Impact of green trust and green perceived quality on green purchase intentions: a moderation study

Environment, Development and Sustainability - The current study explores the role of green trust, green perceived risk and green perceived quality in changing green purchase intention....     

The influence of personality traits on sustainability-oriented entrepreneurial intentions: the moderating role of servant leadership

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Economic, environmental, and social imperatives make sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship an indispensable phenomenon of the day, yet only sparse...     

Degradation of polyacrylamide (PAM) and methane production by mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestion: Effect of temperature and concentration

• PAM degradation in thermophilic AD in comparison with mesophilic AD. • PAM degradation and its impact on thermophilic and mesophilic AD. • Enhanced methane yield in presence of PAM during thermophilic and mesophilic AD. • PAM degradation and microbial community analysis in thermophilic and mesophilic AD. Polyacrylamide (PAM) is generally employed in wastewater treatment processes such as sludge dewatering and therefore exists in the sludge. Furthermore, it degrades slowly and can deteriorate methane yield during anaerobic digestion (AD). The impact or fate of PAM in AD under thermophilic conditions is still unclear. This study mainly focuses on PAM degradation and enhanced methane production from PAM-added sludge during 15 days of thermophilic (55°C) AD compared to mesophilic (35°C) AD. Sludge and PAM dose from 10 to 50 g/kg TSS were used. The results showed that PAM degraded by 76% to 78% with acrylamide (AM) content of 0.2 to 3.3 mg/L in thermophilic AD. However, it degraded only 27% to 30% with AM content of 0.5 to 7.2 mg/L in mesophilic AD. The methane yield was almost 230 to 238.4 mL/g VSS on the 8th day in thermophilic AD but was 115.2 to 128.6 mL/g VSS in mesophilic AD. Mechanism investigation revealed that thermophilic AD with continuous stirring not only enhanced PAM degradation but also boosted the organics release from the sludge with added PAM and gave higher methane yield than mesophilic AD.     

Magnetic nanoparticles incorporation into different substrates for dyes and heavy metals removal—A Review

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Substantial discharge of hazardous substances, especially dyes and heavy metal ions to the environment, has become a global concern due to...     

Characterisation of PM10, PM2.5 and Benzene Soluble Organic Fraction of Particulate Matter in an Urban Area of Kolkata, India

In this study, the relationship between inhalable particulate (PM₁₀), fine particulate (PM_2.5), coarse particles (PM_{2.5 – 10}) and meteorological parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, wind speed were statistically analyzed and modelled for urban area of Kolkata during winter months of 2003–2004. Ambient air quality was monitored with a sampling frequency of twenty-four hours at three monitoring sites located near traffic intersections and in an industrial area. The monitoring sites were located 3–5 m above ground near highly trafficked and congested areas. The 24 h average PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 samples were collected using Thermo-Andersen high volume samplers and exposed filter papers were extracted and analysed for benzene soluble organic fraction. The ratios between PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ were found to be in the range of 0.6 to 0.92 and the highest ratio was found in the most polluted urban site. Statistical analysis has shown a strong positive correlation between PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 and inverse correlation was observed between particulate matter (PM₁₀ and PM_2.5) and wind speed. Statistical analysis of air quality data shows that PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 are showing poor correlation with temperature, relative humidity and solar radiation. Regression equations for PM₁₀ and PM_2.5 and meteorological parameters were developed. The organic fraction of particulate matter soluble in benzene is an indication of poly aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentration present in particulate matter. The relationship between the benzene soluble organic fraction (BSOF) of inhalable particulate (PM₁₀) and fine particulate (PM_2.5) were analysed for urban area of Kolkata. Significant positive correlation was observed between benzene soluble organic fraction of PM₁₀ (BSM10) and benzene soluble organic fraction of PM_2.5 (BSM2.5). Regression equations for BSM10 and BSM2.5 were developed.     

