Interdisciplinary ResearchAnnual report 2014

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As you may know, here at the University of Southampton we are committed to bringing scientists from different disciplines together in order to tackle some of the most important and challenging global problems. In recent years we have shown that this interdisciplinary approach gives a research team much more than the sum of its individual parts and has led to exciting developments with wide-ranging impacts.

Many of the case studies you are about to read demonstrate our stature as an institution that influences governments, engages with industry, promotes enterprise and leads in innovation and development. Whether it is managing the environment better or working with stem cells, we have expertise right across the research spectrum to address the 21st century’s grand challenges.

Of course, all this would not be possible without the funding that we have secured from numerous sources. But it’s a testament to the quality of our research work that we are consistently selected to lead on big projects that address some of the most important issues of our time.

To underline this I’ll leave you with the words of 2007 Nobel Prize winner, Professor Mohan Munasinghe (Vice President of the IPCC),

who said of our interdisciplinary ethos on a recent visit: “I feel that Southampton is at the forefront of this area of activity, and is well placed to contribute significantly towards solving the complex problems that humanity now faces.”

Professor Guy Poppy Director of Interdisciplinary Research University of Southampton

HelloandawarmwelcometotheAnnualReportonourInterdisciplinaryResearchStrategyattheUniversityofSouthampton.Thisdocumentrepresentsasnapshotofsomeofthemostimportantactivitiesundertakenbyourinterdisciplinaryteamsinthepastyearorso.

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1 Cracking mysteries of the human brain

2 Harnessing the power of lightning

3 Health Technologies: Stroke Rehabilitation

4 Improving population health

5 Iridis 4 – the most powerful academic supercomputer in England

ContentsResearch Engines: Next Generation Simulation Science 4

Promoting best practice in the digital domain 6

Developing imaging tools to help us see and understand more 7

Meeting the challenges of an ageing population 9

Leading on energy issues 10

World leaders in health technologies research 12

Occupying the leading edge of a medical revolution 14

Working together to crack mysteries of the human brain 17

Finding the balance between economic progress and environmental protection 18

Helping plan workplaces and workforces of the future 19

Analysing the root causes of global health inequalities 20

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That is because instead of just allowing you to find out what other people have already written about interestingly complex things like the human brain, or the way cities grow, or how oceans respond to climate change, this app helps you understand new things about how those systems actually work – things that nobody else has ever understood before.

With this app you could achieve almost anything, from saving millions of people from disease, to understanding what causes global financial crises, or maybe just working out how to dodge rush hour traffic. But here’s the problem. While Google just needs you to type in what you’re looking for, this new app needs you to give it more than that – much more in fact.

In short, before it can teach you something new about some problem, you have to teach it what you already know (or at least think you know) about that particular problem. There’s no free lunch here, I’m afraid.

If what you teach it suffers from gaps, problems, inconsistencies or vaguenesses, then the app will just flag them up and refuse to play ball. But if what you tell the app is sound, then it will throw back new insights that might unlock a ground breaking new perspective or reveal a hidden truth.

This is the science of simulation: a discipline that uses computers to model and understand real-world systems. And the magic ‘app’ is not a new kind of search engine; it’s a new kind of research engine.

By harnessing computational power in the form of painstakingly designed computer programs, simulations can be used to explore and improve our understanding of almost every aspect of the world around us.

This approach is especially helpful in enabling scientists to spot gaps in our knowledge, to find the ways in which different theories conflict, to direct the next set of real world experiments, to discard bad ideas before we try them out for real, and in some cases, to predict the future.

Despite this being an emerging new methodology, it is an increasingly important one across many areas of research in academia and industry. As a result, it has the potential to become a truly ‘transdisciplinary’ research activity, underpinning new thinking and enabling progress across many different scientific disciplines.

Computational modelling in action

Right now the techniques outlined above are being used here at the University of Southampton in areas as diverse as archaeology and computational physics.

Iza Romanowska, a PhD student at the Institute for Complex Systems Simulation (ICSS) and the Centre for the Archaeology of Human Origins, is using simulation techniques to investigate the first human dispersal almost two million years ago.

Her work has already shed light on the origin of the ‘Movius Line’ which runs through Asia and Europe and appears to separate two distinct types of early Stone Age tool sets.

Iza said: “In archaeology we often discuss conflicting theories without much hope of ever being able to say for sure what has really happened in the past. Being able to simulate these theories and compare the results with the available record of past human activity is really a game changer for the discipline.”

Another ICSS PhD student, Max Albert, is working on the simulation of micromagnetic systems, exploring the rich variety of interesting and complex nanoscale phenomena that arise due to the interplay of long-range and shorter-range forces at the sub-micrometer scale.

Max said: “Most micromagnetic studies deal with systems in which the geometry is static. I am particularly interested in studying how these phenomena carry over to the interaction with moving particles or other dynamic geometries.”

From the global scale migration patterns of our ancient ancestors to the nanoscale engineering of future technology, Iza and Max represent the breadth of complex systems simulation research at the University of Southampton.

In addition to working on their PhD research, along with around 100 other ICSS PhD students, they are both involved in organising the fourth Student Conference on Complexity Sciences, which will host hundreds of complex systems PhD students presenting and discussing their research at the largest ever event of its kind this summer in Brighton.

The future

In 2014 we expect to build on our status as a research leader in computational modelling - not least through continued investment in the University’s supercomputer Iridis 4, which is the most powerful academic supercomputer in England.

Furthermore, we will launch our new £10m EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Next Generation Computational Modelling (NGCM).

The NGCM is the first endeavour of its kind and will fund more than 50 PhD students to pioneer new tools and techniques that will advance simulation modelling and keep Southampton at the leading edge of this transformative new discipline.

ResearchEngines:NextGenerationSimulationScience

Imagine that a friend of yours is raving about a new app. It’s like a new kind of search engine… but it’s better than Bing, it’s bigger than Google, it’s more useful than Wikipedia...

Iridis 4 – the most powerful academic super computer in England

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And who is in control of all this? Well, the answer is everybody and nobody. After all, the Web is a virtual world without borders and frequently without regulation - a world that is growing up incrementally according to the wishes of its inhabitants.

