Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Modifying and controlling the trans 18:1 and CLA isomers in beef (SPACANBEEF)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-1-IOF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-06-15
End date: 2011-06-14
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 212975.88
EU funding (EUR): 212975.88
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Fat in moderation is an essential component of the human diet. It provides energy, fat-soluble vitamins and essential fatty acids. It also enhances palatability by providing texture and flavour to foods. In the past few decades, however, the composition of beef fat has been maligned due to its high content of saturated fat and wide spread recommendations have been made to limit red meat consumption. Recently, trans fatty acids have also been a topic of interest as more information becomes available concerning the negative health effects of these fatty acids. In this sense, new regulations being enacted in Canada require food manufacturers to disclose the total trans fat content of the products and additional regulations are in development to limit trans fat consumption. Interestingly, however, not all fatty acids containing trans double bonds are unhealthy. Both conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and vaccenic acid (trans11-18:1) have health promoting properties and can be enriched in beef. When feeding highly fermentable diets, however, CLA and vaccenic acid can be replaced by trans10-18:1 which can have negative health implications. The goal of the proposed work will be to provide information on how to modify and control the total fatty acid profile in beef, especially trans 18:1 and CLA isomers, and how ruminal microflora can influence their production when feeding different diets. In this sense, the fatty acid profile of pasture versus concentrate-fed animals will be compared initially, and then, different feed ingredients (i.e. buffer, dried distillers’ grains) will be incorporated into a typical feedlot diet (mostly barley) to study their influence on carcass composition, meat quality and fat composition. Helping to define the levels of dried distillers’ grains that can be included in livestock diets as an economical source of both feed and polyunsaturated fatty acids (18:2n-6) will also benefit the cattle and bioethanol industries and, in general, the environment.

Keywords: beef,intramuscular fat,adipose tissue,fatty acids,trans isomers,conjugated linoleic acids,buffer,dried distillers' grains,ruminal bacteria,hplc,carcass quality,meat quality
Post-settlement events influence on coral population structure: A multi-scale analysis along a latitudinal gradient (PSICOPOPS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-1-IOF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-10-01
End date: 2011-08-31
Duration (months): 35.0
Total project cost (EUR): 238347.55
EU funding (EUR): 238347.55
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Albeit recruitment processes are known to influence spatial patterns of adult coral assemblages, the relative influence of recruitment processes vs. post-settlement events in population maintenance remains poorly known. Yet, understanding how populations are maintained is pre-requisite for efficient management. This program proposes to study the influence of post-settlement events on adult population structure in several habitats and islands of three regions following a latitudinal gradient: Australian Great Barrier Reef, New Caledonia, and French Polynesia. This will allow to better understanding influence of early post-settlement events on population maintenance at local, insular and regional scale. In this goal, recruit and juvenile mortality and growth of several coral taxa with different life-history traits will be assessed as well as adult population structure, following a hierarchical sampling design. This program is a collaborative project between UMR CNRS EPHE UPVD 5244 “Tropical and Mediterranean Biology and Ecology” in Perpignan (France) and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Townsville (Australia). Both of these teams are at the cutting edge of coral reef ecology, respectively ranked 1st in Europe and 1st in the world.

Keywords: natural sciences,coral reefs,population dynamics,post-settlement events,french polynesia,new caledonia,great barrier reef,mortality,growth
Dynamics of Automobile Demand (DYNADEM)

