eChapters

Techniques have been developed to produce nanotubes in sizeable quantities, including arc discharge, laser ablation, high pressure carbon monoxide (HiPCO),andchemicalvapor deposition (CVD).Mostof these processes take place in vacuum or with process gases. CVD growth of CNTs can occur in vacuum or at atmospheric pressure. Large quantities of nanotubes can be synthesized by these methods; advances incatalysis and continuous growthprocessesare making CNTs more commercially viable.

Strength

Carbon nanotubes are the strongest and stiffest materials yet discovered in terms of tensile strength and elastic modulus respectively. This strength results from the covalent sp² bonds formed between the individual carbon atoms. In 2000, a multi-walled carbon nanotube was tested to have a tensile strength of 63 gigapascals (GPa). (This, for illustration, translates into the ability to endure tension of 6300 kg on a cable with cross-section of 1 mm².) Since carbon nanotubes have a low density for a solid of 1.3 to 1.4 g·cm”³, its specific strength of up to 48,000 kN·m·kg”¹ is the best of known materials, compared to high-carbon steel’s 154 kN·m·kg”¹. Under excessive tensile strain, the tubes will undergo plastic deformation, which means the deformation is permanent. This deformation begins at strains of approximately 5% and can increase the maximum strain the tubes undergo before fracture by releasing strain energy.

Nanosensors are any biological, chemical, or sugery sensory points used to convey information about nanoparticles to the macroscopic world. Their use mainly include various medicinal purposes and as gateways to building other nanoproducts, such as computer chips that work at the nanoscaleand nanorobots. Presently, there are several ways proposed to make nanosensors, including Top-down and bottom-up design, top-downlithography, bottom-upassembly, and molecular self-assembly.

Predicted applications

Medicinal uses of nanosensors mainly revolve aroundthe potential of nanosensors to accurately identify particular cells or places in the body in need. By measuring changes in volume, concentration, displacement and velocity, gravitational,electrical, and magneticforces, pressure, or temperature of cells in a body, nanosensors may be able to distinguish between and recognize certain cells, most notably those of cancer, at the molecular level in order to deliver medicine or monitor development to specific places in the body. In addition, they may be able to detect macroscopic variations from outside the body and communicate these changes to other nanoproducts working within the body.

The societal implications of nanotechnology are the potential benefits and challenges that the introduction of novelnanotechnological devices and materials may hold for society and human interaction. The term is sometimes expanded to also include nanotechnology’s health and environmental implications, but this article will only consider the social and political implications of nanotechnology.

As nanotechnology is an emerging field andmostof its applications are still speculative, there is much debate about what positive and negative effects that nanotechnology might have.

Beyond the toxicity risks to human health and the environment which are associated with first-generation nanomaterials, nanotechnology has broader societal implications and poses broader social challenges. Social scientistshave suggestedthatnanotechnology’s social issues should be understood and assessed not simply as “downstream” risks or impacts. Rather, the challenges should be factored into “upstream” research and decision making in order to ensure technology development that meets social objectives.

Nanotechnology, which deals with understanding and control of matter at dimension of roughly 100 nm and below, has a cross sectoral application and an interdisciplinary orientation. At this scale, the physical, chemical and biological properties of materials differ from the properties of individual atoms and molecules or bulk matter, which enable novel applications. Nanotechnology research and development is directed towards understanding and creating improved materials, devices and systems that exploit these properties as they are discovered and characterized

There are many applications of nanotechnology such as in the area of medicine, chemistry and environment, energy, agriculture, information and communication, heavy industry and consumer goods. The alleged potential of this technology has garnered the attention of both developed and developing countries across the globe. The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has listed it as one of six priority areas; it is one of the themesin the EU Framework Program for Research and Technological Development in Europe; and it has been the focus of research in countries worldwide.

Male Reproductive System

Male reproductive system (Fig. 15) consists of testes, epididymis, vas deferens and papillae.

Cocks have two ovoid creamy white testes, of which the left one is slightly larger than the right. Testes are located in the fore end of the kidneys in the abdominal cavity. Closely attached to the testes is short epididymis that continues as vas deferens which ends in the cloaca. The copulatory apparatus consists of two papillae and a rudimentary copulatory organ, the phallus which is located on the median ventral portion of one of the transverse folds of cloaca. Accessory reproductive organs like seminal vesicles, prostrate and Cowper’s glands are absent in the cocks. The phallus is small and has associated lymph glands that produce a fluid which is added to the semen.

The spermatozoa pass through the epididymis and are stored in the distal end of the vas deferens. The sperm after mating is stored in the folds in the oviduct of the hen to effect fertility up to six days. The spermatozoa of the cock have a long cylindrical head with a pointed acrosome, a short mid-piece and a long tail. Cocks produce about 0.5 -1 ml of whitish semen per ejaculate with a sperm concentration of 2- 4 billion.

