Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
The role of visual cues in speech segmentation and the acquisition of word order: a study of monolingual and bilingual adults and infants (VISCUESACQWO)

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-2013-IOF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-06-01
End date: 2017-05-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 258088.5
EU funding (EUR): 258088.5
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Adults and infants make use of both auditory and visual information in speech perception. The available visual cues include oral-articulatory movements (e.g., lip movements), as well as non-verbal gestures (e.g., head-movements). The present project seeks to investigate the role of visual cues as an aid for auditory prosody in speech segmentation and in bootstrapping syntactic development, topic that remains as yet unexplored. The present project focuses on a type of prosodic information, i.e., the acoustic realization of phrasal prominence, which has been proposed to potentially allow prelexical infants bootstrap the basic word order of the target language, a major syntactic property of natural languages. Phrasal prominence correlates systematically with word order, i.e., it is realized by means of pitch changes in OV languages, and changes in duration in VO languages. The series of experiments here presented aim to: (i) identify and measure the visual cues—facial gestures—that potentially accompany the prosodic cues—changes in pitch and duration—correlated with word order differences, and (ii) examine whether visual cues modulate or determine the segmentation preferences of adult and infant monolinguals and bilinguals of an unknown language that additionally contains prosodic cues. In a series of artificial language learning experiments participants will be familiarized with artificial languages that contain either matching or mismatching auditory and visual cues—which will displayed by means of a computer-animated avatar—and will be subsequently tested on their segmentation preferences. This research will advance our understanding of the role of visual facial information in speech processing, as well as of the cognitive mechanisms involved in the acquisition of syntax.

Keywords: visual cues,facial gestures,speech segmentation,language acquisition,word order,bilingualism,prosody,artificial languages
Afforestation management in Mediterranean mountain areas: Evaluating the environmental consequences (MED-AFFOREST)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 175974.6
EU funding (EUR): 175974.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Human-induced afforestation has been one of the main policies for environmental management of forest landscapes in Mediterranean areas. Over the last decades, several studies have reviewed the impact of forests on soil properties, SOC dynamics and their geomorphological and hydrological response, although few of them have intensively studied the most relevant pedological and hydromorphological consequences of afforestation, particularly in the Mediterranean mountain areas. However, during the last century, extensive afforestation was conducted by national forest services all over the Mediterranean Region, causing a sudden change in land cover. Consequently, afforestation practices may have had significant effects on a variety of environmental aspects such as landscape structure, soil properties and water and sediment yield. To address this problem, an interdisciplinary approach is proposed for understanding the global effect of afforestation on landscape structure, soil properties and carbon sequestration, and hydrological and geomorphological dynamics. This objective includes a comparison with the consequences of naturally revegetated areas (shrubs and forests) using different experimental areas in Mediterranean mountain areas. The project deals with the urgent need to implement recommendations on afforestation management, proposing a new guideline for optimized afforestation scenarios in relation to water resources and carbon sequestration, including practices for local afforestation in relation to management and strategies for regional afforestation polices.

Keywords: afforestation,mediterranean,hydrology,soil organic carbon,connectivity,land use changes,landscape analysis,geomorphology,mountain areas
Solar Fuel Chemistry: Design and Development of Novel Earth-abundant Metal complexes for the Photocatalytic Reduction of Carbon Dioxide (CO2SF)

