- Development of links between the different studies being carried out within the individual WPs, as well as between WPs is converging to the ultimate objectives of the project. - Understanding the underlying physics to explain data-driven models and the development of links between fundamental and applied models has been achieved. - Development of inline measurements and viscosity models and the transfer of methods/tools/techniques between individual projects and applications. - Sound collaboration between partners with both industrial and academic challenges being addressed which has led to the development of realistic predictive models. - Significant effort has also been made in the past year to use these models to identify the dominant physical phenomena and to further the research to provide explanations of the underlying science.The results from this work have formed the preparation of further grant applications to Unliever, EU and EPSRC. In addition the results will hopefully be used by industry to to inform process model development and formulation of new products and processesAgriculture Food and DrinkChemicalsHealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyWe have developed a new method that allows the direct coupling of diols with CO2 to produce cyclic carbonate monomers for polymerisation, without the use of phosgene derivatives, the toxic reagents traditionnally used. This process furthermore works under very mild conditions (ambient temperature and low pressure of CO2). Through the research funded by this grant, we have improved our previously developed method into a partially catalytic system, hence using less costly reagents. We are still working towards a more efficient and fully catalytic process, one that would use the minimum amount of reagents to perform the coupling of CO2 and diols. Finally, using this method, we have been able to produce new monomers made from CO2 and sugar derivatives. These monomers have produced entirely novel renewable and degradable materials. We have also been able to transfer this technology to molecules analogues to CO2: CS2 (toxic solvent used in Industry) and COS (waste gas for the combustion of sulfur-containing compounds, such as tyres etc).The publications resulting from this grant have already attracted a lot of attention from the sustainable polymer and carbon dioxide utilisation community. We are aware of two groups (one in the US, one is Saudi Arabia) that are currently using our published method for the synthesis of new monomers using CO2. Furthermore, our CO2 methodology has been taken up by other groups and investigated further: Journal of CO2 Utilization, Volume 38, May 2020, Pages 88-98 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212982019309692#fig0070 More widely, this work has been explicitely named in high profile reviews such as : - Chem. Rev. 2018, 118, 2, 839-885 - Chem. Soc. Rev., 2019, 48, 4466-4514 - ACS Catal. 2019, 9, 9, 8012-8067 - Green Chem., 2021, 23, 1077-1113 - Chem. Rev. 2021, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00883 We have also started collaborations with groups in Japan and France to apply our methodology to substrates derived from lignin and from fatty acids. The new materials we have been able to produce using CO2 (in particular with sugars) have been of interest to tissue engineering/drug delivery research and we have initiated work on this aspect with collaborators, specialist of the medical applications of biopolymers.ChemicalsEnvironmentHealthcarehttp://www.bath.ac.uk/research/news/2017/06/12/scientists-make-plastic-from-sugar-and-carbon-dioxideWe discovered that the methods for estimating sampling effort were so inaccurate as to be almost useless. The exact reasons behind this poor result was not apparent despite a great deal of work by the researcher.We would still like to improve our ability to predict sample sizes in metagenomic studies. But it is clearly a much harder problem than previously realised. We would hope to find new collaborators who might be able to bring a fresh pair of eyes to the problem.Agriculture Food and DrinkEducationEnvironmentPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyA central question pursued as part of this project was: - How can those concerned with the implications of science and technology become more aware of the implications of what they are **not** addressing? During Phases 1 and 3, varied streams of empirical research and analysis conducted by different project members were undertaken that produced a number of significant claims, including: 1. In examining how the failure of South Africa to declare its former chemical and biological warfare programme has become forgotten within national and international deliberations, this project has identified defensive self-reinforcing and self-sealing reasoning and practices within the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and other disarmament forum that delimit what issues get discussed. As conceived by Brian Rappert and Chandre Gould, the ways in which the South African past programme non-declaration became a non-issues is just part of a much wider set of countervailing pressures and competing imperatives within the BWC that have negative consequences for international relations and weapon prohibitions. 2. Another part of the project considered contrasting applications in human cognitive enhancement in neuroscience, both with regard to scientific developments and social and ethical commentary. Through project publications, Malcom Dando established grounds for why neuroscientists (and neuroethicists) should be concerned about such misuse of their benignly-intended work as well as how little they understand about this dual-use problem. As well in this project an attempt was made to further explore the reasons for the past difficulty of effectively engaging scientists on these matters and what might be done about it to improve the changes of effective engagement in the educational material on hostile misuse. Project members concluded that scientists can be encouraged attend to such issues through extending emerging ethical deliberations regarding way in which science is carried out (Responsible Conduct of Research) to include what is done with the results of research. 3. Brian Balmer's case study of historical concerns about genetic engineering and biological warfare demonstrates that, although wider public debate had made links between the two even before the landmark molecular biology experiments of the early 1970s, this new science did not simply or immediately translate into a challenge to the BWC. Certainly, by the late 1970s, expert advice was being sought on the possibilities of a link but it was largely dismissed as both a present and future threat. In weighing up the extent of the threat, officials and experts considered not only the state-of-the-art of the science, but also whether the new techniques promised significantly different improvements that were sufficient to make them militarily attractive, and also the robustness of the BWC. 4. Sam Weiss Evans' drew out the range of ways members of the synthetic biology community take care of security concerns in their work. Security-of the organisms, the researchers, the nation, and the environment-are generally warranted as needing attention, but the type of attention given to security concerns shapes what counts as a concern and an acceptable governance mechanism. Some ways of constructing security concerns, such as listing pathogenic organisms, lead to institutional blind spots, such as an inability to see security concerns in organisms whose pathogenicity cannot yet be determined. Other approaches to constructing security concerns, such as a broad-based dialogue on whether and how research particular applications should move forward, opens up who has a voice in this process, and are attempts to address the absences in extant institutionalized practices for defining and governing security concerns. However, there are significant roadblocks to the promotion and integration of these latter approaches in our current governance framework. 5. The agreed reconceptualization of Phase 3 examined why so few so-called 'dual use experiments of concern' has been identified to date. Rappert detailed how the low number of instances of concern stemmed from how the biosecurity dimensions of the life sciences are identified, how they are described, how the assessments of benefits and risks are undertaken, how value considerations do and do not enter into assessments, as well as the lack of information on the outcomes of reviews. It moved on from this to examine the limitations and implications of the risk-benefit experiment of concern framing, the politics of expertise as well as the prospects for alternative responses.Corresponding to the streams of research noted in the box above: 1. Through such reasoning, Gould and Rappert concluded that moving forward within the BWC in promoting confidence and transparency would require something else than just more discussion and time on the matters that have been discussed in the past (like Confidence Building Measure forms). They produced and have discussed with governmental officials and others (i) their understanding of the practices and conditions that rendered the South African CBM non-declaration (and other matters) a non-issue within the BWC and (ii) proposals for an alternative agenda for action that would address the underlying conditions that limit possibilities for achieving progress. 2. Dando's findings on the potential malign use of neuroscience are being taken forward mainly in considerations of the Biosecurity Education of life (and associated) scientists. Building on this project, he is currently involved in a project financed by Canada and the UK to produce a multi author textbook dealing with the question of dual-use (biosecurity outside of the laboratory). This has been specifically designed to engage undergraduate scientists through the use of Team Based Learning (a form of group based active learning) that should give them the confidence to engage in the societal debate and decision-making about what they should do and what should be done with their findings - including the governance of dual-use research. The textbook will be available free on the web in multiple languages in the autumn of 2015. 3. Of relevance to those involved in contemporary biological weapons control, Balmer's history of the past dealings with genetic engineering suggests that to focus only on the novelty of any science when judging threats could be myopic: a threat dismissed in one context might take on significance in a different historical context. 4. Evans' work on the structuring of security (non-)concerns in synthetic biology funding proposal processes has already been put to use restructuring the process used in two US institutions, the National Science Foundation's Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Center, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Dual-Use Research of Concern (DURC) is a common way of framing security issues in biology, and Evans' has discussed the limitations of this framing with the Wellcome Trust in the development of their DURC policy, and also members of the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity. 5. The analysis undertaken by Rappert questioned the continuing prominence given to conventional rationalistic "risk-benefit" assessment in managing the dual-use dimensions of the life sciences. In reply, he outlined policy measures based on acknowledging conditions of uncertainty, ignorance, and ambiguity in order to ask how issues can be sensibly approached nevertheless. Rappert elaborated how adopting such a starting basis could open spaces for alternative ways of thinking and methodologies for responding to a set of issues that are bound to uncomfortably accompany the life sciences into the future.Aerospace Defence and MarinePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologySecurity and Diplomacyhttp://brianrappert.net/secrecy-absences/the-formulation-and-non-formulation-of-security-concerns-2013-2014Our research found a range of gendered social and cultural influences in students' STEM journeys in higher education and employment in India and Rwanda, as well as quantitative findings for the UK. [NB: gender categories here relate to respondents'/participants' self-identification]. 1.Factor analyses of quantitative data highlighted clusters around issues of confidence, self-efficacy, belonging, and career aspirations among STEM students and graduates overall. Women reported feeling less comfortable in HEI-related spaces than their male peers, and reported marginally higher Imposter Phenomenon than men. Men reported more negative attitudes towards women scientists and engineers on average in the cohorts. 2.Regression models revealed factors affecting attrition included: weaker sense of belonging, feeling less safe, greater feelings of impostor phenomenon & lower feelings of well-being, but with regional variation in the predictive strength of each of these factors. An AI powered analysis of 685 open-ended responses on career destinations for HE students studying STEM in the three country cohorts, indicated that there was no detected gender imbalance in the top four career destinations intentions: 1. research & academia, 2. science & engineering, 3. teaching & education, and 4. Environment, Conservation & Sustainability, excepting the third where women were significantly over-represented in 'teaching & education'. 3. Qualitative analysis strongly indicated the pervasive dominance of normative gendered discourses (or 'stereotypes') concerning the appropriate or expected pathways for study and employment in STEM, in both India and Rwanda. In both countries, certain STEM disciplines were considered more appropriate for girls/women to study, such as 'social'/'caring' subjects such as biology, medicine, health), whilst less appropriate disciplines included those seen as physically challenging or unsafe (e.g. engineering, especially mechanical engineering). Discourses of safety, security and risk were often articulated to regulate/proscribe women's movement/access to facilities and locations. Some of these discourses relate to all women students, for example curfew times for being on/off campus or in/out of hostels. Some relate specifically to STEM, for example women not being picked for jobs where 'their safety can't be guaranteed'. Concerns over the precarity of the job market in STEM was also a common theme. There was evidence of discouragement of, and sometimes overt discrimination against, employment pathways for women graduates in some STEM fields. There was also evidence of gendered spatial forms of marginalisation on campus, from the lack of women's restrooms, to the perceived dominance of male students in recreation areas. 4. Qualitative findings indicated a strong intersectional aspect to gendered experiences, referencing multiple facets of identity. Both Indian and Rwandan data show the exacerbation of difficulties if a student is also constrained financially, or if an employee does not earn enough for a decent standard of living. In India, as well as strong indications of gendered harassment of women, strong findings emerged of discrimination in relation to sexuality, language, being from out-of-state or from a rural area, and caste background. These dynamics intersected with gender to generate more specific forms of harassment or discrimination, exacerbating feelings of marginalisation for women and others from less privileged identity positionings.Our research suggests that addressing the STEM gender gap requires action from educational institutions, employers, policymakers, and society as a whole. The project is launching a Gender and STEM toolkit, including policy and practice recommendations, discussion points and activities for educators, and a short film accessible for children and young adults. Our key, evidence-informed recommendations to help narrow the gender gap in STEM education and skilled employment are: 1. Promote Gender-Neutral Education: Encourage gender-neutral education by challenging stereotypes and biases in STEM subjects. Implement initiatives to attract more girls and young women to STEM fields at an early age. 2. Increase visibility and access to Female Role Models: Increase the visibility of successful female role models in STEM through mentorship programs, guest lectures, and outreach activities. Representation matters and can inspire young women to pursue STEM careers. 3. Address Bias in Hiring and Promotion: Implement blind recruitment processes that remove gender identifiers from resumes and applications. Offer unconscious bias training for hiring managers and representatives at 'campusing' or recruitment fairs; and promote gender diversity on selection committees. 4. Investigate ways to make education and employment institutional cultures and environments more inclusive, for example in infrastructural design choices such as restrooms and well-lit public spaces; responsiveness to act on existing gender harassment policies and strengthen as appropriate; and monitoring the equitable use of social space on campus so that it is welcoming for all students.Educationhttps://genderedjourneys.wordpress.com/category/project-blogs/research-findings/We have devised a method by which it is possible to scatter light from a wall and then refocus it to a spot that can then be scanned across a scene. This effectively transforms the wall into a sort of mirror and scanning the spot in reflection from the wall/mirror allows to perform a lidar measurement of a hidden environment or behind a corner. Indeed, we showed this capability to build a 2D image of a hidden object. A similar approach can also be used to detect very faint vibrations (for example a heart beat) from behind a corner. We have also shown that by using machine learning that it is possible image through multiple layers of scattering media that mimic a thick scattering sample. This is the first time that anyone proves imaging capability through thick scattering media, i.e. in regimes that cannot be assessed using standard techniques based on correlations of the transmitted light. Moving beyond these findings, we have discovered that it is possible to use machine learning approaches to image through thick diffusive materials in regimes (of strong scattering) that were not previously thought possible. Information theory is shedding light on how this is possible and could have applications for imaging through optical fibres and changing random media such as fog. This work also has impact on the problem of physical unclonable functions, i.e. unclonable security devices that rely on the unclonability of complex or random media. Wokr is progressing to evaluate the limits within which our results imply that unclonable keys are can actually be hacked.We believe that these findings will be useful to other researchers both worldwide but also simply within our research group and within QuantIC, the quantum hub for imaging. Indeed, the same concepts could be used for medical imaging and imaging inside the body.HealthcareSecurity and DiplomacyLanguage In our analyses of UK families to date, we have found that greater access to early childhood education and care (i.e., nurseries and childminders) between Spring and Winter 2020 was linked to increased growth in receptive vocabulary (number of different words understood) during that period in children under 3 years of age. This was true of all children attending ECEC but was more pronounced in children from lower socioeconomic status (SES; parental education, occupation, income and locality). There was also a similar trend for expressive vocabulary (number of different words spoken), though this was not significant. Executive Functions In Winter 2020, children aged 3 years or under were found to have higher Cognitive Executive Functions (thinking skills such as inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility) and Regulation skills if they had parents with higher-SES. These associations can be partly explained by screen use: children from lower-SES backgrounds were more likely to spend a lot of time using touchscreens and watching television, which in turn is associated with lower Cognitive Executive Functions and Regulation scores. The amount of time that parents engaged in enriching activities with their child (e.g., talking one-to-one, playing games, baking, doing arts and crafts etc) was also associated with children's Cognitive Executive Function scores. Lower-SES was associated with lower engagement in enriching activities (mostly relating to activities involving outdoor space, and access to books) during the Spring 2020 Lockdown, but not the Winter 2020 Lockdown. In addition, we found that greater access to early childhood education and care during the 2020 pandemic, was linked to higher cognitive executive functions, across all socioeconomic levels. Sleep Parents of over 2s were more likely to report worse sleep (shorter naps) due to the pandemic. Although children from lower-SES backgrounds tended to be more affected, these effects were seen across the socioeconomic spectrum. Because of the blue light emitted, screens have been associated with poor sleep. However, in our sample, screen use before bed did not predict time to fall asleep or time spent asleep at night. However, the time children spent using screens during the day reduced nap duration.By engaging with civil servants and other government officials, we will continue to offer expert and evidence-based advice to shape national policy, informed by our UK-wide sample. For example, guidelines and policies could put measures in place to promote outdoor activities, rich interaction, or sleep, while complying with social distancing measures. In addition, our findings will prepare educational professionals for the return to formal education by highlighting the areas of development most affected during this period. The results will continue to be shared with a range of stakeholders, e.g., local authority and government departments, policymakers, education professionals, and other researchers. This will continue to be done via evidence syntheses, policy briefings, academic and practitioner publications, and public engagement events.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEducationOtherhttps://babylab.brookes.ac.uk/research/social-distancing-and-development/findingsThis project was very successful in further developing the superstatistics concept, a useful statistical methods for complex systems with time scale separation. Tests were developed to check whether a given experimentally measured time series is superstatistical or not. Important papers were published, for example on developing a dynamical approach to superstatistical systems, based on Fokker-Planck and Langevin equations. This allows for the construction of an optimum superstatistical model.The superstatistics concept is very general and can be applied in different areas. Most recently (2013/14) we also applied it to environmental time series, relevant for interdisciplinary aspects in the Flood MEMORY project (EP/K013513/1)Communities and Social Services/PolicyEnvironmentHealthcareTransportWe developed a multi-level Wavenet framework that take a series of meta-data features into account so as to effectively capture the varying demand patterns. Specifically, the model is a one-dimensional convolutional neural network that includes two sub-networks that aims to encode the source series and decode the predicting series, respectively. The two sub-networks are combined by stacking the decoder on top of the encoder, which in turn, preserves the temporal patterns of the time series. Experiments on large-scale real taxi demand dataset of NYC demonstrate that our model is highly competitive to the existing ones.Traffic demand prediction is at the core of intelligent transportation systems when developing a smart city. Accurately predicting taxi demand can help the city manager/operater to optimize the resources, and thus reducing the drivers' waiting/idle time which waste energy and cause traffic congestion. However, exploiting traffic time series to facilitate the demand prediction is a thorny problem since traffic demand usually unevenly distributed over time and space.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)TransportDespite the strong impact that sub-ice shelf melt has had on the loss of ice from the Amundsen sector of the Antarctic ice sheet, research suggests that short-time scale increases in temperature will have little effect on ice-sheet mass balance, and that the retreat of this sector of the ice sheet might now be proceeding irrespective of change in ocean temperatures.The numerical code (url above) can be and actively is being taken up by funded projects domestically and abroad to improve their modelling studies of ice loss and ice-ocean interactionEnvironmenthttps://mitgcm.readthedocs.io/en/latest/phys_pkgs/remesh.htmlOver the last year, the project team has completed the North American air transportation system model and is currently validating the European model.The models that have been and are still being developed help the entire aviation value chain (aircraft manufacturers, airlines, airports and air navigation service providers) to better understand the outcome of changes to the air transportation system. The already published open-source code helps its users to anticipate the impact of technology, socio-economic, and policy changes to the air transportation system. The airline behaviour model, which still needs to be completed, enhances this perspective as it accounts for the heterogeneity of airlines.Aerospace Defence and MarineEnergyEnvironmentTransporthttp://www.ATSlab.orgSubstitution attacks aim to replace an algorithm with a subverted version that behaves (almost) identically, but crucially differs in such a way as to leak information to a mass surveillance adversary who may be observing communication. We update existing definitions and introduce a new class of attacks that target the decryption algorithm of authenticated encryption schemes. We analyse an experiment running an implementation in python, which confirms the feasibility of the attack. We argue that this attack rep- resents an attractive opportunity for a mass surveillance adversary. Our work serves to refine the substitution attack model and contributes to a series of papers that raises awareness and understanding about what is possible with substitution attacks.Inform work looking at safeguarding privacy against potential adversary who seek to exfiltrate data from encrypted systems.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)While traditional statistical methodologies focus on the average behaviour of a system and quantifying deviations from it, practical concern often lies on the extremal behaviour of a system (e.g. when quantifying flood risks or the riskiness of a financial position). This thesis is concerned with methods to study the likely behaviour of a system when several components can be extreme together. There are two main outcomes. Both are on a very fundamental level and help dealing with situations when the number of variables are very large. One is a better understanding of how a range of relevant models for extreme behaviour are ordered. Such findings are important when one wants to draw robust conclusions about the stochastic behaviour of a system when only partial knowledge is available. They have been presented recently at the Mathematical research center at Oberwolfach and entered the corresponding Oberwolfach report: https://publications.mfo.de/handle/mfo/4173. The second outcome are about new methodology how to compress data about dependencies between the variables quickly and with least possible loss of information. In order to achieve this ideas from machine learning have been successfully transferred to this context.The outcomes can help on the one hand in exploratory data analysis for extreme values and facilitate detection of directions in which variables may be large simultaneously. On the other hand, they can help to draw more robust conclusions about probabilities of rare events that have a compound nature. So far, numerical experiments evidence the good performance. The next step will be to run further case studies and test cases.ConstructionDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EnergyEnvironmentFinancial Services and Management ConsultancyTransportWe carried out research and development for a new idea to improve PET medical imaging. We have engaged with clinicians and medical imaging companies to develop the idea. We provided new computer simulations based on current PET machine geometries and readout. We also produced bench test data using a small PET demonstrator module to validate our new imaging concept and further develop its implementation. The concept formed the basis for subsequent succesful InnovateUK grant application with industrial partner (Kromek) to commercialiseThe work will be submitted for a patent. The idea may be incorporated into future PET imaging systems. We are applying for further funding for this stage and will collaborate with a PET machine manufacturer. Patent successfully awarded. Further funding awarded from Innovate UK to work with Kromek LtD to commercialise the ideaHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThis research has already produced in vitro and in vivo expression of small molecule extremolytes in the thermophilic, bacterial host Thermus thermophilus in Exeter, UK. Our German partners are working with archaeal Sulfolobus acidocaldarus and can express extremolytes in vitro and have preliminary results of expression in vivo. It has previously not been possible to introduce these unique different synthetic pathways for expression of the extremolytes in microorganisms that grow at lower temperatures such as Escherichia coli. It is therefore necessary to express them in a thermophilic host such as Thermus thermophilus. Two unique enzymes, 2-phosphoglycerate kinase (2PGK) forming 2,3-di-phosphoglycerate and di-phosphoglycerate synthase (cDPGS), which introduces the cyclisation to the DPG have been biochemical and structural characterised since no known homologues are known at a sequence and structural level. Both enzymes have low sequence identity to other known enzymes available in the Protein Data Base. The cDPGS structure has been solved to high resolution using seleno-methionine due to no molecular replacement models being available. It has also been solved in complex with 2,3-diphosphoglycerate and ADP Mg2+ showing the conformational changes that occur on substrate binding . The structure appears unique with only one domain showing homology to other known proteins that have unrelated function. This has been published in open access journal in 2024. The structure of the other enzyme, 2PGK is currently being solved from a homologue enzyme from a different extremophilic archaeal metagenome in collaboration with the ERA-net partner from Milan, Italy and new small crystals of this homologous enzyme are currently being examined at the ,Diamond Synchrotron. This aspect of the collaboration is continuing with the help of an Erasmus student visiting Exeter for 3 months and by a small BBSRC collaboration continuation grant. A new Horizon grant application is being planned in order to maintain the previous consortium in this area of sustainable biocatalysis. The structures of the 2 novel enzymes within the extremolyte biosynthetic pathway will further the understanding of their catalytic mechanisms. The extremolytes have applications for the cosmetic and healthcare industries. A patent application using the cDPGS enzyme for large scale production is being taken forward by the partner company Evonik.Exploitation for production of a range of different extremolytes will be taken forward initially by Evonik and later licensed to other companies.ChemicalsHealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttps://twitter.com/hotsoluteThe study highlights the variability in support based on location, availability of wrap-around services (such as counselling and psychological support, medical and legal support, interactions with the criminal justice system), and the consequences for survivors mental and physical health, which frequently deteriorated over typically very lengthy periods of waiting. The research also identified examples of good practice available in the different NRM systems, as well as areas for improvement. Key findings included: A significant decline in wellbeing and independence over time within the NRM The benefit of a 'hub' model NRM (and production of a co-created new NRM model) The need for, and benefits of, early psychological support Risks of homelessness and re-trafficking Variable and inadequate training across provision The need to re-house decision-making, potentially within the department of Health and Social Care A need for greater accountability A need to implement a 2-stage consent process The value of community services to survivor independenceFindings are being used by the Home Office modern slavery unit to support options for the 2025 Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract to identify potential areas that can expand or improve upon the current contract. The team are currently exploring the data further to provide a bespoke briefing on specific areas of support for development of the NRM and regional support. We have been in conversation with individuals in the Scottish Government to explore the findings from Scotland and are currently drafting a briefing specific to Scotland and liaising to provide evidence on preventative approaches to human trafficking and the criminal, sexual and labour exploitation of adults to inform the upcoming refresh of the Scottish Government's Human Trafficking strategy. The research findings have led to submission of a witness statement on the risks of re-trafficking following a Public Order Disqualification from NRM support in the case of MAN and LAN v the Secretary of State for the Home Department. This has resulted in changes to Statutory Guidance which now requires a re-trafficking risk assessment to be undertaken in such cases. Findings were also used to inform submissions to the Home Affairs Committee Inquiry into Human Trafficking, and to the OHCHR call for input on Homelessness as a cause and a consequence of contemporary forms of slavery.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEducationHealthcareGovernment Democracy and JusticeOtherhttps://www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/beacons-of-excellence/rights-lab/resources/reports-and-briefings/2023/november/pathways-to-liberation-.pdfReactions in stars often involve the emission of neutrons. However, studying such reactions in a laboratory are extremely challenging due to the technical difficulty in detecting uncharged particles, such as neutrons. In this project, a novel array of neutron detectors were developed for use in direct measurements of astrophysical (alpha,n) reactions. These were successfully commissioned with the 22Ne(alpha,n) reaction, highlighting the power of neutron-recoil coincidences.We hope to be able to develop the array further for use in a campaign of measurements using radioactive beams, which are relevant for supernova nucleosynthesis.OtherThis research has established a rigorous theoretical foundation for computational algorithms that enable scientists to quantifying uncertainty when solving practical engineering problems. New algorithms that were developed in the research programme enable computational solution of such problems in a fraction of the time of the state-of-the-art algorithms that existed at the beginning of the project.The research concentrated on modelling phenomena where the behaviour is steady (unchanging in time). The strategies that were developed in the research will need to be extended to cover transient phenomena if fabrication effects are to be included in the engineering design process.Aerospace Defence and MarineConstructionEducationManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyThis award has launched study into several new areas to identify scenarios where communication engineering analysis can be used to help us to understand (and eventually manipulate) signalling and communication in biological and biomedical systems. For microfluidic organ-on-chip systems, we have characterized cell spheroids as communications transceivers. We have simplified the geometry of a spheroid as a sphere with a relatively low diffusion coefficient, and derived the dynamics of how molecular signals can be released from and observed by spheroids. For bacterial colonies growing on a petri dish, we have characterized how a signalling solution dropped onto a growing colony will soak into the culture and trigger a response by the bacteria. This is an initial work into how signals propagate around Petri dishes.We have characterized new signalling/communication systems with important biomedical applications. Our outcomes can be adopted by other research groups to understand cellular dynamics and behaviour.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Pharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyProviding a space (usual physical) is a critical first step to making people feel that they can be part of the community and make friends Community organisations need to work in a way that enables people to engage with them for positive reasons and are able to be directing involved in creating, developing and delivering services. Community Anchor organisations work best when other organisations see them as collaborators not competitors Community organisations struggle because most commissioned services are transactional - they are for specific services to be delivered to specific people with specific needs. More open ended and responsive services are much harder to get funded. Services offering access to creative activity or nature are inherently positive and can provide a gateway to tackling other needs.First, our Case Studies will be used by the four community anchor partners to help develop their organisation and as a tool to better influence their local health and care system. Second, the summary paper and case studies will be of wider interest to community anchor organisations and their champions in local government and the NHS providing them with evidence to develop their understanding and rationale for approaches that recognise the importance of sustaining and scaling organisations who provide ways of developing and building trusted relationships with people who are easily ignored or seldom heard, through the use of arts and access to nature. Third, the discussion/case study tool will help advocates for this agenda by providing them with an evidence based and accessible narrative that can be used when seeking to make the case for the role of community anchors, arts and access to nature in developing trusted relationships with communities and individuals experiencing inequality. Fourth, the academic paper will add to the body of evidence on community anchors, arts, access to nature and their role in addressing inequality.HealthcareGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsOtherThis research has discovered and analysed new business models for linking up electric vehicles with urban energy systems. Electric vehicles can damage power grids if users do not manage their charging behaviour. At the same time electric vehicles can also strengthen power grids, and provide storage for intermittent renewable energy. By changing the way energy customers are billed, and the business models for public and home charging, new smart meter data can be used to make electric vehicles a grid asset as opposed to a liability. This work is a new discovery because most previous work has focussed either on making the vehicle to grid and vehicle to home technology work, or looking at business models for individual parts of the charging system. This work took a whole system approach and specifically investigates how electric vehicles can interact with the wider electricity market and the physical system that supports it. This work has estimated the financial value of UK low-carbon energy futures. It shows that up to £21bn of new value is available by making the transition to a low carbon future and that new business models like those identified above are desperately needed to capture this value. As a result of this work new knowledge on smart charging and new business models for urban energy systems are being explored and trialled. This research also explored business models and market values of greenhouse gas removal from the atmosphere. I found the largest opportunities for greenhouse gas removal were to be found in energy markets. This has led to the establishment of a new industrial and entrepreneurial network around greenhouse gas removal technologies the 'Centre for Carbon Removal' which is the first network of its kind in Europe.These findings demonstrate that a new direction in UK energy policy is needed to meet Net Zero Commitments. In Electricity markets, new retail market design is needed to maximise the contribution of consumers to flexibility, heat electricfication and transport decarbonisation. This research can be used by industry, policymakers and regulators to create new market designs to allow new business models to thrive without exacerbating existing social inequalities. In greenhouse gas removal this fellowship has found that new business models are desperately needed to accelerate the UKs contributions to the carbon removal sector. The primary beneficiary in the short term are the larger corporate entities in difficult to decarbonise sectors who are evaluating the carbon removal space.EnergyEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeTransporthttp://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/people/s.hallThis report relates to progress to date after two years of a three year Knowledge Exchange Fellowship. A number of projects are in progress but two findings of note have been achieved to date: Firstly: Forest Enterprise Scotland have been working with the Fellow, to look at the relative risk versus return of planting different commercial timber species during the next forest rotation. This project estimated future yields at risk for 20 timber species adjusted for drought risk under the high emissions climate scenario. At present the forest sector in Scotland is dominated by Sitka spruce which has a high yield but is not drought tolerant. Over half of planted timber is currently Sitka spruce. Future climate projections suggest that areas of Scotland will suffer increased drought risk. The analysis identified location-specific alternative species to Sitka spruce that might achieve similar yields under future climates but which are more drought tolerant. This information can help the forest sector reduce risk and increase the resilience of forests and is already informing planting decisions at Forest Enterprise Scotland. Secondly: a global survey of forest stakeholders showed that whilst there is good information available to the sector on fire and wind risk to forests, suitable information is lacking on pest and disease and drought risks. The survey identified which techniques and approaches are most widely used at present and where gaps exist. In particular information on the probabilities of arrival and impacts of pests and diseases is lacking. Whilst there is good information on current wind and drought risk, there is an absence of information on the probabilities of future storms and limited information on future drought risk.The results of the project comparing the yields of key timber species once they are adjusted for drought risk over the next 50 years, is helping Forest Enterprise Scotland answer the question as to what timber species they should plant during the next rotation. FES intend to feed the results into corporate strategy and we intend to deliver the analysis to the wider forest sector to inform private planting decisions. A new pest and disease risk assessment is underway which will also impact on planting decisions and will be reported on upon completion. The survey results helped to identify audiences for knowledge exchange with NERC funded science and also provide feedback to academic researchers as to what information forest stakeholders need. It has also helped set Fellowship priorities.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentFinancial Services and Management ConsultancyThe majority of time spent on the project was directly related to the technical aspects of the work, adapting existing data model designs for a wider audience, producing introductory and technical documentation and creating the websites to disseminate these outputs. Knowledge exchange communications with project partners took place regularly and has continued after the project officially ended. Special technical and community building visits helped to cement relationships between community members whilst presentations at international conferences raised awareness of the project aims and outputs. By the end of the three years the project team had delivered on each of the stated objectives, had produced two separate web resources, one branded as part of the popular BGS website and another designed as an independent community website. A large amount of plain English documentation was produced and data model designs were all made available for free download via the two project websites. New contacts and knowledge exchange relationships were established and have already lead to new collaborations that would not have happened without the project taking place.Lesson Learnt LL1: When working with developing countries there is a real danger that the security situation can change rapidly and travel plans which seemed reasonable in the planning phase of a long running-project may become impossible within months. Consider alternatives and have, at least high level, back up plans in place. LL2: Creating and maintain a new community discussion forum takes a lot of time and effort from a setup and administration point of view, if such a facility is justified then it is possibly better to create a group within an existing social media platform, such as LinkedIn or Google Groups. LL3: Building a community without making funds available to all parties for the travel and expenses required to carry out the necessary face to face contacts seriously limits the effectiveness of the community. Conclusions: C1: Geological Surveys around the world face similar challenges and produce similar data models C2: Face to face communication produces better outputs and stronger relationships/networks than remote methods C3: Many of the experiences developed within organisations such as the BGS are directly relevant to organisations responsible for the management of spatial data, not just those involved in the geosciences. C4: As with C3, above, there are a few organisations, such as BGS, who could share a wealth of experience with regards to producing commercial outputs by deriving digital products from well structured data. C5: The project team delivered on each of the stated objectives, however, efforts to address the following objective were limited: "Contribute to the ongoing efforts to ensure water security". Despite providing links to relevant existing public data models on EarthDataModels.org the project team did not contribute a new design, this was due to the priorities identified by our project partners during the mid to latter phases of the project. Recommendations: R1: Future project plans for similar initiatives should include contingency for disruption to travel plans due to security concerns, especially for countries which are identified through the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Travel advice service as being prone to high levels of crime or potential for terrorism threats, even if the situation appears calm during the project planning phase. R2: Future publically funded projects which involve the creation of geoscientific databases should include adequate resources to produce public versions of the underlying data models used or produced. R3: There are enough organisations actively engaged in geoscience data modelling to justify a workshop or dedicated session at an international geoscience conference. R4: Use the most appropriate branding for dissemination of public knowledge and if necessary use more than one communication channel, tailoring each to the intended audience. The EarthDataModels.org website was deliberately 'Open' and community branded, rather than BGS branded. This worked well when attempting to encourage technically sophisticated project partners and others to contribute material as these contributors tended to have their own strong brands which they were happy to associate with a project initiative rather than appear to be part of a another 'rival' brand. However, there were certain other organisations that were encouraged to take part because the project was lead by a well respected organisation, these tended to be the less technically developed institutions such as the GSOs in sub-Saharan Africa.ChemicalsConstructionDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EnergyEnvironmenthttp://www.EarthDataModels.orgWe have investigated the use of so-called localisation in nonlinear data assimilation, specifically in particle filters. Localisation is a method whereby the data assimilation is done in relatively small areas of the model domain. This would allow for efficient fully nonlinear data assimilation. However, all localisation methods that are around either directly or implicitly rely on the possibility to add model states together. When this is done in nonlinear models (so when nonlinear data-assimilation would be useful) the resulting model states can be strongly out of balance. This leads to the generation of spurious features in the subsequent model forecasts in typical geophysical models, as atmospheric and oceanographic models. Concluding, our investigations have shown that proper localisation cannot be done in particle filters at this moment.We have shown that proper localisation cannot be done in particle filters for models of geophysical processes.EnvironmentOur EPSRC-supported work aims at developing the conceptual framework of polymer mechanochemistry, which I defined along with the opportunities it offers, in ChemPhysChem 2017, 18, 1419 and 1422. Our upcoming paper in Nature Reviews Chemistry summarizes the progress made and the outstanding challenges. Our recent publications address major barriers to developing this conceptual framework, including theoretical and experimental elaboration of the factors that determine the diversity of mechanochemical responses (Science, 2017, 357, 299), approaches to exploiting this diversity in practice by integrating multiple productive mechanochemical responses in a single reactive site (Nature Commun., 2017, 8, 147 and Angewandte Chemie 2016, 55, 3040) and strategies of expanding this diversity with molecular mechanochemical feedback loops (Nature Commun. 2016, 7, 13433). We also demonstrated how the methodology developed for mechanochemistry is useful in other fields, including molecular machines (Chem.Comm. 2018, 54, 7991), organometallic catalysis (paper under review in J. Am. Chem. Soc.) and solar thermal energy storage (paper under review in ChemPhotoChem).1. perhaps of greatest significance but also one that will take the longest to be widely adopted are our experimental and modeling methodology to map the distribution of forces along polymer chains is complex loading environments. We have so far demonstrated experimentally the application of this methodology to transient elongational flows generated during sonication and showed computationally that the same principle is likely to work in amorphous materials. 2. The chemistry for multi-modal mechanoresponsive materials is likely to find relevance much faster and may be adopted more broadly than we originally anticipated because it already allows fairly simple (albeit only semi-quantitative unlike 1) estimates of force distribution and relaxation dynamics in amorphous polymers and shows clear application potential. 3. The community is increasingly adopting our approach to quantitative discussions of mechanochemical phenomena based on a series of models we described in 2009-2012Aerospace Defence and MarineChemicalsElectronicsTransportI built on prior research activities to produce 4 papers during the award, now at various stages of publication (1 published, 1 with revisions currently being processed, and 2 more under review). The first publication was based on work from farmer interviews discussing challenges and opportunities for engaging farmers in cooperative landscape scale agri-environmental schemes. The findings highlighted the importance of the combined roles of facilitators and pioneers in finding the optimal balance between collaboration and coordination to minimise logistical costs to individual participants while maintaining farmers' sense of control / autonomy. I used my sustainability assessment work to create a paper with international scope, reporting on the regional sustainability performance of ecological farming approaches. Based on findings from 11 different European countries, this work highlighted the potential of locally appropriate ecological farming approaches to enhance regional sustainability when adopted at high rates / in clustered distribution. My growing expertise in sustainability assessment was used to support a grant application for a Darwin Plus project, involving a partnership with researchers from the Open University of Cyprus. The success of the grant application means that I will be able to further develop the sustainability assessment methodology (previously used for ecological farming research) in a new context (involving habitat restoration, enhancing ecosystem resilience, and managing stakeholder conflicts in conservation). I applied my spatial analysis skills and knowledge of agricultural systems to a research partnership with an economist from another academic institution, collaborating to study the relationship between changes in transport infrastructure networks and agricultural productivity. This work has advanced upon previous publications in the field by incorporating regional variation in transport freight rates to generate more realistic estimates of the impact of transport network changes. We have an initial paper describing the construction of the dataset currently under review, with a couple of further papers in progress. I had further opportunities to develop research themes and ideas via a workshop on ecologisation of agricultural policies (and subsequent contribution to a collaborative article comparing agri-environmental policy in the UK and EU), participating in the design and delivery of an interdisciplinary geography seminar series, setting up field trips to allow students to engage with farmers who previously participated in my research, and collaborations with a National Landscape Partnership team (looking at new ways to use spatial data to inform their engagement and facilitation activities with farmers and other land managers).My sustainability assessment research provides a foundation for further academic work to build upon the described methodology, combining network analysis, scenarios, and impact assessment, to develop a framework for integrated, multi-scale sustainability assessments. Being able to clarify and communicate linkages between processes for sustainability at different scales could also help policymakers to ensure greater integration between components of agri-environment schemes operating at different scales. This would be especially valuable given that a lack of clarity over how schemes at different scales fit together has been identified as an obstacle to scheme legitimacy and social acceptance. My research into farmer relationships with landscape scale management highlighted the value of flexible schemes that can accommodate variation in the relative contributions of pioneers and facilitators in ensuring cooperative agri-environmental projects successfully balance collaboration and coordination. The findings could be useful for institutions and actors working to support farmers in engaging with such schemes, or advocates seeking to influence the design of future generations of these schemes for enhancing environmental sustainability. Further worthwhile research to build on this work could include studying the factors affecting farmer willingness to engage with peers who employ contrasting management approaches.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentWe have invented a new algorithm for solving equations that predict the formation of sedimentary rock. The new algorithm computes over whole eras of time simultaneously on a parallel computer, instead of iterating from one instance in time to the next. The goal is that this will lead to faster computation.We are developing this in collaboration with a geologist, Dr Jon Hill (York), so that they can use it in their applied projects.EnvironmentAlthough the research project has not finished yet, there are a couple of significant outcomes: - Development of novel machine learning algorithms for soft robotic sensing - this research has been published at top robotics conferences in Brisbane, Australia and at the Google Campus in Silicon Valley. - Development of new robotic fingertip that can measure strain and temperature using only a visual sensor. - Development of a new liquid based sensing technology. This can be used for wearables, medical devices as well as in virtual reality or healthcare monitoring. - Creating new types of computers that are made of soft materials.During my research I have invented and developed sensing, learning and computing techniques that could be used in the next generation of robots, wearable and medical devices.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/files/177304597/icra_2018_mod.pdfThis project aimed to explore the potential for establishing a collaborative 'community of practice' between academics and practitioners and using this community to develop a series of applications for existing technologies (e.g. on mobile telephones and on the Internet) for promoting responsible environmental behaviour, focusing on reducing travel and tourism's impacts on climate change. Tourism and travel pose a major challenge for those seeking to reduce carbon emissions because of the high levels of mobility in contemporary societies and the value associated with travel and holiday taking. The applicants sought to develop their academic research on travel and the use of 'social marketing' as a potentially effective tool for promoting environmental behaviours. Social marketing aims to use conventional marketing techniques to promote a 'social good' and has been used extensively for tackling health challenges such as smoking, alcohol and drug abuse. Through drawing on both academic and practitioner expertise, the project explored the potential for using social marketing to promote rail travel as an alternative to short haul (domestic and European) flights for holidays. The project focused on two particular segments of the population that have been shown to have a higher propensity to take short haul flights more frequently: young professionals (aged 18 to 35) and 'Empty Nesters' (retired people whose children have left home). Through co-creation workshops, stakeholder meetings and the commissioning of an App developer, the project has developed a prototype App for public download that will promote rail as an alternative to air transport for holidays.The project has provided a case study of how to utilise co-creation as a technique for encouraging behavioural change and could be developed across a range of areas.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EnergyEnvironmentTransporthttp://geography.exeter.ac.uk/prost/The post-doctoral fellow (Dr Micarelli) has published four publications exploring health and disability in ancient populations. In addition, she has begun several lines of research outlined in the proposal and gained important training in new empirical, statistical and conceptual methods.Dr Micarelli has been disseminating them to earlier career colleagues via seminars, conference sessions and mentoring.Culture Heritage Museums and Collections- Insights into the nature of charge and energy transfer at organic-inorganic and organic-organic heterojunctions - new experimental methods to study the aboveFormation of a new spin-out company, Cambridge Photon Technology : https://www.cambridgephoton.com/ Several new lines of research have been opened by our work and are being pursued by a large number of groups around the worldEnergyAllergen-specific antibodies of the IgE class are the main cause of allergic reactions. IgE antibodies are produced by specialised immune cells called plasma cells. We found that IgE plasma cells dramatically differ from plasma cells producing other types of antibodies, particularly in the mechanisms that regulate their survival in tissues over time. Understanding the unique properties of IgE-producing plasma cells opens new opportunities to reduce IgE production in allergy.Targeting IgE plasma cells selectively using pharmacological or biological approaches may reduce IgE levels in allergic patients without affecting general immunity provided by other types of antibodies and plasma cells. This can alleviate allergic symptoms and reduce sensitivity to further allergen exposures.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologySo far in this award we shown that guard cells in grass stomata are connected via pores. This acts to equalise pressure differences between the cells, ensuring optimal opening/closing of the stomatal pore.The information will inform efforts to engineer stomata to improve crop water-use efficiency.Agriculture Food and DrinkThis is an ongoing project. The main achieved so far include: An initial app UI designed with project partner An electrode sleeve co-designed with end users which will be manufactured and presented to project partners and end users for feedbackThe outcome could lead to the development of a medical device for pre and post rehabilitation for knee surgery. The platform developed on e-textiles could be used for other wearable therapeutic applications, or integrated with other technologies (e.g. sensors, AI) to for personalised digital healthcare (e.g. inform healthcare professionals in setting personalised rehabilitation goals).HealthcareWe have uncovered that a new governance framework (namely, the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures) are creating impetus for companies to bring nature and biodiversity more self-consciously into their decision making. We have been examining what kind of indicators reporters are using to communicate the outcomes of their activities. We have also identified that the translation of economic tools/data/imperatives regarding nature and biodiversity to the level of an individual company is fraught with difficulty because of thescale differences that economy versus.corporate level. This is an issue of scaling. This means that an economic analysis of biodiversity taking a 'top down' approach might be very different from a company focused analysis that is more 'bottom up'.As we publish findings from the work, we will ensure user focused materials are also created to support companies who are seeking to be accountable for their biodiversity impacts.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentThe UK Social Cognition Network and Training Scheme (SCONET) promotes training, mobility, and networking opportunities for early career social cognition researchers in the UK. Social cognition is a 'hub' science that bridges the gap between cognitive and social sciences. Researchers in this field examine the foundations of human judgments and behaviour, as well as the reciprocal relationship between the social world and mental processes. Over the last two years, SCONET has provided a platform to support early career scientists, and has contributed to promote social cognition as a research discipline in the UK. This was accomplished through three core initiatives. First, we have organised three colloquia (2009, 2010,and 2011) involving 17 internationally recognised experts from six different countries, as well as 65 PhD students and early career researchers from 27 different institutions in the UK and abroad (Ireland, Germany, France, Netherlands, Australia). In addition, we have provided travel bursaries for 20 PhD students and early career researchers from 13 UK institutions, enabling them to attend four national and six international events. Lastly, we developed a website ( www.socialcognition.co.uk) that contains many useful features and offers a platform for exchange between academics, and with non-academic users.This was a training and networking initiative, which serves as an excellent template for offering specialised training to PhD students and early career researchers in specific subject areas.EducationOtherhttp://www.socialcognition.co.ukThis research presents the first systematic study of media production from the perspective of participants, examining how their experiences are shaped by working practices across the cultural industries. Drawing on this original empirical focus, the study identifies a consistent gap between institutional understandings of "duty of care" and the lived realities of those who take part in media production. A key finding is that participant wellbeing cannot be understood in isolation. Instead, it is closely intertwined with the working conditions, pressures, and constraints experienced by producers, as well as with the broader structural organisation of the media industries. Practices designed to safeguard contributors are therefore often limited in effectiveness, as they do not sufficiently account for these wider interdependencies. The significance of this work lies in its reconceptualisation of media participation as a structurally mediated experience, rather than one reducible to individual vulnerability or isolated moments of harm. By foregrounding the perspectives of participants, the research challenges simplified narratives that position them as either empowered agents or passive victims, instead demonstrating how participation involves forms of agency that are enabled and constrained by industrial conditions. In doing so, it provides an evidence base for rethinking existing regulatory and ethical frameworks-particularly around consent and duty of care-and for developing approaches that better reflect the relational and systemic nature of media production. These arguments are developed further in the associated monograph, The People We Watch, which situates participant experience within the broader political economy and representational practices of contemporary media.This research provides a robust empirical foundation for future scholarship on media ethics, participation, and duty of care, particularly by foregrounding the perspectives of participants, which have historically been underrepresented. It establishes a basis for comparative and longitudinal work examining how participant experiences vary across formats, genres, and regulatory contexts. Beyond academia, the findings have clear relevance for industry practitioners, including producers, broadcasters, and those involved in participant welfare. By identifying how wellbeing is shaped by structural and organisational conditions, the research can inform the development of more holistic approaches to duty of care, moving beyond procedural compliance towards practices that are embedded across the production process. The work also has potential application in policy and regulatory contexts, where it can contribute to ongoing discussions around participant protection, informed consent, and ethical standards in media production. In addition, it offers a resource for training and professional development within the cultural industries, supporting more reflective and informed approaches to working with contributors.Creative EconomyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Culture Heritage Museums and CollectionsThis project produced a set of practical resources designed to translate research on oracy and citizenship into forms usable by educators and public organisations. The project developed three short animated videos explaining the value of oracy education for different audiences, including teachers and educators, West Yorkshire Police, and Education Scotland. In addition, the project developed an educational module in partnership with Education Scotland which is now used in classrooms in Scotland. Together these resources demonstrate how research on speaking, listening and civic voice can inform educational practice and public-sector training.The animated videos created by the project function as reusable digital resources that partner organisations can deploy in their own training and outreach activities. These include Voice 21, West Yorkshire Police and Education Scotland. The educational module developed with Education Scotland also provides a model for how research on oracy and citizenship can be translated into curriculum materials that can be adopted or adapted by other education systems and organisations.EducationGovernment Democracy and JusticeOne of the key findings of the project is that it challenges the conventional understanding of the fable as a human-centred form that merely uses animals as allegorical devices. Instead, the project brought together a wide range of scholars and animal experts to demonstrate that the fable is a powerful tool for exploring how animals experience the world, as well as the current ecological crises we share with nonhuman life. As an ancient form of storytelling that exists across many parts of the world, our projects on fables uncovered new possibilities for fostering connections across cultures. The networking project also uncovered the power of fables to create interdisciplinary conversations and collaborations. Among the most exciting outcomes are several art-science collaborations that have emerged from the network, including the spider fable (developed with a US-based spider vision expert, Australasian Indigenous artists, a US sociologist, and a UK multimedia artist); music fables (in collaboration with zoomusicologist composers); an ivory fable (using museum artefacts and trade ivory to tell a story of global circulation); and an AI fable (developed with cybersecurity experts).I have built a good team on the spider fable. One of my collaborators, US scientist Nathan Morehouse is a co-applicant of the AHRC Curiosity Award sensory studies for a more-than-human world (2026-2028). I have joined this as a core member, and we are planning to develop our spider fable project in conversation with other sensory studies experts. One of the key outcomes of Rethinking Fables is the creation of online resources (http://www.rethinking-fables.org.uk). These include fables developed during the project activities, which are now accessible for wider use. I am incorporating some of these fables into my own work and teaching. I will also share my experience and methodologies, offering insights into how the project's approaches can be applied in educational, artistic, and research contexts. These resources not only preserve the creative outputs of the project but also provide a foundation for others to experiment with fable-based storytelling as a tool for exploring animal worlds, environmental issues, and interdisciplinary connections.EducationEnvironmentCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttp://www.rethinking-fables.org.ukTrace metal supply from ocean sediments is a significant source of iron to the oceansEarth system modelsEnvironmenthttp://www.southampton.ac.uk/oes/news/2013/11/exploring_our_oceans_oceanography_mooc.pageThe Arab Renaissance (nah?ah) in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries represents one of the most important periods in the development of Arabic thought and culture. The full story of the nah?ah, however, remains to be written. Not only do we lack a comprehensive account in the English language of the nah?ah, but the research to date has focused too exclusively on the contribution of external forces at the expense of important internal factors, which has painted a far-from-complete picture of the rise and development of the movement as a whole. Starting in the pre-modern period (c. 1700), this book explores the key factors, both internal and external, that contributed to the rise and development of the nah?ah, and focuses on the home-grown humanist movement of the period which was the driving force behind much of the linguistic, literary, and educational activity. Overall, this book highlights the complexity of the nah?ah and offers a more pluralist history of the period. Key Features A new and comprehensive approach to nah?ah studies. Focuses for the first time in English on little studied intellectual figures and currents of the early nah?ah. Deals with important themes such as modern Arab intellectual history, literature and culture, as well as issues of modernity, language, and identity, alllowing for significant engagement with the study of the intellectual life and discourse of the nah?ah as a wholeThe Middle East is a region of great contemporary importance - to international stability, to Western societies, and to Britain's national interest. In the last decade public interest in the study of the Middle East has surged worldwide and recent events in particular have highlighted the need for a better understanding of the cultures and histories of the region. There is a greater need than ever, therefore, for people outside academia to understand the Middle East. This research deals with the formative period of modern Arabic thought and culture; as such, it will be of interest not only to academic specialists, diplomats, policy-makers, Security Service personnel, NGOs, journalists and others who deal professionally with the Middle East, but to anyone who seeks to penetrate beneath the surface of current events and learn about the roots of some of the developments transforming the Middle East today. The research will allow for a better and more complete understanding of these current events and developments.EducationGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsA recommendation to EPSRC, BEIS and others that a UK archive of irradiated materials should be established.An archive could be implemented under NNUF if key stakeholderes agree it should be fundedEnergy2021 academic year update: EO Data and Services: - Further progress has been made on automating the production of time series, improving our atmospheric correction service, to enable rapid response following volcanic or seismic events using data from multiple satellites. The Earthquake InSAR Data Provider (EIDP) system checks for earthquake events of at least Mw5.5 from USGS database every 30 minutes, and performs several operations leading to the generation and sharing of co-seismic and post-seismic interferograms within the first few hours after a new relevant Sentinel-1 acquisition is offered to the public. The outputs are accessible on a dedicated EIDP web page within the COMET LiCS-Portal. Upon the completion of InSAR processing for each frame, the LiCSBAS open-source InSAR time series analysis package, integrated with the LiCSAR processing system, is used to derive InSAR LOS displacement time series and velocities. - COMET researchers at the University of Bristol have developed near real-time tools for monitoring volcanic unrest, using machine learning approaches for analysing large volumes of satellite data. The LiCSAR dataset is composed of half of millions of Sentinel-1 interferograms over 1300 volcanoes for the period 2015-2020. This enables us to test our Machine Learning (ML) algorithms at a global scale to identify anomalous behaviour at active volcanoes. Our techniques have shown the potential of machine learning to detect ground deformation in InSAR data. Currently we have started the implementation of our machine learning tools on CEMS to work routinely and flag interferograms on the COMET Volcano Database. This work has been conducted under the COMET co-funding project "Making Satellite Volcano Deformation Analysis Accessible", NE/S013970/1. - PGR Graduand Chris Moore (University of Leeds) developed a surface velocity map covering the entire Afar rift, highlighting active volcanic deformation and the accommodation of extension over rift segments. The Afar region of Ethiopia provides a unique example of a sub-aerial volcanic dominated rift in a transitional phase between continental and oceanic style rifting. Our results show the long-term motion of the Danakil micro-plate with rift-perpendicular velocities of up to 25 ± 5 mm/yr, with negligible motions in the rift-parallel direction. From cross-rift profiles, we find that extension in northern Afar is largely focussed to within ± 15-30 km of the rift-axis on the active magmatic segments. We also observe rapid surface uplift and rift-perpendicular extension at the Dabbahu-Manda-Hararo (DMH) segment with velocities of 33 ± 4 mm/yr and 37 ± 4 mm/yr respectively (Figure 2I). These are higher than the background extension rate of 18-20 mm/yr, but have decreased by 55-70% since 2006-10. Continued long-term observations of surface deformation provide key constraints on tectono-magmatic processes in Afar. Tectonics - Research by two PhD students based in Cambridge investigated two aspects of continental cratons: how they manage to survive for such geologically long periods, and what effect they have on the ground-shaking due to earthquakes on the edges of mountain belts. Andrew Whyte and colleagues investigated the first of these aspects by examining a two-billion-year old mountain belt in Arctic Canada, where we can see exposed at the surface the remains of what was the middle-crust when the mountains were being built. Aisling O'Kane studied the implications of the strength of the plates bounding mountain belts (e.g., whether they are made of strong cratons or weaker crustal blocks) on the characteristics of earthquake-induced ground shaking (O'Kane and Copley, 2021). When taken together, these studies show the connections between the strength of cratons, the grain-scale diffusion of water, and the ground-shaking produced by earthquakes. - COMET Scientist Tim Craig (University of Leeds) led on work to bring together a suite of observational data that help to constrain the geological, geodynamic, and thermal structure of southern Tibet over the last 30+ Myrs, including geophysical (earthquake thermobarometry, seismic tomography, shear wave splitting, head-wave propagation) and geochemical/petrological (xenolith thermobarometry, volcanic geochemistry) data in order to construct a thermal model of the collision zone. - COMET researchers at the University of Oxford and the University of Leeds assessed temporal variations in strain across distributed fault networks, in Central Asia, Turkey and Italy. COMET researchers have published work on faults in Italy exploring dense geological data on individual faults (Goodall et al. 2021), and in Iran combining geological and remote-sensing strain-rate data (Mousavi et al. 2021). These studies both quantify and compare long-term geological slip- rate variations to address questions of temporal variation on individual and networks of faults. Volcanism - COMET Associate Evgenia Ilyinskaya undertook rapid-response eruption fieldwork at Fagradalsfjall, Iceland to investigate the dispersion and deposition of volcanic metals. The field team discovered that metals with the highest potential toxicity appear to be deposited from the plume very rapidly after emission. First results showed that Fagradalsfjall eruption was emitting volatile metals at a similar rate to Holuhraun. Although Holuhraun was a much larger eruption, Fagradalsfjall's emissions were relatively more concentrated in these pollutants. The emission rate of heavy metals was comparable to total anthropogenic emissions from the UK.Our data sets, products and services regarding volcanoes, earthquakes and tectonics, made widely available via a range of data portals and services, are being put to use in both academia, e.g. developing a better understanding of tectonic and volcanic events, and wider society, e.g. emergency response and risk management through volcano observatories and other end users. Working with BGS and other agencies, we have a strong track record of providing advice on geohazards to UK and overseas authorities.EducationEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeSecurity and DiplomacyOtherhttp://comet.nerc.ac.ukFINAL KEY FINDINGS These are organised around three questions. What does the research tell us about the reasons for self-organising? The following summarises the reasons for self-organising: • Constructing a sense of 'togetherness'; • Creating a 'sense of place'; • Emphasising 'learning by doing' - deemed more appropriate to the issues of (local) climate change and sustainable lifestyles than other knowledge forms; • Experimenting with practices seeking to develop/enable autonomy in the longer term; • 'Doing sustainability' is more important for the practices of some groups, but this does not exclude reflection on what they do and 'how they can do it better'; and • Looking for new ways of 'governing themselves' that are relevant to local communities through a 'deliberative' trial and error process based around a form of governance that is collaborative, non-hierarchical and inclusive. In each case elements of the above were combined, changing over time, to create a specific form of local self-organising. Additional research is required to identify whether particular issues (e.g. food, energy, transport) are related to one of three overarching modes of and motives for self-organising (social movement, participative governance or civic activist). We were unable to explore the age-related differences in self-organising. Future research might explore this and the on-going debate within groups about particular styles of mobilising/organising. What does the research tell us about researching with/about self-organising activists? The experience of working with our partner groups was extremely valuable and added depth to the case study work in terms of reflecting upon the experience and practice of being an activist. However, the UK case study did not attain the level of an action research project whereby project activists were facilitated to do their own research. At best the research team was able to facilitate collaborative learning. Our key recommendation in relation to researching with community activists is: • Create regulations that permit fund holders to grant money to voluntary groups to carry out research - this would include the possibilities of paying volunteers as researchers. What does the research tell us about how groups can be facilitated to make a bigger impact? Existing bodies working on climate change (such as local government) should work more closely with and support self-organising environmental groups as this creates opportunities for local authorities to think and work differently. In addition to resources the groups wanted: • To be listened to and their views taken seriously; • Practical help on issues such as 'public liability'; • Relevant support mentoring/facilitated reflection where appropriate; • Inspiring examples from elsewhere; • Opportunities to work with other similar groups; • Assistance to develop a vision for the future. Overall we were able to identify some of the diversity of self-organising groups as well as the strengths and weaknesses of self-organising in relatively small towns and cities. Generally speaking these groups sought to deepen the commitment of their place-based communities to climate change action. The next stage is to consider how to best join up these groups as part of creating a wider response to climate change that includes, and takes seriously, such approaches/initiatives. Further information on the overall project may be found at: http://selfcity-project.com/In terms of Q-Methodology our research will provide useful experience and evidence for how other researchers might use this approach in both national and cross-national research in relation to climate change to identify different attitudes to climate change and associated motivations relating to why and how individuals and groups decide to take action at the local level. In relation to the Action-Learning Cycle this has already shown that the use of a relatively small amount of externally provided resources can help local groups to engage in self-reflection on what they are doing and why, clarifying their objectives and whether they are succeeding in meeting those objectives and how they wish to develop in the future. This will be of use to both local groups but also to external funding bodies who aim to support such groups. Given the current emphasis on localism and voluntary action at local level there will be valuable lessons to learn from this in the wider sense that it cannot be assumed that local groups 'come into existence perfectly formed' but may need some external assistance to identify and develop their objectives, how to achieve these and then to reflect on what has been done/achieved and then to reflect on their future development. Thus recognising that local self-organising groups are dynamic bodies is important and that groups may need support, of varying types, at different stages in their development. It, is however, important that groups identify the support they need themselves (perhaps with some external facilitation similar to that used in our action-learning cycle), rather than have it imposed on them from 'outside'. Additional Research on the motives for groups to engage in forms of self-organising in response to climate change would help provide a better understanding of how to work with and support such groups.Similarly further research on the different modes of self-organising would also enable policy makers to understand how best to engage with groups.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and Justicehttp://www.urbantransformations.ox.ac.uk/blog/2018/the-self-organising-civil-society/Small molecules can be organised into large assemblies with distinct geometric shapes through hydrogen bonding or metal-ligand coordination. These assemblies are of interest to chemists because they are often nano-sized and highly complicated but, given the right conditions, effectively make themselves in a process called self-assembly. They often show internal space where other molecules can be trapped or even react, acting like nano-sized reaction vessels. Chemistry performed inside such confined spaces may produce results quite different to those found in bulk solutions. Here we developed a range of ligands (L) with a rigid pyramidal shape and three extended arms each with a metal-binding site such as pyridyl, imidazole or carboxylate groups. The ligands have a molecular cavity and can form host-guest complexes. We intended to exploit the pyramidal shape of the ligands to produce large metal-ligand assemblies with stellated polyhedral structures. We have successfully made a series of nanometre-scale Pd6L8 "stella octangula" assemblies, the size of the stella octangulas can be altered by using different sized ligands, and all feature significant internal space. The stella octangulas exist in both solution and the solid state and preliminary studies of their solution chemistry indicates that large molecules such as anionic surfactants can be incorporated inside them. Smaller capsule-like and open bowl assemblies have also been synthesised and characterised. An emerging trend from this research are assemblies showing topologically complicated structures. A topologically complicated assembly is one which displays mechanical inter-linking or threading. Zn and Co complexes of a bipyridine-derived pyramidal ligand form triply inter-linked [2]catenanes where two individual M3L2 capsules interlocked together. While catenanes (ie cyclic molecules with chain-like linkages) are well known, the linking motif that we observed here is very rare. We have also discovered a unique molecular topology in the Pd4L4 the "Solomon's cube" complex which has a topology akin to a self-threaded cube.We have established new cage types and new topologies which may be used by other chemical researchers with interests in supramolecular chemistry and guest entrapment. This work has potential indirect downstream application in the development of chemical confinement as a tool for unusual chemistry and reactivity, in development of molecular transport devices and has made significant fundamental contributions to our understanding of chemical topology and self-assembly of coordination cages.ChemicalsThe project began with the hypothesis that graphic narrative has become a prominent artistic space of feminist resistance in Latin America over the last two decades, and that women (understood inclusively) are increasingly using the medium to challenge hegemonic and heteronormative social structures and repressive visualities. The fellowship (which had to be concluded early due to a professorship appointment) enabled two research trips that provided crucial insights into a) how comics are used as artistic tools of resistance and means of expression in both Afro-Latin American and Indigenous communities (Bogotá + Cali, Colombia) and b) the collection and archiving of around 80 feminist comic zines from across the region (University of Iowa, USA). Through exchanges with local artists and academics, it became clear that the circulation networks that have developed over the last twenty years are shaped and informed by different actors: artists, specific cultural institutions and academics. In particular, there are significantly more collaborations between female artists and academics than between male comics creators and academics. Exhibitions, catalogues and genealogies are very often the result of collaborative work between artists and researchers. Trans-regional exchanges are equally striking: there are contacts and creative networks between, for example, Caribbean, Mexican and South American authors. One of the main goals of the project was also to ask how Latin American comics contribute to feminist protest culture and political resistance in the so-called Global South, pointing to the leading role that Latin America has in fourth-wave feminism and showing how the graphic forms of protest have become a role model internationally. The research showed that, indeed, new networks are forming between Latin American comics artists and other regions of the Global South (especially the Arab world and India), a line of research that will be further explored in a newly approved follow-up project on 'Graphic Feminisms from the Global South: Comparative Perspectives on Comics from the Arab Mediterranean and Latin America' (Co-PI Dr Rasha Chatta; funded by Volkswagenstiftung; 2025-2027). One major challenge was the strong and rapid growth of production, especially in online formats. It was also difficult to trace the dynamics of how analogue DIY formats such as comic zines circulate among political activists (or comic artivists). Collecting this material depends heavily on the ability to attend protests, comic and zine festivals on a regular and transnational basis.Several articles, an artist catalogue and a themed issue have been published as a result from the project (see Publications). A monograph on "Resisting Lines: Anti-Patriarchal Agencies in Latin American Comics" will be submitted by the end of 2025. South-South solidarities between Latin American and Arab female comic creators will be further explored in a newly approved follow-up project on 'Graphic Feminisms from the Global South: Comparative Perspectives on Comics from the Arab Mediterranean and Latin America' (Co-PI Dr Rasha Chatta; funded by Volkswagenstiftung; 2025-2027). This project is going to feature a living virtual exhibition, opening up and visualising a new field of research which is meant to be continued and extended to other regions of the Global South.Creative EconomyEducationCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsThis project has used the recently catalogued archive of The Bowes Museum to greatly enhance the understanding of the context in which the founding collection was formed, housed and displayed. My research has shown that John and Joséphine Bowes were informed and influenced by many of the large private and public collectors of the second half of the nineteenth century in a way that until now has been little recognised. Further to this my research has unveiled significant information regarding the provenance of many of the objects in the collection; how they were interpreted over the last decades of the nineteenth and the beginning decades of the twentieth century In a broader sense this project has made a direct intervention into the scholarship concerning the practices of private collectors and public art museums in the nineteenth century, foregrounding The Bowes Museum firmly as one of the earliest private collection museums and therefore worthy of much more academic attention.The museum could use it for a reinterpretation of the permanent galleriesCreative EconomyEducationCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsWe discovered how to confer liquid crystal properties on phosphorescent complexes of iridium(III) - the type of complex being those used commercially in the OLED industry - while maintaining high quantum yields for emission.We believe that there is potential for these materials to be exploited in reducing drive voltages in OLEDs.ChemicalsThis research established the theoretical development of both robust mixed and joint models with time-varying degrees of freedom, a measure which controls the extent to which the detrimental impact of longitudinal outliers are down-weighed. In allowing this to evolve over time, a better representation of the common situation where patients take time to stabilise and adjust to new treatments is gained, enabling clinicians to better understand the processes which cause outliers. This is illustrated through several medical applications which are explored in this work. Through exploration of the properties of the corresponding estimators, this research has enhanced the theoretical understanding of the impact of longitudinal outliers. To accelerate the translation of such techniques to practical applications, an open-source R software package, "robjm", has been developed for both robust mixed and joint models.Although in its infancy, this field of research has great potential. The synergy between individuals' repeated measurements and the time until an event of interest can be found in a wide variety of applications, such as renal, cancer and genetic research, amongst others. Thus, the theoretical developments and software package created in this work will be of significance to an extensive audience. As illustrated in the analysis of renal patients undertaken in this project, such methods allow a deeper understanding of the individual-specific reaction that patients can have to new treatments. Hence, this has the potential to be a key model in the promotion of precision medicine. Alongside medical researchers, this timely work will be of interest to the growing number of academics studying mixed and joint modelling both nationally and internationally, with the open-source R software, "robjm", providing a user-friendly way to put these novel techniques into practice.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationEnvironmentFinancial Services and Management ConsultancyHealthcareLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe mathematical model of the UK squirrel system has been developed so that it can directly inform on the level and location of grey squirrel control required to protect populations of red squirrels.The findings could lead to further project to assess the viability of red squirrel stronghold regions in the UK. The techniques could be generalised to other systems.Environmenthttp://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~awhite/squirrelsEuropean Perceptions of Climate Change (EPCC) was a highly successful international collaborative research project yielding extensive comparative data from 4,048 individuals on their attitudes towards climate change, climate policy and related issues, and energy options collected in 2016 in France, Germany, Norway and the UK. Within Europe EPCC represents a unique contemporary social sciences survey on this topic. Cardiff University School of Psychology led the project, collaborating with partners in key research institutions in Paris, Bergen and Stuttgart. Climate Outreach in Oxford worked with us as our impact partner. The project yielded a report on the socio-political profile in each of the four collaborating countries to aid in survey design and data interpretation, the calibrated questionnaire survey translated into four languages, associated survey data with samples of 1000 drawn from each country, a key findings report, and a policy report with recommendations for public engagement. We wish to highlight four key achievements of the project. (1) The Survey Instrument Development in English, French, German and Norwegian. The survey design took some 12 months to complete, also with extensive stakeholder input (co-construction). Eventually the survey contained 35 items spanning attitudes to climate change, policy responses, energy beliefs, socio-demographics and items on value orientations. The translation phase was critical to ensure a high quality instrument, being developed in English and subsequently double translated into German, Norwegian and French by two teams of native speakers. The project team then compared the two translations to identify inconsistencies, and checked finally against the original English version. The instrument and comparable items in English, German, French and Norwegian is now a major resource for use by researchers who wish to collect comparative data in any of these four languages at any time in the future. (2) European's Beliefs about Climate Change are Informed but not Alarmed. The EPCC survey showed that scepticism about the reality of climate change is not very widespread in the surveyed countries comprising at most 16% across the four samples, and that a clear majority think that climate change is at least partly caused by human activity. While we had anticipated higher levels of scepticism in the UK than in either France, Germany or Norway, the survey results show somewhat higher levels of scepticism in the UK, but also in Germany, as compared to both Norway and France. Despite climate change being perceived in the past as a distant threat, the current EPCC findings indicate that it is now viewed by many as an immediate threat to themselves and to people similar to themselves. However, this widespread temporal and social closeness to climate change appears to exist in parallel with a prevalent view that climate change will mostly affect other countries. Consistent with earlier studies, our results also indicate that while most people in all four countries are to some extent worried about climate change, very few express high levels of worry. This moderate level of concern about climate change, together with the widespread view that climate change is a relatively close threat that is nonetheless likely to be worse for distant others, paints a picture of informed but not alarmed European publics. However, we also find that, consistent with research from the USA and Australia, many in our samples do not recognise the very high degree of consensus that currently exists within the scientific community regarding the reality of climate change; a finding with considerable significance for UK and European climate scientists and policy makers. The EPCC survey also included two questions probing respondents' views on climate change and migration for the very first time. While in all four countries a majority disputed any link between climate change and the 2016 refugee crisis in Europe, about one third of respondents (and one half in Norway) did think that climate change will lead to more migration to their own country in the future. (3) There is Strong Support for many Policies to Address Climate Change. These included support for subsidies for renewable energy sources or home insulation, and spending money on national adaptation strategies. Green taxes or levies to pay for policies were by contrast less popular. High levels of support were found for the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, and for sanctions for countries that refuse to be part of this international climate change agreement. Across Norway, Germany, France and the UK our data shows that renewable energy sources, such as solar power, hydropower, biomass and onshore and offshore wind power, are viewed very positively in all four countries, while oil and in particular coal were perceived least positively. Opinions about nuclear power were more differentiated across the four countries, with as expected more positive opinions in the UK as compared to Germany, Norway and even France. Our question about hydraulic fracturing (fracking) revealed a consistent pattern across all countries: a relatively high number of respondents were unable to express an opinion on the issue, and, of those who did, fewer than 20% were positive about this approach to energy generation. (4) The Study has yielded Recommendations for Public Engagement. These include the following. (i) That climate change is getting closer to home for many Europeans so connect with people's experiences and expectations around impacts such as extreme weather. (ii) Since adaptation policies appear uncontroversial, policy should build on this to talk about different types of climate measures (not just mitigation). (iii) That support for renewable energy is consistently high, and hence policy needs to emphasise the social consensus on climate change to build a sense of momentum.The EPCC survey provides baseline and comparative data that should help researchers and a range of national and international stakeholders and policymakers to understand the structure of current attitudes to climate change in the countries surveyed. Through this process we would expect a closer dialogue on climate change issues to be facilitated between European citizens and climate scientists, businesses, governments, and representatives of the non-governmental sector. We would expect the survey itself to be followed up by future repeat (tracking) and novel (theoretical) studies of climate and climate policy beliefs in the countries concerned possibly using one or more of the items that we have developed, and for which the translated questionnaire instrument provides a ready-made tool. As well as the planned academic publications of the EPCC research team, the findings of the study are likely to be incorporated in future secondary analyses of climate beliefs conducted by other international research teams. The study will also form the platform for future research efforts on this topic by the collaborating international research teams.EnergyEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and Justicehttp://orca.cf.ac.uk/98660/The awarded project aims to uncover the function of a novel sleep regulatory gene, Neurocalcin in controlling sleep homeostasis in the fruit fly vision system. We have successfully completed 90% of the proposed aims. The remaining investigation will complete by the extended project end (August 2026). From our research findings, some of the objectives no longer requires and has been redirected (see below sections), but our investigation has led to the following significant new knowledge: 1) We successfully combined sleep assay and electrophysiological recording in the fly eyes to demonstrate that Neurocalcin mutant fly and classic visual mutants have worse sleep. Unlike classic visual mutants, Neurocalcin mutant maintains normal electrophysiological response to flashing light. Through additional new collaboration with Ben de Bivort Lab (Harvard University, USA), we found that the mutant fly has abnormally stronger response to visual stimuli, suggesting that Neurocalcin in the eye controls downstream neural network that coordinates proper visual response and sleep. 2) We also found that chronical inhibition of the fly eye and developmental loss of Neurocalcin cause sleep loss. Importantly, using synaptic-GFP and the CalexA based luciferase reporter, we confirmed that Neurocalcin regulates photoreceptor synaptic activity to control sleep. We also revealed potential mechanism that Neurocalcin coordinate histamine and acetylcholine output to control sleep. By surveying sleep profiles of flies with genetically reduced Neurocalcin in various sets of neurons downstream from the eyes, we conclude that multiple neural regions are required downstream from photoreceptor for Neurocalcin-regulated sleep. Our findings contribute to emerging research interests of studying the relationship between vision and sleep as evidenced by our and others' research presentation in Neurofly 2024 (https://uobevents.eventsair.com/neurofly24/) and EBRS 2025 (https://ebrs-online.org/index.php/events/ebrs2025.html). 3) To understand how neuronal activities is altered by reduced Neurocalcin expression, we started to search for other neuronal proteins that interacts with Neurocalcin. We have now successfully identified two of such genetic interactors: Latrophilin (in collaboration with Nicole Scholz lab University of Leipzig, Germany) and Recoverin. Reduced expression of either genes enhanced sleep loss observed in Neurocalcin knockout flies. Both Latrophilin and Recoverin are detected in the visual system and are known to control either neural assembly or development, indicating that Neurocalcin regulate visually-driven sleep via neural development.The above-mentioned findings have leaded to one publication in sleep and circadian research focused journal. Two more research preprints on the findings are expecting by the end of project. Collectively our findings will shift the focus of the sleep research academic community: for example, our finding highlights less explored new research avenues such as visually-driven sleep and the importance of neural development in shaping sleep. As a member of BioClocks UK (https://www.bioclocks.uk/) and local Neurogenetics network (https://biologists.social/@NeurogeneticsLeicester), this finding can easily be disseminated to a network that combines lighting industry, ophthalmology and sleep researchers. As example, our finding has now initiated collaborative grant proposals with ophthalmologist (Dr Mervyn Thomas, University of Leicester) to use our fruit fly model as rapid platform for studying relationship between developmental vision disorders and sleep. This platform can also be used to explore how visual stimuli (such as from personal devices) impede sleep quality.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Pharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe Nuclear Fission Reactor Thermal-Hydraulics (NUFRETH) grant sought to establish a testing facility for large-scale, high pressure and high temperature (15.5 MPa, 345 °C) nuclear thermal hydraulics and heat transfer in water-cooled components with high resolution diagnostics. The project was funded through the EPSRC's National Nuclear User (NNUF) programme and commenced in October 2021. The facility is intended to be strategically key in offering capabilities to both the fission and fusion communities to enhance knowledge transfer through an open-access facility for academia and industry. Early in the project, challenges to the delivery of the planned capability within the grant timescales and budget were encountered that required a change in scope. In particular, significant inflation and extended component lead times were encountered, caused by labour shortages and the release of pent-up demand after the COVID pandemic, alongside a lack of availability of raw materials due to the conflict in eastern Europe and supply issues from China. As a result, the scope of work was reduced, in agreement with EPSRC, to cover the Concept Design, Interim Preliminary Design and selected de-risking activities for the proposed future facility. No capital purchasing was undertaken as a deliberate decision to avoid redundant spend on components that would yield only a partial system. As a result of these challenges, the grant has delivered the following outcomes that have advanced the design of the facility: • Facility Use Case and Requirements Documentation: Definition of system operating parameters and phenomena of interest for range of users as outlined in original grant proposal. Formalisation of stakeholder and system requirements to meet desired use cases. • Concept Design: Initial concept design of system, including primary flow loop functional basis, system layout, and hazard identification. • Interim Preliminary Design: Matured system design to increase confidence in achieving system requirements, including design description, general arrangement drawings, flow sheets, concept of operations, preliminary component identification, and safety analysis. • Equipment Specifications: Draft equipment specifications for long lead-time items, including main circulation pump and system Initial Test Unit. • Future Engineering Timeline and System Cost Evaluation: Definition of the remaining engineering phases, with timeline estimations, and detailed cost breakdown for remaining resource and equipment spend required to reach full facility realisation. These deliverables will be invaluable in taking forward the facility to full realisation through other funding mechanisms. Within the facility design, a number of technical challenges not envisaged at the initial proposal stage have been identified. While solutions for these are present within the current design, additional complexity and equipment cost are the resultant trade-off. Therefore, in order to maintain a reasonable balance against the facility research goals, a further set of outcomes of the grant are a number of recommendations for rationalisation in future stages of the facility realisation. This includes: • Identification of potential system modifications and trade-off with use cases that would enable lower complexity, lower cost solutions to be found. • Concept design of a "Demonstration Test Unit" for utilisation on smaller existing facilities at UKAEA to act as a de-risking precursor for some of the key diagnostic systems. • Compilation of a Lessons Learnt Register to enable knowledge transfer of technical and project risks and issues to the future delivery team.The project has been extensively documented and brought to a controlled close that allows the further development of the envisaged facility to be pursued at a later date, eventually leading to its full realisation. The key steps leading to this outcome will be: • System Design Review and Optimisation: Review of changes to the research landscape in the interim period since the original proposal and identification of relevant potential system modifications to reduce cost and complexity. • Detailed Design: Finalisation of the system design to a point sufficient to enable procurement of all equipment and installation on site. • Facility Manufacture & Build: Procurement, manufacture, delivery, and installation of system on-site. • Commissioning & Acceptance: Commissioning of system and handover to operations. The requirements for these steps have been captured within the existing project outcomes, including detailed breakdowns of timeline and cost estimations. Additional intermediate steps to take forward the outcomes of the completed work without requiring build of the full system are possible through the development of the "Demonstration Test Unit", which would provide a lower cost de-risking of key diagnostic techniques alongside achievement of a valuable subset of the original research goals.EnergyMechanism underpinning heterotrimeric collagen assembly Structure of collagen VI microfibrils from mammalian tissue Effect of pathogenic mutations that cause muscular dystrophy on assembly of collagen VI heterotrimers and microfibrilsFormation of recombinant collagens for biomaterial and therapeutic applications The microfibril structure is a resource for scientists and clinicians to model the effect of pathogenic mutations.HealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyWe have discovered how light interacts with mirrors at a fundamental level.Fellow researchers in the area, and providing new applications for experimenters and engineers working in optics. Also progressing current projects we have and also spin-out projects.Aerospace Defence and MarineDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Security and DiplomacySince the first joint meeting in February 2020, which brought together the Nepal, Thai, and UK teams, the project has fostered - despite the constraints on travel and research imposed upon it by the Covid-19 crisis - a virtual working environment, which has fast become a space for critical dialogue, reflection, and knowledge exchange. Having undertaken numerous regularly scheduled meetings we have strengthened the links between our research partners in Nepal, Thailand, and the UK, which speaks to one of the first direct impacts this project has achieved - namely, that it has helped to build increased capacity for the actors we are working with. This is demonstrated, for instance, through expanded research skills, relationships, and co-produced knowledge, which has been supported through the academic writing of reports and journal articles. The achievement of bringing together scholars and practitioners in different disciplines, virtually, has not only furthered the award objectives of increasing the capacity of the actors we are working with in Nepal and Thailand, but it has also addressed the project's overall vision of securing the interest of marginalised urban communities in planning process, particularly, so that their access to critical services occurs in a way that is both sensitive to their livelihoods, while also recognizing the risk posed by the breakdown of urban systems in relation to natural hazards. In light of this vision, and with a view towards furthering the award objectives, we have made significant strides in terms of our emerging research agenda, outputs and publication plans. In this respect, the project has developed new analytical tools - in particular, it has elaborated upon the concept of knowledge infrastructures in order to reveal two critical urban phenomena. Firstly, it has explored the way in which risk and resilience narratives exacerbate inequalities in service access and, secondly, how urban complexity generates the risk of service provision failure. In addressing these phenomena, the second direct impact our project has made is its first paper, which has been submitted for publication. This develops a sophisticated analytic framework and set of conceptual tools that will help those working with marginalised urban communities. Through its investigation of the narratives of informality in planning documents it will help researchers identify points of potential strategic engagement; where potential alliances can be remade, and where spaces of dialogue in the city may be opened up. The early collaborative insights derived from this paper help to outline a cutting-edge research agenda, yielding new narratives and knowledge regarding urban informality, which will contribute towards the project's overall award objective of securing decision-making power for marginalised groups. This will not only serve to further academic knowledge around equitable resilience and urban governance, but also help to inform problem-driven approaches to scholarship beneficial to policy-makers and practitioners in the Global South. In addition to this first paper, a second round of papers are being developed, which build off of the theoretical framework developed in the first paper. Notably, these papers, first, refine and apply the knowledge infrastructure analytic, and second, develop the concept of 'plural recognition'. We show how, together, these concepts help critically engage with the participation as a tool of equitable resilience and identify how a focus on the drivers of marginalisation in knowledge production and utilisation are central to achieving transformation in the material circumstances and standing of marginalised urban communities as they relate to formal authority.By establishing the theoretical framework, conceptual tools and methods of the project, through the co-production of papers and workflows for practitioners, the project's findings can help support (and can be taken forth by) local and international development partners. The knowledge generation activities, as outlined above, can inform how these partners design and deliver programmes, which are not only more sensitive to the underlying discourses and narratives of urban marginalisation and decision-making, but also better attend to the service provision needs of urban communities in Nepal, Thailand and the Global South more generally. For instance, we focus on how the strategic targeting of particular alliances, data production methods and narratives for change might yield more equitable pathways for transformation than what is commonly envisioned by dominant urban development narratives. Similarly, the conceptual and political utility of a combined political capabilities-critical democratic perspective can be potentially taken forward by policy makers in order to rethink and remake participatory forms of governance in more equitable and inclusive ways. Our work in the coming year will look to work more closely with these partners to co-produce outputs that speak directly to their interests.Communities and Social Services/PolicyGovernment Democracy and JusticeThe grant was focused on trying to reduce cancer tumour growth by stopping, or knocking out, one of the main genes involved in tumour cell growth.The particles were shown to knock down a key cell proliferation gene in HeLa cancer cells, however they should be usable across all cell types. So, I can foresee these NPs being adapted for use in various other cancer growths. In addition, they type of chemistry used to make the NPs (ie. the strong thiol bonds used to attach the siena onto our NP surface) is perfectly adaptable to use for other thiolated fragments on RNA, so many other projects and end uses can be envisaged.EducationHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttp://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/140456_en.htmlKey preliminary findings: An individual's attachment to the state (civic ID), support for democracy, civic duty as well as human capital, and education are key drivers of protest engagement. Human capital and education are key drivers of alone protest engagement "loan wolves." Experience of Pandemic has not reduced protest readiness, in fact, it has increased it. There is an economic tradeoff between protest and migration at the individual level. Economic concerns drive migration intention and political variables drive protest engagement.Future research should specifically track alone protesters.Communities and Social Services/PolicyGovernment Democracy and JusticeSecurity and Diplomacyhttp://www.mobiliseproject.comDeeper penetration of active plasma species is poosible in engineering scaffolds by a pulsed technique with the plasma in inductive coupled modeHealthcareManufacturing/ including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe research throws significant new light on * The role of UK representatives in the Caribbean in liaising with political leaders and officials there over the implementation of the immigration controls into the UK and deportations to the Caribbean. * Conversely, it also sheds new light on the ways in which Caribbean high commissions focused on immigration and 'race relations' questions in the UK, and developed distinct departments (such as the Welfare Office of the Jamaican HC) to deal with these issues. It highlights the differing approaches adopted by Caribbean high commissioners, contrasting, for example, the activism of Sir Learie Constantine (HC for T&T 1962-64) with the more conservative approach taken by Sir Laurence Lindo (HC for Jamaica 1962-1973). * The research notes the ways in which Caribbean governments were effectively co-opted in to the operation of UK immigration legislation, and the ways in which they even sought to modify the implementation of this legislation. * The research provides new evidence the ways in which deportation cases highlighted tensions between Caribbean communities in the UK and the institutions of the British state. * The research maps the organisation of patterns of resistance to the deportation process. * The research documents the extent of 'border incredulity', ie the ways in which the British authorities at the border and within the UK approached the claims of people of non-European ethnicity with an implicit and automatic scepticism.There are many ways in which the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice and the FCDO could learn from the material gathered in the course of the research. It provides essential background for their staff for the ways in which immigration policy has affected relations with black people in the UK and with Caribbean governments. It provides many clues which might help them to develop and implement policy in ways that does not harm those relationships. For those organisations and individuals who have challenged UK policies in this area, the research provides insights into how best to influence policy. For the educational and museum sectors, the project findings provide a guide to the long history of the Windrush scandal and point to episodes that might be highlighted in future exhibitions and courses.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEducationCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsSecurity and Diplomacyhttps://windrushscandal.org/One finding of this award is the impact of Leishmania parasite genetic variation on disease severity of visceral leishmaniasis (PMID: 36222512) and the complexity of infections (PMID: 37182549). A second is novel insights into the spatial organisation of immune cells within skin lesions caused by infection with Leishmania braziliensis compared to other parasites that cause leishmaniasis of the skin in different parts of the world (India, Sri Lanka).The studies on parasite genetic variation and severity of disease outcome for visceral leishmaniasis has the potential to be used for precision treatment - whole genome sequencing of parasites isolated from patients would allow prediction of disease outcome and hence treatment. The information on immune cells identified common pathways of immune regulation that might serve as targets for new therapies.HealthcareThis work helps to fill in a key gap in our understanding of the role of trace gases from nature on the formation of tiny particles, aerosols, that can impact air quality and climate change.The mechanism development work (still in prep) will enable new aerosol schemes to be incorporated into global climate models and a benefit to the climate modelling community.EnergyEnvironmentWe proved and published new Large Deviations Principles results for McKean Vlasov Equations and new Malliavin Differentiability results for general SDEs with random coefficients and a drift satisfying a one-sided lipschitz condition (or which McKean Vlasov Equations are one example). LDP is a way of measuring the locations on which the law of a stochastic process is concentrated when the random perturbation of the system is small. In particular, the measure dependency in the equations which includes the small probability events where the particle deviates from the expected regions does not cause the process to move to new areas. https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aoap/1550566836 Malliavin Differentiability is a property of stochastic processes that allows one to measure the regularity of the law of the process. In the case of one-sided Lipschitz conditions, the standard method for proving Malliavin Differentiability fails and we had to use new methods to deal with non-integrable error terms. https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.ejp/1549616424 We solve a new representation for the support of McKean-Vlasov Equations. The support represents the collection of paths that the process could be observed to take. The challenge for McKean-Vlasov equations is that the paths are themselves dependent on the law of the solution. To get around this, we construct functional quantizations for the law of Brownian motion as a measure over the (non-reflexive) Banach space of Hölder continuous paths. We obtain a sequence of deterministic finite supported measures that converge to the law of a Brownian motion with explicit rate. The functional quantization results then yield a novel way to build deterministic, finite supported measures that approximate the law of the McKean-Vlasov Equation driven by the Brownian motion which crucially avoid the use of random empirical distributions. These are then used to solve an approximate skeleton process that characterises the support of the McKean-Vlasov Equation. See https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.01992 We solve the small ball probabilities of Gaussian Rough paths. While many works on Rough Paths study the Large Deviations Principles for Stochastic Processes driven by Gaussian Rough paths, it is a noticeable gap in the literature that Small Ball Probabilities have not been extended to the Rough Path framework. LDPs provide macroscopic information about a measure for establishing Integrability type properties. Small Ball Probabilities provide microscopic information and are used to establish a locally accurate approximation for a random variable. In particular, we note that the signature map retains the compactness properties of the Gaussian process even though the mapping is not even continuous. See https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.06447These results represent new knowledge for the study of McKean-Vlasov equations which have a wide variety of applications.Financial Services and Management ConsultancyOtherMiniature, low weight and low-cost UWB filters have been developed based on multi-layer LCP circuit technologyThe findings would be useful for both industrial and academic sectors working on UWB technologyAerospace Defence and MarineDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationLiving organisms are made up of cells. Cells require barriers or membranes to physically separate themselves from the environment and hence maintain their integrity. Internally, cells contain compartments which are again bounded by membranes. Such internal compartments within the cells allow processes which would otherwise interfere with each other to occur simultaneously. They also allow the generation of energy which powers the rest of the cell. Although the presence of membranes acting as barriers is essential, if the membrane is completely impermeable the cell cannot survive as molecules such as nutrients cannot enter the cell and likewise waste products can not be expelled. To overcome this problem, membranes contain large molecules called proteins, which allow the movement of specific molecules from one side of the membrane to the other. They allow a cell to tightly control what enters and leaves the cell. Membrane proteins can also act as signal relays, sensing molecules or processes occurring outside the cell and then triggering events inside the cell in response. The importance of these membrane proteins is highlighted in many diseases where a single membrane protein is defective and can no longer permit movement of a specific molecule. A good example would be cystic fibrosis where a protein that allows movement of chloride ions fails to function leading to the disease. Having seen that membrane proteins play such important functions and that when they are absent or fail to work properly the consequences for the cell are severe. It is therefore important to understand how such protein are made in the cell, particularly as some diseases including cystic fibrosis are caused when the membrane protein is not made correctly. Proteins are made by large complex machines termed ribosomes. Not only does the ribosome make the protein but it can also interact with the machinery that correctly places, or inserts, the membrane protein into the membrane. The two machineries are organized such that while the protein is still being made it starts to be inserted in to the membrane. Ribosomes make a vast array of proteins yet only around a third of them are membrane proteins. A key question this project addressed is to understand how the ribosome knows that it is making a membrane protein and therefore that it needs to be placed in the membrane. As new proteins are made they move from a place deep inside the ribosome through a narrow tunnel to the surface of the ribosome, where they can be released to the rest of the cell. Parts of this tunnel inside the ribosome can 'sense' when a membrane protein is being made and so the machinery that inserts the membrane proteins can be alerted that a membrane protein is on the way. We have found that a component of the tunnel called Rpl17 functions as a 'molecular switch'. In one state it allows the ribosome to recruit the machinery necessary to target membrane proteins to the membrane where they can then be inserted. In the opposite state, it recruits the machinery required to process and correctly fold up those proteins, which remain inside the cell and are not associated with membranes. We also show that the ribosome is unable to bind both these machineries simultaneously emphasizing the importance in regulating their recruitment. Mutant forms of the Rpl17 protein that are stuck in one state or the other are either unable to make membrane proteins properly or accumulate aggregates of misfolded cellular proteins, respectively. Overall the project now helps us to understand more clearly the detailed workings of the ribosome, the machine which synthesizes all proteins in the cell, and how it can respond to different types of proteins as they are being made to ensure they are then further processed correctly. Understanding how this works in healthy cells, can then help us deduce what might be happening should this go wrong in disease. In addition, this region of the ribosome is important in the field of antibiotics; drugs such as erythromycin bind to the tunnel of the bacterial ribosome, but not to yeast or human ribosomes, and prevent proteins being made, thereby killing the bacteria. Understanding in detail how the tunnel of the ribosome works in yeast and humans compared to bacteria may allow the design of new antibiotics, which bind here but are still specific for ribosomes from bacteria.We have generated mutant Saccharomyces cerevisae yeast strains with ribosomes that have altered recruitment of protein biogenesis factors. These strains may help with over-expression of heterologous proteins in yeast for biotechnology applications. Through a BBSRC DTP studentship we have now also made analagous mutations in mammalian ribosomes and see that they lead to defects in nascent chain stalling. Hence we can transfer our findings in a model system into mammalian cells.Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology1. We used single-molecule fluorescence techniques to demonstrate that electron transport in the plasma membrane of Escherichia coli is fully delocalised, in contrast to the increasingly prevailing dogma that electron transport occurs within supercomplexes. 2. We developed a method for isolation of respiratory complex 1 (NDH-1) from the thylakoid membranes of a cyanobacterium by affinity pull-downs, and used this method to provide initial evidence for strong association of NDH-1 with Photosystem I - a first clue to the hard-wiring of electron transport pathways in this bacterium. 3. In collaboration, we helped to demonstrate a crucial role for hydrocarbons in shaping the thylakoid membranes of cyanobacteria. 