Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Determining the system parameters of low mass X-ray binaries (X-RAY BINARIES)

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-ERG-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-03-16
End date: 2012-03-15
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 45000.0
EU funding (EUR): 45000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Low mass X-ray binaries are two gravitationally bound stars where the secondary is a normal solar type like star and the primary a compact object, i.e. a black hole or neutron star. Matter is transferred from the secondary, thereby forming an accretion disk around the compact object that gives rise to the X-rays. These systems are excellent laboratories to test several theories, including stellar evolution, theory of accretion and the theory of relativity. However, accurate measurements of the masses of the two components in these binaries are necessary to test these theories, and that has been complicated since the secondary is many magnitudes fainter than the accretion disk around the compact object. We propose a new technique to measure the masses more accurately than has been possible thus far. Recent observations have shown that a signature of the secondary is present in certain fluorescence lines, in particular the Bowen fluorescence lines around 4640 Angstroms. Furthermore, the observed optical emission is mainly due to reprocessing of the X-rays, and any variability observed in the X-rays should also be present in the optical, but delayed with a few seconds depending on the reprocessing time and distance of the optical site compared to that of the X-rays. Simultaneous high temporal X-ray and optical observations, either narrow band photometry or spectroscopy, should be able to measure the delay in the fluorescence lines coming from the donor, and thereby constrain the system parameters of low mass X-ray binaries. For the optical observations however, large 10 m class telescopes with high timing capabilities will be necessary, and these will become available early 2009 in the form of GranteCan. Here we ask for the grant to have minor adjustments to the instrumentation on this telescope that will be necessary to perform the science proposed.

Keywords: physical sciences,astronomy,astrophysics
Computability with Partial Information (COMPARIN)

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: Bulgaria
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-ERG-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-04-01
End date: 2012-03-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 45000.0
EU funding (EUR): 45000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The objective of this proposal is to reintegrate the fellow in her home institution within a scientifically advanced research project. The scientific goal is to employ a new methodological approach to the study of an extension of the Turing information content model. This approach arises from a notion of uniform reducibility, introduced and studied by researchers in the host institution and is expected to provide the fellow with a novel powerful tool for attacking longstanding problems regarding definability, theory strength and the automorphism properties of the structure of the Turing degrees and its extensions. The fellow will be hired on a long-term contract with full social coverage initially at the second level of assistant professor. She will be supervised by internationally acknowledged researchers in the field and will be further trained to improve her research, teaching and leadership skills. The fellowship will aid her in establishing herself as an independent researcher and she is expected to reach the level of associate professor towards the end of the three-year reintegration period. The benefit of the proposed fellowship is both scientific, with expected strong impact on the development of computability theory, and at community level, helping the EU to withstand brain-drain, ageing-related problems as well as the problem related to the lack of women researchers in exact sciences by preserving SU, FMI as one of the leading European centers in mathematical logic.

Keywords: natural sciences,mathematics,logic,computability theory,degree theory,turing reducibility,enumeration reducibility,omega-enumeration reducibility,priority method
WATER SPLITTING CATALYSTS FOR ARTIFICIAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS (H2OSPLIT)

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-IRG-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-05-01
End date: 2013-04-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Artificial photosynthesis is one of the most promising methods for the direct conversion of solar energy into renewable chemical fuels. The process involves splitting water by creating spatially separated electron-hole pairs, which then control the redox semi-reactions leading to evolution of molecular hydrogen and oxygen. This project aims at providing an electronic and structural characterization of novel highly-efficient catalysts for water oxidation, as well as at identifying the fundamental reaction mechanisms underlying their function and efficiency. To this end, we will use state-of-the-art first-principles numerical modeling based on density functional theory. In particular, we will focus on inorganic ruthenium-containing polyoxometalate homogeneous catalysts that have been recently synthesized and that displayed unprecedented reactivity and stability in solution. Very little is known about the fundamental electronic and structural properties of this novel class of materials. Besides a full characterization, this project will provide insight into the water/catalyst interaction, the electronic processes controlling the charge state of the active metal centers, and the mechanism of water oxidation. This study of structure and functions will allow us to identify correlations between the catalytic activity, the atomistic environment and the electronic structure, thus proposing guidelines for a predictive tailoring of inorganic water-splitting catalysts. During the reintegration period, the researcher will be hosted in the theory group of the ELETTRA synchrotron radiation facility where a joint theoretical and experimental multidisciplinary project is currently being set up. This unique scientific environment will give him the opportunity to become a leading figure in the field of artificial photosynthesis for energy applications.

