Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Bilingualism, Foreign Language Learning and Executive Control (PREDICTING FLL)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-RG, 2009)
Start date: 2009-10-01
End date: 2014-01-06
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project has two interrelated goals. The first objective is to achieve a better understanding of the positive cognitive consequences of life long bilingualism, specifically in the domain of executive function. To this end, the performance of monolingual English and bilingual Hebrew-English speakers will be compared on several variants of the task-switching paradigm, sensitive to different manifestations of inhibitory control and mental shifting. The second objective is to explore whether these same cognitive skills of inhibitory control and mental shifting have predictive value in understanding individual differences in instructed foreign language outcomes. The guiding principle is that skills that are important for managing the fluent use of two languages might also confer an advantage in the process of language learning. Therefore, the English proficiency of native Hebrew speaking language learners will be assessed, and the utility of using inhibitory control and mental shifting abilities as predictors of language learning outcomes will be investigated. Research carried under the first objective can make the following contributions to state-of-the-art knowledge: 1) further our understanding of the consequences of bilingualism, which can impact language policy and planning from the individual to the national level; 2) provide evidence for the manner in which life experience can shape cognitive functions; 3) inform the debate contrasting modular language abilities versus reliance on domain-general cognitive processes. Research fulfilling the second objective: 4) will expand current models of the cognitive underpinnings leading to successful foreign language learning; 5) may ultimately shape the pedagogy of foreign language instruction.

Keywords: bilingualism,sla,fll,ill,executive control,language learning
Self-organized TiO2 nanotubes-intrinsically conductive polymer composite material for applications in solar cells, biomedicine systems, and electro-chromic devices (NANOICP)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-RG, 2009)
Start date: 2009-10-15
End date: 2013-10-14
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project aims to develop new generation of composite material based on TiO2 nanotubes and intrinsically conductive polymer (ICP) deposited in nanotube framework. Our objective is to combine of electrical conductivity of ICP and UV sensitivity of TiO2. Particularly, dye sensitization of TiO2 in conjunction with ICP is of our interest. It is expected that high surface area morphology offered by high aspect ratio nanotube system, which provide extremely high TiO2/ICP interface, will play the key role in specific interaction between conductive polymer and wide band-gap semiconductor. Remarkable electric and optical properties of new composite material are expected. A variety of polymer dopants, electrochemical conditions, and electropolymerization methods will be applied in order to find electrochemical route for successful, homogeneous deposition of ICP`s in TiO2 nanotube system. Two conductive polymers will be electrosynthesized in nanotube framework: poly-3,4-ethylenedioxytiophene (PEDOT) and poly-3-hexyltiophene (P3HT). The p-n junction, which is expected at the polymer-semiconductor interface, will be electrochemically controlled by switching polymer between oxidizing and reducing state. PEDOT will be tested as a p-type electrolyte in dye sensitized solar cell device Ti/TiO2/ruthenium-based-dye/PEDOT. P3HT absorbs visible light and thus may replace the dye and the electrolyte, giving the function of charge transport and light absorption. The effects of nano-architecture of the Ti/TiO2/P3HT composite material will be studied in order to meet the dimension of phase separation within the exiton diffusion length of the polymer. Above features make the new composite material very attractive for applications including solar cells and electro-chromic devices. Furthermore, improved bio-compability of the material should find practical applications in biomedicine systems. This project will be taken in close collaboration of Hokkaido University and University of Erlangen.

