Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Organization and Dynamics of Respiratory Electron Transport Complexes in Cyanobacteria (CYANOBAC-RESPIRATION)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-08-01
End date: 2012-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 179603.2
EU funding (EUR): 179603.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Photosynthesis and respiration are two of the most important biological processes on Earth for energy supply. Cyanobacteria can perform both oxygenic photosynthesis and aerobic respiration in thylakoid membrane. However, compared to extensively studied photosynthesis, knowledge of respiration is not satisfactory. So far, the long-range organization and mobility of respiratory complexes have never been investigated, and how photosynthesis and respiration are regulated in vivo is unknown. This project aims to determine the spatial distribution and mobility of respiratory systems in cyanobacteria, and to elucidate the interaction and regulation of respiratory and photosynthetic electron transport chains in thylakoid membrane. The first aim is to construct cyanobacterial strains containing respiratory complexes tagged with GFP and mCherry. Then high-resolution fluorescence confocal microscopy and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching allow to study the distribution and mobility of fluorescently tagged respiratory complexes and naturally florescent photosynthetic proteins. To supplement the fluorescence observations, using electron microscopy and scanning probe microscopy, this project will further examine the supramolecular organization of photosynthetic and respiratory complexes in thylakoid membrane at the molecular level. Based on the in vivo and in vitro findings, it is possible to draw a picture of the large-scale distribution of respiratory and photosynthetic complexes in vivo at the level of individual complexes, and to explore the coordination and regulation between photosynthesis and respiration. Advanced understanding of the bioenergetic pathways will practically benefit biofuel and biodiesel engineering, to exploit and improve renewable energy production by controlling the complex pathways of electron transport in photosynthetic organisms. The interest of the interdisciplinary project covers molecular biology, biochemistry, biophysics and nanotechnology.

Keywords: bioenergetics,cyanobacteria,distribution,electron transport,localization,mobility,organization,photosynthesis,respiration,thylakoid membrane
Computational Modeling of Knowledge-Based Inference Generation during Reading Comprehension (CMOIG)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-09-01
End date: 2012-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 170535.2
EU funding (EUR): 170535.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The proposed research project employs a pioneering interdisciplinary approach to study inference generation, a fundamental, essential cognitive process that underlies human discourse processing in general and reading comprehension in particular. By integrating linguistic computational modeling (Latent Semantic Analysis and the computational implementation of the Landscape model) with psycholinguistic theories and empirical methods (think-aloud procedures and probing techniques), I intend to explore the extent and types of knowledge-based inferences which are constructed on-line during reading. Although there is a broad consensus regarding the importance of world-knowledge in understanding discourse and achieving text coherence, there is considerable disagreement concerning this issue. Across the various theories of reading comprehension, three central views—Memory-based, Explanation-based, and Coherence-based—can be distinguished based on their conception about the content of the inferences that are activated on-line and about the nature of this process. An original theoretical framework is proposed and examined in an attempt to reconcile the conflicting findings and models under common principles. These principles concern the role of short-term working memory and long-term semantic (i.e., general knowledge) and episodic (i.e., specific text) memory associations between textual and inferred concepts. The theoretical contribution of this research to the understanding of human cognitive mechanisms and its important implications on the development of educational comprehension strategies and the design of intelligence machines that process human natural language are stressed throughout the proposal.

Keywords: cognitive science,psycholinguistics,discourse,reading comprehension,inferences,computational modeling,latent semantic analysis (lsa),landscape model
Interdisciplinary investigation of Pitch coding in whispered speech (INTERPITCH)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-01-01
End date: 2012-04-30
Duration (months): 16.0
Total project cost (EUR): 101761.4
EU funding (EUR): 101761.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The goal of the InterPitch project is to systematically investigate how intonation (speech melody) is coded in whispered speech. A speaker who whispers fails to produce the most important cue to intonation perception, i.e. the fundamental frequency (F0). Assuming that the speaker attempts to accommodate the listener during communication, the whispering speaker is expected to naturally compensate for the loss of that cue by exploiting (and exaggerating) alternative acoustic cues to pitch. The project will investigate both the presence and nature of cues to intonation in whispered speech, and their relevance for listeners. The project will take an interdisciplinary approach by combining acoustic-phonetics, “the production perspective”, and psychoacoustics, “the perception perspective”. This captures the full speech chain, i.e. the model of how a message is transferred from the mind of the speaker to the mind of the listener. The test case will be Clause Typing, i.e. signaling whether a sentence is a question or a statement through intonation. This phenomenon is found in many European languages in similar ways. Through extensive psychoacoustic and phonetic analyses of whispered and phonated speech the contents of the speech signal in both questions and statements will be investigated. Through perception tests the specific contribution of temporal coding to intonation perception will be studied, and the availability of acoustic cues to hearing impaired listeners will be simulated. The results contribute to understanding the fundamental relation between mental representations of language and their realisations in both regularly phonated and whispered speech. The results may furthermore be used for synthesis of whispered speech, which has applications in text-to-speech systems, and for new ways of coding pitch information in cochlear implant processors for hearing impaired populations.

