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Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) growth, cultivation and its productivity are adversely influenced by severe environmental pressures. Several environmental abiotic factors that are limited not only to drought, salinity, temperature and heat but also to mechanical stress affect tomato yield and productivity. Salinity is a persistent problem throughout the world that affects soil properties. Further, tomato productivity due to salinity stress is affected at all stages of plant development. Seed priming, a method to alleviate salinity stress is an effective technique that can improve performance and growth. It is a method that permits controlled hydration of seeds thereby, maintaining metabolic activity, without allowing the protrusion of the radicle. Mechanical conditioning, a term applied to plant stimulation by tactile stimuli through various methods like touching, brushing, or rubbing the plant material, is another environmentally friendly and simple method to regulate plant growth and also stress tolerance. Therefore, the mechanical conditioning practice primes plants for enhanced plant growth and also allows plants to defend against an impending stress factor. These two methods can be developed into successful production practices. In this chapter, we summarize current knowledge of seed priming and mechanical conditioning for plant growth, cross-tolerance and plant productivity improvement.

The present study is used to identify the pattern of publication, authorship, citations and secondary journal coverage in the hope such regularities can give an insight into the dynamics of the area under consideration. During 1999- 2012 a total of 486 papers were published by the scientists in the field of space neuroscience research. The average Number of Publications produced per year was 34.7%. The highest number of publications 70 was produced in 2010. The most productive author is Rabinovich MI and Spence C with each 6 papers dealing with space neuroscience research and 1.2% of all papers published in this research field. The highest number of publication is at USA 199 (39.9%) and lowest number of publication is at UAE 1(0.2%).