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-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2016-02-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 299558.4
EU funding (EUR): 299558.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The world's demand for energy is increasing and is expected to double in the next 50 years. To meet the energy demand, sustainable carbon-neutral energy sources must be exploited. Solar energy is a greatly underutilized sustainable resource. New large-scale, sustainable energy technologies are required to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels and to decrease the anthropogenic production of greenhouse gases. Technologies for the capture, conversion and storage of solar energy, specifically in the form of chemical bonds, will allow us to develop carbon-neutral energy sources.The design and development of CO2 reduction photocatalysts using Earth abundant metals is described. Our targets include the synthesis of ligands capable of absorbing light in the ultraviolet and visible range and coordination of these ligands to earth abundant metal centres, such as Fe, Ni, Mo and W. Photocatalytic testing will be carried out towards the reduction of CO2 to CO. Subsequent modification of the ligands to incorporate a phosphonate tether will allow grafting of the newly designed catalysts to semi-conducting electrode materials. Catalysis will then be carried out in a heterogeneous fashion in aqueous solution rather than in organic solvents. This will make use of water, the world's most abundant proton source for sustainable CO2 reduction. This cathodic half-cell will then be combined with a water-oxidizing anode to form an overall photoelectrochemical cell which will make syngas (H2 and CO) from water and sunlight.

Keywords: organometallic synthesis,co2 reduction,electrocatalysis,photocatalysis,ligand design,solar fuel
The Impact of Breastfeeding on Children’s Cognitive and Non-cognitive Development: One Step Closer to Addressing the Notion of Causality (INNODEVELOPMENT)

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: Ireland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-02-02
End date: 2017-02-01
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183504.6
EU funding (EUR): 183504.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The World Health Organization and the Department of Health and Children in Ireland have put forth recommendations for exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months following birth, and non-exclusive breastfeeding up to two years of age to promote the healthy growth and development of infants. The rates of breastfeeding in the first 48 hours postpartum in Ireland are among the lowest across all European countries and have been reported by the National Perinatal statistics between 36% and 45%. This raises significant concerns as the polyunsaturated fatty acids in addition to docosahexaenoic acid found in breast milk have been argued to be related to children’s cognitive development later in life. However, there is still large debate as to whether breastfeeding is casually related to increased cognitive development and little is known about the relationship between breastfeeding and language and non-cognitive development such as children’s behaviour problems. Causality is a challenging concept to assess without the use of experimental designs yet randomization into breastfeeding versus non-breastfeeding groups raises ethical concerns. The current project utilizes data collected from the Growing Up in Ireland study, comprised of two cohorts of children (over 19,000 participants) from 9-months to 13 years of age using of state-of-the-art statistical techniques (propensity score matching) to better asses the notion of causality. The first aim will assess potential causal pathways of breastfeeding on children's cognitive, language, and behavioural development longitudinally up to 13 years of age. Second, we will compare the effects of this relationship for low-birth weight and normal babies. Third, using generalized additive models which do not impose an assumption of linearity, we seek to examine the effect of dose-response of breastfeeding on child outcomes. The final aim is untangle the impact of income, education, and occupation on maternal breastfeeding choices.

Keywords: breastfeeding,low-birth weight babies,child development,cognition,language development,behavioural development,epidemiology,longitudinal
Predicting responses to climate warming of freshwater communities in temperate regions (CLIMACOMM)

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-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Predicting, preventing and ameliorating the adverse consequences of climate change are key targets in the ‘EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020’. It requires knowledge on how species, communities and ecosystems are likely to respond to warming conditions of at least 2oC. Studies to date have, however, primarily focused only on predicting species’ responses to warming. Yet species’ responses to warming will be strongly connected to the responses of other species and communities at the same or adjacent trophic levels. Thus, there is a major research and policy knowledge gap in Europe on how species’ responses to warming will propagate through to community and ecosystem level impacts. This project will fill this gap by predicting the responses to warming at both the species and community levels and then identify their consequences for ecosystem functioning. Temperate freshwaters are the model system for the project as they host rich biodiversity and are sensitive to subtle changes in temperature. Whilst the main research objective is to test the implications of warming within experimental ponds where the highest trophic levels are occupied by fish, the initial three objectives are crucial in providing underpinning knowledge to assist interpretation of the experimental outputs. The research is well suited to a Marie Curie Fellowship due to its novelty and state-of-the-art approaches, the applicant is a strong match to the project through her existing research competencies and training requirements, and the supervisory team at Bournemouth University (BU) has high research expertise in assessing climatic effects on biodiversity and freshwater communities, and also in hosting MC Fellows. They will benefit in hosting the MC Fellow through the reciprocal transfer of knowledge derived through the research that will contribute to increasing European research competitiveness.

