Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Fracture mechanics of microstructured composites incorporating intrinsic length-scales (MEMIC)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Italy
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Inspired by biological systems, artificial composite materials nowadays may be micro-tailored with a hierarchical structure, or may be produced with sculptured chiral structures, or with stabilized negative-stiffness inclusions. The result is that these new materials can achieve surprisingly excellent mechanical properties. The technological application of these new high-performance composite materials is limited by fracture nucleation and propagation at nano and micro scales. In fact it is very difficult to simultaneously achieve high values of strength and toughness, for which ordinarily there is a trade-off. The aim of this project is the development of new models of fracture mechanics for innovative composite materials, bridging together the different length-scales and thus overcoming the main limitations of linear fracture mechanics (LEFM). In fact, since LEFM is a scale-free theory, it is unable to characterize materials with microstructure and to describe size-effects at small scales. The goal will be achieved by a novel multiscale approach to fracture mechanics combining continuum and discrete modelling. In particular, at the microscale the heterogeneous microstructure of the composite material will be described as a continuum micropolar medium incorporating appropriate length-scales, thus capable of capturing size-effects. At the nanoscale the discrete structure of the material will be described in terms of lattice models in order to understand the mechanism of dissipation and the properties of waves generated by propagating cracks. The continuum and discrete modelling will be combined through the concept of structural interface, where a discrete structure representing the interface of finite thickness is embedded in a continuum body. These models will have an impact on the design of new artificial composite materials which combine high strength with uncompromised toughness properties.

Keywords: computational mechanics,fracture mechanics,microstructured materials,composite materials,structural interfaces
Labor-market returns to postsecondary education in Europe and the United States (PSE RETURNS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Ireland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The overarching aim of this research project is to study the labour-market returns to postsecondary education in both Europe and the United States. Postsecondary educational offerings are constantly evolving, but the labour-market returns to many of these offerings are not well understood. Dr. Jepsen will use state-of-the-art techniques to produce and disseminate peer-reviewed economics journal articles that will advance the Work Programme in Economics by increasing economists’ understanding of the labour-market returns to postsecondary education. The fellowship will enable the researcher to integrate his research from years of employment and education in the United States to Europe. The first research objective of the project is to study the labour-market returns to the General Educational Development (GED). The GED is a test for individuals who do not complete secondary school in the U.S. Specific tasks for this objective are to complete one GED paper and submit a follow-up paper to an economics journal. The second objective of the project is to conduct research on proprietary (also known as for-profit) universities in the United States. Detailed administrative data on proprietary school attendance and labour-market outcomes have been collected. Specific tasks for this objective include producing and disseminating one or more research papers on proprietary universities. The third objective of the project is to use the expertise on labour-market returns gained in the first two objectives to initiate a research agenda on the returns to postsecondary education in Europe. The focus is on institutions such as Institutes of Technology in Ireland that, like proprietary schools in the U.S., have fewer entry and completion requirements than traditional undergraduate universities. Specific tasks for this objective include producing one research paper focusing on Europe.

Keywords: labor-market returns,postsecondary education,europe,united states
Reflective Game Design (REFLECT)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Malta
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Reflective game design concerns games that are designed to trigger critical reflection in their players, particularly in light of what game actions may mean in a larger socio-cultural context. Critical reflection, in this context, refers to consideration of our values, practices, actions, and awareness of agency in relation to socio-cultural, gender, religious, and economic forces as a means for change, action, and empowerment. Reflective game design can be used for any domain in which reflection may serve as an effective mode of learning or persuasion, for example, to promote safer behaviours related to use of digital media, to prompt community conversation about the integration of refugees, to temper racial conflicts, to promote green behaviours, to change women’s attitudes towards getting regular cervical smear tests, etc. While there is a growing body of research related to reflective design, critical design, and serious game design, none of these existing research areas focus on the specific intersection of games and reflection. REFLECT is intended to address this gap in research knowledge and design practice, especially as games seem particularly well-suited as a medium for inducing reflection. Goals of the REFLECT project are to explore how people experience reflection in games, capture design knowledge of how to successfully design reflection-inducing game experiences, and develop games following a reflective game design approach that successfully induce reflection in their players, facilitating transfer from game experiences to everyday cultural and social realities.

