Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Statistical modelling and estimation for spatiotemporal data with oceanographic applications (OCEANDATAMODELS)

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: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2017-03-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 294219.6
EU funding (EUR): 294219.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This fellowship is concerned with building new statistical modelling and estimation procedures that are appropriate for Big Data challenges with high-dimensional dependent data. The new methods will be applied to large oceanographic spatiotemporal datasets leading to important application benefits in global climate modelling. The methodological contribution centres on building physically-motivated stochastic processes that capture multivariate dependence structure from complex high-dimensional data sets. Estimation procedures are then developed to capture heterogeneity in spatiotemporal data, while properly accounting for practical issues such as irregularly-sampled data in space and time. Such modelling and estimation procedures provide great interpretability and meaningful summaries from the complex data sets we observe. The societal benefits include improved global climate modelling and improved responses to environmental disasters such as oil spills. These advances will be achieved through interdisciplinary collaboration, with the fellow working closely with world-leading experts in oceanographic data in the US during the outgoing phase, and then consolidating these developments at the UCL Department of Statistical Sciences in the return phase. The fellow will therefore gain experience in developing relevant new statistical methods for a pressing Big Data challenge, and will then return to Europe where this training will significantly develop the fellow’s ability to produce cutting-edge research at the frontier of statistics and numerous applications involving complex high-dimensional data.

Keywords: spatiotemporal data,stochastic processes,lagrangian time series,complex-valued time series,nonstationary processes,multiscale processes,multivariate dependence,spectral-domain
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and immunohistochemical investigations of CNS activity in a novel preclinical migraine model (MRIGRAINE)

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: 2015-01-01
End date: 2017-05-06
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 309235.2
EU funding (EUR): 309235.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This application is being submitted by Dr Milena De Felice of the University of Arizona (researcher), and Professor Fiona Boissonade of the University of Sheffield (scientist-in-charge and supervisor), who have complementary expertise in different aspects of trigeminal pain. The project will be co-supervised by Dr Aneurin Kennerley, the lead physicist in the University of Sheffield's preclinical MRI facility. The proposed multi-disciplinary project will utilise magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and immunohistochemical techniques to investigate altered activity in the central nervous system in a novel preclinical model of migraine. The over-arching aims of the project are to further understand the generation of migraine and its symptoms, and to identify the specific brain regions involved. The results of our studies will enable us to correlate MRI changes with the development of migraine-like symptoms and the expression of specific indicators of altered excitability. This will advance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the development of migraine. We also aim to establish how anti-migraine drugs affect MRI and behavioural responses in our model. This project has the potential to establish a translational MRI model that could be utilised to identify and determine the efficacy of novel therapeutic strategies.

Keywords: pain,trigeminal,migraine,headache,novel preclinical model,central nervous system,sumatriptan,magnetic resonance imaging,allodynia,in-vivo,cgrp
Towards Long-term Stable and Highly Efficient Colloidal Quantum Dot Solar Cells (SECQDSC)

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: 2014-10-01
End date: 2016-05-31
Duration (months): 20.0
Total project cost (EUR): 152891.5
EU funding (EUR): 152891.5
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cells (SCs) offer the potential advantages of low cost and flexibility via facile solution processing. However, practical application of CQD SCs is still limited by the relatively short lifetime and low efficiency. The short lifetime is due to the fact that the active spots on CQD surface can readily react with oxygen in ambient. The low efficiency is limited by the trade-off between charge collection and photon harvesting. The research objectives of this proposal include two aspects: (i) to protect CQD film away from ambient oxygen to prolong the lifetime of CQD SCs; (ii) to circumvent the trade-off between charge collection and photon harvesting to improve the efficiency of CQD SCs. In order to realize our research objectives, we carefully propose two promising strategies for each objective. (1) For the first objective, firstly we will grow a stable inorganic semiconductor shell outside CQD core as the protecting layer; secondly, we will fill up the voids in CQD film using stable amorphous n-type TiOx or p-type MoO3 to cut off the way of oxygen attacking the exposed CQD surface. (2) For the second research objective, firstly, we propose to increase electron mobility by incorporating semi-conductive materials, possessing higher electron mobility and lower-lying conduction band (CB) than CQD, into CQD film; secondly, we propose to enlarge the depletion region width by incorporating ferroelectric (FE) material between active layer and anode as interfacial layer. The proposed project aims to address two limitations of CQD SCs. The proposed project falls directly under “Energy Strategy” of the 7th Framework Programme (FP7), which underlines the relevance of the proposed project. The expected results of the proposed project will contribute to European excellence and European competitiveness.

