Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Theory and Practice of Algorithms for analysis of People and Data on the Web (EVALUATE)

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-2010-RG, 2010)
Start date: 2010-09-01
End date: 2014-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Since the late 20th century, an ever growing abundance of information became available to a rapidly growing population through the internet. It was no longer necessary to be tech savvy or to know what a relational database was in order to tap into this abundance: Millions of people started searching and connecting with friends on the web on a regular basis. This revolution is still causing significant social and economic changes, while evolving on two main tracks. The first track is the increase in storage, networking and processing power, harnessed in various physical configurations (data centers, handheld devices, personal computers and internet providers), making the same massive amounts of data appear virtually present simultaneously everywhere. The second force, complementing the first, is the algorithmic and statistical tools bridge between the people and the data. It is widely understood today that the survival of popular online applications (search engines, social networks, ad networks) heavily depends on the ability to represent data (e.g. indexing, classification and storage) and serve it (e.g. as query results, ads and recommendations) efficiently and reliably. It is hence not surprising that huge efforts are invested in analysis of massive amounts of data and people. These efforts transcend traditional borders of computer science and reposition the field as an engine for emerging multidisciplinary research, very much the way bioinformatics emerged before. We are already witnessing the economic and social influence of the internet on our lives, and the goal of this research is to identify simple structures that emerge in this ecosystem (graphs, clusters, high dimensional spaces, ratings, discrete choice and preference) and apply algorithmic tools to them.

Keywords: informatics,internet technology
Rapid Cross-Lingual Speaker Adaptation for Statistical Text-to-Speech Systems (CLSASTS)

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-2010-RG, 2010)
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

Unit selection has been the dominant approach to text-to-speech synthesis (TTS) in the last decade. Recently, statistical TTS (STS) is proposed where statistical models are used for speech synthesis. The high quality and intelligibility speech it generates, the flexibility it offers in voice/speaker/emotion conversion, and its small memory requirements make STS systems a strong candidate to be the dominant TTS technology in the next decade. One of the most exciting research directions in the STS field is speaker adaptation where the goal is to adapt the voice characteristics to a target speaker. Maximum a posteriori and maximum likelihood linear regression methods are two of the common approaches for adaptation. There is also a recent and growing interest in cross-lingual speaker adaptation using the STS approach where the goal is to use speaker adaptation techniques to generate speech with a speaker’s voice characteristics in a target language that the speaker does not speak. Globalization and the need to communicate in multiple languages in social, economic, and political interactions increase the importance of the problem. In this proposal, a novel rapid adaptation approach is proposed for the cross-lingual speaker adaptation problem using the eigenvoice adaptation technique with the STS systems. In the proposed approach, two sets of eigenvoices are produced, one for the target language and one for the source language. Then, a regression function is generated between the source and target eigenvoice weights. Given a speaker, eigenvoice weights for the source eigenvoices are computed using a novel, perceptually-motivated objective function, and then the regression function is used to estimate the target eigenvoice weights which are then used to synthesize speech in the target language. The proposed system is expected to be the first high-performance cross-lingual speaker adaptation method for STS that can work with 5-10 seconds of adaptation data.

