Project acronym ABACUS
Project Advancing Behavioral and Cognitive Understanding of Speech
Researcher (PI) Bart De Boer
Host Institution (HI) VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary I intend to investigate what cognitive mechanisms give us combinatorial speech. Combinatorial speech is the ability to make new words using pre-existing speech sounds. Humans are the only apes that can do this, yet we do not know how our brains do it, nor how exactly we differ from other apes. Using new experimental techniques to study human behavior and new computational techniques to model human cognition, I will find out how we deal with combinatorial speech.
The experimental part will study individual and cultural learning. Experimental cultural learning is a new technique that simulates cultural evolution in the laboratory. Two types of cultural learning will be used: iterated learning, which simulates language transfer across generations, and social coordination, which simulates emergence of norms in a language community. Using the two types of cultural learning together with individual learning experiments will help to zero in, from three angles, on how humans deal with combinatorial speech. In addition it will make a methodological contribution by comparing the strengths and weaknesses of the three methods.
The computer modeling part will formalize hypotheses about how our brains deal with combinatorial speech. Two models will be built: a high-level model that will establish the basic algorithms with which combinatorial speech is learned and reproduced, and a neural model that will establish in more detail how the algorithms are implemented in the brain. In addition, the models, through increasing understanding of how humans deal with speech, will help bridge the performance gap between human and computer speech recognition.
The project will advance science in four ways: it will provide insight into how our unique ability for using combinatorial speech works, it will tell us how this is implemented in the brain, it will extend the novel methodology of experimental cultural learning and it will create new computer models for dealing with human speech.
Summary
I intend to investigate what cognitive mechanisms give us combinatorial speech. Combinatorial speech is the ability to make new words using pre-existing speech sounds. Humans are the only apes that can do this, yet we do not know how our brains do it, nor how exactly we differ from other apes. Using new experimental techniques to study human behavior and new computational techniques to model human cognition, I will find out how we deal with combinatorial speech.
The experimental part will study individual and cultural learning. Experimental cultural learning is a new technique that simulates cultural evolution in the laboratory. Two types of cultural learning will be used: iterated learning, which simulates language transfer across generations, and social coordination, which simulates emergence of norms in a language community. Using the two types of cultural learning together with individual learning experiments will help to zero in, from three angles, on how humans deal with combinatorial speech. In addition it will make a methodological contribution by comparing the strengths and weaknesses of the three methods.
The computer modeling part will formalize hypotheses about how our brains deal with combinatorial speech. Two models will be built: a high-level model that will establish the basic algorithms with which combinatorial speech is learned and reproduced, and a neural model that will establish in more detail how the algorithms are implemented in the brain. In addition, the models, through increasing understanding of how humans deal with speech, will help bridge the performance gap between human and computer speech recognition.
The project will advance science in four ways: it will provide insight into how our unique ability for using combinatorial speech works, it will tell us how this is implemented in the brain, it will extend the novel methodology of experimental cultural learning and it will create new computer models for dealing with human speech.
Max ERC Funding
1 276 620 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-02-01, End date: 2017-01-31
Project acronym ABCTRANSPORT
Project Minimalist multipurpose ATP-binding cassette transporters
Researcher (PI) Dirk Jan Slotboom
Host Institution (HI) RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGEN
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS1, ERC-2011-StG_20101109
Summary Many Gram-positive (pathogenic) bacteria are dependent on the uptake of vitamins from the environment or from the infected host. We have recently discovered the long-elusive family of membrane protein complexes catalyzing such transport. The vitamin transporters have an unprecedented modular architecture consisting of a single multipurpose energizing module (the Energy Coupling Factor, ECF) and multiple exchangeable membrane proteins responsible for substrate recognition (S-components). The S-components have characteristics of ion-gradient driven transporters (secondary active transporters), whereas the energizing modules are related to ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters (primary active transporters).
The aim of the proposal is threefold: First, we will address the question how properties of primary and secondary transporters are combined in ECF transporters to obtain a novel transport mechanism. Second, we will study the fundamental and unresolved question how protein-protein recognition takes place in the hydrophobic environment of the lipid bilayer. The modular nature of the ECF proteins offers a natural system to study the driving forces used for membrane protein interaction. Third, we will assess whether the ECF transport systems could become targets for antibacterial drugs. ECF transporters are found exclusively in prokaryotes, and their activity is often essential for viability of Gram-positive pathogens. Thus they could turn out to be an Achilles’ heel for the organisms.
Structural and mechanistic studies (X-ray crystallography, microscopy, spectroscopy and biochemistry) will reveal how the different transport modes are combined in a single protein complex, how transport is energized and catalyzed, and how protein-protein recognition takes place. Microbiological screens will be developed to search for compounds that inhibit prokaryote-specific steps of the mechanism of ECF transporters.
