Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Exploiting Flow and Capillarity in Materials Assembly: Continuum Modelling and Simulation (FLOWMAT)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

There is a growing interest in exploiting surface tension and hydrodynamic forces for materials assembly of colloids and complex fluids. For instance, the capillarity-driven motion of colloidal particles can be used to assemble them into two-dimensional ordered structures to coat surfaces. Non-Newtonian viscoplastic fluids can be precisely placed to form spanning 3D micro-architectures. The morphology of blends or alloys can be finely controlled through the addition of solid particles that adsorb at fluid interfaces. These applications can have an enormous impact in emerging technologies for which the ERA is world leader, such as plastic electronics, advanced materials manufacturing, and tissue engineering. These emerging applications call for radically new theoretical and numerical tools that take fluid mechanics into account. In this project, building on my previous research experiences in the continuum-level simulations of flows with suspended particles and interfacial phenomena, I propose simulation strategies for: i) multiphase fluid mixtures, whose phase distribution I propose to alter with the addition of field-responsive colloids; ii) viscoplastic drops, to be used as "building blocks" in 3D printing applications; iii) and anisotropic elasto-capillary colloidal interactions. Owing to my previous research on multiphase flows and capillary phenomena, often done in concert with experimentalists, I am uniquely prepared to tackle these practically untapped areas of research. I will also employ CIG funds to buy equipment and initiate a parallel experimental activity in my group. The proposed research will provide a guideline on flow phenomena for which very little is known, substantially enriching the toolkit available to experimentalists and practitioners. From a fundamental perspective, my studies will spur fundamental questions on how we can use hydrodynamic, capillary, and elastic stresses to manipulate the dynamics and structure of soft matter systems.

Keywords: fluid dynamics,modelling and simulation,colloid and interface science,capillarity,multiphase flows
A longitudinal MRI study on dual Braille/Visual alphabet readers. Challenging the canonical view of the brain where each sensory modality is processed by a dedicated system (visual, somatosensory…) (METABRAILLE)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Poland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-10-01
End date: 2017-09-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

According to the canonical view, the brain processes sensory input in dedicated and distinct systems: the visual system, the somatosensory and so forth. The metamodal view in contrast sees the brain is a flexible task machine, in which each area supports a specific task, computation or representation, irrespective of the sensory modality of the input. We have recently provided evidence in support of the metamodal view in an fMRI experiment with blind Braille readers. Within the ventral visual areas, a region known as the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) develops expertise for reading in the sighted. We found that that Braille-reading activation in congenitally blind peaked in the visual areas in the VWFA with astonishing anatomical consistency (Reich, Szwed et al., 2011). The VWFA thus could specialize in reading regardless of sensory modality. Here I want to carry out a critical test of the metamodal theory. I want find out whether learning Braille causes the VWFA to become metamodal in sighted subjects with a “normal” visual system, even without the large-scale plasticity that goes on in congenitally blind. I plan to compare brain activity and structure before learning Braille and at the end of training, when sighted subjects have become fluent Braille readers. My project combines functional and structural MRI with a long term learning approach in a special subject population and could bring about a fundamental change in our understanding of the brain. After 11 years abroad (Weizmann, Israel/INSERM, France) I’m returning to Poland when MRI tools have just become available and neuroimaging leaders are especially needed. Coming at an opportune moment, this grant could significantly boost my long term-integration. The proposal involves transfer of my knowledge to my teams’ PhD students (through training) and to research teams at my own and other Polish institutions (collaborations). It would also allow my lab to grow and establish me as one of key players in the field.

