Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
A study on people activity in private spaces: towards a multisensor network that meets privacy requirements (CARING4U)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-12-12
End date: 2013-12-11
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 280180.0
EU funding (EUR): 280180.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

People over 50 will rise by 35% between 2005 and 2050. The number of people over 85 will triple by 2050. OECD analyses forecast increasing costs as a result of ageing populations. Thus, attention to the needs of the elderly and disabled is today in all developed countries one of the great challenges of social and economic policies. The challenge is to serve people who, by being in vulnerable situations, need support to develop the most essential activities of daily living. Under these requirements, it raises the question how ICTs could be applied to the environments in which the users are, allowing to interact with people in a natural way, wherever they are needed, sensitive to the user and his context and act proactively. So, there is a worldwide interest in research and development of systems for the analysis of people’s activities, especially those most in need, elderly and disabled. These systems are composed of networks of sensors that can analyse the environment to extract knowledge from it in order to detect anomalous behaviour or send alarms to care services. Vision systems for behaviour analysis have spread in recent years, mainly by security demands and the reducing cost of the devices. However, most systems are applied to outdoor environments and, when they are installed indoor they are used in large facilities, in few cases within the home. This is due to two facts: necessity of multi-camera distributed systems, and privacy requirements from users. This project will deal with these aspects, designing and developing intelligent multimodal systems for the behaviour analysis of people in private environments, especially in their homes. People would accept these technology and services if we can ensure their privacy under any circumstance. So, techniques will be developed to ensure the privacy of those being studied. Information richness of these visual devices would open a new field of services for support people, but also their families, carers...

Keywords: intelligent interfaces,image processing,ambient assisted living,multimodality,behaviour analysis,privacy,ageing
The development of biologically active metal implants for improved osseointegration. (BIOSTEM)

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: Ireland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2012-01-02
End date: 2014-09-18
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 204587.2
EU funding (EUR): 204587.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common musculoskeletal disorder and affects approximately 355 million people world-wide. At present, no definitive cure exists for OA. Current treatment involves total joint replacement (TJR) which accounts for approximately 35% of arthritis related procedures. Presently more than 200,000 total knee replacements and 70,000 total hip replacements procedure are performed annually in the UK. One of the key aspects contributing to successful fixation is the rapid and complete integration of the device with bone (osseointegration). Without this biological reaction, stability is compromised potentially resulting in aseptic loosening which generally requires revision surgery. This can be detrimental for OA patients as the quality of bone is compromised, therefore, the potential for adequate implant stabilisation is substantially reduced. Several studies have identified the surface properties of an implant as being a major determinant of osseointegration. The addition of coatings have attracted interest, however, a major stumbling block for reliable application of coating technologies is potential failure during long-term implantation. Recent data suggests that impaired peri-implant osseointegration is associated with declined osteoprogenitor recruitment. The scientific objective of this project is to identify a strategy for enhancing rapid osseointegration of implant devices through 1) increased recruitment and attachment and 2) modulation of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) differentiation. To this end, we aim to develop specific cell targeting antibodies for optimal MSC recruitment and modulation of MSC differentiation for improved osteogenesis. If successful this project would achieve in providing a clinically feasible strategy for improving TJR which would directly impact several million patients annually.

Keywords: health sciences,stem cells,antibody,non-viral liposomal delivery
Interface engineering of ionic conductor multilayer and cathode nanocomposite thin film oxides (OXIDE INTERFACES)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-09-01
End date: 2013-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 200549.6
EU funding (EUR): 200549.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

European community is investing many resources into renewable energy research to come off the fossil source dependence and to reduce carbon oxide emissions. Solid Oxide Fuel Cell is one of the more promising solutions thanks to its high energy conversion efficiency and fuel flexibility. The industrial expansion of ionic conductors as commercial devices for energy production, oxygen generation or gas sensors, is related to the development of new electrolyte materials with higher ionic conductivity. Recent investigations have demonstrated an important interface effect in multilayer’s thin films with an enhancement of the ionic conductivity of several orders of magnitude. Our project intends to investigate, by a fundamental point of view, the physical and chemical bases that regulate this super ionic behaviour. We propose two different approaches to study this interface effect. The first one consists on designing interfaces parallel to the substrate by multilayer PLD deposition; multilayers will be based on different materials as the mixed ionic electronic conductor La0.9Sr0.1Ga0.8Mg0.2O3-δ, or the δ phase Bi2O3 high oxygen ion conductor. The second one employs a nanolithography method to engineer ionic conductor interfaces perpendicular to the substrate which will be formed by ionic conductor YSZ columns embedded in a second thin film. In both strategies the use of different single crystal substrates will permit to tailor film stress tensile or compressive and the relative interface defect formations. Top class facilities as Titan HTEM and LEIS TOF SIMS will be essential to correlate defect formation, strain and dopant segregation to the interface effect in ionic conductivity enhancement. Nanolithography will be also utilized to design new dense nanocomposite cathodes formed by columns of an ionic conductor set into an electronic conductor thin film. This model system will offer new tools to investigate the interface effect on the cathodes’ oxygen reduction reaction

