• UK Research and Innovation close
• UKRI|EPSRC close
• 2011 close

Atom interference has been applied in many pioneering experiments ranging from fundamental studies to precision measurements. The techniques of laser cooling and trapping have allowed the realization of bright sources of macroscopic matter waves. This project is part of a EUROCORES Collaborative Research Project (within the EuroQUASAR programme coordinated by ESF) whose goal is to build upon this expertise and use interference of quantum degenerate macroscopic matter waves for a new generation of precision measurements. Two sets of applications are envisioned: (1) Precision determination of fundamental constants and inertial forces in free space, and (2) Interferometers for trapped atoms close to the surface as a microscope for highly sensitive measurements of surface forces on the micron length scale. To achieve the ultimate sensitivity we will engineer the interactions between the atoms and create non-classical matter-wave quantum states to beat the standard quantum measurement limit. Ultracold degenerate quantum gases with their inherent coherence and narrow spread in space and momentum promise to be the ideal starting point for precision matter wave interference experiments, similar to lasers for light optics. In contrast to light, atoms interact with each other, and the physics of degenerate quantum gases is in many cases dominated by these interactions. This can be an advantage, allowing tricks from non-linear optics like squeezing to boost sensitivity, and a disadvantage, resulting in additional dephasing due to uncontrolled collisional phase shifts. We will exploit recent advances in controlling these interactions by Feshbach resonances to pick out the advantages and to suppress the disadvantages caused by the interactions. Much of the planned work will be very fundamental and exploratory as many of the capabilities together with possible limitations have yet to be investigated.The collaborative research project entitled Quantum-Degenerate Gases for Precision Measurement (QuDeGPM) focuses European efforts on precision measurements with quantum degenerate gases and in particular with Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC). The project is organized along the main objectives of (i) performing precision atom interferometry with quantum degenerate gases, (ii) using quantum degenerate gases for precision surface probing, and (iii) exploring, realizing, and testing novel measurement schemes with non-classical matter wave states. The project in Durham focuses on the use of matter-waves with tunable interactions to probe atom surface interactions. Specifically two experimental thrusts are planned. The first uses bright matter-wave solitons as the basis for a new form of matter-wave interferometry. This work connects to an existing project which began in January 2008 (EPRSC grant EP/F002068/1). The second thrust exploits condensates where the interactions are tuned to zero to study long-lived Bloch oscillations in a 1D lattice in the vicinity of a solid surface.

