Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Improvement of SQGs through the incorporation of chronic exposure-effect model (CHEEM)

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: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IOF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-07-01
End date: 2012-06-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 228338.45
EU funding (EUR): 228338.45
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Sediments are extremely important to the food web and serve as the ultimate repository and source of most of the contaminants, including metals. For this reason, it is appropriate that regulatory attention addresses the ecological risks that these sediment contaminants might pose. So much so that, the need to understand the impacts of contaminated sediments on aquatic environmental quality is implicit in the text of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC), and in the Directive on Environmental Quality Standards in the field of water policy, different metals have been included in the group of substance identified as priority on account of the substantial risk they pose to or via the aquatic environment. Currently, the first tool to assess metal sediment quality is the use of Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs). The SQGs represent an important tool for flagging potentially toxic metal levels in sediments, indicating which sediments may be or no concern and those which merit a closer-look. However, the level of protection offered by current SQGs is far to be totally efficacy. Significantly more research is required into the chronic and sub-lethal effects of dissolved metals and the metal exposures from dietary sources (e.g. food and sediment ingestion). The purpose of this project is to develop an environmental exposure-effect model to predict copper chronic effects in order to improve the effectiveness of the SQGs. This project addresses directly the Community policy established by Water Framework Directive 2000/60/ec and enhances furthermore the development of ecotoxicological tools to prevent the pollution.

Keywords: environmental risk assessment,ecotoxicology,modelling (environmental risks),environmental monitoring,pollution prevention,exposure assessment
FIRST MILLENNIUM AD PATTERNS OF SETTLEMENT AND ECONOMIC CHANGE IN TUSCANY AND SICILY (ITALY): DEVELOPING NEW RESEARCH TECHNIQUES AND COMPARING ARCHAEOLOGICAL LANDSCAPES (TECHCOMPARCHLAND)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-09-28
End date: 2011-09-27
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 171867.63
EU funding (EUR): 171867.63
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Italy, in light of its central position in the Mediterranean and complex histories throughout the period, represents the ideal context for analysing how patterns of continuity and discontinuity determined medieval Europe’s birth. The proposed project aims at comparing 1st millennium AD economic and settlement patterns between two territories of Italy, using an innovative cross-disciplinary approach. A comparison between a territory in southern Tuscany, a part of central Italy that became economically marginal during the late Roman period, and a sample area in south-eastern Sicily, a region that maintained a central role in the economic and political Mediterranean framework, can show how local economies developed in different ways during and after the decline of Roman world and thus witnessed the development of new proto-European economies. This project proposes to develop and use innovative technologies, among these an intensive use of DGPS during field work, to improve the quality of recording and enter that detailed data into a GIS base for further processing. Field survey will be integrated by novel techniques of remote sensing, such as LiDAR, to allow us to investigate woodlands of low archaeological visibility, which are quite widespread especially in southern Tuscany. The research strategy has also planned to integrate field walking survey with geo-archaeological survey for reconstructing Roman and medieval links between the agricultural communities and the surrounding environment. Finally the analysis of the Roman and medieval pottery will be carried out through an analytical and statistical approach to reconstruct past trade and industrial practices. The work programme that we propose consists of an advanced laboratory-based activity and new field methodologies to strengthen the base of data on which we will construct long term interpretative models. The research results will be published in international journals and web pages.

Keywords: humanities,comparative archaeology,landscape archaeology,novel techniques,remote sensing,geo-archaeology,roman and medieval settlement network in italy,pottery and past trade,gis analysis
Nonlinearity management of atomic and optical systems (NOMATOS)

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: Portugal
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IIF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-10-26
End date: 2011-12-25
Duration (months): 26.0
Total project cost (EUR): 202847.71
EU funding (EUR): 202847.71
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The proposal is devoted to the investigation of nonlinear management of electromagnetic waves in optical systems and matter waves in Bose-Einstein condensates. The problems te be addressed include: investigation of processes of modulational instability in systems with a strong nonlinearity management; developments of the theory of surface states in nonlinear optical lattices and photonic crystals; control of tunneling in multi-well trap potentials for the condensates with the temporal management of an atomic scattering length and the analysis of possibility for creation of an atomic transistor in such system; dynamical stabilization of multidimensional multi-component condensates by means of nonlinearity management; study of the properties of localized states in condenstaes with a spatial management of nonlinearity; derivation of nonlinear lattice models for the description of a dipolar condensates in a deep optical lattices; the investigation of existence of stable localized states in the paritry-temporal symmetric nonlinear optical lattices.

