This project will investigate fundamental changes in people’s relationship to age and health associated with the global rise of the smartphone. The aim is to combine an intellectual challenge in understanding the contemporary nature of age and the impact of new media, with an applied challenge to use this knowledge to help make mHealth a more effective intervention. Through simultaneous 15 month ethnographies in China, Japan, Iran, Ireland, Nigeria and Tanzania (and supplementary work in Trinidad) a team will explore the experience of age for those between 45-70 i.e. neither clearly young nor elderly, who represent an unprecedented population that has resulted from changed life expectancy and changed aspirations. We will examine how this shift in the experience of age is impacted by the rise of smartphones that bring access to technologies associated with the young. mHealth started with youth orientated issues of fitness and wellbeing but is increasingly becoming a significant intervention in helping older populations deal with disease and frailties. mHealth has potential both for helping those with low access to professional care but also threatens to bypass and undermine professional medical services. Our aim is to complement technology led mHealth interventions with ethnography led participatory design, consisting of a collaboration between mHealth professionals with our ethnographically informed team and our informants. The applied anthropology will inform our intellectual advances in the field of digital anthropology. Reflections on mHealth will contribute to the core aim of advancing our understanding of the experience of age in this new interstitial period of life, and to appreciate the major transformations in society and sociality represented by the new ubiquity of the smartphone. Both the intellectual and applied components will be shown to depend upon sensitivity to the forms of cultural diversity uncovered by our comparative ethnographic approach.

The current economic viability and longevity of open cast and underground mines that are extracting strategically important natural resources are limited in many areas by complex geology: faults, rock heterogeneities and discontinuities. This project has assembled an international team to integrate geological complexity, laboratory testing, and numerical modelling in order to develop better mapping and prospecting tools for minerals such as Copper and Lithium. Such resources are essential for the modern economy, which, as energy switches from fossil fuels to sustainable 'green' technologies, is increasingly reliant on high efficiency electric motors, 'smart' power grids, and batteries for energy supply and storage. As such, advanced motors and batteries rely on a suite of metals and minerals including Lithium (for batteries), Copper (for power transmission and motor windings), and Neodymium, used for high-power motors in space-critical applications ranging from hard-disk drives to electric vehicles. However, extracting such elements in an economically viable, safe, and sustainable manner remains challenging. Chile hosts some of the largest Copper mines in the world, where these metals are extracted using a range of methods from deep mines (up to nearly 2km depth) to large open pit designs. Similar operations exist - or are planned - for Lithium mining in other countries including Australia (Talison) and Canada (La Corne). Managing the rock 'mass' that hosts these (and other) minerals with the aim of extracting the ore in a sustainable and economic manner is the focus of all mining operations. Furthermore, with the continuing shift to electric power storage and transmission driving increased demand for Copper, Lithium and other resources, the requirement for optimal extraction is likely to become ever more important. However, large volumes of natural rock contain a plethora of natural fractures - or heterogeneities - that makes safe mineral extraction a challenge. This includes hidden faults in the rock mass, veins of low strength, and 'layers' of high strength rocks interbedded within the target zone. Taken together, these heterogeneities make the task of constructing a 3D representation of mine workings (needed for optimal extraction) very difficult, particularly as the overall efficiency of the mine requires steep slopes, yet these are more likely to be unstable when the various heterogeneities above are factored in. Importantly, may standard methods for estimating the stability of steep rock slopes, such as the well-known (but very simple) Factor-Of-Safety approach, cannot (by design) incorporate such heterogeneities. The aim of the GeoSafe project is to combine the expertise of the Rock Mechanics Laboratory at the University of Portsmouth and the School of Mining at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile into a new collaboration to better understand the mechanics and physics of heterogeneities across scales from centimeter to tens of metres. We will achieve this by co-developing new numerical models, calibrated by laboratory and field datasets, to understand how small scale (cm to meter) heterogeneities influence large-scale rock stability in both open-cast and underground mines. These new data and models will allow us to replace the standard Factor-of-Safety approach traditionally used to assess the stability of rock masses by a new risk-based numerical model (RBM) incorporating heterogeneities via a fractal-based scaling parameter. Ultimately, this will improve the safety (both physical and environmental) and the economic success of these operations, with particular emphasis on safely extracting the minerals needed in the global renewable energy economy.

In woodwind instruments (flute, clarinet, etc), the different notes are played by opening/closing side-holes. The size and location of each hole can influence the sound characteristics of all the notes of the instrument (pitch, timbre, etc.). In order to play in tune and with a homogeneous timbre, the musician must adapt his/her control for each note (mouth pressure, lip configuration, etc.). If the changes between notes are too important, the musician may have difficulty playing a musical sequence. Modifying or designing a new instrument while ensuring sufficient playing comfort for the musician is therefore a challenge in itself. The main goal of “OWN-MUSIC” project is to give manufacturers the possibility to customize this note-to-note adaptation, by guiding them on the geometrical modifications to be made. This project will focus on instruments of the flute family (recorder and flute). More precisely, the first objective is to quantify the adaptation effort required between two notes and to establish models predicting this quantity from the geometry. This will be based on high-precision acoustic simulations and on the design of perceptual experiments with musicians and manufacturers. These models will be validated by using and refining adapted artificial mouths. Specially designed and manufactured instruments will be used to test the predictions of these models with these devices and musicians. A second objective is to develop a digital tool that can be used directly by manufacturers to provide them with a decision aid for modifying the geometry of an instrument. It will enable geometric modifications to be proposed to correct defects in existing instruments and to design instruments with customized control. This requires the establishment of a suitable optimisation problem including the definition of cost functions and the implementation of advanced numerical techniques. An online graphical interface will be developed with the craftsmen to enable them to use these features.