4. We uncovered the basis for directional light-perception in a cyanobacterium, showing that a cyanobacterium can detect (and move towards) light sources because its cells act as spherical lenses that focus an image of the light-source on the opposite edge of the cell.All of our key findings open up new avenues of academic enquiry that will be taken forward by ourselves and others. Our demonstration of micro-optical effects in cyanobacterial cells has potentially huge implications for the efficiency of photosynthesis, especially in photosynthetic biofilms. We are currently following up this work, and we believe that it will eventually lead to improved designs for photosynthetic bioreactors for solar-powered biotechnology.EnergyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyData Exchange is the problem of inserting data structured under a source schema into a target schema of different structure (possibly with integrity constraints), while re_ecting the source data as accurately as possible. In this project we have significantly advanced the field of Data Exchange by solving previously open questions and by designing and implementing new algorithms. Our results were published at top conferences (ACM PODS, VLDB) and in top journals. In particular, two papers were published in the prestigious Journal of the ACM (JACM) which is seen by many as the top journal of Computer Science. Another journal paper was published in the VLDB Journal, which is one of the two top journals in the database area. The main findings are: 1. We have solved an open problem on core computation by proving that cores of database instances generated in the data exchange process (via weakly acyclic tuple-generating dependencies and equality-generating dependencies) are computable in polynomial time. BACKGROUND: In their paper "Data Exchange: Getting to the Core" (ACM PODS'03), Fagin, Kolaitis, and Popa have proposed an elegant solution to the data exchange problem that is based on the notion of the core of a structure and of the core of a data exchange problem. They also studied computational issues related to this approach. We proved showing that data exchange is tractable in presence of weakly acyclic tuple generating dependencies . This answered an important open problem posed by Fagin and colleagues. Based on this work. The results were published in JACM. 2. We have developed new methods and algorithms for the normalisation and optimisation of schema mappings and have implemented these algorithms. Schema mappings are high-level speci_cations that describe the relationship between two database schemas. They are an important tool in several areas of database research, notably in data integration and data exchange. However, a concrete theory of schema mapping optimisation including the formulation of optimality criteria and the construction of algorithms for computing optimal schema mappings is completely lacking to date. The goal of this workwas to _ll this gap. We presented a system of rewrite rules to minimize sets of source-to-target tuple-generating dependencies (st-tgds, for short). Moreover, we showed that the result of this minimization is unique up to variable renaming. Hence, our optimization also yields a schema mapping normalization. By appropriately extending our rewrite rule system, we also provided a normalization of schema mappings containing equality-generating target dependencies (egds). An important application of such a normalization is in the area of de_ning the semantics of query answering in data exchange, since several de_nitions in this area depend on the concrete syntactic representation of the st-tgds. This is, in particular, the case for queries with negated atoms and for aggregate queries. The normalization of schema mappings allows us to eliminate the effect of the concrete syntactic representation of the st-tgds from the semantics of query answering. A tool for TGD normalization was implemented and tested. The results were published in the VLDB Journal. 3. We have studied how schema mappings can be automatically synthesized from existing data. In particular, we introduced a theoretical framework for discovering relationships between two relational database instances over distinct and unknown schemata. This framework is grounded in the context of data exchange. We formalized the problem of understanding the relationship between two instances as that of obtaining a schema mapping so that a minimum repair of this mapping provides a perfect description of the target instance given the source instance. We showed that this de_nition yields "intuitive" results when applied on database instances derived from each other with basic operations. We studied the complexity of decision problems related to this optimality notion in the context of different logical languages and show that, even in very restricted cases, the problem is of high complexity. The results were published in JACM.Apart from the uses mentioned under "Exploitation Route", I currently don't see further non-academic uses. Various companies (including IBM) have shown interest in our algorithms. There is currently not yet a big market for commercial data exchange software tools. However, we hope that our algorithms will be used once data exchange technology is ripe for commercialisation. We then hope to deliver software, services, and consulting to the industry. Dr Bruno Marnette, whose doctoral studies were supported by this project, was hired by the British investment capital firm "Winton Capital" as a Database Expert. At Winton, Dr Marnette uses the skills acquired in this EPSRC project to solve data management problems. Our project has thus proven useful to provide highly skilled staff to the British financial industry in order to strengthen it technologically and to make it more competitive.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Financial Services and Management ConsultancySuspension feeding animals are ubiquitous in aquatic habitats, and exert major effects on marine ecosystems through their impact on plankton populations. This interdisciplinary project used hydrodynamic theory as an explanatory tool to predict how changes in the physical properties of water, such as temperature, may influence feeding by this key functional group. Suspension feeding represents convergence in feeding structures and mode on a massive scale across almost all phyla, convergence that we are currently unable to explain because we lack knowledge of the basic physics involved in the feeding process. I have been able to show that a fluid dynamic regime (intermediate Reynolds number) largely ignored by engineers is both beneficial to, and used by, suspension feeders and plankton.No PTI required at submission. Some of the theory developed has the potential to be used in biomimetic design of filters.Aerospace Defence and MarineManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyWe have developed an approach for assessing drought risk using a Bayesian Decision Theory approach in forested landscapes. The approach accounts for uncertainty in probabilistic terms and can make use of expert knowledge when data are not available. We have concentrated on data sets from the UK and Spain, and applied the approach to produce exemplar "case studies" to illustrate use of a software package. A book has been published describing the approach with examples, and this will also acts as a "manual" for the software, the latter being downloadable from the (e-book/online) versions of the book.We provided case study analyses showing the use of the approach, but implementation in other regions will take time and money. For example, gathering the necessary data sets is not straightforward. Funding could be used to extend the application of the approach, in particular to consider other types of risk, such as flooding or wind damage (as seen in large parts of Scotland during the winter 2021/22, for example). The approach we have developed could be used in such contexts, given appropriate data.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentDuring the Met Office UK Testbed Summer 2023 (19 June-21 July), Met Office staff (physical and social scientists, operational meteorologists, hydrometeorologists) and academics, evaluated the two meteorological modelling systems that are under development as for future weather forecasting systems [WMV (Wessex Model Variable sub-km ensemble) and MOGREPS-UK (regional km-scale ensemble)] for the Bristol area at three spatial extents as part of the sub-km ASSURE project. Five weather variables are evaluated, at different times of day. The WMV shows more realistic precipitation structures than MOGREPS-UK. The enhanced spatial resolution provided by the WMV is thought likely to be beneficial for operational urban forecasting after further evaluations. The current lack of observations at these scales makes operational evaluations difficult and is exacerbated by a lack of sensor diversity to help build confidence of probable uncertainty that should be applied to the available observations. Through the Testbed process additional datasets were identified that could support this process routinely. Several recommendations are made as to how to improve visualisations to facilitate intra-model (i.e.WMV and MOGREPS-UK) and model - observations assessments. This includes ensuring consistency (e.g. colour bars, scales), and having appropriate resolution for the time of year for high resolution features to be visible (e.g. isotherms). Testbed results informed the planning of the NERC ASSURE/ERC urbisphere/NERC AMOF/Met Office field project in Greater Bristol during 2024. A long term weather stations network has been established in the Bristol area. These in conjunction with other sensors deployed from NERC ASSURE/ERC urbisphere/NERC AMOF/Met Office - are providing insights that are relevant for (1) the Clifton Bridge (Trust) related to winds, (2) the Bristol Harbour operations related to winds , (3) the SPHERE house (Torus projects) building energy modelling and urban land surface modelling, (4) Met Office -High resolution modelling.Report prepared for and with the the Met Office: Glazer, R., Flynn, A., Porson, A., & Grimmond, S. (2024). UK Testbed 2023: Post-event Sub-km Ensemble and Urban-scale Evaluation. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11356278 This is informing - field planning for the Greater Bristol Area. - Met Office model development - informed Operational Meteorologists forecasting in the urban region (1) the Clifton Bridge Trust: the bridge wind environment, (2) the Bristol Harbour operations: the wind environment (3) Terrace Houses: building energy and people's thermal exposure within terrace houses (4) Met Office -High resolution modelling.ConstructionEnergyEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeTransportWe set out on this grant with a single major hypothesis that major variation in the cerebellar systems between vertebrate orders reflects changes in the behaviour of cells generated at the rhombic lip. This theory has been confirmed and our substantial discovery is that the ability of migratory granule cell precursors to proliferate is an adaptation that accompanied land colonisation. This adaptation is of enormous significance in understanding the ontology of developmental mechanisms and disease.Our insights offer a fantastic opportunity to pin down the precise gene regulatory network that determines granule cell behaviour - a key goal for understanding medulloblastoma (the most significant childhood brain cancer) - and the broader evolutionary mechanisms underlying the emergence of the cortex in mammals.Otherhttp://wingatelaboratory.blogspot.co.ukA new resource, RNAcentral (http://rnacentral.org) has been developed for accessing information about non coding RNAs (i.e. functional RNA molecules that do not encode for proteins). Over the course of 6 releases, information was integrated from 23 collaborating databases, and over 12,000,000 RNAs sequences were included in the resource. Tools have been developed for clustering similar RNAs, exploring taxonomic distributions, searching for data by sequence or description, and for visualising non-coding RNA genes on the genome. As of January 2019, the database holds 14,476,418 sequences.Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have a vital role in biology but hitherto there have been few resources dedicated to them and it has been hard for researchers to find, search and download all relevant data. With the increasing prevalence of whole-genome and transcriptome sequencing, however, the number of known ncRNAs has significantly increased. RNAcentral makes this data available to researchers through an integrated portal for the first time, making exploration of all relevant data for the first time.Agriculture Food and DrinkHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttp://rnacentral.orgWe have demonstrated regional and global changes in TCR alpha beta T cell repertoires in the gut depending on the complexity of the enteric microflora. We have also demonstrated the development of recombinant viral vectors for immunizing against avian influenzaControlling avian influenza by vaccination in endemic countries such as VietnamAgriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentPOLICING THE PANDEMIC: KEY FINDINGS - MARCH 2025 The overarching aim of this project (which ended in March 2023) was to examine the role that police enforcement played in securing compliance with the Coronavirus Regulations during the pandemic. This mixed method project has four main components: a) Analysing data on Fixed Penalty Notices issued by Police Scotland to understand patterns and trends in use of enforcement; b) Linking police and health data to explore whether non-compliance may have been influenced by underlying health vulnerabilities, and explore the level of risk posed by those who failed to comply with the Regulations; c) Interviews with police officers to better understand policing practices and strategies when enforcing the Regulations and assess the effectiveness of enforcement as a mechanism for ensuring compliance; d) Interviews with individuals who were issued with Fixed Penalty notices to understand motivations and reasons for non-compliance and what might have encouraged/enabled them to do so. Fieldwork and data collection for the project was completed by the end of October 2023. The project successfully completed components a), b) and c), but was only partially able to complete d). In total, we completed analysis of all FPNs issued under the Coronavirus Regulations for Scotland, England and Wales between March 2020 and May 2021 (with the support of additional funding provided by the National Police Chiefs' Council); we undertook 26 semi-structured interviews with Police Scotland officers who undertook frontline duties during the pandemic. We interviewed 12 members of the public who had been fined under the Regulations. We have also conducted analysis of linked police and health data. The key findings from the various components of research are summarised below. POLICE OFFICERS FAVOURED ENGAGEMENT OVER ENFORCEMENT DURING THE PANDEMIC In March 2020, the College of Policing issued guidance to police forces across the UK to use a '4Es' approach in relation to the use of new temporary policing powers under the Coronavirus Regulations, prioritising Engagement, Explanation and Encouragement, over Enforcement. Between March 2020 and May 2021, there were over 145,000 recorded encounters between police officers and members of the public in Scotland in relation to the Coronavirus Regulations. However, the vast majority of these encounters involved use of the first 3Es, with only around 12% involving use of enforcement (either issue of a Fixed Penalty Notice or, far less frequently, an arrest). This suggests that police officers predominantly dealt with potential non-compliance by engagement rather than enforcement during the pandemic. (Gorton et al., 2022). TEMPORAL PATTERNS OF ENFORCEMENT MAPPED ONTO PERIODS OF GREATEST RESTRICTION, BUT NOT NECESSARILY DEATHS Enforcement in Scotland was most prevalent during the two lockdown periods. Around 22% of all FPNs were issued during the first lockdown (March to June 2020), and 60% were issued during the second lockdown and subsequent restrictions (January to May 2021). Increased use of enforcement typically mapped onto periods when the restrictions were tightest and levels of public messaging around compliance were at their strongest. Until vaccines were available, enforcement also mapped neatly on to the pattern of deaths; however, enforcement remained high even when the death rate plummeted after the programme of vaccinations began. From March 2021 onwards, enforcement appears to have been mainly influenced by a reduction in compliance amongst all sectors of the population and an accompanying growth in frustration by police officers (who were moving more swiftly towards using the fourth E) as the pandemic wore on. (Gorton et al., 2022; Murray et al, forthcoming). REPEATED USE OF ENFORCEMENT WAS MOST COMMON AT THE START OF THE PANDEMIC WHEN BOTH POLICE OFFICERS AND THE PUBLIC WERE UNSURE OF THE RULES Individuals in Scotland could be fined up to four times under the Coronavirus Regulations in Scotland, although the majority of people who were fined during the first lockdown (between March and May 2020) received only one. Just over one in ten FPN recipients received two or more tickets; however, this was especially common during the first three weeks of the pandemic. There was an average of 9.4 days between tickets being issued to the same individual; however, around a quarter of repeat tickets were issued within one day, and just over one in ten were issued on the same day. This suggests that a small core of individuals were subject to repeated enforcement for breaching the Regulations during the early weeks of the pandemic, a period when there was significant uncertainty about how to interpret the rules. Nevertheless, repeat breaches became less common as time went on and the length of time between such breaches increased. Lack of familiarity or understanding of the Regulations, as well as inability or unwillingness to conform due to personal circumstances or normative views, may have contributed to more frequent breaches during the initial stages of the pandemic (McVie, 2021). AGE DISPROPORTIONALITY AMONGST FINE RECIPIENTS INCREASED OVER TIME Younger people, aged 30 or under, were disproportionately likely to be issued with an FPN for breaching the Coronavirus Regulations. This age disproportionality increased due to an increase in levels of non-compliant behaviour amongst younger people as schools and universities resumed in autumn 2020, and increasing political concern about young people spreading the virus. During the second lockdown, younger people continued to be most likely to be subject to enforcement for attending illegal gatherings and house parties, although this also increased amongst older people (in their 30s and 40s) (McVie and Matthews, 2021; Gorton et al., 2022). EVIDENCE OF ETHNIC DISPROPORTIONALITY IN USE OF ENFORCEMENT ACROSS ALL BRITISH POLICE FORCES The vast majority of FPNs in Scotland, England and Wales were issued to those from white backgrounds, which is consistent with the population profile. However, taking population size into account, the estimated rate of FPNs issued to people from BAME backgrounds was higher than that for white people. This was true across all 43 police forces in Great Britain, although the extent of ethnic disproportionality varied considerably by police force. The overall level of ethnic disparity rate was lowest at in Scotland (Gorton et al., 2022) and Warwickshire (McVie et al., 2023) at 1.4, and highest in Cumbria at 8.4 (McVie et al., 2023). When analysis was conducted to take account of residents only (i.e. excluding people who had travelled into the police force area against the prevailing rules), ethnic disparity reduced across most police forces (McVie et al., 2023). These findings suggest that, within some police force areas, enforcement amongst those who were not normally resident in that area may have disproportionately involved people from ethnic minority backgrounds. Other studies have also suggested that increased visibility of those from ethnic backgrounds may have contributed to over-policing during the pandemic (Turner et al. 2022). GRADUAL SHIFT IN ENFORCEMENT FROM THE 'USUAL SUSPECTS' TOWARDS THE 'UNUSUAL SUSPECTS' Overall, three fifths of FPNs issued during 2020 were given to people who were already known on Police Scotland's criminal history system. This was highest during the first lockdown period (at around three quarters of all FPNs issued) and lowest during the period of tightened restrictions in November and December (at less than half of all FPNs). This suggests that many of those who were non-compliant with the Regulations may have been more likely to act in ways that were not law-abiding and may, therefore, have had normative attitudes against complying. However, the reduction over time in the proportion of FPN recipients with a prior criminal history is consistent with accounts from police officers about a gradual growth in non-compliance across wider sectors of the population, especially amongst younger people, who would not normally come to the attention of the police. (McVie and Matthews, 2021; Murray et al., 2024). ENFORCEMENT WAS MOST COMMON AMONGST THOSE LIVING IN MORE DEPRIVED AREAS, BUT THIS REDUCED OVER TIME People living in more deprived areas were more likely to be issued with an FPN than those living in more affluent areas. In Scotland, the people who received FPNs were 2.6 times more likely to be living in the 10% most deprived areas than the 10% least deprived areas (Gorton et al., 2022). This figure was even higher in England (4.8) and Wales (3.0) (McVie et al., 2023). However, disparities in fining between the most and least deprived areas were far higher during the first lockdown (12.8 in Scotland, 7.2 in England, and 4.3 in Wales) than the second lockdown (1.8 in Scotland, 4.7 in England, 3.2 in Wales). This reduction in inequality by residential deprivation most likely reflects significant change in the characteristics of those who were subject to enforcement for non-compliance. This was confirmed through interviews with police officers in Scotland who were frustrated about the increase in complaints about private gatherings amongst those from more affluent backgrounds 'who should have known better'. (McVie and Matthews, 2021; Gorton et al., 2022; Murray et al, 2024). SPATIAL VARIATION IN USE OF ENFORCEMENT REFLECTED LOCAL CHALLENGES IN BOTH RURAL AND URBAN AREAS There was significant spatial variation in the use of enforcement. Across Scotland, enforcement tended to be more common in the West of Scotland and the majority of fines was issued in more urban divisions with higher population density; for example, Greater Glasgow (the most densely populated division) issued the largest number of fines (around three times larger than the next nearest division, Lanarkshire) and the highest rate per capita. However, Argyll & West Dunbartonshire (a predominantly rural division) issued the second highest rate of FPNs per capita (McVie and Matthews, 2021; Gorton et al., 2022). In England and Wales, the rate of fines was highest in North Yorkshire, Merseyside, Northumbria and North Wales; whereas the lowest rate of fines was in Humberside, West Midlands, Essex, Hertfordshire and Cleveland, which were all well below average (McVie et al. 2023). There was clear spatial clustering, with rates of fining being noticeably higher in Wales, Northern England, and the Midlands, but lowest in the South and East of England. When looking at change over time, our results illustrate a distinct urban/rural pattern to the data, with remote and rural divisions issuing by far the largest proportion of FPNs during the early months of the pandemic; whereas, urban and densely populated divisions issued by far the most FPNs during later phases of the pandemic. This was true across Scotland, England and Wales. This largely reflects changes in the rules from 'stay at home' (during which much of the policing activity took place out of doors, and many individuals were fined for travelling to popular walking areas, beaches, and areas of natural beauty) to 'no parties or social gatherings' (during which policing was mainly focused on get-togethers in domestic settings, which were more densely concentrated within urban areas). Higher rates of enforcement in more rural divisions were explained to some extent by a higher proportion of fines being issued to non-residents (i.e. people travelling across boundaries); however, this did not fully explain differences between divisions (McVie and Matthews, 2021; McVie et al., 2023). THE LOCUS AND TIMING OF ENFORCEMENT REFLECTED AN INCREASING SHIFT BACK TO DEALING WITH THE 'NIGHT TIME ECONOMY' There was a noticeable change over the course of the pandemic in the place and time that FPNs were issued. During the first lockdown, the majority of FPNs (where locus was known) involved activities that occurred out of doors in public places and most fines were issued during daytime hours. Spikes in enforcement activity coincided mainly with holiday weekends, periods of good weather and announcements about the loosening of restrictions. This pattern of activity reflects the fact that policing was very much focused on ensuring that people stayed at home during the day. However, by late 2020, the vast majority of police encounters involved attending indoor gatherings and house parties, and most FPNs were issued during the late evening and early morning hours. Moreover, the temporal spikes tended to reflect normal weekly variation in policing activity. This change over time reflects an increasing shift in enforcement activity back towards a 'business as usual' pattern of policing that involves dealing with the 'night time economy'. (McVie and Matthews, 2021). FREQUENT AND UNSCRUTINSED LEGISLATIVE CHANGE RAISES IMPORTANT CONCERNS ABOUT LEGITIMACY AND THE RULE OF LAW The use of FPNs in the UK is well-established, dating back at least to the Road Traffic and Road Improvements Act 1960 for motoring offences. Since then, the use of FPNs has extended to a range of minor offences such as littering, noise, truancy, and low-level anti-social behaviour, as well as motoring offences (Murray et al, 2024). In Scotland, most police FPNs are offered under the Anti-Social Behaviour (Scotland) Act 2004 for minor criminal offences such as vandalism, urinating in public, and being drunk and incapable in public. The main rationale cited is one of expediency: to relieve the police and the courts from the burden of prosecution, whilst providing a quick, proportionate and publicly credible alternative. FPNs issued under the COVID regulations differed from existing penalties in several ways. Firstly, the Covid Regulations pertained to public health and the policing of everyday routines and activities, with attendant challenges for policing by consent. As noted below, the frequently changing and more subjective nature of the offences (for example, what constituted a 'reasonable excuse') exacerbated these challenges further (McVie et al, forthcoming). Second, the structure of Covid FPNs differed to existing penalties, most significantly, in relation to the incremental framework, whereby fines doubled in value for each repeat offence, to a maximum of five FPNs, equating to a maximum value of £960 (Murray et al., 2024). We believe this is unprecedented in the UK; however due to the emergency procedures used to enact the Regulations, which precluded advance parliamentary scrutiny, the rationale for this remains unclear. Along with changes in the fine structure, our work has documented the changing nature of punishable behaviours across the pandemic. Following the enactment of the original Regulations in March 2020, the Scottish Parliament passed three further sets of Regulations, each one revoking and replacing its predecessor (McVie et al., forthcoming). These are broadly: the first lockdown 'stay at home' and associated easing measures; introductions of restrictions to private gatherings and curfews in pubs and restaurants in the autumn months; the Local Levels Regulations; and rules covering the vaccination status and second lockdown. Adding to this, each set of Regulations was extensively amended, often at very short notice, using emergency procedures. Both the scale and scope of legislative change across the pandemic carries significant implications in relation to the rule of law, and the principle that the law must be sufficiently accessible, foreseeable and offences clearly defined. In research interviews police officers described the difficulties of keeping track of the Regulations over time themselves, and stated that although members of the public broadly understood the rules, they struggled with the detail (Murray et al, 2024). THE 4ES STRATEGY WAS WELCOMED BY THE POLICE, BUT BECAME MORE DIFFICULT TO APPLY UNDER WIDENING PUBLIC NON-COMPLIANCE At the outset of the pandemic, the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing issued professional guidance around the introduction of the Coronavirus Regulations for the police in England and Wales, which was adopted by all UK forces (including the Police Services of Scotland and Northern Ireland). Drawing on procedural justice principles (namely the idea that people are more likely to comply with the police if they feel they have been treated fairly, have received an explanation, and given the opportunity to express their view) the guidance set out a policing approach based on the '4Es'. This recommended that officers should Engage with the public, Explain the Regulations, and Encourage people to comply, and only move to Enforcement as a last resort. More broadly, the 4Es drew on the Peelian principle of 'policing by consent', recognising that effective policing is dependent on public support and approval. In interviews, most officers thought that the 4Es strategy had worked well, albeit with the caveat that this largely applied to inadvertent breaches and people whose initial response was compliance. In this respect, officers spoke of public confusion, and appreciation of the explanation. The 4Es also served an important function in terms of longer term police legitimacy, trust and confidence. Some officers spoke about the unpopularity of the police more broadly and in that context, introducing a strategy in respect of the Coronavirus Regulations that gave precedent to engagement over enforcement was recognised as helpful (McVie et al, forthcoming). On the other hand, officers also spoke of the need for tougher and more consistent enforcement. In terms of public behaviour, blatant rule breaking was generally seen as much more prevalent as the pandemic progressed, especially due to the emergence of what was viewed as an extraordinary volume of house parties. By the time of the second lockdown (which began in January 2021) officers moved far more quickly through the first 3Es to the use of enforcement, particularly in relation to repeat breaches or in incidents where people expressed open hostility. Officers also spoke of their frustration at policing blatant breaches of the rules that posed direct health risks to themselves and their families, as well as the wider public. These findings raise questions about the extent to which the Regulations themselves could be considered to have legitimacy in the eyes of the public (McVie et al, forthcoming). EQUIVOCAL EVIDENCE THAT FIXED PENALTY NOTICES ACTED AS A DETERRENT TO BREACHING THE REGULATIONS Some officers thought that the Regulations were sufficient to secure compliance and that the powers of enforcement were useful in terms of providing added impetus. In relation to those with an existing history of police contact, there was a sense that this group were likely to breach the Regulations regardless, and officers expressed doubts that fines issued to this group would be paid. It follows from these observations that any general deterrent effect was likely to be weak. For some officers, this related to the perceived weak nature of the powers, in particular the value of the fine which was viewed as having been set at a very low level. Contrasts were made, for example, with the higher value of fines set in England and other European countries. This point was particularly pertinent to breaches involving more affluent populations, including students. As several officers pointed out, the reduced fine was less than the cost of a night out or even a taxi fare, and without the risk of incurring a criminal record, worth taking the risk. Taken together, these observations raise the questions as to whether similar levels of public compliance might have been secured based on non-statutory guidance, thereby avoiding the criminalisation of everyday behaviours, and lowering risks to officers. (McVie et al, forthcoming). PATTERNS OF PAYMENT FOR FINES SUGGEST A SHARP DIVIDE BETWEEN THOSE WHO WERE WILLING/ABLE TO PAY AND THOSE WHO WERE NOT Analysis of data published by the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service shows that, despite an initial dip in payment rates (which was most likely due to changes in the administrative systems used to recoup monies), the proportion of FPNs that were paid during the first year of the pandemic was in line with previous years. During this period, FPNs issued in relation to the Coronavirus Regulations in Scotland were significantly more likely to be paid than those issued in relation to anti-social behaviour, which did not suggest a lack of public acceptability of the financial penalties introduced as a result of the pandemic. However, higher value fines (offered in relation to second, third or fourth offences under the Regulations) were less likely to be paid, suggesting that those who were least able and/or willing to comply were also least willing/able to pay (McVie, 2022). In England and Wales, fine payment was also significantly higher amongst those from more affluent neighbourhoods and those who received only one FPN (McVie et al., 2023). FPNS ISSUED DURING THE FIRST LOCKDOWN WERE MORE LIKELY TO BE RESCINDED, BUT THIS SHOWS THAT CHECKS AND BALANCES WERE IN PLACE TO CORRECT 'GOOD FAITH MISTAKES' The speed at which the Regulations were introduced created significant difficulties in terms of rolling out force wide training in the use of the new temporary policing powers, and it was acknowledged by senior police officers that 'good faith mistakes' were likely to be made. In Scotland, 8.0% of FPNs were rescinded (i.e. cancelled or withdrawn) during the first lockdown (McVie, 2022), which was higher than in England (7.0%) and Wales (4.7%) during the same period (McVie et al., 2023). Data on payment of FPNs in Scotland is not available beyond May 2020; however, data for England and Wales shows that cancellation of FPNs varied widely across police forces, ranging from 1.1% in Warwickshire to 23.5% in West Midlands (McVie et al., 2023). In Scotland, rescinding was most common during the early stages of the first lockdown, when both police officers and members of the pubic were adjusting to the new Regulations (McVie, 2022). Incidents involving certain types of people or occurring in certain types of circumstances may have been more susceptible to error on the part of the police. Nevertheless, rescinding demonstrates that the majority of FPNs were issued in line with the Regulations and monitoring was in place to rectify where this was not the case. LINKED DATA ANALYSIS SHOWS THAT HEALTH VULNERABILITIES WERE MORE PREVALENT AMONGST THOSE WHO WERE FINED THAN SIMILAR INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE NOT It has been suggested that non-compliance with the Coronavirus Regulations was associated with underlying health-vulnerabilities that may have made it difficult for people to comply. Analysis of a linked police and health dataset showed that eighty per cent of those who were fined during the pandemic had not had recent contact with health services (i.e., ambulance, emergency department, or hospitalisation) for health-related vulnerabilities (i.e., alcohol, assault, drugs, or mental health). However, those who were fined were significantly more likely to have had contact with health services than a matched set of controls. Moreover, Covid-FPN recipients were more likely than their matched controls to have had health service contact for all types of health vulnerability examined, especially drug and alcohol-related conditions. There was evidence of change over time, however. Prevalence of health-related vulnerabilities was higher during the first lockdown than the second, across all health conditions, even when controlling for household size and property type, which did increase the likelihood of receiving a fine but had much smaller effect sizes. (Gorton et al., 2025) Introducing new temporary powers of enforcement was intended to reduce the spread of the disease and save lives; however, the success of this cannot be verified. Using the linked data, we found that Covid-FPN recipients had higher than average scores on the Charlson Co-morbidity Index than their matched controls (indicating that they were living with a higher number of co-morbidities that may have impacted on their mortality risk). We also found that deaths from any cause were slightly higher amongst the Covid-FPN recipients, albeit the percentage who had died during the study period was very small. There was little or no difference between Covid-FPN recipients and controls on their eligibility to shield. These findings suggest it is implausible that fining people had any significant impact on reducing the spread of the disease or the overall death rate (Gorton, Kurpiel and McVie, forthcoming). USE OF FPNS IN ENGLAND AND WALES WAS SIMILAR TO SCOTLAND IN SOME WAYS, BUT DIFFERED IN OTHERS, SUGGESTING THAT EXPERIENCE OF POLICING VARIED ACROSS COUNTRIES • Over 120,000 fines were issued in relation to illegal travel and movement, social gatherings and failure to follow instructions, 5% of which were subsequently cancelled. • The rate of fines issued in Wales was almost double that for England, although differences declined over time. It is likely that patterns of illegal travel and movement into Wales at least partially explain this difference between countries. • Compared to their population share, fines were more likely to be issued to men, to those aged 18-24, to those from ethnic minority backgrounds, and to those living in areas with higher levels of deprivation. • The average disparity rate between fines issued to those from ethnic minority backgrounds compared to white people was 2.3 in England and 2.8 in Wales. Disparities were highest for Black people in England, and for people from Asian or Mixed backgrounds in Wales. Ethnic disparities declined over time in Wales, but increased in England. • During the first lockdown, FPN recipients in England were around 7 times more likely to be living in one of the 10% most deprived areas compared to one of the 10% least deprived areas, while in Wales they were around 4 times more likely. This disparity declined over time, suggesting a widening in the social spectrum of the population that the police were dealing with. • Rates of fining varied widely across Police Force Areas (PFAs), but were consistently higher in Wales than England. During the first lockdown, when the emphasis was on staying at home, rates of enforcement tended to be highest in rural forces containing areas of outstanding natural beauty and national parks, but rates became higher in forces with large urban populations as the restrictions became focused on social gatherings. • There was ethnic disparity in rates of fining across all 43 PFAs; however, this diminished substantially when non-residents were excluded, suggesting that enforcement relating to illegal travel and movement may have disproportionately involved people from ethnic minority backgrounds. • Less than 1 in 20 FPN recipients were fined more than once, but the incremental fining structure resulted in a significantly higher financial burden for these people. The median cost of fines for a single recipient was £30 in Wales and £100 in England; however this increased to £180 and £500, respectively, for those who received more than one fine. • Cancellation of fines varied substantially across PFAs, although it declined over time as officers became more familiar with the Regulations. Cancellation was higher for fines given to those who were not resident in the PFA of issue, people aged 35-44, those from ethnic minority backgrounds, those from more deprived areas, and repeat FPN recipients. • More than half of all Covid FPNs were paid within the statutory payment period, with payment being most likely amongst women, older people, those from ethnic minority backgrounds, those living in less deprived areas, and those who received only one fine. • Payment was consistently higher for fines issued in Wales than in England, which may be due to the lower cost of the fines in Wales. (See McVie et al., 2023)Our research has generated a great deal of data that could be used by others to examine this important issue. It also provides a model by which others may wish to explore the impact of public health or other 'crises' on policing and, especially, use of enforcement. We believe our work challenges existing notions of 'procedural justice theory' which focus purely on the operational aspects of policing activity, and rely on notions of fairness and legitimacy in relation to the actions of officers. The implementation of the Coronavirus Regulations, which placed unprecedented restrictions on the day-to-day activities, human rights and civil liberties of the population, created a new set of considerations in relation to fairness and legitimacy. The fast pace of change and lack of scrutiny around the Regulations, confusion and distrust around public messaging, public anger at perceived injustices around non-compliance, and growing resistance towards tight restrictions all diminished the perceived fairness and legitimacy of the Regulations themselves, which placed police officers in a difficult position with regards to 'policing by consent'. We believe theoretical frameworks around procedural justice must take account not only of police officer actions but wider legislative frameworks and the political context in which they are developed. ********** Our research also offers a model for others to understand policing through the lens of public health, by using linked administrative data. Linking data on enforcement from Police Scotland to data on health and other underlying vulnerabilities from Public Health Scotland has enabled us to give a much more holistic view of patterns of non-compliance than other studies. In particular, we have highlighted how people with health vulnerabilities - including mental illness, drug dependence and alcohol addictions - came to be disproportionately reflected amongst those who were subject to enforcement under the public health regulations, especially during the first lockdown when there was a great deal of uncertainty and fear around what would happen following the spread of Covid-19. This 'justice inequality' amongst those who were already the most vulnerable in society (at a time when health services all but disappeared) could not have been observed in any other way. Our study should encourage other researchers to push the boundaries of data linkage to understand how different areas of public policy intersect and what impact that has on underlying inequalities. ********** Our research is already having impact on public policy making, in respect of considering how to develop, make decisions about and scrutinise legislation in the context of any future public health emergency. Specifically, we have offered evidence-based recommendations about creating a stronger and more effective legislative framework that takes account of the potential for the unintended consequences of discrimination and inequality. Our research is also likely to be used by policing organisations (and others tasked with monitoring public behaviour) to establish better training and policies around working in the context of a public health emergency.Communities and Social Services/PolicyHealthcareGovernment Democracy and Justicehttps://www.law.ed.ac.uk/research/research-projects/policing-the-pandemic#:~:text=The%20Policing%20the%20Pandemic%20in,FPNs)%20issued%20by%20Police%20ScotlandVarious results have been developed for the analysis and control of large scale networks. These include: (i) Distributed schemes for the control of power allocations in wireless networks have been analysed and convergence of such schemes has been proved despite the presence of time varying delays as well as time variation within the network topology. (ii) Various decentralized stability results have been developed for large scale networks comprised of interconnected heterogeneous dynamical systems. These results extend various approaches in this context that have been applied in areas such as communication networks and group coordination. (iii) The problem of optimal power flow in power distribution networks has been addressed and distributed schemes with guaranteed convergence to the optimal solution, have been developed for this important optimization problem. (iv) Problems of distributed resource allocation that are relevant in economic markets and communication networks have been studied and oscillatory behaviours that arise in such schemes have been characterized. Modification in the dynamics that can eliminate these problematic effects have also been suggested. (v) The effects of feedback delays in the performance of gene regulatory networks has been studied. In particular, fundamental limits for noise suppression have been derived in the presence of both fixed and distributed delays.A number of importnat applications have been addressed, such as distributed power control in wireless netowrks, and distributed schemes for optimization in power systems. The methodologies that have been devloped are direclty applicable in these areas, and can improve the performance of these networks. Also the fundmamental limits that have been derived for noise suppression in gene regulatory netowrks are of major importance within the biology community, as they can help improve our understanding of the role of feedback in such networks, which are in general poorly characterized.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EnergyWe have developed a new light field model that includes, for the first time, contributions from the sun, the moon and the stars. It can be used for any location on Earth and includes conditions when either or both the sun and moon are blow the horizon. This is particularly useful for animal behaviour studies that include night time observations and forms a baseline for the study of artificial light at night impacts.The light field model we have developed has potential applications for understanding ambient lighting conditions in a wide variety of environments and for studying plant and animal repsonses to them. This could be used to support research in a variety of applications in environmental science, ecology, medicine and defense.Aerospace Defence and MarineAgriculture Food and DrinkEnergyEnvironmentHealthcareLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismSecurity and DiplomacyThis study provides an important benchmark of digital health adoption in a low-resource country. The findings that most hospitals have implemented digital patient administration and laboratory systems but are not using digital systems for day-to-day clinical management has important implications for global health funders and policymakers. There are currently high expectations that large-scale digital health systems could revolutionise the provision of healthcare in low-resource settings. However, our study shows that reality is that very little data is currently collected on the clinical management of patients through routine systems and most local digital health investment is for supporting hospital management such as through purchasing systems that enable the collection of patient co-payments. We saw that using open source technology (that does not have a licence fee) only saves costs in terms of licensing software (a significant saving as EHR systems used in high-income countries would be prohibitively expensive for a country like Kenya), but even open source systems still require hardware, training and support which, at the current time, may be unaffordable for low-income country public hospitals. This study therefore has important policy implications for global health organisations and funders and suggests that better paper-based data records systems may be a more practical option for improving healthcare delivery in the short to medium term.This study highlights the need for much more intensive research in the area of digital health adoption in low- and middle-income settings as many large-scale international digital health projects are now underway that need critical evaluation and investigation to ensure that they genuinely support healthcare workers to deliver high-quality care for patients. Governments and NGOs need to rapidly build capacity for developing, implementing and evaluating digital health systems in LMICs as implementations are very contextually dependent and require both technical competence and local clinical leadership if systems are to deliver their intended benefits.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationElectronicsFinancial Services and Management ConsultancyHealthcareGovernment Democracy and JusticeManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe project has outlined the importance and relevance of a study of inquisitorial entourage, to better understand functioning and organisation of the Medieval inquisitions. People working for and on behalf of the tribunals and/or of the inquisitors, their number and make-up, can be traced and 'mapped out' to reveal differences between the several 'branches' of the Inquisition. The study - initially aiming at a comparison between two areas at 'high heretical density' (Languedoc and Northern Italy) - had to be steered towards a methodological piece of work: I have aimed at setting up a working model, providing and highlighting a series of problems, aspects and angles which will have to be explored further, on a case-by-case basis. Only by comparing several tribunals and their entourage could these aspects emerge in their full relevance. Differences and similarities were revealing: in their vocabulary, ways of recording transactions and legal proceedings, make-up and numbers of collaborators, tribunals show a remarkable flexibility. Although the legislation issued by the papacy and the instructions provided by manuals and legal pieces of advice were clear, they were never binding. A certain degree of leeway could be implemented by each tribunal, but such freedom backfired. Instead of being used to enforce consistency in practices, it created micro-management and strengthened local ties with places and their inhabitants. A stark divide between the French and Italian tribunals had be enfurther explained as depending on the way requisitions of heretics' goods were handled by the authorities: in France by the local lay lords, and - after the annexation of the Languedoc to the French crown (1271) - by the king's officials; in Italian cities by the tribunals themselves who, since 1229 with greater intensity, pocketed at least 1/3 of all money and goods confiscated from heretics. Such financial 'interference' in the religious and political workings of the various tribunals, inferred a substantial change in the way in which inquisitors dealt with their own entourage. Where money was abundant, salaries could be more generous, inquisitors could indulge in personal expenses, servants and luxury goods, retribution to spies was munificent, and generally the number of collaborators grew. Where inquisitors were paid by local authorities, the scenario was completely the opposite. Moreover, great quantities of money and goods were on the one hand a responsibility needing more qualified and better staff, while on the other hand they become a way to please, corrupt and ingratiate authorities, friends and families of the individual inquisitors. Such scenario was completely unforeseen, and incredibly revealing of the degree of independence enjoyed by each tribunal in Italy, whereas it became telling of the gradual loss of popularity and importance of the French tribunals throughout the 14th century. Further, micro-studies of individual tribunals according to this framework will undoubtedly be groundbreaking in this field of studies. I aim at carrying out a detailed survey of the situation in Florence, for whch a great amount of sources have been found.Information on the key findings have been made available to non-academic audiences through conferences/workshops and a video content, available on my University webpage.Communities and Social Services/PolicyLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttp://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/history/bruschi-caterina.aspxThis grant is ongoing. Currently, three technologies are being explored in parallel: (1) using Vanadium Oxide (V2O5) as a chemical actuator; (2) using magnetic gels as a dynamic controllable mechanism; (3) using inter-lockable ceramic tiles as a surface medium. This project will not deliver the full working prototype of a walking support system, but it will develop, test and show what can be done in terms of the material and its control system and the extent to which this approach toThe final tests will show how much stiffness and strength it can deliver and thus whether or not this is the right way to proceed in further projects. Findings will inform development of technology from a spinal cord injury user's perspective. Findings will inform on the biomechanical needs currently satisfied by existing exoskeleton technology and propose a specific path for truly user friendly exoskeleton technology. The force sensors developed will enable researchers to fabricate low cost sensors and spread the use of Opensource technology. Once the NHS research protocol is performed, it is expected to set a standard of parameters that any elbow exoskeleton should comply with if the end user is a spinal cord injury patient with injury.Aerospace Defence and MarineHealthcareManufacturing including Industrial Biotechologyhttp://www.cege.ucl.ac.uk/arg/WAM/Pages/WAM.aspxMeasuring the properties of fundamental particles and their interactions enabling tests of the current "Standard Model" of particle physics and tests of new models that extend the "Standard Model"Will be used by the world-wide community of particle physics theorists and phenomenologists.EducationTrees are mathematical objects that consist of "vertices" or "nodes" connected by edges in such a way that there is a path from any vertex to any other vertex, and there are no loops or cyclic paths. Trees are incredibly important in both mathematics and computer science. In computer science they are used to study and navigate data structures for example. In mathematics they are fundamental to combinatorics, geometry, and algebra. For example, all symmetries of finite structures can be realised as symmetries of infinite trees. The main tool for studying the symmetries of infinite trees (henceforth "groups acting on trees") has been Bass-Serre Theory (Serre won the Abel Prize in part for this work). It has long been known that Bass-Serre Theory can't be used to answer questions about very "large" groups acting on trees and so a menagerie of techniques have appeared which blend something called a "local-to-global" approach together with a notion of independence called Tits' Property (P). Both local-to-global approaches and property (P) have been extensively studied. In research attributed to this award the PI together with a collaborator Colin Reid have build a coherent theory for the "local-to-global" approach that surprisingly gives a full understanding of all groups acting on trees with independence (i.e. property (P)). This theory, called the Theory of Local Action Diagrams is a local action alternative to Bass-Serre Theory. This research has already led to new software being developed in Australia by Stephan Tornier and Marcus Chijoff for the GAP project. The paper in which the Theory of Local Action Diagrams is developed has just been accepted in the prestigious journal Math. Ann. and will appear later in 2026.There is a research group in Belgium exploring the consequences of the theory of local action diagrams for zeta functions for groups. There is a research group in Germany exploring how this theory can be used to better understand so-called lattices in locally compact groups. There is a joint research project between mathematicians in New Zealand, Austria and Iceland to build on this theory and develop tools that work when the "local" area is expanded. Computational tools to explore the consequences of the theory are being developed as part of the GAP software by Stephan Tornier and Marcus Chijoff at Newcastle University in Australia. Educational tools have also been developed that are related to this.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Education- The mechanisms controlling the release of vanadium from steel slag into the environment have been revealed through laboratory study. This shows the conditions by which steel slag can be stored to either maximise vanadium release (e.g. for recovery and to make slag safer for construction afteruses) or minimise vanadium release (e.g. in environmental disposal situations). - We have demonstrated that vanadium can be efficiently recovered from extremely alkaline steel slag and bauxite processsing residue leachates using anion exchange resins. This holds futur potential for recovering this element that is simultaneously a potent pollutant but also an element of increasing importance (e.g. for battery energy storage). - We have shown that highly alkaline waters can be remediated using either / or cascade systems that enhance ingassing of atmospheric CO2 or wetlands. Plants in the wetlands do not show signs of toxicity. - We have shown using LCA models that passive remediation (i.e. those using naturally-available energy sources) have a much lower environmental footprint than established treatment options (e.g. acid dosing). - Through extensive stakeholder engagement we have highlighted some of the potential obstacles to further resource recovery from alkaline wastes. These centre on largely inflexible regulatory regimes and complex waste ownership / transfer issues that limit circular economy thinking. - We have shown the potential for alkaline wastes to uptake atmospheric carbon in the weathering process. - We have evaluated a range of rehabilitation options for highly alkaline wastes that demonstrate the effectiveness and enduring positive effects of simple amendments that encourage plant growth and soil formation.We have been liaising with key industries (e.g. British Steel), local councils and regulators. Information about environmental risks and better management options have already been disseminated to many parties, which could inform better operational management, increased valorisation of alkaline residues and minimised pollution. The work on atmospheric carbon sequestration has already fed into another bid investigating these aspects in more detail.ChemicalsConstructionEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeManufacturing including Industrial Biotechologyhttps://alkalineremediation.wordpress.com/Our final report, submitted to the AHRC, shared -How to get large-scale cultural events data into the hands of arts and humanities researchers -What a large-scale cultural events data service would look like -The kinds of research projects this data service would enable -The future of research with cultural events data We are still awaiting permission from the AHRC to share further information and for the final report.We have recieved further funding for the CoSTAR Foresight Lab, which is not yet in the AHRC system as we are awaiting signing of contracts.Creative EconomyLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourismhttps://blogs.ed.ac.uk/tolcaah/1) We are developing a new genetic resource (a 'MAGIC' population) to assist UK researchers working on winter oilseed rape crop improvement. This work is in collaboration with the John Innes Centre (BRIC ISP) and the population is due to be complete and available in 2027. 2) We have extended our publicly accessible KnetMiner AI-assisted Gene Research and Knowledge Mining tool to include cruciferous oilseeds (e.g. oilseed rape and camelina). 3) We have established genetic transformation and gene-editing pipelines for winter oilseed rape and camelina. We have successfully modified agronomically important traits such as seed size, oil content and composition using gene-editing and cis-genesis and we have performed several field trials to assess agronomic performance on our experimental farms, under the new regulatory frameworks (QHP then PBO). 4) We have also evaluated conventional and gene-edited cereals in the field that have enhanced lipid content and are designed as feed to improve livestock productivity and lower methane emissions.1) The winter oilseed rape MAGIC population will be a genetic resource of >1000 recombinant inbred lines that will be made available (through the Germplasm Resources Unit at the John Innes Centre) to academic researchers and industry to assist them in study of any aspect of oilseed rape biology. 2) KnetMiner is an online resource that is accessible to academic researchers and industry. 3&4) As a result of the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act, the crop improvement strategies we are exploring in oilseeds (and cereals) could be used for commercial food and feed production to improve productivity, nutritional quality and benefit the environment.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentThe possibility of locating where a crack has occurred in a 3D-metal print to within an acceptable degree of accuracy has been proven. In a print made of many small parts, this will allow the printing of the defective part to be stopped without effecting the others. A key discovery was the identifying of key differences in the shapes of individual build plates using the Polytec 3D scanning vibrometer. This meant that whilst in some plates the signal would enter the heater plate at the centre and head outwards towards the waveguides, for others it would go through the edges and straight down into the waveguides and to the sensors. This meant that for seemingly similar plates there could be very different location accuracy. To overcome this, the heater plate and waveguide designs were altered so that the waveguides would be secured directly to the build plate. This significantly simplified the wavepaths for signals. Additionally, it was found that due to the tuning nature of the waveguides and the huge number of reflections occurring in the small plate, that any meaningful characterisation of defects from acoustic emission is unlikely.There are still steps to be taken in the charcaterisation of signals. It has been found that charcaterisation ofdefects by acoustic emission alone is unlikely. However, if combined with other monitoring methods, such as thermal or visual methods it may still be possible.Aerospace Defence and MarineManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyWe have developed a new mathematical model of pedestrian motion that has predicted the onset of lane formation in bi-directional crowds.Our insights could be used to improve modelling of crowd flows in the design of pedestrian spaces.ConstructionLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismTransportWe have found that many pelagic fish schools occur very close to the surface, which explains how kittiwakes are able to feed. Kittiwakes are a seabird species of conservation concern due to declining numbers and threats from offshore windfarms. It important to know who they are affected by any changes to their food source which in turn may be affected by offshore windfarms. Our autonomous underwater vehicle, operating at depth was able to locate where int he water column their principle prey lie and we now will extend this to understanding the effect of the offshore wind farm on these prey.The capability of the autonomous underwater vehicle to sample the surface will allow other to determine the properties of the prey fields of other surface feeding seabirds such as shearwaters, gulls and albatrosses.EnergyEnvironmentWe found the mechanosensitivity of cancer (leukaemic) cells compared to normal haematopoietic stem cells. The data underpins the phase 2 of the award running since October 2023The data underpins phase 2 of the award that has brought together academics across several universities and clinicians from the NHS.HealthcareThe overarching project aim is to provide the first empirical evidence base for the analysis of contemporary English folklore through the development and deployment of a representative national survey. This will be used to develop a range of accessible outputs for the academic, policy, heritage sectors and wider public to raise awareness of the value of folklore as a cultural asset. At the time of writing we are in week 15 of a 24 month project and our most significant achievements are: a) In work packages 1 and 2 we created a survey questionnaire, working with our project partners and focus groups. This consisted of 55 questions in seven sections incorporating the genres of folklore that were listed in our methodology. b) In work package 3 IPSOS UK deployed our questionnaire to conduct a representative survey of 1730 adults in England. In month 7 they supplied a database of the results that we have used to create a codebook that is being used as the basis for our public dissemination of the results. c) In work package 4 we are disseminating the survey results via our online platform that includes blogs, a successful podcast, a series of media releases and ongoing public engagement activities. d) We expect to produce three academic outputs by the conclusion of the project as described in Work Package 4. These are currently in production.The award objectives have been met in that we have created the first representative national survey of folklore in multicultural England. The survey database is a significant addition to knowledge and will be shared with project partners and available for researchers via Open Access. The survey findings have generated significant public engagement via media coverage including articles and comment in The Guardian, Daily Mail, BBC News and The Independent. There have been 1,300 downloads of our podcast since its launch in January 2026 along with invitations to speak and share knowledge with a variety of individuals, organisations and voluntary groups. Our outputs have been shared with the DCMS team who are responsible for the implementation of the UNESCO safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage across the UK. The Project Lead is working with regional heritage organisations to raise awareness of ICH and Living Heritage inventories. The impact generated by our project has resulted in an invitation to collaborate with a major regional museum trust for an exhibition that celebrates English folklore and intangible cultural heritage in 2027-28.Creative EconomyLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://www.nationalfolkloresurvey.co.uk/This project has explored the way that participatory video can be used as a youth leadership development too.Our project has developed a youth leadership model that can potentially be used across, and as we are currently exploring beyond, South Africa.Communities and Social Services/PolicyCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttp://yarncommunity.com/users/ChangingTheStoryWith our European collaborators, we have developed protocols for the collection of protest survey data. We have assessed the relationship between formal politics and unconventional politics, concluding that the two are related. Street demonstrators are often MORE connected to formal politics than non-demonstrators, and this pattern is even more pronounced for those who protest the most frequently and intensely. We also discovered that climate change activists frame their message as part of a broader discourse for global justice.We have produced summary reports of all the UK protests we surveyed, which will be useful for all NGOs / social movement organisations staging street demonstrations.Government Democracy and Justicehttp://www.protestsurvey.euOur digital and cultural analysis of tens of millions of conspiracy theories related to the pandemic posted on social during the course of 2020 showed that: 1. Conspiracy theories are a particularly seductive type of misinformation. They are often connected to a deeply held sense of political identity, and online conspiracy communities reinforce that sense of belonging. 2. Unlike some other of kinds of misinformation, conspiracy theories cannot be combatted by fact checking and debunking alone. Asking a conspiracy theorist to change their mind in effect is asking them to change their sense of identity. 3. Conspiracy theories during the pandemic did not arise from a particular information pipeline. Although deplatforming and other methods of cutting off the supply are at times necessary, they fail to engage with the underlying reasons why people are attracted to conspiracy narratives. 4. The conspiracy narratives that emerged during the pandemic were not new. Most of the basic ideas had been around for a long time, but they were recombined in new ways. In addition, the pandemic produced an unusual convergence between right-wing extremists and lifestyle libertarians, meaning that conspiracy theories can't simply be blamed on a single political group.Our research will help inform initiatives by policy makers, regulators and social media platforms to curb the spread of conspiracy theories and other forms of mis- and disinformation online. Our recommendations are: 1. Removing conspiracist misinformation and deplatforming superspreaders is important, but will never be enough to really combat the infodemic. We need to consider the reasons for the demand for this content as much as mechanisms of supply. 2. The increasing efforts at removing problematic content taken by social media giants during the pandemic is welcome; however, self-regulation by the industry will never be sufficient. State regulation is necessary, but for there to be buy-in from distrustful communities, it needs to work in partnership with civil society organisations. 3. The infrastructure and business model of social media platforms have fuelled the spread of misinformation, including conspiracy theories. Redesigning the infrastructure and incentives of social media companies is needed to address the problem of misinformation.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Educationhttp://infodemic.euSome female animals mate once in their life while others mate with many males each day. This results in enormous differences between species in everything from their physiology and behaviour, to how their social systems are arranged. However, we have limited understanding of why species and individuals vary so much in mating rate. I first attempted to examine these questions in the fruit fly Drosophila subobscura. Females of this species in Greece were thought to remate often, whereas those from the UK only mate once in their lives. However, my detailed investigation of this showed that the Greek flies do not remate- all females of this species only mate once (Fisher et al., 2012, BMC Evolutionary Biology). Hence I shifted my study to a related species, Drosophila pseudoobscura. In this species I found that females from populations in the southern USA rarely remate, whereas those from the northern USA remate often (Price et al., 2014, Proc R Soc B). A major topic of my research since then is to investigate why this happens- what are the genes that cause this difference in behaviour between these populations. I have been using genome sequencing and proteomics to find out, but the results are not yet ready for publication. The next strand of my research has been to investigate the consequences of variation in female remating rate. I found that in the species where females only mate once (D. subobscura), males fight intensely over access to females, and males exposed to rival males are so damaged by the conflict they are often barely able to mate at all, and die very young (Lize et al 2014, Proc R Soc B). However, in the species where female do remate (D. pseudoobscura) males are more measured in their response to rivals, increasing the amount of sperm they transfer to females after they have encountered rivals, to ensure they father more of a female's offspring (Price et al 2012 J Insect Physiology). I also found some evidence that differences in how males respond to rivals is genetically determined (Bretman et al 2014 PlosOne). Rates of remating have been reported for a wide variety of organisms, from fish to butterflies, using the standard technique of microsatellites, a type of genetic fingerprinting. I reviewed most of this data, finding that females in 89% of species show remating (Taylor et al, 2014, Trends Ecol Evol). However, this means that females from 11% of species never remate, and even within species that do remate, we found that on average about 10% of individual females were found to have mated only once. This was the largest scale review of female remating, and this high rate of females refusing to remate was unexpected, and is a mystery yet to be explained.The meiotic drive system in D. subobscura studied in this project has potential for use in developing SIT and other pest control techniques. SIT companies may be interested in it.Agriculture Food and DrinkThe grant supported translation towards commercialisation of a biocatalysis technology for fine chemical synthesis. We made significant progress towards de-risking this technology, for example showing that the enzyme-modified HydRegen catalyst particles can be coupled with a range of different NADH dependent enzymes, operated over a wide pH range, and stored and transported readily. We demonstrated numerous applications of the HydRegen catalyst system in different areas of NADH-dependent biotechnology. We have generated further intellectual property, around use of the technology for inserting heavy isotopes of hydrogen, and around the recycling of reduced flavin cofactors.The funding has led to successful spin out of the company HydRegen Ltd. The aim of HydRegen is to develop technologies that allow cleaner, more sustainable, more efficient chemical manufacture.ChemicalsManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttps://hydregenoxford.com/The importance of the English monarchy to the establishment of the transatlantic trade in enslaved African people The interconnections between the Royal Navy and the establishment of the transatlantic trade in enslaved African people The ways in which London slave traders were elite merchants in the seventeenth century but became marginal to the City of London by the eighteenth century The first insight into the role of female investors in the development of the slave tradeIn many ways as institutions begin to confront their connection to these histories. This aspect of the work is currently protected by confidentiality, but will be revealed at the end in accordance with the grant's aimsCreative EconomyEducationFinancial Services and Management ConsultancyGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsNew sources of Anthracnose resistance in pepper have been discovered. Additionally, the genetic region responsible for resistance in a commercial breeding line has been identified. Changes in gene expression and metabolites during infection have also been studied.Breeding of new Anthracnose resistant commercial pepper lines. Transfer of the molecular resistance mechanisms to other crop speciesAgriculture Food and DrinkWe have developed an Energy Research and Training Prospectus - a set of reports which sets out priorities for Research Council energy research and training across six areas of the energy domain, identifies ways of working with funders of applied research and demonstration to help accelerate the take-up of novel technologies and approaches, and suggests ways of promoting interdisciplinarity and cooperation across the Research Councils. Research has been undertaken into how energy innovation systems are organised and can be made more effective across a range of countries and energy technology areas. It has been based on seven technology case studies, with a review of energy innovation activities in Europe, North America and East Asia. This has generated insights and recommendations across seven themes: a) how the physical characteristics of technologies, including the need for test and demonstration facilities, can affect innovation and deployment processes. b) the respective roles of disruptive technological change and incremental advances in energy innovation. There are examples of both in the case studies and it is evident that both have a role to play, and that incremental innovation can be rapid with far-reaching consequences. c) the respective roles of the private and public sectors, noting that much of the energy innovation promoted by the public sector has been motivated by public good arguments in areas such as climate change and energy security while private sector actors continue to innovate in pursuit of competitive advantage, creating and exploiting new technological possibilities as they do so. d) the design of public institutions to promote and manage research, development, and demonstration (RD&D), there being a ubiquitous concern globally as to the need to accelerate innovation from basic science and research through to applied R&D, demonstration and commercial deployment. e) institutional design and the need for coordinated action supported by long-term strategies and a stable institutional setting. f) links between energy innovation and economic development and performance, with East Asian countries and Germany revealing a particularly strong focus on the potential economic opportunities arising from energy innovation. This theme ties back to the widespread aspiration to accelerate innovation and achieve commercialisation of promising technologies. g) lessons for innovation studies themselves. This covers how well innovation theories perform in explaining and interpreting the case studies, and what theoretical extensions might be called for. It also addresses promising new directions for research focusing on energy innovation as well as some methodological issues.The findings of the Prospectus are already being adopted by the Research Councils and have also influenced their links with other research funders. The reseach programme has fed into, and been cited, in Parliamentary inquiries. It has also been used as input to an International Energy Agency workshop preparing for the 2020 edition of the Energy Technology Perspectives report.EnergyEnvironmentTransporthttp://www.imperial.ac.uk/a-z-research/rcuk-energy-strategy-fellowship/In one of the paper we study the efficiency gains of secure property rights from land titling. We nudge treated farmers into obtaining land titles to examine the welfare gains from improved land rights. Better security under formalization of land rights induces investment leading to higher agricultural productivity and farm profits among the treated households. The analysis identifies the collateral effect of titling as the potential channel for larger investment. Treated households respond to an exogenous land security change by releasing locked-in family labour but are unlikely to stimulate land markets. We also show that households who obtained land titles made welfare gains and are subsequently able to recover the full cost of titling.This research was also presented at a meeting in NITI Aayog under the chairmanship of Prof. Ramesh Chand, member NITI Aayog. NITI Aayog is a premier think-tank of the Government of India formulating strategies in India. While framing policies to tackle farmer suicides, farm distress and farm non-performing assets, policymakers may find in the land title a tool to improve farmer income and household welfare. We hope that our results will influence the policies that are being formulated on land titling in India.Agriculture Food and DrinkDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)https://www.isid.ac.in/~epu/acegd2018/program.htmlMigration, specifically residential mobility, is a time-relevant topic and an interesting example of an interdisciplinary field with a special niche for geographic information science. It is also an area where stakeholders, by definition, come from different backgrounds and conventions. The growth in the popularity of Open Source software and open code repositories mean that methods once obscured through discipline-specific technical jargon can now be easily accessed and are indeed necessary to gain a holistic picture of migration processes. There seems to be no agreed baseline or common starting point for understanding mobility processes. This raises the issue of reproducibility, specifically related to dearth access to migration data and ambiguous computational implementation. The lack of a grounded framework for approaching mobility phenomena is problematic, because without an academically grounded context, area specific case-studies risk being anecdotal.The main utility for others is the conclusion that being clear as a researcher or demanding methodological clarity as public body is important because formulas on their own cannot help with data structure. The latter is important because not having a clear handle on data can lead to subtle mistakes and further complications as datasets become bigger. Being explicit, especially in the interdisciplinary academic setting is paramount. This is the case as 'blog - tutorials' can be ephemeral (subject to link-rot) and lack peer-review. Academia addresses these points through an established system of record keeping, however standards need to be raised in terms of literate programming, length and consistency.Communities and Social Services/PolicyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeRetailTransportOcean circulation beneath the floating ice shelves of Antarctica is a key process that must be incorporated into coupled climate models if those models are to be used to project the future evolution of the ice sheet and its impact on global sea levels. We have taken a major step towards this goal by incorporating ice shelf processes into Fluidity-ICOM, a next-generation ocean circulation model. An important capability of this finite element model is its capacity to utilize meshes that are unstructured and adaptive in three dimensions. This geometric flexibility offers several advantages over previous modelling approaches. The model represents melting and freezing on all ice-shelf surfaces including vertical faces, treats the ice shelf topography as continuous rather than stepped, and does not require any smoothing of the ice topography or any additional parameterisations of the ocean mixed layer commonly used in other models. The model can also represent a water column that decreases to zero thickness at the 'grounding line', where the floating ice shelf is joined to its tributary ice streams that are fully grounded on the seabed. The model has first been applied to idealised ice-shelf geometries in order to demonstrate these capabilities. In these simple experiments, arbitrarily coarsening the mesh outside the ice-shelf cavity has little effect on the ice-shelf melt rate, while the mesh resolution within the cavity is found to be highly influential. Smoothing the vertical ice front increases the ice-covered area, allowing greater exchange with the ocean than in simulations with a realistic ice front. A vanishing water-column thickness at the grounding line has little effect in the simulations studied. We have also investigated the response of ice shelf basal melting to variations in deep water temperature in the presence of salt stratification. Following on from these investigations of idealised domains we have applied the model to a domain that represents Pine Island Glacier with boundaries that conform to real bathymetry and basal shelf topography. This ice shelf cavity presents a considerable challenge to any model, as it has strong buoyancy forcing from rapid melt, complex geometry due to a large submarine ridge, and a convoluted ice base deeply incised with narrow crevasses.EnvironmentWe have been developed a new tools that allows analysing data sets from biological systems to identify how biological systems respond to biological events. We performed our tool development using data from the analysis of circadian rhythms in crops and the model species Arabidopsis. We have developed an approach using linear models and metric that measures the difference in models called the nu gap. We have applied this to data from Arabidopsis treated with a chemical and also different varieties of barley to find the changes in the circadian clock that result in different behaviours. We have found that the two circadian clock genes PRR7 and PRR9 regulate circadian period. We also found that calcium ions regulate circadian period. We have also used our tools to generate the first mathematical model of the barley circadian clock. This was made possible by our new mathematical tools. In further investigations of the role of the calcium ion in regulating circadian period we found that calcium is sensed by a Calmodulin like 24, a protein of unknown function, and this appears to regulate the evening circadian clock protein TOC1. Lastly we have extended our analysis of the circadian regulation of calcium signalling, to show that the circadian clock regulates calcium signals also in the chloroplast.. We have further developed our mathematical tools, and we are applying those to circadian regulation of genes in Marchantia.We hope our new tool sets will be used by others to identify how drugs and genetic differences affect complex behaviours.Agriculture Food and DrinkPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThis project has generated new evidence on how digital labour platforms shape work opportunities and vulnerabilities for migrant workers across different national contexts. Drawing on comparative qualitative research with food delivery riders in cities including London, São Paulo, Santiago and other global cases, the research shows that platform work is not a neutral or equal form of employment, but one that is deeply shaped by migration status, race, and national regulatory environments . A central finding is that migrant workers are disproportionately concentrated in platform labour because of barriers to formal employment, including discrimination, restrictive immigration regimes, and limited access to welfare systems. In some contexts, such as the United Kingdom, workers described platform work as offering relative protection from overt racism in hiring processes. In others, including Brazil and Chile, platform work exposed workers to high levels of everyday racism, stigma, and surveillance while performing their jobs in public spaces. The research also demonstrates that platform companies' claims of neutrality and fairness are misleading. Algorithmic management systems, customer rating mechanisms, and contractual arrangements often reproduce existing racial and social inequalities rather than overcoming them. Workers racialised in disadvantage face heightened insecurity, income volatility, and risks of exclusion from platforms through opaque rating systems and automated account controls. Comparative analysis of platform regulation across multiple countries shows that platform companies actively adapt their business models in response to legal and regulatory challenges, using strategies such as litigation, lobbying, subcontracting, and selective compliance. This reveals that poor working conditions are not an inevitable feature of digital technology, but the outcome of political and regulatory choices made at national and international levels Overall, the key finding of the project is that platform labour must be understood as part of wider systems of racialised and migrant labour, rather than as a novel or detached form of work. By situating platform labour within broader histories of migration, inequality, and regulation, the research challenges narratives that portray the gig economy as inherently flexible, inclusive, or technologically determined, and provides an evidence base for more equitable approaches to regulating digital work.The outcomes of this funding can be taken forward by researchers, policymakers, labour organisations, and civil society groups working on digital labour, migration, and employment regulation. The project's comparative findings provide an evidence base that can be used by others to better understand how platform work operates differently across national contexts, and how digital labour markets intersect with migration regimes, labour law, and racialised forms of inequality. For policymakers and regulators, the research offers insights into how platform companies adapt their business models in response to legal and regulatory pressure, highlighting that working conditions in the platform economy are shaped by policy choices rather than technological inevitability. These findings can inform the design of labour regulation, migration policy, and social protection frameworks that better account for the realities faced by migrant platform workers. Trade unions, worker organisations, and advocacy groups can use the findings to support efforts to improve working conditions in the platform economy, particularly by challenging claims that platforms are neutral intermediaries or that precarious work is unavoidable. The research provides comparative examples that can be mobilised in public debate and organising strategies across different national and urban contexts. Academically, the project establishes a comparative and ethnographic approach that can be built upon in future research on platform labour beyond the Global North. Its methodological emphasis on engaging workers as active agents also offers a model for participatory and worker-centred research in the digital economy. More broadly, the international networks and collaborations developed through the project create opportunities for follow-on research, policy engagement, and knowledge exchange, ensuring that the insights generated continue to shape research agendas and practical interventions in the platform economy.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)TransportDetails of the finding are currently covered by confidentiality agreement but basically we have trying to understand how synthetic biology can be used to optimise antibiotic production.Application to modify a current industrial processHealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyWe have realised an experimental apparatus capable of creating ultracold gases of erbium and potassium atoms.The outcomes of this funding will be a stepping stone to future experiments on quantum many-body systems on the apparatus built under this award as well as opening the way for similar experiments elsewhere. In particular, the experimental capabilities developed under this award will be used in my group going forwards - for example under the EPSRC Programme Grant on Quantum Advantage in Quantitative Quantum Simulation (QQQS).Aerospace Defence and MarineDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationElectronicsEnergyOtherInformation on reaction mechanisms relevant to catalysisIn designing new stable catalystsChemicalsThe research project aimed at understanding a classification of computational problems that admit feasible solutions (that is, they are solvable in polynomial time). Giving a logical characterisation of this class of problems is a long-standing open problem. The research aimed at understanding why the best attempts at such a characterization so far, based on logics of induction, counting, and algebraic operators fall short of this goal. The main findings are: - linear programming problems are expressible in logic with induction and counting and, as a consequence, maximum matching problems in graphs are also definable. This was an unexpected outcome as the contrary had been conjectured. - a characterisation of the definable problems in terms of recognisability by symmetric circuits. This leads to the identification of a symmetry barier in descriptive complexity. - the formulation of techniques (based on algebraic pebble games) for analysing the expressive power of logics with induction and linear-algebraic operators. - a polyonimial-time test, more powerful than those previously known, for distinguishing graphs that are not isomorphic.The findings have been incorporated into training materials delivered through courses aimed at postgraduate students. The aim is to diffuse the ideas developed in a way that influences the design and development of algorithms and software in the long-term. Follow-up work since the completion of the project has extended definability from linear programming to semidefinite programming. One surprising outcome of this has been a dichotomy on definability of finite-valued constraint satisfaction problems that has also yielded a surprising complexity dichotomy for approximations of such problems by semidefinite programs.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~ad260We have demonstrated that people with a diagnosis of ADHD and high traits of ADHD but no diagnosis are less self-compassionate than people with low ADHD traits and no diagnosis of ADHD. This means that people with ADHD are less kind, and more judgemental towards themselves during times of difficulty. People with ADHD are also more likely to over identify with situations, seeing the situation as something more than it is rather than looking at it mindfully and accepting the situation as it. Finally, people with ADHD are more likely to see situations as only happening to them because there is something about them that draws these negative experiences, rather than seeing it as part of the common human experience that everyone experiences. It was found that people with ADHD are more likely to relate to themselves in this less-compassionate way because they perceive higher levels of criticism from other people around them. This suggests that people with ADHD may internalise the negativity they perceive from others, and consequently relate it towards themselves. Furthermore, relating to the self with less compassion was then found to partially explain why people with ADHD have higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress and lower levels of well-being.It opens up a new area of research - demonstrating that looking at self-compassion in ADHD is an important factor to consider, especially in regards to mental health and wellbeing. It also provides potential opportunity to develop self-compassion based interventions for people with ADHD to enhance mental health.OtherWe have been able to show that the modelling work can accurately describe the transport properties of sulphide thermoelectric compounds (like Cu3SbS4 and Cu12Sb4S13). The modelling work guided the optimisation via doping of Cu3SbS4. The group at QMUL then made the materials with a range of Ge and Sn doping and measured their properties to validate the modelling work. The Sn-doped compound showed very interesting thermoelectric properties and no sign of second phases due to Sn dopants. We have continued to collaborate and apply the experimental and theoretical techniques to investigate the further addition of Sn to explore the structural details of this system and to optimise the thermoelectric performance. Further studies have also been performed to understand and potentially exploit the structural and transport links among different compounds in the Cu-Sb-S system.We have published several papers on our experimental and theoretical results. We believe they will be of interest and use to the modelling and experimental communities in thermoelectric research. Using the knowledge we gained on sulphide thermoelectrics in the DEFCOM project, we are exploring the properties and the performance of other eco-friendly compounds.Aerospace Defence and MarineChemicalsElectronicsEnergyEnvironmentTransportThis project designed and delivered an Augmented Reality app and immersive heritage trail for Glastonbury Abbey, based on a successful collaboration between academic researchers and Creative Industries and Heritage partners. The approach to the app was innovative in developing location-based gameplay intended to appeal to younger visitors/ families and to encourage interactive visitor participation. The particular challenge for the research team was to balance the gameplay/entertainment ethos with the sensitivity required for a sacred heritage site, one which remains central to many different spiritual beliefs today. Emphasis was therefore placed on archaeological authenticity, informed by the underpinning archaeological research (Gilchrist and Green 2015), and resulting in a strong focus on artefact biographies in the narrative of the app. The storytelling approach of the app reveals hidden histories and diverse voices, for example focusing on pilgrims and servants, rather than exclusively on male monastics. The app concept and game dynamics were trialled through two phases of testing by local families (reflecting the family target audience), which significantly influenced the app's design. The interpretation team at Glastonbury Abbey co-created the app concept and individual biographical stories and voiced the app's narration; they also co-created educational resources to accompany the heritage trail (including an extended leaflet for visitors who prefer not to use the app). In developing the concept of the accompanying immersive heritage trail, the team paid particular attention to archaeological authenticity and materiality. The markers comprise fragments of medieval sculptures from Glastonbury Abbey, while the QR codes for the app are represented as medieval ceramic tiles from the abbey (rather than the conventional matrix barcodes).The outcomes are of potential importance to academic heritage studies and non-academic heritage practitioners in three key respects. First, it demonstrates the significance of archaeological authenticity in developing public interpretations of sacred heritage sites that are sensitive to multiple spiritual stakeholders. Second, it demonstrates the potential for a gaming/ game play approach in the public interpretation of intangible heritage (myths, legends, spiritual beliefs). Third, it demonstrates the creative innovation resulting from collaboration between Archaeology and Creative Industries, for example in the unique QR codes for the AR app, based on medieval ceramic tiles, and the markers for the heritage trail associated with the app, using medieval sculptural fragments that have contextual associations with the spaces that they mark. These outcomes will be shared through a journal article aimed at academic and non-academic heritage practitioners (submitted), newsletter articles aimed at academic and practitioner audiences (published) and a seminar with academic and non-academic heritage practitioners (completed).Creative EconomyCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://research.reading.ac.uk/glastonburyabbeyarchaeology/research/app/The transatlantic research network that we sought to establish with EPSRC support has been created. Joint research is currently ongoing between Kuprov group (UK) and Chan group (US) on the Density Matrix Renormalization Group technique in Quantum Chemistry and Magnetic Resonance; a joint review is being written (and will be submitted for publication by Easter 2013) by Leimkuhler group (UK) and Kuprov group (UK) on highly efficient time domain simulation methods for Magnetic Resonance systems; the following research visits have taken place with the purpose of knowledge transfer, joint investigations and initiation of collaborative research projects: 1. Kuprov group (UK) to Chan group (US) -- on DMRG techniques; 2. Leimkuhler group (UK) to Martinez group (US) -- on time-domain Quantum Chemistry; 3. Kuprov group (UK) to Martinez group (US) -- on time-domain Quantum Chemistry; 4. Leimkuhler group (UK) to Kuprov group (UK) -- on Magnetic Resonance simulations; 5. Manby group (UK) to Kuprov group (UK) -- on time-domain Quantum Chemistry; 6. Kuprov group (UK) to Knowles group (UK) -- on time-domain Quantum Chemistry. As per the original Research objectives: 1. Chebyshev propagation methods developed by Leimkuhler group have been adopted and implemented into the Spinach software package by Kuprov group. The package has been released as Open Source by Kuprov group (http://spindynamics.org). The above mentioned literature review refers to this topic. 2. DMRG method was evaluated for use in Magnetic Resonance by Kuprov group and Chan group, a DMRG module for the Spinach library has been written and released as Open Source by Kuprov group (http://spindynamics.org). Research in this direction continues and will likely lead to a fully fledged joint application for research support on this topic. 3. Time-domain spin dynamics simulation techniques developed by Kuprov group were evaluated by Martinez group for Quantum Chemistry systems and found to yield some improvements to the calculation efficiency. Research in this direction continues. 4. Adaptive basis shaping techniques were evaluated by all project participants. Significant similarities were found in the approaches developed independently by the Magnetic Resonance and Quantum Chemistry communities. A decision was made to implement the Multiple Spawning method from Martinez Group for Magnetic Resonance systems and evaluate its performance -- this is presently in progress. 5. A detailed presentation of calculation methods relying on the dissipative nature of Magnetic Resonance dynamics was made by Kuprov group (UK) to Martinez group (US) and Chan group (US). Chan group is presently evaluating the method for spin dynamics simulations using Density Matrix Renormalization Group. 6. Parallel time propagation algorithms for Magnetic Resonance simulations were implemented into the Spinach software library and released as Open Source by Kuprov group (http://spindynamics.org). In summary, the transatlantic knowledge exchange, research coordination and cross-pollination activities envisaged in the original proposal have been fully realized. The network has been created and is presently busy conducting joint research with the ultimate purpose of delivering joint academic publications and (if necessary) applying for full-scale research funding to both NSF and EPSRC.The software and algorithms that came out of this work are being used by other researchers in the area.ChemicalsEducationhttp://spindynamics.orgThe 9th international AeroCom workshop was successfully conducted between 27th and 30th September 2010 at Oriel College, University of Oxford. AeroCom 2010 was well attended, with a total of 112 registrations prior to the event. Naturally attendance levels were not consistent throughout the workshop but typically between 80 and 90 people registered at the start of each day. The majority of attendees (55%) were from a range of UK and international stakeholder bodies, including the UK Met Office and many equivalent national organisations from other countries (e.g. Finnish, Norwegian, Japanese, EU bodies including FMI, MPI, CNR, MetNo, ESA, JRC and US bodies including NASA, NOAA). The balance (45%) was from academic institutions. In the UK, members of the Government's DECC Climate Science team were invited but unable to attend. Overall, 32% of registered attendees were based at UK institutions or organisations; the remainder were from international organisations.Although not funded by NERC, we hosted two associated workshops with knowledge exchange focus held just before and after the AeroCom workshop: an European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative workshop with aerosol focus (http://www.esa-aerosol-cci.org/) on 27th September, bringing together operational satellite, research and user communities, as well as a two-day (30th September-1st October) special workshop convened by ICAP (International Cooperative for Aerosol Prediction: http://bobcat.aero.und.edu/jzhang/ICAP/) conducted in Oxford's Department of Physics, on the transfer of skill scores from the research community to the operational aerosol near-realtime aerosol forecasting community, including the UK Met Office and European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting. The close gearing with IPCC was supported by the presence of the two relevant coordinating lead authors of the AR5 (Aerosol-Cloud Chapter: Olivier Boucher; Radiative Forcing: Gunnar Myhre) who also presented on the pathway to the relevant AR5 chapters and dissemination routes.Aerospace Defence and MarineEnvironmenthttp://aerocom.met.no/weboxford10.html(1) That the Diverse Economies literature has exhibited white blindness and as such has unwittingly but inevitably contributed toa a continued reification of structural racism within geographic research (2) A focus black political-economic literature reveals the holes of racialised consideration that have been overlooked in the Diverse Economies literature, and simultaneously uncovers ways in which critical theory should be nourished by the knowledge of these historic and inspiring autonomous economies. (3) The diveristy of economic discourse that spreads across race, and that capitalocentric discourse is more prevalent within white economic discourse.(1) This is relevant to Diverse Economy theorist and scholars of critical political economic theory.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeThe research has identified some key features impacting on the identities and experiences of autistic girls which have implications for their well-being, education and support. FINDINGS ON SENSORY EXPERIENCE: Sensory stimuli were experienced as pervading, and having the potential to disrupt, all aspects of the lives of the adolescent autistic girls, including: physical (nausea, headaches, pain, dizziness), cognitive (focusing and concentration), emotional (resulting in anxiety, fear, sadness, and anger) and social (perception of responding to stimuli differently to other people). Most girls reported experiencing heightened sensitivities around food and mealtimes, in particular difficulties with textures and smells of certain foods and sounds associated with eating and mealtimes. Sensitivities around food and mealtimes appeared to have a very marked impact on some girls, to the point that they avoided eating with other people and consuming or being in the vicinity of certain foods. FINDINGS ON SELF ESTEEM AND WELLBEING Quantitative data: Mental wellbeing (WEMWBS) and self-esteem (RSES) in adolescent autistic girls were both found to be significantly higher in girls attending a specialist school setting compared to those attending a mainstream setting. The assimilation component of the camouflaging measure (CAT_Q) was also significantly higher in mainstream, suggesting these girl made more use of strategies to try and fit in with others in social situations. Overall, camouflaging was negatively associated with wellbeing (more camouflaging linked to lower wellbeing). Qualitative data: Those with a high self-esteem score reported having close friends who accept them, emphasise their similarity to other people, construe autism as a positive identity (conferring advantages), and harness creativity for self-expression. Those with a very low self-esteem score emphasised difference, made unfavourable comparisons between themselves and peers, feared others viewed them negatively, and associated their diagnosis with deficits and difficulties. FINDINGS ON SENSE_MAKING ABOUT THE SELF IN RELATION TO SCHOOL SETTINGS Secondary school adolescent girls in mainstream settings overall made sense of themselves in more negative ways than those in specialist settings, linking autism to being different and viewing themselves less favourably in comparison to their peers. Those in specialist setting overall highlighted positive aspects of autism and felt accepted by peers.1. Creative resources will be available through a platform for creative pedagogy and digital learning : Prospero: https://prospero.digital/ We are also publishing the creative resources as a text book (proposal under review) 2. Guidance for health professionals on what to be aware of in relation to adolescent girls that are indicative of autism. Presentations have already been delivered to NHS representatives (presentation to MHLDA Clinical and Professional Advisory Board, 21/07/22 as well as meetings with Dr Faye Hinsley, 27/07/22 (NHS Kent and Medway Clinical Lead for LD, Autism and ADHD, and West Kent Clinical Lead for Children) as well as Dr Sarah Temple (EMCC Coach and Director EHCAP Ltd) 3. The Film animation (I feel Different) is being disseminated via other websites, e.g. www.mindfulemotioncoaching.co.uk 4. Engagement of cultural organisations such Royal Opera House Bridge and the Women's Institute, both of whom have collaborated with us 5. Development of the research through academic and professional networks such as the Autism Ethics Network. Through this forum a collaboration is in development with ProfJonathan Green, autism specialists and autistic scholars participating in the Playing a/Part conference, leading to publications and an expert network exploring phenomenology of autistic experience.Communities and Social Services/PolicyCreative EconomyEducationHealthcarehttp://www.playingapartautisticgirls.orgLasers can be used to observe chemical reactions as they happen. In addition they have the potential to influence the outcome of a reaction. This network supported the UK groups involved in these state-of-art experiments and theoretical calculations by aiding interaction.Many members of the network are still active and communicate their findings to other scientists. Laser control has become a useful tool in helping to explore the possible behaviour of molecules in a light field.ChemicalsEnergy=Visuals Themselves= In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, images of the virus molecule and 'flatten-the-curve' line charts were inescapable. There is now a vast visual repertoire of vaccines, people wearing face masks in everyday settings, choropleth maps and both bar and line charts. These 'generic visuals' circulate widely in the news media and, however unremarkable, play an important role in representing the crisis in particular ways. We argue that these generic visuals promote banal nationalism, localism and cosmopolitanism in the face of the crisis, and that they do so through the symbolic reiteration of a range of visual resources across news stories. =Journalists Who Produce Generic Visuals= (1) Visuals in general are playing an increasingly important design role within journalism (rather than solely, or most importantly, a content role), and generic visuals are often called upon to play a role that focuses more on style and layout than on journalistic substance. (2) Second, the coronavirus crisis has only exacerbated a trend which has already been at work in the news business for many years: Hamster-wheelization (Starkman, 2010), i.e., the pressure to produce the largest amount of news content in as short a period as possible. This is particularly true in the case of data visualization and the daily need to produce graphs and charts describing the course of the pandemic, but it is also true of stock photos and the need to illustrate a large number of stories dealing with the sensitive and difficult subject of death. (3) Third and finally, the journalists we interviewed expressed a great deal of ambivalence about generic visuals. Obviously, all the journalists we talked to were under a great deal of pressure to use these visuals, and all of them, in some way, noted their discomfort with the very term itself. And yet all of them simultaneously managed to distinguish their own use of generic visuals to the work that "other people" were doing.This work can serve scholars engaged in the increasingly important research on areas of AI visualization and the political role of images.Government Democracy and JusticeNanoparticles held within polymer gels can be used as sensors for a range of chemical compounds. Most recently we have published work showing they can be used to characterise novel psychoactive substances (also known as "legal highs").We are currently investigating the potential of the gels as a component within a comprehensive approach for screening of casework samples for NPS in collaboration with Forensic Science N.I.ChemicalsGovernment Democracy and JusticePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThis award established a new collaborative partnership between three research groups in the UK and two research groups in Brazil. The aim of our collaboration was to begin the development of the next generation of drugs against Schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease endemic in Brazil. The award allowed us to use a newly implemented technology platform at the UK's Diamond Light Source for high throughput structure based fragment screening against a potential drug target from Schistosoma mansoni one of the major Schistosoma species the causes Schistosomiasis. We were able to screen a library of ~800 specially selected fragments derived from drug-like molecules. Using X-ray crystallography we identified a number of hits and these have been progressed and expanded to generate more drug-like molecules which are being progressed further. Researchers from Brazil were able to come to the UK labs and learn new techniques and specialist skills in protein production and screening technologies facilitating knowledge transfer and increasing research capacity in Brazil. The project was shortlisted for the 2018 Newton Prize.The lead hits are being taken forward in the drug discovery pathway to develop the next generation of anti-Schistosomiasis therapeutics.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyA novel method for evaluating the functionality supported by digital information tools (e.g. search engines, digital libraries). This method assesses how these tools currently support important interactive behaviour (e.g. searching, browsing behaviour) and how they might be improved to better support this behaviour. We also developed a novel method for evaluating how easy to use digital information tools are.Others are very welcome to adopt or adapt the methods (contact the Principal Investigator, Stephann Makri, to discuss this).Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)OtherWe have reanalysed a number of proteomics datasets coming from baseline tissue (human, mouse, rat, pig), colorectal cancer datasets and other tumour samples, and also from some cell lines. The protein expression profiles are integrated in the resource Expression Atlas. All the corresponding publications are indicated in those applied to this award. Researchers can now access gene and protein expression information in the same interface.This information can be used for different purposes, including studies related to drug target safety and efficacy (for mouse, rat and pig). Additionally protein expression values can be used to predict protein complexes, for instance. It is important to highlight that protein expression provides data closer to the phenotype than gene expression. Correlation between gene and protein expression varies a lot depending on the concrete genes/proteins and the biological conditions.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe coccolithophores are an important group of marine phytoplankton that play an important role in ocean carbon cycling. We have identified key steps in the process of calcification by this group of algae, that allow us to understand how calcification may have initially developed. This knowledge should help us understand the role of calcification in the physiology and ecology of the coccolithophores both in current oceans, but also help us identify the conditions under which calcification may first have evolved.The outcomes will be useful to researchers with an interest in the ecology and physiology of coccolithophores. These range from geologists studying the formation of sedimentary rocks, palaeontologists examining the fossil record of coccolithophores in past oceans, through to biologists examining the role of coccolithophores in modern ecosystems. More broadly, the findings should help us understand how calcification came about in the coccolithophores and went on to play a major role in the ocean carbon cycle.EnvironmentThrough the use of mathematical modelling of the brain system that control reproduction we have improved our understanding of how the neurone network operates in the brain area called the hypothalamus controls the pituitary release of the key reproductive hormones.Our mathematical modelling has sparked tremendous enthusiasm for modelling in the research community working on this topic, but may also apply to other neuroendocrine systemsAgriculture Food and DrinkCommunities and Social Services/PolicyEducationEnvironmentHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are powerful growth factors, crucial in maintaining normal tissue structure and function and for essential processes in early embryonic developmental. Extracellular regulation of BMPs is of therapeutic interest in relation to a broad range of pathologies including cancer, vascular disease and arthritis. Large extracellular proteins form inhibitory complexes with these growth factors, thereby preventing receptor activation. One such regulator, Chordin, acts by binding to BMPs thereby preventing their association with BMP receptors on the cell surface. We have recently shown that Chordin has a horse-shoe shaped structure that supports BMP-binding in a co-operative manner (Troilo et al., PNAS USA 2014).Joint diseases such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis affect more than 100 million citizens in Europe. The diseases have a huge economic impact, due to the high medical costs and work disability. Cartilage heals poorly after damage and BMPs may be useful therapeutically to stimulate healing of damaged cartilage. For example, our research findings could be of future interest to the pharmaceutical industry in developing novel inhibitors or enhancers of BMPs to modulate cartilage deposition.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyIn order to carry out this project, 4 linked grants were awarded by EPSRC to the 4 universities, forming the 'SolarCAP' consortium. Here we describe the progress made under the grant to the University of Manchester. This work was focussed on the physics of the light-harvesting elements (in particular the QDs), and on establishing the degree of success of the grafting chemistry linking the catalyst or porphyrin molecules to the nanoparticle surfaces. We have used ultrafast laser spectroscopies to measure the current carriers that are created in the QDs when light is absorbed. The material of most interest to us is InP (which is relatively non-toxic, and absorbs sunlight strongly). We have been able to demonstrate that InP QDs show a phenomenon called 'carrier multiplication', where one incoming photon of sunlight can create more than one set of current carriers. This is important because it can improve the efficiency of light harvesting - and this is the first time this effect has been demonstrated in relatively non-toxic QDs. Meanwhile, our collaborators at the Universities of York and UEA have synthesised catalyst molecules for the target reactions (with considerable success, particularly for the carbon dioxide reduction reaction; this work will be described in their final reports). The next stage of the work (at UEA) was to attempt to graft these molecules onto the surfaces of the QDs and the gold nanoparticles. It was then crucial to establish that the molecules were grafted to the nanoparticle surfaces, and to measure the composition of the nanoparticle-molecule system. The University of Manchester team used soft X-ray synchrotron radiation (at MAXlab, in Sweden) to perform a non-destructive depth-profiling analysis that allows us to determine the chemical composition of the surface layers of the nanoparticles. For example, we have been able to demonstrate that porphyrin molecules have been successfully attached to the surfaces of polymer-coated gold nanoparticles. Thus parts of our overall concept design are now functioning. During the project we have also used EPSRC Pathways to Impact support (to the University of Manchester) to develop high quality public engagement activities directly linked to the SolarCAP project. Ours was one of 21 projects (from 97 applications) selected for exhibition at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in July 2011.Further development of the 'oxidation' end of the nanocell.ChemicalsEnergyEnvironmenthttp://www.solarcap.org.ukThe work funded through this award has outlined how farms might be able to 'superspread' bovine tuberculosis in Great Britain. It has shown that the cattle farms in Great Britain are well-connected by a vast network of cattle trading. It showed that this network, not just direct connections, can influence the risk of bovine tuberculosis on each farm in GB. The work showed that cattle contacts within farms can be detected via novel use of RFID technology, and that contacts vary in daily patterns. It has shown that those patterns are related to the location of the herd, indoors or outdoors.This work has evaluated the role of cattle movements in bovine tuberculosis infection, providing new findings. This is an area with direct application to the current epidemic in GB and therefore could form the bases for future policies and further research.Agriculture Food and DrinkGovernment Democracy and JusticeWe have developed a deeper understanding of the interactions which occur at the interface between superconductors and ferromagnets. We were also able to investigate the substrate material SrTiO3 and look at the magnet order associated with Ti.There is a huge community working in this area, and our results feed directly into that collective work. In the long term this could result in new devices and technologies.EnergyOur research has discovered that mid-ocan ridges undergo a complex and semi-continuous history of volcanic and magmatic activity. This has led to a greater understanding of the mineral and energy resource potential at mid-ocean ridge systems. In particular, we have discovered a new class of hydrothermal system (reported in Nature Comms. 2015) and the role of super critical fluids in depositing minerals on the seafloor.This work has led to further research in to the formation and preservation of seafloor massive sulphides.ChemicalsEnergyThis work involves an investigation of the spreading of liquids on gel layers in the presence of surfactants and an instability that manifests itself via the formation of "starbursts" resembling cracking patterns on the gel surface. A parametric study that involves different types of surfactants on various types of gels aims to explore the ways that system parameters such as the surfactant chemistry and concentration and the gel type and strength can affect the morphology and dynamics of these patterns. Marangoni stresses induced by surface tension gradients between the spreading surfactant and the underlying gel layer are identified to be the main driving force behind these phenomena, while gravitational forces were also found to play an important role. An attempt to quantify the stresses that form the cracks and the rheological characterisation of the gels are also included. In terms of modelling, the mechanisms driving the surfactant-enhanced spreading of droplets on the surface of solid substrates, and particularly those underlying the superspreading behaviour sometimes observed, were investigated theoretically. Lubrication theory for the droplet motion, together with advection-diffusion equations and chemical kinetic fluxes for the surfactant transport, lead to coupled evolution equations for the drop thickness, interfacial concentrations of surfactant monomers and bulk concentrations of monomers and micellar, or other, aggregates. The surfactant can adsorb on the substrate either directly from the bulk monomer concentrations or from the liquid-air interface through the contact line. An important feature of the spreading model developed here is the surfactant behaviour at the contact line; this is modelled using a constitutive relation, which is dependant on the local surfactant concentration. The evolution equations were solved numerically, using the finite element method, and a thorough parametric analysis for cases of both insoluble and soluble surfactants was carried out with concentrations, in the latter case, that can exceed the critical micelle, or aggregate, concentration. The results show that basal adsorption of surfactant plays a crucial role in the spreading process; the continuous removal of surfactant that lies upon the liquid-air interface, due to the adsorption at the solid surface, is capable of inducing high Marangoni stresses, close to the droplet edge, driving very fast spreading. The droplet radius grows at a rate close to the reported experimental values for superspreading. The spreading rates follow a non-monotonic variation with the initial surfactant concentration also in accordance with experimental observations. This work was then extended to examine sessile liquid lenses spreading over a fluid layer, in the presence of Marangoni stresses due to surfactants; these systems show a surprisingly wide range of interesting behaviour ranging from complete spreading of the lens, to spreading followed by retraction, to sustained pulsating oscillations. Models for the spreading process, the that drive these phenomena and the regular oscillatory beating of lenses is shown to occur in specific limits. The next step is to include non-Newtonian rheology in the lower layer and model the details of the cracking process. Unfortunately, this coincided with the end of the project.The work undertaken in this project is fundamental in nature and seeks to achieve understanding of interfacial phenomena, which are common to a class of flows involving the interaction of a spreading surfactant-laden liquid with a gel-like material. The results of this multi-disciplinary work has elucidated the complex interactions between spreading liquids and underlying gel-like materials, which is a problem that lies at the heart of a range of engineering, biological and biomedical settings, such as drug delivery over compliant substrates, building scaffolds for tissue engineering, emplacement, treatment and removal of gels in fractured reservoirs in the oil industry, patterning of compliant substrates, and the manufacture of photographic films, which involve the successive deposition of gel layers. This work will also be of considerable interest to academics in physics, biology, chemistry, chemical engineering and applied mathematics, particularly those interested in interfacial fluid dynamics, rheology, pattern formation, nonlinear dynamics and stability theory.Agriculture Food and DrinkChemicalsEducationManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyEngagement of practitioners, policy makers and academics furthered our shared understanding of art theft in the commercial arena (art galleries museums) and art fraud through a number of international case studies.More empirical research is needed in this areaCreative EconomyEducationEnvironmentFinancial Services and Management ConsultancyCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsRetailSecurity and Diplomacyhttp://www.law.qmul.ac.uk/research/funded/Art,%20Crime%20and%20Criminals/177940.htmlEconomic prosperity is very unevenly distributed across space, both locally and globally. Tackling these persistent disparities is a key policy objective. The Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC) was set up in 2008 to provide a rigorous understanding of the nature, extent, causes and consequences of these disparities, and to identify appropriate policy responses. Our research programmes explored disparities, their effects and potential remedies at all spatial levels including regional, city-region, local and neighbourhood. We also aimed to influence and improve policy decision-making at the international, national and local levels, connecting policy makers with international expertise, research and good practice in diagnosing and tackling such differences.Our findings have informed academic research and policy development.Government Democracy and Justicehttp://www.spatialeconomics.ac.uk/SERC/about/default.aspThe aim of the project was to develop ways to practically use whole-cell biosensors for bioprocess monitoring. After discussions with the National Centre for Biologics Manufacturing (CPI), we focused on two strategies for creating biosensors that could be integrated into biomanufacturing processes without disrupting the physical properties of the system, such as mixing and aeration. These were: i) the encapsulation of the cells in reasonably small, round polymer beads that can be added and removed from the culture and ii) the creation of non-living, cell-like vesicles (mini-cells) from the asymmetric division of the biosensors. For strategy i, we tested a variety of polymer types and developed a multi-layer encapsulation strategy that prevents biosensor cell escape, but allows the cells to remain functional for detection. The beads can be made, frozen, and stored up to 4 weeks without loss of functionality. Furthermore, the beads were used to monitor metabolite production in a co-culture with a Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell line producing a monoclonal antibody. The CHO cell viability and productivity were maintained and the biosensor beads were able to accurately reflect the increasing metabolite concentrations over time. This work was published in ACS Synthetic Biology in March 2022 and we have presented it at several international conferences including the Mammalian Synthetic Biology Workshop (2021), the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting (2021), and PEGS (2022). The work led to discussions with new collaborators both in academia and industry and to a follow-on project sponsored by the EPSRC. For strategy ii, we have been able to successfully create mini-cells containing the machinery to sense metabolites, but the response to metabolites is very weak. We identified a low level of RNA production machinery (the first step in the cascade to produce a biosensor response) due to poor partitioning during the mini-cell creation as a likely source of the issue. To tackle this, we first attempted to redesign the genetic sensing component to use a different, more abundant type of RNA production machinery. This did not work well due to cell stress responses. We then tested a second way of tackling this issue, which is to tether some of the transcriptional machinery to the membrane during mini-cell formation. This would, in effect, force better partitioning, but the sensors still do not respond well. In addition, the PDRA contributed to work towards the development of a biosensor for RNA vaccines, which was not planned as part of the initial work package, but the need arose due to the covid-19 pandemic. This work resulted in a follow on project sponsored by BBSRC and is being further developed.The polymer encapsulation strategy we have focused on are independent of the type of whole-cell biosensor used, which means it is analyte independent. Thus, we believe it could be widely adopted in the biosensor field for use with other manufacturing processes. We have received follow on funding to see how generalisable the concept is from the EPSRC (EP/W00979X/1). In addition, we are part of a multi-investigator project to develop new instrumentation that would allow the use of the encapsulated biosensors in situ, which would increase their utility (EP/W024969/1).Manufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe Connected Treescapes project has shown that local heritage and site-specific histories provide important context for community engagement with treescapes. However, these historical patterns need not constrain future woodland development, and areas without traditional tree cover may still present valuable opportunities for new woodland creation. The project has developed a 'how-to' guide for investigating local treescape history and how to connect with the community in doing this. People's perceptions of and experiences with treescapes can have positive impacts on their wellbeing. The project has shown that nature connectedness - people's psychological relationship with nature - is particularly relevant for treescapes and is important in promoting pro-environmental behaviours. The project has shown for the first time that heritage connectedness can also have a positive impact on wellbeing. Importantly, the quality of interactions with trees and woodlands appears more crucial for wellbeing than the simple presence of trees and woodlands in an area. The project has shown that woodland connectivity plays a vital role in supporting biodiversity, particularly for invertebrate communities that underpin ecosystem functioning, and that woodland connectivity has a positive effect on biodiversity, over and above that of woodland cover. This highlights the importance of considering woodlands as part of the landscape, which is not captured by most current mapping approaches for trees and woodlands. The new Treescapes Typology developed as part of the project provides new insights into the form and function of trees and woodlands within the broader landscape. The project has shown that establishing diverse, mixed-species woodland not only delivers greater ecological and social benefits than monocultures, but also offers greater resilience against risks such as pests and disease, and climate change. A new portfolio tool allows woodland managers to explore how planting choices across different tree species affects the different benefits from the woodlands, and the various trade-offs that can occur as a result. When developing strategies for woodland creation and management, careful consideration of both risks and benefits is essential. The project has shown that this is particularly important when designing cooperative management schemes among landowners, since financial incentives alone may not adequately address risk perceptions or ensure successful collaboration. This multifaceted understanding of treescape connections can inform more effective approaches to treescape development and management and help to deliver more sustainable and resilient treescapes for the future.We are producing an online toolkit which which showcases the key findings to organisations involved in treescape creation and provides guidance on how new treescapes can be developed and managed to enhance multiple benefits.