Keywords: electrochemistry,nanotubes,anodic oxidation,nanoporous materials,self-assembly,titanium oxide,semiconductor,dye sensitization,p-n junction,intrinsically conductive polymer,solar cell
The role of cell signalling and infochemicals in marine Algal-Virus interactions (VIRUSIGNALLING)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-RG, 2009)
Start date: 2010-05-01
End date: 2014-04-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Emiliania huxleyi is a cosmopolitan phytoplankton belonging to the coccolithophores, eukaryotic phototrophs that dominate the modern oceans. Coccolithophores are considered to be among the largest producers of calcite on earth, and as such, are a major vehicle for the transport of carbon to the deep sediments. They are important producer of DMS, a gas thought to strongly influence climate regulation. E.huxleyi forms massive annual blooms in the oceans that are routinely infected and terminated by giant double-stranded DNA lytic viruses (Phycodnaviridae). Currently, very little information is available on the molecular basis for the intricate interactions between E.huxleyi and its specific viruses. We are still lacking a fundamental understanding of the life cycles of Phycodnaviridae within their hosts and of the genes involved in lytic versus chronic infections. In this project we will investigate the co-regulation of intracellular signal transduction pathways involved in host/virus during infection. We will specifically examine the role of chemical signals (infochemicals) and their potential role in mediating the interface between host and virus. The recent availability of genomic resources for the E. huxleyi host and its specific virus 86 (EhV86) provide an unprecedented opportunity to explore cellular pathways triggered during execution of viral infection and to gain insights into the origin of programmed cell death (PCD) in unicellular organisms. We will analyze natural coccolithophore blooms with our newly-discovered biomarkers as “fingerprints” to evaluate the importance of viral infection during bloom succession. This work has great potential to reveal novel insights into the molecular mechanisms of virus-host interactions, including the role of virally-induced infochemicals and their role in regulating phytoplankton cell fate. Ultimately,we hope to gain a better understanding of the chemical co-evolution of host–virus arms race in the marine environment.

Keywords: algology,aquatic biology,virology,secondary metabolites (plant physiology),phytopathology,aquatic ecology
From FLAVOR precision tests to LHC discoveries (FPTLHC)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-RG, 2009)
Start date: 2010-02-01
End date: 2016-01-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

With the rise of the large hadron collider (LHC) experiments the field of particle physics has just entered a new era. On the one hand, the LHC experiments are about to give us information on the origin of electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB), the EWSB scale-Planck hierarchy and maybe even on the origin of flavor hierarchies. On the other hand, in the last decade huge amount of indirect data from various low energy, precision, experiments was collected. This data, on the possible nature of microscopical dynamics, is invaluable in its power to guide us through our searches for new phenomena at the LHC. Furthermore, once LHC discoveries are made, interpretation of the results will require a synergetic research which combines our understanding of observations at low and high energies. Hence, the interplay between direct and indirect measurements is at the core of this proposal.

Keywords: physical sciences,particle physics,flavor physics,lhc
Identification and functional characterization of genes associated with cellular biomarkers of longevity (LONGENES)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-RG, 2009)
Start date: 2009-10-01
End date: 2013-09-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Cellular resistance to stress, including resistance to oxidative stress thought to play a role in ageing and cancer, is a major biomarker of longevity. Indeed, increased cellular stress resistance may mediate the life-extending effects of longevity genes in mice. Therefore, there is a great interest in identifying additional genes involved in susceptibility to stress and developing new models for elucidating how cells respond to genotoxic stress. This project will employ cutting edge genomic techniques to identify new mammalian genes regulating susceptibility to stress. Mouse stress-resistance cell lines will be generated using RNA interference techniques and the mechanisms of action of the genes involved will be studied. Moreover, transgenic mouse cell lines with candidate genes from the long-lived naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber, which can live over 28 years) will be assayed for alterations in phenotypes associated with longevity, in particular stress resistance. For naked mole-rat genes modulating susceptibility to stress, their functions and how these differ from their mouse homologues will be characterized. Overall, this project will develop new in vitro paradigms for research on ageing. Accomplishing the research goals of this project will reveal new genes associated with cellular biomarkers of longevity in rodents. These genes will form novel foci for further studies and the mechanistic basis of their actions will be studied.