Keywords: nonlinearity management,matter waves,bose-einstein condensates,solitons,nonlinear optics
GPU-Assisted Massive Volume Data Visualisation (GAMVOLVIS)

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-IIF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-09-01
End date: 2011-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 173185.81
EU funding (EUR): 173185.81
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

High-resolution medical volume data (containing billions of voxels) is used in many clinical applications. However, interactive visualisation of gigabyte-sized volumes on a desktop PC is challenging, due to the heavy computation and the memory consumption. In recent years, the graphics processing unit (GPU) has evolved at an increasing pace, and tremendous improvements have been achieved in its capabilities. GPU performance now substantially exceeds that of CPUs in both the raw computational power provided and its speed of development. Thus, the GPU is now the ideal platform for efficient visualisation for large volume data. However, current methods for rendering large volume datasets are limited, either in performance, accuracy, flexibility or scalability. This project addresses this by presenting techniques to perform volume visualisation of large datasets on off-the-shelf hardware by harnessing the power of GPUs to provide high performance and produce high-quality images. We will achieve this by implementing a multi-resolution framework with two parts: data management on the CPU and real-time rendering on the GPU. We propose a new rendering pipeline by directly treating each volume brick as a single GPU rendering primitive, and efficient cache management to avoid cache thrashing of GPU memory. Forward mapping will allow arbitrariiy many primitives to be rendered on the GPU in a stream-like manner, making our system fully scalable to an arbitrarily large dataset. Further acceleration will be achieved by using a coarsely-fitted proxy geometry, and advanced illumination techniques will be introduced for better quality visualisation at high frame rates. We will also extend our applications from a single GPU to multiple GPUs. The resulting system will allow domain scientists to effectively visualise super-large-scale volume data on moderate PC platforms without being heavily restricted by the data size, which is a key advance from the current state of the art.

Keywords: gpu computing,massive volume datasets,out-of-core technique,medical visualisation,interactive rendering,multi-resolution,level of detail
Structural and functional studies of structured RNA involved in heat shock response (HSRRNA)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-05-06
End date: 2010-11-05
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 137147.09
EU funding (EUR): 137147.09
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The heat shock response is important in eukaryotes as a protective mechanism for the stress of change in temperature or other environmental factors, and it has been the subject for targets for therapeutic intervention. Recently, it has been found that a conserved non-coding RNA is involved in mediating the heat shock response. The RNA forms a stable complex with elongation factor eEF1A to activate the heat shock transcription factor. The project will involve the preparation of recombinant RNA-protein complex for structural elucidation by X-ray crystallography and biochemical and biophysical characterisation. The structural information may help to explain how the RNA triggers the response, most likely through a conformational switch. Currently there is no structural information available for the heat shock RNA or for any of the several other large non-coding RNAs that have recently been identified in eukaryotes. The structural information may help to explain how the heat shock RNA and other non-coding RNAs function, and may also be useful in the long term for therapeutic intervention in response to chemotherapy of cancerous cells.

