Plant Biotechnology: Promises and Challenges

Development of procedures in cell biology to regenerate plants from single cells in any desired quantity provides the prerequisite for the practical use of plant tissue culture and genetic engineering in crop improvement. Such regenerating cell cultures are used for selection of mutants and for DNA transformation experiments. DNA transfer by means of engineered Ti and Ri plasmids has become an established technique for the rapidly growing list of dicotyledonous plants. Considerable success has also been achieved in making gene transfer techniques independent of cell culture methods. These techniques have given the opportunity to create, characterise and select plant cultivars which cannot be obtained by traditional breeding methods. The exploitation of plant cell cultures for production of pharmaceuticals, natural products of commercial importance and mass propagation of high-value crops by automation, have developed into an important industry with considerable potential for future. This paper discusses the recent advances and applications of plant biotechnology in agriculture and industry and the challenges the still exist

Innovative Technique to Detect and Prevent Malicious Nodes in AOMDV against Blackhole Attacks in MANET for Increase the Network Efficiency

The Ad hoc on-demand multipath distance vector (AOMDV) routing protocol is one type of reactive routing protocol used in MANET. It is designed on top of the AODV routing protocol, so it utilizes the features of the AODV protocol. The MANET is a wireless ad hoc network without any physical infrastructure; all nodes can be moved across the network, and connections are made between them as needed simply with the help of RREQ, RREP, and RERR packets. Because the network is dynamic, nodes can quickly join and depart anytime. So far, no security threats have been caused by this feature. The blackhole attack is one type of active and dangerous attack in MANET. In this attack, the attackers use the AOMDV flaw to demonstrate their bad intent, causing data loss and decreasing network performance. Many studies have been done on various detection and prevention methods to prevent blackhole attacks. But it still goes on. To improve network performance against black hole attacks, this study offers a dynamic threshold value with multiple paths technique approach on AOMDV; it will be demonstrated in Network Simulator 2

On the measurement of concentration of blanching brine by electrical conductivity method

Blanching is an important operation in the shrimp canning process, in order to bring down the moisture content of the product to the required level, to allow the proteins to coagulate and to give proper texture, shape and characteristic pink colour to the meat. It has been observed that among other factors responsible for fluctuations in the drained weight in the canned prawns, concentration of brine used for blanching and the duration of blanching are important (Varma, Chaudhury and Pillai 1961). The papers gives details of experiment

Quality of fishmeal processed from sun-dried fish in a commercial fishmeal dryer

The physical and chemical compositions of the raw materials received and the composition and nutritive values of the finished products in a commercial size fish meal plant employing the dry rendering process were studied and reported in this paper

Socioeconomic conditions of traditional fishermen of Vitava village in Thane district

Maharashtra stands third in fish production in India, with an estimated annual landings of 3.32 lakhs tonnes (1986-87). About 45% of the fishermen are directly involved in fishing. Mechanisation has boosted fish production resulting in gainful employment and higher incomes to fishermen. However, traditional fishermen along Thane creek and who entirely depend on fishing for their livelihood are comparatively poor due to their dependence on subsistence fishing and reduction of fish stock due to pollution of the creek. Conservation of the resources, proper monitoring of pollution and financial assistance and guidance will help the fishermen improve their living conditions

Diseases and parasites of penaeid prawns of India: a short review

The diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, protozoa and metazoa as well as by other biotic and abiotic agents reported in the penaeid prawns of India are reviewed

Modelling and outdoor performance characterization of monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic modules

This paper presents the modeling and outdoor performance of monocrystalline silicon (m-Si) and polycrystalline silicon (p-Si) Photovoltaic (PV) modules. The I – V and P – V characteristics curves obtained by simulation and from outdoor experiments, were used to extract electrical parameters such as open-circuit voltage, short circuit current, maximum current, and maximum voltage. Parameters acquired were further used to compute the maximum power output, fill factor, and conversion efficiency of PV modules. The simulation results obtained were in agreement with the manufacturer’s datasheet value while experimental results showed a slight deviation from Standard Test Condition (STC) values. The effects of solar irradiance, module temperature, quality, and series resistance on the performance of PV modules were considered. It was observed that as solar irradiance increased the performance of PV modules improved, whereas the increase of other parameters such as module temperature, series resistance, and diode ideality factor declined the performance of PV modules.@font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536859905 -1073697537 9 0 511 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;

Thermal insulation boards from coconut pith

Processing technique and physical characteristics of thermal insulation boards prepared from coconut pith using rubber latex as the binding agent are reported in this communication. In view of the easy processing, low cost and comparable physical properties with other insulating materials available indigenously, manufacture of these boards appears to be promising

Indigenous construction of fishing boats at Versova village in Maharashtra State

Versova, one of the 23 fishing villages in the district of Greater Bombay, is a major fishing centre. During the last three decades mechanisation of fishing boats received a tremendous boost in the state specially in and around Bombay resulting in higher income and gainful employment to fishermen. Indigenous construction of fishing boats at Versova contributes to the marine fisheries development. Inspite of certain constraints in construction activities, training of artisans in boat construction would ultimately help in the economic growth of the village

Layered double hydroxides as potential chromate scavengers

The LDH of Ni with Fe, having the formula Ni1-xFex(OH)2(An-)x/nṡyH2O (A = NO- 3, Cl-; x = 0.25, 0.33), scavenges CrO2- 4 ions from solution throughout the concentration range examined (0.00625-0.25 N). The CrO2- 4 uptake capacity is independent of the anion in the starting LDH but is higher when x = 0.25 (3.60 meq g-1) as compared to x = 0.33 (2.40 meq g-1). These values are higher than those observed for control compounds β-Ni(OH)2 (1.86 meq g-1) and FeO(OH) (1.26 meq g-1), which do not have any interlayer chemistry, showing that chromate uptake takes place by its incorporation in the interlayer region by a stoichiometric anion-exchange reaction, rather than by adsorption. Nevertheless, the interaction between the LDH and the chromate ions is weak. The weak interaction is due to the mismatch between the symmetry of the chromate ions and the symmetry of the interlayer site, which introduces turbostratic disorder in the chromate-intercalated LDHs. The chromate ions can be completely leached out by soaking the LDH in a sodium carbonate solution. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved