• Canada
• 2009 close

This project brings together UK-based researchers with Blackfoot people in Alberta, Canada, and Montana, USA, to explore the cultural history and contemporary meanings of 5 Blackfoot men's shirts held in the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum. Collected in 1841, the hide shirts are decorated with porcupine quillwork and beadwork; three, with human- and horse-hair fringes along the sleeves, are ritual garments. There are just two shirts of this age in Canadian museums, and Blackfoot people have had little access to them. However, some cultural knowledge relating to them has been retained, and elders wish to revive traditional practices associated with them. Blackfoot leaders have spoken of the shirts as important for youth and hope that learning about them will strengthen cultural identity: in the words of Frank Weasel Head, Kainai ceremonial leader, 'These shirts are our curriculum. That's how we learn who we are.'\n\nThe project will make the shirts available to Blackfoot people and the wider public for the first time, and explore how historic artefacts can be used by indigenous communities to revive, share and transmit cultural knowledge, and how they serve to anchor social memory and in the construction of identity. It will consider how the transmission of cultural knowledge can benefit different generations, and explore the implications of such knowledge for museum practice.\n\nThrough the exhibition of these shirts at Glenbow and Galt Museums in Alberta, and through handling workshops for Blackfoot people (including elders, artists, and youth), we hope to show how close examination of the shirts can allow for the retrieval, consolidation, and transmission of cultural knowledge embodied in such artefacts. Elders hope that access to the shirts will be a catalyst for reviving the knowledge of the making and uses of them: 'the Elders left us messages, it's up to us to understand them' (Narcisse Blood, Kainai).The exhibitions, an integral part of the research process, will provide an opportunity for discussions amongst Blackfoot community members, helping to raise fragments of memories which will then surface more readily in workshops. Information surfacing within each workshop, eg. relating to the manufacture/use of the shirts, will be recorded and shared with subsequent workshop participants in order to facilitate the exchange and transmission of knowledge. Workshops will be developed by the project team in collaboration with ceremonial leaders and educators from the four Blackfoot nations. An innovation in international museum access, they will be facilitated by a conservator (PRM staff member Heather Richardson, a specialist on First Nations material) and a Project Facilitator (Beth Carter, a Glenbow curator with extensive experience working with Blackfoot people), and will involve Blackfoot seamstresses, elders, ceremonial leaders, and youth. Curators Peers (Pitt Rivers Museum), Conaty and Carter (Glenbow), Aitkens (Galt Museum) together with Brown (Aberdeen), will observe and assist the workshops.\n\nThe project builds on previous AHRB-funded research carried out by Brown and Peers which explored how historic photographs of ancestors were culturally interpreted by Blackfoot people (Brown, Peers et al 2006). Based on relationships developed then and in Brown's D.Phil. research (1997-2000), and on specific community consultations regarding the shirts (2003, 2005, 2006, 2008), this proposal responds to repeated requests by Blackfoot ceremonial leaders, Elders and educators, who wish to study these artefacts to aid in cultural revitalization. The Glenbow and Galt Museums are offering considerable in-kind support including exhibition and workshop space. Outcomes will include an illustrated book with research findings, refereed articles, and a conference to bring together UK museum professionals with Blackfoot people to explore perspectives on such early collections.