That is why here at the Digital Economy research group we have dedicated our time to getting the most out of the latest technology, whilst raising awareness of the associated opportunities and dangers. We have also supported digital innovations and applications, exemplified by the £1.5m “IT as a Utility Network”, and enhanced the digital footprint of the University of Southampton along the way.

For example, Digital Economy group members are involved in the Digichamps scheme, under which students are paid to work as Digital Champions in partnership with other members of the University community, in order to inspire others to follow their example.

There are two related areas of activity on which the Digichamps work. One is acting as Digichamps alongside academic teams to enhance their own study programmes and assist in the development of new ones. This work is funded by the Centre for Innovation in Technologies and Education.

The other area is working as Digichamps alongside University marketing teams to promote and record the University’s various activities and high profile events using social media. This is funded through the marketing budgets of the relevant academic units.

Digichamp activity helps to raise the University’s profile on the world stage. For instance, if a story of ours begins trending on social media like Facebook and Twitter, it can be around the globe in a matter of minutes. Other ongoing research within the Digital Economy sphere then examines how this network of information can be captured, analysed and reused, perhaps to support new kinds of businesses or research.

More about us

We are what you might call a ‘bottom up’ research group, which means that our research focus is defined by everyday citizens of the digital domain, including students and lecturers.

Since digital technology and applications stretch across many aspects of business, from financial transactions to the control of our transport, fuel and emergency services infrastructures, understanding the new digital economy requires innovative thinking that stretches across disciplines. That is why we are committed to involving representatives of as many different disciplines as we can in our work.

We believe that developing the digital economy requires us to engineer and measure new systems, as well as to understand the complex interactions of these systems with social practices and individual behaviours. Through these processes we can pursue new applications and generate new forms of economic, cultural and social value by developing new markets, identity, communication and creativity.

Curriculum Innovation Programme

Within Digital Economy we are strong supporters of the Curriculum Innovation Programme, which enables students to augment their curriculum to include areas from outside their core discipline that are particular to their individual career goals.

These opportunities give students an interdisciplinary dynamic to their studies. Indeed, they draw a clear educational parallel with the interdisciplinary ethos fostered throughout our research activities.

Currently we facilitate three Curriculum Innovation modules. These are: Digital Humanities, Living and Working on the Web and Online Social Networks. We also contribute to the digital components of the Portus Field School.

Spotlight: Ben Mawson

We are always working to support talent at the grass roots by forging solid links with industry. A great example of this in action is the story of music student Ben Mawson, who won a Dragon’s Den-style competition organised by Digital Economy members, with his concept of location aware music.

This innovation is based on individuals being able to trigger sounds from a digital database using their own movement, which is tracked by a motion sensor. In Ben’s own words it is: ‘Music you can walk inside’.

In earlier stages, his work was supported by a series of Interdisciplinary groups at Southampton, including Digital Humanities and via the first Creative Digifest event.

The researchers’ view

Digital Economy Research Group Co-Chair Lisa Harris said: “We’re a relatively informal group that attracts members from almost every scientific discipline, which is quite rare. In February this year we helped host Web Science Research week, which allowed us to continue building relationships between our Web Science partners and supporters from industry and academia, among other things.”

Digital Economy Research Group Co-Chair Graeme Earl added: “In the latest phase of development we are becoming part of the new Web Science Institute here at the University. This organisation builds on decades of research at Southampton into what the Web is, how it does and could work, and how it is inseparable as a technology from the people and organisations that use and create it.”

To find out more about the Digital Economy USRG, visit www.digitaleconomy.soton.ac.uk

Promotingbestpracticeinthedigitaldomain

The last decade has seen an explosion in digital technologies - so much so that these technologies now pervade many aspects of our lives. This includes communications, shopping, entertainment and education, to name just a few. What is more, for the first time ever we can reach a global audience or access a global marketplace from the comfort of our homes and offices.

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An eagle can spot a rabbit from two miles away, which means it not only needs good eyes but also a proportionately powerful brain to process what the eyes are seeing. Well, it’s exactly the same for us here at the Computationally Intensive Imaging research group, except we can see many times more than even an eagle.

This ability requires a vast amount of computing power to make sense of the exponentially large amount of data that our state-of-the-art optical equipment collects. Fortunately, we have access to world class facilities that make this possible, including the University of Southampton’s super computer, known as Iridis 4.

In recent years we have undertaken many projects, including imaging dinosaur remains and roman coins without disturbing them. After all, this is the science of being able to create an accurate three-dimensional image of something without actually ‘opening the box’.

But this ability is not only useful in archaeology. It also gives us a profound advantage when it comes to helping to sustain the lives of individuals through the development of high-tech hospital equipment, as well as life on earth as we know it through the most detailed analysis of plant root systems ever undertaken.

Spotlight: Computationally Intensive Imaging in food security

With the global population predicted to surge to an incredible ten billion by 2050, humankind is facing one of its greatest ever challenges in keeping people fed. As a result, the United Nations has stated that food security should be one of the top priorities for the international community in this century and beyond.

That is why a research team led by Professor of Biological and Environmental Modelling Tiina Roose is using advanced imaging techniques to understand more about how root systems consume water and nutrients without actually disturbing the plant.

This work has yielded important insights into how the tiny hairs on roots extract phosphates from the soil, and it is these insights that translate into knowledge about which variants of plants grow best in which parts of the world. The result is not only the knowledge and understanding to produce more crop yield through careful nurturing, but also the ability to sow selectively in drought-affected regions.

Other applications

Advanced imaging is also being used here at the University of Southampton by scientists like Professor Ian Sinclair from the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, who is using high resolution computed tomography to characterise materials and failure processes. His findings have particular uses in aircraft design, among many other things.

Then there is work being undertaken by Professor of Musculoskeletal Science Richard Oreffo from the Faculty of Medicine, who is using computed tomography to discover more about bone development and how joints degenerate over time. His work has particular real-world applications in developing treatments to relive conditions such as osteoarthritis, which could save millions from health service budgets in the future.

