Dimethylsulfide (DMS) is a key ingredient in the cocktail of gases that makes up the 'smell of the sea'. Around 300 million tons of DMS are formed each year by single-celled organisms in the surface ocean. A small proportion (up to 16%) of this DMS is released into the atmosphere, forming cloud-seeding compounds which can influence our weather and climate. When it rains, sulfur compounds are deposited back into the soils of our continents. However, most of the DMS formed in the oceans stays there, facing consumption by marine microbes and conversion to another sulfur compound - dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO). DMSO is usually the most abundant organic sulfur compound in the oceans and represents a major pool of the essential life elements sulfur and carbon. Seawater contains a rich mixture of important chemical nutrients that support the entire oceanic food web. The dissolved organic nitrogen pool is a chemical 'drive thru' which contains the highly reactive N-osmolytes: glycine betaine, choline and trimethylamine N-oxide. These chemicals are used by microorganisms to protect them from changes in their environmental conditions, such as variability in the saltiness of the surrounding seawater, and to protect their cells from chemical or physical damage. When N-osmolytes breakdown they can release gases such as methylamines into the atmosphere which can influence the climate. We have found a previously unrecognised and intriguing link between the bacterial breakdown of organic nitrogen compounds, like methylamines, and organic sulfur compounds like DMS. This link is provided by a bacterial enzyme called trimethylamine monooxygenase (Tmm). Tmm simultaneously removes both methylamines and DMS from seawater (converting it to DMSO). In fact we think this production of DMSO doesn't happen without the presence of methylamines. We estimate that up to 20% of all bacteria in our oceans contain this particular enzyme. The research we want to carry out will firstly investigate this link between DMS removal and methylamine availability in 'model' micro-organisms in the laboratory, checking that this link is active and how it is controlled in key marine bacteria commonly found in the global oceans. We will next determine the importance of this process compared to other biological processes that consume DMS in seawater and put names to the microbes using this enzyme to remove DMS. We will study the microbial processes linking the organic sulfur and nitrogen cycles in the English Channel at a station that is sampled weekly as part of the Western Channel Observatory which is coordinated by Plymouth Marine Laboratory. This is a long-standing time series site for which a wealth of oceanographic and biological data are available (algal diversity, temperature, nutrients etc.; http://www.westernchannelobservatory.org.uk), which we will be able to use. A global model of particles in the atmosphere has recently suggested that changes in the location of DMS emissions, through climate-driven changes in the phytoplankton species distributions, could strongly influence our climate. We therefore want to investigate the link between DMS removal, the availability of organic nitrogen compounds like methylamines and phytoplankton species, which we can do at station L4, where phytoplankton species succession is understood and can be easily sampled. We will compare this temperate coastal region to one of the Earth's DMS hotspots - the Southern Ocean. The atmosphere above this remote and isolated ocean is pristine in comparison to the heavily polluted air of the Northern Hemisphere. Here, the connection between DMS produced in the oceans and our climate is thought to be the strongest. Given the important role of DMS, identifying the role of marine microorganisms and the pathways of DMS removal from seawater will provide key information that will improve our future understanding of how the sulfur cycle influences our climate.

ePIcenter will create an interoperable cloud-based ecosystem of user-friendly extensible Artificial Intelligence-based logistics software solutions and supporting methodologies that will enable all players in global trade and international authorities to co-operate with ports, logistics companies and shippers, and to react in an agile way to volatile political and market changes and to major climate shifts impacting traditional freight routes. This will address the ever-increasing expectations of 21st century consumers for cheaper and more readily available goods and bring in Innovations in transport, such as hyperloops, autonomous/robotic systems (e.g. “T-pods”) and new last-mile solutions as well as technological initiatives such as blockchain, increased digitalisation, single windows, EGNOS positional precision and the Copernicus Earth Observation Programme. ePIcenter thus addresses MG-2-9-2019 of H2020 Mobility for Growth “InCo Flagship on Integrated multimodal, low-emission freight transport systems and logistics”, particularly in what refers to new logistics concepts, new disruptive technologies, new trade routes (including arctic routes and new Silk routes) and multimodal transfer zones. ePIcenter will speed up the path to a Physical Internet and will benefit peripheral regions and landlocked developing countries. ePIcenter will reduce fuel usage (and corresponding emissions) by 10-25%, lead to greater utilisation of greener modes of transport reducing long distance movements by trucks by 20-25% and ensure a smoother profile of arrivals at ports which will reduce congestion and waiting/turnaround times.