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEducationEnvironmentLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsThrough mapping the specific facial features (e.g., changes in different areas of the face) associated with each of four trait dimensions (dominant-submissive, competent-incompetent, trustworthy-untrustworthy, warm-cold), we built a library of common and unique features between these traits, showing that while some of them may overlap, they cannot be equated. Not only do these findings have implications for social trait-perception theories but they can have wider reaching impact, for example, in social robotics where faces need to convey specific traits to engage the human user. In addition, this work has honed my skills in data-driven methods and handling high-dimensional data-sets (each face's features are described by 30,000+ 3D shape vertices). Our findings also open up the question about the minimal amount of trait-specific facial information necessary for a given trait to be perceived. In addition, we can now add to the literature on the overgeneralisation of emotional expressions to social trait perception (e.g., happy looking faces are perceived as trustworthy/warm) through statistically modelling the overlap between different trait features and emotional expression features in the same 3D face space.The most direct and significant impact of this work is that on the field of social robotics. Social robots interact with human users on a daily basis and need to be equipped with facial features that helps engage the user and allows for natural interaction. The next step towards this, is to implement our social trait features on the social robot head Furhat and investigate how this changes interactions between the social robot and the user. We will do this in collaboration with Furhat Robotics, Sweden. In the research domain, these results inform western theories of social trait perception and may now be investigated in a broader cultural context as well as different social settings.Communities and Social Services/PolicyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)ElectronicsEarly analysis found that a method previously used to induce negative emotion in healthy lean subjects were not effective. Further investigation demonstrated that greater variability exists amongst healthy lean subjects than hypothesised and that there are important differences in autonomic response to cardiovascular compared to nutrient challenges. A magnetic resonance imaging acquisition protocol and analysis pipeline was developed for assessing multiple aspects of gastrointestinal physiology - including gastric accommodation, antral motility, gas/water content and pan-enteric motility.The mood induction method is no longer being used for this project. Screening protocol for healthy subjects enrolled into future studies has been optimised. Funding has been secured to validate the MRI protocol in healthy subjects.Agriculture Food and DrinkDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology- In Kumasi, the largest air pollutant source is the transport sector, but across the Ashanti region as a whole (the region in Ghana that Kumasi is the capital of), emissions from residential cooking are the largest source of multiple health damaging air pollutants. - In Ghana, only Accra has an air quality management plan (AQMP), which outlines specific actions to improve air quality. Our work shows that the development of AQMPs in other Ghanaian cities would need to be specific to that city, as the sources of air pollution are substantially different. - In Togo, Lome accounts for about 20% of national particulate matter emissions, due to residential biomass use being the largest source, and most prevalent outside Lome. Lome accounts for a larger fraction of other pollutants that are dominated by transport, which is most concentrated in Lome. Lome also accounts for about half of national total GHG emissions. - It seems logistically feasible for the 'highly fault tolerant - low maintenance' air quality monitors to be successfully built and deployed for use in West African countries to suppor the development of air quality management plans.The air quality monitors could be deployed in other developing countries to support air quality management, subject to local conditions (e.g. humidity) that might influence measurement accuracy. The air quality management theory and tools developed and applied in the project could be used by other countries to develop their NDCs and other national action plans.EnergyEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeTransportDiscovery of esoteric form of Kanuri.Contribution to Hamburg University manuscript project.EducationCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://www.soas.ac.uk/africa/research/kanuri/This award is the St Andrews part of the award NE/EO15093/1 to the University of Reading reported elsewhere.See report for NE/EO15093/1Aerospace Defence and MarineEnvironmentOur research has significantly advanced the study and preservation of Gaelic folklore through four key achievements. First, we've successfully used computational handwriting recognition techniques to convert paper-based Irish and Scottish Gaelic folklore materials from the mid-20th century into digital text, significantly speeding up the digitisation process. While the Scottish Gaelic materials benefited from building fewer models due to uniform handwriting, the greater variety in the Irish materials required distinct models tailored to individual writers. Second, we've explored how computational methods, particularly large language models (LLMs), can analyse Gaelic folktales. Although enhancing these models with specialised folklore data improved their ability to understand and categorise stories, simpler computational methods also showed strong performance, highlighting the continued relevance of traditional approaches. Third, our analysis of storytelling revealed that Gaelic storytellers use formulaic phrases-such as elaborate versions of "once upon a time"-to effectively transport listeners into and out of the magical worlds they create. These formulas are culturally significant, deeply embedded in tradition, and crucial to the audience's experience of Gaelic storytelling. Lastly, our investigation into gender's influence on storytelling revealed distinct patterns: male narrators predominantly chose stories featuring male protagonists, while female narrators were more diverse, often highlighting female characters even within traditionally male-centred tales. This underscores how gender shapes narrative choice and cultural transmission within Gaelic storytelling traditions. Our ongoing work with advanced clustering techniques (phylogenetics) and our forthcoming project website and edited book will further disseminate and enhance engagement with these rich cultural narratives.We have made the Scottish Gaelic handwriting recognition models available and will do the same with the Irish ones. We have also developed speech recognition software and models derived from the DHH data and made them publicly available.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://www.gaois.ie/en/about/decoding-hidden-heritages1) Two benchmarking datasets were created for testing non-rigid 3D shape retrieval algorithms and canonical forms. 2) A linear time complexity method was proposed for computing a canonical form of non-rigid 3D shape, using Euclidean distances between pairs of a small subset of vertices. 3) A skeleton-based canonical form was proposed for non-rigid 3D shape retrieval. This canonical form results in computational speed-up, and reduced distortion of local shape detail.The researchers in the area of non-rigid 3D shape retrieval can use our benchmark datasets to test their algorithms, and further develop new algorithms that are robust to noise and distortion, and sensitive to tiny feature changes. Researchers in multimedia retrieval area will find new ways of retrieval, i.e., using analogies. In general applications of non-rigid 3D shape retrieval, the proposed linear time complexity method for computing a canonical form of non-rigid 3D shape will help to speedChemicalsCreative EconomyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Manufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://www.cs.cf.ac.uk/shaperetrieval/A very large number of new ideas and configurations for changing the coupling of light with soft nanomaterials based on assembling metals, dielectrics and in/organic components. High impact papers, and many interactions with companies.Tuneable structural colour for security, sensing, health, decorative coatings, textiles. Discussions and funded partnerships with Nokia, 3M, Renishaw, DSTL and others ongoing. Patents filed on a number of the key advances.ChemicalsDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)ElectronicsEnergyEnvironmentHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologySecurity and Diplomacyhttp://www.np.phy.cam.ac.uk/publicationsA number of wide ranging outcomes have been achieved so far as part of this funding which has helped greatly in terms of raising the profile of human science within Jaguar Land Rover. The key workstreams have established: 1) Key requirements around digital interface development in terms of how to translate physical controls into digital ones. By looking at all physical and cognitive factors translating key functions into a digital interface, then measuring an testing performance, we found interesting age related performance issues around the move towards digitalisation. 2) Key design requirements for Augmented Reality Head up Displays. By looking at the base science and using this to generate a set of assumptions for design of HUD;s 3) Principles for developing interface systems that incorporate attention management. Taking a ground up approach that uses technology to support the delivery of systems that help drivers to manage thier own attention. We have recently found key facts about how visual complexity in the vehicle impacts attention management, how presentation of information in different locations affects attention management, both of which are helping to support the delivery of future Jaguar Land Rover vehicles.Any industry that uses digital user interfaces, whereby human performance is challenged can take advantage of the findings of the work. Attention is a premium resource and hence any application area where the attention process of the human is challenged can potentially benefit from this work.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)TransportWe are now in the exciting stage of awaiting commissioning of experimental trials at the MOD national air blast facility to complement the excellent analytical progress to date. Overall, the post-doctoral researcher (Dr Richard Keys - now concluded as of Nov 16') successfully demonstrated some exciting correlation between experimental blast trials and the new coupled CFD/CSD simulations for debris distribution. We are looking to maximise these findings and their intrinsic impact via the experimental trial specification that has now been completed/authored.On completion of the experimental trials programme (subject to national facility access & projects of high-priority classified status) & collation of results in journal format the MOD & US partners will absorb the scientific findings in current operational planning programmes. In addition, the progress shown in the research has spawned a second funded phase of post-doctoral research examining the key area of dynamic similitude for masonry structures. This was only possible due to the gains/progress made during this grant award.Aerospace Defence and MarineConstructionSecurity and DiplomacyThe work is almost complete now (the revised version of the corresponding manuscript is under review, a pre-print is available at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.08.447493v2). There will be two main outputs from this award: - An open analysis pipeline that can be used to analyse Data Independent Acquisition (DIA) proteomics data generated using the SWATH-MS approach. DIA data is an experimental approach that is gaining popularity in the field. It is especially suited for quantitative proteomics approaches. The pipeline is available at https://github.com/PRIDE-reanalysis/DIA-reanalysis. - Proof of concept study demonstrating that it is possible to perform a re-analysis of public DIA proteomics datasets. We have performed that using 10 datasets available in the PRIDE database and have integrated the results into the EBI resource Expression Atlas (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/gxa/home). This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first time that systematic re-analysis of public DIA datasets has been performed.Yes, definitely. The open analysis pipeline can be re-used by others, and the whole approach of re-using DIA public datasets can also be put to work by others in the community. Additionally, the quantitative results have been integrated in the resource Expression Atlas, so that they can be reused further by anyone in the community.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)HealthcareScientific insights into erosion during extreme, high rainfall intensity storms, and how this might change as a result of climate projections Scientific insights into the effect of radiation soil remediation in Fukushima on runoff and slope erosion during extreme storms A quantitative predictive modelling framework that provides much needed accurate forecasts of erosion hazards, that can be applied to assess future erosion risk to critical infrastructureDevelopment of more accurate models of slope erosion in extreme storms Better understanding of impacts of soil remediation on runoff and slope erosionAgriculture Food and DrinkEnvironment1. A proteomic dataset for Arabidopsis cell suspension culture containing the identity and relative quantity of around 3000 proteins 2. A dataset of substrate consumption rates, growth rates and biomass composition for Arabidopsis cells under control and a range of stress conditions. This provides insight into the behaviour of the cell culture under stress and provides constraints for solution of fluxes in the genome scale model (Poolman et al, 2009) 3. Developing a method for identifying stoichiometric errors in large metabolic models (Gevorgyan et al (2008). This computer-based method greatly accelerates the process of model checking and pin-pointing errors and will have general application in the field of genome-scale metabolic modelling. 4. Developing a genome-scale metabolic model for formation of major biomass components of heterotrophic A. thaliana cells and determining optimal linear programming (flux balance) solutions consistent with experimental measurements (Poolman et al, 2009). 5. Comparison of flux distributions predicted from the genome-scale model with those measured in parallel using steady state 13C labelling (Williams et al, 2010). This demonstrates that realistic flux distributions can be predicted from the genome-scale model and opens up future avenues for analysis of metabolic network fluxes in whole plant tissues (currently the 13C labelling approaches are limited to cells and tissues in culture). 6. Developing a method for analyzing functional structure in a metabolic network by examining reaction flux correlations across a range of linear programming solutions in response to obtained for varying external constraints (Poolman et al, 2009).in silico guidance of plant metabolic engineering strategiesAgriculture Food and DrinkTo date we have made the key discovery that certain isotope systems can be used to track the mobility of sulfate-bearing fluids, which carry economically-important metals such as copper and gold. We have also demonstrated that stable isotopes can be used to track sulfide saturation in melts and have just published these results in a paper in GCA (10.1016/j.gca.2018.02.008). Our latest work has focused on Oceanic Plateau Basalts as these provide a high-pressure analogue to mid-ocean ridge basalts and can be used to explore the effects of pressure on sulfide saturation and the consequences of this process for the distribution of chalcophile and siderophile elements, which are of global economic importance. This work has now been published in Nature Communications (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-08001-3)Our initial discovery is now being taken in the form of a tied PhD studentship and we have also successfully recruited a Marie Curie fellow to work on a related project, applying these techniques to the economically important Bushveld deposit. The PhD students work has been published in Nat Comms and other follow-up work is currently ongoing.Otherhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-08001-3See parent grant and papersSee parent grant and papersEnvironmentFollowing the discovery of a translation of a key episode in the Islamic tradition into a Brahminic Hindu text in 2023 (see https://himuje-malabar.glasgow.ac.uk/blog/), we have developed a new paradigm to look into religious demarcation via the lens of translation and conversion as analytical categories for the conceptual framework of our analysis. We have begun to develop our linguistic typology, drawing out a typology of religious demarcation aspects (exclusion/inclusion, for example). The religious demarcation types will potentially contribute to new knowledge to decolonise religious research and education. Our use of digital editing tools (TEI and xml) is fast developing to extend to digital edition in South Asian languages, which require a whole different framework of tagging and encoding appoach. We have submitted an application to the Leverhulme Trust to further develop digital editions in South Asian languages. We are also planning to submit to the new AHRC translation grants. Among the new research questions opened up: how do we represent textual data, e. g., regarding events in South Asian sources, where events are perceived differently (e.g., no dates)? Another question is how to account for Indigenous sources that were co-created with colonial officers or missionaries? This is a question about the often overlapping categories of history and historiography, where the latter relies of knowledge developed within a framework of coloniality, often with little actual historical evidence to support the main assumptions. Since the workshop in Muenster (February 2025), our networks branched off to universities in Hyderabad, Delhi (Jindal), and Kalyady in Kerala (SSUS), as well as Jenna and Tuebingen (in Germany), Leiden (Holland) and Edinburgh. We already have emerging collaboration around digital editions, upon which we built one internal grant application (GCID 8/25-7/26), and another submitted to the Leverhulme Trust (preliminary application). Increased research capability generated from training delivered in specialist skills. I have submitted two articles, one for HE for the Future and one for the Palestine/Israel Review. The first is towards the analytical framework developed for the project, whereas the second makes use of the insights gained by using this framework in historical texts. I have also written the introduction to a special issue for HE for the future, with articles contributed by various collaboration partners.Outcomes can be used further for studying the dynamics of religion in history and its impact on the present. We are further developing use of digital editing tools (Oxygen) and the networks of scholars engaged in sources related to our project. We aim at developing new TEI models tailored for South Asian manuscripts and texts (including oral) for historical and sociological research, such as on human organisation, cultural geography, and local and indigenous knowledge systems, especially in South Asia or in relation to the Indian Ocean World.Communities and Social Services/PolicyCreative EconomyEducationGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsOtherhttps://himuje-malabar.glasgow.ac.uk/Please see report under main project AWAKE.Please see report under main project AWAKE.OtherThe award funded the purchase of a new technology that was designed to allow researchers to analyse tissues in high dimensional detail. In other words, the technology would allow researchers to examine in unprecedented detail the individual cell populations that were present in a tissue section, and understand how these cells localised in specific areas of the tissue (whether diseased or damaged tissue regions, or in tissue areas with specialised functions), and how these cells interacted with other cells or tissue components to establish the tissue architecture and promote development, health or disease. As the technology was very new at the time of purchase, there was not an extensive database of literature for the operation of the machine, optimisation of tissue staining protocols, or methods for analysing the complex generated datasets. As such, the researchers on the award had to spend significant time and energy to optimise the technology for various research projects. The technology has now been fully optimised and experimental protocols are validated, which is allowing researchers (and collaborators outside of the University) to successfully obtain novel data demonstrating the pathology and immune landscape (the abundance and interactions of immune cells present) in various different conditions and diseases, including covid-19, brain tumours, malaria, lung fibrosis and stroke, as well as during tissue development and testing how novel therapeutic approaches improve tissue health and recovery from disease. As such, the work on the award has verified the need and impact of high dimensional spatial analyses to increase our understanding of the basis of tissue health and disease.The outcomes of this funding provides the framework for other researchers to perform high dimensional imaging studies in their own projects, providing an interdisciplinary resource that will substantially improve the impact of their investigations. In due course, the generated high dimensional imaging mass cytometry datasets will be made publicly available for use by other researchers.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyResults from this reserach show that volcanic collapse processes are more complex than previously thought. Many large landslides from volcanoes involve multiple stages of failure, and constraining these accurately is key to producing correct models of hazards from these events. For example, to understand the tsunami-generating potential of these events around ocean island, we need to understand the detailed process of landslide generation. In addition, the research has indicated that volcanic-edifice collapse, generating large landslides, can also feed back into sub-surface processes that control the development of the magma system. As such, collapses drive significant changes in the subsequent behaviour of the volcano, potentially causing different magmatic compositions to reach the surface, and different types of eruptive behaviour to occur. This is providing new insights into what controls the long terms evolution of volcanoes, and how and why the hazard posed by volcanoes may vary through time. Results have been compiled in a paper currently submitted that summarises these findings, in addition to the previous publications entered here. The research has also stimulated additional ongoing projects, in particular investigations of the largest historical volcanic flank-collapse, at Ritter Island in 1888, where the landslide deposit has fully mapped, geophysically surveyed and sampled for the first time, to enable a clearer understanding of collapse generated tsunamis, and of the impact of collapse on the volcanic system.The results into landslide complexity have been developed in collaboration with other researchers in an international project to investigate in detail the largest historical example of this type of event. From this, we aim to provide a benchmark for tsunami modellers, to test and develop their models and thereby enable the tsunami hazard at other island volcanoes from volcanic landslides to be more accurately assessed. The results into the link between edifice growth, collapse and magma storage system processes are being developed through further academic research, and are enhancing our understanding of what dictates the eruptive behaviour displayed by different volcanic systems.Aerospace Defence and MarineEnvironmentMy first paper has been focused on how cryptomarkets (darknet markets - online marketplaces for drugs and other contraband that operate on an anonymised portion of the internet) build resilience to law enforcement and other threats using organisational resilience. My MRes dissertation (funded by ESRC) used a survival analysis of cryptomarkets using an existing public dataset to see what organisational features were tied to their resilience. The results of the theoretical discussion provided the groundwork for the first paper of my PhD which is currently being written. It highlights how cryptomarkets can be thought of as organisations in accordance with the organisational literature and makes use of an adaptive model of organisational resilience to examine cryptomarkets. The expected key findings are that organisational resilience can be fruitfully applied to cryptomarkets to improve our understandings of how different organisational structures and configurations can improve or limit cryptomarket survival and adaptation to threats. The second achievement of this project has been researching the ways in which cryptomarkets in Russia organise themselves. In the West, predominantly English-language platforms have been the focus of the literature on cryptomarkets, and drug vendors using them tend to send drugs through the post. Russian cryptomarkets have largely missed the attention of western academics, however, their practices are worthy of attention. Russian cryptomarket vendors sell their drugs through "dead drops" all over Russia, which requires each vendor group to hire large teams in order to improve their coverage. There is evidence to suggest that they are larger than any of their western counterparts and that they are far more resilient. Whilst English-language cryptomarkets have had over 100 markets open and close, with several market platforms rising to popularity before closing over time, Russia has had only 2 large cryptomarkets to date, both of them surviving for far longer than their western counterparts. My research in this space will be the first to properly examine these markets using website-scraping techniques that have been applied to western markets, which I am doing in collaboration with my supervisor and colleagues at the University of Montreal. I will also be applying my Organisational Resilience framework to these markets to examine what differences may account for their extended lifetimes. At present, I have three publications that I am planning out of this research, one of which is single-authored and the others are co-authored with my colleagues. We have agreed for now that I am to lead on this project.My project will provide a robust theoretical framework and a new dataset for examining how criminal groups are organising themselves on the darknet and which organisational configurations are optimal for longevity. This information could be useful to: - Criminologists examining how technologies are changing the way organised crime is operating - Law enforcement agencies in assessing the impacts of their enforcement actions online - Policymakers in considering new policy approaches towards the online sale of drugs - Cyber Security Companies looking to expand their understandings of how cryptomarkets operateDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Government Democracy and JusticeSecurity and DiplomacyDetailed information about the molecular biology and mechanics of seed germinationFurther scientific researchAgriculture Food and DrinkEducationThe project has created new knowledge on several cutting-edge topics related to the interaction and feedbacks between atmospheric composition and climate. A series of studies resulting from the project examine variability and change in atmospheric ozone abundance due to different natural and human factors, including the effect of solar cycle variability (Maycock et al., 2016, 2018), internal dynamical variability (Bednarz et al., 2017), and anthropogenic climate change (Keeble et al., 2017). A key finding from this work is that new satellite estimates of solar cycle variability and biased by the use of meteorological reanalysis dataset for converting from ozone number density to mixing ratio (Maycock et al., 2016). A series of studies resulting from the project then examined the influence of atmospheric ozone on the climate, including on atmospheric temperature variability (Ming et al., 2017) and long-term trends (Maycock, 2016; Maycock et al., 2018), on radiative forcing of climate (Banerjee et al., 2018) and on dynamical signals due to natural variability (Bednarz et al., 2018). The project has developed new knowledge on the interactions between climate variability and transport in the lower tropical stratosphere. This includes the important role of temperature variability in determining fluctuations in stratospheric water vapour entry (Smith et al., 2021) and the processes that contribute to changes in stratospheric transport over time (Chrysanthou et al., 2019, 2020). More recent work has concentrated on the influence of tropospheric composition on tropospheric circulation and climate variability. This includes examining the controversial topic of whether anthropogenic aerosols affect North Pacific climate (Dow et al., 2021) and demonstrating the distinct influence of anthropogenic aerosols on the Southern hemisphere extratropical circulation (Wood et al., 2020) and on surface temperature change (Richardson et al., 2019). This investigation within the project into the effects of natural climate variability was further pursued by examining the theoretical understanding of mechanisms for teleconnections between the tropics and extratropics (Yiu and Maycock, 2019, 2020; Trascasa-Castro et al., 2019). A key result was to show that immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions towards achieving the long-term temperature targets of the 2015 UNFCCC Paris Agreement is very likely to have a discernible effect on temperature trends in the next 20 years (McKenna et al., 2021). Furthermore, the most recent climate model simulations performed to support the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report show higher climate sensitivities than predecessor models (Forster et al., 2020). Both of these findings have been assessed by the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. Overall, the project has contributed to new knowledge and understanding in a range of topics related to the interaction between atmospheric composition and climate from interannual to centennial timescales. These results have been reported to the wider community through a series of publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.The results demonstrating substantial near-term benefits of early and rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (McKenna et al., 2021) is an important result for Governments and policy-makers insofar as it demonstrates the potential for substantial climate benefits not only in the long-term but in the next two decades. The outcomes from the project have helped to inform the upcoming Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report -- as several of the studies are cited in that report -- and are therefore relevant to the latest assessment of the physical understanding of climate change and its drivers, as well as the use of physical science evidence to inform the development of international climate policy targets. The range of results using the Met Office Hadley Centre climate and chemistry-climate models are relevant to ongoing work towards developing global coupled Earth System Models which simulate interactions and feedbacks between atmospheric composition, dynamics and climate. The new knowledge contributed in these topics provides fruitful avenues for ongoing academic research.EnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeOtherThrough our investigation we have managed to demonstrate that it is possible to enhance signal intensities from molecules using a novel approach of contact ion activation. This includes identifying contact agent types, methodology and operational conditions. We have been able to demonstrate this in simple system of simulated molecular mixtures. This will enable developing the technique as a tool for in situ metabolic imaging that has wide applications from materials chemistry to biomedical diagnostics. In addition, we have been able to initiate a collaboration with a signal processing group at Sheffield to develop a computational tool for analysis of complex image data that has not been possible until now. Publications are still in preparation.We have been able to identify general directions and trends that need to be developed for real systems to enable real life application and implementation.Aerospace Defence and MarineAgriculture Food and DrinkChemicalsEducationHealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyWe identified a role for a specific mediator in controlling experimental dengue in models run in rodents.Not yet.Pharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyDothistroma needle blight susceptible and resistant Scots pine trees have significantly different foliar microbiomes. Specifically Richness and evenness of the microbiome is higher in susceptible trees compared to resistant trees. Susceptible tree microbiome communities are different to resistant trees. Susceptible trees have lower abundance of many prevalent and highly abundant taxa.The differences in microbiomes between susceptible and resistant trees could mean that the susceptible trees lack a "healthy" microbiome and/or they lack taxa that have antagonistic effects on the Dothistroma pathogen. Both of these hypothesis could be investigated further and could lead to the discovery of antagonist taxa that could be used a biocontrol agents in the future.EnvironmentMany small molecules or natural products produced by animals, plants and other organisms have utility in health and industry. However, access to these molecules can have negative consequences such as over-exploitation of the species in which that molecule is found, or environmental impacts from chemical manufacturing processes. Furthermore, many natural products are structurally complex and cannot be accessed by chemical synthesis, at least at commercial scale. This proposal focusses on the production of a group of structurally related triterpenoid molecules, some of which have uses in healthcare and others which have potential as pollinator-friendly alternatives to pesticides. These include: i) squalene, widely used to improve the effectiveness of drugs and the immune response to antigens, of which global demand is still partly met by extraction from sharks; ii) steroids used in medicine for treating inflammation and cancer; iii) triterpenoids found in plants that prevent insect-feeding and are of interest to industry as environmentally sustainable crop protection agents. This project aims to demonstrate how a plant can be used as a light-powered manufacturing platform for producing squalene and squalene-derived molecules. Our efforts are focussed on optimising yields; demonstrating that production can be scaled up; demonstrating the utility of compounds that are not yet commercially available; and investigating the technical and economic feasibility of large-scale production. Work within this period focused on optimising metabolic flux through the early steps of the MEP pathway to support improved production of squalene and related terpenoids. Initial intragenic approaches to DXS overexpression in Nicotiana benthamiana resulted in strong pleiotropic effects, consistent with gene silencing and co-suppression typically observed when highly homologous transgenes are introduced at high expression levels. To overcome this constraint, a programmable transcriptional activator (PTA) strategy has now been implemented. Transgenic N. benthamiana lines carrying the PTA system show clear up regulation of endogenous DXS transcripts, demonstrating that targeted activation of native loci is an effective and biologically stable alternative to conventional overexpression. In parallel, a more traditional strategy has been pursued using diverse DXS alleles sourced from species with naturally higher enzymatic activity, including grapevine. These variant DXS gene products have been functionally evaluated using the E. coli colour/carotenoid complementation assay, which provides a rapid and quantitative readout of MEP pathway flux. This system is also being used to screen novel terpenoid synthases that may produce valuable squalene alternatives, such as apophytoene and dehydrosqualene, enabling systematic assessment of product profiles before plant-based implementation. To strengthen precursor supply, four isopentenyl pyrophosphate isomerase (IPI) isoforms are currently being evaluated through both overexpression and PTA based activation, with the aim of increasing the availability of IPP/DMAPP for downstream terpenoid biosynthesis. Further characterisation of N. benthamiana T0 lines with down-regulated DE ETIOLATED 1 (DET1) has revealed a significant increase in chloroplast area per cell, consistent with enhanced plastid development and offering a potentially valuable chassis for plastid-localised terpenoid pathway engineering. These DET1 lines are now being advanced through segregation to obtain homozygous and hemizygous progeny for further physiological and metabolic assessment. Collectively, these results demonstrate meaningful progress toward establishing a robust Engineering Biology platform for high value terpenoid production. The combination of PTA based endogenous pathway activation, allele diversity screening, and plastid enhancing host backgrounds provides multiple, complementary routes for future trait stacking and optimisation. WP2. We have cloned standard parts of candidate transporters (Task 2.1). We have tested edited lines of N. benthamiana with mutations in sesquiterpene biosynthesis genes and found that we are able to obtain increased yield of triterpenes. Alongside this we have identified a gene that causes sterol esterification and have generated knockout lines which may allow for increased free sterol that could be converted to downstream products, these lines are now being further characterised to test this, (Task 2.2). We have examined how the use of different combinations of 3' and 5' UTRs can affect the yield of translated protein. We have further examined whether the incorporation of a temperature-sensitive element (a "thermoswitch") within the 5' UTR can be used to induce expression in response to a temperature shift (Task 2.3). The results indicate that expression of an ORF positioned downstream of the thermoswitch can be upregulated in response to increased temperature during transient expression in N.benthamiana. In previous work, we conducted a systematic investigation of how synthetic genes affect the expression of neighbouring genes when co-assembled. In this project, we have applied this to balance the expression of genes required for triterpene expression; analysis of impact on yields is ongoing. We have constructed multi-gene vectors containing the best performing cholesterol pathway and confirmed their capacity to increase cholesterol production in N. benthamiana (Task 2.4). We have cloned diosgenin biosynthesis genes from Dioscorea zingiberensis and confirmed their capability to produce diosgenin in N. benthamiana (Task 2.4) following transient agroinfiltration. We have also identified 5 further sterol yield boosting strategies in N. benthamiana relating to mobilisation of esterified sterol stores. We have explored other steroids which can be produced using our sterol production platform through different combinations of sterol biosynthesis genes in agroinfiltration experiments (Task 2.4). These explorations have resulted in the development of three synthetic pathways to commercially valuable steroids in N. benthamiana. WP3. Trials with industrial tobacco K326 producing squalene have been initiated in collaboration with Bridge Farm Bioscience (BFB) and Innovation Agri-Tech group (IAG). In the case of BFB this includes 1000 plants and supercritical fluid extraction. IAG group have generated preliminary N. benthamiana biomass using their aeroponic system and their proprietary growth frames. Using the squalene N.benthamiana chassis, co-production of proteins has been demonstrated. In this case the SARS-CoV-2 spike RBD protein. Further work is required for optimal down-stream processing. We have made and delivered CRISPR-editing constructs to introduce loss of function mutations in acyl sugar transferases into edited low-alkaloids lines of N. benthamiana (Task 3.2). We have grown and collected tissues from Bryonia dioica for metabolomics and transcriptomics, untargeted metabolomics has been carried out on Bryonia dioica tissues and multiple cucurbitacins and glycosylated cucurbitacins have been identified in the root tuber. Genes for the pathway of cucurbitacin B have been obtained and cloned and will be delivered to N. benthamiana to test production of this compound. Initial experiments to establish aphid feeding have been carried out and bryony tuber extract seem to have similar insecticidal activity to cucurbitacin B and will be further investigated (Task 3.4).This research will deliver new data and techniques related to metabolites and metabolic engineering, and make enzymes, pathways and plant-derived/inspired molecules, more accessible to the academic community. It will shed light on structure-activity relationships and modes of action of triterpenoid bioactives, including anti-insect compounds. The raw data, molecular tools, large-scale metabolomic data and physico-chemical data generated will be of immediate benefit to other researchers and will be made available as described in the data management plan. Dissemination of the findings to the scientific community will be achieved through (i), peer reviewed publications after potential IP capture and (ii), international and national oral and poster presentations at scientific meetings. The EBioAct team has a strong publication record and an equally strong record of contributing to conferences and workshops. The programme will use a number of advanced platforms including metabolomics (JIC and RHUL), sequencing and bioinformatics (EI), and insectary (JIC). The use of these platforms and the expertise developed will contribute to regional and UK capacity, attracting further funding and international collaborations. During the reporting period, significant progress was made in advancing the commercialisation and broader impact of Engineering Biology approaches for the production of squalene and squalane. The evaluation and commercial licence originally established in 2025 with Bridge Farm Bioscience has been extended, reflecting ongoing confidence in the technology platform and enabling continued development toward scalable, industrial production. In parallel, two Horizon Europe funding applications were submitted in partnership with Unilever, focusing on the development of sustainable squalane production processes tailored for the personal care sector. A pilot scale cultivation experiment has been carried out using IAG Ltd., aeroponic grow lab facility. This has facilitated greater biomass production and improved squalene yields. These applications strengthen the strategic alignment between academic research and major industry stakeholders seeking bio-based alternatives for high value ingredients. Public engagement activities have also expanded markedly. The Engineering Biology framework underpinning squalene production was featured prominently at Royal Holloway's open and admissions days in July and September 2025, as well as in February and March 2026. These events collectively reached approximately one hundred prospective students and their families at a national level, providing broad exposure to contemporary biotechnological approaches and highlighting the relevance of Engineering Biology to real world industrial challenges. Further outreach activities were delivered to younger audiences to promote early interest in STEM disciplines. Two practical classes introducing key concepts in Engineering Biology were provided to Year 6 pupils, offering hands on experiences designed to demystify modern bioscience and inspire future pathways into scientific study. These combined activities contribute to a growing national awareness of the potential of Engineering Biology and demonstrate clear societal, educational, and commercial engagement stemming from the squalene production programme. The platforms and community resources developed in EBioAct have contributed and will be built upon in the Engineering Biology DFA awards in which all partners are involved.Agriculture Food and DrinkEducationManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyBritish interwar (1918-1939) management has been criticised as overly conservative, comprising a small core of progressive firms amidst a sea of conservatively-run, family-dominated businesses. According to the dominant narrative, British firms exhibited little interest in new managerial approaches. Our initial findings from reading the Rowntree lectures and the papers of the Management Research Groups challenges this view, suggesting that British managers displayed a greater openness to innovation than is commonly recognised. We have uncovered and are analysing a significant network of British firms engaged in management education through organised peer-to-peer communication, facilitated by lectures and management research groups initiated by Seebohm Rowntree. Our research to date has uncovered dynamic knowledge networks reflexively engaged in peer-to-peer, practice-based learning designed to promote the diffusion of effective solutions to shared problems - building communities of practice, codifying management knowledge, and drawing on an ethos of 'business as service'. Our more specific key findings are best considered against our research objectives: (i) and (ii) to audit and make available the Rowntree Lecture Conference material. This was achieved by bringing together all the external lectures in a digitised format. These form a key part of the interactive database developed by the project team. In addition, we have researched and digitised the Management Research Groups established by Rowntree from 1926 onward. These and related material are now all available on the project database. These MRGs acted as important communities of practice developing innovative ideas on management practices across the members of these groups. These together with the Conference Lectures brought together key management practitioners of the time, and illustrated the development of management theory and practice in inter-war Britain. The fact that the Lectures were often by influential management writers of the time was significant (this material covers the objectives (iii), (iv) and (v)) to uncover the extent of which practised based learning was developed in the inter-war period. The main components of the data base cover all these aspects (v). To examine the impact such ideas of management we also investigated a series of case studies of different companies who had either attended the Conference Lectures or when members of the Management Research Groups. The following companies were researched using a range of archival material; Rowntree,The Borthwick Institute for Archives, Boots, Walgreen Boots Alliance; Lever Bros, Unilever Art, Archives and Records Management; Clarks, Alfred Gillett Trust; British Xylonite, Suffolk Record Office; Lyons, MRC University of Warwick and London Metropolitan Archives; Imperial Tobacco, Bristol Archives and Nottinghamshire Archives. The practices adopted by these companies illustrated the knowledge transfer that flowed both from the Conference Lecturers and the meetings of the Management Research Groups. Finally, the provision of a key research resource in the form of an open-access interactive database is a major step forward that will aid further research on Management history.We would argue that our findings on the ways in which firms responded to the severe economic problems of the early post-1918 years, and the failure of depression to lift over the following decade will resonate with contemporary firms. However, we are not blindly optimistic. We know that the current culture of business is now deeply liberal, with firms seen by their managements and owners as autonomous entities in a competitive environment. The message from the findings of our research is that collaboration between firms, as evidenced by the Management Research Groups, can be valuable in addressing severe and seemingly intractable problems. Whether this fundamental cultural divide is bridgeable is open to question, but we hope our research helps strengthen the case for collaborative learning and diffusion beyond the boundaries of the individual firm.Financial Services and Management ConsultancyGovernment Democracy and JusticeManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttp://rowntree.exeter.ac.uk/Utilising omics data and error-prone PCR on the EFE enzyme we have significantly improved ethylene production in E. coli and C. necator.Data is to be published shortly and will be used for future grant applications.ChemicalsPrimarilty methodological findings: methods for labelling of genetically identified subsets of neurons activated during defined time windows.Understanding which methods do not work efficiently - some of our negative results provide useful lessons.Pharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyWe found that when food has been in short supply for a long time and body weight falls below a critical threshold, the brain reduces its energy consumption by changing how it processes information. In other words, we uncovered an energy-saving mode in vision-system neurons that works at the cost of being able to see fine-grained details.A significant implication of the new findings is that much of what we know about how brains and neurons work may have been learned from brains that researchers unwittingly put into low-power mode. It is extremely common to restrict the amount of food available to mice and other experimental animals for weeks before and during neuroscience studies to motivate them to perform tasks in return for a food reward. (Otherwise, animals would often rather just sit around.) Another outcome is a better understanding of brain function under food restriction, which is useful to understand some potential benefits/harms of mild versus strong food restriction in terms of ageing for example.Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttps://www.quantamagazine.org/the-brain-has-a-low-power-mode-that-blunts-our-senses-20220614/In the winter after reseeding it appears that the runoff from the Festulolium field is delayed, compared to the PP and Festulolium + clover fields by approximately six days at the onset of the runoff period, increasing to 20 days for both the Festulolium and Festulolium +clover fields. In the third runoff period (2014-2015) there still appears to be a delay in the Festulolium +clover field, but the FL field has lost the advantage. However, subsequent analysis of flume data has highlighted some uncertainty in the significance of the results shown here, and it is difficult to attribute any delays in runoff solely to the pasture species, because the effect of ploughing is also likely to be significant.The results are starting to show promise, and if this continues in the future, then the potential to utilise these grasses as tools to aid mitigation of water run-off will be of great benefit to farmers and land managersAgriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmenthttp://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/sites/default/files/groups/Farm_Platform_National_Capability/DataPortal/FP%20Research%20case%20study%209%20PJM%20Sureroot.pdfWhile cognitive tests in the study showed no significant differences between young Mexican boys who are normal weight or obese, neuroimaging data suggests that the 'executive control network' (ECN) involving certain brain regions is absent or dysfunctional in obese children. The ECN is involved in decision-making, including lifestyle choices, e.g., choice of food to eat, whether to exercise, etc, and overrides normal satiety signals in the brain, and leads to weight gain and obesity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time, that this finding has been reported in young boys, in an ethnic group that is known to be at a high risk of developing obesity. This finding is particularly topical at the moment with the advent of new anti-obesity drugs, e.g., Wegovy, reported to dampen the relentless and distressing desire to keep eating. We show that a group of young Mexican boys showing no symptoms but tended to have increased blood pressure, higher blood sugar and fats, excess body fat around the waist, and likely to develop metabolic syndrome including diabetes, had an unusually high liver imaging measurement. The association of the abnormal liver imaging measurement with increased metabolic syndrome risk has been observed in adults but rarely in young children, and never, in an ethnic group that is known to be at a high risk of developing metabolic syndrome. The use of liver imaging to accurately identify those children likely to develop disease has been proposed but thus far, data on the association of liver imaging with metabolic health assessments has not been reported. Our study shows that an abnormal liver imaging measurement is associated with a high risk of developing metabolic syndrome in young children. While non-liver imaging measurements can be used, and indeed, are used currently, to assess liver health which if impaired can increase the risk of metabolic syndrome, liver imaging is a direct measurement of the liver and has greater accuracy in predicting the risk of developing serious disease in children exhibiting no symptoms except maybe increased body weight. Thus, liver imaging can be used to identify children at greater risk of developing severe disease and be treated earlier and increases the likelihood of greater therapeutic success. This is particularly relevant as the new anti-obesity drugs, shown to be effective in obesity, also appear to normalize blood liver measurements, and liver imaging can be used to monitor therapy. We have shown an association between green spaces and cognition in young Mexican boys and suggest that exposure to green spaces is essential in children where their brains are still maturing.The liver imaging aspects of the study can be/is being used by Perspectum Diagnostics (collaborator) to demonstrate the utility of their liver imaging measures in pediatric populations to stratify individuals for drug treatment and/or monitoring. We hope to obtain further funding to study neural networks in children before and after anti-obesity treatment and if there is restoration of normal ECN function. Our data showing the association of green spaces and cognitive abilities in children can be utilized by urban planners to improve the environment for children to develop their full potential. Also, we will engage with the public, particularly young children and their guardians to show the value of utilising green spaces to aid cognitive development.Agriculture Food and DrinkCommunities and Social Services/PolicyEnvironmentHealthcareGovernment Democracy and JusticeRising life expectancy in many countries is increasing pressure on social security systems as the proportion of people of working age relative to the retired decreases. Policies are being developed and implemented which seek to raise the retirement age, either through incentives such as flexible retirement or by formally increasing the age at which people become eligible for state pensions. However, as societies age an increasing number of people are living with multiple chronic conditions. This is due directly to the aging population and to increased survival rates of those with chronic conditions. More disadvantaged socioeconomic groups are more likely to suffer from chronic conditions and and this gradient is even steeper for multimorbidity (the presence of more than one chronic condition). We have been researching how working life can best be extended equitably, taking in consideration the worse health of more disadvantaged socio-economic groups in society and the extra challenges they face. By conducting comparative analyses in Sweden, Denmark, UK and Canada, we have found: 1. The dominant policy response of punitive reforms to welfare systems to get people with chronic health conditions and disability into work does not appear to be working for older age-groups, as it is not improving employment chances for these groups. 2. The position of older disabled people with low education on the labour market is particularly poor. 3. The punitive welfare reforms, while not achieving their primary aim of increasing employment, have serious adverse effects for older people with disabilities, including: - Increases in mental health problems (due to financial strains) - Increasing prevalence of poverty amongst disabled people on welfare benefits, as a consequence of using the welfare system to encourage people into work. 4. These adverse effects are socially patterned, hitting the more disadvantaged people with disabilities the most.We are preparing 9 journal articles, policy briefings, engaging in policy dialogues and workshops with policy-makers, and identifying further gaps in knowledge to be incorporated into further research bids. The end-dates of the projects in all four countries have been extended, so that the new end dates for the ESRC-funded UK research in 30th September 2019. This revised date does not yet appear on Researchfish for some reason (this extended end date now appears in ResearchFish and is correct).Communities and Social Services/PolicyHealthcareGovernment Democracy and JusticeDecisions on groundwater development tend to be risky as they have to be taken with imperfect information. Traditional ex ante project impact assessment approaches tend to ignore the uncertainties that arise from such imperfect information. The approach that we developed models the risks around groundwater development based on uncertainties estimated by experts. Our focus on risks associated to groundwater development differs from the approach taken by proponents of such projects who tend to emphasize the benefits and ignore risks. The stakeholders attending the workshops that we organized appreciated our analysis of the risk as a good starting point for discussion on the desirability of the project.We think that the approach taken by the ARIGA team has wider applicability, it could be used to assess risks around groundwater development in other parts of the world. Within the NERC UPGRO project we will write and publish a second paper that will focus on the socio political risks. Beyond the UPGRO project, ICRAF will continue working on the development of tools and training to allow practitioners in the developing world to undertake stochastic risk assessment. We anticipate that such tools could be applied by practitioners to assess risks around groundwater development.EnvironmentGovernment Democracy and Justicehttp://www.worldagroforestrycentre.org/ArigaThe aim of the feasibility RCT was to assess the viability of our study protocol for a full-scale Definitive RCT by evaluating recruitment, retention, and adherence, rather than to generate causal evidence. The trial met, and in most cases exceeded, our feasibility targets, which were prespecified using Avery et al.'s (2016) 'traffic light system' for progression to a Definitive RCT. Key achievements include: 1) Progression to Definitive RCT. - Recruitment: A single recruitment call generated 134 expressions of interest, and a follow-up call add 39 more in one week, indicating high demand for this intervention. We recruited 51 families (i.e. number who signed consent form) exceeding the green target of 36-40 families. - Retention: 40 families were randomised into the study and all families remained in the trial until the end, exceeding the green target of 24-30 families. 2) Demonstrating app feasibility and engagement in the target population. -Families showed high adherence to the study procedures: 100% completed home audio recordings at three timepoints, 88% of these recordings met the minimum 8-hour length, 92% of activity logs were completed and returned and 90% completed = 14 app sessions per 3-week activity period (average 29 sessions in weeks 1-3; 26 sessions in weeks 4-6 for the intervention group) - Infant vocalisations did not significantly decrease over 6 weeks of app use, indicating that the app is engaging for infants and feasible for daily use. 3) Shaping the study procedures with lived experience. -Working closely with our PPI group (parents and siblings of an individual with Down syndrome, an adult with Down syndrome, clinician and charity representative) to develop recruitment and retention strategies, and shape study materials and procedures. -Conducting post-trial focus groups with participating families. These discussions provided valuable feedback about the study design and app experience, helping to inform the protocol for the Definitive RCT and highlighting the importance of lived experience in the development and evaluation of interventions. 4) Building collaborations and increasing awareness. -Presentations at Down Syndrome Research Forum and DSUK networking event helped to strengthen links with local and national Down syndrome groups. -Visiting the youth centre allowed the team to demonstrate the app to young adults with Down syndrome, and gain direct insights into the experiences of people with language challenges, who represent the population the intervention aims to support. Together, the key findings demonstrate that running a large scale RCT to evaluate the BabblePlay intervention is feasible, and the app is acceptable to families and infants with Down syndrome. The findings also demonstrate the valuable contribution of PPI groups and participants in strengthening study design.The findings from this feasibility study support progression to a full-scale Definitive RCT, which is now underway. This will test both the immediate impact of 6 weeks of app use on infant vocalisations (immediately after the intervention and 4 weeks later) and the longer-term effects of the app on early word development (11 months later). Academically, the feasibility trial protocol and insights gained from working closely with a PPI group and the participating families can inform other research designing and evaluating interventions for similar populations. If the results of the Definitive RCT show the app is effective at increasing vocalisations, this strengthens the evidence-base for parent-led digital interventions. For a non-academic audience, the BabblePlay app could be implemented as a practical tool for families and speech and language therapists. Once the definitive RCT is complete, we plan to make the BabblePlay app available for free to families with children at risk of speech and language delay and to early years practitioners. By providing an accessible, low-cost intervention that can be used at home, the project aims to help reduce disparities in access to early speech and language support for children with Down syndrome in the UK.Communities and Social Services/PolicyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationWe have shown that the ERK5 pathway is not required for proliferation/division or survival of diverse cell types. Rather ERK5 signalling controls cell motility and our preliminary results suggest that it may control a differentiation process called epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. In addition we have now shown that all ERK5 kinase inhibitors that bind to the kinase domain and inhibit it also cause the paradoxical activation of the ERK5 transactivation domain through a drug-induced intramolecualr conformational change (Lochhead et al, Nat Comms 2020, in press)Our results have major implications for other academics interested in ERK5 biology but also for scientists in the pharmaceutical sector who are developing ERK5 inhibitors as drugs for various diseases. Indeed, we have initiated further collaborations in this area with both academics and industrial scientists.EducationHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyWe have developed scalable approaches to manufacture new antibiotics based on bacteriophages and bacteriocins. We have developed processes for the micro- and nanoencapsulation of novel antibiotics for controlled release and targeted delivery for treatment of pulmonary, wound and gastrointestinal infections. We are working with a number of international companies (in confidence) in the pre-clinical phase to develop novel phage based therapeutics for treating bacterial infections and diseases related to disorders of the microbiome. In addition, we have developed novel diagnostic technologies by particle trapping and using nonlinear acoustic methods integrated with microfluidic platforms.We are working with international companies directly undertaking further related research as well as undertaking consultancy projects related to development of bacteriophages and other advanced biologicals as therapeutics. We have applied for a patent on research arising from the work. We have secured funding for a PhD studentship from a company to further develop the findings of research funded through this grant on microencapsulation of bacteriophages.Agriculture Food and DrinkHealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttp://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/amr/Organic aerosol makes up a large fraction of the aerosol particles found in the air we breathe, but we know little about the exact sources of this aerosol. We combined observations and models to explore the diverse sources of organic aerosol.Contributing to model development of organic aerosol schemes.EnvironmentThis project is focused upon analysing the potential for spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in endemic settings and understanding the impact of partial information on developing surveillance and control policies. Our research is in partnership with EuFMD and the Ministry of Agriculture in Turkey. We are also working closely with the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya. Previous Report Findings: Our work to date has involved analysing historical data on livestock movements and outbreaks of FMD in Turkey and upon determining characteristics of epidemiological units (villages or farms) that will influence risk of disease spread. We have two manuscripts in preparation, one which is investigating the potential for spread through the livestock movement network and one which is focused upon the role of carries upon disease transmission. These papers identify risk factors that can be utilised to target future surveillance policies. 2021/22 update: Our paper on carrier transmission is now published in Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, whilst the livestock movement network paper is going through revision. We have also had an additional paper on COVID-19 published in PLOS Biology that builds upon the methodological developments of this work. Additionally, we organised a virtual workshop with partners in East Africa on the use of models for infectious disease outbreaks. In the next 12 months we aim to organise follow up workshops in person in Kenya or Uganda if the pandemic situation enables us to do so.This project is designed to operate in countries were foot-and-mouth disease is endemic and where data on outbreaks and locations of livestock farms are often sparse. We are developing protocols to identify data that should be rapidly collected in the event of outbreaks to enable uncertainty to be resolved rapidly and to identify future surveillance policies to minimise impact of disease outbreaks.Agriculture Food and DrinkMilitary peacekeepers in Somalia (AMISOM/ATMIS) and the DRC (MONUSCO, FIB) demonstrated their in-depth awareness of the protection mandate. AMISOM/ATMIS peacekeepers focus more counter-insurgency and regime protection, which is consistent with their core mandate. Peacekeepers have attended intensive pre-deployment training including on 'the protection of civilians'. Peacekeepers described ambiguity of protection 'in practice', describing many limitations, many of which matched with critique by civilians. Civilians criticized peacekeepers for their reactive approach, in Somalia also for bunkerisation. Overall, civilians in both countries felt that there was little engagement with civilians and, in consequence, also limited understanding of the protection needs and challenges. Peacekeepers too, discussed difficulties and moral dilemmas of protection of civilians when working from a highly securitized army barrack and not being able to interact with or directly support civilians. The (perceived) lack of understanding of the local conflict dynamics and language barriers, was also emphasized by military peacekeepers, who often articulated suspicion against 'locals'. Civilians in both countries have independently identified the generalized mistrust,- although, for AMISOM, some people acknowledged improvement in behaviour and attitude towards civilians. In the DRC, riots against peacekeepers further complicated the role and self-understanding of peacekeepers. Most peacekeepers identified strongly with the protection role. Violence directed against them by people they were supposed to protect left them stressed and the whole mission, as one peacekeeper expressed, 'in a dilemma'. As for everyday routines, the COVID-19 pandemic, the extension of peacekeepers' duty due to travel restrictions, the unexpected time of separation from families and the lack of recreational options were emphasized by many. Civilians in both host countries considered not peacekeepers but national and regional security forces as main protection providers, and Somalia also emphasized personal contacts - either to the members of the security apparatus or through wider clan relations. The latter is understood to enhance accountability, as conflicts with members of the state security apparatus can be approached through 'traditional' mediation by elders. In Somalia, many civilians acknowledged the important stabilization role of AMISOM/ATMIS, but complained the decrease in support over the recent years. Civilians in the DRC regularly described MONUSCO as part of the conflict rather than providing solutions. Interviewees in the DRC often felt that the presence of MONUSCO places them at greater risk, which was not the case in Somalia. In both countries, civilians often argued that peacekeepers are stationed for their own/their country's economic benefit. In the DRC, some interviewees also admitted that they have been engaged in demonstrations against MONUSCO or participated in riots in the past. In both countries, civilians expressed rather ambiguous, in DRC outright negative feelings towards peacekeeping. In both countries, a majority of interviewees opted for the withdrawal of international forces.We are continuing with analysing and writing up data, and will further explore developing training units for POC.Government Democracy and JusticeSecurity and DiplomacyCan we successfully ignore information we deem irrelevant or unreliable? And can we become aware of how such information can bias our choices? The ability to introspect and evaluate the factors influencing our decisions constitutes a key metacognitive function. However, little is known of the cognitive processes that underlie our subjective sense of being able to detect and resist unwanted influence. This grant has allowed to develop new studies investigating participants' ability to make decisions free of influence. In a series of novel behavioural experiments, we measured participants' ability to voluntarily ignore information that could bias their choices. By asking participants to evaluate after each decision how much they were influenced by a given piece of information, and comparing these ratings to how much they were actually biased, we were able to reveal novel findings on the dynamics of choice introspection. We found that irrelevant information and misinformation continued to bias decisions, even when explicitly labelled as such. This biasing effect could be manipulated experimentally and led participants to adopt suboptimal decision strategies. In particular, participants often mistook acting in opposition with incoming information for not being influenced by it. Participants therefore largely remained unaware of their own biases, our study revealing some new blind spots in choice introspection and fake boost in one's sense of autonomy. Importantly, we also showed that when attempting to ignore unreliable or misleading information, participants did not manage to compensate for its bias on their choice. Despite being less confident in their decisions when misleading or unreliable information was present, people had a lower desire to acquire additional reliable information. This demonstrates general mistrust in the decision environment having a negative impact on peoples information sampling. Taken together, these results suggest that explicit labelling of misinformation might not be sufficient to combat its impact on choice, as it continues to bias decisions while simultaneously reducing curiosity for better information.Ultimately, these results might inform policymakers on how to reduce the impact of misinformation on society, as well as prevent political manipulation.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationGovernment Democracy and JusticeWe did, and this was recorded in Research Fish for several years. When we came to update this time, we updated and saved (it said it was saved as a draft) but in fact all of it disappeared. Please upload from prior versions. We can see no way of accessing the saved draft.Yes. But see above.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEducationTransportOtherWe have undertaken fine-scale, comprehensive modelling of the distribution of c.80 species of butterfly and day-flying moth. We have modelled the uncertainty of these distributions and used these to create an interactive, web-based tool to inform recorders of the places from which their nature recording will be most informative for future use of the data for biodiversity monitoring. This work continues to be taken forward within the current project.The principles of adaptive sampling (biodiversity recording in the places from which the records are most valuable) are rarely used within citizen science, so this has relevance internationally for monitoring under the Convention of Biological Diversity and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. It has direct relevance to the community of citizen science naturalists in the UK in providing more informative records for biodiversity monitoring for Defra and other public and private stakeholders. Our provision of fine-scale distribution models has relevance to local and regional decision-making for conservation and assessments of natural capital.Environmenthttps://decide.ceh.ac.ukThe Cdx2 protein is widely thought to function as a tumour suppresser, opposing development of colorectal carcinoma. We show that downregulation of Cdx2 in carcinogenesis depends upon a hyper-active Raf-MEK-ERK1/2 signaling pathway. This 1) reduces Cdx2 transcription, and 2) promotes Cdx2 phosphorylation and proteasome-dependent degradation.Findings contribute to an understanding of chemotherapy in regard to colorectal carcinomaEducationHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttp://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/directory/stephen-gaunt-dr1) We have successfully established coccolithophore culture of the following coccolith species: Emiliania huxleyi, Pleurochrysis carterae; Gephyrocapsa oceanica and Umbilocosphera foliosa. This completed the Objective 1, outlined in the grant proposal. 2) We successfully developed a technique to purify the intracellular compartment where calcification takes place and visualised the calcite crystals at their early stages of formation in their native, hydrated state. This refers to the first 2 milestones outlined in the Objective 3 in the grant proposal. Using this technique, we purified crystals at different stages of formation and imaged their growth and maturation over time. This revealed 1) the sequence and mechanism of crystal growth; 2) how the crystals interface with the organic scaffold template as they grow and become mature; 3) how the structure as a whole develops; 4) how crystal morphology is controlled during coccolith formation, via a mechanism where adjacent crystals compete for space as they grow, pretty much restricting the directions in which neughbouring units can grow. This mechanism was identified for the first time; and 5) we identified, for the first time an organic template that creates a compartment that templates crystal growth. This will be the subject of future research, as the identification of such compartment in coccolithophores is unprecedented. 3) Additionally, 2 side projects developed from this project: - Combining cryo-transmission electron microscopy and tomography with super-resolution microscopy, we characterised the 3D morphology of the organic mineralisation scaffold and mapped the location of chemical functional groups that control nucleation. This shows, for the first time, the key players that control crystal nucleation in coccolithophores, revealing the nucleation mechanisms. These findings are being prepared for publication and will lead to a grant application for follow-up studies. - We developed a technique to encapsulate whole cells inside single crystals of calcite. This project has implications in 2 different areas: a) it will provide new insights into the mechanisms of crystallisation; and b) it can be used as a new method for drug delivery. Cells can be preloaded with any chemical or drug of choice, and once they are incorporated inside the crystals, the drugs are protected from environmental factors that could cause their degradation - such as UV light, humidity, etc. The drugs can then be released upon slight acidification of the medium, which will cause the crystals to dissolve and release their content. These findings are currently being prepared for publication.Regarding the main goals of the project, our outputs will have significant impact in understanding the mechanisms by which coccolithophores control mineral formation. We are providing the first clues regarding the chemistry of the nucleation sites that promote calcification. Ways forward from this project include: 1) doing similar studies on other species that produce coccolith scales with different morphologies. This will inform on how conserved calcification mechanisms are among different species, and how the surface chemistry of the base plate controls the hierarchical construction and patterning of the scales. 2) Our work on purifying coccoliths at different stages of formation already led to a successful application for beam time at the Swiss Light Source to do in situ ptychography to study more in detail the development of coccoliths inside the cells. 3) Understanding the mechanisms of biomineralisation will help to understand how ocean acidification impacts calcification and hence marine life. Now that we have established a protocol to extract coccoltihs from the cells to characterise its development, it is possible to repeat these experiments under conditions that mimic ocean acidification to understand the impact of antropogenic change on b such an important biological process. As for the cells occluded inside crystals, we envisage that they will have an impact on 2 different fields: crystal engineering, in the study and development of techniques to occlude liquids inside crystals in a controlled way, and thus generate novel composite materials; and in pharmaceuticals, as it can prove a viable route for improving the shelf life of drugs and a new drug delivery method.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology(see EP/G049394/2, which is the continuation of this grant when I moved from Oxford to RHUL)(see EP/G049394/2, which is the continuation of this grant when I moved from Oxford to RHUL)EducationOtherThe grant did what was planned: to open up a new area of scholarship, namely worship and devotion in the Reformaiton era. We have put this much more firmly on the scholarly map, and made scholars of early modern religion and culture aware that they need to pay proper attention to religious experience and devotional practice. It has also, more unexpectedly, helped to inform work on the history of the emotions. The more specific impacts vary by scholars, but for me, it was decisively important in forming my prizewinning book 'Being Protestant in Early Modern Britain' (OUP 2013), which argued for early modern English Protestantism having a distinctively dynamic, intense and broad-based emotional and pious culture.Since the objective of the grant was to open up the field, it is encouraging to see so many others now working in this broad area. I note, for example, a heavily-attended roundtable on devotional literature at the 2014 Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, at which few of the participants (aside from myself) had had any contact with the Network during its existence.OtherI have generated a transgenic Plasmodium falciparum line where an essential protein, Myosin A, can be conditionally knocked out. We have shown that complementation of the conditional knockout line with mutant versions of Myosin A which either mimic or block phosphorylation of Ser19 leads to a growth defect, indicating that this cGMP-dependendent phosphorite is important for parasite growth. Using an in vitro motility assay we have also shown that the S19A mutation leads to reduced myosin motor motility. I have also generated a transgenic Plasmodium falciparum line where a key player in cyclic nucleotide signalling, Guanylyl Cyclase alpha, can be conditionally knocked out. This has revealed that GCalpha is the sole quanylyl cyclase responsible for generating cGMP during the blood stages of the life cycle and that it is required for egress and calcium mobilisation. Furthermore we have been able to chemically complement GCalpha knockout parasites with PET-cGMP, a cGMP analogue. We have also shown that the ATPase domain is essential for parasite survival and that loss of this domain can also be compensated for by addition of PET-cGMP.The findings once published will shed a further light on the importance of cyclic nucleotide signalling and will inform on potential novel drug targets in the parasite.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe focus of the work has been on studying the evolution of plant developmental through time with a specific focus on sugar transport. Although it is still early in the project the main key findings from the work so far have been in the form of research publications. Specifically these include writing a review paper to synthesise data from living and fossil plants. Additionally we have carried out research on Scottish fossils and described and discovered a much high diversity of life in the past in the past, including complex interactions between plants animals and fungi.The review paper will hopefully spur other researchers to take an interdisciplinary approach in their research. Our work on Scottish fossil will support attempts to chart the diversity of life in the past.EnvironmentCulture Heritage Museums and Collections1) Barriers and facilitators for access to cancer care in Tanzania and Kenya The project has analysed 467 cancer patients' narratives of their pathways from first symptoms to treatment, including detailed timelines and patients' own definitions of relevant events, providing an innovative data set of patients' perspectives. Health professionals, care givers and cancer survivors were also interviewed in both countries (52 interviews, 7 focus groups), and health related manufacturers (14 in total). In Tanzania, where 62 patients interviewed, the median delay from first symptoms to diagnosis was 2.13 years. Analysis has focused to date on barriers and facilitators for access to diagnosis, recognising the extent to which late stage diagnosis undermines treatment effectiveness. Key sources of delay before diagnosis included many barriers to timely access to diagnostic testing. These included: slow recognition of symptoms indicating possible cancer; travel costs to testing facilities and lack of local screening; hard to afford out-of-pocket (OOP) charges for tests; slow turnaround times because of limited pathology capacity, organisational issues and travel costs for patients personally submitting test samples; limited public sector testing capacity notably at regional referral level; queues for consultation and follow-up and slow referrals. Conversely, examples of good practice in expediting diagnosis, including at primary and district level, were also identified and could be built on by policy. Cancer treatment such as chemotherapy is provided free of charge, but patients incur costs in travel and testing to access free treatment. Pain management was identified as a challenge for patients before and during treatment and in palliative care, and scenarios exploring scope for improving access to better pain management have been developed. In Kenya, where 405 patients were interviewed alongside 22 professionals, policy makers and care givers, interviewees similarly identified the high expenses associated with cancer as a major barrier; national health insurance and fund raising had helped some with affordability. Tests and treatment had been delayed or truncated for some patients by unaffordable charges. Wider use of screening and outreach were helping to counter limited awareness, fears and misconceptions. Decentralisation of cancer care capabilities in Kenya had increased accessibility and availability of services, including palliation, and median duration between first symptoms and diagnosis for Kenyan patients interviewed was much shorter at 4 months. Nevertheless, over 40% of patients identified items needed that had been unavailable to them (tests, treatments, medication, palliation and commodities such as prostheses and colostomy bags). Staff shortages and overworked staff were a major challenge, as were drug shortages. Patients frequently experienced the health system as a "maze" within which they struggled to reach diagnosis and treatment. Scenarios examining methods for improving local production of cancer-related medicines and commodities have been developed. Analysis of interviews with manufacturers in both countries has identified extensive practical scope for improving policy support for increasing health-linked local manufacturing for health benefit. 2) Indian cancer care and industrial innovation Findings from the Indian industrial survey, delayed by the pandemic, are currently being analysed. Findings to date from qualitative interviews on how industrial-health linkages shape cancer care in India include a case study of how cervical cancer technologies are framed in industrial decision making, showing a lack of integration between industrial and health policies. India's regulatory design is also shown to be largely reflective of generic pharmaceutical needs, rather than the requirements of the devices or diagnostics sectors, with the effect of blocking transfer of learning strategies between industrial sub-sectors. Case studies of the business models of innovative cancer diagnostics start-ups in India have been evaluated for policy lessons in both Indian and African contexts. Analysis aims to capture further implications of (lack of) industrial cohesion for health policy and draw policy lessons. 3) Covid19-related findings As an international team working on local industrial-health linkages, our team members have been drawn over the last year into supporting and studying the very challenging demands placed on local manufacturers by the pandemic and associated trade collapse, in the context of African aid- and import-dependency. As a contribution to learning lessons for both infectious and non-communicable disease contexts, we have generated and published findings on local health-industrial linkages in both East Africa and India during the pandemic. Vaccine manufacturing capability in Africa has emerged as a key area for industrial and research support for both pandemics and cancer care, and we are actively looking at ways in which the current rise in investment in vaccine manufacturing in Africa can provide a platform to strengthen broader biotechnology capability. In India, research on Covid19, including study of gaps in industrial policy guidelines for local production in the pandemic, and ways in which clinical uncertainties have undermined local production of testing kits across diverse countries, have also been reviewed for implications for cancer research and policy.Our findings are already being used by: health policy makers in East Africa and in supra-national African policy forums; by industrial policy makers and regulators working with health stakeholders to integrate health and industrial policies to improve local health security; and by global and national health stakeholders facing a pandemic-induced concern with localising manufacturing of essential health supplies within highly import-dependent low- and middle-income countries. The response to national and international presentations of our work, and extensive invitations to participate in policy developments, indicate scope for further impact of our research over the coming period. Our scenarios development has provided concrete tools for locally contextualised policy development linking health and industrial domains, and we are increasing engagement to spread understanding of this policy tool.HealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttps://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/innovation-cancer-care-africa/Two research questions informed the project: 1) How does offering visitors a way to align their impressions of the ROOM with specific places help them articulate their engagement with the work? 2) How can a mobilities approach which asks visitors to make connections between art and place constitute meaningful evaluation practice? In responding to these questions, the project team found that: - Artcasting demonstrates the complexity of holding different understandings of value together, but also the richness of potential outcomes when evaluation and engagement are approached in theoretically imaginative ways - in this case through the lens of mobilities theory. There is a continuing need for new theoretical and applied approaches in this area, and for theoretically informed critiques of evaluation to be part of conversations in academia and in interdisciplinary work in cultural heritage settings. - Developing a conceptual connection between evaluation and mobilities is generative. The measurement of value in the context of exhibitions tends to focus on individual experience, development, or well-being, grounded in understandings of the human subject interacting with external objects and places. Mobilities theory provides an alternative theoretical framework that shifts the site of analysis away from the psychology of exhibition visitors, or the development of audiences, and towards a richer understanding of the complex relations between the humans, technologies and spaces involved. Artcasting generated an innovative approach through which galleries might engage the public in the capture of both qualitative and quantitative metrics. - Artcasting invites a rethinking of the ideal of co-production in cultural heritage settings. It is a form of public interpretation of the artwork, and visitors are creating new and varied encounters with art in new places and times - the gallery guest becoming the host of a new exhibition. Ultimately, these types of digital and mobile interventions challenge the stability of relationships of co-production. - The development and piloting of the Artcasting app and the discussions and debates around it formed a methodological approach consistent with the concept of 'speculative method' (Lury & Wakeford 2012) and 'cultural probe' (Gaver et al. 1999), generative approaches which engage as well as investigate, and which help envision and create futures - in the case of Artcasting, around arts evaluation. Significant insights and understandings of forms of value will continue to be unlocked as the app operates in the public domain and with new users and partnerships. - Engagement with mobilities theory can have significant consequences for design practice. Engagement with mobilities theory steered the Artcasting app towards a design that emphasised the movement and trajectory of artworks, time as well as space, and the importance of the 're-encounter' beyond the gallery; and challenged more traditional understandings of what is possible and desirable in evaluation.Some key implications for practice from the project concern: 1) the value of asking new questions and taking inventive approaches to research collaborations between academic and cultural heritage organisations; 2) the complexity of app development for in-gallery use in terms of access, flexible implementation, and partnerships; 3) the need for cultural heritage organisations to reflect on their evaluation agenda; and to consider how evaluation practice can take better account of the value of dialogue; 4) how Artcasting offers a new approach to arts based evaluation derived from visitors' imaginative encounters with art, and demonstrates that visitors can engage creatively with exhibitions in ways that provide rich insights for reflection and practice. Beyond the cultural heritage sector, there are possibilities for Artcasting, too. In March 2016, we presented Artcasting at Codebase (an Edinburgh-based technology incubator), and spoke to developers and other attendees about alternative models for Artcasting. Through a series of conversations with members of tech start-ups, we highlighted the technical principles of the application, and used its current manifestation as an instance of use within the cultural sector. The conversations led to a series of speculations about how the technology could be applied to other areas, for example: 1) capturing geographic perspectives from television or radio audiences; 2) Artcasting as a socio-technical habit associated to many forms social media, geographically associating content alongside liking, retweeting, reposting or sharing; 3) mapping as a form of commenting (for example, in TripAdvisor whilst comments are often about a place, rarely is there a chance to point to another place on a map); 4) maps and places as 'streams' of content (as Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram are popular streams of images collected from disparate sources but curated under one theme or identity) - for example tagging music playlists with places that are associated with individual pieces of music; 5) Artcasting as a method of capturing an entire event, with the time and space of artcasts having a particular signature, and potentially offering a unique way of capturing audience data for any event (for example, Glastonbury, the Royal Highland Show); 6) use of Artcasting in shops and chains to promote products and opportunities to loyal customers, working with customers to find appropriate places and times to receive offers.Creative EconomyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://www.artcastingproject.net/project-outline/end-of-project-report/The most significant achievements from the first year of our project stem from two main activities. First, in our comprehensive systematic review of the evacuation agent-based model literature, we gained novel insights into how evacuation agent-based models simulate social interactions and communication approaches between agents, and which key variables are used in these models. We established that the categories of social interactions included: 1) basic collision avoidance, 2) following behaviour, and 3) variations of social influence. Within the models, communications was operationalised: 1) spatially either through agents creating trails of information in the environment, 2) spatially though agents informing others within a set distance around them, 3) through social networks such as information-sharing between members of same groups, or 4) through external communication shared to certain spatial areas. We also established the most common independent and dependent variables used in the literature and showcase emerging trends in focus over time. The systematic review provided an overview of current evacuation agent-based models regarding agent communication, and evaluated the sophistication of their assumptions considering findings from empirical research on public response to emergencies. Based on the review, we were able to begin conceptualisation of social behaviour and communication between agents in our own models. This will help us reach objective 2 of the project, i.e., developing evidence-based models of behaviour in emergencies that simulate evacuation behaviour and citizen compliance based on first responders' communication strategies. The second activity involved our interviews with operational staff in the ambulance services and fire and rescue services. We conducted 18 in-depth individual interviews with operational staff in fire and rescue services and ambulance services across Scotland and England. We identified their views on the most and least effective ways to communicate with members of the public when asking them to follow instructions in emergencies. We explored the factors staff felt influenced how members of the public reacted to them in emergencies, why staff took specific approaches to communicating with the public in emergencies and key challenges faced in emergencies. Regarding the influential factors, operational first responders believed that the public's likelihood of following their guidance was influenced by the public's awareness of threat and need for action, their trust in the first responder organisation, and tone of the first responders' communication when giving instructions. Regarding the communication tones, the most prominent and preferred approach by staff was to use a facilitative tone where they asked members of the public to perform an action in a way that framed the public as helping the staff. For example, saying "can you do that for me?" or "it would really help us if". This tone was seen to garner the most adherence, help the members of the public feel they had more agency in the emergency, facilitate the public need to help, and appeal to the public on a personal level. The tone consistently least preferred was described as "authoritarian" and included giving short, direct orders with minimal contextual information, such as telling someone "you must move" without explaining why. This was believed to be a somewhat aggressive approach that resulted in defensiveness and/or reluctant adherence from a recipient, as well as broader loss of trust in the first responder organisation. Finally, staff reported creating a tone of teamwork by using collective language such as "let's talk about what we're going to do here" and thanking individuals for their contribution in the emergency response. This was a less used method but was perceived to be effective because it helped members of public feel part of the team in the emergency and therefore engage members of the public to perform tasks, help to maintain calm in the emergency, and reassure the members of the public about how they reacted. However, it was viewed as difficult to do in a mass incident with multiple people, and sometimes a time-consuming process which made it difficult in many emergencies when reducing danger was first their priority. Throughout the interviews, staff noted operational challenges in providing information to members of the public, such as needing to maintain confidentiality. They also raised an increasing challenge of navigating getting the public to help in emergencies, and ensuring the first responder organisations had a strong, trusted voice on social media channels. Based on the interviews, we are now starting to pilot online evacuation experiments where we alter the wording and tone of the instructions given by first responders (currently fire and rescue services) to see the effect they have on adherence to route choice, evacuation time, views of the instructions, and views of the responders providing the instructions. Together the interviews and evacuation experiments will help us to achieve objective 1 of the project, i.e., using social psychological experiments to improve simulations of compliance in emergencies, focused on how the communication strategy from first responders and citizens influences compliance, and objective 3 to optimise current first responder communication in emergencies.The findings from our systematic review are pre-registered on the Open Science Framework and will be presented to the Pedestrian and Evacuation Dynamics conference in June 2023. We will also submit the journal paper to Safety Science and make our data available on the Open Science Framework, and showcase the findings on our project website and social media channels. The findings from our interviews with first responders will be fed back to our stakeholders in first responder organisations and UK and Scottish governments via a summary report, and we are presenting the findings at the European Association of Social Psychology conference in July 2023. We plan to publish the findings in emergency medicine or social psychology journals, as well as trade outlets, and will make all interview transcripts available on the Open Science Framework once anonymisation is completed. We will also showcase the findings on our project website and social media channels.Communities and Social Services/PolicyLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismGovernment Democracy and JusticeSecurity and DiplomacyWe have achieved the following of our objectives as stated at the start of the project. 1. Objective: Edit all Seven Sages versions before AD1600 in Dutch as one of the earliest language traditions, and translate them into modern English and German. Progress: We have completed and submitted the editions to the publisher, Erich Schmidt. 2. Objective: Collect and augment the available information on the at least 450 extant manuscript and print versions of The Seven Sages in 30 languages in an open access repertory (database). Progress: We have designed an interactive publicly available database and entered c. 900 manuscripts and prints: https://db.seven-sages-of-rome.org/Main_Page. 3. Objective: Theorise the consequences for wider Global Medieval Studies of recognising the multilingual spread of The Seven Sages. Progress: We are submitting to the publishers, Open Library of Humanities Journal, an introduction to our special issue that outlines the consequences of our digital, collaborative and translingual approach for wider medieval studies. The other eight articles in the special issue, already published, also reflect on this question. 4. Objective: Explore the consequences for wider gender history of rethinking gender in The Seven Sages. Progress: Bildhauer and Pepe (2025) have demonstrated that there is persistent interest in different trans* and non-binary characters in most Seven Sages/Sindbad versions, which corrects the assumption that trans* history begins in the modern period. Eming (2025) has demonstrated the intersections between misogyny and Orientalism in nineteenth-century philology, with wider consequences for the history of the discipline. Several other articles in our special collection also address this issue. 5. Objective: Lay the foundations for further research and enquiry into The Seven Sages through the edition, digital repertory, academic publications, public presentations and an interdisciplinary workshop. Progress: Through our edition, digital repertory, special issue and other articles, public performance and workshops, we have created a thriving research group of c. 40 scholars who meet monthly online to discuss Seven Sages materials. We had follow-on funding from the Einstein Foundation and are in the second round of an application for a follow-up project at the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften.Creatives are taking forward their engagement with the story matter and its gender and linguistic politics. Academics are taking forward the survey and interpretation of this most popular of all medieval and early modern narratives, and drawing out the implications for gender history and world literature.Creative EconomyCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsAn interactive frontend for grid and cloud computing.There is continued work on extending the tools developed for use in multiple sectors of scientific computing.EducationEnvironmentOtherhttp://www.cern.ch/gangaThe use of baffles and other devices help to increase the residence time of liquid metal (aluminium) in the active ultrasonic zone, where cavitation of gas bubbles coming out of solution can promote nucleation and as outcome grain refinement for increased mechanical strength and ductility. Experimental results in liquid metal and water coupled with computer simulations help explain the process. Use in a Direct Chill (DC) caster in conjunction with the industrial partner, show the effectiveness of the process in the casting of long ingots. As a side study, high speed photography demonstrates the role of cavitating bubbles in braking up intermetallics, important in aluminium recycling.The light metal industry (aluminium, magnesium) is important in transport and aerospace. The ultrasonic treatment of metal in liquid form is known to result in a number of quality benefits, but it is not yet taken up by industry. The present study aims to take the technique out of the laboratory and progress from low volume batch processing to a continuous process.Aerospace Defence and MarineConstructionEnergyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyTransportThe purpose of the project was to address the key issue of whether or not it would be possible to develop alternative methods for processes and products based on an alternative industrial model. The traditional industrial model, which forms the basis of many of today's industries, uses oil-based feedstocks as input, feeding through synthetic chemistry to processes and products. The alternative is to develop a low carbon industrial model that uses bio-based feedstocks as input, feeding through synthetic biology to processes and products. Synthetic biology has the potential to revolutionise the way in which we make a wide range of products from materials to energy, food and medicine. This requires a move away from synthetic chemistry-based processes into more environmentally friendly production mechanisms typically using cells. The approach tackled in the project involves the development of future bio factories and this, in turn, required the invention of some new generalised technologies to underpin the new manufacturing processes. In the project we chose two areas in which to test our new technologies. The first of these is healthcare and, specifically, the manufacture of medicinal compounds and therapeutic proteins. The advantage was that these are largely made using biological systems, but the existing processes are expensive and complex. The goal was therefore, to make simpler and much more cost-effective manufacturing systems, using a combination of platform technologies, enzyme micro-reactors, specialised cells and biosensors. The second objective was to produce bulk chemicals without the need for petroleum imports. This required the adjustment of manufacturing techniques for renewable inputs, such as biomass. In addition, the development of new processes that use biology and environmentally friendly chemistry to do the conversions. The aim, which was largely met was to produce bio parts, devices and systems that could meet this challenge. The strategic approach which was used is based on the fundamental concept underlying synthetic biology, i.e. platform technology that can be applied to a range of applications. The project was, therefore, divided into three separate platforms namely P1, P2 and P3. P1. This involved strategies for designing and optimising bio-based unit operations including biosensors for process control, genetic rewiring tailored production strains, and complex modular and enzymatic systems for manufacturing user-defined enzymatic pathways. P2. Comprise the development of hybrid process systems through biologically friendly solvent design and modifications to biological systems to increase of intolerance. P3. This involved process development, intensification, scale up and optimisation strategies for artificial membrane compartmentalisation and cell extracts. These platforms are then applied to two areas that operate at different ends of the manufacturing scale. C1. The production of novel therapies (lower- volume, high value added products) C2. Synthesis of commodity chemicals for renewable feedstocks (high-volume, low value-added compounds). The key findings associated with the project fundamentally revolve around the development of platforms. Within synthetic biology and the project this has to a significant extent revolved around the development of Biofoundry technology. This enables significant levels of automation to be applied to synthetic biology processes - to increase reliability and reproducibility. This, in turn, has fed through to SynbiCITE applications involving a number of companies, as well as producing fundamental development that will be applied in the new joint venture with Manchester University Bio Manufacturing Research Hub. The approach has allowed much more reliable research methods and skills to be developed in the context of the Imperial College bio foundry (the London Biofoundry). The whole bio foundry approach, which uses material from the project, has produced a paradigm shift in the ability to develop biologically based processes, which are much more reliable and robust. In relation to training, there are two avenues that have developed from the project, as well as other sources. These are: the development of the joint Centre for Doctoral Training in Bio design. (The CDT is a joint venture between Imperial College, Manchester University and University College London.) The other training development is the ability to train researchers on the use of the Biofoundry. Key findings were the development of: • Optimised chemistry, biology and engineering • Robust biocatalysts • Robust organisms - tolerant to, for example, ionic liquids • Biocompatible, chemical " accelerants" Three examples are the development of: 1. A model of an ionic liquid- tolerant bacterium for converting hydrolysed biomass into biofuel. 2. Synthetic reactor system to modify glycan structures of protein therapeutics • Control product quality • Modular design for different structures and therapeutic applications. 3. Vesicle Reactors/Artificial "Cells " Systems are important because many synthetic biology based systems rely upon intracellular reactions. The alternative is to develop methodology which is based on a cell-free approach. There are, however, instances where a halfway house is appropriate. Here the vesicle reactor/artificial cell approach can be ideal because it allows cell like activity without the complication of natural intracellular control mechanisms.In the opinion of the project team, the original objectives were met. However, it is important to point out that this is an ongoing process because of the interaction between the project group, SynbiCITE and a range of companies that SynbiCITE supports - in terms of their growth. It is, therefore, extremely likely that much of the work of this the project will be developed further through companies, as well as, through the Bio Manufacturing Research Hub. For further general details please follow the links: https://futurebrh.com/ChemicalsDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationEnvironmentHealthcareManufacturing including Industrial Biotechologyhttp://www.synbicite.comThe award has demonstrated the cultural, creative and intellectual value of translating Spanish and Spanish American theatre for English-speaking audiences. The work we have done shows that the interventions made in our own society by dramatic forms, ways of seeing and thematic preoccupations have validity and reach on the English-language stage, for both practitioners and audiences.The work of the project team continues through our engagement and collaboration with researchers, translators and theatre practitioners, including literary and artistic directors. It has had an international reach and we continue to advise regularly, including on 'exporting' our project to other languages.Creative EconomyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttp://www.outofthewings.org/1. Detailed analyses have been carried out on the content and composition of dietary fibre in white flour of 34 Watkins lines grown in 4 years: this has provided data on the heritable of variation in composition. 2. 10 selected lines (five with high and five with low fibre) were provided to SWRI who demonstrated differences in alcohol yield. 3. Based on these results 4 lines have been grown with commercial control lines in field trials with 2 levels of nitrogen fertilisation. This material has been provided to SWRI to confirm the observed effects on alcohol yield.for detailed comparative studies. 4. A second year of field trials has been conducted to confirm the outcomes from the first year above. 5. Crosses between the selected Watkins lines and the UK cultivar Paragon are being studied in a new research project funded by a Flemish research foundation.With breeding partner and supermarketsAgriculture Food and DrinkHealthcareThe stochastic nature of the state-of-the-art syntax-based automatic program repair (APR) techniques limits the repetitiveness of the patching process. In the experiments conducted in the course of the project, a number of bugs prior reported to be fixed by the considered tools has not been successfully patched using the same tools despite repeating the APR process hundreds of times. Hence, we concluded that the stochastic nature of the known techniques questions their applicability by practitioners. We have analysed the patches automatically generated by the most popular APR tools and found that, in reality, they do not alter more than two items (modification points, MPs) in software code, even if they have been reported to modify more MPs. We concluded that using techniques capable of fixing many MPs that need to browse an enormous search space of patch candidates is hence unjustified. We have estimated the search space for patches altering just a single MP at a time and found that for the vast majority of benchmark bugs it can be browsed exhaustively in a reasonable time (shorter than one day on a typical PC computer). We have implemented exhaustive search of the patch candidates and integrated it with a popular APR framework. Using this approach, we managed to plausibly patch the largest number of bugs in the popular Defects4J bug benchmark to date, outperforming the second-best solution by 15%. In contrast to that technique, the proposed one is fully deterministic and is suitable for parallel processing at various granularity levels. As the patches found are minimal (just one modification of the original software code), they are less likely to be harmful to the software functionality.Fixing software bugs automatically is a silver bullet for software engineering and it can potentially have huge economic and societal impact. This research area investigated the limitations of the state-of-the art techniques to program repair and we propose novel techniques for improving the performance and accuracy of the repair process. Our techniques are generic and can be adopted and incorporated by other search-based program repair techniques, in order to shrink the search space in order to make the search process more efficient.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)https://github.com/Manatee-EPSRC-ProjectThe investigation allowed to identify some possible applications stemming from the peculiar properties of auxetic meshes, exploiting the double curvature (synclastic) nature of meshes for the production of curved building elements, or the potential for negative Poisson ratio meshes to apply confinement stresses to an in-fill material following axial loading. The team also successfully identified geometries suitable for auxetic meshes to provide the profile of shell structures that could be used in floor construction with significant reduction of the embodied carbon.The main developments that the team envisages (and is currently working on, planned to be delivered by the end of the award) relate to: (a) The manufacture of large scale meshes with auxetic behaviour. (b) The design of membrane shells using self-form-finding auxetic meshes, following the promising results obtained by the team. (c) The development of deployable systems exploiting the geometric properties of the auxetic meshes. The project has offered some further outcomes in terms of textile stay in place formwork for structural elements with complex geometrical shapes. Next steps should further investigate this aspect, involving advanced textile manufacturing methods and high-performance fibres.Aerospace Defence and MarineConstructionManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyThe analytical ultracentrifuge is vital to our ongoing research into molecular complexes. It has been pivotal in our understanding of how molecules self associate and the conditions in which they do so. It is one of the only instruments that can perform this and is therefore an incredibly important part of our research, particularly for large extracellular matrix assemblies. It has also allowed users that were part of this grant to understand the effect of molecular crowding in protein formulation studies. The 'non-ideality' effects created by high concentrations are important to consider when formulating buffers for therapeutic applications and the AUC is one of the only instruments to do this.The instrument is being used by several universities such as Leeds, Sheffield and Liverpool who are using our expertise to understand their own molecular assemblies.HealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe ESRC project consolidated my PhD findings by producing publications, as well as developing networks, further funding proposals, and improving my research and professional skills. During the ESRC project, I published a journal paper in the 'International Journal of Educational Management in May 2021. I have also submitted a journal paper to the 'Teacher Development' in April 2022. I delivered presentations related to my PhD thesis at the BERA (British Educational Research Association) Conference 2021, the ICSEI Virtual Congress 2022, and the EARLI SIG 18 Conference 2022. I have also delivered my work at large engagement events to non-academic audiences, exemplified by the Cambridge Festival 2021 and at the Virtual Tech meeting 2021. I published an academic blog focused on the improvement of student wellbeing in schools on the Cambridge Wellbeing & Inclusive Special Interest Group platform under the Cambridge Faculty of Education. I also developed a handbook and a wellbeing board game prototype based on DASI (Dynamic Approach to School Improvement) with primary schools and teachers in the UK. The aim of this handbook is to assist in the preparation and implementation processes of initiatives to promote student wellbeing in schools by the provision of concrete and specific guidelines to teachers and school leadership teams. The game prototype developed in this project concentrates on teacher-student relationships, which are included under DASI's "school policy on teaching" factor, which concerns teacher-student interaction and student-student interaction. Teachers and students can play this group-based wellbeing board game in the classroom to promote a positive teacher-student relationship, which in turn, improves students' wellbeing. By adding the principles of gamification to DASI, student engagement can be maximised, and consequently wellbeing outcomes will be improved. Additionally, I developed a grant proposal according to the resources developed in this project for the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships.I developed a handbook and a wellbeing board game prototype based on the DASI (Dynamic Approach to School Improvement) with primary schools and teachers in the UK. The handbook developed in this project can be taken forward to assist schools in the preparation and implementation processes of applying DASI to improve student wellbeing and prevent student wellbeing problems. Specifically, this handbook provides guidelines for determining aims, content, target groups, and background information based on the relationships between DASI's factors at the school level and wellbeing in school settings. The group-based wellbeing board game prototype based on DASI can be used to promote positive teacher-student relationships, including improved teacher-student interaction and student-student interaction. By playing the wellbeing game created in this project in the classroom, teacher-student relationships can be enhanced, which in turn will improve students' wellbeing.EducationHealthcareIn this project, two new synthetic methods using electrochemistry were developed which will be applicable to the synthesis of molecules of direct interest to the pharmaceutical industry. In one part, the scope and limitations of an "old" reaction, Kolbe electrolysis, were fully explored - this demonstrated some key limitations of this approach which will be vital information for users of this methodology in the future. In the second part, a new synthetic electrochemistry transformation was developed which allowed the functionalisation of, for example, piperidine molecules which is a very common motif in drug molecules.Medicinal chemistry researchers in the pharmaceutical industry may find use for our methods.Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology1 A New Creative Process for UK Steel PROSPERITY is refreshing and improving the rapid alloy prototyping (RAP) routes available in the UK for new steel products. The improvement comes from greater understanding of the accuracy, reproducibility and integrability of 4 prototyping routes at relatively small scales (grams to kilograms), in relation to traditional steel prototyping (30-60kg) and full-scale production (in 100s of tonnes). The results to date are showing unprecedented levels of success compared to previous accelerated metallurgy projects, across a range of synthetic alloys (from DP, IF, HSLA and S275) with accurate compositions, replicated microstructures, and mechanical properties comparable to production-scale steel. The successes at the lab scale are not just improvements in physical experimentation, they are also due to the underpinning with state-of-the-art research methods including machine learning on large plant data, through-process modelling and finite element digital twins of the industrial rolling process. 2 Intensify and Accelerate the Maturation of New Products for the UK Steel Industry and its Supply Chain In the currently ongoing second phase of the PROSPERITY project, the focus is on 6 key business-led challenges (Oxidation studies, Alloy optimization, Effects of residual elements, Structure/ property relationships, Improved formability/ ductility of commercial products) utilising the developed RAP experimental methods and models to improve product, process, and surfaces. This is resulting in a detailed understanding of scientific principles, whilst delivering tangible business benefits throughout the entire UK steel supply chain. A recent example of this is the success in investigating DP grades through microalloying variants and CAPL processing to optimise the tempered martensite which has resulted in a new and improved local formability DP grades. There are similarities and differences between the routes, for example, it is easier to control the processing of synthetic alloys at larger scales and get similar mechanical properties to production steel, than at the smaller scales. However, the smaller scales can be deployed more rapidly and cost effectively (up to 10 alloys/day vs 2-3 alloys/week) with pin-point accuracy in composition, but also able to include a wider range of elements. A hybrid route has also been developed embedding combinatorial variations of elements from the smallest route within larger RAP route to get the best of both, repeatability of processing and accuracy of composition over wider more exploratory ranges. An important aim is a 5X acceleration in the development of next generation products via screening and de-risk and to this extent the timings and costs of all routes are carefully being monitored and reported. Whilst all RAP routes strongly depend on operators, as the techniques become more automated, there will always be bottlenecks with will shift from synthesis to processing, with property characterisation being the slowest. 3 A New Design Methodology for the Wider UK Metal Industry The need to accelerate development of added value products whilst increasing efficiency, financial return and sustainability is by no means unique to steels, but highly relevant to the metals industry in manufacturing, construction, and infrastructure. A million jobs are directly or indirectly connected to the UK metals industry, some £400bn of the UK's GDP. within existing and potentially new production facilities. The integrated RAP routes and new facilities and capabilities put in place at Swansea and Warwick as part of the project are already attracting added attention from organizations across the country, including other Universities, research centers and companies both within and outside the steel supply chain. The interests have ranged from providing data for input to models, to other RAP users (e.g. UKAEA/DSTL) such as high alloy steels, high entropy alloys, alloys for additive manufacturing, brazing alloys etc. 4 Comprehensive Knowledge of the Effects of Impurities in Steels There are various technical approaches to decarbonization and increased use of scrap in the drive for a national circular steel economy. These include better end-of-life directives, reduced copper in vehicles, sorting and shredding of scrap, chemical extraction of impurities or increased tolerance of alloys to impurities. It is particularly the latter metallurgical initiatives where the current RAP routes are playing an important role, for example in the application to the S275 structural steel and a LCB steel in giving detailed understanding of the effect of scrap residuals with respect to mechanical properties, recrystallisation kinetics, crystallographic texture and surface state aligning with the green steel agenda and safe scrap strategy for Tata Steel UK (TRL 2-5). The small RAP route is being applied to a large number of chemistries with exceptionally high levels of residuals (e.g. Cu, Sn) to help understand the tolerances of alloys such as DP800 to increased scrap and processing by EAF as well as understanding effect on coatability and hot dip galvanising processability.These developments are new for the UK and place the ferrous industry at the forefront of rapid prototyping and combinatorial metallurgy within the UK. As mentioned before, one of the primary aims is to create a New Alloy Design Methodology which is usable by the wider UK metal Industry, and by remit transferable to primary metal producers, OEM and end-users in multiple sectors including aerospace, automotive, defence and construction. An example of this would be the use of accelerated metallurgical application of the hybrid route (Intrap) linked to commercial level e.g., 80g sample could be inserted into larger slab. These interests are expected to continue beyond prosperity in the form of industrial commissioned work and UKRI research funding into new alloys and applications.Aerospace Defence and MarineEnergyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyTransporthttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2351978920318400London is thought to be the 'motor of change' in the English language, at least in Britain. Our previous studies revealed that there was widespread 'dialect levelling' in the Southeast, but that, surprisingly, London seemed not to be taking part. Instead, London's inner-city boroughs were developing what the media call 'Jafaican', but we label 'Multicultural London English' (MLE). The linguistic features include distinctive vowels, often reminiscent of Afro-Caribbean, Subcontinental or non-first language English. Unlike in Cockney, 'h' is fully pronounced, but as in Cockney 't' between vowels is a glottal stop and 'th' is often 'f' or 'v'. For the past tense of 'be', young inner-city people follow the pattern 'I was - you was - you wasn't' - he wasn't' instead of 'I was - you was - you weren't - he weren't', which is widespread in the 'levelled' Southeast. Similarly to young English speakers everywhere, young Londoners say 'I was like "that's stupid" and she was like "OK"' - the so-called BE LIKE quotative. But they also use an innovative quotative, saying 'This is me: "let's go home"', rarely found elsewhere. Multiethnic and multilingual cities throughout northern Europe are spawning new varieties of their national languages. 'Multicultural London English' (MLE) is a case in point. Baptised 'Jafaican' by the media, this new variety of English combines pronunciations from the immigrants' languages with features we can trace to Cockney, as well as to general developments in the South of England. Young people of all ethnicities tend to say 'fehs' and 'coht' for face and coat, instead of the traditional 'fice' and 'cowt'. Like young speakers everywhere, Londoners say 'I WAS LIKE "that's stupid". But they also use 'THIS IS ME: "let's go home"', rarely found elsewhere. We wanted to establish how MLE arose. We recorded not only teenagers but also children as young as 4 and adults, too. We found, unexpectedly, that MLE was quite well established among the youngest children, suggesting they acquired it from peers and older children, not their parents, who were mostly not first-language English speakers. Young adults used it, but less consistently than teenagers. Older adults did not, probably because they grew up before it had become established. We investigated whether MLE was similar across ethnicities and districts, and found that, perceptually, listeners could not distinguish ethnicity with any certainty, while more MLE-sounding voices were more likely to be thought to be from London. We conclude that this multiethnic variety emerges because people select from a 'pool' of linguistic features they hear around them, giving rise to a new, possibly permanent, way of speaking.We are not currently planning any new research on London. The project has spawned a sister project, Multicultural London English/Multicultural Paris French (ESRC/ANR RES 062 33 0006, 2010-2014), from which important results have begun to emerge, involving similarities between the two cities, and differences also. In the future, our findings should continue to be incorporated into school curricula for English Language. Equally importantly, our results should not only enter the debate about 'good' and 'bad' language, but also form the basis of new research on language and discrimination in education, occupation and areas such as housing. Finally, there is great scope for forensic phonetic applications of our insights.Communities and Social Services/PolicyCreative EconomyEducationHealthcareCulture Heritage Museums and Collections1. We need new directions: priorities in Science, Technology and Innovation are unevenly distributed with respect to society and its diverse challenges 2. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer an opportunity to set new directions and revise STI priorities to address a globally shared set of challenges more fairly 3. Steering STIs towards the SDGs is however easier said than done: STI directions are the outcome of the (unequal) interactions and struggles among diverse and plural understandings, interests and enactments of STI, SDGs, and how they relate 4. We provide evidence and tools to better understand (mis)alignments between STI directions and SDGs challenges and open up debates for policy changes to improve steering of STI towards the SDGs (theory of change) We put together an impressive amount of findings from our global mapping of research and innovation using publications and patents; our three in depth case studies exploring the different science and technology pathways that may contribute to specific issues related to sustainability in Argentina, India and Kenya; and our global Delphi survey on what science and technology areas may contribute to achieving the SDGs by 2030. Key top findings from this analysis include 1. Current STI priorities in public and private R&D organisations fall short of addressing the SDGs 2. Most countries do not focus on research that relates to their major SDG challenges 3. Perspectives on future influences of STI on SDGs differ substantially from past STI trajectories 4. There is no single pathway to align STI to any given SDGs A longer summary of findings can be found here: https://strings.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Snapshot_STRINGS_Changing_Directions.pdfSelected practical actions to steers science, technology and innovations for the SDGs include: 1. Carefully promoting a rich diversity of STI pathways, to address the plural challenges related to the SDGs 2. Design accountable and inclusive initiatives to strengthen the governance of science, technology and innovation around the globe to support open and inclusive processes of deliberation and prioritisation 3. Empower stakeholders to build different interpretations of what constitutes SDG-related STI 4. Increase funding for SDG-related research and innovation, particularly in low-income countries, on underlying context-relevant social issues, social innovations and informal research, to improve alignment between SDG priorities and STI portfoliosAgriculture Food and DrinkEnergyEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologySee http://www.equip.