Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
The modulation of vestibular reflexes during self-generated head-neck movements (HEADS-UP)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-07-01
End date: 2016-10-31
Duration (months): 28.0
Total project cost (EUR): 203633.3
EU funding (EUR): 203633.3
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Stable head posture is something most people take for granted, and is essential to perform daily activities such as balancing, navigating and moving. Neck muscles generate head motion to establish a stable reference frame for the visual and vestibular (i.e. balance organ) systems, allowing the rest of our body to engage in other motor behaviours. The vestibular system provides information regarding head motion in space, and is particularly important for neck muscle control. However, for people suffering from vestibular and neck movement disorders, even the smallest head movement, whether self-generated or imposed, can induce episodes of dizziness, imbalance and fatigue. This proposal investigates how vestibular information is modulated by the nervous system to facilitate head movements, knowledge which is crucial to understand vestibular and neck movement disorders, and eventually develop therapeutic protocols. Head motion will be manipulated using novel robotic devices to study how vestibular reflexes are modulated in healthy volunteers during externally imposed and self-generated movements. A unique motion coupled electrical vestibular stimulation will provide an artificial sensation of head movement that mimics normal or conflicting relationships with the intended motion. Vestibular reflexes will be quantified using stochastic stimulation of the vestibular organ together with system identification to estimate the sensory modulation process that occurs during head movements. This project takes a multidisciplinary approach, using engineering techniques to address physiological questions, generating knowledge that is applicable to the medical field. The fundamental insight into vestibular control of neck muscles will help understand how humans achieve skilled motor performance and relate to the difficulties patients with vestibular disorders face in performing gaze change and navigation tasks.

Keywords: vestibular reflexes,robotic manipulators,neurophysiology,system identification,control engineering,neck muscles,intramuscular emg,stochastic signals,neuromuscular
Mitotis-induced entosis and its role in cancer (ENTOSIS2013)

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: 2014-10-01
End date: 2017-04-01
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 309235.2
EU funding (EUR): 309235.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Entosis is a recently discovered process of live cell engulfment in which one epithelial cell is completely internalised by another, forming a 'cell-in-cell' structure. The majority of engulfed cells are killed and digested by their host, in an unusual form of cellular cannibalism. Entosis is commonly observed in human tumours and entotic cell killing represents a novel mode of tumour suppression. Although cell-in-cell structures have been noted by pathologists for decades, the molecular and cellular mechanisms that drive entosis remain poorly understood. Further study of this emerging topic will advance our understanding of both cell and cancer biology. Entosis typically occurs under conditions of matrix detachment. However, I have discovered that mitosis can drive entosis in adherent cells (unpublished). The potential significance of this observation to cancer is striking, given the highly proliferative nature of cells within a tumour. Entotic cell killing may provide a means to limit inappropriately dividing cells. In the proposed work, we will pursue this novel finding by studying the: 1) Molecular mechanisms that promote mitosis-induced entosis 2) Biophysical changes which accompany mitosis to induce entosis (multidisciplinary, international collaboration) 3) Occurrence and significance of mitosis-induced entosis in human cancer 4) Relevance of entosis to anti-mitotic cancer therapies The host lab is one of a few groups globally with experience in studying entosis and the Babraham Institute provides a rich research environment, with state of the art equipment. I will bring my key preliminary data and >10 years experience in biochemical/cell biological studies to aid this work and transfer knowledge to my host. We will also work collaboratively with Dr Michael Overholtzer (USA), who discovered entosis. By combining our expertise, we will gain valuable insight into the intriguing process of mitosis-induced entosis and its role in cancer.