Keywords: reflective game design,reflective games,reflective design,critical games,critical play,serious games,player experience,game design,design methods,case study,game studies
Domestic and International Determinants of Election Violence (ELECTION VIOLENCE)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-10-01
End date: 2018-09-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Recent elections in Afghanistan, Kenya, the Cote D’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Pakistan experienced substantial violence, yet the causes and consequences of election violence remain poorly understood. This project conceptualizes election violence as a sub-type of political violence in which actors employ coercion to affect the electoral process or that arises in the context of electoral competition. A major difficulty in analyzing its causes and consequences is that no comprehensive data source on the incidence of election-related violence exists. To alleviate this problem, the proposed research project will collect data on election violence for all countries with competitive elections for the 1990-2010 period. Once complete, the data will publicly available. A second objective of the project is to develop theoretical arguments on the domestic and international determinants of election violence. Drawing on existing case study research, the argument posits that the competitiveness and quality of elections affect the likelihood of electoral violence. With regard to the international determinants of election violence, the proposal hypothesizes that the presence of international organizations supervising the electoral process can induce shifts in the use of violent intimidation, thus increasing the probability of violent intimidation in the pre-election period. The final objective is to systematically evaluate the theoretical expectations using data collected by the project. The project will transfer knowledge gained by organizing conference panels, presenting project results at academic conferences, publishing results in peer-reviewed journals, integrating political science students as research assistants, and outreach activities that include meetings with practitioners engaged in mitigating election violence. Information on election-related violent events collected by the project will be available to other researchers and the general public through a user-friendly website.

Keywords: election violence,election fraud,quality of elections,competitiveness of elections,violent intimidation,international election observers
Suppression of Enzymes Required for Progression of LUng Cancer (SERPLUC)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Suppression of enzymes required for progression of lung cancer: we propose to combine an elegant genetically engineered mouse model (GEMM) of lung cancer with an in vivo RNAi screening approach in order to functionally identify a) biomarkers of early lung cancer development and b) candidate therapeutic targets whose activities are specifically required for the transition from benign to malignant disease. We will use emerging RNA sequencing technology to identify changes in gene expression associate with early cancer progression in GEMMs of lung cancer and then select targets for RNAi suppression based on a stringent set of selection criteria aimed at zeroing in on potential drug targets, i.e.. proteins with enzymatic activity of any druggable nature that increase with tumour progression. We will then generate focused libraries of shRNAs to suppress expression of selected targets and screen their efficacy in vivo using a cunning "drop-out" screening method. We will then subject our best candidates to rigorous validation in order to assess their suitability as therapuetic targets in the context of human lung cancer.

Keywords: genetically engineered mouse models,nsclc,lung cancer,therapeutic targets,rnai,in vivo screen,myc,kras,tumour progression,adenoma,adenocarcinoma,invasion,microenvironment
T-cell based immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer - basic concepts and pre-clinical development (TIPC_TIL_IP)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) has a devastating prognosis and novel treatment approaches are urgently needed. T cell-based immunotherapy making use of in vitro expanded tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) has recently emerged as a potent therapy in melanoma, with the potential to cure even patients with advanced disease. We are currently working towards the development of TIL therapy for PDA on basis of our following findings: • Although PDA has been branded poorly immunogenic, we found most tumors contain a rich immune infiltrate that comprises high numbers of T-cells • Most T-cells display an activated phenotype, while the fraction of CD4+ T-regulatory cells is not higher than that found in peripheral blood of healthy subjects • TILs from PDA biopsies can readily be cultured and expanded, with the same efficiency as melanoma TILs. Given these findings, the malignancy of PDA and the high unmet medical need it represents, we strongly feel that TIL therapy could offer the potent, fast-acting treatment approach we are looking for. Our project has two major aims: • To achieve pre-clinical proof of concept for the anti-tumor action of PDA-derived TILs, as a prelude to clinical application of TIL therapy in this disease. • To obtain in-depth insight in the character and antigen-specificity of the natural TIL response in PDA Our effort is part of a multi-disciplinary program on PDA that is based on the availability of large numbers of tumor biopsies from the European Pancreas Center, one of the world’s largest clinical centers for pancreatic surgery (>400 PDA resections yearly). Within this program, samples from each tumor will be used not only for TIL isolation, but also for establishing xenografts, exome sequencing and histological evaluation of tumor biological/immunological biomarkers. The availability of matched xenografts and exome/histology data will allow us to incisively study the functionality of our TIL cultures.