Keywords: health sciences,cell biology,molecular biology,genetics
Development of High-Performance and High-Reliability NEMS Switches for Smart Antenna Structures (NEMSMART)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Türkiye
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-RG, 2009)
Start date: 2010-03-01
End date: 2014-02-28
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project focuses on the development of high-reliability low-contact force DC-contact, i.e., metal-to-metal contact RF-NEMS (Radio Frequency Nanoelectromechanical System) switches, which are the main building blocks of key enabling component of the next-generation cognitive wireless communications systems, i.e. the interface between the transceiver and the free space; namely NEMS-integrated multifunctional reconfigurable antenna (MRA). An MRA combines multiple functions into a single antenna with the capability of dynamically altering its radiation, polarization, and frequency characteristics. The reconfigurability in performance properties is achieved by morphing the physical structure of the MRA through DC-contact RF-NEMS switches. The major objective of this project is to significantly improve the reliability of DC-contact RF-NEMS switches with high RF-power handling capabilities. To this end, we will optimize the mechanical switch design using novel architectures, investigate different electric contact metallurgies, employ nanoparticle-based lubricants, and develop new nanofabrication processes optimized for avoiding two primary failure mechanisms: stiction and increased contact resistance. The targeted actuation voltage and the switching speed are less than 10 Volts and faster than 100 nano-seconds, respectively. Hot-switched life cycle tests for various RF-power levels will be performed, with the goal of achieving more than 108 hot-switched cycles at 1-Watt RF-power. The proposed high-reliability NEMS switches, once successfully developed, can be easily integrated into antenna architectures to realize MRAs, thereby resulting a major breakthrough in antenna design and implementation since the invention of legacy antennas by Marconi and Hertz.

Keywords: nems-switch,dc-contact switch,electrostatic actuator,rf-nems,rf-mems,smart antenna,multifunctional reconfigurable antenna (mra)
Role of Notch-dependent Neurone-glia signalling in sleep and brain function (INSOMNOTCH)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-RG, 2009)
Start date: 2010-03-01
End date: 2013-11-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 75000.0
EU funding (EUR): 75000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Sleep disruption leads to cognitive impairments, mood disorders and metabolic dysregulations demonstrating the critical importance of sleep in human health. In addition, sleep disorders such as insomnia are highly prevalent in the general population with major medical and societal consequences. Despite decades of research, the cellular and molecular processes by which sleep maintains normal brain function remain elusive. Maintenance of neurotransmission systems, regulation of energy metabolism, and learning and memory processing have been identified as potential sleep functions. Importantly, all these processes are modulated by glial cells in response to neuron signals. This means that neuron-glia interactions may potentially play a key role in sleep function. However, this role is largely under-explored worldwide. Using a Drosophila genetic model of insomnia, gene expression studies and a novel learning assay, we have uncovered a sleep-dependent neuron-glia signaling pathway. Specifically, this signaling pathway constitutes a novel function for the trans-membrane receptor Notch and its ligand Delta. The nature of the Notch-controlled signaling in this context is unknown. In this proposal, we will thus identify the components of the Notch pathway involved in sleep-wake regulation and determine how they influence neuronal physiology and learning. In a second step we will use a gene profiling approach combined with neurogenetic tools to identify in the brain the Notch-dependent neuronal circuits/systems involved in sleep-wake control. The influence of Notch signaling in the context of sleep deficits associated with Parkinson’s disease, will finally be evaluated using a Drosophila model. Because Notch receptors are also present in the mammalian brain the findings generated from the present project would have relevance for understanding sleep in all organisms and, in particular, lead to new therapeutic concepts applicable to human sleep-wake disorders.

Keywords: sleep genetics-notch signalling-sleep disorders-glia-brain-drosophila-
Role of the Pollen-expressed FERONIA-like Receptor-like Kinases during Plant Fertilization (PFERLS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-RG, 2009)
Start date: 2010-04-08
End date: 2013-04-07
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 75000.0
EU funding (EUR): 75000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Fertilization relies on complex and specialized mechanisms that achieve the precise delivery of the male gamete to the female gamete and their subsequent union. In plants, the molecular mechanisms that mediate the discharge of sperm cells by the male gametophyte (pollen tube) into the female gametophyte are still a mystery although they are of great interest for the manipulation of breeding barriers in wide-crosses and the production of hybrids. Recently, it was shown that a molecular dialogue between the male and female gametophytes must occur for successful sperm discharge. A receptor-like kinase called FERONIA has been shown by U. Grossniklaus’s group (UZH, Switzerland), the Host Laboratory, to be required for this dialogue in the female gametophyte. The French Research Fellow Aurélien Boisson-Dernier initiated this project in his former laboratory (J. Schroeder’s group, UCSD, USA) and recently (November 16th 2008) joined U. Grossniklaus’s group to characterize PFERL-RLKs (pollen-expressed FERONIA-like receptor-like kinases), which are excellent candidates to assume the role of the FER counterpart in the male gametophyte. The project and the Research Fellow’s career will greatly benefit from the training and expertise offered by the Host Lab, as well as from its on-going in-depth characterization of FER-dependent signaling. This highly interdisciplinary proposal that includes molecular and cell biological, cytological, genetic, biochemical, and interactome approaches should result in the identification of the first components of the FER signaling counterpart in the pollen tube, essential for male-female gametophytic interactions and fertilization. Consequently, this project will allow the Research Fellow to establish himself as an independent leading scientist in Europe exploiting (i) this novel niche in the plant fertilization field, (ii) the new skills he will acquired in the Host Lab, and (iii) the scientific network he will develop during at the Host Lab.

