intricacies of word stress, intonation, and speech patterns enhances a speaker’s ability to communicate effectively and clearly in English. These components play a crucial role in conveying not just the literal meaning but also the speaker’s intent and emotions.
Overview of English Sounds
English sounds can be broadly categorized into vowels, consonants, and semivowels. Understanding these foundational elements is crucial before diving into stress, intonation, and pattern composition.

ABSTRACT

An efficient and reliable micropropagation and mycorrhization techniques were established for a medicinal plant Solanum trilobatum L., using internodal explant. Callus formation occurred from both the cut ends of explants cultured on MS medium supplemented with 2,4-D (3.0 mg/l). Direct shoot and multiple shoot formation were noticed from the proximal cut end of explants on BA (2.0 mg/l) alone and BA (2.0 mg/ l) + NAA (0.5 mg/l). Root formation was directly induced from the basal cut end of explants cultured on IBA (1.0 mg/l). In vitro plantlet regeneration has been achieved on BA (2.0 mg/l) + IBA (1.0 mg/l). After 4 weeks, well-developed in vitro plantlets were hardened in plastic cups filled with sterile soil and vermiculite (3:1). During acclimatization, sterile Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) fungal spores were added for enhance the survivability of in vitro plants in the field condition. The level of biochemical changes and increased survivability were studied in 10 weeks old plants inoculated with spores of Glomus mosseae and Gigaspora margarita.

ABSTRACT

The tomato TYLCV tolerant line MP-1 which has high efficiency of crossability & dwarf mutant dg/dg (Manapal) were choosen for the study of enhanced production of plantlets through tissue culture. The cotyledonary explants, hypocotyl sections & decapitated seedlings were taken to assess the regeneration efficiency of the explants as a base for efficient genetic transformation. The decapitated seedlings regenerated much faster (9.3 days) putting forth new sprouts of shootlets which were then transferred to rooting medium. Whereas cotyledonary leaves showed regeneration of plantlets (18.3 days) which is almost double the duration of decapped seedlings. The hypocotyl sections proliferated into callus & regenerated in a much slower rate (27 days). Hence, the faster rate of regeneration from decapitated seedlings served as a efficient base for enhanced production of plantlets during transformation studies. Also the number of harvest of new sprouts (2.3 regenerations) from decapitated seedlings is an added advantage for deriving more plantlets from single seedlings.

Introduction

From centuries, mankind is totally dependent on plants as a source of carbohydrates, proteins and fats for their food & shelter. In addition, plants are valuable source of a wide range of metabolites, which are used as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, flavors, fragrances, colors, biopesticides and food additives. In 1985, 3500 new chemical structures have been identified and 2600 derived from the higher plants. Worldwide, 121 clinically useful prescription drugs are derived from plants. Even today, 75% of the world’s population relies on plants for traditional medicine. In the US, where chemical synthesis dominates the pharmaceutical industry, 25% of the pharmaceuticals are based on plant-derived chemicals.

Biotechnology offers an opportunity to exploit the cell, tissue, organ or entire organism by growing them in-vitro and to genetically manipulate them to get desired compounds. Since the world population is increasing rapidly, there is extreme pressure on the available cultivable land to produce food and fulfill the needs. Therefore, for other uses such as production of pharmaceuticals and chemicals from plants, the available land should be used effectively. Chemical engineers are currently developing improved and appropriate bioreactors for the improvement of production systems by adopting techniques of growth and metabolite production coupled with downstream processing of the products. The improvements in molecular biological research have given a new dimension to in-vitro culture as well as for plant improvement, enhancing the yields of the product and resulting in multiple products or producing novel products from genetically engineered plants. Moreover, the need for safer drugs without side effects has led to the use of natural ingredients with proven safety. These factors have laid emphasis on the use of biotechnological methods to enhance the production of pharmaceuticals and food additives in quality and quantity.

Plant in vitro cultures are able to produce and accumulate many medicinally valuable secondary metabolites. Antioxidants are an important group of medicinal preventive compounds as well as being food additives inhibiting detrimental changes of easily oxidizable nutrients. Many different in vitro approaches have been used for increased biosynthesis and the accumulation of antioxidant compounds in plant cells. Antioxidants are capable of stabilizing, or deactivating, free radicals before they attack cells. Antioxidants are absolutely critical for maintaining optimal cellular and systemic health and well-being. Antioxidants are gaining a lot of importance as a panacea for a large number of life-style diseases like aging, cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and other degenerative diseases etc. The present lecture summarizes the achievements of in vitro technology for the production of antioxidants compounds. The focus will be on the major chemical classes of antioxidants and on the approaches used to improve the in vitro methods for producing these compounds.