Keywords: humanities,phonetics,speech communication,psychoacoustics,intonation,speech perception and production,whispered speech,temporal coding
Identification and exploitation of user communities for efficiently handling large-scale folksonomies (COMMUNITY FOLKS)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-09-15
End date: 2012-03-14
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 131427.4
EU funding (EUR): 131427.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

For centuries, classification has been exploited by users to contextualize any aspect of human knowledge. An emerging way to classify objects is given by folksonomies. The term folksonomy is currently used to indicate a data structure that allows users to classify various kinds of resources by means of plain keywords freely chosen by them. Folksonomies are gaining wide popularity but, although they overcome important weak points affecting taxonomy systems, they generally imply a lack of precision. In order to face this drawback, it would be useful to define a system capable of interactively supporting users in the folksonomy surfing. This project is collocated just in this context and aims at building a system for effectively searching and browsing user-generated content that has been freely described using tags. For this purpose, in this project we will define new techniques able to organize tags in a flexible hierarchical manner in order to strengthen the advantages of folksonomies with those offered by taxonomies, but avoiding all the taxonomy drawbacks. Furthermore, the project aims at studying how to discover hidden social ties among folksonomy users. The goals of this project are fully compliant with that of the research theme named "Information and Communication Technologies" (ICT) which has been recognized by European Commission as one of the main research areas in FP7. In particular, the project falls within the research fields named "Digital Content Management" and "Personalised ICT systems" described in FP7 factsheet. In fact, the research areas of this proposal are focused on the study of new techniques able to: (i) identify how folksonomy users generate contents and manage such knowledge in order to help them to search and browse it; (ii) produce personalised folksonomy views by exploiting the content generated by those users who share similar interests.

Keywords: computer science,folksonomy,web 2.0,social network
Dynamic covalent polymerisation of boron-aromatic oligomeric monomers (OLIGOMERS-POLYMERS)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-11-02
End date: 2012-11-01
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 182103.2
EU funding (EUR): 182103.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The objective of the proposed research is to investigate the boron-based dynamic assembly of oligomeric monomers in polar media. The building blocks will be composed of a linker capped at both ends by boronic acids or by catechol moieties that can form boronate esters reversibly. This research project will provide an innovative route for the synthesis of macrocycles, oligomers and polymers and it will be divided into three parts: (a) the development of a general method for the synthesis of large bis(boronic acid) and bis(catechol) oligomeric building blocks (&gt; 400 Da); (b) the assembly of rigid-rod aromatic oligomeric monomers into shape-persistent macrocycles, foldamers and highly organised polymers; (c) the synthesis of monomers capable of weak secondary interactions and the assembly of these preorganised building blocks into materials with complex architectures. As a consequence of the dynamic nature of the boronate ester linkage, the proposed materials will possess the adaptive properties that are usually associated with supramolecular polymers composed of monomers linked only by cooperative hydrogen bonds. The condensation of boronic acids with catechols does not require addition of catalyst and the resulting trigonal boronate esters are planar, rigid and structurally directional. Dynamic polymerisation of large aromatic oligomers could represent a convenient route to self-healing analogues of aromatic poly(ether)s that are widely used for applications requiring durability under extreme conditions. Overall, the proposed research will provide new tools for the synthesis of oligomers and polymers with a well-defined secondary structure and towards tertiary structures of artificial foldamers, by analogy with natural polymers. Foldamers are highly organised non-natural oligomers that have emerged recently as exciting materials with potential applications in molecular recognition and catalysis.

Keywords: molecular aspects of new materials,supramolecular structure,boron-based dynamic assembly of oligomeric monomers,polymers
Still Connected: Evolutionary implications of the separation of the head from pectoral girdle in tetrapods and their fish relatives (GIRDLE EVO-DEVO)

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-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-05-04
End date: 2012-05-03
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 174240.8
EU funding (EUR): 174240.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Separation of the shoulders from the head to create a functional neck was an important step in the conquest of land, as it is crucial for land-living vertebrates (tetrapods) to move their heads freely from the body. The origin and evolution of the neck is currently a research area of considerable interest, with in-depth molecular analysis performed in both the chicken and the mouse (derived tetrapods). What this research shows is that although the shoulders are freed from the head, they are still connected via a network of muscles, and that the development of these muscles is controlled by a specialised group of cells known as neural crest cells. However, comparative studies on this region in fish ancestors, lacking a functional neck, have not been performed. Did these features evolve in response to the separation of the head from the shoulders? Or, are the same muscles and developmental mechanisms present in fish ancestors lacking a neck (head and shoulders connected by a series of bones)? To answer these questions, we will study representatives of more primitive tetrapods and fish ancestors to the tetrapods, including the paddlefish, the Australian lungfish, and the Mexican axolotl. This research will be done in conjunction with project partners in the USA, Australia and Germany. In our experiments, we will use several different types of markers to track migration and development of muscles, neural crest cells, and the skull and shoulder girdle bones, and how these interact during early ontogeny. Our hypothesis is that the results in the muscle connectivity observed in the chicken and mouse will also be present in these fish and tetrapod ancestors, with the involvement of the same (homologous) muscles, and moreover, that neural crest cells will be involved in the development of these muscles and the bones to which they connect.

