Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
A test of Bayesian decision analysis and the implications for conservation (RHINOMITE)

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: 2011-02-21
End date: 2013-02-20
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 174240.8
EU funding (EUR): 174240.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Conservation biologists work hard to prevent species extinction and rely on robust quantitative methods to achieve these ends. Decision frameworks allow assessment of alternate management strategies for threatened species, and may rely on simulated population models where data are unavailable or unreliable. Bayesian inference can be used to inform decision frameworks, and has come to the attention of many biologists because the Baye’s approach allows expert opinion or informed priors to update models where data are otherwise unavailable. These require further testing, and this is often difficult where data for long-lived species are difficult to collect. Here I will use short-lived soil mite (Sancassania berlesei) populations in a laboratory environment to replicate subpopulations critically endangered black rhino (Diceros bicornis). By confronting Bayesian models with real data, I hope to test the robustness of priors in Bayesian models, compare this approach to more traditional frequentist approaches and gain insight into the usefulness of Bayesian in decision-making. I propose to take this further and use the knowledge gained to develop and configure a decision making framework for the management of black rhino populations across southern Africa.

Keywords: natural sciences,conservation biology,bayesian inference,decision making,soil mites,black rhino
Taking DFT Beyond the Boundaries of Chemistry: Solvation and Charge Transport in Biology (TDFTBBC)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-06-14
End date: 2012-06-13
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 162335.2
EU funding (EUR): 162335.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

I propose to study the charge transport properties of DNA using beyond the state-of-the-art computational tools. The charge transfer is a highly competitive phenomenon, involving multiple pathways. Such competition is at the base of the regulatory machinery of many biological processes. For the first time, the proposed software implementation will provide a systematic and analytical tool to calculate and predict biology&apos;s complex charge transfer pathways. With this proposal, I am seeking funding to carry out two years of scientific research in the Neugebauer group at the Chemistry Department of Leiden University, The Netherlands. This choice is driven by the outstanding record of Dr. Neugebauer. He has carried out the most extensive research and developments in subsystem Density Functional Theory in the past decade, publishing close to 50 peer-reviewed journal articles on that subject, including the investigation of charge transfer problems as well as vibronic couplings. Presently, his group is the only one in Europe with the available theoretical foundations that allow the implementation of this proposal. Given the broad applicability and high potential for accuracy of the proposed computational tools, they will be coded in the Amsterdam Density Functional (ADF) software. This new implementation is challenging and will involve the solution of a number of theoretical problems. In the proposal these problems are extensively analyzed and their solutions are outlined.

Keywords: quantum chemistry,computational chemistry,molecular biophysics,charge transport
Mathematical Modelling of Ensemble Classifier Systems via Optimization of Diversity- Accuracy Trade off (OPT-DIVA)

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: 2011-03-01
End date: 2013-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 174903.2
EU funding (EUR): 174903.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Learning by kernels has interested researchers for many years and various types of kernel learning algorithms have been developed under different kinds of numerical optimization methods. Because of the heterogeneity of the real world data, combination of different kernels has been studied for binary class problems over the last decade. However, in reality, not every case is binary. Indeed, there are multiclass classification problems in engineering and applied sciences such as biomedical imaging and facial expressions. For such problems hierarchical classification methods have been proposed to predict multiclass problems. As against hierarchical methods, Error Correcting Output Code (ECOC) has been developed to avoid solving multiclass problems directly by breaking the problems into dichotomies instead. Each dichotomy consists of a binary output code from a matrix, the so called ECOC matrix, where each column of ECOC matrix defines the binary classification problem. SVM, one of the most powerful methods in ML, will be employed as ECOC binary classifiers. The decision on the class of test point is evaluated with respect to a combination of binary classifiers, which is often called ensemble classifier. This decision on the test point is affected by each binary classifier error, and hence the diversity of the binary classifiers has an impact on overall accuracy. Different methodologies have been proposed for the combination of classifiers, e.g., weighted combination, where the weights of ensembles can be found heuristically or via optimization modelling. The scientific objective of this proposal can be summarized as follows: 1) Develop novel and effective ensemble classifier systems by optimizing diversity-accuracy trade off 2) Improve the time complexity of model selection, 3) Generalize the overall model via multiple kernel learning for heterogeneous data from real world scenarios and experiment on classifying facial expressions.