This is an application for a Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) from the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester in Advanced Metallic Systems which will be directed by Prof Panos Tsakiropoulos and Prof Phil Prangnell. The proposed DTC is in response to recent reviews by the EPSRC and government/industrial bodies which have indentified the serious impact of an increasing shortage of personnel, with Doctorate level training in metallic materials, on the global competitiveness of the UK's manufacturing and defence capability. Furthermore, future applications of materials are increasingly being seen as systems that incorporate several material classes and engineered surfaces into single components, to increase performance.The primary goal of the DTC is to address these issues head on by supplying the next generation of metallics research specialists desperately needed by UK plc. We plan to attract talented students from a diverse range of physical science and engineering backgrounds and involve them with highly motivated academic staff in a variety of innovative teaching and industrial-based research activities. The programme aims to prepare graduates for global challenges in competitiveness, through an enhanced PhD programme that will:1. Challenge students and promote independent problem solving and interdiscpilnarity,2. Expose them to industrial innovation, exciting new science and the international research community, 3. Increase their fundamental skills, and broaden them as individuals in preparation for future management and leadership roles.The DTC will be aligned with major multidisciplinary research centres and with the strong involvement of NAMTEC (the National Metals Technology Centre) and over twenty companies across many sectors. Learning will be up to date and industrially relevant, as well as benefitting from access to 30M of state-of-the art research facilities.Research projects will be targeted at high value UK strategic technology sectors, such as aerospace, automotive, power generation, renewables, and defence and aim to:1. Provide a multidisciplinary approach to the whole product life cycle; from raw material, to semi finished products to forming, joining, surface engineering/coating, in service performance and recycling via the wide skill base of the combined academic team and industrial collaborators.2. Improve the basic understanding of how nano-, micro- and meso-scale physical processes control material microstructures and thereby properties, in order to radically improve industrial processes, and advance techniques of modelling and process simulation.3. Develop new innovative processes and processing routes, i.e. disruptive or transformative technologies.4. Address challenges in energy by the development of advanced metallic solutions and manufacturing technologies for nuclear power, reduced CO2 emissions, and renewable energy. 5. Study issues and develop techniques for interfacing metallic materials into advanced hybrid structures with polymers, laminates, foams and composites etc. 6. Develop novel coatings and surface treatments to protect new light alloys and hybrid structures, in hostile environments, reduce environmental impact of chemical treatments and add value and increase functionality. 7. Reduce environmental impact through reductions in process energy costs and concurrently develop new materials that address the environmental challenges in weight saving and recyclability technologies. This we believe will produce PhD graduates with a superior skills base enabling problem solving and leadership expertise well beyond a conventional PhD project, i.e. a DTC with a structured programme and stimulating methods of engagement, will produce internationally competitive doctoral graduates that can engage with today's diverse metallurgical issues and contribute to the development of a high level knowledge-based UK manufacturing sector.

Reducing carbon emissions and securing energy supplies are crucial international goals to which energy demand reduction must make a major contribution. On a national level, demand reduction, deployment of new and renewable energy technologies, and decarbonisation of the energy supply are essential if the UK is to meet its legally binding carbon reduction targets. As a result, this area is an important theme within the EPSRC's strategic plan, but one that suffers from historical underinvestment and a serious shortage of appropriately skilled researchers. Major energy demand reductions are required within the working lifetime of Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) graduates, i.e. by 2050. Students will thus have to be capable of identifying and undertaking research that will have an impact within their 35 year post-doctoral career. The challenges will be exacerbated as our population ages, as climate change advances and as fuel prices rise: successful demand reduction requires both detailed technical knowledge and multi-disciplinary skills. The DTC will therefore span the interfaces between traditional disciplines to develop a training programme that teaches the context and process-bound problems of technology deployment, along with the communication and leadership skills needed to initiate real change within the tight time scale required. It will be jointly operated by University College London (UCL) and Loughborough University (LU); two world-class centres of energy research. Through the cross-faculty Energy Institute at UCL and Sustainability Research School at LU, over 80 academics have been identified who are able and willing to supervise DTC students. These experts span the full range of necessary disciplines from science and engineering to ergonomics and design, psychology and sociology through to economics and politics. The reputation of the universities will enable them to attract the very best students to this research area.The DTC will begin with a 1 year joint MRes programme followed by a 3 year PhD programme including a placement abroad and the opportunity for each DTC student to employ an undergraduate intern to assist them. Students will be trained in communication methods and alternative forms of public engagement. They will thus understand the energy challenges faced by the UK, appreciate the international energy landscape, develop people-management and communication skills, and so acquire the competence to make a tangible impact. An annual colloquium will be the focal point of the DTC year acting as a show-case and major mechanism for connection to the wider stakeholder community.The DTC will be led by internationally eminent academics (Prof Robert Lowe, Director, and Prof Kevin J Lomas, Deputy Director), together they have over 50 years of experience in this sector. They will be supported by a management structure headed by an Advisory Board chaired by Pascal Terrien, Director of the European Centre and Laboratories for Energy Efficiency Research and responsible for the Demand Reduction programme of the UK Energy Technology Institute. This will help secure the international, industrial and UK research linkages of the DTC.Students will receive a stipend that is competitive with other DTCs in the energy arena and, for work in certain areas, further enhancement from industrial sponsors. They will have a personal annual research allowance, an excellent research environment and access to resources. Both Universities are committed to energy research at the highest level, and each has invested over 3.2M in academic appointments, infrastructure development and other support, specifically to the energy demand reduction area. Each university will match the EPSRC funded studentships one-for-one, with funding from other sources. This DTC will therefore train at least 100 students over its 8 year life.