Keywords: entosis,mitosis,cancer,tumour suppression,cdc42,adhesion,contractility,cell biology,biophysics
Investigation of Greenland temperature variability over the 6000 years using trapped air in ice cores (GREENTEMP)

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: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2016-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 277296.8
EU funding (EUR): 277296.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Greenland temperature is one of the most important variables when considering future climate change, as it has the potential to impact a significant percentage of the population through an increase of the global sea level resulting from the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. Therefore, it is critical to understand the mechanism of Greenland temperature variability over multidecadal to centennial time scales with societal relevance. A new method has been developed to reconstruct Greenland temperature variability using argon and nitrogen isotopes in occluded air in ice cores coupled with a firn densification heat diffusion model. The method is based upon the fact that gasses in the firn (unconsolidated snow layer) fractionate based on the depth and temperature gradient of the layer. In the proposed research, we plan to reconstruct temperature change in northern Greenland over the past 6000 years using the NGRIP ice core. The period from the middle Holocene to the present is considered similar to the preindustrial climate, so it is an important period for which to understand the natural climate variability because the future climate under increasing greenhouse gasses is expected to evolve with the natural variability. The NGRIP ice core will be analysed for the argon and nitrogen isotopes of occluded air in ice cores, and the firn densification models used to calculate the surface temperature will be improved by testing them with other models and data from other cores. A new firn model that is fully consistent with argon and nitrogen isotopes, the Ar/N2 ratio in occluded air, and the oxygen isotopes of ice will then be developed, which may provide information on past accumulation rate change. Finally, the reconstructed Greenland temperature changes will be investigated with climate models to constrain the past influences of North Atlantic Oscillation and Atlantic meridional overturning circulation.

Keywords: temperature,ice cores,antarctica,holocene,climate change,isotopes,atlantic multi-decadal oscillation,north atlantic oscillation
Fundamental investigations of high-resolution LA-ICPMS: Fast Imaging – Resolution, Sensitivity, and Time (FIRST) (FIRST)

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: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-06-01
End date: 2016-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 207928.8
EU funding (EUR): 207928.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA–ICPMS) is a robust, sensitive, and wide-dynamic-range micro-analytical technique for the spatially resolved determination of elemental composition. In LA–ICPMS, a pulsed laser beam removes (ablates) minute quantities of solid sample, which are transferred online to an ICPMS for elemental and/or isotopic analysis. When combined with precise sample positioning, LA–ICPMS can generate two- or even three-dimensional maps of element-abundance maps across a sample surface. However, conventional ICPMS instruments only measure ions of one mass-to-charge value (m/z) and, in combination with the transient nature of LA signals, this limits the precision and accuracy of multi-elemental LA-ICPMS. Additionally, commercial LA cells are designed to distribute the ablated analyte over a period of several seconds to deliver pseudo steady-state analytical signals; these long residence times increase measurement time and limit spatial resolution. In this project, I will combine recently developed fast-washout LA-cell technology with a new ICP–time-of-flight mass spectrometer (ICP–TOFMS) developed in the Günther lab at ETH Zurich. The LA cell temporally compresses and concentrates ablated aerosol into a narrow plug, which improves signal-to-noise ratio, and delivers it into the ICP–TOFMS for rapid simultaneous and complete elemental mass-spectrum generation (1 spectrum every 33 µs). Fast-flow LA–ICP–TOFMS overcomes the limitations of sequential-acquisition MS approaches, and can be used to produce high-resolution elemental images with measurement speeds two orders of magnitude faster than conventional systems. Current ICP–TOFMS sensitivities should allow trace-element mapping with resolution approaching one micrometer; this resolution will enable novel measurements of both micro-scale geological features such as fluid inclusions and zircon domains and sub-cellular elemental distributions in biological tissues.

