Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Network Multiple-Input Multiple-Output for Advanced Wireless Systems (NETMIMO)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-3-IRG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-04-01
End date: 2012-03-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Over the last two decades, the progressive introduction of advanced techniques (forward error correction, power control, link adaptation, incremental redundancy, etc) and the massive increases in processing power have taken wireless cellular systems to the point where links are operating close to their capacity and frequency reuse patterns are becoming universal. At this juncture, cellular systems have become limited, first and foremost, by their own interference. It is becoming increasingly clear that major new improvements in spectral efficiency will have to entail addressing such intercell interference. Traditionally, a user is assigned to a cell and it then communicates with that cell site while causing interference to all other sites in the system. The premise of NetMIMO is that, in the uplink specifically, intercell interference is merely a superposition of signals that were intended for other cell sites, i.e., signals that happen to have been collected at the wrong place. If these signals could be properly classified and routed, they would in fact cease to be interference and become useful in the detection of the information they bear. (A dual observation can be made about the downlink.) This insight naturally leads to the conclusion that, ultimately, the goal should be to serve all users through all the sites within their range of influence. While challenging, this is theoretically possible by virtue of the fact that the cell sites are connected by a powerful backbone network. This ambitious idea leverages the almost unlimited bandwidth available in optical wireline networks to transcend the burden of wireless intercell interference. In the NetMIMO framework then, the notion of a cell gets blurred once users are no longer assigned to specific sites. Ultimately, there is a network of sites serving a pool of users. While this is a conceptually simple proposition, it poses numerous hurdles and challenges that this project aims to resolve.

Keywords: electrical engineering,telecommunications,information systems,wireless communications,communication theory,mobile systems,cellular systems,signal processing,networking
Spectra, Fredholm Properties and Stable Approximation of Infinite Matrices (INFINITEMATRICES)

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: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-2-ERG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-03-01
End date: 2011-02-28
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 45000.0
EU funding (EUR): 45000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of this project is the study of certain properties of concrete classes of infinite matrices understood as linear operators on vector-valued sequence spaces. The properties under consideration include Fredholmness, invertibility and stable approximation of the infinite matrix at hand. The classes of matrices studied range from the most general setting of the set of all matrices with operator entries, bounded diagonals and a certain off-diagonal decay to more specific classes with entries of a simpler type (e.g. complex numbers) and particular diagonal structure (e.g. almost periodic, random, slowly oscillating, etc.) and off-diagonal decay behaviour (e.g. absolutely summable decay, banded matrices, Jacobi matrices, etc.). Operators of those types and the question about the mentioned properties are ubiquitous in mathematics and physics. Prominent examples are Schrödinger operators arising in quantum physics or integral operators from wave scattering problems. The objectives of the proposal are to develop a theory of invertibility and Fredholm properties for various practically relevant classes of such matrices and to find efficient numerical methods for the approximate solution of the related equations.

Keywords: functional analysis,numerical analysis
Theory and phenomenology of the heavy ion collision program at the LHC (HIC-LHC-2008)

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-2007-2-2-ERG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-03-01
End date: 2011-02-28
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 45000.0
EU funding (EUR): 45000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The discovery potential of the Large Hadron Collider and, in particular, its heavy-ion program, will be largely conditioned by the existence of strong theoretical groups able to interpret the experimental findings. We present a project on QCD under extreme conditions with the clear aim to provide the necessary tools to understand the LHC data.The kinematical reach of the LHC increases by more than one order of magnitude in virtuality and more than two in fraction of momentum x present ones at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. In these conditions, new regimes of QCD will be probed for the first time, providing unprecedented possibilities for the characterization of the produced medium. We intend an extensive study of jets in heavy-ion collisions, including the essential improvements on the description of the in-medium shower evolution as well as the hydrodynamical description of the medium. One of the priorities of the project is the study of nuclear parton distribution functions, both with linear and non-linear evolution equations, with special emphasis on the development of a global fit for practical applications. An important part of the project is devoted to the relation between the findings in heavy-ion collisions and string theory. Although still speculative, several string theory computations related with heavy-ion observables have been recently proposed.