Keywords: sensory processing,fmri,visual cortex,somatosensory cortex,vision,braille
Impact of Nitrate on Aerosol Composition and Radiative Effects (NACRE)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-01-01
End date: 2017-12-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Atmospheric aerosols, notably those from anthropogenic sources, adversely affect human health and play an important role in changing the Earth’s climate. The scientific interest in these effects of anthropogenic aerosols initially focused on sulfate and to a lesser extent on other low-volatile inorganic species, and subsequently on carbonaceous compounds. Inorganic particulate nitrate constituents also contribute significantly to the total aerosol mass, especially in urban areas and industrialized regions. However, only a limited number of global models have been used to predict particulate nitrate concentrations and their regional distributions, while even fewer studies have addressed the direct and indirect effects of aerosol nitrate. The scope of the proposed work is to improve the representation of nitrate aerosol formation and size distribution in a climate chemistry model to accurately predict their global concentration fields and their effects on global air quality and climate. Improvements will include i) nitrate interactions with mineral dust and sea salt, using the thermodynamic equilibrium models EQSAM and ISORROPIA-II, ii) increase on the accuracy of the predicted nitrate aerosol size distribution by using the hybrid approach for aerosol dynamics, iii) explicit calculation of nitrate aerosol formation using the comprehensive aerosol chemistry model MECCA-AERO, iii) the use of a “unified dust activation framework” to account for the CCN activity of mineral dust coated with soluble aerosols (like nitrates) and iv) the use of the adjoint sensitivity technique to investigate the uncertainty of the CDNC predictions to aerosol number and hygroscopicity. The new modeling framework will be used to accurately predict i) the nitrate formation and growth, its interactions with mineral dust and sea salt, as well as the radiative forcing of nitrate, its effects on mineral dust and sea salt CCN activity and its impact on future aerosol radiative effects and clouds.

Keywords: atmospheric physics and dynamics,aerosol chemistry,climatology and climate change,aerosol radiative effects
Organizational Structure, Police Activity and Crime (ORG STRUCT AND CRIME)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

How does the organizational structure of law enforcement agencies affect their activities and crime? That organizational structure affects incentives and outcomes is well noted in the literature on the boundaries of the firm, and an extensive literature on the economics of crime considers factors affecting crime. However, no paper has bridged those two literatures. I examine the consequences of a reform which adjusted organizational boundaries between the police and the prison authority in Israel by transferring responsibility for arrestees from the police to the prison authority. Theoretically, what should be the consequences of this organizational reform? The transition of responsibility for arrestees from the Police to the Prison Authority externalizes the cost of housing arrestees from the Police's perspective. It should therefore results in an increase in the number of arrestees. Furthermore, if the police chooses optimally which crimes to pursue, then following the reduction in the cost it faces it should pursue relatively minor crimes that it did not pursue before the reform. Lastly, an increase in the number of arrestees should lead to a decrease in crime as more criminals are held under arrest. My empirical analysis will use rich individual level administrative data on the universe of arrests undertaken in Israel, as well as detailed data on crime. My empirical strategy relies on two important aspects of the organizational reform. First, the reform can be considered exogenous to police activity and crime because the decision to implement it was a direct consequence of the surprise escape of a notorious serial rapist from the hands of the Police. Second, my analysis exploits the staggered timing of the reform across geographical regions of Israel. Initial results already indicate that the reform led to a large increase in the number of arrestees.

