Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Coupled-cluster methods for theoretical X-ray spectroscopies (CCXSPEC)

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-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-04-01
End date: 2012-01-31
Duration (months): 22.0
Total project cost (EUR): 264381.5
EU funding (EUR): 264381.5
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

To complement the current rapid developments in experimental x-ray spectroscopy, exemplified by a number of new synchrotron installations both in Europe and outside Europe, a strategy for high-accuracy calculations of the relevant physical observables obtained in various modern x-ray spectroscopies is proposed. Specifically, new coupled cluster methods will be developed that allow the theoretical determination of such data with unprecedented accuracy. This will be accomplished by combining the recent developments in general coupled cluster methods with that damped response theory that allows for simulation of finite life-times.

Keywords: quantum chemistry,computational chemistry,electronic structure,theoretical spectroscopy
Coupled Polyoxometalate – Hydrogenase Catalysts for Photocatalytic Water Splitting (POMHYDCAT)

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,United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IOF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-09-15
End date: 2013-09-14
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 242927.8
EU funding (EUR): 242927.8
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Alternatives to fossil fuels are of rapidly increasing importance, driven by concerns over energy security, cost, and global warming. In response to these concerns, the EU has set the target of obtaining 20% of all energy from renewable sources by 2020. A key challenge in renewable energy is finding an efficient way to convert plentiful solar energy into a source of chemical energy which can be stored, used for applications such as transportation, and consumed without releasing carbon dioxide – that is, a means of using solar energy to split water into molecular hydrogen and oxygen. This fellowship aims to develop a novel approach to complete water splitting, taking an interdisciplinary approach that combines recent breakthroughs in polyoxometalate-based water oxidation catalysts and enzymatic hydrogen evolution catalysts. The proposed hybrid systems will be among the first complementary polyoxometalate-enzyme catalysts; they also promise to become the first molecular catalytic systems to efficiently split water under visible light irradiation in mild conditions.

Keywords: cluster chemistry,bioinorganic chemistry,photocatalysis,water splitting
Engineering Semantic Rich Internet Applications (SEMARI)

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: 2010-10-01
End date: 2012-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 146717.0
EU funding (EUR): 146717.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Web Science is a newly established field of science, which exclusively focuses on the study of the Web. Two main challenges are set: 1/ to study the Web on a macro scale, 2/ to engineer the Web to facilitate further development. This proposal is set within the field of Web Science, and addresses the second challenge: to engineer modern Web applications that, through their intrinsic design features, form a solid foundation for future developments in the Web. One key ingredient for the future Web is Semantic Web technology, which allows to unambiguously and uniformly describe online and real world entities and the relations between them, and to effectively link data from different sources. Other desired ingredients are increased responsiveness and a richer user interface, both offered by Rich Internet Applications (RIA’s). In this context, it is thus our objective to develop and validate a sound approach to design and build modern Web applications (RIA’s), in a sound and systematic way, which make their data explicitly available for linking, re-use and sharing, and allow to easily link and integrate existing semantic information. To realize this objective, this proposal aims to extend the existing successful MDA-based software production method OO-Method. It relies on the specification of a series of conceptual models at different levels of abstraction (functionality, interaction, presentation, etc), and a powerful supporting model compiler to generate, from the conceptual models, the corresponding application. OO-Method is primarily targeting regular software systems, yet has some extensions for Web (1.0) applications, called OOWS. This proposal aims to extend the conceptual models, primitives and supporting framework of the OO-Method and OOWS to support the development of state-of-the-art Rich Internet Applications that explicitly expose their data using Semantic Web technology, and are able seamlessly integrate existing semantic data sources.

Keywords: web science,web engineering,world wide web,rich internet applications,semantic web,engineering methods
Microbial and viral ecology of hot spring environments with emphasis on 454 pyrosequencing and microbial and viral interactions (MICVIRECOLHOTSPRINGS)

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: Norway
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IOF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-08-15
End date: 2013-08-14
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 265393.4
EU funding (EUR): 265393.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Lithotrophic organisms use inorganic substrate for biosynthesis. These “rock eating” microorganisms living in subsurface environments comprise great proportion of the biomass found on and inside our earth and hot springs represent accessible windows to sample the deep biosphere. Microorganisms isolated from hot springs are known to use hydrogen as an energy source. In this project we will add hydrogen and monitor growth of both microbial cells and viruses during in situ experiments in Yellowstone National Park hot spring sediments. Changes in total cell numbers will be monitored, and total DNA and expressed mRNA will be extracted and sequenced using cutting edge metagenomic techniques. Viruses are known to inhabit hot springs, and they will be studied using transmission electron microscopy and 454 pyrosequencing of DNA from viral communities. The project aims to study bacterial and viral interactions in both batch cultures and continuous cultures to gain knowledge of evolution over time in environments known to inhabit deeply branching microorganisms close to the root of the phylogenetic tree of life. We will study the effect of top down predation by viruses on the regulation of microbial and viral diversity. This proposal lies within the field of environmental / geomicrobiology, where we will study microbial and viral interactions within the environment the organisms are found. The applicant for the fellowship, Hallgerd Eydal holds a PhD in microbiology and has expertise in working with subsurface samples and viral ecology. During this project she will get training in new methods at new locations. The outgoing host is John Spear at Colorado School of Mines in the United States. Spear has ten years experience of working in Yellowstone, and a lab with skills in metagenomic analysis. The returning host is the University of Bergen in Norway with professors Lise Øvreås and Ruth-Anne Sandaa - skilled scientists within microbial diversity and viral ecology, respectively.

