Current health and safety legislation Essay Example for Free

Current health and safety legislation Essay Ensure the area in or outdoors is free of any hazards or risks and is safe for CYP to work or play in safely. There should be adequate space for the number of people using it to move round comfortably and safely. Equipment should be stored safely storage should be labelled clearly. Furniture should be appropriate size for age of CYP using it. Lighting and noise should be taken into account and specific risks to individuals as in pregnancy, impaired sight or hearing, disabled, and CYP with special educational needs. We have a duty of care towards all the CYP in our care. The outdoor environment has some different needs like secure boundaries, being regularly inspected. The area should be checked for litter broken glass or animal droppings. Ensure any plants bushes or trees are safe no thorns or nettles and no poisonous or irritant leaves, berries, or flowers. Safety rules should be displayed and explained to the CYP also making sure they have a clear understanding of how to use any toys or equipment safely. Areas that include ponds, pools and sandpits etc should be covered when not in use. Be aware of lines of responsibility for checking the learning environment for risks and hazards. Your health and safety officer should answer any queries you have. There should be the correct ratio of adults to children with suitable training and safety clearance. In both these environments and off-site visits everyone should be aware of what to do in case of: emergencies, fire alarms, incidents, accidents or illness. Be aware of possible signs and indicators of child abuse: physical, emotional, sexual abuse, bullying and harassment , neglect and failure to thrive not based on illness. The signs could be: behavioural changes such as regression, withdrawal, excessive attention seeking, aggression and negative behaviour. Physical indicators such as unlikely bruising, burns, marks, genital irritation or damage, hunger , being dirty, lack of  health care. In school we have notices about certain children whom either have allergies, specific illnesses that require specialised medication or immediate contacting of emergency services, they have a picture of the child and detailed instructions of what to do in an emergency. All incidents and accidents no matter how minor are recorded in detail in our first aid book, anything more serious has to be recorded on special incident sheets along with any witness statements. We have regular fire drill practices. There are security locks on the main exits that can only be opened with a swipe card that only members of staff have. If someone should get through this system and are unknown to staff they will be challenged by any member of staff within the school and asked to leave. All the CYP’s are regularly reminded of stranger danger and what to do if they should be approached by a stranger. The gates are locked to the entrance of the school at starting and leaving times for the CYP’s to ensure there is no danger from cars or lorries driving on and off site. CYP are regularly reminded of hygiene issues like washing hands after using the toilet or at lunch times before eating their food, there are also posters to remind them on a daily basis too.

Business Plan for a java Culture coffee shop

Business Plan for a java Culture coffee shop Coffee Shop: Business Plan Executive Summary The coffee bar based on the java culture is resolute to develop into an essential and daily requirement of the local coffee lovers. It will be a place where one can escape from his daily stressful life schedules and find comfort, friends as well as books, all at a single space. The business plan of java culture coffee bar is purely based on introducing coffee shop for the clients with free cafà © and above all that they will provide free books to their customers so that they can enjoy and relax themselves. The basic idea behind this coffee bar is to serve the best coffee of that area where the coffee will be admired with the pastries. The company is planning to start this project on a 1000 square foot land which will be best suited for a coffee shop situated in the central Noida. The company believes in the welfare of the society and accomplishes it by supporting charity and income of the people belonging to rural areas by adopting fair trade. The company has also planned to support those farmers by using their coffee in the coffee bar who cultivates the coffee by adopting sustainable manufacture, fair trade and organic products. (Bplans) Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Company Description 3. Market Analysis 4. Organization and Management 5. Service or Product Line 6. Marketing and Sales 7. Funding Request 8. Financial Projection 9. References Introduction Purpose: For the operations of the initial year, the main objectives of the Java culture coffee shop are discussed below: The main purpose of our coffee shop is to gave social and friendly environment to the people. By helping our customer by giving convenient location, good customer service and best quality of coffee for drink. Key to success: The company’s keys to success are discussed below: Our store will offer great quality customer service and a serene environment. A relaxing, upscale interior design. Employee training in order to be at pace with competitive scenario. Gave special discount offer to our regular customer Company Description Java Culture is launching its first business plan in India. It will offer new style of coffee shop in Noida where localities, teenagers and other people feel relaxation in that environment. Variety: No other coffee bars located in that particular location will able to meet up the quality, taste and range of tea, smoothies, coffee drinks, juice, cocoa and other products that Java culture does. Location: Java culture will be located in the main section of Central Noida in the centre of the entertainment and shopping hub of Noida (sector -18). Expansion: This coffee bar is expected to be the first of a chain of the Java culture coffeehouses located in markets that have significant traffic by the store, and main attraction point for the youth. Java culture concept: At one time CONTESSA was the acknowledged quality automobile in India. After that Mercedes-Benz was introduced and then Audi, with its superb product and service approach. Java will be the first Audi of the coffeehouse chain industry, offering a higher quality product andbetter quality service in an exceptional environment. Market Analysis Java culture launches a different coffee shop in growing market segment. Market Segmentation: Javas customer base in Noida is comprised of four target groups. These groups are: Students and Faculty Teenagers Office workers Others Target Market Segment Strategy: Java Culture will provide the relaxing atmosphere for those who generally drink coffee. Our most of the clients will be college students and couples where they can meet and also read books and pass their time without paying any extra amount. Organization and Management Organization: the design of the organizational entity, its structure, vision and mission, and decision making organs. Management: the processes/procedures and systems of the organization that ensure that the organization efficiently uses its available resources to achieve its aims and objectives. Management Team: A full-time manager is appointed to supervise the day round activities. The responsibilities of manager is to administer the staff, developing a marketing strategy, handling the suppliers, fulfilling various other every day managerial duties and organizing inventory. We believe that we have chosen the best suited person for the job. The five key elements necessary for the sustainability of our organization are as follows: Service or Product Line Java Culture will offer the best coffee and maintain high quality which will further attract the customers. It also offers pastries, snacks and sandwiches. The lists will be available in a clearly drafted menu card. Product Description: The organization highly specialized not only in beverages like coffee, tea and juice etc. but also in eatables such as chocolates and snacks. We are not bounding ourselves to specific product but strive to provide customers with many options as wide range of variety under one roof. Services: We provide door step delivery services to the customers. We offer special discounts on any day of the week. We also offer combo deals. We have provided Wi-Fi connectivity. We provide gifts to our regular customer on festive seasons. Marketing and Sales The Organization is focusing on Customer oriented marketing strategy as how to attract new customers and encouraging the existing clients to demand for more. Competitive Edge: Our competitive edge,compared tothe other coffeehouses in Noida includes the following: Asignificantly higher quality, better tasting coffee product. Ourcurrent location can arguably be considered the best in the market. We have various drinks which can be served as a substitute for people who dont drink coffee. These alternatives are tea, shakes, juice and squashes. Our Internet website will include online ordering also. Sales Strategy: Our sales strategy includes: Recruiting dynamic sales force that can know and satisfy customer needs. There are various practices that need to be carried out to offer best of quality. Always indulge in a) reduce customer waiting time, and b) create