Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
LISA and LISA Path Finder data-analysis (LISA)

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: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-09-01
End date: 2010-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 233164.62
EU funding (EUR): 233164.62
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, due to be launched in ten years' time, will mark a key development in the field of gravitational-wave (GW) physics; whereas ground-based detectors, currently in operation, have a limited sensitivity and will achieve a major result if they can detect individual events, LISA will make GW detection routine and will open the chapter of GW astronomy and cosmology. Many issues, both scientifical and technological, are still open, some of them will be addressed by the LISA Path Finder (LPF) mission, which will be launched in two years' time. I have been active in the field of ground-based gravitational-wave detection for more than six years, I have addressed both theoretical and experimental problems. I want to put my experience,at disposal of one of the major LISA groups in Europe, the Nice group led by Jean-Yves Vinet, in order to enhance the LISA and LPF missions as well as gain invaluable skills for my career

Keywords: physical sciences,technological sciences
Physics of cracks and damage (PHYCRACKS)

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: 2009-02-01
End date: 2011-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 192469.38
EU funding (EUR): 192469.38
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The objective of PhyCracks is to provide a statistical description of the basic processes occurring at the microstructure scale during the failure of materials (damage, plasticity…). This description will result in a model of crack propagation that ultimately will lead to predictive constitutive laws less phenomenological than the ones currently used by engineers. While existing theories allow to estimate quite precisely mechanical properties like Young modulus for instance, the failure properties are far more difficult to predict: Since the crack evolution is only sensitive to the very vicinity of the crack tip, it can be irrelevant to replace an heterogeneous material by an effective continuum medium to make predictions on toughness or life duration for instance. However, some theoretical concepts developed within the framework of out-of-equilibrium statistical physics were shown to be very promising. A crack is then described as an elastic line propagating within the microstructural obstacles of the materials. This approach was successfully applied to perfectly brittle failure. However, the understanding of crack propagation within the great majority of materials for which damage is involved is still lacking. PhyCracks will provide a description of the development of damage and cracks. At first, the damage spreading and the resulting crack propagation will be numerically and experimentally explored for model heterogeneous materials. The basic failure processes identified, they will then be implemented in a model of crack propagation using the same theoretical tools than used for brittle failure (elastic manifolds driven in random media), but adapted to quasi-brittle failure. This model will be used to decipher the fracture surfaces morphology (scaling properties of roughness, roughening development from an initial straight notch…), the jerky progression of crack fronts, and more generally will provide an equation of motion for cracks in quasi-brittle materials.

Keywords: statistical physics,mechanical properties,mechanical engineering,toughness and lifetime predictions,crack propagation,damage spreading,phase-field model and experimental fracture mechanics
Chiral Organometallics for Asymmetric Synthesis (COAST)

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: 2008-03-03
End date: 2010-03-02
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 161792.99
EU funding (EUR): 161792.99
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Chemical processes (synthesis) that create new C-C bonds from simpler molecules are also hugely important as this is how chemical complexity is built up. In a synthesis starting molecules are used to build new molecules by means of various chemical reactions. Organic synthesis generally involves the reaction between two molecules a nucleophile and an electrophile. These are attracted to each other rather like opposite poles of a magnet and a chemical bond is created between them. One class of useful nucleophiles are organometallic reagents as they readily react with electrophiles to make new bonds. However, chiral organometallic reagents are very rare, but clearly if they could be easily prepared they would be extremely useful as they would provide a direct synthesis of a broad range of chiral molecules. We propose a unique method for generating configurationally stable chiral organometallics and then we will explore what classes of electrophiles they react with. Our method involves initially generating a nucleophile (bearing a group that also leaves during the course of the reaction) (an organometallic reagent) and reacting it with another nucleophile (an organometallic reagent) to create a new chiral organometallic. We believe that reactions of this class of nucleophiles with conventional and non- conventional electrophiles will open up a whole new area of synthesis and provide a step change in asymmetric synthesis that could have far reaching consequences. With this information we will then apply the new chemistry in the synthesis of biologically important molecules that are otherwise difficult to make. This will particularly highlight the power of the new methodology.

Keywords: organic chemistry,homogeneous catalysis,organometallic chemistry
Structural and biophysical mechanism of microRNA nuclear export (MICRORNA EXPORT)

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: 2008-05-12
End date: 2010-05-11
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 171091.96
EU funding (EUR): 171091.96
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