Keywords: natural sciences,microbiology,hot springs,454 pyrosequencing,viral ecology
Ecology and evolution of ant communities in tropical ecosystems (ANT BIODIVERSITY)

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: Czechia
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IOF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-09-01
End date: 2013-06-30
Duration (months): 34.0
Total project cost (EUR): 209458.85
EU funding (EUR): 209458.85
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project proposes a comprehensive study of the ecology and evolution of tropical ants at the community, species and population levels. It will be based on unique data set of 11000 samples collected from 17 sites in New Guinea and northern Australia. This study will be the first to examine species distributional data combined with their population and species phylogenetic relationships across a large regional spatial scale. The multidisciplinary methodology will permit the novel analysis of the environmental, evolutionary and geological factors influencing the diversity and distribution of ants in lowland tropical ecosystems. This project will use state of the art techniques in phylogeography and community ecology to address important questions of wide relevance about the evolution of insect communities, and will provide important knowledge relevant to conservation of tropical rainforest and savanna ecosystems. The proposed research will be combined with high quality training in phylogenetic and population genetic methodology, provided by world leading experts in this area.

Keywords: biodiversity inventory: systematics phylogeny taxonomy,tropical ecosystems,biogeography,tropical forest,phylogeny,molecular markers and recognition,biodiversity status and trends,ants
Plasmonic Biosensors based on nanometric optical Resonators integrated with point-light-sources for label free detection of DNA (PLASBIORES)

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,Denmark
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IOF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-10-06
End date: 2015-06-01
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 245865.75
EU funding (EUR): 245865.75
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The objective of this project is to study the confinement of light in nanometric apertures in a metal film, the change of the transmission properties for very small changes in the refractive index inside the holes, and the subsequent development and fabrication of a device that serves to visualize singe DNA molecules, stretched in a channel and assembled into the nanohles, withouth fluorescent markers. For this, during the first stage (2 years in Berkeley), the fellow will study theoretically the system, will fabricate the devices, and study the transmission of light trhough single nanometric holes using the capabilities of the host group for optical characterization of nanostructures. Then, the sensitivity to the presence of DNA will be evaluated, by measuring the changes after specific hybridization inside the holes. The introduction of single nanoparticles (fluorescent or metallic) in the holes will be studied. During the reintegration stage (1 year in Copenhagen), the fellow will integrate the structures as part of a micro/nano fluidic device, for stretching and assembling of DNA single molecules into the pits, and develope the methodology to measure the change in the transmission trough the holes (when filled) to enable lable free visualization of the strands.

Keywords: physical sciences,plasmonics,optics,nanofabrication,nanoimprint lithography,dna single molecule,dna stretching,micro/nano fluidic channel
Stochastic Mortality and the Dispersion of Subjective Estimates of Survival Probabilities – Evidence from 11 European Countries (DISPERSION)

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: 2010-10-01
End date: 2012-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 161335.2
EU funding (EUR): 161335.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Recently, the analysis of stochastic processes for mortality change have gained considerable interest in insurance and finance research. This project aims at assessing how stochastic mortality is really perceived by individuals. Stochastic mortality, or aggregate mortality risk, refers to the fact that future mortality rates are uncertain. Uncertainty arises from the fact that the drivers behind changes in mortality over time, e.g. medical progress or general living and nutrition conditions, are themselves outcomes of stochastic processes. For individuals, theoretical models indicate that the uncertainty around future mortality rates is an important determinant for saving and asset allocation, especially annuitization decisions. This project therefore wants to assess how stochastic mortality is perceived in reality. Lacking data on direct subjective estimates of the volatility of mortality rates we aim to use methods developed in research analyzing the information content of the dispersion of financial analysts’ estimates. We can utilize a rich micro-level data set, the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), a project financed by the European Commission. SHARE covers major EU countries and includes subjective estimates of individuals’ survival probabilities. Our aim is to investigate if, like in the analysts’ forecasts, the dispersion of respondents’ answers is informative in the sense that the dispersion is linked to the actual gender, age, and country-specific volatility of mortality. Estimates for actual volatility of mortality rates will be obtained by calibrating a standard model for stochastic mortality with data from the Human Mortality Database. Our results will be highly relevant in the context of pension reform. For pension reforms which emphasize individually managed retirement savings and asset allocation, it crucial that individuals make informed decisions. Our results deliver relevant input for the design of pension systems.