efficient product ordering Sell coffee, gift baskets on our website Establish coffee service at local businesses Adopting various marketing strategy like discount to key groups, selling cards etc Create an online feedback program Sales Forecast: We are assuming that in first year, our per day customer will be 150 and within a year it will increase by approximately double of the first year. Marketing strategy: Our strategy will be to offer a high quality product andsuperb servicein a superior environment. Launch Marketing: Launch marketing leads to awareness amongst masses, various techniques establish organization’s brand images are as follows: Emails Local Electronic Media Local Print Media Packaging Superior location Funding Request As our sole proprietorship business is on its initial stage and it’s a small scale business, so I will utilize my fix deposits and savings for the business. And can borrow from friends and relatives. For further expansion I will utilize the profits in the long run. Financial Projection The Company is placing itself in market as setback to the risk which is primarily due to liquidity. The company maintains the liquidity as the debt to be cleared at the month end and no credit sale. The Company’s investment structure enables the company to maintain good liquidity. Projected Cash Flow: As the chart of java culture America projects, organization will enjoy good cash flow, this leads to meets debt on as and when basis and not only that, but it will be in a better position to meet future uncertainties. (Source: Java Culture America Cited from BPlans) References Bplans. As retrieved on February 4, 2014, available at, http://www.bplans.com/about_us/ Kotler, P. and Keller, K. L. (2006), â€Å"Marketing Management† (12th ed). Prentice Hall Publications. National resource guide, (2013), (English), As retrieved on February 4, 2014, available at, http://www.sba.gov/about-sba/what_we_do/resource_guides 1

Changing Gender Roles - The Battle of the Sexes Continues Essay

It is the war of all wars. It’s lasted longer than all the ancient wars, the world wars, and the civil wars of all nations put together. The battle lines have been clearly drawn and the two sides have never rested while on the battlefield. It is the famed â€Å"battle of the sexes† and it is anything but resolved. The war has been happening for a long time, but now it seems to have hit a point where the world wonders what to do now. This is due to the current changes in gender roles which are manipulating society and changing relationships. These changes are both negative and positive; many advances have been made with women finding equality with men, but have traditional values been underestimated? It is a highly controversial and complicated subject that affects virtually all members of society. In order to understand some of the opinions on the topic of gender roles and relationships, it is necessary to understand the definitions of some words as they will be used in this essay. First there are many definitions for the term â€Å"gender.† However, in this paper the words sex and gender will be used interchangeably and refer simply to male and female. Also important to note is that while society has more options than a male and female relationship, the emphasis in this essay is only on heterosexual relationships and the way they are perceived in society. By keeping these basic definitions and ideas in mind, one can understand that the word â€Å"role† refers to the individual’s place in society and position within a relationship. Along with this, the â€Å"traditional roles† would be defined as women being the homemakers while men being the main breadwinners. When labeling traditional roles dealing with dating and rel... ...ana. â€Å"Dating Among College Student Is All But Dead, Survey Finds.† The Chronicle of Higher Education Aug. 10, 2001: 51. Academic Universe. Lexis Nexis. EBSCO Publishing. Colorado State University Lib. Apr. 2003 http://lib.colostate.edu/databases/> Piper, John. What’s the Difference? Manhood and Womanhood Defined According to the Bible. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1991. Wentworth, Diane Keyser. â€Å"The Role of Househusband and Housewife as Perceived by a College Population.† The Journal of Psychology 2001 (135): 639-650. Academic Search Premeir. EBSCO Publishing. Colorado State University Lib. Mar. 2003 http://lib.colostate.edu/databases/> William, Armstrong. â€Å"Colliding Bodies.† The Washington Times Aug. 11, 2001. Academic Universe. Lexis Nexis. EBSCO Publishing. Colorado State University Lib. Mar. 2003 http://lib.colostate.edu/databases/>

you know you live in la when :: essays research papers

You're driving on the 101 and see a clear cut definition of where the smog begins and ends You go to a karaoke bar and battle with seven year old divas-in-training who are trying to steal your thunder You're sitting in traffic for at least an hour at any given part of the day You go to the beach and see that real lifeguards actually do look like the lifeguards from Baywatch You see purple and gold and the word "Threepeat" on every corner You begin to "lie" to your friends about where you are (i.e. "Yeah I'm like 20 minutes away") - when you know that it'll take you at least an hour to get there). You eat a different ethnic food for every meal You look around at the nice cars around you during traffic, thinking it'll be your favorite Laker or WB star. You make a conscious choice to watch Jay Leno over David Letterman You mourned for Tupac and not for Biggie You know it's best not to be on the 405 at 4:05 pm. Getting anywhere from point A to point B, no matter what the distance, takes about "twenty minutes". You know what neighborhood someone lives in by the degree of damage incurred during the riots. You've inadvertently learned Spanish. You've got to bring the cat/plants in when it drops to 55 degrees. In the "winter", you can go to the beach and ski at Big Bear on the same day. You've bumped into a celebrity at El Pollo Loco. You know what "sigalert", "PCH", and "the five" mean. Your pizza delivery guy is also on contract with Warner Bros. If your destination is more than 5 minutes away on foot, you're definitely driving. You have a gym membership because it's mandatory. Your TV show is interrupted by a police chase. You can't fall asleep without the lull of a helicopter flying overhead. When tourists ask where they can get souvenirs, you direct them to Venice Beach. You know someone named Freedom, Rainbow, Persephone or Destiny. You've trespassed through private property to get to the "Hollywood" sign. You've partied in Tijuana at least once. You know Hollywood has a "lake". You don't stop at a STOP sign, you do a California Roll. You've lost your car in the Century City Shopping Center parking lot. You've ever bought oranges, flowers, cherries or peanuts on a freeway off-ramp. You think that Venice is a beach. You drive next to a Rolls Royce and don't notice. You've started crossing a street and returned to the curb when the DON'T WALK sign started flashing. you know you live in la when :: essays research papers You're driving on the 101 and see a clear cut definition of where the smog begins and ends You go to a karaoke bar and battle with seven year old divas-in-training who are trying to steal your thunder You're sitting in traffic for at least an hour at any given part of the day You go to the beach and see that real lifeguards actually do look like the lifeguards from Baywatch You see purple and gold and the word "Threepeat" on every corner You begin to "lie" to your friends about where you are (i.e. "Yeah I'm like 20 minutes away") - when you know that it'll take you at least an hour to get there). You eat a different ethnic food for every meal You look around at the nice cars around you during traffic, thinking it'll be your favorite Laker or WB star. You make a conscious choice to watch Jay Leno over David Letterman You mourned for Tupac and not for Biggie You know it's best not to be on the 405 at 4:05 pm. Getting anywhere from point A to point B, no matter what the distance, takes about "twenty minutes". You know what neighborhood someone lives in by the degree of damage incurred during the riots. You've inadvertently learned Spanish. You've got to bring the cat/plants in when it drops to 55 degrees. In the "winter", you can go to the beach and ski at Big Bear on the same day. You've bumped into a celebrity at El Pollo Loco. You know what "sigalert", "PCH", and "the five" mean. Your pizza delivery guy is also on contract with Warner Bros. If your destination is more than 5 minutes away on foot, you're definitely driving. You have a gym membership because it's mandatory. Your TV show is interrupted by a police chase. You can't fall asleep without the lull of a helicopter flying overhead. When tourists ask where they can get souvenirs, you direct them to Venice Beach. You know someone named Freedom, Rainbow, Persephone or Destiny. You've trespassed through private property to get to the "Hollywood" sign. You've partied in Tijuana at least once. You know Hollywood has a "lake". You don't stop at a STOP sign, you do a California Roll. You've lost your car in the Century City Shopping Center parking lot. You've ever bought oranges, flowers, cherries or peanuts on a freeway off-ramp. You think that Venice is a beach. You drive next to a Rolls Royce and don't notice. You've started crossing a street and returned to the curb when the DON'T WALK sign started flashing.