Importance of Backyard Poultry Farming in India

Commercial chicken production in India has undergone a remarkable change in the last three decades. While India is among the top five chicken producing and top seven duck producing countries in the world, the gap between the demand and production is still alarming. Average per capita availability of eggs in big cities is 170 while it stands at 9 eggs per annum in the rural areas. Though the commercial poultry sector has made a stupendous progress over the years, the conventional free and backyard poultry farming remain neglected. Backyard poultry farming contributes around 11% to the national production while in certain states like U.P. around 60% of the poultry population is indigenous fowls reared under backyard system. The backyard sector contributed to 23 per cent of the total egg production in 2005-06.

Commercial chicken production is capital intensive and is generally concentrated in and around urban areas. There is a wide disparity in consumption of the poultry products between urban and rural population. Around 75% of country’s population living in the rural areas has limited access to the protein rich poultry products. Protein deficiency is quite common in the diets of rural people. Adoption of rural poultry farming may ameliorate the high incidence of protein hunger in growing children and pregnant women.

It has been seen that the commercial birds have poor immunity against common poultry diseases. As production is inversely proportional to the viability traits, the nutrients absorbed are mostly diverted for growth in commercial chicken. On the other hand, indigenous birds reared in rural areas are resistant to many diseases and pests. Unlike the local breeds maintained in villages, the commercial breeds require high level of input pertaining to feed and health care to maintain production and check mortality.

Poultry industry in India has registered a phenomenal growth during the last four decades making it one among the world leaders in poultry production. The development of organized poultry has in fact masked the contribution of backyard poultry or house-hold poultry of rural sector. Backyard poultry production in India is characterized by small flock size consisting of 5-10 predominantly non-descript birds maintained in extensive system under zero input conditions but fetch the owners much needed animal protein and supplementary income. Importance of backyard poultry is well recognized by Government of India and special programmes are formulated for its promotion.

Non-descript Chicken

Maintaining small flocks of local non-descript fowls under free range condition by landless poor, small and marginal farmers are a common sight in rural areas. These birds are very popular due to their adaptability to local agro climatic conditions and management practices with prominent brooding behaviour and mothering ability. But these birds are small in size, poor layers (40-50 eggs/ annum), with small clutch size and intense brooding behavior, thus making them not suitable for commercial exploitation.

Mixed farming exists in many forms depending on external and internal factors. External factors are weather patterns, market prices, technological developments, etc. Internal factors relate to local soil characteristics, composition of the family and farmers’ ingenuity. Farmers can decide to opt for mixed enterprises when they want to save resources by interchanging them on the farm - because these permit wider crop rotations and thus reduce dependence on chemicals, because they consider mixed systems closer to nature, or because they allow diversification for better risk management. There is wide variation in mixed systems. Even pastoralists practice a form of mixed farming since their livelihood depends on the management of different feed resources and animal species. Mixed farms are systems that consist of different parts, which together should act as a whole. They thus need to be studied in their entirety and not as separate parts in order to understand the system and the factors that drive farmers and influence their decisions. It may be the most important principle to achieve increased production in mixed systems, together with the awareness that crops and animals have multiple functions.

Vices of poultry are undesirable behavioural pattern manifested by the bird in the flock and spreads fast among the members resulting in financial losses.

Types of Vices

Pecking

Cannibalism

Egg eating

5.1. INTRODUCTION

The word ‘probability’ means “reasonable likelihood of happening of an event”. In biology it is difficult to predict an outcome with absolute certainty. Probability helps us to estimate the occurrence of relative frequency of any (biological) event and is an accepted measure of uncertainty.

Mathematically, the probability ‘P’ that an event ‘E’ will occur, is expressed as:

Units/measures are used to specify quantities. Every unit has a well-defined standard basic value, which is used as a reference in measurements. The units used in scientific practice constitute a scientifically established system, SI (Système International). Although only SI units are official , numerous non-SI units are still widely used (calorie, Ångström, Celsius etc.). We distinguish two types of quantities with two corresponding types of SI units. The base quantities cannot be derived from other quantities. Many of these are used in biochemistry (names of units and their symbols are given in brackets) to quantify the mass (gram, g), the length (meter, m), the time (second, s), the temperature (kelvin, K) and the charge (coulomb, C). Much larger is the group of derived quantities. Of these, the various units of concentration (to characterise the abundance of materials in solutions and other mixtures), volume and energy are the ones most frequently used in biochemistry. It is important to note that the terms mass and weight are often used interchangeably as alternatives. Technically, however, they have different meanings. The mass is the total quantity of matter in an object, which comes from the mass of all of its protons and neutrons, although not simply additively. Weight is a measure of the gravitational force exerted on an object. As the mass of protons and neutrons is the unit mass, their total mass in an object (e.g. the mass of a molecule, the molar mass) is a unitless number (e.g. the molar mass of water is 18). In other words, the molar mass is a relative number that would reflect the number of protons and neutrons in an atom or molecule, if the masses of protons and neutrons were additive. We make mass measurable by expressing it in grams because this way we can handle it as weight and measure it with a balance, the device developed for this purpose. 

