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The coronavirus is a quintessentially urban pandemic that wreaked havoc in all social settings, from villages to cities. Homelessness can create an ideal environment for the rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 within this vulnerable group. The current pandemic has exposed the inaccessibility of healthcare services by those experiencing homelessness. As such, this paper uses an event methodology to examine how (1) local municipalities have responded to homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) the extent of the involvement of civil society groups across Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. It also compares each city's policy frameworks and strategies to identify the challenges and successes experienced. Findings suggest that although a cookie-cutter technique does not exist for addressing homelessness during the current pandemic, there are valuable lessons to be learnt such as the use of public-private partnerships with shared responsibility. It is hoped that through the findings of this research, future local, provincial and national homelessness housing policy could avoid the barriers that will arise in addressing homelessness.

Public participation is increasingly important in flood and environmental management planning. Accordingly , understanding the attitude of local society to natural values and their relations with the environment is highly important to realize successful development projects. This study aimed to analyze the human-nature relationship, the public perceptions of environmental hazards and people's engagement with water management related and human interventions at Maros/Mureş River through a public survey. The survey was carried out in 11 Romanian and Hungarian settlements using the random walking method to interview the local public. The results show that people are a little pessimistic concerning the state of the river, and there are misbeliefs about the general problems affecting its present environmental status. Meanwhile, the perception of flood hazard is governed by the fading memory of the last high-risk flood event in 1970. The engagement of residents is mostly affected by socio-demographic parameters. However, the regularity they visit the river is also very important. Consequently, informing people on apparent environmental issues and processes can greatly help the socially inclusive implementation of water management measures along the river.

Pt nanoparticles with controlled sizes between 1.6–7.0 nm were anchored onto the surface and pores of SBA-15 silica support. The catalysts were characterized by TEM-ED, BET, XRD, and ICP-MS techniques and were tested in liquid phase hydrosilylation of phenylacetylene with triethylsilane. The activity of the 7.0 nm Pt nanoparticles anchored onto the surface of SBA-15 in hydrosilylation (TOF = 0.107 molecules·site−1·s−1) was ~2 times higher compared to the 5.0 nm Pt/SBA-15 (TOF = 0.049 molecules·site−1·s−1) catalyst and ~10 times higher compared to the 1.6 nm Pt/SBA-15 (TOF = 0.017 molecules·site−1·s−1) catalyst. Regarding the selectivity, bigger nanoparticles produced more vinylsilane-type products (α- and β-(E)-products) and less side products (mainly ditriethylsilane, triethyl(1-phenylethyl)silane and triethyl(phenethyl)silane derived likely from the reduction of the vinylsilane products). However, the selectivity towards the β-(E)-triethyl(styryl)silane was higher in the case of 1.6 nm Pt/SBA-15 catalyst compared to 5.0 nm Pt/SBA-15 and 7.0 nm Pt/SBA-15, respectively, which can be attributed to the beneficial effect of the size differences of the Pt nanoparticles as well as the differences of the quality and quantity of Pt/SiO2 interfaces.

The role of railway network in the internal passenger and heavy traffic is continuously decreasing. Regarding the number of passengers, proportion of the railway out of the internal passenger transport was more than 20% less in 2000. The railway passenger transportation suffered a setback in shorter distances in the last decades. In case of railway transportation of goods both the carriage distance and the quantity of goods have decreased. Content of the load has changed, too. Comparing to the previous one, quantity of the transported building materials, metal waste, ores and coal etc. lessened. In contrast with it proportion of agricultural products, machines has increased. It is worth examining the changes in connection with the passenger and heavy traffic in the last few years not only in country level but in the level of several settlements, as well. In settlements’ life a transportation route of the infrastructural sphere plays an important role. In this essay it is aiming to examine the changes in railway traffic of town Mezohegyes, a settlement on the Southern part of the Hungarian Plain, between 1990 and 2006. Research work of this kind has been carried out about town Mezohegyes earlier.