Perspectives from the lead researcher

Professor of Physical Chemistry and Chair of the Computationally Intensive Imaging Research Group, Jeremy Frey, said:

“To put it simply, our work is about applying radiation to an object and then interpreting the results.

However, the problem we come up against most frequently is that as an imaging researcher you always need more light.

That is why, along with our work on real-world applications for advanced imaging technology, we are working towards developing imaging technology itself.

At the University of Southampton we are fortunate to have particular interdisciplinary strengths in laser technology and advanced computation.

It is essential to have both of these things because it is only by accurately recording raw data and processing it in the right way that you get your image.”

What next?

Right now our scientists are working to develop novel x-ray sources based on lasers converting visible light into x-rays. In order to achieve this we are using computational modelling, a relatively new scientific discipline that is being pioneered at Southampton by Professor Seth Bullock and Dr. James Dyke, to isolate the methods that work best out of millions of combinations.

This modelling process means we can work faster and more flexibly in narrowing down the possibilities that should be investigated using full scale experiments. As a result, this approach cuts down the time it takes to discover new ways to optimise imaging techniques, which in turn is beneficial for all research work that relies on imaging.

To find out more about the Computationally Intensive Imaging USRG, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/imaging

Developingimagingtoolstohelpusseeandunderstandmore

The more we see the more knowledge and understanding we gain. For example, imagine having eyesight like an eagle, being literally ‘eagle-eyed’. No doubt, it would be a tremendous advantage.

Making a difference. Meeting the challenge of an ageing population

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Because older people are the primary users of health and social care services, this change in demographic poses a significant challenge for those planning future services. Furthermore, an ageing workforce will have important implications for the supply of health and social care professionals.

Spotlight: The EPSRC Care Life Cycle programme

After much hard work preparing our application we won £3.3 million worth of funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), under its ‘Complexity Science in the Real World’ initiative.

This financial boost has enabled us to discover and compile evidence that will inform the planning of future health and social care services; therefore helping to ensure that the system doesn’t capitulate due to the ever increasing strain.

The evidence base is being compiled by developing a suite of sophisticated models that represent both the socioeconomic and demographic processes, as well as the organisations that are involved.

These models give researchers and policy makers the increased ability to forecast demand for services whilst also understanding the wider implications of potential changes to the way services operate – i.e. information that can help them select the most effective policies.

Known as the EPSRC Care Life Cycle programme, the research brings together world class teams from five of the University’s international research centres. These are: the Institute for Complex Systems Simulation; Management Science and Information Systems; the Centre for Population Change; the Centre for Operational Research; and the Centre for Research on Ageing.

This research work is based on the concept of the care life cycle, which describes the complex set of interacting and interrelated factors that determine people’s care needs.

Influencing factors operate at the level of both the individual as well as the level of society. It is important to remember that a person’s need for care is influenced not only by their own characteristics such as age, gender, health, education and occupation, but also by their family circumstances and wider social networks. These factors in turn are influenced by the individual’s means, and to some extent those of their grown up children where applicable.

Migration also influences the supply of the health and social care workforce, and this is affected by patterns of education and training, as well as relative wages in the labour market.

A focus on the interactions between the care life cycle components in particular means that the models developed within the EPSRC Care Life Cycle programme are powerful tools for policy makers and planners.

What the lead researchers said

Director of the Centre for Research on Ageing, Maria Evandrou, said:

“Our world leading research in the field of ageing is facilitated by a number of interdisciplinary centres and programmes.

Their work ranges from saving older people’s sight and developing a vaccine for Alzheimer’s disease, to assessing the pension prospects of migrant workers.

The research evidence contributes to a better understanding of areas such as the factors that contribute to a ‘good’ old age, changing obligations to provide informal care, and policy debates on health and social care in later life and the personalisation agenda.

Our commitment to research excellence is complemented by strong partnerships with national and local policy stakeholders.

These enable us to engage with health and social care professionals and have a real impact on the design of social policies and the improvement of older people’s wellbeing.

For example, research collaborations with local health and social care partners show how modelling can be used to plan future care provision more effectively.

In addition, the University of Southampton strategic research group on Ageing and Lifelong Health provides a strong network for academics researching a diverse range of ageing-related projects and facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration.”

To find out more about the Ageing USRG, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/ageingusrg

Meetingthechallengesofanageingpopulation

Did you know? More than 10 million people in the UK are over 65 years old, and by 2035 it is estimated that this number will have risen to 17 million.

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When you add the fact that the Earth now supports more people in more developed economies than at any other time in its history, it becomes clear that we face a potential energy crisis that threatens our way of life.

Here at the Energy research group we believe that innovative technology has a critical role to play in finding solutions to the problems outlined above. Working alongside our partners in business and industry, we are researching new technologies to ensure sustainability in energy consumption.

Areas of research include bioenergy and offshore renewable energy, featuring our novel wave-energy converter, known as Anaconda, and our tidal stream generator.

Our work draws on interdisciplinary strengths across the University with representatives from: Art, Geography, Education, Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Electronics and Computer Sciences, Mathematics, Management and Law.

Leading sustainable energy project in Africa

Our researchers are leading an international project to provide sustainable electricity supplies to rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa. The aim is to establish and implement off-grid solar electricity generation that promotes development.

The five year project, known as “Replication of Rural Decentralised off-grid Electricity Generation through Technology and Business Innovation”, or Energy for Development (E4D) for short, is a multi-institutional research programme, funded by Research Councils UK and the UK Government’s Department of International Development.

The research encompasses social, technical, economic and cultural knowledge generation, as well as understanding specific needs to allow replication of such projects in rural communities across the world. The approach established by the E4D team is holistic, incorporating community and government participation.

The principle of E4D is to develop a community based mini-grid solar electrification system aimed at invigorating village trading centres by providing electricity directly to businesses. These businesses in turn provide a charging service for electrical appliances such as mobile phones and LED lanterns.

The E4D team works closely with villagers to determine their needs, aspirations and goals with respect to electrification. E4D has now established an economically sustainable approach, whereby the community contributes to the project and is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the plant.