MicroRNAs are a recently discovered class of small non-coding RNAs that act as post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression by silencing target mRNAs. They have wide ranging roles in many cellular processes including cellular proliferation, stress response, apoptosis, development and differentiation. Altered expression of microRNA has been implicated in tumorigenesis, and microRNAs are recognised as modulating factors in numerous cancers including gastric cancer, lung cancer and lymphocytic leukaemia. Specifically, microRNA functions within the cytoplasm in concert with the human-induced silencing complex by binding the 3’ untranslated region of the target mRNA. This binding to target mRNA effectively inhibits expression of the protein, and thus mediates the gene silencing effect of microRNA. This project aims to elucidate the structure and biophysical basis of the nuclear export complex formed by pre-microRNA (precursor of microRNA), RanGTP and exportin-5. These goals will be achieved using a combination of structural, biochemical and biophysical approaches. X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance will be utilised to study the structure of the export complex of microRNA. In parallel with the determination of the complex structure, the key residues involved in complex formation will be identified by mutagenesis, cross-linking and further NMR approaches. Furthermore, a range of biophysical techniques will be employed to study the thermodynamic and kinetic basis for the formation of the microRNA export complex. The information provided by this study will be of the highest international standard and will open novel avenues to therapeutic design as well as represent a significant advance in our understanding of cellular biology. Importantly, it will provide a platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration between a European based organization and a top-class non European researcher.

Keywords: microrna,nuclear export,structural biology,crystallography,nmr,cancer
Mechanisms by which interfacial layers control lipolysis on digestion (LIPOGEST)

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: 2008-04-01
End date: 2010-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 169390.93
EU funding (EUR): 169390.93
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Obesity is a major health problem in the EU and levels are currently increasing. A strong correlation exists between dietary fat intake and obesity, contributing to increased incidences of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers. These related conditions have a hugely detrimental impact on the quality of life of the sufferers and also on national health care resources, currently estimated at 5% of the EU’s total healthcare budget. There is a need to better understand the effect of the complex interfacial structures that stabilise emulsions on the mechanisms involved in the breakdown of fat by lipases (Lipolysis). Lipase and its cofactor colipase have to adsorb on to the surface of fat droplets, in order to access and hydrolyse fats into their constituent components, so that they can be absorbed by the body. Processed food emulsions are stabilised by complex interfaces composed of proteins, emulsifiers and lipids. Lipase action is very sensitive to interfacial composition. We have shown that bile salts can displace the protein networks, but the extent to which interfacial structures are degraded during digestion will determine how quickly lipid is broken down and digested. By slowing down lipid digestion is thought that we can induce feelings of satiety and reduce subsequent dietary fat intake by reducing appetite. The intention is to determine how the physiological conditions in the stomach and the duodenum change the structure of these interfacial layers, including synergistic/cumulative effects. Then to correlate these interfacial structures with rates of breakdown of fats by lipases. This information will be obtained using state-of-the-art interfacial biophysics methods and unique probe microscopy techniques for imaging interfacial structure. The improved understanding of the role of interfacial structure will be used to explain the digestion of commercial food emulsions and to modify or design new products to moderate fat digestion.

Keywords: biophysics,physical chemistry,nutritional sciences,enzimology,food products,physiological biophysics,molecular biophysics
Changing attitudes towards living natural resources in the Russian/Soviet Empire and the exchange of knowledge with Europe: an environmental history perspective (RESRUSENVHISTORY)

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: 2009-02-02
End date: 2010-03-01
Duration (months): 13.0
Total project cost (EUR): 127158.64
EU funding (EUR): 127158.64
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This interdisciplinary project aims to provide new historical knowledge about both the patterns of use of living resources in Russia and the Soviet Union, and the exchange of resource use information with Europe. Based upon methods derived from environmental history and history of science, it addresses three key objectives: to analyze changes in attitude towards living resources by different social groups and institutions in Russian/Soviet society; to throw light upon the conflict between international scientific knowledge about resources deployed by the state, and local knowledges; and to consider exchanges of knowledge about resources, their use and users at international level, especially through international exhibitions and World Fairs. The process of changing attitudes towards resources, this being a manifestation of modernization all over the world, had a particular specificity in Russia, considered one of most important factors to have shaped Russia’s distinctive development path in historical perspective. The project will enhance understanding of this specificity, as well as the analysis of knowledge exchange between Russia and Europe, which was vital to both sides but also served to underline the different contexts in which knowledges and practices evolved in the two regions. This issue has never previously been analyzed using materials from several historical periods from the formation of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 18th century to the high point of the Soviet “Empire” in the mid-20th century. The objectives of the project will be achieved through detailed studies against the rich historical context of particular historical cases, for which the archival materials and literature have already been identified.

Keywords: environmental history,natural resources,russia
Wind-driven upwelling and eddy transports in the Southern Ocean - a model intercomparison in three dimensions (WEDDEL)