Summary
Many Gram-positive (pathogenic) bacteria are dependent on the uptake of vitamins from the environment or from the infected host. We have recently discovered the long-elusive family of membrane protein complexes catalyzing such transport. The vitamin transporters have an unprecedented modular architecture consisting of a single multipurpose energizing module (the Energy Coupling Factor, ECF) and multiple exchangeable membrane proteins responsible for substrate recognition (S-components). The S-components have characteristics of ion-gradient driven transporters (secondary active transporters), whereas the energizing modules are related to ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters (primary active transporters).
The aim of the proposal is threefold: First, we will address the question how properties of primary and secondary transporters are combined in ECF transporters to obtain a novel transport mechanism. Second, we will study the fundamental and unresolved question how protein-protein recognition takes place in the hydrophobic environment of the lipid bilayer. The modular nature of the ECF proteins offers a natural system to study the driving forces used for membrane protein interaction. Third, we will assess whether the ECF transport systems could become targets for antibacterial drugs. ECF transporters are found exclusively in prokaryotes, and their activity is often essential for viability of Gram-positive pathogens. Thus they could turn out to be an Achilles’ heel for the organisms.
Structural and mechanistic studies (X-ray crystallography, microscopy, spectroscopy and biochemistry) will reveal how the different transport modes are combined in a single protein complex, how transport is energized and catalyzed, and how protein-protein recognition takes place. Microbiological screens will be developed to search for compounds that inhibit prokaryote-specific steps of the mechanism of ECF transporters.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2017-12-31
Project acronym ACCENT
Project Unravelling the architecture and the cartography of the human centriole
Researcher (PI) Paul, Philippe, Desiré GUICHARD
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITE DE GENEVE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS1, ERC-2016-STG
Summary The centriole is the largest evolutionary conserved macromolecular structure responsible for building centrosomes and cilia or flagella in many eukaryotes. Centrioles are critical for the proper execution of important biological processes ranging from cell division to cell signaling. Moreover, centriolar defects have been associated to several human pathologies including ciliopathies and cancer. This state of facts emphasizes the importance of understanding centriole biogenesis. The study of centriole formation is a deep-rooted question, however our current knowledge on its molecular organization at high resolution remains fragmented and limited. In particular, exquisite details of the overall molecular architecture of the human centriole and in particular of its central core region are lacking to understand the basis of centriole organization and function. Resolving this important question represents a challenge that needs to be undertaken and will undoubtedly lead to groundbreaking advances. Another important question to tackle next is to develop innovative methods to enable the nanometric molecular mapping of centriolar proteins within distinct architectural elements of the centriole. This missing information will be key to unravel the molecular mechanisms behind centriolar organization.
This research proposal aims at building a cartography of the human centriole by elucidating its molecular composition and architecture. To this end, we will combine the use of innovative and multidisciplinary techniques encompassing spatial proteomics, cryo-electron tomography, state-of-the-art microscopy and in vitro assays and to achieve a comprehensive molecular and structural view of the human centriole. All together, we expect that these advances will help understand basic principles underlying centriole and cilia formation as well as might have further relevance for human health.
Summary
The centriole is the largest evolutionary conserved macromolecular structure responsible for building centrosomes and cilia or flagella in many eukaryotes. Centrioles are critical for the proper execution of important biological processes ranging from cell division to cell signaling. Moreover, centriolar defects have been associated to several human pathologies including ciliopathies and cancer. This state of facts emphasizes the importance of understanding centriole biogenesis. The study of centriole formation is a deep-rooted question, however our current knowledge on its molecular organization at high resolution remains fragmented and limited. In particular, exquisite details of the overall molecular architecture of the human centriole and in particular of its central core region are lacking to understand the basis of centriole organization and function. Resolving this important question represents a challenge that needs to be undertaken and will undoubtedly lead to groundbreaking advances. Another important question to tackle next is to develop innovative methods to enable the nanometric molecular mapping of centriolar proteins within distinct architectural elements of the centriole. This missing information will be key to unravel the molecular mechanisms behind centriolar organization.
This research proposal aims at building a cartography of the human centriole by elucidating its molecular composition and architecture. To this end, we will combine the use of innovative and multidisciplinary techniques encompassing spatial proteomics, cryo-electron tomography, state-of-the-art microscopy and in vitro assays and to achieve a comprehensive molecular and structural view of the human centriole. All together, we expect that these advances will help understand basic principles underlying centriole and cilia formation as well as might have further relevance for human health.