The consortium submitting this proposal stems from the UK-China Network on Clean Energy Research that was setup by Prof. Haifeng Wang in January 2007 with 202k of financial support from EPSRC under its INTERACT 4 scheme. The goal of the Network is to disseminate and promote in China the research that the EPSRC SUPERGEN consortia have carried out in the UK. The proposed consortium thus extends the scope of the Network to the organisation of joint research between the UK SUPERGEN researchers and leading Chinese scientists of nationally funded research programmes. It is thus built on the basis of an existing link between members of the Network, Chinese universities and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It also expands this collaboration to the two largest research institutes in power engineering in China: the China Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Nanjing Automatic Research Institute (NARI). All of the 9 UK investigators play a leading role in one or more of six SUPERGEN consortia that are sponsored by EPSRC to carry out focused collaborative programmes of research on various aspects of sustainable energy systems.Even though the power systems of the UK and China are at different stages of development, the issue of how to maintain security while accommodating an increasing amount of renewable generation capacity is an important concern in both countries. To achieve sustainable economic growth, these power systems will need to become more flexible and more robust. Engineers and scientists in the UK and China have complementary expertises in this area. Researchers in the UK have done a significant amount of work in recent years on renewable energy sources and their integration with the grid. On the other hand, security analysis and security enhancements techniques have been central R&D issues in China. Combining these expertises and facilitating a two-way transfer of knowledge would therefore clearly accelerate the pace of research on problems of common interest. We therefore propose to bring together the leading power system scientists from the UK SUPERGEN consortia and from the Chinese nationally funded projects to form a collaborative research team to study the sustainable security of power systems. Being able to assess and enhance the security of power systems is a key issue in the development of sustainable power systems. It is also a long-standing and complicated scientific and engineering problem with considerable breadth and depth. This proposal integrates 8 joint research projects that tackle the problem from the four most important perspectives, i.e., security analysis (JP1 and 2), renewable generation (JP7 and 8), protection (JP3 and 4) and control (JP4, 5 and 6). Two core projects, JP1 and 2, will develop new models and analytical methods for gaining a better understanding of power system sustainable security. They require input and support from JP7 and 8 on renewable generation and provide guidelines and tools to JP3, 4, 5 and 6 to enhance the sustainable security through power system protection and control. The contribution of the Chinese collaborators will be very significant as they have a strong experience with engineering practice and they have access to advanced experimental facilities that are not available in the UK. They have committed 4 post-doctoral researchers and 13 PhD students to work on the joint projects . These researchers are fully funded from sources in China. The Chinese collaborators have also pledged to seek further financial support in China to contribute to the Consortium if this application is successful. The proposed consortium has designed 3 schemes to ensure a two-way UK-China knowledge transfer through this collaboration. They are major dissemination events, UK-China training exchange and project meetings. The project will start on the 1st Oct. 2008 and run for 4 years.

