Social Network Analysis of COVID-19 Sentiments: 10 Metropolitan Cities in Italy.

The pandemic spread rapidly across Italy, putting the region's health system on the brink of collapse, and generating concern regarding the government's capacity to respond to the needs of patients considering isolation measures. This study developed a sentiment analysis using millions of Twitter data during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 10 metropolitan cities in Italy's (1) north: Milan, Venice, Turin, Bologna; (2) central: Florence, Rome; (3) south: Naples, Bari; and (4) islands: Palermo, Cagliari. Questions addressed are as follows: (1) How did tweet-related sentiments change over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, and (2) How did sentiments change when lagged with policy shifts and/or specific events? Findings show an assortment of differences and connections across Twitter sentiments (fear, anger, and joy) based on policy measures and geographies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Quantifying plastics waste accumulations on coastal tourism sites in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

Plastic pollution is becoming a growing concern on coastal tourism sites. Unquantified amounts of plastic materials are discharged into coastal waters with detrimental effects on local marine environments. With the expansion of the tourism industry, waste increasingly originates from tourism activities and ends up into the ocean due to poor management of solid waste post-consumption.