Income is generated for the cooperative, also set-up as an energy supply company, through membership fees, local sales of electricity and share ownership. Such income covers all the running costs

of the project and provides finances to the community, as well as contributing to the recovery of the capital cost of the project.

Together, E4D engineers, local contractors and villagers were able to assemble the containerised 13.5 kWp photovoltaic solar plant and the minigrid within one week. The premise of the modular project design is to make it easier to replicate and resize to suit villages of different sizes and requirements.

Professor AbuBakr Bahaj, head of SERG and the Principal Investigator on the £2.6 million project, said:

“We estimate up to 3,000 local people can now benefit from electrical energy provided by the project.

The school, health centre, churches and the 40 businesses have round-the-clock stable electricity, allowing them to extend the working hours and provide additional services such as information technology training, tailoring, hair dressing as well as the charging facilities.

Additionally, the solar canopy of the photovoltaic system was designed to act as a rain collector, enabling water storage and sale by the cooperative to the community throughout the year”.

Partnership with Nokia

The Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory (TDHVL), here at the University of Southampton, has recently partnered with mobile phone giant Nokia to investigate how natural power resources could be used to wirelessly charge a Nokia Lumia smartphone using an energy simulation similar to that of a bolt of lightning.

The quality of work and expertise within the TDHVL means that it has gained prestige amongst the international research community, making it a leading research laboratory in the field of high voltage engineering.

Therefore when Nokia, with its 150-years of commitment to innovation, wanted to explore the viability of using lightning to charge a mobile phone it said that the TDHVL was the obvious choice for helping them to test their new idea.

Chris Weber, Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing at Nokia, explained:

“This is a first for any mobile phone company to trial this kind of technology.

As one of the first companies to introduce wireless charging into our products, we believe that this experiment has the potential to jump-start new ideas on how we charge our phones in the future.”

To find out more about the Energy USRG, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/energy_futures

Leadingonenergyissues

With only a finite amount of fossil fuel on the planet and evidence of climate change piling up, the quest to discover new and cleaner energy sources is one of the biggest challenges faced by humankind.

Harnessing the power of lightning

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Our work is largely into the development, validation and evaluation of rehabilitation and health technologies. Through clinical trials, collaboration with the commercial sector and close interaction with healthcare providers, we aim to translate cost effective technologies into everyday clinical practice. A particularly important component of our work is research into physiological and biomechanical mechanisms associated with normal and impaired function and recovery.

A strong interdisciplinary ethos runs right through the group. As a result, we are able to call upon expertise from across the scientific spectrum, which means we can assemble research teams that represent much more than just a collection of scientists. Ultimately this translates into a better quality of life for millions of healthcare service users.

We benefit from the attributes of esteemed clinical scientists and neuro scientists, as well as those involved in biomechanical research. What is more, we also enlist the help of sensor, control, and signal processing engineers, plus behavioural and health psychology experts.

Growing new cartilage in the lab

A prime example of interdisciplinary collaboration in Health Technologies is the contribution made by Associate Dean Enterprise for the Faculty of Medicine Professor Richard Oreffo, who holds the chair of Musculoskeletal Science and is co-founder of the Centre for Human Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration.

Professor Oreffo works with us at Health Technologies to discover radical new treatments for osteoarthritis – the most common form of arthritis in the western world. Currently there are no effective pharmacological agents or surgical interventions to remedy this progressive and debilitating condition.

However, Professor Oreffo and his team, which includes Mr Siwei Li, Dr Peter Glynne-Jones, Professor Martyn Hill and Dr Rahul Tare, have identified the application of tissue-engineered neocartilage grafts of human cartilage cells or stem cells from bone marrow as a promising alternative strategy for resurfacing articular cartilage defects.

This important work integrates the skills and knowledge of scientists whose disciplines include skeletal cell biology, bioengineering and acoustofluidics. Together they grow three-dimensional neocartilage grafts of human cartilage cells in a customised acoustic perfusion bioreactor.

Worldleadersinhealthtechnologiesresearch

Here at the University of Southampton we are proud to be world leaders in health technologies research. Over the years our Health Technologies research group has formed solid partnerships with many household names like the European Space Agency and Southampton Football Club, as well as other less well known bodies who make an equally profound impact.

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So far the team has already demonstrated that implantation of the grafts into human cartilage defects for 16 weeks results in the formation of cartilage-like repair tissue, which is able to integrate effectively with the host cartilage and contribute to significant improvements to the tissue architecture in the defective region. This breakthrough brings the possibility of an effective therapy for osteoarthritis ever closer.

The relationship between eye movement and upper limb coordination in stroke rehabilitation

With more people than ever surviving strokes, the Department of Health has begun to place greater emphasis and attribute more financial resources to the research and implementation of stroke rehabilitation therapies.

Because of this we were recently awarded funding from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Strategic Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund, to carry out a pilot project that would allow us to investigate eye and limb movements in stroke patients. The team consisted of Dr Katie Meadmore, Dr Tim Exell, Dr Val Benson, Professor Jane Burridge, Dr Ann-Marie Hughes and Dr Chris Freeman.

Established academic and clinical opinion holds that in typical populations there is a strong link between the human visual and motor systems. This is because eye movements precede upper limb movements to specified targets and provide important information to guide the upper limb accurately. Importantly, it has been shown that abnormal patterns of eye fixations translate to impaired accuracy in upper limb movements.

This research aims to characterise the relationship between eye movements and upper limb movements in stroke and control participants. Furthermore, it will determine whether improvements in upper limb accuracy, as a result of arm support or electrical stimulation, also reflects increased eye movement guidance during upper limb movement.

To do this our research team concurrently tracked both eye movements and upper limb movements in stroke patients and control participants whilst they completed a very simple visually-guided reaching task. This was made possible with the support of the Centre for Vision and Cognition in Psychology, which aided us with sophisticated motion detection equipment.

All participants completed the task with both arms and stroke-affected participants who had motor impairments in one arm also completed the task with the aid of a gravity compensating arm support for their impaired limb.

