eChapters

Unit of Length

A metre (m) is taken from the international prototype metre at the International Bureau of weights and measures; at 32ºF. (0ºC) = 39.37 inches (in.) = 3.280833 feet (ft.) = centimetres (Cm.). A centimetre (Cm.) = 10 millimetres (mm.) = 10,000 microns (µ) = 0.337 inch (in.) or 10-4cm. A millimetre (mm.) = 1,000 microns (µ) = 0.03937 inch. A micron (mµ) = 1,000 milli-microns (µ) = 3.937x10-5 inch. A milli-micron (mµ) = 0.001 micron or 10-7 cm. A foot (ft.) = 0.3048006 metre (m.) = 30.48006 centimetres (Cm.) = 12 inches (in.)., inch = 2.5 cm. An inch (in.) = 2.539998 centimetres (Cm.) = 25.39998 mm = 25,399.98 microns (µ).

Estimation of Calcium in Feeds, Fodders and Faeces
(Titrimetric method of AOAC, 1965)
Principle

When a solution containing calcium is treated with ammonium oxalate, all the calcium present is precipitated as calcium oxalate, The precipitate on treatment with sulphuric acid dissolves, forming calcium sulphate liberating free oxalic acid which is quantitatively estimated by titration against standard N/10 potassium permanganate solution to arrive at the calcium content present in the given solution. The reactions which take place are given below:

Plum (Prunus saliciana Lindl.) is a temperate fruit and grows on commercial scale in J&K, HP and Uttaranchal. In J&K, plum cultivation is spread over 4,038 hectares with total yield of 10,112 metric tones. In Jammu Division, plum is being grown in temperate areas of Poonch, Rajouri, Doda and Kathua districts covering an area of 2,665 hectares with an annual production of 14,240 metric tonnes.

Climate and Soil

Plums because of their wide variability between different species, exhibit considerate varietal differences in their climatic requirements. The Japanese plums do very well in the low and mid hill regions ranging between 650 to 1650 meters above mean sea level. Some varieties can be grown successfully in the warmer regions of plains.

For good growth and longer life of plants, well drained medium to deep soils are most suitable. Plums propagated on peach root stocks grow better on sandy loam soil, while for heavier soils apricot rootstock or Kabul green gage root stocks of plum can be used.

Egg Formation Phenomenon

The chicken egg consists of a very small Reproductive cell or Germinal disc [orBlastoderm;which iscapable of developingintoanEmbryo, iffertilized by a Sperm]. This tiny cell is surrounded by :

• Yolk
= OVARYis responsible for its synthesis.

• Albumen, Shell membranes, Shell and Cuticle
= These are produced in the OVIDUCT.

[A] OVARY

Although there are two ovaries and two oviducts in the hen, but only the left ovary and left oviduct are functional [because, the right ones are atrophied during embryo development]. Before egg production, the ovary is a group of small follicles of different sizes containing ova.

Formation of Yolk

• The yolk is just a source of food material for the small Reproductive cell (Blastoderm).

• Major amounts of yolk material is produced in the liver and transported to ovarythrough blood.

• Two days afterthe formationof First yolk. Second yolkbegins to develop.

• It takes about ten days for a yolk to mature.

INTRODUCTION

Aquaculture had undergone rapid expansion and intensification in the recent past and has taken the shape of a full-fledged diversified industry. But the risk involved in aquaculture activity has also increased significantly due to the outbreak of diseases which has a devastating effect on the aquaculture crops. Fish are aquatic and poikilothermic, their existence and performance are dominated by the quality of their environment . The aquatic environment is a complex system subject to constant physical and chemical changes brought about by natural and manmade processes. Therefore, choosing the proper site to develop aquaculture facility is paramount to its success.

A disease is an abnormal condition of an organism caused by infection, inherent weakness or environmental stress; it prevents the organism from functioning normally which ultimately leads to death (Avault, 1998). In an aquatic environment, there is a profound balancing of relationship between host (fish), pathogen and the environment existing and this is the fundamental concept to disease susceptibility of fish (Snieszko, 1973). A disease organism may be present in the environment or host, but will not cause disease as long as the host has high natural resistant or the physical condition of the host is strong. Once the imbalance is created to any of the component, opportunistic pathogen invades the host resulting to the outbreak of disease.

Introduction

Water is one of the most complex natural resources demanding a comprehensive understanding of its inherent features in occurrence and distribution for an integrated planning aimed at optimum development for agriculture, health, industry, power, etc. The well being and development of our society is dependent on the availability of water. An increase in groundwater development and utilization for industries and urban water supply has created improper disposal of liquid waste. Defective well constructions, sewage and waste disposal in man made lakes within city, open quarries with water and failure to seal the abandoned wells in city area have provided possible openings for downward movement of polluted water into subsurface formations without undergoing the process of natural filtration.

Introduction

In addition to role of iron oxidation in commercial point of view there are certain implication of iron oxidation on environment. Acid Rock Drainage (ARD) is one of the example of environmental pollution. Coal and various metal ores are enclosed in geological formation of reduced nature. Coal, is often associated with pyrite (FeS₂).When mining activities expose this material to atmospheric oxygen, a combination of auto oxidation and microbial iron and sulfur oxidation produces large amounts of acids. The iron-rich acidic mine drainage kills aquatic life and renders the contaminated stream unsuitable as a water supply or for recreational use.