Keywords: material science,it-sofc,multilayers,interfacial effect,epitaxial heterostructures,nanosphere lithography,ionic conductivity,space charge region,nanocomposite
The effect of functionally targeted optical stimulation on visual perception (STIMVISION)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-10-01
End date: 2013-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 200049.6
EU funding (EUR): 200049.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Understanding how neural activity corresponds to visual perception has been a milestone question in neuroscience research. Traditionally this question has been addressed using a ‘correlative’ approach, i.e. by correlating neural activity with different perceptual states or different sensory conditions. Although many studies have shed light on how perception corresponds to neural activity, a causal relationship between the occurrence of particular neural events and the perception of sensory stimuli has yet to be established. In this project we aim to answer this question by using recently developed genetic tools for remote control of neuronal firing that now permit the detailed investigation of how neural activity influences behavior. Specifically, we propose to use two-photon calcium imaging to recognize single neurons with particular functional properties in mouse visual cortex and accurately identify their location within the network. Subsequently, we will use this information to transfect these neurons with channelrhodopsin-2 (Chr2) using single cell electroporation. Chr2 is a light gated ion channel, which enables precise triggering of action potential firing by flashes of blue light. We will then test the influence of induced action potentials in this functionally defined subset of neurons on visual detection performance of mice. This approach will enable us to determine how many and which neurons are important for visual performance and assess their contribution to visual perception.

Keywords: systems neuroscience,visual perception,mouse visual cortex,optical stimulation,two-photon imaging,channelrhodopsin
The role of host personality and stress responses in parasite dynamics (PARA-PEST)

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-2010-IIF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-09-01
End date: 2013-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 201049.6
EU funding (EUR): 201049.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The study of personality - consistent individual differences in animal behaviour - is a rapidly expanding research field. Like humans, animals may be categorized on personality axes such as bold-shy and aggressive-passive. These traits have both costs and benefits. However, the mechanisms underlying individual variation in personality and the consequences for evolutionary fitness are largely unknown. For the first time, links between personality and stress physiology (a potential determinant of personality) will be investigated in the context of parasite infection. Using a fish host-gyrodactylid parasite model, this fellowship will (1) quantify the links between personality and stress, (2) assess the susceptibility to infection of hosts that vary in personality/stress physiology, and (3) determine how environmental stress during development affects adult personality and subsequent parasite infection. This multi-disciplinary project will integrate techniques from behavioural ecology, physiology and parasitology, to provide a 'step change' in our understanding of the causes and consequences of personality. Gyrodactylids are important ectoparasites, ubiquitous on teleost fish, which have huge economic impacts, particularly in the Norwegian salmon industry. Knowledge of how stress during development ultimately affects disease susceptibility, has important implications for fisheries, agriculture and captive-rearing programmes for conservation. However, the results from this project are applicable to disease dynamics in a wide range of hosts, including humans. Overall, determining how variation in host personality affects infection rates will provide a fundamental advance in our understanding of host-parasite dynamics.

Keywords: behaviour,personality,stress response,hormones cortisol,development,phenotypic plasticity,host-parasite interactions,poecilia reticulata,gyrodactylids,disease dynamics,aquaculture
Probing the effect of Time Reversal Symmetry breaking by the application of a local magnetic field in topological insulators. (MAGNETOP)

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,Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IOF, 2010)
Start date: 2012-05-01
End date: 2015-08-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 222920.0
EU funding (EUR): 222920.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Electronic states that could propagate long distances without power dissipation and with spin coherence (i.e. without losing information about their spin state) would be desirable for the design of energy efficient electronic devices and to make reality theoretical proposals of quantum computation devices. Topological insulators are recently discovered materials that may potentially offer these foreseeable properties. These materials are insulating in bulk, but present metallic edge states that are naturally preserved from backscattering by time reversal symmetry. In other words, the propagation direction and the spin state are correlated in these systems, so in order to be scattered, electrons must flip their spin (break time reversal symmetry). Experimental results already indicate the existence of such states but still a huge experimental effort is necessary to reach the necessary understanding and the technical skills to take advantage of the predicted surprising properties of these materials. Specially promising are the expected consequences of the application of a local magnetic field to these topologically protected states. Between other consequences, this would allow the confinement and manipulation of these states and would be therefore a first step towards the fabrication of theoretically proposed devices based in the special properties of these materials. We propose here a comprehensive study of the effect of magnetic field in different topological systems (HgTe quantum wells and the so called 3D topological insulators) by means of state of the art nanofabrication and characterization techniques, including an innovative combination of scanning probe microscopies and electronic transport measurements. Our aim is to provide a complete (local and non-local) picture of the electronic transport and electronic structure characteristics of these materials as well as to provide means to manipulate and confine their exotic topological states.