The Mechanics of War :: War Statistics Papers

The Mechanics of War Recently a new trend has taken up Wall Street. Savvy broker firms have realized that the market is probably controlled by some rules, and those rules have to be found to make more money with the least risk. They hired many mathematicians to look for any formulas that would seem to express the market. Those analyzed previous market trends and used laws of statistics to try to predict the â€Å"future† of the market. The funny thing is that at times this approach actually worked. It yielded a slightly more than fifty percent accuracy, and that was enough. (When dealing with tremendous amounts, even a small percentage is not meager.) Statistics work for everything when there is a lot of it. They work for money, molecules, atoms, star systems, and even people. People tend to adhere to statistics when there is a fair amount of people to stifle the occasional fluctuations in human behavior. Many things we do depend on statistics. Take war for example. War is a very good example, since the outcome depends more on the general strategy of the whole war, than on individual soldiers. It follows definite rules that can be expressed in formulas. The individual people in war tend to become statistics, in the eyes of the high command, the public, as well as in their own perception. Tim O’Brien wonderfully illustrates this in his essay â€Å"How to Tell a True War Story.† He relates that there is no point to any events or actions according to the perception of the soldier during a war. â€Å"You smile and think, ... what’s the point?† (469) he says. A person then becomes nothing more than a statis tic -- a part of a whole behaving in a random way. If there is no point to existence, then his actions are truly random. Something truly random can be easily studied, stimulated, expressed in some numbers, percentages, probabilities. This randomness of the soldier is what the whole military apparatus depends on. Consider: if the life of a soldier during war had a point, if he realized that there is some underlying meaning, wouldn’t he strive toward the goal assigned by that meaning? He would, for that is in human nature. Now, if there was no meaning in his perception, he could easily be persuaded that a particular thing must be done. He will obediently follow.

Define Biotechnology and Write an Essay on the Current Status of Plant Biotechnology in the 21st Century by Focusing Mainly on Genetic Engineering

Define biotechnology and write an essay on the current status of plant biotechnology in the 21st century by focusing mainly on genetic engineering O O O FAQ | Register Now | Sign In HOME PHYSICAL SCIENCESPHYSICS SPACE CHEMISTRY APPLIED PHYSICS AEROSPACE OPTICS EARTH SCIENCESENVIRONMENT ENERGY ATMOSPHERIC PALEONTOLOGY GEOLOGY OCEANOGRAPHY LIFE SCIENCESGENETICS & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY EVOLUTION MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY & ZOOLOGY IMMUNOLOGY NEUROSCIENCE MEDICINECANCER RESEARCH PUBLIC HEALTH PHARMACOLOGY CLINICAL RESEARCH AGING VISION SOCIAL SCIENCESANTHROPOLOGY ARCHAEOLOGY PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCE EDUCATION & POLICYSCIENCE HISTORY PHILOSOPHY & ETHICS CULTURETECHNOLOGY MATHEMATICS SCIENCE & SOCIETY SPORTS SCIENCE RANDOM THOUGHTS HUMOR VIDEO CONTRIBUTORS Home > Life Sciences > Genetics & Molecular Biology > Humboldt Fellow and Science Recent advances in plant biotechnology: Applications in Agriculture. By Ashwani Kumar | August 21st 2009 11:29 AM | Print | E-mail | Track Comments Humboldt Fellow and Sc ience More Articles †¢Climate change and green economy-a cleaner option for sustainability †¢Sitopaladi churna is an ayurvedic medicine for cough and cold †¢Ethnobotany and Ocimum sanctum (Tulsi)All Articles About Ashwani Professor Emeritus ,Former Head of the Department of Botany, and Director Life Sciences, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. 302004, India At present†¦ View Ashwani ‘s Profile Ashwani Kumar Recent advances in plant biotechnology: Applications in Agriculture. Ashwani Kumar Professor of Botany, Department of Botany and P G School of Biotechnology University of Rajasthan Jaipur 302004. [email  protected] com Tel 0141 2711654 ( Off) 0141 2654100 ( Res) Mob (0) 9414057484 Abstract:Biotechnology is an area of production and research in which biological systems and biological principles are employed to solve technological problems. In this sense it becomes all inclusive. And during the last decade the advancements in biology have led to the develo pment newer areas like , cellular engineering, biochips and biomaterial science, stem cells, nanobiotechnology etc. Biotechnology is a vast subject and covers Gene and genome analysis: analysis of genes and gene networks showing the potential for industrial application; gene expression studies; biotech plant breeding, e. g. marker assisted breeding.Transgenic technologies: Production and analysis of transgenic crops; gene insertion studies; gene silencing; factors affecting gene expression; post-translational analysis; molecular farming; field trial analysis; commercialisation of modified crops; safety and regulatory affairs Functional genomics: bioinformatics; gene function studies for applied uses Comparative genomics: applications to crop species; use of current crop databases Physiological studies: pathways relevant to an application; secondary metabolites; manipulations of physiology for stress resistance – abiotic and biotic stress resistance including salinity and drou ght stress.Development of salt resistance plant using plant biotechnology. Host pathogen interaction and role of plant biotechnology for developing resistant corps Developmental studies: developmental mechanisms leading to a further understanding of an industrial use of plants. Plant tissue culture and its role in plant biotechnology. Introduction: Scientists have been improving plants by changing their genetic makeup since the late 1800s. Typically, this has been accomplished through crossbreeding and hybridization, in which two related plants are cross-fertilized and the resulting offspring have characteristics of both parent plants.In the breeding process, however, many undesirable traits often can appear in addition to the desirable ones. Some of those undesirable traits can be eliminated through additional breeding, which is time consuming. Breeders can then further select and reproduce the offspring that have the desired traits. Many of the foods that are already common in our diet are obtained from plant varieties that were developed using conventional genetic techniques of breeding and selection. Today, by inserting one or more genes into a plant, scientists are able to produce a plant with new, advantageous characteristics.The new gene splicing techniques are being used to achieve many of the same goals and improvements that plant breeders historically have sought through conventional methods. They give scientists the ability to isolate genes and introduce new traits into foods without simultaneously introducing undesirable traits. This is an important improvement over traditional breeding. Because of the increased precision offered by the bioengineered methods, the risk of introducing detrimental traits is actually likely to be reduced. Gene and genome analysis:Detailed studies have been conducted on plant genome and physical and genetic maps are available for several plants. As an example of studies on genome the rice genome is discussed here. Rice has a much smaller genome (430 Mbp per haploid genome) than many other crops that belong to the Poaceae family. Due to the genome colinearity, high similarity in gene order and gene content, among the Poaceae family, the importance of rice genetics has been emphasized, and comparative analyses among rice, wheat, and maize have been intensively studied.As a result, rice becomes the model crop for the molecular genetic approach. This crop is available for many applications, including the construction of a high dense map, expressed sequence tag (EST) and full genomic sequence database, bacterial and yeast artificial chromosome (BAC and YAC) libraries, quantitative traits loci (QTL) mapping for yield and morphology, functional genomics by knockout mutagenesis using T-DNA insertion, map-based cloning, and genetically modified rice using transformation techniques. ( see review Cho et al. 2007 cited in Kumar and Sopory 2007).State-of-the-art Genome Profiling (GP) : The traditional approach for species identification is exclusively based on phenotypic traits such as morphological, anatomical, chemical properties and others, which are often affected by environmental factors and thus are difficult to analyze and unreliable. Interspecies homogeneity, intraspecies variability and the existence of undescribed species often lead to phenotypic misidentification. Moreover, species, which are phenotypically far less prominent, cannot be always identified in this way.To overcome these problems, genotypebased (nucleic acid-based) techniques have been employed as an alternative or complementary approach and have continuously been developed including RFLP ,AFLP, RAPD, 16S rRNA or 16S-23S internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequence analysis and others. These methods provide a possible way to identify species directly based on their genomic sequences but none of them have been shown to identify species in general, mainly because of the insufficiency in the amount of information which they can