ABSTRACT

Ophiorrhiza mungos is a rich source of the potent antineoplastic therapeutic agent Camptothecin, which is effective in the complete remission of lung, breast, uterine and cervical cancer. With increasing demand, most of the plants have been indiscriminately exploited from their natural habitat for the isolation of this valuable therapeutic agent. The biotechnological application such as plant tissue culture seems to be a viable option for the production of this high value therapeutic compound without destroying the natural flora. For this purpose various tissue culture techniques have been established to enhance the production of this compound from different parts of O. mungos. The present study revealed that the Physical elicitation with varying doses of irradiation is significantly higher (0.87mg/ g dry weight) than that obtained by chemical elicitation using methyle jasmonate (0.41mg/ g dry weight) compared to control. Biotic elicitors like chitin, chitosan, fungal and bacterial extracts were also used and considerable increase in the production of Camptothecin was obtained in all these cases. Permeabilization with Tween 20 found to be enhancing the exudation of camptothecin (0.021 mg/ml) compared to control (0.0003mg/ml). Hence, the present study gives an alternative for large scale production of camptothecin without affecting the natural flora in a cost effective method.

Introduction
The growing population has a direct impact on fisheries. The demand for food derived from aquatic origin is increasing rapidly. The fish production trend and world population over the years are shown in Figures 1 and 2, respectively.The production from culture-based fisheries has surpassed the capture-based fisheries (FAO, 2024). Global aquaculture production is one of the fastestgrowing
sectors among global food systems. With the increasing demand for fish and seafood, there is increasing pressure to find sustainable solutions for feeding farmed fish (Tacon et al., 2011). Traditional fish feed, primarily derived from wild-caught fish (Fishmeal) and land-based crops, presents several environmental and economic challenges. These include overfishing, deforestation, and rising feed costs, which threaten the sustainability of the aquaculture industry. Hence, there is an urgent need for alternate feed ingredients (Olsen and Hasan, 2012).
The feed has largest environmental impact in the intensive culture system. Hence, more prominence has to be given to a selection of fish feed ingredients, which can contribute to reduce the environmental impact and target on growth of the animal. Intensification should go in hand with sustainability of the system and feed ingredients play a significant role in it. In response to these concerns, microorganisms have emerged as a promising solution to enhance fish nutrition in a more sustainable manner. Microorganisms, such as bacteria, yeast, algae, and fungi, can be a source of feed ingredients with various advantages, including improving nutrient digestibility, and reducing the environmental footprint of fish farming.

Introduction

The COVID 19 pandemic is threatening food systems and international food security. According to the World Food Programme (WFP), that says the amount of individuals facing crisis hunger is anticipated to virtually double this year to 265 million. Already, quite 820 million individuals don’t get enough food to eat, and another a hundred thirty five million individuals face acute hunger or starvation. Increase that, the economic destabilization caused by COVID-19, and another a hundred thirty million people are in danger of starvation by the top of 2020, says WFP. The quickness with that a health crisis transforms in an exceedingly hunger crisis shows however fragile is our food systems to shocks of any nature.

Introduction

The key factor of sustainability in the animal sector depends upon genetic improvement in domestic livestock. There are many reproductive and molecular biotechnologies used for the genetic improvement of domestic livestock and they are synergistically coupled with the breeding program in distinct breeding targets. With the help of gene editing techniques (e.g. CRISPR etc.). To improve the specific traits of interest scientists can add, delete or replace the nucleotides (e.g. milk production, meat production, disease resistance, etc.) in less than one generation. Gene editing with the conventional breeding program in livestock is an important factor for genetic improvement for increasing the rate of genetic gain. In the present topic, here, we delved into the most important reproductive and molecular technologies used in livestock genetic improvement, as well as the most effective ways for incorporating gene editing into existing genetic improvement programmes and targeting specific traits for enhancement. The improvement in genetic level is a most powerful part of sustainable animal development because it is permanent and the effects are long-lasting and cumulative. Genetic advancements produced in one generation are passed on to the following, unlike dietary and animal health treatments, which are a continuous process. The many livestock operations that involve chemical and mechanical methods such as dehorning requires time, worker, money, animal safety, etc., but their genetic alternation of the concerned gene for the polled or hornless condition can exclude the requirement of physical dehorning. (Gottardo et al. 2011; Tompson et al. 2017).

1. Introduction

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has transformed the functioning of modern libraries in the 21st century. The applications of ICT to data, information and knowledge resources have given rise to data centers, digital libraries, and knowledge repositories. New software’s that are based on international standards have emerged to undertake a wide range of jobs that suit the requirements of individual libraries. Rapid advances in the application of ICT have given rise to ‘Open Standards and Open Source Software’s. Libraries can benefit a great deal now by using these standards and software, as during the last twenty five years only rich libraries could afford to use commercial software. As a result the transformation of libraries was not universal in India. Now with the advent of open source software, we are expecting many libraries are going to be modernized. This transformation is not going to be limited to libraries only but to users as well who belong to different disciplines and walks of life due to social networking which is emerging as a major activity of libraries around the world. Libraries

Introduction

To meet the food needs of the burgeoning population, India will need to produce 300 million tonnes of food grains by 2020. At present more than 75% of the total food grains produced in the country are of rice and wheat. Use of nitrogenous fertilizers has contributed much to the remarkable increase in production of rice and wheat in India that has occurred during the past three decades. During the last half-decade or so while fertilizer N consumption is touching new heights, the production of both rice and wheat is showing a trend of plateauing.