Keywords: engineering mathematics,computational mathematics,applied mathematics,numerical optimization,semi-infinite programming,machine learning,model selection,regularization,facial expression
EXPLORATORY HEAVY-QUARK JET TOMOGRAPHY OF QUARK-GLUON PLASMA AT THE LHC (EXPLOREQQJETINHI@LHC)

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: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-06-01
End date: 2012-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 166645.6
EU funding (EUR): 166645.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The unprecedented center of mass energy available at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) opens a new window for the exploration of Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). Jet shape and jet topology measurements will become feasible as a new, differential, and accurate test of the underlying QCD theory and are instrumental in discovering novel effective interactions and phenomena that arise in matter under extreme conditions, allowing the development of precision radiography of strongly interacting plasmas. The project aims at studying the energy loss mechanisms in the Quark Gluon Plasma at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with the Compact Muon solenoid (CMS) detector: experimentally differentiate between radiative and collisional energy loss and address the problem of mass dependence of energy loss. The proposed tools for these studies are the heavy-quark tagged jets versus the accompanying light-parton jets, in the channel QQbar+jet. The tagging of these events will be accomplished by identifying, within a particular kinematic region, muon pairs produced in the simultaneous semi-leptonic decay of two heavy mesons. The techniques that will be used is the jet shape analysis. The shape of the energy and particle distribution of both the heavy-quark jet, and the accompanying light parton jet will be analyzed. The jet shape will be mapped both as a function of the cone radius and the transverse momentum distribution of particles inside the jet. This proposed exploratory research is the first of its kind in heavy-ion collisions and constitutes one of the first steps in developing the experimental bases of `jet tomography&apos; of the QGP at the LHC. By taking a leading role, in a novel line of research (jet shape tomography of QGP) through this project, as member of an European institution, Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet (LLR), the applicant will increase, quantitatively and qualitatively, the European potential for this research.

Keywords: heavy-ions,heavy-flavor,jets
Empirical explorations of fungal fitness landscapes (FITNESS LANDSCAPES)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-11-01
End date: 2012-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 169535.2
EU funding (EUR): 169535.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Understanding the properties of beneficial mutations is essential for a better understanding of adaptive evolution, since these mutations are the fuel of adaptation. Not only their individual fitness properties are important, but also their combined effect on fitness, which may deviate from the additive or multiplicative expectation that is often assumed in population genetic models. For instance, if the sign of the fitness effect of mutations (i.e. positive or negative) depends on the presence of other mutations, called sign epistasis, such interactions present an adaptive landscape with multiple fitness peaks, where the number of mutational pathways leading to higher fitness is constrained. Yet, empirical studies of beneficial mutations and their interactions are scarce, because beneficial mutations are rare and often inaccessible to experimental study, particularly the study of their interactions. Here, I propose to study the properties of beneficial mutations in experiments with the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans. Using previously developed protocols to isolate beneficial mutations and to construct mutants with all possible combinations of beneficial mutations, we seek to study how selected mutations at the same (dominance) and different loci (epistasis) interact in determining fitness. The resulting data set will be one of the first presenting direct empirical information on the topography of the fitness landscape underlying adaptation.

Keywords: natural sciences,biological sciences,evolutionary biology,population genetics
Multilingual democracy experiments in movements: from transnational activists to local decision-makers (TRANSLATE DEMOCRACY)

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: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IOF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-05-26
End date: 2012-12-25
Duration (months): 31.0
Total project cost (EUR): 195287.52
EU funding (EUR): 195287.52
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The project brings together a micro-sociology of democracy with a politics of multilingual deliberation in arenas of protest and decision-making. Designed as a pilot study, the project will explore the relevance that activists’ practices of face-to-face translation, developed for transnational discursive democracy experiments in social movements, can have for activists and officials also at domestic level in multilingual group settings. Having conducted two comparative studies on supranational discursive arenas in the European Social Forum (ESF) and the World Social Forum, I could show that surprisingly, activists’ practice of voluntary translation at the European level helps better including traditionally disadvantaged groups in deliberation compared to monolingual national social forum network assemblies studied. I would like the Marie Curie mobility to propose a case study that will increase the systematic relevance of my result, by studying multilingual democracy experiments also at the national and local levels, as envisaged by the EC’s research perspective (EC 2008). I propose a multi-disciplinary case study on the diffusion of European ideas and experiences of multilingual democracy to activist groups and local authorities in the United States who introduced translation, learning from Europeans as organizers of self-organized translation in the ESF. This is an original case for exploring the diffusion of European experiences and ideas on linguistic diversity and inclusivity, not by EU policy makers or institutions, but by European activists who spread their distinct practices of translation across transnational discursive arenas. I will clarify whether alternative multilingual organized democracy experiments, and translation, may enhance inclusive dialogue compared to English-only settings in the US national social forum process, and in local democracy experiments by social justice groups and decision-makers working with immigrants.

Keywords: social sciences,social movements,deliberative democracy,transnational publics,multilingualism,inclusion,discourse,gender
The zebrafish as a new vertebrate model for molecular and cellular mechanisms of learning and memory, including synaptic dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease (LEARNING AND MEMORY)

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: Sweden
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2011-08-01
End date: 2013-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231852.4
EU funding (EUR): 231852.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

A majority of our most common neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, age-related dementia and multiple sclerosis, are manifested by memory loss and a reduced potential for learning. Additionally, a substantial portion of our population suffers from various forms of learning difficulties. Despite all the efforts to solve the mystery of learning and memory, we still do not have a complete cellular model of learning in a higher model organism. During my postdoc at UCLA, USA, I have developed a preparation to study learning of the rapid escape response in zebrafish (Danio Rerio). This model allows for genetic manipulations and behavioral memory testing, simultaneously with physiological recordings in vivo, in a way that has not yet been possible in any other model system. Using this model, I have been able to monitor changes in activity during the learning in the neurons that elicit the behavior. My experiments have also shown the importance of inhibitory regulation of the network during the learning. I will now use this model to study how molecular, cellular and network modifications underlie learning and memory. In parallel, I will investigate the usefulness of the model to study memory deficiencies induced by Alzheimer-associated proteins, such as A-beta. My goal is to establish the links between genes, molecular mechanisms, network function, and behavior of learning and memory, to help us understand both the normal and diseased brain.

