Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Wave-function theory embedded in density-functional theory with coupled excitations (WFTINDFTCE)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-04-01
End date: 2013-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 169485.6
EU funding (EUR): 169485.6
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Electronic excitations play an important role in several biological processes, such as photosynthesis and vision, as well as in technological applications like lighting materials---making the calculation of excitation energies an interesting and up-to-date challenge. Of special interest are influences of solvent molecules such as water or acetone. Typically (time-dependent) density-functional theory is used for larger systems but is not appropriate when charge-transfer comes into play. We propose to study local (charge-transfer) excitations of molecules in solution by embedding wave-function theory (WFT) in density-functional theory (DFT) and explicitly taking into account the coupling of the subsystems which is expected to be crucial for high accuracy. As an accurate but cost-efficient method, we will use the coupled-cluster CC2 model for the wave-function part and derive equations which contain the coupling of the WFT part and the environment to be described with DFT. This model can easily be extended to CCSD or CCSD(T) at a later stage. The new equations will then be implemented in a computer program. The proposed work consists not only of method development but also of the application of the newly developed tools to state-of-the-art chemical questions. With the new methodology, we are able to compute accurate excitation energies for complex solvated systems. This enables us to model light harvesting components of biologically inspired photosynthetic devices that are currently under development in Amsterdam.

Keywords: excitation energies,frozen-density embedding,coupled-cluster methods,density functional theory
Paying attention to food: investigating the mechanisms underlying individual differences in the attention grabbing properties of food. (FOOD ATTENTION)

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: 2011-06-27
End date: 2012-06-26
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 101024.8
EU funding (EUR): 101024.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

We are surrounded by images of food in our daily lives and for some people this is a problem because they find it difficult to ignore food and are provoked into craving food and eating when they see food or pictures of food. This can lead to unhealthy weight gain. Therefore we need to understand more about why certain individuals seem to pay lots of attention to food in the environment and what might explain differences across individuals. This project will combine cutting edge cognitive psychology methods with genotyping to investigate the mechanism underlying individual differences in food attention and whether the amount of attention that is paid to food is influenced by the presence of a common genetic type associated with overweight and obesity. We have data to show that more attention is paid to food when participants in an experiment are also holding information about food in memory. Our results suggest that this interaction between memory and attention is very strong for food and could explain why people who are thinking about food a lot, for example, people who are overweight, find it particularly difficult to ignore food when they see it. Objective 1 will build on these results by using a measure of brain function to find out whether these memory effects occur very early in the processing of food images and are likely to be involuntary. The second objective is to find out whether individuals who have different genotypes that are relevant to weight control pay more attention to food cues and are more susceptible to the effects of memory on attention. Objective 3 will be to assess the role of specific brain areas in the effects of memory modulation of attention and relate these effects to genotype differences. The project will provide information that will enhance understanding of why some people find it very difficult to resist eating food when it is available and how to help them avoid overeating in response to food cues.

Keywords: appetite,food intake,cognitive processes,memory,neuroscience,reward,genotype
Quantifying transcription factor search mechanism by three-dimensional single molecule tracking (SMT OF TFS)

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: Italy
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IIF, 2010)
Start date: 2012-04-16
End date: 2014-04-15
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 181084.0
EU funding (EUR): 181084.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Transcription factors (TFs) are capable to identify their target sites on DNA in a extremely efficient fashion. The observation that a simple 3D diffusion search cannot account for such efficient targeting has led to different mechanisms to be proposed in the last decades, including compact exploration induced by facilitated diffusion (i.e. combination of 1D sliding and 3D diffusion) or by fractal-like chromatin structure. Despite the evidence for 1D sliding of TFs on DNA and for fractal nuclear organization, it still needs to be demonstrated that these phenomena play a significant role in the TF search mechanism in a living cell. Fluorescence microscopy and in particular single molecule tracking (SMT) provides an excellent tool to investigate the kinetics of proteins in living samples. SMT has mostly been applied to in-vitro and in-membrane environments due to limitations associated to prolonged 3D tracking. In this project we plan to overcome the limitations associated to 3D SMT and to apply the developed technology to investigate the in-vivo search mechanisms of p53, an important TF, involved in the determination of the cell fate under stress conditions. We aim to quantify the role of compact exploration in p53 targeting in living cells, and by the analysis of mutated p53 how 1D sliding affects such phenomenon. Furthermore, we plan to identify the changes in the p53-DNA association and in the p53 search after induction of cell stress by DNA damage. Summarizing, the project aims to strongly improve current methods for tracking individual molecules in 3D and to advance our knowledge about the mechanisms of TF targeting.