Introduction

It has been observed that the surface waters are getting polluted due to improper disposal of domestic and industrial wastewaters. Most of the River basins which are major supply of water for human activities are polluted. Even the groundwater in not spared because of the incessant growth of the population in India. In Maharashtra the number of bore wells has been increased to 5 Lakhs from 1 Lakhs from few decades only. Out of total area of Maharashtra, 82% is covered by the basaltic rocks made up of lava. That’s why the quantity of the groundwater is comparatively less than the Indo-gangetic plane.

Groundwater in the north region of the Tapi River is found to be hard, unfit for the human consumption. The residences of district like Buldhana, Jalgaon and Dhule have to use hard water for consumption. Rampant extraction of the groundwater for agriculture might have caused alternation in chemical qualities of the groundwater. It has been also well documented that in Marathwada region, groundwater content higher concentration of fluoride and total Hardness.

Fluorine the most electro-negative element is of great interest and importance to human health because of its curative and harmful effects. Fluorides are released by various natural sources and anthropogenic activities into the aquatic environment (that is surface as well as groundwater). Fluoride can enter the human body through drinking water, food, toothpaste, mouth rinses and other dental products, drugs and fluoride containing salts and hydrofluoric acid. It may cause Fluorosis – a crippling and painful disease such as dental fluorosis, skeletal fluorosis and non-skeletal fluorosis.

Industrial revolution took place in England during the period of 1760-1830. Accordingly, the production prior to demand was introduced. Many countries all over the world adopted industrial policies favouring industrial sector to achieve the fast development of the nation. Government of India also contributed its efforts in the same direction and issued the industrial policy of 1948, 1956, 1977 and so on making several financial and non financial facilities available to have substantial growth and development of industries in particular and nation in general.

Under the name of globalization and making the economy internationally competent, India took a revolutionary decision to follow new industrial policy 1991 opening the doors for investment from foreign countries and private sector even. In addition to this economic reforms have been adopted and advocated for the sake of national development. Three ‘D’ programme consisting of devaluation, decontrol and disinvestment, were also put on the national agenda, to achieve the set targets.

Introduction

Earthquakes are the most destructive among all the natural hazards. Most of the time, they occur without any warning, which makes them most feared and unpredictable natural phenomena. Globally, on an average two earthquakes of magnitude 8 are known to occur every year. Some of the countries like Japan, China and United States have suffered several damaging earthquakes in the past. India has also experienced a number of high intensity earthquakes in the recent past and more than 650 earthquakes of magnitude >5.0 have been reported in India since 1890. Sixty-nine earthquakes in Delaware (U.S.A.) have been documented or suspected since 1871. Refer to Baxter (2000) for more details about the DGS Seismic Network and for documentation of earthquakes. In the 1930s Charles Richter developed a magnitude scale (Richter scale) which was an objective way of discriminating between large and small shocks using the seismic wave amplitude recorded by seismographs (Richter, 1958).

Abstract

From amongst various geomorphic features the landforms generated by the river systems are significant as these are not only the records of the life histories of the rivers, but also the various dynamic processes and phenomenon operated during their origin like tectonic movements, sea level changes, flood histories, climate changes etc. In this connection a study has been conducted using the satellite borne multi spectral remote sensing data in mapping the flood plains, particularly their anomalies like symmetrical, asymmetrical, multilevel, offset and meander scrolled flood plains of some selected rivers from Asia viz: Tamirabharani, Cauvery and Brahmaputra from India, Indus river from Pakisthan and Tineg river from Phillipines. The paper discusses about these and their significance in unfurling the ongoing tectonic movements, sea level changes, palaeo – ongoing strom surge / tidal activities, ongoing earth tremors etc.

Introduction

The Rivers are not simply the carriers of water from the mountain ranges to the plains and to the oceans. But they have well defined and characteristic life histories of their own, with youthful stage in the mountains, mature stage in the plains and the old stage in the coastal regions [6] and the life histories of the rivers are often compared with man’s life. Infact, once the rivers are born on the surface of the Earth, their only aim is to attain the Mean Sea Level (MSL) or the base level of erosion as early as possible and as short as possible. So, in the mountains, which are normally their regions of origin, since the rivers occur thousands of meters above the MSL, flow vibrantly taking advantage of the slope as short and straight drainages to cut deeply the terrain so as to attain the MSL easily. Since such vibrant activities of the rivers, appear to be similar to the human youths, the rivers are said to be in youthful stage in the mountain regions and the erosion is the only dominant activity. But, on climbing down the hills and reaching the plains, as they still occur at hundreds of meters above the MSL, continue to flow towards the sea but with meandering, sinuous and oscillatory paths as they have lost their elevations when compared to the mountains and in this process of meandering perform both erosion and deposition. As such stabilized flow or “Watch and walk phase” of the rivers in the plains resembles the matured behavior of the middle aged Men, it is called as mature stage of the rivers. In contrast, when the rivers reach the coastal zones as they have attained the MSL, they don’t have any energy to carry even their own load and hence dump all the sediments as deltas, oscillate here and there and finally somehow reach the sea. Such Brownian movement of the rivers as replicates the activities of the old Men, called as the old stage of the rivers. Thus the erosion, both erosion and deposition and only the deposition are respectively the activities of the rivers in these three stages, accordingly the respective and contrasting landforms are formed in these three different stages of the rivers.