Keywords: organizational economics,law and economics,economics of crime
Nanoscale Devices for Ultralow Temperature Thermometry (NANOTEMP)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-08-01
End date: 2017-07-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Developments in low temperature technology heave reached the point where temperatures around 1 mK can be reached in commercially available systems, typically based on a 3He-4He dilution refrigerator. In the lab, nuclear demagnetisation refrigeration pushes this boundary lower: nuclear spin systems have been cooled to the nanokelvin regime, while the lowest temperature ever measured for electrons in a material is around 10 microkelvin. The availability of commercial millikelvin refrigerators has driven numerous discoveries in physics and materials science and continues to facilitate research on materials, fundamental physics, and quantum technologies. All of these fields would benefit from access to lower temperatures, but this transition is challenging and requires technological step-changes. This is partly because the commercial workhorse technology, the dilution refrigerator, is not a practical solution. (The record temperature for a dilution refrigerator is 1.75 mK and has been for over a decade.) More significant obstacles are the lack of reliable thermometry, particularly for electrons in nanoelectronic devices, and the challenge of making low temperature thermal contact between the system being studied and a nuclear demagnetisation refrigerator. This project will address several challenges to working below 1 mK, with the aim of opening the regime to studies of nanoelectronics, nanomechanics, and materials science. This will be achieved by developing two new thermometers: one for measuring the temperature of electrons in nanoscale samples, and one for improved measurements of the temperature of superfluid helium-3. We will also develop a platform to make thermal connection to nanoscale samples, with a particular focus on cooling incoming electrical connections. Through these developments, this project aims to move nanoscale science firmly into the sub-millikelvin regime, and to bring the benefits of nanotechnology to existing areas of low temperature physics.

Keywords: nanoelectronics,nanophysics,ultralow temperature physics,cryoengineering
Spectral Geometry on Graphs and Beyond (SPEGYONGRAPHSPLUS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The leitmotif of my proposed research is the extraction of geometric information about graphs from the spectra of the graph's Schrödinger operators, and from the distribution of zeros of the corresponding eigenfunctions. The spectral geometric point of view shows intrigue links between quantum and combinatorial graphs, which go over towards higher dimensional domains. Therefore, the proposed research investigates spectral geometry for both quantum and combinatorial graphs and also makes connections between quantum graphs which are one dimensional objects and separable domains which are of higher dimension. In addition, I consider the mathematical physics point of view which spreads out of the pure spectral geometry.

Keywords: quantum graphs,combinatorial graphs,separable domains,laplacian,isospectrality,spectral geometry,mathematical physics
'New Italians': The Re-Making of the Nation in the Age of Migration (NEWITALIANS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-08-28
End date: 2016-08-27
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 50000.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

As a result of international migration, national societies in Europe are becoming increasingly diverse from an ethno-cultural, religious, and racial perspective. Demographic projections show that this transformation is expected to increase in the future. The socio-economic and cultural impact of this demographic change has been extensively investigated especially in relation to migrants and their children. There is indeed a rich scholarship analyzing forms of adaptation, acculturation, and assimilation to the majority society. Similarly, scholars have investigated at length the negotiation of migrants’ every day lives in local places, as well as their transnational connections. Forms of multiple, hybrid, ‘creole’ identities have also been theorized, in association with calls for a post-colonial cosmopolitanism. Yet, within this scholarship, the nation as the discursive expression of a collective ‘we’ has been largely ignored. When the nation remains in place, it is often treated as a given and unproblematic ensemble of features, values, and principles against which migrants must show their degree of ‘integration’. No investigation is usually made into how this collective referent might change due to the demographic change of its populace. The proposed research aims to bring the nation back into migration studies, not as a substitute, but as a dimension complementing ‘local’, transnational, and cosmopolitan registers. By focusing on the case of Italy, the research will analyze the ‘re-making’ of the nation from three perspectives: political institutions and parties; migrants and children of migrants who claim their national belonging (‘New Italians’); the receiving society, as expressed through the voices of school teachers and their students. As the nation continues to inform social discourses and practices, to explore how it is re-signified in contexts of ethno-cultural pluralism remains essential to understand current processes of social inclusion/exclusion.