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: Cyprus
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-1-IOF, 2007)
Start date: 2009-08-01
End date: 2011-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 144460.62
EU funding (EUR): 144460.62
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Understanding consumer behavior is an important task of economics. An automobile is the largest item most individuals will ever purchase (besides a home), hence economists have dedicated much effort in analyzing the factors that determine automobile purchase decisions. Important methodological advances in the 1990s have made possible the estimation of rich static demand models for differentiated products like automobiles. More recently, attention has shifted to dynamic aspects of consumer behavior. Durable goods pose a challenge because consumer purchase decisions depend not only on the currently available choices but also on expectations of future choices and their characteristics. They also depend on current holdings of the durable; consumers own a stock of durables which they may expand, shrink or upgrade over their lifetime according to their needs. One of the limitations of existing research is that it relies primarily on aggregate data as there is no information on consumers’ purchasing patterns over their lifetime. The proposed project aims to make a contribution to the literature by exploiting a unique dataset that records every vehicle registered in Cyprus since 1970. As of 1987, the dataset also records transfers of ownership and an identification number for the vehicle’s owner. Thus we can track every vehicle’s entire ownership history and each individuals' automobile holdings over time. We are not aware of any existing work utilizing data of such scope. A comprehensive descriptive analysis of this unique dataset will provide valuable insights into consumer behavior in durable good markets and will guide us in constructing tractable but also realistic dynamic models of consumer behavior. Such models are important for evaluating the long-term effects – at both the microeconomic and the macroeconomic level - of policies such as taxation, environmental regulation, scrapping subsidies, vehicle inspection regimes, and imports of used automobiles.

Keywords: industrial economics,automobiles,dynamic consumer behavior,durable goods
Characterization of Organic Reduced Nitrogen species (CORN)

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-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-06-15
End date: 2010-09-14
Duration (months): 27.0
Total project cost (EUR): 246177.73
EU funding (EUR): 246177.73
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The proposed Marie Curie Action CORN seeks to aid to the technical adaptation of online Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS) to measure ambient concentrations and fluxes of ammonia (NH3) and selected biogenic reduced volatile organic nitrogenous compounds (amines). The technological development is based on operating the PTR-MS instrument in a new mode, allowing for analysis with significantly improved sensitivity. The capability of an instrument to measure both ammonia and amines at high sensitivity and time resolution would be unique. Taking advantage of the derived high time resolution, the setup will be used for characterizing the exchange pattern of reduced nitrogen compounds over agricultural grassland ecosystems applying a micrometeorological flux approach (Eddy Covariance). Despite the prominent role of reduced nitrogen species in the environment and respective ecological problems related to the N-cycle, large uncertainties remain both in its exchange processes and related atmospheric chemistry and physics. A large fraction of reduced nitrogen occurs in the particulate phase, after forming salts upon reaction with acidic gases (ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulphate). Information on the occurrence of amines in the atmosphere is scarce, but there is increasing evidence of the role of organic reduced nitrogen compounds in the formation and secondary growth of aerosols. In general agriculture is understood to be a strong source both for ammonia and organic reduced nitrogen. Grassland ecosystems may be alternately important sinks and sources for reduced nitrogen. CORN will be integrated into a broad research initiative on the role of nitrogen fluxes from managed agricultural ecosystems. The training activities of the applicant will build on the expertise and activities of the host institute (ART, Zurich), both in the operation of the PTR-MS and in the application of micrometeorological flux measurement techniques on reactive trace gases.

Keywords: proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry,ptr-ms,biosphere-atmosphere exchange,biogenic amines,ammonium,eddy covariance,agriculture,nitrogen cycle,aerosol,organic matter,particulate matter
In vivo study of primary B cell responses (PBC-BS)

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-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2009-01-15
End date: 2011-01-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 169390.93
EU funding (EUR): 169390.93
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