Keywords: pancreatic cancer,immunotherapy,t cells,tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes,tumor-microenvironment,xenografts,antigens,mutanome,pre-clinical,t cell receptor repertoire,immunohistochemistry
Exploiting homomers to reveal new principles of protein interaction, polymerization and aggregation (HOMOMERS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Israel
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-12-01
End date: 2017-11-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In the protein universe, 30 to 50% of proteins self-assemble to form symmetrical complexes consisting of multiple copies of themselves, called homomers. A peculiarity of homomers is that any mutation is necessarily repeated in all subunits. In a symmetric dimer for example, any mutation of one copy is also found in the second identical copy. Depending where the mutation occurs on the surface, the repetitions of the mutation may or may not be “synergistic”, i.e., participate together to the formation of a new self-interaction. We propose that the consequences of a mutation depend mainly on two factors: (i) its location on the homomer’s surface, which influences its synergy and (ii) the symmetry type of the homomer. We anticipate that these two factors are tightly coupled to the probability that a random mutation triggers the infinite polymerization and aggregation of a homomer. We thus propose a two-pronged approach to analyze this question. (i) In silico, using homomers of known three-dimensional structure, we will infer a “risk factor” for every surface residue, reflecting its probability to be associated with polymerization. We anticipate that high-risk residues are, together with their environment, under pressure to avoid un-wanted interactions. We also anticipate those sites to be under stronger evolutionary constraints. (ii) In vivo, we will artificially introduce amino acid substitutions in homomers at sites that are at high or low-risk, and quantify the potential of these mutations to trigger aggregation or polymerization of the homomer. This project, which combines both theoretical and experimental biology, will help us unveil new basic physico-chemical properties of proteins and of their potential to form unwanted aggregates in cells. This knowledge will contribute to our better understanding of important diseases involving uncontrolled self-association of proteins, such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Huntingdon’s, or the sickle cell disease.

Keywords: protein interaction,protein structure,homomers,homo-oligomers,self-assembly,protein polymerization,protein evolution,symmetry,aggregation
Dynamically controlling the properties of complex materials with light (DCCM)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-08-01
End date: 2017-07-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project will use short pulses of light to understand, manipulate and control the properties of complex materials on nanometre lengthscales and femtosecond timescales. Complex materials have strongly coupled electronic, lattice and magnetic subsystems. This coupling makes the material properties difficult to explain with conventional theoretical techniques, but is responsible for the exotic phenomena that are observed, such as high temperature superconductivity. One method to unravel these interactions is to use ultrafast optical pulses to excite one, typically the electronic, subsystem on a timescale much faster than it couples to other components. This allows the energy flow through the system to be monitored in order to ascertain which parameters are most strongly coupled. In addition, exciting a specific subsystem can also lead to new and interesting properties to emerge. This demonstrates new ways to manipulate, dynamically, the properties of complex materials by light to access new phenomena. However, how these properties emerge still remains largely unknown. My research will address the questions surrounding this issue by attempting to answer, how these properties form and interact from the initial state, how these properties can be manipulated by different excitation mechanism, what properties can be induced and what do they tell us about the properties that define the underlying system? The project will look at both temporal and spatial dynamics to understand how correlations and interactions spread spatially and dynamically through an evolving system. These experiments will require combining a range of microscopic, spectroscopic and femtoscopic techniques in a new and innovative way, ranging from lab based experiments to the use of worldwide user facilities. The research will be fundamental in nature, asking questions that are at heart of condensed matter physics. However, the results will have technological implications that may be exploited.

Keywords: correlated materials,antiferromagnetism,soft x-ray
Unveiling the functions of mTERF proteins in plant organelles (PLANTMTERF)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2017-08-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The functions of many plant genes remain unknown even in the extensively studied model plant Arabidopsis. Photosynthesis and respiration rely on the expression of genes in chloroplasts and mitochondria. Gene expression in plant organelles is particularly complex and requires the participation of nuclear encoded factors, which are imported into the organelles. Genetic and bioinformatic analyses suggest that many hundreds of nuclear genes influence organellar gene expression. The proteins of the mTERF family are specific to metazoan and plants, and are all predicted to localize to mitochondria or chloroplasts. Whereas the mTERF family is small (3-4 members) in animals and regulates gene expression in mitochondria, about 30 members are found in higher plants but their molecular functions and biochemical properties are largely unexplored. We will test the hypothesize that members of this family influence mitochondria and chloroplast gene expression by interacting with RNA or DNA in organelles. We will use Arabidopsis and maize reverse-genetics, in vitro nucleic-acid binding assays, and a coimmunoprecipitation assay to identify the native RNA or DNA ligands of representative members of the mTERF family in plants.

Keywords: plants,arabidopsis,maize,chloroplast,mitochondria,mterf,gene expression,rna,dna,nucleic-acid binding protein,helical repeat