Ethics and privacy are integral to life although limited research has been conducted relative to global codes of ethics and privacy policies of corporations. This piqued the interest on this research where the first contribution examines codes of ethics worldwide. It compares codes of different societies to IEEE and proposes changes which address issues of diversity, culture, and sociopolitical differences. Four countries have adopted the IEEE codes of ethics, while 28 countries have some variations. A global code of ethics would be useful in a world without borders. The second contribution introduces new guidelines for Canadian corporations regarding privacy policies. It examines the compatibility and compliance of corporate privacy policies with PIPEDA. An examination of the corporations revealed only 1,017 have public-facing privacy policies on their websites and some do not seem to satisfy all PIPEDA principles. New guidelines will help to ensure a better compliance with PIPEDA by corporations.
Mineral (neutral mine tailings, quartz sand) and organic (sawdust, hay) mixes were subjected to a slow co-pyrolysis process (400~C, 30 minutes) to produce biochar-mineral mixtures with the intent of accelerating granular structure formation which is beneficial to the establishment of vegetation. Resulting products were examined for pH, CEC, water holding capacity and IR spectra, and compared to non-pyrolized samples. The changes in these soil properties with temperature of pyrolysis (200~C, 300~C and 400~C) were also examined. Differences were found in samples resulting from organic type, mineral type, temperature of pyrolysis, and the pyrolysis process. Aggregates formed in all samples containing organics. Aggregates were examined by scanning electron microscope and thin section microscopy revealing mineral particles embedded in an organic matrix. The results suggest a role of phase changes of carbon products (into bio-oil and bio-gas) during pyrolysis in the closed reactor system, rather than a biochar coating creating organo-mineral complexes.
Adsorption is a commonly used method for arsenic remediation. The adsorption and immobilization effectiveness of arsenic by soil particles and used hand warmers was studied. The adsorption effectiveness at equilibrium of soil particles in 10 ppm As(III) solution was: clay (77.70%) > silt (69.24%) > sand (41.35%). In 1000 ppm As(III) solution, 17.02 mg As(III) was adsorbed onto each gram of hand warmers at equilibrium, which was significantly higher than other adsorbents. For As(III) adsorption from aqueous solution, soil samples and hand warmers were well fitted to the pseudo secondorder model and the Freundlich model. After 8 weeks of soil incubation, the sequential extraction procedure data indicated the labile fractions of arsenic (F1 and F2) decreased with the addition of hand warmers. Meanwhile, the percentage of the most stable fraction, F5, increased. These results are valuable for the future application of used hand warmers as an adsorbent/amendment for arsenic decontamination.