Keywords: microscopy,computational physics,cell biology
Antecedents and Consequences of Mental Health Problems in Juvenile Justice Boys and Girls (ANTEJUVENILE)

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-2010-IOF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-09-01
End date: 2013-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150392.0
EU funding (EUR): 150392.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

About 65-70% of the incarcerated juveniles have a mental disorder. Juveniles in justice settings have significantly more often a mental disorder compared to their peers without juvenile justice contacts. Only about a third of the juvenile justice youth with a psychiatric disorder have received prior treatment in the community. Some evidence exists that mental health problems are predictive of reoffending. Knowledge on mental health problems in juvenile justice is crucial in order to be able to treat delinquent youngsters adequately and to prevent reoffending. Not much is known about which risk factors are linked to particular mental disorders in justice-involved juveniles and to what extent mental health problems are related to future offending patterns. The current project aims 1) to demonstrate which risk factors explain mental health problems in juvenile justice youth, 2) to determine how mental health problems are linked to patterns of future reoffending, and 3) to identify potential gender differences in antecedents and consequences of mental disorders in juvenile justice youth. To reach the objectives I will bring together knowledge from criminology, developmental psychology and psychiatry and will be supervised by a multidisciplinary team. The investigation and training will take place in an outgoing phase of 1 year at the Columbia University NYSPI and a return phase at the University of Amsterdam CDE. At Columbia extensive expertise and data on psychiatric disorders in juvenile justice is present, which is not available in the Netherlands. The training abroad will enable me to conduct research on mental disorders in juvenile justice in Europe, which is important for scientific and societal purposes. The expertise on mental health issues in juvenile justice is very relevant for European countries, given that mental health problems in juvenile justice youth are significant and concerns with regard to serious juvenile delinquency and public safety are high.

Keywords: forensic psychiatry,criminology,developmental psychology,juvenile justice,mental health,gender differences
Transition to Turbulence of Volumetrically Heated Flows (T2T-VHF)

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: 2012-01-16
End date: 2014-01-15
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 272980.0
EU funding (EUR): 272980.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Numerical techniques are proposed that can capture the transition to turbulence of shear flow and in the process they offer the capability of state of the art control of such transitions. The methods can enhance the calculation of fluid flow by identifying the hierarchical bifurcation of the evolving states. Thus, the predictive power of the underlying mathematical models is strengthened. Concurrently they offer the unique possibility of unifying the results with those obtained by techniques that are developed with the sole aim of capturing the fully developed turbulent state. The novel methods can be used to pinpoint the transition of the flow from its laminar (basic) state to its fully developed (turbulent) state. Meanwhile programmes that are designed to capture the nature of the flow at its final (turbulent) state will be benchmarked against the programmes that pinpoint its transition. Software that unifies the programmes will be able to oversee the development of the fluid flow throughout its evolution. The emerging software will run on single or shared memory (parallel) hardware, thus reducing dramatically the computational costs. It is the ultimate aim of this set of programmes to apply the resulting software to complex configurations applicable to a variety of configurations. Simple geometries will be considered at first to act as benchmarks and common ground for the two different state of the art software avenues at our disposal: the proprietary code developed at Aston University and a commercially available CFD code. We intend to use the results of our studies to be applicable to the Nuclear Industry to model regime transition in complex systems where molten metals, molten salts and water are used as the coolant. Operating regimes of interest include the thermo-hydraulic behaviour of the coolant in reactors undergoing passive decay heat removal. Meteorological and geological applications will also be considered as a by-product of our studies.

Keywords: fluid dynamics,thermodynamics,3 d modelling,software development,reactor safety technology,environmental physics
Anaerobic Digestion of Seaweed for Biofuels (SEAWEED AD)

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: Portugal
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-09-01
End date: 2013-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 211185.0
EU funding (EUR): 211185.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The overall aims of this 24 month project are to apply metagenomic methods and develop fermentation technologies to select and study an optimum microbial inoculum and define seaweed processing conditions (including detoxification) for the production of methane biofuel from the anaerobic digestion (AD) of seaweeds. In addition the fractionation and characterisation of seaweed antimicrobials and other potential biopharmaceuticals released by bacterial enzymic hydrolysis will be assessed with a consideration as to their add-on value in AD of seaweed.

Keywords: natural sciences,biofuels,seaweed,anaerobic digestion
Quantum Theory and Statistics (QUANTSTAT)

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): 194849.6
EU funding (EUR): 194849.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The proposed project addresses fundamental problems at the mathematical/statistical foundations of quantum information theory, with a special focus on the problem of discriminating quantum states. The main goals are to study asymptotic state discrimination under locality constrained measurements, to explore how criticality of the systems influences the validity of asymptotic state discrimination results, to extend existing binary results to multiple hypotheses, to determine the strong converse exponents for binary state discrimination and classical information transmission through quantum channels, and to investigate the approximate correctability of quantum noise that does not change the distinguishability of states too much. These will be addressed through a systematic study of operator distinguishability measures and their behaviour in the given specific problems. The results of the project are expected to shed light on the role of quantum correlations in state discrimination and the classical information transmission capacity of quantum channels, and yield a better understanding of the asymptotic behaviour of information quantities in critical quantum systems. These questions are at the forefront of current research in quantum information theory and the results of the project are expected to have a great impact on the field.