Keywords: nuclear physics,quantum field theory
Searching Protein Structure Space (SPSS)

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-2007-4-3-IRG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-05-01
End date: 2012-11-13
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Finding the structural neighbors of a protein is an essential task in computational structural Biology. In cases where there is no detectable sequence similarity, the identification of structural neighbors offers a powerful approach to predicting structure and function. State-of-the-art protein structural searches find structural neighbors by comparing a protein to all proteins in their database. As this is an expensive computation that depends directly on the size of the database, such searches consider only a representative subset of the Protein Data Bank (PDB). The PDB is growing dramatically to include many structures of uncharacterized function solved by high-throughput methods developed by the Structural Genomics (SG) initiative. Characterizing these structures, and addressing questions raised by the improved coverage of structure space, mandates better structure search tools. I propose to develop a search tool for protein structure space that is analogous to web search tools such as Google. The system is designed to be fast and interactive, to cover the whole data set, and to have a clear and simple interface so that it can serve as a navigation interface to structure space. For this, I propose adapting a data structure called an inverted index, which is used for fast retrieval in web search. Protein structures are described as strings of letter strings based on a structural alphabet, and placed in an inverted index. Then, given a query structure and its string description, one can quickly retrieve a short list of candidate structural neighbors. Similar to web search, I suggest using query expansion to improve the retrieval performance. The proposal also includes an application of structural search for comparing the structural novelty of contributions from different SG centers. This project will enable me to establish a new Computational Biology research team at my host institution: it preeminently fulfills the goals of the Work Program.

Keywords: search engine for pdb,evaluation of structural novelty of sg proteins,protein structural alphabets application,inverted index for protein structures,query expansion for protein structure
Structural and functional studies of eukaryotic and prokaryotic topoisomerases and their complexes with molecules of therapeutical interest. (TOPCANBIOX)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-3-IRG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-05-01
End date: 2012-04-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Type II DNA topoisomerases (topoII) control DNA topology during replication, transcription and chromosome segregation. Essential for cell proliferation, topoII are targets of antibacterial and antineoplasic compounds of prime importance for human health. The emergence of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains and the selection of resistance clones during cancer treatment urge for the development of new drugs and for a better understanding of their mode of action. This proposal aims at the functional and structural study of eukaryotic and prokaryotic DNA topoisomerases to provide knowledge on their mechanisms and on drug interference. Structural research in the field is to date limited to individual domains which do not recapitulate the enzymatic functions. Solving the atomic structure of a full length topoII is key to understand their mechanism and the molecular basis for inhibition by drugs binding at domain interfaces. Our primary goal is to conduct structural studies on a full length bacterial topoII, DNA gyrase, in complex with molecules of therapeutic interest such as the leading quinolone antibiotic family. The success of our project is bound to our ability to stabilize a defined conformation of the enzyme. The human topoII shares high sequence conservation and a similar structural organization with the bacterial enzyme. It is a biomarker for cancer and a key chemotherapy target for anti-tumour drugs such as the etoposides. Results obtained on DNA gyrase will provide valuable information to study the structure of human topoII, its drug binding mechanisms, and the effect of mutations found in resistant tumors. Finally, we plan to investigate the role of topoII in a more integrated context and in particular its interactions with the transcriptional apparatus. A combination of X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, and other biophysical methods will be used for structure determination in conjunction with functional assays and clinical studies.

Keywords: topoisomerases,cancer research,antibiotics,structural biology,integrative biology
The interaction of Lassa virus with its cellular receptor alpha-dystroglycan (LASSA VIRUS RECEPTOR)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-3-IRG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-03-01
End date: 2012-02-29
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The arenavirus Lassa fever virus (LFV) causes a severe viral hemorrhagic fever in humans with over 300, 000 infections and thousands of deaths annually. Fatal LFV infection is characterized by marked immunosuppression of the patient, resulting in uncontrolled viral infection with progressive hemorrhagic disease and shock. Since death occurs in absence of a significant anti-viral immune response, the fatal disease is caused by virus-induced changes in host cell function, rather than immunopathology. The analysis of the virus-host cell interaction is therefore of great importance to understand this disease and to develop novel therapeutic strategies. Binding of a virus to its cellular receptor(s) is not only the first step of virus infection but represents also a promising target for therapeutic intervention. The cellular receptor of LFV is alpha-dystroglycan (alpha-DG), an important cell surface receptor for proteins of the extracellular matrix (ECM). Based on the pivotal importance of alpha-DG for normal host cell biology, the interaction of LFV with its receptor is of particular interest regarding virus-cell interaction and viral pathogenesis. Using a combination of biochemical and cell biological techniques we will investigate the role of the virus-receptor interaction for infection and viral pathogenesis. Since alpha-DG is involved in cellular signal transduction, we will investigate the impact of virus binding on receptor-mediated signaling in the host cell. In a next step, we will address the role of virus-induced receptor signaling for virus infection and its consequences for the host cell. Our recent studies showed that expression of the envelope glycoprotein (GP) of LFV in cells results in down-regulation of functional alpha-DG. In the present project, we will investigate the impact of this “virus-receptor interference” on the function of vascular endothelial cells, which play a key role in the pathogenesis of Lassa hemorrhagic fever.