Many interesting drug candidates are limited in their therapeutic applications by properties such as low water solubility, rapid elimination from the body or inability to cross cell membranes. The investigation of ways to improve the targeting of these potential pharmaceuticals to a cell is therefore a major current area of medicinal chemistry research and development. Over the past few years a class polymers with multiple side-branches known as dendrimers have emerged as a promising means for enhancing and optimising drug delivery. The key advantage of using a dendrimer is that many drug molecules can be linked to the side-branches on the periphery of a dendrmer which can then deliver a high drug payload to a tumour cell for example. A further advantage is that the structure of a dendrimer is well-defined with a known size and drug loading, which makes them attractive to the pharmaceutical industry. In this project we propose to synthesise dendrimers containing a natural compound known as 5-aminolaevulinic acid (ALA), which is used for photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancer. This treatment involves shining light onto a tumour (eg a skin tumour) to activate a photosensitising drug in the tumour resulting in the production of free radicals that are toxic to cancer cells. ALA is used for this therapy because once inside cells it is converted to a light-activated compound known as a porphyrin. To produce one porphyrin molecule, eight ALA molecules are combined through reactions involving a series of cellular enzymes. However ALA is not readily taken up by cells which limits its therapeutic efficacy in tumour treatment. For treating thicker skin tumours such as nodular basal cell carcinomas better penetration and higher cellular porphyrin levels throughout the tumour are required. In this project we propose a novel means of enhancing ALA uptake and porphyrin levels inside cells. New ALA derivatives would be synthesized in which ALA is linked with iron-binding compounds which, in combination with ALA, can induce a greater than additive or synergistic enhancement in porphyrin levels. These iron-binding or chelating compounds (HPOs) were developed at KCL originally to treat patients suffering from metabolic deficiencies which caused a build-up of iron in the body. Since these compounds are capable of reducing levels of free iron within cells, they should also inhibit the natural conversion of the photoactive porphyrin into a photoinactive form, called protohaem. Therefore iron chelation can result in a build-up of the photoactive porphyrin intermediate in the cells and potentially improve the therapeutic outcome. Since the porphyrin is fluorescent, we are able to use fluorescence detection to demonstrate the synergistic enhancement in porphyrin levels. We have recently carried out proof-of-principle studies on new compounds incorporating these two agents to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach. Our aim is to prepare conjugates of ALA and HPO molecules, starting from small single conjugates of both drugs increasing to nanoparticale size dendrimers. Incorporation of these relatively small molecules bound via ester linkages within dendrimers will enable a high payload of the bioactive agents to be codelivered to cells, and avoid the need to administer the drugs separately which would be limited by their differing pharmacological properties. The smaller compounds will be tested for surface or topical application on tissue, whereas the larger ones would be designed for oral and intravenous administration. The project would involve a concerted effort bringing together groups at KCL, Essex and UCL with complementary skills and experience in chemistry, biochemistry and photobiology, and would draw on expertise available at MedPharm Ltd in drug formulation and tissue explant studies. Although the work is focused on photodynamic therapy, the same principles may serve as a template for other agents in multiple drug therapy.

The research programme is intended to show that we can use Pulsed Laser Deposition, which is a physical vapour transport technique, to grow essentially any structure in thin film format, using three separate laser-generated plasma plumes. We will use three laser sources, directed to three target materials, which can be of arbitrary composition, stoichiometry, and format. The plumes are then incident on a substrate which will receive the directed plasma plumes, to allow a thin film to grow in the desired geometry, composition and format.The flexibility of having these three targets is in some ways equivalent to the use of the three primary colours to construct any subsequent colour imaginable, as in a colour chart. Mixing of plumes, both in time and space, will enable uniquely complicated materials to be grown. This colour analogy goes further however in that we will now be able to 'paint' arbitrary compositions of materials onto substrates in the same way that artists will colour mix and then paint onto a canvas. New thin film geometries will be readily grown, and the intention in this programme is to explore in detail what is possible, what is desirable and useful, and what, though desirable, cannot be grown. Once we have this knowledge, then all growth geometries that we have achieved will be assessed for their application in practical and useful optical device technologies.

CBES aims to tackle the following three main issues:1. How to design, maintain and operate the built environment while minimising the emissions of greenhouse gases. 2. How to adapt the environment, fabric and services of existing and new buildings to climate change.3. How to improve the environment in and around buildings to provide better health, comfort, security and productivity.Initially, in the 1950's and 1960's, most building science research focused on applying physics, chemistry etc to the environment in buildings. Many of the problems that can be tackled by this single discipline approach have now been solved; the key remaining problems are multi-disciplinary. Hence, Bartlett research in this area expanded to involve multidisciplinary activities across the built environment, with building scientists working closely with planners, architects etc. In the 1980's and 1990's, much of this work still relied on individual disciplines using existing tools and techniques from their own discipline by simply applying them along with tools from other disciplines. More recently, the strategic direction of CBES has been shaped by the necessity for a truly multidisciplinary approach. The development of CBES is therefore very much in line with the recent key recommendation of the Second International Review of Engineering that academia, industry and government develop strategies to encourage increased linkage of engineering research to more basic mathematical, physical, chemical and biological sciences, so that scientific and engineering discoveries may stimulate even more and broader discoveries and their applications. The strategic development of CBES rests upon two key factors:1. The identification and development of innovative opportunities to advance academic and industrial collaboration beyond the traditional territories of the Built Environment. The group is already taking an international lead in work involving significant breakthroughs in health, energy and conservation issues related to environment in buildings. Its success in developing this multidisciplinary approach has been rewarded through increased and more diverse research funding (4.4M since 2000, 56% EPSRC funded). CBES have already developed a unique set of interdisciplinary projects, working with acarologists, epidemiologists, sociologists, chemists and conservators, in institutions across the UK and worldwide. However, there is considerable potential for new projects working with clinicians, climate physicists, neurologists, electrical engineers, nano-technologists, economists and crime scientists to tackle key questions which determine the physical environment in and around buildings. Working with these disciplines is vital in order to tackle such key problems as the impact that climate change is having on the urban heat island and environmental control in buildings, how occupants interact with the built environment to control and adapt their environment, how we neurologically assess the lit environment within buildings and the impact that the built environment is having on health.2. The development of the required theoretical cross disciplinary techniques to undertake these new challenges. CBES aims to work with the most appropriate discipline specialists and to provide the most appropriate techniques for solving the practical problems facing the built environment. For example, CBES feels there is considerable potential to adapt epidemiological techniques for the building stock as a whole. Also developments in complexity theory are applicable to many of the research challenges the research group is currently studying but so far have not been applied to these areas.If CBES is to fully achieve its planned strategic development, Platform funding is required to provide a step change in the way it undertakes research and works with new disciplines.