ALL MATTER IS IN MOTION

Everything moves:

In the atom electrons rotate around the nucleus

In gases, liquids and even solids molecules move away from other molecules

An accumulation of matter (i.e., a baseball) can move as a unit

The average velocity of movement is the distance travelled divided by the time

Bodies in motion have energy; the faster the velocity the more energy

MENDEL’S RULES OF GENETICS DO NOT ALWAYS WORK

Mendel’s rules:

Segregation of alleles

Independent assortment of genes for different characters

Hold for characters:

Which have dominant & recessive traits

Determined by single genes

Genes are on separate chromosomes

Different types of chromosomes, or

Different homologues of same type of chromosome

These conditions are not always met, so there are many complications

Chromosomes are giant molecules of DNA

Found in nucleus: never leave except in cell division

Carry hereditary units, genes

Two homologous copies in diplod cells

Unwind when replicating or making RNA

Wind up (condense) in cell division

Attach to spindle and separate in meiosis & mitosis

Crossing over in prophase of 1st meiotic division

Chromosomes are equally distributed in mitosis, meiosis

Gametes have half the number of chromosomes as body cells

Sister chromatids are observed to split apart longitudinally in anaphase

UNTIL THE 1940S BIOLOGISTS ARGUED ABOUT WHETHER DNA OR PROTEIN WAS THE MOLECULE OF HEREDITY

Nuclei observed to divide when cells reproduced themselves

Large amounts of both DNA & protein in the nucleus

Many though protein was most likely molecule of heredity

Proteins made of 20 different amino acids- could have more variety than DNA (made of only 4 different bases)

Restriction enzymes cut only at specific sequences of 4 to 8 bases

A long restriction site is rare. Cutting rare sites will produce a few large pieces of DNA.

Restriction enzymes with long sites → small number of large fragments

Restriction enzymes with short sites → large number of small fragments

INTRODUCTION

Prediction of helminthic infections is impractical. The aim of any control programme must therefore, ensure that parasite populations do not exceed levels compatible with economic production. The parasitological monitoring (e. g. faecal egg counts or pasture sampling) at intervals, forecasting on the basis of meteorological data and computer simulation may provide an alternate approach to control parasitic infection (Brunsdon, R. V. , 1980) in a given geographical area. The most common gastrointestinal parasite prevalent throughout the year in Meghalaya, India is Strongyle infection. This is because of the high rainfall and humidity prevalent in the North-Eastern region.

As the prevalence of this infection is mainly dependent on rainfall and humidity, study was being initiated to identify the relationship between rainfall/temperature and strongyle infection. The study would be also helpful in predicting/ forecasting the disease occurrence based on the prevailing pattern of rainfall in a particular location.

Introduction

The town Paithan is famous by it’s name Dakshin Kashi. Godavari river has pristine glory and great significance for Hindus.

Nath temple is situated on the bank of Godavari river. It is a holy place and that’s why it becomes a place of public gathering on Ekadashi, Aashadi Ekadashi, Poornima, Deepawali, Dasera etc. Every year during Chaitra lakhs of people gather.

But at the time of Sheshti, which occurs once in a year is a special event. Hence many fold increase of congregation compared to other melas. The particular small stretch of river near temple was highly polluted, due to mass bathing and other polluting activities. The warm weather shall alter the photosynthesis rates, biodegradation and affect BOD, DO, pH etc. Recent Nath Sheshti at Paithan during 20^th March to 22^nd March 2006, drew about one lakh of pilgrims and had a few special aspects of interests from an environmental point of view.

Considering all the above aspects, it was decided to assess the changes in quality of river Godavari during Nath Sheshti.

Introduction

India is having very rich sources of inland water bodies in the form of river, lakes and reservoirs. The reservoirs are constructed by impounding the river system. The reservoirs are constructed for effective utilisation of water for irrigation, power generation and flood control. Reservoir fishery in India is also important from socio-economic point of view as it has the potential of providing employment to about two million people, Kaushal and Sharma (2001). Total area under the reservoirs in India is 3:1 million ha and it is expected to double by 2020. This includes 19,000 small reservoirs with a total water surface area of 14,85,557 ha and about 180 medium and 56 large reservoirs of 5,27,541 and 11,40, 268 ha area respectively.