Abstract

The time-transgressive changes in the landscape architecture of the Rameswaram island located in the semiarid tract of southeastern India, was animated using ARC/INFO GIS. The animation has shown that the Rameswaram island has evolved through an interplay of tectonic. fluvial, marine and aeolian activities and that the Aeolian activity was accentuated during 1921-1990 A.D

Introduction

The state of Tamil Nadu in the southeastern fringe of India has well evolved riverine ecosystem in the east and a 900 km. long coastal ecosytem in the eastern fringe. From Vedaranniyam in the northeast to Cape Comorin in the southwest these fluvial and coastal ecosystems show evidence of Aeolian activity, especially during the Holocene. Several researches1, 2, 3, 4,5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 have studied the Quaternary tectonic, fluvial, fluviomarine and marine processes in this part of the semi-arid tract.

Absolute advantage : This is the simplest yardstick of economic performance. If one person, firm or country can produce more of something with the same amount of effort and resources, they have an absolute advantage over other producers. Being the best at something does not mean that doing that thing is the best way to use your scarce economic resources. The question of what to specialise in—and how to maximize the benefits from international trade—is best decided according to comparative advantage. Both absolute and comparative advantage may change significantly over time.

Access to Health Care : 1) The degree to which individuals are inhibited or facilitated in their ability to gain entry to and to receive care and services from the health care system. Factors influencing this ability include geographic, architectural, transportation, and financial considerations, among others. 2) Entry to the health care system is dependent on the wants, resources, and needs that individuals bring to the care-seeking process. Ability to obtain wanted or needed services may be influenced by many factors, including travel distance, waiting time, available financial resources, and availability of a regular source of care.

Acquisition cost : The purchase cost of a drug to an agency, person or institution.

Adaptive expectations : A theory of how people form their views about the future that assumes they do so using past trends and the errors in their own earlier predictions. Contrast with rational expectations.

Backwardation : When a commodity is valued more highly in a spot market (that is, when it is for delivery today) than in a futures market (for delivery at some point in the future). Normally, interest costs mean that futures prices are higher than spot prices, unless the markets expect the price of the commodity to fall over time, perhaps because there is a temporary bottleneck in supply.

Balance of payments : The total of all the money coming into a country from abroad less all of the money going out of the country during the same period. This is usually broken down into the current account and the capital account. The current account includes : *visible trade (known as merchandise trade in the United States), which is the value of exports and imports of physical goods; *invisible trade, which is receipts and payments for services, such as banking or advertising, and other intangible goods, such as copyrights, as well as cross-border dividend and interest payments; *private transfers, such as money sent home by expatriate workers; official transfers, such as international aid. The capital account includes : *long-term capital flows, such as money invested in foreign firms, and profits made by selling those investments and bringing the money home; *short-term capital flows, such as money invested in foreign currencies by international speculators, and funds moved around the world for business purposes by multinational companies. These short-term flows can lead to sharp movements in exchange rates, which bear little relation to what currencies should be worth judging by fundamental measures of value such as purchasing power parity. As bills must be paid, ultimately a country’s accounts must balance (although because real life is never that neat a balancing item is usually inserted to cover up the inconsistencies).

Balanced budget : When total public-sector spending equals total government income during the same period from taxes and charges for public services. Politicians in some countries, such as the United States, have argued that government should be required to run a balanced budget in order to have sound public finances. However, there is no economic reason why public borrowing need necessarily be bad. For instance, if the debt is used to invest in things that will increase the growth rate of the economy—infrastructure, say, or education—it may be justified. It may also make more economic sense to try to balance the budget on average over an entire economic cycle, with public-sector deficits boosting the economy during recession and surpluses stopping it overheating during booms, than to balance it every year.

Hard currency : Money you can trust. A hard currency is expected to retain its value, or even benefit from appreciation, against softer currencies. This makes it a popular choice for people involved in international transactions. The dollar, d-mark, sterling and the Swiss franc each became a hard currency, if only some of the time, during the 20th century.

Hawala : An ancient system of moving money based on trust. It predates western bank practices. Although it is now more associated with the Middle East, a version of hawala existed in China in the second half of the Tang dynasty (618-907), known as fei qian, or flying money. In hawala, no money moves physically between locations; nowadays it is transferred by means of a telephone call or fax between dealers in different countries. No legal contracts are involved, and recipients are given only a code number or simple token, such as a low-value banknote torn in half, to prove that money is due. Over time, transactions in opposite directions cancel each other out, so physical movement is minimised. Trust is the only capital that the dealers have. With it, the users of hawala have a worldwide money-transmission service that is cheap, fast and free of bureaucracy. From a government’s point of view, however, informal money networks are threatening, since they lie outside official channels that are regulated and taxed. They fear they are used by criminals, including terrorists. Although this is probably true, by far the main users of hawala networks are overseas workers, who do not trust official money transfer methods or cannot afford them, remitting earnings to their families.