B cells produce antigen-specific antibodies as part of the adaptive immune response. This is the result of a complex process of activation and differentiation that is initiated with the specific engagement of the Ag to the BCR. While a wide range of studies have been performed in vitro to understand B cell-Ag recognition, we still understand very little about the basics of motility, compartimentalization and Ag recognition in vivo, because these events occur in densely packed lymphoid organs. Only recently the development of new microscopic techniques has allowed to analyze B cell behaviour in vivo in immune tissues. The main aim of this project will be to understand the molecular parameters that modulate Ag transport, presentation, uptake and B cell behaviour in the lymph node. We will move from an in vitro approach (studying follicular dendritic cells-B cells interactions and Ag presentation) to an in vivo analysis of B cell fate and Ag transport in the lymph node. These studies will allow us to shade light in the molecular parameters that regulate B cell behaviour. Moreover, the analysis of the role of innante immune receptors in in vivo B cell responses will lead us to integrate the effects of the complexity of the immune response in B cell behaviour. Antibodies have demonstrated their value as bio-therapeutics across a wide spectrum of diseases, such as cancer, immune disorders, and infection. Thus, understanding what signals are required to effectively activate B cells and the principles driving the selection of high affinity B cell variants are key for the successful generation of highly specific antibodies. This knowledge can be applied in the long term to the design of more specific and effective therapeutic antibodies for the treatment and diagnosis of infectious diseases and cancer. Moreover, a comprehensive map of B cell activation will help to understand the factors that lead to the development of autoimmune diseases.

Keywords: b cell,antibody,antigen,b cell receptor
Social evolution: novel insights from the neglected sphecid wasps (SENSE)

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-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-06-23
End date: 2010-06-22
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 178874.06
EU funding (EUR): 178874.06
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Social evolution is at the core of evolutionary biology, largely through the seminal work of WD Hamilton on inclusive fitness and the role of genetic relatedness in shaping social interactions and the social organisation of insect societies. Extensions to Hamilton’s original ideas have given a profound insight into the balance that exists between selfless cooperation and egoism within eusocial insect societies, spawning such concepts as worker policing and conflict resolution. These form one element of social evolution. The other element concerns the major evolutionary transition from solitary to truly social (eusocial), yet it has remained largely ignored. This is because the most widely studied social insects (ants, some bees, some vespid wasps) are obligately eusocial, unsuitable models to investigate the evolution of sociality. The sphecid or sand wasps provide an ideal group, although they have been largely neglected. Though most are solitary, a few are facultatively social and exhibit reproductive division of labour. Here I propose to investigate a facultatively social species which exhibits a division of labour in large (10-30 nestmates) groups. The study will integrate behavioural observations in the field to document patterns of nestmate activities with microsatellite genetic analysis of individuals to determine reproductive success. These analyses will tease apart the relative importance of relatedness versus ecological factors, size and age in determining the extent to which an individual cooperates for the good of the society and foregoes reproduction. Experimental manipulations in the field will be used to test explicit hypotheses over the role of relatedness in modulating cooperation. The neglected sphecid wasps offer novel insights into the role of relatedness in social interactions and caste differentiation that may challenge current views of social evolution. Genetic analyses (development of microsatellite markers) form the major training element.

Keywords: behavioural biology,population genetics,animal ethology
The impact of nitrogen on the fate of recently assimilated carbon in forest soils (NITFOR)

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-2007-4-2-IIF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-10-01
End date: 2010-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 232084.12
EU funding (EUR): 232084.12
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Global climate change is strongly linked to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In particular, CO2 contributes almost 45-60% to the observed anthropogenic global warming yet has the potential to be captured by trees and stored either in woody biomass or in soils over long time periods. While the above-ground carbon cycle is well constrained, there remain great uncertainties in below-ground carbon cycling. For example, it is currently not known what proportion of carbon, fixed by trees in photosynthesis as CO2, is stored in soil, released back to the atmosphere as CO2 or CH4. We propose to tackle specific key questions about the fate of carbon in forests by taking advantage of existing afforestation experiments in England (main phase) and in Russian Siberia (return phase), by combining new stable isotopes methods and innovative in-growth core approaches. We will enrich tree canopies with 13C-CO2 and track changes in isotopic composition of CO2 evolved from soil using a unique mobile mass-spectrometry lab, available only at the University of York, England. We shall also monitor CH4 fluxes with parallel determination of 13C in CH4. This would allow estimating the gross rates of CH4 production and consumption and for a first time discern the role of fine roots and soil fungi in mediating CH4 flux. Furthermore, the application of N will mimic elevated N deposition, an important global change factor, to predict the response of soil carbon cycle in forests to global climate change. During the return phase we will apply the developed in England in-growth cores to a unique Siberian afforestation experiment, examining the effect of six dominant Siberian tree species on the roles of mycorrhiza and fine roots in carbon fluxes. Overall, the project would 1) greatly advance our knowledge of soil C cycling in forest ecosystems and 2) establish a new cooperative link between researchers of the Institute of Forest in Krasnoyarsk and the University of York