Keywords: lifetime,efficiency,colloidal quantum dot,solar cells,passivation,charge collection,charge transport,lead sulfide
Small molecule cytokine conjugates for cancer treatment (SMCCCTHER)

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: 2014-08-01
End date: 2016-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 309235.2
EU funding (EUR): 309235.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Standard of care strategies for the treatment of cancer still relies heavily on non-specific radiation- and chemotherapy. They are commonly associated with severe toxicities and in many cases only offer limited benefit for the patient. The targeted delivery of radionuclides, cytotoxic drugs and proinflammatory cytokines into malignant tissue, on the other hand, can markedly improve the therapeutic index and overall efficacy of such substances. Whilst monoclonal antibodies are the most widely used delivery vehicles to date, we believe that small molecule ligands will offer improved targeting properties. Most importantly, depth of tumour penetration and tumour-to-blood distribution ratio after injection should be significantly superior. We therefore propose to systematically investigate the targeting performance of somatostatin receptor non-internalizing ligands for the targeted delivery of cytokines into somatostatin receptor-overexpressing tumours. This project aims at (1) developing a general chemical approach for building safe small molecule cytokine conjugates (SMCC) (2) demonstrate that a somatostatin antagonist, non-internalizing ligand can selectively accumulate in somatostatin receptor-overexpressing cancers and (3) when site-specifically conjugated to proinflammatory interleukin-12, these novel SMCC are highly effective for the treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).

Keywords: targeted tumor therapeutics,cytokine delivery for cancer therapy,chemical protein modification,small ligand targeting molecules,proinflammatory interleukin-12
Interactions in Community Treatment (INTERACT)

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: 2015-07-01
End date: 2017-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The goal of the project INTERACT (Interaction in Community Treatment) is to explore practices of face-to-face communication and social interaction used to implement Therapeutic Community (TC) programmes in the area of addiction recovery. The concerns for the continuing marginalisation of vulnerable people expressed in EU documents (e.g. Europe 2020, Green Paper “Improving the mental health of the population”) make it timely and crucial to carry out research that identifies practices by which vulnerable people can be encouraged and supported to engage socially, to express their views, and to actively collaborate in the design and implementation of activities that can satisfy their own needs. The project will address questions that have not been addressed in previous research. (1) How can TC educators foster client members’ participation and social involvement in TC programmes? (2) What are the obstacles and dilemmas that they meet in this process and how do they deal with them? (3) How is it possible to improve the educators’ practices so that the clients’ active involvement in the rehabilitation process is not hampered? The project will focus on three TCs, and will analyse a corpus of recorded professional-client multi-party interactions. The method of Conversation Analysis will be employed to identify the communication roadblocks and dilemmas that characterise the implementantion of the TC approach to addiction recovery. Such dilemmas can influence the practices carried out at the micro-level of day-to-day rehabilitation and support activities, which have an impact on the lives of vulnerable service-users. An expected outcome is to sensitise political and professional stakeholders to the possible challenges entailed in the delivery of social support programmes. The discussion of the findings will result in recommendations on how the training of TC educator should be improved in order to overcome the identified contradictions and dilemmas.

Keywords: therapeutic communities,social support,social rehabilitation,patient participation,conversation analysis
Merging Lie perturbation theory and Taylor Differential algebra to address space debris challenges (HOPT)