Keywords: technological sciences,signal processing,speech processing,statistical text-to-speech synthesis
A global approach towards linking climate and marine biodiversity to ecosystem functioning (BIODIV-LOG)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: European Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-RG, 2010)
Start date: 2011-09-01
End date: 2014-08-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 45000.0
EU funding (EUR): 45000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Pelagic ecosystems play a fundamental role in modulating the global environment via their regulatory effects on the Earth’s climate and their role in biogeochemical cycling. Recent global climate change has refocused concerns about the potential effect of environmental change on pelagic communities such as changes in biodiversity or community composition that can alter ecosystem properties and the goods and services they provide. Therefore, biodiversity-ecosystem functioning research in marine systems is urgently needed at a time when the pelagic realm is known to be responding to climate change, especially for key trophic groups. The aims of this project are 1) to investigate geographic co-variations in copepod species diversity and the mean community body size structure at a global scale and their effects on carbon export, 2) to integrate these global diversity patterns across different trophic levels (from phytoplankton to fish), 3) to evaluate the influence of climate and environment on global marine biodiversity and the carbon cycle, and 4) to forecast potential shifts in distribution of pelagic biodiversity under different climate change scenarios to predict future changes in ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services. For the data analysis, cutting edge statistical modelling techniques will be used to evaluate the spatial distribution of a species, together with changes in biodiversity and ecosystem function under different climate change scenarios. The results of this study will enable, for the first time, to assess the relationships between pelagic biodiversity, mean community size structure and the functioning of the ecosystems at a global scale and as a consequence yield a key insight to how climate-induced effects in the plankton may affect global carbon cycling providing important data for models of global climate change.

Keywords: natural sciences,aquatic ecology,biodiversity,ecosystems,ecosystem modelling (climate change)
RELEVANCE OF DIETARY FATTY ACIDS AND VITAMIN B3 FOR MANAGING VISFATIN-MEDIATED DYSLIPIDEMIA AND INFLAMMATION IN OBESITY (VISFATIN)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: European Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-RG, 2010)
Start date: 2010-10-01
End date: 2013-09-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 45000.0
EU funding (EUR): 45000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Hyperlipemia and particularly, postprandial lipemia is involved in atherogenesis and is characterized by a rise of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TRL) after a rich fat meal. Recent studies have suggested hypolipidaemic and anti-inflammatory effects, and insulin sensitivity improvement by dietary monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) during the postprandial state.Vitamin B3 (nicotinic acid) has been used for treatment of dyslipidaemia associated with metabolic syndrome. Olive oil, as the main natural source of MUFA, and vitamin B3 have emerged as nutrition intervention strategies for prevention of cardiovascular disease risk at short- and long-term, respectively. Visfatin is an adipocytokine with nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase activity that catalyzes first step in the biosynthesis of NAD+ from nicotinamide. Extracellular visfatin converts nicotinamide into nicotinamide mononucleotide in blood, which functions as a systemic signalling molecule regulating β cell function and inflammatory responses. A regulatory role for dietary fatty acids on visfatin gene expression has been described in an in vitro model of murine adipocytes. However, there is no virtually any data about the mechanisms by which dietary fatty acids and vitamin B3, alone or in combination could regulate visfatin homeostasis in vivo, particularly in the postprandial state. We hypothesized that different dietary fats in combination with vitamin B3 may have a key role on visfatin activity which may lead to modulation of inflammation and vascular dysfunction that are overproduced in vascular diseases. We envision achieving this through the following set of key objectives: -To determine the influence of MUFA versus SFA or omega-3 PUFA supplemented by vitamin B3 on visfatin modulation in a human postprandial (short-term) model. -To point out the influence of long-term dietary MUFA versus SFA or omega-3 PUFA supplemented by vitamin B3 on visfatin homeostasis in an metabolic syndrome mouse model.

Keywords: health sciences
Ice: Small and Near, Distant and Large. Understanding planet formation through observation of Solar-System minor bodies and extra-solar planets (ISANDAL)

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-2010-RG, 2010)
Start date: 2010-10-01
End date: 2014-09-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This proposal is for a four year observational study on icy bodies in our Solar System and in systems around other stars. This will test planet formation theories, a key European astronomical research objective. The project will answer five questions essential to understanding the icy bodies that are the remnants of the planet formation process: Q1: How do the surface properties of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) vary? Q2: What are the average bulk physical properties of cometary nuclei? Q3: How does cometary activity vary throughout the Solar System? Q4: What is the distribution of ice in the Solar System? Q5: What is the distribution of icy planets around other stars? The first four questions form the bulk of this proposal, and will be addressed by telescopic observations of all classes of Solar System minor body (asteroids, comets, KBOs). This will include a particular focus on the largest KBOs, the newly discovered population of Main Belt Comets, and on the target comets of spacecraft missions. To do this I will make use of novel techniques that I have pioneered, using new instruments at the European Southern Observatory, and other standard astronomical observations. The fifth question will be answered using the microlensing technique, as part of a large European led collaboration. In addition to contributing to the overall goal of studying the icy remnants of planet formation, the comet observations will also directly support the ESA Rosetta mission. This link with Rosetta will mean a continuing contract at the host institute after the IRG.