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/21926-Equip-A4-flyer-v9.pdfImproved quantification of uncertainty in climate and impactsAgriculture Food and DrinkConstructionEducationEnergyEnvironmentHealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyTransporthttp://www.equip.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/21926-Equip-A4-flyer-v9.pdfThe project affords a new understanding of a group not much represented in current literature or practice, since by definition they normally exclude themselves from singing participation. The findings have challenged some key assumptions and common practices associated with providing 'accessible' singing opportunities for novice adults. Participants' attitudes and beliefs associated with singing showed significant positive change after 6 months, and most participants continued participating in singing activities well beyond the practical work, with some joining choirs and/or continuing tuition. However, more insight into the meaning of their singing journeys is gained from their narratives. These show highly individual explorations of connection with friends and family, personal development/self-discovery, and artistic reflection and development. While current discourses and practices emphasise the benefits of group singing for wellbeing, participants showed a number of complex trajectories in relation to this; some decided that they did not want to sing in order to be part of a group (or vice versa), but rather for the sense of self-discovery and personal development it offered. A question was whether 'non-singing' adults may show similar trajectories of learning as those evidenced in the child literature. This was found not to be the case. Skill development did not follow an obvious pattern, and was highly individualized. In some cases, skills such as pitch matching appeared to worsen with instruction before getting better. This makes sense when we think about singing as a complex motor skill, and raises some new lines of enquiry about vocal learning. In working with participants in the project, teachers employed strategies that responded to the range of needs. The exploration, development and recording of these strategies in context - both one-to-one and group - is another significant achievement of the project. These included the successful development of creative activities which led to improvisation and composition, thus broadening opportunities for artistic development and achievement beyond the reproduction of existing songs. Breaking down the complexity of singing into smaller elements, that could be identified and practised, was key in overcoming belief-based as well as skill-based barriers. Participants often initially held very simplistic notions of what singing involved, and/or felt that singing was a complete mystery. There were also certain key cognitive challenges faced by participants, including poor musical working memory, and perceptual difficulties experienced when trying to sing in a group situation. These findings are important because they highlight that some common approaches taken in the provision of singing opportunities for novice adults are not appropriate for this group. The typical community choir approach emphasises the safety of the group and learning 'by ear'. These common practices in the name of accessibility act as barriers for people who have not been able to access singing by simply 'joining in', and can exacerbate feelings of fear, lack of competence, and not 'getting it'. In the same way, participants reported being alienated by the well-meaning assertion that 'everyone can sing', as it fails to acknowledge the depth of the difficulties they experience. So in order to have an entry point into singing participation, adults who have experienced difficulties have a need and a desire for skill development. In this context, the provision of technical guidance and sheet music - characterized as 'barriers' to novices in dominant discourses and practices - acted as a means to support access to a singing culture, as well as supporting cognitive capabilities.The project integrated practitioner knowledge with formal research at every stage. A workshop day for practitioners and a multi-format conference provided opportunities for knowledge exchange and the sharing of research findings, thus providing a direct route to influencing practice. Representatives from major arts organisations sat on the Advisory Board and attended project events, providing another route by which the findings may influence future provision. The major implication of the findings is that provision needs to diversify beyond the community and choral models that are currently dominant, in order to cater for people who cannot access a satisfying and enjoyable singing experience simply by joining in, however open these opportunities purport to be. The project also shows examples of practice and insight into individual singing journeys, which may inspire our organisational partners and suggest ways to develop their future provision. The granular knowledge generated of perceptual, productive and attitudinal factors may be taken forward to develop models of singing development through the lifespan. Work undertaken to develop the app for training auditory imagery has already resulted in new research grant applications with new academic partners.Creative EconomyEducationLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismDeveloping a place-based Payment for Ecosystem Service scheme for South West peatlands. A NERC case study has been written for this project.A draft prospectus, intended for potential investors and land owners/managers, is one of the major outputs from the project, providing advice to landowners, farmers, land managers and investors about how a PES scheme could work, what factors need to be considered in deciding on site suitability, and how land managers can decide if participation is right for them. The final prospectus will offer guidance on how the financial impacts of a PES proposal can be evaluated. Using the wealth of information in the prospectus a synopsis has been launched online to invite feedback and comments on its overall structure which sets out details of how a scheme could be implemented. Follow on work has been proposed to set out the 'offer' for PES on Exmoor to investors. It is also now hoped to replicate this work on Dartmoor with further support from South West Water Ltd. SWW has identified the need to provide revenue return to the land owners it is working with to rewet peatlands in the SW. This has become a priority issue for restoration work that depends upon the participation of private moorland land-owners. The work of the NERC intern Charles Cowap has led to a greater expectation from all stakeholders that there is now a real prospect of developing a scheme in the near future. This aim is supported by SWW as the lead partner in the SW "Mireson- the-Moors" Projects and the retention of the services of Charles Cowap has since worked with SWW to implement findings.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironment1. Designed new algorithms for the analysis of longitudinal ECG data in human and mouse. 2. Identified that features of cardiac electrophysiology (eg. pace making, atrioventricular delay) are differentially influenced by circadian clocks in the brain and heart, rendering these features susceptible to misalignment during changes of routine. This is consistent across human and mouse models. 3. Cardiac arrhythmia susceptibility displays a daily rhythm in mice, and circadian clocks in the heart contribute to this rhythm. Together these reveal vital new understanding about how the circadian system influences cardiac electrophysiology, and has direct relevance to humans.Our findings reveal new avenues for follow up research including questions such as: What is the impact of circadian misalignment of cardiac electrophysiology? What are the underlying mechanisms coupling the circadian system to cardiac arrhythmias? Can medial interventions utilise the circadian influence over cardiac electrophysiology to protect against/mitigate risk of arrhythmias in at risk patients? We are currently investigating some of these avenues of research as part of a new grant from the BBSRC.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyOtherWe have: 1. discovered the incidence of a new pathogen in the UK called Borellia bavariensis, which causes Lyme disease 2. discovered that the rural environment is a key determinant of Lyme disease risk in cities 3. shown how soil carbon and key soil organic matter fractions in green space vary according to how urbanised the surrounding area is 4. undertaken a review to consider how the manipulation of green space size and connectivity influence multifunctionality outcomes, whilst also recognising the threat of ecosystem disservices emerging as a result of such actions. 5. devised a new metric for quantifying urbanness 6. measured how urbanness affects soil biodiversity and soil properties. 7. Discovered how local non-statutory planning interventions affects plant-soil interactions and biodiversity.Town planners will be interested in how surrounding landscapes affect various ecosystem properties and processes such as Lyme disease incidence, and how local non-statutory planning interventions affects plant-soil interactions and biodiversity.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEnvironmentLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismWe have used a kind of roleplay to project people into the future of their town and deal with challenges to come. This worked effectively to connect people to others with similar concerns and tackle difficult issues like climate change, loss of biodiversity and uncertainty in coastal contexts in such a way the positive suggestions and greater group cohesion was stimulated across very different parts of each town's residents.We are writing the playbook of the method and it is near publication in the website above.Agriculture Food and DrinkCreative EconomyEducationEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://www.furtherfield.org/this-coastal-town/The aim of the grant was to support participation of several eminent scientists, including Alexis De Vos, Kenichi Morita and Tommaso Toffoli, to deliver keynote lectures on the achievements and challenges in Reversible Computation, a new field of computer science and software engineering. The grant sponsored also participation of PhD students and young researchers interested in Reversible Computation.Following the workshop in 2009, Reversible Computation is now an annual international conference.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)ElectronicsEnergyhttp://www.cs.le.ac.uk/events/RC2009/The major achievement of this award is that many domestic animal species of socio-economic importance, particularly in regard to food security have been annotated to a high level of quality and release through the Ensembl Genome Browser, which is a very popular platform of viewing and analysing genomes. While the species represented in Ensembl have expanded, of more importance is the provision of multiple annotated genomes per species. For example as part of the work, instead of providing a single reference sheep genome, we now provide over 20 sheep genomes, representing different breeds of sheep. We have done this for several species, where we are now representing not just the genome, but the pangenome. Pangenomes are very important to the future of things like precision breeding, where the aim is to improve a particular trait (or traits). Pangenomes show in fine detail the commonalities and differences between the genomes of difference breeds, or even different individuals within a breed, allowing for significantly more powerful exploration of what drives different traits, diseases and characteristics. To assist with futher exploring these differences, we have also produced pangenome alignment graphs for some species, where we attempt to model the variation between the different genomes in the form of an alignment graph. We provide these difficult and computationally intensive analyses, which have been carried out in a standardised way, to a high standard and to help accelerate downstream science. We have also made progress in detailed fundamental comparative analysis of suid species and annotated repeat regions in the dog. In addition we have contributed to multiple genome annotation projects with collaborators globally through, for example, the FAANG consortium, ruminant telomere to telomere genome project, bovine pangenome project and pig T2T genome project. This award has provided us to participate in international meetings and discussions that are crucial in how we plan leveraging these resources, and assessing community need, in the Ensembl Genome Browser.The main aim of this grant is to provide highly annotated genomes for domestic animal species that can be taken forward and used by others. A raw DNA sequence representing an individual genome is of little use without finding and highlighting important genomic features such as the genes and the parts of the genes that encode proteins. The process of finding these features is called genome annotation and is a difficult and computationally expensive process. We have provided new annotations, through the Ensembl Genome Browser, that are used by researchers across the globe to facilitate their own research providing a hugely valuable resource for the community. We have also run a livestock genomics training workshop for early career researchers to ensure that they gain the necessary skills to use these resources for their research, maximising the impact and potential provided by the funding.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentPharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttps://www.ensembl.org/Ovis_aries_rambouillet/Info/BreedsThe 'Icons in Context' project provided the academic and intellectual underpinning for a major British Museum exhibition ('The world of Stonehenge', February - July 2022), and resulted in a high-impact 'blockbuster' (seen by over 190,000 visitors and receiving multiple five-star reviews) and an accompanying exhibition book aimed at both academic and public audiences (Garrow & Wilkin 2022) which has sold over 20,000 copies to date. The project enabled an otherwise unachievable level of curatorial intervention and experimentation which our enhanced visitor evaluation data (also funded by the project) has shown to have been remarkably successful: for example, the community-inspired soundscape and efforts to introduce objects that were 'alternative icons' into the exhibition received encouragingly positive feedback (as explored in Garrow & Wilkin 2024). In addition, the project enabled the grant holders to draw together artists, archaeologists and museum professionals from national and international museums for workshops that question established approaches to museum object selection, hierarchy and display. The networks thus forged have been productive and mutually rewarding. As a result of the project, a wide-range of impact-related engagement activities took place (40 to date), either as a direct result of the project or receiving intellectual enhancement and enrichment because of it. These included a Festival of Archaeology Day (co-curated with the Council for British Archaeology), aimed at young audiences (5,000 people attended the event), and a Summer Solstice 'late' event at the British Museum (co-curated with artist Jeremy Deller), which was aimed at and successfully achieved engagement with new and diverse audiences (1,500 people attended the evening). The project inspired and fed into several highly successful online events. Eight panels (later hosted on YouTube) on themes such as 'Who were the people of Stonehenge?' and 'New scientific discoveries: reinterpreting Stonehenge' proved extremely popular and have been viewed a combined total of over 680,000 times to date (March 2024). Two 'Curator's Corners' films that looked at specific aspects of the exhibition have been viewed over 241,000 times. These included a film by local museum Director, David Dawson (The Wiltshire Museum, Devizes), which has enabled him to reach an audience of over 180,000 in his own voice, using the British Museum's online presence and platforms to do so. The activities of the project, including the commissioning of artist and archaeologist Rose Ferraby, resulted in a number of high-profile appearances on BBC radio, including live broadcasts (Start the Week, Radio 4, 14 February 2022; The Lauren Laverne's Breakfast Show, 6 Music, 14 March, 2022) and pre-recorded shows (Free Thinking, Radio 3, 15 February 2022; The Food Programme, Radio 4, 15 June 2022; Earthworks, Radio 3, 21 January 2025). In total, the physical exhibition, online panels, Curator's Corner films, media appearances and school and outreach events have generated a total of 1,129,000 views or engagements, a testament to the project's wide-ranging and sustained impact of a wide range of audiences. To date, the project has four peer-reviewed publications and one paper accepted (May 2023) and now in press with Antiquity journal ("Alternative Icons: Rethinking Symbols of Power in the 'World of Stonehenge'"), reporting on the evaluation results derived from the project and the experimental approaches to curation enabled by our research questions. This paper carries key observations and findings into the importance of selecting 'alternative icons' to realise more representative and diverse narratives about the deep past. The findings also have relevance to questions surrounding repatriation and the decolonisation of collections and periods beyond later prehistoric Europe. A second paper has been completed and submitted (March, 2024) (Wilkin, Garrow & Ryder 2024). It explores the social media impact of 'The world of Stonehenge' exhibition and highlights the wider potential of visitor engagements through platforms such as Instagram to inform archaeological and curatorial storytelling. It highlights the potential methodological benefits of combining this data with more traditional, in person, museum evaluation data. It considers how this shift of focus can enable museums to embrace goals related to democratising, diversifying and decolonising their collections through displays and exhibitions. The project's five initial objectives were fully realised in ways that exceeded initial expectations. The first, to realise the intellectual benefit of staging a major British Museum exhibition, was satisfied in the way that the project team could undertake research before its opening to influence its curatorship (and the messaging of its tie-in book). The evaluation data enabled by the project then provided a dataset on which the workshops and academic papers could draw. It is hoped that the resulting findings and conclusions will influence future exhibition making and the British Museum's current Masterplan has already been impacted in terms of approaches to interpretive themes, community collaboration and design principles. Secondly, the project aimed to interrogate the strengths and weaknesses of the hugely influential 'symbols of power' approach to material culture within academic thinking, museum display, media and public presentation of the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age, and to delineate its legacy. This has been achieved through the curatorial decisions made in preparing the exhibition and book, and, subsequently, through the peer-reviewed academic publications produced by the project, notably in Garrow & Wilkin (2024) and Wilkin et al. (2024), which critiques the established 'symbols of power' approach instituted by the 1985 book ('Symbols of Power: At the Time of Stonehenge') and the exhibition of the same name held in Edinburgh. The third objective was to develop new approaches to later prehistoric objects in museum displays and storerooms by integrating concepts of material context, object networks and entanglement theory that help to reframe and rethink the role of the 'unique' or 'iconic' objects within socio-cultural, cosmological and wider material narratives of the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. This was met through the design of several curatorial experiments with 'The world of Stonehenge' exhibition. The resulting audience research undertaken on these interventions provided a rich seam of data for assessing what had worked and what had not. It was recognised that for successful 'alternative' icons to have the greatest opportunity for success they should combine strong narrative storytelling with visually stimulating displays. How the balance between these requirements can be best/regularly achieved is a subject explored in the project's academic paper outputs but is also prime for further research and development. The fourth objective was to assess whether the approach to objects, assemblages and context developed during this project could be usefully applied across a range of periods, geographical regions and museum contexts in the future, by other museum professionals and academics. This was explored with two groups in two workshops (the first held in June 2022, the second in September 2023). The first group consisted of artists, archaeologists and curators engaged with concepts of deep history and alternative perspectives of 'iconic' artefacts and heritage assets. We explored the successes and weaknesses of 'The world of Stonehenge' exhibition with this group. The second workshop involved a group of curators and academics from across the museum sector in Britain and continental Europe. We explored the theme of the 'overlooked' and 'missing majority' of objects, assemblages and materials held in museum storage but never seen in museum exhibitions and displays and hope to publish the excellent resulting papers in due course. In addition, as noted in relation to the research findings of the peer-reviewed journal articles, the relevance of the project's museological and methodological findings transcend the later prehistoric period and have relevance to collections from a wide range of geographical and chronological origins. The findings also have relevance to debates surrounding the democratisation and decolonisation of museum collections, a strand pursued in at least two of the projects peer-reviewed journal articles: Garrow & Wilkin (2024) (Antiquity) and Wilkin, Garrow & Ryder (2024) (International Journal of Heritage Studies). The fifth objective was to provide an opportunity for the Early Career PI, Wilkin, to gain experience leading an externally funded research grant and build their experience as a research-active curator. The academic papers achieved, in press or forthcoming mark a major uptick in the PI's research output prior to the start of the project. Wilkin is now in a stronger position in term of future research projects and academic outputs due to the experienced mentorship of Co-I, Garrow, the network of museum-related researchers constructed through the project's workshops and the wide-range of high-impact and experience-building engagement activities (e.g. online and live national radio appearances to large public audiences). References Garrow, D. & Wilkin, N. 2024, 'Alternative Icons: Rethinking Symbols of Power in the 'World of Stonehenge'', Antiquity Wilkin, N., Garrow, D. & Ryder, C. 2024, 'From overlooked objects to digital 'icons': evaluating the role of social media in exhibition making and the creation of more participatory and democratic museums', International Journal of Heritage StudiesThe findings of the project have the potential to be taken forward within future exhibition delivery at the British Museum and other museums and galleries, especially those presenting archaeological finds. The findings have already influenced the British Museum's ambitious Masterplan approach to redisplaying the permanent galleries in coming years by contributing to their best practice guidance for community collaboration, exhibition design and object selection. Exhibitions on similar periods/themes to 'The World of Stonehenge' are now planned in both Leiden in 2024 (at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden) and in Paris in 2025 (at the Musée d'Archéologie Nationale) - the occurrence, themes, objects and approach of which were explicitly influenced and inspired by 'The world of Stonehenge'. PI Wilkin has been invited to contribute to or advise on both exhibition projects. Furthermore, the exhibition and project have directly influenced the English Heritage Masterplan for the reimagining of the Stonehenge Visitor Centre and PI Wilkin has been invited to contribute to the development of their new vision. The 'Icons in Context' project has made a significant contribution in identifying, problematising and investigating a process of 'iconification', through which certain museum objects and heritage assets are selected to represent whole geographies, peoples and eras. This concept - and the methodological changes required to 'shift the dial' towards a more diverse and reflective approach to museum display - have implications for museology and archaeological representation that exceed the aims and objectives of the project and provide opportunities for follow on research and methodological breakthroughs. The findings will, we hope, be taken forward by a range of researchers engaged in museology, archaeology and curatorial work. Among those who could develop and enhance the ideas forwarded by the project are local and regional museum collections (e.g. The Wiltshire Museum, whose successful online impact was noted above). Finally, the second of the project's peer-reviewed papers (Wilkin, Garrow & Ryder forthcoming) has pointed out ways forward using social media platforms to orchestrate more engaged and conversational dialogues with audiences regarding the kinds of objects they wish (and do not wish) to see within exhibitions and permanent galleries. This paper contributes to important and timely debates regarding democratisation, diversification and decolonisation of museum exhibitions and displays. References Wilkin, N., Garrow, D. & Ryder, C. 2024, 'From overlooked objects to digital 'icons': evaluating the role of social media in exhibition making and the creation of more participatory and democratic museums', International Journal of Heritage StudiesCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsBackground: Holograms are a way of using interference with a reference laser beam to record the amplitude and phase of the light coming from an object, in contrast to an ordinary photograph that records only the light intensity (which is equal to the amplitude squared). Recording the phase as well allows a 3-dimensional reconstruction of the light field, which in turn allows 3D imaging of the object. Traditionally holograms were recorded on high-resolution emulsion film and reconstructed optically using laser illumination. More recently holograms of microscopic images have been recorded on digital cameras and reconstructed numerically in a computer. All reconstructions of holograms generate 3 separate images. One is the desired reconstruction of the original light from the object, also known as the "real image", one is a copy of this displaced in space, known as the "virtual image", and the third is the intensity image that would be recorded in an ordinary photograph. There are two types of hologram, inline and off-axis. In "inline" holograms the illumination beam doubles as the reference beam, and all 3 images are seen in the reconstruction. If care is taken that the intensity image is much less bright than the other two (by ensuring that the object beam is much less bright than the reference beam), and in addition that the virtual image is very out-of-focus at the location of the real image, the real image can be picked out from the background of the other two. Inline holography has been the dominant form in digital holographic microscopy, as it is relatively easy to implement. Off axis holography is preferred in traditional holograms, as the three images are in different places and it is possible to choose viewing conditions that show only the real image. However it has received little attention in digital holographic microscopy. Key findings: We have shown that it is possible to track swimming bacteria and 100 nm gold nanopartilces as tracers of fluid flow, in 3 dimensions, using digital holographic microscopy. Our inline holographic microscope can track at least dozens of swimming bacteria simultaneously at high speeds (up to 2000 frames per second) throughout volumes of order 100x100x100 microns. We have developed a new type of off-axis digital holographic microscopy, based on laser dark-field illumination to generate the object beam while removing the illumination beam. The key findings here are the optical techniques to create the darkfield object beam and interfere it with a separate reference beam and the computer methods to separate the real image entirely from the background images by filtering in the spatial frequency domain, also known as "Fourier Space". This method is still being tested, but early results show that full reconstructions of the amplitude and phase of the real image can be separated from the other images, and that the off-axis method successfully records the 3D locations of 100 nm gold nanoparticles where inline holography fails. We anticipate that lifting the limitation of inline holography that the object beam is much less bright than the reference beam will allow faithful recording of much higher densities of swimming bacteria and gold nanoparticles. We also aim to explore the possibilities of the new method to make 3D images of other biologically interesting samples.Future potential exploitation routes include commercial tracking of microscopic swimmers, for example sperm, and other medical applications of 3D holographic imaging. Digital holographic microscopy also has great potential as an educational tool, and has already formed the basis of 3 student projects arising from this grant. The first exploitation route will be to study the swimming patterns and responses of a wide range of bacterial species under various conditions, including biofouling, chemotaxis and biofilm formation. This will include collaborations with other research groups studying various bacterial systems, who are currently limited by the inability to record swimming trajectories in 3 dimensions. Future potential exploitation routes include commercial tracking of microscopic swimmers, for example sperm, and other medical applications of 3D holographic imaging. These will depend substantially on the capabilities of the new off-axis method, which is currently under exploration under a follow-up grant.Agriculture Food and DrinkEducationEnvironmentHealthcareOur work focused on identifying the impact of pesticides and combinations of pesticides on the behaviour of bees. We examined both honeybees and bumblebees. We found that honeybees exposed to imidacloprid for 3-4 days don't learn or remember as well. In a separate experiment, we found that honeybees fed field-relevant doses of imidacloprid during a learning task also perform poorly and form poor olfactory memories. In a separate set of experiments, we observed that very low doses of neonicotinoids influence motor function in honeybees. We found that pyrethroids and other compounds that affect insect sodium channels have a lower impact on the motor function of honeybees than neonicotinoids. Sublethal doses of pyrethroids still affected the righting reflex, however, and made it more difficult for bees to turn themselves over. In addition, we found that bumblebees and honeybees cannot taste field relevant doses of neonicotinoids in sucrose solutions. Furthermore, they prefer to drink solutions containing these compounds, suggesting that they are attracted to neonicotinoids because of a pharmacological effect of these compounds on the bee brain. This result was published in Nature in 2015. We also found that the effect on food choice was different to its effect on learning. Honeybees trained in an olfactory conditioning assay did not learn faster when neonicotinoids were present in reward, and in fact, were less likely to respond during a short-term memory test.Policy makers should attend to the fact that neonicotinoids have negative effects on bees. We have clearly shown that low doses of these compounds as reported from the floral nectar of field-treated crops - have negative influences on individual foragers. These kinds of effects undoubtedly have knock-on effects for whole colonies.Agriculture Food and DrinkImportance of time use data for measuring unpaid work and wellbeing. Please see entries under "New Frontiers for Time Use Research."Concluding arrangements with Office of National Statistics and Cabinet Office for embodying time-use research on public policymake practice.EnvironmentHealthcareGovernment Democracy and JusticeThe project was undertaken with the knowledge that there is a marked lack of high quality datasets from real buildings (as opposed to test cells) suitable for validating the dynamic thermal simulation programs that are commonly used in predicting the energy and environmental performance of buildings. The datasets and experimental specification developed in this project are considered to be of high quality and arguably the best currently available for empirical validation based on real buildings. The experiment was undertaken by an experienced experimental team using a well-instrumented test facility. In addition, there was a high level of engagement from modellers world-wide (over 20 sets of modelling predictions; 16 organisations; 12 different programs, both research and commercial), with the developed specification being implemented and thoroughly tested. Apart from the detailed final IEA report that has now successfully completed internal and external review, a number of papers have been published on the validation methodology, specification and analysis of measurements against predictions. Others are in preparation. The validation study has already proved useful for modellers, by allowing certain modelling teams to identify modelling deficiencies, for another modeller team to test their program in development, and for use in training students in modelling techniques. ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) Standard 140 committee has expressed a strong interest in using the dataset and specification documentation. A presentation was made to the Standard 140 committee in June 2015. There is now a major new project in the USA to develop further empirical validation datasets. The datasets generated in the project have also been used to test advanced sensitivity analysis techniques (journal paper) and for developing new techniques for model validation and calibration (PhD thesis).A comprehensive archive has been published of the experimental datasets and specification documents. This is available for others to test their existing programs and for developers of new programs.Energyhttp://www.kuleuven.be/bwf/projects/annex58/data/A58_Final_Report_ST4a.pdfHow to make synthetic nanoscale particles consisting of a non-magnetic core and a partial magnetic coating, and how to use these particles to remove organic contaminants from drinking water suppliesOur patented magnetic nanoparticles have range of potential uses, including desalination, removal of pharmaceuticals from water supplies, and recovery of species of economic value (eg Pt group metals) from waster waters and/or products.Agriculture Food and DrinkChemicalsEnvironmentPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyWe have determined various ways in which GNSS systems can be affected by external interference sources and how these can be located.The techniques we have developed although targeted at GNSS frequencies and signals are generic and could be applied to police other segments and services in the radio spectrumAerospace Defence and MarineConstructionDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)ElectronicsLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismGovernment Democracy and JusticeRetailSecurity and DiplomacyTransporthttp://www.chronos.co.uk/files/pdfs/gps/SENTINEL_Project_Report.pdfThe project made a major contribution to the study of education privatisation in Chile through the production of new data sets about subsidized private schools. Prior to the project, this large and growing sector (57% of Chilean schools) had been studied only through administrative data. This project produced three mixed method case studies of local educational markets as well as a representative national level survey of headteachers and owners of subsidized private schools and a survey of parents in particular local markets. These new datasets provide unique empirical evidence at a time of significant educational reform. Analysis has produced significant new conceptual and empirical insights into educational privatisation, as follows. • Diversity of providers. Advocates of privatisation suggest that a diversity of private providers will generation innovation and quality. Our findings show that low barriers in legislation to becoming a state voucher private provider in Chile has resulted in a great variety of providers, with two extreme types: low professional quality schools and high-quality providers. High quality providers have, among other things, more collaborative networks, strong educational knowledge, their own funding to improve infrastructure, well developed procedures and resources to bring better teachers. Low quality providers are generally isolated schools, operating without technical or financial support from public institutions. They have a weak market position due to their poor status and low enrolment and, therefore, a low level of income. These schools tend to educate a high proportion of socio-economically disadvantaged students. Thus Chilean legislation on the involvement of private providers is not designed in such a way as to bring high-standards provision for all learners or social groups. • Competition. Market theory advances the idea of systemic educational gains as a result of competition but little is known about organizational consequences on different types of schools, specific local markets, or specific social groups. Our findings provide new insights about the role of market incentives in improving educational opportunities for all. We found that around one -third of schools are passive players in the market, not identifying any other competitor, while those that do compete tend to do so among "similar" schools in terms of SES composition, academic outcomes, level of selectivity, amount of fees, and type of providers. Thus market incentives are working not to improve quality or innovation, rather to build niches or circuits of similar students. Moreover, decisions by private providers to open a school are highly associated with the characteristics of the territory. Hence, not all Chilean families at local level find similar type of private subsidized provider. Schools also display different competitive behaviours and strategies. As a result, less 'competitive' schools are educating more disadvantaged students, facing patterns of decreasing enrolment and given the voucher funding scheme in Chile, they are becoming poorer while serving the poorest students. Overall, findings show that competition is not necessarily impacting on diversity, quality, and innovation, but contributing to the patterns of school segregation and impoverishing of education of disadvantaged families. • Measurement. The project has also developed and tested a 'public/private index', which operationalises notions of public and private into a school-level score which can be aggregated to higher geographies (cities, regions, countries) to facilitate comparison between places and over time. Conceptually, this is a significant contribution to the literature on measurement of privatisation, which has largely relied on limited dimensions (state/market distinctions) and limited data (such as enrolments in different types of schools). The index is demonstrated by comparing Santiago and London over the period of recent reforms. It finds Santiago to be significantly more private than London in the current period, shows how the systems have become more private in different ways and predicts that Santiago, after current reforms, will be less private than London. A major objective of the project was to train researchers and to build international networks for the Chilean scholars. This was achieved through the involvement of masters and doctoral students and early career researchers in design, data collection, and analysis, writing and dissemination activities in collaboration with senior English researchers. Outcomes have included Chilean ECRs taking up doctoral study in the UK and Chilean researchers joining European and global networks.We identify three different kind of actors who we expect will take forward the findings: • Firstly, a new generation of Chilean early career researchers trained abroad will use these findings to continue expanding the incipient knowledge about subsidized private schools and what they tell us about educational privatisation. The project has laid the foundation for further exploration of currently under-explored links between territory, residential segregation, and local educational market dynamics, and the organizational, financial, moral, and legal issues raised through the diversity of educational providers in this sector. • Secondly, we expect that civil society, public activists, politicians, and student movements, all involved in educational issues in Chile, will use the findings in ongoing debates concerning the re-regulation of educational provision. Among others, the use of public funding for non-educational issues, and the lack of professional skills of some providers to meet educational and emotional needs, may inform debates with policymakers to introduce new legislation in order to assure that public vouchers can satisfactorily be used. It is important to consider that the recent legislation to subsidized private schools in Chile was only superficially dealing with such issues. • Thirdly, it is expected that the international academic community concerned about issues of privatization of public education will be interested in the new understanding the project has offered about the Chilean case. Many countries have followed Chile in increasing involvement of private providers in public educational provision, and they look to Chile for understanding of such policy processes and their effects. The public/private index provides a powerful tool for researchers to use to compare and contrast the extent and nature of privatisation in ways that has hitherto not been possible.EducationThe primary goal of the project was to explore the role of India in a global context of the scientific and philosophical networks of the 1930s the period Julian Huxley dubbed the Modern Synthesis. Rather than the vibrant, productive, interdisciplinary landscape that Huxley describes, we discovered the influence of western hierarchies of knowledge and hegemony of expertise, leading to a homogeneity of ideas and a proliferation of racist and eugenicist assumptions, which were not fully challenged until Indian Independence and the growing antiracist movement, exemplified by UNESCO in the late 1940s and early 50s. Research for this project successfully met all 5 objectives of the proposal. The first objective was to explore the nature of the colonial relationships at the heart of these scientific networks in U.K. and India, identifying key voices in the conversations, the modes of conversation and the influence of power dynamics and assumptions of authority within the networks. In this respect, we identified a number of key relationships which shaped the scientific and political exchanges between Britain and India. In particular, the influence of Julian Huxley, J.B.S. Haldane, C.D. Darlington and Reginald Ruggles Gates on Influential Indian scientists, including E.K. Janaki Ammal, Birbal Sahni, T.S. Venkataraman and P.C. Mahalanobis. The Influence on scientific ideas even spread to Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first premier through conversations with Haldane and Ammal, shaping the scientific philosophy of post-colonial India. The ways in which the communication of this knowledge took place was through studentships, conferences and societies, the latter two worked as spaces of socialisation and discourse. Drawing on De Solla Price's model of invisible colleges, we stress the importance of these platforms over that of publications, as spaces for rapid and constructive debate and knowledge exchange. The role of Indians within specific global conferences was found to be particularly significant and formed the backbone of our public exhibition that was curated on the findings of our research and which is ongoing in Kolkata at the Botanical Survey of India gallery of the Indian Museum.. The second objective was to detail the role of India and outline specific stories of science that relate to individuals, places in the context of significant geopolitical events such as the second world war, and Indian independence and the ways in which these have had an effect on global perspectives on race, ecology and eugenics, culminating in UNESCO's attempts to create an anti-racist science. Our findings placed early 20th century Kolkata at the heart of many of these movements, both as the location of the landmark 1938 Indian Science Congress and as the site for a humanist nationalism exemplified by Rabindranath Tagore, which went on to influence Nehru in his humanist understanding of scientific progress Indian institutions such as the Bose Institute, the Indian Statistical Institute under the auspices of JCBose and Mahalonbis embedded these ideas of scientific humanism further in a post-colonial Indian context with implications for other newly emergent post-colonial countries. India's role in the founding of UNESCO and the writing of the 1951 Statement on Race, which has been underexplored was highlighted in our research, through the influence of Humayun Kabir, Nehru and Amrit Kaur. The third objective was to highlight the importance of environmental ideas to these global debates on science, humanism and nature by focusing on indigenous knowledge and discussions of ethnobotany, conservation and environmental concerns within these these networks. The role of Janaki Ammal was central to this, as a proponent of ethnobotany, whose involvement in the 1955 Chicago conference one of the first 20th-century conferences that challenged anthropocentrism on Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth stressed the importance of indigenous knowledge to the future of humanity and the planet. As appointed to reorganise the Botanical Survey of India, she also stressed the need to properly catalogue ethnobotany in India and became a significant figure in protests against dam building in the Silent Valley in Kerala establishing a global tradition of environmental protest that underlined an interdisciplinary approach to the environment leading to the emergence of modern environmentalism that included common people, forest dwellers, agriculturalists, botanists, zoologists, physicists and poets. The fourth objective was to measure the impact of these debates on a wider society in Britain and India both then and now, including the UNESCO statement of race, the impact on the uptake of the humanist movement in Britain and on scientific humanism and its lasting scientific legacy in India. Our research explored UNESCO's outreach programme in propagating its antiracist and humanist vision of science. The bilateral relationship of influence between Nehru and UNESCO resulted in independent India prioritising science, education and culture, evidenced by Nehru's appointment of Kabir, who had participated in writing UNESCO's Statement on Race, as his Minister of Education. We also explore how this influenced India's education policy in a newly independent context. An associated project was the mangrove school project where school children from marginalised communities visited the exhibition and engaged with it. They also co-curated their own exhibition in the same venue which outlined the impact of climate change in the delta through children's paintings challenging experts views. The exhibition led to new understandings and debates about science, knowledge creation and co-production and was an important art of the outcome of the original exhibition. We are now extending our collaboration with the Botanical Survey of India with regard to the Wardle collection of natural dyes held in their library and developing links with the mangrove school project so that the children are able to learn techniques of natural dying for their workshops and with the scientists of the Botanical Survey who will explain the collection and highlight its importance. The fifth objective was to uncover the hidden history of a major British institute, the JIC, to improve peer learning and public understanding of science including the culture and history of that science with a view to decolonise the history of science. As a centre for global genetics training, John Innes Horticultural Institute (now John Innes Centre) became a space for international science at the heart of many of these debates. With alumni including Janaki Ammal, Darlington and Haldane, the collections at John Innes formed a large part of both our archival research and the exhibits in our public exhibition. Through these collections, we were able to detail the nature of international relationships, including implicit power dynamics, such as those between Darlington and Janaki Ammal. By acknowledging these hidden histories of science (such as outlining Janaki Ammal's specific contributions to these scientific movements), the decolonisation of collections and institutions such as JIC is made possible.These findings will inform historians, scientists and social scientists, giving valuable context to this period of history and the nature of interdisciplinary debate at the heart of the genetics research of the time. This research can be taken forward by historians using interdisciplinary methodologies from anthropology, botany, cytology, eugenics environmentalism, as well as education and political philosophy. The epistemological frameworks of invisible colleges and the role of conferences in scientific and philosophical discourse will also allow social scientists dealing with similar contemporary issues to trace the historical context of their research. The engagement with the exhibition extended to school children from marginalised communities and environments resulting in new understandings about knowledge creation and the role of the scientist or expert. The story of the role of India and the development of anti-racist science under the auspices of UNESCO underlines the importance of global governance institutions such as UNESCO in a post-war post-colonial context. This provides a very fruitful terrain for further research for other scholars who want to extend the narrative to other parts of the world mainly Brazil in the 1950s and the role of Brazilian scientists in the movement towards an anti-racist science. It also feeds into global debates on the history of science in colonial and post-colonial contexts, the discourse of modernity and post-colonial nationalism in a variety of different geographical contexts and for India in particular Nehruvian ideas and visions of modernity. The exhibition both physical and digital and the conference is aimed at bringing the outcomes of this funding to a wider local, national, and international audience.EnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://www.sussex.ac.uk/cweh/newsandevents/index?id=59585Antibodies are a part of the bodies immune system, genetically modified antibodies are used in immunotherapy and targeted drug delivery, especially in oncology. Antibody drugs are stored in pre-filled syringes, but they can adsorb to the oils used to coat these syringes, denaturing the antibodies and lowering the potency of the drug. So far we have proved that neutron reflection, a powerful technique for study very thin films, can be used to directly measure the conformation of antibodies at the oil-water interface, providing a powerful new tool to investigate the cause of antibody denaturation, and in developing tools to combat it.Further development of the technique is ongoing, as well as results looking at more complex antibodies, but the technique could be used to examine why specific drugs denature at the interface, or examine why certain processes, such as adding non-ionic surfactants, reduce denaturation, and how we can improve these techniques.HealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology- How much protein still works after gelation - How efficiently protein gels are bound together - relationship between number of bonds per molecule and gel strengthComprehensive understanding of relationships between concentration, crosslink density, folded fraction, network topology, and a wider range of mechanical propertiesAgriculture Food and DrinkHealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe central questions of this project are whether competition between events is a phenomenon with generality, and whether the spatial and temporal distance (i.e., contiguity) between antecedent events influence how human participants learn about them. Concerning the first question, we have assessed the generality of cue competition phenomena in social scenarios and documented the observation of competition in a cooperation task and also in a spatial learning task, thus attesting at the generality of the phenomenon. Concerning the second question, prior literature asserts that contiguity degrades learning, but little is known about the consequences of manipulating contiguity when there are multiple sources of information (i.e., many things to learn). We have published numerous articles in which we observed that increasing temporal and spatial distance between events attenuates competition- hence concluding that contiguity is necessary for competition to be observed. We have replicated these findings using stimuli of different modalities (for example, from visual to auditory) and variations of the spatial task (replicating findings first observed in food storing birds). This is an important finding because it identifies contiguity as one determinant of competition. Perhaps more relevant is the observation that under some circumstances, manipulations of contiguity between actions and consequences can result in signals facilitating the execution of actions, rather than competing with them. This finding is significant because it suggests opposite outcomes (competition or facilitation between events) as a function of contiguity, a possibility not previously considered in human participants. These findings have implications for the development of theories of human cognition, where the observation of competition has been contested, facilitation is rarely considered as a potential outcome. The project has as of now resulted in 3 new publications published in premiere archival journals in the field of psychology.The outcomes of this project illuminate a variable hitherto not considered by learning theorists (contiguity) which seems to drastically change the outcome of learning when there are multiple events. These findings, if taken seriously, call for a complete rethink of the current theories of learning, because they open the possibility that synergistic interactions between event are also possible, and current theories do not account for these findings. The results of this project also invite for thinking more clearly about the importance of contiguity. Clearly, in daily life decisions aren't always followed by immediate outcomes (i.e., planning for retirement; playing the lottery) yet theories of human cognition have focused exclusively on immediate outcomes. The findings of this project suggest that what we know about immediate consequences may be the opposite to what happens with delayed consequences (or events distal in space) and hence the findings have relevance for the development of new learning theories that better captures cognition in the real world. Academic users are the primary beneficiaries of the research conducted in this project, as are behavioural scientists using basic learning theories to change behaviour in the real world.EducationDuring the first year of the project, older people living with dementia and with Parkinson's disease participated in workshops to co-design a new digital tool. This tool is interactive, and enables older people and their carers/relatives to undertake life planning and life changes that can improve quality of life. The tool is optimised for use on tablet devices that older people were assumed to be more likely to use. During the first and second years of the project, a definition and new, more comprehensive model of quality of life was developed, based on the existing literature and social care frameworks and approaches. The descriptive version of the model defines and associates over 100 key types of quality of life goals that older people are likely to achieve, and links these with almost 1000 types of regular meaningful activities that, if completed, contribute to the achievement of different quality of life goals. This descriptive model was then evolved into a computational model - software that reason about someone's quality of life. The computational version accepts data about a person's behaviour over time, computes compliance with the person's prioritised quality of life goals, and generates recommendations in terms of changes to goals and/or meaningful activities to undertake. Research and development work in year-2 has also developed a new domestic sensor toolkit that does not depend on Internet access to function. The toolkit's sensors collect data related a person's prioritised meaningful activities at home and beyond, using Bayes and Deeper Learning models to compute activity descriptions that are input regularly to the computational model of quality of life for older people. The toolkit's robustness and effectiveness has been tested in people's homes, to improve the hardware design and choose between different Bayes and Deeper Learning models. During the third year, the interactive tool, the computational model of quality of life, and the domestic sensor toolkit were integrated into a single toolset, for testing and evaluation. Rather than integrate all of the elements, the toolset that was used in the evaluation combined the interactive tool and the computational model of quality of life. After internal testing, the toolset was made available to older people living still living independently in their own homes. People living with dementia, people living with Parkinson's disease, and people without diagnosed chronic health conditions are all using the toolset for a period of 8 weeks, to develop and evolve life plan in line with recommendations generated by the toolset. Researchers are collecting data weekly from the participants. The evaluation revealed that older people who used the tool became more active, and the tool's suggestions for improved quality of life fed longer-term life planning, to hand future changes in health and/or situation. During the third year, the team has also used the evolving interactive tool, sensor toolkit and computational model of quality of life to explore the value propositions and emerging business opportunities associated with each. It engaged with investors, practitioners and business owners in the healthcare, social care and other sectors. These engagements led to a new business proposition that the project will seek investment for, based on a new version of the computational model of quality-of-life as software-as-a-service. This service can provide quality-of-life guidance to people in different contexts - living in retirement villages, recovering from medical operations, and looking to lose weight. This new value proposition will be refined for the end of the project.The outcomes of the funding are anticipated to take the following forms: 1. A interactive toolset that encouraged older people to think about quality of life as part of care planning; 2. A new formal model that describes quality-of-life goals and activities, to inform life planning, care and other well-being activities; 3. A computational model of quality-of-life available as software-as-a-service, to integrate into other software-based applications and services; 4. New analog techniques to encourage older people to think about quality-of-life, based on the emerging models.Communities and Social Services/PolicyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)HealthcareLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismOtherhttp://scampi.city.ac.ukWe have studied several families of materials with very exciting structural-property relationships. We have evaluated the effect of substituents on the stability and properties of molecules designed for TADF, specifically those groups that provide non-covalent contacts and steric crowding.The work will help in the design of new materials featuring TADF for application in OLED devices.ElectronicsEnergyThe project was primarily concerned with the investigation semiconductor plasmon structures, with an aim to develop techniques and components for sensing, spectroscopy and imaging suitable for the THz frequency gap. We investigated the fundamental properties of THz surface plasmons on flat and structured semiconductor surfaces, obtaining parameters essential to the design and implementation of devices and sensors such as propagation and confinement lengths.We also demonstrated the modification and switching of surface plasmon modes utilizing the intrinsically tuneable nature of semiconductors, and carried out proof of principle experiments which showed the potential applications for semiconductor plasmons, particularly in imaging. This is something we have now taken several steps further, as we look towards a Holy Grail: a practical THz microscopeThe original proposal was directed towards the development of THz photomodulators and sensors. Indeed, this is still a very active research area for many research groups. However, the most promising and direct application of the findings from this project is in THz imaging, and this is an area that we as a group are very much active, with an ongoing ICASE award.Aerospace Defence and MarinePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyAn optical instrument has been designed and built that combine optical coherence tomography (OCT) with confocal scanning to provide simultaneous measurements of refractive index and thickness of transparent materials. Very high resolution is needed ( 4 decimal places). We have shown that by using a spectrometer to measure the dispersion of the sample we can generate high quality measurements with mean errors for the refractive index measurements and phase measurements <0.01%.We have alos shown that for the confocal measurements off-axis parabolic mirrors perform much better than lenses.the work is currently being assessed for a follow on project involving collaboration with an eye consultant.HealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologySignificant new knowledge on the impact of ageing on healthy skin lipids and microbiota, and new insight on their relationship. The information is currently being prepared for publication. Important new research questions opened up, on how the relationship between skin lipids and the microbiome, affects the quality of the epidermal barrier. Significant interest from new industrial partner; collaboration is under development.research publications under preparation; data will be available via open access data depositories.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyComputational statistical machine learning methods can have a large impact on public policy. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the focus of the applied work was on epidemiological, statistical, and demographic modelling to understand the characteristics and spread of novel variants, the impact of non pharmaceutical interventions, and to quantify pandemic-associated orphanhood. Underlying the applied studies, which had major policy impacts, were novel computational tools we developed, to enable flexible and scalable spatiotemporal statistical modelling. These tools combined statistical approaches to quantifying uncertainty called Bayesian inference with the most exciting area of Artificial Intelligence (which underlies ChatGPT and DALL-E): deep generative modelling.The methods that we developed form the basis for further funding proposals to charities and research councils. The applied work underpins very large-scale funding requests to support orphans and vulnerable children in low and middle-income countries currently being considered by international partners and country governments.HealthcareGovernment Democracy and Justicehttps://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/covid-19/orphanhood/index.htmlThe texture and depth of the contributions that South Asians have made to Britain over a period of over 150 years has been far more significant that most of the British population realize or acknowledge. This project has opened up the presence of South Asians in Britain. Heightening awareness and understanding of the close relationship between Britain and South Asia is increasingly of crucial social and political significance.Simply in research terms the material we have uncovered could lead to several PHDs and has already spawned more new research by early career researchers. The Foreign Office and British High Commission in Kolkata have commented on the value of the research for their staff working in South Asia as the research has deepened knowledge and understanding of the long history between both countries. The material could also be used for schools and in implementing changes to the curriculum.Communities and Social Services/PolicyCreative EconomyEducationSecurity and DiplomacyThe award has lead to the development of an engineered human skeletal muscle which can regenerate following injury. These tissues are functional when electrically stimulated and contain a range of cells contained within human skeletal muscle. This model of skeletal muscle will allow the physiology and pathophysiology of skeletal muscle regeneration to be examined within a system representative of human biology, reducing the need for animal models and increasing the relevance of basic scientific findings.This model presents an opportunity for groups within the field of skeletal muscle regeneration to expand their biological tool box to include an open source engineered tissue which can be applied to research questions applicable to skeletal muscle wound healing. In addition, the observation that these tissues recover from injury suggests they may be more widely applicable in areas such as response to exercise and skeletal muscle ageing. Importantly the model has been designed to be as flexible in application as possible to allow adaption to future work as quickly and effectively as possible.HealthcareOtherWe have determined the seasonal cycle of N-osmolytes at station L4, and A new formulation describing N-osmolytes production and fate has been implemented in ERSEM. We have discovered that N-osmolyte measurement is critically dependent on the sampling, sample handling methodology, and LC/MS methodology, which we have optimised and published (Beale and Airs 2016). We have examined the seasonal cycle and determined the key drivers with a modelling approach. N-osmolytes seasonality is to be driven by both nutrient limitation and phytoplankton succession. N-osmolyte enhanced production is triggered by internal N:C ratio >8. Summer phytoplankton groups such as dinoflagellates are likely to play a major role in N-osmolytes production (analogy with DMSP). Under nutrient replete conditions, N-osm. production is very low (production ranges from < 0.01 to > 5 nmol L-1 d-1). NosD concentrations range between 4 and 60% of NosP (but generally <20%). Phytoplankton lysis is the main source of NosD (2 times larger than the grazing mediated production). Cellular quota of N-osmolytes is an important parameter (especially the min quota) and needs to be investigated in specific experiments. Modelling work has shown that N-osmolytes infer an advantage for growth of dinoflagellates at L4. We have also collected samples throughout the seasonal cycle for DNA and RNA to determine the microbial populations utilising N-osmolytes through the season. These samples have been extracted and sequenced by the project team in Warwick. At regular points through the seasonal cycle, we have also determined the microbial N-osmolyte assimilation and dissimilation rates, also on water from station L4. While Rhodobacteraceae were the most important prokaryotic drivers for bacterial choline uptake, bacterial GBT uptake was associated with various groups such as SAR11 (Pelagibacterales) and Gammaproteobacteria, suggesting a wider capacity for GBT catabolism than previously recognized.We have also undertaken a metagenomics data-mining exercise which examines the abundance of genes encoding N-osmolyte breakdown in the marine environment (Jameson et al., 2016).Our findings have been used to measure N-osmolytes in the Southern Ocean within project PEGASO (Plankton-derived emissions of trace gases and aerosols in the Southern Ocean), and that data has been published in Scientific Reports (Dall'Osto et al. 2017). Our findings are also being used within the project SORPASSO (Surveying Organic Reactive gases and Particles Across the Surface Southern Ocean) within the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition, particularly informing sampling for N-osmolytes. Additionally, our data are directly informing the project NOSASSO (N-Osmolytes Across the Surface Southern Ocean), which adds value to our NERC funded research.EnvironmentMy work has primarily focused on developing an accurate and reliable way of measuring the transference number of liquid electrolytes for lithium metal anode batteries. The transference number is a property of the electrolyte that looks at how well one ion moves with respect to all other ions in solution. This is important because if the active ion, in this case Li+, has a transference number of less than 1 then a concentration gradient develops across the interelectrode space. This could be extended to a concentration drop at the surface of the lithium, when plating, which has been suggested as a reason to why dendritic structures grow readily on while charging. There have been a variety of methods been developed for measuring the transference number over the years: some having assumptions with regards to ideality & convection, and others being difficult when emulating real applications. The methods I have developed acknowledge the ideality assumptions made in other methods - one involves the use of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), and the other Raman spectroscopy. The method involving Raman is particularly powerful because one can see the concentration gradient form with time, linking it to transference number and other electrolyte properties that we can measure.Both measuring the transference number accurately and monitoring the concentration gradients of electrolytes with time is highly valuable for the science community, especially those working in the battery/electrochemistry field. With many researchers working on the suppression of dendrite growth on lithium metal anodes, this method is a step forward at understanding why using some electrolytes dendrites will form and cause the failure of the battery. These methods can be extended and used for all liquid electrolytes, and perhaps even used for some solid electrolytes.ChemicalsEnergyEnvironmentMy work is focused on isolating applications that are running on the same computer from each other. Additionally, my isolation mechanism should protect applications from malicious operating systems. I call this isolation mechanism private execution. Through my work on private execution I have studied a class of attacks called side-channel attacks, which use implementation specific details to extract information from a victim indirectly. An example of a direct channel of communication is if you ask a child if they've brushed their teeth, but you can check this with a side channel by testing whether the toothbrush is wet. Similar channels exist in modern processors where resources are shared between applications and this sharing causes traces of information to leak from one application to another. Since my previous submission, I have been able to publish a paper on the Praesidio system, which shows that it is possible to physically isolate enclaves onto separate cores to stop even privileged attackers from stealing data from enclaves. We show that this is possible for Linux applications on a RISC-V processor, which gives us high confidence that it is possible on other general purpose operating systems and processors as well.These specific findings can be used by hardware developers to make better processors and can be used by private execution environments to improve their security. Finally, understanding side-channel attacks helps developers understand what attacks private execution environments protect against and what protections they need to build themselves.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)ElectronicsSecurity and Diplomacyhttps://doi.org/10.1145/3411505.3418437We have discovered that a protein integral in regulating gene expression is itself regulated at the protein level through methylation of arginine residues. Methylation altered interactions with DNA repair proteins and also affected proteome wide modifications.Reagents and proof-of-principle experiments were developed, and preliminary data provides exciting leads for future work, eg Methylation altered interactions with DNA repair proteins and altered proteome wide modifications.Pharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyDuring the project, behavioural and electrophysiological bioassays for assessing the repellency of volatile, plant-derived natural products (semiochemicals) against whiteflies were developed, with the ultimate goal of developing novel whitefly management technologies. Olfactory stimuli elicited no significant antennal responses from whiteflies by electroantennography, thus making it difficult to use this technique for a comparative analysis of different semiochemicals. The establishment of a reliable whitefly repellency bioassay was challenging because the behavioural responses of the whiteflies were not consistent. The application of the whitefly repellent 7-epizingiberene did not make the cultivated tomato plant, Solanum lycopersicum, less attractive towards the settlement of Bemisia tabaci SUD-S and MEAM1/B in our experimental set up of a free-choice assay. Neat 7-epizingiberene or (R)-curcumene did not repel B. tabaci SUD-S and MEAM1/B in y-shaped olfactometer assays. The application of 7-epizingiberene or (R)-curcumene did not make cotton, Gossypium hirsutum, and French bean plants, Phaseolus vulgaris, less attractive towards the settlement of B. tabaci SUD-S and Trialeurodes vaporariorum, respectively, in wind tunnel assays. A review article on plant-produced, volatile semiochemicals and their potential application in white?y management was published to identify gaps in white?y olfaction research and encourage work on this topic. A methodology was developed to prepare a chemical standard of 7-epizingiberene from leaves extracts of the wild tomato plant Solanum habrochaites (accession PI127826) using chromatographic separations techniques. The aphid species Myzus persicae and Sitobion avenae showed a repellent behaviour towards the whitefly semiochemical 7-epizingiberene in the four-arm olfactometer.The findings will be taken forward by scientists interested in the interaction between crop plants and whitefly pests, and those interested in the deployment of novel semiochemicals for whitefly management.Agriculture Food and DrinkManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyOne of the main findings was how the material of interest, next generation of nuclear graphite (T220 and SNG623), deform and fracture at temperatures up to 1100C. What I have found was that this material becomes stronger and more resistant to crack growth at elevated temperature as the conventional British grade graphite but to an different extent. The techniques have been extended to other composite materials such as ceramic-matrix composite (CMCs). The main outcome from this aspect is to identify the different failure modes of SiC-SiC and oxide-oxide materials at temperatures up to 1200C.The results have been disseminated at various conferences and meetings with industry. That helped the related research partners operating both current generation of reactors and those interested in the future design understand the behavior of graphite and ceramic matrix material better. The results will be taken into consideration for the safety evaluation for operating reactors as well as for the design of next generation concepts. In addition, the understanding gained on CMCs will help to design the material better in the UK and worldwide.Aerospace Defence and MarineEnergyThe research under this award led to the development of a new methodology for the control of physical systems involving the interplay between mathematical and simulation techniques. On the one hand, so-called reduced-order mathematical models which are fast and effective vectors for designing control strategies were deployed to gain an understanding of the solution space where they were applicable. On the other, advanced simulation techniques were developed in a manner that would allow active exchange of information with the previous models. This allowed the construction of a framework which is much more powerful, pushing both models and simulation much further than their isolated capabilities. Systems based on liquid films have been used as a target application area, given these form classical setups in technologies such as oil recovery and microchip cooling. However the proposed hierarchical control methodology has had productive ramifications towards hydrodynamic controls involving electric fields or towards other areas, such as battery lifecycle modelling, all of which benefit from approaches that productively harness synchronised reduced-order models and advanced simulation techniques.From a fundamental perspective, the theoretical progress made will be of benefit to international control-theoretical communities (mathematics and engineering) that can make use of advanced numerical techniques to validate and extend standard approaches, providing useful information into making further analytical progress. The specific capabilities studied in terms of liquid film control provide useful exploratory avenues for next generation cooling systems in large scale computing systems, while also benefitting general microfluidic and/or small scale multi-phase liquid transport systems. These advances have been progressed through an impact acceleration award and an application to the ICMS Research in Groups program, and will also be evidenced in national and international meetings, such as a dedicated mini-symposium in the British Applied Mathematics Colloquium. Several collaborations within the large scale fluids mechanics community, but also with colleagues in broader applied mathematics fields have been initiated, and are expected to evolve into larger scale efforts in terms of strengthening both theoretical capabilities and aiding the implementation of this body of work.ElectronicsEnergyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPlastic Electronics is based on a new type of semiconducting material which is soft and flexible rather than hard and brittle. Plastic Electronics is considered a disruptive technology, not displacing conventional electronics, but creating new markets because it enables the printing of electronic materials at low temperatures so that plastic, fabric, paper and other flexible materials can be used as substrates. New applications include intelligent or interactive packaging, RFID tags, e-readers, flexible power sources and lighting panels. The organic field effect transistor (OFET) is the fundamental building block of plastic electronics and is used to amplify and switch electronic signals. A new class of lamellar polymers, mostly developed in the UK, provides the required state-of the art performance because of their macromolecular self-organisation. However a major problem is that the materials are only well-ordered in microscopic domains; trapping in grain boundaries and poor interconnectivity between domains substantially reduce performance and reliability. The low voltage operation of OFETs requires that the gate insulators have a high dielectric constant. We have synthesized and studied novel insulating dielectrics for OFETs based on nanorods of titanium oxide which are capped by ligands. The nanorods form lyotropic liquid crystal phases and thin films of the nanorods were aligned in one direction by solution shearing. Doped titanium oxide and hafnium oxide nanorods are also being developed as dielectric thin films with low leakage currents. The materials have been characterised using a wide variety of techniques including X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, electrical measurements, photoelectron spectroscopy, fourier transform infra-red, etc. We found that the resistance of thin films of titanium oxide nanorods can be switched and reset between two stable states on application of negative and positive voltage pulses respectively. Hence they can be used as memristors or memory switching devices. Such devices could potentially replace transistors in future computers because of their higher circuit density. They can also emulate biological synapses, and so can be used to model learning and forgetting in the human brain. The materials have two advantages for low-cost and high performance manufacturing: solution processability and the ability to fabricate multi-layer devices since insoluble films can be made by crosslinking the ligands by irradiation with ultraviolet light. We are studying the mechanism of resistive switching and have identified two different modes of switching dependent on how the thin films are treated. Capacitance switching is also observed. Finally the nanorod materials are being investigated as polarization sensitive ultraviolet detectors.The memory switching application of our materials was not in our original application but is extremely interesting because of its applicability to future computing and the modelling of human memory. We have not yet tested the dielectric materials in transistors because of the high leakage currents.ChemicalsDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)ElectronicsEnergyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyA large part of the project concerns Picard groups for blocks of finite groups. In recent research, these have been crucial in classifying blocks of finite groups up to Morita equivalence, however relatively little was known about them. For instance, they had only been calculated in restricted cases. In work by Livesey, Eaton and Livesey and Livesey and Marchi, Picard groups are determined in a wide range of cases, giving a foundation for further study. This further study includes work by Livesey and Linckelmann on bounding the size of certain important subgroups of the Picard group.A foundation of cases in which the Picard group is known provides the means for further research on this emerging theme of study.Creative EconomyThe work carried out under this project has provided insight into the workings of press ethics and regulatory environments in a number of counties ranked highly in the RSF press freedom rankings. Chief amongst our findings are that trust in journalism amongst the public spring, in part from knowledge of how media works in their own countries. As such, greater levels of media literacy, especially concerning the regulatory environment journalist operate within, are vital in building media cultures that work for the public. In countries with her levels of trust in journalism (e.g. Finland) there is evidence of greater levels of media literacy amongst the public. Likewise, the broader journalism culture within each country, impacts on ethical practices of journalists given that their knowledge of greater public awareness, reflexively acts to police ethical boundaries. In response to this research, we suggest that greater effort need to be placed on building knowledge and trust between journalism institutions and members of the public. A greater role for the public in the regulatory system and knowledge amongst the public of this system is imperative if trust in the legitimacy of these institutions is to be repaired. The original objectives of the research, to explore and examine the lived experience of journalists, regulators and third sector organisations in top ranked countries, has provided interesting findings which have generated impact within the industry and wider society. These impacts include changes to the ethics codes of one of the UK's press regulators IMPRESS which has built on our suggestions to their code review to develop a more public focussed system of press regulation. This has also prompted further funding and a follow-on project with IMPRESS into public understanding of ethics and regulation in journalism. We have also fed into a number of inquiries in Parliament with regards the future of journalism and ethical reporting of religious matters. We intend to publish further findings of the project in due course and have these published in appropriate outlets.We suggest that regulators pay more attention to their public facing roles and engage the public in their regulatory activity if at all possible. This is particularly important in relation to public service provision such as journalism. We have already built upon the findings of this research in the development of further research activity to empower stakeholders within the media as well as those outside the sector.Communities and Social Services/PolicyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)https://www.derby.ac.uk/departments/humanities/defining-freedom-of-the-press/Although the project was delayed due to Covid our researchers wer able to gain more or less full access to the fieldwork sites as originally estimated. We have used remote methods and in-person fieldwork to gather our key findings. 1. Perceptions about the prevalence of gendered violence are very skewed among the public in both cities, Delhi and Johannesburg, with a tendency to assume public violence as a larger threat than private/domestic violence. 2. Although there is a clear circulation of feminist discourse and ideas, these are framed narrowly and the tendency to consider men as protectors is salient in both Delhi and Johannesburg. Violence against women is often framed as an exception and often as a result of women's own actions. 3. In courts and police stations what counts as violence is very narrow, and women who are from marginalized backgrounds face huge obstacles in getting their cases heard. 4. On the other hand, there is a relative paucity of domestic violence services in wealthier neighbourhoods in Delhi and Johannesburg. Race and class is a major factor in determining whether women are heard by the state authorities in Johannesburg, with Black middle class women being the least credible to police when reporting violence. Our research is pointing to the need for a consistently intersectional approach to understanding gendered violence, not only in terms of its prevalence but also perception among the authorities and the wider public. 5. We have a textured sense of how violence presents itself in daily life and relations, as well as the multiple informal ways (away from police, counsellors, or lawyers) in which it is dealt with. Furthermore, building a map of these social worlds and the systems of meaning, values, social roles, and interpersonal bargains that constitute them, we are also able to think creatively about violence: when is violence likely to erupt, how is it likely to play out, how is it likely to be addressed. We are mapping the entirety of gendered social worlds and women's gendered positioning within them, by locating these within wider forces of urban change. 6. The digital is an important a site for the mediation of intimacy and hurt. The semi-public space of WhatsApp, Tik Tok and Instagram is used to address very personal experiences emotional worlds and/or direct violence. 7. The currency of work and capital and its gendered distribution is a big theme that runs through all the conversations and is crucial to how power is distributed in the home and familial relations, as well as how violence is anticipated and managed. Work or its lack, and capital or its lack, come to be directly linked to probabilistic calculations of the occurrence of violence and its outcome. 8. Women's choices of urban mobility are divided between either risk-taking behaviour of free movement which is often done in a clandestine way, circumventing authority and surveillance, or through permission-seeking and permission-granting by supportive or authoritative male figures. 9. In the absence of a socially accepted modes of addressing domestic/ structural violence, many middle-class women turn to healing, psychotherapy and other spiritual practices for emotional redress and relief. In this model of healing, the focus is on the self, forgetting and forgiving. In Johannesburg middle class women have turned to private security to address their fears and insecurities in the city. 10. The public discourse about gendered violence (both private and public) is more overt in Johannesburg and readily employed by women than we found in India, where there is very little public acknowledgment of violence. However, NGOs have suggested that victims of GBV are given a hypervisibility that may cause them more harm: men need to be addressed more deliberately about the harm they may cause and where/how it may be rooted and avoided.We are working with various women's NGOs to disseminate these results as we go along. We envisage these findings to impact the way that various organizations - non-governmental and governmental - do the work of 'violence prevention' by taking a more intersectional approach. In addition, we have developed artistic outputs, and short and long documentary films to create wider awareness of our findings.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEducationGovernment Democracy and JusticeThe polymerisation of lactide was attempted with the use of phosphorus-based catalysts, however this was deemed to be ineffective compared to other catalysts currently used for this purpose. Instead the catalysts were found to be active for the breakdown of the polymer in the presence of an alcohol and are able to do this effectively and cleanly. This new avenue will be explored further with the aims of publication. In other work, progress has been made in the production of previously unknown phosphorus oxides through the loss of ethene in a relatively atom efficient method.The preliminary results that have been obtained from the production of phosphorus oxides opens up avenues for other areas of research, including the modification of the materials used to develop other high oxidation state phosphorus compounds, and potential catalytic applications of the species produced.ChemicalsEnvironmentManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyMeasurement of cross-sections and gamma emission nuclear data for variety of nuclear applications in the fields of energy production and radiotherapy.Measured nuclear data are evaluated and contribute to databases that are used by the nuclear industry.EnergyHealthcareWe have obtained some key findings on machine learning infrastructure, theory and practice for optimizing machine learning workflow, data visualization for supporting machine learning, as well as machine learning techniques and applications. We will detail these further.(1) Through our publications, (2) through open-data and open source software, and (3) through the software, knowledge, and skills retained by STFC.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationWe have developed in collaboration with Illumina and Rumen the first DNAmethylation array, the Infinium Bovine Methylation Array.The array can be purchased by any personAgriculture Food and DrinkThe first paper of this thesis provides the first detailed account of fertility trends and patterns in Azerbaijan since independence from the Soviet Union and explores them in relation to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia. My findings offer evidence of substantial period fertility decline, triggered primarily via family size limitation. However, I next show that women who have been affected by conflict violence - whether through forced displacement or because of residence in the conflict-torn Karabakh region - show considerably higher probability of having a second birth than not-exposed women. Never-migrant women from Karabakh also transition sooner to have a first birth. Additional positive associations with fertility, possibly explained by replacement and insurance effects, are observed following child loss during peak conflict years. By complementing and expanding existing demographic research on post-Soviet fertility changes, which has been thus far scant in the Caucasus region and has widely neglected the role of still ongoing armed conflict, I believe this first part is highly relevant for reproductive and health policy targeting vulnerable women. n the second section of my thesis, I explore changes in nuptiality in the Caucasus region and link them to armed conflicts. Findings suggest that in all countries of the region, the rate of first marriages substantially declined in the post-independence period. In Armenia and Georgia, the decrease was primarily effected via lowering rates among adolescents. Here, the declining trend continued in the new century, albeit at a slower pace, and was accompanied by mild increases in age at marriage. This suggests incipient modernisation of marriage behaviour. By contrast, in Azerbaijan, the post-independence decrease in unions occurred at all ages, especially in years marked by the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. This decline appears to have halted and reversed with the start of the new millennium: since 2000, first marriage rates have steadily increased - for young adult women in particular - accompanied by some declines in female age at marriage and continuing universal transition to marriage. Second, exploiting the peculiarities of Azerbaijan's marriage trajectories and its unsolved conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, I show that women who were exposed to armed conflict - whether in the form of forced migration or because of residence in the conflict-torn Karabakh region - when reaching marriage age were less likely to enter into union at any given time than exposed women belonging to cohorts that attained marriage age before the key conflict years, and than women of the same cohorts, who were though not directly exposed to conflict violence. Additional analyses reveal that lower probabilities of entering union were essentially associated with the cohort that reached marriage age towards the end of the peak conflict hostilities and with forcibly displaced. Forced migration and long-term conflict exposure during childhood appear as possible mechanisms explaining the postponement of unions.This research is the first to explore fertility, marriage and family formation dynamics more broadly in the South Caucasus and to explore their relationship with armed conflict in the region. The relevance of the outcomes is both theoretical as it can serve as a starting point to future researchers interested in the region, and practical. Besides feeding the theoretical debate on the mechanisms linking conflict, marriage and fertility, the findings also concern policy-makers: for instance, in a context where fertility has been oscillating around the replacement level, if households more affected by violence are also at a less advanced stage in the fertility transition, ceteris paribus, their size and number relative to less-exposed is going to increase with time, and their needs are going to become increasingly pressing.HealthcareGovernment Democracy and JusticeOtherThe Virtual Atomic and Molecular Data Centre (VAMDC) Consortium is a worldwide consortium which federates atomic and molecular databases through an e-science infrastructure and an organisation to support this activity. About 90% of the inter-connected databases handle data that are used for the interpretation of astronomical spectra and for modelling in many fields of astrophysics. Recently the VAMDC Consortium has connected databases from the radiation damage and the plasma communities, as well as promoting the publication of data from Indian institutes. This grant reviewed how the VAMDC Consortium (and particularly the UK members) are organised for the optimal distribution of atomic and molecular data for scientific research. Key outcomes were study of how to develop an international protocol for reporting of uncertainties in calculated data and the need to provide evaluation of data in proffered data bases for the user communities. The UK role and leadership in these areas was recognised and has been developed with the UK taking leading role in trwo subsequent data base projects RADAM ( atomic and molecular physics for Radiation damage and radiotherapy http://radamdb.mbnresearch.com) and VESPA on line data service for planetary science part of Europlanet a European research Infrastructure which I chair and currently UK leads http://www.europlanet-2020-ri.eu/VAMDC and its architecture is being used in wider EU programmes such as Europlanet http://www.europlanet-2020-ri.eu/ and its VESPA (planetary science) http://www.europlanet-vespa.eu/ and PSWS (space weather) http://planetaryspaceweather-europlanet.irap.omp.eu/ data series and the RADAM database for radiotherapy http://radamdb.mbnresearch.com/Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)ElectronicsEnvironmentHealthcarehttp://www.vamdc.eu/Findings can not be discussed yet.Findings can not be discussed yet.ChemicalsManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyObjective: The anti-tumor effects of FKBPL and its extracellular role in angiogenesis are well characterised, however its role in physiological/developmental angiogenesis and the impact of FKBPL ablation has not been evaluated. This is important as effects of some angiogenic proteins are dosage dependent. Here we evaluated the regulation of FKBPL secretion under angiogenic stimuli as well as the effect of FKBPL ablation in angiogenesis using mice and zebrafish models. Approach and Results: FKBPL was secreted maximally by human microvascular endothelial cells and fibroblasts and this was specifically downregulated by pro-angiogenic hypoxic signals, but not by the angiogenic cytokines, VEGF or IL8. FKBPL's critical role in angiogenesis was supported by our inability to generate a Fkbpl knockout mouse, with embryonic lethality occurring prior to E8.5. However, whilst Fkbpl heterozygotic embryos showed some vasculature irregularities, the mice developed normally. In murine angiogenesis models including the ex vivo aortic ring assay, in vivo sponge assay, and tumour growth assay, Fkbpl+/- mice exhibited increased sprouting, enhanced vessel recruitment and faster tumour growth, respectively, supporting the anti-angiogenic function of FKBPL. In zebrafish, zFkbpl expression correlated with endothelial marker zFli1; its knockdown using morpholinos disrupted the vasculature and the phenotype was rescued with hFKBPL. Interestingly, this vessel disruption was ineffective when zcd44 was knocked-down supporting the dependency of zFkbpl on zCd44 in zebrafish. In addition, we established that FKBPL+/- mice are obese, reinforcing the role of FKBPL and angiogenesis in this condition Conclusions: FKBPL is an important regulator of angiogenesis, having an essential role in murine and zebrafish blood vessel development. Mouse models of angiogenesis, demonstrated a pro-angiogenic phenotype in Fkbpl heterozygotes. FKBPL may be associated with a host of cnditions linked to aberrant angiogenesis - obesity and cancer were examined here.We established that FKBPL has a clear role in development angiogenesis with important implications for a host of conditions associated with pathological angiogenesis. We demonstrated a key obesity phenotype in FKBPL deficient mice- linked with excessive angiogenesis, this has implications for a host of obesity-related diseases associated with this protein. We have developed a therapeutic peptide ALM201 which can reverse this obesity phenotype in our FKBPL deficient and indeed wild-type mice, suggesting that ALM201 may have other therapeutic applications in addition to being an anti-tumour drug.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttp://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofPharmacy/Research/Pulmonary hypertension (PH), i.e. high blood pressure in the lungs, is a serious medical condition that can damage the right ventricle of the heart and ultimately lead to heart failure. Standard diagnostic procedures are based on right-heart catheterization, which is an invasive technique that can potentially have serious side effects. Recent methodological advancements in fluid dynamics modelling of the pulmonary blood circulation system promise to mathematically predict the blood pressure based on non-invasive measurements of the blood flow. Thus, subsequent to PH diagnostication, further investigations would no longer require catheterization. However, in order for these alternative techniques to be applicable in the clinic, accurate model calibration and parameter estimation are paramount. Medical interventions taken to combat high blood pressure (as predicted from the mathematical model) alter the underlying cardiovascular physiology, thus interfering with the parameter estimation procedure. In our work, we have carried out a series of cardiovascular simulations to assess the reliability of cardiovascular physiological parameter estimation in the presence of medical interventions. Our principal result is that if the closed-loop effect of medical interventions is ignored, there is a significant estimation bias, which we have quantified under different assumed physiological scenarios. However, if the closed-loop effect of medical interventions is properly accounted for, our model calibration provides accurate parameter estimates, including a reliable quantification of the intrinsic estimation uncertainty. Details can be found in [reference the two papers by Husmeier & Paun]. This finding has important implications for the applicability of cardio-physiological modelling in the clinical practice.Applied in a variety of areas. Used by Aegean airlines to change the way they model pricing decisionsDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Financial Services and Management ConsultancyHealthcareLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismTransporthttps://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/computing/research/researchsections/ida-section/closedloop/Trinucleotide repeat (TNR) expansions cause nearly 20 severe human neurological diseases which are currently untreatable. Expansions can occur both between generations (inherited expansions) and within tissues of an individual (somatic expansions). For some of these diseases, ongoing somatic expansions accelerate disease progression and may influence age of onset. This emphasizes the importance of understanding the protein factors that drive expansions. Recent genetic evidence indicates that the mismatch repair factor MutSß (Msh2-Msh3 complex) and the histone deacetylase HDAC3 function in the same pathway to drive triplet repeat expansions. Here we tested the hypothesis that HDAC3 deacetylates MutSß and thereby activates it to drive expansions. The HDAC3-selective inhibitor RGFP966 was used to examine its biological and biochemical consequences in human tissue culture cells. HDAC3 inhibition efficiently suppresses repeat expansion without impeding canonical mismatch repair activity. Five key lysine residues in Msh3 are direct targets of HDAC3 deacetylation. In cells expressing Msh3 in which these lysine residues are mutated to arginine, the inhibitory effect of RGFP966 on expansions is largely bypassed, consistent with the direct deacetylation hypothesis. RGFP966 treatment does not alter MutSß subunit abundance or complex formation but does partially control its subcellular localization. Deacetylation sites in Msh3 overlap a nuclear localization signal, and we show that localization of MutSß is partially dependent on HDAC3 activity. Together, these results indicate that MutSß is a key target of HDAC3 deacetylation and provide insights into an innovative regulatory mechanism for triplet repeat expansions. The results suggest expansion activity may be druggable and support HDAC3-selective inhibition as an attractive therapy in some triplet repeat expansion diseases.Triplet repeat expansions cause nearly 20 inherited neurological diseases. The molecular mechanism of expansions is of interest at two levels. First is the basic science of how triplet repeats expand, and the second is the therapeutic opportunity to treat expansion diseases. This study presents evidence that addresses both areas of interest. We show that the histone deacetylase HDAC3 acts directly on the DNA mismatch repair protein MutSß to stimulate CAG•CTG repeat expansions. This basic science insight into the mechanism also provides an explanation for how HDAC3 inhibition in Huntington's disease mice leads to suppression of triplet repeat expansions and could therefore be considered as a therapy for Huntington's disease and potentially other CAG•CTG repeat expansion diseases. Our results therefore suggest that under some circumstances there may be benefit in using HDAC inhibitors to prevent triplet repeat expansions.HealthcareHigh temperature electrolyser design is not stable, not highly efficient, and not designed for high temperature steam produced, for example at nuclear reactors. Additionally, the challenge in the field of electrode manufacturing is their limited scalability (catalysts surface area). The innovation in the research included catalyst and cell design for efficient hydrogen production with stable structure for high temperature operation. Research objectives were achieved by designing, fabricating, and testing various test samples for solid oxide steam electrolysis (SOSE), for hydrogen production at 600-900 °C temperature range. Manufacturing of the cathode, electrolyte and anode layers were carried using a thermal spray and dip coating techniques, including metasurface manufacturing for enhanced reactive surface area. In the current research, a tubular design was considered as it offers several advantages. The research task included: (a) benchmarking the tubular cell design for nuclear reactor heat transfer, (b) design optimisation using thermomechanical analysis, (c) material selection, manufacturing, and various analytical characterisation, and (d) cell testing at various temperature. Benchmarking goal was to identify the most efficient and effective design for transferring heat. Following which we carried selected range of design, simulations, manufacturing, and testing. For example, the results of thermomechanical analysis contributed to further improvements in the overall design of the tubular SOSE and foreseeing potential effects in the planned high temperature laboratory tests. The choice of materials and manufacturing and their arrangement played a crucial role in achieving desired properties and overall cell performance. Our experiments shows that the tubular electrolyser cell provides an improved performance, i.e., working at a higher current density for a given voltage, which means our design has higher hydrogen production rate, compared to the existing cells.Commercialisation of our tubular design with metasurface catalyst layer for enhanced reactive surface area will lead to lower levelized cost of production leading faster adoption of green hydrogen production technologies. Important to note that multi-material parts manufacturing in the current solid oxide steam electrolysis (SOSE) is not sufficient to meet future demand, so innovative and new manufacturing technologies are urgently required. Method through this research can be developed specifically to ramp up and support future growth and adapt to unexpected changes in the SOSE. Cost is another factor that needs to be addressed to make hydrogen a viable energy source that provides an alternative to fossil fuels. Manufacturing modular SOSE, cost effective product designs and related techno-economic feasibility is a big challenge for such technology. Public acceptance, awareness, and long-term affordability are other issues that can impede the production of hydrogen through SOSE. This case study seeks to introduce economic benefit assessment for any future manufacturing needs. Our research is still at the lab scale, we need to further upscale fabrication and optimise microstructures before it can be commercialised. However, our electrolyser has huge potential for accelerating green hydrogen economy providing cleaner environment for public.EnergyManufacturing including Industrial Biotechologyhttps://www.rgu.ac.uk/news/news-2024/6855-rgu-researchers-make-steam-based-hydrogen-production-breakthroughThis grant represents the transfer of MR/T017546/1 to my new institution QMUL and therefore all outputs and findings apply to MR/T017546/2 as well. We are working toward enabling methods to engineer the components of photosynthesis, the photosystems, to enable biotechnological applications that could have an impact on the development of sustainable advanced technologies. Within the first 5 years of the fellowship we have been able to develop and adapt methods to perform directed evolution of the photosystems. We have produced the first gene libraries that diversify the key component of the photosystem. We have adapted simpler and more complex methods, which we are now using to engineer novel photosystems. We have now isolated over 50 photosystems with an unprecedented range of mutations that we plan to continue characterizing, and are preparing for a second round of evolution. We have also produced two lines of photosystem complex with novel catalytic domains including a reductive dehalogenation and hydroxylation domains. We have developed a CRISPR-based hypermutation system that we're about to deploy to begin testing and characterizing. We have also initiated a long-term genome evolution experiment in cyanobacteria: the only lineage of bacteria capable of oxygenic photosynthesis and of major biotech interest for developing green technologies. We have now over 100 genomes from five different strains, under different conditions and time points, giving us, for the first time, a high resulution view of genome evolution for these organisms. This new data is becoming a source of new discoveries and might have major impact for the practices and maintainance of photosynthetic microbes in culture collection or biotechnology projects.The research is ongoing. I hope however that many of the method we are developing will open possibilities for the use of photosynthetic enzyme in biocatalysis applications.Agriculture Food and DrinkChemicalsEducationEnergyEnvironmentManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologySignificant new knowledge generated - Information on the role that indigenous people and enslaved African peoples played in the development of the St Vincent Botanical Garden in terms of folk medicines, horticultural practice, and labour in the Garden; the original locations of plants in the Garden from 1785-1811, rewriting the history of Breadfruit in St Vincent New or improved research methods or skills developed - Analysis of historic glues used for mounting dried and pressed plant specimens - new to Natural History Museum Important new research resources identified - The cataloguing and scanning of dried and pressed plant specimens sent by Anderson to London and held by the Natural History Museum Important new research questions opened up - What glue was used in St Vincent for mounting dried and pressed plant specimens?, What was Anderson's wife's role and being 'very deaf' was her enslaved African woman Maria with daughters Chance, Francis and Liverpool effectively her ears? Can the names of more enslaved African men working in the Garden be traced? Particularly noteworthy new research networks/collaborations/partnerships, or combinations of these; - Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew and the St Vincent National Rivers, Park and Beaches Authority; Antonio Carluccio Foundation and the St Vincent Botanical Garden Increased research capability generated from training delivered in specialist skills; ?? Summary information combining outcomes detailed in other sections: What were the most significant achievements from the award? - the combing of several disciplines not usually in conversation to highlight the role that Indigenous and Enslaved African peoples played in the development of the St Vincent Botanical Garden, notably in terms of folk medicinal cures and horticultural knowledge To what extent were the award objectives met? If you can, briefly explain why any key objectives were not met. - all the objectives were met; the pop-up exhibition was produced and plans are being made for various academic and popular publications; talks have and continue to be given with networks made to ensure African-Caribbean youth in the UK can learn about researching heritage and producing their own pop-up exhibitions How might the findings be taken forward and by whom? - the research team will be taking forward many of the findings, especially the PL. All parties wish to continue collaborating as there is much more potential to use the data for future educational and environmental projects; funding allowing. At least two datasets have been created related to the project; one from the Natural History Museum cataloging the dried and pressed plant specimens they hold in their Herbarium, and a second detailing plants in the garden in 4 time periods, the categories Anderson placed them into, and where identifiable the current plant name (binomial); these will be published later in 2023Botanical Gardens globally - knowing their history and heritage can increase cultural and general tourism, as well as proving materials for educational resources for local schools. The information on plant locations might be used for comparing biodiversity over circa 225-250 years including running citizen science projects - this could be run in several Caribbean countries through the University of the West Indies and Kew Gardens The datasets will be able to be utilised by other researchers (once published) for future work on historic plant names and also on plant 'native to' and 'introduced to' locations The general findings from the project (once published) can be use by other researchers and interested parties to complicated colonial historic plant information, and inform debates around indigenous and enslaved African plant knowledge The outcomes from the project can be used by Caribbean, indigenous and mixed-race and other artists to inspire creative projectsCreative EconomyEducationEnvironmentLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsThis project revealed new findings about the relationship between alcohol consumption, life course events associated with partnership status and health, and individual resources in later life. The analysis used the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing which provided data on alcohol consumption and life events over a ten year period (approximately 2000-2010) for a sample of 2046 men and 2692 women aged 45 and over. We considered how both the quantity and frequency of drinking varied for different groups of older people at the beginning of the period of observation and changes in drinking behaviour other time. The findings confirmed that older men tend to drink more and to drink more often than women. For both men and women, those in the highest income group and with highest level of education drank more and drank more frequently. Of particular interest was the relationship between partnership status and drinking. Men who were not in a partnership drank more compared to men with a partner at the baseline, though there was no difference in the frequency of men's drinking by partnership status. For women being in a partnership did not influence drinking behaviours at the baseline, though over the ten year period loss of a partner was associated with a faster decline in weekly alcohol consumption and with drinking less often. This demonstrates that being in a partnership moderates how much older men drink but this was not found for women's consumption. This new finding reveals the importance of understanding the social context of drinking. This finding could be explored further using individual case histories. The analysis also considered the relationship between drinking and health. There is considerable medical and popular interest in the possibility that moderate alcohol consumption may be associated with better health in later life, while not drinking and heavy consumption are associated with worse health. Using the longitudinal data we explored the association between changes in drinking and health. The analysis found that over time older people with poor health and deteriorating health reported a steeper decline in the quantity and frequency of alcohol consumed. This finding supports the assumption that older people moderate their drinking in response to health events, in other words health status influences how much older people drink. We suggest that the observation that drinking in later life is associated with better health does not necessarily support the assumption that drinking is good for you, but that consumption is dependent on health status. Understanding how health moderates drinking in later life is an important area for further research which could consider the importance of medical advice about drinking, taking medications and whether deteriorating health limits the social opportunities for drinking. One additional finding relating to health and drinking is that older people who stopped drinking at the start of the period of observation and remained in the study were more likely to experience an improvement in health compared to drinkers. This suggests that while older people might reduce consumption in response to declining health, for some this reduction may lead to an improvement in health conditions.The findings will be of interest to public health practitioners providing alcohol support services for older people and we have already been contacted by one local authority (Dorset County Council). The findings confirm that while the majority of older people drink moderately, or not at all, there are some groups that do drink more. Our findings suggest that the group most at risk of heavy drinking in later life are older men, not in a partnership with high levels of education and above average wealth. Targeting this group is not necessarily straight forward as these men might not necessarily identify their drinking as a problem behaviour. Moreover this group are more likely to experience good health hence the need for any immediate intervention might not be apparent. Our findings also challenge the assumption that the end of a partnership is associated with alcohol misuse in later life, which has been found in qualitative studies. In particular our analysis of drinking behaviours demonstrates that change in partnership status for women is associated with a reduction in consumption. Hence it is not necessarily appropriate to target alcohol services at this group of older people.Agriculture Food and DrinkCommunities and Social Services/PolicyHealthcarehttp://www.keele.ac.uk/drinkinglaterlife/Former mine waste repositories in the UK are shown to be a valuable resource from which metal recovery is feasible with cost-effective mineral processing and biohydrometallurgical techniques. The project investigated zinc recovery from river sediments and mine wastewater, identifying innovative processing routes for both types of feedstock. The project also investigated the recovery of lithium from micaceous residues of kaolin production, establishing an effective processing route. Geometallurgy was explored as a smart way of linking geology with processing behaviour. While geological variability influences all processes listed above, it was found that incorporating understanding of the geology supports optimisation of the recovery of metals from waste materials.This research has been recognised by the Coal Authority, who are taking a modern approach to addressing such legacy issues from past mining in the UK.EnvironmentUpdate 2026 - We've been developing out several projects in this space - our software to support self-experimentation (guided) to build health practices - this method of interaction is being refined - and uptake is growing - we look forward to papers about this in the coming year. - In another project called CERA - we are looking at how movement and memory can work together - our use case is second language learning - hypotheses based in new understandings of the role of the cerebellum in movement, and also in language. - in our Synthesizing co-presence work, we've been looking at how we can better understand differences and similarities between being in online meetings vs in person interactions. THis work is leading onto how we might be able to assist people with addressing both SAD (social anxiety disorder) and hearing decreases/loss. Our provisional work (papers noted) and foundations for upcoming funding proposals. pre 2026 report The work is around how to design the minimal dose of technological intervention to support people - particularly in work for this phase - to access healthful practices - when both time and cash limited. We have been working on an interaction approach to support short periods of specific practices - via brief guided "self-experiments" and to reflect individually and in work groups what the experiences have been. From here we're looking at the designs of how to integrate successes as effortlessly as possible in terms of both policy and re-design of infrastructure. The key questions is: how design ways to support minimal dose (such as five days) intearction with a particular intervention to create lasting effect? - what we frame as heuristics rather than habits (https://www.wellthlab.ac.uk/heuristics/). Research around particular emergent properties about intearction from this work is in development for submission to JMIR. New associated questions around "healthful work" (https://livinglab.soton.ac.uk/futurewaysofworking/) is also associated with these explorations: in particular, looking at how we translate the building of an individual's health practices towards group/organizational support using a similar iterative, short exploratory process, and where groups locally and beyond can contribute to and draw from each other's experiences. Our preliminary results from this latter work is informing the foundations of new related funding applications.Beyond our publications, the invited keynotes, workshops and summer schools, there will be more guides coming. Likewise we are being invited to engage with different NHS trusts, SMEs and industries to help explore how to better align work/work practices with healthfulness.Communities and Social Services/PolicyConstructionDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EnvironmentHealthcareOtherhttps://www.wellthlab.ac.uk/ii-primer-s1a/My research has uncovered a vibrant culture of political portraiture in which visual representations of artisans took up and collaged images of power to fashion themselves as civic representatives for the democratic age towards which they were working. This ambition also shaped the elaborate governance structures of campaigning groups which gave their unenfranchised members voting rights and an opportunity to serve as representatives today while agitating for universal manhood suffrage (and later female suffrage) tomorrow. Popular protest strategies such as mass meetings, petitioning, and public lecturing also displayed campaigners as active citizens and potential representatives of the people. I work across all portrait media, from small metal portrait tokens to intimate painted portraits which were later engraved and sold cheaply across the country, when the sitter's fame demanded an accessible image. I also look at how portraits acted as tools of conservatism. Hostile caricatures made their way into parliamentary debates on reform. Effigies of Tom Paine, stuffed with fireworks and immolated before drunken crowds, fed loyalist hysteria about the spread of radical-democratic ideas in the wake of the French Revolution. At the heart of my proposed research is an examination of the vital role played by portraits in representing and reinforcing political ideologies, both reformist and conservative. My doctoral research has made me into an expert on the intersection of portraiture and the politics of representation in the parliamentary reform movement in Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.Continued study of the intersection of portraiture and politics.Culture Heritage Museums and CollectionsThe research was carried out within a collaborative Materials World Network program between MIT (2 PhD students) and the University of Cambridge (1 PhD student) jointly funded by the NSF and EPSRC. The project explored novel catalyst systems for graphene and carbon nanotube formation, whereby the work at Cambridge particularly focussed on the investigation of the detailed growth mechanisms by using novel in-situ characterisation techniques. Significant new insights into graphene formation on metal and oxide surfaces and the subsequent device interfacing and integration were achieved, as highlighted by the 12 high impact journal publications that so far resulted from this project. The market for these new materials and all commercialisation strategies are currently limited by a lack of scalable manufacturing pathways, in particular regarding applications in the lucrative high-tech market. Hence the knowledge created of how graphene nucleates and forms is hugely important to increase the industrial relevance of these advanced materials. The results led to close interactions and collaborations with a number of companies, including Aixtron, Philips and Thales, that constitute the full supply chain of beneficiaries. The project involved a number of student exchanges and PI visits between the UK and US partners, providing training and skill exchange. This led to an active partnership and it is hoped that this research network can be continued. The work on oxide catalyst systems required dedicated preparation and growth equipment to avoid possible metal contamination, which led to a delay of this work within the program. The amount of work it takes to find a suitable model system to fundamentally investigate these materials is generally underestimated. We have now identified a number of new model systems, incl. 2 dimensional oxides and hexagonal BN, which opened up many new research directions in particular regarding the controlled growth of nano-heterostructures.Our research established a new, much more detailed understanding of graphene and carbon nanotube growth. The results will unlock new, scalable and more efficient and sustainable routes of carbon nanostructure manufacture. Our findings are of direct benefit and can be taken forward by a broad and interdisciplinary academic community that grows and utilises these nanomaterials, as well as by industry that wants to expand the range of commercial products based on these materials, in particular regarding integrated processing in the lucrative high-tech market.Aerospace Defence and MarineDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)ElectronicsEnergyManufacturing including Industrial Biotechologyhttp://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/hofmann/During the project we consulted with a range of stakeholders including community heritage groups, academic researchers, local councils, creative agencies and also digital specialists. We interviewed them about their experiences of using digital technologies in urban regeneration, how far it had been possible to engage multiple stakeholders, what they perceived as the benefits and shortcomings of digital technologies in urban regeneration debates, and their experiences of co-production. There was much appetite for this sort of approach and for collaboration between multiple agencies, but barriers had been encountered, or were anticipated, related to funding and timescales for collaboration. Community heritage groups expressed mixed views, depending on their prior experiences. There was a clear need to articulate the potential and limitations of digital technologies, and a need emerged to make it clear what longevity could be expected of any digital applications developed. Ongoing support for VR or AR applications was typically lacking and liable to lead to disenchantment. The most effective collaborations were time limited and with a clear focus and set of anticipated outputs.The insights to emerge from our project are likely to be of particular interest to community heritage groups and local councils engaged in regeneration initiatives. It is evident that a good deal of interest and engagement can be generated through digital media but it requires stakeholder buy-in and well defined expectations.Communities and Social Services/PolicyCreative EconomyEducationGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsThe aim of our work is to investigate hardware garbage collection to better support modern languages, such as Python and Java, in embedded systems. We ask how can hardware garbage collectors be designed to meet the performance, memory and real-time requirements of such embedded systems. Therefore, we designed a hardware garbage collector that is tightly integrated with the processor. It runs continuously in the background performing collection operations whenever the processor is not using the memory. A timing model of our collector can also be used in combination with real-time analysis techniques to ensure that the collector never pauses program execution. Therefore, embedded processors can be fully utilised to run the user's program without missing real-time deadlines due to collection operations. Our main contributions are: 1. An Integrated Hardware Garbage Collector (IHGC) that is suitable for embedded devices. The IHGC is implemented in hardware as a small state machine that runs independently from the processor without pausing. The IHGC is evaluated through a hardware implementation as well as simulation using popular open source software. Compared to a conventional processor, our experiments indicate that the IHGC offers better performance for programs that rely on garbage collection. 2. A hard real-time analysis technique to estimate the system resources needed to guarantee that programs run without pausing on a processor using the IHGC. The analysis relies on information extracted statically from the real-time program and a timing model of the IHGC. Our real-time analysis technique was evaluated through practical use cases showing how the system can be provisioned to meet specific timing requirements. The project is currently active and we are investigating two important research questions that opened up as a result of our investigation. First, the IHGC can be used with existing processor architectures, such as Arm and x86, but some changes are required to make the transition smoothly. We also observed that these architectures were not designed to work alongside an automatic memory management system, so they do not leverage the full potential of the IHGC. Therefore, we are exploring how is the processor's Instruction Set Architecture, and by extension the software, affected by the IHGC. Second, our collector has so far targeted small embedded devices, but we are now investigating how it can be scaled up to work on slightly larger embedded systems that use caching.The accelerating pace of the Internet of Things (IoT) demands ever smarter, secure and reliable embedded systems. But support for modern, garbage collected languages in such systems is still very limited. IoT developers would greatly benefit from the safety and productivity advantages of modern languages. Therefore, we are currently exploring ways to commercialise the IHGC technology for the development of embedded devices; in particular, those in the IoT market.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Across our work packages (WPs) several objectives have progressed to key findings: 1. Modelled and presented flood risks up to the year 2300 using 1.7 m projected mean sea level rise (SLR) from UK climate projections (UKCP18) show that there is a 14% increased area at risk of future coastal flooding across multiple local authorities (Glasgow, Renfrewshire, West Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde). This information has been shared with local authorities to provide evidence about coastal flood risk and flood risk mitigation for the next generation of local development plans. 