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-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-03-01
End date: 2017-07-01
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 230036.6
EU funding (EUR): 230036.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In an increasingly saturated space about the Earth, aerospace engineers confront the mathematical problem of accurately predicting the position of Earth’s artificial satellites. This is required not only for the correct operation of satellites, but also for preserving the integrity of space assets and the services they provide to citizens. Operational satellites are threatened by the possibility of a collision with a defunct satellite, but most probably by the impact with other uncontrolled man-made space objects—all of them commonly called space debris. The present international concern in space situational awareness (SSA) has produced a renewed interest in analytical and semi-analytical theories for the fast and efficient propagation of catalogs of data. Within this framework, it is widely accepted by experts that perturbation theory based on Lie transforms is the most accurate and efficient method to derive semi-analytical propagators. In a semi-analytical approach, the highest frequencies of the motion are filtered analytically via averaging procedures, allowing the numerical integration of the averaged system to proceed with very long step sizes. Then, the short-period terms can be recovered analytically. Another fundamental need in SSA is the efficient management of uncertainties that characterize the motion of orbiting objects. To this aim Taylor differential algebraic (DA) and Taylor model (TM) techniques have been transferred in the last decade from beam physics field to astrodynamics. These techniques, by allowing high order expansions of the flow of the dynamics and rigorous estimate of the associated approximation errors, have shown to be a powerful tool for managing uncertainties both in initial conditions and model parameters. The focus of this project is to merge Lie perturbation theory and DA and TM techniques with the goal of applying the resulting methodology to practical problems in SSA.

Keywords: lie perturbation theory,differential algebra,taylor models,space debris problem,long-term propagation,debris clouds,orbital conjunctions,scientific computing
Age-modified forms of Amyloid-β as initiator of Alzheimer Disease pathogenesis and mediator of Aβ-tau interaction: a study in a Drosophila model and Aβ immunized human Alzheimer patients (ALZPROTAGEING)

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: 2014-03-01
End date: 2016-02-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Alzheimer Disease (AD) is the commonest form of dementia, with ageing as the main risk factor. There are currently over 6 million people with dementia in the European Union (EU). The increasingly ageing population makes AD an economic and social burden for our society, thus investigating the pathological mechanisms of AD and the characterization of the pharmacological targets are research priorities. Aggregation of amyloid-Beta (Aβ), upstream of tau phosphorylation, is considered a driving force in AD pathogenesis, and the major target of the clinical trials of immunotherapy. The first clinical trial at Southampton University (UoS) showed Aβ removal but also reduced phospho-tau, supporting a link between these proteins. Similar evidence emerged in bigenic tau/Aβ Drosophila, a neurodegeneration model. During ageing in humans, the molecules of AD pathogenesis undergo ageing processes resulting in amino acid modifications that influence protein folding, functionality and interactions. Specially, pyroglutamate-modiﬁed Aβ (pEAβ) seems to be a key participant in AD pathology. Accordingly, the identification of markers of protein ageing is important to comprehend AD pathogenesis with relevance in therapies. Indeed, Aβ immunotherapy did not improve the cognition in the treated patients, potentially due to the absence of clearance of aged-modified Aβ implicated in pathological pathways. I propose to exploit the bigenic tau/Aβ drosophila to determine if pEAβ increases with ageing, driving AD pathogenesis; and whether pEAβ is the major Aβ form mediating Aβ/tau interaction. Taking advantage of the unique cohort of human unimmunized and immunized AD brains at UoS, I will investigate if pEAβ formation and its interaction with tau have been modified by Aβ immunotherapy. The results will expand the Aβ characterization as a pharmacological target, and support the rational design of a second generation of “Aβ immunotherapies”. This project sustains the EU strategies to tackle AD.
Echo State Networks for Developing Language Robots (ECHOROB)

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: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-03-01
End date: 2017-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 161968.8
EU funding (EUR): 161968.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In this project, we propose to build a biologically plausible model of sentence comprehension based on recurrent neural networks called reservoirs. Human sentence comprehension is mainly handled by prefrontal cortex areas, which have highly recurrent connectivity. In both biological and artificial neural networks this recurrence is supposed to enable the management of different aspects of time such as working memory and contextual information processing. Here, we propose to develop the Reservoir Computing (RC) paradigm – in particular Echo State Networks (ESN) with incremental learning – to model language comprehension at the sentence level given sequential inputs of words or phonemes. Based on our initial research, a model processing syntactic sentence structures was able to demonstrate generalisation and online prediction capabilities while processing sequential input. For less frequent inputs, the model provided potential explanation for human electrophysiological data. Building on this research, a new model is proposed with the following objectives: (1) processing of all semantic information enabling contextual processing and richer representation of meaning, (2) implementing incremental learning with noisy supervision enabling realistic developmental language acquisition from simple to complex sentences, (3) demonstrating that the model can learn from naïve user’s utterances in several languages, and (4) demonstrating the ability of this model when embodied in a robot to acquire extended language capabilities through human-robot interaction accounting for developmental schemes.