Keywords: pension reform,stochastic mortality,risk perception
Computation of Nuclear Magnetic Relaxation in Paramagnetic Systems (CNMRPS)

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: Finland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-04-01
End date: 2012-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 169888.0
EU funding (EUR): 169888.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The spectral parameters of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) provide information on molecular structure and properties. Furthermore, NMR relaxation conveys information on molecular dynamics, rotation, chemical exchange and collisions. Paramagnetic NMR (pNMR) is gaining importance in chemistry, structural biology, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and materials science. Open-shell molecules experience the sc. paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) due to time-dependent interaction of the nuclear spin with the unpaired electron(s). Besides dynamics, the different contributions to PRE also encode structural information. Phenomenological theories describing PRE involve time correlation and spectral density functions of either the time-averaged or instantaneous hyperfine interaction, in the sc. Curie and electronic relaxation, respectively. These models rely on approximations such as single-exponential decay of the correlation functions, and simplified models of molecular dynamics. We will apply the full arsenal of state-of-the-art computational chemistry on PRE, by first performing ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, and then applying quantum-chemical calculations of the magnetic properties for instantaneous simulation snapshots. We apply the Redfield relaxation theory for the Curie mechanism, using the novel and general methodology for the pNMR shielding tensor developed by the host group, as well as the electron spin relaxation rate. The electronic relaxation of nuclear spins is then approached both by the semiclassical Redfield theory applied to the instantaneous dipolar interaction between the electronic and nuclear spins, as well as by fully quantum-mechanical, coupled time-evolution of the two systems. Methods are developed with the aqueous solution of the Ni(II) ion used as prototype system. Applications to Gd(aq) as well as endohedral Gd fullerenes are investigated, with impact on the development of novel, efficient and safe MRI contrast agents.

Keywords: nuclear magnetic resonance,paramagnetic molecules,relaxation theory,quantum chemistry,molecular dynamics simulation,curie spin,electronic relaxation
Investigating the anti-apoptotic properties of NleH, an effector of the diarrheagenic pathogens Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC). (ANTI-APOPTOTIC NLEH)

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: 2010-04-01
End date: 2012-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 182103.2
EU funding (EUR): 182103.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) are closely related diarrheagenic pathogens that are important causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, especially in young children. EPEC and EHEC are known as attaching and effacing pathogens because they intimately adhere to gut enterocytes and instigate effacement of brush border microvilli. Injection of bacterial effector proteins via a type III secretion system (T3SS) is an integral part of the EPEC and EHEC infection strategy. One such effector, EspF, binds and induces degradation of the anti-apoptotic protein AbcF2, however, although infected cells show early apoptotic symptoms, they do not present late apoptosis signs. The T3SS effectors NleH1 and NleH2 were recently found to have a broad range anti-apoptotic activity which may neutralise the effect of EspF and promote cell survival. In this proposal we wish to investigate the anti-apoptotic activity of NleH, in particular its binding to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) anti-apoptotic protein Bax inhibitor-1 (BI-1) and to PDZ domain-containing protein/s.

Keywords: cell biology,bacteriology
DNA sensor in polymer photonic crystal band-edge lasers with integrated nanochannels (DNA-DAR)

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: Denmark
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IIF, 2009)
Start date: 2010-11-01
End date: 2012-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 207629.0
EU funding (EUR): 207629.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The proposed project will develop a polymer-based optofluidic lab-on-a-chip device to study the physical dynamics of label-free DNA molecules. DNA contains the complete genetic code of an organism, yet it is the interaction of DNA with other molecular species that determine how that code is interpreted. Moreover, it has been suggested that there are other factors beyond the genomic sequence that are involved in an organism’s complexity. Subsequently, this project will study the physical dynamics of DNA by spatially profiling its restriction and extension attributes as it propagates along integrated nanochannels. The operating principle of the device will be based on the refractive index (RI) perturbation caused by a DNA molecule as it passes through an optical detector region. The optical detection scheme will use band-edge lasers in photonic crystals to monitor subtle shifts in wavelength caused by the change in RI. This will result in a label-free approach to characterise DNA, circumventing the negative effects of dye staining – a common DNA investigation technique – that prevents true measurements of the molecule’s behaviour. The device material will be polymer-based, offering an affordable development trajectory via nanoimprint technology. In addition, polymer is a suitable material for introducing active dopants, such as fluorescent dyes, to generate the photonic crystal band-edge laser components. Finally, the integration of nanochannels to the devices offers several novel advantages: the nanochannel provides a straightforward approach to deliver DNA to the detector regions; the nanochannel confines DNA, causing an extension of its molecular conformation and allowing access to structural detail otherwise difficult to obtain; and the nanochannel dimensions provide an opportunity to form slot waveguides, a mechanism that drastically increases optical mode intensities within narrow channels to significantly improve detection sensitivity.

Keywords: molecular biophysics,photonic crystals,soft matter and polymer physics