2. Produced habitat suitability and connectivity maps for water voles, an endangered and protected species, in the east of Glasgow that will be used for successive planning and ecosystem assessment in the next phases of work. 3. We have established a pollinator network analysis for 2023 garden that will be used for successive planning and ecosystem assessment in the next phases of work. 4. Mapping of vacant and derelict land (VDL) sites in Glasgow reveal that current contaminated sites across Glasgow are accurately compiled. Data integration has been used to identify public VDL sites which show potential of being contaminated and inform the soil sampling campaign. 5. A synthesis of policy documents/websites, including the active travel policy context at local (Glasgow) and national (Scotland) levels, and existing/planned infrastructure and behavioural initiatives have informed the design of the active travel research. Notably, fewer issues were detected for walking and wheeling than for cycling safely in the city, which has caused the focus of trials to be on cycling infrastructure and behaviour. 6. When we project energy demand forward to the year 2045, assuming that a full and just energy transition has taken place and compare this to low-carbon energy supply opportunities we find gaps in strategic decarbonization policies and plans (Tait et al 2025). 7. Our systematic review of urban ecosystems and invasive species identifies important knowledge gaps, such as the scarcity of studies investigating socio-economic spatial patterns in the presence and abundance of invasive species, as well as the adaptive evolution of non-native animal species in urban areas (Carlon and Dominoni, 2024).1. Modelled future flood risks has been shared across multiple local authorities as evidence about coastal flood risk and flood risk mitigation for the next generation of local development plans. 2. Produced habitat suitability and connectivity maps can be used by urban planners for successive planning and ecosystem assessment. 3. Pollinator network analysis can be used by urban planners for successive planning and ecosystem assessment. 4. Mapping of vacant and derelict land (VDL) data on contaminated sites have been shared with the local authority to improve data holding and planning. 5. A synthesis of policy documents/websites has raised cycling safety issues in the city, which will be further explored by researchers, but is also relevant to urban planners. 6. The future energy supply and demand revealed gaps that can be used by local and national government for further development of decarbonization policies and plans (Tait et al 2025). 7. Our systematic review of urban ecosystems and invasive species revealed important knowledge gaps, that can inform local authorities on planning socio-economically just plan, and serve as a warning about the adaptive evolution of non-native animal species in urban areas.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEnergyEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeTransportThe EVOLVE tool, which is free to download, consists of a set of checklists ordered in the sequence of the rooms or spaces encountered in a walk through a building. The checklists relate to user requirements in key areas specific to older people such as accessibility, health and safety, and security, as well as universal requirements such as comfort, privacy and personal care. Each checklist requirement can be answered 'yes' or 'no' and once the list is completed, it is given a domain score. The tool can be used to assess a housing development in use, as a briefing and design guide or to evaluate design proposals for new buildings. EVOLVE is designed to evaluate a range of different buildings, from large village schemes to individual houses. The tool evaluates a building in terms of how well the accommodation and facilities it offers support older people, not the number of facilities available. Therefore, a small building with limited facilities can score the same as a large complex development.The tool evaluates a building in terms of how well the accommodation and facilities it offers support older people, not the number of facilities available. It will be useful for designers and providers of housing for older people.Communities and Social Services/PolicyConstructionHealthcarehttp://www.housinglin.org.uk/Topics/type/resource/?cid=7997Much of the work has been focused on understanding where and how climate change information can be used at the city-region scale in southern Africa. Through the FRACTAL engagements and research, climate scientists have gained a deeper understanding of city decision processes and how their work does (or does not) fit in. Decision-makers have also gained a deeper understanding of the nature of climate change information. The team has learned a lot about the trans-disciplinary research processes required to facilitate such engagements. Working papers, games, think pieces, conference contributions etc. related to urban complexity and governance, climate change planning in cities, urban resilience and transdisciplinarity have been developed.Many of the outputs like guides, inforgraphics, reports and videos from this funding illustrate lessons that can be taken up by similar southern African or other cities in the world. The FRACTAL approaches of engagement, co-production and co-exploration are provided in the many publications can easily be accessed and taken up in practice.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEducationEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and Justicehttps://start.org/programs/fractal/• We have established and demonstrated for the first time that the technique of Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) can generate high contrast images, superior to other approaches, from intact plant cells for the analysis of fluorescently labeled proteins. • We have shown that TIRF imaging is not only possible at the plasma membrane level, but also in subcellular organelles, for example the nucleus, in plant cells. • Our TIRF images show excellent signal-to-background ratio and we have shown for the first time that they can be used for single molecule microscopy in plants.Offers new opportunities for Plant Sciences community for analysis of plant cells. Will be adopted by research community.Agriculture Food and DrinkOur research has produced a novel recall tool called the 'Self-Administered Interview' (SAI©) that was developed and tested in a controlled lab-based setting, and later field-tested with eyewitnesses to real crimes. The Follow-on-Funding award provided us with the resources necessary to (i) establish, co-ordinate and manage the field-trials and (ii) engage in knowledge-exchange activity with end-users. Our research has produced significant scientific impact in the academic field in the following ways: a) The project represents a clear (and rare) instance of scientific research progressing from a controlled lab-environment into an applied context. As such our work has attracted significant interest from our academic peers. It has achieved scientific impact by providing researchers with a solid example of the merits of using applied field-based methodology to reach evidence-based conclusions. b) Our research findings have advanced empirical understanding of witness memory. Specifically, we have shown that an early recall opportunity can protect against forgetting, and against the negative influences of post-event information. c) We have directly impacted on the academic community by generating new lines of research. To our knowledge, at least ten research laboratories internationally are now using the SAI© for research purposes to build upon our initial findings. For example, exploring the efficacy of the SAI© in new contexts (accident investigation), and with different populations (older adults). In direct recognition of these impacts, Dr. Gabbert was recently awarded an Academic Excellence prize by the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group in recognition of Outstanding Achievements in the area of Investigative Interviewing. Field trials commenced in January 2010 to establish whether the SAI© can demonstrate practical and evidential benefits to police investigations. Twenty-seven forces (20 from the UK) are currently involved in trials. Feedback from participating forces has been overwhelmingly positive. The SAI© has made an important contribution to a number of live investigations by providing detailed initial accounts, prioritising witnesses, and facilitating the identification of additional witnesses, in incidents including serious road-traffic incidents, assaults, robberies, and including the terrorist attack on Norway in June 2011. In short, the trials have clearly demonstrated that the SAI© can be used simply and efficiently, at low cost, with minimal drain on resources, to obtain high quality information from victims and witnesses. A Summary Report containing feedback from forces participating in the trials was submitted to The Association of Chief Police Officers in October 2011, 2013, and is currently under review again in 2017. This group may consider officially endorsing the SAI© so that it becomes a recognised procedural response for forces in England and Wales. The field-trials have also generated interest from charities concerned with the delivery of justice for victims. For instance, RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash victims, are actively campaigning for the SAI© to be standard procedure for obtaining evidence relating to road-traffic-accidents. Victim Support are consulting with local police forces to explore how the SAI© could be used to obtain statements from victims who do not want to press charges at the time of initial disclosure (e.g. domestic abuse). In sum, our primary output that has had the most significant impact is a scientifically validated recall tool - the Self-Administered Interview. This is an evidence-based investigatory tool that has been tested in controlled laboratory studies, and subsequently in field-tests with real witnesses. The SAI© is available to police forces internationally. It is currently part of standard police policy and procedure in The Netherlands and in Norway. To date, we have disseminated our findings at multiple international conferences. Published outputs include not only our own peer reviewed publications (including an invited article), but also publications authored by researchers outwith our team.The SAI© has been used to obtain evidence in Health and Safety Investigations, including serious incidents on an off-shore oil-rig. We expect to continue our work on the SAI© for several years to come as novel opportunities for use and development of the tool continue to present themselves. Our findings have influenced the work of other researchers, who have replicated and extended our findings.Aerospace Defence and MarineCommunities and Social Services/PolicyConstructionGovernment Democracy and JusticeSecurity and DiplomacyOtherhttp://www.selfadministeredinterview.comWe used a series of online experiments to measure the real-life impact of implicit exposure to EU-related visual cues on political attitudes. The study compared results within the UK, and between the UK and Ireland. As the EU is a relatively new organisation, it was anticipated that symbolic triggers (like the EU flag) would not provoke the same deep-seated responses as a national flag might. Therefore, central to this project was the effect of daily functional visual reminders of EU membership - for example on car registration plates and driving licences.The experiments also manipulated the context in which the individual was exposed to the triggers (threatening or non-threatening). We found that exposure to EU symbols, and the context in which this exposure takes place, does indeed affect attitudes.The results of this research are also relevant to those interested in measuring the impact of implicit exposure to other images, such as: national flags; party political symbols or corporate logos on the attitudes and behaviour of the public. The approach proved fruitful in relation to all three project objectives: Objective 1: We argued that to understand the impact of EU identity on political attitudes both implicit and explicit aspects of identity and the interaction between instrumental and affective elements of identification must be examined. We found that 'functional' rather than 'symbolic' EU triggers had a significant effect on attitudes towards the European Union. The symbolic version of the EU flag had no effect on EU-related opinions. The effect of 'functional' triggers, moreover, was observed only in relation to 'instrumental' rather than 'affective' attitudes. Our findings also highlighted the important interaction between coexisting territorial identities and EU identity in moderating the impact of EU related identity triggers. We found that exposure to the EU 'functional' trigger, moderated by attachment to the EU, led to polarisation of opinion in the two stateless nations of Scotland and Wales. We also found a positive relationship between national identity, EU funding and responses to implicit triggers. Finally, we found that when exposure to the EU symbol is presented in a subtle threat context, pro-EU responses increase. Objective 2: We developed a unique template (including visual material) for use in experimental survey research. The study also produced a comparative research design which can be extended to include other nations, whether EU member states or stateless nations. The template has already been adapted for potential use in other countries (in our collaboration with Aarhus, Berlin and Humboldt Universities), in relation to the UK Constitutional debate (in our British Academy study) and for a popular knowledge exchange quiz run in conjunction with the BBC in May 2012. Our methodological contribution is highlighted in Lynngaard et al (2013) 'Research Methods in European Union Studies'. Objective 3: In May 2011 YouGov delivered a large dataset (n8599) covering respondents in the UK territories and Ireland. The use of online experiments allowed us to produce a sample much larger than those typically used in experimental research, thus avoiding the small 'n' critique.The Implicit Triggers team collaborated with the BBC on the 'Mood of the Nation' online experiment. This tested the impact of implicit exposure to the various UK flags on public attitudes. The experiment proved popular, with 10405 people participating. Participants disseminated the quiz widely using social networks.The results were reported on BBC1 Sunday Politics Scotland and BBC2 Daily Politics and were made available on the BBC web site. The template developed by the implicit triggers team lends itself easily to adaptation to other questions, cues and audiences. The results of this research are also relevant to those interested in measuring the impact of implicit exposure to other images, such as: national flags; party political symbols or corporate logos on the attitudes and behaviour of the public. The implicit triggers team have subsequently been funded by the British Academy to adapt their research template for application to the UK constitutional question.EducationOtherhttp://ewds.strath.ac.uk/euidtriggersThe CRITICAL project explores the questions of where and how novel interactive technology can contribute to making learning experiences in mainstream schools more inclusive of visually impaired and blind children. Our research has so demonstrated benefits of using multisensory interaction, particularly those that go beyond typically used modalities (e.g. audio), as means for enriching co-design methodologies to engage children with and without visual impairments user-centric technology development. For example, in (Metatla et al, 2018), we conducted an ethnographic field study where we interviews and observed children with and without visual impairments as well as their teachers and teaching assistants to identify barriers to inclusive education and how to address those through technological innovation. We identified the "assistance bubble" as a key construct that exacerbates barriers to group learning, social play activities and independent mobility for visually impaired and blind children. We also developed a number of co-design methodologies exploiting multisensory feedback to augment activities such as futures workshops, bodystorming and fictional inquiry to engage stakeholder including children, in the design process. We showed how through such methods, children with and without disabilities can engage with each other, jointly lead design processed and explore design spaces that reflect their mixed abilities and shared experiences. In (Metatla et al., 2019a), we investigated how a group of visually impaired and sighted children and their teachers can engage in critiquing voice-based commodity technology, such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home, to imagine and design alternative inclusive educational technologies for each other. We designed and developed multisensory augmentation of such voice-based technologies, including olfactory display, auditory tangible, and tactile feedback to support more inclusive means for peer-revision and peer-instruction, and produced a general design space to guide future research in this area. We have also explored more fundamental questions around multisensory interaction and crossmodal perception, particularly in the realm olfaction and tangible interaction (Metatla et al, 2019b). In this work, we investigated how children associate emotions with scents and 3D shapes and showed evidence for crossmodal correspondences and mappings between particular shapes and scents, which we then used in the design of more inclusive multisensory educational technologies. These investigations thus extend prior work on crossmodal correspondences in terms of stimuli sample and conveyed content, demonstrating how use of such multisensory artefacts can lead to richers and more engaging social play technology around storytelling for visually impaired and sighted children (Cullen and Metatla, 2019) More recently, in (Metatla et al, 2020a), we used a co-design approach to design and evaluate a robot-based educational game that could be inclusive of both visually impaired and sighted children in the context of mainstream education. We ran a focus group discussions with visual impairment educators to understand barriers to inclusive social play. And then a series of co-design workshops to engage visually impaired and sighted children and educators in learning about and critiquing a commodity robot technology and exploring its potential to support inclusive play experiences. We presented design guidelines and an evaluation workshop of a game prototype, demonstrating group dynamics conducive to collaborative learning experiences, including shared goal setting/execution, closely coupled division of labour, and interaction symmetry. In (Lin et el, 2021) we examined further corssmodal correspondences between tangible haptic interaction colour and emotions. We contribute novel knowledge of how tangible, visual and emotional features are perceived and interpreted alongside one another, which helps map out untapped space of crossmodal correspondences (CCs) in HCI. We make 4 key contributions to this space in terms of 1) more complex stimuli 2) active touch 3) transitional features and 4) measurement: 1) Studies that assessed CCs/touch looked at 2D shapes, word association, vibration, single-point haptic contact, and scent-touch stimuli. We contribute evidence of CCs for more complex tangible stimuli, extending single point protrusion stimuli. We also extend prior work by placing CCs in the more naturalistic context of active touch exploration/. Importantly 1) and 2) bring CCs closer to HCI design space. We also show new evidence for transitional features of CCs between tangible, visual and emotional dimensions. Specifically, tangible and visual features of angularity and brightness share emotional valence. Here, our findings highlight limitations to the linear predictability of CC translation which is an important consideration for designers of multisensory HCI.The CRITICAL research agenda is to explore and demonstrate how HCI, as an applied field of inquiry, can contribute to making human society more inclusive of people with disabilities. At the core of this agenda are fundamental questions around what an inclusive technology is, and a need to re-examine approaches to designing accessible and assistive technologies. Often, this has traditionally focused on addressing functional accessibility issues by foregrounding the needs of a single user group. CRITICAL research has demonstrated that this can work against objectives of inclusion, leading to solutions that place more emphasis on what a disabled individual can and cannot do rather than on the interplay between social and technological structures situating their actions, which is important to both characterise and address barriers to inclusion. Findings from the CRITICAL research have helped us in articulating and pursuing an alternative line of inquiry in order to understand whether and how inclusive technologies should be demarcated from traditional assistive technology through design, development and evaluation. The above findings can be used to drive the design and development of technological and practical support for inclusion of pupils with visual impairments in mainstream schools. In the context of this project, these initial findings are currently being used to focus further follow-up co-design activities involving end users (support services practitioners, teachers and pupils) to create conceptual designs for a variety of multisensory interactive technologies. These designs will thus embody end users' views and perspectives on inclusion and how it can be improved in mainstream schools. The adaptation of co-design techniques contribute to expanding the repertoire of methods and techniques that could be used to engage children in design: We demonstrated how methods known to be effective in early conceptual design but not previously used to engage participants with mixed-visual abilities (e.g bodystorming) can be adapted to this new context. Thus these techniques shape the potential to contribute to new, more inclusive design practices in this space. Our inclusive co-design framework thus extends work on interaction design with children and on multisensory and crossmodal interaction. Work on crossmodal correspondences extend prior work in this area by increasing our understanding of how sensory modalities interact with and relate to one another. They also provide novel insights for informing the design of richer and more engaging multisensory experiences. For example, work on voice-based user interfaces and robots provide a basis for designing support for inclusive education through these interactive technologies and contribute to extending the design space of potential applications across a number of settings, thus providing a foundation for future design and research in these area.Communities and Social Services/PolicyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationJE-s form includes all the outcomesOur papers published out of these work have been highly cited. Several groups are now adopting the same strategy to engineering nanoparticlesChemicalsHealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe bottlenecks for treating the quantum dynamics of large molecular systems are (i) choosing relevant coordinates (ii) calculating potential surfaces (iii) propagating the wavefunction. In this project we implemented and tested the G-MCTDH algorithm that is a combined quantum-semiclassical method. The code linked into a related project on direct dynamics calculations, which gave a new angle to potential calculations. Progress was also made on looking at the coordinates to be used in general calculations - resulting in a benchmark full-dimensional study of ammonia photodissociation.The code is implemented in the widely distributed Heidelberg MCTDH Package.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)OtherMy main focus was poset saturation in which we want to find how large a collection of sets has to be in order to contain a certain pre-nominated structure. I have solved this question for the structure called "the butterfly", and made advances for the structures called "the diamond" and "the antichain".My research findings have developed the field of Poset Sturation and attracted a lot of attention from researchers across the globe.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)OtherAs data rates rise, there is a danger that informatics for high-throughput biological LC-MS (Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) becomes more and more opaque and inaccessible to practitioners. It is therefore critical that efficient visualisation tools are available to facilitate quality control, verification, validation, interpretation and sharing of raw MS data and the results of MS analyses. Currently MS data is stored as contiguous spectra. Recall of individual spectra is relatively quick but panoramas, zooming and panning across whole datasets necessitates processing/memory overheads impractical for interactive use. Moreover, visualisation is challenging if significant quantification data at MS1 level is missing due to data dependent acquisition of MS2 spectra. In order to tackle these issues, we have extended our seaMass technique as a novel signal decomposition method. This automatically models LC-MS data as a two-dimensional surface through selection of a sparse set of weighted B-spline basis functions from an over-complete dictionary. By ordering and partitioning the weights using an octree data model, efficient streaming visualisations are achieved. We have developed the core MS1 visualisation engine and overlay of MS2 annotations, therefore providing a quality control platform for the mass spectrometrist. This work won a poster prize at the BioNetVisA workshop of ECCB 2014, Strasbourg, and a journal manuscript has been published in the journal Proteomics.Since the visualisation is synergistic with the Proteomics Standards Initiative's data interchange formats, we were invited to talk at their Spring Workshop. This led to publication of a collaborative journal paper on data compression.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThis grant is finished but this section can be updated at a later date if details required.ArXiv (green open access) and refereed journalsAerospace Defence and MarineConstructionEducationElectronicsManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologySynthetic cells are an exciting technology for communicating with living cells and drug delivery, however, it is very difficult to generate methods to communicate between synthetic cells and living cells. Here we managed to generate the techniques to engineer system that could release any sized molecule from a synthetic cell.We have got a new PhD student working on this project as it has led to exciting developments, and expect this to lead to more outputs in the near future. We hope this project will open new ways of using synthetic cells in biomedicine.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyWe show that reindeer change their retinal reflections between summer and winter to increase retinal sensitivity. Also that they are UV sensitive particularly in winterAnimal husbandryAgriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentOtherhttp://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/news/fundamental-bioscience/2013/131030-pr-reindeer-eyes-change-colour/My Postdoctoral Fellowship (Oct 2018 - Aug 2019) consolidated and conceptually developed the findings from my PhD research on boundaries and hierarchies of belonging primarily through the publication of four academic journal articles: (1) 'The dis/comfort of white British nationhood: Encounters, otherness and postcolonial continuities' was completed during the fellowship and was published by Social and Cultural Geography in 2019. (2) 'Hierarchies, scale and privilege in the reproduction of national belonging' was written and submitted during the fellowship and was subsequently published by leading geography journal Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers in 2020. The article draws out the key and over-arching findings of my PhD and, in doing so, makes a substantial academic contribution to knowledge around belonging and scale. (3) 'Recognising British bodies: The significance of race and whiteness in 'post-racial' Britain' was drafted during the Fellowship and was subsequently published by Sociological Research Online in 2021, contributing to important and on-going debates on the connection between race and nation in the UK. (4) 'The (in)significance of citizenship in white British citizens' narratives of national belonging' grew out of an invited conference presentation, given during the Fellowship. It was submitted after the Fellowship ended and was published by the high-ranking Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies in 2021. The paper draws out the key findings of my PhD related to citizenship and belonging. The findings from these articles were also presented at three different conferences, and published in two blog posts: (1) 'Britain still doesn't know the purpose of the Life in the UK citizenship test - and it shows'. Published in The Conversation on 10th June 2019 and subsequently republished by The Metro online. Available at: https://theconversation.com/britain-still-doesnt-know-the-purpose-of-the-life-in-the-uk-citizenship-test-and-it-shows-117990 (2) 'On the importance of teaching colonial histories'. Publishing in Discover Society (73) on 2nd October 2019. Available at: https://discoversociety.org/2019/10/02/on-the-importance-of-teaching-colonial-histories/The published articles make the findings of my PhD accessible to a broad academic audience, across disciplines of Geography, Sociology, and Migration and Citizenship Studies. The ideas, empirical and conceptual contributions can therefore feed into future academic research and debate. The funding also allowed me to develop a plan for future research, which will be taken forward as soon as possible.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEducationGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and Collections'Please refer to (BB/M01200X/2 for details of this award's outcomes.These will be taken up by industry for breeding.Agriculture Food and DrinkWe have established the importance of working with children and young people using a participatory methodology, including peer interviews. In particular we have developed a method for writing collaborative fiction which reflects the lives of young people living with a range of disabilities and challenges. Through our peer-conducted interviews we have established sets of themes which represent specific challenges, barriers, and enablers, that young people face, from their own perspective. These themes have been embodied in fictional stories which are designed to be accessible to a wide audience, particularly including children and young people. The stories can therefore be used by professionals and practitioners working with disadvantaged groups, both to inform, and to provide a source of emotional support. The stories also form a learning resource for trainee social workers and teachers. The use of phygital artefacts - which are machines to enable the stories to be told in digital formats as animated films - has advanced understanding of how physical and digital design can be brought together with literature to create accessible stories for wide audiences.The Stories to Connect research team has joined with another Connected Communities project to share experiences and insights into collaborative fictional writing. The result was a guide for practitioners and researchers who aim to work in this participatory way. The findings can also inform other groups who would benefit from the uses of collaborative fiction as a way to make connections and help to ease problems encountered in everyday life. The uses of the stories is still being explored, with professionals and third sector workers, but are useful for teachers, social workers and charity workers to learn about the young people they work with. The stories are also useful as reading materials for children and young people. Because the stories are co-created by and with young people, the reader can easily identify with the protagonists and their narratives. The methodology has also been used in a related project working with deaf children in Indonesia to tell their stories using Indonesian Sign Language. The resulting filmed stories are being made available to younger deaf children as learning materials to motivate and inspire them. Two AHRC funded follow on projects which have been funded from January and February 2020 use a similar story-telling methodology with disadvantaged young people to contribute to decision-making about landscape. The participants are also being encouraged to think about the climate emergency through story-telling and the creation of artistic artefacts to convey their perspectives.Communities and Social Services/PolicyCreative EconomyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationHealthcareGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://stories2connect.orgOne key finding from this award is that recycled natural rubber from shock absorbers was successfully combined with recyled cable waste to produce a new thermoplastic vulcanisates (TPV) - a material combining conventional plastic and rubber. This recycled formulation was found to have comparable properties to a virgin TPV material, which could provide a potential market from thermoset rubbers. This material has been successfully used to produce 3D print filament, demonstrating that an elastomeric 3D print material could be produced from completely recycled feedstock. A second key finding has been that we have been able to measure how the S3M recycling process breaks the crosslinks in the rubber and produces radicals at the ends of the broken chains. This is key to understanding and optimising the recycling step, and will help in the design of a continuous recycling system. A third key finding was that an empirical model was found to describe how the particle size of various polymers were reduced by the S3M process. This important development will help to understand and further improve the design of the process.Polymer recyclers could utilise the S3M process to recycle rubber and other difficult to recycle crosslinked polymers. We are actively discussing ongoing projects with collaborative partners and performing trials. Recycled rubber, such as ground tryre rubber, could be successfully re-used in the form of thermoplastic vulcanisates, by mixing with recycled thermoplastics such as polyethylene or polypropylene.Manufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyOtherTwo key findings emerged as particularly significant from my research into the Great War in the Middle East. The book, "The Fall of the Ottomans", provides a bridging narrative between Armenian and Turkish accounts of the Armenian Genocide. Long denied by the Turkish authorities, my book has sought to provide a context within which to explain the deportation and massacre of Armenians, all the while accepting that those acts constituted genocide, in line with Armenian demands for historic justice for this crime against humanity. The success of this bridging narrative on Turkish opinion has been demonstrated by my invitation to address a think tank in Ankara, funded by the Turkish Chamber of Commerce, on the genocide, and by the forthcoming publication of the book in Turkish. The second key finding was the re-assessment of wartime partition diplomacy, including the controversial Hussein McMahon Correspondence, Sykes-Picot Agreement, and Balfour Declaration. By studying those key diplomatic agreements in their wartime context, my book has been effective in dispelling claims of duplicity and demonstrating how each agreement was shaped by wartime exigencies in a bid to achieve victory. These findings have been taken up in meetings in the Foreign Office and in Parliament.Policy makers in Turkey are interested in finding a way to address the historic barriers between Turks and Armenians to enable a better trade and tourism relationship between Turkey and Armenia. Diplomats and parliamentarians in the UK draw on my findings to address questions raised in the Middle East on the historic anniversaries of key British diplomatic agreements like Sykes Picot and the Balfour Declaration, and draw on history to determine the extent of responsibility that might inform Britain's policies towards the Middle East peace process.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEducationLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsRather than funding a single piece of technical research, the award enabled the creation of Reef-UKC, a national network that brings together people who would not normally work closely together (researchers, businesses, policymakers and educators) to focus on sustainable, renewable-powered cooling in UK. As a result of the award, the following key achievements have been delivered: A new UK-wide community focused on low-to-zero-carbon cooling: The project has successfully connected experts from over 20 universities in the UK and overseas, alongside more than 60 organisations from industry, government and wider society. This has created a coordinated UK community working on cooling as part of the net-zero energy system, rather than treating it as a secondary issue. Early-stage research ideas have been turned into real projects: Through a dedicated £100k seed-funding programme, nine new research projects were launched. These projects explore how renewable energy (such as solar, waste heat, geothermal, etc.) can be better combined with efficient cooling technologies. This has reduced the risk of trying out new ideas and allowed research teams to test concepts that can now be developed further through larger funding programmes. Improved exchange of knowledge among research, industry and policy: The award supported a programme of workshops, webinars, conferences and industrial visits, enabling two-way learning among academics, businesses and policymakers. This has helped ensure that research is shaped by real-world needs and that emerging evidence can be shared quickly with those who can use it. Direct engagement with policymakers and public bodies: Reef-UKC has actively shared research insights with HM Treasury and the Department for Education, supporting evidence-informed thinking on energy, skills development, and the future workforce required for low-carbon cooling and climate action. Engagement with Birmingham City Council has further strengthened connections between research evidence, local government, and national policy-making, helping ensure that findings are relevant and actionable for decision-makers. Greater public awareness of cooling and climate change: Cooling in the UK is often invisible to the public, despite its growing impact on energy use and emissions. To address this, the project developed a cooling-focused comic book, which was distributed to primary and secondary schools in Birmingham. This helped raise awareness among young people of how cooling affects climate change and why new solutions are needed. Foundations laid for long-term impact: The network has already produced a range of presentations and webinars, along with research papers, reports, policy briefs, and practical tools, with a few more in development. These outputs will help guide future research, inform industry practice and support policymaking as evidence continues to mature.The outcomes of Reef-UKC provide a strong foundation for future research, innovation, and practical impact in the area of sustainable, renewable-powered cooling. The award has created a UK-wide, interdisciplinary network, and the knowledge, collaborations, and outputs generated are already positioned to be taken forward by a variety of stakeholders: Expansion of research and funding opportunities The seed-funded projects and interdisciplinary collaborations established through Reef-UKC create opportunities for larger, longer-term research programmes. Academic teams can build on this foundation to submit competitive proposals to EPSRC follow-on funding, UKRI cross-council calls, and Innovate UK programmes, further advancing integrated renewable cooling technologies and systems. Industry adoption and scale-up Businesses engaged through the Reef-UKC network - including organisations in refrigeration, thermal storage, energy integration, and related supply chains - can apply research findings to real-world challenges. This includes piloting new technologies, adopting evidence-based operational approaches, and supporting the commercialisation and scale-up of solutions, generating both economic and industrial benefits. Policy and regulatory use Policy-relevant insights, analyses, and recommendations can be taken up by government departments and local authorities, such as DESNZ, the Department for Education, and city councils. These outputs can inform decarbonisation strategies, skills and education planning, incentives, standards, and regulatory frameworks, ensuring that research evidence supports effective, evidence-informed decision-making aligned with the UK's net-zero goals. Community, education, and international collaboration The Reef-UKC network supports knowledge exchange across local, national, and international partners. Schools, universities, and community stakeholders can use educational materials - such as the cooling-focused comic book - to raise awareness of energy and climate issues. International research partnerships provide platforms for joint funding applications, comparative studies, and shared trials, positioning the UK as a leader in global sustainable cooling initiatives. Knowledge transfer through outputs Planned and ongoing outputs - including research papers, policy briefs, reports, webinars, and modelling tools - provide accessible, actionable information for researchers, industry, and policymakers. These outputs will help others build on Reef-UKC findings, guide future research directions, support industrial practice, and shape policy development in low-carbon cooling.Agriculture Food and DrinkCommunities and Social Services/PolicyConstructionCreative EconomyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationEnergyEnvironmentHealthcareRetailhttps://reef-ukc.net/outputs/We have held eight online workshops in which we have come together as a network of 17 partners, shared our work, and explored synergies. We have jointly developed an interdisciplinary action research agenda combining ICT4D and Gender Studies, Development Studies, Data Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Service Design and Gender Studies. We have formed a network of networks, connecting women changemakers in development (Oxfam, Malala Fund), women in the IT sector (Asikana, Codespace) and networks of academics (Sheffield Institute for Global Sustainable Development, and the Digital, Data and Innovation group there, UCT's network of women alumnae in ICT4D and the Makerere ICT4D group). As part of the development of our joint research agenda we have commissioned and completed three literature reviews in the area of digital tools for gender advocacy; women and girls in IT and Data Science in Africa. We together developed a Large Grant application (1.2m Canadian Dollar) for the Canadian IDRC funder, which was successful in a very competitive process. We will be working together for more women in STEM. As part of the project we have carried out mutual capacity building, drawing on the expertise of different partners. Oxfam and Malala Fund have offered customised webinars to the network. GeDIA Academy is a mentoring seminar series for early career academics at African Universities. Our website and membership directory is making key African women changemakers visible - www.gedia-network.org.We are still in the process of developing outputs and impacts as the grant is ongoing.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationGovernment Democracy and Justicehttp://www.gedia-network.org1- We addressed the symbiotic relation of architecture and education and analysed the performative spatial machinery of contemporary school buildings (in contrast to traditional ones). We concluded: First, it is important to note that the increased flexibility and openness of the 'new generation of school building' facilitates and multiplies the forms of control. This is expressed in the following features: 1. Control is multiple and is performed through the visibility of both objects and subjects, and the invisibility of the power and the multiple viewing points from which it is exercised. 2. The vertical and horizontal lines of communication are also multiple and organised in a complex way (ie the heartspace, atria and other features). 3. The openness is balanced with features such as spaces for seclusion, privacy, retreat and control; the architectural techniques for separating of the individual from the crowd are diversified as well (ie the corridor and the toilet). 4. Both the construction of relationships, so essential of the school system, and the dissolution of relations and groups, are delegated to specific architectural devices (ie the windowed door of the teacher). Second, we have demonstrated that the objective spaces of a school building are not the 'depth' features on which the psychological world or subjective experiences of students and teachers would be built. Dwelling in schools, children and teachers actively deform and inflect both time and space, that is, by actively spacing and timing educational activities in a way that multiplies the forms of control. Thus, instead of dissipating or reducing control, or merely re-producing the classic forms of panopticon- or synopticon- types of power, this versatile and porous type of architecture, diversifies the orbits of control operating through multiple and intersecting lines of sight and sound. Third, rather than being a static frame for educational activities, a school building is to be understood as a node of a complex network of circuits defined by entries and exits, apertures and closures, spatial transitions, flows and movements. Its architecture can never be defined in metric or formalistic terms, but as a set of navigational techniques, imposing frequencies, enabling movements, enhancing visibility and sound, impeding and even changing the speed of navigation. 2- We explored the relation of architecture with diagramming and visualisation as powerful devices to connect, generate and synthesise spatial knowledge about socio-material-affective experience at the school building. This has generated the following findings: First, despite the powerful tools that are currently at hand in architecture and design, the visualisations of school buildings are commonly created by architecture firms that deploy space as an empty and stable plan. These visualisations seem more concerned with the use of visual technologies for augmenting realism (rendering of surfaces, colours, textures, materials), rather than deploying them as tools for investigation, analysis, critique, and speculation. Second, we have developed other potential ways of visualizing the school building that rather than beginning from an idealised projection that is indifferent to the local movement of things, start from the ground paying attention, connecting, folding and mapping sensory-ethnographic data of movements, transits, occupations, times, flows of different human and non-human actants in the school building. This changed the status of the visualizations from fixed and complete images of the school building to partial representations of provisional states in which the building could be understood as constantly produced by its movements, but also by the methods that seek to explore it in new ways (beyond the location maps, orthographic drawings, crossections) shaping other possibilities for thinking, visualizing and modelling space-times. In tracking how bodies and things unfold through the space-times of the school day, our mappings are useful to understand how the lived experience in the school building is always highly situated, open-ended and co-composed with things that come forth at every given moment and movement. Rather than thinking linearly or statically or in distinct and idealised experiences associated to atria, rings, auditoria, open spaces, the maps offer a more complex sense of life as made of frictions, collisions, encounters, overlaps, junctions that unfold, gather speed and dissolve across space-times, materializing different and heterogenous living landscapes that can help understand school buildings from the perspective of its inhabitants. Third, we have experimented with architectural 3D visualisations facilitated through the potential of CAD software to generate repeatable variations of a group of spaces in the building situating them in flux. We have explored how such method can contribute to processes of participative design/ethnography centred on the articulation of school re-design ideas with school building dwellers. The process of visualizing specific transformations brings participants to confront the demands of materiality, the agency of things, the assembled force of entities and their effects on common life. As a result, collective process of visualization incite more nuanced, complex, and manifold approaches, where personal experiences of the study room feeling bland or the 6th form hub feeling exposed, clunky and uncomfortable can be perceived less personally and more ecologically as specific trajectories or exchanges within compounded envelops. These collective visualisations were key to foreground school design's entanglement with immanent critique through its capacity to stay close to the interactions of things and users as a method to appraise what needs to matter less in the present life of the school building. They also were important in highlighting design's speculative capacity to evoke alternative thoughts and to explore and entertain new spatial-material-embodied possibilities of life and learning in school buildings. 3- We have developed methods of digital-sensory ethnography in collaboration with school dwellers to study the school building through practices of distributed sensation that foreground the relation of new school architecture and the modulating power of sensor systems. We have concluded that: First, experimental collaborations in sensory-ethnography, where building dwellers enacted habitual movements in the school building while utilizing portable sensor technologies, were key in materializing experiences in which sensing was not perceived as the individual capacity of a body or a device, but a distributed ecological composition in the school building. Second, such experimental collaborations were key to foreground that participants' capacities to register change in the materiality of the school building were dependent of their associations with chains of sensors and the specific modes of environmental mediation and modulation that these chains generated. This concerned too sensors that were embedded and black boxed in the architecture and its systems. Third, exploring different compositions of sensors, dwellers activity, and the materiality of school spaces was important to facilitate conceptual discussions on what school spaces are made of. Experiments in distributed sensing destabilize distinctions such as open, closed, inside, outside, visible, invisible, solid, porous, smooth, granular, static, moving, edged, continuous that orient specific behaviours and ways of using school spaces commonly defined by regulatory protocols and tacit expectations on good school behaviour. Fourth, more extended collaborations with school building dwellers in designing and experimenting with compositions of sensors seem key in building technical capability and creativity in sensing practices. This is significant as a way of increasing autonomy around designs, methods, interventions in distributed sensing as well as capacity in responding to spatial and ecological matters of concern in the school building. Such expertise would be important too in articulating political questions and proposing alternatives around the use and governance of new school architectures.- The methods of digital-sensory ethnography and the associated experiments of distributed sensed can be further explored and experimented with school dwellers to build technical capability and creativity in sensing practices. It is key to extend research in the potential of these methods to increase school dwellers autonomy around designs, methods, interventions in distributed sensing as well as capacity in responding to spatial and ecological matters of concern in the school building. This aspect of the research was initiated by our project but due to the limited access we had to the participants due to Covid restrictions we could not extended as much as we aimed too. - The methods of diagramming and visualisation of school spaces have the potential to be applied to the study of other school buildings and educational institutions. They also can be used in action-oriented pedagogical initiatives and in complement with the sensory-digital methods so school dwellers have opportunities to envision the building as always in constant change, and as a multiplicity of movements, frictions, landings, encounters. - There is in general a lack of research that looks symbiotically at the relation of new school architecture and education from an ANT perspective where a school architecture works as machine that connects entities to other entities, forming relations and symbiotic mediations. We sustain that by developing this perspective, we can have a better understanding of the lived experiences in school buildings. While widely developed in buildings of science, this type of research is just nascent in the study of school architectures.Communities and Social Services/PolicyConstructionDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationEnvironmentCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://www.schoolatmospheres.net/The global Covid-19 pandemic brought new attention to the precarity faced by freelance workers and the wider notion of what has become known as the 'gig economy' in the UK. The theatre sector has been no different, with successive national lockdowns highlighting the industry's long-standing reliance on a diverse freelance workforce. Freelancers make up the majority of the UK's theatre ecology (88% of its workforce is self-employed or freelance). Our findings illuminate the corresponding experiences of uncertainty, pessimism, and hope relating to future work and the future of the performing arts sector in the UK. They also show a high level of adaptiveness as theatre freelancers have diversified their skills and careers. From our study, the experience of this initial closure varied significantly among freelancers, but the evidence shows that freelancers were more dramatically affected than other workers in the industry. Our research indicates a boom of innovative practice amongst theatre freelancers over Covid-19 that responded to the closure of theatres and other restrictions by developing digitally based and/or distanced forms of audience engagement. Practitioners shifted their daily practice from the rehearsal studio to Zoom and utilised networking technologies to widen their collaborations and extend their national and international reach. Upon the reopening of theatres in late Summer through Autumn 2021, our research finds that the absence of unilateral regulation and the pressure to get back up and running often put freelancers and temporarily contracted crew under intense and unsafe working pressures; this was particularly noted in Autumn 2021 as both the Delta and Omicron variants spread through casts and crews daily. The widespread use of digital platforms during Covid-19 offered opportunities for freelance theatre workers to establish new creative relationships and collaborations with peers in the UK as well as further afield. Our research indicated an exponential increase in engagement with online social and support networks, more formally as led by organisations and sector stakeholders, and informally, through peer-to-peer and grassroots mechanisms. Many of our research participants spoke of their reliance on freelance support networks for emotional, professional, and creative support, and mobilisation of members of the workforce towards activism and change. Our research highlights the significance of relationships with both fellow freelancers and organisations in freelancers' feelings of optimism towards their future work. It is troubling then that there appears also to be a significant breach of trust, communication, and understanding between organisations and freelancers very early in the pandemic, made greater by a series of public policies around pandemic support and recovery. This has made it difficult not only to collaborate on solutions, but to engage in the dialogues needed for recovery and change. Our research estimates that freelancer-led networks, grassroots activism, and formal activist groups formed or were amplified in great numbers during Covid-19. Large scale freelancer activist groups built off of these concerns, to actively invoke dialogue with cultural organisations, public bodies, and trade unions. Further research is needed, however, to study the long-term impact of these Covid-19 developed activist networks.In recent studies on the aftermath of Covid-19 on the Arts Industries our project final report has been cited and added to, including: Theatre After Covid (PI Christopher Balme), the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, Melissa Tyler's "Creating an equitable and sustainable future for freelance / self-employed workers in the entertainment industry" (2022) and "Performing during/after lockdown: A study of the impact of COVID-19 on live performers in the UK" from the British Academy in 2021. Arts Policy Makers, funding bodies such as Arts Council England and the trade union, British Actors Equity, have also found our project outcomes useful for their current reports and strategies. Smaller grassroots organisations such as Women Working Class and the Working Class Artist group have also used our report for their inclusion campaigns within the industryCreative EconomyCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://freelancersinthedark.com/home/freelancers-in-the-dark-final-report/With this award, we aimed to: 1. support the co-development and co-design of a strong full application for a Network Plus that will address development challenges associated with the protection of displaced people in LMICs in the central Maghreb region (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia). We were successful in that we secured the GCRF-AHRC Network Plus full award. 2. The award set to nurture our established strong, equitable, and sustainable partnerships with research institutions and advocacy groups in the Maghreb. And we managed to work cohesively as a team. 3. Provide additional training to CARITAS (our partners) practitioners. This was achieved. 4.Develop a region-specific (Central Maghreb) review of key research and policy about protection and scoping current data sources (including in Arabic, English, and French).This is still ongoing.The region-specific (Central Maghreb) review of key research and policy about protection and scoping current data sources (including in Arabic, English, and French), which is still ongoing, will provide a significant starting point to conduct research on protection of displaced people in the region. It can be a useful tool for other research teams and to other sectors (eg. humanitarian and policy).Communities and Social Services/PolicyGovernment Democracy and JusticePlease see outcomes reported under grant ref EP/K038788/1Please see outcomes reported under grant ref EP/K038788/1Otherhttp://www.imperial.ac.uk/london-e-science/projects/libhpc/p53 major tumour suppressor protein has presented a challenge for structural biology for two decades. The intact and complete p53 molecule has eluded previous attempts to obtain its structure, largely due to the intrinsic flexibility of the protein. Using ATP-stabilised p53, we have employed cryoelectron microscopy and single particle analysis to solve the first three-dimensional structure of the full-length p53 tetramerThis structure revolutionises existing concepts of p53's molecular organisation and resolves conflicting data relating to its biochemical properties. This architecture explaines how the protein can bind differently spaced DNA target sequences, essential for p53 transactivation and tumour suppressor functions. Our research opens the door for development of drugs that can regulate activity of p53.HealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyPlease see key finding of BBSRC grant BB/K003240/2.Please see BBSRC grant BB/K003240/2Agriculture Food and DrinkEnergyEnvironmentOtherhttps://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/research/slolaThe Antarctic ice sheet is currently losing mass, but the causes for the mass loss remain unclear. It has been suggested that the reduction in the thickness ofthe floating ice shelves that surround the ice sheet, for example, due to ocean warming or changes in ocean circulation, may be responsible for some of the observed ice loss. However, this hypothesis has remained untested. Here, we use a state-of-the art numerical ice flow model to calculate the direct mass loss due to observed changes in ice shelves between 1994 and 2017. We find that the magnitude and spatial variability of modelled changes of inland ice are in good agreement with observations, suggesting that a substantial portion of the recent ice loss from the grounded Antarctic ice sheet has been driven by changes in its thinning ice shelves. The process we consider (ice shelf buttressing) relates to changes in forces within the ice alone and is therefore effectively instantaneous (i.e., only limited by the speed of stress transition within the ice). Besides providing a possible explanation for a large part of the ongoing mass loss, this finding also shows that we are not protected against the impact of the Antarctic ice sheet on global sea levels by a long response time.We've quantified the impact of ice-shelfs on upstream flow of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. This has a number of possible uses. For example, this could be used to select areas most important for additonal field observations.EnvironmentThe project sought to characterise the strategic processes involved in different stages of long-term memory retrieval by combining the spatial resolution of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with the temporal resolution of electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography (EEG/MEG). In the first year of the project, a post-doctoral research associate was recruited (Dr Zara Bergström) and, in collaboration with Dr Richard Henson at the nearby MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Dr Bergström and I developed methods to address the considerable technical challenges of integrating the complementary strengths of fMRI and source-localised EEG/MEG. The multimodal imaging approach taken involved collecting fMRI and EEG/MEG data from the same participants on two separate occasions while they undertook a recollection task that involved retrieving different types of source information. We then used the advanced EEG/MEG distributed source localisation techniques we developed to look for convergence between independent fMRI and EEG/MEG localisation. Notable consistency was observed between the frontal and parietal brain regions identified with each imaging modality, providing novel evidence about how these regions interact over time to support source recollection. These results were replicated and extended in a subsequent experiment which found that activity in some of the identified regions is dependent on the type or the number of memory features that have to be evaluated. These findings have been written up as part of two published journal articles so far, including a substantial paper that describes in detail the methodological approach developed during the course of the grant. A second strand of research involved applying the statistical method of spatial independent component analysis (ICA) to the neuroimaging data to characterise interactions between brain regions and identify the operating dynamics of large-scale functional brain networks that support recollection. The findings demonstrated that increased cooperation between two frontal-parietal systems, the default mode network (DMN) and the external attention system (EAS), is associated with more rapid recollection. These cooperative interactions were shown to be facilitated by a dynamic reconfiguration of components of the DMN to enhance integration with prefrontal and parietal regions. These results shed new light on the contribution of these well-established large-scale brain networks to memory, and were published in a high-impact journal. Similar ICA methods applied to our EEG data to examine the separable influence of automatic and controlled processes on recollection have also recently been published. In addition, we capitalized on the MRI data collected during the project to investigate the structural brain basis of individual differences observed in performance on our recollection tasks. We identified that variability in a prefrontal cortex structural landmark, the paracingulate sulcus (PCS), might be important. The PCS is one of the last structural folds to develop before birth and, for this reason, varies greatly in size between individuals in the general population. We found that healthy, apparently cognitively intact, adults whose MRI scans indicated bilateral absence of the PCS were significantly less accurate on our recollection tasks than people with a prominent PCS on at least one side of the brain. These findings generated considerable media interest when they were published.Improving our understanding of which aspects of memory function are impaired, and which may be spared, in patients with brain dysfunction could inform the development of rehabilitation strategies that are targeted at the cognitive abilities that remain functional in these patients, thus contributing to improving their quality of life. The findings from this project have clinical implications for patients with memory difficulties, such as those with amnesia, in whom it has traditionally been difficult to isolate which of the many processes that support memory are affected. Because technical limitations have meant that acquiring multimodal neuroimaging evidence has not been possible before, the research findings can inform efforts to distinguish both where in the brain and when in time specific memory impairments have their impact. Other ways in which the research can be exploited are to provide fresh spatiotemporal constraints on the development of cognitive and neural models of human memory, incorporating novel insights into how different stages of memory retrieval are instantiated in the brain. More generally, the project has helped contribute to the development of sophisticated multimodal imaging analysis methods which will be capitalized on by neuroimaging researchers in other domains.Healthcarehttp://www.memlab.psychol.cam.ac.uk/To date, key findings from this component of the project have focused on the use of transdisciplinary coastal data and the design of scenarios for coastal management. Our workshop on transdisciplinary use of coastal data highlighted the need for capacity building and increasing ocean and coastal literacy, and the need to promote and foster a transdisciplinary community around coastal data. Our workshop on Developing exploratory scenarios to support coastal management highlighted the importance for robustness, consistency and communication in scenario design. Increasing transdisciplinarity in scenario design is likely to have a positive influence on coastal resilience. Communication of uncertainty and of new evidence is a key bottleneck and is often associated with mismatch between academic disciplines and applied practitioners. Coastal modelling work for two UK case studies have demonstrated the added-value of input from the local communities to the development, implementation and delivery of modelling studies. For our case study in the Firth of Forth further demonstrates that hybrid solutions combining nature-based approaches with more traditional engineered approaches can be effective in providing protection to coastal flooding while minimising adverse effects on the local community. In our case study in the Ribble estuary, our modelling has shown that impacts of managed realignment extend to the entire estuary and are variable both in space and time: some places are better off but other places may be worse off.The main outcome of the project so far is to build capacity and 'level-up' ocean and coastal literacy across all actors involved in designing and implementing coastal protection schemes. This will facilitate engagement between these actors when delivering coastal protection schemes. Lessons learned from our project on how to communicate climate change information to communities is being produced and provided to the Environment Agency in order to support their ongoing work related to recently released coastal data products.Aerospace Defence and MarineAgriculture Food and DrinkConstructionDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationEnergyEnvironmentCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsTransportThe DFMA network was set up to create a UK-based group of historians and archaeologists devoted to investigating global history in the medieval period. Through pooling their expertise from different world regions network members have sought to establish the basic contours for this fledgling field of historical inquiry. Our funding finished at the end of March 2015. By this point we had held four academic workshops at which we had discussed a variety of dimensions of the Global Middle Ages, as well as a fifth impact-outreach event, at which we disseminated our findings to a wider audience of teachers, museum staff and early career researchers. Our first two workshop meetings laid essential foundations by considering the utility of concepts associated with global history in other periods ('empire'; 'divergence'; 'religion' etc.) as well as the thorny issue of periodization (does one standard periodization work for all regions of the world, or is 'medieval' too Eurocentric to be useful?). Subsequent workshops identified a series of characteristics of global history distinctive to our period (c.300-1600). A sub-group of the network is now preparing book-length study, The World Before Columbus: Towards a Global Middle Ages, in which some of the ideas that the network has discussed will be developed further. Each chapter in that volume will be co-written by experts from different regions of the world, an approach that we believe to be unique in this field. Publication as a Past and Present Supplement is scheduled for 2018. We have also developed a project website where the reports, bibliographies and programmes of all our workshops are alraedy on display. This website includes a section called 'Resources' which contains tools for school and early college audiences. This is a section that we intend to continue to enhance in the aftermath of the funded part of the project. When we applied for funding we were keen to discover whether the 'Global Middle Ages' as a concept had any power and whether there were ways in which those coming with very different experiences of the medieval world could talk about such a concept. After our workshop meetings, we are confident that the Global Middle Ages is a viable idea and that we have made significant headway in developing the analytical toolbox for talking about it. We have also learned a great deal from each other about parts of the world we knew little about, another objective of our original application. 2018: we have now published our findings in a Past and Present supplement (ie a book format released by a leading journal in the field of History); for three months that supplement was free-to-access. 2019-20: A revised version of the DGMA network led by Ian Forrest, Amanda Power, Catherine Holmes (Oxford), Naomi Standen (Birmingham) and Minoru Ozawa (Rikkyo, Japan) have held one new workshop (Feb 2019) dedicated to the theme of medieval zomias (less intensively governed regions which our original network discussions did not cover in detail); this meeting was funded by the John Fell Fund in Oxford and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. A further workshop on this theme, funded by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, and involving an international group of participants based in four different continents was on zoom in the summer of 2020. Both of these Oxford-organised workshops involve/d new network members, including much stronger representation from academic environments outside the UK than was possible in the 2012-15 grant. Further workshops in Japan are in the planning stage, and an international collaborative publication will arise from the two most recent workshops.We think that our collaborative mode of working, whether in workshop or co-written book modes, will provide templates that other teams of scholars may choose to use (and indeed are already choosing to use). Our bibliographies are already providing useful starting points for other projects interested in the same or related sets of questions (see recent reviews of the 2018 P&P supplement by Ruth Mostern: https://sla.ucpress.edu/content/3/4/640; Roy Flechner, https://www.medievalworlds.net/8852-0inhalt?frames=yes; and R.I.Moore https://online.ucpress.edu/jmw/article/2/1-2/35/110813/Review-The-Global-Middle-Ages-edited-by-Catherine). We know that aspects of the findings as represented on our website, in the P&P supplement chapters and in the bibliography to that supplement are now being used in graduate and undergraduate reading lists, and in some cases are being used to frame student options, including papers at graduate level in the UK and internationally. At the level of more senior scholars, we believe that single scholars are now able to benefit from engaging with our publicly available materials whether they are working on global history in-the-round or on the history of specific regions in global context. Now we have put more of our materials aimed at a non-academic audience on our website, then teachers and students in the 14-18 year-old age group should be able to follow up more fully on our activities. We hope that our advice on accessible reading for students in this age-group will provide useful gateways into the Global Middle Ages specifically and Global History more generally.Creative EconomyEducationLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://pastandpresent.org.uk/introducing-the-global-middle-ages-supplement/In Strand A we performed a sequence of ten experiments. The main results of these studies can be summarized as follows. First, viewers are very fast and accurate to detect a face in a scene, though faces in profile are harder to detect than those in full-face or three-quarter views. Second, the advantage for full-face and three-quarter views is not due to the fact that users are detecting 'a pair of eyes'. When faces are cut in half, a full-face view (now showing a single eye)_is still detected just as fast and accurately as a face rotated to mid-profile and displaying both eyes. Both these views are still detected more quickly than a profile. Third, colour helps viewers to detect faces. Furthermore, colour seems to be used in an intelligent way by the visual system, because it is only useful when it conforms to skin-tone, and retains the appropriate shape. Fourth, although viewers are quick to spot a face in a scene, their first eye fixation tends not to land on the face. This is important, because some previous research has suggested that faces somehow pull the attention of viewers towards them. In fact, when controlled experiments are performed, it is clear that people tend to look at the centre of any scene first, and only then at the face. In fact, the upper body receives more initial eye-movements than the face when viewing a person in a scene - a result which is novel to this research programme. In Strand B we performed a further 7 experiments. Here we were particularly interested in which parts of a face tend to receive a viewer's attention, and so we presented faces in isolation. Previous research has tended to stress the importance of the eyes and the centre of the face. However, early research tended to present front-view faces in the centre of a display, and so the centre of the face is confounded with the centre of the display. In these experiments we discovered that viewers do not tend to look at the eyes first. Instead, they tend to look first at the centre of the head, and only then towards the eyes. When the view is such that the centre of the head is near the eyes (full face), people do tend to look at the eyes first. However, when the centre of the head is a cheek (as it is in profile view) then people look at the cheek first. Once again, this finding extends previous research by making it clear that the eyes do not automatically 'pull' one's attention towards them. People do tend to look at the eyes, but this does not happen in the initial eye-movement, and is not mandatory. We went on to explore this further using an 'attentional-cueing' procedure. Once again, we demonstrated that people do tend to focus on person's eyes, but that they can easily be trained not to do so. Once again, this shows that eyes do not automatically attract one's attention.The broader impact of this work lies at the interface between human and machine vision systems. In fact, this is a topic which has received a lot more attention by engineers than psychologists. There are clearly many applications which benefit from being able to establish whether a person is present or not. To this end, a great many automatic system already exist, independently of any knowledge of the human case. This project has already established that some highly efficient techniques used by engineers, are not used by the human visual system. This knowledge will lead to predictions about the use of some automatic solutions - i.e. the range and limits of their utility. We have already begun discussions with a group of engineers which we hope will lead to further research proposals aimed at optimizing automatic face detection.Security and Diplomacy* We proved certain topological properties of monotone Lagrangian submanifolds in the standard symplectic vector space. * We computed Gromov-Witten invariants for families for the Kodaira-Thurston manifolds. This is the first computation of this type for a non-Kaehler manifold.They can be used in better understanding the symplectic topology of Lagrangian submanifolds. The computation of Gromov-Witten invariants has a potential to be used by mathematical physicists.EducationOtherWe developed a range of techniques and tools that help security analysts determine whether mobile applications may have insecure effects, for example, exposing personal information to unauthorized parties. We designed algorithms that automatically analyse apps to ensure they are safe. Previously, this was done manually by malware analysts in expensive, time-consuming and sometimes unreliable ways. Another improvement has been to add "digital evidence" to apps. Digital evidence can guarantee that an app is safe and it can be checked automatically, even on a phone. Evidence establishes that the code is safe, whereas the current state-of-the-art in industry is code signing, which at best only says where the code has come from. Finally, we investigated user-friendly security policies and ways of connecting policies together: rather than the user examining a long list of complicated permissions as currently happens in Android, we want to have a set of sensible policies for different types of app.We have been working together with some industry representatives and also experts in GCHQ to see where the technologies we have developed may be applied. This is still active and in progress --- the project has some follow-on research being funded by the GCHQ/National Cyber Security Centre. In future we hope some of the ideas may be adopted in practical technologies, for example, providing security checks for software in the supply chain for mobile apps or other software components, e.g., in Internet of Things.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Financial Services and Management ConsultancyHealthcareSecurity and Diplomacyhttp://groups.inf.ed.ac.uk/security/appguardenDuring the duration of this award we have had a number of seminal publications detailing our key finding, see details below. In these publication we show how maternal obesity during pregnancy impacts on the long-term health of the off-spring. Importantly, we show that mild exercise during pregnancy can reverse reverse the majority of these effects. A number of other publications are in the process of being finalised in which these results are documented. Maternal Obesity in Pregnancy Developmentally Programs Adipose Tissue Inflammation in Young, Lean Male Mice Offspring. Alfaradhi MZ, Kusinski LC, Fernandez-Twinn DS, Pantaleão LC, Carr SK, Ferland-McCollough D, Yeo GS, Bushell M, Ozanne SE. Endocrinology. 2016 Nov;157(11):4246-4256. Epub 2016 Sep 1. A post-weaning obesogenic diet exacerbates the detrimental effects of maternal obesity on offspring insulin signaling in adipose tissue. de Almeida Faria J, Duque-Guimarães D, Carpenter AA, Loche E, Ozanne SE. Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 24;7:44949. doi: 10.1038/srep44949. PMID: 28338072 Free PMC Article Exercise rescues obese mothers' insulin sensitivity, placental hypoxia and male offspring insulin sensitivity. Fernandez-Twinn DS, Gascoin G, Musial B, Carr S, Duque-Guimaraes D, Blackmore HL, Alfaradhi MZ, Loche E, Sferruzzi-Perri AN, Fowden AL, Ozanne SE. Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 14;7:44650. doi: 10.1038/srep44650.This research may impact on public awareness and may form part of a program for intervention in the further.Agriculture Food and DrinkSystematic principles and practices guiding psychoanalytically-informed psycho-social research, and innovations in the understanding of maternal identity transition, have cumulative impact across disciplinary boundaries (mainly psychology, sociology, social policy, psychotherapy, health, gender studies, philosophy), disseminated through publications, lectures, talks, workshops and contacts with research networks, groups and individuals. Specifically availability of theoretically elaborated, empirically evidenced, psycho-social accounts of: researcher objectivity, derived from the object relations psychoanalysis' accounts of thinking (Bion) and imagination (Winnicott), that transcend entrenched binaries in western Enlightenment thought: thinking-feeling (cognition-emotion), autonomy-relatedness, objectivity-subjectivity. qualitative research practices covering the whole research process (design, consent, fieldwork, data analysis, writing), which stress reflection on emotional (subjective) responses, supported by thinking procedures and other minds (groups and supervision) post-natal depression viewed through the lens of 'fragilisation', involving loss of the singleness of identity starting in the prenatal, trans-subjective state elaborated in matrixial theory (Ettinger), heightened when faced with the non-negotiable needs of a new vulnerable infant and situated in a social-discursive context of an equality model based on sameness to men 'becoming through culture' that does not start with cultural difference or a binary of individuality- collectivism, includes an account of developing agency, demonstrates personal drawing on cultural resources and also a larger process of cultural change in the (Bangladeshi-London) community the importance of new mothers' mothers and intergenerational transmission of maternal knowing through unconscious identification and embodied early experience unavailable to language.Recogntion of pre-natal/pre-maternal joint experience in policy relating to early motherhood and differentiation of this period of mothering from 'parenting' Factoring in the considerable upheavals involved in women's identities on becoming mothers and the challenges incurred in gender relations the availability of a detailed, comprehensive account of an alternative epistemology and methodology for identity research and, more broadly, psycho-social research an elaborated alternative ethical practice for qualitative empirical researchEducationHealthcareOver the past twelve month we were able to apply novel and successful techniques to the data collected by this project. The data comprises a combination of household electricity use, activity diaries, and several surveys. Previously we were able to attribute electricity demand to activities, such that common misconceptions and assumptions in energy models using time-use data could be addressed. Now we are able to make more precise and specific attributions, which reflect the marginal contributions of household activities (if someone does X, how likely is this to increase or decrease demand over the next hour). This is important for load forecasting on short and long timescales. Furthermore, we were able to identify socio-demographic dependencies in electricity demand and identify the strongest predictors for high contributions to peak demand, of which hot meal preparation is one. Common claims that women are responsible for larger shares of electricity demand have been challenged by our data. In addition the Meter Study discovered (and keeps discovering) how diverse the use of electricity use is across UK households. This is important, because we tend to design energy policy for 'typical' users and fail to recognise that different groups may respond more or less well to certain policies. Over the past 5 years we have developed a comprehensive set of tools and methods to undertake research into household use of electricity, including - an innovative self-administered electricity recorder for households - an app-based collection of activities performed by each household member - a database infrastructure and online portal to collect and share these data Our new approach to collecting household activity information alongside electricity use data has shown: - how our activities relate to electricity use (cooking among the most - socialising among the least) - which activities are most/least enjoyable (socialising among the most - laundry among the least) - how we respond to requests to reduce demand (16% reduction - main contributors: shift hot meal time and washing machine)We have already had more uptake of our approach than we had anticipated. Colleagues in Germany and the U.S. are actively developing our approach with us to deploy it in their areas. This process will help us make our approach applicable in a wide international context and provide valuable comparisons of electricity use behaviours. We envisage the following next steps: - expand the sample to become nationally representative (this requires additional funding) - this will unlock policy impact - continue the data collection to explore trends in demand and improve forecasting (EV uptake, changes due to digitalisation...) - this will be valuable for utilities and new service providers - reduce the cost and improve scalability by using smart meter data and a personal app - this will help with both of the above Other research groups have used our data from the UK Data Archive and submitted papers on demand analysis. No funding for these activities has yet been secured.Communities and Social Services/PolicyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EnergyEnvironmentLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsRetailTransportOtherhttp://www.energy-use.orgThe project is now completed. The combination of computational research conducted by Striolo and Stamatakis, and the experimental results obtained by Koh (at the Colorado School of Mines) has led to significant key fundamental findings: 1. Excellent agreement has been obtained between numerical and experimental approaches implemented to screen potential surface active chemicals used to prevent the formation of hydrate plugs in pipelines. The simulations allowed us to understand the mechanisms by which they work. The agreement with experiments has strengthen our interpretation. 2. A workflow has been proposed to aid the discovery of new surface active chemicals to be used as anti-agglomerants. The main advanage is that the experimental work can be focused only on promising candiates, reducing costs and time required to innovate the field. 3. Excellent agreement has been obtained between modelling (Striolo and Stamatakis) and experiments (Koh) regarding the wettability of hydrate particles in the presence of various types of oils. This settled a disagreement in the literature, identifying in the line tension and surface roughness the reason for the differences. This allows for a better fundamental understanding of the driving forces that can lead to hydrate plugs formation in pipelines and elsewhere, with the potential of reducing the environmental footprnt of the energy sector. 4. Experimental observations, supprted by modelling results highlighted new mechanisms by which hydrates grow, in particular via the formation of surface structures. Tgis has potential importance for understanding adhesion of hydrate particles on various substrates, which is relevant for safety. 5. A stochastic model has been developed to describe hydrate growth. The model takes into consideration atomistic results, and is able to quantify the morphology of hydrate particles formed under various degrees of sub-cooling. The results could allow for enhancements of the capabilities of the CSMHyk software. 6. A new algorithm has been proposed to describe hydrate growth at the three-phase boundary (hydrate, liquid, and gas). This algorithm allows for a more realistic description of the phenomena under consideration. 7. We were able to identify conditions at whoch synergistic and antagonistic effects appear when anti-agglomeramts and other production chemicals are used simultaneously. This has the potential of identifying conditions when CO2 hydrate growth can be promoted, while simultaneously stabilizing said hydrates. This was only possible via the combination of experimental and modelling results, which was enabled by the NSF-EPSRC funding opportunity. 8. New promoters were identified for speeding up the growth of CO2 hydrates, which has the potential of opening up new venues for capturing CO2 from small emitters, transporting it, and sequestering it using hydrates. The results are all of the fundamental type, but they also have significant opportunities for positive impact in the industry. We are currently pursuing funding sources for continuing this project. One UCL post-graduate student, Ms Xinrui Cai, who is supported financially by a private donor, has continued the research on hydrates. Her publications are in preparation now, but her conference presentations attracted the attention of several researchers. As a result, we have collaborated with the group of Prof. Linga in Singapore, and the group of Prof. Farhadian, at the Kazan Federal University. The results are shedding new lights on hydrates.The ability of using modelling to identify new surfactants could lead to important advancements in specialty chemicals design. The ability to incorporate hydrate growth rates in the presence of various chemicals in CSM-Hyk has the potential of de-risking the transport of hydrocarbins. The fundamental observations have the potential of being applicable, upon appropriate changes, to CO2 hydrates, which has potential impact in reducing the environmental impact of the energy sector. The demonstrated ability of modelling to reproduce several experimental observations opens up vanues for attacking other important challenges in the sector, for example hydrates adhesion.ChemicalsEnergyEnvironmentManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyOur scientific objectives have all been met or else we are waiting to augment our data-set before publishing our findings in relation to these objectives: 1. The relative importance of natural vs. sexual selection in a wild population. (Determine offspring in next generation, longevity, causes of mortality, mating success, sexual signals.) We have achieved this objective as described in Rodríguez-Muñoz et al Science 2010. 328, 1269-1272 (hereafter RRM 2010) 2. Whether males vary more in LRS than females. (Use pedigree to compare variance in offspring surviving to adulthood between males and females). We have achieved this objective as described in RRM 2010. 3. Within sexual selection, relative importance of male competition vs. female choice. (Compare calling effort, call structure and success in fights, with reproductive success. Look for possible alternative mating tactics in males and heritability / condition dependence of these tactics). We have achieved this objective in that we demonstrated a relationship between male fighting behaviour (dominance) and calling behaviour (RRM 2010) we are continuing to analyse our data to determine whether there are alternative mating tactics in males. 4. The extent to which sexually selected traits are subject to naturally selected costs. (Compare longevity, causes of mortality between males differing in call effort and song structure). We have achieved this objective as described in RRM 2010. 5. Determine whether females gain indirect benefits from mate choice. (Determine whether females mating to males with high calling effort or song quality have offspring with high reproductive success). We are in the process of analysing our data to answer this question, we have demonstrated that females that mate to more males have higher fitness (RRM 2010). We also published a major review of the role of personality in sexual selection (Schuett et al 2010) 6. Evidence for sexually antagonistic alleles (intra-locus sexual conflict) (Determine whether there is a negative correlation between reproductive success of siblings of opposite sex). Our data suggest that such a negative correlation does not exist. However, because support for a negative conclusion is more demanding, we are waiting to collect more data before preparing this for publication. 7. Realised trait heritabilities in wild populations compared with lab measures. (Use pedigree and animal model approach to estimate heritabilities of all traits measured). We have a lot of data relating to this, but we are waiting to combine it with new data from the next 2 years. 8. Do female insects face an inbreeding risk in wild populations and if so, does relatedness affect mating probability? (Use pedigree to determine whether relatives meet, whether they mate, and their subsequent RS). We have achieved this objective and have a manuscript with the journal Molecular Ecology which has been revised following one round of reviewers comments. Our General objectives to train the two PDRAs were met and both have gone on to subsequent postdoctoral positions with RRM remaining on this project. The new techniques we aimed to develop, we have developed and our Science publication and associated press releases and videos and suchlike attracted a lot of media attention with articles in several major broadsheet newspapers, radio interviews and hundreds of online articles.The work we have done on developing software for use in monitoring populations of animals has already resulted in our industrial collaborators (i-code systems) selling their product to at least 2 other research groups, and we are continuing to work with them to develop this We have developed a website www.wildcrickets.org which is aimed at lay members of the public to help them follow our attempts to understand the natural world. This research has implications for how studies designed to understand behaviour are designed. We are also involved in developing video analysis software to make it fit for the purpose of monitoring tagged wild animals.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationElectronicsEnvironmenthttp://www.wildcrickets.orgA new approach has been developed for determining temperature change - heat transfer relationship for energy walls which will be important for their routine design. This approach has been tested against a range of suitable datasets and its appropriateness quantified.In due course, routine design methods based on the research developments will be available. These are currently being prepared by a PhD student.ConstructionEnergyThe research translated to further funding that led to human clinical evaluation. The nanoparticles formed using this approach are able to enhance drug uptake after oral delivery leading to options for the reduction in drug content in orally dosed therapiesThe findings are already in human trials and have formed the basis for several global interactions (USAID funded and industry collaborations)Agriculture Food and DrinkChemicalsHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttps://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2017/02/17/new-nano-approach-to-hiv-therapy-presented-at-leading-conference/The key finding associated with this award is the ability to produce industrially-important chemicals in a safer and greener way compared to existing approaches. We were able to identify two chemicals that we can produce at much lower temperatures and with high intensity and low emissions. These are ethylene and ethylene oxide. We hope to expand this discovery further in the next steps.In this award, we investigated the feasibility of a novel approach for the safer, greener and more intensive production of important chemicals. The investigations were a proof-of-concept and was limited to small-scale experiments and computer simulations. We can take the outcomes of this award forward by scaling up the experiments to be applicable for an industrial scale.ChemicalsEnergyEnvironmentWe showed that a small, FTICR mass spectrometer that can fit on a benchtop can be built using a cryogen free magnet.We believe that Bruker, in particular, but other instrument manufacturers as well, will be interested in making this instrument for the larger mass spectrometry market.EducationManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyTouring the exhibition and festival to India and Thailand have opened up new areas of research about the relationship between the 'homeland' of India, and the diaspora communities in both the UK and Thailand.The exhibition and digital archive of interview from the project are now available for permanent public viewing in the Dominion Centre in Southall. This gives access to the material gahtered during the project.Communities and Social Services/PolicyCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsSparse regression codes (SPARCs) are a recent class of error-correcting codes proposed for communications over the additive white gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. It has been proven mathematically that such codes can achieve the capacity of the AWGN channel using a power allocation technique and approximate message passing (AMP) decoding. In this project, my collaborators and I have proved mathematically that SPARCs can achieve the capacity of the AWGN channel using a spatial coupling technique and AMP decoding. Furthermore, this project has extended SPARC encoder designs to incorporate standard digital modulation schemes such as Phase-Shift Keying (PSK), and proved similar capacity-achieving properties for these generalised SPARC designs. Through numerical simulations, this project demonstrated that the error rate versus signal-to-noise tradeoff achieved by SPARCs is competitive with that of state-of-the-art coded modulation communication schemes.The research findings from the project suggests a capacity-achieving channel coding scheme with details of the encoder and decoder. Others may investigate the feasibility of this coding scheme in practice. For example, the encoding and decoding complexity and hardware requirements can be investigated.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)A huge effort was put into building computer models to describe corrosion based on a simplified form of quantum mechanics called tight binding. We have carried out a very thorough analysis of the conditions under which a range of models apply. The main lesson for corrosion of Mg (and Zr) is that we need rather complete models which look very much like full density functional theory (a rather precise quantum mechanical method). Approximations can still be made if one is willing to sacrifice accuracy for some quantities. Using density functional theory simulations we have discovered 1. A way to identify where hydrogen likes to reside in the surface of magnesium. It involves looking at how electrons with parallel spin like to pair up. This is important for understanding how magnesium absorbs hydrogen, either as part of corrosion, or as a way to store hydrogen. 2. The structure of water near the surface of clean magnesium. 3. How water interacts with magnesium with OH groups attached. This shows how water can dissociate, an important step in corrosion.The detailed analysis of tight binding theory for metallic systems is rather general. Thus any projects thinking about using tight binding to study metallic systems could benefit from this work. The discoveries about how water interacts with magnesium forms a new set of ideas for understanding the corrosion of magnesium.Aerospace Defence and MarineEnergyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThis award made possible a new interdisciplinary research network dedicated to the history of the British Industrial Revolution. The network brought together researchers from a wide range of disciplines, including English literature, economic history, art history and intellectual history. Participants in the network met for four symposia over the course of the funded period, and exchanged new research findings on the history and culture of industrialising Britain. Numerous new connections were forged, and ideas and approaches were exchanged across disciplinary boundaries. Key emerging research themes that arose from the discussions were the close connections between regional, sub-national transformations on the one hand, and global commodity networks on the other; the broad significance of the eighteenth-century transition to fossil fuels, beyond its specific role in factory production; the institutional basis for the circulation of techno-scientific knowledge in the period; and the question of the role played in industrialisation - and its cultural representation - by changing systems and techniques of production on the one hand, and on the other, changes in consumption patterns and markets.The major public-facing outcome of this network is an original website, Writing the Industrial Revolution (https://writingindustry.leeds.ac.uk/). The site is a significant resource for multidisciplinary work on Britain's industrialisation. It currently offers 22 short, illustrated essays on the social, economic, cultural and artistic dimensions of the Industrial Revolution, with more to be added. The essays are designed for an audience of both specialists and students. The site's main goal is to present cutting-edge work on the cultures of industrialism, advancing this important multidisciplinary field of enquiry and providing a starting point for new research. At the same time, most of the essays are intended to be accessible for undergraduate students and others relatively new to the field. The essays published to date represent work by the original members of the network. We have solicited and begun to receive additional essays by an international range of other experts, which will be posted on the site over the coming year. In this way, Writing the Industrial Revolution is a gathering-place for ongoing research agendas, providing visibility and collective purpose for scholarship across disciplinary and national boundaries. It informs new thinking about the continuing legacy of the Industrial Revolution, and about the future of industry, work and environment in Britain during its transition away from the fossil-fuel economy that triumphed in our period of study.Culture Heritage Museums and CollectionsThis award has been used to advance the design of the Square Kilometre Array towards construction readiness. Advanced designs now exist in the areas to which we have been contributing - software systems, detection of pulsars, receiver design, signal processing hardware and software.This work will contribute to the construction of the SKA and all its eventual science outputs.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyElectrification is one of the key ways to achieve the net zero transition, but brings significant challenges as well, including soaring peak and total electricity demand and increasing impact of the volatility from renewable power generation. Industrial plants, with high energy consumption, are an important part of electrification and can contribute to addressing the challenges in the process of electrification. The key way in which industrial plants can contribute is to adjust their electricity generation/consumption patterns in response to the needs of themselves and also those of bulk power systems (i.e., unlocking and utilising their flexibility). As a result, the electricity costs as well as the emissions of the industrial plants can be reduced, and the pressure on the bulk power networks can be relieved. Nevertheless, utilising flexibility, via controlling the flexible power generation, energy storage and demand in industrial plants, is faced with two major challenges - uncertainties (in renewable power generation and industrial processes) and computational complexity. In this project, we found that the challenges can be well addressed via data-driven methods. A support vector clustering method with the generalised intersection kernel was found to be able to characterise the uncertainty set more accurately and effectively, thus better addressing the challenges of uncertainty. An artificial neutral network method was used to generate real-time operational decisions, instead of solving time-consuming optimisation problems, thus better addressing the challenges of computational complexity. We tested the two methods, tackling uncertainty and computational complexity, in two case studies - an industrial site with multiple separate bitumen tanks and a paper mill involving continuous production process. The two methods performed well in both case studies.The findings will be published on academic journals so others can access the outcomes and further develop them in their own ways. In our view, our current artificial neural network method may not very well deal with the situations where the final schedules obtained violate some production constraints. This may be a significant issue for large complex industrial plants with continuous processes (like steelmaking plants). This may be a future research direction. Furthermore, the research still stays at a low Technology Readiness Level (TRL). Further work can be done to see how the methods can be integrated in real industrial plants considering their existing digital and control infrastructure.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EnergyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyThe most important innovation from this feasibility project was a set of working solar cells based on the new technology. These cells had, in the view of the authors, an acceptable efficiency for such an early stage PV technology achieving 6-8% on glass substrates and 1.2% on plastic substrates. The structure of the PV, being based on a silicon nanowire structure, has generated significant interest from, primarily academic, but commercial organisations too. The core technology to be developed in the RA project is a new form of solar cell using Si nanowires (SiNWs). The novelty being the method in which these Si nanowires are grown at low temperature - thereby enabling growth at lower cost on a wider range of substratesOur plans though - specifically PEL and DMU - are focussed on gaining additional funding to be able to answer the remaining technical questions and taking ideas develop during the project forward.ChemicalsDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)ElectronicsEnergyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyWe have shown that the structure of a network impacts the performance of network meta-analysis (a statistical procedure for combining data from many medical trials of more than two treatments). This work has been published. We have made a novel interdisciplinary connection between NMA and an area of statistical physics (random walks). This work has been published. We have developed new models for survival analysis with time dependent covariates. We have applied these models to dynamic prediction and compared them with existing methods. This work has been published. We wrote a review article to introduce network meta-analysis to statistical physicists. We also highlight existing and potential connections between the fields. This work has been published.The work on NMA structure can be used by medical researchers to assess potential biases that may occur due to network structure. The connection between NMA and statistical physics provides new insight into the methodology. One of the methods developed by this approach has been integrated into commonly used medical statistics software. This produces more reliable results for clinicians and statisticians who use this software in medical research. We hope that our survival analysis models will be used by medical researchers who would like to integrate time independent covariates into their survival analysis. Our models come somewhere in between the two standard approaches in terms of modelling and computational complexity. Compared to joint models they provide a simpler, more streamlined and faster approach and rely on fewer modelling assumptions and parameters. Compared to landmarking they make use of more of the available data. We hope our review article this will attract physicists to the field of NMA and promote new interdisciplinary collaborations.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe objectives of this project were to analyse Bellocchio's complete filmic output, with regard especially to its political and psychoanalytical material, and the broader theoretical implications arising from this material. Key findings are: 1) New interpretations enabled by an analysis of the psychoanalysis practiced by Bellocchio's long-standing analyst, Massimo Faglioli. This allows the rather opaque films from the 1980s and 1990s, in particular, to be more adequately understood. It also sheds further light on the place of psychoanalysis in the history of Italian cinema. 2) A better understanding of the relationship between public and private and the political and personal in the making of politically engaged filmmaking and the interrelationship of collective action and private responsibility, objectivity and subjectivity, and the relationship between transformation within and transformation without. This gives insight into how to make films which have the capacity to transform spectator's political leanings. 3) The discovery that the resistant relationship with the 'outside' is not just in relation to particular political positions, but affects almost all levels of Bellocchio's film-making - from the kind of production and distribution circuits he uses to the kind of psychoanalysis found in his films, the way he portrays women, his approach to political material, and his integrating and overturning of cinematic and cultural traditions.Political thinktanks looking at the radicalisation of oppositional behaviours, particularly how these develop and change over one person's lifetime.Government Democracy and JusticeThis project aimed to 1) identify the family structure and social demographics of families who have a child with ID who are at greater risk of parent and child negative mental health outcomes; 2) explore the lived experiences of CYP with ID and their caregivers during COVID and transition phases; 3) understand the CYP's and parent's experience of the recovery phase, including the lasting effects of COVID. The project comprised of a survey (to be completed by parents who have children with and without Intellectual Disabilities) to understand the family structure and social demographics of families who have a child with Intellectual Disabilities and parental mental health. The project also carried out parental interviews with parents and photovoice sessions with the children who have intellectual disabilities. Analysis is still ongoing for the photovoice sessions and parental interviews. The survey asked parents about their coping behaviours, an indicator of child distress (i.e. poorly controlled emotional reactions, e.g. anger, irritability and frustration) as well as parental mental health at two time points - Time 1 (T1; Phased Lockdown, August-December 2021) and Time 2 (T2; Eased Lockdown, January-March 2022). The results have been analysed and these show that levels of child distress, parental stress, anxiety and depression were all significantly higher in T1 compared to T2. This indicates that both parent and child mental health improved as Lockdown eased. High levels of child distress was found to be related to high levels of caregiver stress, anxiety and depression in both parent groups (parents who have children with and without Intellectual Disabilities) during T1. High levels of child distress continued to be related to high levels of parental anxiety in both parent groups and high levels of stress in parents of children with Intellectual Disabilities only in T2. This shows that child's levels of distress was more related to parent's mental health outcomes in T1 which may have been caused by the increased time spent together within close proximity. The easing of lockdown may have allowed more time to be spent separately either by returning to the workplace, school, or engaging in more lone leisure time. Parental coping was shown to be a crucial predictor of poor mental health outcomes in both parent groups at both time points. Specifically emotion-focused coping (i.e. venting, use of emotional support, self-blame and acceptance) predicted parent stress and anxiety at both time points. Avoidant coping (i.e. denial, substance use, self-distraction and behaviour disengagement) predicted all parental mental health outcomes Stress, Anxiety and Depression at both time points. This shows that how parents react during times of stress contributes to their mental health. These coping behaviours can be targeted and improved to reduce poor mental health outcomes. Demographic data showed that the only significant predictor was parent's qualification level during T1 for the parents of children with Intellectual Disabilities only. This showed that those parents with higher qualifications reported lower levels of child distress. No other demographics including child age, number of siblings, parent marital status or parent employment was related to child distress, parent coping and parent mental health.The outcomes from the grant can be taken forward by parliament and government, as well as social and clinical services. The research shows that demographics had little effect on child distress, parent coping and parental mental health. Instead child distress, and parent's coping contribute significantly to poor parental mental health. Therefore measures must be taken to continue to support the family as a whole to improve mental health for both parents and children. In addition parental coping behaviours were significant predictors of parent mental health. Social and clinical professionals can provide interventions or psycho-educational materials to target and improve coping strategies in parents leading to positive mental health outcomes.Communities and Social Services/PolicyHealthcareGovernment Democracy and JusticeThe generation and emergence of three novel respiratory coronaviruses from mammalian reservoirs into human populations in the last 20 years, including one which has achieved pandemic status, suggests that one of the most pressing current research questions is: in which reservoirs could the next novel coronaviruses be generated and emerge from in future? Coronaviruses are a family of RNA viruses, which can cause an array of diseases. In humans, these range from mild cold-like illnesses to lethal respiratory tract infections. Seven coronaviruses are known to infect humans1, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 causing severe disease, while HKU1, NL63, OC43 and 229E tend towards milder symptoms in most patients. Homologous recombination is a natural process, which brings together new combinations of genetic material, and hence new viral strains, from two similar non-identical parent strains of virus. This recombination occurs when different strains co-infect an individual animal, with sequences from each parent strain in the genetic make-up of progeny virus. Homologous recombination has previously been shown in Coronavirues, and is implicated in the generation of SARS-CoV-2. The most fundamental requirement for homologous recombination to take place is the co-infection of a single host with multiple coronaviruses. However, our understanding of which hosts are permissive to which coronaviruses, the prerequisite to identifying which hosts are potential sites for this recombination (henceforth termed 'recombination hosts'), was extremely limited. Here, we utilise our similarity-based machine-learning pipeline to address this significant knowledge gap. Our approach predicted associations between coronaviruses and their potential mammalian hosts by integrating three points of view, encompassing: (1) genomic features depicting different aspects of coronaviruses; (2) ecological, phylogenetic and geospatial traits of potential mammalian hosts; and (3) characteristics of the network that describes the linkage of coronaviruses to their observed hosts. Using this pipeline, we demonstrated that there is currently a large underappreciation of the potential scale of novel coronavirus generation in wild and domesticated animals. Specifically, we predicted there are 11.5-fold more coronavirus-host associations, over 30-fold more potential SARS-CoV-2 recombination hosts, and over 40-fold more host species with four or more different subgenera of coronaviruses than have been observed to date (at >0.5 mean probability cut-off). We discussed the large number of candidate hosts in which homologous recombination of coronaviruses could result in the generation of novel pathogenic strains, as well as the substantial underestimation of the range of viruses which could recombine based on observed data. Give that coronaviruses frequently undergo homologous recombination when they co-infect a host, and that SARS-CoV-2 is highly infectious to humans, the most immediate threat to public health is recombination of other coronaviruses with SARS-CoV-2. Such recombination could readily produce further novel viruses with both the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 and additional pathogenicity from other Coronaviruses. Taking only observed data, there are four non-human mammalian hosts known to associate with SARS-CoV-2 and at least one other coronavirus, and a total of 504 different unique interactions between SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses. However, when we add in our model's predicted interactions this becomes 126 SARS-CoV-2 hosts and 2544 total unique interactions; indicating that observed data are missing 31.5-fold of the total number of predicted recombination hosts, and 5.05-fold increase of the predicted unique associations. Furthermore, we predicted that there are 11.5-fold more general coronavirus-host associations, and over 40-fold more host species with four or more different subgenera of coronaviruses than have been observed to date. Our results demonstrate the large underappreciation of the potential scale of novel coronavirus generation in wild and domesticated animals. With the greater understanding of the extent of mammalian host reservoirs and the potential recombination hosts we identify here, a targeted surveillance programme is now possible which would allow for this generation to be observed as it is happening and before a major outbreak. Such information could help inform prevention and mitigation strategies and provide a vital early warning system for future novel coronaviruses.With the greater understanding of the extent of mammalian host reservoirs and the potential recombination hosts we identify here, a targeted surveillance programme is now possible which would allow for this generation to be observed as it is happening and before a major outbreak. Such information could help inform prevention and mitigation strategies and provide a vital early warning system for future novel coronaviruses. As an example of the utilisation of our model from the perspective of likely future viral homologous recombination events, Banerjee et al. bioinformatically identified potential genomic regions of homologous recombination between MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. They highlighted a significant risk of the highly human-to-human transmissible SARS-CoV-2 acquiring the considerably more pathogenic phenotypes of MERS-CoV. The work presented here identifies 102 potential recombination hosts (excluding humans and laboratory rodents) of the two viruses. Together, our work and Banerjee et al., we provide evidence for both the possible production of a potentially severe future recombinant coronavirus and identify the hosts in which this threat is most likely to be generated. We recommend monitoring for this event.EnvironmentHealthcarehttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21034-5Multi-material, multi-technology fabrication systems provide opportunities for unprecedented design freedom, increased manufacturing efficiency and additional in-line functionality. We demonstrate a novel, modular hybrid additive manufacturing (hybrid-AM) framework, comprised of up to 9 complementing, interchangeable functional modules (e.g. fabrication and characterization). The inherent flexibility of the hybrid-AM process provided an opportunity to address conventional manufacturing limitations including time-consuming, multi-step assembly and restrictions on geometric form factors. Functioning, free-form energy storage devices (supercapacitors, EDLC's) were manufactured in a single, multi-material operation. Furthermore, an integrated dielectric surface mapping technique has been demonstrated for the non-destructive, real-time reconstruction of the 3D dielectric permittivity distribution within functional devices (RF optics) throughout build. The finite volume method provided a form of in-line quality control. A bespoke, modular printing host (GUI) was developed to, among other things, control the hybrid-AM machine, interface with 3rd party scientific equipment, as well as log and analyse production/characterisation data in real-time.The exploration of more novel geometric form factors, optimisation of materials compositions for improved electrochemical performance and integration with functional demonstrators may be considered when taking forward the work done on 3D printing of supercapacitors.ElectronicsEnergyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyWe have derived methane emissions from India using in situ and satellite atmospheric observations. Our estimates are consistent with India's National Inventory Report, and show no statistically significant trend between 2010 and 2015. Using data from the UK's GHG monitoring network, we found that the reported decline in the UK's methane emissions is consistent with our findings from atmospheric data (Lunt et al., 2021). We derived the first atmospheric data-based estimate of methane emissions from North Africa, and discovered a new major seasonal source in the Nile delta (Western et al., 2021). Also using satellite data, we estimated emissions from China, and hypothesised that emissions were continuing from abandoned coal mines (Sheng et al., 2021).We will share the code used in this work with researchers interested in estimating greenhouse gas flux using atmospheric observations.Environmenthttps://moya.blogs.bris.ac.ukThe project reveals myriad ways in which the UK's 'hostile environment' towards immigration impacts on migrant families' everyday interactions with social care services. Data analysis is ongoing, but findings include: Objective 1&3: The study examined the ways in which social care professionals with and without statutory duties enact and/or resist 'everyday borders', thereby developing theoretical understandings of statutory and non-statutory 'everyday bordering'. Findings show that the nature of contemporary service provision means that statutory and non-statutory services are no longer clearly demarcated. Rather, the complexity of the social care funding landscape - some NGOs are commissioned to deliver statutory services - means bordering practices are present in all sectors. Whilst some practitioners are legally required to check immigration status, 'shadow borders' permeate the work of those that are not; migrant families may already be excluded from their services by referrers, or by the conditions of external funding bodies, such as, the Department of Work and Pensions. Practitioners from all sectors are, however, uncomfortable when migrant families are excluded and navigate 'everyday borders' by signposting to services that can provide support and developing strategically inclusive funding strategies. Objective 2: As noted, our study found that everyday bordering practices exist in many forms in social care practice and that their enactment fundamentally shapes all migrant families' support needs, although more so for those were more precarious immigration status. The regular checking of immigration documentation can have a profound impact on a person's wellbeing and sense of 'belonging', and the wider hostile environment impacts on a families' basic living standards; those with the least entitlement need support with food and basic items, and others are disempowered by the complexity of the immigration system and inaccessible bureaucratic processes. The needs of migrant families can go unmet, because of communication barriers, misunderstandings about services offered, or because they do not have access to the required support. Many practitioners 'resist' borders and work against the hostile environment by providing practical help, advocacy and advice, and families highlight the significance of being allocated or identifying an informal 'key worker' to provide practical and wellbeing support as a single point of access. Objective 4: Practitioners in our study requested access to resources to enable them to develop strategies to effectively work with the migrant communities they support. Practitioners and migrant families identified four areas to address: communication barriers; working with people from different cultural and national backgrounds; overcoming cultural assumptions; and the complexities of entitlement and the immigration system. In collaboration with practitioners, we developed an online resource to inform social care practice responses and held a series of art-based workshops with migrant families to enable them to express creatively what 'everyday borders' mean to them. The online resource incorporates the workshop outputs, and impacts positively on the lives of migrant families in the UK. In Autumn 2023, the PI secured a Higher Education Innovation Award to work in partnership with an NHS commissioning group (Humberside and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board) to adapt the content of the resource for in-person delivery. During 2023, this will be piloted with a diverse range of practitioners working in the Humberside, North Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire region. Methodologically, remote methods were employed due to COVID19. We found that ethnographically-inspired online methodologies can successfully facilitate understandings of everyday practice interactions with migrant families and developed knew knowledge about the extent to which ethnography can be stretched. We have pioneered new ethnographic approaches - 'portholes of ethnography' - that allow researchers and participants to gradually develop relationships in ways that have utility for future social research.The outcomes of the project are being 'taken forward' by stakeholders whose work focuses on migrant communities in the UK. National policy makers (in migration, and service provision) can make use of findings relating to the impact of the hostile environment on social care provision, and migrant families' support needs. Decision makers in local government, service commissioners, operational managers, and front life staff that support migrant communities will also make use of the research findings and outputs, including those working in the NHS and local authorities. On a local practice and national level, the project's collaborative partners, Advisory Board members, health care providers, third sector representatives and activist organisations are working with us to do this. Social scientists, researchers and professionals working within and commissioning service provision can benefit from the project's policy findings, supporting people to address the ways in which everyday borders infuse social care practice and influence families' support needs. Scholars of migration studies, family sociology, professional occupations, politics, and geography can also benefit from the theoretical advancement of 'everyday bordering' as a concept; by identifying 'everyday bordering' as a feature of everyday practices in family support, findings develop scholarly understanding of increasingly restrictive migration regimes.