Social values and sustainable development: community experiences.

Background: This paper presents a review of the literature and trends related to social values and sustainable development and describes a set of case studies from a variety of community-based projects which illustrate the advantages that social values bring about as part of efforts to promote sustainability. Three approaches were used to develop this study: a bibliometric analysis of the topic "social values and sustainable development", an analysis of case studies that concretely present community projects addressing social values and sustainability, and the development of a framework linking up bibliometric clusters and the cases studies. Results: While the bibliometric analysis revealed clusters where social values are strongly connected with sustainable development, the case studies indicated the lack of a common terminology and understanding of the relation between social values, sustainable development, and community-based projects. Conclusions: The study concludes by suggesting a set of measures that could be deployed to better take social values into account when planning policies or making decisions related to community projects.

COVID-19 and waste production in households: A trend analysis.

Apart from the health aspects and the high death toll, the COVID-19 pandemic has, since its official recognition in March 2020 caused may social and economic problems. It has also led to many environmental ones. For instance, the lockdowns have led to higher levels of consumption of packaged products, and of take-away food. This paper reports on an international study on the increased consumption and subsequent changes in the amounts of waste produced since the COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that 45-48% of the respondents observed an increased consumption of packed food, fresh food, and food delivery. One of the main reasons for the increased waste generation during the lockdown was the fact that people have spent more time at home. In addition, increases of 43% and 53% in food waste and plastic packaging. Drawing from comparisons on the amount of domestic waste produced before and during the pandemic, the findings suggest that some specific types of municipal waste have visibly increased, putting additional pressure on waste management systems. This characterises one of non-intended effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results from this study provide useful insights to city administrations and municipal utilities on consumption patterns during emergency situations. This, in turn, may support more systemic and strategic measures to be taken, so as to curtail the increase of household waste during pandemic situations.

Step by step procedures: Degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in potable water using photo-Fenton oxidation process.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are carcinogenic compounds, composed of two or more fused benzene rings and abundantly found in mixed-use areas. Mixed-use areas consist of dense population, urbanization, industrial and agricultural activities. River pollution are common in mixed-use areas and 98% of Malaysia's fresh water supply originates from surface water. The biological degradation, adsorption and advanced oxidation process were documented as the available PAHs treatment for water. To date, the application of the photo-Fenton oxidation process has been reported for the treatment of PAHs from contaminated soil (review paper), landfill leachate, municipal solid waste leachate, sanitary landfill leachate, aniline wastewater, ammunition wastewater and saline aqueous solutions. As for potable water, the application of Fenton reagent was aided with photo treatment or electrolysis not focusing on PAHs removal. •The presented MethodsX was conducted for PAHs degradation analysis in potable water samples using photo-Fenton oxidation process.•The designed reactor for batch experiment is presented.•The batch experiment consists of parameters like concentration of 17 USEPA-PAHs in the prepared aqueous solution (fixed variable), reaction time, pH and molarity ratio of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2): ferrous sulfate (FeSO4).

Neural correlates of eye contact in face-to-face verbal interaction: An EEG-based study of the extraversion personality trait.

The extraversion personality trait has a positive correlation with social interaction. In neuroimaging studies, investigations on extraversion in face-to-face verbal interactions are still scarce. This study presents an electroencephalography (EEG)-based investigation of the extraversion personality trait in relation to eye contact during face-to-face interactions, as this is a vital signal in social interactions. A sample of healthy male participants were selected (consisting of sixteen more extraverted and sixteen less extraverted individuals) and evaluated with the Eysenck's Personality Inventory (EPI) and Big Five Inventory (BFI) tools. EEG alpha oscillations in the occipital region were measured to investigate extraversion personality trait correlates of eye contact during a face-to-face interaction task and an eyes-open condition. The results revealed that the extraversion personality trait has a significant positive correlation with EEG alpha coherence in the occipital region, presumably due to its relationship with eye contact during the interaction task. Furthermore, the decrease in EEG alpha power during the interaction task compared to the eyes-open condition was found to be greater in the less extraverted participants; however, no significant difference was observed between the less and more extraverted participants. Overall, these findings encourage further research towards the understanding of neural mechanism correlates of the extraversion personality trait-particularly in social interaction.

Application of response surface methodology for the optimization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons degradation from potable water using photo-Fenton oxidation process.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are carcinogenic compounds, composed of benzene rings. The objective of this research was to identify the optimum condition for the degradation of PAHs contaminated water using photo-Fenton oxidation process via response surface methodology (RSM). Aqueous solution was prepared and potable water samples were collected from water treatment plants in Perak Tengah, Perak, Malaysia in September 2016. The reaction time, pH, molarity of H2O2 and FeSO4 were analyzed followed by RSM using aqueous solution. A five level central composite design with quadratic model was used to evaluate the effects and interactions of these parameters. The response variable was the percentage of total organic carbon (TOC) removal. PAHs quantification was done using gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis. The regression line fitted well with the data with R2 value of 0.9757. The lack of fit test gives the highest value of Sum of Squares (15,666.64) with probability F value 0.0001 showing significant quadratic model. The optimum conditions were established corresponding to the percentage of TOC removal. The PAHs removal efficiency for potable water samples ranged from 76.4% to 91% following the first order of kinetic rates with R2 values of >0.95. Conventional water treatment techniques are not effective for PAHs removal. Thus, advanced oxidation processes may be considered as an alternative to conventional water treatment techniques in Malaysia and other developing countries.

Genotoxicity assessment of raw and treated water samples using Allium cepa assay: evidence from Perak River, Malaysia.

Allium cepa assay was carried out in this study to evaluate genotoxic effects of raw and treated water samples from Perak River in Perak state, Malaysia. Samples were collected from three surface water treatment plants along the river, namely WTPP, WTPS, and WTPK. Initially, triplicates of equal size Allium cepa (onions) bulbs, 25-30 mm in diameter and average weight of 20 g, were set up in distilled water for 24 h at 20 ± 2 °C and protected from direct sunlight, to let the roots to grow. After germination of roots (0.5-1.0 cm in length), bulbs were transferred to collected water samples each for a 96-h period of exposure. The root physical deformations were observed. Genotoxicity quantification was based on mitotic index and genotoxicity level. Statistical analysis using cross-correlation function for replicates from treated water showed that root length has inverse correlation with mitotic indices (r = - 0.969) and frequencies of cell aberrations (r = - 0.976) at lag 1. Mitotic indices and cell aberrations of replicates from raw water have shown positive correlation at lag 1 (r = 0.946). Genotoxicity levels obtained were 23.4 ± 1.98 (WTPP), 26.68 ± 0.34 (WTPS), and 30.4 ± 1.13 (WTPK) for treated water and 17.8 ± 0.18 (WTPP), 37.15 ± 0.17 (WTPS), and 47.2 ± 0.48 (WTPK) for raw water. The observed cell aberrations were adherence, chromosome delay, C-metaphase, chromosome loss, chromosome bridge, chromosome breaks, binucleated cell, mini cell, and lobulated nuclei. The morphogenetic deformations obtained were likely due to genotoxic substances presence in collected water samples. Thus, water treatment in Malaysia does not remove genotoxic compounds.