Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Ionic Liquids and Carbon Nanotubes for Sensors and Separations (ILISENSE)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-08-01
End date: 2011-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 209799.48
EU funding (EUR): 209799.48
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project aims at exploring novel materials and their composites for significantly enhancing the performance of dedicated gas sensors as well as separation barriers. The focus will be on two emerging materials, namely carbon nanotubes and room-temperature ionic liquids, as well as composites consisting of both, with the aim of creating highly versatile and flexible affinity interfaces that exhibit drastically improved physico-chemical properties compared to conventional materials. During this truly multidisciplinary project, these materials and their composites are to be explored on one hand in combination with advanced gas sensor systems, in order to determine both the potential, possible windows of operation as well as the respective limitations. On the other hand, it is deliberately envisaged to study these materials and the respective composites for application in an apparently diverse area, namely gas/vapour separation barriers. The underlying aim of this approach is that both successful gas sensing and gas/vapour separation require high selectivities to target solutes, and transport phenomena naturally occurring in the latter can be a limiting factor in the former, although often neglected. This project will therefore exploit the application of carbon nanotubes and room-temperature ionic liquids, as well as their composites, in a strongly transdisciplinary manner in order to foster knowledge transfer between two of the priority areas of the NMP-programme for the benefit of significant advances in both.

Keywords: nanodevices,sensors,materials technology
Effective Interactions and correlations of ring polymers (RINGEFF)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Austria,Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-06-01
End date: 2011-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 161563.92
EU funding (EUR): 161563.92
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Understanding the Physics of modern materials on a fundamental level is a key ingredient in the quest to develop novel materials with desired, tailored properties. In this sense, polymers, are in enormous interest nowadays, due to their numerous applications in biology and industry. The development of experimental techniques, such as atomic force microscopy (AFM) and optical tweezers, allow us to manipulate the topology of macromolecules, including the most common biological polymer, DNA. Topological constraints on the polymers are an universal feature that can influence the properties of individual macromolecules and solutions of the same. Their analytical consideration is hindered, i.a., by the difficulty to include topological constraints in the Hamiltonian. Computer simulations offer an alternative. Previous work has focused, mainly, in knotting probabilities with lattice models in three and two dimensional models. We propose the approach of performing computer simulations in the continuum, to investigate the structural properties of ring polymer solutions with topological constraints and predict the correlations, structure and thermodynamics of the system. To accomplish this project, we will develop suitable coarse-grained techniques and advanced programming to sample the properties of ring polymer solutions in ways that respect the topological constraints. Further, we propose a novel development of the blob technique for topological constraints in dilute and semidilute solutions. The goals of the proposal is, on the one hand, to calculate accurate effective interaction potentials acting between suitably chosen coarse-grained degrees of freedom of the rings, greatly facilitating thereby their study, and to study the effects of knots on the quantitative characteristics of the effective potential and thus on the structure and thermodynamics.

Keywords: physical sciences,physics,statistical physics,condensed matter properties,soft matter and polymer physics
Isotopic fractionation in goats: effects of diet, diet quality, and intake (I-GOAT)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IIF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-12-01
End date: 2011-11-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 191431.3
EU funding (EUR): 191431.3
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This proposal aims at improving use of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis for diet reconstruction, and applying these improvements to existing data for free-ranging African herbivores. Experiments with a mixed-feeding herbivore (goats Capra hirca) will be designed, to explore interactions of isotope recovery with diet, feeding behaviour and digestive physiology. These effects will be explored in experimental trials using different diets (grass or alfalfa) and diet mixtures (varying proportions of grass and alfalfa). Our objectives are to i) determine whether and how different types of diet influence isotope fractionation from diet to consumer; ii) determine and quantify interactions of carbon with nitrogen isotope abundances with respect to herbivore feeding niche; iii) determine how feeding behaviour is influenced by diet composition; and iv) model existing isotope data to determine effects of diet composition on feeding ecology in free-ranging herbivores. This study is one of few to attempt resolution of mechanistic models for isotope fractionation, and also, because the data gathered are directly relatable to existing field data (primarily from South Africa’s Kruger National Park), attempt to upscale these processes from experimental to free-range conditions. We will, in turn, develop and test mixing models explicitly accounting for variation in fractionation effects. Similarly, derived functional response parameters will be upscaled to landscape and population levels, allowing us to generate hypotheses about the role of diet composition on density-dependence in plant-herbivore interactions. This project merges researchers with expertise in stable isotope and population ecology, and nutritional evolutionary physiology, respectively. At the same time, it provides opportunity for integration of the fellow (an EU national) within an EU research institute, and to develop further collaborations with scientists in the EU community.

