DAPHNE is a consortium of doctors, scientists and technologists drawn from 9 institutions (six in India and three in the UK), to study the effect of air pollution in the city of Delhi on the health of pregnant mothers and their new-born children, and asthmatic adolescents. This group is particularly vulnerable because of their greater intake of air with respect to the body weight, and an underdeveloped immunity system; and, also, the adolescents have greater outdoor exposure when travelling to school and during play times. In addition to estimating the amount of suspended particles and gaseous pollution inhaled by subjects using existing networks of stationary air quality monitors and satellite data, the project introduces novel devices worn on the person to measure exposure to suspended particles and noxious gases, and monitor their breathing rate and breathing effort when the subjects are out and about in their everyday lives. This will estimate the impact of air pollution on their asthma and how different levels of activity could contribute to changes in their condition. Biomarkers in samples of blood and urine taken from the subjects will be used as further evidence to estimate the effects of air pollution on changes in their well-being. Finally, a panel of stakeholders drawn from India and the UK will advise on how best the research results can be translated into interventions to help mitigate the effects for the benefit of the citizens of Delhi in the first instance, with potential for world-wide application in the future.

Conventional light sources emit a large number of photons in a wide angular range and are mainly used for illumination or imaging purposes. Technological advances have allowed the dimensions of the components of devices to be reduced to the nanometre scale, and intriguing quantum mechanical effects have come into play. We are now able to manipulate matter at the atomic level and generate single photons, the smallest constituents of light, on-demand. The ability to control light emission at its smallest level, the single photon, is technologically challenging but tremendously interesting. The next revolution in communication is expected to take place by implementing quantum devices where light-matter interaction is engineered such that information can be stored in single photons that circulate between optical cavities within a photonic network. Given their scalability and the possibility of on-chip integration, solid-state single-photon sources are expected to be the building blocks of these novel quantum architectures. If we can store information on a single photon level, we can transfer it at the speed of light with a guaranteed secure communication: any measurement by an unwanted observer will leave a trace that will be visible to the receiver, thus unveiling the steal of information. However, several challenges are still limiting the implementation of quantum information technology in everyday life: the emitted photons only preserve their properties over a very short time-scale, often requiring cryogenic-cooled emitters excited by external lasers, and networks where information can be efficiently stored and shared are still lacking. In this project we will investigate how the presence of nanometre-scale emitters buried within a semiconductor slab affects the surface morphology and how this, in return, impacts the properties of the single photons emitted. The outcome of this work will represent a step forward in the understanding of the emission properties of quantum light sources, allowing to improve the quality and reliability of single-photon emission, essential for information technology applications, like quantum computing and cryptography.

The properties of normal metals and insulators are quite well understood and numerical calculations of the electronic structures provide often astonishing precision, enabling a computational approach to designing materials with a specific property. This level of understanding has been instrumental in the development of semiconductor electronics. Quantum Materials exhibit a vast range of desirable properties, enabling new functionality, however these are usually unexpected and their properties cannot be predicted. Prime examples for the surprising properties of quantum materials are colossal magnetoresistance and high-temperature superconductivity. High temperature superconductivity occurs at temperatures of almost ten times higher than in conventional superconductors (except under pressure), whereas colossal magnetoresistance exhibits a change in resistivity with magnetic field which is orders of magnitude larger than for giant magnetoresistance, for the discovery of which the Nobel prize was awarded in 2007. Reaping the properties of quantum materials for applications has remained elusive, and a lack of understanding of their physics is a major obstacle to achieving this. Reaping the properties of quantum materials for applications has remained elusive. The vast majority of our knowledge about the properties of these materials comes from bulk probes which have provided information about the exotic phases in these materials with exquisite detail. Yet for interfacing to the outside world, it is important to understand the impact of surfaces and interfaces on their emergent properties. The impact of these will provide new opportunities to control their properties, which might lead to entirely new functionalities. For emergent magnetic orders, our knowledge about the impact of the surface in these materials is currently practically zero, therefore this proposal aim to build unique new capability. The here proposed research programme will address this, and lead to (1) An understanding of the impact of surfaces and interfaces on emergent orders, which are critical to technological exploitation (2) Development new methods for atomic scale imaging and characterization of magnetic structure and magnetic excitations (3) Exploration of novel ways to control emergent magnetic states in reduced dimensionalities This will be achieved through a multi-faceted approach combining methods which probe magnetic states at different depths from the surface, thereby enabling a complete characterization of the surface or interface impact on emergent magnetic states.