Keywords: computational chemistry,homogeneous catalysis,solar chemistry
Plastic Optical Fibre Gamma Radiation Dosimeter (POFGARD)

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: Ireland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-ERG-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-05-01
End date: 2012-04-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 45000.0
EU funding (EUR): 45000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

POFGaRD investigates the use of polymer optical fibres at low radiation doses and will embrace the experiences of the researcher, the host university and the numerous collaborating partners, to formulate a method and fabricate a sensor which is capable of on-line monitoring of gamma radiation dose for a wide range of doses (5Gy to 100KGy) and therefore many potential application areas. POFGaRD is primarily concerned with the development of the dosimeter with the application as an in vivo monitor of gamma radiation, during radiotherapy of lung cancer patients, based on phantom models. The project will characterise PMMA based plastic optical fibres on exposure to low doses of gamma radiation, examining the response and will also address reliability and repeatability issues. Once it has been correctly calibrated as a low dose gamma dosimeter it will then be applied to phantom lung models at MD Anderson Research Centre in Orlando to determine their suitability as radiotherapy dosimeters in lung cancer patients. It will also be used to verify dynamic lung models developed by the Optical Diagnostic and Applications Laboratory at the University of Central Florida. POFGaRD will also contribute to the FP7 INFRA project which is concerned with the development of novel optical fibre based sensors for the real-time identification of radiation exposure for emergency first responders. POFGaRD will also investigate an extension of the above methods to provide a real-time distributed optical fibre low dose gamma dosimeter. This work will be done in collaboration with City University in London and is aimed at providing spatially resolved gamma dosimetry system on a single fibre loop with mm resolution.

Keywords: optical fibres,pmma,gamma radiation,dosimeter,sensor
The impact of bone-marrow derived cells on tumor growth and metastasis after cytotoxic anti-cancer drug treatment (BMDCS IN CANCER)

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-IRG-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-04-01
End date: 2013-03-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

One of the more important recent developments in clinical oncology has been the approval of antiangiogenic drugs for the treatment of various types of cancer. We have found that these drugs not only act locally to inhibit the formation of new blood vessel capillaries in tumors, but also systemically by targeting bone marrow-derived endothelial precursor cells (CEPs). It has been suggested that other bone marrow-derived cell (BMDC) types contribute to tumor angiogenesis and growth by either directly incorporating to the vessel lumen or by residing at preivascular site - promoting angiogenesis by unknown paracrine mechanisms. With respect to CEPs, there is an ongoing controversy about their relative contribution to tumor blood vessel formation, in large due to a number of studies which reported low or even no detectable incorporation of such cells to the lumen of tumor blood vessel capillaries. We have recently shown that there are circumstances, namely, after acute cytotoxic drug therapy using vascular disrupting agents, or chemotherapy drugs including pactliaxel, 5-flourouracil, and docetaxel, where levels of CEPs are acutely mobilized from the bone-marrow niche, and subsequently colonize the drug-treated tumors, where they can make a significant contribution to tumor re-growth. These observations suggest a new perspective as for the role of CEPs in tumor angiogenesis and growth. Here, we propose to evaluate the contribution of different BMDC types to tumor angiogenesis and growth, and their contribution to metastasis seeding after treatment with cytotoxic anti-cancer drug therapies. In addition we will identify the various host factors and cytokines which promote BMDC mobilization and tumor homing. A major emphasis will be placed on new treatment strategies that can inhibit the host bone-marrow responses which contribute to tumor cell repopulation and metastasis, and as such the results could reveal new combinatorial promising treatment modalities for cancer.