Keywords: rna-protein interactions,heat shock response,gene regulation,x-ray
Perceptual load and neural competition. Determinant factors in selective attention (LOADATCMC08)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-06-15
End date: 2013-02-21
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183618.8
EU funding (EUR): 183618.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Perceptual load theory has been credited with solving the long-standing debate in Psychology about the locus of selection. According with this theory, the degree to which distracting information can be ignored depends on the perceptual load of the task, or the extent to which the task exhausts perceptual capacity. However, there is currently no a priori definition of what constitutes high or low perceptual load. Here I propose a new framework to formalize perceptual resources according to the local competitive interactions that happen in the visual cortex and that modulate the representation of the information. I aim to explore the role of these competitive interactions in determining attentional selection. Moreover, I propose to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying perceptual load-based selection. The proposal represents a novel approach to the study of selective processing and limits of capacity in the human brain by integrating behavioral, fMRI and TMS methods

Keywords: social sciences,psychological sciences,cognitive science,attention,selection,capacity,brain
Analogical Reasoning and Conceptual Change in Physics Education (ANALOGIES - KAPON)

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: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IOF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-08-01
End date: 2012-07-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 247175.67
EU funding (EUR): 247175.67
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Educational researchers have shown that a key difficulty in teaching science, and in particular in teaching physics, is how to bring about conceptual change (Posner, Strike, Hewson, &amp; Gertzog,1982). The instruction of complex concepts in science, and especially in physics, often involves some use analogies. This research proposal aims to achieve two main goals: (1) Develop an empirically based theory that explains how and to what extent instructional analogies affect conceptual change during the acquisition of new knowledge in physics; (2) Derive practical recommendations from this theory regarding the use of analogical reasoning when teaching science, and particularly when teaching physics in high school and at the introductory undergraduate level, to achieve conceptual change. This will be done by conducting clinical interviews (Clement, 2000) which will lead to the design of a set of learning activities in a design experiment mode (Cobb, Confrey, diSessa, Lehrer, &amp; Schauble, 2003) that will be used for iterative clinical teaching studies of key topics in physics that traditionally involve analogical reasoning. The innovative features of this research are as follows: (1) The learning events that are prompted by analogical explanations will be studied using two research methodologies employed to measure conceptual change, namely knowledge analysis (diSessa, 1993, 2004), and microgenetic analysis (Siegler &amp; Crowley, 1991). (2) The theoretical framework guiding this analysis will be the &apos;Knowledge in Pieces&apos; theory of conceptual change (diSessa, 1988, 1993). The proposed research will contribute to European excellence and European competitiveness in the following ways: (1) It will strengthen the cognitive components of educational research in science education, (2) It will advance the use of high quality educational research methods, and (3) enhance the quality of future science instruction and in particular the instruction of physics.

Keywords: educational research,science education,physics education,analogies,conceptual change,cognition,learning,knowledge analysis,microgenetic analysis
SEABIRDS, TUNA, CLIMATE CHANGE – FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THE TROPICAL INDIAN OCEAN AND SUSTAINABLE USE OF ITS RESOURCES (SEAFUTURE)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2010-02-01
End date: 2012-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 227625.15
EU funding (EUR): 227625.15
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The world is facing strong anthropogenic impacts by climate change and intensive exploitation of its natural resources. This will inevitably have profound consequences for ecological processes. Tropical Oceans have a substantial ecological significance but there is only little knowledge on their functioning. This knowledge, however, is crucial to evaluate effects of climate change and resource exploitation on these ecosystems. In the proposed project, the fellow will investigate these issues in the tropical Indian Ocean. Specifically, the objectives are 1) to determine the functional relationships between seabird ecology, bio-physical environment, and fisheries in the tropical Indian Ocean, and 2) to apply the acquired knowledge to assess the current and predict the future impact of climate change and tuna fisheries on the biodiversity of this ecosystem. The project takes advantage of differing oceanographic conditions in the eastern and western Indian Ocean allowing a comparative analysis between several seabird species subjected to oceanographic variability in two contrasting environments. The fellow will use already available data on key parameters of the seabirds’ ecology which have been collected at various sites on both sides of the Indian Ocean over several years. He will apply a wide array of state-of-the-art statistical, modelling and laboratory methodologies to analyse and interpret the data to accomplish the aforementioned objectives. The envisaged results will be relevant to the scientific community as well as to policy makers. They will fill the gap of knowledge on the functioning of the tropical Indian Ocean and allow to evaluate and predict anthropogenic effects on this ecosystem in particular and on tropical marine ecosystems in general. Beyond that, the results shall be used as a scientific foundation to develop management and conservation strategies for a sustainable use of tuna stocks of the Indian Ocean and the protection of its biodiversity.