Our tangible cultural heritage, both historic and contemporary, is made from a plethora of complex multilayer materials. What we see is often only the surface and form of an object. Hidden below are the materials and evidence of the processes by which the objects were originally created. By using state of the art imaging / spectroscopy systems which can map the composition and reveal the stages of their creation, we gain an understanding about the meaning and significance, both in their original context and our present day. This is at the heart of the disciplines of technical art history, archaeology and material culture studies. It also informs collections care, access policies and conservation of cultural heritage. Infrared imaging and spectroscopy is particularly well suited to looking below the surface, as the scattering which normally occurs with visible light is usually much less. Thus the infrared penetrates further into the object. Depending on the material and its structure the infrared light will be absorbed or reflected. This can either be directly imaged or modulated (Fourier Transform Spectroscopy) to acquire spectroscopic information indicating the chemical composition. Most techniques employed at present within the field of cultural heritage can only make spot measurements; to map large areas would take hours to days to acquire the data and therefore is not usually viable or suitable for in-situ measurements. Other techniques require samples to be taken and are therefore invasive. We aim to explore state of the art IR imaging strategies that will be "fit for the job". This implies wide bandwidth, full field and fast techniques coupled with signal processing/ photonics methods to analyse, visualise and manipulate large multivariate data sets. By exploiting state-of-the-art laser sources developed at Heriot-Watt and providing massively tunable infrared light, we will explore and develop several complementary strategies for 4-dimensional imaging (3 x spatial, 1 x wavelength). Compressive sensing illumination techniques and machine-learning based data processing will allow us to image rapidly and efficiently while also extracting the maximum value from our datasets by automatically classifying surface and sub-surface features. In this way we expect to produce outcomes of shared value for both the ICT and Technical Art History researchers in our team. Contextual information from art history will inform the photonic design and computational anaylsis strategies we deploy, while powerful ICT-led techniques will provide the Technical Art History community with new technical capabilities that reveal previously hidden structure and history. The significance to the public of our cultural heritage has motivated us to integrate outreach activity from the start, in particular a dynamic website using 4D data to allow an interactive tool for exploring the chosen case studies, reflecting the People at the Heart of ICT priority. The project includes industrial partners who will contribute resources and expertise in mid-IR lasers (Chromacity Ltd.) and mid-IR cameras (Thales Optronics Ltd.). Our partners have committed substantial in-kind support in the form of access to their technology and contributions of staff time. Furthermore, their engagement ensures that activities within the project, and the outcomes these generate, can be rapidly evaluated for adjacent commercial opportunities. EPSRC priorities are reflected in the project's structure. Cross-Disciplinarity is embedded as collaborations within the ICT community (Photonics & AI Technologies researchers) and with researchers from the AHRC-funded Cultural Heritage community. Co-Creation is essential: only by combining the distinct technical, contextual and material resources of each research group in our team will the project succeed in delivering new capabilities for IR imaging and analysis and new insights into culturally important objects of shared value.

The vision of the Hub is to create ground-breaking embedded metrology and universal metrology informatics systems to be applied across the manufacturing value chain. This encompasses a paradigm shift in measurement technologies, embedded sensors/instrumentation and metrology solutions. A unified approach to creating new, scientifically-validated measurement technologies in manufacturing will lead to critical underpinning solutions to stimulate significant growth in the UK's productivity and facilitate future factories. Global manufacturing is evolving through disruptive technologies towards a goal of autonomous production, with manufacturing value-chains increasingly digitised. Future factories must be faster, more responsive and closer to customers as manufacturing is driven towards mass customisation of lower-cost products on demand. Metrology is crucial in underpinning quality, productivity and efficiency gains under these new manufacturing paradigms. The Advanced Metrology Hub brings together a multi-disciplinary team from Huddersfield with spokes at Loughborough, Bath and Sheffield universities, with fundamental support from NPL. Expertise in Engineering, Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science will address the grand challenges in advanced metrology and the Hub's vision through two key research themes and parallel platform activities: Theme I - Embedded Metrology will build sound technological foundations by bridging four formidable gaps in process- and component-embedded metrology. This covers: physical limits on the depth of field; high dynamic range measurement; real-time dynamic data acquisition in optical sensor/instruments; and robust, adaptive, scalable models for real-time control systems using sensor networks with different physical properties under time-discontinuous conditions. Theme II - Metrology Data analytics will create a smart knowledge system to unify metrology language, understanding, and usage between design, production and verification for geometrical products manufacturing; Establishment of data analytics systems to extract maximal information from measurement data going beyond state-of-the-art for optimisation of the manufacturing process to include system validation and product monitoring. Platform research activities will underpin the Hub's vision and core research programmes, stimulate new areas of research and support the progression of fundamental and early-stage research towards deployment and impact activities over the Hub's lifetime. In the early stage of the Hub, the core research programme will focus on four categories (Next generation of surface metrology; Metrology technologies and applications; In-process metrology and Machine-tool and large volume metrology) to meet UK industry's strategic agenda and facilitate their new products. The resulting pervasive embedding and integration of manufacturing metrology by the Hub will have far reaching implications for UK manufacturing as maximum improvements in product quality, minimization of waste/rework, and minimum lead-times will ultimately deliver direct productivity benefits and improved competitiveness. These benefits will be achieved by significantly reducing (by 50% to 75%) verification cost across a wide swathe of manufacture sectors (e.g. aerospace, automotive, electronics, energy, medical devices, optics, precision engineering) where the current cost of verification is high (up to 20% of total costs) and where product quality and performance is critical.