provide.In this stream, the whole genome sequencing is surely the most definitive solution for species identification though simply too redundant for such purposes and impossible in practice to analyze all the constituents of a heavily dense population. On the other hand, the information obtained from the comparison of a single gene is often not sufficient to place a species at the appropriate position on the phylogenetic tree.In order to deal with above issues, previously Nishigaki and co-workers have described a realistic solution conforming to the notion of the amount of information sufficient for species identification and demonstrated this by inventing a novel method called Genome Profiling (GP), which is a temperature-gradient gel electrophoresis (TGGE) analysis of random-PCR products. Next, the complexity of the generated data, genome profiles, can be simplified by extracting feature points in GP, i. e. species identification dots (spiddos) which can be used for fur ther processing of measuring the similarity of two species by calculating Pattern Similarity Score (PaSS). Further, the technical advances by constructing internet-based GP databases (named On-web GP), and developing a highly reproducible and miniaturized system (micro-TGGE) have moved this technology towards being a universal, general and global tool for species identification( see review Biyani 2007 cited in Kumar and Sopory 2007)..Recombinant DNA technology: Gene targeting (GT) Gene targeting (GT) is a key technology for the rational, accurate and safe exploitation of plantsthrough genetic manipulation. Moreover, it offers the potential to completely knockout the expression of target genes or to make specific changes to gene function, objectives that cannot be achieved by conventional transgenesis. The ability to target DNA integration would permit the locus-specific integration of a transgene into a predetermined ite of the host genome, avoiding the accidental inactivation of an endogenous gene localized at the insertion site or the unexpected expression profiles of the transgene itself, the so-called position effect. Systematic isolation and sequencing of genomic DNA flanking the insertion sites (known as FSTs or Flanking Sequence Tag offers the opportunity to rapidly characterize plants altered in a candidate gene sequence. This approach is notably most useful in fully sequenced genomes such as in Arabidopsis thaliana.With 125 Mbp and 26,422 genes, the Arabidopsis genome shows very limited synteny with the 420–466 Mbp and 60,000 predicted genes of the rice genome. The recombination machinery has been well conserved throughout evolution, as an essential component of cell survival. In nature, homologous recombination is a DNA maintenance pathway that protects chromosomes against damage affecting both DNA strands, such as double strand breaks (DSBs) or interstrand crosslinks. DSB repair (DSBR) has been one of the most investigated homologous repair p athways see SHRIVASTAVA1, SHARMA2 AND KUMAR 2007 cited in Kumar and Sopory 2007).Recently plastid genome transformation technique has gained prominence due to its better integration and less chances of random spread. The genome propagated by higher plant plastids, the plastome, is typically a double stranded DNA molecule of 130 to 160 kb. Over one hundred copies of this genome can be present in a single plastid. It is ideally represented as a circular monomer containing 2 inverted repeats, even though reality is more complex since linear and circular multimers have been frequently detected The complete sequence of this highly polyploidy genome is available for about 20 different species of angiosperms http://megasun. ch. umontreal. ca/ ogmp/projects/other/cp_list. html). The first successful transformation of tobacco was performed using as marker a mutant plastid DNA fragment covering the 16SrRNA gene derived from a line resistant to spectinomycin and streptomycin. Major improvement s in the selection process were soon obtained with the dominant aadA marker gene, inactivating spectinomycin or streptomycin. When fused to GFP, this marker can be used to track the selection process.Genes encoding resistance to kanamycin, nptII and more recently aphA-6 are also possible options, and could be more appropriate for some species (Kumar et al. , 2004a see review Dubald. 2007 cited in Kumar and Sopory 2007). There are three different fates for the external DNA to get integrated into the native genome. They are homologous recombination, illegitimate recombination or nonhomologous end joining, and single-strand annealing. . Single-strand annealing (SSA), a third path of repair, requires the presence of repeated sequences on both sides of a break.After exonuclease degradation of the 5’ ends, repair occurs by annealing of the two complementary sequences, a process leading to the loss of the genetic information contained between these repeats. With respect to the speci es preferential DSB repair pathway, HR but also IR mediates transgene integration. This second aspect explains the inefficiency of GT in higher plants, which use HR as a minor pathway of repair. Thus, despite the fact that transgene integration processes are still unclear in plants transgenic DNA would be preferentially integrated by end joining whether or not sharing homology within the host genome.GM crops: The U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has found no evidence to indicate that either ordinary plant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or the DNA inserted into plants using bioengineering presents food safety problems. Nor are the small amounts of the newly expressed proteins likely to change dramatically the safety profile of the plant. If safety concerns should arise, however, they would most likely fall into one of three broad categories: allergens, toxins, or anti-nutrients. FDA has extensive experience in evaluating the safety of such substances in food.It is important to n ote that the kinds of food safety testing typically conducted by developers of a bioengineered food crop to ensure that their foods meet all applicable requirements of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act (FD;C Act) address these potential concerns. In the event that something unexpected does occur, this testing provides a way to detect such changes at the developmental stage and defer marketing until any concern is resolved. As aforementioned, some of the food safety concerns that could arise include: Allergens: Foods normally contain many thousands of different proteins.While the majority of proteins do not cause allergic reactions, virtually all known human allergens are proteins. Since genetic engineering can introduce a new protein into a food plant, it is possible that this technique could introduce a previously unknown allergen into the food supply or could introduce a known allergen into a â€Å"new† food. Toxins: It is possible that a new protein, as introduced into a cr op as a result of the genetic modification, could cause toxicity. Anti-nutrients: It is possible that the introduction of anti-nutrients, such as molecules like phytic acid, could reduce essential dietary minerals such as phosphorus.The use of genetic engineering techniques could also result in unintended alterations in the amounts of substances normally found in a food, such as a reduction of Vitamin C or an increase in the concentration of a naturally occurring toxicant in the plant food. LEGAL AND REGULATORY ISSUES: One important component in ensuring food safety is the U. S. regulatory structure. The FDA regulates bioengineered plant food in conjunction with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).FDA has authority under the FD;C Act to ensure the safety of all domestic and imported foods for man or animals in the United States market. The exceptions to this are meat, poultry and certain egg products, which are regulated b y USDA. The safety of animal drug residues in meat and poultry, however, is regulated by FDA. Pesticides, including those bioengineered into a food crop, are regulated primarily by EPA. USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) oversees the agricultural and environmental safety of planting and field testing bioengineered plants.Bioengineered foods and food ingredients must adhere to the same standards of safety under the FD;C Act that apply to their conventionally bred counterparts. This means that these products must be as safe as the traditional foods in the market. FDA has the power to remove a food from the market, or sanction those marketing the food if the food poses a risk to public health. It is important to note that the FD;C Act places a legal duty on developers to ensure that the foods they market to consumers are safe and comply with all legal requirements.Area under the commercialization of genetically modified (GM), often called biotech crops con tinued to grow for the ninth consecutive year at a sustained double-digit growth rate of 20% in 2004 (James, 2004). The estimated global area of approved GM crops for 2005 was 90. 0 million hectares with $4. 70 billion global market value—based on the sale price of GM seed plus any technology fees that apply. The global value of the GM crop market is projected a more than $5. 