The Maharashtra is endowed with an area of 1,79,430 ha under reservoir and the Maharashtra produces 516 tonnes of fish through reservoirs. The state fisheries corporation was operating in 6,272 ha of reservoirs and marketing the catches.

Introduction

Disaster is defined as a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society causing widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses, which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources (ISDR 2002).

Disaster in Global context - The impact of natural disasters in terms of human and economic losses has risen in recent years, society in general has become more vulnerable to natural disasters. Those usually most affected by natural and other disasters are the poor and socially disadvantaged groups in developing countries as they are least equipped to cope with them (IFRC 2001).

We let you know that the type of people in a given region is closely linked to the kind of resources found in the concerned region; and which are necessary for human beings to survive.

In fact, more than 100 countries possess arid lands, where more than 40% of the global population lives. The soils of these regions present too much fragility and they are too degraded that they can’t allow people to survive.

Let’s emphasize that in Africa, two third of the total area are arid zones. Thus, for Africans, the type of their struggle for adaptation to the context of their land, illustrates their ingenious capacity to model their hostile surroundings and to leave marks of their cultures all over prehistory and history.

Social organizations in those arid areas are closely linked to modes of exploitation and valuation of resources (water and land). However, human productions in those areas are doubly menaced; on one side by the action of humans who exploit resources for their immediate needs, and on the other side, by climate adverse effects during long periods of drought. It means that climate change and violent meteorological phenomenon worsen circumstances. That leads to environmental degradation and biodiversity reduction; alarming deterioration of vital conditions; and intensification of poverty, both in rural and urban areas; particularly among women and young. Consequently, there are non durable (viable) agricultural practices, overexploitation, overgrazing, excessive and illegal forestry exploitation; destruction of forests and bushes by non-controlled fires, pillages and conflicts with weapons; reduction of vegetation, due to the scarcity of rain; of water in general and menaces of heaps of sands.

Principle

The principle is to extract plasmid DNA from bacterial cell suspensions and is based on the alkaline lysis procedure developed by Birnboim and Doly (Nucleic Acids Research 7:1513, 1979). It is a known fact that plasmids are much smaller super coiled DNA molecules than the much larger and less super coiled bacterial chromosomal DNA. This difference in topology enables selective precipitation of the chromosomal DNA and cellular proteins and separates them from plasmids and RNA molecules. The cells are lysed under alkaline conditions, which denature both nucleic acids and proteins, and when the solution is neutralized by the addition of Potassium Acetate, chromosomal DNA and proteins precipitate because it is impossible for them to renature correctly (they are so large). Plasmids renature correctly and stay in solution, effectively separating them from chromosomal DNA and proteins.

Principle

The rate of joining of DNA fragments is affected by seven parameters:

DNA concentration,

Concentration of compatible ends,

Size of the fragments,

Presence or absence of complementary, single-stranded ends (some nucleases form blunt ends and in these cases special techniques are needed for joining),

G + C content and length of the complementary single strands,

Temperature of the reaction and

Ionic composition of the solution.

Steps for Cloning

Prepare DNA.

Select restriction enzymes for your insert and vector, and determine the appropriate reaction buffers.

Combine the following in a microfuge tube (30 µL total volume):
2 µg DNA
1 µL Each Restriction Enzyme
3 µL 10x Buffer
3 µL 10x BSA
x µL H₂O (to bring total volume to 30 µL)

Principle

To retrieve and purify any specific DNA fragment from an agarose gel slice; the expected yield is from 50-75% of the amount in the gel slice.

Time required

Restriction digest - minimum of 2 hours

Electrophoresis - approx. 4 hours

Elution - 2-5 hours depending on fragment size

DNA Purification -2 hours

Principle

RNA is negatively charged at neutral pH and when an electric field is applied, it migrates towards the anode. RNA retains much of its secondary structure during electrophoresis unless it is first denatured. The addition of formaldehyde to the agarose gel maintains the RNA in its linear (denatured) form. The following protocol is based on Formaldehyde Agarose Gel Method.

This protocol is designed for potato stem internodes on ZIG medium, but might work for leaf pieces as well.

Plant Material

Cut stem internode explants from 5-6-week-old in vitro plants (or leaf explants from 3-4-week-old in vitro plants) grown on 15 ml PROP in 25 x 150 mm test tubes.

Day 1

Streak out desired Agrobacterium strain on YEP + antibiotic to obtain a single colony. Grow at 28 C for 2 days. Alternatively, skip this step and use frozen stock for next step.

