Stars are the fundamental building blocks of galaxies and stellar clusters. They are often formed as part of small stellar systems, such as binaries and triples. Interactions between the stars give rise to some of the most energetic events in the universe and most exciting puzzles of modern astrophysics, e.g. supernovae Type Ia explosions, X-ray bursts, and gamma-ray bursts. Even though, the principles of binary evolution theory have been accepted for a long time, the evolution of triples is an uncharted territory. There is a need to understand the evolution of triples, as they are common and often invoked to explain compact and exotic binaries. The advents of large-scale surveys are currently providing us with an unprecedented number of stars, binaries and triples that can help us to improve our understanding of galactic structure and stellar evolution. However, the recent increase in observational work has not been matched by theoretical developments that are necessary for understanding these stellar populations. I propose to conduct the first consistent study of triple evolution in which stellar evolution and a full treatment of dynamics is taken into account simultaneously. The results will be compared directly with observations and this process will be iterated in order to provide a well-constrained model for triple evolution. It is an excellent moment to conduct this study as we finally have the tools and computer power to make a big leap forward in the modelling of the evolution of triple systems.

In the era of globalisation, family policies and social care services are at the intersection of increasingly diverse family situations and complex welfare state environments. This project contributes to Norface Call themes 1,2, and 5; People, Inequalities/diversity, and Shifting responsibilities, and will compare policies and family-based social work in different family policy regimes and service areas: child welfare, drug/alcohol abuse, migrating families and disabilities. The purpose is to analyse how social workers across different contexts understand notions of family and how they describe their own practices and outcomes with families. This study uses empirical data from eight countries (Norway, Sweden, England, Ireland, Chile, Mexico, Lithuania and Bulgaria) representing four different family policy regimes (de-familialised, partly de-familialised, familialised and re-familialised). Existing data relevant to family policies from Eurostat, the OECD and other databases will be used. Additional national statistics and documents detailing the organisational structure of services will be collected. Thirty two focus groups (eight countries; four service areas) will be held using semi-structured interviews and case vignettes, engaging researchers from the three university partners of Sweden, Norway and UK, with co-operation partners in the other five countries. The project will add to theoretical analyses of welfare regimes, family policy, professional discretion, and contribute methodologically to cross-national research. End-users from policy-makers to social workers will benefit from new knowledge about different conceptions of the family and how these impact services provided.

Dinitrogen, N2, makes up 78% of the air around us, and is exceptionally unreactive. It can be transformed into the more chemically versatile ammonia in nature using nitrogenase enzymes, and industrially by the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process, both of which rely on transition metals as the source of reactivity. The goal of this research is to sequester dinitrogen using non-metal systems, and use it as a nitrogen source for the generation of industrially relevant products. I propose to use photochemically generated phenyl cations as reactive yet chemoselective Lewis acids in combination with phosphines (and subsequently alternative main-group bases such as amines and carbenes) to activate and trap the dinitrogen molecule. The resulting azo-phosphonium salt can also be synthesised by the interaction of a phosphine with the corresponding diazonium salt, and this alternative synthetic pathway will allow us to rapidly screen a variety of reaction conditions and permutations, and assess the thermodynamic stabilities of different substituent patterns. Moreover, the azo-phosphonium salts that are generated are structurally related to commercially available dyes. The colours and stabilities of the dyes will be readily tuneable by varying the substituents and counter-anion. The base can be further varied: the use of secondary phosphines followed by deprotonation will afford neutral azo-phosphines, and it will be interesting to explore the possibility of these systems undergoing photo-isomerisation (by analogy with azobenzene), and potentially being used as photo-switches within molecular machines. Primary phosphines, followed by double deprotonation, would give rise to anionic P,N ligands with flexible binding modes. The products will be initially assessed using the diazonium route, and once stable species have been identified we will target them using the dinitrogen activation pathway. The true goal is to combine the concepts and generate industrially relevant products from N2 in a sustainable manner.

Testing new treatments to slow or stop the progression of Parkinsons disease is difficult, because there are no reliable ways to measure symptoms. Wearable sensors such as smart watches, that monitor patients in their daily lives, can be used to create objective digital biomarkers that could be used in clinical trials and care. We will use data from recent cohort studies, including the Personalized Parkinson Project, the Parkinson’s Progression Marker Initiative (PPMI), and the Watch-PD study, to create open-source algorithms for digital PD biomarkers that can be used with any wrist-worn device.

In the era of globalisation, family policies and social care services are at the intersection of increasingly diverse family situations and complex welfare state environments. This project will compare family policies and family-based social work in four different welfare systems and fundamental service areas: child welfare, drug/alcohol abuse,migrating families and disabilities. Its purpose is to analyse how social workers across different contexts understand notions of family and how they describe their own practices and outcomes with families.