0 billion for 2005 (James, 2004). Commercialization of genetically modified (GM) crops continued to grow for the ninth consecutive year.It reflects the substantial improvements in productivity, the environment, economics, health and social benefits realized by farmers, consumers and society. At the same time the growing controversy over GM food products increased interest in food labelling and identity preservation (IP) of GM crops. Hence, an IP system must be designed to provide assurances that the desired traits are present (or absent) in a product from the seed source, through all steps of production and delivery, to the end user. There are numerous regulatory issues related to GM crops.These include the testing and acceptance of new GM crops for commercial introduction, both domestically and internationally. Nearly every country has different approaches and many have their own regulatory framework, with an intent to prevent cross-contamination of the conventional food and feed industries. IP tracking software is also available in market to ease the burdens associated with precise record-keeping requirements. The economics of IP has been calculated by various scientists depending on different applied IP systems.Niche-marketing opportunities will grow, because of the availability of GM crops and finally, IP of agricultural commodities from GM crops can provide greater choice and value desired by both agricultural producers and consumers (DOSHI AND FRANCOIS EUDES, 2007 cited in Kumar and Sopory 2007) Based on annual percentage growth in area, of the eight leading GM crop countries , India had the highest percentage year-on-year growth in 2004 with an increase of 400% in Bt cotton area over 2003, followed by Uruguay (200%), Australia (100%), Brazil (66%), China (32%), south Africa (25%), Canada (23%), Argentina (17%) and USA at 11%.India increased its area of approved Bt cotton, introduced only two years ago, from approximately 38,038 hectares in 2002/ 03 to 560,000 hectares in 2004/05 seasons with Bt coverage of 11. 65% and approximately 300,000 small farmers benefited from Bt cotton( see review DOSHI AND EUDES, 2007 cited in Kumar and Sopory 2007). . REGULATORY ISSUES RELATED TO GM CROPS: There are numerous regulatory issues related to GM crops. These include the testing and acceptance of new GM crops for commercial introduction and the introduction of food products containing ingredients from GM crops, both domestically and internationally.Nearly every country has different approaches and many have their own regulatory framework. Regulation is a very dynami c issue with changes being reviewed and proposed in many countries on an ongoing basis. Numerous regulatory actions are consequently being proposed as governments react to consumer concerns and pressures. Several countries have or have proposed to create new agencies to specifically cover GM crops. Approaches range from cautious acceptance to attempts to ban (growing and even imports), at least for the foreseeable future, all crops and products with GM traits.Each is approaching the testing, introduction, and acceptance of GM crops in its own manner and on its own time schedule. Table 6 summarizes the current status of some of the regulations related to introduction, approval, and commercial acceptance of GM crops. Table 6. Status of regulations over GM products. Abiotic and biotic resistance: Coat Protein Mediated Resistance: CP is an important structural protein as it not only protects the viral nucleic acid from degradation, but also plays an important role in virus infection.Its functions includes acquisition and transmission of virus by vectors, cell to cell and long distance spread of the virus in host plants, and for some viruses, it regulates one or more steps of virus replication. Coat Protein (CP) mediated resistance has been demonstrated for 17 groups of viruses, and so far this strategy has shown best promise. CP transgenes have been shown to be effective in preventing or reducing infection and diseases caused by homologous and closely related viruses (Gonsalves, et al. , 1998).Coat protein-mediated protection has been reported for Tobacco mosaic virus, TMV,Tomato mosaic virus, ToMV, (Sa), Cucumber mosaic virus, CMV, Alfalfa mosaic virus, AlMV, (Loesch-Fries et al. , 1987; Tumer et al. , 1997), Potato virus X, PVX, Potato virus Y, PVY, Potato leaf roll virus, PLRV, Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) and a number of other viruses. CP-mediated resistance in Cantaloupe, Papaya, Potato, Squash and Tomato has been tested under the field conditions with fair d egree of protection against most of the viruses (Table 4). ( see review Verma and Parveen 2007 cited in Kumar and Sopory 2007)Anti-HIV Agents Among Desert Plants Around 40 million people are affected due to the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus globally. During the past decades, a large number of anti-viral screening experiments on medicinal plant extracts have been reported and have led to the selection of several extracts active towards herpes viruses. A promising result of a naturally occurring antiherpetic agent was given by n- docosanol (a natural 22 carbon saturated fatty alcohol) which is undergoing phase III clinical trials in patients. Clinical testing of the topical formulation, or systemic administration of drug suspensions has demonstrated good therapeutic index, since high doses of n- docosanol do not elicit appreciable toxicity. The findings show that natural products are still potential sources in the search for new antiherpatic agents (Hattori et al. , 1995). Various pla nt extracts used in Ayurvedic medicine for inhibitory effects on HIV virus have been studied (Hattori, personal communication). A large number of such plants occur in semi-arid and arid climate of Rajasthan. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) , the great pandemic of the second half of the 20th Century, is still a threatening disease world wide.Many research approaches are currently aimed at developing novel agents to arrest the replication of HIV through various targets. These may include the inhibition of reverse transcriptase (RT), protease (PR), membrane fusion and integrase. HIV PR enzyme has been demonstrated to play an essential role in viral replication ( see review Kumar 2007 cited in Kumar and Sopory 2007) A range of HIV PR inhibitors have been designed and applied in clinical trials such as Sanqunavir, Ritonavir and Indinavir. However, the development of drug resistance by virus, irrespective of the target, remains as an overwhelming problem in AIDS chemotherapy.Thu s there is great need to search for and develop new and different anti-HIV candidates from plants and natural products are of considerable importance. In search for anti-HIV active agents from natural products, many attempts at screening traditional medicines have been made. Biotic and abiotic stress: Environmental abiotic stress conditions, and especially drought and salinity, are currently the major factors which reduce crop yields world-wide leading to the fact that more than 800 million people are chronically undernourished..The United Nations Environment Program estimates that approximately 20% of agricultural land and 50% of cropland in the world is saltstressed This salinity, in particular, is an increasing problem and nearly half of the area under irrigation, is at risk to be lost due o building up of salinity. Therefore genetic improvement of salt tolerance has become an urgent need for the future of agriculture in arid and semiarid regions.. One way of solving this problem would be breeding tolerant varieties of crop plants that can be grown on saline soils, but these breeding programs are time consuming and remained elusive .Hence, many metabolic changes are known to occur in plants subjected to salt stress, physiological parameters such as ionic relations have been suggested to be used as tolerance indicators since they can be related to salt tolerance mechanisms. Biofuel production: India has over 180 million of wasteland out of which 90 million ha is uncultivable. The degraded and denuded lands arise due to soil erosions as well as secondary salinizations. However Calotropis procera is a potential lant for bioenergy and biofuel production in semi arid regions of the country because it is able to grow on such lands. The plant has a growth potential of 2 dry tones to 40 dry tones per ha depending on the agro climatic conditions of it’s growth. The plant has high level of regeneration potential and could be harvested up to 4 times a year. The plant yields valuable hydrocarbons which could be converted into diesel substitutes. The bio-diesel derived from Calotropis procera is free from NOx gases, S02 and Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) and has high cetane value.Due to it’s enormous potential for growth under adverse climatic conditions Calotropis procera is suggested as potential plant for bio-diesel production under semi-arid and arid conditions ( Anita and Kumar,2005, Anita et al. 2005). Jatropha curcas also provides non-edible oil which could be converted into methyl ester with a gain of glycerine ( Anita and Kumar 2007) . The JME is used as mix in the ratio of 05, to 20 percent blend to fossil fuel diesel and in Germany the use of Rape seed methyl ester is increasing. Soil salinity: Soil salinity affects plant production in many parts of the world, particularly on irrigated land.NaCl is the predominant salt in most saline environments. Many crop species are sensitive to high concentrations of salt with nega tive impacts on agricultural production. Maize (Zea mays L. ) is considered a moderately salt-sensitive plant.. Salt resistance of plants is a complex phenomenon that involves biochemical and physiological