Nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes and ZnO nano-particles are already being used in commercialproducts such as tyres and sunscreens. However, despite progress in understanding the mechanical andoptical properties of nano-materials we are still at the dawn of the fields of nano-optoelectronics andnano-photonics. Advances in understanding the fundamental materials science of these nano-materials todaywill therefore have a major impact on a wide range of commercial products over the next 30 years. One of thedifficulties with developing nano-optoelectronic components is the complexity of measuring their electricalproperties. Traditionally, new materials and devices have been tested via electrical transport measurements.Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to make electrical contacts on a 30nm diameter nano-wire or anano-particle. Indeed even if the contacts are made it is then difficult to separate the properties of thenano-material from those of the contact. Additionally, such measurements are plagued by reproducibilityproblems. Thus there is a pressing need for techniques that can quickly and reliably extract the electricalproperties of nano-structured materials. The availability of such techniques would greatly accelerate thedevelopment of new materials and allow devices based on these materials to be brought to the market sooner.We propose to solve these problems by applying the technique of optical pump terahertz probe spectroscopy(OPTPS) to semiconductor nano-wires, and by developing refined models to extract the most importantdevice-specific electrical properties from the measured data. The knowledge we gain will help us develop newoptoelectronic devices based on semiconductor nano-wires.

Conditions experienced during early life can have large impacts on individual fitness. An important source of these early life effects is variation in pre- and postnatal maternal care - hence 'maternal effects', defined as the influence of a mother's phenotype on the phenotype of her offspring over and above the direct effect of genes inherited from her. Variation in maternal effects can be large, at least as large as that due to influences of the environment or of an individual's own genes. However, there are strikingly few investigations of these effects in natural as opposed to laboratory or farm populations and so their importance and evolutionary consequences have not been fully assessed; if these maternal effects are genetic in origin, they could be a major source of constraint in evolution. In this study we will investigate the causes and consequences of maternal effects in the individually-monitored red deer of the Isle of Rum, Scotland. This is a particularly appropriate study population as males play no part in parental care, whilst females produce many calves over long lifetimes. Maternal effects on offspring traits are known to be large in this population; combined with complete pedigree information, high density genotyping data and life history data, this system is an excellent candidate for characterising the magnitude, direction and genomic location of maternal genetic effects on offspring phenotype. Our aims are first, to estimate the variation in a range of traits such as birth weight and juvenile survival that is explained by different kinds of maternal effects: permanent environment effects such as those due to a mother's own rearing conditions and those due to additive genetic variation between mothers (i.e. genetic variation that can respond to directional selection). Second, we will determine the extent to which these maternal effects vary (interact) with the sex of the calf, the reproductive status of the mother, environmental conditions during pregnancy and the mother's age. Generally we expect maternal effects variance to increase as the investment required gets greater (sons more costly than daughters) or the conditions get tougher, but the reverse is also possible. Third, we will use new phenotypes obtained during the project for early milk quality, parasite load and antibody production, estimated non-invasively from faecal and neonatal blood samples, to investigate the extent to which we can explain the maternal effects documented earlier. Fourth, we will use genomic information to investigate the genomic location of maternal genetic effects, first by considering each chromosome in turn (chromosome partitioning), then by considering smaller regions of each chromosome (regional heritability, genome-wide association). The final and ultimate aim of our proposal is to address a major puzzle in evolutionary research. In most cases where it has been measured, natural selection favours larger body size, and most body size traits are heritable, and yet species do not change body size over time. One hypothesis explaining this stasis is that there are constraints arising from the genetics of and selection on mothers. Thus, a mother's genes may affect offspring body size independently of the offspring's genes (maternal additive genetic effect) and there may be a negative genetic correlation between the maternal genetic effect and the offspring's own genetic effect on a trait. Whether this genetic correlation acts as an evolutionary constraint depends critically on the strength and direction of selection on both the offspring trait and maternal performance for this trait. We intend to measure all the parameters required to test the prediction of evolutionary constraint for the first time in a free-living population.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