Keywords: physical sciences,condensed matter properties,electronic,magnetic and superconductive properties
Spectroscopy of cosmic dust analogs: study of the interaction with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHCNP)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-10-01
End date: 2013-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 162742.4
EU funding (EUR): 162742.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The main goal of the astrophysical laboratory-based studies is to identify and/or replicate in the laboratory the materials and processes which occur in the universe. The materials on the scope of this project are the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and the particles which constitute the cosmic dust. Both of them are present in a number of regions of space and – according to recent results – are simultaneously formed during the condensation processes from the gas phase in circumstellar environments. Therefore, the adsorption of the PAHs by the dust particles must occur in those regions. The aim of this project is to study the changes induced on the PAHs by the adsorption on the dust analogs in the laboratory, with two main objectives; 1) characterization of the spectroscopic changes upon adsorption, and 2) studying the evolution of the PAHs adsorbed under UV radiation and temperature changes. Ultimately, these studies will provide the astronomers with the necessary information to positively identify these species in the interstellar medium.

Keywords: experimental physics,cosmic chemistry,spectroscopy,surface chemistry,surface physics,nanotechnology
Assessing climate change impacts over large areas of primary forests in southern South America (FORECOFUN-SSA)

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: Switzerland,Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2012-03-01
End date: 2014-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 174380.8
EU funding (EUR): 174380.8
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Many uncertainties still exist about forest dynamic responses to climate change. One major source of uncertainty is how mechanisms at the scale of individuals are linked to ecosystem-level functioning (i.e. carbon exchange, water balance and biodiversity). This project will address this question by developing a modeling framework to analyze forest-climate interactions and ecological mechanisms controlling the response of forests to climate change. The framework will be used to develop a mechanistic forest ecosystem model and examine the impact of multiple, interacting effects of climate change on forests at a broad spatial scale (>10 km²). This aim will be exemplified addressing forest functioning of primary temperate rainforests of southern South America (SSA, 37-43°S). Tree species traits that can account for the variation in tree species dominance along large-scale climatic gradients will be identified, and used to constrain parameters controlling species responses to climate. The model will be calibrated and tested using an extensive field data collection of SSA forests obtained by this project. Simulation experiments will be conducted to investigate multiple, interacting effects of climate change on forests under different future scenarios. Results from this project will contribute in narrowing uncertainties related to future ecosystem services provided by primary forests under a changing environment. This research can contribute to determine climate change threats on biodiversity of SSA and produce a high quality baseline data for future research. By estimating carbon and water fluxes from SSA forests at regional scales, the proposed research will contribute for the first time to understanding ecosystems feedbacks with the atmosphere in this region. The results will help to assess the role of these forests in the carbon cycle. The generalized modeling approach will also produce a tool applicable to other forest ecosystems.

Keywords: forest ecosystems (climate change),ecosystem modelling (climate change),plant ecology,ecosystems,global change
Defining a new research topic in astrophysics: Rapidly changing magnetic fields as the missing link to the physics of relativistic jets (RELATIVISTIC JETS)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-11-01
End date: 2013-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 168065.6
EU funding (EUR): 168065.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Black holes and neutron stars (compact objects) attracting matter from their surroundings are known to launch continuous jets of matter and energy that are released at close to the speed of light, but the physical process of jet formation is, after 30 years of research, still poorly understood. We (both myself and members of the host institution) have recently and independently identified the signature of the magnetic field close to the base of these jets for the first time, via optical/infrared polarimetric observations of these objects. The magnetic field structure is found to be highly variable on short timescales (minutes to seconds or less), and data that provide polarimetry at moderate (minutes to seconds) and fast (less than seconds) time resolution are required to investigate the properties of the jets. Careful analysis of new data (some of which have already been acquired), adopting new, novel techniques will provide tight constraints for models and simulations of jet formation and acceleration, finally helping to answer the question 'how do compact objects launch relativistic jets, and how much energy do they release into space?'. The results will be applicable to jets launched from X-ray binary systems in our galaxy (microquasars), supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies and gamma-ray bursts, all of which harbour compact objects. I wish to define and exploit this brand new field in astrophysical research by combining my experience and knowledge of jets from compact objects with the expertise of rapid variability and polarization of compact objects by several scientists in the host institution, advancing my skills and expertise. Defining and pioneering this new research field at the host institution is essential for my career development and will set up the perfect path towards a tenure track position.

Keywords: physical sciences,astronomy,physics,astrophysics,relativity