Keywords: animal ecology,stable isotope ecology,animal physiology
Application of in situ techniques to real environmental catalytic processes (ENVIROCATHYDRO)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Austria
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2010-02-01
End date: 2012-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 163067.63
EU funding (EUR): 163067.63
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In the 21st century, heterogeneous catalysis research should focus on achieving 100% selectivity for the desired product in all catalyst-based processes. However, this can only be achieved by understanding the fundamental steps of the reaction mechanisms, which allow better design of a catalyst with optimized performance with respect to selectivity and activity. With the development of surface science in the early 70s fundamental studies led to discovery, development and enhanced understanding of several catalyst systems. Many of the early surface science techniques along with the newly develop techniques continue to and will play a very important role in the future development of next generation catalysts and catalytic processes for the industrial use and environmental protection. This project will incorporate new techniques in the catalysis field to obtain valuable surface science information for the improvement of catalysis applied for environmental problems. This will be performed by the investigations of two different hydrogenation environmental reactions, (hydrodechlorination of trichloroethylene in gas phase using Pt,Pd-ternary hydrotalcites and the reduction of nitrates in water streams for drinking water using Pt/CeO2 catalysts), using in situ SFG (Laser spectroscopy by sum frequency generation) and Transmission and ATR (attenuated total reflection) Fourier transform infrared techniques. A better understanding of the reaction mechanism will allow the design of catalysts with optimized performance. The main novelty of the project consists in the application of SFG techniques, used till now for single crystals or model systems, to real catalytic processes. In liquid phase systems, SFG will allow us to specify the species at the surface without contributions from the liquid phase. By using these techniques for monitoring of catalytic reactions, a new field opens up, which can be extended to other types of reactions.

Keywords: natural sciences,physical sciences,technological sciences,environmental catalysis,surface science
Genetic analysis of mechanisms linking cell wall integrity with growth control in Arabidopsis. (CELLWALLSIGN)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-10-01
End date: 2012-04-30
Duration (months): 31.0
Total project cost (EUR): 170733.61
EU funding (EUR): 170733.61
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Sugars, as a resource of energy and structural components, regulate many important cellular processes. In photosynthetic and sessile organisms like plants, maintenance of sugar homeostasis requires complex regulatory mechanisms. In recent years, a pivotal role for sugar as signalling molecules has become apparent and many efforts have been done to study the molecular mechanisms of sugar regulation. Recently, isolation and characterisation of the high sugar response mutant 8 (hsr8) revealed a link between sugar sensing and cell wall integrity pathways. The hsr8 mutant was isolated because it displayed, in response to sugar levels, increased dark development, increased sugar-regulated gene expression, increased starch and anthocyanin levels and reduced chlorophyll content (Li et al, 2007). The hsr8 mutation was mapped in the gene encoding the first enzyme of the arabinose biosynthetic pathway. This suggests that the defect in the cell wall composition is sensed, transduced to the nucleus, and lead to altered glucose-responsive growth and development. Genetic analysis demonstrated that the Pleiotropic Regulatory Locus 1 (PRL1) was one component of this cell wall integrity pathway. The aim of this proposal is to use a combination of genetic and biochemical approaches to identify components of the cell wall integrity pathway and to establish the relationships with sugar-responsive and growth control pathways. The first strategy will consist in a genetic screen to isolate suppressors of the hsr8 mutation and the second strategy will aim to further investigate the role of PRL1 and its putative partners in the cell wall integrity pathway. In a context of decreasing oil resources, cell wall polysaccharides are expected to play an important role in biofuel production. The knowledge gained on sugar allocation and cell wall regulatory mechanisms will be important for guiding breeding and genetic engineering of cell wall optimised crops to facilitate biofuel production.