Keywords: neurophysiology,learning,memory,zebrafish,alzheimer,modulation,synapse
Inferring adaptation, population size and lifecycle, from population genomics in a marine picoplanktonic species : Ostreococcus tauri (Chlorophyta) (PICOPOP)

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: 2010-03-01
End date: 2012-02-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 239789.6
EU funding (EUR): 239789.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Planktonic eukaryotes are keystone players in the global carbon cycle, yet knowledge about their population diversity is late. This is not surprising since we are still actively investigating species richness, within these very diverse organisms. Phytoplankter are difficult to isolate and grow in the lab, so that direct analysis of their DNA sequence is the unique way to gain knowledge into their diversity and lifestyle. PICOPOP is about developing a population genomics approach, the analysis of the genetic variation between individuals from the same species at the genome level, to unravel intraspecific diversity in one model picophytoplanktonic species, Ostreococcus tauri, (OT). This approach has been successfully applied to species ranging from bakers’ yeast to humans, plants and insects. Knowledge about these population parameters is essential to gain insights into the species adaptive potential in response to environmental variation as climate change. OT provides an ideal model for the enclosed timely and feasible research proposal on intraspecific eukaryotic phytoplankton diversity because it is ubiquitous and the availability of a complete reference genome sequence. The JGI has recently accepted our project to sequence 20 complete genomes of OT strains isolated in the Mediterranean sea, using 454 technology. From an analytical point of view, research is late in the treatment of this new kind of data. PICOPOP thus assembles appropriate expertise of complementary partners (biologists, bioinformaticians and population geneticists) to adapt and develop the tools required throughout the analysis from raw 454 reads interpretation to analysis. Unicellular eukaryotic organisms represent much of the ocean’s reserve of biodiversity, and we expect that the results and methods developed in PICOPOP on a picophytoplanktonic model organism will both provide state of the art sequence analysis tools and shed light on the lifestyle and diversity of other planktonic species.

Keywords: population genetics,bioinformatics,plankton diversity,evolution,adaptation,genome science
Optimal Interconnection Networks (OPTIMAL NETWORKS)

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: 2010-11-01
End date: 2012-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 241289.6
EU funding (EUR): 241289.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In modern society networks are increasingly more important, such as communication networks, computer networks, transportation networks, the Internet, social networks. In this project we will investigate the topology of networks in terms of its underlying model using graph theory. Our aims are to obtain new knowledge of the structure of networks which are in some sense optimal, for example, in terms of the number of nodes given restrictions on other parameters of the network such as the number of connections attached at each node, or the maximum allowed distance between any two nodes in the network.

Keywords: graph theory,graph algorithms,optimal networks,network topology
Transboundary territorial cooperation, policy learning and the Europeanisation of urban and spatial planning policies in the Mediterranean area (EUP-MED)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-09-01
End date: 2012-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 146717.0
EU funding (EUR): 146717.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of the research is to investigate whether, and how, policy learning in cities and regions occurs as a result of participation in European transboundary cooperation projects; and whether this leads to a form of ‘Europeanisation’ of territorial, spatial and urban planning policies in the Southern European context. ‘Transboundary cooperation’ refers to various forms of cooperation across national borders between cities, regions and other organisations which cooperate at various geographical scales to pursue policy objectives. The project will first develop a theoretical and conceptual framework for the analysis of the social and policy learning processes which take place between sub-central governmental actors in the framework of European territorial cooperation networks and programmes, on the basis of sociological approaches to ‘cognitive’ Europeanisation and to organisational learning. The framework will then be applied to two case-studies to answer the following questions: What are the factors which facilitate or impede processes of social and policy learning in transboundary cooperation projects? Does such cooperation lead to identifiable policy changes in the organisations involved? Is there evidence of a ‘Europeanisation of spatial planning and urban policies’ in Southern Europe through European territorial cooperation? Through a survey of, and interviews with, project partners, learning processes will be investigated ‘horizontally’ across a large set of transnational cooperation projects funded in the framework of the two INTERREG IIIB (now IVB) programmes ‘South-West Europe’ and ‘Mediterranean’. In a second stage, learning processes and policy change will then be investigated within targeted local and regional public institutions in a specific Mediterranean region, Catalonia, where public authorities have been proactively involved in European transboundary cooperation initiatives.

Keywords: political sciences,sociology,eu policies,transboundary cooperation,europeanisation,urban policy,spatial planning