The biological membrane is a highly organised structure. Many biologically active compounds interact with the biological membrane and modify its structure and organisation in a very selective manner. Phospholipids form the basic backbone structure of biological membranes. When phospholipid layers are adsorbed on a mercury drop electrode (HMDE) they form monolayers which have a very similar structure and properties to exactly half the phospholipid bilayer of a biological membrane. The reason for this is that the fluid phospholipid layer is directly compatible with the smooth liquid mercury surface. The great advantage of this system is that the structure of the adsorbed phospholipid layer can be very closely interrogated electrochemically since it is supported on a conducting surface. In this way interactions with biologically active compounds which modify the monolayer's structure can be sensed. The disadvantage is that Hg electrodes are fragile, toxic and have no applicability for field use in spite of the sensitivity of the system to biological membrane active species. Another disadvantage is that the Hg surface can only be imaged with extreme difficulty. This project takes the above proven sensing system and modifies it in the following way. A single and an array of platinum (Pt) microelectrode(s) are fabricated on a silicon wafer. On each microelectrode a minute amount of Hg is electrodeposited and on each Hg/Pt electrode a phospholipid monolayer is deposited. The stability of each phospholipid layer will be ensured through the edge effect of the electrode. We will use the silicon wafer array to carry out controlled phospholipid deposition experiments which are not possible on the HMDE. We shall also try out other methods of phospholipid deposition. The project will exploit the fact that the microelectrode array system with deposited phospholipid monolayers is accessible for imaging. AFM studies at Leeds have already been used to image temperature induced phase changes in mica supported phospholipid bilayers showing nucleation and growth processes. The AFM system is eminently suitable therefore to image the potential induced phase changes of the phospholipid monolayers on the individual chip based microelectrodes. It is important to do this because the occurrence of these phase transitions is very sensitive to the interaction of the phospholipid layer with biomembrane active species.In addition the mechanism of the phase changes which are fundamentally the same as those occurring in the electroporation of cells are of immense physical interest and a greater understanding of them can be gained through their imaging. We shall also attempt to image the interaction of the layer with membrane active peptides at different potential values. The AFM system will be developed to image the conformation and state of aggregation of adsorbed anti-microbial peptides on the monolayer in particular as a function of potential change. When biomembrane active compounds interact with phospholipid layers on Hg they alter the fluidity and organisation of the layers. This in turn affects the characteristics of the potential induced phase transitions. This can be very effectively monitored electrochemically by rapid cyclic voltammetry (RCV). Interferences to the analysis will be characterised. Pattern recognition techniques will be developed to characterise the electrochemical response to individual active compounds.The project will deliver a sensor on a silicon wafer which has the potential to detect low levels of biomembrane active organic compounds in natural waters and to assess the biomembrane activity of pharmaceutical compounds. The proven feasibility of cleaning the Hg/Pt electrode and renewing the sensing phospholipid layer will facilitate the incorporation of the device into a flow through system with a full automation and programmable operation.