Keywords: cell wall,integrity,signalling pathway,sugar,growth
Identity questions. Measuring openness and closure in European Societies. (OPENEUR)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-09-01
End date: 2011-12-31
Duration (months): 28.0
Total project cost (EUR): 152600.62
EU funding (EUR): 152600.62
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project aims to give to the researcher different opportunities: the first one is to develop further the main results coming out from her previous research projects and apply them into a distinct issue, that of openness and closure of societies towards different communities. The second is to improve knowledge and expertise of the researcher, by training her in a different methodology. The researcher will thus be able to apply this methodology to her new research project. Finally this project will consent to her to bear fruit of her previous experience into the international academic environment and therefore to get further into it, through the IBEI’s worldwide connections. The core of the research project consists in the development of a previous researches result - the formulation of a functioning model of the process of identity construction - which she will use to analyse the effects of inter-ethnic relations in two different European contexts. This model illustrates how openness and closure of societies depends on a complex situation which is resulting from reactions of individuals and groups to a negotiation among social, personal and collective identities within the process of identity construction. Through the use of this model, the researcher will explore the elements that influence the perception of the “others”, and which make local communities distinguish immigrants into different categories. The researcher will analyse the interaction amongst different cultures, as well as elements which facilitate and those which obstruct relations with diverse communities. The project will have four phases: in the first the researcher will build the theoretical basis of the research, in the second she will analyse the two case-studies (one in Spain and one in Austria); in the third she will be trained in a new methodology (frame analysis); in the fourth she will apply frame analysis to her research project and in the final phase she will write the results.

Keywords: social sciences,social changes,sociology,social identity,social interaction,social closure,european studies,immigration
Directed Assembly of Polymeric Materials Nanofabrication (DAPOMAN)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IIF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-06-01
End date: 2010-11-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 164473.54
EU funding (EUR): 164473.54
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Block copolymer materials have been shown to self-assemble into a variety of morphologies, some which exhibit complex and intricate nanometer scale structures. That attribute has led researchers to propose material and device fabrication strategies. The majority of synthetic, characterization, and theoretical work on block copolymers has focused on their bulk behavior. A smaller effort has focused on the study of multiblock copolymers, their mixtures with homopolymers and nanoparticles under confinement. Complex morphologies have been elucidated with the help of theoretical models and theoretically predicted phase diagrams have often provided much needed roadmaps for experimentalists. Available theoretical and computational approaches face considerable challenges when trying to describe large 3-dimensional multiblock copolymer samples, nanoparticle-copolymer composites, confined copolymers and composites and the effects of fluctuations on such systems. The central idea of our proposed work is to direct the assembly of thin copolymer films by creating nanoscale patterns on substrates that the polymer can recognize. Past work has shown that it is possible to achieve perfect, defect-free registration between block-copolymer morphology and a nanoscale surface pattern over macroscopic length scales. The goal is to use directed assembly as a platform on which to improve a molecular-level understanding of block copolymers and copolymer nanocomposites through the systematic application of external, molecular-level constraints that induce well defined responses. The applied, technological goal is to create a multi-scale theoretical and computational formalism that will facilitate study of confined block copolymer-based systems, and guide development of efficient nanofabrication strategies for large-scale production of materials and devices such as those already encountered in the semiconductor industry or those encountered in the photovoltaic and energy storage industries