Keywords: laser ablation,elemental imaging,inductively coupled plasma,mass spectrometry,time-of-flight
The development of spatial representations: a prospective and retrospective approach (SPATIALDEVELOPMENT)

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: 2015-05-01
End date: 2017-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 216952.8
EU funding (EUR): 216952.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In daily life we easily move around in the world, avoiding certain objects while aiming for others. Our brain has to build a spatial representation of our surroundings from the basic perceptual input from our perceptual senses like vision, touch and audition. The scientific goal of the proposal is to disentangle the exact course of the development of this external reference frame, and the influence of vision, audition and haptics thereupon, by using a multidisciplinary approach. Children (prospective approach) and sensory deprived individuals (retrospective approach) will be studied by the use of several behavioural measurement techniques as well as non-invasive brain imaging techniques (EEG). Training objectives include learning new measurement techniques, working with sensory deprived participants and ethical issues concerning studying children and special populations. The research proposal will clearly train the applicant is these objectives and will reinforce professional maturity. Research into the fundamentals of spatial representations is humans is utterly important for several reasons. Knowledge on how space is represented in the human brain will be of important use for the development of aids for sensory deprived individuals and devices like surgery robots and sensory implants. Moreover, the project will lead to better understanding of fundamental brain processes. The proposed project is part of a more general fundamental research topic, the representation of the body in space. This is an area, which has recently developed much more strongly in European research environments than in the US or other countries throughout the world. Therefore, it is an area where Europe leads, and where this proposal will contribute to consolidating and extending research achievements.

Keywords: perception,human,blind,deaf,spatial representations,development,haptics,vision,audition
Reconstructing Memory From Lost Revolutionaries of the Chinese Republic (MEMORYROC)

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: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-02-01
End date: 2018-01-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 370303.5
EU funding (EUR): 370303.5
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Though more than 100 years has elapsed since China became a Republic, historical documentation of that period is still in formation. The Republican period lays claim to some of the most turbulent events in China, including the Sino-Japanese War and the transition to communist rule, and most notoriously the Rape of Nanjing, aptly compared to genocides such as the Holocaust and the Dirty War. Reconstructing Memory From Lost Revolutionaries of the Chinese Republic will assemble and analyze primary documents and interviews from Chinese locals and diaspora Chinese about events of the Republican period and their profound influence on the formation of global Chinese identity. I will (1) Curate artifacts, execute filmed interviews and photographs that provide memoir material for the Republican period. (2) Complete a monograph analyzing the how the 1911 revolution and subsequent Republican period has been memorialized and made to reflect certain histories of Chinese individuals and Chinese diaspora. (3) Design and launch a virtual “living” archive, which will include video interviews of key personalities and will help to nucleate a community by offering the possibility for active participation and contribution. This study is groundbreaking in its collection of first-hand memoirs from individuals who lived during this period and their descendants—Chinese locals and Chinese diaspora subjects, including the less well-represented voices of women and children. This project will offer a panoramic and in-depth view of how memory surfaces in public and private ways after decades of state suppression and manipulation of historic memory. This project illuminates through its stories the long-standing social traditions in China; the significance of clannishness and family to identity and power—but also the nostalgia for familial territory and history that govern political and diplomatic decisions even today, a century later.

Keywords: memoir,identity,diaspora,republican period in china
Moduli of canonically polarized varieties in positive characteristic (MODPOSCHAR)

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: Cyprus
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-01-05
End date: 2017-01-04
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 218491.3
EU funding (EUR): 218491.3
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The main objective of this project is to study the moduli stack of varieties of general type with a fixed Hilbert polynomial defined over a field of positive characteristic. In characteristic zero it is known that it is a separated Deligne-Mumford stack locally of finite type. Moreover, the extended moduli stack of stable varieties is also proper. I would like to investigate to what extend the same properties hold in positive characteristic, if some property fails what is the reason and how the moduli problem could be modified in order to have a separated, proper Deligne-Mumford stack. The first step will be to consider the case of surfaces. In this case there is resolution of singularities and the semi stable minimal model program works, two properties essential for the construction of a proper moduli stack. In particular, stable surfaces can be defined. In general, the moduli stack of surfaces of general type over a field of positive characteristic is not Deligne-Mumford. This is because there are examples of smooth surfaces of general type with nonreduced automorphism scheme. In order to understand the failure to be Deligne-Mumford the structure of the automorphism scheme of a surface of general type and more generally of a stable surface will be investigated. I would like to find bounds for its length, cases when it is reduced and classify its scheme and group structure. Moreover, all known nonreduced examples suggest that numerical relations exist between the characteristic of the base field and certain invariants of the surface. I would like to investigate if this holds in general. An affirmative answer will allow the construction of Deligne-Mumford substacks of the stack of stable surfaces. Next I will investigate whether the moduli stack is proper. This holds if semistable reduction, or an alternative, holds in positive characteristic. Depending on progress on the surface case, I will continue my investigation to higher dimensions.