Keywords: astrophysics,planetary science,extra-solar planets,ice,microlensing,comets,kuiper belt objects
Examination of alveolar and trabecular morphology and how it relates to masticatory forces (EAT)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: European Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-RG, 2010)
Start date: 2011-09-26
End date: 2014-09-25
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 45000.0
EU funding (EUR): 45000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The adaptation to different diets is a major driving force in mammalian evolution. Mammals have occupied extremely diverse dietary niches that require different masticatory functions. The diversity in mammalian skull and tooth morphology reflects these different feeding adaptations, but key questions remain unanswered: How are chewing forces transferred from the teeth through the jaws? What role does the tooth morphology play in the distribution of these forces? How does the bone in the jaws adapt to different forces? And can we use these adaptations to reconstruct the feeding behaviour of extinct species? EAT will address these questions by examining the internal jaw morphology of mammal species with very different and well-known feeding adaptations in order to understand the link between bone morphology, tooth morphology and masticatory forces. It will achieve this by mechanical experiments and the use of state-of-the-art methods such as the 3D analysis of high-resolution image data and computer modelling. These methods are well-established in biomedical research, but, despite their potential, not yet widely used in comparative studies. By applying these methods, EAT will provide new insights into the functional adaptations of the masticatory apparatus and explore their application in future studies in the field of functional morphology. In addition, EAT will strengthen the links between the host institution in the UK and collaborators in Germany and support the applicant in gaining independence and key skills for taking up a permanent position after the integration period. To assist this, the host institution will provide dedicated facilities and additional support to assist in the applicant’s integration.

Keywords: functional biology,animal anatomy,human morphology,image processing,computer modelling
Genetic High Throughput Screenings by random mutagenesis to identify Plasmodium falciparum critical genes for asexual growth, sexual differentiation and virulence affecting host immune responses (GENETICHTS REVEAL PF)

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-2010-RG, 2010)
Start date: 2011-02-01
End date: 2018-02-21
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Malaria is a global health problem that demands immediate practical actions to contain the high infection and mortality rates caused by Plasmodium species. Protective vaccine is still missing. Available drugs diminish their impact against Plasmodium as resistances are rising and expanding on the territories. While no vaccine of the current portfolio showed ideal protection and low-cost feasibility, drug development is still limited to formulation renewals or modifications of currently used drugs. Global health organizations committed to fight malaria identify the foremost reason of the stall on both vaccine development and drug discovery in the lack of knowledge about general mechanisms regulating the complex Plasmodium life cycle and the interactions with the host, especially with the immune system. Indeed, despite in the past few decades Plasmodium research was notably forwarded by availability of new tools, genome, microarray and proteomic data, basic and important questions on its biology are still shockingly unanswered. The field is still in great demand of approaches that allow discovering the function of ~2/3 of the genome encoded proteins. In order to respond to this need, I developed in Plasmodium falciparum a novel molecular tool for random mutagenesis that permits large scale mutant productions. This is expected to produce sortable mutants at an unprecedented frequency of 1 in 10^2 parasites by induction of a constitutively latent stable transposase. This tool is ideal to identify gene function and essentiality. By using it, we propose to investigate and characterize proteins and mechanisms i) involved in immune system-pathogen interactions; ii) critical for asexual growth and iii) essential for sexual differentiation. Our results will contribute significantly to the discovery of new targets to block Plasmodium asexual and transmission forms, and for the first time to systematically identify parasite virulence factors influencing host immune responses.