The global semiconductor market has a value of around $1trillion, over 90% of which is silicon based. In many senses silicon has driven the growth in the world economy for the last 40 years and has had an unparalleled cultural impact. Given the current level of commitment to silicon fabrication and its integration with other systems in terms of intellectual investment and foundry cost this is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. Silicon is used in almost all electronic circuitry. However, there is one area of electronics that, at the moment, silicon cannnot be used to fill; that is in the emission of light. Silicon cannot normally emit light, but nearly all telecommunications and internet data transfer is currently done using light transmitted down fibre optics. So in everyones home signals are encoded by silicon and transmitted down wires to a station where other (expensive) components combine these signals and send light down fibres. If cheap silicon light emitters were available, the fibre optics could be brought into everyones homes and the data rate into and out of our homes would increase enormously. Also the connection between chips on circuit boards and even within chips could be performed using light instead of electricity. The applicants intend to form a consortium in the UK and to collaborate with international research groups to make silicon emit light using tiny clumps of silicon, called nanocrystals;. These nanocrystals can emit light in the visible and can be made to emit in the infrared by adding erbium atoms to them. A number of techniques available in Manchester, London and Guildford will be applied to such silicon chips to understand the light emission and to try to make silicon chips that emit light when electricity is passed through them. This will create a versatile silicon optical platform with applications in telecommunications, solar energy and secure communications. This technology would be commercialised by the applicants using a high tech start-up commpany.

This project will quantify the effect of surface generated melt-water fluctuations on ice motion at the margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS). More specifically, it will provide data that will enable ice-sheet modellers to improve their predictions of the future contribution of the GrIS to sea level rise in response to a warming world. To achieve this aim requires a dedicated field campaign to the GrIS to investigate seasonal ice flow dynamics and runoff processes along flow parallel transects extending from the ice sheet margin to the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) at both tidewater and land-terminating glaciers. The greatest store of fresh water in the northern hemisphere - equivalent to 7m of eustatic sea level rise - is held within the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS), and yet its present and future contribution to sea level is poorly constrained (IPCC, 2007). Recent observations suggest that mass loss near the margin of the GrIS is accelerating through a combination of increased surface melting (e.g. Steffen et al, 2004) and dynamic thinning (e.g. Rignot and Kanagaratnam, 2006). However, the key processes controlling dynamic thinning have yet to be identified (Alley et al, 2005), and in consequence, are not incorporated in the ice-sheet models which form the basis of the IPCC sea level projections. This in part reflects the fact that the satellite data that has revealed the widespread speed-up of glaciers cannot be acquired at the temporal resolution needed to resolve the causal mechanisms. Our present understanding of GrIS mass balance is especially complicated by uncertainties in the sensitivity of ice-marginal dynamics to changes in melt-water induced lubrication resulting from penetration of supraglacial melt-waters to the glacier bed (Zwally et al, 2002). Recent observations on the GrIS Shepherd et al, in review) reveal, over a five day period in July, a strong and direct coupling between surface hydrology and dynamics where diurnal fluctuations in velocity of >100% occur and where maximum daily velocities scale with temperature. Such observations confirm the need to acquire hydrological and dynamic data at high temporal (sub-hourly) and spatial resolution throughout the year to parameterise the coupling between ice melting and flow. This project will collect data at the necessary resolution to quantify the relationship between melt-water production and ice sheet dynamics thereby enabling ice-sheet modellers to improve predictions of the GrIS's response to climate change. We will conduct ground based experiments along two flow-parallel transects at the western margin of the GrIS in adjacent land and marine terminating drainage basins to address the following objectives: 1. Is there a temporal and spatial pattern to any hydrology-dynamic link associated with the seasonal evolution of the supraglacial drainage system (including supraglacial lakes)? 2. Over what area does surface generated meltwater penetrate to the base of the ice sheet? 3. Is there a relationship between the volume of meltwater input at the glacier surface and the magnitude of the dynamic response? 4. Do tidewater and land-terminating glaciers behave differently during the course of a melt-season? Field campaigns will be undertaken during 2008 and 2009 to determine: 1) The rate, extent and duration of melt. 2) The temporal and spatial variations in water volumes stored in and released from supraglacial lakes and delivered to freely draining moulins. 3) The seasonal, diurnal and hourly variations in ice dynamics. 4) The variations in proglacial discharge and water chemistry (at Russell Glacier). As a result of our work, it will be possible to determine whether ice dynamics at the margin of the GrIS is significantly affected by lubrication of the glacier bed following the drainage of surface derived meltwaters. Our results will be delivered to ice sheet modellers to help them constrain predictions for the future of the GrIS