Labour economics : The aspects of economics concerned with the supply and demand for labor. This includes factors affecting the participation rate, wage bargaining and organized labor, training, hours and conditions of work, practices concerning hiring, redundancy, labor turnover, migration and the age of retirement.

Labour intensive : A production process that involves comparatively large amounts of labour; the opposite of capital intensive.

Labour market flexibility : A flexible labour market is one in which it is easy and inexpensive for firms to vary the amount of labour they use, including by changing the hours worked by each employee and by changing the number of employees. This often means minimal regulation of the terms of employment (no minimum wage, say) and weak (or no) trade unions. Such flexibility is characterised by its opponents as giving firms all the power, allowing them to fire employees at a moment’s notice and leaving workers feeling insecure.

Labour theory of value : The notion that the value of any good or service depends on how much labour it uses up. First suggested by adam smith, it took a central place in the philosophy of karl marx. Some neo-classical economists disagreed with this theory, arguing that the price of something was independent of how much labour went into producing it and was instead determined solely by supply and demand.

NAIRU : The non-accelerating-inflation rate of unemployment (see natural rate rate of natureal rate of unemployment).

Nash equilibrium : An important concept in game theory, a Nash equilibrium occurs when each player is pursuing their best possible strategy in the full knowledge of the strategies of all other players. Once a Nash equilibrium is reached, nobody has any incentive to change their strategy. It is named after John Nash, a mathematician and Nobel prize-winning economist.

Nation building : Creating a country that works out of one that does not - because the old order has collapsed (as in the former Soviet Union), or been destroyed by war (Iraq), or never really functioned in the first place (Afghanistan). To transform a failed country can involve establishing order through the rule of law and creating legitimate government and other effective social institutions, as well as a credible currency and a functioning market economy. Nation building is rarely easy, and often fiendishly difficult, especially where there are deep ethnic, religious or political divisions in the population or the country has no history of ever functioning effectively. Outside expertise, such as from the world bank, and money (as in, most famouly, the marshall plan) can help, but they are no guarantee of success.

Adult female is called bitch and adult male is called dog.

Female comes to heat which is called season. Comes to season for first time at 6-8 months of age. Smaller breeds mature faster than large breeds.

SYMPTOMS OF HEAT

Females in heat becomes nuisance to both owner and public since the animal becomes unmanageable, goes out of house and sometimes street male dogs gets into house because of peculiar pheromone smell.

Has different stages

Okra

Genetic Resources

Okra [Abelmoschus esculentus (L) Monch.] s a crop of the tropical and subtropical owland regions of Africa, Asia, America and warmer temperate region of the Mediterranean. It is believed to be originated from tropical Asia or may have been existing in Africa and India as polyphylatic species. A. tuberculatus, one of the ancestors of okra occuring in India, has nine wild taxa, of which A. esculentus is popularly grown for pod production. The main region of cultivation and diversity of okra in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, are represented by various local cultivars of A. esculentus and A. moschatus (Table1).

1. Mitochondria

Mitochondria are known as the “Power House” of a cell because they are the site of ATP production. In addition, they are also involved with photorespiration and oxidation of fatty acids and work in association with peroxisomes, glyoxysomes and chloroplasts.

Isolation of intact mitochondria is rather difficult. This is because the cell walls of plant tissue are rigid as compared to the single-layered wall surrounding the mitochondria. A significant fraction of mitochondria suffer structural damage during the process of tissue homogenization. Therefore, the pelleted mitochondria need further purification by sucrose gradient centrifugation.

Mitochondria can be isolated from green as well as etiolated leaf; however, the latter is preferred to obtain higher yield of mitochondria (Moore and Proudlove, 1983).

Microorganisms live as single cells in nature in association with other cells in assemblage that we call “Population”. Such populations are composed of group of related cells generally derived by successive cell divisions from a single parent cell. The location in an environment where a population generally lives in association with other populations of cells called “Microbial communities”. Environmental microbiology deals with the study of these microbial communities in different habitats, naturally occurring on earth.

Natural habitats of microorganisms are exceedingly diverse. Any habitat that is suitable for the growth of microorganisms can also support the growth of other microorganisms. But in addition, there are many habitats where, extreme environment, due to chemical and physical factors, higher organisms cannot grow but microorganisms can grow and flourish. In this chapter, different habitats of microorganisms are discussed briefly.

Because microorganisms are so small, their habitats are also small. The term microenvironment is often used in ecology to describe where a microorganism actually lives and metabolites within its habitat.

Nutrient

Definition: Those elements are required for plant metabolism in more or less quantity, is known as nutrients. Plants have 30 types of elements but 17 elements out of 30 are essential for plant growth and development. These elements are called Essential nutrients.

Criteria of essentiality of plant nutrients theory: It is given by Arnon and Stout (1939). This theory stated that plant can not be completed their life cycle without the deficiency or complete absence of a single nutrient among the essential nutrients

Low of minimum: It is given by Justus Von Leibing (1840). According to this low, the growth of the plants is limited by the plant ntruient present in smaller quantity, all other being in adequate amounts. This has been re–stated as Barrel concept.