Keywords: reservoir computing,recurrent neural network,semantic role labelling,language comprehension model,human-robot interaction,incremental learning,robot developmental learning
Identifying Functional Proteins at DNA Breaks with Quantitative Proteomics in Primary Lymphocytes (DDR IN LYMPHOCYTES)

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: Denmark
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 230809.8
EU funding (EUR): 230809.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in our genome that are not repaired properly can lead to various developmental, immunological, and neurological disorders and are a major driver for genomic instability and tumorigenesis. The role of chromatin accessibility is of key importance to understand how the DNA/chromatin template senses and amplifies the DNA damage signal to properly repair the DNA in its native context. While all cells employ mechanisms for repairing DSBs, lymphocytes have uniquely adapted the same repair pathways for generating antibody diversity. During an immune response, B-lymphocytes undergo physiological DNA damage initiated by the activated-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) in a DNA rearrangement reaction called immunoglobulin heavy-chain (IgH) class-switch recombination (CSR). If AID-induced DNA breaks are not properly resolved, this B cell-specific DNA damage can lead to the formation of oncogenic chromosomal translocations; however, it is poorly understood how chromatin-associated factors coordinate this recombination reaction to suppress genomic instability. Here, I propose to use a novel approach combining chromatin immunoprecipitation and mouse genetics with state-of-the-art mass spectrometry-based label-free quantitative proteomics to identify and elucidate chromatin-bound proteins at DSBs. I will define the protein landscapes at DSBs in response to both γ-IR- and AID-induced DNA damage, based on our preliminary data, with unprecedented resolution and statistical confidence. I will perform detailed functional characterization of a subset of proteins using complementary approaches that investigate the repair of IR- and AID-induced DNA damage in lymphocytes. These combined unbiased proteomic and focused cell-based studies will deepen our understanding of the role of chromatin in the DNA damage response and DSB repair and may provide relevant targets for rationale design of therapeutic strategies for cancer or immunodeficiency disease.

Keywords: dna damage response,dna repair,dna double-strand breaks,class switch recombination,genome stability,immunodeficiency,chromatin biology,histone variants,quantitative proteomics,cancer
Dual Organo / Metal Desymmetrisation in Complex Alkaloid Synthesis (DOMDICAS)

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: 2015-02-02
End date: 2017-02-01
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The combination of an organocatalyst and a metal catalyst in a single transformation provides novel reactivity and high control in the creation of new bonds. However, this approach has never been applied to the synthesis of complex natural alkaloids. The aim of DOMDICAS is the development of a novel dual-catalysed asymmetric desymmetrisation methodology and its application to the synthesis of Strychnos alkaloids leuconicines A and B. In the first stage of the proposed research, a dual catalytic system, formed by an organocatalyst and a metal catalyst, will be developed for the construction of the key morphan core of leuconicines. The transformation will be carefully studied in order to obtain optimal reactivity and stereocontrol. The methodology will then be extended to a two-component arylative/vinylative version, which will make the desymmetrisation approach more general and useful. The development of this powerful methodology will be crucial for the proposed synthesis of leuconicines A and B. In the key desymmetrisation step the morphan core of the alkaloids will be constructed and the configuration of 3 of their 4 stereocenters will be established. The proposed synthesis permits the diversification of a common late-stage intermediate to other Strychnos alkaloids. The application of this novel methodology to the total synthesis of bioactive natural products such as leuconicines will provide enough amounts of material for thorough biological studies and would also constitute a milestone for the study of structure-activity relationships. Apart from the impact of the high-quality scientific results expected from this project, DOMDICAS will strongly enhance the future career prospects of the applicant as a mature and independent researcher in the European Research Area.

Keywords: asymmetric synthesis,organocatalysis,metal catalysis,desymmetrisation,alkaloids