Through these experiments we demonstrated that gravity support and functional electrical stimulation facilitate ‘normal’ patterns of upper limb movement and reduce motor impairments.

Going forward, analysis of the combined data will enable us to characterise and develop models linking eye movements and upper limb movements to determine whether improvements in upper limb accuracy are also reflected in increased eye movement guidance. It will also enable us to consider how these findings could feed into rehabilitation techniques.

To find out more about the Health Technologies USRG, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/health_technologies

Stroke rehabilitation equipment

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Well, this is a future that has already been imagined by our nanoscience researchers, and what is more, they have already made history by demonstrating how such infinitesimally small machines could be assembled.

This important work represents the beginning of a medical revolution so profound that it may help characterise twenty-first century medicine in the same way antibiotics characterised medicine in the twentieth.

Nanomaterials in context

Just like any builder you need all the right materials to build a house and it’s exactly the same with building a nanobot. This sounds quite straightforward; however, imagine if nobody even knew what a brick or a tile was? That would make it much more difficult, right?

Well, that’s broadly what nanoscientists are up against, which is why the global nanoscience community is currently working on what is essentially a periodic table of nanomaterials.

You see, you can chop and change the shape and form of groups of atoms to make nanomaterials with various different properties. And with billions of different combinations, it is much easier to start building if you can first choose your building materials from a catalogue according to what you want to end up with.

You’ve got your nanomaterials, now what?

It might sound obvious but you have to glue your nanobot together for it to work, and it has to be the right glue as well.

This complex area is where our researchers made a valuable contribution to the state of global nanoscience when they discovered how to glue the various particles together using strands of DNA.

The trick here is to identify and select an appropriate piece of DNA to place on one particle of nanomaterial, whilst also finding the complementary piece of DNA to place on the other particle of nanomaterial, so that the two ‘click’ together. In fact, this process is often referred to as ‘clicking’.

Once you have two or three of these particles appropriately ‘clicked’ together, you have a nanobot that can then go and do a job for you.

Applications

Nanotechnology has applications right across the scientific spectrum, but its potential for facilitating revolutionary new medical practices is what makes it really stand out.

Currently our researchers are working on making it possible to actually send nanobots inside human cells to detect particular processes that are difficult to detect with conventional methods.

This principle extends to the treatment of anything that affects the pathology of the body at the most elementary level – cellular level.

Nanotechnology in angiogenesis

A prime example of how nanotechnology could soon be a fundamental player in the fight against all cancers is what it can do to prevent angiogenesis, which is the process through which blood vessels develop to feed tumours, among other things.

In this case a single nanoparticle is decorated with an amino acid, known as a peptide, which cuts off the blood supply to the tumour and prevents further angiogenesis – effectively isolating the tumour so that it cannot develop and/or spread.

Furthermore, this process can also be enacted in reverse, meaning that doctors would be able to artificially promote angiogenesis using nanotechnology to assist in the healing process where there is serious injury.

Enterprise potential

As you can imagine, there’s a vast commercial potential for nanotechnology if it proves to be safe, effective and reliable.

That is why leading nanoscience researcher Dr. Antonios Kanaras is investigating the viability of setting up a nanotechnology company, along with University of Oxford DNA expert Professor Tom Brown.

Dr. Kanaras said:

“This is an emerging science and very few groups around the world do it well – maybe two or three, and one of those is us.

We are in a great position to take this branch of science to market in the coming years in collaboration with Professor Tom Brown, who is a former Southampton researcher with a lot of commercial experience.

If all the numbers add up we could see the scientific success we have enjoyed over the last few years translate into commercial success.”

To find out more about the Nanoscience USRG, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/nano

Occupyingtheleadingedgeofamedicalrevolution

Imagine a future where you could put tiny machines inside your body to diagnose and fight illness or disease? Not tiny like an ant or even a speck of dust. Rather, machines that are so tiny they can measure as little as 50 billionths of a meter, earning them the name ‘nanobots’.

Achieving new functionalities using metamaterials

Cracking mysteries of the human brain

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Researchers here at the University of Southampton are committed to occupying the leading edge of international neuroscience - not because it is easy, but in the spirit of John F. Kennedy, because it is hard.

At the Southampton Neuroscience Group, known as SoNG, we have an international reputation, not only for attracting established research talent, but also for drawing in and developing the next generation of world class neuroscientists to propagate our continued success.

About SoNG

SoNG members are united by a common interest in studying the brain and neural function in health and disease. The shared aim is to ensure that fundamental research underpins clinical and technical advances and brings benefits to society.

Our group was established in 2001 to provide a focus for collaborative, interdisciplinary and applied neuroscience. It is one of the University’s interdisciplinary research groups and sits within the prestigious Institute for Life Sciences.

Key members include: Professor Vincent O’Connor, Dr Delphine Boche; Professor Hugh Perry; Professor Clive Holmes; Professor James Nicoll; Dr Jessica Teeling; Dr Roxana Carare; Professor Lindy Holden-Dye and Dr Amrit Mudher.

We also benefit from the presence of Dr Diego Gomez-Nicola, a Medical Research Council New Investigator, Dr Cheryl Hawkes, a ARUK Senior Fellow, and Dr Maria Luisa Moro, a Marie Curie fellow. In addition, we have worked hard to foster working relationships with drug companies like GlaxoSmithKline, for example.

Alzheimer’s disease: A revolutionary new approach

Right now Professor of Biological Psychiatry Clive Holmes is testing a radical new theory that a common arthritis drug could provide a breakthrough in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.

It’s all based on the idea that the body’s immune system, rather than attack Alzheimer’s disease, can in fact accelerate the condition in late stage sufferers particularly. This happens, it is thought, because chemical signals in the form of proteins that communicate with the brain to notify it of illness can kill the brain’s nerve cells, known as neurons.

Together with Professor of Experimental Neuropathology Hugh Perry, Professor Holmes has already demonstrated that Alzheimer’s patients perform less well cognitively following an infection. This can potentially lead to a downward spiral in overall health.