Allen and Arnon (1955) laid out following criteria for categorising nutrients essentiality to plants:

1. Complete or partial lack of the element in question must make normal plant growth impossible
2. Deficiency symptoms must be reversibly by the addition of the elements in question
3. The element must play specific role in the plant metabolic symptom

Soil fertility

• Soil serves as a source of nutrient required for the growth and development of plant. This characteristic of soil is called soil fertility.

Management practices

• Improved organic matter and soil moisture in soil, favours the growth of micro-organism beneficial for maintaining fertility of the soil.

Manures

• It is an organic waste material of plant and animal origin. It is used improvement of soil fertility. There are major 2 types of manure

1. Bulky organic manures
2. Concentrated organic manures

• Botanical name: Papavera somnifera
• Family: Papaveraceae
• Origin: Europe
• Useful part: Fruit/Capsule
• Chemical content: Morphine, Narcotine, Codine
• Flowering time: 95–115 days after sowing
• Capsule maturity: 15–20 days after flowering
• Uses: It is also called “God of sleep”. It is used in Painkillar, hypotonic effect and cure to leukaemia
• It is a licence crop and grow in Aari
• One aari equals to 100 m²
• Seed rate: For broadcasting: 7–8 Kg/ha

  For line sowing: 4–5 Kg/ha

• Thinning is important cultural practices.

Abstract

The seaquake on 26^th December 2004 with its epicenter at Sumatra triggered a tsunami, which had a major impact on South East Asian countries. During that incident, the average height of the tsunami wave was 7-10 m and the penetration of seawater was up to 1-1.5 km. The surface water resources meant for irrigation and other drinking purposes got affected by the ingress of seawater in many areas. The direct environmental impacts of the tsunami have more impact along the entire east coast and caused more damages in coastal systems. The physical and chemical perturbations caused in the coastal zone by the tidal waves are discussed. In order to assess the environmental impact on coastal system, it is suggested that significant physical and biogeochemical factors could be framed to quantify the problems.

Keywords: Tsunami, Physical and Chemical Alterations, Coastal zone.

5.1 The Need

In spite of the considerable experience and quite a few facilities available in the country, the growth of application of isotope techniques is not commensurate with India’s size, its climatic and hydrogeological diversity and the sheer range of its water resources problems.

The situation may not be unique to India and other developing countries. Australia also appears to be facing a similar problem. A recent publication [1] says ‘the limited uptake of the method may be due to a number of factors. Until relatively recently, isotope hydrology has remained a largely academic pursuit, or measurements were the domain of national atomic energy agencies. A large fraction of information lies buried in the grey literature or in arcane technical journals. Interaction with local or regional water resources agencies has been the exception rather than the rule’

India has probably a stronger case for a more effective use of isotope techniques. A large portion of groundwater occurs in hard rocks in India. Normal hydrogeological and geophysical methods cannot fully describe such groundwater regimes to effectively plan their exploitation. It is essential to apply tracer hydrology methods, especially isotope geochemical techniques, for a comprehensive understanding of the systems. The examples of Manikaran geothermal springs, seepage studies in Salal tunnel and in some dams, given in the earlier chapters come under this category. Studies on percolation tanks in basaltic terrain and on recharge processes need isotope support.

It will not be long before we would be planning to exploit very deep ground waters (>500 m), both in the hard rock terrains of peninsular India as well as in the Ganga plains to meet our ever growing need for water. We would need good understanding of the recharge processes to these deep ground waters. Isotopes will have a large role in such investigations.

Arid zone hydrology is yet another area where the potential of isotope techniques has been effectively demonstrated for the characterization of the recharge processes, both palaeo and modern, and including the role of ancient rivers.

Abstract

The analysis of IRS - 1A satellite imagery has indicated the existence of two NE - SW trending sub parallel faults along which the coast is undergoing land subsidence as revealed by the concavity in the shore line, preferential migration of the river systems and the drainage congestion, absence of beach ridges, occurrence of off shore shoal etc. The study has further indicated chains of tectonically induced environmental problems such as ground water logging, coastal zone flooding, storm surges, harbour sedimentation etc.

5.1 Impact of climate change on agriculture

Climate change has both positive and negatively impact on agriculture, food security and land degradation. Climate change could exacerbate the land degradation processes by increases in rainfall intensity, drought frequency and severity, dry spells, f looding, heat stress, sea-level rise and permafrost thaw. The 1/4^th of ice-free land area in the world is prone to human-induced anthropogenic degradation (Certini and Scalenghe, 2011; Hooke et al., 2012). Soil erosion rate is 20-100 times faster than that of soil formation in agricultural field. The erosion rate is least is zero-tillage (non-disturbed field) and maximum at conventional intensive tillage practices. Climate change further exacerbates the land degradation. The permafrost areas, dry-lands, low-lying coastal regions, river deltas are more vulnerable. The occurrence of drought in dry-land was increased by around 1% per year during 1961-2013 periods. On an average 380-620 million people globally experienced desertification who lived in dry-land areas (1980s and 2000s) in South and East Asia, North Africa, Middle East, Sahara region, and Arabian peninsula. Moreover, people who are already living in degraded/ desertified regions are more negatively affected by climate change.