For the UK to achieve net carbon neutrality by 2050, it is estimated that the mix of Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) technologies required will equate to ca. 35 M tonnes of carbon (MtC) p.a. Biochar can potentially make a major contribution both to this target and the adoption of farming practices described by the Committee on Climate Change (2020) to achieve a 64% reduction by 2050 in greenhouse gas emissions across agriculture, land use and peatlands by 64% from the 2017 level of 16 MtC. However, there are some significant challenges to overcome. There is limited availability of virgin wood to produce biochar and there are no large-scale production plants operating in the UK. Further, as well as economic viability and societal acceptability, there are concerns over biochar stability with initial degradation occurring over relatively short timescales. We propose to conduct the most ambitious and comprehensive demonstration programme to date involving arable and grassland, woodland, contaminated land, and where soil erosion control is required. Using over 200 tonnes of biochar, we will address uncertainties regarding the extent and scope of deployment and its stability with respect to carbon sequestration, together with quantifying effects on ecosystem services. The proposed research programme is highly inter-disciplinary, bridging engineering, geoscience, bioscience, social science and techno-economics, specifically designed to provide answers to the key challenges outlined and establish whether biochar can make a significant contribution to meet the UK's 2050 GGR target . The quantitative approach that we will adopt based on internationally leading science represents a step-change for biochar research in the UK, which has focussed primarily on agricultural benefits and not addressed the key challenges regarding carbon sequestration that are needed to reduce the uncertainty for policy development. Alternative bio-derived feedstocks that will significantly increase the production potential by >1 MtC p.a, will be identified. Two of our industrial partners, CEG and CPL operate demonstration and commercial plants, making them ideally placed to establish biochar production at scale in the UK. The extensive trials will provide a sound basis for establishing the potential for biochar deployment across agriculture, contaminated and reclaimed land and woodland, enabling regional and national scale effects to be quantified. To date, most field trials have been relatively localised and short-term. We aim to deploy char in large-scale farming and land management scenarios where the effects of 'real-world' management practices on the behaviour of char will be evaluated. Our excellent links with the farming sector, including the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and the National Farmers' Union, will provide the springboard to explore a wide range of stakeholder perspectives on biochar's role in GGR to aid policy development. . The Demonstrator will address concerns over environmental health and soil ecosystem service functioning and will provide the first comprehensive assessment of biochar stability in the UK and its impact on greenhouse gas soil emissions, with our international leading biological science and analytical capabilities. This will enable robust policy to be developed in which payments are based on the amount of carbon sequestered over extended timescales. Our business models will be based on our integrated life cycle and techno-economic analysis, identifying the carbon prices required to make deployment feasible and incorporating co-benefits of biochar use in agriculture. The Demonstrator will provide the Hub with all the necessary scientific, technological, environmental, economic and societal evidence to enable biochar deployment to be assessed in relation to other GGR approaches.

Irrational use of antibiotics is a serious issue globally. It is also very common among children with acute upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). It left many children suffering from the bacterial resistance due to irrational use of antibiotics, especially in less developed rural area. Antibiotic widely abused in China, more severe in rural areas. However, few studies focused on this area in developing countries including China. We intend to carry out a feasibility study rural Guangxi, China to explore an effective approach of reducing irrational antibiotic prescription for upper respiratory infections (URTIs) among children. To define the facilitators and barriers that influence antibiotic prescribing for childhood URIs in rural Guangxi, questionnaire will be used to interview policy makers from provincial, county Bureau of Health and leaders from township hospital. We will also interview these policy-makers, clinicians and caregivers to obtain their perspective opinions regarding rational antibiotic use. Then the theory based intervention package, which had been developed in Bangladesh and tested in Zhejiang province, will be evaluated in rural Guangxi once adapted further to be sensitive to the local context. Finally the intervention package will then be tested in 6 townships within one county. Six township hospitals will be divided into three groups. The arm A will be only targeted clinicians, with: operational guidelines and training on rational antibiotic use, mobile message reminder from pharmacist). Group B will be involving both clinicians and caregivers , which will include: the leaflet material and video information on rational antibiotic use, workshops between parents/caregivers and the trained kindergarten volunteers. The usual-care control group C will manage patients according to the clinicians' normal procedures without any intervention. We will carry out the intervention for 6 months and collect inpatient and outpatient prescriptions for 6 months before and after interventions. A questionnaire survey will be conducted to see the changes among clinicians, caregivers and kindergarten teachers' knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) before and after intervention at each group. Interview and group discussion will be used to see if this study is feasible and acceptable with the intervention package. Also positive and negative factors for the intervention implementation will be carried out. We will assess effectiveness though the difference in the antibiotic prescriptions rate among all the prescriptions between before and after intervention and between intervention and control groups. Those preliminary data will help us to aid in planning a larger effectiveness study in whole Guangxi province.