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With a growing population of about 7.8 billion, humans are generating tons of waste in the form of non-biodegradable plastics on a daily basis that ends up in landfills and oceans. The introduction of packaging has been a blessing to mankind by facilitating the ease of convenience in transportation, delivery and general usage. The downside, however, is that majority of the packaging currently available is harmful to the environment and takes thousands of years to decay. This paper discusses the use of chitosan from shrimp shells and other marine animals' exoskeleton waste in food packaging industries. Chitosan extracted from marine organisms is modulated in the form of packaging material. Compared to conventional packaging, chitosan films are 73.4% biodegradable in soil under laboratory conditions whereas 100% degraded in an open field. Chitosan with metal oxides, essential oils, natural extracts, proteins and other polymers show enhanced tensile strength, water vapor permeability, oxygen and ultraviolet barrier. Chitosan and composite film show antimicrobial activity against gram positive and negative bacteria. Comparative approaches on environmental impacts between conventional plastics and chitosan films are enlightened, thereby highlighting the importance of natural polymers as packaging films that are considered economic based on the addition of additives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research work explores different types of machine learning algorithms to estimate the water quality index and the water quality class. The samples were collected from Korattur Lake in Chennai city and tested for its necessary hydro-chemical parameters. The machine learning models such as support vector machine, decision tree, logistic regression, random forest, and naive Bayesian for assessing the water quality with respect to the accuracy and precision of the model. The water quality parameters such as pH, total dissolved salts, turbidity, phosphate, nitrate, iron, chemical oxygen demand, chloride, and sodium are used as a raw dataset. The models are then tested and evaluated to find the best suitable model by comparing and analyzing the accuracy of prediction, the precision rate, and the time taken for execution of all the models. Among all the algorithms employed, the random forest algorithm produces 95% accuracy which is the highest and also consumes the least execution time. From the random forest model, it was found that water quality has 84% of contamination which was attributed to unfit for drinking purpose. Hence, it could be suggested that water quality left disturbed due to anthropogenic activities and improper maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past decades showed much research interest in lowering the fluoride ion content in water due to its hazardous nature. Fluoride present in water is likely to have favorable and unfavorable consequences to human life. It depends upon the permissible limits prescribed by the agencies, which paves the way to opt for fluoridation or defluoridation techniques. The excess intake of fluoride by human beings provides many issues that include deformities in skeletal structure, dental fluorosis, weakening of the nervous system, and severe damage to the kidney and liver. This review paper addresses the issues caused due to the over-dosage of fluoride and by compiling the recognized treatment techniques adopted to eliminate it from aqueous solution. The current study also figures out the versatility of every technique by revealing its pros and cons and bridges the gap between the emerging advancements to the practical mode of application. Several pieces of literature have been taken into consideration to withdraw the limitations of the key issues. This review paper suggests that adsorption technology can be adopted due to its simplicity and flexibility to overcome the technological issues. It is one such technique which enhances the defluoridation in trace amount and can be easily implemented in the rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]