Specifically, the land surface air temperature has increased about twice as much as the global average temperature since the pre-industrial era. The land-surface air temperature has increased relatively higher than the world’s average surface (land and ocean) temperature since the pre-industrial era (1850-1900). The average land-surface air temperature has enhanced by 1.53°C (1.38-1.68°C), whereas, world’s surface (including land and ocean) air temperature has enhanced by 0.87°C (0.75-0.99°C). Subsequently, global warming triggered the frequency, intensity and duration of heat waves and related damage. The direct and indirect impacts of climate change on global agriculture is summarised below for an overall idea about the importance of the issues.

Coastal ecosystems of india

India has a long coastline of 7,517 km that span 13 maritime states and union territories, surrounded by the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. It has an Exclusive Economic Zone of 2.02 million square kilometers. The country has a diverse range of habitats: continental area and offshore islands and a variety of coastal ecosystems such as estuaries, lagoons, coral reefs, mangroves, salt marshes, sea grass beds, backwaters, rocky coasts, mudf lats, sand dunes, and coastal beaches. Coasts and islands form 2.8% of India’s geographical area. The coastal ecosystem consists of 43,230 km² of coastal wetlands with 97 major estuaries and 34 major lagoons; 4921 km² of mangroves with 31 mangrove areas, and 3062.97 km² of coral reefs with 5 coral reef areas (MoEFCC, 2018). A network of 14 major, 44 medium and numerous minor rivers together with their tributaries with a total length of over 40,000 km, contribute to the coastal sea directly or indirectly. By area, tidal/mudf lats are predominant and by length, more than half of the Indian coastline is sandy. The states of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have extensive coastline (Fig. 1).

The aggregate of data forming a subject of investigation is known as population. Example, All the crop plants grown in a plot; all the fruit plants in an orchard, etc. The population may be:

1. Finite: No. of observations are definite. e.g., number of farms in a village, no. of house in a locality, no. of trees in an orchard are all finite population.
2. Infinite: Number of observation are indefinite e.g., (a) Number of insects in a region, number of grasses in a field etc. are all infinite population.

The Population may be:

1. hypothetical or theoretical

   Hypothetical population consists of unit that has no physical existence. This population exists only in imagination. For example, Result of tossing coin, throwing die,

2. Existent or real population consists of units that are physically present. This population actually exists. For example, Number of employees in a factory, Number of farms in a village.

INTRODUCTION

Mass production was the hallmark for improvement of productivity in early 20^th century. Subsequently the productivity development was driven by the use of information technology and related concepts like Entrepreise resource planning (ERP), Customer relationship Management (CRM), Business Process Reingineering, TQM etc. These technologies and concepts were instrumental in collection, codification, analysis, decision making and execution of decision which translated to better coordination and profitability. The ability to harness synergy out of the information systems, coordinated team and goal orientation helped in executing strategies with sharpness, proactively identifying customer need, responding to social context and competitive scenario with alacrity. As it stands now, with internet and multimedia technologies it is faster to form organization, reach out to the stakeholders. Technology mediation has improved the productivity and quality of economic activities. It has still lot more options to come in the 21^st century.

Sovereign state performances from different parts of the world have been going through a different set of social and performance context. Over last couple of decades multiple social issues have surfaced. Issues like “rich and poor divide”, “increase of least developed countries (LDCs)”, have forced a thinking about the efficacy and efficiency of governance processes. The social and economic context in multiple countries gave rise to the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) of the UN. Governments in most of the countries have short life span than before, and are now elected with lower margins. The recent Jasmine revolution has eliminated entrenched dictators, almost without bloodshed vastly due to the use of technology like, social-e-media platforms. Regional aspirations have become strong, vociferous and demanding. Splintering of USSR, Sudan, Unification of Germany, Iraq, overthrowing of monarchy in Nepal and closer home in India, there is clamour for more states. In a multi-party democracy, few national parties have got splintered into or have given rise to multiple regional political parties to represent the local aspirations. Governments are now grappling with economic crisis. Democracy as the form of the government, ironically, has not been able to live upto the expectations. On different facet, recently the issues like wikieleaks and exposure of snooping of different governments on its own citizens, have indicated the lack of trust of people.

Introduction

In India, almost 85 % of our population resides in rural areas and the same proportion is dependent on agriculture for sustenance and animal husbandry for additional income. Distribution of livestock is more equitable compared to that of land and about 85 percent of livestock are owned by the landless, marginal and small landholding families. This sector provides employment for the farmers through livestock farming as well as in processing, value addition and marketing of livestock products.

Rapid population, economic growth, increased demand for livestock products such as meat and dairy products, in?uences the present livestock production systemtowards intensive production. There is increased con?ict over scarce resources such as land, water, food grains etc. Losing livestock assets for rural communities might lead to abject poverty with serious effect ontheir livelihoods. The climate change impact will worsen the vulnerability of livestock systems and those farmers depending on livestock, particularly the poor.

