The book develops a practical understanding of the fundamental scientific principles and logic underlying the art of turf pitch preparation, measuring, analysing, and interpreting pitch surface behaviour. It’s an attempt to understand how the captains, players, coaches, curators, and groundsmen comprehend and analyse the cricket pitch behaviour (days before and during the matches) and whether the pitch behaviour can be standardised and quantified (through bench marking or forming a data-based management system (DBMS) of a pitch profile, pitch quality standards, a pitch behaviour analysis index (PBAI), or pitch behaviour forecasting (PBF) by examining or analysing its mineralogical, chemical, physical, or morphological compositions, weather variables, and different pitch preparation methods and techniques. Individual chapters in this book deal with clay mineralogy, the bench-marking of cricket pitch soils, pitch soil chemical properties, pitch soil water, pitch turf grass, pitch soil organic matter, integrated rolling management, soil structure, and compressibility.

The volume focuses on novel and effective biological and biotechnological methods for managing major plant parasitic nematodes in economically important agricultural crops. Nematodes develop a wide variety of interactions with soil microbes and host plants, and cause enormous losses in crop yields equivalent to around USD 173 billion annually. In view of growing concern for pesticide contamination in crops, coupled with ban on several efficacious pesticides, and increasing demand for organic foods, the biological and biotechnological approaches offer a good alternative to chemicals for managing nematode infestations in agricultural crops. The book embodies twenty-two chapters which are arranged in two groups. The first group covers different novel methods of nematode management such as biotechnological, biopesticides, microbial consortia, host resistance, omics technology, transgenics, nano-nematicides, nano-diagnosis, etc. The second groups of chapters describe important nematode problems in major crops such as cereals, vegetables, pulses, spices, wood yielding conifers, etc. Overall, the book collates the latest information on above topics and offers practical solutions to the limitations and challenges in the existing management technologies. This book is of interest and serves up-to-date and elaborated information to agriculture researchers, teachers, scientists, under-graduates, post-graduates, plant nematologists, plant pathologists, plant protectionists, agronomists, horticulturalists, helminthologists, extension workers, and NGOs.

This book focuses on the analytical modeling of fractional-slot concentrated-wound (FSCW) interior permanent magnet (IPM) machines and establishes a basis for their magnetic and electrical analysis. Aiming at the precise modeling of FSCW IPM machines’ magnetic and electrical characteristics, it presents a comprehensive mathematical treatment of the stator magneto-motive force (MMF), the IPM rotor non-homogeneous magnetic saturation, and its airgap flux density. The FSCW stator spatial MMF harmonics are analytically formulated, providing a basis on which a novel heuristic algorithm is then proposed for the design of optimal winding layouts for multiphase FSCW stators with different slot/pole combinations. In turn, the proposed mathematical models for the FSCW stator and the IPM rotor are combined to derive detailed mathematical expressions of its operational inductances, electromagnetic torque, torque ripple and their respective subcomponents, as a function of the machine geometry and design parameters. Lastly, the proposed theories and analytical models are validated using finite element analysis and experimental tests on a prototype FSCW IPM machine.