Keywords: quantum physics,information theory,state discrimination,entanglement,operator distinguishability measures
TB host genes (TB HOST GENES)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-04-01
End date: 2013-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 185040.8
EU funding (EUR): 185040.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is still the most deadly bacterial pathogen worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates that one third of the world population is infected with tuberculosis (TB), mostly in a latent form, where mycobacteria can persist for many years inside macrophages that form specialized host structures called granulomas. The burden of TB is further exacerbated by the widespread emergence of multi-drug resistant and extensively drug-resistant strains. The main goal of the proposed project is to use the well-characterized zebrafish embryo model for tuberculosis to increase understanding of host genes involved in susceptibility and resistance to mycobacterial infection. The zebrafish embryo model has specific advantages for studying host-pathogen interaction during infection with Mycobacterium marinum (Mm), a natural pathogen of fish, which is the closest genetic relative of Mtb. Mm infection of zebrafish causes “fish tuberculosis”, a disease that manifests itself similarly to human TB, including the formation of granulomas. This project is based on the previous unique transcriptome data of the host lab giving insights into host macrophage expression profiles and knowledge of host gene expression alterations during bacterial infections in zebrafish. Harvesting from these data, candidate genes will be selected that are both macrophage-specific and transcriptionally induced or repressed during infection, and these genes will be used to perform a morpholino knockdown screen. The functional studies will take advantage of the possibility of high resolution imaging in the optically transparent zebrafish embryos to unravel which step of the host-pathogen interaction is affected by the gene knockdown. Due to the availability of the highly-specific and unique expression data for pre-selecting candidate genes, this reverse genetics screening approach has a high likelihood of hitting genes that play a role in mycobacterial pathogenesis.

Keywords: tuberculosis,mycobacterium,host-pathogen interaction,infection,zebrafish,functional genomics,transcriptomics,reverse genetics,gene knockdown,granuloma,macrophage
Stalin, Hitler, Roosevelt and Churchill: Communication between Political Leaders and Their Audiences in Interwar Europe and United States (LEADERS_FOLLOWERS)

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: 2011-12-01
End date: 2013-11-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 279680.0
EU funding (EUR): 279680.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The picture of the 20th century leaderships in social sciences and humanities is still dominated by a number of uncritically accepted postulates such as (1) ascription of special manipulative) properties to Nazi, Soviet or Fascist language; (2) fixation on vocabulary only(G.Orwell's ‘newspeak’) and (3) belief in suggestive power of classical rhetoric projected onto semi-literate masses. These theses find little empirical support in recent scholarship. It turns out that (1) manipulation is typical for political communication even in modern democracies, (2) fuzzy logic has proved more useful in swaying public opinions than ‘wrong’ vocabulary, and (3) the image of scarcely educated people enjoying Ciceronian rhetoric of tyrants does not pass serious scrutiny: Hitler's speeches in German regions were negatively related to his popularity up to 1933, and influenced positively only those who knew and supported his views. Still, few attempts at isolating informational flows between chief executives and their constituencies have been made, so we are still in the dark about the knowledge gained by an average listener of Roosevelt's fireside chat or a participant of a Nazi rally in Nuremberg. The first samples show that preexisting knowledge about the speaker, communicative setting, voice or gestures could play a crucial role, whereas the verbal content would mostly fill the gaps. To prove or disprove this hypothesis, a set of linguistic and anthropological methods is applied to the model of direct communication constructed by pairing messages (political speeches of Hitler, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill) with feedbacks (direct responses to those speeches in private letters). The importance of knowing how communication between political leaders and their audiences actually worked may be of significant interest for European political practitioners and their constituencies, mutually dependent on better understanding and more efficient interaction.

Keywords: public communication,totalitarianism,20th century history,political history,political discourse,leadership,russian studies,german studies
How does weathering link to atmospheric carbon dioxide – evidence from past extreme climate events (LINKWEATHERINGCO2)

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): 162242.4
EU funding (EUR): 162242.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

How does the Earth’s climate recover from events of rapid and extreme global warming or cooling? Why have the huge fluctuations in atmospheric CO2 in the geological past not caused runaway climate effects, making the Earth become Venus- or Mars-like? Silicate weathering of the continents is the main CO2 removal process, and therefore a dominant long-term climate control mechanism. However the debate on what controls silicate weathering, and therefore atmospheric CO2, is still contentious and ongoing. Two of the largest climate fluctuations and mass extinctions in Earth’s history (the end-Ordovician glaciation, and the Permo-Triassic rapid warming event) will be examined using lithium isotopes, which are a novel tracer of silicate weathering. These data will determine the Earth’s weathering response to periods of rapid global warming and cooling. The knowledge gained from this will then be combined with other tracers of marine conditions in a dynamic model that will determine the links between weathering, climate and oceanic conditions. In turn this will yield critical information on Earth’s climate feedbacks, and on processes that led to the extinction of >85% of marine species. This therefore contributes directly to the Work Programme and its goals in understanding the functioning of the Earth and marine systems, and in understanding changes in atmospheric composition and the water cycle.

Keywords: geochemistry,earth science,environmental geology,continental weathering