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: 2008-02-15
End date: 2010-02-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 160658.97
EU funding (EUR): 160658.97
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project has the aim to study wind-driven upwelling (WDU) and eddy transports in the Southern Ocean in atmosphere-ocean global climate models (AOGCMs). This is done by conducting a model intercomparison study using the model data in the IPCC AR4/ CMIP3 database. Starting with classical diagnostics like streamfunctions and the strength of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the core of the project is to build a fully consistent three-dimensional picture of the overturning circulation in the Southern Ocean (SO), involving WDU, eddy transport, and meridional surface transports in both directions. For this purpose enhanced visualisation techniques will be used. The intercomparison will carry out data analysis on depth levels as wells as on isopycnal levels in order to study the Deacon cell. Comparison with eddy-permitting models will reveal the strengths and deficiencies of the common (bolus velocity) eddy transport parameterisation. The project might result in suggesting an improvement of this parameterization. Recent studies show the importance of the eddy-driven, highly localised southward currents, and we want to test how the models perform in representing these. The use of a reanalysis model that incorporates a comprehensive hydrographic data base serves to put the models&apos; performance to test. Most of the models to be used here do not resolve eddies, but given the extensive use of AOGCMs for global climate change simulations it is of high societal relevance to understand the models behaviour. WDU is suggested as one driver of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation that in turn is of strong climatic relevance as a potential trigger for abrupt climate change. While deep water formation processes in the North Atlantic and mixing processes in the interior ocean have been investigated in depth, the knowledge about Southern Ocean upwelling is much smaller, which calls for studies like the present one.

Keywords: physical sciences,natural sciences,physical oceanography,southern ocean,atlantic meridional overturning circulation,eddy transports,deacon cell
How do post-copulatory male-male and male-female interactions shape the evolution of mating strategies? A test using two species of squid. (SQUID-SWITCH)

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: 2008-08-01
End date: 2010-03-31
Duration (months): 20.0
Total project cost (EUR): 169957.94
EU funding (EUR): 169957.94
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The main objective of the proposed project is to investigate post-copulatory sexual selection in squid, which provide the rare potential for direct assessment under natural conditions of the interactions of male sperm competition strategy and female strategies for sperm storage and usage. Since females of many species of animals mate with multiple males, it is now widely recognized that post-copulatory male competition and female choice are pervasive evolutionary forces acting on mating strategy. Sperm traits of males, and sperm storage and usage patterns by females would be possible proximate factors responsible for sperm precedence patterns. Loliginid squid offer an excellent opportunity to examine post-copulatory male-male and male-female interactions. Male squid have adult size dimorphism, associated with alternative mating tactics, and females have two distinct sperm storage sites on their bodies, correlated with mating tactics adopted by males. Sperm in both storage sites have the potential to achieve fertilizations during the egg laying process. So the presence of alternative sperm storage sites potentially makes a clear constraint for post-mating sperm competition and cryptic female choice dynamics. In this proposed study I will investigate, in a comparison of two related squid species having different mating biology: 1) male dimorphism in sperm investment pattern; 2) function of male dimorphism (sperm allocation or morphological adaptation for female sperm storage sites); 3) level of constraint imposed on sperm competition by females (sperm storage and usage patterns); and 4) level of paternity bias among males. Results will be integrated to analyze how post-copulatory male-male and male-female interactions shape the evolution of mating strategies. The project has potential to contribute to development of conservation and management strategies for these valuable commercially exploited species, and to collaborations between EU and Japanese scientists.

Keywords: behavioural biology,animal reproduction,animal ecology,aquatic biology,sperm competition,cryptic female choice,paternity,alternative mating behaviour,microsatellite dna
“Ortega y Gasset’s Philosophy of Life and His Idea of Europe” (OGPLIE)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-1-IEF, 2007)
Start date: 2008-06-04
End date: 2010-06-03
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 207884.12
EU funding (EUR): 207884.12
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Abstract: “Ortega y Gasset’s Philosophy of Life and His Idea of Europe” The aim of the philosophical research project “Ortega y Gasset’s Philosophy of Life and His Idea of Europe” is to enable a twofold synthesis under a systematic perspective: The first stage consists in developing a philosophical notion of culture as well as a notion of cultural consciousness within an interdisciplinary bridging of Philosophy and Spanish Studies. The second stage will be marked by a shift from cultural philosophy to European Studies. Europe will be examined as a paradigmatic example of a historically growing, self-contained cultural reality with a specific mode of consciousness and awareness of life manifested in local customs. From a historical perspective the thought of José Ortega y Gasset constitutes the core of the project. José Ortega y Gasset is considered to be the most significant Spanish thinker of the twentieth century. The project aims not only to examine his work as an original conception of a philosophy of life and culture, but also to outline Ortega’s importance as a pioneer in European integration. It is my intention to combine through this project the two subjects I have studied, Philosophy and Spanish Studies, in order to improve my skills in intercultural academic dialogue. At the same time I hope to carve out a research profile in European Studies through the application of various theoretical approaches to a number of research areas, thus improving my qualifications and broadening my academic prospects throughout Europe. The internationally renowned host organisation I am working with in this research project - Instituto de Filosofia (CSIC) in Madrid – is an excellent starting point to develop this new perspective. The project “Ortega y Gasset’s Philosophy of Life and His Idea of Europe” was conceived as a contribution to the further development of a European identity and consciousness and a significant bridge between German and Spanish European research.

Keywords: humanities,philosophy,philosophy of life,philosophy of culture,european studies,ortega y gasset and his idea of europe