Day 3

Use a single Agrobacterium colony to inoculate 20 ml YEP + antibiotic in 250-ml flask. Grow overnight at 28 C with vigorous shaking (~200 rpm). Some Agrobacterium strains require an additional day to reach sufficient density.

Introduction

The advancements in the field of informatics, biology and allied fields of technology led to the emergence of an inter-disciplinary field known as ‘Bioinformatics’ (Kumar 2006, Madhan Mohan 2006). Explosion of knowledge in the field of biology and generation of new information (data) needs collection, storage, organization, integration, analysis, simulation of biological data and a faster distribution among the scientific workers (Mehrotra et al. 2005). The advent of super computers, high speed computing and development of algorithms for data formatting, assists in the storage of data at the site of origin and distributed through the hyperlinks in world wide web (www).

The vast field of Bioinformatics is beyond the scope of this article. However to elucidate the concepts that led to the the development of Bioinformatics vis-à-vis is given in brief before explaining the new and emerging area of ‘fluxomics’.

Information is a basic resource essential for individual and organization in order to survive and succeed in society. Floriculture is a technology driven industry needing technological advancement. The new technologies that are being developed at various places the world over, needs to be disseminated through proper and quick linkage between the researchers and the beneficiaries i.e. the farmers. This demand can be met out by information technology. Information is data put into a meaningful and useful text. Today, information technology (IT) is a metaresource and computers are being used as a metatool and a metamedia.

COMPONENTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

An information technology architecture is an integrated framework for acquiring and evolving IT to achieve strategic goals. It has both logical and technical components. Logical components include mission, functional and information requirements, system configurations and information flows. Technical components include IT standards and rules that will be used to implement the logical architecture.

Input devices: The advent of touch screen monitors has made it possible to develop user-friendly interface for farmers. It is now possible to capture and store good quality graphics and video clips with digital cameras.

Output devices: Output devices like monitor screen, printers and plotters, data projectors support high resolution and good quality output.

Processors: The processing speeds of computers have improved a lot these days. At present, Intel P-IV based processors @ 3.3 Ghz are available in the PC range.

Storage devices: To store substantial information at local level. Capacity of 40 GB and higher are common in hard disk devices, besides floppy disk drives and CDs; all making it possible to transfer large amount of data to locations which cannot be connected to networks quickly.

World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international body which deals with the “Rules of Trade” between nations on the basis of the agreements negotiated and signed by most of the world’s trading nations. These agreements are essentially contracts that bind governments to keep their trade policies within predefined limits. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters and importers.

The purpose of WTO agreement is to help free flow of trade, serve as a forum for trade negotiations and to serve as a dispute settlement body. There are 5 broad principles of the trading system followed under WTO:

Trade without discrimination

Freer trade, gradually through negotiations

Predictability, through binding

Promotion of fair competition

Encouragement to development and economic reforms.

CONTAMINATION

The healthy inner flesh of meat contains few or no microorganisms, although they have been found in lymph nodes, bone marrow and intestine. Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Clostridium and Salmonella have been isolated from lymph nodes of red meat animals. During slaughtering the lymph nodes are removed from edible parts. The important contamination, however comes from external sources during bleeding, handling and processing. During bleeding, skinning and cutting the main sources of microorganisms are from the exterior of the animal- hide, hoof and hair and the intestinal tract. The exterior of the animal harbours large number and many kinds of microorganisms from soil, water, feed and manure as well as its natural surface flora.

Knives, cloths, air and hands and clothing of workers can serve as intermediate sources of contamination. During handling and processing the contamination can come from containers, air, other contaminated meat, equipments and personnel.

Molds that grow on the surface of the meat include the species of Cladosporium, Sporotrichum, Geotrichum, Mucor, Monilia, Penicillium and Alternaria. The important bacteria found in meat are Staphylococcus, Sarcina, Streptococcus, Clostridium, Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, Proteus, Flavobacterium, Bacillus, Streptomyces, Escherichia and Salmonella.

14.1. EGGS

India is the third largest producer of eggs. Fresh eggs are gathered on automatic collection belts at the farm and stored in a cooler at about 7°C. The eggs are then delivered to a central processing plant, where they are washed, sanitized, and graded. Grading involves the sorting of eggs into size and quality categories using automated machines. Flash candling (passing the eggs over a strong light source) detects any abnormalities such as cracked eggs and eggs containing bloodspots or other defects. Higher-grade eggs have a thick, upstanding white, an oval yolk, and a clean, smooth, unbroken shell.