processes as well as morphological and developmental changes.. In addition to general osmotic stress, high concentrations of Na+ are toxic to maize and molecular mechanisms for salt resistance have not been fully identified or characterized (Zoerb et al 2004).The analysis of the plant’s proteome is an important amendment to the analysis of the genome, because gene expression is altered under salinity stress. The proteome, in contrast to the genome, is not static but rather dependent on a number of responses influenced by internal and external factors. The plant adaptation to environmental stress, such as soil salinity, is expected to have a strong influence on proteins. One approach to study the molecular mechanisms of plant responses to salinity is to use 2D polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Furthermore, the dentification of differentially regulated proteins can lead to the identification of proteins and their corresponding genes which are involved in the physiology of salt resistance. The high resolution achieved by 2D gels and computer-assisted analysis of the differentially regulated proteins were used to examine those proteins whose synthesis was modulated by salt treatment and to quantify these changes. As far as we know, our investigations are the first to characterize the differentially expressed proteins from roots and shoots of maize after treatment with low and high salt stress.Plant material was an efficiently Na+-excluding maize inbred line developed in our laboratory. According to Munns the growth response to salt stress consists of two phases, first, a water-deficit that results from the relatively high solute concentrations in the root medium and, second, ion-specific stress resulting from altered K+/Na+ ratios or Na+ and Cl? concent rations that are toxic to plants. The aim of this study was to elucidate biochemical and physiological reactions of glycophytes to salt stress in the first phase of salinity. While all major crops, as well as most wild species, are glycophytes, i. e. ensitive to relatively low salt concentrations, there are plants naturally adapted to conditions of high salinity in the soil. These plants, known as halophytes, include a large taxonomic variety and occupy diverse habitats, from extreme dry to temporarily waterlogged sites or salt marshes, and can tolerate NaCl concentrations similar, or even higher than that of sea water, ca. 500 mM (Figure 1). It is – without doubt – necessary to develop sustainable biological production systems which can tolerate higher water salinity because freshwater resources will not come up with increasing demands of agricultural practice in near future.The sustainable use of halophytic plants is a promising approach to valorize strongly salinise d zones unsuitable for conventional agriculture and mediocre waters. The development of cash crop halophytes and the breeding of salt resistant crop varieties will require a clear understanding of the complex mechanisms of salt stress tolerance, which we are still lacking despite intensive research during the last decade (see review KOYROAND HUCHZERMEYER 2007 cited in Kumar and Sopory 2007).Recombinant proteins: It has been estimated that 1 g of recombinant antibody could be produced in leaves of a plant crop for only about US$100 while the current prices for monoclonal antibodies range from US$2000 to US$5000 per gram. Indeed the cost of producing 1 kg of recombinant protein from most major field crops is estimated to be 10 to 50 times lower than the cost of producing the same amount by E. coli fermentation. Whole plants also have an advantage when tissues such as a fruit, tuber, etc. an be used to express the protein of interest (James and Lee 2001), and an area of undisputed adva ntage occurs when the oral delivery of pharmaceuticals, as well as feed and food enzymes, is possible. However, there are also some evident obstacles that arise when a whole plant is used for large-scale protein production( see review SODERQUIST and LEE 2007). Cell-free systems have proved to have high utility at the genomic, transcriptomic and proteomic levels and to form a vital component of many aspects of recombinant gene expression, and of both structural and functional proteomics..Compared with DNA microarrays, protein bio-chips provide more challenges and have yet to be perfected due to the complexity and inherent difficulties with protein immobilization. Novel cell free translation system is unique discovery: A novel cell-free translation system is described in which template-mRNA molecules were captured onto solid surfaces to simultaneously synthesize and immobilize proteins in a more native-state form. This technology comprises a novel solid-phase approach to cell-free tra nslation and RNA–protein fusion techniques.A newly constructed biotinylated linker-DNA which enables puromycin-assisted RNA–protein fusion is ligated to the 3? ends of the mRNA molecules to attach the mRNA-template on a streptavidin-coated surface and further to enable the subsequent reactions of translation and RNA–protein fusion on surface. The protein products are therefore directly immobilized onto solid surfaces and furthermore were discovered to adopt a more native state with proper protein folding and superior biological activity compared with conventional liquid-phase approaches.We further validate this approach via the production of immobilized green fluorescent protein (GFP) on microbeads and by the production and assay of aldehyde reductase (ALR) enzyme with 4-fold or more activity. The approach developed in this study may enable to embrace the concept of the transformation of ‘RNA chip-to-protein chip’ using a solid-phase cell-free trans lation system and thus to the development of high-throughput microarray platform in the field of functional genomics and in vitro evolution (Biyani et al. 2006). Plant tissue culture: Another area of biotechnology is micropropagation of plants.The aim of this technique is a fast production of a great number of genetically identical plants from a highly valuable mother plant or e. g. monosexual male and female plants. These plants can be either directly sold on the market for planting, used for breeding purposes, for genetechnology or the technique is used as a method for basic science studies. Using petiole explants from transgenic plants containing the auxin responsive MAS promoter linked to the GUS reporter gene (Fig. 15, 16) the distribution of auxin within the cultured petiole could be followed during the induction phase of somatic embryogenesis (Neumann 2000 and Neumann 2006).Interestingly, the cells forming the glandular canal contain high concentrations of auxins as shown by using transgenic plants containing the auxin sensitive MAS-promoter coupled to the GUS-gene ( Fig see below ), whatever the significance. Rhizogenic centers develop near vascular bundles prior to those embryogenic centers. Fig. 2 Plasmid pPCV812 with the MAS promoter and the GUS reporter gene, hyg=Hygromycin resistance, Ap/Cb=Ampicillin/Carbenicillin resistance (courtesy of Dr. Z. Koncz, Max-Planck- Institut Cologne, Germany, for providing the plasmid) Genetic factors play a central role to induce somatic embryos, i. . to provide the competence of the species for the process. Here, great variation can be found even within a genera such as Daucus. Eight of twelve Daucus species cultured in identical conditions produced somatic embryos (D. halophilus, D. capillifolius, D. commutatus, D. azoricus, D. gadacei, D. maritimus, D. maximus, D. carota ), whereas four species (D. montevidensis, D. pussillus, D. muricatus, D. glochidiatus) were not competent to do so. Under identical culture co nditions, only 8 out of 12 species and subspecies of the genus Daucus proved capable of somatic embryogenesis.Random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis indicated a polymorphism between the genomes of individual species that were capable of embryogenesis and those that were not. Two specific bands (1. 1 kbp, 0. 68 kbp) were detected only inthe genomes of individuals with the capacity for embryogenesis. These were cloned and sequenced, and the homology of the nucleotide sequences of the various species was detected: this ranged from 74% to 92% for the larger sequence and from 92% to 97% for the smaller one. These DNA sequences would appear to be useful as a marker of the capacity for somatic embryogenesis in the genus Daucus (Imani et al. 001) The sequences obtained in this study have been registered with the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL). The access numbers for the sequences are: AJ278039 DCA78039; AJ278040 DCA78040; AJ278041 CA78041; AJ278042 DCA78042; AJ278176 DCA278176; AJ278177 DCA278177; AJ278178 DCA278178; AJ278179 DCA278179. No open reading frames were detected. We performed later additional studies with other Daucus species (D. capillifolius; D. carota ssp. Azoricus and gadecaei) as shown in Table 1 to determine the use-fulness of these RAPD products as markers for identifying the ability of Daucus species to generate somatic embryos (Fig. b). There was a 100% correlation between the embryogenic potential of the species (Table 1) and the occurrence of the 1. 1-kbp and 0. 