Keywords: seabirds,ecology,bio-indicators,tropical indian ocean,climate change,tuna,fisheries,sustainability,biodiversity,conservation
Stochastic Laplacian Growth (SLG)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2010-02-19
End date: 2013-02-18
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 227984.41
EU funding (EUR): 227984.41
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Recent breakthrough in the theory of 2D growth, due to application of analytic theory of stochastic conformal mappings, opened new prospectives for solution of fundamental long-standing problems in the studies of interface dynamics and pattern formation. The research field has been enriched by new effective approaches, emerged from theory of integrable systems and analytic function theory, to deal with dynamics of a moving front between two distinct phases driven by a harmonic scalar field as well as for description of static cluster patterns in models of statistical mechanics and random matrices. The aim of the present project is to address the basic questions of theory of unstable and stochastic interfaces, integrating recent achievements in stochastic conformal mappings and complex dynamics into the field of research. Connecting three subjects: Laplacian growth, stochastic Loewner chains and theory of integrable systems, we expect to advance interface dynamics and account for its basic physical features.

Keywords: mathematical physics,laplacian growth,sle,integrable systems
The Late Eocene climatic transition from greenhouse to icehouse conditions in the Neo-Tethys (NEOTETHYS)

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-IEF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2010-02-01
End date: 2012-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183618.8
EU funding (EUR): 183618.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The middle Eocene to early Oligocene period represents the most important transition in Earth’s climate: from greenhouse conditions to the icehouse conditions of the present day. This global transition was preceded by long-term cooling with superposed short-term variations in various marine proxies, which indicate instability in the paleoceanographic state prior to the key climatic transition. We propose to test the hypothesis that global variations in climatic conditions were synchronous with large variations in circulation in the Neo-Tethys Ocean. Tectonic closure of the gateway between the Arabian and Eurasian plates represents a threshold that caused late Eocene paleoceanographic variations in the Neo-Tethys and in global ocean circulation. The premise of this proposal is that new paleomagnetic and environmental studies of Eocene sequences from the Tethys sector and Indian Ocean drill cores can provide important insights about the timing and nature of paleoclimatic events and sedimentary processes that affected the Eocene oceans. We will develop new high-resolution magnetostratigraphies from each proposed section to determine the timing of the bio-magnetic and climatic events. Sites in the Indian Ocean and sections in Italy, Egypt and Turkey are the best candidates. We propose a multidisciplinary study that involves detailed bio-magnetostratigraphy, environmental magnetism and cyclostratigraphic astronomical calibration. Paleobiological abundances, isotopic analyses and geochemistry will then be used to develop an integrated view of paleoceanographic events in this key interval of geological time. The quantitative dataset to be obtained will enable us to test the hypothesis that paleoceanographic variations in the Neo-Tethys were related to global Eocene climatic changes and variations in ocean circulation.

Keywords: environmental magnetism,neo-tethys,eocene,oligocene,paleomagnetism,greenhouse-icehouse,paleoclimate(climate change),magnetostratigraphy,paleontology,geochemistry,stratigraphy,paleoceanography
Entanglement with trapped ions in an optical cavity (40CACQED)

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: Austria
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-IIF-2008, 2008)
Start date: 2009-07-01
End date: 2011-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 163067.63
EU funding (EUR): 163067.63
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Trapped ions constitute one of the most promising systems for the demonstration of quantum computing protocols. By coupling trapped ions to a high-finesse optical cavity, we create a quantum interface between photons and atoms, allowing coherent transfer of quantum information between light and matter. We propose to demonstrate atom-photon entanglement, atom-atom entanglement between two ions within a cavity, and quantum state mapping from atom to photon. In addition, we discuss plans to bring ion-trap cavity quantum electrodynamics into the strong coupling regime. These would represent significant steps toward a quantum network, which could link individual quantum systems over long distances.

Keywords: cavity qed,entanglement,atomic physics,ion traps,quantum information