Keywords: health sciences,cancer research,angiogenesis,bone marrow derived circulating endothelial cells
Biophysical Aspects of Actin-Based Motility- An Integrative Whole-Cell Analysis (MOTILECELLBIOPHYSICS)

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-IRG-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-10-01
End date: 2013-09-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Cell motility is a fascinating dynamic process crucial for a wide variety of biological phenomena including defense against injury or infection, embryogenesis and cancer metastasis. A spatially extended, self-organized, mechanochemical machine consisting of numerous actin polymers, accessory proteins and molecular motors drives this process. This impressive assembly self-organizes over several orders of magnitude in both the temporal and spatial domains bridging from the fast dynamics of individual molecular-sized building blocks to the persistent motion of whole cells over minutes and hours. The molecular players involved in the process and the basic biochemical mechanisms are largely known. However, the principles governing the assembly of the motility apparatus, which involve an intricate interplay between biophysical processes and biochemical reactions, are still poorly understood. The proposed research is focused on investigating the biophysical aspects of the self-organization processes underlying cell motility and trying to adapt these processes to instill motility in artificial cells. Important biophysical characteristics of moving cells such as the intracellular fluid flow and membrane tension will be measured and their effect on the motility process will be examined, using fish epithelial keratocytes as a model system. The dynamics of the system will be further investigated by quantitatively analyzing the morphological and kinematic variation displayed by a population of cells and by an individual cell through time. Such measurements will feed into and direct the development of quantitative theoretical models. In parallel, I will work toward the development of a synthetic physical model system for cell motility by encapsulating the actin machinery in a cell-sized compartment. This synthetic system will allow cell motility to be studied in a simplified and controlled environment, detached from the complexity of the living cell.

Keywords: biophysics,cell biology,biological self-organization,actin-based cell motility
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Smoking Cessation (PTSD AND SMOKING)

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-IRG-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-11-01
End date: 2013-10-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The objectives of the proposed study are to test whether smokers with PTSD lapse early to smoking and relapse to smoking at significantly higher rates than smokers without PTSD; and to elucidate the explanatory mediating mechanism(s) underlying the relations between PTSD and poor smoking cessation outcomes. To achieve these objectives, the proposed investigation employs a prospective design that follows a sample of 84 smokers (42 with PTSD and 42 without PTSD) for three months as they attempt to quit smoking on their own. Prior to initiating the cessation attempt, subjects will be scheduled to visit the laboratory after not smoking for a 12-hour experimental abstinence period (i.e., laboratory analogue of the early cessation attempt that is to follow). During this smoking deprivation session, subjects will complete a physical stress challenge procedure (voluntary hyperventilation). Affective processes theorized to mediate the link between PTSD and poor smoking cessation outcomes will be measured within this laboratory procedure using multi-method (subjective, physiological, and behavioral) indices. Then, one-week later, beginning on quit day and continuing at regular intervals until twelve weeks after the quit date, subjects will be prospectively evaluated within the lab to biochemically verify smoking status as well as assess smoking outcomes, affective symptoms, and withdrawal symptoms. In addition, for the initial 14 days of the cessation attempt, Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMA) will be used to prospectively measure smoking outcomes, affective symptoms, and withdrawal symptoms outside of the laboratory and within the subjects’ daily environment. The prospective laboratory assessment and EMA data will facilitate measurement of smoking cessation outcomes and the affective processes theorized to mediate the association between PTSD and those smoking outcomes.

Keywords: posttraumatic stress disorder,cigarette smoking,smoking cessation,experimental psychopathology,longitudinal
The molecular mechanisms of axon re-extension following developmental axon pruning (AXON RE-EXTENSION)

