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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.

Stature is one of the most important elements in the identification of a person. Many different anthropometric dimensions can be used in the estimation of stature. Establishing the identity of an individual from body fragments has become an important necessity in recent times due to natural and man-made disasters. This study was performed on 226 Gurung soldiers of Gorkha regiment of Indian Army. The studied soldier’s age range was 18 years - 48 years. Six anthropometric measurements (Stature, Hand length, Arm length, Standing knee height, Foot length and Leg length) were measured and stature is estimated with the help of these measurements.There was no significant difference between actual and estimated stature. All anthropometric measurements were highly correlated with stature at significance level p< 0.001 but leg length had better correlation (r=0.816) compared to other variables. Staturecan be estimated with the help of standing knee height (r=0.686, p

Background: Physical strength can be measured by means of hand grip strength. It is of great use as a functional index of nutritional status.Aims and Objectives: Physical strength can be measured by means of hand grip strength. It is of great use as a functional index of nutritional status. Association of hand grip strength with other variables is studied in order to predict the strength outcomes and to study the effect of factors that can influence hand grip strength performance.Materials and Methods: In the present study the correlations of dominant hand grip strength and anthropometric and body composition variables namely, height, weight, forearm length, arm length, hand breadth, body mass index (BMI), and fat mass in randomly selected 375 unrelated, normal, healthy Indian office going females of age 20-60 years with mean height and weight of 154.12 ± 5.94 cm and 59.86 ± 10.94 kg respectively has been studied.Result: Hand grip strength of the females varied from 17 kg to 32 kg with a mean of 23.86 ± 2.74 kg. The comparison of age, height, weight, forearm length, arm length, hand breadth, and fat mass with the hand grip strength showed good correlation (p

Microbial fuel cell technology is a recent approach which consist renewable and sustainable technology for electricity generation. Great attentions have been paid to microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Since, it recovers energy from renewable materials that can be difficult to dispose, such as organic wastes, waste water etc. and utilize variety of biodegradable substrates as fuel. Through which, microorganisms actively catabolize substrate and generate electricity. Besides many advantages, it still faces some limitations such as low power and current density. In the present research waste water was physically, biologically and chemically tested. We found that waste water has less amount of toxicity. Thus, it was assumed as low strength waste water and used for the MFC setup for bioelectric generation.Initially, the setup was run three times in a small scale. Simultaneously voltage and current was measured at different time intervals. It was observed that in first run, the voltage and current fluctuation data was not significant but voltage generation was varied from 140.8-182.5 mV in final run, correspondingly current fluctuated from 51-352 μA and power varied from 7180.8-66439.1 nW. However, we got highest power density of 0.0215-0.042 mW when the setup was moved in higher scale.Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 4(3): 281-287

Introduction: Nutritional content of diet of vegetarian and non-vegetarian differs in terms of food composition and vegetarian diets are often low in protein, probably causing a difference in body composition, structure and strength characteristics. Purpose of study: To study anthropometric, body composition and hand strength differences among 641 vegetarian and 424 non-vegetarian Indian women, aged 20–60 yrs. Methods: ANOVA, t-test, multivariable stepwise regression and logistic regressions were performed to analyse association between BMI, hand grip strength and potential confounders using SPSS Version 17 for Windows. p < 0.05 referred to as statistically significant. Results: Vegetarians had less body fat than non-vegetarians. Statistically significant difference was found in their grip strength (GS) (t = 2.459, p < 0.05) and BMI (t = 2.188, p < 0.05). Height and weight were positively associated with grip strength in the vegetarian group while height and fat free mass were seen to be positively associated with grip strength in the non-vegetarian group. Grip strength was greater in non-vegetarian group and the vegetarians had lower BMI (25.33 kg/mt 2 ± 4.56) than nonvegetarians (25.95 kg/mt 2 ± 4.45, t-test = 2.188, p

Introduction: The study was designed to investigate back pain among working women in one of the largest Research and Development Organization in India and identify occupational factors associated with lower back pain by means of a survey of female employees. Methods: This study investigated the relative risk of whether different age groups, job types, body mass index (BMI), years or service, screen viewing distance, self perception of comfort level and duration of use of computer have a bearing on the occurrence of back pain and if such risk factors aggravate cases of back pain. Results: In the unadjusted table, there was a statistically significant chance of developing backpain as the age increases (odds ratio) OR 1.56, 95% (confidence interval) CI (1.030 - 2.372), however, after adjusting for the other co-variates, this chance was not of significance. Job types, body mass index (BMI) >30 (OR >1 (0.802-1.877), years of service and screen distance OR >1 (0.96-1.745) all showed a positive association with back pain though the p values were not of statistically significance. In the adjusted table, for those who use the computer daily at the workplace for more than 6 hours, there was a statistically significant association for this group of developing back pain as compared to the first group i.e. those who work for 0-2 hours, as shown by OR 1.79, (1.123 - 2.864).Conclusion: The present study indicated that backpain is present in as much as about 25.3% of the study population. For those who use the computer >6 hours daily, there was a statistically significant chance of developing backpain.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v3i1.5567 Asian Journal of Medical Sciences 3(2012) 6-12