Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Multimodal analysis of MR data using Bayesian methods (BAYESIANMULTIMODALMR)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-10-01
End date: 2016-04-08
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Through the development of this training-through-research project, the fellow expects to acquire new skills, knowledge and perspectives, as well as to develop and widen her competences significantly, all contributing to her career development. The purpose of this proposal is to acquire new research expertise in Bayesian methodologies applied to source identification in blind signal separation and applied also to fusion of different modalities of physiological measurements for tumour delineation in brain. Magnetic resonance (MR) is key for the non-invasive analysis of brain tumours in the field of neuro-oncology. MR imaging (MRI) provides a morphologic characterisation of tissues, while MR spectroscopy (MRS) provides their biochemical information, resulting in precise metabolomic signatures. In this project, a multimodal MRI and MRS data analysis using Bayesian methods is proposed to address some medical questions that remain open, such as using additional knowledge to help extract better sources from the MR spectra, identify the exact number of underlying tissue types present in a sample and their spectroscopic patterns, and the use of them to track response to therapy. To address them, it will be necessary to solve some challenges from the methodological viewpoint, such as the extraction of relevant source signals in a multimodal (MRI and MRS) unsupervised approach, and the identification of the most appropriate number of source signals. A novel Bayesian approach of NMF tailored to facilitate the unsupervised multimodal analysis of MR data is planned to be developed, since Bayesian models deal with multimodal systems in a natural way, and the relationship between variables is explicit, as well as the handling of the prior knowledge. Data from pre-clinical models and human data from the European project “ETUMOUR” will be used to test the models developed as part of this project.

Keywords: g109 knowledge engineering and artificial intelligence,g314 medical engineering and technology,machine learning,pattern recognition analysis,bayesian methods,magnetic resonance,brain tumours
Microglia phenotype in temporal lobe epilepsy (MICROGLIA-EPILEPSY)

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: Italy
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 249242.8
EU funding (EUR): 249242.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Microglia are the primary immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS) and are considered potential key players in the pathophysiology of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Indeed, microglia activation is observed directly after status epilepticus and during epileptogenesis, both in TLE animal models as well as in human patients. Since microglia activation is correlated with the presence of pro-inflammatory factors, they are considered to be harmful. Recent findings, however, suggest that inflammation is a prerequisite to promote repair processes and that local microglia support cell survival and tissue repair. Moreover, TLE is also characterized by a massive infiltration of peripheral immune cells, including macrophages. Since it is impossible to differentiate microglia from invading macrophages in situ, the detrimental role attributed to microglia might be incorrect. We have recently developed a method to acutely isolate microglia/macrophages from mouse tissue and to subsequently discriminate microglia from macrophages using FACS sorting. In this research project, we propose to apply this method to further characterize the phenotype of microglia and compare it with that of infiltrating macrophages at various time points during the epileptogenesis phase of TLE. Using qPCR, flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry analysis, we will examine the expression of well-established phenotype markers for inflammation and supportive functions in a model of TLE and in human brain tissue. We hypothesise that a supportive role of microglia towards brain repair could pertain during epileptogenesis whereas infiltrating proinflammatory macrophages mediate devastating activity. The data that will be derived from this study will permit to better understand the role of microglia in TLE and may provide new therapeutic targets to amplify endogenous repair mechanisms.