Max ERC Funding
1 498 965 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-01-01, End date: 2021-12-31
Project acronym ADAM
Project The Adaptive Auditory Mind
Researcher (PI) Shihab Shamma
Host Institution (HI) ECOLE NORMALE SUPERIEURE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH4, ERC-2011-ADG_20110406
Summary Listening in realistic situations is an active process that engages perceptual and cognitive faculties, endowing speech with meaning, music with joy, and environmental sounds with emotion. Through hearing, humans and other animals navigate complex acoustic scenes, separate sound mixtures, and assess their behavioral relevance. These remarkable feats are currently beyond our understanding and exceed the capabilities of the most sophisticated audio engineering systems. The goal of the proposed research is to investigate experimentally a novel view of hearing, where active hearing emerges from a deep interplay between adaptive sensory processes and goal-directed cognition. Specifically, we shall explore the postulate that versatile perception is mediated by rapid-plasticity at the neuronal level. At the conjunction of sensory and cognitive processing, rapid-plasticity pervades all levels of auditory system, from the cochlea up to the auditory and prefrontal cortices. Exploiting fundamental statistical regularities of acoustics, it is what allows humans and other animal to deal so successfully with natural acoustic scenes where artificial systems fail. The project builds on the internationally recognized leadership of the PI in the fields of physiology and computational modeling, combined with the expertise of the Co-Investigator in psychophysics. Building on these highly complementary fields and several technical innovations, we hope to promote a novel view of auditory perception and cognition. We aim also to contribute significantly to translational research in the domain of signal processing for clinical hearing aids, given that many current limitations are not technological but rather conceptual. The project will finally result in the creation of laboratory facilities and an intellectual network unique in France and rare in all of Europe, combining cognitive, neural, and computational approaches to auditory neuroscience.
Summary
Listening in realistic situations is an active process that engages perceptual and cognitive faculties, endowing speech with meaning, music with joy, and environmental sounds with emotion. Through hearing, humans and other animals navigate complex acoustic scenes, separate sound mixtures, and assess their behavioral relevance. These remarkable feats are currently beyond our understanding and exceed the capabilities of the most sophisticated audio engineering systems. The goal of the proposed research is to investigate experimentally a novel view of hearing, where active hearing emerges from a deep interplay between adaptive sensory processes and goal-directed cognition. Specifically, we shall explore the postulate that versatile perception is mediated by rapid-plasticity at the neuronal level. At the conjunction of sensory and cognitive processing, rapid-plasticity pervades all levels of auditory system, from the cochlea up to the auditory and prefrontal cortices. Exploiting fundamental statistical regularities of acoustics, it is what allows humans and other animal to deal so successfully with natural acoustic scenes where artificial systems fail. The project builds on the internationally recognized leadership of the PI in the fields of physiology and computational modeling, combined with the expertise of the Co-Investigator in psychophysics. Building on these highly complementary fields and several technical innovations, we hope to promote a novel view of auditory perception and cognition. We aim also to contribute significantly to translational research in the domain of signal processing for clinical hearing aids, given that many current limitations are not technological but rather conceptual. The project will finally result in the creation of laboratory facilities and an intellectual network unique in France and rare in all of Europe, combining cognitive, neural, and computational approaches to auditory neuroscience.
Max ERC Funding
3 199 078 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-10-01, End date: 2018-09-30
Project acronym ADDICTION
Project Beyond the Genetics of Addiction
Researcher (PI) Jacqueline Mignon Vink
Host Institution (HI) STICHTING KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2011-StG_20101124
Summary My proposal seeks to explain the complex interplay between genetic and environmental causes of individual variation in substance use and the risk for abuse. Substance use is common. Substances like nicotine and cannabis have well-known negative health consequences, while alcohol and caffeine use may be both beneficial and detrimental, depending on quantity and frequency of use. Twin studies (including my own) demonstrated that both heritable and environmental factors play a role.
My proposal on substance use (nicotine, alcohol, cannabis and caffeine) is organized around several key objectives: 1. To unravel the complex contribution of genetic and environmental factors to substance use by using extended twin family designs; 2. To identify and confirm genes and gene networks involved in substance use by using DNA-variant data; 3. To explore gene expression patterns with RNA data in substance users versus non-users; 4. To investigate biomarkers in substance users versus non-users using blood or urine; 5. To unravel relation between substance use and health by linking twin-family data to national medical databases.
To realize these aims I will use the extensive resources of the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR); including both the longitudinal phenotype database and the biological samples. I have been involved in data collection, coordination of data collection and analyzing NTR data since 1999. With my comprehensive experience in data collection, data analyses and my knowledge in the field of behavior genetics and addiction research I will be able to successfully lead this cutting-edge project. Additional data crucial for the project will be collected by my team. Large samples will be available for this study and state-of-the art methods will be used to analyze the data. All together, my project will offer powerful approaches to unravel the complex interaction between genetic and environmental causes of individual differences in substance use and the risk for abuse.