Keywords: nation,identity,migrants,children of migrants,school,education
Joint Inference with the Universal Schema (JOINUS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

We are getting better and better in solving various subproblems in Natural Language Processing (NLP), such as parsing, coreference or relation extraction; however, once assembled into an end-to-end system of the traditional pipeline architecture, errors cascade and magnify. The principle goal of this project is to enable new generation of NLP applications in which information flow is bidirectional, and acquired downstream knowledge increases the robustness of upstream processing. Specifically, we want to investigate bidirectional flow in scenarios where downstream processing can acquire knowledge in very rich representations, and learn from massive amounts of unlabeled data. While this goal is motivated by the need for more accurate NLP, it also relates to the fundamental problem building artificial cognitive systems that adapt to their environment, seamlessly connect complex layers of abstraction and never stop learning. The work will have direct applications, for example, in extracting meta-data from media archives, biomedical text mining and information extraction from clinical texts

Keywords: natural language processing,information extraction,machine learning,knowledgebases,joint inference,graphical models
CELLULAR AND SYNAPTIC DISSECTION OF THE NEURONAL CIRCUITS OF SOCIAL AND AUTISTIC BEHAVIOR (CELLSYNCIRCUITS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Portugal
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-08-01
End date: 2017-07-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Synapses are the cellular specializations responsible for transducing information between neurons. Synaptic dysfunction is thought to underlie disorders such as schizophrenia, autism and mental retardation. Currently, a major challenge for modern neuroscience is to understand how synaptic computations give rise to behavioural and cognitive programs and identify how these same circuits are affected in neuropsychiatric disorders. At present, a multitude of factors both genetic and environmental are recognized to impact on the etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and schizophrenia. Nevertheless, and while these disorders diverge on several factors such as, typical age of onset, language skills and other clinical presentations; convergence is observed in several behavioral phenotypes and in genetic mutations common to both disorders. Indeed, a prominent feature in the symptomatology of both conditions is a dysfunction in social behaviors. However, the synaptic circuits and pathways that regulate the expression of affiliative social behaviors remain largely unknown. To begin shedding light on these complex behaviors and neural circuits, we are dissecting the cellular and synaptic maps of ethologically relevant affiliative social behaviors using a multidisciplinary approach combining genetic and optogenetic tools. We are also modulating neuronal synaptic circuits in genetic and behavioral mouse models of autism and schizophrenia. Our strategy will unravel the primitive brain centers controlling social behavior in mammals and address how disruption in sociability may lead to common dysfunctions that may be transversal to several human disorders.

Keywords: social behaviors,optogenetics,autism,schizophrenia,mouse models,in vivo electrophysiology
A computational study of the interaction between nanoplastic and model biological membranes (NANOPLAST)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Italy
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-08-01
End date: 2016-07-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 75000.0
EU funding (EUR): 75000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Every year, millions of tons of plastic litter are reversed into the oceans, washed up on the shores or piled in landfills. There, plastics are degraded down to the micro and nano scale, and enter the food chain. Plastic particles can transport toxic substances, but the effects of micro and nanoplastics themselves on living organisms is still largely unknown. Here we address a key step of this interaction: the interaction of nanoplastics with model biological membranes. We propose a computational study of the interaction between polymers of everyday use and model lipid membranes. Our main goal is to identify possible physical mechanisms of damage to the cell membrane induced by the interaction with plastic nanofragments. Membranes can be altered in many ways: mechanical (membrane rigidity), dynamical (lipid and peptide diffusion) and structural (lipid order, area per lipid, membrane thickness). Even more interestingly, our preliminary results show that hydrophobic polymers such as polystyrene can influence the lateral organization of heterogeneous lipid membranes into ordered (rafts) and disordered domains. These changes are relevant as they can affect the functionality of membrane proteins and other constituents, therefore altering the overall cell functioning. We will study the polymers most commonly found in the marine environment (polypropylene, polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polystyrene…) and model membranes of various compositions. We will model both the polymers and the membranes at a coarse-grained level, relying on the support of detailed all-atom models whenever necessary. Characterizing the interaction of plastic nanoparticles with cell membranes is the first step towards understanding the physical and chemical basis for their toxicity in all living organisms – bacteria, plants and animals. Since plastics are nowadays ubiquitous, the project can have a great impact, on the scientific community worldwide and on the society in general.

Keywords: biophysics,soft matter,polymers,lipid membranes,molecular dynamics,coarse-graining