Engaging stakeholders in research to address water-energy-food (WEF) nexus challenges.

The water-energy-food (WEF) nexus has become a popular, and potentially powerful, frame through which to analyse interactions and interdependencies between these three systems. Though the case for transdisciplinary research in this space has been made, the extent of stakeholder engagement in research remains limited with stakeholders most commonly incorporated in research as end-users. Yet, stakeholders interact with nexus issues in a variety of ways, consequently there is much that collaboration might offer to develop nexus research and enhance its application.

Luminescence techniques and characterization of the morphology of polymer latices 2. Fluorescence lifetime, phosphorescence and fluorescence anisotropy studies.

Five poly(n-butyl methacrylate), PBMA, latex dispersions have been prepared, each incorporating a different fluorescent label, via a two-stage seeded emulsion polymerization. The resultant latices contain ca. 35% by weight total solids and are of 80 (+/-10) nm diameter as determined by photon correlation spectrometry.

Luminescence techniques and characterization of the morphology of polymer latices. 3. An investigation of the microenvironments within stabilized aqueous latex dispersions of poly(n-butyl methacrylate) and polyurethane.

Fluorescence techniques (including time-resolved anisotropy measurements, TRAMS) have been used to probe differences in morphology between two stabilized aqueous latex dispersions (poly(n-butyl methacrylate), PBMA, and polyurethane, PU). Use of the emission characteristics of probes such as pyrene and phenanthrene dispersed within particles reveals that the PU latices are more heterogeneous in nature: evidence exists, particularly from quenching measurements and TRAMS, that voids and channels of water permeate the PU structure, resulting in a relatively soft, open particle, swollen by ingress of the bulk aqueous phase. Fluorescence measurements indicate that PBMA colloids, however, are composed of relatively hard, hydrophobic particles.