Keywords: l502 molecular and cellular neuroscience,l511 neurological disorders,l601 innate immunity,l604 immunosignalling,temporal lobe epilepsy,microglia,macvrophages
Modelling of VOCs in heritage collections using CFD (SMELL-MODEL)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The necessity to improve indoor air quality (IAQ) is widely recognized in view of its health implications and damage concerns to heritage. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), constituting the typical ‘smell’ of museums, galleries, libraries and archives, have been shown to have an important role on the degradation of contemporary materials, but the real impact of artworks on IAQ is almost unknown. This is mainly due to the lack of knowledge of the behaviour of materials and objects as sources and sinks of these compounds in primary or secondary ways. The SmellModel project will focus on VOC reaction processes in order to improve indoor monitoring practices and prevent damage to cultural properties. The innovative challenge is to assess the issue of the impact of VOCs on heritage collections using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling tool. This objective is at the forefront of research in indoor air quality but has not been addressed at all yet. The principal aim of the project is to establish methods and models to predict interactions and provide reliable estimations of VOCs in different environmental conditions. Laboratory experiments as well as measurements in situ, i.e. in historic collections, will contribute to validation of the models and develop the understanding of how the concentration of VOCs varies as a function of material type (e.g. paper, carpet, wood), material properties (e.g. porosity, chemical composition), environmental physical quantities (e.g. temperature, relative humidity, air speed) and enclosure geometry or size (e.g. room, box, display case). A VOC database will be developed and used in a CFD platform that will allow prediction of VOCs in heritage environments. In this way the SmellModel project will enable forecasting of possible scenarios in terms IAQ and better control and preservation of heritage, while also having important implications on the understanding the interactions between buildings, collections and occupants

Keywords: v201 atmospheric chemistry - air pollution,s412 cultural heritage
Trade Roads in Ancient Deserts: An Egyptian Case Study. The unrecognized Late Bronze Age commercial route between Mediterranean and Middle Egypt (TRADES)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2014-01-06
End date: 2016-01-05
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project focuses on the possibility that extensive trade and movements of goods imported both from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Oases of the Western Desert took place along a relatively unexplored and unsuspected NW-SE route between the Mediterranean coast of northwest Egypt and Middle Egypt, via the Western Desert and the Faiyum region during the Late Bronze Age – New Kingdom (1580–1065 BC). This would have effectively created an ‘alternative Nile valley’ trade connection, comprising a sea/land/river route to the west of the Nile Delta and northern Nile Valley. In order to explore this situation, the project will (1) analyse imported artifacts along the new route, focusing particularly on the maritime fortress site of Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham at the northwestern end of the route, and the roughly contemporary commercial port and royal city of Gurob, in the Faiyum region, at the southeastern end of the route, (2) undertake geo-archaeological study of the landscape with a specific focus on the eastern portion of the Faiyum region and (3) study areas of the desert via a detailed analysis of aerial photographs and satellite images. The principal goals of the current project are to obtain a complete and comprehensive study of the imported pottery corpus unearthed in the eastern Faiyum region and in the site of Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham; to study the Egyptian pottery found in the same archaeological contexts of the imported one; to carry out chemical analyses on the imported materials to achieve information on the areas of productions; to define precisely what were the trade connections in the northeastern Western Desert and to obtain important new data related to the role of the eastern Faiyum as a regional and interregional trade hub during the New Kingdom.

Keywords: egypt,trade,late bronze age,imported pottery,mediterranean interconnections,geo-archaeology,remote sensing,aerial/satellite images,s401 archaeology - archaeometry - landscape archaeology
Comparative analysis of plant and mammalian DNA methylation functions in epigenetic Arabidopsis mutants (CAPMEM)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2015-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 299558.4
EU funding (EUR): 299558.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

BACKGROUND: Epigenetic modifications dictate major biological processes, such as control of gene activity during development and genome stability under stress. DNA methylation is a primary epigenetic mechanism mediated by a family of methyltransferase enzymes. Maintenance function of DNA methylation is well conserved among plants and animals, based on the structural similarity of their methylation proteins. In contrast to plants, however, mammals do not tolerate loss of methylation, making it difficult to study. The model plant Arabidopsis offers a powerful test system for plant and mammalian methylation, because its methylation mutants are viable and fertile, and methylation patterns are not erased via developmental demethylation/remethylation cycles. Plants experience more extreme environment than mammals, and the evolution of plant methyltransferases may have favoured improved stress adaptation, while in mammals, it may lead to more stable establishment and resetting phases during development. OBJECTIVES: 1) To exploit Arabidopsis as an experimental system for mammalian epigenetic studies; 2) to elucidate the evolution of epigenetic diversity by defining differences and conserved function of plant and mammalian methylation regulators; 3) to assess how methylation affects plant stress adaptation. METHODOLOGY: Re-methylation efficiency in methylation mutants and prevention of methylation loss in plants by mammalian transgenes will be tested by bisulphite sequencing and chromatin immunoprecipitation. Hybrid constructs between the plant and animal proteins will be used. Methylation mutants will be exposed to abiotic variables to compare their stress adaptability. EXPECTED RESULTS: To develop Arabidopsis as a model system for mammals, which may improve application of epigenetics in agriculture and medicine; to further understanding of epigenetic phenomena in plants and mammals, the evolution of methylation systems and their role in adapting to environmental change.