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEducationHealthcareGovernment Democracy and Justicehttps://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/everydayborderinguk/home?authuser=0The study has developed a new multiscale computational strategy for modelling and analysis of structural materials with uncertain properties. In particular, wave propagation problems have been investigated from an experimental and numerical point of view, demonstrating that the effect of material uncertainties is more significant at high-frequency regimes where wavelengths become smaller. The study has been developed and tested for concrete structures. The results of ultrasonic tests have demonstrated that the microstructure of the material affects the wave propagation characteristics. The analytical/numerical study has demonstrated a relationship between two approaches, namely the non-local theory and the stochastic mechanics, leading to a more accurate physical understanding of the model/material parameters involved and to a more accurate computer simulation of the wave propagation phenomenon.Future work will need to include the attenuation phenomena which have a deep impact on the wave propagation through materials like concrete. This should be investigated further with lac tests and a new computational model should be developed to include attenuation.Aerospace Defence and MarineConstructionYields, water-soluble carbohydrate production and digestibility of a range of high-sugar grasses through-out the growing season were established and used to identify a suitable grass for future biorefining. Processes for the separation of the sugar rich grass fraction from the remaining fibre were optimised including methods for long term storage of both fractions. Conversion of these sugars to lactic acid using a novel C6 sugar utilising microbe was achieved with high conversion rates at the lab and 500L scales. The downstream extraction and purification of the lactic acid from the fermentation broths was demonstrated, although there remain some technical issues surrounding the removal of excess water from the lactic acid streams generated. The development of fermentation as a synthetic route to valuable platform chemicals was shown to be viable. The production of succinic acid was demonstrated but product levels were poor and need optimising. The project delivered potential new sources of sustainable raw materials for Boots cosmetic brands and also a new network of useful academic and industrial partners for future research.Lactic and succinic acid can be used for the production of bioplastics. Lactate esters for use as additives in sun-protection formulations, succinate esters for use as plasticisers in polyurethane formulations, lactate and succinate as green industrial cleaning agents. Grass fibre as an animal feed, or used in the production of acustic /thermal insulation applications and packaging.ChemicalsConstructionCreative EconomyEnvironmentManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyWe have optimised growth methods for bacteria that contain magnetic particles. These bacteria are hard to grow, so developing methods for their intensified growth is important so that they might be used industrially. We have succeeded in developing methods for the growth of these organisms, and novel methods of analysis to monitor growth of these organisms. We have developed methods for the release and purification of magnetic particles from these organisms. We have optimized these methods so that we can now generate larger quantities of purer particles than before. We have genetically modified this organism in order to change the functionality of the magnetic particles generated by the organism. The overall outcome is that we have optimized multiple stages of the process of production of these particles, so that industrial-scale production is possible.Findings from the project have been presented at conferences (one abstract has been published) and as two peer-reviewed publications. Two further peer-reviewed manuscripts are in progress: one has been submitted, covering optimization of the fermentation process; and one is in preparation, detailing whole-process optimization. As such, project outcomes will be able to be used by other scientists and engineers for the development of new processes for the bioproduction of magnetic particles. In addition, we envision future grant applications being submitted to further the work in the area.HealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe award has very recently closed. A number of follow-on activities are still on-going (publication writing; explorative research with new industrial partners etc). The main grant findings will be clearer for the next ResearchFish submission. So far, key achievements include: - New fabrication route for graphene-based foams developed in collaboration with industry partner, allowing for systematic tuning of internal foam microstructure and surface chemistry - Scalable chemical foam functionalisation methodology developed, based on through-flow foam impregnation, allowing for 3D-uniform foam functionalisation with a broad range of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts - Development of a chemical flow reactor with integrated functional graphene-foam component, enabling graphene foam exploitation in continuous flow processes as well as in-situ electrical foam stimulation - Demonstration of functionalised graphene foams as effective and versatile through-flow catalysts and sorbents in flow-chemical processesThe research findings contribute to knowledge in catalysis, materials science and chemical process engineering. The newly developed chemical methodologies provide highly interesting and well-controlled through-flow catalyst materials, for pharmaceutical and fine-chemical applications. In terms of fundamental materials and nanocarbon science, the findings provide a deeper understanding of the interdependence of catalyst microstructure and chemical properties, which will benefit important established nanocarbon research fields, such as energy storage materials, sensing, water treatment, and separation technologies. In addition the investigation of nanocarbon foam catalysts in flow provides a versatile new tool to investigate fundamental nanocarbon properties. The current low investigations of nanocarbon foam catalysts can be extended to study functional properties of other surface-bound functional molecules (enzymes, functional polymers etc). The integration of nanocarbon foams into a fully functional flow set-up will stimulate new work in porous materials research as well as process engineering. The existing flow reactor set-up can be progressively adapted, e.g. by integrating high pressure/temperature or pulsatile flow with a view to explore more complex hydrothermal or multiphasic flow reaction systems in the future. The availability of robust foam catalysts with controlled microstructure and surface chemistry provides interesting new model systems for advancing the understanding of 3D porous materials both on a fundamental level (e.g. providing experimental data for fluid dynamics simulations) and for more applied investigations (e.g. development of new flow reactor technologies). Based on the findings in this grant, a new research collaboration with a commercial partner in the industrial catalysis area has been started to explore translatability of grant findings to larger scales.ChemicalsManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyWhen cells divide, they must first duplicate every chromosome and then ensure that each of the two daughter cells receives exactly one copy. The chromosomal passenger complex (CPC) functions as part of a correction mechanism that ensures chromosomes are properly attached to the machinery (termed the 'mitotic spindle') that distributes them between the two daughter cells. Correct attachment means that the duplicated copies of each chromosome must be attached to opposite ends of the mitotic spindle, a state called 'chromosome bi-orientation', which ensures that they will be pulled to opposite ends of the cell during division. Our work used yeast cells to examine how the CPC is regulated. Yeast CPC is composed of four proteins (Bir1, Sli15, Nbl1, Ipl1 kinase), each with a mammalian counterpart. Ipl1 catalyses addition of phosphate groups (a process termed 'phosphorylation') to proteins at the interface between chromosomes and the mitotic spindle in order to promote chromosome bi-orientation. However, the role of the other components as regulators of Ipl1 was unclear. Our research focussed on Bir1 and we demonstrated that Bir1 promotes phosphorylation by Ipl1 and that it plays a role in a mechanism that delays division until all chromosomes are bi-oriented. Since bi-oriented chromosomes come under tension from the mitotic spindle whereas incorrectly attached ones do not, we tested whether Sli15 and Bir1 could together form a tension sensor functioning as a CPC 'on/off' switch. However, we could delete the Bir1 binding domain in Sl15 without compromising chromosome bi-orientation, arguing against such a model. A large multi-protein complex termed the 'kinetochore' mediates attachment of chromosomes to the mitotic spindle. We discovered a novel and specific functional connection between Bir1 and components of the "Ctf19/CCAN" kinetochore sub-complex through a genome-wide "synthetic lethal" screen with our bir1-17 mutant, which becomes unconditionally lethal in combination with mutations affecting the Ctf19/CCAN kinetochore complex. This "synthetic lethality" is not shared by mutations affecting either Ipl1 or Sli15, showing that the functional connection is specific to the Bir1 component of the CPC. We additionally found that Ipl1 kinase adds multiple phosphate groups to the Sli15 component of the CPC itself and mapped these sites within the central domain of Sli15. We altered these sites either to block or to mimic phosphorylation and showed that Ipl1-dependent Sli15 phosphorylation does not influence chromosome biorientation, but influences binding of the CPC to the mitotic spindle during the late stages of cell division and that this is needed for optimal chromosome stability. Finally, in collaboration with others we helped to demonstrate an unexpected functional connection between the TOR nutrient signalling pathway and Ipl1-dependent promotion of chromosome bi-orientation.There are no immediate uses of this research in non-academic contexts. This research will be exploited through its contribution to knowledge about fundamentally important cellular mechanisms that occur in higher cells from yeast to man and will underpin additional investigations aimed at improving our knowledge of cellular processes that are relevant to human disease. The knowledge generated through this research will be made available to the scientific community through publication in peer-reviewed journals.Pharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyWe found that we were not only able to make an artificial chemical cell (something we called the 'chell') but that we could also create sufficient information from its metabolism for it to communicate with living (bacterial cells). This 'conversation' between artificial cells and living cells highlights that our notions of cellularity (and life) can be examined through fundamental experiments.These ideas have provoked various communities that examine cells right down to those who are interested in the emergence of complexity and even studying the origins of life. It provoked an analysis of the use of 'chemical cells' as potential 'living drugs', for example - see https://vimeo.com/10274649.EducationPharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttp://users.ox.ac.uk/~dplb0149/index.htmlThe aim of this work was to develop an all dielectric structure that could be used to collimate mid-infrared optical beams. Ultimately, such a structure could be incorporated into semiconductor lasers, which are used in applications such as environmental sensing. reducing the need to use complex and expensive optical systems to manipulate the laser beam. Simulations confirmed that it is possible to colllimate an optical beam using such a structure. A structure was then designed and tested, but the experimental results were less conclusive than the simulations.Having shown the feasibility of using such a dielectric structure, other researchers can now optimise the structure design to allow an experimental demonstration,Aerospace Defence and MarineDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)ElectronicsManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyLight and temperature conditions change rhythmically over the course of the day. The ability to predict these changes is of advantage to organisms as it helps species to maximize their chances for survival by adjusting their physiology and behaviour to best suit the time of day. Indeed, most organisms have evolved endogenous clocks, called circadian clocks, that help organisms to predict the time of day. We are using the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa as a model to study the molecular bases of circadian clocks. We previously discovered that the fungal photosensing molecule VIVID is important for synchronising the Neurospora crassa circadian clock to light-dark cycles. We now discovered that the same molecule interacts with other components of the fungal circadian clock. The discovery of these interactions helps to explain how this molecule enables the circadian clockwork to interpret external light-dark cycles and to properly align its endogenous time to that of the external world. To further understand the molecules and pathways involved in synchronizing circadian clocks we set out to identify all genes that are regulated by light and/or temperature in this fungus. We identified hundreds of genes that are regulated by these cues and have begun to look at mutant strains that lack some of these light and temperature-regulated genes to see if they show defects in the circadian clock. So far, we have identified at least one gene that we propose to be a new central clock gene and many genes that are likely to be involved in orchestrating the response to these cues within the cell. Finally, in collaboration with two other groups and informed by our and the experimental data of other groups we have developed computer models that successfully reproduce the circadian clockwork and its responses to light and temperature changesTrying to find and study the molecules involved in light and/or temperature sensing will help us to understand how these factors enable organisms to develop a sense of time and to maintain fully functional in a range of temperatures. Knowledge gained by understanding the nature and function of the sensors involved and the sequence of events that are triggered upon their activation can be exploited in the development of entirely synthetic pathways in which the production of molecules, such as for example biopharmaceuticals can be tightly controlled to optimize yields.EducationEnvironmentManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyUsability testing carried out with farmers has led to improvements for the liver fluke lateral flow diagnostic test distributed by Norbrook regarding the instructions for use and test kit components. Focus groups with farmers and vets have identified barriers to uptake for rapid diagnostic tests such as the liver fluke lateral flow test that need to be considered when deploying such tests onto market. Prototype phone app has been developed that can interpret the test line on the liver fluke lateral flow test. Proof of concept lateral flow tests for liver fluke (2nd generation test) and lungworm have been developed together with project partner GADx.There are limited rapid diagnostic tests for use on farm to diagnose parasitic diseases. The outcomes of this funding will be useful for others developing similar tests, both in terms of their development/manufacture and deployment onto the relevant markets.Agriculture Food and DrinkThe key messages from the project have been summarised and are presented on the project website: http://www.cheriscape.ugent.be/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/CHeriScape-Key-Messages.pdf Heritage and of landscape are two sides of a coin. Cultural heritage is an essential foundation of landscape, which frames everyone's lives, and landscape provides ways to understand heritage better and value, used and connect it to modern life. Heritage and landscape reflect people's history, identity, memories, lifestyles and aspirations, and important ways in which people connect with their environment and interact socially and intellectually. They are both local and universal, personal and collective. Bringing them increases their social, economic and environmental values. For a world facing anthropocentric environmental degradation, demographic pressure and social changes, the currently-dominant policies based on economic market forces or eco-environmental solutions are on their own insufficient. To complement them - to be a counterweight - a strong cultural and societal dimension is required in decision making and planning. The ideas discussed at the CHeriScape conferences promote such a people-centred culturally-sensitive approach: in other words, a CHeriScape approach offers cultural solutions to culturally-created problems. The project's aim was to develop key messages through its five interdisciplinary, participatory conferences. This was successfully achieved, in addition to a sixth workshop meeting, an international policy briefing, and an active network that has organised sessions at a series of other international conferences.Through our website, policy briefings and other dissemination activities, the results are feeding into landscape and research policy at national and international levels, for example informing the developing approach of other projects funded through the JPI Cultural Heritage and Global Change. The text and images of key documents and presentations from our five conferences are available (and will continue to be made available) via the project website, www.cheriscape.euAgriculture Food and DrinkCommunities and Social Services/PolicyConstructionCreative EconomyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EnergyEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsTransporthttp://www.cheriscape.euCHERISH-DE officially started in July 2015. But actually, it's been in the lifeblood of Swansea University for many decades. At Swansea, we're celebrating our 100th anniversary in 2020 and we've always sought to do excellent things with impact for the society and the economy. We are adept at working across disciplines, drawing in people from the arts and humanities, from medicine, from social care, from engineering to work together on difficult and important problems. We want to cherish the precious smallness of everyday life, of what it means to be human in this future world. During the last 18 months of the initial funding, we championed digital technology that is shaped by the hands, the hearts and the voices of as many people as possible. Moving on, we hope, to the next stage of CHERISH, because our work is not yet done, and there are many more things to achieve.This interdisciplinary centre seeded a wide range of activities that have been built on by others over the years.Creative EconomyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsSecurity and Diplomacyhttps://www.swansea.ac.uk/science/computationalfoundry/cherish-de/The diagnosis of loss of coolant accidents (LOCA) in nuclear reactors has attracted a great deal of attention in condition monitoring of nuclear power plants because the health of cooling system is crucial to the stability of the nuclear reactor. Multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural networks have commonly been applied to LOCA diagnosis. The data used for training these models consists of a number of time series, each for a different break size, with the transient behavior of different measurable variables in the coolant system of the reactor following a LOCA accident. It is important to select an architecture for the neural network that delivers robust results, in that the predicted break size is deemed to be accurate even for break size values not included in the training data sets. During the work carried out in this research grant, a method for measuring the robustness of diagnostic models for predicting the break size in loss of coolant accidents has been developed. A robustness metric is proposed based on the leave-one-out approach and the mean squared error resulting from a diagnostics model. Using this metric it becomes possible to compare the robustness of different diagnostic models. Given data obtained from a high fidelity simulation of the coolant system of a nuclear reactor, several different diagnostic models have been obtained and their properties compared. These models include a fully connected multi-layer perceptron with one and two hidden layers, a multi-layer perceptron with one hidden layer pruned using the optimal brain surgeon algorithm, a group method of data handling (GMDH) neural network, and an ANFIS neuro-fuzzy system. Moreover, given that the data sets employed for training the neural network models correspond to a sparse set of values of the break size, it has been noticed that the ability of the neural network models to predict break sizes that are outside the training set is often not very good. Considering the sparsity of the available transient data, an approach has been developed that permits to generate additional data sets which, when used for training the neural networks along with the original data, allow to significantly increase the accuracy and robustness of neural network models even when predicted break sizes which are not present in the original transient data sets. Moreover, a mechanism is being developed to combine the outputs of different models, where the output of the combined model produces exhibits higher robustness and accuracy than the outputs of the individual models. Furthermore, a novel approach to tackle the challenges associated with the on-line diagnostics of loss of coolant accidents and the limitations of the current state of the art was developed and implemented in the form of a software tool. Based on the combination of a set of artificial neural network architectures through the use of Bayesian statistics, this tool allows to robustly absorb different sources of uncertainty without requiring their explicit characterization. The tool provides the quantification of the output confidence bounds but also enhances of the model response accuracy. The implemented methodology allows to relax the need for model selection as well as to limit the demand for user-defined analysis parameters. Finally, the estimation of radioactivity release following an accident in a nuclear power plant is crucial due to its short and long-term impacts on the surrounding population and the environment. In the case of any accidental release, the activity needs to be estimated quickly and reliably to effectively plan a rapid emergency response and design an appropriate evacuation strategy. The accurate prediction of incurred dose rate during normal or accident scenario is another important aspect. We have proposed the use of three different non-linear estimation techniques, extended Kalman filter, unscented Kalman filter, and cubature Kalman filter in order to estimate release activity and to improve the prediction of dose rates. Radionuclide release rate, average wind speed, and height of release are estimated using data from the dose rate monitors that are collected in the proximity of the release point. Further, the estimates are employed to improve the prediction of dose rates.This project involves collaboration with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai, India. The work done has been presented to and discussed with collaborators at BARC. The robustness measure that has been developed, the new neural network architectures that have been evaluated, the new method to generate new data sets for break levels that are not present in the original data, and the approach for model combination are very likely to be used by BARC, as the robustness achieved with these approaches is measurably better than what they have achieved with their existing diagnostic models. Moreover, once published, the approaches that have been developed for the diagnostic of loss of coolant faults are likely to be used by other organisations.EnergyEnvironmentAcross two experiments (Surtees et al., in prep), we have shown limited impact of induced anxiey on belief and desire reasoning. We have completed a review on the broader relationship between anxiety and mentalizing (Surtees et al., in prep) - modelling the role for uncertainty. Each of the above findings, and others outlined int he original grant, will be published over the next ~ 1 year. Across 1 large experiment, we collected data on the impact of sleep deprivation on social understanding. We showed a novel pattern of findings - that sleep deprivation seemed to impact mentalizing in a task dependent way. These findings have been presented at the Society for Social and Personality Psychology (San Diego), and to invited talks at the University of California, Davis and the University of California (Berkeley).We are still analysing data and completing write-up, so too early to say.EducationHealthcareWe have been able to clarify the role of oxygen depletion in the worlds oceans during the end-Triassic mass extinction 200 million years ago and one of the 'big five' of the last 540 million years. Evidence for this was previously very limited, but we have published several pieces of work recently that suggest oxygen depletion affected large parts of the ocean at this time and coincided with the loss of marine organisms, increasing the likelihood that it played a major role in their extinction. We have also suggested a pre-condition of ocean chemistry that may partly explain why mass extinctions happen as a result of massive volcanic activity in some instances but not others and added substantial new information on the operation of the sulfur cycle during the early Toarcian event.Our work shows that the end-Triassic extinction had more in common with the end-Permian extinction than we realized and points the way for further tests of our hypothesis linking environmental perturbations across other mass extinction intervals. The work on the Toarcian sulfur cycle is likely to have relevance for other time periods such as the CambrianEducationEnvironmentThe photoreceptor phytochrome-B plays a major role in regulating plant growth and development in a light quality and quantity dependent fashion. In other words, phytochrome-B modulates, via a complex signaling network, agriculturally important traits of crop plants, such as seed germination, seedling establishment, shade avoidance, architecture, flowering time and disease resistance. To manipulate the action of phytochrome-B in a targeted fashion we have to understand the molecular mechanisms by which the photoreceptor exerts its regulatory function. We have addressed one particular question regarding phytochrome-B action, namely we studied how post-translational modification, such as phosphorylation and sumoylation of the photoreceptor protein modify light quality and quantity dependent growth and development of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We demonstrated that both phosphorylation and sumoylation inhibit phytochrome-B action, albeit by different molecular mechanisms. Phosphorylation reduces the life-time/stability of the biologically active photoreceptor, whereas sumoylation inhibits its interaction with down-stream signaling partners. Phosphorylation and sumoylation of plant proteins are frequently regulated by environmental factors, such as drought/water stress, elevated/low temperature, high salinity etc., thus we postulate that post-translational modification of phytochrome-B is an important entry point to understand how plants integrate these environmental signals with the ever-changing light conditions to ensure optimal adaptation, i.e. higher yield, better seed quality and elevated disease resistance, to a given environment.Post-translational modification of the photoreceptor phytochrome-B negatively regulates the action of this photoreceptor. The molecular mechanisms by which reversible phosphorylation and sumoylation inhibit phytochrome-B action have been elucidated, yet key players of the molecular machinery mediating phosphorylation and sumoylation of the photoreceptor are still to be identified. The discovery of these factors should make feasible the targeted manipulation of phytochrome-B action to achieve superior adaptation of plants, including agriculturally important crops, to a given environment.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyWork to date has shown that the inclusion of Inorganic Fullerene Tungsten Sulphide (IF-WS2) nanoparticles to PEEK modifies the rheology and mechanical properties such that processability by fused deposition modelling is improved and mechanical/thermal performance is also improved. A reduction in melt viscosity of 25%, and a simultaneous increase in storage modulus, crystallization and degradation temperature of about 60%, 53% and 100 °C is found with addition of 2wt% IF-WS2 to PEEK. New work with ZnO tetrapods has potential to enhance mechanical properties of these 3DP nanocomposites further.On possible use of this new material is for an aerospace bearing. Other uses include low cost, 3D printed tooling inserts for injection moulding. Potential applications in medical devices/implants.Aerospace Defence and MarineHealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyRevenants and Remains: Final Project Report (6 September 2023) In this report, we share figures pertaining to, and feedback received from, the various components of the 'Revenants and Remains' project. As the accompanying analysis shows, the project's use of the supernatural as a means of engaging a diverse range of audiences in the experience and appreciation of heritage has been extremely effective (see, in particular, the survey responses included in sections 1 and 5 below). 1. Guided Tours Between early October and late November 2022, the project team led guided tours at 5 ruined abbeys in the north of England, namely Roche Abbey; Furness Abbey; Byland Abbey; Lanercost Priory; and Rievaulx Abbey. These tours recruited the following numbers, comprising a mixture of English Heritage members and non-members: Roche Abbey (Saturday 1 October): 23 (Sunday 2 October): 47 Furness Abbey (Saturday 8 October): 37 (Sunday 9 October): 32 Byland Abbey (Saturday 5 November): 41 (Sunday 6 November): 42 Lanercost Priory (Saturday 19 November): 31 Rievaulx Abbey (Saturday 26 November): 30 (Sunday 27 November): 46 Total Number of Participants: 329 At the end of each tour, we distributed a paper survey, a copy of which can be found here We received back 95 completed responses, i.e. a 28.8 % of those who attended. Results indicate the following: • 100 % agreed that they enjoyed the tours: resounding success • 95.7 % agreed that the project's use of the supernatural had made them more interested in the particular site's history • 92.6 % agreed that the use of the supernatural is an effective means of engaging and interesting people in history • 92.6 % agreed that participating in this project had inspired them to find out more about Britain's ruined architectural heritage (no disagrees; remainder unsure) • 91.6 % agreed that learning more about medieval religion, the supernatural and historical beliefs concerning the afterlife had opened up new perspectives about history for them (no disagrees; remainder unsure) • 93.6 % agreed that participating in this project had helped them to understand more clearly the connections between Gothic literature - the writing of horror and terror - and medieval or 'Gothic' architecture • 50.5 % agreed that the supernatural themes employed by this project engaged their interest more than another theme would have done (the remainder 'disagree') • 64.2 % agreed that their participation in this project had changed the way that they think about British history (the remainder 'unsure') • 97.8 % agreed that an awareness of medieval rituals around death, burial and remembrance had enriched their responses to architectural heritage • 94.7 % disagreed that the Gothic should be reserved for horror films and other forms of popular entertainment, and should not be used for the interpretation of heritage (1.05 % agreed; remainder unsure) • 92.9 % agreed that they would like to receive more information about the supernatural, where relevant, at other heritage sites around the country (remainder 'disagree') 2. Creative Writing Workshops Over the same period of time, performer and award-winning poet and novelist Rosie Garland led creative writing workshops at each of the 5 sites. These events recruited as follows: Conisburgh Castle (for Roche Abbey, Saturday 1 October): 11 Furness Abbey (Saturday 8 October): 12 Byland Abbey (Saturday 5 November): 9 Lanercost Priory (Saturday 19 November): 12 Rievaulx Abbey (Saturday 26 November): 9 Total Number of Participants: 53 Several of the mostly adult participants indicated that they had not done any creative writing since leaving school. As Rosie Garland commented, 'I love being a creative writing workshop facilitator. At the start of a session, participants have blank notebooks perched on their laps. Then, with gentle prompting and encouragement, the magic happens. By the end of the session, those empty pages are teeming with words that weren't there before. This alchemy happened in every one of the five writing workshops for the Revenants and Remains project. Organisers wondered if only people who already identified as writers would attend. Anything but. Sure, poets and fictioneers came along. We also welcomed folk who admitted they'd not written creatively since their schooldays (a long while back for some participants). We talked about what ruins meant to them and read some famous poems, such as 'Ozymandias' by Percy Bysshe Shelley. And then they wrote! Nervous to begin with, it was wonderful to see them growing in confidence. By the close of each session, folk fed back how much fun they'd had, and were eager to share their writing. And what wonderful stories they told.' All participants in the workshops were invited to submit their poems, short stories and fragments via the project email address. The material received has been published in the Revenants and Remains ebook that can be downloaded from the creative writing section of the 'Outputs' tab on this website. 3. Ghost-Story Performances Robert Lloyd Parry of Nunkie Productions performed ghost stories by the Cambridge antiquary M. R. James at four of the selected sites. Numbers of those in attendance are as follows: Roche Abbey (Saturday 1 October): 10 Furness Abbey (Saturday 8 October): 20 Byland Abbey (Saturday 5 November): 11 Rievaulx Abbey (Saturday 26 November): 18 Total Number of Participants: 59 A small proportion of those who attended also participated in the guided tours and creative writing workshops. For the most part, however, this constituted a discrete audience. 4. Podcasts: Revenants and Remains: The project team recorded and produced 7 hour-long podcasts, with topics and speakers drawn from participants to Writing Britain's Ruins (British Library, 2017). These were uploaded to the castos.com platform, and distributed through this to all major podcast providers worldwide. To date ( 6 September 2023), this series of podcasts has received over 500 total listeners / downloads, the majority of these drawn from the UK; Japan; United States; and India. 5. Youth Engagement Photographic Workshops: In November 2022 and January 2023, Photoworks ran two ghost-photography workshops at Lanercost Priory and Furness Abbey, which were led by artist and curator Sarah Sparkes. Sarah works with magical or mythical narratives, vernacular belief systems and the visualisation of anomalous phenomena. Her work is often research-led, and explores the borderlands where science and magic intersect. She runs the visual arts and creative research project GHost, hosting seminars and exhibitions to manifest and interrogate the idea of the ghost The workshops (five in total) were attended by approximately 30 further education students studying Photography at Furness College and Newcastle College. The events were supported by site manager Lucy Ronald (Furness Abbey); Property Manager (Cumbria) Juliet Fellows-Smith (Lanercost Priory); and Lorna Batty of English Heritage's Shout Out Loud national youth engagement programme. Aiming to inspire creative acts of interpretation and to engage young people in the appreciation of ruined architectural heritage via the supernatural lore and legend that has become associated with each ruin, Sarah guided participants in the production of a portfolio of photographic work, her selection of which we publish here. Commenting on her experience of running these workshops, Sarah claimed that 'as an artist fascinated by ghosts, it's been incredibly rewarding to lead workshops for Revenants and Remains. Learning about the haunted medieval and Gothic history of each site from Dale and Michael while among the atmospheric ruins was an inspiring experience for both the students and myself and this is clear in the photographs they have produced.' The photographs that the participants produced have been published in two formats: first, as illustrations to accompany the creative writing in the Revenants and Remains ebook that can be downloaded from the creative writing section of the 'Outputs' tab on this website; and second, in two online galleries hosted on English Heritage's Shout Out Loud website. Revenants and Remains at Furness Abbey: click here Revenants and Remains at Lanercost Priory: Participants' commentaries on their own photographic interpretations of the sites attest to how much they benefitted from the experience. This was confirmed by the surveys that Photoworks administered before and after the workshops, copies of which can be found here and here For a comprehensive analysis of the results received from these surveys, please click hereAs we explored in our workshop for Heritage Professionals that was run on 5 April 2023, this project may serve as a case study for employing the supernatural as an effective and legitimate means of heritage interpretation, engagement and appreciation. Indeed, English Heritage has come to refer to the Youth-Engagement aspects of our programme as the 'model' or 'template' for future initiatives. The success of the venture, and the applicability of the interventions for other forms of heritage interpretation, has been further confirmed by 1) English Heritage's decision to run, in collaboration with PI Townshend, a scaled-down version of the original 'Revenants and Remains' project at other ruined religious houses across the country in October-December 2024; and 2) an invitation for PI Townshend to collaborate with the National Trust for a project entitled 'Gothic at the National Trust' (talks and planning currently ongoing)Communities and Social Services/PolicyCreative EconomyEducationEnvironmentLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsStudies of the degrees of agreement between different implementations of particle-physics data interpretation have been made, adding functionality to various computational tools so their decisions can be compared on an event-by-event basis, across millions of particle-collision events. These studies have shown, as hoped, strong consistency between OpenMAPP tools, and have highlighted only major issues in the existing designs in the Contur toolkit, which have been amended. In addition, the accidental dilution or creation of spurious correlations was noted and explained by the use of random-number generators in fast emulations of particle-detector performance, a fundamental limitation on current fast approaches to data reinterpretation. Other key outputs have been new versions of various associated software, including: DataCite DOI minting and JSON analysis-metadata reporting to enable global comparisons and combinations of tools, refinements to the HS3 statistical model data-format to enable use as a common format for data and inference combination, semantic and searchability extensions to the HEPData data platform, several new releases of the Rivet, YODA and Contur analysis software packages, and a first stable release and publication of the PetrifyML system for portable preservation of machine-learning models.Better compatibility between tools will enable overview of the coverage of particle-physics analysis strategies, and reduce barriers to uptake of analysis-logic preservation in HEP experiments.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)https://openmapp.gitlab.io/We have discovered that adolescence represents a key developmental period for the maturation of synapses in a specific layer of neocortex, the outermost layer 1.To use these findings to develop new AI tools, or to target these synapses for therapy in diseases associated with adolescent brain alterations.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttps://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.17.706315v1'Uneven bending moment' (UBM) apparatus has been developed from its original design (2006) to test fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) double cantilever beam (DCB) specimens loaded with uneven bending moments. When used in conjunction with digital image correlation (DIC), it allows the 2D strain field in the vicinity of a crack tip to be measured and mixed-mode fractures to be characterised. By using this new apparatus and methodology to measure the near-crack tip 2D strain fields of cracks in DCBs under various load combinations, the existence of two sets of pure fracture modes has been validated, and very importantly, the orthogonality relationship between them has been validated. These are key predictions made in the PI's previous analytical work on mixed-mode partition theories. It is an important finding because it strongly suggests that the PI's published Euler beam partition theory is applicable for determining the fracture toughness of mixed-mode delaminations in FRPs. It is also consistent with findings from other experimental assessments undertaken by the PI and colleagues.(1) The knowledge derived from the project gives confidence in using the PI's mixed-mode partition theories, and in using the orthogonality relationship between pure modes to consider consider mixed-mode fracture problems properly. This should be considered as fundamental knowledge which can be put to use in any problem involving mixed-mode fracture, or toughness. For example, adhesion of graphene membranes, thin film blister behaviour, and thermal barrier coatings, in addition to the fiber-reinforced polymer composites which were the principal focus of this project. (2) The test apparatus and methodology created can help academic researchers to develop new mixed-mode fracture propagation criteria which will help design engineers to design high-integrity structures. (3) The apparatus, methodology and findings make it possible to validate/invalidate analytical mixed-mode partition theories and numerical interfacial fracture simulations. (4) The work can be developed to consider mixed-mode fractures in non-rigidly bonded DCBs and in laminated composite DCBs. (5) The methodology could also be developed to locate small fractures based on the 2D strain field.Aerospace Defence and MarineConstructionEnergyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyTransportUsing our targeted genetical genomics approach, we identified a putative mutation in the AADAT gene as the prime candidate underlying a functional QTL on chicken chromosome 4, which shows differential alternative splicing at the mRNA level. Identification of the Thoka locus affecting litter size in sheep. An important epistatic gene interaction for QTL on chromosomes 4 and 13 was identified for the number of yellow ovarian follicles, a proxy for the daily ovulation rate in broilers, using newly developed software tools. This interaction may prove central to the development of strategies to address this important welfare problem. The first fine mapped QTL affecting boar taint was localized to SNPs in the CYP2E region, explaining up to 6% of phenotypic variation (in humans GWAS often explain <1%). In chicken eggshells, cuticle coverage is correlated with bacterial penetration and novel measurement techniques have uncovered useful genetic variation in both cuticle coverage and CaCO3 crystal size. Measurement is being further refined for potential use. Crystal size's effect on material properties was the opposite of that expected from man-made materials and changes our understanding of how shell strength is determined. Genetic markers for eggshell matrix genes and genes involved in oviduct function have been identified that can repeatably predict egg shell quality, important to food safety and supply. QTL regions for egg shell quality are now being fine mapped and tested in pedigree populations. Quantification of genetic control of beef quality and carcass traits on implementation pathway for Marker-Assisted-Selection. Tools for complex traits dissection have continued to be developed.The discoveries made and the tools developed within this programme have underpinned further advances in selective animal breeding.Agriculture Food and DrinkCentury-scale changes in the Earth's magnetic field have a signifcant effect on the upper atmosphere (100-500 km altitude). These are at least as important as changes associated with the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations over the past century, which was previously thought to be the main driver of climate change in the upper atmosphere. Simulations with a whole-atmosphere chemistry-climate model, extending from the surface up to 500 km altitude, demonstrate that magnetic field changes even affect the climate in the middle atmosphere (15-100 km altitude), and regionally also in the troposphere, near the surface. The Earth's magnetic field further plays an important role in creating climatic differences between the polar Northern and Southern upper atmosphere.EnvironmentFor many species, changing climatic conditions are altering the suitability of the landscapes that they currently inhabit. The future success of such species may depend on their ability to shift their distribution to areas where conditions are suitable, which will require individuals to disperse to new sites. Migratory birds might be expected to be most capable of such dispersal, given the vast distances over which they travel. However, individual birds are typically highly site-faithful to their breeding and winter sites, and so dispersal events can be rare. The success of dispersal events will also depend on the quality of the habitat available to dispersing individuals. Individual dispersal behaviour and habitat availability can therefore help or hinder a species' capacity to shift distribution in response to climate change. To explore the importance of these ecological and behavioural constraints for migratory birds, we have developed a study system in which 1. habitat quality has been identified, 2. changes in range size and distribution have been documented and 3. individual dispersal decisions can be tracked. Icelandic black-tailed godwits have been increasing in number and range in recent decades. Our long-term marking and tracking of these godwits throughout their migratory range has shown that birds in new breeding sites tend to also use new winter sites, and that they tend to be larger than birds in traditional breeding sites. Our research has shown that the rate of range expansion in this species can be strongly influenced by habitat quality and seasonal interactions, as breeding success, survival and energetic benefits in winter are all lower in more recently occupied sites. However, in addition to this, agricultural expansion in Iceland appears to be altering the quality of the breeding habitat, particularly in more recently occupied areas. Land use change in Iceland may therefore be facilitating the rate of range expansion, particularly for individuals occupying more recently colonised sites, but strong seasonal interactions mean that conditions in the non-breeding season can potentially constrain the benefits of these changes. Finally, our life-long tracking of migratory individuals has shown, for the first time, that shifts in the distribution and phenology of migratory populations result from generational changes (new recruits to the population differing in spatial or phenological distribution to their predecessors) and not from individuals shifting in response to changing conditions. Generational changes are likely to result in slower responses to environmental change, and this major finding emphasises the need to understand the factors determining individual migratory routes and timings, in order to predict future changes in these populations.Our findings can directly inform the development of conservation strategies to facilitate range expansion in species of conservation concernEnvironmentWe are testing novel nanoformulations of plant chemicals for their activity against major crop pest species. At Keele we are focussing on aphid and thrips while parallel research in Brazil is testing activity against fall armyworm and whitefly pests. We have run a large programme of bioassays of phytochemical testing for their activity against the notorious aphid pest species, Myzus persicae. This has allowed us to identify the most promising treatments which significantly reduce aphid survival and have a large effect as inhibitors of reproduction. We found that nanoformulations of plant chemicals provided significant reductions in aphid and whitefly growth and development.Any treatment which stops the reproduction of an insecticide resistant pest would be valuable. The aphid is a particularly troublesome pest and its high reproductive rate is one of the main reasons why it is a pest. Therefore, there is considerable commercial potential with the treatments but it is still early days. We have planned further testing to scale up to whole plants and then whole field experiments will be needed.Agriculture Food and DrinkChemicalsCreative EconomyEnvironmentHealthcareSecurity and DiplomacyThe aims of the project were to develop a database of historical satellite NDVI (Normalised Difference Vegetation Index) imagery as a cheap way of mapping spatial variability in arable crops. The database would then be used to meet the following objectives: 1. assessment of year to year persistence of variation patterns; 2. dependence of spatial variability on weather. 3. dependence on cropping factors. 4. development of yield potential maps 5. validation and farmer interpretation of spatial variations. A database from 1995 to 2016 was built for a sample of 30 fields, with data standardised for differences between observing systems and rectified to the UK national grid. Some fields had up to 18 years of data. Apart from objective 2 - weather dependence - where some work remains, all the objectives were achieved satisfactorily. Highlight achievements are the development of robust, quantitative metrics for persistence of spatial variability (figure 1) and for canopy potential, expressed in units of yield. Farmers involved in validation of the study expressed considerable interest in these developments and our partner SOYL (the lead organisation for the Innovate-UK project) has expressed the intention of implementing these tools as part of its service to farmers. Figure 1. "Persistence image for field 162WH (38 ha). Red areas indicate consistently above average, green areas consistently about average and blue areas, consistently below average.Farmers involved in validation of the study expressed considerable interest in these developments and our partner SOYL (the lead organisation for the Innovate-UK project) has expressed the intention of implementing these tools as part of its service to farmers.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentTitle: Data-Driven Solutions in Transport Systems Using Machine Learning and Optimisation Methods. Abstract: This research focuses on developing data-driven techniques that can integrate large diverse, and complex datasets in transportation for validating policies and implementing the policy commitments with case studies from clean air zone and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. To achieve this aim, we specifically address the following research questions: (a) Given the large volume of data gathered from the transportation network, what data types are relevant to a policy objective? (b) What are machine learning techniques suitable for combining large datasets, processing the data, and validating a policy objective? (c) Could these large dataset techniques be used for achieving a policy commitment? We have designed a framework to tackle the specific challenge of finding datasets that are related to the policy objective using machine learning techniques, and a framework for implementing policy commitments using multi-objective optimisations. Datasets from the Newcastle Urban Observatory and open-source datasets from the Department for Transport and National Statistics are used for this research with the policies of clean air zone and transition towards electric vehicles (EVs). The objectives of these policies are to reduce exposure to harmful levels of NO2 and CO2 and to expand the electric vehicle charging infrastructure to ensure that EV charging infrastructure meets the demand of the users. We use two data-driven approaches including machine learning models for the policy objectives and use simulation in combination with optimisation for implementing the policy commitment.This research focuses on developing data-driven techniques that can integrate large diverse, and complex datasets in transportation for validating policies and implementing the policy commitments with case studies from clean air zone and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EnvironmentTransporthttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9922587The research has discovered new biographical facts about Defoe and the political situation of early 18th century Britain, including in religion, the book trade, and economics. The achievement so far is the completion of the edition, which is forthcoming.The research will be published and others will be able to consult the work.Creative EconomyEducationGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsSecurity and DiplomacyKick-started the modernisation of the solar and space group at the University of Exeter, developing and leading a culture of inquiry around the Space Weather theme and disciplineEstablishing the Space Weather theme at University of Exeter and in the Southwest region.Aerospace Defence and MarineCommunities and Social Services/PolicyEducationhttps://emps.exeter.ac.uk/mathematics/staff/cf337See submission for 2021See previous submission for 2021Creative EconomyEducationCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsThe objectives of the symposium were: - To review and assess how Computational Aero-Acoustics (CAA) contributes to the prediction and reduction of aircraft noise. - To identify the state of the art in CAA across the full spectrum of aircraft noise sources and transmission paths. - To define the limitations of CAA and to identify unfilled gaps and challenges. - To review the extent to which current CAA can be regarded as a validated technology for aircraft noise prediction. The symposium extended over three days and was attended by forty one invited participants (42 invitations were sent out and only one invitee declined). Additional participants were also selected to contribute to the discussions on specific topics, bringing the total number of participants to 58. These included established researchers, promising early career researchers and industry panelists. There were no parallel sessions. The programme was organised under four subheadings; Jet noise, propagation and liners, turbomachinery noise, and airframe noise. At the conclusion of presentations on each subtopic, a discussion took place in which all of those present joined with an industry panel to comment on the material presented and to formulate a collective response to four general questions. These were: - To what extent does CAA contribute to aircraft noise prediction at the present time? - What constraints, if any, limit the application of CAA to aircraft noise prediction? - What research is needed to expand the role of CAA in aircraft noise prediction ? - What impedes industry take-up of current and future CAA prediction capability? Each plenary discussion was led by a rapporteur who produced a short summary of the discussion. Overall, the material which was presented at the symposium has emphasised the large discrepancies which exist between the relative effectiveness and utility of CAA methods in different areas of aircraft noise prediction. In the case of (tone) source and propagation models for fan noise, the subject is quite advanced and close to robust application in engine design. In the case of jet and airframe noise, the obstacles to the application of CAA are more substantial. Many are associated with limitations of current computer performance, but these also disguise associated problems involved in handling the very large quantities of data which would occur if such calculations were possible. A common thread running through all of the applications is the need for better validation data against which the effectiveness of CAA methods for aircraft noise can be evaluated. Drafts of the symposium papers were provided by the authors before the event and made available on the web site of the symposium to facilitate discussions during the symposium by providing early access to the papers. Final versions of the paper were received within a month after the symposium. These proceedings will be published in electronic form by Elsevier as the first issue in the newly created "IUTAM e-procedia" series. In addition to the 31 contributed papers, the proceedings also include a foreword and commentary summarising the discussions of the three plenary sessions held during the symposium.The presence of industrial participants during the symposium means that they benefited from the technical discussion, and developed a better vision of the current research activities in aircraft noise prediction. The outcomes of the plenary discussions during the symposium were reported in the proceedings published online and are available without subscription.Aerospace Defence and MarineEnvironmentTransportThe goal of this research project is to prepare an appropriately-modified oxide support like silica, tether a cobalt precursor to its surface, and then reduce this cobalt species into well-defined nanoparticles. The aim is to produce sub-nanosized particles with the absence of capping agents and surfactants. So far, throughout the project, we have shown that this might be a viable pathway to sub-sized nanoparticles, though there are several difficulties during the process linked with the high instability of the precursor materials. · Extensive characterisation/analysis of various silicas has been undertaken, by linking calcination temperature to the density of surface species present across different silicas - techniques include SS-NMR with an external standard, titration of surface species with a Grignard reagent, BET. The hydroxyl-density on the surface of silica can be targeted with a degree of accuracy by changing the calcination temperature. This limits the need for characterisation after calcination, as it can be assumed that the hydroxyl density is the same as what was targeted. · Have shown that only highly reactive (unstable) cobalt precursors can react with the surface of silica. For example, cobaltocene will not generate the results we are looking for, while cobalt-amide will. These exploratory studies have narrowed our target range of cobalt species so we can focus more on useful precursors that can successfully react with the silica surface in a controlled fashion. · Have shown that reduction of cobalt precursors on the surface is possible and forms what is believed to be the target nanoparticles - further analysis/characterisation is still ongoing for this step. Precursors have been shown to reduce by the consumption of hydrogen during heating. We have probed the temperature range in which this happens with TPR, and can identify at what temperature reduction will occurIt will probably be used by Johnson Matthey since they are collaboratorsChemicalsadvances in radiation pressure noise have been included into FINESSE, one of the main gravitational-wave laser interferometer simulation tools. we have detected gravitational waves taking also advantage of the work funded through this grantthe modelling advances are now part of the standard ground-based laser interferometer modelling tools, and Advanced LIGO as well as other efforts in the world, such as Virgo and KAGRA are using these results and tools. This will also be used by LIGO India that has just been fundedDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)HealthcareOtherhttps://losc.ligo.org/We have characterised the performance of a "quantum memory", where information is stored in the internal energy states of a calcium ion. We measured the lowest memory errors reported to date in any physical system, at just a few ppm. A memory error this low offers greater flexibility in the design of a quantum computing system and algorithms, and puts us across the threshold for quantum error correction - an essential element for scaling up quantum computers. We have demonstrated the world's highest fidelity (lowest error rate) entangling gate between two different species of ion, calcium and strontium. The fidelity achieved is comparable to the best entangling gates for a single ion species, despite the added experimental complexity that a second species brings. The ability to transfer information between different ion species allows us to combine advantages of elements which are well-suited for different tasks: for example, calcium makes for an excellent quantum memory, and strontium has properties which are desirable for networking tasks. These are two important milestones related to the NQIT hub.Carefully characterised, high fidelity quantum memories and mixed-species logic gates open the door to scaling up quantum computing to more powerful systems. Applications include optimisations or risk minimisation calculations in sectors such as finance, defence and transport, or simulations of complex protein folding or chemical processes for the medical or chemical sectors. Our current experimental system offers the ability to demonstrate hybrid quantum-classical algorithms which have strict requirements on error rates.Aerospace Defence and MarineChemicalsDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)ElectronicsFinancial Services and Management ConsultancyHealthcareTransportAtmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO2atm) is impacting the ocean and marine organisms directly via changes in carbonate chemistry and indirectly via a range of changes in physical parameters most dominantly temperature. To assess potential impacts of climate change on carbonate production in the open ocean, we measured size and weight of planktic foraminifers during the late Pliocene at pCO2atm concentrations comparable to today and global temperatures 2 to 3 °C warmer. Our results support studies in the modern ocean, which challenge the view that carbonate chemistry is the primary driver for calcification. To better understand processes driving changes in SNW, computer tomography was used to quantify calcite to volume ratios. During interglacial periods, lower calcite volume but higher test volume suggests less suitable conditions for calcification. As this signal is not evident in SNW, subtle changes in calcification might not be observed by the weight-based method. Studies in extant populations have shown that plasticity in developmental trajectories can con-tribute to the origin of novel traits and species divergence via the expression of previously cryptic variation in response to environmental change. Finding evidence for plasticity-led evolution in the fossil record remains challenging due to the poor preservation of developmental stages in many organisms. Planktic foraminifera are ideally suited for addressing this knowledge gap, because adult organisms in species in which development has been studied retain information about all the ontogenetic stages they have undergone. Our unique dataset shows that the transition from the ancestral G. plesio-tumida to the descendant G. tumida is preceded by an increased variability in total cumulative volume-an important indicator of reproductive success in this taxon. We also ?nd that the transition interval is marked by a distinct shift in developmental trajectory, which supports a rapid lineage division rather than gradual change. We suggest that high levels of plasticity-particularly in the early stages of development-have contributed to divergence in the ancestral morphology when subjected to a global cooling trend in the late Miocene. Planktonic foraminifera are one of the primary calcifiers in the modern ocean, contributing 23%-56% of total global pelagic carbonate production. Despite this importance, the main functions of foraminifera's test and ornamentation such as spines are unclear. We take a novel approach to investigate the bene?ts of spines on foraminifera foraging using a 0-D trait-based ecosystem model. We ?nd that independent of diet, non-spinose taxa need to be more size-generalist predators than other zooplankton species to maintain their population. In contrast, spinose species bene?t from a relatively higher surface-to-volume ratio compared to non-spinose species, which allows them to be as generalist as other zooplankton groups. In agreement with observations, we ?nd that herbivory is the most successful diet in cold environments, while carnivory allows foraminifera to be more successful in warm environments. Mechanistic understanding of how physiology and environmental conditions control their abundance and distribution is lacking, hindering the projection of the impact of future climate change. The foraminifera contain ecogroups with and without spines and algal symbionts, creating functional trait diversity which expands their ecological niches. Here, we incorporate symbiosis and spine traits into the symbiont-barren non-spinose foraminifer functional type in EcoGEnIE to represent all the extant foraminifera species. The model successfully describes the global distribution and seasonal abundance variation of the four major foraminiferal functional groups. The model reproduces the dominance of the symbiont-obligate group in subtropical gyres and of the symbiont-barren types in the productive subpolar oceans. Visual as well as genetic biometrics are routinely employed to identify species and individuals in biological applications. However, no attempts have been made in this domain to computationally enhance visual classification of rare classes with little image data via genetics. In this paper, we thus propose aligned visual-genetic learning as a new application domain with the aim to implicitly encode cross-modality associations for improved performance. We demonstrate for the first time that such alignment can be achieved via deep embedding models and that the approach is directly applicable to boosting long-tailed recognition (LTR), particularly for rare species.Projections of impact on carbonate production, regulation of marine biogeochemical cycles, patterns of developmentEnvironmentThis project produced key findings in three linguistic areas: there are (1) typological, (2) morphosyntactic and (3) diachronic findings on unusual agreement targets in the clausal domain. 1. External agreement from a typological perspective. The initial focus of this project was on the Nakh-Daghestanian language family (comprising over 50 languages in 7 diverse language groups) and indeed, it is in Nakh-Daghestanian languages that the most striking instances of external agreement were registered. Besides that, we have established a variety of unusual targets in nine other language families: Anim, Arawakan, Bantu, Indo-European, Kartvelian, Khoisan, Uralic, Songhay, Torricelli; and in two linguistic isolates: Elamite and Nivkh. The clausal agreement targets beyond the verb established during this project include practically every part of speech - yet the likelihood that members of any given category might agree are starkly asymmetrical, and within word classes there is substantial variation in terms of which members can agree. Most widely spread are externally agreeing adverbs, registered in four groups spoken across Eurasia, namely Romance, Indo-Aryan, Nakh-Daghestanian, and Uralic, most notably in the Samoyedic branch. Externally agreeing adpositions are much more restricted in their distribution. To date, we know only of examples in the Nakh-Daghestanian, Romance, Anim and Songhay groups. In the data we have observed, it is never the case that all adpositions within any given language have the potential for agreement. For instance, in Kwarandzyey (Songhay) just one adposition agrees, while Coastal Marind (Anim) has four and Ripano (Romance) has seven. In each case, the languages have many other items classed as adpositions that do not agree. This is clearly a lexically specified phenomenon. Just as adpositions can have external controllers of agreement, so too can complementizers. In the most robust examples, this is always the subject of the matrix clause (as documented in Bantu languages). This typically occurs in the context of a verb of speech or cognition, where the subject of the matrix verb is also the source of the content of the complement clause. It remains an open question whether agreement is ever possible with non-subjects that fulfil the semantic role of source within a matrix clause. Perhaps the most surprising agreement targets we have identified are nouns and pronouns. The most robust evidence of nouns functioning as arguments agreeing with other arguments is observed in Andi (Nakh-Daghestanian). There is little doubt based on the data presented that the experiencer argument in affective constructions has many properties associated with subjects. The question that remains concerns whether this should be considered agreement - or an example of verbal concord that operates over the entire sentential domain. 2. Morphosyntactic properties of unusual agreement targets. Given that the archetypal properties of agreement are so closely tied to the special role of verbs in the clause, it seems reasonable to ask whether non-verbal agreement targets are subject to the same constraints as verbal targets, or whether their behaviour is better explained using different principles. The cross-linguistic evidence demonstrates that agreement-like processes involving non-verbal targets vary considerably from language to language. Within Romance varieties the potential for agreement on adverbs is lexically, structurally and semantically determined. For instance, in Cosentino, verb-oriented adverbs agree following an active-stative split: a particular semantic class of intransitive subjects and nominal objects control agreement. But there is a mismatch between the behaviour of the verb and adverb. In transitive clauses with a verb-oriented adverb, the verb agrees with the subject in person and number, and the adverb agrees with the object in gender and number. In the Nakh-Daghestanian languages, agreeing adverbs include a range of different spatial, temporal and manner adverbs. Many of the agreeing spatial adverbs resemble intransitive adpositions. Strikingly, Nakh-Daghestanian adverbs retain their ability to agree even in clauses headed by verbs which do not show agreement. Finally, in Samoyedic languages, the adverbs agree in the same way as verbs, except that the agreement has started showing signs of erosion (there are instances where the adverb uses default third person singular agreement, unlike what is seen on the verb). 3. Diachronic sources of agreement of unusual targets. One of the research questions for this project was "How does external agreement develop?", and we have established several diachronic sources for unusual agreement targets. The category which has the most variety in terms of sources is - not unexpectedly - the word class which is typologically most likely to exhibit external agreement, namely, adverbs. Agreeing adverbs frequently develop from adjectives, as happens in Italo-Romance varieties and in Andi and some other Nakh-Daghestanian languages. But adjective is just one of the possible diachronic sources for agreeing adverbs; in Samoyedic languages many agreeing adverbs are diachronically based on nouns, and agreement morphology is not based on that seen on verbs but rather resembles possessive suffixes from the nominal paradigm. Agreeing adpositions often develop from non-finite verbal forms such as converbs, and agreeing nouns in Nakh-Daghestanian most likely incorporate agreeing locative copulas.This project has brought radically new data to the discipline of linguistics. The languages of the Nakh-Daghestanian family, spoken in the Caucasus and accessible almost exclusively through Russian, demonstrate an abundance of so-called 'external agreement', a morphosyntactic phenomenon practically unknown in linguistics up to now and even predicted to be impossible by some major linguistic theories. By putting this new data into wide circulation in an internationally accepted format, we challenge existing views on agreement, one of the central grammatical phenomena, and hope to gain a new level of understanding of the limits on variation in human language. As the project grew, a wide range of external agreement phenomena was discovered outside the Nakh-Daghestanian family, most notably in the Anim, Indo-European, Kartvelian and Uralic families. The results of this project make a significant contribution to linguistic typology, as well as to syntactic and morphological theory, where agreement in the clause has been modelled around the verb and its arguments; we have established that agreement can involve adverbs, adpositions, conjunctions, complementisers, and even nouns and pronouns. We have investigated the dependencies within the clause between the agreement behaviour of more familiar targets such as verbs and the more unusual targets we have focused on; and have established semantic, pragmatic and structural factors regulating the agreement behaviour of externally agreeing unusual targets.OtherImage processing and computer vision have been an important field of computer science for decades. Importantly in the last few years, there has been an exponential growth of image and video data being generated and efficiently analysed using new methods of machine learning. This surge has driven industries and researchers in fields like agriculture and plant science and use image data to automate processes to save time and resources. One specific area of interest is plant phenotyping, which has been identified as one of the bottlenecks of agricultural research and is critical for the development of improved crops, necessary for ensuring global food security. My contributions have come from developing deep learning models applied to plant phenotyping problems. One of the main requirements surrounding deep learning approaches for computer vision is the need for large annotated datasets which are costly and time consuming to produce. My research focused as well to take advantage of weakly annotated or even unlabelled data to ease the burden of entry in using deep learning algorithms. The first achievement was using deep learning for leaf counting as well as implementing a platform for plant image analysis. The outcome of my work is an automated deep learning model that takes in images of top-down rosette plants and produces a total leaf count. The model achieves state-of-the-art results using relatively easier to obtain annotations than other models proposed by the literature. This work was published in a computer vision conference workshop and formed the basis of further work in this field. A second achievement was developing a multi-task deep learning model which can identify multiple traits at the same time. There are several benefits of having one model perform several tasks. It makes it easier to manage from a user perspective as well as helps the model learn better if the tasks are correlated to each other. I used this property to demonstrate that by using multi-task learning, the model can be trained with a fraction of the annotations for one of the tasks without significantly impacting overall performance. This work was published in a technical journal. A third achievement was in deep learning model interpretability. Deep learning produces impressive results for many computer vision applications however they are considered 'black box' models lacking a straightforward explanation of how a network achieves a prediction . In all my works I have included sections on interpretability because it is important to know that the model is learning properly. I have published a paper on this topic focusing on visualization and trying to understand what the networks are focusing on when predicting plant phenotyping traits.My research can be continued in both academia and industry. I showed that deep learning can be used successfully for agricultural and plant phenotyping tasks. There are many areas still left to explore. From an academic point of view an interesting PhD topic would be to use deep learning to simulate plant growth from data gathered. Another academic topic which I didn't cover but is relevant to the field is plant health and disease detection which can be another task for the multi-task learning framework. In an industrial setting, the models developed from this award could be used in controlled environment greenhouses to increase the efficiency and yield of crops.Agriculture Food and DrinkDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EnvironmentWork is in progress and we are looking at the rheology of natural grain boundaries in mantle minerals and how this affects mantle viscosity. The rheology of natural olivine grain boundaries is going to be characterised using rock deformation experiments. Deformation and migration of bicrystal boundary have been successfully identified by collaborators in Oxford and they display a linear viscous, weak rheology - this is a key measurement that requires further elaboration and should eventually be added to geodynamic models of Earth's mantleFirst of all through communication via conferences, then publications, then the data repository and via any impact the grant outcomes might haveChemicalsEnergyEnvironmentManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyOtherThe research is undergoing analysis and write-up but to date our findings include: a) that sutures play a more significant role in lizard skull mechanics than does the cartilaginous braincase (chondrocranium); b) that intraocular pressures recorded in lizards mostly correlate with body size but snakes and gekkotans have unusually high recordings that may be related to the thick spectacle; c) that the lizard postorbital skull experiences much higher strains than the same region in mammals; d) that the mammalian dural folds have, at best, a limited role in cranial stress distribution; e) that the depth and thickness of mammalian dural folds differs considerably between taxa.Our BBSRC funded project is linked to a Hull PhD project modelling the relationship of soft and hard tissues in the human skull (after a pilot on the cat). These relationships are relevant to human craniofacial growth, pathology, and injury repair. Evidence of this relevance is the grant awarded to team member Flora Groning: Developing a mixed reality guidance system for reconstructive head and neck surgery. Impact Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation Award (PI, £2977) for pilot in 2017, followed by grant from Roland Sutton Academic Trust 2017-2020 (PI, £55,038). At UCL, it has also led to a collaboration between a mechanical engineer working on skull biomechanics (Moazen) and a Medical Biophysicist (Bertazzo) on mineralised tissues and the potential of biomimetic materials (with a BBSRC submission on this topic). An extension project on the rabbit skull has recently been financed by BBSRC for a project at Hull University.HealthcareCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThere are several strands to what was discovered and achieved by this award, which may be broadly divided into: 1) basic structural and compositional characterisation of copper-zinc-tin-sulpho-selenide (CZTS-Se); 2) basic structural and compositional characterisation of antimony selenide (Sb2Se3); 3) and the electrical characterisation of single crystals of Sb2Se3. 1) I developed, with others, a novel technique to grow plates of copper-zinc-tin-sulpho-selenide (CZTS-Se) with large crystal grains at a range of compositions using a mixture of molten salts, sodium chloride and potassium chloride, as a solvent. This allowed me to advance the understanding of the structural and compositional properties of alloys formed of CZTS and CZTSe, through characterising these high-quality samples with x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. Understanding of the composition and crystal structure of CZTS-Se is crucial to improving photovoltaic devices made from these materials, so my work has contributed to these efforts. The results of the study into CZTS-Se have been published in the journal Crystal Growth and Design. Despite success in using a salt-based solvent to grow crystalline plates, this technique did not prove suitable for forming large CZTS-Se single crystals. Nor did the original method proposed, using Sn as a solvent, succeed as originally hoped. More recent results in the field have indicated that a much greater level of thermal control than we could access was required to succeed. However, my efforts to grow CZTS-Se single crystals were not wasted. I employed the same methods and background work in phase diagrams to another emerging chalcogenide material with applications in photovoltaics, antimony selenide (Sb2Se3), which leads into the next strand of findings. 2) I had consistent success in producing large single crystals of Sb2Se3, with controlled composition, including control of the level of trace impurities. These crystals have proved useful for several studies intending to improve the understanding of Sb2Se3 for photovoltaic applications. A Raman spectroscopy study has allowed us to understand the crystal structure much better, as well as being able to assign the peaks that appear in the Raman spectra to specific atomic vibrations in the material. The fabrication of these crystals also allowed the identification of a key impurity in the source material, which had important impacts on the electronic properties of Sb2Se3. The growth process was published in the conference proceedings of the 45th IEEE PVSC conference, while the Raman study produced a paper manuscript currently in review at the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. 3) The fundamental electrical properties of Sb2Se3 were characterised using the single crystals fabricated in strand 2). Deep-level transient spectrometry has informed us of defects which may form carrier recombination centres that affect photovoltaic performance; capacitance-voltage and hot-point probe measurements have informed us of methods of doping Sb2Se3 to improve conductivity or change the doping type altogether. Photoluminescence has also provided novel data on the defects which may have a more subtle impact on material properties. All of this has relevance for solar device production, and the results have informed the work going on with solar cells in the lab where I am based. The results of the study into the conductivity type in Sb2Se3 have been published in the journal Chemistry of MaterialsBy collecting XRD and Raman data from a continuous known composition series from CZTS-CZTSe, our work should allow others to more easily identify the composition and crystal structure of films made from these materials. We see, for instance, a linear shift in the position of the x-ray diffraction (XRD) peaks with S-Se ratio, allowing others to infer the S-Se content from XRD. The techniques applied in this project for growing pure and doped crystals of antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) may be taken forward by others who wish to try different dopants. The Raman study has allowed us to assign peaks in the spectrum to vibrations with specific crystal orientations, providing a reference for researchers who wish to know the crystal orientation of their films, a compliment to XRD. This is especially important as the performance of Sb2Se3 devices is strongly dependent on the orientation of the crystal grains in the film. Our studies of the doping type in single crystals can directly inform the production of thin film devices, providing guidance on how to achieve a particular doping type and density, which other researchers may take forward to better design their devices.ChemicalsElectronicsEnergyEnvironmentManufacturing including Industrial Biotechologyhttps://dx.doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2018.8547622A pop-up, travelling art installation, located in accessible community venues, is an excellent way of: raising awareness of dementia, highlighting 'dementia and imagination' research project findings, and to highlight creative approaches to dementia care. The multi-sensory nature of the project- i.e. a pop-up café offering a 'dementia-friendly' afternoon tea, art created by people living with dementia, and music, theatrical and other creative activities attracted a wide audience including those with dementia and the general public of all ages. The positive findings from the research project 'dementia and imagination' highlight creative ways in which people with dementia can 'live well' and can support carers. We engaged new audiences by touring the project to several parts of the UK (Llandudno, North Wales, London and Edinburgh in Scotland. We trained approximately 80 artists, using the findings from 'Dementia and Imagination'. This ensures that the research has legacy and ongoing impact, enabling the visual arts approaches that we developed to be used by creative practitioners across the UK. One unexpected finding was the interest in the project from those without dementia or a connection to dementia care. It was noted that some itinerant e.g. homeless people, those with learning disabilities, and others who appeared socially isolated visited multiple times and stayed for hours at a time. They appeared to enjoy the welcoming space, free tea and coffee and afternoon tea and free creative activities on offer. The project helped us build and develop collaboration with several creative organisations including Culture&, Menier gallery, MOSTYN and City Art Centre.Accessible art installations are a valuable to challenge negative social and cultural perceptions of dementia. We achieved this by exhibiting art made by people with dementia that was accomplished and aesthetically pleasing. This elicited positive feedback from visitors. Many were incredulous that some with dementia was able to work creatively and to produce artwork worthy of exhibition. It was noted that the project provided a space for people to talk about dementia, in relation to family members or to themselves, and their own fears about the condition. Working in partnership with the Alzheimer's Society and Dementia UK ensured that appropriate support was available for attendees if required. In Scotland, TIDE carers raised awareness of their services as part of the project. Including a free afternoon tea created a welcoming and nurturing atmosphere that was appreciated by attendees in their feedback (left in a visitors book) We reached diverse audiences by working in cultural institutions that were free for the public to enter, in Wales, Scotland and England. This enabled us to share 'Dementia and Imagination' findings more widely. Use of cultural venues provided appropriate sites to offer artist training. On each site there was wide interest in attending the free training. In London, the training was over-subscribed. The training enabled us to form and support a wider network of artists trained to deliver evidence-based creative practice, suitable for use in clinical, community and residential dementia care settings. Doctoral and Masters students were involved in delivering on each site, enabling them to learn about public engagement and to network with colleagues from other disciplines e.g. arts, psychology, medicine, nursing, museum studies.Communities and Social Services/PolicyCreative EconomyHealthcareCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17533015.2019.1608565A novel class of short tread milling microtubules that contribute to microtubule alignment.People are trying to model microtubule dynamics this should be important data for them.Agriculture Food and DrinkChemicalsThis funding has allowed us to improve the state of the art in production, transport, deceleration and trapping of cold polar molecules. The key goal of this programme was to expand the techniques of cold molecule control so that cold, heavy molecules could be produced in large numbers at rest. As outlined in the original proposal, we have built a new kind of source for cold molecular radicals offering a hundred times higher intensity compared with the previous state of the art, and delivering heavy molecules travelling slowly enough to be stopped. This source cools the molecules by collision with helium buffer gas in a liquid helium cryostat. The cooled molecules have been guided out of the cryostat and then slowed close to rest by a decelerator that uses switched electric field gradients. These technical developments open the way to major progress in several areas. Examples are (i) the use of molecules to probe new elementary particle physics beyond the standard model, (ii) the study of quantum decoherence and the classical-quantum boundary (iii) ultra-high-resolution molecular spectroscopy using fountains and traps, (iv) the manipulation of polar molecules near surfaces as a quantum readout of solid-state qubits. Some of these activities are now being pursued with funding from new EPSRC and EC grants.UK groups working on cold molecules will benefit from this research. These include T. Softley (Oxford), T. Freegarde (Southampton), D. Carty (Durham), J. Hutson (Durham), P. Barker (UCL). There is also a significant connection with the ultracold molecule research of S. Cornish (Durham) and I. Walmsley (Oxford).EducationOtherThree Ice Tethereed PRofilers have been purchased from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for deployment in the Arctic. A UAV is under development to be a thermal imaging platform and to carry eddy correlation sensors.Data from these systems will be used by the TEA-COSI consottium to assess sea ice dynamics in the ArcticEnvironmentThe research has in many ways challenged the orthodox view presented by Egyptology of the early years of the subject's development, which promotes a rather over-positive assessment of a process that was far more complex, with extensive debates and arguments.I am currently discussing a small travelling exhibition with Dorset Archives (who wish to promote the Bankes Archive, and particularly the travels of William Bankes in Egypt and the Near East), Kingston Lacy House (Bankes residence, NT); Bristol Museum (which holds relevant material), and with the National Trust to relate the travels to other contemporaries who Bankes met and travelled with. These properties include Pollock House, Glasgow; Castle Coole, Northern Ireland; Lyme Park, Cheshire; and Calke Abbey, Derbyshire. This plan was part of initial proposal (as noted above). There is also a potential to link with the British Museum and other museum collections.EducationLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsAs part of the archival and historical climatology work on the project - the main focus to date - we have identified 7 major droughts and 6 wetter periods that affected large areas of Mozambique from 1817-1900. We have also identified 19 probable tropical cyclones that affected Mozambique from 1827-1900, with other candidate events requiring further investigation. The majority of these extreme climatic events have at most received passing attention, while many others - especially tropical cyclones - have not been written about. Identification and reconstruction of the nature of these events will thus enable recent climatic extremes to be placed in longer term context. This is especially valuable given the relatively short systematic record of these events in Mozambique (1890s/1900s onwards for most rainfall data, and 1979 onwards for tropical cyclones). Both outcomes are currently being written up as articles. I have also tested the project's aim of examining multidirectional interactions between environmental extremes (drought, floods, pests), colonial environmental knowledges (e.g. 'agriculture betterment') and material interventions (e.g. crop choices) in the context of colonial Kenya (https://doi.org/10.1111/joac.70060). Drawing on diverse historical archives, this analysis has been able to identify the specific factors that led to the marginalisation of what are now considered 'underutilised' indigenous crops (e.g. official memories of drought and famine) and the central factors behind local resistance to this marginalisation, particularly nutrition and health.Publication and dissemination of our identification and reconstruction of climatic extreme events in the deeper past will enable recent extremes to be placed in longer term context by meteorological agencies, municipal governments and climate adaptation plans. Further work will extend the tropical cyclone reconstruction to the beginning of the satellite period, enabling a highly detailed history of tropical cyclones for Mozambique and adjacent areas of southeastern Africa. The research on the history of climate, knowledges, and interventions offer an initial insight as to how present-day challenges of climate adaptation are shaped by colonial histories. Further work with foresight planners will determine how such histories can be integrated into futures practice, such as scenarios. The above outcomes also offer a model to be advanced for the other southern African case studies.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsPlease see the key findings of EPSRC grant EP/V012126/1.Please see the key findings of EPSRC grant EP/V012126/1.ElectronicsEnergyEnvironmentHealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyDesign in the Digital World was the Network related to a group of interdisciplinary researchers from fields as diverse as computing, fashion, engineering, architecture, interactive media, digital design and business. The goals of the individual projects in the network were to consider novel design or use of information and communication technology to help transform the lives of individuals, society or business. The work focussed on a critical aspect of this transformation - specifically, the involvement of users throughout the design process. The underlying motivation was to have digital technology and related services reflect the requirements, aspirations, and potential of users. Technology should be inclusive, promoting participation not only of typical early-adopters of technology, but also the participation of the population at large, many of whom have difficulty with traditionally-designed interfaces and/or currently do not see the relevance of the digital technologies for their lives. Seven projects were funded from the Design in the Digital World (DDW) Sandpit. The purpose of the Network was to facilitate a continued interdisciplinary approach among these project researchers. Through annual workshops, the Network successfully: 1) supported collaboration on the seven research projects, exploring innovative applications and methodologies for involving users in the design process; 2) created a new research community that integrates interdisciplinary teams dedicated to creating innovative design principles that address the challenges and barriers of the Digital Economy; 3) facilitated the transfer of knowledge from Network participants to a broader community; and 4) encouraged interdisciplinary training and information exchange for research students and research assistants (such as shaping of MSc programmes, creating new interdisciplinary undergraduate design and research modules, and providing for cross-disciplinary supervision of PhD students).A number of the Network projects were deployed in the real world for user benefit. For example, VoiceYourView deployed several different means of community participation solutions, TOTeM involved Oxfam in the use of digital stories about donated articles, Bespoke deployed multiple artefacts for community development, and Digital Sensoria made internationally available it's "shooglits". As this research is still in progress, new non-academic contexts for use can be expected. User Engagement is at the heart of the work undertaken by the DDW Network researchers. End-users were involved in advisory boards, focus groups, and as research participants. These users came from organized charities, community groups, and local volunteering. Many were involved in relatively long-term interactions with the researchers and one of the key questions arising out of the Network has been how to sustain user involvement over even larger time scales. User engagement has also taken the form of reaching out to industry, charities, and local government. Of note is the fact that the Network projects have begun to propagate new funded research. The EPSRC-funded Catalyst project at Lancaster University can be cited as one excellent example of this. Catalyst is a direct follow-on from the VoiceYourView project. Other examples include TOTeM which received funding for related and impact work from the Edinburgh College of Art, an enterprise award to UCL, and AHRC and EPSRC Telling Tales funding. Charm received new ESRC funding and was instrumental in the PI working on the new Digital Economy Network+ for Sustainability. Microsoft provided funding for a PhD student (TOTeM). As this was a Network grant, not a research grant, there were not the usual publications. We believe, however, that the innovations of the Network researchers have been significant enough that we are now in the process of writing a book about the interdisciplinary nature of the work undertaken. Case stories from the projects will be used to illustrate the interdisciplinarity and the user engagement. We have a contract with a publisher for the book and an expected publication date at the end of 2012.Communities and Social Services/PolicyCreative EconomyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationEnvironmentHealthcareHateLab was originally funded under the ESRC Civil Society and Social Media call in 2017. The grant enabled the research team, which included a non-academic policy CI, to demonstrate how Digital Footprint Data, in the form of social media, could provide insights into the nature and dynamics of online hate speech and it how might be effectively marshalled to benefit policy and operational decision making. A key output is the HateLab Platform, a first of a kind Digital Footprint Data (DFD) aggregation cloud-based resource that visualises the classifications of social media hate speech based on state-of-the art artificial intelligence developed in HateLab. The Platform was implemented within HMG's National Cyber Hate Crime Hub in Q2 2019. The Hub was established by the Home Secretary in 2017 to tackle online forms of hate crime, that increased dramatically in the aftermath of the 2016 referendum vote on the future of the UK in the EU. It acts as the point of contact for all victims of online hate crime, and produces intelligence reports for police, senior civil servants and MPs. It was agreed with the Policy CI, Paul Giannasi, National Police Lead for Hate Crime, that the Platform be evaluated in two live police operations in the Hub: i) monitoring hate speech around the exit of the UK from the EU; and ii) monitoring hate speech targeting MPs. The Platform and HateLab insights allowed the Hub to better understand the dynamics of hate speech propagation, leading to improved response times, better support for victims and more effective allocation of resources. Based on this early-stage impact, the HateLab project was submitted as a Cardiff University REF2021 case study (UoA 21). In 2021, the Director, Professor Williams, published a trade non-fiction book, The Science of Hate with Faber & Faber, that draws heavily on HateLab research. More recently, VLOPs (TikTok, Twitter, Meta) have engaged with HateLab to inform the development of their community guidelines in relation to protected groups and hate speech counter-measures. Williams has recently taken up a formal advisory role at TikTok. With a within-award grant, the Platform and associated data services were rolled out to additional users in a broader pilot: Welsh Government, Galop (LGBTQ+ anti-violence charity), and South Wales Police, and later to the Home Office, The Football Association of Wales, Kick it Out, EE, BT, Saatchi & Saatchi and Deutsche Telekom. Impacts include monitoring and countering online hate speech related to: • The Brexit process • The abuse of Members of Parliament • The 'punish a Muslim day' incident • The settlement of Ukrainian refugees in Wales • The Monkeypox outbreak and LGBTQ+ communities • Developing far-right movements in Wales • Events of identity recognition (LGBTQIA+ History Month, Black History Month, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, International Day of Transgender Visibility, International Day of Disabled Persons, Ramadan and International Women's Day) • The Men's and Women's Euros, The World Cup and The Six Nations 2023 The extended pilot period completed in October 2022, and all data services supplied to external clients was paused. The remaining period of the grant (to end of May 2023) is dedicated to the final development stage of the Platform, and the transfer of all technical and data services from the third-party software supplier (Gofore) to SPARK at Cardiff University.Several of the pilot client have expressed an interest in paying for continued use of the Platform and services beyond the grant.Communities and Social Services/PolicyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Government Democracy and JusticeSecurity and DiplomacyThe work funded by this award has advanced the understanding of the evolution of the Universe, in particular the early evolution of galaxies and their surrounding environments. This has been achieved by constructing new and improved theoretical models in combination with advanced computer simulations. This work has culminated in 5 published journal papers detailing the new knowledge generated by this research.The outcomes of this research can be taken forward via academic routes. The theoretical models created during this work can be used for further research in this field. More generally, the knowledge generated by this research will help shape the future research on this topic area.OtherElectronics components used in defense, space and transport need to be tested to survive safely their operating lifetime to avoid catastrophic systems failure. The works performed will enable these tests to be achieved more accurately, and economically more competitive.Companies such as UMS supporting this project will incorporate procedures developed within the R&D and production environment.Aerospace Defence and MarineTransportNew methods for the analysis of locally stationary time series. This includes new methods for tests of stationarity, new methods for forecasting, new methods for assessing sampling rate, checking aliasing, analysis of network time series. Various software packages produced and uploaded.Most of our methods are statistical methodologies which can be used by a wide variety of users of time series.Aerospace Defence and MarineAgriculture Food and DrinkChemicalsCommunities and Social Services/PolicyConstructionCreative EconomyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationElectronicsEnergyEnvironmentFinancial Services and Management ConsultancyHealthcareLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismGovernment Democracy and JusticeManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsPharmaceuhttp://www.maths.bris.ac.uk/~guy/Through research funded in this award we were able to complete key aspects of work associated with the development and screeing of new strains of the fungus Penicillium roqueforti for use in the food industry. As a result a series of potential new strains, derived from the sexual crossing technology developed under previous BBSRC work, were tested for characteristics such as flavour, mycotoxin content, and growth rate. The best new strains were then used in cheese production trials and were subject to blind taste trials. These revealed at least 6 new strains that scored very favourably and have been taken forward for commercial exploitation.The strains developed under the work have been patent registered by the University of Nottingham. A start-up company (Myconeos Ltd) was then launched in summer 2018 to commercially produce and market the novel strains, under licence from the University of Nottingham.Agriculture Food and DrinkRetail28 healthy adults aged 30-55 were administered the Astrazeneca/Oxford AZD1222 vaccine by aerosol inhalation. All participants had previously had a full course of COVID-19 vaccination. This route of administration was safe and well tolerated. The vaccine stimulated large numbers of T cells in both the blood and the lower respiratory tract.These results will support the further development of inhaled vaccines that may enhance the effectiveness and transmission-blocking capacity of next-generation vaccines against respiratory viruses. Further immunological analysis is underway and will provide increased understanding of how the immune system in the human lung may be harnessed to improve vaccine effectiveness.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyWe analysed the chemical mechanisms of how enzymes degrade mannans - this described the shapes and contortions of the sugars and has led to the design and application of novel enzyme inhibitors against mannosidases. Enzymes were dissected showing how the human microbiota digest mannans in food and drink; notably dietary yeasts (and their link to human health). We discovered and analysed new enzyme families. We presented the first structural insight into an enzyme responsible for the processing of protein-linked sugars in man; its novel reaction mechanism opens up new vistas for therapeutic targeting of viral infection (HepC etc). We developed new computational methods that will have widespread applicability in studying enzyme reaction and inhibition.Bespoke enzyme inhibitors for anti-viral work (endomannosidase inhibitors) Understanding of how the human microbiota degrade complex mannans in health and disease Imaging agents for enzyme detection and analysisAgriculture Food and DrinkHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyOur research resulted in major developments in one of the hardest areas within artificial intelligence: automated theorem proving. One of the most significant findings was research and development of the original AVATAR architecture for theorem proving systems (theorem provers). This architecture allowed our theorem prover Vampire to solve hundreds of problems that were previously beyond the reach of the best systems, including previous versions of Vampire. We also extended AVATAR to work in the area of reasoning with both quantifiers and theories, resulting in major breakthrough in the area. While all most successful systems were using instance-based methods, we have shown that on practical problems AVATAR-based methods show superior performance on many classes of problems. This is very significant since the new method focuses on quantifier reasoning more than on theory reasoning, while all previously known methods focused on improving theory reasoning.The methods we developed significantly advance knowledge in the area and may result in new methods based on AVATAR.Aerospace Defence and MarineDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)http://vprover.orgThis project developed and applied an n interactive model ARISE (AgRIculture and food SystEm interactive model) which allows stakeholders to design complementary food and agriculture sector pathways and build consensus. As a first case study, we provided an environment-oriented NGO assessment of a UK agroecology pathway and evaluate the benefits in comparison with alternative pathways available in the literature and developed by the UK Government. This shows how the ARISE model can enable the exploration of critical trade-offs between the multiple sustainability objectives.The ARISE modelling platform has the potential to be applied by diverse stakeholders including in academia and by NGO'sAgriculture Food and DrinkEducationEnvironmentAn automated micro fermentation platform (Robolector) was acquired and installed within the Earlham Institute's Biofoundry. This platform allows the growth and automated monitoring and sampling of 48 microbial cultures (e.g. bacteria, yeast). We have established automated workflows for monitoring the growth of various microbial species (bacteria and yeast). The platform is now being used to deliver projects for users of Earlham Biofoundry. Users include researchers from other Norwich Bioscience Institutes (John Innes Centre and Quadram Institute) and those from SMEs based on the Norwich and Cambridge Research Parks.Impact to the UK bioscience community is being achieved through access to the resource by research professionals in academia and industry. Impact to the UK Bioeconomy is being enabled by allowing SMEs access to equipment and expertise that they do not have in-house. The addition of this platform to the Earlham BioFoundry is contributing to the sustainability of this resource by expanding the range of potential users.Agriculture Food and DrinkManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe VAPAR process 2017-22 as approximately at mid point in 2020. Our activities are currently underway connecting service users and providers to generate and act on research evidence of practical, local relevance. We have published several papers since March 2019 on our process. Full details can be found at www.vapar.org 2020 Witter S, Van der Merwe M, Twine R, Mabetha D, Hove J, Goosen G and D'Ambruoso L. Verbal autopsy with participatory action research (VAPAR) programme in Mpumalanga, South Africa: protocol for evaluation. BMJ Open, 2020;10:3036597. Oladeinde O, Mabetha D, Twine R, Hove J, Van der Merwe M, Byass P, Witter S, Kahn K and D'Ambruoso L. Progressing participatory action research to reduce alcohol and other drug abuse in rural South Africa: reflections on an action and learning process. Global Health Action (accepted for publication on 30 January 2020). DOI: 10.1080/16549716.2020.1726722. 2019 Hussain-Alkhateeb L, D'Ambruoso L, Tollman S, Kahn K, Van Der Merwe M, Twine R, Schiöler L & Petzold M (2019). Enhancing the value of mortality data for health systems: adding Circumstances Of Mortality CATegories (COMCATs) to deaths investigated by verbal autopsy. Global Health Action 12(1):1680068. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16549716.2019.1680068 D'Ambruoso L, Van Der Merwe, M, Wariri O, Byass P, Goosen G, Kahn K, Masinga S, Mokoena V, Spies B, Tollman S, Witter S, Twine R (2019). Rethinking collaboration: developing a learning platform to address under-5 mortality in Mpumalanga province, South Africa. Health Policy and Planning 34(6):418-429. https://academic.oup.com/heapol/article/34/6/418/5523687 Hove J, D'Ambruoso L, Mabetha D, Van Der Merwe M, Byass P, Kahn K, Khosa S, Witter S, Twine R (2019). "Water is life": developing community participation for clean water in rural South Africa. BMJ Global Health 4(3): e001377. https://gh.bmj.com/content/4/3/e001377 Byass P, Hussain-Alkhateeb L, D'Ambruoso L, Clark S, Davies J, Fottrell E, Bird J, Kabudula C, Tollman S, Kahn K, Schiöler, Petzold M (2019). An integrated approach to processing WHO-2016 verbal autopsy data: the InterVA-5 model. BMC Medicine 17:102. https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-019-1333-6 Edem I, Dare A, Byass P, D'Ambruoso L, Leather A, Kahn K, Tollman S, Whitaker J, Davies J (2019). External injuries and avoidable deaths in Agincourt, South Africa. BMJ Open 9(6): e027576. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/6/e027576The main beneficiaries will be people systematically and unfairly excluded from access to health systems. The process will routinely produce information on their needs and priorities for equity-informed decision-making. Generating and embedding this information in an action-oriented process at different levels of the health system will achieve impact through inclusive knowledge production and exchange, fostering trust and cooperation towards common goals, and strengthening service organisation and delivery to improve health outcomes and health equity. The process will benefit health systems at different levels by fostering engagement and ownership in research. Beneficiaries will be health workers, facility managers and community workers at the 'coalface' of the system who make daily decisions about eligibility and access in resource-scarce, demand-intensive environments. Empowering practitioners to be involved in policy creation, implementation and evaluation with communities they serve and stakeholders at higher levels will acknowledge and employ these realities for positive change. At higher levels of the system, the process will build cultures of HPSR to provide clear information on what is to be done by whom, with which means and within what constraints, informing the prioritisation of interventions and policy directives enabling assessment of and advocacy for resources. A further major intended impact is the provision of a sustainable process. The research will generate and use co-constructed evidence of practical relevance for equity-informed systems strengthening on an ongoing basis. The methods and choices of topics will be led by participants and during the project, the process will shift from a research-based to a country-led endeavour. This will foster ownership for sustainability, address disconnects between policy and implementation, integrate research across sectors, and provide practical approaches to deal with the complexities of implementation that limit data and action. The process will be grounded in the needs of end users to illuminate and harness implementation in an integrated and sustainable system of change. The research will strengthen capacity for health policy and systems research (HPSR). HPSR is a relatively new field, viewing health systems as complex adaptive systems, using relativist enquiry paradigms, value-based approaches, and intersectoral collaborations with a commitment to action. Despite its relevance for resilient and equitable health systems, methods remain underdeveloped. Building and serving practitioner networks is a further intended impact in this context. Teaching and training resources for health systems practitioners and researchers will be developed and disseminated to build communities of practice and encourage collaboration between communities, service providers and researchers. Impact will be realised by developing methods and capacities for use within and beyond the study setting. A range of engagements with governments, health systems, research networks, HPSR practitioners, civil society and public engagement groups outside the study setting are planned to promote collaborative HPSR for equity in health systems. Interest in the research to date from research groups, the media, communities and health system stakeholders suggests demand for these. Multi-faceted engagement, fostering collaboration where actors are united by overall goals and values will accommodate different perspectives and extend impacts overall. The work will build on partnerships with targeted activities throughout. New forms of engagement will also be explored by reaching out to others without prior exposure to the work, including the public, politicians and the media. We will innovate with digital technologies, online and social media, social networks and face-to-face engagement. Targeting these groups with these activities will maximise collaborative opportunities and impacts.Communities and Social Services/PolicyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Healthcarehttp://www.vapar.org1) Development of gel mixing equipment for bespoke non-linear polyacrylamide IEF (low pH) gels. 2) Determination of ampholyte formulations to create of low pH IEF gels for GAG separations. 3) Determination of pH gradient ranges and separation conditions. 4) Demonstrated separation using IEF of oligosaccharides with and without fluorescent label.Low pH gels for GAG IEF separations will ultimately permit the separation of previously inseparable GAG oligosaccharides. This class of molecules are currently under consideration as potential therapeutics for many disease states.HealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe B-vitamin folate, and its synthetic form folic acid, have been and continue to be at the centre of a scientific and public health controversy that focuses on the role of folate in health and disease. Playing a vital role in cell growth and development, folate has for decades been known to help prevent birth defects, which is why women who are trying to conceive and women who are pregnant are advised to take a daily supplement of folic acid, and why over 60 countries worldwide have introduced food fortification programmes. Yet, fortification is controversial, as concerns have and continue to be raised about the possible adverse health effects of higher doses of folic acid. This research had the aim to understand why the controversy persists. We focused on the UK, although the debate is ongoing in many other countries too. The B vitamin folate is implicated in many relations that cross biological, institutional, scientific, political, moral and cultural lines. The research therefore set out to develop an interdisciplinary and empirical account of the biosocial complexities of folate to provide a deeper understanding of the connections between the biology and social life of folate, and hence why the controversy persists. Answering the question of why the folate controversy persists has involved exploring the problem of NTDs for public health and the solution of folic acid to this problem. We started by exploring who is interested in NTDs and folic acid, as well as who is interested in folate - in other words, who has a stake in the debate. Many different people and groups are interested, and their interests are driven by different stakes, priorities, rationalities, ways of working, and histories. That folate is interesting to different people for different reasons is partly why the controversy around folate persists. We have been interested in better understanding why and how folate has become interesting for public health. Our analyses have shown that today's problem of folate for public health is predominantly an inherited problem. There are several dimensions to the history of the problem as it currently unfolds in public health and policy today: a history of linking folate to the problem/risk of NTDs, a history of reductionist nutritional thinking, a history of biopolitics and prevention, a history of risk factor epidemiology in public health, a history of evidence-based policy making, and a history of intervening in women's biology for the sake of a nation's reproductive health. In summary, folate has become a specific biopolitical proposition to solve specific problems of health and disease, predominantly the specific problem of reducing the risk of NTD-affected pregnancies. However, mandatory food fortification complicates the problem-solution of folate-sensitive NTDs for public health. While specificity has been drawn upon to make the case for folic acid as solution to NTDs, the specificity simultaneously becomes a problem for a population-wide (or general) approach. This tension is at the heart of the controversy.We hope our findings offer another way of thinking about problems and solutions for public health, how they are constituted and what they make possible but equally how certain ways of thinking also limits what can be done about a particular issue. We hope that our findings open up for other and complementary ways of addressing folate as a public health problem.Communities and Social Services/PolicyGovernment Democracy and JusticeWe have discovered the existence of a 'speed-curvature power law' in the trajectories of walking bumblebees. Everyone writes differently, making signatures a powerful indicator of our identities. But looks can be deceptive, as every signature is known to adhere to a mathematical law that describes hidden regularities. The occurrence of this law is remarkable given that human behaviours are shaped by individual psyches and by complex social and environmental interactions. We show that the same law describes the meanderings patterns of walking bumblebees. The paths the bees trace out could easily be mistaken for being human signatures. Like with human signatures, abnormal meanderings not adhering to the law could be used to identify to stressed or diseased individuals.Understanding underlying mathematical patterns in bee behaviour, could better allow us (as scientists), to study the effects of potential stressors on bee behaviours. This power law could be used as a null behavioural template to examine the sublethal effects of stressors such as parasite load and pesticides which may be having hidden effects on native UK pollinators.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmenthttps://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0226393the use of a petroleum standard to show reproducibility for rhenium and osmium geochemistryto aid laboratory development. to demonstrate analytical protocol and provide the earth science community confidence when report unknown data.EducationThe key findings of this project were new algorithms for computing equilibria of games, and the discovery of new relationships between different computational problems in the field of game theory. For example, algorithms were developed for enumerating all Nash equilibria of a bimatrix game, which is fundamental model of two-person strategic interactions. As another example, a reduction from two-player discounted games on graphs to the P-matrix Linear Complementarity Problem (LCP) was established. This reduction shows that algorithms for the latter problem can be used to solve the former problem. Building on this, examples of discounted games were constructed so that certain LCP algorithms perform badly (take exponential time).There a important examples of strategic situations where game theory is relevant and it is important to be able to compute equilibria. For example, in traffic networks, congestion depends on the strategic choices of routes by road users, and in sponsored search auctions, advertisers participate in auctions that allocate sponsored links on web search engine results pages and they often choose their bids strategically. Better algorithms for equilibrium computation allow larger more complex models to be analysed, and can deliver benefits for system designers and system users. This research can be put to use by modellers that want to analyse potential behaviour in strategic settings.In previous years, the potential benefits of the communications technologies studied in PEACE. In this year the key findings were associated with establishing a level of detailed understanding necessary to enable further performance enhancement, and the development of low cost, low energy consumption transponder concepts to exploit the enhanced transmission capability.We are now discussing directly funded follow on projects with industry partners in order to enable commercialisation of our key findings.Communities and Social Services/PolicyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EnergyThis project will be completed by May 2016. Thus far I have identified the following findings: 1. Both minority and non-monority German writers are concerned with transnationalism, in ways that often overlap. This is a significant findings, given that scholarships almost always focuses on minority writers. 2. Transnationalism is often associated with forms of 'deviant' sexuality, signalling an anxiety about the 'integrity' of social relations and ultimately the nation. 3. a fear of transnationalism is often associated with terrorism, with terrorism often coming to 'mass' a range of fears more properly linked to globalisation and global social change. 4. A concern with transnationalism has prompted a renewed concern with cosmopolitanism in German-language writing. However, German-language writers struggle to eleaborate truly cosmopolitan ideals and find themselves stuck, instead, within powerful narrative of nation and nationhood.This project will be of use to others working on contemporary German-language writing, especially to the extent that opens out the discussion about German-language literature from the 'nation' to the 'world' and seeks to embed German-language writing within the new theoretical framework of 'world literatures'. More broadly scholars outside of German-language literary studies will be interested in the connection between literature and cosmopolitanism.Culture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttp://arts.leeds.ac.uk/transnationalholocaustmemory/german-language-literature-and-transnationalism/Students taught on transnational higher education (TNE) programmes in Hong Kong do not receive the same 'benefits' as students studying for the equivalent degree in the UK. TNE students are disadvantaged in various ways: sub-standard teaching; non-recognition of their degrees in the local labour market; a lack of campus experiences associated with university; fewer privileges compared with local university students.The findings would be useful for researchers working on TNE in other contexts (outside of Hong Kong).EducationTaking up technologised nineteenth-century conceptions of texts as "thinking machines" and periodicals as "knowledge engines", the project shows how print culture was reconstituted for commercial, educational, moral, and socio-political purposes by the development of mass-market periodicals. In particular - as will be explained in a planned monograph - the project proposes three key effects: first, the advent of mass-market periodicals enabled public discourse to be increasingly commercialised and put control of public discourse in the hands of private ownership; second, cheap magazines meant more people could access more kinds of knowledge than ever before which helped create conditions of technological innovation and social change; finally, the increasingly broad variety of different magazines aimed at different markets and readers actually hid a suprisingly emphasis on a small number of shared value-beliefs.The project's main findings will be outlined in detail in the planned monograph associated with this funding. From there, it is hoped that the key findings will be taken forward by other scholars and professionals working across the Humanities and in the cultural heritage sector, as these findings have implications for how we understand mass culture, commercial media, and "the culture industry" beyond the specific Victorian examples its analysis addresses.Culture Heritage Museums and CollectionsFew subjects in European welfare history attract as much attention as the nineteenth-century English and Welsh New Poor Law. In the words of David Englander its founding statute was "the single most important piece of social legislation ever enacted", and the coming of its institutions - from penny-pinching Boards of Guardians to the dreaded workhouse - has generally been seen as a catastrophe for ordinary working people. Yet, until now it has been impossible to know how the poor themselves felt about the New Poor Law and its measures, how they negotiated its terms, and how their interactions with the local and national state shifted and changed across the nineteenth century. For the first time, In Their Own Write exposes this hidden history. Based on an unparalleled collection of first-hand testimony - pauper letters and witness statements interwoven with letters to newspapers and correspondence from poor law officials and advocates - drawn from The National Archives collection MH12 the book reveals lives marked by hardship, deprivation, bureaucratic intransigence, parsimonious officialdom, and sometimes institutional cruelty. Yet, the stories also challenge the dominant view that the poor were totally powerless and lacked agency in these interactions. Instead, In Their Own Write clearly demonstrates that both they and their advocates were determinedly adept at navigating the new bureaucracy, at holding local and national officials to account, and influencing the outcomes of relief negotiations for themselves and for their wider communities. Fascinating and compelling, these stories amount to nothing less than a new history of welfare from belowWe are currently working on a Follow On Funding grant that will put our data and associated lesson plans into every school in Britain. We are also working on a new policy orientated project - the future welfare citizen - that looks at the future of the European welfare state.Creative EconomyEducationLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://intheirownwriteblog.com/about/Increased understanding of the triggering conditions at ATLAS for the LHC upgrade.Our results will inform the triggering strategy at ATLAS for the LHC upgrades.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationOtherAn experiment performed to measure a key nuclear reaction that is important for energy generation in the sun and the results publishedThe results add to the scientific literature and are available to guide future work by other researchersOtherThe threats to UK forests from drought and pest and diseases are rising. These bring challenges for the forest sector. While the risk from fire and wind can be mitigated with insurance, there is no drought or pest and disease insurance in the UK. This is primarily due to a lack of appropriate information for premium assessment. Regardless of the state of current information, project developers under the Woodland Carbon Code (WCC - https://www.forestry.gov.uk/carboncode) must assess the threat from natural disturbances over the lifetime of their forest carbon projects. This is to determine how much sequestered carbon to set aside against future losses. There is, therefore, an urgent need to develop new data and information on these threats to: investigate the potential for new insurance products; support ongoing risk assessment of WCC projects; and to inform forest management operations. In this project, we have achieved the following: Drought: Datasets were developed providing probabilistic decadal estimates (2020s to 2080s) of tree growth rates and mortality risk for four key tree species based on annual moisture deficit (lack of rainfall). ForestRe Ltd. (an insurance company) is using these to investigate the potential for drought insurance products. The Forestry Commission is looking at the impact on forest carbon projects. A by-product of the research led Forest Research to develop new UK-wide drought maps. Pest and Diseases (P&D): A model to assess the P&D risk to UK woodland carbon projects, over a 100-year period, has been adapted to analyse projects with different timeframes e.g. timber. Given the significance of this work, organisations such as CONFOR, DEFRA and FERA lent further support for a follow-on NERC Fellowship, which will expand the datasets for wider coverage of P&D. Wind: A project investigated the potential for rapid assessment of wind risk using outputs from Forest Research's ForestGALES tool. GALES is now being developed for broadleaves to support such assessment for forest carbon projects.The findings have been used by various stakeholders interested in knowledge on risks to forest ecosystems in the UK (either for the development of new products, or for the refinements of existing services). This includes the Forestry Commission and its woodland carbon code) as well as financial institutions (ForestRe ltd.)Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentFinancial Services and Management ConsultancyGovernment Democracy and Justicehttps://forestrisks.net/Two complementary techniques for imaging flow, X-ray CT, and transport, PET, through rock cores have been applied experimentally. These were applied to the imaging of surfactant/polymer (enhanced oil recovery method) floods in Bentheimer (sandstone) rock cores. Via X-ray CT, a greater understanding of rock core aspect ratio on flooding performance was garnered - information that can help streamline and reduce wasted efforts in industrial surfactant/polymer flood worfklows.Albeit applied to enhanced oil recovery, surfactant transport plays an important role in other, more topical, research areas - such as soil remediation. The techniques applied here can be thus extended and applied to these parallel fields with the goal of developing additional knowledge there. The work also demonstrated the possibility of performing more complex, multi-phase, experiments imaged via PET. These experiments can prove quite powerful as most 'realistic' flow scenarios contain multiple phases - within which, specific fundamental knowledge, such as dispersion in unsaturated porous media, can be investigated via imaging (direct imaging currently limited to micromodels).EnergySpatial memory of mice was tested in a radial-arm maze. Mice explored the mice first during a sample phase in which 2 out of 8 arms were accessible, and then tested after a delay, when a third arm became available additionally. The activity of neurons in the retrosplenial cortex (RSC) of the animals was imaged using implanted mini-scopes. Mice spent more time in the novel arm than in the familiar arms when the delay time was short (3 or 30 min) but not when it was longer (6 h or 24 h). Some RSC neurons were more active in the familiar arms, some were more active in novel arm; these populations were not spatially segregated. Across the population there was little overall difference in RSC neuronal activity in the same location before and after a delay. However, some cells exhibited increased activity in a familiar location (increasing with delay time) and others show decreased activity (decreasing with delay time). When the radial arm maze was placed in a dark room, preference for a novel environment appeared to persist for longer delay times than in the light.Research on spatial memory representation in the RSC continues in the lab of the Co-I.Healthcaremethods for automatice detection of damage on structures such as aircraft without the need of rmanula inspection.Th findings can be used by operators, maintainers and designers of safety critical structures such as aircraft for reducing life cycle costs and increasing efficencies of structures.Aerospace Defence and MarineManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyTransportCellular protein, PrPC, is required to keep bone marrow MSC in proliferating state and small molecule indole compound, 689, can enhance the proliferation of MSC, more profound when they are in aged state via regulating the SOD2 activities. The MSC cultured in the presence of 689 can increase the bone mass and quality in Osteophorisis mice model.The findings were published and cited by others working in the field. They were also taken forward by the applicants as bases in the further grant applications.ChemicalsHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe LANCS Initiative has grown research capability in foundational OR in the UK. 22 permanent academic posts (lecturer, senior lecturer and professor) have been established in the four universities (Lancaster, Nottingham, Cardiff and Southampton). Significant progress has been achieved in the six research clusters (Healthcare, Optimisation, Transport and Logistics, Heuristic Understanding, Stochastic Modelling and Systems to Build Systems). For details of collaboration, dissemination and research impact, please refer to the 60-month report at the URL below.Please refer to the LANCS Initiative 60-month report at the URL below. Please refer to the LANCS Initiative 60-month report at the URL below.