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Global ecological crises place significant strain on cities at a time of accelerating urbanization. 55% of the world’s population currently lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. These areas continue to experience rapid development and confront ecological challenges including climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. As a result, an increasing number of urban policymakers have turned to sustainability initiatives, and environmental movements have called for greater involvement in decision-making processes at the local and political levels. However, strategies to reduce the ecological footprint of cities and establish ‘green’ development practices remain vigorously debated among policymakers, city dwellers, and researchers. Given the need to implement socially inclusive and environmentally just frameworks of collective action in the built environment, strategies centered on citizen engagement are essential. However, understandings of ‘nature’ and ‘sustainability’ can vary significantly across social and cultural boundaries, so citizen engagement cannot be viewed monolithically. How can effective communication around urgent socio-ecological issues occur within the domain of urban policy making? Here we examine how intercultural communication impacts the perception of socially inclusive and ecologically sustainable urban environments. We offer two distinct disciplinary approaches to examine the complexity of urban environmental identity and point to the dynamic interaction between personal and collective relationships to urban ecologies. The dialogue outlines how socio-cultural perspectives can improve our understanding of the connections between city dwellers and urban nature(s). It emphasizes the need for further research on intercultural engagement in urban policymaking and argues that the complexity of urban environmental identity must be taken into consideration to promote effective, cross-cultural communication. Focusing on the cross-cultural dialogue of the 2022 Autumn School for the Young VDW, the paper provides two perspectives on the issues of interdisciplinarity and interculturality in urban policy making and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of [Pt(ii)(diimine)(dithiolate)] complexes of general formula [Pt{X,X′-(CO2R)2-bpy}(mnt)] (where X = 3, 4 or 5; R = H or Et, bpy = 2,2′-bipyridyl and mnt = maleonitriledithiolate), have been spectroscopically, electrochemically and computationally characterised and compared with the precursors [Pt{X,X′-(CO2R)2-bpy}Cl2] and X,X′-(CO2R)2-bpy. The study includes cyclic voltammetry, in situ EPR spectroelectrochemical studies of fluid solution and frozen solution samples, UV/Vis/NIR spectroelectrochemistry, hyrid DFT and TD-DFT calculations. The effect of changing the position of the bpy substituents from 3,3′ to 4,4′ and 5,5′ is discussed with reference to electronic changes seen within the different members of the family of molecules. The performance of the mnt complexes in dye-sensitised solar cells has been previously described and the superior performance of [Pt{3,3′-(CO2R)2-bpy}(mnt)] is now explained in terms of decreased electronic delocalisation through twisting of the bipyridyl ligand as supported by the EPR and computational results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calcium carbonate can be “functionalized”by useof etching agents such as phosphoric acid to create inter- and intraparticleporosity with a range of morphologies. Functionalized calcium carbonatehas potential for use as a carrier for the delayed release of actives,such as drugs, plant protection chemicals, and food additives suchas flavors. The drug or flavor is released slowly by permeation anddiffusion. In order to measure the effective rate of diffusion withina range of morphologies, and hence gain insights into the optimummode of functionalization, the diffusion of vanillin in ethanol isreported. Effective diffusion coefficients D′were measured in a flow cell connected to a high performance liquidchromatograph (HPLC). Samples were also subjected to mercury intrusionporosimetry. The resulting percolation characteristics were inversemodeled using the PoreXpert package to generate representative voidstructures with estimated tortuosities. It is shown that the primaryparticle size of a sample was a better predictor of D′ calculated from the experimental diffusion curves, and alsoof the porosity-scaled tortuosity values, than the porosity or surfacearea. There was also a correlation between intraparticle tortuosity,scaled by porosity, and diffusion coefficient. The approach is validatedby experimental evidence from this and related studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dye complexes [Pt(4-CO2R-py)2(mnt)] (R = H (3a), CH3(3b)) and the precursor complexes [Pt(4-CO2R-py)2Cl2] (2a, 2b) (py = pyridyl) were synthesised, characterised by electrochemical, spectroscopic, spectroelectrochemical (UV-vis-nIR and in situEPR) and hybrid DFT computational methods and attached to a TiO2substrate to determine charge recombination kinetics. The results were compared to the bipyridyl analogues [Pt{X,X′-(CO2R)-2,2′-bipyridyl}(mnt)], (X= 3 or 4). The electronic characteristics of the bis-pyridyl complex were found to be different to the bipyridyl complexes making the former harder to reduce, shifting the lowest-energy absorption band to higher energy and showing separate degenerate LUMO orbitals on the two pyridine rings. The latter point determines that the di-reduced pyridyl complex remains EPR active, unlike the bipyridyl analogue. Complex 3aattached to nanocrystalline TiO2shows a long charge recombination lifetime in comparison with the analogous complex with the ubiquitous 4,4′-(CO2H)2-bipyridyl ligand, suggesting that pyridyl complexes may possess some advantage over bipyridyl complexes in dye-sensitised solar cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]