Keywords: virology,virus,emerging disease,hemorrhagic fever
Unraveling the mechanisms of odor coding and sent-tracking in Drosophila larvae (MNEMOSMELL)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-3-IRG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-09-01
End date: 2012-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

To survive and prosper, any motile organism must extract relevant cues from its external environment and convert them into coherent internal representations. Responses elicited by the flow of internal representations form the basis of adaptive behaviours. The overall goal of this project is to elucidate how olfactory signalling and behavioural decisions emerge from the integration of molecular and cellular interactions. Despite the relatively good anatomical characterisation of insect and vertebrate olfactory systems, little is known about the neural basis of odour percept formation and their processing in the brain. We will address this problem in the simple and genetically tractable system of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) larva. An odorant stimulus can be specified by three variables: odour quality, odour intensity and time of occurrence. To chemotax, larvae are able to reliably perceive and integrate changes relative to these variables by using noisy detectors. We aim at identifying and functionally characterising the peripheral and central neuronal circuits involved in larval chemotaxis. A cross-disciplinary approach will be adopted to combine the power of fly molecular genetics, state-of-the-art engineering, electrophysiology and computational modelling to determine: how odour intensity is represented by the peripheral sensory neurons; where intensities measured at different times are stored and subsequently compared and whether the design principles of the larval olfactory system allow noise filtering. Clarifying how an elementary nervous system solves these fundamental questions will increasing our understanding of the relationships between neuronal circuits in the brain and behaviour.

Keywords: natural sciences,systems neuroscience,olfaction,brain,behavior,chemotaxis,working memories,computational modelling
Higher plant photosynthesis: Identification of the chlorophyll fluorescence quencher (HIGH-IQ)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-2-ERG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-09-27
End date: 2011-09-26
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 45000.0
EU funding (EUR): 45000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Photosynthesis is the process that converts energy from sun light into utilizable high-energy metabolites such as ATP and NADPH which can be used by biological organisms to fulfil their physiological functions. The process is very important, because it directly or indirectly provides energy, organic matter and molecular oxygen to sustain nearly all life on Earth. Without photosynthesis the world would not be green, our atmosphere would not contain oxygen, respiration would not be possible, so life would not be present. When plants are exposed to light intensities in excess of those that can be utilized in photosynthetic electron transport, the efficient light-harvesting antenna found in the chloroplast membranes of plants is rapidly and reversibly switched into a photoprotected quenched state in which potentially harmful absorbed energy is dissipated as heat, a process measured as the non-photochemical quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence or qE. Although the biological significance of qE is established, the molecular mechanisms involved have not. LHCII, the main light-harvesting complex, has an inbuilt capability to undergo transformation into a dissipative state by conformational change and it was suggested that this provides a molecular basis for qE, but it is not known if such events occur in vivo or how energy is dissipated in this state. This project will develop this study of the origins of these molecular mechanisms using a wide range of state-of- the-art spectroscopic techniques including femstosecond spectroscopy, single molecule spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. A series of proteins with different pigment composition will be isolated and purified based on well developed biochemical protocols. In order to relate this to the physiological environment a parallel series of studies will be developed on intact chloroplasts and whole leaves

Keywords: structural biology,plant biochemistry,molecular biophysics,spectroscopy,natural sciences
Invasive predator control: response of American mink to eradication in relation to farm distribution (MINKCONTROL)

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: Poland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-2-ERG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-04-01
End date: 2011-03-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 45000.0
EU funding (EUR): 45000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The objective of this project is to develop empirically testable predictions that can advance both shared predation theory and its application to biological control. The introduction of alien species into some areas has had a devastating impact on native biodiversity as they cause fundamental changes in ecosystems. Often eradication is impossible; however, it is necessary to control alien species in order to preserve the native species. In many European countries a catastrophic decrease in native prey numbers has been observed after American mink invasion. The proposed investigation will test hypotheses central to the pressing issue of the control of invading alien species. Our hypothesis considers reducing the magnitude and spatial scale of mink encroachment to national parks in order to protect water bird communities. The main goal of this project is to re-create and maintain areas where bird populations can survive in protected refuges on the basis of metapopulation and population dynamic theory. We will investigate the influences of density and demographic parameters of American mink population on mink dispersal into the National Park in relation to mink farm distribution and the effect culling operations in reducing mink compensatory response. The present project will also determine whether culling operations that are being implemented in Polish national parks have any impact on the population dynamics of mink. We will combine field surveys and non-invasive mink genotyping with an analysis of trapping records, sex- and age-structure models, and reproductive status of mink carcasses collected from culling operations in four Polish national parks situated in areas with and without mink farms. The main project output will be the establishment of efficient management strategies for birds affected by alien species, which can also be applied in other areas with similar problems.

Keywords: applied ecology,nature conservation,invasion