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-IRG-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2010-01-01
End date: 2013-12-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Lack of neuronal regeneration following injury such as spinal cord injury is the major cause for poor functional recovery. It has long been appreciated that young neurons can grow, undergo reorganization and synapse on appropriate targets during development while adult neurons cannot, however the molecular basis of these differences remain unclear. Studying the molecular mechanisms that regulate axon re-extension following remodeling during development holds the promise to uncover molecular rules underlying this phenomena and are therefore of great potential. A model system that allows a unique molecular exploration of axon re-extension is that of axon pruning in Drosophila. Pruning is a process in which neurons first extend excessive branches, later prune away inappropriate ones with precise spatial and temporal control and, at least in the some cases, re-extend their axons to form mature connections. Pruning was found to essential for sculpting the mature nervous systems of vertebrates and invertebrates. During my post-doctoral studies, I performed a mosaic screen and identified a mutant exhibiting normal pruning but lacking the stereotypical axon re-extension that follows. Remarkably, other neurons, belonging to the mutant clone but which do not undergo pruning, extend their axons normally at the same developmental time, indicating that the mutation selectively affected axon re-extension following pruning but not axon extension per se. This novel finding suggests that there is molecular switch dedicated to changing the growing status of a neuron. The causal gene was mapped to an uncharacterized steroid hormone receptor, HR51. Here, I propose to characterize the role of HR51 in axon re-extension as well as identify its ligand. In addition I propose to perform a suppressor screen directed at identifying additional molecules involved in axon re-extension. Taken together, these three aims should provide insight into the molecular mechanisms of axon re-extension.

Keywords: developmental biology,neurobiology,cell biology
BIOgeochemical cycling of iron in FreshwatER sediments under oxic and anoxic conditions (BIOFER)

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-ERG-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-04-01
End date: 2011-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 30000.0
EU funding (EUR): 30000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Iron constitutes one of the most abundant elements in the earth crust, and the second most abundant element that is redox-active in the near-surface aqueous environments. Although, it has long been recognised that microorganisms participate in the global iron cycle, the interconnection between biotic and abiotic reduction and oxidation processes in an ecosystem has not yet been demonstrated. This research proposal deals with the functioning of the iron biogeochemical cycle in a freshwater ecosystem that is influenced by biotic activity coupled with purely chemical processes. A complete description of the physicochemical parameters and redox gradients in the littoral sediment of Lake Constance will be performed. As a second step a modelling approach based on these field data is proposed, in order to simulate the variations in the energetical budget available to abundant microbes and their competition with the abiotic reaction processes throughout the entire iron cycle. The presented project is expected to provide important information for environmental and ecological studies, as well as engineering projects in the field of waste- or polluted natural water treatment.

Keywords: biogeochemistry,geomicrobiology,iron cycle,chemoautotrophy,photoautotrophy,iron oxides
Genetic and epigenetic basis of adaptation to climate change (GEBACC)

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-IRG-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-10-01
End date: 2014-01-23
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In the face of worldwide environmental damage, we need to determine the sources of phenotypic variation in natural populations to better estimate the ecological and evolutionary response of organisms to environmental threats. Here I propose to explore the molecular architecture underlying a fitness-related trait that is sensitive to environmental conditions in a wild frog. Amphibians are particularly responsive to environmental fluctuations and are undergoing worldwide decline as a result of climate change. Traits related to fitness, such as locomotor performance and the underlying muscle architecture, physiology and gene expression, are influenced by temperature in this taxa. I will identify the molecular mechanisms underlying muscle plasticity and adaptation to temperature in Xenopus tropicalis, an aquatic frog which serves as a model system in developmental biology and genetics. Specifically, I will selectively breed frogs over several generations under different thermal regimes. Some individuals will also be exposed to an additional stress (hypoxia) to evaluate the effects of tradeoffs and traits correlations on responses to selection. I will monitor the genetic changes in coding and cis-regulatory sequences of candidate loci, as well as epigenetic processes (DNA methylation and miRNA production) affecting the expression patterns of those genes. Additionally, I will perform whole-genome analyses (oligoarrays and sequencing-by-synthesis approaches) combined with quantitative genetic approaches (QTL analyses) to identify novel genes, gene pathways and epigenetic processes underlying the response to selection. Finally, in conjunction with collaborators, we will examine the biochemical, physiological and morphological (musculoskeletal) alterations associated with the response. Such a highly integrative and multidisciplinary project is crucial to understand the intricacies of molecular and phenotypic responses of natural populations to environmental perturbations.

Keywords: evolutionary biology,global change adaptation strategies (climate change),selective breeding,ecological genetics,genomics,epigenetics,quantitative genetics,candidate genes,genome wide variation