Silicon Carbide (SiC) electronics and sensor technologies will play an important role in the energy and transport technologies of the 21st Century. Environmental pressures to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions coupled with diminishing fossil fuel resources will drive a continuing increase in the use of electricity as the preferred point-of-use energy delivery mechanism. The efficient and flexible conversion of electrical energy is increasingly accomplished through the use of power electronics, a technology and business area that is set to expand rapidly over the next decades. SiC, in common with other wide band-gap semiconductors, offers the potential for dramatic improvements in the efficiency and range of applications for power electronics. It is thus seen as an enabler for many innovative energy and transport developments, such as power-dense electronics for the more electric aircraft, hybrid/all-electric road vehicles and rail traction or for application to the electricity generation and distribution network, where high-speed high-voltage switches are needed.The principal aim of this Platform Grant is to facilitate long-term, innovative, generic research into technologies that will deliver SiC electronics and sensor technology to extreme environment applications. This aim will be achieved through three specific objectives. First and foremost the Platform Grant will facilitate the retention of a core of expert research staff and provide for their career development within a secure and stable employment environment. Secondly, it will complement current and planned research activities by allowing the Team to address speculative but strategically important issues associated with SiC electronics and sensors. Thirdly, it will address the wider development needs of the Team by providing funds for a range of international exchanges. We foresee an increasing international effort towards realising the benefits of SiC devices in real-life applications and systems and much of the proposed research is orientated in that direction. We plan major new investigations into applying advanced SiC devices coupled with new material fabrication methods to significant systems applications / in particular energy conversion (of crucial importance in all forms of renewable power) and new types of sensors for emerging areas such as real-time pollution monitoring in automobiles. Such developments will provide real benefit to society whilst opening up significant new commercial markets to those companies that can adopt these genuinely disruptive technologies. Alongside this system level perspective will be crucial developments in materials technologies (such as the application of new types of dielectric technology) and novel devices (SiC transistors fabricated using such dielectrics) that will underpin the dramatic improvements in system level performance that will arise from the application of such technologies.