14.1.1. Eggs Contamination

More than 90 percent of all eggs are free of contamination at the time they are laid; contamination with Salmonella bacteria and with certain spoilage organisms occurs essentially afterward. They become contaminated by faecal matter from the hen, by the lining of nest, by handling, by wash water and packing materials. The total number of microorganisms per shell of a hen’s egg was found to range from 100 to 10,000,000 with a mean of about 100,000. Proper washing and sanitizing of eggs eliminates most Salmonella and spoilage organisms deposited on the shell. The organism Salmonella enteritidis, a common cause of gastroenteritis (a form of food poisoning), has been found to be transferred through the hen ovary in fewer than 1 percent of all eggs produced. Ovarian- transferred S. enteritidis can be controlled by thorough cooking of eggs (i.e., until there are no runny whites or yolk).

Bacterial species vary greatly in the ability of their cultures to remain alive after the completion of growth. Some species such as Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Streptobacillus are poorly viable and their cultures usually die out within a few day, whether kept at 37°C at room temperature or at 4-5°C; thus, they must be sub cultivated every 2-4 days for maintenance in the laboratory. Other species are much hardier,. especially sporing species which may remain viable for many years. There are also many non - sporing species (enterobacteriaceae) whose cultures, under suitable conditions, commonly remain viable for many months and often for as much as 10-20 years.

This chapter sheds light on a geohazard namely quicksand. Unlike other geohazards, it waits for its victims to cause hazard. Though discounted as a myth and also as a monster problem in Hollywood film stories, phenomenon of quicksand is real and could inflict life threatening dangers. Analyses of genetic causes, associated properties and locales of its occurrences indicate that more deaths might have resulted due to panic and drowning in waters than by quicksand itself. Based on these inferences, potential mitigation measures are presented in this chapter.

INTRODUCTION

Quicksand, referred as “pudhai manal” in Tamil, is one of the lesser known dangerous natural phenomena that cause death of human and other unsuspecting animals. It is a geohazard of different sort. It is different in a sense that it never “goes” anywhere like tsunami or causes hazard like flood or landslide or any other geohazard; but it waits for hapless victims; that is., it is harmless until human beings or other fauna step into the region of quicksand. It is commonly prevalent in many river beds and other locales near water bodies located amidst dense forests. Many a deaths occur due to quicksand but go unnoticed owing to its “non catastrophic” nature. It is also a geohazard less understood pertaining to causes of formation, potential to cause damage and occurrence (www.mythbuster.com). This chapter is an attempt to review the existing literature on this geohazard for better understanding.

Abstract

The continental drifting and the movement of Indian plate to the tune of 6500 km in a time frame of 65 million years towards north north-easterly, its collision with Eurasian plate, the rise of mighty Himalayan mountains, the still prevalent northerly directed compressive force which has originally drifted the Indian plate and the disseminated intraplate seismicities have been the proven facts. In this context, a remote sensing based study carried out using IRS satellite images revealed that the whole Indian plate is whirling like a worm with series of alternately arranged E-W trending arches and deeps and N-S extensional/block faulting, NE-SW & NW-SE strike slip faults and E-W trending fracture swarms from Cape Comorin in the South to foot hills of Himalayas in the north. These ongoing tectonic activities have displayed hierarchy of geomorphic anomalies in the fluvial, coastal and hydrological systems and these suggest that the whole Indian subcontinent warrant detailed studies to understand the post drift kinematics and its impacts over the ecosystems, natural resources and natural disasters.

Introduction

Consequent to the continental drifting, the Indian plate has moved towards north northeasterly and collided with Eurasian plate, thus resulting into the rise of Mighty Himalayan Mountains along the junction of these two plate boundaries as demonstrated by many earlier Geoscientists. But the behaviour of the Indian plate, both during the collision and after that, has not been comprehensively studied and understood as to whether it has remained as an inert plate or suffered any mid plate deformations. However, disseminated information has been brought out by many earlier workers on the post trappean arches, deeps, horsts and grabens within the

Indian plate. Some of such tectonic grains from north to south in the Indian Peninsular are:

Factor cost : A measure of output reflecting the costs of the factors of production used, rather than market prices, which may differ because of indirect tax and subsidy.

Factors of production : The ingredients of economic activity : land, capital, labour and enterprise.

Factory prices : The prices charged by producers to wholesalers and retailers. Because these prices are eventually passed on to the end customer, changes in factory prices, also known as producer prices, can be a leading indicator of consumer price inflation.