One of the most striking pieces of evidence for modern plate tectonic was the discovery that the ocean floor is spreading, forming new oceanic lithospheric plate and giving rise to drifting continents. The fact that oceanic lithosphere forms at mid-ocean ridges requires that elsewhere oceanic lithosphere must be transferred back into the deep Earth. This happens at subduction zones, where dense oceanic lithosphere sinks below over-riding oceanic or continental lithosphere. One process that is ultimately related to subduction zones is the formation of volcanic arcs. The most prominent example is subduction of the Pacific Oceanic plate below the north American plate in the east, below the Aleutians in the north and below Japan in the northwest, forming the so called 'Ring of Fire'. Volcanoes above subduction zones are characteristically explosive, as exemplified by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens (USA) or the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa (Indonesia). Such large eruptions can have a profound effect on local populations and global climate. Subduction zones give rise to volcanism because fluids and melts are released from the subducting lithospheric slab as it becomes gets heated up while sinking through Earth's mantle. These fluids and melts are released from different portions of the slab, namely from the part that represents the oceanic crust, from its sedimentary cover (e.g. shales, deep marine oozes, clays) and from the underlying lithospheric mantle, variably serpentinised by hydrothermal activity at mid-ocean ridges. These chemically buoyant fluids and melts interact with the overlying column of mantle peridotite, eventually triggering melting by lowering the melting point. Water-bearing basaltic magmas so-produced ascend into the crust, differentiate to more silicic compositions and eventually give rise to explosive volcanism on the over-riding plate. While geologists broadly know that such processes must happen in subduction zones, its details remain poorly understood. Geochemical data on volcanic rocks has proven to be a useful tracer of plate tectonic processes in general. Magmas erupted in different plate tectonic settings have characteristic geochemical 'flavours'. For example, enrichment in light rare earth elements, uranium and thorium, coupled with depletion in the high field-strength elements characterises lavas from subduction zones, supporting the involvement of fluids from the subducting slab. Although the process is conceptually simple, the details remain elusive, most notably the temperature to which the subducting slab is subjected at depth, the nature of the extracted fluids and the chemistry of the residual materials recycled into the deep mantle. In order to be able to study subduction zone processes in more detail, the conditions where fluids and melts are generated in subduction zones must be reproduced in laboratory experiments. Traditionally such experiments focus on the volumetrically dominant basaltic and serpentinised portions of the slab, with scant experimental data on the diverse (and trace element-rich) subducted sediment. Our pilot study on high-pressure melting of red clay with variable amounts of water highlights the important role that accessory phases rich in certain trace elements play in controlling the chemistry of the fluids and melts released from the slab. The temperature dependence of the stability of these minerals (notably rutile, monazite, ilmenite and apatite) means that the chemistry of erupted arc magmas has unrealised potential as a precise geothermometer of conditions in the underlying subduction zone. We aim to conduct further experiments on red clay and other oceanic sediments. Chemical data from the West Indies will be used as a field example against which geochemical characteristics of the experimental results will be compared. Involvement of the Project Partner will enable our results to be extended to the Tonga-Kermedec arc in the SW Pacific.

In the social sciences, it is common to use datasets in which information for a group of entities is recorded at multiple points in time. This is known as panel data and it forms the basis for longitudinal analysis. As with all statistical models, panel data models rely on assumptions. One common assumption of panel data models is that the residual variation in the data (i.e. that part of the variation in the data that the model cannot explain) is uncorrelated across entities. This is known as cross-sectional independence. However, this assumption is frequently violated in practice. The development of methods to control for cross-sectional dependence (CSD) is an active area of research. CSD can arise through two mechanisms. First, the data may exhibit spatial dependence, such that the behaviour of one entity may depend on the behaviour of its neighbours/peers. This is often called 'local' or 'weak' CSD. Second, the data for all entities may be influenced by one or more common factors. This is 'global' or 'strong' CSD. Often, both mechanisms may be jointly responsible for CSD. However, in practice, models that account for both spatial effects and common factors are rare, and those that do exist are highly stylised. We propose to develop a unifying framework for the estimation of sophisticated and realistic dynamic heterogeneous panel data models that account for spatial dependence and common factors. This project will generate three significant methodological advances. We will: (i) increase the flexibility and realism of spatial dynamic panel data models with common factors by developing techniques that allow for the model parameters to be heterogeneous across individuals, unlike most existing studies that assume parameter homogeneity. (ii) develop methods to exploit the network structure of spatial dynamic panel data models, opening new opportunities to use models of this type to understand the bilateral linkages among entities in the global economy. (iii) extend the methods discussed above from the common case of unilateral (or 2-dimensional) panel data to the more complex case of bilateral (3D) panel data, such as trade and investment flows. We will apply the methodologies that we develop to study three important aspects of globalisation. We will: (i) develop a new model to study the convergence of national business cycles onto a so-called global business cycle. Our model will allow us to separate convergence due to the effect of spatial linkages (e.g. trade and political relations, migration flows etc.) from convergence due to the influence of global factors. This model will help to guide the design of economic stabilisation policy in an interconnected world. (ii) develop a new model to study global trade flows and to separate the influence of spatial linkages (e.g. common borders, membership of free trade areas, common languages etc.) from global factors (e.g. the state of the global business cycle). The development of such models is of strategic importance to the UK, given the trade implications of Brexit. (iii) develop a new hierarchical model of global stock markets, where the performance of a firm may depend on spatial relations (e.g. linkages to other firms in its sector and/or in its geographical region) as well as a range of common factors (e.g. liquidity, investor risk aversion). Models of this type provide new insights into the globalised nature of economic activity and highlight opportunities and obstacles to economic growth for both the public and private sector. In sum, this project will make significant methodological contributions and will leverage these contributions to address pressing contemporary issues facing policymakers and professional economists alike.