Keywords: evo-devo,pectoral girdle evolution and development,neural crest cells,muscle development,lungfish,paddlefish,evolution of tetrapods
Trust in Social Internetworking Systems (TRUSIS)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-06-07
End date: 2011-06-06
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 82124.4
EU funding (EUR): 82124.4
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Social media applications, such as blogs, multimedia and link sharing sites, question and answering systems, wikis and online forums, are growing at an unprecedented rate and are estimated to generate a significant amount of the contents currently available on the Web. In real cases a user can decide to affiliate to many social networks and to create an account for each of them and the resulting scenario is called social internetworking system (SIS). In the SIS scenario, mechanisms allowing users to locate “reliable” users with whom they can profitably interact and detect malicious users are mandatory. In this project we address the problem of defining mechanisms for finding reliable users in a SIS. The proposed methods significantly extends the concepts of trust and reputation which are present in virtual communities. The goals of this project are: (i) To define a simple mathematical model of social internetworking and analyze factors influencing the computation of trust and reputation with a special emphasis on some typical Web 2.0 features. (ii) To extend the basic model with “context-awareness” functionalities in order to specify “trust/reputation” of users in concrete domains. (iii) To build an ontology capable of representing trust and reputation data in multiple social networks. (iv) To carry out long-term iterative testing and validation activities on real users.

Keywords: social internetworking,web 2.0,trust technology,virtual organisations,knowledge engineering,information technology
The spread of pathogens in social networks: a field study (PATHOGEN NETWORKS)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-11-01
End date: 2012-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 179603.2
EU funding (EUR): 179603.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In recent years, there have been a growing number of attempts to study wildlife diseases from an ecological perspective and to understand their dynamics and evolution in wild populations. But although there is now an increasing awareness of the impact of disease pathogens on the dynamics, structure and genetic diversity of wild host populations, empirical knowledge of the factors affecting transmission of pathogens in natural host populations is still lacking. The vast majority of theoretical models of disease evolution assume that all individual hosts have an equal likelihood of encountering infection. In many natural populations, this assumption is unrealistic because the number of potential contacts of a given host is finite, which leads to heterogeneity in the risk of infection among individuals. To date, most studies of disease transmission in social networks have focused on human populations, where complete and reliable social network data are difficult to obtain. As a consequence, current knowledge on the spread of pathogens within social networks mostly comes from theoretical models. Good datasets associating social network structure, spatial information and epidemiological data are now needed. Here I propose a multidisciplinary project aimed at the transmission routes of pathogens in populations of two model species of territorial hole-nesting birds. the project has the double aim of testing the extent to which social interactions among individuals affect the transmission of pathogens, and of using social network data to acquire knowledge on when and where individuals get infected by pathogens. We will focus on two kinds of pathogens. First, we will apply these questions to bacterial communities living in and on birds. Second, we will also focus on avian malarial parasites (genus Plasmodium), which are particularly well characterized at the study site.

Keywords: parasite transmission,avian malaria,bacterial communities,great tit,blue tit,behavioural ecology
The role of Autotransporters in the virulence, colonisation and biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (AT-PSEUDOVIR)

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-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-06-01
End date: 2012-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 182103.2
EU funding (EUR): 182103.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major cause of opportunistic infections. P. aeruginosa is found in an estimated 10-20% of all hospital acquired infections; it is implicated in respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, gastrointestinal infections, keratitis, otitis media, and bacteremia. It is also the predominant cause of morbidity and mortality in cystic fibrosis patients, whose abnormal airway epithelia allow a chronic long-term colonisation of the lungs. Chronic infections such as this are characterised by the formation of a biofilm. Biofilms are a community of cells encased in an extracellular matrix consisting of secreted proteins, polysaccharides and nucleic acids attached to surfaces. Bacteria within biofilms are more resistant to antibiotics, dynamic forces and host defences. With the realisation that biofilms are of substantive importance to infectious diseases, it has become crucial to understand the mechanisms that govern biofilm development and the role of biofilms in bacterial pathogenesis in order to develop new therapies to treat these infections. Many proteins of the autotransporter (AT) class of secreted protein from Gram-negative bacteria have been found to be involved in biofilm formation. All AT proteins possess some common features: an N-terminal signal sequence, a passenger domain that is secreted to the cell surface and a translocation domain that forms a β-barrel pore that assists the passenger domain in gaining access to the surface. The passenger domain is responsible for the function of the AT protein. Using a bioinformatic approach Dr Wells has identified a further four distinct AT proteins in the five P. aeruginosa genomes available. The aim of this project is to utilise Dr. Wells’ substantial experience with E. coli autotransporters in order to study the role of autotransporter proteins in the virulence, colonisation and biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa especially in regard to cystic fibrosis infections.

Keywords: infections,pseudomonas,secretion,autotransporter