68-kbp band (Imani et al. 2001). Micropropagation Technique in Enhancing the Productivity of Crops have been taken up at large scale at TERI ( see review Saxena, 2007 see Kumar and Shekhawat 2007) Some of the activities undertaken at MTP include: †¢ Large-scale production of superior quality planting material of various economically important plant species using tissue culture technology †¢ Mass multiplication of those species which are difficult to regenerate by co nventional methods f propagation or where conventional methods of propagation are inadequate to meet the demand of planting material †¢ Development of new micropropagation protocols and refining of others so as to make them suitable for large-scale production of plants †¢ Helping the entrepreneurs/industry through technology transfer, mother cultures and training of staff †¢ Assisting clients in setting-up their own tissue culture labs †¢ Creating awareness Till date over 15 million plants of forest species, cash crops, medicinal and aromatic plants, and ornamentals (foliage and flowering) have been dispatched to various state forest and horticulture epartments, private entrepreneurs, nurseries, farmers etc. for field demonstrations and routine plantations. In addition, MTP is in possession of micropropagation protocols for over 90 economically important plant species. Field demonstration plots of tissue cultured plants have been laid at different locations to ev aluate and compare their growth performances with conventional plants. Besides transfer of technologies to industry for commercialization, MTP has been instrumental in capacity building and creating awareness about tissue culture technology through seminars/ workshops/training programmes, exhibitions, etc. Dhawan and Saxena 2004; Saxena and Dhawan, 2004). Secondary metabolites: Since the establishment of plant tissue culture techniques in 1960’s, significant contributions have been made to the development of biochemical studies on secondary metabolism such as structural elucidation, biosynthesis, enzymology, metabolic regulation system, intracellular distribution of metabolites and relevant enzymes, metabolite transportation, molecular biology and many others . However, one of the greatest difficulties and challenges in the application of plant tissue culture to metabolism research has been that unorganized callus tissues have often failed to ccumulate metabolites usually det ected in the mother plant. In some cases, metabolic potential was recovered through the development of a production medium, change in culture conditions or selecting cell strains of high productivity (Fujita and Tabata, 1987). It is commonly observed that recalcitrant callus tissues begin to synthesize secondary metabolites after organ – such as shoots and roots – differentiation . Although somatic embryogenesis occurs in cultured cells of numerous plant species, it has rarely been applied to secondary metabolite production. Recently secondary metabolite production by somatic embryo ultures and especially by those of Corydalis species has been reviewed by HIRAOKA and Bhatt, 2007) . References: Anita Kumari and Ashwani Kumar (2005) SOME POTENTIAL BIOFUEL PLANTS FOR SEMI-ARID AND ARID REGIONS AND IMPROVING THEIR GROWTH AND PRODUCTIVITY In : CARRASCO J. E. , L. SJUNNESSON, P. HELM, A. GRASSI (eds) BIOMASS FOR ENERGY, INDUSTRY AND CLIMATE PROTECTION. pp 279-281. Anita Kuma ri, Ashwani Kumar, V. R. Kumar (2005) PRODUCTIVTY OF CALOTROPIS PROCERA IN SEMI-ARID REGIONS OF RAJASTHAN AND ITS USE AS RENEWABLE SOURCE OF ENERGY In : CARRASCO J. E. , L. SJUNNESSON, P. HELM, A.GRASSI (eds) BIOMASS FOR ENERGY, INDUSTRY AND CLIMATE PROTECTION. pp 276-278 Dhawan V and Saxena S (2005) Production of superior quality disease-free planting material. In: Chadha KL, Ahloowalia Imani, J. , (1999): In situ- Nachweis der Auxinverteilung in kultivierten Petiolenexplantaten von transgenen Pflanzen wahrend der Induktion der somatischen Embryogenese bei Daucus carota L. Diss. Justus Liebig Universitat, Gie? en, Germany J. Imani †¢ L. Tran Thi †¢ G. Langen,B. Arnholdt-Schmitt †¢ S. Roy †¢ C. Lein †¢ A. Kumar K. -H. Neumann (2001) Somatic embryogenesis and DNA organization of genomes from selected Daucus species.Plant Cell Rep 20:537–541 Prasad, BS KV and Singh SK (Eds. ) Crop Improvement and Production Technology of Horticultural Crops Proceedings of First Indian Horticulture Congress – 2004. pp 174-184. Kumar A. (2004) Calotropis Procera: a Potential Plant for Hydrocarbons from Semi-Arid and Arid Regions In : Van Swaaij, Fjallstrom, Helm and Grassi (eds):. Biomass for energy, industry, and climate protection. Proceedings of the Second World Conference ETA-Florence, Rome Italy WIP-Munich , Germany pp 173. Kumar, A. and Sudhir Sopory ( eds) ( 2007) Recent advances in plant biotechnology.IK International New Delhi Kumar A and N S Shekhawat ( eds) (2007) Plant tissue culture, Molecular markers and their role in agriculture production. IK International. New Delhi Neumann, K. -H. (1995): Pflanzliche Zell- und Gewebekulturen. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart,304 pages Neumann KH (2000) Some studies on somatic embryogenesis, a tool in plant biotechnology. http://bibd. uni-giessen. de/ghtm/ 2000/uni/p000004. htm Neumann, K. -H. (2006): Some studies on somatic embryogenesis: a tool in plant biotechnology. In: Kumar and Roy (eds) Plant b iotechnology and its applications in tissue culture.I. K. International, New Delhi . pp 1-14. Shekhawat V. P. S. and A. Kumar 2006 Somaclonal variants for salt tolerance and in vitro propagation of peanut. In: (Eds. ) A. Kumar, S. Roy and S. K. Sopory. Plant Biotechnology;its Application in Tissue Culture. I. K. International New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore. pp. 177-196 Shekhawat, V. P. S. , Kumar, A. , and K. H. Neumann. 2005. Bio-reclamation of secondary salinized soils using halophytes. Biosaline Agriculture ; Salinity tolerance in Plants. (Eds. ) M. Ozturk, Y. Waisal, M. A. Khan and G. Gork, Birkhauser Verlag , Switzerland. p 145-152. Shekhawat, V. P. S. , Kumar, A. , and K. H. Neumann. 2006. Effect of NaCl salinity on growth and ion accumulation in some chenopodiaceous halophytes. Communication in Soil Science and Plant analysis 13-14 (37), 1933 – 1946 Manish Biyani, Yuzuru Husimi, and Naoto Nemoto (2006) Solid-phase translation and RNA–protein fusion: a novel approa ch for folding quality control and direct immobilization of proteins using anchored mRNA Nucleic Acids Res. 2006 November; 34:140-. Saxena, S and Dhawan V (2004) Changing Scenarios in Indian Horticulture In : PS Srivastava, A Narula and SSrivastava (Eds. ) Plant Biotechnology and Molecular Markers. Anamaya Publishers, New Delhi. pp. 261-277. Related Articles on Science 2. 0 Applications of biotechnology in plant tissue culture Biotechnology and genomic tools Biofuels include Medicinal plant cultivation. Recent advances in plant biotechnology: Applications in Agriculture. Know Science And Want To Write? Register Now To Get Your Own Column! What's Happening Top Articles New Comments Events 1. 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Company Comparison: Raytheon (Rtn) and Textron (Txt) Essay

Raytheon was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1922, as the American Appliance Company, by Laurence K. Marshall, Vannevar Bush, and Charles G. Smith. Marshall and Bush were engineering students, while Smith was an inventor and scientist, but they were all entrepreneurs. After failures to market an idea for a new refrigerator the trio began to focus on electronics. (Raytheon, Wikipedia.com) An idea that Smith and Bush had worked on years earlier, â€Å"a new kind of gaseous tube that would allow radios for the first time to be plugged into a wall socket and operate on electricity rather than batteries†, would be their new direction. (Raytheon Company, fundinginguniverse.com) After acquiring a patent for the idea and because an Indian company already had rights to the name American Appliance Company, Raytheon Manufacturing Company was born. (Raytheon Company, fundinginguniverse.com) The consumer demand for electronics was booming and the new radio-receiver power supply (gaseous rectifier), which immediately allow radios to be in every household for pennies of what it cost to continuously replace batteries. (History, Raytheon.com) As the competition for radio-receiving tubes began to intensify Raytheon, mainly Laurence K, Marshall, saw the need to diversify. (Raytheon Company, fundinginguniverse.com) Raytheon’s philosophy soon became to acquire companies that could take Raytheon to new heights in the competitive electronics market and to reinvest profits back into the company for research and to development and improve products. They acquired Acme-Delta Company in1933 a producer of transformers, power equipment, and electronic auto parts and Raytheon soon became â€Å"the world’s largest vacuum tube manufacturing companies†. (Raytheon, Wikipedia.com) During World War II Raytheon had the opportunity to help Allied Forces with the mass production of magnetron tubes, which improved the capability of radar to detect enemy planes. As the war ended Raytheon continued to search for acquisition opportunities in an attempt â€Å"to consolidate independent component manufacturers into one company†. (Raytheon Company, fundinginguniverse.com) They acquired Belmont Electronics, who was developing televisions for commercial use, for $4.6 million in 1945 and Russell Electric for $1.1 million later the same year. (Raytheon Company, fundinginguniverse.com) A merger with Submarine Signal Company in 1946 helped Raytheon make it thru tough times after WWII and it â€Å"was decided that Sub-Sig would specialize in sonar devices and that Raytheon would continue to develop new radar systems†. (History, Raytheon.com) The relationships Raytheon