Fair trade : Many politicians and NGOs argue that free trade is not enough; it should also be fair. On the face of it, fairness is self-evidently a good thing. However, fairness, in trade as in beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder. Frederic Bastiat, a 19th-century French satirist, once observed that the sun offered unfair competition to candle makers. If windows could be boarded up during the day, he argued, more jobs could be created making candles. American trade unions complain that Mexicans’ lower wages, say, give them an unfair advantage. Mexicans say they cannot compete fairly against more productive American counterparts. Both sides are wrong. Mexicans are paid less than Americans largely because they are, in general, less productive. There is nothing unfair about that; indeed, it helps to make trade mutually beneficial. The mutual benefits of trade also disprove the fair traders’ other complaint, that free trade harms poor countries. (See comparative advantage).

FDI : See Foreign direct investment.

Fee : A charge for a service rendered.

Observational study : Epidemiological study in situations where nature is allowed to take its course. Changes or differences in one characteristic are studied in relation to changes or differences in others, without the intervention of the investigator.

Odds ratio : A measure of association which quantifies the relationship between an exposure and health outcome from a comparative study; also known as the cross-product ratio.

OECD : The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a Paris-based club for industrialised countries and the best of the rest. It was formed in 1961, building on the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), which had been established under the marshall plan. By 2003, its membership had risen to 30countries, from an original 20. Together, oecd countries produce two-thirds of the world’s goods and services. The oecd provides a policy talking shop for governments. It produces forests-worth of documents discussing public policy ideas, as well as detailed empirical analysis. It also publishes reports on the economic performance of individual countries, which usually contain lots of valuable information even if they are rarely very critical of the policies implemented by a member government.

Table shell : A table that is complete except for the data.

Table : A set of data arranged in rows and columns.

Tangible assets : Assets you can touch : buildings, machinery, gold, works of art, and so on. Contrast with intangible assets.

Tariff : Often used to describe a tax on goods produced abroad imposed by the government of the country to which they are exported. Many countries have reduced such tariffs as part of the process of freeing up world trade.

Tax arbitrage : Creating financial instruments or transactions that allow the parties involved to exploit loopholes in or differences between their tax exposures, so that all involved pay less tax.

Tax avoidance : Doing everything possible within the law to reduce your tax bill. Learned Hand, an American judge, once said : “There is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible … nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands.” Contrast with taxevasion.

Tax base : The thing or amount to which a tax rate applies. To collect income tax, for example, you need a meaningful definition of income. Definitions of the tax base can vary enormously, over time and among countries, especially when tax breaks are taken into account. As a result, a country with a comparatively high tax rate may not have a high tax burden if it has a more narrowly defined tax base than other countries. In recent years, the political unpopularity of high tax rates has lead many governments to lower rates and at the same time broaden the tax base, often leaving the tax burden unchanged.

All scientists working with laboratory animals must have a deep ethical consideration for the animals they are dealing with. From the ethical point of view it is important that such considerations are taken care at the individual level, at Institutional level and finally at the national level.

Individually each investigator has an obligation to abide by all the ethical guidelines laid down in this regard at institutional level. The Head of the institution, maintaining animals for scientific experiments , should constitute an animal ethics committee on animal experimentation to ensure that all experiments conducted on animals are rational , do not cause undue pain or suffering to the animals and only minimum number of animals are used. The constitution and term of reference of the animal ethic committee should be well defined.

An animal ethic committee should include: a senior biological scientist of the institute, two scientists from different biological disciplines, a veterinarian involved in care of animals, the scientist in charge of animal facility, a scientist from outside the institute & a nonscientific socially aware member. A specialist may be co-opted while reviewing special projects using hazardous agents such as radioactive substance and deadly micro-organisms etc. The investigator may be called in for any clarification if required.

The ethics committee has to examine all projects involving use of animals before implementation, to ensure that minimum number of animals is used in the project and the ethical guidelines are strictly adhered to. It will also examine that the scientists and technicians handling animals possess adequate skill to perform the experiment. All animals should be maintained under standard living conditions and experiments will be conducted under proper anesthesia and termination of an experiment, the animal will be humanely sacrificed under anesthesia. Before disposal it must be ensured that the animal is clinically dead.

Rabbits: Housed in mesh floor cages made of galvanized iron, aluminium or steel.

Cleaning should be done regularly (but not within the animal room). Clean feed, water should be given to animals to keep them free of diseases.

Guinea pig: In case of guinea pig, environmental factors play a very important role → Temperature, relative humidity, lighting and ventilation.

Temp → 18-21°C for all laboratory animals

Relative Humidity → 45-55%

Lighting → 12-16 hours for normal physiological activity.

Ventilation → Min 12-15 changes of air for animal room. This can be provided with the help of exhaust fan.

For guinea pig, temperature should not go beyond 30°C, because they cannot dissipate heat from body and they suffer from heat stress and heat frustration because they have loose fold of skin. Highly susceptible for respiratory infection, so adequate ventilation should be given.