Keywords: arabidopsis,dna methylation,methylation mutants,methyltransferases,methylation-specific atpases,stress adaptation
Biomethylation and Biovolatilisation of Arsenic in Soils: Using Carbon and Hydrogen Isotopes to Unravel the Mechanisms and Pathways Involved (BIOMETA)

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: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-06-01
End date: 2015-11-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 184709.4
EU funding (EUR): 184709.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Arsenic (As) is a ubiquitous element found in almost every environmental compartment. Moreover, inorganic As is a Class 1 non-threshold carcinogen and globally, millions of people are at risk, mainly through drinking tainted water which is also used to irrigate agricultural soils. As is found in soils in its inorganic form but also as organic As, mostly mono- and dimethylarsenic (MMA(V) and DMAV(V), (III) and (V) being the different oxidation states). The process leading to these compounds, biomethylation, is biological and it is still not fully understood. Moreover, it is linked to another remarkable mechanism: biovolatilisation. Microorganisms in soil transform inorganic As to much less toxic methylated compounds, mostly MMA(V) and DMA(V), producing as well reduced methylated compounds (MMA(III) and DMA(III)) which are even more toxic than inorganic As. Biovolatilisation leads to the production of four highly volatile As compounds (arsine, mono-, di- and trimethylarsine) and their toxicity is still highly discussed. Although the products are known, only indirect evidence exists on the different possible pathways, which are still highly debated. We propose here to employ a dual isotope approach, using 2H and 13C labeled methyl groups, placed on different methylated As molecules, to unravel As biomethylation & biovolatilisation pathways. These compounds will be injected in As methylating bacteria, fungi & protozoa cultures and in soil microcosms. The resulting molecules (including volatiles) will be measured/traced using analytical speciation techniques such as cryotrapping & GC coupled with state of the art IRMS instruments. These experiments will shed light on processes that lead to an array of As molecules of varied toxicities and physico-chemical properties being released in soils. Indeed, such knowledge is essential in order to better assess the threat of As pollution but also in order to potentially use these processes as tools for soil remediation.

Keywords: c106 analytical chemistry,c111 method development in chemistry,c131 environment chemistry,v201 biogeochemical cycles. arsenic,methylation,isotopes,labelled molecules,irms,icp-ms,speciation
Securities markets, international financial centres, and regional resilience. A comparative analysis of Luxembourg and Singapore as strategic nodes in investment funds’ global production networks (LUSIFUNDS)

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-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-11-01
End date: 2015-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Ruptures like the recent global financial crisis are inherent elements of the present “securitised financial system” (Wójcik 2011), with the asset management and investment fund industry being among the main drivers. International re-regulation challenges the competitiveness of international financial centres (IFCs) in multiple ways. By understanding ‘the local’ to better comprehend ‘the global’, a comparative study between two specialised investment fund centres, Luxembourg (EU) and Singapore (ASEAN) addresses the question, how IFCs are able to confront such discontinuities and compete by creating local resilience capacities, which go beyond regulatory arbitrages. Resilience is the consequence of the intended actions by various industrial, regulatory, or policy actors from different but linked areas of the fund ‘production’. The actors rely on localised social capital, which in a specific mode is linked to the respective global network structures in finance. The ‘geography of finance’ offers a more holistic and complementary view besides the prevalent economic manifestations on the financial sector; within this field, the global production network approach proposes a sensible heuristic to identify and analyse place-specific structures, institutions, and power relations in IFCs. Linking evolutionary and institutional economic geography concepts illuminates the dynamics of the underlying on-site inter-firm and firm-institutions’ relations, which assumingly play key roles in change processes. Consolidation processes in the maturing financial industry are having far-reaching spatial implications. The project thus aims to develop a research agenda for studying specialised IFCs and their resilience. The established and highly recognised research group in the emerging field of the geography of finance at the University of Oxford provides an ideal and inspiring academic environment to conduct my research. Aptly, their analytical focus is, among other, on the fund industry.