This project concerns the formation of chemical bonds. The reactions chosen are addition reactions of electron-rich groups such as amines or those containing negatively charged oxygen atoms with electron-poor groups such as carbon-carbon double bonds which have electron attracting groups attached. Molecules will be prepared which have a pair of such groups held in close proximity. The degree of bond formation between them will be detected by measurements of the electron density between them, and by nuclear magnetic resonances (NMR) measurements on powdered crystalline samples - detecting either the nitrogen (as 15N) or oxygen (as 17O) atom of the electron-rich group. These measurements are at the cutting edge of both these techniques. The electron density distribution on a particular molecule is determined from very accurate X-ray diffraction measurements (XRD) on a small crystal, and this will contribute to the growing use of this technique internationally to examine weak bonding interactions. Of particular importance is to determine how the properties of the electron density distribution between the reacting groups changes as the distance between the groups decreases i.e. as the bond forms. Use of NMR measurements on powdered crystalline samples means that the solid state structure determined by X-ray diffraction, can be directly related to the position of the signal from N or O in the NMR experiment. The NMR measurements using 17O will be ground breaking, since this has only become feasible through recent developments of the technique, including double rotation of the sample in the magnetic field. Nevertheless, for the 17O measurements it will be necessary to prepare compounds which are enriched in the 17O isotope. Finally, and of particular importance, the choice of cation accompanying the oxygen anion will be varied to determine how this alters the reactivity of the oxygen anion, which will be monitored by structural (XRD) and NMR measurements building on earlier results. The reactivity of the oxygen would be expected to be decreased by cations which bind more tightly to it, and our measurements will provide an approach to quantify this.

The I'DGO research consortium has a continuing overall aim to identify the most effective ways of ensuring that the outdoor environment is designed inclusively and with sensitivity to the needs and desires of older people, to improve their quality of life. In focusing on the changing needs of older people, the consortium will address issues that are relevant to a much wider range of people in society as a whole, including disabled people, frail or vulnerable people and those who care for them. The proposed research under I'DGO TOO combines the skills and experience of three research centres and academic colleagues across five academic institutions. It brings this expertise together with that of a range of collaborators from different organisations, agencies and groups, ranging from ODPM to Age Concern, who are keen to use the findings of the research and benefit from it,I'DGO TOO focuses on particular policies and strategies that are currently being promoted by government as part of the sustainability agenda / urban renaissance, integrated communities and inclusive environments / where the potentially important, practical implications for older people's lives have not fully been explored and tested. It investigates how well outdoor environments in certain types of development, built in line with these policies, contribute to older people's health and wellbeing. It does so through research at three different levels of detail. It explores the implications of denser urban living on open space in housing, pedestrian-friendly approaches (such as Home Zones) in street environments and the practical consequences of using tactile paving in the urban environment. A range of innovative methods, some of which have been developed in earlier research by the consortium, will be used to examine in detail how design, and older people's perceptions of the designed environment, make a difference. The voices of older people themselves are a key element in this research. I'DGO TOO recognises the great diversity and range of abilities, disabilities, aspirations, expectations and needs that are encompassed in the population of people over 65 years of age. From the beginning, older people will be involved in expressing what is important to them and in shaping the development of the programme. The approaches used treat older people and disabled people as co-researchers, rather than 'subjects', and the range of techniques place these people at the heart of the investigation. A number of different methods is used to ensure that diverse perspectives and evidence is collected to throw light on the questions and objectives of the research. The main issues to be addressed are: how residential outdoor space in higher-density 'urban renaissance' housing can best be delivered to optimise older residents' quality of life; whether Home Zones provide a good design solution in the context of an ageing population, and the implications of the design, siting, laying and use of tactile paving for older people.The implications of the findings will be important for policy-makers, planners, designers and other professionals working in the urban environment, as well as users of that environment. The research collaborators will help ensure that the outputs are useful and useable for the range of people and groups for whom this work is important. Guidance will be published in a range of formats and media, including attractive and accessible printed booklets as well as web-based publications targeted to suit the needs of different expert, academic, professional and lay audiences.