Keywords: climate change,warming,freshwater,fish,distribution,life-history,growth,community,interspecific interactions,foodweb,ecosystem functioning,stable isotopes,modelling,climate envelope
Interactions between nitrogen-fixers (diazotrophs) and dissolved organic matter in the ocean (DIADOM)

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-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2016-02-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 194046.6
EU funding (EUR): 194046.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Primary production in the oceans is strongly limited by the availability of fixed nitrogen. In open ocean nutrient-impoverished areas, which make up ~50% of the global ocean surface, nitrogen is mainly provided through the process of biological atmospheric nitrogen (N2) fixation. N2 fixation is carried out by the so termed diazotrophs, marine microorganisms that may belong to the cyanobacteria, bacteria or archaea. For many years, autotrophic diazotrophs were thought to be the most abundant diazotrophs in the ocean. Autotrophic diazotrophs need light to fix carbon dioxide via photosynthesis, and therefore are constrained to the sunlit layer of the ocean, which is generally less than 100 m deep. Recent investigations have revealed that heterotrophic diazotrophs, which cannot photosynthesize, are present in greater abundance than autotrophic diazotrophs in the world’s oceans. Heterotrophic diazotrophs are not constrained by the availability of light and therefore are able to live in the dark ocean, the largest and less studied habitat on Earth. This discovery significantly expands the boundaries where N2 fixation was though to be possible and theoretically increases the inputs of fixed nitrogen to the ocean, which remain unaccounted for. Because they are not photosynthetic, heterotrophic diazotrophs need an external source of dissolved organic matter (DOM) for their nutrition. However, the nature of this DOM and how it influences their activity is largely unknown. This project aims to cover this gap by studying their relationship with DOM in the ocean. Through shipboard experiments and use of cutting-edge analytical techniques we will explore the spatial distribution of heterotrophic diazotrophs’ abundance, diversity and N2 fixation activity related to the in situ concentration and composition of DOM. The results will provide unique insights into the ecology of heterotrophic diazotrophs and their role in the oceanic nitrogen cycle.

Keywords: oceanography,nitrogen fixation,marine microbiology,organic geochemistry,dark ocean,nanosims,mass spectrometry
River flood Embankments Subject to Climate change: Understanding Effects of future floods and novel ‘low-carbon’ adaptation measures (RESCUE)

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-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2016-09-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The RESCUE project will develop a state-of-the-art approach to assess the impact of future climate-induced floods on stability of existing river flood embankments, both locally and at a regional scale. The ‘local-scale’ approach will be validated against case studies made available by flood management agencies in UK, Italy, and Germany (Associated Partners). The regional-scale approach will be built upon hands-on learning resulting from the implementation of hazard maps for existing flood defence systems from Associated Partners. In line with the combat to climate change, RESCUE will therefore focus on the development of carbon-efficient adaptation measures. RESCUE will allow Dr Annarita Pozzato to shape an independent leading position in the management of flood defence systems in the context of climate change. She will be able to diversify her individual competencies by acquiring multi-disciplinary skills (stochastic hydrology, bio-engineering) and undertaking significant inter-sectoral experience through synergic collaboration with European public agencies. RESCUE will be instrumental in the creation of a European spin-out company, which is the career that Dr Pozzato is aiming to embrace. RESCUE will also give Dr Pozzato the chance of resuming her research career after a professional and maternity break.

