Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Systems Biology of Cancer Kinome (CANCER KINOME)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-10-01
End date: 2011-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 191431.3
EU funding (EUR): 191431.3
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Protein kinases mediate most of the signal transduction events in cells by phosphorylation of specific substrates – modifying their activity, cellular location, and/or association with other proteins. The extremely critical role of kinases for critical cellular decisions came evident when an unexpectedly large number of kinases (120/518) were found to be mutationally activated activated or their expression increased due to gene-amplification or translocation in many types of human cancer, suggesting that either a large number of kinase-pathways can contribute to cancer, or that many kinases can regulate the same pathways when activated unphysiologically. These observations point towards a model where cancer can be caused by combinations of multiple different alterations within the cellular systems that control cell and tissue growth, and cancer can thus be clearly described as a complex and multifactorial disease. To date, cancer causing mechanism have been primarily studied using the methods of cell biology, biochemistry and/or genetics, methods which typically reduce complex cellular responses into (often linear) sequences of signaling events. While these efforts have accumulated enormous amounts of detailed information, the heterogeneity of the experimental approaches makes integration of this information into a comprehensive quantitative model a daunting if not impossible task. The critical information about the connectivity of concurrently active signaling pathways, their dynamics and the emergence of physiological responses from molecular events has remained elusive. The main goal of this proposed project is to use systems biology methods to characterize and decipher the cancer linked kinase signalling networks at a molecular and quantitative level to provide the basis for predictive mathematical models for cancer onset. This knowledge of wiring diagram of cancer related kinases will be fundamental in developing therapeutic strategies for cancer.

Keywords: systems biology,cancer,kinome,mass spectrometry
Random Mappings and their Applications (RANDOMAPP)

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: 2010-09-30
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 120259.71
EU funding (EUR): 120259.71
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

I propose to investigate properties of random mappings with exchangeable in-degrees and of their variants. I focus especially on events and random characteristics relating to epidemic processes. It is expected that the corresponding probabilities and variables can be used to distinguish between possible models for disease spread, and could be used in the estimation of important model parameters which are of practical interest to epidemiologists. I also propose to study the joint distribution for the order statistics of the normalized "component" sizes of the random directed graph. In particular I would like to investigate the structure of subgraphs of random mapping digraphs which are obtained by some "cutting" procedures. Understanding the component structure of such structures is crucial in many applications, e.g. coagulation processes in biology, discretizations of dynamical systems in computer science, analysis of algorithms in cryptology. A significant part of the proposed project is scientific training related to applications of general random structures, in particular random intersection graphs and random geometrical graphs in modeling networks of several types. I expect to gain new expertise in the methods used by scientists at Heriot-Watt University and to contribute new ideas for solving strategic applied stochastic network problems through collaboration and interaction with the probability, applied statistics, and computer science groups at Heriot-Watt. This training is also very important in the development of my role as a leader of inter-disciplinary projects, and of research training activities in Poland. It is also expected that this interaction will generate many relevant applied research problems for my future M.Sc. and Ph.D. students. The proposed 12-month project develops results obtained during my very successful 12-month EIF fellowship (project No. 501863 -RANDIGRAPH) and in this sense can be treated as its complement.

Keywords: random mappings,random digraphs,exchangeable in-degrees,epidemic processes,graph processes,component structure,preferential attachment
Indirect State Funding of Political Parties: Party-State Relations and the Strength of Party Organisation in Western Democracies (ISFPP)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-07-01
End date: 2010-08-31
Duration (months): 14.0
Total project cost (EUR): 90335.32
EU funding (EUR): 90335.32
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

State funding for political parties is of critical importance for the viability of democratic governance in Europe and beyond where problematic funding practices have been discovered. Also, the issue nourishes heated discussions about how far these (in principle societal) organisations should be regulated by the state, since, in this process, their societal support tends to decline. In many Western democracies party members holding public office regularly donate a fixed share of their salary to party coffers. These party taxes are a form of indirect state funding complementing (or even substituting) direct state support. Parties differ in whether they collect taxes at all, in how much they collect and in whether they tax political offices only or meritocratic positions as well. Existing research does not account for these differences. To close this gap, the project pursues four goals: 1. To specify the contribution of party taxes to the income of national political parties across the five democracies Canada, Denmark, France, Germany and Ireland. Existing studies tend to refer exclusively to direct state funding, while they categorise party taxes as &apos;donations&apos; or &apos;membership fees&apos;, thus, underestimate state support for parties. 2. To develop a theoretical framework on the conditions which allow party elites to extract taxes from office-holders, and to combine quantitative and qualitative methods to test it. 3. To capture not only the taxing of MPs but also of meritocratic offices which parties tax capturing the &apos;informal reach&apos; of political parties (patronage) into state institutions. 4. To assess the relationship between distinct types of state regulation and &apos;taxing practices&apos; to provide guidance for reform. These goals assure that the project contributes to core debates in political science, sociology and law to advance excellence in research but also maximises its potential for knowledge-transfer in Europe across countries and disciplines.