Introduction

Soil resource is as important as water for agriculture as it supplies nutrients to the plants and anchorage for stand and establishment. However, people least bother about its importance despite its role in food security and ecosystem services. Good quality soil is a prerequisite for sustainable crop production. The concept of conservation agriculture (CA) has emerged in the recent past wherein conventional practices are modified to reduce farming cost in addition to sustaining soil health. Improvement in the soil health is achieved by increasing soil organic carbon (SOC), aggregation, infiltration, and also reduction in soil erosion.

Conventional fertilizers often exhibit low nutrient-use efficiency, resulting in nutrient losses, soil degradation, water contamination and unnecessary production costs. Nano-fertilizers offer controlled and targeted nutrient delivery through formulations engineered at the nanoscale. Their high surface-area-to-volume ratio can improve nutrient availability, plant uptake, growth, bulb quality and storage performance while reducing conventional fertilizer requirements. This chapter explains the nature, modes of action and potential benefits of nano-fertilizers in onion production. It also considers nano-biofertilizers, smart nutrient-delivery systems and nano-sensors. Particular attention is given to manufacturing cost, nanotoxicity, effects on soil microorganisms, farmer accessibility and the need for standardized safety and regulatory frameworks.

Abstract
Horticulture comprising a variety of fruits, vegetables, ornamental and medicinal crops has emerged in the recent times as a key sector of the Indian economy contributing substantially towards enhanced income, employment and welfare of the rural poor. A visible shift is seen in crop diversification across regions in favour of horticultural crops, especially vegetables over traditional cropping pattern comprising of cereals and pulses, since early 90s. Definitely higher profitability has been identified in comparison to cereals, increased urbanisation, enhanced living standards, besides the growing awareness for balanced nutrition as the main reason for such a shift. Commensurate with this trend has been a visible shift in enhanced R&D investments into horticultural R&D both from the public and private sectors. There is a growing need for the public sector research organisations like ICAR to increase their visibility and promote public private partnerships through innovative methods of research and development at this juncture.

Seed is the basic input in agriculture that acts as a catalyst for realising the full production potential of the high yielding/improved varieties. The role of quality seed in agriculture has been recognized since the ancient periods. It is a well established fact that among all the agricultural inputs, use of quality seed alone can enhance the crop production up to 15-20 per cent, depending upon the crop, and it can be further raised up to 45 per cent with efficient management of other inputs. If the seed sown is of inferior quality, the efforts of the plant breeders in developing and introducing improved varieties would be rendered futile. Modern agriculture lays great emphasis that each and every seed should germinate readily with full potential and produce vigorous seedlings to ensure high yields.

India has witnessed a phenomenal increase in food grains production since Independence, and achieved a record harvest of about 259 million tonnes in 2011-12. Similarly, there was an impressive record production of pulses : 18.1 and 17.2 million tonnes in 2010-11 and 2011-12,  respectively. However, to meet the increasing demand of the continuously rising population, about 2 to 3 million tonnes of pulses have to be imported every year costing the country about Rs.3000 crores in foreign exchange. Despite the changes in the dietary habits, pulses in India are still considered an important source of proteins, particularly, for the poor. However, the per capita availability of pulses has been declining over time decreasing from 60.7 gm/day in 1951 to about 32 gm/day in 2010 mainly due to stagnant production (except in recent years), rising demand for consumption and other uses. Further, pulses play an even greater role in maintaining and enhancing soil fertility through nitrogen (N₂) fixation.

Learning experiences for improving reading skills, with an emphasis on building vocabulary and correct use of grammar, refer to structured and intentional activities, strategies, and practices designed to enhance an individual’s ability to comprehend written texts effectively, expand their word knowledge, and apply grammatical rules accurately. These experiences aim to foster critical reading comprehension skills, facilitate the acquisition and application of new vocabulary, and ensure grammatical precision in both written and spoken communication.
Building vocabulary involves systematically expanding your knowledge of words and their meanings to improve language comprehension and effective communication. It includes learning new words, understanding their usage, and retaining them for future application. Here’s a detailed guide to building vocabulary:
1. Strategies for Building Vocabulary
1. Read Regularly
• Expose yourself to a variety of texts (novels, newspapers, academic articles, blogs) to encounter new words.
• Use graded readers or challenging materials slightly above your current level.
2. Learn in Context
• Focus on understanding new words in the context of a sentence or paragraph, which helps in grasping their nuanced meanings.
• Avoid rote memorization without context.