They can be housed on wire mesh, floor, and cages. Also directly on floor provided with bedding material → paddy/ ragi straw. In some animal facilities they give saw dust as bedding material. For Guinea Pig saw dust should be given as bedding material as they get adhered to vulva that causes irritation and also it blocks the vulva. There will be reduction in fecundity of the animal →worst

Mice are omnivores and can be fed with commercial feeds like pellets or fed with mixed feed which is locally available cereal, pulses and grains.

However, nutritionally requirement of mice

Carbohydrates - 45-55%

Protein - 16- 24%

Fibre - 4-5%

Fat - 4-6%

Supplement vitamin and minerals.

Extension worker play a important role in rabbit keeping. It increases food production and experience in rabbit farming, people has to be educated as they have no knowledge of rabbit keeping especially people of towns and villages.

These have to be told the advantages of rabbitry. It is difficult to convince villagers, so extension is very important.

Rabbit Census : Recently taken up.

In Karnataka, census was taken in 1990. There were 16,327 animals.

Buck can be mated to several does not gives many young ones. So quality of buck will be passed on to many number of young one. Choose bucks whose relatives have good commercial character performance can be known by looking at breeding record should have too well development testicle, have good growth, good healthy condition, not be too fat, good physical condition.

Best time is when animal is 2 kgs of body weight and age of 3-4 months.

It is advisable to purchase buck from good reliable source since it brings new characteristics and avoid inbreeding.

The mating of the buck of particular breed with die of another breed is cross breeding usually cross breeding has better commercial value → Hybrids which has hybrid vigour → grow faster, better litter size.

Usually breeding of 2 hybrid is not advisable because we will not be sure which hybrid characteristics will be passed on to young ones.

The back yard rabbitry has mixed breeding programme of low quality with reference to commercial characteristics. To improve back yard rabbitry, good well known breeding buck should be introduced to have better performance.

HOUSING

Dogs are kept in cages and they are tied with a chain in one corner of the house or left free in the house → but hair falling will be seen throughout → allergy.

House in wire mesh all round and wooden flooring → gives warmth to animal. Roof can be made of asbestos sheet.

Cage → 2 ft LX 3 ft BX4 ft H. This should be kept in a cool place.

With cement covering all round with mesh door asbestos roofing.

Dog is always chained. This should be long enough and strong enough to withstand pulling of animal. Along with this collar is provided with strong buckles.

Docile animals can be left free in the house → Pomerian, Dash hound, Dobberman should be chained.

Petting too much leads to transmission of diseases → parasite and allergy.

CATS

Cats are classified under family Felidae. Felidae is divided into 3 sub families.

False sabes (Toothed cats)

Felids (Cats → Felinae)

Big felids (Pantherine)

Felinae

28 species, have been classified in 15 genera.

Chromosome no 2n=38.

Exterior Morphology of Cats

IDENTIFICATION OF ANIMALS

It has been in practice since long, not recent item in livestock farming. In earlier day’s in Egyptian era, people used to mark the animal to identify their animals. But in recent days, due to development in bio-medical science where usage of animal has increased within turn has become necessary to establish a suitable identification method for various species of animal. There are many methods available to identified animal, however the methods employed should be simple, economical and easy to identify animal and should be harmless to animal, quickly applicable and should be suitable to experiment conducted.

COMPOSITION OF DIET

Objectives

• To study the general considerations on feeding aspects of laboratory animals.
• To get acquainted with the specific nutritional requirements of laboratory manures.
• To familiarize with the watering system.
• To know the daily feed schedule of different species of laboratory animal.

Materials Required

Laboratory animals, feed ingredients, water, green vegetables.

For having good growth and production, proper balanced diet should be fed, thus nutrients can be classified into 6 classes:

Objectives

• To keep the laboratory animal house neat and clean
• To maintain healthy stock

The disease may be bacterial, viral, fungal or of parasitic origin. All the measures taken to reduce growth and also to control spread of pathogenic organism is a sanitary measure like ventilation, building without cracks crevices.

Important aspect of good sanitation is insect control or pest control. Most effective measure is to just chase them out. To achieve this :

Committee recognized throughout world on laboratory animal called International Committee on Laboratory Animal (ICLA) This committee is responsible to make the rules and regulations and laws which governs production, maintenance and usage of laboratory animal. This committee has defined Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) animal which are free of specified micro organisms and parasites but not necessarily free of the ones which are not specified. Example pasteurella free SPF animal.

Synonyms of SPF Animals

• Disease free animal
• Healthy animal
• Pathogen free animal
• Clean animal
• Caesarian derived animal

The main aim for the production of GFA is for isolation of animal free of all organism.