developed during WWII helped it grow the company and the productions of magnetron tubes lead them to their next great invention, the ability to use microwaves to cook food. In 1947 Raytheon demonstrated the first microwave, but it was their acquisition in 1965 of Amana Refrigeration, Inc, a manufacturer of refrigerators and air conditioners that made the microwave oven actually affordable and 1967, â€Å"Raytheon introduced the first countertop, domestic 100-volt microwave oven†. (History, Raytheon.com) The microwave brought great profits to Raytheon. This led to acquisitions of many more companies over the next decade. In 1948 Raytheon developed the first missile guidance system â€Å"in which both the radar transmitter and receiver were carried in the nose of the missile itself. (History, Raytheon.com) This lead to Raytheon receiving a contract from the U.S. Army in 1967 to develop its much needed missile defense system, later named the Patriot Missile System. The missile guidance system, much in demand during the Cold War of the 70’s and 80’s and Persian Gulf Wars, became a major part of Raytheon’s business. Raytheon has continued to acquire companies, including Beech Aircraft in 1980 and the defense businesses of Texas Instruments Inc. in 1997, it deems necessary to achieve its goals and expand its business. Raytheon is currently composed of six major business divisions: †¢Integrated Defense Systems  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Intelligence and Information Systems †¢Missile Systems †¢Network Centric Systems †¢Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC †¢Space and Airborne Systems (wikinvestment.com) Raytheon’s current CEO and Chairman, William H. Swanson, was named CEO in 2004. He graduated from California Polytechnic State University with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and acquired his MBA from Golden State University. (Leadership, Raytheon.com) He joined Raytheon in 1972 and held a â€Å"wide range of leadership positions, including manufacturing manager of the company’s Equipment Division, and general manager of Raytheon Electronic Systems† . (William H, Swanson, wikipedia.com) Swanson is the member of numerous military advisory boards and continues Raytheon’s pursuit to be the leading supplier for defense systems and continued innovations. He has continued to acquire companies that will allow Raytheon to achieve its goals more efficiently. Raytheon’s November 4 acquisition of Trusted Computer Solutions (TCS), an industry leader in cross-domain and cyber security software and services, and acquiring Technology Associates Inc, a company that delivers full life-cycle computer engineering to mission-critical programs in the U.S. intelligence community, in October 2010, are examples of Swanson continuing the philosophies of Raytheon’s founders. (Leadership, Raytheon.com) Textron (TXT) Mission statement: â€Å"to be one of the World’s Best Managed companies; Excellent Managers of Shareholder Resources; A Multi-Industry Company with Global Leadership Positions in Each of Our Businesses†. (Textron Inc., fundinguniverse.com) Background and History Textron was founded by Royal Little in 1923, as the Special Yarns Corporation in Boston, Massachusetts and was a textile company. A Harvard Graduate, Royal Little was an outspoken advocate for â€Å"non-related† diversification, so any down turns of one business would have minimal to no affect on other components of the company. (Textron Inc., fundinguniverse.com) With the acquisition of Franklin Process Company, a cotton yarn processing company in 1928, they became the first multi-industry company. (Textron, Wikipedia.com) Changing its name to Atlantic Rayon Corporation during World War II, business flourished from the demand for parachutes. (Company History,Textron.com) Little was extremely hands on and as revenue slowed at the end of WWII he moved to producing lingerie and other consumer goods. (Textron.com) In 1943 the name was changed to Textron and in 1947 it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Royal Little was known for hostile takeovers and his â€Å"irrepressible impulses to acquire more companies†. (Textron Inc., fundinguniverse.com) In 1956, in an attempt to balance his own business style, Little hired banker Rupert Thompson. This partnership became known as the first conglomerate. (Textron Inc., fundinguniverse.com) Thompsons’ main objectives, as the director and head of Textron’s non-textile operations and as Little’s successor, were to balance Textrons’ acquisitions and minimize the affects an economic downturn in one portion of company would have on the rest of the company. Thompson believed the company should sell any division of the company at the first sign of adverse performance and this included the selling of Textrons last textile holding, Amerotron, in 1963. (Textron Inc., fundinguniverse.com) Through the 60’s and 70’s Textron made many more acquisitions. Perhaps the most impressive was the purchase of Bell Aircraft Company for $32 million in 1960. Bell was best known for its helicopters, it gave Textron entrance into the aerospace industry, and Bell Aerospace became the name of this Textron division. (Textron, Wikipedia.com) Royal Little also retired at the end of 1960, but with Rupert Thompson taking over Textron continued growth through acquisition. In 1984 Textron acquired Avco Corporation which doubled the size of Textron and in 1992 the acquisition of Cessna Aircraft Company balanced the Bell Aerospace division’s defense-related business activity. Mission statement: â€Å"to be one of the World’s Best Managed companies; Excellent Managers of Shareholder Resources; A Multi-Industry Company with Global Leadership Positions in Each of Our Businesses†. (Textron Inc., fundinguniverse.com) Background and History Textron was founded by Royal Little in 1923, as the Special Yarns Corporation in Boston, Massachusetts and was a textile company. A Harvard Graduate, Royal Little was an outspoken advocate for â€Å"non-related† diversification, so any down turns of one business would have minimal to no affect on other components of the company. (Textron Inc., fundinguniverse.com) With the acquisition of Franklin Process Company, a cotton yarn processing company in 1928, they became the first multi-industry company. (Textron, Wikipedia.com) Changing its name to Atlantic Rayon Corporation during World War II, business flourished from the demand for parachutes. (Company History,Textron.com) Little was extremely hands on and as revenue slowed at the end of WWII he moved to producing lingerie and other consumer goods. (Textron.com) In 1943 the name was changed to Textron and in 1947 it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Royal Little was known for hostile takeovers and his â€Å"irrepressible impulses to acquire more companies†. (Textron Inc., fundinguniverse.com) In 1956, in an attempt to balance his own business style, Little hired banker Rupert Thompson. This partnership became known as the first conglomerate. (Textron Inc., fundinguniverse.com) Thompsons’ main objectives, as the director and head of Textron’s non-textile operations and as Little’s successor, were to balance Textrons’ acquisitions and minimize the affects an economic downturn in one portion of company would have on the rest of the company. Thompson believed the company should sell any division of the company at the first sign of adverse performance and this included the selling of Textrons last textile holding, Amerotron, in 1963. (Textron Inc., fundinguniverse.com) Through the 60’s and 70’s Textron made many more acquisitions. Perhaps the most impressive was the purchase of Bell Aircraft Company for $32 million in 1960. Bell was best known for its helicopters, it gave Textron entrance into the aerospace industry, and Bell Aerospace became the name of this Textron division. (Textron, Wikipedia.com) Royal Little also retired at the end of 1960, but with Rupert Thompson taking over Textron continued growth through acquisition. In 1984 Textron acquired Avco Corporation which doubled the size of Textron and in 1992 the acquisition of Cessna Aircraft Company balanced the Bell Aerospace division’s defense-related business activity. (Company History, Textron.com) Textron has been consistent in acquiring companies that offer complementary products, markets, or manufacturing processes and this has allowed them to easily merge their various companies into one large division. Examples of this are their Textron Automotive Company which merged six different automotive businesses and Textron Fastening Systems Inc. which merged five fastening companies. (Company History, Textron.com) Textron currently consist of the following five major business divisions: †¢Cessna (32%)  Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Bell (27%) †¢Textron Systems (18%) †¢Industrial (12%) †¢Finance (11%) (wikinvestment.com) Textron’s current CEO and chairman is Scott C. Donnelly. He has been with Textron since2008 and became CEO in December of 2009. Donnelly, who was formerly the president and CEO for General Electric (GE) Aviation, got his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Colorado. (Company History, Textron.com) Donnelly’s’ philosophies are similar to Textron’s past CEO’s as he continues to implement restructuring and new product development. His work with GE Global Research, the world’s largest and most diversified industrial research organization, will help him keep Textron diversified, which was always the goal of the founder.