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EnergyEnvironmentHealthcareTransporthttp://www.lancs-initiative.ac.uk/page/211/60-Month-Report.htmIn the first year of this award, we have discovered, prepared and validated a "designer molecule" which allows to activate certain metal catalysts under very mild conditions. This "designer additive" relies on specific hydrogen atoms and replaces traditionally used silver salts, which are costly and can be problematic. Overall, with this additive, some transformations of general interest to make potential medicines and crop care compounds can be conducted more efficiently. We have also elucidated in detail how our new additive works at the molecular level, thus enabling others to learn from our insights and build on our findings. The results have been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal with a broad readership and a general chemistry remit, and presented at various scientific meetings in the UK and overseas.Other practitioners in academic and industrial R&D laboratories might apply our additive to more reactions, or take inspiration from our design, synthesis and mechanistic studies to prepare even better additives. This ultimate may lead to the more efficient preparation of molecules that could for instance act as medicines or crop care agents.Agriculture Food and DrinkChemicalsEnergyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyWe have consulted extensively with key Academics, Industry and Government in order to write and submit a successful proposal to EPSRC which resulted in full funding for the project.This four year £5m project was awarded in 2018 bringing together the vibrant and diverse energy networks community to gain a deeper understanding of the interactions and inter-dependencies of energy networks. The Hub integrates a wide range of industrial and academic partners with other energy network stakeholders.EnergyGovernment Democracy and JusticeTransportVITAL was a Pan-European project funded by ERA-Net BiodivERsA, which aimed to study of the role of plant and soil microbial diversity in the provision of ecosystem services in semi-natural grasslands, and the impacts of agricultural practices on these relationships. VITAL included seven partner institutions and three field sites. Lancaster University were one of the seven partner institutions and as such coordinated and carried out experimental measurements at one of the three field sites (Yorkshire Dales and Hazelrigg field station). The main research activities and findings carried out by the Lancaster team are listed below. The influence of above-ground and below-ground plant functional traits on the activity and abundance of soil microbial community were measured in a field based experiment set up at the three VITAL field sites, at the Lautaret Pass (French Alps), the Stubai Valley (Austrian Alps), and the Yorkshire Dales (United Kingdom). This study showed that plant traits, especially root traits, explain variation in ecosystem processes (Grigulis et al. 2013) and the functional capabilities of soil microbial communities (Legay et al. 2014; Legay et al. 2016). The impacts of plant functional traits and nitrogen enrichment on soil microbial communities and nitrogen cycling were studied in modelled grassland communities at the three VITAL sites. The key finding from this study was that plant trait composition influenced the indirect effects of N addition on the abundance of the soil microbial community, suggesting that plant traits are important predictors of ecosystem processes in grassland. The influence of plant trait composition on CO2 fluxes and nutrient losses from soil were studied in model grassland communities at the VITAL UK site; showing that plant traits influence carbon cycling in grassland communities, with faster rates of carbon cycling in communities dominated by exploitative traits than those dominated by conservative traits. A plant-soil feedback experiment showed that plant functional traits influence plant-soil feedbacks and interspecific competition, thus with potential impacts on future plant community composition. This work has been published in a New Phytologist special edition (Baxendale et al. 2014) Overall, our studies demonstrate that impacts of global change, in this case land management, on plant functional diversity, namely the type, range and relative abundance of plant functional traits, have cascading effects on the way ecosystems function.As part of the project, we proposed a plant trait framework for understanding how ecosystems respond to global change (Lavorel et al. 2013). This framework is now being used in follow on research, including BBSRC (BB1009000/2) and NERC (NE/J014729/1) funded projectsAgriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentA climate anomaly consistent with overgrowth of toxic algae was identified that fitted the time and place of the elephant die-off. This supports the hypothesis that toxicity from a harmful algal bloom was the cause of the mortalities. Direct evidence has proven elusive because samples from elephants and the environment at the time of the die-off have not been processed yet and are of doubtful quality after so long in storage. This was due to problems with sample curation and transport, including import-export permissions and logistics of transport. Projections of future likelihood of repeat events is also highly uncertain without this direct evidence. The lack of observed excess mortality from other animal species sharing the environment remains unexplained.Samples remain stored and analysis on biobanked samples could lead to relevant additional findings.EnvironmentThrough a series of co-created and facilitated workshops and training programmes, this project has brought facilitation practice into conversation with academic research methods to create a co-designed multi-method model for organising the generation of data about personal and community histories and associations. This model, termed the Community Stories Spiral (CSS), represents a 'shared space' that has been developed through a collaborative effort involving sharing and transfer of knowledge and skills. The CSS has since been used to examine a range of community-based issues, in the process challenging conventional academic constructions of community as largely isolated and static.The findings have been used by European researchers looking at the ways in which people living near small waterways make a sense of place out of those waterways. The findings have also been used to help understand the oral histories of displaced people newly arrived in the UK. In both cases it was important that the research method did not pre-judge or pre-figure what or who was important in terms of the stories that were told.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEducationGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsThis project developed new methodology and new catalysts for the synthesis of novel organic semiconductors. The collaboration was based on the US team's expertise on preparative cross-coupling reactions and organometallic catalyst synthesis and the UK team's expertise on the synthesis, characterization and application of novel polymeric materials. The collaboration has been extremely successful and so far it has generated 2 invention disclosures, 1 patent,1 major review, 9 published research articles. It is important to remark that it exceeded all of the objectives. New methodology to prepare indolocarbazoles has been developed. It makes use of a Pd-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling followed by a ring closure by Pd-catalyzed direct amination of a C-H bond. This methodology has been patented and used to prepare novel organic semiconductors with a wide range of structural diversities. Further work has focused on the use of (NHC)-Pd complexes as catalysts for the Buchwald-Hartwig polymerization of dihalides and primary amines to prepare polytriarylamines. For any given PTAA, polymerization of aryl bromides using commercially available (NHC)-Pd complexes can be carried out with much lower catalyst loadings than conventional phosphine-based systems, afford higher reactions yields and allow control of the molecular weight distribution. The polymerizations gave PTAAs of optimal, unimodal molecular weight distributions and OFET mobilities consistent with the state of the art for this type of polymers. Furthermore, the (NHC)-Pd catalysts can successfully polymerize aryl chloride monomers to give PTAAs of high molecular weight. The conventional phosphine-based catalytic systems are not capable of polymerizing these monomers and this discovery opens up new possibilities for further functionalization and sequential polymerizations. For instance, the use of these catalytic systems has made possible the synthesis of polytriarylamine derivatives of 2,7-dichlorocarbazoles. To further extend this chemistry we have designed and synthesized new (NHC)Pd complexes that show very high activities towards the Buchwald-Hartwig amination reaction of aryl chlorides at mild temperatures. We are also interested in the development of new ligands that can modify the polymerization process by means of electronic and/or steric effects. In order to access a new family of ligands, we have developed a low-catalyst loading variation of the A3 reaction allowing for the synthesis of propargylamines in very short reaction times and at room temperature. Propargylamines are recurrent components of biologically active pharmaceuticals and natural products, as well as very valuable intermediates for the synthesis of nitrogen-containing compounds. During the project, US team group members have received invaluable interdisciplinary training and education and each year a different student from Hawaii has travelled to the UK to learn polymer characterization techniques and practice the preparation of electronic devices. In exchange, students and staff from the UK have travelled to Hawaii to gain expertise on catalyst design and synthesis. This cross-fertilization of ideas has been reinforced by bimonthly Skype group meetings and four visits by the academic leads to the collaborating institution.New synthetic methodologies and improved catalysts have been developed that facilitate novel cross-coupling polymerization at low temperatures in high turnovers. These findings have been taken forward by Professors Turner and Navarro and many other groups to prepare higher performance materials.ChemicalsElectronicsEnergyhttp://www.omec.org.uk/mlturnerTo date the first stage of the project (the Evidence Review) has been completed. The second stage first round interviews have been completed and initial analysis conduction. Further analysis is on-going. Findings from the evidence review - The influences on employers' provision of part-time working operate at several levels - national, sectoral, occupational and organisational. - Part-time working is often considered as part of a bundle of flexible working or work-life practices, but there is a need to distinguish between influences on employers' provision of flexible working in general, and part-time working in particular. - There has been research on the influence of national legislation and cultural expectations on employers' flexible working and work-life balance policies, but part-time working is a small element of this much broader field, with a different cost-benefit profile for employers, and different work design challenges for line managers. The differences in rates of part-time working across developed economies attest to the influence of national context, such as working time legislation, and attitudes to gender and childcare. There are also varying rates of part-time working in different sectors and occupations: the nature of the work, the gender balance in the sector or occupation, the availability of skilled workers and the normal operating hours may all influence employers' provision of part-time working. - The complex interrelationships of these factors may partly account for the policy-practice gap, which is sometimes under-represented in quantitative studies of work-life balance and flexible working. - At the organisational level, the key benefit for employers concerns the attraction and retention of talent, although there is a lack of evidence that employers encourage part-time, as opposed to flexible, working; or that they actively promote part-time working, as opposed to having a policy and responding to individual workers' requests. There is also evidence that employers use part-time working to cover peaks in labour demand or extended operating hours in sectors such as retail or hospitality; the driver here is the efficient use of resources rather than the creation of good jobs or work-life balance for workers, but such working hours are not necessarily negative for all workers. - The evidence on the performance of part-time workers is inconclusive: while qualitative studies report that part-time workers, particularly knowledge workers, often deliver similar outputs to full-time workers, this has not been studied in depth. These benefits need to be set against the costs of part-time working for employers. Two obvious and easy to quantify costs, frequently mentioned in the older literature, are the quasi-fixed, per-person costs of employment, such as recruitment and training, and the administrative costs of adapting HR and management systems designed for full-time workers. The quasi-fixed costs of employment in managerial and professional work are particularly significant, not only because of the higher ongoing need for training and development, but also because of the time spent in activities such as networking, organisational learning and team meetings. Much harder to quantify, but still significant, particularly in managerial and professional work, are the costs of redesigning working practices such as the coordination of work, or team communication, to suit part-time incumbents. Initial Analysis of the interview data has found that: Learnings for organisations from the use of the 'flexible furlough scheme' relate to factors associated with the organisation of work including substitutability; handovers; multi-skilling; availability patterns/dealing with gaps and matching to business needs; creative disruption from variations in demand levels. In addition openness to greater part-time working has been influenced by wider influences during the pandemic (including a trickle-down effect from widespread working from home) and responses to changing employee demand. The combined findings from the project are detailed in the report 'Part-time working after the pandemic: The impact of the flexible furlough scheme' published in January 2023. The research found that experience of using the flexible furlough scheme during the Covid-19 pandemic created opportunities for employers to learn about part-time working, suggesting that experimentation can be an effective way of influencing managers' thinking about different ways of working and demonstrating their feasibility. 1. Significant learning was found about how to design and manage part-time working more effectively as a result of the experience of using the flexible furlough scheme. This included overcoming some of the perceived challenges of managing part-time workers which have impeded the availability of part-time working opportunities, such as calibration of workload in line with reduced hours, matching resources to demand levels and dealing with gaps in availability. 2. Greater openness from managers to part-time working was found as a result of their experiences of using the flexible furlough scheme. Operating with staff who worked part-time and were part-furloughed as businesses recovered served to challenge existing perceptions about the difficulty of operating with part-time staff. This greater openness led to increased willingness to consider requests from current staff and job applicants. In some cases a more proactive approaches creating opportunities for part-time working was adopted. Like the 'great working from home experiment' the finding from this research demonstrate the value of innovation and experimentation in the management of employees in organisations.These findings may inform employer responses regarding both policy and practice in relation to the availability of part-time working. They may feed into policy decisions about the factors influencing opportunities for wider labour market participation by those unable of unwilling to work full-time. We are working with government, policy organisation and employer and employee representative organisations to help inform policy and practice. These finding have particular relevance as responses to both the labour shortages experienced by employers and the challenges for government of helping the economically inactive back into work by offering alternative ways of working.Financial Services and Management ConsultancyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyRetailTransporthttps://www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/expertise/changing-world-of-work/the-future-of-part-time-working/esrc-report-part-time-working-after-the-pandemicWe have published two papers from this project so far In the first paper (Clayton and Hulme, Scientific Studies of reading) we report the findings from two studies in which we used a priming task to assess automatic letter-sound integration. In Study 1, children aged between 5 and 7 years were faster to respond to a speech-sound when primed by a congruent letter, indicating that automatic activation of sounds by letters emerges relatively early in reading development. However, there was no evidence of a relationship between variations in the speed of activating sounds by letters and reading skill in this large unselected sample. In Study 2, children with dyslexia demonstrated automatic activation of sounds by letters, though they performed slowly overall. Our findings cast doubt on the theory that a deficit in "automatic letter-sound integration" is an important cause of reading difficulties but do provide further evidence for the importance of phonological skills for learning to read. In the second paper (Clayton, Sears, Davis & Hulme, in press, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology) we investigated the relationships between different forms of paired-associate learning and reading ability. Ninety-seven children aged 8 - 10 years completed a battery of reading assessments and six different paired-associate learning tasks: phoneme-phoneme, visual-phoneme, nonverbal-nonverbal, visual-nonverbal, nonword-nonword and visual-nonword involving both familiar phonemes and unfamiliar non-words. A path model showed that paired-associate learning ability is captured by two correlated latent variables; auditory-articulatory and visual-articulatory. The auditory-articulatory latent variable was the stronger predictor of reading ability, providing support for a verbal account of the PAL-reading relationship. In a third paper (West, Clayton & Hulme, submitted) Journal of Learning Disabilities) we explored the possibility that children with dyslexia experience problems with "procedural" or "implicit learning. We found, hoever that typically developing children and children with dyslexia of equivalent reading ability demonstrated equivalent levels of procedural learning on a serial reaction time task. This finding seriously questions the procedural learning deficit hypothesis of dyslexia We are currently working on a fourth paper (Clayton, West, Lervag & Hulme) reporting the results of our longitudinal study of the relationship between letter-sound integration and reading ability during the first two years of school. Our findings show that automatic links between letters and their corresponding sounds (phonemes) emerge very early in development (within the first few months of schooling). We can measure performance on a letter-sound priming task (which we use as a measure of letter-sound integration) reliably, however variations in the efficiency of letter-sound integration are not related to variations in learning to read. In contrast our study confirms a range of earlier findings in showing that phoneme awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming are strong longitudinal predictors of variations in learning to read.We have shown clearly that the majority of children learn the association between printed letters and the sounds (phonemes) they represent very early in reading development. Further research is required to study in fine detail just how quickly such learning occurs and how such learning may be best facilitated in children who have difficulties.EducationThe main objective of the VESTICODE project was to understand how sensory signals are processed and information is stored and recalled in the vestibular cerebellum, one of the simplest systems in the mammalian brain. In order to understand information processing in the vestibular cerebellum, it is important to study the contributions that individual synapses make to sensory representations, and to investigate how information is represented by the complex spike patterns of the different neurons in the cerebellar network. The VESTICODE project has made excellent progress with respect to these objectives. We now understand the contribution of individual synapses to the encoding of vestibular stimuli, and we have discovered a new functional role for electrical synapses between cerebellar neurons. Work at the University of Hertfordshire has focussed on the downstream processing by the neurons that provide output from the cerebellum. We have developed a new model of a cerebellar nucleus neuron and found that the synapses onto this neuron translate input irregularity into output spike rate, which can explain some of the motor deficits in ataxic mice. Moreover, we have discovered a new functional role of the non-specific synaptic plasticity that occurs in cerebellar cortex, and we have studied the temporal integration of signals in the cerebellar network. Our results have led to important new insights into cerebellar function in health and disease.The aim of the project was primarily to understand how cerebellar circuits operate, by using a combination of multi-level modelling and electrophysiology. However, one of our results has revealed a possible mechanism underlying motor deficits in ataxic mice. Although additional computer simulations and experiments will be required to fully understand the relation between disturbed neuronal physiology and ataxic symptoms, the work is potentially relevant to understanding cerebellar ataxias in humans and may in the future inform the development of new treatments. Another potential application is the development of new robotics techniques based on a better understanding of how the cerebellum controls movement. Publication of results in journals such as Science, Neuron, Journal of Computational Neuroscience, Cerebellum, Neural Networks. Presentation of results at conferences such as the Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting CNS. Data sharing using databases such as ModelDB and standardization initiatives such as NeuroML; the cerebellar nucleus neuron model has been uploaded onto ModelDB and is currently being translated into NeuroML. Continued presentation of work in text books for healthcare researchers (such as Computational Neuroscience in Epilepsy). Continued collaboration with robotics researchers at UH. Joint supervision of PhD projects, joint grant applications. Presentation of relevant results at robotics conferences. Contribution to STRI Open Days, organisation of outreach eventsDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologySecurity and DiplomacyWe have just finilaised our data analysis from a 3 year study investigating the ecological performances across materials (rock, concrete, metals) used in construction of marine infrastrcture. We studied patterns of sessile biodiversity colonising experimental materials placed subtidally in British coastal waters (Milford Haven, Wales). Broadly, we found very little difference in the ecological performance of these materials. The implication of our findings is that to improve ecological function of marine infrastructure, future research should focus investigations upon surface topography, liftime sustainability of the building materials, and potential heavy metal leaching. Secondarily, recent reviews upon sustainability of marine coastal infrastructure have called for such explicit guidance on materials, particuarly in light of 'greenwashing' whereby claims of enhanced ecological performance through material choices have been advocated by industry. Our findings provide a solid evidence base to inform upon this aspect of marine infrastructure design. We are currently in the process of writing manuscripts for publication in scientific journals to report these findings.Across the research field globally, resarchers will have a solid evidence base to understand how material choices will (or will not in this case) affect their experiments examining marine infrastructure. Further, research in this field can now move forward with confidence to investigate other avenues of how to achieve optimal ecological performance from marine infrastructure (i.e. surface topography, liftime sustainability of the building materials, and potential heavy metal leaching). Beyond research, the evidence provided by our findings will allow industry to make informed choices about construction materials used in their infrastructure, and help to tackle the issue of greenwashing, in which false claims about sustainabilty are made to facilitate coastal developments, often based upon mitigation or green-design. Our evidence will feed into descion making at all levels of coastal infrastructure design and planning.ConstructionEnvironmentManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyThe ESRC postdoctoral funding I received did not just let me share my research with both academic and everyday audiences or grow my professional network-it also gave me the chance to go way beyond what I'd originally planned, especially with fieldwork. Honestly, it went so smoothly, and I ended up doing four major trips that really brought my research to life. First, I travelled to Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia, right along their borders with Belarus and Russia. I got to see firsthand how border control works-what experts call "bordering practices"-and how the EU and these eastern frontier countries manage cross-border movement. Next, I headed to Malta and Sicily, where I visited migration hotspot centres. These places came up a lot in my PhD research, but back then, COVID hit, and I couldn't travel to see them myself. That was probably the biggest regret of my doctoral work. This funding let me fix that. Even better, I didn't just visit-I got inside two of these centres, had in-depth chats with the staff, and gathered a ton of new info and data that I'd missed out on before. My third trip took me to Greece, where I did something similar, checking out three migration centres and digging into the on-the-ground details. Finally, I spent three weeks in the Western Balkans-Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and Serbia. There, I looked closely at cross-border flows and talked with Frontex street-level officers, the folks who handle border security day-to-day. Since I'm still working on turning all this into articles, I can't spill too many specifics about the data just yet. On November 27, I held a book launch where I chatted briefly with my mentor and some colleagues about the journey and some of what I've found. It was a great moment to reflect on how this funding didn't just keep my research alive-it supercharged it, letting me explore places and perspectives I'd only dreamed of before.The work I've done with this funding has a lot of potential to have an impact beyond my own research, and I'm excited to see how others might take it up and run with it. The insights I've gained from my fieldwork - whether it's how borders are managed in places like Lithuania, or how migration centres operate in Greece and Italy - could be really useful for policy-makers or organisations like Frontex who are trying to figure out better ways to manage border security and migration. It's not just abstract stuff; it's real, on-the-ground information that shows what's working, what's not, and where the gaps are. What's more, I think academics and researchers can take what I've found and use it as a starting point for their own studies. For example, the data I've collected on how EU countries and their neighbours cooperate (or sometimes clash) at their borders could spark new projects on EU security and, in particular, inter-agency cooperation in the governance of the Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice. As I've shared some of this at conferences and my book launch, it's already out there for others to build on - perhaps inspiring someone to dig deeper into a particular hotspot centre or border policy that I've only scratched the surface of. Practically speaking, aid workers or NGOs dealing with migration could also find this helpful. My conversations with staff at those centers in Malta, Sicily, and Greece gave me a close-up look at the challenges they face-stuff like overcrowding or slow processing times. If they get their hands on my findings once they're published, they might use them to push for more resources or smarter systems to support migrants. And honestly, even everyday people-like journalists or teachers-could take these stories and turn them into something relatable.Borders and migration are hot topics, and my work could help them explain what's really going on in a way that's not just headlines, but human. Down the line, once my articles and book are fully out, I hope it's a resource that anyone from government officials to curious students can tap into and use to make sense of these big issues-or maybe even make a difference.Communities and Social Services/PolicyHealthcareGovernment Democracy and JusticeSecurity and DiplomacyMultilocus sequence typing (MLST) was used to characterise a large strain collection of Melissococcus plutonius, an important pathogen of honey bees and the causative agent of European foul brood. These data revealed important evidence as to the spatial structuring of different strains in different regions across the UK, and provided evidence concerning introductions of this pathogen into the UK from other countries. Moreover, these data hinted at variation in pathogenicity between the different strains, which has important implications for disease management. Further work focused on establishing an experimental model system for investigating the role of trophallaxis in transmitting pathogens from one bee to another within a hive. This was used to show that variation in feeding preferences between hives, which may help beekeepers to select and breed bees that have a lower propensity for spreading pathogen transmission. This work is currently under review for publication.The findings have relevance for the mitigation of bee diseases through: i) understanding the dynamics of pathogen transmission within and between hives, and ii) identifying "high risk" strains of pathogens such as M. plutonius that show a high rate of transmissibility and / or are highly virulent.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentStated objectives were: i) Establish a generic wave-to-wire model for a reconfigurable multi-float multi-power take-off wave energy converter. ii) Develop the deterministic sea wave prediction (DSWP) technique for real sea conditions. iii) Develop a hierarchical optimal control framework based on the W2W model of i) and the Multi-DSWP technique of ii) to maximize energy output, optimally regulate shutdown and improve power quality. iv) Develop a co-design procedure by integrating the control of iii) into the W2W WEC design. v) Design and build up a reconfigurable W2W test-rig with multiple PTOs for fast and economic dry testing of control strategies and co-design results. vi) Implement simulations using the data through a whole year's sea conditions, based on the control and the co-design result validated in v), to investigate the lowest annualized levelized cost of energy. The electrical & hydraulics team at Manchester is directly responsible for the delivery of (i) and (v), is collaborating with Exeter on (ii), and with the control team on supporting (iii), (iv) and (vi). Task (i) is complete; platform models have been verified in tank tests and electrical models have been validated in dry tests. The collaboration for task (ii) is complete. Manchester has supported tasks (ii) and (iv) and (vi), supplying reduced-order computationally-efficient electrical models (now published) and analytical sizing tools. All channels of the dry test rig has been fully commissioned and used to generate results for publications. The research has identified that effective power-limiting control in high sea-states is important for overall cost of energy and has proposed a new sea-state dependent control strategy (published). The electrical & hydraulics team contributed strategies to protect the generator and gearbox in high sea states to this work.The most promising applications of wave power short-term would be in aquaculture (see partnership with UWA and Blue Horizon) or in combination with offshore wind.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnergyGiven the transdisciplinary approach that Earthquakes without Frontiers is taking, developing relationships with the project's stakeholders, and collaborations with local scientists is an important part of the work. Significant achievements include: - Engagement with local researchers, UN organisations and NGOs in Feb 2013 to start to understand the decision-making context and identify an appropriate entry point into the disaster risk reduction system in Kazakhstan - Developing a collaborative relationship with the scientists at the Institute of Seismology in Kazakhstan and a joint research plan, which we are making good progress on. A seismologist from IS made a two week visit to BGS in April 2014 to develop a joint work plan. This has a range of hazard assessment-related research objectives. So far, the work the BGS-IS team have done together has led to a report on the selection of ground motion prediction equations for use in the Tien Shan (and is being prepared for publication) and the second phase of work (determining a regional attenuation model for the Tien Shan region of Kazakhstan) has just started. - The BGS team delivered training in SeisAn seismic analysis software to staff from the Institute of Seismology (IoS) and the national seismic monitoring agency of Kazakhstan in September 2014. - S Sargeant has been made a Research Associate at the Overseas Development Institute, which builds on the Earthquakes without Frontiers collaboration (September 2014) Since November 2011 - I Mosca has developed a number of deterministic ground motion scenarios for key historical earthquakes in Kazakhstan. This forms the basis for a paper on integrating outcomes from probabilistic and deterministic seismic hazard assessment in the Tien Shan, which has now been published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America - Joint work with the Kazakh IoS to determine a regional attenuation model for the Tien Shan region has continued. This has included visits by seismologists from IoS to BGS in Edinburgh to work together. This work is continuing - at the moment, there are some software issues that need to be overcome.Our aim is for our collaboration with the Institute of Seismology and the seismic monitoring agency in the Tien Shan (SEME) to lead to modernising of some of their methods and procedures, which will contribute to a strong foundation on which future assessments of seismic hazard to be builtCommunities and Social Services/PolicyConstructionGovernment Democracy and JusticeOtherThis thesis presents the design, implementation and evaluation of an application designed to support interviewers in detecting deception. This application is evaluated in a job interviewing study using novice interviewers, which shows it to be a highly effective method of deception detection, correctly identifying 68.8% of deceivers overall, an increase of 107% and 97% over two baselines without application support, while also reducing false positives.Deception detection researchers may be interested in our approach which enabled novice interviewers without specialised contextual knowledge to achieve a good deception detection result through the use of our supporting application Intek.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Financial Services and Management ConsultancySecurity and DiplomacyThis project has shown how rapid the evolution of efflux-pump driven antibiotic resistance can be among bacteria using laboratory model systems that are based on a range of bacterial strains and mathematical constructs. We have done this using a wide variety of mathematical and computational ideas which have quantified how the strength of 'Darwinian' selection for efflux-pump genes resident in a cell's DNA relates to the dosages of antibiotic deployed. We then extended the nature of the lab tests, going from research laboratory with non-pathogenic organisms to performing clinical-type tests on bacterial samples sampled from live patients with current, ongoing infections, in order to ascertain how the laboratory and clinical contexts relate from an evolutionary perspective. When we take our lab ideas to the patient, we find differences in the details but strong conceptual similarities. For instance, we see the 'accordion' model of DNA expansion and contraction apply both in the lab and in patients, but different genes undergo these changes between lab and patient. Moreover, this study shows that standard hospital protocols used to collect bacterial samples from patients, say, during sepsis, can in fact destroy aspects of the DNA structure that could be essential for the bacterium to cause infection in the first place. One such protocol is the on-agar-plate culturing of the bacterium following the moment the sample is taken, this culturing can even change the antibiotic-resistance profile of the bacterium because of DNA contraction. There are lots of similar findings from this work that are elucidating how bacteria behave differently inside the human body versus how they behave in the lab.How findings could be taken forward by others is a huge question to respond to given such limited time and space. Through this work we have discovered new properties of how the evolution of treatment resistance that can occur during the course of an infection should change the way we design drug combinations. None of our ideas have been implemented clinically in the context of bacteria for specific patients or in clinical trials, but our work has been trialled by others in the context of H pylori. Our ideas are also reflected in certain types of cancer treatment and we are working evermore closely with clinicians using viral therapies to treat antibiotic resistance infections. Thus, there is a good deal of scope for engaging in cross-disciplinary exchanges in antibiotic pharmacology that are relevant to how we treat infection diseases and cancer. Of particular importance in that is the way in which new laboratory optimisation protocols can be designed which give indicators of how potent a viral therapy might be when ultimately deployed in a patient. For instance, how should we combine antibiotic and viral phage therapy in order to maximise it's potency using laboratory tests in vitro? These concepts lead to strong interactions with clinical groups, in Bristol and Sydney for example, where we test our findings in a clinical context, particularly as they apply to bloodstream infections. We're now looking at novel evolutionary steps found in bacteria found in the blood although there are several sampling difficulties to overcome in relation to separating human DNA from bacterial DNA. They key question we're seeking to answer there is whether the evolutionary genomic steps taken by organisms in the lab bear any relation to what happens inside patients where pathogens are subject to an immune response or antibiotic gradients which may provide more selection pressure to resist the treatment than the antibiotic itself. So, while antibiotic resistance evolves quickly in the lab, we wonder if the path to resistance is less, or more, rapid inside patients?ChemicalsHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttp://people.exeter.ac.uk/reb217/publications.htmlWe have shown it is possible to use mass spec to explore and rank the complexity or information content of small molecules and use this to build a calibration curve for our PATH life detection system (PATH = pathway assembly technosignature heuristic]. Our findings have shown a key difference in the complexity of molecules which are known to arise from living systems and those which are formed from non-living processes. This will impact Origins of Life research and the search for extraterrestriNASA are using our findings to build new types of space probe for life detection. Breakthrough Prize are designing a space mission to Titan and possibly Europa for life detection using mass spec.Aerospace Defence and MarineChemicalsDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsThe project captured women's lived experiences of transitional housign and energy infrastrcuture in Mumbai and Cape Town through participatory filmmaking. For the key findings please see the publications and the animation on BBCiPlayer (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08z31q2): Sunikka-Blank, M., Schupp, J., Flintham, M. 2022. Moments in Pickwick: Opening a window into women's lived experiences of transitional housing through participatory filmmaking, Screenworks, Volume (13)1. Sunikka-Blank, M., Bardhan, R., Mohandas, P., 2022, From informal to formal: understanding gendered energy transitions through filmmaking in Cape Town and Mumbai, Gender, Place & Culture (open access).The project developed a methodology for participatory filmmaking that can be used in marginalised communties, see: Sunikka-Blank, M., Bardhan, R., Mohandas, P., 2022, From informal to formal: understanding gendered energy transitions through filmmaking in Cape Town and Mumbai, Gender, Place & Culture (open access).ConstructionEnergyhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08z31q2We have identified the molecular basis by which hematoooietic stem cell subtypes diversifyDevelopment of drugs to counteract hematopoietic ageingPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyCharacterisation of a population displaying colour retention variation. Identification of mechanisms controlling colour retention in pepper. Identification of candidate genes controlling this trait.Award not yet complete.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyWe developed 2 prototype formats of biobased packaging that have good environmental performance and can replace conventional plastics.We were unable to take forward the outputs due to lack of funding to develop a commercial venture!!Agriculture Food and DrinkWe have determined the key molecular actions of CIDEA required for lipid droplet (LD) enlargement. Fundamental differences between brown and white adipose tissues (BAT & WAT) include the high levels of CIDEA in BAT, and the multilocular LD morphology in BAT compared to the unilocular LD in WAT. This project facilitated the establishment of a multidisciplinary international research network including experts in biophysics, yeast biology, computer modelling, and adipose tissue morphology. With a comprehensive structure-function analysis we have defined the CIDEA protein regions required for the discrete steps in its function to promote LD enlargement: (i) LD targeting, (ii) LD-LD docking, and (iii) LD fusion by fat transference. A key finding is that the ability of CIDEA to enlarge LDs is dependent on it directly binding phosphatidic acid (PA), which is a cone-shaped anionic phospholipid that participates in membrane fusion by favouring its curvature. We have computer modelled a C terminal amphipathic helix and determined experimentally that it is present and essential for CIDEA function in LD enlargement. We determined experimentally that PA binds to the conserved amphipathic helix and computer simulations revealed that the helix was able to reorient itself to penetrate the LD phospholipid monolayer prior to becoming fully embedded in it. The same mechanism of PA binding was essential for function of the related WAT-expressed protein CIDEC/FSP27. Further, we revealed that a mutation in this gene (hCIDEC-E186X), which is associated with a human lipodystrophy, produces a protein that lacks PA binding and is defective in LD enlargement. A surprising observation was that CIDEA mimics its adipocyte selective LD-enlargement activity when expressed in yeast cells (lacking an orthologous gene), has offered novel experimental approaches to unravel essential features of this process. This finding has significant biotechnological potential for increasing lipid yield for food and biodiesel production in microorganisms. Focusing on adipose tissues in response to cold we undertook a targeted approach to assess gene expression changes that occur in BAT and WAT depots. We found that most LD proteins are expressed at higher levels in BAT, with the greatest differences observed for CIDEA. Prolonged cold exposure, which induces the appearance of brown-like adipocytes in WAT depots, was accompanied with the potentiation of the lipolytic machinery. However the major change detected in WAT was the enhancement of CIDEA mRNA levels. Together with the increase in CIDEC, it indicates that LD enlargement through LD-LD transference of fat is an important process during the WAT browning. We revealed the existence of a LD remodelling futile cycle, with progressive reduction in LD size by lipolysis, followed by formation of new LDs, which were subjected to an enlargement process, likely to be CIDE-triggered. Importantly, this implies the release of substantial amounts of heat that will constitute a thermogenic system to facilitate the molecular mechanism for the unilocular to multilocular transformation during WAT browning. Future directions include regenerative therapy as we found CIDEA highly expressed in stem cells coincident with the presence of large LDs (5?m). We aim to study the role of CIDEA and LDs in the metabolism of ES cells and their importance in maintaining pluripotency and self-renewal.The findings from this project can be taken further by academic researchers, industry, and the commercial sector. Our study has revealed a key molecular mechanism of lipid droplet enlargement. As lipid droplets are ubiquitous organelles present in all types of eukaryotic cells such as plants, mammals, algae and yeast our findings impact on many biological systems. Energy storage in cells has profound implications for a wide spectrum of diseases and therefore the targeting of lipid droplets to affect cellular metabolism. Thus, further studies would target disorders of energy storage such as obesity and fatty liver disease as well as lipodystrophy, in which we revealed a new mechanistic link with a mutant form of CIDEC. Profound changes in cellular metabolism occur in both cancerous cells and stem cells, both linked with lipid droplet changes. Thus, lipid droplet manipulation could affect cancer cell viability and stem cell development. Lipids are toxic to cells, but packaging them into lipid droplets facilitated by CIDEA will be protective for the cell. Thus, in the biotechnology industry, CIDEA expression represents a valuable tool to increase the accumulation of yield of valuable lipids in microorganisms used for food production, biodiesel, bioplastics and lipid-based drugs.Agriculture Food and DrinkChemicalsEnergyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyRapid and specific molecular diagnostics can provide speed and coverage advantages compared to genomic sequencing alone, benefitting the public health response and facilitating containment. We further developed detection technology known as SHERLOCK to provide rapid and sensitive discrimination of Covid variants, and showed that it can be used at point of care, implemented in the pipelines of small or large testing facilities, and even determine the proportion of COvid variants in pooled population-level wastewater samples.Further funding has been obtained.Agriculture Food and DrinkHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyWe showed that turbulence plays a key role in the production of plankton in the ocean surface boundary layerIn a subsequent project we have used these findings to build models for phytoplankton for use in climate modelsEnvironmentThe general shape of the disturbed region around a pile segment has been demonstrated through physical modelling. It was shown that a pile can be jetted into soil under its own self-weight, and the efficacy of this jetting is dependent on removing the effective stress at the base of the pile segment. The work also demonstrated that the disturbed region around a jetted plate (designed to approximate a segment of a large open-ended tubular pile) only extends around one plate thickness on both sides of the plate. This suggests that when jetting a large diameter monopile foundation for a new offshore wind turbine, the final pile capacity may not be significantly affected by the installation technique. Work on jetted tubes indicates that their installation is governed by the flow rate rather than the jetting fluid pressure, contrary to the initial hypothesis. This is likely due to the provision of a volume for the soil to expand in to during fluidisation, making fluidisation easier and facilitating erosion. This work needs to continue if a predictable set of jetting parameters can be defined. To aid the understanding of fluidised soil behaviour, particle-scale work has been conducted to create a new simplified model for particle shape characterisation and a novel interpretation of the energy transfer during particle collisions. These outcomes are feeding into ongoing analogous numerical modelling work of jetting processes.Findings have led to the establishment of the jetting mechanism around a plate structure and linking this to the in-situ effective stress, whereas jetted tubes seem to advance due to erosion beneath the pile foundation. These relationships have been demonstrated in different materials and various foundation sizes, giving them broader merit, and allow other researchers in the area to refine their research and focus on the real governing mechanisms. The results will ultimately aid industry in moving away from existing empirical relationships used in jetted foundation design to a more solid analytical grounding for predicting the efficacy of water jetting technologies.Aerospace Defence and MarineConstructionEnergyWe have been able to use the laser capture microscope to isolate single phytoplankton cells in a high throughput manner. Sorted cells can be identified using microscopy and then used for single cell sequencing for molecular identification. This will allow us to identify many of the unknown members of the plankton that underpin marine foodwebs and are vital for the biogeochemistry of our planet.The techniques that we have developed could be used to identify highly abundant but yet unknown plankton within our oceans. this could lead to the discovery of new species or identify novel interactions between species, such as symbionts or parasites. We can therefore gain a better idea of how marine ecosystems work and the factors that control them.EnvironmentThis project has yielded a number of 'firsts'. Most important, it has uncovered (1) an entirely new mechanism at the cell level for coupling between secretion and solute accumulation. These findings address a century-old problem in cell biology of how plants regulate cell volume and turgor. In addition (2), the work has yielded an unexpected role for a regulatory (so-called SM) protein in the secretory cycle. These proteins have long been recognised to regulate the 'out-going' steps in secretion, but we can now show that they also play a role in the 'in-going' or recycling steps as well. Both findings are clearly set to rewrite the textbooks in cell biology.This is fundamental research, but could well help in guiding future efforts towards improved crop production as well as disease control.Agriculture Food and DrinkOtherResults from our research shows that our classroom simulations, including gamified recruitment tools, realistic job previews and text-based scenarios show a positive influence on undergraduates' interest in teaching, teaching self-efficacy, and perceptionsWe expect that the outcomes of our research will have an impact on the way that we attract and retain teachers in schools in the UK and internationally. We continue to develop new motivation-based technologies based on our ESRC grantEducationhttps://www.education.ox.ac.uk/project/gamifying-teacher-recruitment-teachquest/We showed it is possible to identify molecules with extremely rare optical property by searching through computational chemistry method a database of known compounds. The range of applications expanded substantially from the original project and in addition to the discovery of singlet fission materials now include (i) discovery of novel acceptors for organic solar cells (ii) discovery of TADF emitters for light emitting diodes (iii) discovery of inverted singlet fission molecules. The application above have been the subject or publications. Applications to additional areas (iv) photocatalysis and (v) dual emission are ongoing.Database is available to all. Translational activity of the research into a commercial platform has been funded and will be reported on in next submissions.ChemicalsElectronicsManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyWe have supplied our partners at Heriot-Watt University with single photon sensitive cameras enabling them to see light in flight and moving objects round corners. This has resulted in high profile Nature papers and YouTube videos achieving around 300k hits. Our current research focusses on developing cameras with 50x more pixels capable of ranging at greater distances and operating outdoors. A number of other high profile papers were generated subsequently from the project. The interaction with Heriot-Watt that this project established grew into much larger collaborations in the UK Quantum Hub in Quantum Enhanced Imaging and more recently in a Programme Grant (SPEXS) on SWIR LIDAR.The findings of the project have already generated considerable commercial interest from the defence industry which are being pursued. A LIDAR startup company has established in Edinburgh (Sense Photonics) addressing the automotive sector. STMicroelectronics is now a developer on CMOS SPAD LIDAR receivers. The sensors and methods used in the project are being used for prototyping of LIDAR systems by a number of research and commercial partners.Aerospace Defence and MarineAgriculture Food and DrinkElectronicsSecurity and DiplomacyTransportThe key findings of the AfRIS project are as follows: 1. Project Achievements In terms of our core mission to deliver astronomy workshops in remote and island schools, this part of our project was very successful. We originally planned to visit 80 schools, and work with 4000 students and 1000 members of the remote communities we visited. In the end, however, we visited 81 schools, and worked with 5236 students and 1053 community members, On average, we had around 3 hours contact time with each pupil, so were able to cover a lot of STFC science. As a team, we are delighted that school feedback for our visits was so favourable, with both teacher scores (average of 4.69 out of 5) and pupil scores (4.56) being well in excess of our target. We were also reassured that 81% of pupils felt that their interest in science had increased with our visit. 2. Demand for STFC Science Visits I think the first thing we discovered was that there is a huge appetite for science within remote and island communities. Geographical realities meant that our target schools rarely had scientific visits and students were unable to visit central science facilities due to costs and excessive travel time. A survey of participating schools found that 46.5% of them NEVER visited a central science centre or museum, and a further 40% only did so every few years. For some, a simple visit to the science centre in Glasgow from a school on Tiree, for example, would involve two full days of travelling and two overnight hotel stays. As such, wherever we went during the two years of our project, we received a warm welcome from students, teachers and parents. In a few very remote places, we were the only scientists that schools had seen in years. Our project showed that an average of 3 hours of STFC science could be delivered to the 6289 participating individuals in remote/island communities for around £15 per head, which is far more cost effective, and less disruptive for schools, than having to travel to central facilities. 3. STEM Clubs in Remote Communities Now, a smaller component of our outreach project was to encourage remote schools to start science clubs and support them along the way, however, this proved very challenging. Although teachers initially seemed keen about the idea, the realities of teacher workload, and staff feeling underconfident with science meant that schemes to not get off the ground. Some of our schools had just one principle teacher, who was also required to be lunchtime monitor, school secretary and cleaner in some cases. In others, pupils lived some distance from the school, so regular transport times meant it was difficult for pupils to stay after school to attend clubs. As such, this aspect of the project gave us a lot to think about, and may well be the focus of a legacy funding application to offer a more supported science club model. 4. Travel and Accommodation Costs Our final discovery was that travel to remote communities takes much longer, and was around 20% more costly than first anticipated. The time aspect was not an issue, because the outreach team members were very flexible and understanding with the travel situation. It was sometimes difficult to make timely connections, and poor weather did have the occasional negative impact, but in the end, the project was achievable, In terms of cost, it was fortunate that we were able to redirect part of another budget into the travel pot. All told though, it would be good to pass on to future teams that for visiting remote communities, they should plan on travel costs of around £200 per person, per school visit. 5. Visit Planning and Logistics Planning for each school visit, which involved both agreeing a workshop programme with schools and booking the associated travel and accommodation, was a far more intensive process than first envisaged for the following reasons: (i) The bureaucratic nature of university travel processes does not provide the flexibility required for remote UK travel, or for reacting to weather/mechanical cancellations. After a couple of early instances of relying on travel agents to book accommodation, only to find hotels closed for the season, we had to take full control of our arrangements, which involved an additional time demand on the outreach team. (ii) We occasionally found that some ferry connections weren't always timed right to allow an early arrival on the day of the visit, so had to incur the additional expense of arriving the previous day to ensure an early start. (iii) Visiting schools in holiday season/destinations proved especially problematic when trying to book accommodation, especially within 3 months of intended travel, however, the nature of the project meant that some visits had to be planned at short notice. In one case the team ended up being accommodated 30 miles apart! (iv) Teachers at remote schools, some of whom are single-handed, have many additional demands on their time than teachers in more urban areas, such as lunch monitor, playground monitor, transport co-ordinator, even janitor etc. This meant that it often took longer than expected to agree visit arrangements, complete evaluation etc.I would like to think that our experiences would be useful to others seeking to work with schools in remote and island communities. The following brief points would be good advice for other teams embarking on this path: 1. Be flexible ... issues with untimely connections between flights. ferries, trains, buses etc. mean that travelling to remote communities will be longer than you might anticipate. Treat it as an adventure and enjoy the journey. You will see some amazing sites, meet some amazing characters and be rewarded with some very eager pupils that rarely see a scientist. However, be prepared to be disrupted and have to rethink travel plans at short notice. Using a car or van will give you far more flexibility, and allow you to take take more equipment and demonstrations with you. 2. Don't underestimate travel costs ... when we submitted our funding application, we anticipated average travel costs of around £500 per trip, with each "trip" typically involving 2 staff and 2 school visits. In the end, it cost around £600 per trip, and that required some extensive effort in finding good value accommodation and travel costs. Thinking well ahead would reduce costs and ensure accommodation is available. In the end, we were fine, but there were sometimes issues with finding a place to stay in May/June in the more touristy parts of the country. 3. Be understanding of teachers ... rural and island teachers have more demands on their plates than urban teachers, so please be understanding. They may be the only adult in a small rural school, and have to cope with break monitoring, lunch provision and supervision, school admin etc. and all whilst trying to provide a full day of teaching. Try to help out and offer solutions as much as possible when approaching them for a visit. If you do go, you will receive a warm welcome. Main point, however, is that if you wish teachers in rural communities to undertake additional activities as part of a project, then make sure significant support is in place so that those activities do not place an undue burden on school staff and pupils. 4. Proposing after school clubs will be difficult ... we had intended to encourage and support teachers running science clubs, but it appears the several issues (workload, transportation and confidence in STEM) conspire to make this very difficult. If this is ever to be achieved, it will require significant input (online and visits) from the organisation proposing it. 5. Evaluation is very time consuming for both the team and school staff. The more simplified and automated the task, the more likely that feedback will be secured. We would recommend significant though about your strategy from the outset, and use all the online tools available to automate the process. This will save time in the long run.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEducationhttps://www.schoolsobservatory.org/teach/get-involved/stem-clubThe FIAS research indicates that mean river flows across Malaysia are expected to decrease over the next 60 years, but peak river flows (extremes) are expected to increase. This is because although overall rainfall totals are expected to decrease, rainfall intensities are projected to increase. Malaysian states most likely to experience increases are: Putrajaya, Negeri Semilan, Perak, Kelantan, Pahang.The outcomes of this research can be used to inform water resources planning and flood management decisions across Malaysia. Discussions are ongoing with ONWR Thailand to possibly extend the analysis to Thailand.Agriculture Food and DrinkCommunities and Social Services/PolicyEnvironmentPlants sometimes experience low oxygen conditions (called hypoxia), for example when soil becomes waterlogged. To survive this stress, they switch on specific genes that help them produce energy in ways that require less oxygen. In flowering plants, this response is controlled by a group of proteins called ERFVII transcription factors. These proteins act like switches that turn on genes needed to cope with low oxygen. Under normal oxygen levels, ERFVII proteins are quickly broken down through a system known as the PCO N-degron pathway, but when oxygen levels drop, they become stable and can activate the hypoxia response. This study explored how this oxygen-sensing system evolved across different groups of land plants. By comparing many plant lineages, the researchers found that a basic response to low oxygen, activating genes involved in glycolysis and fermentation, which help cells produce energy without oxygen, is shared by all land plants. However, the specific ERFVII proteins that control this response appear to have evolved later, in the common ancestor of vascular plants (plants with specialized tissues and true roots). This timing suggests that the system developed alongside the evolution of roots and vascular systems, which allowed plants to grow in soils where oxygen levels can fluctuate. The researchers also found that in different plant groups, other related proteins were independently recruited to participate in the same oxygen-sensing pathway. Overall, the results suggest that while the basic metabolic response to low oxygen is ancient, the sophisticated oxygen-sensing regulatory system seen in modern plants evolved later and became more refined as plants adapted to life in soils with variable oxygen levels.Gene variants responsible for low oxygen adaptation in Marchantia can be transferred or replicated in crop plants to improve their resilience to flooding stress.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentWork continues using the data provided, and one planned publication is currently still in preparation, so results are currently incomplete. However, we have compiled a large amount of new data on the distribution of fossil turtles in time and space and used this information to compile the first estimates of their diversity through the Mesozoic Era and Paleogene Period (250-66 million years ago). The overall diversity pattern is strongly affected by various geological and sampling biases, but once these were corrected we find evidence for high points and declines that coincide with major global climatic events. Moreover, we have found strong links between turtle latitudinal ranges and past climates, which has implications for modern conservation work. The tied PhD studentship generated new approaches to modelling ecological distributions in deep time and the first results of this work are now published and consist of a niche model for predicting turtle distributions in time and space. This work has been validated with modern taxa and has been shown to have strong predictive power with respect to the distributions of extinct turtles. Work is continuing to assess the niche occupation of fossil turtles in relationship to current climate change (in preparation). 1000+ new entries for fossil turtle data have thus far been added to an open access online database for fossil occurrences.This work has strong potential to be used as baseline data by conservation agencies interested in mitigating biodiversity changes to turtle species and populations in the face of global change, as well as numerous educational outlets on global change biology and evolution in deep time. Moreover, the additional data generated are publicly available and can be used by other researchers for new projects. Papers arising are already being cited by other workers in both palaeontology and conservation biology.EducationEnvironmentCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsThe work we have encountered and discussed has ranged from the inherently interdisciplinary, for example sonic art, data sonification, to hybrid practices such as physical music and cross-art collaborations. Artists we have heard (and heard from) have worked in interdisciplinary spaces from the broad (music and product design) to the narrow (composition and performance). They have often used a bridge building metaphor to describe how their work connects different disciplines but alternatives have also been proposed, for example working at the centre (as in the centre of a network) rather than simply between disciplines. A variety of reasons for adopting an interdisciplinary practice have been put forward: to empower performers, to reach broader audiences, to explore complex concepts, to renew or extend aesthetic territory. Practice shared within the network has revealed the wide range of skills interdisciplinary work requires, from flexibility in compositional structures and leadership to collaborative and improvisational skills. The importance of skill itself has been debated within the network particularly when applied to multiple disciplines; participants have been rightly wary of mere dilettantism but, on the other hand, the need to acquire expertise across unfamiliar disciplines has been questioned - is it enough simply to understand? As a means of acquiring these skills the artistic 'laboratory' has emerged as vital, providing a space in which, with the right methods, ingrained disciplinary habits may be softened to facilitate productive interaction and exchange. The network has heard from composers working in more curatorial roles, stepping back and worrying less about details, relaxed about authorship. Contributors to the network have shown adventurous attitudes towards their work. Some have been natural interdisciplinarians whose interests carry them to a much broader field of compositional activity, others have been new to the territory and sought partnerships with other disciplines for specific projects or as their practice has evolved. Their urges to escape the confines of their disciplines have been driven by play, curiosity, having a problem to solve, or a dissatisfaction with what they can achieve alone. Finding the right kinds of interaction within teams has played a crucial role in achieving a high degree of innovation.The P-I is currently in discussion with Sound and Music about continuing the relationship begun with them during this network. We are looking to develop another network bid that seeks to investigate questions raised during Music Composition as Interdisciplinary Practice, chiefly around the figure of the 'composer' and what this term means in 21st century musical practice. Sound and Music are also interested in looking at the ecology of new music composition in the UK, in particular the rise of artist-led groups and collectives (organisations that featured strongly in MCIP), and creative forms of new music presentation. The P-I's own work will take forward the network findings. He is currently developing a project, in collaboration with colleagues from Surrey and KCL, around composers' creative partnerships. As part of this project he will be working as a composer in an expanded, more curatorial, role that involves programming, arrangement, original composition and 'production' i.e. coordinating textual and audio visual material contributed by other members of the team. Furthermore, members of the team are aiming for an interpenetration of roles to create a more fluid research environment ensuring that insights/findings are presented in a variety of modalities to create the richest possible means of experiencing the research.Creative EconomyEducationCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsAs one of the key objectives of the project, a Bayesian probabilistic theory with an explicit formula has been developed that fundamentally relates the identification uncertainty of modal properties to test configuration in an ambient vibration environment, covering commonly encountered situations of well-separated modes, close modes and multiple setups. Based on this, a method has been developed to allow the identification uncertainty in ambient vibration tests to be quantitatively managed, where factors such as data length, sensor quality and quantity can be assessed. This will allow practitioners to plan/budget ambient test campaigns in a risk-informed manner and improve efficiency by removing unnecessary conservatism previously applied due to lack of understanding of uncertainty. The method has been applied to test planning and understanding uncertainty of various full-scale structures, e.g., the Jiangyin Bridge in China, offshore lighthouses in UK, footbridge in Knowsley, Rainbow bridge in Japan and Jubilee bridge in Singapore. The central theme of the project spins off a number of research work of theoretical and practical significance. For example, a method has been developed that allows sensor noise to be calibrated without precise alignment as required by existing methods. In addition to improving the accuracy of calibration results and safe-guarding them from bias due to potential misalignment, this allows noise calibration tests to be conveniently and robustly performed in the laboratory as well as field environment. A theory and method have been developed that address the issue of data synchronisation in ambient modal identification. A mobile system for distributed sensing and acquisition of high-fidelity ambient vibration data has been developed and applied to various test cases.The methods and findings in the project will allow practitioners to plan/budget ambient test campaigns in a risk-informed manner and improve efficiency by removing unnecessary conservatism previously applied due to lack of understanding of uncertainty.Aerospace Defence and MarineConstructionEnergyPax6 is expressed throughout cortical development. Without it, significant numbers (~30%) of cortical-born cells activate genes encoding pro-GABAergic transcription factors. Our evidence indicates that Pax6 acts cell autonomously to suppress the competence of cortical progenitors to activate these transcription factors. This suppression is in place when cortical progenitors start to make neurons, as shown by our unpublished RNA-seq data on the effects of triggering cortex-specific Pax6 deletion at the start of cortical development. The details of this activation vary spatially and temporally: for example, Dlx1/2 and Gsx2 appear initially only laterally and later spread to other regions whereas Prdm13 and Ptf1a are activated only medially. I hypothesize that Pax6 acts on the genome of cortical progenitors to protect them against the effects of extracellular signals that might otherwise reprogram them to a GABAergic fate. This is attractive because it would explain why only ~30% of Pax6-null cortical-born cells reprogram to become GABAergic and why the programs they adopt vary. The hypothesis predicts that the levels and the types of signals that an unprotected progenitor receives, which are likely to vary spatially and temporally, will determine whether or not a progenitor reprograms and, if it does, which pro-GABAergic transcription factors it activates. For example, as interneurons enter lateral cortex and later spread more widely, the signals they produce (such as Shh) might trigger cells in their vicinity to activate Dlx1/2 and Gsx2, explaining the spatiotemporal pattern of ectopic expression of these transcription factors described above. The fact that Prdm13 and Ptf1a are activated medially could be explained by their exposure to high levels of signals enriched medially, such as Bmps and Wnts.The results could be taken forward by other researchers interested in the mechanisms of cortical development. The full impact of the research will be clearer once we have completed the work.HealthcareWe have developed 3-d semiclassical tools to address two-electron atoms driven by ultrafast and ultra intense laser pulses. In particular, we have developed with Prof. Paul Corkum and Dr. Andre Staudte the concept of the two-electron streak camera. To do so, we generalized the one electron attosecond streaking camera to time-resolve the correlated two-electron escape dynamics during a collision process involving a deep core electron. The collision process is triggered by an XUV attosecond pulse and probed by a weak infrared field. The principle of our two-electron streak camera is that by placing the maximum of the vector potential of the probing field at the time of collision we get the maximum splitting of the inter-electronic angle of escape. We thus identified the time of collision. Moreover, we have described the main double ionization mechanisms in non-sequential double ionization in the context of Helium as a function of intensity of the infrared laser pulse that is triggering the processes. Our results for single differential probabilities of double ionization as a function of the sum of the electrons energies was found to be in very good agreement with the ab-initio results of Prof. Ken Taylor. Furthermore, we have developed 3-d semiclassical techniques to address ionization during the fragmentation of two-electron diatomic molecules driven by near-infrared laser pulses. In addition, we have developed the theoretical tools to address the processes triggered in atoms by free-electron lasers. We have developed the quantum mechanical techniques to address single photon ionization processes and Auger decays and computed the yields as a function of intensity for the formation of high charged ions.The techniques we have developed as a result of this proposal have been used as a stepping stone to address more complex strongly-driven processes. Namely, we have used these tools to develop techniques that address strongly-driven two-electron triatomic molecules. Our findings on Rydberg formation in strongly-driven molecules have already motivated a large number of theoretical and experimental studies regarding the mechanisms of Rydberg formation in strongly-driven atoms and molecules. Moreover, we have very recently developed a state-of-the-art theoretical technique and computational tool that allows us to account for non-dipole effects in strongly driven systems. In the next few months we will perform ground-breaking studies of the magnetic field effects on the formation of Rydberg states and non-sequential double ionization in strongly-driven molecules. Currently, there are no theoretical studies of magnetic field effects in double ionization of strongly-driven multi-centre molecules due to the computational and theoretical complexity of these processes.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationEnergyThis grant is generating bioinformatics tools to support the scientific community that engage in research using circular dichroism spectroscopy and other related techniques, to make analyses of results easier to accomplishOur bioinformatics tools enable those engaged in research to analyse their data using very user-friendly packages. This greatly increases their output and their ability to interpret their results which in turn means answers to many important science questions can be gained in a fast and efficient way. One area is to use our tools to compare experimentally obtained CD spectra with other such spectra held it the Protein Circular Dichroism Data Bank (PCDDB) to establish the extent of similarity to spectra in this resource. In so doing this can often lead to an understanding of the possible structure of the proteins being examined; invaluable information in many scientific fields. Our most recent tool enables a fast and effective graphical examination of comparisons between two protein structures (2StrucCompare) which is proving to be a popular tool.Agriculture Food and DrinkPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyI am able to design a slim novel evacuated flat plate collector having a concentrator sandwiched between the glass and a metal tray. I built a prototype without any fluid ports just to verify if the design can sustain the vacuum pressure of 0.1Pa and the prototype was able to sustain it. I verified the deformation of glass calculated by using digital image correlation experimental method. The ISES conference paper is published in conference proceedings based on this topic titled as 'Finite element analysis of a novel building integrated soar thermal vacuum flat plate collector for water and space heating'.The novel solar vacuum flat plate collector is designed in such a way that it can be used to integrate in building facades for household applications as well as in industrial process heat applications where the temperature requirement is between 150-200 degC. This prototype has a lot of improvement scope from design and manufacturing perspective. Especially the research on glass to stainless steel bonding process, efficient way of manufacturing a solar concentrator (CPC) are few research options to mention under future scope of improvement.Agriculture Food and DrinkCommunities and Social Services/PolicyConstructionEnergyEnvironmentPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe material that has been developed is biocompatible and is not cytotoxic The material that has been developed enhances the repair of cartilage defects The porous bioglass that has been produced enhances bone formation, ingrowth and integrationThe development and translation of the research outputs into commercial implants that are used to repair cartilage defects or to enhance bone formation in bone defectsHealthcareSPECIFIC AIM 1: Examine flp-gene and FLP-receptor gene conservation in nematodes Summary of progress: flp-gene and FLP-receptor gene conservation in nematodes has been examined using bioinformatics to trawl the genomic and transcriptomic datasets of 17 nematode species representing multiple clades and lifestyles. The data generated represents the most comprehensive insight into the flp and flp-GPCR complements of parasitic nematodes to date and have provided a database of conserved and unique nematode flp and flp-GPCR genes in free-living, animal-, plant- and human-parasitic nematodes. A number of key findings have emerged from this work: • Multiple nematode parasites appear to possess a reduced complement of C. elegans flp-gene sequelogues. • flp-gene complement appears to broadly map nematode clade division, with some exceptions. • Some flp-genes are more highly conserved than others. • Only one flp-gene (flp-31) appears to be parasite-specific. • Known deorphanised C. elegans FLP-receptors are conserved in parasite species. • Phylogenetic analysis reveals a further 13 putative flp-GPCR genes in nematode parasites. The objectives outlined in Specific Aim 1 have been met by output #2, #5 and #10, detailed below. SPECIFIC AIM 2: Compare nematode FLP and FLP receptor temporal and spatial expression patterns Summary of progress: The expression patterns of multiple FLPs have been examined in key nematode species through the use of immunocytochemistry (ICC - custom raised antisera), and in situ hybridization (ISH) techniques in five key nematode species (Caenorhabditis elegans, Panagrellus redivivus, Globodera pallida, Haemonchus contortus, and Teladorsagia circumcincta). We have generated data on the specific expression of structurally-conserved FLPs, enabling direct comparisons between nematode species representing different clades and lifestyles (free-living, animal-, plant- and human-parasitic nematodes). Work on the expression (ISH) profile of flp-GPCRs is ongoing alongside an examination of tissue specific FLP expression profiles (peptidomics) and flp-GPCR tissue specific expression profiling (qPCR) in the animal parasitic nematode Ascaris suum. The work completed to date has demonstrated: • Distinct neuronal localisation patterns for FLP-2, 11, 14, 31, and 32 (ICC) in five key nematode species • Comparative expression patterns for flp-2, 12, 13, 31 (ISH) in the nervous system of G. pallida. • Comparative expression patterns of flp-11 and flp-32 across the five key nematode species highlighted above. • A restricted and conserved pattern of localisation/expression (ICC/ISH) for FLP-11/flp-11 to one distinct neuronal cell body in the 5 key nematode species examined. • A less restricted and variable localisation/expression pattern (ICC/ISH) for FLP-32/flp-32 in the 5 key nematode species examined. The objectives outlined in Specific Aim 2 have been met by output #3, #4, #5, #9, #10, and #16, and #17 detailed below. SPECIFIC AIM 3: Investigate motor-modulation by FLPs in distinct nematode species Summary of progress: We have employed reverse genetics tools (RNA interference, RNAi) and a number of sensitive post-RNAi bioassays to measure nematode behaviour in both the plant parasitic nematode G. pallida and the animal parasitic nematode A. suum. To date we have: (a) Generated data on the function of a highly conserved flp-gene, flp-32, and a novel putative flp-32 receptor in G. pallida. Key findings demonstrate that: • The migration rate of G. pallida increases in Gp-flp-32-silenced worms • The ability of G. pallida to infect potato plant root systems is enhanced in Gp-flp-32-silenced worms • A novel putative Gp-flp-32 receptor (Gp-flp-32R) is expressed in G. pallida • Gp-flp-32R-silenced worms also display an increase in migration rate. • Gp-flp-32 plays an intrinsic role in the modulation of locomotory behaviour in G. pallida, and putatively interacts with at least one novel G-protein coupled receptor (Gp-flp-32R). • These data report the first functional characterisation of a parasitic nematode FLP-GPCR. (b) Developed (and are currently optimising), a novel and robust RNAi platform in A. suum which will support flp- and flp-GPCR gene functional characterisation. The data show that: • A.suum RNAi is readily achievable: Injection of dsRNA triggers knockdown of a range of gene transcripts (100% percent success rate; >10 gene targets; highly reproducible) • Multiple tissue types are susceptible: neuronal and muscle based genes are susceptible to RNAi • RNAi response is capable of spreading: silencing is detected in areas of the worm that are most distant from the site of injection • Silencing of validated drug targets is achievable (nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits) • Double stranded (ds)RNA cocktail is as efficient as single dsRNA-approach • Silencing persists for at least 8 days The objectives outlined in Specific Aim 3 have been met by output #1, #3, #5, #6, #7, #8, #11, #12, #13, and #14 detailed below. Specific Aim OUTPUTS: 1. Publication: McCoy C.J., Warnock N.D., Atkinson L.E., Atcheson E., Martin R.J., Robertson A.P., Maule A.G., Marks N.J., Mousley A. (2015). RNA interference in adult Ascaris suum --an opportunity for the development of a functional genomics platform that supports organism-, tissue- and cell-based biology in a nematode parasite. International Journal for Parasitology 45, 673-678. doi:0.1016/j.ijpara.2015.05.00 2. Publication: McCoy C.J., Atkinson L.E., Zamanian M., McVeigh P., Day T.A., Kimber M.J., Marks N.J., Maule A.G., Mousley A. (2014) New Insights into the FLPergic Complements of Parasitic Nematodes: informing deorphanisation approaches. EUPA Open Proteomics 3, 262-272. 3. Publication: Atkinson L.E., Stevenson M., McCoy C.J., Marks N.J., Fleming C., Zamanian M., Day T.A., Kimber M.J., Maule A.G., Mousley A. (2013) flp-32 Ligand/receptor silencing phenocopy faster plant pathogenic nematodes. PLOS Pathogens 9 (2):e1003169. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1003169. 4. Publication (in preparation): Atkinson L.E., Miskelly I.R., Moffett C.L., McCoy C.J., Maule A.G., Marks N.J., Mousley A. Unraveling flp-11 / flp-32 Dichotomy in Nematodes. Prepared for imminent submission to ACS Chemical Neuroscience. 5. International conference invited speaker oral presentation: Mousley, A., Atkinson, L., McVeigh, P., McCoy, C., Warnock, N., Dalzell, J.J., Marks, N.J., Maule, A.G. Nematode Neuropeptides: From Sequence to Biology and Back. Anthelmintics: From Discovery to Resistance II San Diego 9-12 Feb 2016. 6. International conference oral presentation: McCoy C.J., Warnock N.D., Atkinson L.E., Atcheson E., Martin R.J., Robertson A.P., Maule A.G., Marks N.J., Mousley A. RNAi competency in adult Ascaris suum - potent, persistent and reproducible knockdown. American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene: 64th Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, USA Oct 2015. 7. International conference oral presentation: McCoy C.J., Warnock N.D., Atkinson L.E., Atcheson E., Martin R.J., Robertson A.P., Maule A.G., Marks N.J., Mousley A. RNA interference in adult Ascaris suum --an opportunity for the development of a functional genomics platform that supports organism-, tissue- and cell-based biology in a nematode parasite. 25th International Conference of the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology, Liverpool, UK, Aug 2015. 8. International conference oral presentation: McCoy C.J., Warnock N.D., Atkinson L.E., Atcheson E., Martin R.J., Robertson A.P., Maule A.G., Marks N.J., Mousley A. RNA interference in adult Ascaris suum is potent, persistent and reproducible. The Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases 25th Annual Symposium, UGA, USA, Apr 2015. 9. International conference poster and oral presentation: Atkinson L.E., Miskelly I.R., Moffett C.L., McCoy C.J., Maule A.G., Marks N.J., Mousley A. flp-11 / flp-32 Dichotomy in Nematodes: A Lesson in Drug Target Selection? Anthelmintics from Discovery to Resistance. San Francisco, USA, Feb 2014. 10. International conference poster and oral presentation: McCoy C.J., Atkinson L.E., Zamanian M., McVeigh P., Day T.A., Kimber M.J., Marks N.J., Maule A.G., Mousley A. FMRFamide-like peptide-GPCR Complements in Parasitic Nematodes, Anthelmintics from Discovery to Resistance, San Francisco, USA, Feb 2014. 11. International conference poster and oral presentation: McCoy C.J., Warnock N., Atkinson L.E., Maule A.G., Marks N.J., Mousley A. Building a Reverse Genetics Platform for Novel Drug Discovery in Nematode Parasites. Anthelmintics from Discovery to Resistance, San Francisco, USA, Feb 2014. 12. National conference poster and oral presentation: McCoy C.J., Warnock N., Atkinson L.E., Maule A.G., Marks N.J., Mousley A. RNA Interference in Adult Ascaris suum; New Tricks for and Old model. WAAVP Perth, Australia, Aug 2013. 13. National conference oral presentation: McCoy C.J., Warnock N., Atkinson L.E., Maule A.G., Marks N.J., Mousley A. RNA Interference in Adult Ascaris suum; A tool to probe neuromuscular gene function. British Society for Parasitology, Bristol, UK, April 2013. 14. National conference oral presentation: McCoy C.J., Warnock N.D., Atkinson L.E., Maule A.G., Marks N.J., Mousley A. RNAi in adult Ascaris suum. British Society for Parasitology, Glasgow, UK, April 2012. 15. National conference oral presentation: Atkinson L.E., Stevenson M., Fleming C., Zamanian M., Kimber M.J., Marks N.J., Maule A.G., Mousley A. FMRFamide like peptide-11 function and localisation in Globodera pallida. British Society for Parasitology, Glasgow, UK, April 2012. 16. National conference poster presentation: Atkinson L.E., Stevenson M., Fleming C., Zamanian M., Kimber M.J., Marks N.J., Maule A.G., Mousley A. Identification and validation of novel drug targets in nematodes of agricultural importance. Safe food Chemical Residues in Food Knowledge Networks Anthelmintics: Emerging Issues with Drug Residues and Drug Resistance, Dublin, Ireland, Feb 2012. 17. National conference oral presentation: Atkinson L.E., Marks N.J., Maule A.G., Mousley A. Comparative Analyses of FMRFamide-like Peptide Expression and Function in Nematodes. British Society for Parasitology, Nottingham, UK, April 2011.Outcomes from BBH0194721 have been/will be taken forward in the following ways: NON ACADEMIC: • Industry/pharmaceuticals/biotechnology: Research data generated through BB/H019472/1 have contributed to further research funding involving the pharmaceutical industry (BBSRC IP Award BB/MO10392/1 with Merial Animal Health as the industrial partner). This will contribute to further research data which will aid the further development and commercialization of new validated drug targets and the distribution of novel veterinary pharmaceutical products in the future. • General public/farming communities: will benefit from research outcomes in the form of basic research which will contribute to the development of more effective control strategies for parasitic nematodes of veterinary and economic importance. This will have direct economic impacts on animal health. Farmers have also benefitted in the form of community outreach activities where research data has been, and will continue to be, communicated through attendance and participated in local agricultural events (e.g. presentation at NI Pig Event, attendance at local Agricultural Show, interaction with farmers). This has helped the farmer to have a greater understanding of the impact of nematode parasites on animal health and appreciate the importance of scientific research. • General public/food and drink industry: will benefit from the research outcomes as a consequence of pharmaceutical interest in the research data generated. If these data contribute to new pharmaceuticals which enhance animal yields this will help meet a growing public demand for cost-effective food production. • Policy: Going forward government and levy bodies will benefit from the research in the form of enhanced information with which to aid shaping future agricultural strategy and policy. ACADEMIC: • Education: research outcomes have had direct impact in the educational sector in the form of engagement activities with primary (Primary Life Sciences Scheme) and secondary level students (Careers events, Work placements) in addition to tertiary level students (undergraduate, MSc, PhD) who have become aware of the importance of research in our society by communication of the research project and outcomes. In addition the outcomes from this research have facilitated research-led teaching for undergraduate students at QUB. • Research: the outcomes from this work have been published (with additional publications in progress) and presented at national and international conferences. This has facilitated new collaborations and provided opportunity for a further funding stream to continue the identification and validation of novel chemotherapeutic targets for nematode parasites.Agriculture Food and DrinkEducationPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe research has showed that there is an inherent need for improved observations and modelling of the Indo-Gangetic plain and an appetite amongst scientists in that region to understand better the sensitivity of particularly agriculture to land surface temperatures.Farmers will be interested in further development of space-based solutions. Information providers will be interested in the value of STFC data technologies alongside the Earth Observation skills of academics, e.g. in Leicester.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentHealthcareWe are looking for optimum coating candidates to replace hexavalent chrome in aerospace industry. Our role is to provide forensic analysis of high number of coatings and their downselection. This phase has achieved and selected solutions are now being tested by industrial partners. Knowledge acquired during the project directly led to consultancy work from one of the project partners (10k in 2015, 51k in 2016, and 77k in 2017) and 1 fully funded PhD student by industrial partner. It should be stressed here that total award was just 58K.Replacement of hexavalent chrome is required by EU legislation (REACh). It will affect many industrials areas, particularly aerospace sector, which traditionally veru strong in the UK. Solutions found in this project could be then used by other industries facing similar problem.Aerospace Defence and MarineConstructionEnergyEnvironmentManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyThe research funded on this grant has generated significant new knowledge of film and television composer Trevor Jones and his working methods. Jones is seen as a distinguished figure within the film-music industry, but until this project was largely overlooked within scholarly considerations of film music, despite him scoring a large number of pictures over a thirty-plus-year career. This project was the first detailed exploration of his career and output, and the research has not only brought Jones and his work to greater light in the eyes of both scholars and the public, but has also influenced other scholarship and research into film scoring and film-score production since the late 1970s. The research has also resulted in significant development in scholarly understanding of production processes and technologies in music for film and television. Through digitisation of the audio, video, textual and musical (notation) materials in the Trevor Jones Archive, the research team (and other scholars) have been able to interrogate aspects of the film-score-production process from novel perspectives that have generated significant new knowledge in the field of film musicology. The research has also provided possibly the first opportunity to consider in detail the ways in which compositional practices and the use of technology have developed and also relate to each other across the last thirty to forty years, a period which has seen significant changes in film-making, the sound of film scores, and the technologies and technical processes that underpin both of these areas. New skills in audio-visual archival work have been developed by the project team that have wider application beyond the project materials and can have significant impact across the scholarly community. Notably, the metadata schema created and developed through the project is the first of its kind. The schema consists of around ninety fields designed to capture in detail a very wide range of information relating to an individual item in the audio-visual archive, whether it be an audio, video, textual or musical (notation) resource. Furthermore, the schema has been created in such a way as to facilitate the connecting of resources through metadata being shared across items (such as an audio recording and a corresponding item of paperwork, for example). The project's bespoke front-end website, www.screenmusic.leeds.ac.uk, utilises the detailed metadata relating to the archival materials to enable them to be searched and used effectively. The website is a ground-breaking new resource, giving scholars and the public scholars hitherto unprecedented access to information on materials relating to the film- and television-score production process, and opening up a wealth of information with significant value for research and teaching, as well as potentially being of general interest to fans of film and film music.As described in the original proposal, the archive methodology (in particular the metadata schema) and its content are likely to be of interest to those working in the creative industries and heritage sectors, and particularly to professionals in the film and film-music industries. Furthermore, the range of materials themselves digitised and catalogued through the project may be of use to those interested in the processes or technologies of film-score production, or individual films and television programmes scored by Jones. The bespoke front-end website can also function as a gateway to other audio-visual collections, and there has already been some interest in exploring this avenue.EducationCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttp://www.trevorjonesfilm.leeds.ac.ukThe award has enabled SPEARNET to be used to engage Thai students through the development of a citizen science platform that is accessible in native Thai language. The platform enables students to see how key physics concepts they learn about in schools are used to find and characterise exoplanets. We also allow student to model the detected signals using simplified versions of the tools that SPEARNET itself uses. Lastly, the citizen science hub will allow students to select possible future targets for observation.We are aiming to formally launch the platform over the next 12 months and we will be monitoring interaction with it.Creative EconomyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationOtherThe researchers on this grant developed novel and efficient ways to solve mathematical models consisting of partial differential equations with uncertain data. When inputs to mathematical models are uncertain and we rely on the mathematical model to provide predications of an event, then care needs to be given to incorporate uncertainty into the modelling process. Our new tools allow more uncertainty to be incorporated efficiently into models, leading to more realistic output information. In particular, the algorithms we developed allow computations to be done cheaply and efficienctly.There are a wealth of mathematical models of physical processes in various applications where uncertainty or randomness in inputs can now be embraced, rather than relying on deterministic methods which use samples of inputs.Aerospace Defence and MarineConstructionEnergyEnvironmentWe generated a method to study the distribution of adhesion receptors on neutrophils that are critical for neutrophil movement. This allowed us to test the idea that PI3K signalling directly controlled the distribution of adhesion receptors to control cell movement. We found evidence that part of the effect of PI3K signalling on neutrophil migration was indeed through this mechanism.The method developed is a poweful strategy for further research and has been used in other labs since.Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology• Language (the varieties that are used, their functions, the domains in which they are used, their distribution among social classes and between genders, attitudes towards them and so forth) has more importance for the study of social, political, cultural and intellectual history than the relative paucity of scholarship on it in these fields would seem to suggest. Building on some pioneering work by such scholars as Robert Evans (who was a member of our project's Advisory Board) and Peter Burke (who in September 2012 delivered the keynote lecture at our international conference in the University of Bristol on 'The French Language in Russia'), we have shown through our multidisciplinary history of French in Russia that language use there was inextricably bound up with social, political and cultural practices, ideas, values and movements. • The conventional assumption that the pre-revolutionary Russian noble class habitually spoke French, which is to be found in much scholarship about Russia and about bilingualism in general, is simplistic. Research undertaken by the team, including study of a large number of primary sources in Russian archives (GARF, RGADA, RGIA, RGVIA, Tver regional archive) and libraries in Russia and elsewhere (RGB in Moscow, RNB in St Petersburg, the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris), suggests that patterns of linguistic usage in pre-revolutionary Russia were in fact complex, varying not only from class to class and setting to setting but also from one social group to another within the same class, from family to family, from one family member to another or even - in the case of individual speakers - from communication with one interlocutor to communication with another, and - very importantly - from one historical period to another. We have therefore produced a far more complex and nuanced account of the phenomenon of francophonie in Russia than we believe has been provided before. • Besides examining actual linguistic usage among various social groups at different times and in particular written genres and linguistic domains, we have also made a close study of attitudes towards language use and of debate about language and its supposed and/or desired characteristics and functions. We emphasise that, for many reasons, perceptions of the nature of a language and the implications of choosing a particular language when more than one language is available change over time. Attitudes towards the use of French among a social elite of cosmopolitan outlook in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Russia, for example, were not necessarily the same as those adopted by members of the mid-nineteenth-century intelligentsia, who had been subjected during the Romantic period to a cultural nationalism which closely linked language with nationality, ethnicity and popular culture. We must therefore be aware of the social, cultural and intellectual background against which observations about language and its use are made. We must also beware of taking imaginative literature and tendentious thought as reliable accounts of social and sociolinguistic practice. • We have explored the interplay of French and Russian in Russia from the mid-eighteenth century to around the mid-nineteenth in a pair of volumes of c. 100,000 words each under the overarching title 'French and Russian in Imperial Russia'. Volume 1 is sub-titled 'Language Use among the Russian Elite' and Volume 2 is sub-titled 'Language Attitudes and Identity'. These volumes were published by Edinburgh University Press in their series on Russian Language and Society in summer 2015. They were co-edited by Derek Offord (the Principal Investigator on the project team), Vladislav Rjéoutski (a post-doctoral research fellow in the project team from 2011 to 2013 and now a researcher in the German Historical Institute in Moscow) and Gesine Argent (a postdoctoral research fellow in the project team from 2012-2015 and subsequently Research Fellow and Manager at the Princess Dashkova Russian Centre at the University of Edinburgh), together with Lara Ryazanova-Clarke of the University of Edinburgh. Each volume contains twelve chapters by an international team of contributors (based mainly in Russia, France and the US, as well as the UK), together with an introduction and conclusion. Eleven out of the 28 chapters/introductions/conclusions were authored or co-authored by Offord, Argent and Rjéoutski. As their sub-titles suggest, the volumes focus on language use and on perceptions of the effects of language use respectively. • Our findings challenge notions and attitudes to which many nineteenth-century Russian writers gave currency and which have remained influential in studies of Russian history and culture. One such notion is that bilingualism and biculturalism were destructive both to the Russian social fabric and to the personal well-being of the francophone nobility. They were not only symptomatic of social division, it has been argued, but also indicative and even to some extent a cause of the dissociation of the elite from their native soil. We question this assumption about the tendency of bilingualism to divide and estrange what had supposedly been an organic community before the westernisation of Russia. • We also emphasise that knowledge of French in Russia had types of impact which might widely be regarded as positive, although they have not often been presented in that light, if any attention has been paid to them at all. French was a lingua franca that made possible communication with foreigners, the language of a civilising court, the language by which Russia presented itself to Europe and the vehicle for the introduction of Enlightenment ideas. It was the language of a new polite society, in which women for the first time played a prominent social role in Russia. It was a preferred medium for certain types of amateur literary production that flourished in aristocratic society, before the professionalisation of literary activity. It was a source of self-respect and an international sign of status among the noble estate through which western innovation chiefly flowed into Russia. French served too, of course, as a linguistic model for the development of the Russian literary language. Even as a phenomenon which the emergent literary community and intelligentsia resolved to resist it was productive: as consciousness of nationhood grew in the Romantic period after the Napoleonic Wars, the pervasive presence of French stimulated native cultural creativity. From the point of view of social, political and cultural history, then, the development in the course of the eighteenth century of a community of Russian men and women who had an active written and oral command of French, or at least a good reading knowledge of it, was a key factor in the westernisation and modernisation of Russia. • In exploring the function of French as a means of transmitting European culture to Russia and bringing Russia into European civilisation we pay particular attention to education, as a means both of developing language skills and of inculcating knowledge and values, and to lexicography and translation, as means both of transmitting new concepts and of developing and enriching the vernacular. Our preliminary findings on language acquisition in eighteenth-century Russian education were published in a cluster of four articles edited by the research team. Two of these articles were authored by one of the team's members, Rjéoutski. This cluster, together with the team's foreword, is available in the inaugural number of an online journal, Vivliofika: E-Journal of Eighteenth-Century Russian Studies (URL: http://vivliofika.library.duke.edu/). • Besides presenting the case for a more positive view of the impact of Franco-Russian bilingualism in Russia than has previously been fashionable, we also question whether Russia is such an exceptional historical and cultural case as it has often been assumed to be. The notion of Russian exceptionalism, which is closely bound up with unease about westernisation and the attendant cultural nationalism of the nineteenth-century literary community, has been pronounced in Russian culture itself (especially in classical Russian literature) and also in a twentieth-century tradition of scholarship about Russian culture (in particular, the tradition associated with Yuri Lotman). It was partly in order to engage with this notion that we organised, during the calendar year 2012, a seminar series devoted to the history of the use of French in other European countries. By this means, we have attempted to place the history of Russian francophonie in a broad European context, revealing the existence, mutatis mutandis, of similar linguistic influences, social and cultural phenomena and anxious debate in many European countries from the late seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries. Our findings on the pan-European background to our study of language use in pre-revolutionary Russia have been published in a book of c. 160,000 words, 'European Francophonie: The Social, Political and Cultural History of an International Prestige Language' (Peter Lang, 2014), the first volume in a new series on Historical Sociolinguistics. This book contains fourteen chapters and a conclusion, including chapters on medieval England, Piedmont, Italy more generally, the Netherlands, Prussia, Bohemia, Spain, Sweden, Poland, the Romanian Lands and Turkey, as well as Russia. • The Russian exceptionalist argument was often supported by a claim that the Russian people were peculiarly receptive to other cultures and that they therefore possessed a universal breadth of vision and understanding. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky are proponents of this point of view, which found expression, for example, in 'War and Peace' by the former and the famous Pushkin speech delivered by the latter in 1880. The claim is strikingly similar to that which was made in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for the French language - namely that its naturalness and clarity endowed French with 'universalité' and that this language (together with the culture for which it was a vehicle) was bound, indeed entitled, to spread. The research team have therefore investigated the possibility that the Russian discourse on universalism owes something to long and close familiarity with the French language and the discourse about its qualities. • In examining the history of French in pre-revolutionary Russia, we have not lost sight of the fact that French was only one of the foreign languages used there; English, Latin and particularly German also had important roles at certain times. By building a complex picture not merely of the use of French across a wide chronological span and social range but also of the larger pattern of foreign-language use in pre-revolutionary Russia, we have been able to identify differences in the functions of these various foreign languages on Russian soil and to define the social and cultural functions of a prestige language (in this instance French), which may serve, but does not always necessarily serve, as a lingua franca. In order to provide a broad illustration of foreign-language use in Russia during the long eighteenth century we have edited and published a cluster of four articles on the subject in the major US journal The Russian Review (vol. 74, no. 1). The introductory article in the cluster, establishing a framework for the subject and providing an overview, was written by the research team (Argent, Offord and Rjéoutski). The other three articles, on the use of German, French and English, were written by other scholars in the field of Russian studies (Kristine Dahmen, Wladimir Berelowitsch and Anthony Cross). • On a broader plane, we believe that our work, as an extremely far-reaching study of the history of a foreign language in a major European nation, provides insights of general use in fields of sociolinguistic interest such as bilingualism and multilingualism, language choice and code-switching, gender and language use, lexical borrowing, standardisation, linguistic purism and language attitudes, as they are reflected in metalinguistic discourse (talk about language). Having laid all these foundations, we wrote an overarching co-authored monograph which brings together all our findings on the subject. Entitled 'The French Language in Russia: A Social, Political, Cultural, and Literary History', this monograph (699 pp.) was published by Amsterdam University Press in August 2018 in their series on Languages and Culture in History. Two principal threads run through this book. The first concerns language practice, that is to say, the functions of French in Russia and the settings and forms of communication, oral and written, in which it was used. Having first explored the place and status of French in nobles' education, we consider the use of French at court and in high society, the diplomatic service and other branches of administration. Next, we survey the large corpus of Russian writing in French, which extends from nobles' personal correspondence and through many forms of ego-writing to women's prose fiction. We then dwell on Russians' use of French as an international language of cultural propaganda, historiosophical speculation and political polemic. The second thread of our investigation concerns language attitudes and the ways in which language use is bound up with conceptions of identity of various sorts (especially social and national identity, although we also address the question of differences between men's and women's language use and assumptions about gender roles and language choice). This thread leads us into the realm of perceptions, imagined communities, mental landscapes and notions of worth. Having explored the penetration of European metadiscourse about the qualities of languages, the implications of language choice, linguistic purism and code-switching into Russian cultural consciousness, we trace the prolonged debate about such matters in Russian literature and thought. In our final chapter, we focus on treatment of Russian francophonie in the classical Russian novel. By firmly locating the linguistic phenomena that we study in a detailed historical context (to which an early chapter in the book is devoted), we are able to trace the association of language attitudes with the rise of a form of cultural nationalism which reflected European notions about national character and linguistic essentialism but which also helped Russia to achieve self-confidence in the nineteenth-century world. At the same time, the development and persistence of Franco-Russian bilingualism in Russia and the broader knowledge of foreign languages among the cosmopolitan Russian elite were signs of - indeed prerequisites for - the integration of the Russian court, nobility, literary community and intelligentsia into the European political, social and cultural landscape. That is to say, French became an important vehicle for cultural transfer between Russia and other European nations. In the process of exploring such matters as the function of French as an instrument in the westernisation of imperial Russia and the role of debate about Russians' proficiency in French in discussion of the formation of aristocratic and national identity, we engage with, and often challenge, influential narratives about the history and culture of pre-revolutionary Russia. These narratives, which are outlined in the introduction to the book, are driven by enduring but questionable assumptions of the following sorts: • that there were 'binary oppositions' between 'Russia' and 'Europe' and between Russia's own constituent parts (elites and masses); • that the cultural colonisation of Russia by western nations, especially France, fragmented a previously organic nation; • that the educated Russian elite (represented by the literary type of the 'superfluous man') became disoriented and suffered from anomie, or even that their loyalty to the nation was undermined; • that Russian national character and culture were imitative or, on the contrary, highly original; • and that Russian culture and historical development were exceptional or unique in nature, either in the negative sense that Russia was without history, goal or distinctive substance or in the positive sense that it would in due course play a messianic role in world civilisation. The account of Russian francophonie that emerges from our investigation introduces nuance and complexity in place of the grand claims and clear-cut generalisations that tend to characterise such narratives, not least because it stresses the importance of a discriminating attitude towards some of the sources that students of the use of French by the Russian elite are bound to use, especially works of imaginative literature. Beyond its bearing on some of the grand narratives of Russian thought and literature, this book may afford more general insight into the social, political, cultural and literary implications and effects of bilingualism in a speech community over a long period. It should also enlarge understanding of francophonie as a pan-European phenomenon. On the broadest plane, it has significance in an age of unprecedented global connectivity, for it invites us to look beyond the experience of a single nation and the social groups and individuals within it in order to discover how languages and the cultures and narratives associated with them have been shared across national boundaries. Our monograph 'The French Language in Russia' has won two prizes: (i) it was sole winner of the 2019 Marc Raeff Book Prize awarded annually by the Eighteenth-Century Russian Studies Association (ECRSA, an affiliate of the US-based Association for Slavonic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, or ASEEES), for 'a publication that is of exceptional merit and lasting significance for understanding Imperial Russia during the long eighteenth century' (announced at https://ecrsa.org/); (ii) it was joint winner of the R. Gapper Book Prize awarded by UK-based Society for French Studies for the best book in French Studies published in 2018. It received the following citation in this connection: 'Derek Offord, Gésine Argent, and Vladislav Rjéoutski's work is not only a model of co-authorship, but a ground-breaking study of immense scholarly distinction which makes a real contribution to the wider debate about what Francophonie is and was' (https://www.sfs.ac.uk/prizes/r-gapper-book-prize). The book has also been very favourably reviewed in many academic journals. Some of the reviewers' comments can be found on the publisher's website at https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789462982727/the-french-language-in-russia. A full list of references to reviews of the book will be provided when this entry in researchfish is next updated. • Finally, Offord has written an article 'Sociolinguistics and history: An interdisciplinary view of bilingualism in imperial Russia', in 'The Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics', 6 (1) (April 2020), published online at https://doi.org/10.1515/jhsl-2018-0019. The purpose of this article is (i) to discuss our work, especially our monograph 'The French Language in Russia', from the methodological point of view as an example of scholarship at the interface between various types of history (social, political, cultural, intellectual and literary) and historical sociolinguistics and (ii) to explain the ways in which discussion of Franco-Russian bilingualism is woven into major narratives which inform Russian thought and literature and twentieth- and early twenty-first scholarship about them.The positive reaction to our book 'The French Language in Russia' and the degree of interest in the book that is revealed by reviews of it in the last two years suggests it will be influential in debate on language use in pre-revolutionary Russia and on the history of late imperial Russia more generally. Offord hopes in due course also to write about the resonance of our findings for contemporary audiences or readerships interested in bilingualism and multilingualism and in the role played by language attitudes and disputes in contemporary cultural and political nationalisms from, e.g., Ukraine to Catalonia and Northern Ireland.EducationCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsOtherhttp://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/research/french-in-russiaPreliminary findings from the VALID project were presented at the 13th European Nutrition Conference of the Federation of European Nutrition Societies (FENS) 2019 conference, held in Dublin, Ireland. The conference took place from 15-18 October 2019 in the Convention Centre Dublin, Ireland. At a special symposium held at the FENS conference, preliminary results were presented from the VALID project, along with those from the DERiVE project (funded under the same JPI HDHL call). VALID project team members, Prof Daniele Del Rio (University of Parma) and Prof Adrian Moore (Ulster University) presented their work at the DERiVE-VALID Symposium entitled 'Validating novel biomarkers of dietary exposure to Riboflavin and Polyphenols and associated health impacts'. This symposium provided a unique opportunity to showcase both projects and disseminate their early findings.The VALID project has provided excellent training and experience to PhD students and early-career researchers in nutrition and health, by utilising the established and successful training platforms within each of the partner institutes, and thus has strengthened the research base. The scientific publications arising from this research will also provide important benefits to the wider research community by providing comprehensive data reporting important nutrition and health relationships in a very well characterised older Irish population and the potential benefits to health of improving nutritional status for better functional effects and health outcomes.Agriculture Food and DrinkEducationHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttp://www.jpi-valid.comThe first achievement relates to producing a method for predicting specific properties of biologically important organic molecules containing the element fluorine, in particular the position of the signal(s) it gives when measured using an NMR instrument. This follows on from our previous work which had accomplished this for the element boron. The method will greatly help both us and other groups of scientists in identifying the nature of short lived molecules generated during the catalytic processes we are exploring for making the molecules in a laboratory using catalytic methods based on molecules with both boron and fluorine in them. This research is now published in a peer reviewed journal. The second achievement is in starting to unravel the detailed mechanisms involved during the processes where molecules known a amides are produced using boron-based catalysts. We have discovered a far more complex process is involved than anyone had previously suspected. In particular we have exposed mechanisms depending on the presence of one, two or three boron atoms in the active catalyst, having developed a rational process for the catalyst design. We have identified parallels between the design of such catalysts and the analysis of polypeptide enzymes in biological processes. The new insights have been used to design five new catalysts for exploration, thus helping design processes for catalysts that operate that more rapidly, at lower temperatures and in higher yields. The third key finding is that for the first time we are exploiting a property that our collaborators are measuring in their own laboratories based measuring the rate of the chemical reaction as a function of two different isotopes of carbon. We have updated and improved computer software, originally written by one of us, to more easily perform such calculations. By comparing the values of both the measured and our calculated isotope effects, we expect that confidence in the models we have identified will be greatly improved.One outcome of our project not noted elsewhere is the development of a new open source software system to underpin the computing infrastructures we used for our modelling and which we have called CHAMP. This is designed to offer a highly accessible method for generating the calculations used for molecular modelling, for managing the data produced by these processes and finally for data publication to ensure that the outcomes of the project are fully FAIR (which means they are findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable), all attributes which are greatly encouraged by funding councils nowadays and which we fully conform to. This software is available for anyone to acquire for their own use. The FAIR principles as applied to this project are documented on the URL provided here.ChemicalsDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationPharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttp://www.catalyticamidation.info/fair-data.phpFINDING 1: THE DISTINCTIVENESS OF SOCIAL CARE INNOVATION AND THE CONDITIONS IT REQUIRES TO FLOURISH • Social care innovation should adhere to the ethical principles of social work, i.e. aim to enhance service user experiences and outcomes, not just improve service efficiencies. • Key conditions that need to be in place to give social care innovation the best chance to succeed: a) a strong case with stakeholder buy-in; b) sufficient workforce capacity, skill and leadership; c) an achievable design, implemented well; d) an open, reflexive, collaborative culture that builds trust, contains anxiety and supports creative and risk-taking; e) a benign macro context. • Six key stages of the innovation journey have been identified: (i) Mobilising (prompting, understanding, persuading); (ii) Designing (discovering, generating, importing); (iii) Developing (implementing, testing, improving); (iv) Integrating (delivering, embedding, sustaining); (v) Growing (spreading, scaling, diffusing); (iv) Wider system change (transforming, restructuring, re-prompting). As challenges are endemic to the innovation journey in social care, the desirability of pausing, revisiting earlier stages, or even ending the innovation, should always be considered. • Substantial time will be needed for new cultures and practices to embed and even longer needed for service user outcomes to be impacted; this should be built into timescales for projects and evaluations. FINDING 2: WIDER SYSTEM TRANSFORMATION IS NEEDED TO RESPOND EFFECTIVELY TO CHILDREN AT RISK BEYOND THE HOME/FAMILY Our evidence review found that effective service approaches to addressing extra-familial harm shared 5 features: (i) they build support and safety through trusted relationships between young people and professionals, family or other protective adults; (ii) they provide an integrated response across agencies driven by shared policies, definitions and principles; (iii) they directly tackle risky/harmful context(s) and damaging structural factors; (iv) they address specific dynamics associated with extra-familial harm; (v) they are youth-centred. While there is commitment to change through innovation and practice improvement measures, attempts to improve youth safeguarding in England are continually undermined by macro-level social care systems which are unable to adequately address the complexities of extra-familial harm. Services and practice guidance is fundamentally designed around individual assessments and interventions, which do not effectively address the contextual and relational dynamics of extra-familial harm. Intervention approaches and decision-making forums are primarily focused on risk management rather than creating safe and supportive environments for young people. There is a persistent tension between criminal justice outcomes and the welfare needs of young people, particularly those involved in criminal activities as a result of exploitation. Safeguarding systems often ignore or reproduce structural and institutional discrimination, failing to address the broader social and economic factors that contribute to extra-familial harm. Austerity measures in public funding mean workloads can rarely provide sufficient time for relational working and reflexive practice. A step-change change will not occur in youth safeguarding without systemic and structural reforms that address the underlying causes of harm and provide a welfare-oriented re-envisioning of the statutory social work role to ensure young people's needs for both support and protection are met FINDING 3: THE BENEFITS OF CONTEXTUAL SAFEGUARDING, TRAUMA-INFORMED PRACTICE AND TRANSITIONAL SAFEGUARDING IN YOUTH SAFEGUARDING These three approaches offer a promising innovation triad for responding to young people affected by extra-familial harm but have yet to evidence their individual effectiveness. None offers a system template to be manualised for adoption elsewhere, but rather a framework which requires interpretation and operationalisation at a local level to tailor services and systems for 'fit'. Co-production with young people and parents remains emergent in each approach; it needs to be better prioritised and resourced from the start by implementation sites if it is to be meaningful. As CONTEXTUAL SAFEGUARDING's aspiration to address risk in contexts is additional to what children's social care would normally do, it is likely to be more expensive than conventional approaches to extra-familial harm. The positive indicators of the impact of Contextual Safeguarding on systems and practices in one site suggests the possibility of future impact outcomes and value for money, so we conclude the approach merits scaling and spreading. The system-wide nature of TRANSITIONAL SAFEGUARDING makes it particularly slow, iterative and challenging to implement, but developments in the UK are progressing, where there is joint and shared leadership commitment from Adult and Children's social care, with support from other statutory and voluntary sector services. TRAUMA-INFORMED PRACTICE shows promise in: facilitating ongoing trust between professionals and young people; containing professional anxiety in order to make risk-sensible decisions; and creating working conditions in which extra-familial harm can be recognised and (to an extent) addressed. Small incremental improvements are insufficient to transform existing modalities and embed new cultures and practices and the wider policy context needs also to be sympathetic to trauma-informed goals (as it is in Scotland). Where Trauma-informed Practice and Contextual Safeguarding have been adopted in tandem, this has positively reinforced principles of welfare and social justice in practice. We recommend further trialling of these three approaches in conjunction.Social care and related organisations can now use our publications, guidance and tools to inform innovation endeavours in the following ways: (1) interrogate aims and motivations to ensure innovation is the right approach ethically and practically ('DEISC Tool' and 'PEISC Framework'); (2) review current conditions in their local systems to understand strengths and areas for development ('Diamond 9' tool); (3) uncover wider system influences on their innovations to help anticipate and manage their effects ('Four Quadrants' tool); (4) Plan priority areas of action to create local system conditions more conducive to innovation ('Roadmap' tool); (5) determine readiness to progress to the next innovation stage ('Stages of Innovation' and 'Ecocycles' frameworks). In conjunction with findings on extra-familial harm and the three approaches, social care organisations can determine if innovation (i.e. system-disruption and transformation) is more appropriate than incremental practice improvement measures. The above tools can enable design and implementation of interventions and services that (a) directly address the dynamics of extra-familial harm and (b) challenge the contexts and structural factors that sustain them, in ways that are more (c) relational, (d) interagency, (e) youth-centred, (f) trauma-informed, (g) transitional, and (h) collaborative, inclusive and respectful of young people and their parents/carers.Communities and Social Services/Policyhttps://theinnovateproject.co.uk/The work funded through this award this year has generated two new working papers, and significant updates of several existing working papers. In what follows, I describe the two new papers and their findings. First, together with Magaly Saenz Somarriba (Interamerican Development Bank), I have studied the impact of a Uruguayan policy intended to promote the use of electronic payment technology and improved tax compliance by firms. The policy consisted in the provision of VAT rebates to consumers using a debit or credit card when making a purchase. The idea behind this policy is that transactions conducted by card rather than in cash are better documented, which would encourage firms to report the relevant transactions on their tax return, hence evading less tax. Our study shows that the VAT rebates are successful in incentivizing consumers to use their cards: the number of card transactions jumps by 50% after the introduction of the rebates. However, a comparison of retail firms (which are affected by the program, as they sell directly to consumers) with wholesale firms (which are not affected, as they sell primarily to other firms) shows that firms' reported tax liabilities did not increase. This is because the share of card sales in total reported sales is small for most firms, meaning that even a large increase in card sales leaves firms with scope to continue under-reporting some of their cash sales. Second, together with Pierre Bachas (ESSEC Business School), Roel Dom (Belgium Ministry of Justice) and Camille Semelet (University of Munich), we have studied the relationship between firms' effective tax rates and firm size. The motivation for this study is the general perception that most firms pay less tax than they should, even after accounting for profit shifting and evasion. Indeed, tax incentives such as credits, income exemptions and reduced rates can create a wedge between statutory and effective tax rates. We examine how tax incentives lower effective tax rates and how they vary with firm size. This is important because tax incentives generate a government revenue loss, can distort firms' production, and may exacerbate inequality. We devise a methodology to calculate effective tax rates from firm-level administrative tax records, a strategy that we can apply in a consistent way across 13 countries at different income levels. When plotting the ETR by firm size (revenue) quantiles, we observe an inverted U-shape pattern, which is common across countries. The ETR increases with firm size until about the 90th percentile and then falls for the largest firms. A firm in the top 1% of size faces an ETR that is three percentage points lower than a firm in the top 10%. Small firms face lower ETRs than mid-sized firms due to reduced statutory tax rates and a higher propensity to register losses. The drop in the ETR at the top is due to tax credits, which are disproportionately used by large firms. This drop also implies a substantial scope for a global minimum tax to raise revenue.Our research findings might directly influence policy design in low and middle-income countries. For instance, the study on VAT rebates in Uruguay would caution governments hoping to use these rebates with the aim of achieving improved tax compliance. We argue that other policies, such as mandates to oblige firms to offer card payments, or policies that incentivize the adoption of point-of-sale terminals by firms are more likely to be successful in improving tax compliance. If a government is primarily aiming to increase the take-up of electronic payment technology, however, the VAT rebates are a suitable policy tool (although it is possible that other policy tools are more cost-effective). Our results on effective tax rates are relevant for countries as they decide how to adjust their tax systems to the presence of a global minimum tax. This minimum tax would apply to some of the largest multinationals and would imply that offering tax incentives to attract these MNEs may not be a successful policy tool anymore, as firms would have to pay a top-up tax on profits that are taxed below the global minimum rate (currently set at 15%). We show that eliminating tax incentives can increase tax revenue in low and middle-income countries substantially.Government Democracy and JusticeThe preliminary results showed age-related differences in hypothalamic glial cells/ neurons. Firstly, the different glial populations (microglia, astrocytes) were studied and age-related differences in the distribution, number and morphology were observed in all of them, associated with an increased inflammation in the medio-basal hypothalamus with the age. Secondly, different neuronal populations involved in appetite control were studied and age-related differences were observed, with a decline in a specific neuronal population. Thirdly, cell death studies were performed in order to asses age-related apoptosis but our suggested that ageing is not associated to neuronal/ glial death within the hypothalamus. Finally, studies involving myelin and the cells that produce it (oligodendrocytes) were performed painting out age-related differences in the myelin formation and assembly.