Keywords: health,microbiology,infectious disease,malaria,human parasitology,transmission forms,drug,vaccine,transposase,genetics,immunology,essentiality,attenuation,virulence factors,cell biology
Modular Ligands for Water Splitting (WATERSPLIT)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: European Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-RG, 2010)
Start date: 2011-09-01
End date: 2014-08-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 45000.0
EU funding (EUR): 45000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project aims at addressing several key issues in the highly importance and challenged topic of water splitting by solar energy, an alternative energy source. Additionally, the designed systems will provide a starting point explore further catalytic applications. Its originality and timeliness lies in the design and study of two highly modular families of ligands which will be use as platforms to get insights and key features to enlarge the reactivity, such as: the basic geometrical and electronic parameters, the modification of the second coordination sphere, presence of multi-metallic systems among others.

Keywords: homogeneous catalysis,molecular chemistry,inorganic chemistry,water splitting
A record of rapid climate change from the Pyrenees, Spain (EX-GLACIER)

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-2010-RG, 2010)
Start date: 2011-01-05
End date: 2015-01-04
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Throughout the last hundred thousand years, Europe has experienced rapid swings in climate. Some of these changes have been of the order of 5-10°C in only a few decades. The cause of these changes lies in the oceanography of the North Atlantic Ocean. The Gulf Stream transports vast amounts of heat from the Tropics and releases it into Europe, maintaining a warm climate. However, this surface current has not always done this. It is now understood that in the past this current has sometimes abruptly swung to a more southerly position off the Iberian Peninsula, robbing northern Europe of heat and moisture. In this project we will explore the effect of these changes on glacier extent in the Spanish Pyrenees. Glaciers are highly sensitive to climate change, particularly to temperature. We will use the cutting edge technique of exposure dating using cosmogenic nuclides to determine the position of glaciers in the past. We will then reconstruct the position of the glaciers through time to determine the response to climate change on this system. To implement this project we will use existing infrastructure at the University of Exeter to introduce a capability to prepare samples for Cl-36 dating. Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity today. The findings from this project will help us understand the future effects of global warming so that we are better prepared for the environmental and economic costs.

Keywords: physical sciences,physical geography,climate change,glaciers
Topoisomerase-induced DNA breaks: link with cancer and neurodegeneration (TOPO-BREAKS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: European Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-RG, 2010)
Start date: 2010-09-01
End date: 2013-08-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 45000.0
EU funding (EUR): 45000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

DNA topoisomerases are conserved nuclear enzymes that regulate DNA topology by transiently cleaving and resealing the DNA molecule, fulfilling a fundamental role in virtually every aspect of chromosome metabolism. Nevertheless, erroneous or abortive topoisomerase activity can result in persistent DNA strand breaks with the enzyme covalently attached to 3’ or 5’ DNA ends by a phosphotyrosyl bond, an anomalous structure that can compromise cell survival and/or genome integrity with the consequent implications in tumorigenesis. This peculiarity of topoisomerase catalysis also underlies the anticancer efficacy of topoisomerase poisons, which inhibit the re-ligation step of the reaction inducing the formation of DNA breaks that preferentially target highly proliferating and/or repair defective tumour cells. In addition to this link with cancer therapy, defects in the repair of topoisomerase-induced DNA damage have been linked to progressive neurodegenerative disease. Fully understanding the mechanisms and regulation governing the repair of topoisomerase-induced damage is therefore extremely important to gain new insights into two processes that are a main concern to human health: (a) cancer, both its onset and its therapy, and (b) neurodegenerative disease. We will combine the use of animal models with biochemistry and molecular and cellular biology techniques to explore different aspects of the repair of topoisomerase-induced breaks. We will mainly focus on our recently identified tyrosyl DNA phosphodiesterase 2 (TDP2), studying its mechanism of action and regulation with special attention to the possible implications in cancer and neurodegeneration.

Keywords: dna topoisomerases,dna damage and repair,genome instability,cancer,neurodegeneration