Vegetable crops, known as protective foods, are important for the healthy diet providing vitamins, minerals, fibre, amino acids and other bioactive compounds. Improvement in vegetable crops is inevitable for better yield, pest or disease resistance, morphological characters, nutritive quality, to adapt with environmental stress, climate change, offseason production, satisfying varying consumer preference etc. Vegetable crops comprise of a large number of species and are rich in diversity. Diverse genetic resources are pre-requisite for any crop improvement programme and vegetable improvement is carried out using exotic introductions, indigenous collection and hybrids/varieties by different breeding systems. Characterisation of genotypes is the description of germplasm giving information on heritable characters so that promising one can be utilised in breeding programme which is the best option for higher yield and other qualities. The morphological, physiological and molecular (biochemical and DNA) traits are called qualitative descriptor and yield, pest/disease resistance, stress tolerance etc are quantitative descriptors that are easily influenced by the environment factors. Apart from the higher production and resistance to biotic and abiotic factors, nutritional traits, flavour, processing qualities that increase the food value is also important in improvement programme of fruits as well as vegetables.

Genetic resources of vegetables available at international and national levels are characterised, evaluated and conserved. With the high diversity of vegetable crops, characterisation and evaluation of genetic resources become a stupendous responsibility requiring extensive infrastructure facilities and varying methods of evaluation (Srivastva, 2012). Genetic resources are characterised on highly heritable traits expressed across the environment. Apart from morphological characterisation, biochemical and molecular characterisation is also conducted that are useful for the identification of biotic and abiotic stress parameters, nutritional and processing quality. Genotype characterisation can be done efficiently using potential of biochemical and molecular markers that help to set up the breeding programme.

By Alkaline Lysis Method

Introduction

DNA of prokaryotic cells is relatively simple in comparison to that of eukaryotic cells. In addition to chromosomal DNA, a bacterium may also carry an additional piece of DNA called a plasmid. Bacterial plasmids are double stranded closed circular DNA molecules that range in size from 1 kb to more than 200kb. Plasmids are useful to bacterial cells since they carry genes for antibody resistance, RM system etc that allow bacteria to survive in non-ideal conditions.

Plasmids constructed in the laboratory are used as cloning vehicles. These synthetic plasmids contain only essential features such as origin of replication, antibiotic resistance, multiple cloning sites etc. various copy number of plasmid For e.g. pBR322 20 copy/cell – low copy number, pUC 18, pUC 18- 800 copy/cell – high copy number.

Alkaline lysis, in combination with the detergent sds, has been used for more than 20 years to isolate plasmid DNA from E.coli (Birnboim and Doly 1979). This experiment describes how to extract plasmid from bacteria – which involves growth of bacterial culture, harvesting and lysis of bacteria and isolation of plasmid DNA from the lysate using alkaline lysis method. The DNA is analysed on agarose gel.

Introduction

Ligation of DNA fragment is one prime important in genetic engineering because without ligation we could not transfer the interest gene.DNA cloning requires the DNA sequence of interest to be inserted in a vector DNA molecule. For this, both the vector as well as insert DNA is prepare by digestion with compatible restriction enzymes, so that the ends produced during digestion is complementary in both. When setting up ligation, it is important to consider the permutations that can occur and bias the relative concentration of DNA accordingly. Usually a 5- to 10-fold excess of insert over the vector DNA is the norm. This ensures that enough ligated product will be produced in the right orientation.

Introduction

Western blot analysis can detect one protein in a mixture of any number of proteins while giving you information about the size of the protein. It does not matter whether the protein has been synthesized in vivo or in vitro. This method is, however, dependent on the use of a high-quality antibody directed against a desired protein. So you must be able to produce at least a small portion of the protein from a cloned DNA fragment. You will use this antibody as a probe to detect the protein of interest.

Western blotting tells you how much protein has accumulated in cells. If you are interested in the rate of synthesis of a protein, Radio-Immune Precipitation (RIP) may be the best assay for you. Also, if a protein is degraded quickly, Western blotting won’t detect it well; you’ll need to use (RIP). See the section on RIP for more information, as well as a helpful comparative chart that illustrates the differences between these two techniques.

Soil pollution is any physical or chemical change in soil that adversely affects the health of plants and other organisms living in and on it.

Soil pollution is important not only in its own right but because so many soil pollutants tend to move into surface water, groundwater, or air.

The chief soil pollutants are salts, petroleum products, heavy metals, and agricultural chemicals. Point source releases of industrial solvents (both LNAPLs and DNAPLs) and feedstock chemicals (e.g., for making plastics) often occur as the result of LUSTs (leaking underground storage tanks).

Salinization, a common problem in irrigated arid and semiarid regions, makes soil unfit for growing most crops. It is extremely difficult to remove excess salts from salinized soils.

A variety of techniques are used for soil remediation, which is cleaning up contaminated soil.

1. These include physical techniques such as
   1. Soil vapor extraction (SVE), moving air through the soil.
   2. Thermal conduction heating, heating the soil before SVE.
2. Bioremediation methods include
   1. Landfarming, fertilizing, liming, and repeatedly plowing contaminated soil to stimulate bacterial decomposition of high molecular weight hydrocarbons like those in diesel oil.
   2. Bioventing, pumping air at low rates through soil to provided O₂.
   3. Biosparging, pumping air into aquifers to provided O₂.
   4. Phytoremediation, particularly useful for removing heavy metals.

