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In groundwater, excess fluoride concentration (>1.5 mg/L) is a primary concern for various countries. Nanoadsorbents have been proven to possess higher adsorption capacity than conventional adsorbents. This review aims to provide insights into recent advancements in the adsorption of fluoride using various nanoadsorbents. Nanoparticles have very high specific surface area but are usually found unsuitable for real field applications as they tend to agglomerate. They are also difficult to recover after use and pose a significant threat to the environment through leaching. These limitations have given rise to the trend of the development of nanocomposites for defluoridation. Nanocomposites often involve a polymeric matrix that serves as a medium for their homogenous dispersion. This reduces agglomeration and leaching into the surroundings without altering the original activities of the nanoadsorbent. This review classifies the fluoride nanoadsorbents into three categories: bare nanoparticles, nanocomposites with nanoparticles inside the porous matrix, and nanocomposites with nanoparticles coated with or anchored on the matrix surface. Critical analyses of the importance and shortcomings of these classes have been presented. In general, bare nanocomposites show the best fluoride adsorption performance compared to other classes of nanoadsorbents.

The world is looking for alternative energy resources because of the depletion of fossil fuel reservoirs like crude oil, coal, and natural gases in the next few decades. In this aspect, unutilized coal waste and sustainable biomass are considered major energy contributors to convert biomass blended coal fines as high-quality solid briquettes. The present study integrates different briquette processing technologies to develop, coal-biomass-binder, coal-biomass (binderless), coal-binder, and carbonized biomass-binder composites. Briquette application depends upon, availability of waste coal, selection of appropriate biomass among the countless existing biomass stock, thermal-mechanical characteristics of raw material, and progressive advancements in briquetting machines. Present review highly encourages densification of aquatic biomass (water hyacinth, microalgae), activated sludge (municipal solid waste, tannery industry) as well as agro and forest residues (wheat straw, sawdust) to integrate briquetting technology with wastewater treatment or solid waste management. Briefly, the present study covers all aspects of briquette processing and the application of multifunctional bio-binders as cow dung, which act as a desulfurizing agent besides binding to obtain clean coal combustion. Further, cost assessment and budding future research concerned with briquetting technologies are explored to find alternative and sustainable energy routes.

Introduction: Proper protective gear sizing is an important factor both for civilian and defence population. This is much more so in the defence sector as a well fitted personal protective ensemble...

The present study examines genomic variation among three tribal (Nayakpod, Thoti and Kolam) and a caste (Niyogi Brahmin) population groups of Andhra Pradesh, south India.The present study examined the genomic diversity of the populations in relation to other population groups of India using 20 autosomal loci.A total of 204 blood samples from the population groups described above were collected and analysis was carried out following standard protocols.All markers were found to be polymorphic in these groups except AluCD4 among Thotis. High average heterozygosity values (0.3927 among Thotis to 0.4268 among Brahmins) are comparable with the available autosomal (Alu and restriction site polymorphisms) data for the Nilgiri hill tribes of Tamil Nadu, south India. The gene differentiation value (Gst) was found to be 4.2. The principal coordinate analysis (PCO) based on data from the 20 markers presents a smaller cluster of presently studied populations than that of the Nilgiri hill tribes of Tamil Nadu, south India.Although the presently studied populations of Andhra Pradesh have heterozygosity similar to that of Nilgiri hill populations, the former are more closely placed on the PCO plot than the latter, who are more scattered. Also the gene differentiation (Gst) of the former is much lower than that of the latter, indicating considerable regional variation in the inflow of genes from diverse ethnic groups within south India.