Privatisation of public education is a global concern worldwide. It has been extensively studied particularly in countries where the private involvement in educational provision, decision-making, and funding has increased in the last decade. With notable exceptions, the research agenda on public/private education has been mainly focused on what can be called the production function assessment of public/private performance: the relative effect on learning gains in standardized tests of public/private schools. This project has a different focus: aiming to understand 'entrepreneurial' and 'competitive' logics of action and how they may be being reshaped in the light both of private sector expansion and recent policy regulations. Chile has a large private educational sector which is currently being reshaped by a series of major reforms. In 2008, the fixed voucher state amount per student was changed, becoming relative to student economic backgrounds. In 2009, after student demonstrations, two key policies were introduced: (i) subsidised private schools were forced to run just one business in order to ensure a focus on education and not on other economic sectors; (ii) student selection was forbidden until 6 grade, which was permitted and widely used by the private sector. Currently, ground-breaking reforms are going through Congress which aim explicitly to modify private sector practices. The three reforms are: a new policy on admissions, the elimination of for-profit prerogatives, and the removal of co-payment. In this context, this research project aims to deal with the following questions: are (and if so how are) the changes in regulations of the public/private relationship transforming the private sector regarding the entrepreneurial and competitive aspects of its logic of action? How will these changes affect the relationship between the private and public sectors? The project will have a strong empirical base. Focusing on new private providers since 2008, it will use a mixed methods approach in different fieldwork sites to gain understanding of the role of the private educational sector at local level in non-economic spheres, particularly its relationship with public education, families, and local communities, and to shed light on the relationship between policy changes and market transformation. The project is a collaboration between the Catholic University of Chile and the University of Manchester and offers the opportunity for comparative persectives on the evolution of privatisation in these two countries.

Shallow subtidal rocky reefs of Chile and Peru are dominated by kelps that form dense forests. In northern and central Chile this has led to one of the largest live harvest kelp fisheries in the world with ambitions to extend its spatial extent to Peru and southern Chile. Kelp harvesting leads to clearances resulting in local deforestation and habitat fragmentation with implications for the sustainable development of this fishery as well as the long-term health of kelp forest ecosystems, which support high levels of diversity and provide a wealth of goods and services worth billions of dollars to human society. Given that kelp harvesting in Chile and Peru is often undertaken by poorer members of society and that 46% of artisanal fisheries landings are of species associated with kelp forests, better management of the fishery will lead to improved economic development. Currently there are limited management strategies in place and where present, they are poorly enforced. The OECD noted that over-exploitation and illegal fishing are key fisheries challenges in the region and that ultimately a lack of governance in this area will impact the economic development of both countries. In response, the governments of Chile and Peru are committed to developing management plans for kelp resources, with the Chilean government announcing landmark plans to not only manage current stocks, but to introduce direct funding to fisherman to restock depleted areas. The Peruvian Government is on a similar path, with both countries are seeking to ensure continued biomass extraction of kelp and the maintenance of kelp associated fisheries. However, knowledge gaps exist hampering informed management and the long term sustainability of these coastal socio-ecological systems. It is unlikely that a one size fits all management approach will work in this region. The coastal oceanography is complex with areas of persistent and seasonal upwelling as well as areas with weak or no upwelling. Upwelling brings cold, nutrient-rich and CO2 saturated waters to the surface influencing population dynamics and community structure. Therefore in order to provide informed management advice there is a need to understand the impacts of harvesting intensity and environmental variability on the resilience (ability to tolerate and recover) of kelp populations. In addition, different harvesting techniques and other fisheries management devices are likely to impact the resilience of kelp forests and different restocking methods are likely to be more or less successful. We will use a multidisciplinary approach incorporating population genetics, experimental ecology, population and species distribution modelling and social-ecological approaches to deliver tools and indicators for sustainable kelp harvesting. Specifically we will address the following objectives: 1. Quantify the total stock of exploited kelp species across the region and predict how this will change with climate change. 2. Investigate the impacts of harvesting intensity and environmental variability on the population structure and connectivity of a commercially harvested kelp species as well as five important kelp-associated species using molecular techniques and traditional ecological approaches. This will enable us to identify the physical drivers and biological traits that promote resilience within kelp forests. 3. Develop tools and indicators for sustainable kelp harvesting by exploring different management options to improve kelp resilience to harvesting as well as exploring options for promoting recovery of harvested areas. 4. Explore the role of traditional ecological knowledge and bottom-up approaches to fisheries governance on management compliance. In meeting these objectives we will make significant contributions to the development of informed management plans, which will improve the sustainability and economic development of this important fishery and region.