Now, if we could block these proteins would we halt the neurodegeneration that is characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease? And could the arthritis drug Etanercept crack the puzzle thanks to its protein-blocking properties?

Those are the questions that Professor Holmes hopes to answer in his work with late stage Alzheimer’s sufferers. If the work is a success he then intends to set up a similar trial with early stage sufferers in an attempt to either stop or slow the progression of neurodegeneration.

Professor Holmes recently told the Observer newspaper: “If we can show that this approach works, then since we already know a hell of a lot about the pharmacology of these drugs, I’m naive enough to think that they could be made available for people with the disease (Alzheimer’s) or in the early stages of the disease and we can move very quickly into clinical application.”

Alzheimer’s in context

In the United Kingdom alone there are more than 800,000 Alzheimer’s sufferers, with 35 million worldwide. This means that the development of an effective therapy could save health and social care services billions of pounds in the future.

What is more, an effective therapy would also mean a better quality of later life for all those who would have developed this debilitating and distressing condition, which has a profound effect on both sufferers and their families.

Despite billions having been invested in Alzheimer’s research over a whole generation, no effective drug therapy has emerged. If Professor Holmes can demonstrate a method to combat the disease, he will make history as the first person to do so.

What the Chair of the research group said:

Professor of Neurochemistry Vincent O’Connor said:

“The idea that immunology might play a role in neurodegeneration came as a surprise to everybody in the neuroscience community - everybody that is except us in Southampton.

This project is only a small part of what we do; however, for illustrative purposes, it is a good example of how we manage to push above our weight for such a relatively small group.

Although the group is small, we are what you might call a ‘broad church’. After all, we represent a diverse collective of talent that includes clinicians, researchers, postgraduate students and facilitators.

Indeed, over the last twelve years we have become adept at drawing in new expertise to perpetuate the future of our group.

In fact, the success of our neuroscience research group has actually provided a template for all of the University Strategic Research Groups at Southampton.”

To find out more about the Neurosciences USRG, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/song

Workingtogethertocrackmysteriesofthehumanbrain

Despite the modern times in which we live the human brain is still like an undiscovered country. So little is known about how this vital organ functions that the global scientific community’s understanding is still in its relative infancy.

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In fact, some regions are now reaching an environmental tipping point, where further significant degradation of natural habitats and resources will cause irretrievable damage. Ironically, this decimation of the natural world will actually undermine prosperity in the longer term.

But there is good news too. That is because in the modern globalised world humankind has become more adept than ever at reaching out to help others help themselves for the greater good of the planet.

For example, our sustainability science researchers are currently working with governments and locals in Columbia, Malawi, Bangladesh and China to discover new ways to safeguard the environment, whilst also maintaining the pace of economic and social modernisation.

As you can imagine, it’s not an easy balancing act. That is why we have drawn expertise from right across the scientific spectrum, from hydrologists to governmental science experts, to assemble a cohesive team that can begin to answer some of today’s biggest environmental questions.

Where we fit in

Our Sustainability team won funding from the Department for International Development, the Natural Environmental Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council, under the £40 million Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme.

Actually, here at the University of Southampton we are the most successful institution in the world at securing ESPA funds. This is largely due to the fertile environment for interdisciplinary research that we have worked hard to create.

Our researchers use qualitative and quantitative mixed methods to identify the drivers and pressures that lead to environmental damage at the level of a village, region or a country.

Typical drivers include things like population booms, climate change, or more behavioural things like a move towards a meat based diet in developed economies. Pressures on the other hand are the result of drivers. They include things like a decline in species that rely on forest for their habitat. This in particular can cause disruption to ecosystems.

If pressures are allowed to persist unchecked, regions can reach a tipping point where the environment that people depend on is damaged beyond recovery, and this is exactly what we are trying to avoid.

Boots on the ground in China and Bangladesh

Our funding success has enabled us to establish sustainability projects that benefit from close collaboration with other bodies, including other universities and non-governmental organisations.

For instance, in 2011 we led a team of researchers in six different locations on the lower part of the lower Yangtze River where it flows out of Shanghai. Here we used an historical approach to demonstrate

to locals the relationship between poverty and ecology: a rationale which holds that poverty is often alleviated at major cost to the environment. But that’s not all...

Right now we are leading a team that comprises representatives of the Hadley Centre, the Proudman Oceanographic laboratory, the University of Oxford, the University of Dundee and the University of Exeter, as well as other institutes in Asia, to give people in Bangladesh the knowledge to protect, among other things, the world famous Sundarbands National Park – home of the Bengal tiger.

To achieve this we are coordinating the knowledge and skills of climate change experts, hydrologists, fisheries groups, governmental scientists and Bangladeshi non-governmental organisations, to make the entire zone, on which some 40 million people depend, more resilient to human activities.

Ultimately, we aim to empower policy makers with the knowledge to manage environmental issues more effectively. Our data can accurately show where human activity has already gone too far, as well as where there is room for manoeuvre. These insights give governments a ‘safe operating space’ in which to continue their activities, along with an early warning of any potential for harm.

Columbia and Malawi

We also have researchers in Columbia and Malawi where we are working to discover more about the sustainable intensification of food production, which can bring tangible benefits to the local population in a relatively short period.

Historically, people in these regions have relied on the forest to provide a range of resources for their communities. For example, if crops failed locals would traditionally use resources from the forest to make up the shortfall. However, with the growth in population, that reliance can have a highly detrimental effect on ecosystems.

What a leading researcher said

Professor John Dearing said: “In the West we raised our prosperity levels at vast cost to our environment during the industrial revolution, and whilst we support efforts by those in the developing world to raise living standards, it is infinitely preferable that they learn from our mistakes.

“Fortunately the political will to protect the environment does exist in the developing world, and thanks to the financial backing we won from ESPA we can make a tangible and lasting difference to people’s lives through our research and teaching.”

To find out more about the Sustainability Science at Southampton USRG, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/sustainability_science

Findingthebalancebetweeneconomicprogressandenvironmentalprotection

As you read this governments and people in the developing world are striving for economic and social parity with the West. To achieve this they often rely on rapid industrialisation and intensive farming, which together place a tremendous strain on their environments.