Keywords: carbon,climate,flood embankment,flood hydrology,flood risk,geotechnics,partial saturation,suction,probabilistic analysis,groundwater flow,slope stability
Adaptation and evolution of wild alfalfa: a genomic approach (ALFALFAEVOLUTION)

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: Sweden
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2016-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 197811.6
EU funding (EUR): 197811.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The Eurasian genus Medicago is best known for the perennial species M. sativa (alfalfa). Alfalfa is the world’s oldest, most important, and most intensively studied fodder crop. There is huge promise for extending the importance of alfalfa well beyond its present primary use as a feed for livestock. This species has potential uses in several domains such as: pharmaceuticals, biodegradable plastics, biofuels, textiles, and human nourishing. Medicago sativa is a polymorphic species with a variation pattern that has been complicated by hybridization and gene flow, mediated naturally or by human forces. We aim to develop a new population genomic approach to disentangle complex processes such as population divergences, migration and hybridisation/introgression among intraspecific diploid populations in a spatial and temporal framework. Specifically, this project aim to: (i) determine the genetic structure within Medicago sativa in order to characterize discrete wild genetic pools (populations) of this economically important plant species; (ii) investigate the relationships among the distinct M. sativa populations and taxa; (iii) identify geographical origin of M. sativa intraspecific taxa and the forces driving their spread; and (iv) investigate ecological adaptation in wild populations connected by gene flow in order to establish a basis for future breeding programmes.

Keywords: medicago,phylogenetics,population genetics,genomics,hybridisation,introgression,migration,coalescence,effective population size,bottleneck,agriculture
Integrated study of skin resident Memory T cells and dermal mononuclear phagocytes in the fight against PATHogens (METAPATH)

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-2013-IOF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-09-02
End date: 2016-09-01
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 253450.9
EU funding (EUR): 253450.9
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

"Integrated study of skin resident Memory T cells and dermal mononuclear phagocytes in the fight against PATHogens" Control of pathogen infection requires the generation of a tightly regulated immune response that recognizes the invading pathogen and that limits a potentially harmful host response. Recent work highlighted that resident memory T cells (TRM) form a very potent means of establishing effective immunity against infection. In the skin, I contributed to the extensive characterization of mononuclear phagocytes and unveiled the phenotype and some of the functions of the dermal macrophage subsets as well as the different dendritic cell subsets. In the present proposal, I propose to study the role of those different antigen presenting cells in the generation of TRM cells in the dermis upon a first pathogen encounter and their role in the re-activation of those TRM cells upon a second encounter with the pathogen. Learning the mechanisms by which efficient TRM cells are generated in the dermis will be an important step in the design of rational approaches to achieve the appropriate control of the pathogen at the site of infection.

Keywords: resident memory t cell,dendritic cell subsets,macrophage subset,skin,pathogens,microbiota
NEGAtive REpresentation: Ostracism, Recall and Negative Voting as Electoral Innovations Against Extremism (NEGARE)

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: Sweden
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2016-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 197811.6
EU funding (EUR): 197811.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In the last two decades, Europe has been witnessing a steady rise of anti-democratic trends and disappointment with politics. Faced with these challenges, contemporary democracies appear vulnerable and unable to defend themselves. This project proposes a democratic theory of ‘negative representation’ that involves the re-activation of electoral agency with the aim of producing responsible leadership. I suggest to view representation not only from the usual viewpoint as a process of selecting ‘the best’ to govern, but also from the reverse perspective as a process of de-selecting ‘the worst’-performing governors. More specifically, I will examine three applied instances of negative democratic representation: 1) ostracism, the practice of temporarily expelling a political figure from ancient Greek city-states by decision of the demos; 2) recall elections, the removal of a public official through direct vote before the end of their term of office, practiced at present for local officers in the United States, Germany and elsewhere and 3) negative voting, the registration and counting of negative votes alongside positive ones in regular elections. These institutions are compared and discussed together as subjects of democratic theory, with a focus on their merits and limitations. The aim of this project is to introduce a new tool against extremism and political opportunism into the literature on political representation and democratic innovations and thus open the stage for further scholarly and political debate.

Keywords: political representation,ostracism,recall elections,negative voting,democracy,democratic innovations,anti-extremism,conceptual history,political accountability,populism