Keywords: biogeochemistry (climate change),boreal forests (climate change),carbon cycle (climate change),greenhouse gases (climate change)
Sugar-linked Ruthenium-anticancer Complexes (SURUCO)

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-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-05-01
End date: 2010-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 246744.74
EU funding (EUR): 246744.74
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Cancer is a major cause of death in Europe, being second to heart disease and responsible more than 1.7 million (6.7 worldwide) lives every year. It is expected that these numbers will rise dramatically such that by 2020 more than 16 million new cases will be registered, with the number of deaths more than 10.3 million people per year worldwide (in Europe the number of deaths is estimated to rise to at least 2 million per year). In recent years improved early diagnosis and treatment options have contributed significantly to the battle against cancer. Nevertheless, there are still many major tumors that cannot be treated and one of the major approaches to overcome this problem is to develop new active anticancer drugs. In this project, a promising approach to new polynuclear Ru-arene metal complexes based on the sugar phosphite moiety is described. The approach combines the highly effective polynuclear concept, established for Pt-anticancer complexes, with a new mode of action and transport provided by ruthenium-arene compounds. The polynuclear Ru-system should endow the compounds with improved cytotoxicity and the sugar component should provide high tumor-affinity (selective uptake into the tumor via the transferrin pathway and via upregulation of the glucalitic activity). In order to obtain a structure-activity relationship, a manifold of chemical characterization including structure elucidation, (bio)analytical studies on the binding to biological targets and in vitro assays are planned.

Keywords: organometallic chemistry,inorganic chemistry,medicinal chemistry,ruthenium drugs,anticancer compounds
Natural history of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease: factors influencing early detection, clinical course, and prognosis. (MCI-AD)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Italy
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-04-01
End date: 2010-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 162985.98
EU funding (EUR): 162985.98
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Background: There has been great interest in identifying persons at high risk of developing Alzheimer disease (AD) and dementia, as they should constitute a target group for possible prevention or early treatment of dementia in the future. Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a transitional zone between normal cognitive function and clinical AD. The MCI syndrome is characterized by subjective memory problems and memory deficits. Persons with MCI have an increased risk of developing dementia but some are stable or even recover, while others have an increased risk of death. As not all subjects with MCI progress to dementia, there is a need to examine factors that determine which MCI subjects will develop dementia. Aims/implementation: The main aims include to: 1) identify predictors of AD in the early, prediagnostic phase of the disease; 2) evaluate prognostic factors in patients with MCI; 3) explore the natural history of AD and other dementias and; 4) assess the occurrence of behavioral and psychological symptoms in dementia. The two-year Fellowship will be conducted at the Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, and the Italian National Research Council, Institute of Biomedical Technologies, Milan. Three Italian, multi-center, clinical cohort studies on patients with AD and MCI will be investigated: 1) Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) multi-center Italian study, including 1015 patients with AD; 2) The Italian Dementia Study, a multi-center clinical study of 1550 patients with MCI, AD and other dementias and; 3) The Italian Network on AD, MCI study, including 270 subjects with MCI, who were referred to 21 neurological centers around Italy in 2000-1. Relevance: The current project might have considerable implications n public health and understanding the natural history of degenerative diseases. Detecting syndromes associated with an early AD phase will enable earlier treatment, healthcare planning, and the postponement of institutionalization.

Keywords: dementia,alzheimer's disease,epidemiology,neurology,mild cognitive impairment,neuropsychology,aging,neurodegeneration