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Here at the Work Futures Research Centre (WFRC) we are an interdisciplinary research team that was formed to address these challenges.

We bring together leading academics from across Social Sciences, Education, Engineering, Health Sciences, Geography and Management to provide insights that enable governments, employers and employees to plan work futures.

Some of the challenges we address

Workplace design: What will work spaces look like in the future? How do workspaces shape organisational culture, employee motivation and business outcomes?

Work, employment and life chances: How can we maximise the work opportunities for disadvantaged groups?

Labour, migration and economic impact: What is the impact of new patterns of worker movement across the national boundaries? How does this migration shape the way we think about work and how it is organised? How will the changing demographic profile of the population impact on careers and training?

New technology and work organisations: How are new information and communication technologies changing the nature of work? How is it organised? What are the skill demands?

Pensions and benefits: Are final salary pensions a thing of the past? What incentives and benefits will be offered to our future workforce? What impact will this have on the way work is organised in the future?

The third sector: What is the role of unpaid work and of charitable organisations in delivering services? How will this develop over coming decades?

Spotlight: Reviewing evidence for safe staffing levels on hospital wards

Faculty of Health Sciences researcher and WFRC Co-Director Peter Griffiths and his research team are currently undertaking a review of evidence concerning safe nurse staffing levels, commissioned by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

This review follows a series of hospital scandals that led to the Francis Report of 2013, which was scathing in its criticism of standards of healthcare at Mid-Staffordshire Foundation Trust. Once completed, this review will be handed to the Staffing Levels Advisory Committee, which will make the final recommendations on staffing levels.

Professor Griffiths said:

“Getting NICE to come up with guidance on safe staffing is an important part of the Government’s response to the Francis inquiries into failings at Mid-Staffordshire Hospital and other reports of staffing related care failures in NHS hospitals.

We are very pleased that our research in this area has put us in a position to support NICE in this work by undertaking evidence reviews.”

Focus on gender equality in the workplace

Each year the WFRC adopts a theme for particular analysis and discussion. The current theme is gender equality in the workplace.

We marked the eve of International Women’s Day with a panel discussion on ‘Gender Equality at Work: how far have we come and how far have we still got to go?’ held at the House of Commons.

Issues explored during the discussion included the gender pay gap and the underrepresentation of women on company boards, as well as the underrepresentation of women in the UK parliament.

Speaking at the event, Southampton MP Alan Whitehead pointed out that there were 32 men pictured in the artwork adorning the Palmerston committee room walls, where the meeting took place, and not a single woman.

He went on to suggest that without fundamental changes to selection and election processes this male dominance of the political sphere would continue.

Addressing big challenges

Co-Director of the Work Futures Research Centre, Professor Susan Halford, said: “The breadth of interdisciplinary expertise from which we benefit here at the Work Futures Research Group means that we can address the big picture – from the global challenges that exist, right down to the challenges faced by the individual.

“We have both the academic stature and the financial backing to meaningfully engage with policy makers, non-governmental organisations, industry representatives and unions to give a holistic insight into the future of work.”

To find out more about the Work Futures USRG, visit http://workfutures.southampton.ac.uk/

Helpingtoplanworkplacesandworkforcesofthefuture

Workplaces are changing rapidly. Emerging digital technologies, environmental pressures, the ageing population, restructuring in the public sector and shifting patterns of economic migration are affecting organisations, occupations, and the everyday experience of work.

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That is why we set up the Population Health research group, which acts as a central research hub for scientists from different disciplines who are interested in solving some of the greatest problems of our time, both in the developing world and here at home.

Although the group is relatively new, it has a clear vision of what needs to happen in order for us as a global community to get better at improving the health of our people. This means working to ensure a more equitable distribution of health and wellbeing within and between countries.

Particular challenges include: how to deal with the widespread adoption of unhealthy ‘Western’ lifestyles; the consequences of demographic, epidemiologic, and nutrition transitions; and also the impacts of climate change and political instability.

Since 2012 medics, geographers and social scientists, plus many others, have used the new group to compare notes on health phenomena from around the world - endeavouring to isolate the root causes and analyse the options for cohesive ‘joined-up’ remedies.

At Southampton we have particular strengths in the fields of life course epidemiology, spatial analysis and mapping, social statistics and demography, with the ability to examine and cross reference a tremendous amount of national and international data. This detailed analysis gives us the power to identify global trends and regional nuances with more certainty than ever before.

Spotlight: Influencing maternal and child health policies in resource-poor countries

Every day approximately 800 women worldwide die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Ninety-nine per cent of them live in developing countries, particularly sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The majority of these women could be saved with adequate reproductive health and maternity care. Similarly, over three million newborns die needlessly every year.

Zoë Matthews, Professor of Global Health, and Nyovani Madise, Professor of Demography and Social Statistics, along with their teams, have produced a number of high quality research outputs on access to reproductive and maternal healthcare and the quality of that care. As a direct result of their research, professors Matthews and Madise have advised leading policy makers, with their findings informing policy development on maternal and child health in developing countries.

Professor Madise’s research on maternal health in urban poor settings in Nairobi has had a direct impact in influencing service provision in the slum communities where it was undertaken. She disseminated the results of her research on maternal health among women in Nairobi slums to District Medical Officers of Health (DMOH) in the Nairobi province. This led the DMOH of Kasarani district to persuade the Government of Kenya in 2012 to build two maternity facilities that will serve a population of over 200,000.

Similarly, Professor Matthews’ framework for assessing the quality of care in institutional settings in developing countries has been used in Nepal, where the Family Health Division in the Ministry of Health has developed the ‘Monitoring of Quality of Care in Maternity Services’ guidelines, which are based on the Southampton research and the World Health Organization’s Mother and Baby Package. The guidelines, which have been implemented in 14 health facilities, have resulted in fundamental changes to maternity care - improving services for millions of pregnant women.