Keywords: self assembly,molecular simulation,copolymers,lithography,monte carlo simulation,nanocomposites,directed assembly,guided assembly
Trophic diversity, resource compartmentation, and the stability of ecosystems (TROPHDIVERSE)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IIF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-05-01
End date: 2011-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 170418.35
EU funding (EUR): 170418.35
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Spatial and temporal variation in energy flow through food webs contributes to ecosystem stability. In stable food webs, energy is channelled through resource compartments, in which energy passes independently of other compartments. Higher-order consumers can derive energy from multiple compartments; even though energy flow through individual compartments varies, populations of higher-order consumers are relatively stable since resources in multiple compartments are more likely to be continuously available. Therefore, food webs that contain functionally-diverse consumer communities are likely better equipped to withstand environmental variation that impacts the rates, timing, and quality of resources entering food webs. I propose to use soil food webs to test the hypotheses that diet plasticity and functional diversity in consumers promotes ecosystem stability. I also propose to better resolve trophic interactions and resource compartmentation in soil food webs using molecular techniques, characterize functional diversity of consumers in soil food webs from these more fully resolved interactions, and evaluate the consequences of consumer functional diversity on ecosystem functioning (soil aggregation and carbon sequestration).

Keywords: soil biodiversity,soil ecology,anthropogenic impact on ecosystems,biodiversity status and trends,causes and mechanisms of loss,risk assessment and trends,risk assessment
Modulated Catalysis by Smart Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (SMARTMIP)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IIF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-12-08
End date: 2011-12-07
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 181350.76
EU funding (EUR): 181350.76
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Molecular imprinting, an important methodology for the straightforward prepared of antibody-like polymers, is recently one of focuses in chemistry because of its importance in catalysis, separation and sensing. Described usually as a ‘from-key-to-lock’ process, the molecular imprinting recognizes and interacts with substrates basing on a specifically complementary framework. The present proposal aims to design ‘smart’ imprinted polymers capable of showing tunable catalysis. Inspired by recent advances in the ‘Smart’ technology, a unique hydrophilic/hydrophobic transition is created within the binding framework. The design of this transition will cause an opening/closing-tunable mechanism within the binding framework, thereby allowing/refusing the substrates in water accessible to the interior. In the opening state, the substrate in water can be freely accessible to the binding framework, thus making possible efficient interaction. Above the transition the blockage of access to the inner largely restricts the diffusion of substrates. In this way, such recognition and catalysis are comparable to an on/off-switchable process, which thus allows one to manipulate the activity by controlling the phase behaviours of prepared materials.

Keywords: molecular imprinting,polymers,catalysis,modulating activity
Functional Genomics of Fatty Acid Desaturases in Caenorhabditis elegans (FUNGENCEL)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-04-01
End date: 2011-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 171867.63
EU funding (EUR): 171867.63
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of this proposal is to characterize the metabolic impact of the expression of key transcripts involved in fatty acid metabolism by using the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. In particular, the main focus of the project will be on the systemic manipulation of the expression of genes for the fatty acid desaturases by an RNAi based intervention to understand their key role as regulatory control points in metabolism. To achieve this aim we will make use of state of the art metabolomic approaches including Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, Gas Chromatography Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS) and Liquid chromatography Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) to provide a global, non-targeted description of systemic metabolism. Metabolomic analysis, conducted on different genetically modified animals, will result in a rich data-base of metabolomic profiles that, with the help of multivariate data analysis techniques, will permit the identification of specific biochemical markers that determine which pathways have been perturbed. In addition, we will also analyze flux changes directly using stable isotope labelled substrates experiments. The combination of steady state concentration data and flux changes will provide a description of the reorganization of the metabolism following the targeting of a given gene by our RNAi based intervention. Overall, the results will allow a global insight into consequences of altered genetic expression across the whole system of metabolism without any loss of intrinsic complexity - a so-called top-down systems biology approach. In addition understanding the metabolic roles the desaturases play in regulating global lipid metabolism will help us to increase our understanding of human metabolic diseases associated with lipid metabolism dysfunction including obesity, type II diabetes, dyslipidaemia and the metabolic syndrome.

Keywords: metabolomics,fatty acid metabolism,c. elegans,diabetes,nmr ms