Vision: The idea of this proof-of-concept research is to investigatehow recent revolutionary advances in computational mechanics can beleveraged to enhance the modelling of nano complementarymetal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS).The size of the CMOS devices is aggressively being reduced into thedeca-nanometer range (one hundredth of a micron). It isprojected that mass-produced metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effecttransistors (MOSFETs) will reach gate lengths as small as 7 nanometersby 2018 (2003 edition of the International Technology Roadmap forSemiconductors).Modelling and simulation provides deep insight into the operation ofmodern semiconductor devices and circuits, and dramatically reducesthe development costs and time-to-market.Modelling devices at the deca-nanometer scale face significantdifficulties associated with the statistical variability from onetransistor to another introduced by the granularity of matter at thisscale. The Device Modelling Group (Asen Asenov) in the ElectricalEngineering Department at Glasgow University is the world leader inCMOS variability simulation developing unique computational tools tailored tofacilitate the design the next generation of nano-CMOS.While these techniques are very well suited to simulate the effects ofdiscrete dopants, they involve an unnecessary computational cost byrequiring large numbers of grid points when simulating line edge andinterface roughness. It would be greatly beneficial for the practical use simulations of CMOS atthe nano-scale if this computational cost could be reduced.Stephane Bordas, from the Mechanics and Materials Group of the CivilEngineering Department at Glasgow University has developed efficientnumerical techniques which have the potential to significantlydecrease the computational burden through enrichment of the numericalscheme with a priori knowledge about the solution and by allowing theuse of low quality discretisations without sacrificing accuracy.This proof-of-concept research will investigate how the novelnumerical techniques devised in Bordas' group in the context ofmechanics problems can be generalised to increase the accuracy versuscomputational cost ratio in nano-scale CMOS simulators.

Uncertainty is ubiquitous in the mathematical characterisation of engineered and natural systems. In many structural engineering applications, a deterministic characterisation of the response may not be realistic because of uncertainty in the material constitutive laws, operating conditions, geometric variability, unmodelled behaviour, etc. Ignoring these sources of uncertainties or attempting to lump them into a factor of safety is no longer widely considered to be a rational approach, especially for high-performance and safety-critical applications. It is now increasingly acknowledged that modern computational methods must explicitly account for uncertainty and produce a certificate of response variability alongside nominal predictions. Advances in this area are key to bringing closer the promise of computational models as reliable surrogates of reality. This capability will potentially allow significant reductions in the engineering product development cycle due to decreased reliance on extensive experimental testing programs and enable the design of systems that perform robustly in the face of uncertainty. The proposed investigation will address this important research problem and deliver convergent computational methods and efficient software implementations that are orders of magnitude faster than direct Monte-Carlo simulation for predicting the response of structural systems in the presence of uncertainty. This work will draw upon developments in stochastic subspace projection theory which have recently emerged as a highly efficient and accurate alternative to existing techniques in computational stochastic mechanics. The overall objectives of this project include: (1) formulation of convergent stochastic projection schemes for predicting the static and (low and medium frequency) dynamic response statistics of large-scale stochastic structural systems. (2) design and implementation of a state-of-the-art parallel software framework that leverages existing deterministic finite element codes for stochastic analysis of complex structural systems, and (3) laboratory and computer experiments to validate the methods developed. The methods to be developed will find applications to a wide range of structural problems that require efficient and accurate predictions of performance and safety in the presence of uncertainty. This is a crucial first step towards rational design and control strategies that can meet stringent performance targets and simultaneously ensure system robustness. Progress in this area would also be of benefit to many other fields in engineering and the physical sciences where there is a pressing need to quantify uncertainty in predictive models based on partial differential equations.

Allergic reaction to airborne pollen affect about 15% of the population of industrialised countries. Real-time detection and identification of airborne particles combined with antigen specific medication, can help improve the quality of life for many hay fever sufferers. Current methods for measuring airborne particles are based on the archaic capture and count technique which is expensive and laborious, and normally give an average over 24 hours. In this proposal a new approach to measuring particles such as pollen, or aerosol in the atmosphere is described. The method relies on the breakdown of the particles in a flame to produce a large number of smaller fragments in a flame. These smaller particles are often charged and can then be measured using electrochemical means. The advantage of this method is the amplification through the fragmentation process. The distribution of these fragments in the flame will provide a unique pattern depending on the particle's material, density and composition. With this technique it will be possible to have a continuous measure of the number density of particulates in the atmosphere and identify of the particulates by potentiometric tomography.