- Future peer-review publicationsHealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe new-research element in this award was only the 25% of the time (less than 3 months), therefore new knowledge was generated but understanding this time limitation. The main reflections from this process are about the relevance and variety of local narratives (at neighbourhood and community level) as counternarratives of a city model coming from historical depictions of a city, government and development models. In other words, this short research allowed us to explore how different civic groups and collective action gives their territories and activities different meanings to what the hegemonic discourses about the city dictates. For example, how a neighbourhood that has been historically perceived as poor and dangerous, can be seen by many others as a hot spot for alternative cultural innovation and example of popular education, having a beneficial impact in children and youth from poor and disruptive households. However short, that time in Manizales allowed me to explore doing collaborative videos for digital media (Instagram) as a participatory research method to understand different narratives about a same place (city, neighbourhood, region). In learning this new skill by doing it, I also learnt about the technical requirements and challenges involved in producing digital narratives, for example, editing times and preparing scripts for clearer and impactful stories. In that sense, this research opened new avenues for future studies using digital narratives as a collaborative method in urban studies, but also as possible data to be integrated into research designs (when appropriate). Through the collaborations formed in this exercise, I gained new contacts with civic organisations and universities in Manizales, which have already been fruitful in new join proposals and collaborations. Sadly, due to personal and family issues during my fieldwork, I couldn't visit a university in Medellin, which I had previously contact and where I was going to spend one week building new contacts and co-producing a seminar around collective action for spatial justice. I poposed an alternative arrangement (online) so we could take forward these objectives, but the university couldn't accommodate to this. In the end, I developed a workshop with a university in Manizales instead (Included in the section of engagement).Apart from the academic papers (once these are published), the videos produced during this award are visible and accessible to everyone using Instagram or Facebook, and could provide new routes for research, and connect researchers with small civic organisations in Manizales, Colombia, around similar interests (e.g., popular education, counternarratives, citizen participation in urban and regional planning).Communities and Social Services/PolicyEducationEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsOtherThis research has funded the development of new techniques to date old crustal fluids (Holland et al., Nature 2013). This type of information is key for developing safety cases for the siting for hazardous materials requiring deep geological disposal such as nuclear waste and anthropogenic CO2. This information is also an important component in identifying how hydrocarbon deposits have formed and is of interest to the hydrocarbon industry. This work has directly led to the reassessment of the hydrogen generation rate within the continental crust (Sherwood Lollar et al., NAture 2015). Hydrogeni generation is of huge academic interest relevant to understanding life in extreme environments but also critical when making a safety case for waste repositories as it can play a key role in bio-activity and redox. Another significant component of the research has been the development of using the noble gas tracers to identify and quantify how water interacts with subsurface non-water phases(Zhou et al., GCA 2012). Important for using this technique has been developing the physical chemical data base that describes the effect of pressure and temperature on the way the noble gas tracer partitions between different phases. Significant advances in both experimental determination of these parameters and theoretical modelling has been made (Warr et al., 2015a; 2015b; 2016) A significant field effort to identify the fate of CO2 in an EOR injection program has resulted in important studies investigating the water/CO2/rock reactions. A tracer injection program has only recently yielded data and publications are yet expected from this work that will link the rate of reactions to injection - a key objective of the consortium.Engagement with oil industry (in progress)EnergyEnvironmentDespite its importance for a host of cellular processes and contribution to neurological, viral, and bacterial disease, the molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of the heterotetrameric motor kinesin-1 by its light chains and the binding of its cargo are not well understood. In PNAS (2016) we describe how a previously unnoticed intramolecular interaction between the light chain tetratricopeptide repeat domain (KLC2TPR) and a highly conserved peptide motif within an unstructured region of the molecule occludes a key cargo binding site on the light-chain TPR domain. Cargo binding displaces this intramolecular interaction, effecting a global overall conformational change in KLCs that results in a more extended conformation. We propose a model describing how, via this molecular switch, cargo binding regulates the activity of the holoenzyme. We have gone onto show how this switch operates in the context of lysosome transport (JCS 2017). We have also recently used this knowledge to identify the first small-molecules that can target this enzyme (PNAS 2017), raising the possibility that in the future, it could be considered a drug target.Our work which describes how the molecular motor kinesin-1 is controlled by cargo binding offers a long sought molecular insight into how this crucial enzyme functions. Kinesin-1 is involved in viral and bacterial infections as well as neurological disease. Our new insights open up the possibility of pharmacologically targeting the protein for therapeutic use.Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttp://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/02/10/1520817113.longSARS-CoV-2 infection causes varied clinical presentation in humans and animals ranging from asymptomatic to severe disease. Infection and transmission dynamics have been studied yet the extent primary infection protects against longitudinal re-infection with a similar or more distant virus variants remains poorly defined. The consequence of SARS-CoV-2 re-infection, ability for onward transmission and the role of antibody responses on SARS-CoV-2 virus evolution was investigated in a mild/asymptomatic ferret model. Ferrets, like mink and other mammals (cats, dogs, zoo animals, wildlife) are also fully susceptible to infection in nature. Ferrets were directly infected with either SARS-CoV-2 Delta or Omicron (BA.1.17) variant and then re-infected after five months with the same or the alternative virus. Clinical, virological and immunological parameters were assessed. Upper respiratory (nose/mouth) and gastro-intestinal (anal) shedding was observed from all directly infected previously naïve/non-immune ferrets with higher virus shedding from the Delta variant infected ferrets compared to that of those infected by Omicron. Antibodies able to inhibit the virus were high in Delta virus infected ferrets (>90) and this correlated with protective immunity against teh same or different variant re-infection. Ferrets directly infected with Omicron virus variant resulted in lower inhibitory antibody levels with limited re-infection following challenge with the same virus (omicon). However, ferrets infected with Omicron with very low antibody levels (=8) prior to re-infection were not protected against the opposite virus variant challenge and resulted in direct-contact transmission of virus ferret-to-ferret. This study demonstrated that inhibitory antibody levels can be sustained for up to five months in ferrets and provides protective immunity against re-infection with the same or a different virus variant. This supportive evidence for longitudinal immunity against re-infection and transmission contributes to our understanding on the threats of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants with regards to prior exposure, 'herd' immunity and vaccination strategies. It has relevance for ferrets, other related animal species and reflect that seen humans.COVIRN project Defra R&D UK-ICN - Animal CoVs Conferences NCS-Protect Microbiology Society Annual meeting 2023 STAR-IDAZ gap analysis and roadmap for animal coronaviruses Manuscript in preparation -Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentHealthcareGovernment Democracy and JusticeWe have discovered / determined and mapped the Common Line itself - the longest straight line traceable across Britain. We have developed a library of digital artefacts - chiefly drawings of trees - than will be used in AR experiences to digitally plant trees We are designing an interactive and immersive smartphone-based experience of the Common Line We have disseminated the work via a wide range of talks and events We continue to refine our Common Line smartphone app, adding new AR-digital tools based on tree modellingFinding a way for the Common Line to become a self-sustaining endeavour via public donation, subscription and interaction, as well as artistic content, is the long-term goal for the project team.Creative EconomyDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Culture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://thecommonline.uk/1. Preliminary assessment of the impacts of agricultural expansion on the long-term sustainability of groundwater resources in the Ica Valley. A period of 3.7-5.9 years was estimated to be needed to replenish water resources consumed by agricultural production. There is thus an urgent need to manage water resources more effectively and promote more sustainable use of water to protect both traditional and agro-export agricultural practices as well as allocations for urban water supply and the environment. 2. In Arequipa (Peru), there is a need to promote adaptation in water and land management (SDG 6) due to perceived impacts of extreme climate events (SDG 13), urban population growth (SDG 11), and increased sectoral water demands. This situation in combination with poor governance and lack of planning has exposed the vulnerability of Arequipa water supply system to future shocks. 3. An evaluation of multiscalar water and energy needs in agricultural land systems in Santa Elena (Ecuador) showed that the system struggles to fully meet water requirements for irrigation during the dry season. Different scenarios were applied to provide evidence to policymakers to promote sustainable food production and water resources planning in a context of climate change and agricultural expansion 4. Design of integrated modelling toolkit combining the biophysical and socioeconomic aspects of agricultural expansion. This toolkit provides insights on the implications of farming practices and future scenarios in the case study areas. This can be applied to other regions/countries experiencing the same issues with the expansion of the agro-export sector, which is a challenge in many other places around the world and has implications for water and energy security, food security and livelihoods of farmers. ODA relevance of research findings: Regarding findings 1 and 3: In most developing countries, the increase in international agricultural trade is promoted as a development strategy due to their high revenue and labour intense production potential. However, significant expansion in the agro-export sector may lead to major detrimental impacts on water resources due to a lack of regulation and weakened controls over irrigation abstraction. The situation may be exacerbated by socio-economic challenges relating to food insecurity and inequalities due to increasing dependency on staple food imports. Regarding findings 2 and 4: to solve the water crisis in Peru and Ecuador, better governance and enforcement are key. To be able to design coherent policies to tackle this multidimensional water problem, a water-food-energy-environment nexus approach is needed to ensure that all the conflicts and synergies are considered and properly addressed.The key outcomes from the project have been shared with key stakeholders in the case studies (Ica in Peru, Santa Elena in Ecuador). Many of those stakeholders were representing different government agencies related to agriculture, water, energy and the environment. The findings from this project have provided them with 1) scientific evidence of the sustainability issues related to agricultural development; 2) a modelling toolkit to study the implications of agricultural development in the water-energy-food-environment nexus; and 3) a better understanding of the importance of a nexus approach in policymaking.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnergyEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and Justicehttps://nextagproject.wordpress.com/This grant allowed us to develop a better understanding of how to generate long-wavelength radiation using semiconductor nanostructures. In particular we explored the possibility of achieving light emission exploiting interactions between polaritons, hybrid excitations, half-light and half-matter, which exist in properly engineered semiconductor nanostructures. We explored different possibile ideas for light-emitting devices, reported in 4 different publications. After the end of the grant we kept developing its results, leading to many other works published in prestigious journals (Physical Review Letters, Nature Communications, and others). In 2018 for the first time we experimentally observed light emission from a device linked with this research. The publication in which we reported such results was chosen as Featured paper of the month by the journal Applied Physics Letters.In the past few years the basic ideas put forward in the publications realised thanks to this grant stimulated a number of other works by different groups worldwide. In 2018 I was invited to write a piece in Nature Photonics describing the development of such a branch of research, a clear sign of the impact which this project has achieved on the present research landscape. Multiple experimental groups are presently working to implement ideas developed in this project.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Electronicshttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140618100530.htmComprehensive knowledge about farm and rural energy generation, distribution, load profiles and tariffs. Detailed load profiles on the example of a university campus in a rural location based on actual consumed energy, theoretical profiles and audited sites. Electrical energy data was obtained from an existing building energy management system (half hourly metered) and by installing a three-phase energy logger on farms (high resolution itemised electrical load data). The results of dairy (300 herd rotary parlour milking) demonstrate coincidence of peak demand and high tariffs. Modelling total load shifting to avoid high cost periods demonstrates significant savings if considering purely the cost of energy. The cost benefit also requires detailed knowledge of the production process and this has been studied in detail for dairy. Although battery storage is being installed commercially for grid support services, the price is not yet viable for local installation in combination with renewable energy schemes, e.g. photovoltaic (PV) to enable more on site use. A range of case studies of five commercial UK dairy farms and six arable farms were conducted. The dairy farms were 120 - 400 of herd size, one robotic milking and three parlour milking type. All farms used solar PV renewable generation (capacity 10 kW - 650 kW). The following loads were matched to renewable generation: refrigeration, ice builder, compressors, some parlour motor loads, compressors, fans and some hot water demand. The 650 kW solar PV farm was a net exporter to the grid. The six arable farms were the following types: grain drying and potatoes (two), grain drying and mixed arable (two), mixed arable and potatoes (one) and mixed arable (one). Similarly, all farms used solar PV renewable generation (capacity 40 kW - 250 kW). One grain drying and potatoes farms used two wind turbines (11 and 20 kW), and the mixed arable and potatoes farm used a 500 kW wind turbine (also 250 kW solar PV). All farms had matched the grain drying equipment and potato chillers electrical loads to renewable generation. The farm with the 250 kW solar PV and 500 kW wind turbine was a net exporter of electrical energy consuming 1/3 of its own renewably generated electrical energy. The results demonstrate there is scope and practical application of load matching in farm energy systems.Reduce the cost of energy in rural communities. Reduce the carbon footprint in rural communities. Optimise local electrical energy grid.Agriculture Food and DrinkCommunities and Social Services/PolicyEnergyEnvironmentY-Check is a multi-country research study which aims to develop, implement and evaluate an adolescent health and wellbeing check-up visit intervention. We conducted a pilot study in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe which was led by The Health Research Unit Zim (THRU ZIM) at the Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI) in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, and partners. We conducted a hybrid implementation-effectiveness study of Y-Check, a comprehensive adolescent health check-up intervention in Zimbabwe. Eligible participants were 10-19-year-olds attending primary school, secondary school or community venues. We used self-administered digital questionnaires, provider-led clinical tests, and nurse reviews to screen for 20 conditions/behaviours. We provided health promotion, on-site care and referral to relevant providers. From October 2022 to September 2023, 2097 adolescents were enrolled and 1843 (87.9%) followed-up at 6 months. The primary outcome of appropriate care and/or referral(s) for all identified issues was achieved for (1321/1865) 70.8% of participants (95%CI 68.7-72.9%). At follow-up, there were improvements in nutrition, health-related quality of life, self-esteem, behaviours and educational outcomes. The intervention was feasible and acceptable but access to referral services varied by condition. Y-Check cost USD47 per participant. Through Y-Check, we identified untreated conditions, successfully treated and linked adolescents to services, and had positive impacts on health and well-being.The Y-Check study showed the feasibility of delivering health and wellbeing check-up visits in urban Zimbabwe and provided initial evidence on the effectiveness of check-ups on health, education and well-being outcomes. The implementation procedures and findings have fed directly into planning for similar Y-Check studies in Tanzania and Ghana under the leadership of WHO, Geneva and funded by Fondation Botnar. In 2025, UNICEF will implement adolescent check-up visit in Indonesia, Jamaica and Papau New Guinea for 2025 building directly on the experiences of Y-Check and adapting the Y-Check tools and procedures.EducationHealthcare1. A projected field electromagnet was procured and a method developed for setting a 3 dimensional vector field. In essence it is necessary to perform test runs of a sweep with a particular field history and create a look-up table for future use. However it was found that the water cooling for the high current coils also produced significant vibration such that the system needs to be used advisedly for measurements where high spatial resolution is required. Minimum vibration and thermal drift can be achieved through accurate positioning of a permanent bias magnet using a stepper motor. 2. Spatially and time resolved scanning Kerr microscopy measurements were made on high quality samples produced by our project partners at Brown University, University of Gothenburg, and Western Digital. The in-plane (anti-damping) torque was quantified and found to dominate in the samples tested, while the out-of-plane (field-like) torque was generally difficult to separate from the Oersted field generated by the injected current. 3. Studies of small amplitude precession in spin Hall nano-oscillators revealed a surprising spatial variation of the spin-orbit torque. This is understood in terms of spreading of the injected microwave current, presumably due to the reactance associated with the sample geometry, that is not observed for an injected DC current. DC current injection led to the first reported images of the so-called bullet mode. However, the size of the injection-locked bullet mode appeared to increase with the size of the DC current, suggesting that spreading of the infected RF current destabilises its position, leading to a reduced locking range.Understanding of the spatial variation of spin-orbit toque will be useful in future device design.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)1. MHz wireless power is able to penetrate soil for energizing underground sensors to a depth of 10s of cm. 2. The system operates well when the soil is wet and dry and efficiency only drops off when the soil is both wet and salty. 3. Induced voltage estimation in the transmit coil can be used to characterise the type of soil, and moisture content. 4. MHz wireless power transmitters can be attached to flying drones (given the very light weight of the hardware) making the solution far more practical than kHz IPT 5. Bidirectional power transfer can be obtained by phase adjustment and frequency synchronisation between the two sides of a link, and allowing a drone to be charged, or the drone to charge other objects. 6. Ultra-wideband (UWB) provides a convenient and efficient means to wirelessly communicate between mobile agents (e.g., UAVs) and embedded sensing devices for the purposes of data transfer and highly accurate point-to-point localisation. The latter is particularly important when designing a precision localisation solution to enable maximum efficiency wireless power transfer, where there exists a combined optimum distance and orientation between transmit and receive coils. 7. Using mobile agents, i.e., UAVs, to collect data from and wirelessly charge UAVs can be characterised as a hybrid of Travelling Salesman and Orienteering Problems. This is an NP-hard nonconvex nonlinear integer programming problem, best practically solved using metaheuristic optimisation algorithms. We have found that existing algorithms (such as Guided Local Search) can be improved using a Black Hole-inspired algorithm to yield more reliable solutions. Additionally, we have found that it is possible to incorporate real-time state information to adjust flight plans online in order to reliably complete missions while maximising the data collected and power transferred. Our proposed Rapid Online Metaheuristic-based Planner (ROMP) that captures this solution is under review for publication in IEEE TMC. [Preprint https://arxiv.org/pdf/2203.04595.pdf] 8. Autonomous flight in unknown environments with unpredictable environmental dynamics (e.g., aerodynamic forces) is a challenging problem that may be solved using distributional reinforcement learning (DRL) as part of the flight control framework. We have found that integrating a DRL disturbance estimator for a priori unknown aerodynamic effects with a stochastic model predictive controller can significantly improve the performance of quadrotor UAV tracking control systems over the comparable art, in addition to balancing trade-offs between high performance and safety constraints. Our proposed approach is under review for publication in the IEEE Transaction on Automation Science and Engineering. [Preprint: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2302.11694.pdf]There are attractive opportunities for industry to develop products based on these findings, and for farmers to adopt these to enhance soil health and consequntly the sustainability and productivity of their farms. We are working with suitable organisations to advance these possibilities. There are also opportunities for this technology in other sectors, such as defence and security, which we are also exploring with other partners.Agriculture Food and DrinkDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)ElectronicsInertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosions are driven by the rapid removal of material, or ablation, of the outer shell of a spherical capsule containing heavy hydrogen, the fusion fuel. The conservation of momentum accelerates the remaining shell inwards compressing the interior, the fuel, to high density. This works much like the hot propellant launching a rocket. At peak compression the rapid deceleration of the inwards flowing shell and fuel raises the fuel temperature to start thermonuclear reactions. In direct drive ICF a powerful laser ablates the outer shell to drive the compression and generate shock waves. As the laser power and intensity increases this drives waves in the plasma resulting in processes that are detrimental to the implosion and with physics that is not completely understood. These plasma waves waste laser energy by scattering it away from the implosion and generates energetic electrons. These, respectively, reduce the ablation efficiency and preheating the fuel. The laser-plasma interaction details are dependent on the size and temperature of the plasma, conditions that normally need a full size implosion experiment. Our new experimental design enables measurements of these processes on smaller laser systems opening a way to collect much more data to explore this physics and find a way to minimise the energy loses and impact of the energetic electrons. We are in the process of developing x-ray phase contrast imaging techniques for the use with inertial confinement fusion implosions. Initial experiments on non-fusion experiments using bremsstrahlung x-ray sources are very promising. These methods augment the absorption contrast measurements using standard radiography, but utilizing the phase information carried in an x-ray beam to detect regions of rapid change in density, for example at a shock front. We have demonstrated this technique on the Omega and Vulcan lasers in the USA and UK respectively. Some of this work has been published, for example in Physical Review Letters, additional work is being prepared for publication.Progress in fusion research, and in this case inertial confinement fusion, is dependent on measurement. These outcomes provide a new platform to enable more experiments and collect more data and a new diagnostic technique to help create a more complete understanding of the outcomes of an experiment. We are optimistic that phase contrast imaging can provide information that is otherwise inaccessible, and with further development of x-ray backlighter sources this can become a very powerful tool. We have applied to EPSRC, with Robbie Scott (STFC) as lead, for a Programme Grant. We have applied to EPSRC, with Simon Bland (IC) as lead, for a Partnership Grant with First Light Fusion.EnergyWe have developed a computer modelling system (Flexible Nets) that allows us to represent both the metabolism of a microbe or mammalian cell together with relevant characteristics of the fermentation system in which the cells/microbes are grown. This allows us to determine the optimum conditions for the production of an industrial product by the microbe. Optimisation for different kinds of productivity may be carried out, e.g. amount of product produced by a given volume of fermenter per hour; amount of product produced per amount of biomass per hour; amount of product produced per mass of carbon source per hour. The optimised parameters can be exploited by genetic engineers in organism design or by chemical engineers in process design.The outcomes, in terms of both the tools and controllers developed, may be used by our industrial collaborators to design, optimise, and control biotechnological processes for chemicals production. They may also be exploited by producers ob biologics (e.g. antibodies) and we have been in close contact with such manufacturers to promote this.ChemicalsHealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe methods studied are so-called Bayesian nonparametric methods, which combines two key ideas of statistics, the Bayesian and the nonparametric approach. The most consequential outcome has no doubt been work on how to use these approaches to analyse relational data---data that records interactions between objects or individuals, such as social network data, biological networks, user preferences, etc. Our results have influenced work on such models by other groups in statistical methodology, in mathematical statistics, and in machine learning. Keywords include graphon models, exchangeable graphs, and exchangeable arrays. Another important outcome has been a theoretical result that clarified open questions regarding the mathematical construction of the arguably most fundamental Bayesian nonparametric model, known as the Dirichlet process, and of related models.As mentioned above, work covered by this grant on analyzing and learning from social network and relational data have influenced work on such models in statistics and machine learning.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)To date, 1. novel understanding of how to use aerosols as a moderator to control charge deposition onto an encapsulated target, by firing the aerosol through a discharge plasma 2. a new approach to calculating the diffusion properties of (charged) aerosols and dust in gas-plasma mixtures 3. new insight into the enhanced chemistry possible in aerosolised, charged dropletsgiven that we are engaged in building a novel real-time airborne bacteria warning system, this will be of huge interest to the biohazard community, sensors, medicine, military etc. The enhanced chemical pathways possible in charged aerosols are hugely significant as novel nanofabrication techniques; the biocidal promise of plasma-treated droplets has myriad applications in biosciences and medicine. The underlying innovation in charging droplets in this way is still being explored: we have accrued a significant data set that requires patient analysis and modelling, and we are not yet finished.Agriculture Food and DrinkEducationEnvironmentHealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologySecurity and DiplomacyThe function of a portion (domain) of the ASPM protein has been determined which was previously unknown. The structure of another domain has been determined where it was also previously unknown.Finding to be used by other for further understanding of how the protein / gene works.OtherOur project examined scaling across species, including bone structure and locomotor habits. We developed novel techniques in both arenas (analyzing bone structure and quantifying gait patterns) and have also developed a new open-source software platform for analysis of images (boneJ.org). Prior to this project, the majority of scaling studies examined a limited number of variables (mass, length of the bone, and diameter of the bone at mid-shaft), which provide a limited indication of bone mechanics. Our novel analysis methods of bone structure included 3-dimensional morphology along the entire length of the bone. This revealed that the scaling at the mid-shaft is different than scaling at the ends of bones around the joints. We have analyzed four clades of animals and revealed differences in scaling trends across clades. Gait analysis was performed in zoos and wild animal parks with marker and markerless systems with a force plate(s) in the ground to record ground reaction forces. Analysis of the kinetics (forces) during animal locomotion is particularly novel across such a wide range of species (28 species, walking and running gaits for multiple individuals). We have developed our own code on a Matlab platform for obtaining joint angles and joint moments from 2D or 3D data.. We will be sharing this code with others in the community once our initial publications are accepted. The most wide-spread impact of our research has been in the development of BoneJ, an open source plug-in for the imageJ platform that automatically analyzes image data for standard parameters. It was developed because of our frustration with commercial software and is intended to analyze the cross sectional properties of bones from computer tomography images. However, one year after its release, we realize the user group is incredibly diverse ranging from morphology of marine coral to design of nuclear reactors. The adoption of boneJ across many disciplines has happened for a number of reasons: 1) it is free; 2) it is open source so users can see how all calculations are made, 3) it is extendable and allows for other features to be easily added, and 4) we have developed a incredibly responsive user group culture, fostered primarily by the support given by Michael Doube, the PDRA on the grant at Imperial. These contributions have established a new standard in scaling research, pushing the boundaries of traditional scaling studies to exploit current technical and computing methods, and have assembled a staggeringly large database of bone images and experimental data on locomotion.BoneJ software is open source and has been put to broad usage by >8000 others already-- http://bonej.org/ and https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/bonej-users-and-developers and http://forum.imagej.net/tags/bonejDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)HealthcareManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttp://bonej.org/Improving or creating new urban green spaces is a potentially promising approach to enhance population wellbeing. Mounting cross-sectional evidence suggests that having access to urban green spaces (such as parks, woodlands and tree-lined streets) can provide a range of potential benefits for wellbeing. However, robust evidence on the most effective ways to deliver these wellbeing benefits remains limited. Producing robust evidence is crucial to better inform the many policies in the UK and Europe that are now beginning to recommend improving or creating new urban green spaces as an approach to enhance population wellbeing. Addressing this research gap is urgent due to rapid urbanisation, with more people living in dense built-up urban areas with limited access to high-quality green space. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted this as a priority, as local-area urban green spaces play a key role in buffering the negative effects of social isolation and stressful life events. Building on the Five Ways to Wellbeing approach to mental wellbeing promotion, a range of new robust methods were developed to help researchers conduct rigorous evaluations of the wellbeing effects of creating new or improving existing urban green spaces. Examples of methodological innovations developed include a new observation tool for assessing three wellbeing-related behaviours (physical activity, social interactions, taking notice of the environment) and a new method for identifying well-matched comparison sites. These new methods were implemented in two evaluations of real-world urban green space interventions in Greater Manchester. In the first study, in partnership with a local housing association in a deprived neighbourhood in Manchester, a small-scale tree planting initiative developed and implemented by the local community was evaluated. No effects were observed of small-scale tree planting, despite expectations of the housing association that delivered the intervention. The intervention was not substantial enough to cause behaviour change, especially compared to other recent neighbourhood changes in the area. In the second study, in partnership with a private developer in Salford, an evaluation was conducted to assess the impact of new canal walking infrastructure. There were large effects of the changes on canal use and multiple wellbeing outcomes. This study suggests that even relatively small-scale interventions which improve access to green corridors along canals and provide separate routes for different types of physical activities can have measurable impacts on the use of urban green spaces. This evidence will be particularly useful given the increasing interest in evidence-informed urban design policies and practices.A suite of methods has been produced that will enable future researchers to conduct robust methods to produce wellbeing impact evidence in relation to the urban physical or social environment. In particular, the observation tool developed is an inexpensive and easy-to-use method for assessing three levels of physical activity (Sedentary, Walking, Vigorous) and two other evidence-based wellbeing behaviours (Connect: social interactions; Take Notice: taking notice of the environment) in urban spaces. Producing better evidence like this is vital to ensure limited funding available for investing in urban green spaces in the UK is utilised most effectively and better inform future policy and practice, particularly as many UK policy and industry guidelines advocate improving urban green spaces as an effective approach to support health and wellbeing, without sufficient robust evidence to inform decisions.Communities and Social Services/PolicyEnvironmentLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismI proposed a method for public engagement with new technologies, using the case study of nanotechnology. This method involved non-specialists in the discussion of the scientific side of the controversy, rather than just in the social or economic side. While criticism of the science was often also voice in standard public consultations and engagements, these were often discredited or edited out entirely. My method led to discussions where public arguments regarding the science could not be so easily dismissed. I also used this project to develop future research on other environmental controversies, especially climate change.The findings could be used to develop methods for public engagement with other types of 'invisible risk', including climate change. More work could be done on embedding and valuing critical public opinion. The method has already been employed by the Museum for Telecommunications in Oslo.Agriculture Food and DrinkCreative EconomyEducationEnergyEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsPharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttps://mutablematter.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/practitioner-handbook-v1/Despite their huge financial and operational impact to industry, the fundamental mechanisms that affect the build-up and breakdown of friction, wear and corrosion films are not well understood. We have exploiting state-of-the-art experimental techniques, such as in situ X-ray imaging/spectroscopy and in situ analytical TEM characterisation, to quantify the physical and chemical interactions that take place under extreme operating conditions at fluid-film-substrate interfaces for the first time. This shed new light on the nucleation, growth and critically the breakdown of corrosion scales and tribofilms at the micro- and nano-scales. This, allied with detailed and validated multiscale computational modelling, is helping to build a picture of how the chemistries in the fluidic media interact with the nearby surfaces, and thereby generating the insights needed to develop the next generation of corrosion inhibitors, lubricant additives and material technology, that will meet operational and safety requirements, whilst offering cost and environmental benefits and energy efficiency.This project was 50% funded by BP and they meet regularly with us to look at how to take up the outcomes from this project, for example, the most cost efficient use of inhibitors to stop corrosion, . In addition, the results of our work on lubricants were being fed into bp Castrol activities and will help to generate more optimized engine oils for hybrid vehicles.Aerospace Defence and MarineEnergyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologySo far, we have identified both similarities and differences between the mouse and human brain. Specifically: - cingulate cortex shows greater similarity than previously expected, although human cingulate is more differentiated - surprisingly, anterior ínsula shows quite substantial connectivity differences across species - rodent premotor cortex contains multiple regions that partially follow human organisational principles.We are working to create a full mouse-to-human brain translational brain atlas, which will be of great relevance to translational neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, and the pharmaceutical industry.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the current food security situation in Syria. - There has been a three-fold increase in the proportion of surveyed Syrian households reporting poor food consumption since May 2020. - Many Syrians have had to employ one or more coping strategies to manage their food intake, including limiting portion size or reducing the frequency of meals. - COVID-19 has created complex interactions between food security and mental health of displaced Syrians. - The current COVID-19 crisis has also exacerbated ongoing precarious working and living conditions that many Syrians have coped with for almost a decade, and jeopardizes individual and community-based coping mechanisms that have otherwise kept their heads above water. - From an academic perspective, the novel remote ethnographic research methods which we employed in this study, in 2020 as a result of COVID-19, have improved quality of outputs in at least three ways: identification of unanticipated new research themes (including remote ethnography); access to new field sites, including inside Syria and in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which has strengthened the comparative perspective of our study; creation of new digital outputs (e.g. virtual food diaries archive).It is too early to say as this work is still ongoing. Our preliminary work in this project (and its companion project: From the Field) has highlighted essential links between food security and mental health as they have manifested among Syrians. A future focus should be on the non-communicable diseases that can proliferate under the cover of Covid-19. Our project outcomes have already informed another successful funding application to the AHRC rapid call on COVID 19's impact on modern slavery.Agriculture Food and DrinkEducationhttps://www.onehealthfieldnetwork.org/syrianfoodfuturesSummary/Overview: Genome assemblies and annotations of M. persicae clones O and G006 were frozen and made available to the scientific community via AphidBase (http://www.aphidbase.com/Myzus-DB). Analyses of orthologous gene clusters among insects with complete genome sequences were conducted. Expanded/contracted gene families were identified. Experimental data to support findings were generated. Several drafts of a manuscript reporting the GPA genome sequence were exchanged. RNA-seq and BS-seq data of GPA colonies on diverged plant species are being generated. Experimental data to study genes involved in GPA adjustment to various plant species are available and form the basis of future experiments and publications. In the first publication published in Genome Biology, (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13059-016-1145-3), we examined the question how the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae, colonises plant species across 40 families, and how a single M. persicae clonal lineages can colonise distantly related plants. This remarkable ability makes M. persicae a highly destructive pest of many important crop species. To investigate the exceptional phenotypic plasticity of M. persicae, we sequenced the M. persicae genome and assessed how one clonal lineage responds to host plant species of different families. We showed that genetically identical individuals are able to colonise distantly related host species through the differential regulation of genes belonging to aphid-expanded gene families. Multigene clusters collectively upregulate in single aphids within two days upon host switch. In addition, we published a paper in Molecular Ecology (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mec.15216). We found that male and asexual female morphs have distinct DNA methylation profiles. Strikingly, these profiles are divergent between the sex chromosome and the autosomes; autosomal genes are hypomethylated in males compared to asexual females, whereas genes belonging to the sex chromosome, which is haploid in males, are hypermethylated. Overall, we found correlated changes in methylation and gene expression between males and asexual females, and this correlation was particularly strong for genes located on the sex chromosome. Our results suggest that differential methylation of sex-biased genes plays a role in aphid sexual differentiation.The genome assemblies and annotations of GPA clone O and G006 genomes are available for downloading by the scientific community worldwide. A publication reporting on unique aspects of the GPA genome is in preparation. Scientific findings have been reported in regular meetings with Syngenta. Postdoctoral researchers on the project reported their research progress at scientific meetings, including those organized by the European COST program, Kiel, Germany (one talk) and the French-UK Aphid meeting in Paris, France (Nov 2015, 2 talks). The RA in the Hogenhout lab presented at talk on research progress at a scientific meeting in Lauret, France (Sep 2015). One PI presented talks on aphids at a JIC-CAS symposium (Beijing, China, March 2015).Agriculture Food and DrinkChemicalsEducationEnvironmenthttp://www.aphidbase.com/Myzus-DBAn important key finding of our work has been that thermoelectric performance can be preserved from the single-molecule level to thin films. This is an important step towards real-life "molecular" thermoelectric devices.Device engineers can start to consider how molecular thin-films could be integrated into new devices.ElectronicsEnergySurface sediments from across the East Siberian Shelf, collected during the International Siberian Shelf Studies 2008 (ISSS-08) expedition and stored at the University of Stockholm, have been sub sampled and 90 sediments were collected. These have been extracted and analysed for their microbial biomarker composition, glycerol dialkyl glycerol dialkyl tetraether lipids (GDGTs) and bacteriohopanepolyols (BHPs). Initial analyses revealed differences in the distribution and composition of the BHPs throughout the Bour-Khaya Bay and the East Siberian Shelf. Characteristic BHPs indicate significant amounts of microbial derived terrestrial soil organic matter throughout the Bour-Khaya Bay. This suggests a stronger preservation of these soil derived BHPs in the bay, when compared to the abundance of soil derived GDGTs. Initial work also highlighted the need for a better understanding of the signatures contained in terrestrial endmember materials (soils/peat/permafrost/lake sediments). Whilst these investigations are ongoing, initial results suggests permafrost BHP signatures comprise a highly unusual fingerprint which can be traced into the Arctic Ocean.The effects of climate warming in the Arctic region may have a direct effect on the global carbon cycle and ultimately on global society. Therefore many different groups will benefit from the outcomes of our research including politicians and policy makers dealing with sensitive areas such as carbon dioxide emission rights. This is a highly topical subject of great interest to the general public; hence our research will be of widespread appeal. Consequently, some of our targets will primarily be aimed at the general public with an interest in the Arctic region and/or the effects of climate change. To ensure that (specific) end-users have the opportunity to benefit from our research we use a variety of mechanisms including press releases, websites and participation in public events. We maintain a high profile of our work by presentations at national and international conferences and by publishing in high quality peer-reviewed journals. We will also archive our results and make sure that results can be widely and transparently accessed. Research on the large amounts of terrestrial organic carbon currently being remobilized from the Russian Arctic tundra/taiga areas and transported to the Eurasian Arctic Shelf is critical to our understanding of both the biogeochemical fate of this material and the effects of climate warming on the remobilization/release and degradation/microbiological cycling of this material in the Eurasian Arctic region. In turn, these processes have potential implications for the entire global carbon-climate system. Those interested in (Arctic) climate change will benefit from this research via a better understanding of the impacts of warming climate on the redistribution and degradation of 'old' carbon that was frozen in time in the Eurasian Arctic region for thousands of years. Scientist modelling the effects of global climate warming in the Arctic or the global carbon cycle in general will particularly benefit. Our UK based research is linked to a high profile research program where we collaborate with Swedish-Russian-British-American-Swiss based scientists. The data sets we generate will be combined with those of the pan-arctic consortium and when combined these data will, even by first-order interpretations, significantly increase our understanding of terrestrial organic carbon processing in the Eurasian Arctic region. The outcomes of our work will also be of significant interest to scientists interested in processes and consequences of land-ocean interaction in other areas of the globe. Formation, erosion and subsequent export of soil organic matter to the ocean along with ambient vegetation debris and continental nutrients is a key element of global biogeochemical cycles that ultimately controls e.g. shallow marine organic productivity and benthic life. For obvious reasons, these processes are not restricted to any specific location or time period but are important to understand and improve prediction of future conditions.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnergyEnvironmenthttp://www.organicgeochemistry.co.uk/researchThe project has prepared and will present the first integrated resource for the study of the production and reading of polyphonic music sources from the period c.1480 to c. 1530 in a European context. This is achieved through a systematic analysis and description of the mise-en-page: the ways in which verbal text, musical notation and other graphic devices interact on the pages of manuscripts and printed editions of that time.As already explored in a workshop in 2012, ensembles specialising this repertoire might be interested in experimenting with our findings in a performing context. The way in which we capture and discuss our sources will be of relevance of scholars working on similar material in other time periods.Creative Economyhttp://www.proms.ac.ukFirstly, a significant outcome of the PhD so far is the publication of a systematic review titled ' Factor's influencing employees' eating behaviours in the office-based workplace: a systematic review'. Employees spend a large proportion of their time at work and typically consume third of their total calories during the working day. Research suggests that the workplace environment can affect employees' eating behaviours, leading to various related health consequences. This systematic review aimed to identify and synthesize the evidence surrounding factors influencing eating behaviours within an officebased workforce. The literature search was restricted to studies published in English between January 2008 and April 2018. A total of 5,017 articles were screened and assessed for eligibility, of which 22 articles (n=23 studies) were included in the review. All included studies were subjected to quality assessment and were summarized into groups (themes) of "factors" affecting any aspect of eating behaviour at work. The findings revealed a number of factors influencing eating behaviours at work relating to the job role, workplace food environment, and social aspects of the officebased workplace. Most of the existing research implies the officebased workplace has a negative influence on eating behaviours. The findings of this review provide an evidence based, comprehensive summary of the possible determinants of eating behaviours in the workplace, which may help researchers to identify factors that are potential targets for intervention. Secondly, I learnt a valuable new skill of undertaking a systematic review and since this is published I also learnt about the publication process. Thirdly, the systematic review findings has opened up further research questions. The systematic review found that colleagues are an important influence on eating behaviours in the workplace. However, it is currently unclear if colleagues have an impact on individual's body weight judgements. Decision by sampling theory (DbS) proposes that judgements of a stimuli are based on the rank of stimuli in a given sample. I conducted a study to examine whether a number of subjective judgements are influenced by where people think that they rank in terms of their weight relative to others and whether rank of weight within different reference groups predicted subjective judgements of weight status. In a cross-sectional survey, office workers (N=352) ranked their weight within four reference groups (e.g. colleagues) and measures of weight status, perceived risk of diseases associated with overweight, motivation to lose weight/engage in physical activity and self-reported weight/height. The study found that where individuals rank their weight relative to others predicted a number of subjective judgements. Participant's rank of weight among friends was the most important reference group when making weight status judgements, UK population was the most important group for remaining outcome variables. Findings support and extend DbS theory, demonstrating how subjective judgements are influenced by rank of weight among others. Future research is now investigating the composition of reference groups when making body weight judgements, using a sample of office based workers.The outcomes of the published systematic review can be used for non-academic and academic routes. Firstly, academics may wish to take forward the suggestions for further research stated within our systematic review for example., research is required to investigate disordered eating at work and any predictors that can generate or exasperate disordered eating. In terms of non-academic routes, the findings from the systematic review may be used by office-based workplaces. By informing workplaces of the factors that can affect office based workers eating behaviours, findings may inform practises or policy. For example the review found that job related factors can have a negative influence on workers eating behaviours such as eating lunch at a desk and not taking a lunch break, Therefore office workplaces and managers may want to implement strict rules/policies on eating lunch away from desks. Furthermore the review also found that the availability of healthy food options influence eating behaviours positively, therefore workplaces may modify their food environment to encourage eating. Furthermore, studies within this PhD are investigating how people make judgements about their body weight. This will add to the literature on body weight judgements in academia, develop further scientific knowledge on this topic and potentially inform possible interventions.Agriculture Food and DrinkOtherWe developed algorithms to modify (optimise) the connections of a network (its topology) so that it matches specific network characteristics. We discovered a close link between how the electroencephalogram (EEG) is generated and the PARAFAC2 tensor model, which was then exploited to obtain better estimations of EEG connectivity. Our results also confirm the dynamic nature of EEG connectivity, and suggest ways to exploited. Our work in tensor factorisations could be extended to tackle problems in other domains, such as the analysis of muscle activity and tracking development in children's brain activity.We have published the code of our algorithms so that other academics can reuse it. The work with tensor factorisations facilitated analyses of clinical datasets, and this is a piece of work we intend to pursue.Aerospace Defence and MarineDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Financial Services and Management ConsultancyHealthcareTransportThis award supports the continuation of the design and development of HARMONI, a near-infrared integral field spectrograph being built for the European Southern Observatory's Extremely Large Telescope.The work that was supported by this funding is consigned to the dustbin, and the team have had to start again from scratch, as the parameters driving the HARMONI spectrograph design were completely changed when the Project PI was removed from their post, and the entire project's direction changed.EducationThis project seeks to understand the genetics basis of willow growth and biomass. For that we sequenced and analysed a number of individuals from the willow biomass collection at Rothamsted Research. This study provides clear evidence of structure in the European Salix accessions from collections in the UK and Sweden and samples from natural populations. The distribution of phenotypic variation and possible signs of ongoing natural selection, particularly for leaf senescence and growth cessation traits, and the geographical clines supported by this work, could be taken into consideration when selecting breeding material for different climatic zones.The work has characterised a number of biological markers that can be used for the breeding of willows with specific advantageous traits.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentAdvanced, applied, test and developed the applicability of the 15N GAS FLUX method for quantifying in situ denitrification in soils under natural and semi natural terrestrial ecosystems. Following this method, the emission of N2O source partitioned between denitrification and nitrification and estimated annual denitrification rates in soils under different land use types in two replicated catchment systems.Our method paper is picking up citations showing its adoption by peers for denitrification measurements. I plan to apply this method in soils under arable agriculture with an attempt to close up the the budget and address the certainty associated with denitrification losses of nitrogen.Agriculture Food and DrinkEducationEnvironmentThis award has led to the following breakthroughs: 1) The development of optimised protocols for the production of new, medically-relevant synthetic cell (SynCell) compositions. We can now produce particles of the necessary structure to enable long circulation times in the body, and the ability to localise within the tumour. 2) Development of new drug-loading protocols to SynCells. This enables us to use the compositions in 1) as drug delivery vehicles, for the delivery of front line cancer drugs (e.g., docetaxel). 3) Confirmation of the function of medically-relevant SynCells. Specifically, the effect of surface accessibility and the mechanical properties of the SynCell on enzyme-responsive drug release. This confirms that SynCells could function within the tumour, and leads design rules that enable the development of more advanced SynCells with more protein components. 4) Supporting additional, related projects within the laboratory, as evidenced by three peer-reviewed publications in developing (i) multicompartment synthetic cells (ii) how to integrate hydrogel components (e.g., used in tissue engineering) within synthetic cells and (iii) how to develop light- and heat-responsive synthetic cells that can communicate with living cells.The outcomes of this funding will be used to apply for further funding, with the aim of further testing the ability of SynCells to treat solid tumours that contain the necessary biomarkers that SynCells selectively respond to (e.g., prostate and breast cancer). We are also using our current findings to explore clinical application of SynCell technologies. The design rules that we have generated from this grant will additionally lead to a better understanding of how the structure of the lipid compartment of the SynCell affects communication with the protein component that acts as a gate for molecular release. These rules will help us build new SynCell designs capable of more advanced sense-and-response functions, as well as test how proteins interact through the membrane (lipid compartment), which is critical to the function of natural cells within our bodies.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyOur project has now ended. We have produced outcomes that flew naturally from the two different emphases of the project: first, a hypothesis- and theoretical-driven concern, and second, a more practice-based objective. For this first endeavour, central to our inquiry was how visual culture and art diplomacy have been cultivated, integrated and capitalised in recent years to enhance China's international reputation. We wanted to produce timely knowledge that documents how Chinese contemporary art and culture have increasingly become an instrument of soft power to help rejuvenate China's nation brand and international image. By studying the key case study of the China Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, we have dissected how China's cultural policies, political ideology and Chinese contemporary art coalesce to create images of the nation. We have discovered how recent and relevant Chinese cultural policies and political discourses have steered - if not controlled - the country's global promotion of its image. Moreover, the curatorial process for the China Pavilion in Venice has been institutionally guarded, while the explanatory discourse communicated to the audience has been dominated by narratives about its traditional culture. This emphasis on the country's traditional culture and its dynastic past has served as the foundation of its international communication strategy. This past-centric approach has continued and is now embedded within its latest cultural policy on digital cultural trade. We have discovered and documented how the state's priority for the cultivation of 'vigorous' development of cultural trade through the establishment of digital cultural content -- including digital arts -- has been trickling down to the domain of contemporary art. We have shown that, for example, artworks in the China Pavilion (edition 2022) have been experimenting with the combination of Chinese traditions and digital innovations by rendering iconic Chinese nationalistic images such as mountain and water (as commonly imagined in its mountain-and-water ink paintings, shan-shui hua, or landscape paintings) through the technologies of machine learning and AI. In these instances, machine learning is used both to extract patterns from Chinese terrain data and then to generate a new object after learning from those data. We have achieved a great deal with this award. These aforementioned and other discoveries have been published in one peer-reviewed journal article (already with over 1,000 views in 6 months) and 2 more publications. Our team members have also disseminated these findings through multiple (public) lectures in the UK and in Asia. For our second endeavour which was more practical, we wanted to create a network of academics, artists, and other museum professionals to better understand the connections between Chinese state politics, cultural policies and contemporary art. We have achieved this through our website; our 2 expert roundtables with leading Chinese curators; our conference, and finally, our multiple institutional and museum visits. We have seen a multiplication of our professional relationships and will continue to leverage them for new collaborations, some of which are already in progress.We have always aimed to engage with stakeholders beyond academia. Due to the aforementioned practice-based and networking element of our project, our outcomes are also benefitting those in the field of museum policy, arts management and the creative industries in the UK. Our research conclusions could help identify new channels of Chinese artistic expressions for these practitioners. By better understanding the artistic developments in China, these professionals are better-equipped to introduce new artists, curatorial practices, exhibit themes and sustainable policies that could advance their institution's overall goals, including their audience reach and diversity. During the life of the project, we have already met with multiple museum professionals both in the UK and in China to share our findings. We will continue to do so beyond the project's end date. Moreover, the academic community, as well as professionals in the creative industry in China, would also be beneficiaries given that research on Chinese national image and the country's soft power has also spread within the country itself. We hope to plan more dissemination events for our audiences in China.Creative EconomyCulture Heritage Museums and Collectionshttps://china-art-nationbranding.org/resources/This grant is to fund a suite of equipment to be used as part of NuSTAR, Nuclear Structure Astrophysics and Reactions) at the FAIR facility in Darmstadt. Our part of the work is to help develop an array of LaBr3 detectors for measurements of lifetimes of nuclear states.The purpose of the grant was to build an array of LaBr3 scintillator detectors for use in nuclear-physics experiments to measure the lifetimes of states of exotic nuclei. The development and use of novel types of scintillators such as LaBr3 could be of use in various areas of industry and society. In particular LaBr3 has very good energy resolution (compared to other scintillator detectors) so could find use in areas such as environmental monitoring and nuclear forensics.EducationEnvironmentHealthcareSecurity and DiplomacyOtherour finding suggest that nitrogen sources and sinks are critically balanced in the Arctic and future changes can lead to N limitationIt is an important risk that can impact ecosystem and fisheries in teh Arctic and therefore informs policyEnvironmentI have developed a new understanding of how to change the approach to the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon from a top-down approach to a bottom-up approach. I have looked at how local and district authorities in Lebanon have coped with the management of the refugee crisis in order to understand the challenges faced, the limits of their roles and the good initiatives carried out. The purpose is to centralise the role of local authorities in the response to the refugee crisis and empower them for the future when funding and assistance from the international community will be cut down or reducedAlthough the purpose of this research looks at the context of Lebanon, these results can be useful for international organisations working in other contexts of displacement of refugees. My research finding will be found in key articles and reports (academic and non academic).Government Democracy and JusticeSecurity and DiplomacyOtherWe have discovered how one of the most abundant marine algal groups (diatoms), senses the important nutrient phosphorus.Further insights into phosphorus sensing mechanisms in diatoms, and their evolution Role of phosphorus sensing mechanisms in controlling toxicity of harmful algal blooms.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentAs part of this award, two main scientific developments have been found: -Selective formation of the value-added product propan-1-ol from propylene may be achieved using chemical looping, by passing propylene over Ag, AgCl, and Au catalysts supported on SrFeO3, and then subsequently reoxisiding the oxygen carrier with air. This is a novel chemical looping process, and our work provided insights into the possible surface reaction mechanisms, allowing for potential refinement of the catalyst system to produce propylene oxide from propylene, a more valueable product yet. -Addition of Ag, and, or CeO2 to the surface or bulk of SrFeO3 subtantially improves the ease of oxygen release, in terms of decreasing the minimum temperature requirement for oxygen uncoupling, and increasing the rate of oxygen release. Hence, such materials may be applied for air separation to produce high-purity oxygen, and, or, as oxygen carriers for chemical looping oxidation processes.The research performed using this funding may be used by others in the design of oxygen carriers and catalysts for chemical looping processes, including selective oxidation, to aid development of novel processes able to be operated at relatively mild conditions.ChemicalsEnergyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyThe potential for NFM and catchment based management is enormous. However, there is still significant progress to be made to allow these techniques suggested by NFM research to be aligned with the operations and methods used by industry.The government and NERC have already started to address the needs of NFM and better catchment management. Significant research funding has been put forward by Defra and NERC to underpin NFM sciences. There is a need to harmonise river restoration methods , Sustainable Drainage Systems to NFM. Equally NFM must be linked to Ecosystem Services and rural payments in order to exploit the potential of NFMAgriculture Food and DrinkConstructionEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeTransporthttp://research.ncl.ac.uk/proactive/We have developed a method to reliably fabricate optical fibres with a segment along the fibre length that is only a few hundred nanometres thick. Light is guided in the nano-segment, but because the size of the fibre is smaller than the wavelength of the light, most of the intensity is outside the fibre. The size of the nanofibre photon mode is commensurate with the resonant atomic cross section making photon scattering highly likely if an atom falls within the nanofibre mode. Our fabrication method produces fibres whose diameter tapers down from a standard fibre size to the nanoscale and then back again, allowing convenient coupling of light in and out of the nanofibres through the standard fibre pigtails. We can fabricate the fibres so that single mode propagation throughout the fibre is maintained without much loss and we learned how to image the fibres using scanning electron microscopy. The microscopy proved a valuable feedback mechanism for improving fabrication. We have developed a method to mount the fibres on a substrate using ultra-high vacuum compatible materials with good magnetic properties, and we have can further mount the substrates in a non-magnetic vacuum chamber. These are all requirements to work with ultracold atoms which provide the best isolation from the environment and therefore lead to the most stringent tests of physical phenomena such as those relating to quantum mechanics. We have preliminary results which can be interpreted as an interaction between nanofibre photons and alkali atoms within the nanofibre mode. We expanded our apparatus so that both rubidium and potassium atoms can simultaneously be trapped in an environment which preserves a long trap lifetime and good magnetic properties whilst also including the nanofibres. Significant effort was necessary to consolidate the two aspects of the project; reaching the strongly interacting regime in potassium requires a large homogeneous magnetic field in ultra-high vacuum, but the fibres need both a platform to be mounted upon and a way to feed the fibres through into the vacuum. A careful characterisation of our achieved magnetic field environment indicates that we can reach the strongly interacting regime in potassium vapour and there is plenty of scope for utilising our apparatus further in future physics programmes. During work with the laser cooling apparatus we discovered that it is possible to generate the two laser frequencies typically required to trap alkali atoms from one optically injected diode laser. We investigated this phenomenon in detail and found that the generated frequency interval can be large enough to match frequency intervals in molecules that can be laser cooled. Our method would allow a reduction of the required laser instrumentation for simple atoms and a viable route forward for the case of generating frequency intervals for molecules where optical modulators may be difficult to obtain. The phenomenon is generally applicable at all wavelengths covered by semiconductor diode lasers.Our method of procuring laser cooling light is applicable to all experiments utilising diode lasers. In particular laser cooling of molecules could be simplified. Our methods of allowing complicated structures such as the nanofibres to be mounted in an environment suitable for large magnetic fields could be applied to experiments which use large magnetic fields.Aerospace Defence and MarineElectronicsAs this project is still ongoing, this will be updated. The key findings have been in the relationship between the collector (Peter Crossley-Holland) and his collection and the difficulties of displaying cultural objects removed from their original cultures.This foundation work can pave the way for more detailed research into Peter Crossley-Holland. It has involved cataloguing and digitising documentation, which will allow for the collection to be promoted, and improve accessibility for the public and for other scholars.EducationCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsWe have developed the use of nano-metallic particles as probes to find out the distribution of biomolecules inside cells. Using this strategy we discovered that the differentiation of biological cells can be tracked optically and reported without sample destruction and use of invasive methods.The anticipated use is in pharmaceutical industry for cell based assays for testing compounds for their uptake and to understand their affects at the cellular and sub-cellular level. This is ongoing and being further developed in the remainder of this project.HealthcarePharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyThe ARUA CoE for NCDs has achieved the objectives set out. Its key achievements include the establishment of the Center of Excellence within the University of Nairobi. In as much as there were delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting planned activities, especially those related to travel, the Centre managed to work overtime to catch up with the time lost. The Center adjusted to the use of digital platforms to continue its activities, and there have been lessons learned in the process. The ARUA CoE for NCDs was launched on December 6th 2022 at the University of Nairobi. The hybrid meeting launch was attended by representatives from all the spokes (in-person), delegates from the Kenya Ministry of Health, other government agencies like the NCD organisations and agencies, the Council of Governors, international organisations represented in Kenya including the World Health Organisation, the International Advisory Board, patients and caregivers, other universities in Kenya including Kenyatta University, and other ARUA Spokes representatives, and students. The online participants included the ARUA Secretariat, the University of Glasgow, the International Advisory Board members, and partner university members who could not travel to Kenya. In line with capacity building, the Centre has also been working to engage with its partners. The Centre held its first annual NCD symposium on 7th - 9th December 2022 in Kenya at Lake Naivasha Resort. The symposium was attended by the CoE Partners who made presentations during the various sessions. The conference theme was 'Capacity Building in NCD Research in Sub-Saharan Africa: Experiences and Lessons Learnt' and was organised around four sub-themes that were aligned to the CoEs sub-thematic areas namely, prevention, multi-morbidity, disease mechanisms, big data, models of care, population data/biomarkers, and other areas relevant to NCDs. These sessions were chaired and moderated by partners across the six universities. The Centre has in the last year held several seminars and workshops as a hub and with the spokes. These include the Erasmus+ staff exchange to Glasgow, attended by the CoE partners including the project support staff, the University of Nairobi staff involved in research, and other organizations in East and southern Africa working in NCDs. The CoE also held its first, one of a kind, Caregivers forum in June 2023, and a stakeholders' forums to be held in February 2024. In addition to these, the Centre has managed to secure additional funding to continue the work on caregiving for NCD patients. The Canadian IDRC has pledged support for the development of a national caregivers policy in Kenya. The African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) also established the Clusters of Research Excellence (CoRE) in partnership with the Guild to promote research and capacity building in various fields. While both the CoE and CoRE aim to enhance research and innovation in Africa, we anticipate a smooth transition of the CoE for NCDs into the CoRE, bringing on board more member universities.The ability to adjust to unexpected shocks is an area that needs a global focus and attention. At no one time did we think that we could be derailed from achieving our goals due to uncontrolled and unpredictable situations like the COVID-19 pandemic. Going forward, this is an aspect that all programme implementers should be prepared for while thinking about possible threats and how they can adjust if such shocks occur.EducationHealthcareOtherhttps://arua-ncd.org/The Food Safety Research Network (FSRN) was established to connect food businesses, researchers and policymakers in funded collaborations addressing microbial food safety risks. During its Inception Phase (2022-2025), FSRN successfully created a trusted national platform for partnership-based research and coordination. Across three years, FSRN supported 42 collaborative projects, distributing £1.88M to catalyse new research partnerships across academia, industry and government. These projects addressed priority challenges identified directly with stakeholders, ensuring relevance to real-world food safety needs. FSRN demonstrated that targeted network orchestration, combined with agile funding mechanisms, can rapidly initiate high-quality, cross-sector collaborations that would not otherwise occur. The network has become a recognised convenor for addressing emerging food safety challenges, supporting both strategic coordination and practical problem-solving across the UK food system.The FSRN model provides a proven framework for long-term coordination of food safety research and innovation. Its approaches to stakeholder engagement, priority setting and rapid project mobilisation can be adopted by other networks seeking to align research with policy and industry needs. The partnerships and capabilities established through FSRN continue to serve as the foundations to further collaborative activity beyond the initial funding period.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentGovernment Democracy and JusticeManufacturing including Industrial Biotechologyhttps://quadram.ac.uk/safe-food-strong-science-uk-research-network-gears-up-for-next-phase/We demonstrated that emission lines can be used to map accretion processes around young stars, and that low-mass stars have more stable accretion structures than previously thought. We also created the codes (STAR-MELT) that are needed to study time-resolved spectroscopy in an efficient and accurate way, which will enable this kind of research for other sources.The STAR-MELT software created is a very powerful tool to analyse time-resolved spectroscopy data. We will continue with similar analysis for other sources, using STAR-MELT, in the future. This has led to several international collaborations, including scientists in Germany, the USA, France, Sweden, and other locations in the UK.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)EducationOtherhttps://github.com/justyncw/STAR_MELTThe active layer of organic solar cells typically possesses a complex morphology, with amorphous donor/acceptor mixed domains present in addition to purer, more crystalline domains. These crystalline domains may represent an energy sink for free charges that aids charge separation and suppresses bimolecular recombination. The first step in exploiting this behavior - for example in enginerring barriers t orecombination - is the identification and characterization of charges located in these different domains. We have demonstrated the generation and recombination of both bulk and interfacial polarons in the dual electron donor/acceptor polymer XIND using transient absorption spectroscopy. The absorption spectra of XIND bulk polarons, present in pristine polymer domains, are clearly distinguishable from those of polarons present at the donor/acceptor interface. Furthermore, we have shown that photogenerated polarons are transferred from the interface to the bulk. These findings support the energy sink hypothesis and offer a way to maximize morphology relationships to enhance charge generation and suppress recombination. We have successfully built the resonance Raman spectroscopy set-up outlined in the original proposal. We have used it to examine the small molecule donor DRCN5T. Despite the extensive enhancements in crystallinity that are observed upon thermal annealing, the more ordered DRCN5T domains that subsequently form are not active in charge photogeneration. Instead, on the basis of enhanced photoluminescence, we propose that the device efficiency enhancement observed upon annealing is partially a result of photon recycling. Moreover, we show that despite DRCN5T's ability to achieve OPV efficiencies of over 10%, it generates a high population of triplets. These triplets are primarily formed in amorphous regions via back recombination from a CT state, and also undergo triplet-charge recombination. As such, triplets have a dual role in DRCN5T device efficiency suppression: they both hinder free charge carrier formation and annihilate those free charges that do form. Using microsecond transient absorption spectroscopy under oxygen conditions, we directly observe this triplet-charge annihilation (TCA) as a general phenomenon in a variety of DRCN5T / fullerene and non-fullerene blends. Since TCA is usually inferred rather than directly observed, we demonstrate that this technique is a reliable method to establish the presence of TCA.Understanding the fundamental nature of charge carriers and bimolecular recombination, in addition to the effects of morphology, underpin manipulating these for future developments in solar cell technology.EnergyBefore the start of the award, it was only known that specific set parameters resulted in flat and smooth wall formation with cold spray. Seventeen months into the project, equipment to aid the understanding of the process has been developed and experiments have been taking place. A range of process parameters has been identified which determine or affect the deposition. Ongoing experimentation and simulation are taking place to optimise the process and provide understanding on how and to what extent each process parameter affects the deposit.It is still or intent that the understanding developed will allow the development of a new high-speed net shape additive manufacturing process.Aerospace Defence and MarineConstructionEnergyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologySalmonella is a common cause of diarrhoeal disease; in humans, consumption of contaminated poultry meat is believed to be a major source. Previously, the presence of Salmonella that is resistant to antimicrobial drugs has been identified in Brazilian poultry and in imported Brazilian poultry products, but the risk to the consumer was not known. Here, Here we provided an in-depth genomic characterisation and evolutionary analysis to investigate the most common of Salmonella and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Brazilian chickens and assess the impact to public health of products contaminated with Salmonella imported into the United Kingdom from Brazil. Our findings indicated that even should Salmonella from imported Brazilian poultry products reach UK consumers, they are very unlikely to be causing disease. Furthermore, no evidence of the Brazilian strains of Salmonella were observed in UK domestic chickens.The findings are of use not only for other academics, but also for policymakers in the areas of food safety and public health.Agriculture Food and DrinkA clearer understanding of the process of infiltration into roads has been achieved from field monitoring information. A new model for the response of road construction materials to combined environmental cycles (drying and wetting) and traffic loading has been determined.The outcomes of the research will enable constructors of low traffic volume roads to select appropriate road construction materials that can perform well in the prevailing climatic conditionsConstructionTransportNumerous findings have been made during the course of the research period, especially in the three main areas of the five themes investigated (see (i) to( v) below). The following passages detail many of these. Sixteen journal publications have been produced so far as listed in the publications section and many of these provide detailed information (as referred to below where appropriate). The five main aspects to the project are as follows. (i) Field instrumentation installation and monitoring within and around the existing Central line tunnels and in the ground in Hyde Park to observe responses when the new Crossrail tunnels were constructed. (ii) Structural testing of specially manufactured half-scale lining segments. (iii) Numerical analysis of the field conditions and validation with the results from field monitoring. (iv) Numerical analysis of the cast iron segments and comparison with results from laboratory testing. (v) Advanced laboratory testing of high quality samples taken during installation of the field instrumentation (ultimately to data from these tests to be fed back into the numerical analysis). 1) Field instrumentation and monitoring a) Instrumentation and monitoring at Tottenham Court Road One of the station tunnels at Tottenham Court Road was to be upgraded as part of the Crossrail works and so some of the instruments and methods to be used in the Central Line tunnel monitoring were tested at this time. Some of the segments were to be removed and so these were instrumented in various ways. It was established that the instruments worked well and there was good correlation between the different measuring systems. The magnitude of change in strain measured using electrical and mechanical strain gauges was found to be similar to that predicted assuming full overburden unloading with a segment modulus of 100 GPa. The work is described in detail by Yu et al. (2014) and in Dr Jessica Yu's PhD thesis (2014). b) Instrumentation and monitoring within the existing Central line tunnels when new Crossrail tunnels are constructed beneath them Hyde Park A length of the eastbound Central Line tunnel running between Lancaster Gate and Marble Arch stations was monitored when the Crossrail tunnels were constructed beneath it. The new tunnels had a clearance of 4.2m and were at about 40 degrees skew. Various instruments and surveying techniques were implemented: electrical strain gauges, displacements gauges, eye bolts for tape extensometer measurements, state-of-the-art optical fibre sensors (installed and read by a research team from ETH Zurich, working in collaboration with Imperial College) and a string of electrolevel beams along the tunnel length (results kindly provided by BAM Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman and Kier Construction Joint Venture (BFK JV). Main developments and findings - The deformed shape of the tunnel lining from the tape extensometer measurements corroborated well with the mode of bending in the lining segments captured by the strain gauge measurements. - It was concluded that the effort involved in installing and reading the strain gauges was not justified given the level of information provided by them. The tape extensometer readings were comparatively quick and the eye-bolts cheap and easy to install and the readings gave a better overall idea of tunnel diameter/chord changes. This is considered to be an important finding in terms of time and economy. - The magnitude of diametric changes as measured with the tape extensometer were less than ±0.1%, much smaller than the out-of-circularity generally measured in existing tunnels (~0.6%). - Additionally negligible movements across longitudinal joints between rings were measured with the displacement transducers installed across them. This was corroborated by the measurements with the optical fibre sensors. - The optical fibre sensors were able to achieve a spatial resolution of about 1 cm with distributed nature of the measurements using swept wavelength interferometry. This is considered a new development in the use of this style of monitoring within tunnels. The fibres were attached using a combined glue/magnet attachment system specifically developed for this situation. - With the small spatial resolution achieved using the optical fibre sensors it was possible to monitor strains across joints. Results suggest that longitudinal deformation along the Central Line tunnel crown occurred within the segments rather than across the circumferential joints. This is important for understanding the overall response of the existing tunnel. The overall strain pattern observed is of comparable form to that observed in the ground. - Optical fibre sensors installed circumferentially within the tunnel were able to detect movement across the longitudinal joints as the Central Line tunnel deformed. - Settlement profiles interpreted from the string of electrolevel beams were of similar form to those measured in the ground in Hyde Park. Comparing the magnitude and form of the two sets of measurements should allow relative bending stiffness values of the ground and the tunnel to be estimated. The results from this aspect of the work are being written up currently. c) Instrumentation and monitoring within Hyde Park Extensive surface and subsurface instrumentation was installed above and around the existing Central Line tunnels and the new Crossrail tunnels. The scope of what could be installed close to the Central Line tunnels was limited as the tunnels run beneath the busy Bayswater Road. Three arrays of surface monitoring points were installed: one along Bayswater Road and two within Hyde Park. Additionally instruments were installed in a total of 38 boreholes to depths ranging from 20 m to 50 m to measure subsurface vertical and horizontal displacements and strains, pore water pressures and total stress changes. Some of the subsurface instrumentation was installed close to the Central Line tunnels while most of them formed a main array in Hyde Park. Main developments and findings (Wan and Standing, 2014 a and b; Wan et al., 2017a and b and Wan et al., 2019) - Numerous lessons were learnt during the extensive subsurface instrumentation installation period. The main points have been written up by Wan and Standing (2014). It is anticipated that the detailed consideration of the mix proportions to be adopted for the different grouts used to install instruments will be of considerable interest to the geotechnical community involved with ground monitoring (different mixes were used for backfilling extensometer, inclinometer and piezometer borehole installations). - The relatively new technique of installing multiple piezometers in a grouted borehole was adopted as part of the monitoring scheme. The piezometers were generally found to work well and independently. Details are written up by Wan and Standing (2014). This paper also gives details about the number of London Clay claystones encountered during the drilling of all the boreholes. Such detailed information is not often reported - especially for a case where the ground conditions have been logged so carefully. - Pore pressures in the near vicinity of the existing Central Line tunnels were found to be slightly lower than hydrostatic, indicating that some drainage takes place into the existing bolted grey cast iron segmentally lined tunnels. - The field monitoring allowed differences in the ground response to tunnelling to be observed in a greenfield condition compared with the ground close to and affected by construction of the existing tunnels and the subsequent consolidation that took place. Generally wider settlement troughs were observed where the existing tunnels were located. However, in observing the ground response to the second Crossrail tunnel, it was seen the recently constructed first Crossrail tunnel had a much greater influence on the ground response than the Central Line tunnels (Wan et al., 2017a). - Observed ground responses were linked with the various earth pressure balance tunnelling machine 'parameters'. Subsurface measurements indicated that the ground responded as a contracting displacement field (Wan et al., 2017b). This was closely linked to parameters such as the face pressure and also is strongly controlled by the depth of the tunnel and overburden. This is considered an important finding as it means that conventional empirical prediction methods can be applied in such cases. An earlier publication concerning the same type of tunnelling in London Clay as part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project showed an expanding displacement field which would be much more difficult to predict (Standing and Selemetas: http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/geot.12.P.154). - Although mostly conventional instrumentation and precise surveying techniques were used, e.g. rod extensometers, in-place inclinometers (MEMS tilt sensors), and vibrating wire piezometers, ETH Zurich also installed optical fibre sensors in two rod extensometer boreholes and two shallow trenches (transverse and longitudinal to the westbound Crossrail tunnel). The borehole installations provide hitherto unseen detailed continuous strain profiles. When integrated these profiles matched the discrete displacements measured at the locations of the rod extensometer anchors. They also allowed cracking in the backfilled grout column to be observed. - The quality of the data from the optical fibre sensors installed in the near surface trench far exceeded those from the manual micrometer stick measurements. Various type of optical fibre were tested within the installation (detailed in Dominik Hauswirth's ETH Zurich PhD thesis, 2014). The quality of the measurements was so good that it has been possible to propose a new method of predicting vertical as well as horizontal displacements in advance of the tunnelling machine reaching the point of measurement (written up by Hauswirth et al., 2014). Details of the various instrumentation performances and the ground response are provided in Dr Michael Wan's PhD thesis (2014). 2) Structural testing of specially manufactured half-scale lining segments Twelve grey cast iron (GCI) half-scale segments were specially cast using ingredients and mix proportions similar to those used a century ago as determined from London Underground archives and exactly replicating geometric details of the original segments. The scale was dictated by the limitation of casting the thinnest part of the segments (the web / skin). At the same time 'coupon' samples were cast for testing. Two suites of tests were undertaken within the structures laboratory at Imperial College. The first involved performing two-segment tests similar to those of Thomas in the 1970s on full-scale segments. The second set of tests used a full ring (comprising six segments bolted together) which was loaded to simulate ground stresses acting on the lining form the ground around them as in situ and then deforming the ring into elliptical shapes of similar form and magnitude observed in existing tunnels. In both cases the segments and joints between them were comprehensively instrumented and monitored to investigate factors such as how stresses developed in the segments and the influence of bolt forces and joint stiffness. a) Coupon testing The coupon samples cast at the same time as the segments were machined into 'dog-bone' shapes and tested in tension. Main developments and findings (see Yu et al., 2017) - Initially several trial tests were performed on dummy samples to optimise the way in which the tests were to be performed e.g. the best way of gripping the ends of the samples and the method of measuring strain/displacement. - The yield stress and ultimate strength of a number of coupons were established and found to be comparable to those available in the literature. Of particular importance was the yield stress as in testing the segments the intention for most of the tests (especially the initial tests) was to keep the stress level within the GCI within the elastic range. This was to facilitate interpretation of the strain gauge data. - Multiple tests involving load-unload loops confirmed that the stiffness of the GCI reduced as it was loaded to higher levels and then unloaded. Mapping this behaviour was essential in understanding the overall GCI material characteristics and also for the interpretation of strain gauges when the segments were loaded beyond the elastic range (and subsequently unloaded). - In addition to the coupon tests, tensile tests were performed on wrought iron bolts recovered from the Waterloo and City Line. The results were compared to the known behaviour for mild steel to confirm that it was appropriate to use mild steel bolts in the laboratory investigations for this research. b) Two-segment tests (see Tsiampousi et al., 2017) Prior to testing, the segments were comprehensively instrumented with strain gauges. Optimal positions were selected based on numerical analyses carried out to model the two-segment test set-up (covered under the fourth theme of the research in item 4). Additionally special clamps were designed and made to hold displacement transducers in the vicinity of the bolted joint and instrumented bolts were also specifically purpose made. Main developments and findings - An experimental rig was developed to test two segments bolted together in a similar fashion to the tests performed by Thomas in the 1970s (e.g. Thomas, H.S.H. 1977. Measuring structural performance of cast iron tunnel linings in laboratory. Ground Engng., 10, 5, 29-36). The bolted pair of segments, curving downwards, with one end.hinged and the other on a roller, was deformed in small steps using a line load applied parallel to and close to the joint (at the uppermost part of the pair). The level of control and instrumentation on the segments was much greater than those available in the original tests. - The data from Thomas' tests were reviewed to provide an initial estimate of the joint bending moment capacity stiffness. A series of two-segment tests with varying bolt preloads was then conducted and the results interpreted under the assumption of elasticity. As the conditions of the two segment test were statically determinate, the interpretation of the instrumentation and estimation of the bending moment could be compared against analytical equations. There was good agreement between Thomas' tests with the full-scale segments and those in this research at half-scale. - The two-segment tests proved valuable in that it gave confidence that the methods used to interpret the instrumentation, especially the strain gauge readings, were appropriate. The same methods of interpretation were used in the full-ring tests. - A number of other observations were correlated with the results from the numerical analysis described in item (4). For instance, it was found that the load in the middle bolt (the segments were connected together by three bolts) changed negligibly as the load was applied, compared with the two outer bolts. - The stiffness of the bolted connection was found to reduce as the joint started to open. c) Full-ring tests (see Yu et al., 2017 and Afshan et al., 2017) The purpose of performing these tests was to deform the ring to similar shapes observed in situ both prior to and after nearby underground excavation and observe changes in quantities such as stresses within the segments, bolt forces and joint openings. In this way the effect of predicted ground movements from tunnelling could be assessed to gauge the level of distress they might inflict on the existing tunnel lining. In order to achieve this a highly sophistaicated novel testing rig was designed, manufactured and tested over several months. This was a major development (summary details given below). Two series of tests were then performed: a major set of tests with stresses kept within the eastic range and a final pair of tests where the ring was taken to failure. Main developments and findings (see again Yu et al., 2017 and Afshan et al., 2017) - The development of the test set-up was a staged process, especially in the development of the control system for applying loads and displacements to the ring. The ring was loaded by 18 actuators positioned at equal distances around a reaction ring that surrounded the test ring. There were therefore three actuators per segment. This allowed much greater ontrol of displacements and loads than could be achieved with soil. The ring was loaded while in a horizontal plane on a structural floor. Each actuator bore onto a spreader pad via a load cell to help distribute the load as a uniform radial stress. The ring was deformed using a combination of computer-activated load and displacement control. Initially a uniform radial stress was applied to the ring via all actuators and then some were held at constant load while others were displaced to produce essentially elliptical forms. Multiple tests were performed to assess the effects of differing initial radial stresses, representing four typical tunnel depths (to about 25 m maximum) and various bolt forces (5, 7.5 and 10 kN). The influence of installing tar-infused hemp grommets within the bolt holes was also investigated. - The extensive instrumentation installed on the ring allowed both global and local joint responses of the bolted segmental cast iron lining to be studied experimentally and the internal actions relating to a particular deformed shape could be measured. The design and development of the bespoke loading facilities from scratch is a major contribution of this research into the behaviour of bolted segmental linings. This work is written up in detail in Dr Jessica Yu's PhD thesis (2014). - It was found that at high hoop force stress levels, relevant to deeper tunnels, the bolted segmental ring behaved as a continuous ring while at low levels joint stiffness values started to reduce allowing greater articulation. - For the small distortions imposed during the first main series of tests, the presence of compressive hoop force was found to render the magnitude of bolt preload insignificant in terms of influencing bolted segmental lining behaviour. This suggests that there may not be much benefit in either tightening or loosening bolts as mitigating measures to excavation-induced ground movements. - Tests performed using grommets (inserted beneath bolt heads and nuts to make the holes more waterproof) showed that the bolt forces decreased after tightening them to a fixed load. It was necessary to retighten them several times before the forces held. This implies that bolts installed in situ with grommets are likely to be at lower forces than those without. - At an overburden load corresponding to about 24m below ground level, the onset of joint opening was found to start once the inner radius had increased by about 0.20% by unloading at 90 degrees, contributing to the reduction in the overall stiffness of the ring. At this level of deformation, the extreme fibre stress in the ring was 22% of the ultimate tensile strength, i.e. within the elastic limit of grey cast iron, which in practice is usually taken as 25% of the ultimate tensile strength. At the same level of overburden, the joints started to open once the inner radius reduced by 0.58% from increasing the load at 90 degrees. In this case, the extreme fibre stress in the ring was 94% of the ultimate tensile strength, i.e. the ring segments would deform inelastically before the joint would play a part in the distortion of the ring. This implies that caution needs to be exercised when engineering works are carried out close to existing tunnels which would increase the loading on the tunnel lining, for example piling works. - Tests performed keeping within the elastic range of the GCI, the experimental measurements indicate that using Morgan's equation (1961) to calculate the maximum bending moment for a tunnel ring assuming elliptical distortion based on a maximum magnitude of radial displacement underpredicts the maximum bending moment in the ring, even before the application of any reduction factor (as suggested by Muir Wood, 1975). The linear elastic solutions appear to be better suited to estimating the bending moment distribution in a tunnel ring from a measured maximum radial displacement. However, this needs to be confirmed for higher strain levels. The results from the two tests taken to higher strain levels (and ultimately failed are still being processed in detail). It should also be noted that in the experimental work (and the FE simulations) the tunnel was assumed to be perfectly circular and any deformations were the result of external loading. - As noted above, results from the two tests taken to high strains only preliminary analyses have been performed so far. 3) Numerical analysis of the field conditions and validation with the results from field monitoring (see Avgerinos et al., 2016, 2017 and 2018) There were three main sets of analyses performed during the course of the study. All analyses were performed using the bespoke Imperial College Finite Element Program (ICFEP). Initially a sophisticated two-surface kinematic hardening constitutive model was calibrated using advanced laboratory soil data from extensive testing of London clay samples. At the timeof this aspect of the study the tests from Hyde Park had not yet started so other well-documented data were used. This constitutive model and the parameters adopted were then used to model the well-documented St James's Park Jubilee Line Extension case study, accounting for different London Clay units. Excellent agreement with the field monitoring data was achieved for both short- and long-term responses. The same model was used to simulate the new Crossrail tunnel construction at Hyde Park accounting for the previous stress history of the site. Again excellent agreement with the field data (Wan, 2014) was obtained even though the Crossrail tunnels are larger and constructed with a different tunnelling method (EPB vs. open-face shield at St James's Park), indicating the capability of the soil model to predict realistic soil movements from tunnelling in general. The final stage of analysis was to model the situation at Hyde Park in 3-D. Because of the number of elements and the computing power required it was not practicable to use the sophisticated constitutive model used previously. Therefore a pre-yield non-linear elastic small strain stiffness model coupled with a Mohr-Coulomb plastic model was adopted. Other simplications made were to assume that the Crossrail tunnels were perpendicular to the Central Line (i.e. ignoring any skew) and to model both pairs of tunnels as single tunnels. Parametric analyses were run varying factors such as EPB TBM face pressure and the longitudinal stiffness of the existing tunnel. This exercise resulted in excellent qualitative agreement with the way in which the existing tunnels distorted as the new tunnels approached and passed them. Insight was also gained for the same stages into how bending moments and lining stresses developed. Another important finding from this work was the effect of shear stresses acting on the extrados of the exisiting tunnel(s) on the bending moment distribution within the lining. Main developments and findings (again see Avgerinos et al., 2016, 2017 and 2018) - Two very detailed case studies have been formulated (St James's Park and Hyde Park) using a sophisticated two-surface kinematic hardening constitutive model. These cases provide great insight into mechanisms of ground response to tunnelling and illustrate that the analyses can cater for different tunnelling methods. - Excellent agreement was achieved with the analyses performed for the St James's Park case study for both the short- and long-term ground response to tunnelling. An important component of the analyses is that parameters from intact rather than reconstituted samples were used. - Implementing realistic anisotropic permeability values for the different London clay units led to closer agreement with the monitoring data. - The 2D FE simulations of the Central Line using initial earth pressure at rest coefficient of 1.3 to 1.4 showed that after allowing 100 years of consolidation, the maximum distortion in the existing tunnel was 0.2% squat. This implied that although the measured distortion is generally greater than 0.2% in the LU tunnels, it may be due to imperfect construction and self-weight distortion rather than ground loading. A field exercise conducted as part of the research at the LU Acton Depot certainly showed that tunnel rings constructed above ground could display greater than 1% of ovalisation from self-weight and initial out-of-built. - The influence of the tunnel lining permeability is very great. It affects factors such as the shape of the tunnel after construction (squatting or egging) and also the load distribution with greater hoop stresses being developed in the long term for the impermeable case. - It was observed that the tunnels deform as a consequence of both the normal and the shear stresses acting on the back of the lining. This was important with respect to the half-scale ring where only normal stresses were applied on the ring extrados. - The excavation of the Crossrail tunnel below the Central line tunnel axis was found to impose changes on the internal forces in the Central line tunnel lining. The most crucial combination of the circumferential hoop force and bending moment distributions in the Central line tunnel lining occurred when the Crossrail tunnel excavation face is directly below the Central line tunnel axis. - The face pressure applied to the ground affects the predicted soil movements. An increase of the face pressure (but not exceeding the overburden) decreases the ground surface settlements and the rate at which they develop. - Using the 3-D numerical analysis it was possible to assess the influence of the longitudinal stiffness of the Central line tunnel. The agreement with the field measurements of the longitudinal strains along the Central line crown (using the fibre optic sensors) became worse as the longitudinal stiffness of the Central line lining was decreased in the numerical analysis. This indicates that the Central line tunnel lining has a significant longitudinal stiffness. Comprehensive details of the numerical analyses performed are given in Vasilis Avgerinos' PhD thesis (2014). 4) Numerical analysis of the cast iron segments (see Tsiampousi et al., 2017) A 3-D finite element model using ICFEP was developed by Dr Katerina Tsiampousi in conjunction with the two-segment test laboratory experiment. A linear elastic model was implemented for the iron, while joint opening was allowed in modelling the connections. Results from the test indicated regions where greater element refinement was necessary in the FE mesh, as well as the level of detail required, e.g. the inclusion of the caulking groove. Main developments and findings - The main series of tests showed that the stiffness of the bolting system assumed in the FE model was too high. The actual bolting system of bolts, nuts, washers, and the contact between them rendered the stiffness of the system several times lower than the stiffness of the mild steel bolt. Since the stiffness of the bolting system affected how the FE model predicted the deflection of the longitudinal flange, this was a valuable finding for future FE modelling of segmental ring behaviour. - In general the FE predictions compared well with the laboratory measurements. The FE model proved helpful in providing a guide to the behaviour of the two segment arch beyond the loading conditions tested in the laboratory. An important prediction was that when the joint was subjected to negative bending in the FE model, all three bolts had similar increases in bolt load and the joint opened uniformly along the extrados, i.e. the displacement at the outer edge was predicted to be similar to the displacement at the middle of the segment. This led to a revision of the joint moment capacity estimation for the full-ring test where joints were subjected to both positive and negative bending. - Additionally, the FE analyses allowed an interrogation of the principal tensile and compressive stresses in the longitudinal flange. Since the analyses were linear elastic the results could only provide a guide to the capacity of the joint. Nonetheless by limiting the tensile stresses in the longitudinal flange as predicted by the FE simulations to below the ultimate tensile capacity of cast iron, it was shown that the initial estimate of joint moment capacity was reasonable. Non-linear analysis would be necessary to determine the true capacity of the joint. Publications presenting and discussing the results from the numerical analyses of the two-segment tests are currently being written up. 5) Advanced laboratory testing of samples taken during installation of the field instrumentation High quality rotary samples were obtained from three of the boreholes made for installation of field instrumentation. These were positioned at increasing distances from the Central Line tunnels to investigate the effect of its construction on ground properties. 21 advanced triaxial tests were performed with state-of-the art instrumentation for measuring small strains (three axial and radial locations) and cross anisotropic moduli (using bender elements). Samples were consolidated anisotropically back to their in-situ stresses prior to undrained shearing in compression. Because of the stringent creep periods held at the end of each stage of the tests each tests generally takes 2-3 months. This aspect of the research project has been completed by Dr Ramtin Hosseini Kamal and Dr Khalid Al Haj. An extensive publication presenting and discussing the results from this phase of the research is currently underway. Following from this work an academic scholar from the University of Sydney, Truong Le, worked within the Geotechnics Section at Imperial College for the first six months of 2016, looking at the effects of creep and strain rate on stiffness. This work is also being currently written up and will be closely linked with the research project. In summary all of the work planned for this research project has been successfully completed and in fact a great deal more has been achieved (originally aspects 4 and 5 were not part of the proposal but during the course of the research it was decided to take the opportunity to perform them. The five individual but interlinked themes make the research project very comprehensive and robust, making it possible to gain a very wide appreciation of tunnelling in London and the effects of new tunnel construction on existing tunnels segmentally lined with grey cast iron. Writing up of the findings is still underway, although it is now largely complete.The findings contribute to the understanding of: (i) ground response to EPBM tunnelling (from the field monitoring) - useful to those involved in predicting such responses for future projects; (ii) the response of segmental grey cast iron to load and deformation changes, in both the elastic and plastic regions (this will contribute to current design methods); (iii) numerical modelling of ground and structural response to tunnelling (again this will be used by those involved in numerical analysis in general and also those making more complex predictions of ground and structural response to tunnelling); (iv) the behaviour of London Clay (from the advanced laboratory testing) and in particular reasons for the range stiffness values observed (there has been a great deal of uncertainty in respect of this with major implications on analysis and design using numerical methods). All of the themes can and will be used by those in academia performing numerical analyses requiring high quality field and laboratory data (for calibrating and validating the models used). Recently a discussion was sent to Geotechnique about the paper by Avgerinos et al. (2018) by Professor Andrew Whittle and his co-workers at MIT. This is available ahead of print via: https://doi.org/10.1680/jgeot.18.D.008. It is also worth noting that for most of 2018 the same paper by Avgerinos et al. (2018) was recorded as being the most downloaded paper on the Geotechnique website (ICE Virtual Library)ConstructionEducationEnvironmentTransporthttps://doi.org/10.1680/jgeot.19.D.007We have identified a number of genetic variants influencing physical features. Two papers have been published. One on ear morphology and another one on hair appearance. This last one has been published on March 1 and is still not indexed. Three other papers reporting additional genetic finds are still in preparation.Other research groups can perform meta-analyses of our results in order to identify additional associated loci. Several collaborative studies of this sort are currently under way. A collaboration with industry is being considered to develop research around a genetic variant associated with hair greying.EducationGovernment Democracy and JusticeCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsPharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttp://www.ucl.ac.uk/silva/candelaThe original target was the total synthesis of two structurally similar natural products, both of which possessed significant biological activity. The first compound was synthesised by groups in the USA and Germany prior to the researchers on this grant commencing. We examined alternative routes to those that had already been published but ultimately we could not better their approach. The second natural product we have partially synthesised. We have validated our original hypothesis for the approach to this compound and we have made a number of analogues. This methodology will be useful to a number of groups and may yet prove the best strategy to take with these compounds.Spirocycles are an emerging area of interest in medicinal chemistry and the methodology we have developed will be useful in accessing such structures in a highly succinct and efficient manner.ChemicalsPharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnologyhttp://brayresearch.orgThis award allowed for the development of novel biological markers of plant stressWe plan to publish our new methods and have received internal pump priming funds to apply those methods in a novel context with an industry partnerAgriculture Food and DrinkEnvironment1) The quality of data available for monitoring biodiversity (e.g. species population trends and changes in distribution) are much lower than expected given the amount of data collected at a regional scale in the UK. The biases in the data (including spatial, temporal and taxonomic sampling biases) and the lack of methodological rigour in the way the data is collected and stored mean that even with vast quantities of data available it can be difficult to make inferences from these data. 2) Simple changes to the way the data are collected, particularly requiring recorders to document measures of survey effort or listing all species observed during the monitoring period, can vastly improve the data quality, even when the spatial sampling bias is strong. However, it can be difficult to implement these changes, due to technical challenges (e.g. database structure) and difficulties changing recorder behaviour (e.g. directing the location of surveys). 3) Methods to correct species distribution models for spatial sampling bias must be applied carefully because they can reduce model performance, but generally models built on presence-absence data are much less affected by these biases and this motivates the recommendation to move away from unstructured recording to structured monitoring schemes. 4) Organisations involved in collecting biodiversity data across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are keen to engage with structured data collection, particularly where this is aligned to regional species priorities and reporting requirements. 5) There are opportunities to augment national scale biodiversity monitoring schemes, including Breeding Bird Survey and UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, to ensure sufficient monitoring of species at a local scale and there is a willingness of local agencies to engage with these activities.This work has led to high level discussions within the region about biodiversity monitoring strategies going forward and the most important outcome of this award is an increased regional focus on ensuring that the biodiversity data collected is of sufficient quality to be useful for regional conservation planning and reporting activities. The analysis of modelling methods applied to poor quality (i.e. the majority) species record data shows that models are often unable to correct for strong sampling biases and therefore we require more structured monitoring across Cornwall and, more generally, across the UK. The outcomes from this award should be taken forward by focussing on how to deliver this structured biodiversity monitoring most efficiently in order to ensure that critical regional monitoring objectives, i.e. focused around reporting on priority species and habitats, can be met by efficiently linking data and models.Agriculture Food and DrinkEnvironmentLeisure Activities including Sports Recreation and TourismCulture Heritage Museums and CollectionsIn particular, our research revealed the following: • While the world's managers may be firmly attached to SWOT analysis, the most popular by far of the strategy tools we encountered, several other tools are both frequently used and useful. From our research we have constructed the following core strategy toolkit for practitioners: SWOT analysis, key success factors, core competences analysis, scenario planning, value chain, Porter's five forces, resource-based analysis, industry life cycle, PESTLE analysis and portfolio matrices. • Diversity is important. The majority of managers use between three and five strategy tools, providing sufficient diversity, but still manageable. • The US and Europe are lagging behind. Managers from companies with headquarters in Asia, Africa, the Middle East or South America tend to use a higher number of tools than managers from companies with headquarters in the US and Europe. • Even though SWOT analysis is easily the most popular tool, the tools with the most users are not the ones considered by managers as the most valuable. • The usefulness of strategy tools varies according to the stage of the strategy process - strategy analysis, choice or implementation. Porter's 5 forces and PESTLE analysis are considered to be the more valuable for conducting strategy analysis; scenario planning for strategy choice; and key success factors for strategy implementation. • Managers consider strategy tools more useful for analysis and sense-making purposes than for making and implementing decisions; this may mean that more emphasis is required during training and education on those tools that assist managers with making and implementing decisions. • There is a strong link between training and education, age, and career progression and a greater use of strategy tools. Managers with higher levels of education (e.g. post-graduates) and who attend management training regularly (at least once a year), use more strategy tools. Although managers who had their last formal education less than two years ago use slightly less tools than other managers. Equally, senior managers tend to use more strategy tools than managers in all other hierarchical levels; the use of strategy tools starts increasing after two years in a position or firm. • Finally, and importantly, our findings show that managers do not choose tools because of their relevance to the topics they intend to address, but those that are easier to understand and use, as well as those that hold the highest level of legitimacy with their peers i.e. the best known and most frequently used.In an increasingly competitive business environment, the ability to spot and seize new opportunities, to plot a path of successful growth for an organisation, and to use resources effectively and efficiently, becomes paramount. Managers have a number of management tools at their disposal to help meet the challenges that they face. Among these are tools for dealing with strategy analysis, choice and implementation. The challenge for managers is knowing which of these tools to use, how many to use, and when to use them. Our research explored the use of strategy tools in organisations. By questioning over 2,000 business school alumni, all of whom will have been exposed to a variety of strategy tools as part of their business education, we looked at the impact of a range of variables on the use of strategy tools. By consulting with both business academics and alumni on their knowledge and use of strategy tools, we have constructed a strategy toolkit containing a limited number of strategy tools that managers would benefit from being familiar and using in their work, particularly as their experience and seniority increases.Aerospace Defence and MarineConstructionDigital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Financial Services and Management ConsultancyManufacturing including Industrial BiotechologyPharmaceuticals and Medical BiotechnologyRetailTransportnovel catalyst for electrochemical cellsfurther development in alkaline membrane cells and electrocatalystsEnergyDefocus formation from a finite aperture is a well-known phenomena, occurring in many forms of photographic media. Although often exploited for artistic reasons, a surprising amount of information about the scene structure is encoded in the camera's blurring function. The aim of this work is to explore how this can be leveraged to improve the recovery of 3D geometry from scenes with complex reflectance. The first contribution of this work aims to characterise the camera response to out-of-focus regions of the image. 'Depth from Defocus' (DFD) is a well-established field that aims to utilise this information to reconstruct scene geometry from analysis of out-of-focus regions, usually modelling the camera as a thin lens for simplicity. While many existing methods achieve approximate depth maps suitable for some applications, the majority are limited to geometrically inconsistent single-view reconstructions. Those which attempt the integration of additional viewpoints typically rely on iterative parameter refinement, and generally fail to significantly improve surface resolution. A novel contribution of our work is the recovery of complete 3D reconstructions using only defocus information. We achieve this by adopting a thick lens camera model, which better describes the camera's defocus response. To do so required the development of a practical thick lens camera calibration, which was used to capture several datasets. We found our approach significantly outperforms the traditional thin lens model, both in a single-view and multi-view context. The second contribution looks at the complementary properties of defocus and stereo reconstruction cues. Unlike conventional multi-view stereo (MVS), which depends on photo-metric consistency between views, DFD requires only a single viewpoint for reconstruction. This makes defocus-based approaches naturally robust to view-dependent materials considered challenging for traditional MVS. Conversely, textures which are invariant to defocus can be suitable for correspondence. We investigated this complementary relationship to determine the benefits of combining defocus information with stereo cues. Our results demonstrated an improvement over DFD alone despite the specular and reflective nature of the datasets, and typically outperformed modern MVS. The third on-going contribution explores the novel application of neural rendering to defocus modelling. The key aspects of the defocus image formation model described by a focal stack (depth, radiance and point spread function) are disentangled by modelling each component as a multi-layer perception network. Novel refocused images can be rendered that accurately capture the bokeh produced by specular highlights with arbitrary aperture shapes and diameters.   The thick lens calibration we developed makes capturing calibrated focal stacks practical for other researchers without requiring specialist or custom equipment. Our reconstruction approach is capable of recovering the geometry of macro-scale scenes that was previously not possible with conventional methods. We intend to make our datasets publicly available to help advance research in this area further.Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software)Other