Keywords: moduli space,moduli stack,general type,stable variety,automorphisms,positive characteristic
Nanomedicine and Hadrontherapy (NANOHAPY)

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-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2016-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 194046.6
EU funding (EUR): 194046.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Cancer is one of the most feared diseases. Radiotherapy is commonly used in about 50% of all cancer patients. Although the radiotherapeutic protocols have been improved significantly, only a limited number of patients are entirely cured and severe side effects are often induced. Hadrontherapy and protontherapy are approaches superior to conventional photon radiotherapy because of the maximal energy they deposit at the end of the track (the Bragg peak) and the absence of damage induced behind the tumor. However, the technique is limited by the damage caused along the beam path in healthy tissue located in front of the tumour. Dr. Lacombe's work focuses on improving the hadrontherapy performances using metal nanoparticles (NPs) as radiosensitizers. This is a highly innovative strategy aiming at increasing efficiency and tumour targeting of the treatments. So far, the group focused on the physical properties of the nanoparticles. The objective of my project is to characterize fully the biological effects induced by NPs in DNA and living cells, submitted to medical ion radiations. During the project I will address the cellular toxicity, localization, uptake and quantification of NPs, and I will specifically dissect the cellular response to the combined treatment of NPs and fast ions/protons down to the molecular pathways. To answer these questions, I will make use of the highly advanced experimental instruments and methods available at the host institution and collaborating laboratories. The results obtained during this project will be highly relevant not only for the research community, but also for the industrial sector that synthetizes the NPs and for the medical community who will be closely involved in the project. This multidisciplinary research at the interface of physics, chemistry and biology is unique in Europe and promises novel propositions for future cancer treatments.

Keywords: radiotherapy,hadrontherapy,nanoagents,cancer
On the neural basis of working memory: How the brain retains information in the face of distraction. (MEM_DISTRACTION)

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: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-08-01
End date: 2018-01-26
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 259293.3
EU funding (EUR): 259293.3
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Every time we open our eyes, we are bombarded with visual information. At the same time, we need to retain previously observed information to keep track of our goals and whereabouts. How can we remember relevant visual information when we are continuously processing new information? Recent studies have shown that when we have to maintain visual information over a short delay period, our visual system that deals with the initial processing of stimuli is recruited to keep representations active. However, these studies have focused on the mechanisms of remembering visual information in a setting where there is no visual distraction. This obviously does not apply to everyday situations. Although in fundamental science it is necessary to first pinpoint the basic processes underlying complex constructs, we are now ready to move beyond this simplification and investigate more life-like situations. In this project, we will use a combination of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to investigate which neural mechanisms are responsible for retaining visual information in the face of distraction. Specifically, we will investigate how remembered, but currently unused items are stored, and in which manner this information is activated for subsequent use. We will use newly developed fMRI analysis techniques to pinpoint the locus and nature of unused representations, and causally confirm these by applying TMS to these regions at specific moments in time. At the end of this project, we will have gained important insight into the neural underpinnings of visual working memory as we use it in daily life. This will provide a basis for understanding and improving the performance of tasks in a highly demanding visual environment. For example, better training for air traffic controllers and security guards could be developed, and the presentation of school material for children, especially those easily distracted, could be improved.

Keywords: cognitive neuroscience,working memory,vision,fmri,tms,distraction,prefrontal cortex,visual cortex