The researcher’s view

Professor Nyovani Madise, who is Co-Chair of Population Health said:

“This research on maternal health has had a significant impact on policies of governments and international agencies, and has indirectly led to millions of women’s and children’s lives being saved. But it only represents a small part of what we do.

Another significant area of interest is investigating sexual and reproductive health behaviour and how it correlates with fertility as well as the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. This problem is a particular threat to health, wellbeing and progress in low and middle income countries.

Throughout our work we are supported not only by our friends and colleagues here at the University of Southampton, but also by a great many governmental and non-governmental organisations, from the United Nations and the Department for International Development, to foundations and charities, including the Wellcome Trust, plus many, many more.”

Find out more, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/populationhealth

Analysingtherootcausesofglobalhealthinequalities

Many of today’s global health challenges cannot be tackled effectively by simply intervening at the point where a problem becomes manifest or acute. Of course, medical practitioners will always seek to preserve life and alleviate suffering. But finding long term solutions to prevent health problems from arising in the first place requires a more in depth and holistic appraisal of the factors that lead to health inequalities.

Improving population health

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Institute for Life Sciences (IfLS)

Both locally and globally many of the big societal challenges of the next few decades have their solutions in the life sciences.

That is why the outputs from the IfLS are clearly aligned with current national, international and societal interests that include environmental restructuring, food and fuel security, disease resistance and detection, ageing, healthcare and life systems research.

The IfLS, launched in 2011, forms one of the cornerstones in the University strategy to facilitate cross campus interdisciplinary research and education. We have developed as a go-to resource for collaborators from other disciplines in the life sciences and beyond. IfLS members are based in all eight of the University’s faculties and share, in proportion to their numbers, the funding opportunities available through the Institute.

Through the Wessex Life Science Alliance and Academic Health Sciences Network, we are increasingly involved in supporting and encouraging medical research and translational activities but maintain a balanced interest across the disciplines. We seek to project our engagement beyond the local campus to have a regional impact in research and enterprise.

Our foundation is now well set and our interactions across the University are focussed and productive. We are making a significant contribution to the culture and strategy of the University, growing in synergy with faculty strengths in collaborative life science research.

Professor Peter Smith Director, Institute for Life Sciences

Find out more, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/ifls

Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI)

With our seas and oceans covering approximately two-thirds of the earth’s surface, marine and maritime factors influence many aspects of our lives. Here on the central south coast as many as one in three jobs is dependent on the marine and maritime sector. However, this is just a fraction of the global marine and maritime economy, which is estimated to be worth 36 trillion US dollars a year.

For this reason and many others we established the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute in 2012. The vision was of an organisation dedicated to discovering much more about how to use and protect our seas and oceans. Now with over a thousand academics working together with society, industry and government, we represent the largest single entity of its kind in the world, integrating different disciplines from across the University of Southampton.

Research collaborations can take many forms, from the creation of short-term projects to solve specific problems to longer-term investigations of fundamental strategic significance. We also benefit from a wide range of state-of-the-art equipment, which is used in partnership with enterprise to save time and money in the long run by making ground breaking discoveries that can transform business practices.

Currently around 40% of our annual research is conducted in partnership with industry. A prime example is our Advanced Technology Partnership with the RNLI, the benefits of which have been hailed by RNLI Chief Executive Paul Bossier as “directly and repeatedly saving people’s lives”.

Professor Ajit Shenoi Director, Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute

Find out more, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/smmi

Web Science Institute (WSI)

The new Web Science Institute, which was opened last year, acts as an important international focal point for co-ordinating and implementing education, research and enterprise initiatives on Web-related developments. It is led not only by me but also Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Susan Halford.

One of our chief objectives is to secure a bright future for all University of Southampton research that has Web science at its core. We aim to achieve this by focusing on interdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships; demonstrating clear ambition, adaptability and innovation; providing a platform for significant investment by Government and external partners; and showcasing unique and creative education programmes that set visionary new standards.

Of course, we can’t predict exactly how the World Wide Web will change our society, but we have taken a lead in developing new forms of economic, social, political, technological and cultural resources based on a deep understanding of the Web’s technologies and social construction.

Right now there is a ‘perfect storm’ brewing, which combines open data, open education and open research. As a result, this is a very exciting time for the new Institute, as well as Web science in general.

Professor Dame Wendy Hall Director, Web Science Institute

Find out more, visit www.southampton.ac.uk/wsi

Zepler Institute

The Zepler Institute is a unique interdisciplinary research centre that brings together world leading expertise in photonics, quantum technologies and nanoscience. Its pull-through philosophy – ‘Electrons to Enterprise’ – ensures the Institute’s pioneering discoveries match to the needs of industry.

We explore the boundaries of knowledge to discover world changing inventions that can create wealth and boost the UK economy. We achieve this through a combination of decades of experience, industrial awareness and commercial intelligence to match science to products for manufacture, either through our own spin out companies or industrial partners.

This way we develop cutting edge technologies that are wholly appropriate for the commercial world – from fundamental research into quantum devices and technologies, through ultra-high bandwidth communication technologies, to biophotonics for point-of-care diagnostics.

The Zepler Institute builds on pioneering discoveries in photonics and electronics that form the backbone of today’s global communications infrastructure. The erbium-doped fibre amplifier, invented and developed in the late 1980s at the University, is now a crucial component of the internet. In addition, fibres developed at the University of Southampton can be found in the Moon Rover and Mars Explorer; they also navigate airliners and are used in the manufacturing of life saving medical devices.

Professor Sir David Payne Director, Zepler Institute

Find out more, visit www.zeplerinstitute.com

The success of the Interdisciplinary Research strategy has led to the development of University Research Institutes, starting in 2011 with the IfLS. There are now four institutes addressing globally important areas in which Southampton has distinction. Further information about the Institutes can be found on their websites and/or in their own annual reports

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This document is for information purposes only and is prepared well in advance of publication. While the University of Southampton uses all reasonable efforts to ensure that all statements, information and data contained in this document are accurate as at the date of publication, it reserves the right to make revisions or modifications to such statements, information or data at any time and accepts no responsibility for the consequences of any such revisions or modifications.

© University of Southampton 2014

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