Keywords: political science,comparative politics,political finance,indirect state funding,party finance laws,party taxes,party-state relations,party organisation,organisational theory,patronage
Breeding for low grain arsenic rice (LOWASRICE)

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: 2009-10-29
End date: 2011-06-28
Duration (months): 20.0
Total project cost (EUR): 246983.34
EU funding (EUR): 246983.34
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

High levels of arsenic in rice grains threaten the health of millions of people particularly in the Ganges delta of India and Bangladesh where arsenic-contaminated irrigation water is used for rice cultivation. It is of global importance that this problem is tackled and that Indian scientists are able to contribute to the solution. In this application it is proposed that an advanced backcross breeding approach be used to both map quantitative loci (QTLs) for low grain arsenic and to incorporate these QTLs into farmer preferred verities by marker- assisted selection (MAS). Hybrids between locally adapted arsenic tolerant variety and Azucena have already been made in Calcutta University. These hybrids will be utilized for raising backcross populations. Two approaches will be employed to identify QTLs for low arsenic. For one population, QTL for low grain arsenic will be identified by conventional QTL analysis. For the other population, a new method of bulk segregant analysis linked to feature polymorphism of an Affymetrix microarray will be used. Feature polymorphisms between the parents and which also segregate in the segregant pools will be linked to the rice sequence by bioinformatics and the genomic regions responsible for the trait identified. All results obtained will be compared to those obtained in the UK-funded project to allow meta-QTL analysis.. Identify the markers will be used to breed low arsenic varieties suited to West Bengal and the MAS breeding will be forwarded in the second year of the project exploiting ability to get 3 generations per year in West Bengal. The final steps of the breeding will be completed in the return phase where workshops will be deployed to transfer knowledge gained on the advanced genetic and bioinformatic techniques.

Keywords: arsenic tolerance,backcross populations,qtl,candidate gene,affymetrix microarray,oryza sativa
Development and application of an individual-trait-based- simulator of Amazon forest dynamics (INTRABASIS)

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: 2009-09-01
End date: 2011-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 173568.66
EU funding (EUR): 173568.66
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

We propose to develop an individual-based simulator for Amazon forest dynamics, which will be highly constraint with existing field data covering the whole basin for the last twenty years. Findings from the RAINFOR forest plot network include an East-West gradient in turnover times across the basin and an above-ground biomass trend. The latter finding has important consequences for the global carbon budget and thus greenhouse gas forcing. Specifically based on the plant functional traits section of the database, we will use the observed trait distribution to generate continua which will define the economy of the primary resources available for growth, and control the performance and fitness of each individual. The floristic composition and dynamics part of the database will be used to parameterise and validate the performance of the model, across different soil and climate gradients. The simulator will subsequently be used to explore existing hypotheses regarding the mechanism driving the spatial and temporal variation of the Amazon rainforest. Ultimately besides hypothesis testing we will also use the simulator to explore sensitivity of the system to a changing climate.

Keywords: tropical ecosystems,global change,plant physiology,phytogeography,carbon cycle (climate change)
Neural Mechanisms of Improved Emotion Regulation Following Mindfulness Training: an fMRI Study (NMOIERFMT: FMRI)

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: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IOF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-03-01
End date: 2012-02-29
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 232967.52
EU funding (EUR): 232967.52
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Training in mindfulness, the non-judgmental observation of experiences as they arise in the present moment, has been increasingly and successfully applied to the treatment of normative stress conditions and mental disorders. Yet, the neurological mechanisms that underlie the reported improvements are still largely unknown. This longitudinal study will investigate the influence of mindfulness training on a key underpinning of mental health, namely emotion regulation, and its associated brain activity. Healthy participants will be randomly assigned to either a validated eight week Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program or to a control condition. In a pre-post investigation, participants’ subjective reactions to aversive emotional stimuli (affective facial expressions) will be assessed, as will the associated brain activation using fMRI. We hypothesize that after the training the MBSR participants will rate the pictures as less aversive compared to control participants. Furthermore, the MBSR participants will show a patter of brain activation indicative of improved emotion regulation, relative to control participants. Finally, the effect of MBSR on the gray matter structure of the brain will be investigated.

Keywords: neuropsychology,brain research,clinical psychology,social psychology,cognitive science
Electrochemiluminescent biosensor for screening of coeliac disease (ECLOBIOSENS)

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: 2010-06-01
End date: 2012-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 161899.59
EU funding (EUR): 161899.59
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The overall objective of ECLOBIOSENS is to develop a generic technological platform for point-of-care diagnostics capable of simultaneous genomic and proteomic electrochemiluminescent detection. As a model system biosensor arrays for the screening of coeliac disease will be developed based on the simultaneous detection of nucleic acids (HLA typing) and protein molecular markers (auto-antibodies) associated with genetic predisposition and early diagnosis of coeliac disease. The combined detection strategy could be used for general population screening, or just the HLA typing could be used for neonatal screening; or alternatively just the auto-antibody detection could be used for monitoring compliance with the identified diet, or recurrence of the disease due to non-compliance. Additionally false negatives due to coeliacs with IgA deficiency will be avoided by screening for both IgA and IgG auto-antibodies. Together with classical assay formats, novel biomolecule detection schemes based on supramolecular associations will be developed with the aim to fine tune the specificity and sensitivity of the assays. The advantages of the proposed biosensor system include their ease of use, their sensitivity, their inherent selectivity (preventing problems due to interfering substances), their versatility (allowing ‘in-field’ use) and their cost effectiveness.