Nose

The nose is the externally visible part of the respiratory system. It forms the part of the face of the animal extending from the transverse level of eyes to the rostral end of the head. Exteriorly it is formed by the bones, muscles, cartilages and the skin. Internally it encloses the nasal cavity which is lined by the mucous membrane. The dorsal part of the nose (roof of the nasal cavity) is termed as dorsum nasi. It is formed by the nasal and frontal bones of the skull. The lateral parts are formed by the incisive, maxillary, lacrimal and zygomatic bones. Covering these bones externally is a muscular layer formed by the facial muscles running over these bones and acting on the upper lip and nostrils. The muscular layer is externally covered by the skin. The skin on the nose bears fine hairs except at the tip of the nose that is formed by the nostrils. The rostral end of the nose is formed by nostrils which provide entrance to the nasal cavity. The nostrils are supported by cartilages which are the dorsal and ventral extensions of the cartilage of the nasal septum. The main aim of the nose is to support and protect the nasal cavity.

The skeleton of thorax (Fig. 3-1) consists of a bony cage formed by thirteen thoracic vertebrae constituting its dorsal boundary and roof, thirteen pairs of ribs forming its lateral walls, the costal cartilages which assist the ribs to form the lateral walls and the sternum forming its floor.

The general architecture of the vertebrae and the vertebral column is described in the chapter on skeletal system under PART ONE (Systemic anatomy) of this book. Only the deviations from the general characteristics of vertebrae as occur in the thoracic vertebrae are described here in the following account on the thoracic vertebrae.

Thoracic vertebrae

These are thirteen in number in ox (Fig. 3-1 A and B) The characteristic features of these vertebrae are the presence of capitular facets for articulation with the head of the rib and the greater development of dorsal spinous processes (neural spines).for attachment of muscles of the back and the supraspinous ligament that helps in the ligamentum nuchae to extend and suspend the head with the body trunk.

Surface anatomy of the organs of left side of abdominal cavity

Rumen

Topography of the rumen: The left side of the abdomen in cow is completely occupied by the rumen except for a small area occupied by the reticulum at its cranial end and the spleen on the craniodorsal aspect sandwiched between the dorsal border of rumen and the diaphragm. The rumen lies in contact with the left abdominal wall extending from seventh or eight intercostal space where it touches the diaphragm to the transverse plane of the tuber coxae where it almost touches the pelvic inlet.

Palpation of rumen: The rumen can be palpated in the left flank of the abdomen and is usually palpated in the dorsal third of the flank region. In ruminants, the contraction begins at reticulum and it continues in rumen in succession and hence is considered as ruminoreticular contraction cycle. It begins with double contraction of reticulum followed immediately by the contraction of rumen. The rumen contraction begins in the cranial sac and progresses to the dorsal sac and then to the ventral sac. During the contraction of the ventral sac, the dorsal sac is forced out which appears as a bulging at the paralumbar fossa. After this, there is a pause of 30 seconds and thereafter the second ruminal contraction begins which is usually associated with eructation. The ruminoreticular contraction cycle ends with the end of second ruminal contraction. Following this, the second cycle begins. Thus there are two palpable rumen contractions per minute. This rate of contraction increases to 2.8 contractions per minute during the act of feeding of the animal.

Objectives

• Differentiate between fixatives and stains.
• Describe methods of staining.
• List the commonly used fixatives and stains and their composition.
• Describe the uses of above mentioned solutions and stains.

Introduction

Every time a part of an organism is removed, the action of bacteria will soon disintegrate, dry or putrefy it. They must be kept as close to normal as possible or in other words preserved and fixed in order to study these. Chemicals are required in many practical of Biology. Some of these chemicals preserve and specifically colour certain cell parts while others are used as solutions. You will learn about certain fixatives (preservatives) and stains in this chapter.

Objectives

• Detection of linkage using Chi-square test for goodness of fit.

Introduction

The tendency of two or more genes to stay together during inheritance is known as linkage and it is the consequence of the concerned genes being located in the same chromosome. Linked genes do not show independent segregation, as a result the ratios obtained in F₂ and test cross generation are significantly different from the expected ratios of 9:3:3:1 and 1:1:1:1, respectively.

Detection of linkage χ² using test

In genetic experiments, when the material under study is segregating simultaneously for two characters, it may be of interest to know whether the two characters are inherited independently or they are linked. The χ² test can be used for this purpose. χ² test is used in detecting linkage in back crosses and inter crosses.

First the χ² is computed based on the theoretical segregating ratios. If χ² is not significant it may be concluded that the loci segregate independently. If χ² is significant we may suspect linkage between the loci. The χ² is then partitioned into components assignable to different factors.

Objectives

• Study of gene mapping.

Introduction

All the genes that are linked together form a linkage group. Genes of a linkage group may be presented on a single straight line in the same order in which they are normally present on the concerned chromosome. The number of different linkage groups in a species is, as a rule, equals to its gametic chromosome number (n). The distance between two neighbouring genes is proportional to the frequency of recombination (%) between them depicted on a line drawing. Such a line drawing depicting the linked genes the recombination frequencies between them is known as Linkage map, Genetic map or Chromosome map. Linkage maps provide information on the genes that are linked together and the frequencies of recombination that may be expected between them. The frequency of recombination between two linked genes cannot exceed 50% which is the frequency in case of independent segregation.