Keywords: s108 human and social geography,e113 urban and regional economics,financial centre,comparative study,global production networks,institutions,social networks,resilience,geography of finance
Tailoring the tail of L-selectin (LEUKOSELECTIN)

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: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-05-01
End date: 2015-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 223778.4
EU funding (EUR): 223778.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Leukocytes protect humans from pathogens. During episodes of infection, leukocytes leave the blood circulation and migrate to sites in the body where they mount a response against pathogens. In order for leukocytes to migrate, they must adhere to endothelial cells which cover blood vessels. Such adhesion allows them to migrate along the endothelial layer, pass though endothelial junctions, and reach tissues. Excessive migration of leukocytes is a characteristic of inflammatory and auto-immune diseases, and leads to tissue damage as leukocytes have destructive capacities. L-selectin is an adhesion receptor expressed in leukocytes. This receptor plays a critical role in the adhesion of leukocytes to endothelial cells. Interaction of proteins with the cytoplasmic tail of L-selectin controls the functions of L-selectin. As L-selectin tail contains only one serine residue at position 364, it was proposed but not proven that such phosphorylation may be essential for the recruitment of proteins to L-selectin tail and regulation of L-selectin functions. By using sophisticated proteomics, and by generating mice harbouring nonphosphorylatable serine-to-alanine knock-In substitution at position 364 of the L-selectin tail, we will get insights into the mechanisms by which L-selectin functions are regulated. Our objectives are: 1- To identify new proteins interacting with L-selectin tail and identify which one are important for L-selectin functions 2- To investigate whether serine phosphorylation of L-selectin tail regulates interaction with binding partners and L-selectin functions in vitro 3- To investigate whether leukocytes from L-selectin tail serine-to-alanine knock-In mice exhibit impaired adhesion and migration in vivo Identification of new proteins binding to L-selectin tail and understanding the mechanisms controlling this interaction is essential for the design of new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of inflammatory and auto-immune diseases.

Keywords: l-selectin,leukocytes,proteomics,l-selectin functions in vitro and in vivo
Construction and modes of expression of differences in collective action of Afro-Americans and Latinos in a California barrio. Two case studies: One East Palo Alto and San Francis of Assisi. (GENIDMOV)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IOF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-11-04
End date: 2016-11-03
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 268781.1
EU funding (EUR): 268781.1
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

GENIDMOV is based on studies of "unlikely mobilizations" that are emerging increasingly in a context of global economic crisis and growing social inequality. It focuses on the empowerment process of minority groups (Blacks and Latinos) through their collective action, on the main processes and specific factors allow them to participate in public space. It covers a difficult research field, a barrio in North California (East Palo Alto), taken as a mirror of collective action for “low resources” people, which apparently combine all obstacles to mobilization. The objective of this research is to generate knowledge about obstacles and needs for opportunity enhancement for economic, social and political integration of minority groups and women in a life-course perspective, by examining the influence of the identities of gender, class, race, and of ethnic capital on the forms taken by collective action.It would allow to identify the critical issues in order to conduct appropriate policies of diversity and social equality in the future. Taking advantage of the diverse areas of expertise and of an another context for testing research hypothesis, the purpose is not to limit ourselves to the presentation of the social mechanisms of a phenomenon that affects a particular population, but to take this object of study as an entry feature for renewing the great questions of sociology and political science, such as various forms of social and political participation of individuals, the multiple modes of political socialization, the ways of the politicization of public causes and the elements that define a democratic society and social changes.