Keywords: electrochemiluminescense,biosensor,coeliac disease,hla typing,autoantibody
Volatility forecasting evaluation based on loss function with well-defined multivariate distributional form and ultra-high frequency datasets. (UHF_M_MODELLING)

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: 2009-09-01
End date: 2011-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 173185.81
EU funding (EUR): 173185.81
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Predicting volatility is of great importance in pricing financial derivatives, selecting portfolios, measuring and managing investment risk more accurately. Since 1980 volatility forecasting is based on day by day datasets. However, the last decade, the use of ultra-high frequency datasets provided more accurate volatility forecasts. In the case where we are interested in evaluating a method’s forecasting ability, a loss function, which takes into consideration the utility of the forecasts is mainly constructed. Although utility functions are measures of accuracy, which are constructed based upon the goals of their particular application, in the majority of the cases, their statistical properties are unknown. The superiority of a utility function against others must be judged by a statistical-theoretical ground and mot just from its empirical motivation. Even though we cannot investigate the statistical properties of a loss function, we are capable to use it for measuring whether two forecasts have statistically equal forecasting accuracy. The majority of the hypotheses tests, which exist in the forecasting literature, compare the ability of two models in producing accurate predictions. However, the simultaneous comparison of the available forecasts provides a more robust comparison of the competing methods of forecasting. The main research objective is the development of a volatility forecasting evaluation framework which would combine the state-of-the-art findings in financial and statistical literature. We seek to combine a) the recent findings in ultra-high frequency modelling, with b) the techniques of simultaneous multiple model comparison and c) the construction of a utility function (or loss function) whose statistical properties would be known.

Keywords: applied economics,econometrics,volatility forecasting,risk management,ultra-high frequency modelling,multivariate statistics,models' comparison and evaluation,multivariate hypothesis testing
Development of a new high throughput automated imaging system to carry out drug sensitivity measurements on primary leukemia/lymphoma cells to assist individualized assay guided therapy. (AISAT)

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: Sweden
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IIF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-07-01
End date: 2011-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 178089.77
EU funding (EUR): 178089.77
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of the project is to build a new robust prototype of a high throughput automated imaging system that can be used in routine clinical lab environment for gathering data on drug sensitivity patterns of primary leukemia/lymphoma cells. The device will assist individualized assay guided therapy. The laboratory at the host institute has recently created a new microculture system that allows viability testing of drug treated primary tumor cells. The present system is exclusively based on commercially available components. It is also very complex and expensive. The primary data gathered on this system however appears to be so valuable that it warrants the development of a new, simpler, but highly parallelized device with a six fold increase in the work capacity for one twentieth of the price. The device will promote both basic research and improve adequate patient care. There is a long going and very fruitful collaboration between the host laboratory at the Karolinska institute and the home laboratory of the applicant that among other led to the development of novel surface plasmon resonance methods to study protein-protein interactions. The knowledge and experience of the applicant together with the preliminary development that has already taken place at the accepting institute provides a solid foundation for likely success. The applicant will also participate in a formal doctoral training in tumor biology and will contribute to the expansion of the imaging core facility of the Karolinska Institute.

Keywords: applied optics,microscopy,anticancer therapy,imaging systems
Rotating Micro-Detectors for Ultra-Sensitive and High-Resolution Analysis of Heterogeneous Matter with Magnetic Resonance: instrumentation, methodology and applications (MICRONMRLAB)

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: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IIF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-07-01
End date: 2011-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 166011.55
EU funding (EUR): 166011.55
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Nuclear magnetic resonance technology is omnipresent in modern analytical science and biomedicine because of the detailed information it can provide both as a non-invasive imaging as well as a broadband spectroscopic tool. Three-dimensional molecular structure and dynamics and localized functional tomography are possible provided that the sample size is large enough for the technique to be sensitive. This project aims at further developing the recently introduced concept of rotating micro-detectors in order to achieve unprecedented high-resolution and ultra-high sensitivity for the study of amorphous and heterogeneous materials. Miniaturizing the detector size offers higher sensitivity and improved spin dynamics manipulation. Coupling this to a wireless transmission technique allows for experiments on rapidly spinning micro-samples and high-resolution spectroscopy. For the first time nanolitre volume samples become accessible and this opens many avenues for research and development in the field. The host group at the CEA has patented this technology and hopes that with the help of a world class expert in solid-state NMR of glasses we can further develop it and make it transferable to the majority of the magnetic resonance community. Additionally, the candidate will profit and acquire a maturity and scientific independence by the end of this interdisciplinary two-year project encompassing areas chemistry, physics and engineering.

Keywords: physical chemistry,analytical chemistry,instrumental techniques,chemical physics,rf design,magnetic resonance,inorganic chemistry