Comparative effect of organic amendments on physio-biochemical traits of young and old bean leaves grown under cadmium stress: a multivariate analysis

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The current study investigated the influence of organic amendments on cadmium (Cd) uptake and its effects on biochemical attributes of young and old...     

Adsorptive amputation of hazardous azo dye Congo red from wastewater: a critical review

Increasing amount of dyes in an ecosystem has propelled the search of various methods for dye removal. Amongst all the methods, adsorption occupies a prominent place in dye removal. Keeping this in mind, many adsorbents used for the removal of hazardous anionic azo dye Congo red (CR) from aqueous medium were reviewed by the authors. The main objectives behind this review article are to assemble the information on scattered adsorbents and enlighten the wide range of potentially effective adsorbents for CR removal. Thus, CR sorption by various adsorbents such as activated carbon, non-conventional low-cost materials, nanomaterials, composites and nanocomposites are surveyed and critically reviewed as well as their sorption capacities are also compared. This review also explores the grey areas of the adsorption performance of various adsorbents with reference to the effects of pH, contact time, initial dye concentration and adsorbent dosage. The equilibrium adsorption isotherm, kinetic and thermodynamic data of different adsorbents used for CR removal were also analysed. It is evident from a literature survey of more than 290 published papers that nanoparticle and nanocomposite adsorbents have demonstrated outstanding adsorption capabilities for CR.

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Effect of feeding dried sweet orange (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Citrus sinensis</Emphasis>) peel and lemon grass (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Cymbopogon citratus</Emphasis>) leaves on growth performance,carcass traits,serum metabolites and antioxidant status in broiler during the finisher phase

The current experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding dried sweet orange peel (SOP) and lemon grass leaves (LGL) as feed additives on broiler growth performance, serum metabolites, and antioxidant status. A total of 192-day-old (Ross 308) broiler chickens were distributed randomly into 4 dietary treatments with 4 replicates per each treatment. The dietary treatments included a control diet without any feed additive (T1), a diet containing 0.8 % SOP (T2), a diet containing 0.8 % LGL (T3), and a diet containing combination of 0.4 % SOP?+?0.4 % LGL (T4) was fed during the growth period from 22 to 42 days. Feed intake (FI), body weight gain (BWG), feed conversion ratio (FCR), carcass traits, serum components, and antioxidant status were measured. At the end of the experimental period, the results indicated that supplementation of SOP and LGL alone or in combination did not significantly (P?>?0.05) affect BWG, FI, FCR, and carcass characteristics in broiler chickens. Serum total protein was increased significantly (P?<?0.05) in T3 and T4 compared to the other treatments. Also, serum globulin increased significantly (P?<?0.05) in the treated groups. Serum glucose, low density lipoprotein, triglyceride, and very low density lipoprotein decreased significantly (P?<?0.05) in the treatment groups, while cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein decreased in T2 compared to the other groups. Significantly (P?<?0.05) higher total antioxidant status was observed in T2 compared to the other treatments. In conclusion, these results indicate that SOP, LGL, and their combination may positively modify some serum components and the antioxidant status without any beneficial effect on growth performance and carcass traits in broiler chickens.     

Population, environment and poverty in Pakistan: linkages and empirical evidence

This study explores the interlinkages among population, environment and poverty and presents empirical evidence in a developing country like Pakistan. It gives alternative views on population environment linkages. It explains poverty trap, market based harmony, and dual effect of poverty on the basis of a link between population growth and natural resource degradation. In addition, the paper also highlights social and political instability through population-poverty-environment spiral. It also presents empirical evidence on population-environment-poverty nexus in Pakistan. It also compares environmental sustainability index and human development index for selected Asian countries. The paper also gives scores for different components of environmental sustainability index for Pakistan and compares these with India. The paper concludes that the causal relationship between poverty and environment works in both directions, often through changes in GDP and population. Population stress does not have any significant direct effect on all aspects of environmental status in Pakistan.