Keywords: plant development,plant genetics,plant cropping systems,reproduction
Characterization of NK cell distributions and functions in human tissues in HIV-1 pathogenesis (CNKHIV)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Italy
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-RG, 2009)
Start date: 2011-02-01
End date: 2015-01-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

HIV is an urgent global health problem and a safe and effective vaccine is desperately required. Although many studies have shown that the innate immune system, and in particular, natural killer (NK) cells play a central role in determining the quality of the host immune response to HIV -1, the full host beneficial potential of the anti-HIV-1 NK-mediated activity can not be realized in vivo, as NK cells function becomes compromised in a majority of HIV-1 infected individuals. Several previous experience with HIV-1 infected patients, indicate the significant changes in the redistribution of NK cell subset in the peripheral circulation towards the dysfunctional subpopulation of NK cell. It is likely that the redistribution of NK cell towards this aberrant population may contribute to the observed lack of NK cell function over the course of HIV-1 infection. However, changes in NK cell subset distributions and in effector functions in different anatomical sites and tissues, in healthy donors and in HIV-1 patients, at different stages of HIV-1 infection have been poorly characterized and require further investigation. Given that NK cell are found in female reproductive and in gastrointestinal tracts and that these mucosal layers can play critical roles in the course of HIV-1 infection: as the site of the HIV-1 invasion, as the mother-to-child transmission site, and as the reservoir and important source of virus in HIV-1 infected patients, we propose a multidisciplinary “translational research” project that will exploit: (i) the correlation between tissue-specific distribution of NK cell subpopulation(s) and different stages of HIV-1 infection, (ii) the source of functional and molecular dysfunctions of tissue-specific NK cell subpopulation(s) and their relevance in HIV-1 pathogenesis, (iii) the strategies that virus utilize in local undergoing infections in order to avoid killing by NK cells.

Keywords: nk cell,hiv-1,reservoir
TRANSLATING GOD(S): COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY IN EUROPE (COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Germany,Ireland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-RG, 2009)
Start date: 2010-06-01
End date: 2015-01-01
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

During the last two decades, in the U.S.-American academy of religion and theology, comparative theology as the dialogical and theologically conscious study of religions has evolved as new and quickly developing field of research and scholarship. Scholars have produced an increasing number of studies that either the authors or others have identified explicitly as “comparative theology,” new scientific communities have been formed, and postgraduate study and research programs have been established at high and lower ranking universities. In Europe, with a few exceptions, this thriving scholarship and development so far has received little attention and had little impact on its academy of theology and religion. Moreover, no one, has yet attempted to either define the new discipline in such a way as to situate all this recent work within a coherent structure and encompassing description, or to introduce the new discipline and research field, with its methods and achievements, comprehensively to the European academic study of theology and religion. The purpose of this 4-year long research project hosted by Trinity College Dublin is therefore (1) to set-up a research group comprising junior and senior scholars to (2) carry out in-depth research on the works of certain key authors in Anglo-American comparativ theology; (3) to write an introduction to it and to elaborate a 2-volume handbook on it along an integrated framework of models, methods and case studies, so to situate all this recent Anglo-American scholarship in comparative theology and to allow for adding further research, both by U.S. comparative theologians and European scholars critically engaging in comparative scholarship. (4) The collaborative process will be facilitated and enhanced by international expert seminars and intensive educational programs (IPs) for postgraduate research students. (5) Finally, a new European Thematic Network for Comparative Theology will be launched.

Keywords: theology,religious sciences,intercultural theology,interreligious studies,humanities