Summary
My proposal seeks to explain the complex interplay between genetic and environmental causes of individual variation in substance use and the risk for abuse. Substance use is common. Substances like nicotine and cannabis have well-known negative health consequences, while alcohol and caffeine use may be both beneficial and detrimental, depending on quantity and frequency of use. Twin studies (including my own) demonstrated that both heritable and environmental factors play a role.
My proposal on substance use (nicotine, alcohol, cannabis and caffeine) is organized around several key objectives: 1. To unravel the complex contribution of genetic and environmental factors to substance use by using extended twin family designs; 2. To identify and confirm genes and gene networks involved in substance use by using DNA-variant data; 3. To explore gene expression patterns with RNA data in substance users versus non-users; 4. To investigate biomarkers in substance users versus non-users using blood or urine; 5. To unravel relation between substance use and health by linking twin-family data to national medical databases.
To realize these aims I will use the extensive resources of the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR); including both the longitudinal phenotype database and the biological samples. I have been involved in data collection, coordination of data collection and analyzing NTR data since 1999. With my comprehensive experience in data collection, data analyses and my knowledge in the field of behavior genetics and addiction research I will be able to successfully lead this cutting-edge project. Additional data crucial for the project will be collected by my team. Large samples will be available for this study and state-of-the art methods will be used to analyze the data. All together, my project will offer powerful approaches to unravel the complex interaction between genetic and environmental causes of individual differences in substance use and the risk for abuse.
Max ERC Funding
1 491 964 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-12-01, End date: 2017-05-31
Project acronym AFFORDS-HIGHER
Project Skilled Intentionality for 'Higher' Embodied Cognition: Joining forces with a field of affordances in flux
Researcher (PI) Dirk Willem Rietveld
Host Institution (HI) ACADEMISCH MEDISCH CENTRUM BIJ DE UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH4, ERC-2015-STG
Summary In many situations experts act adequately, yet without deliberation. Architects e.g, immediately sense opportunities offered by the site of a new project. One could label these manifestations of expert intuition as ‘higher-level’ cognition, but still these experts act unreflectively. The aim of my project is to develop the Skilled Intentionality Framework (SIF), a new conceptual framework for the field of embodied/enactive cognitive science (Chemero, 2009; Thompson, 2007). I argue that affordances - possibilities for action provided by our surroundings - are highly significant in cases of unreflective and reflective ‘higher’ cognition. Skilled Intentionality is skilled coordination with multiple affordances simultaneously.
The two central ideas behind this proposal are (a) that episodes of skilled ‘higher’ cognition can be understood as responsiveness to affordances for ‘higher’ cognition and (b) that our surroundings are highly resourceful and contribute to skillful action and cognition in a far more fundamental way than is generally acknowledged. I use embedded philosophical research in a particular practice of architecture to shed new light on the ways in which affordances for ‘higher’ cognition support creative imagination, anticipation, explicit planning and self-reflection.
The Skilled Intentionality Framework is groundbreaking in relating findings established at several complementary levels of analysis: philosophy/phenomenology, ecological psychology, affective science and neurodynamics.
Empirical findings thought to be exclusively valid for everyday unreflective action can now be used to explain skilled ‘higher’ cognition as well. Moreover, SIF brings both the context and the social back into cognitive science. I will show SIF’s relevance for Friston’s work on the anticipating brain, and apply it in the domain of architecture and public health. SIF will radically widen the scope of the increasingly influential field of embodied cognitive science.
Summary
In many situations experts act adequately, yet without deliberation. Architects e.g, immediately sense opportunities offered by the site of a new project. One could label these manifestations of expert intuition as ‘higher-level’ cognition, but still these experts act unreflectively. The aim of my project is to develop the Skilled Intentionality Framework (SIF), a new conceptual framework for the field of embodied/enactive cognitive science (Chemero, 2009; Thompson, 2007). I argue that affordances - possibilities for action provided by our surroundings - are highly significant in cases of unreflective and reflective ‘higher’ cognition. Skilled Intentionality is skilled coordination with multiple affordances simultaneously.
The two central ideas behind this proposal are (a) that episodes of skilled ‘higher’ cognition can be understood as responsiveness to affordances for ‘higher’ cognition and (b) that our surroundings are highly resourceful and contribute to skillful action and cognition in a far more fundamental way than is generally acknowledged. I use embedded philosophical research in a particular practice of architecture to shed new light on the ways in which affordances for ‘higher’ cognition support creative imagination, anticipation, explicit planning and self-reflection.
The Skilled Intentionality Framework is groundbreaking in relating findings established at several complementary levels of analysis: philosophy/phenomenology, ecological psychology, affective science and neurodynamics.
Empirical findings thought to be exclusively valid for everyday unreflective action can now be used to explain skilled ‘higher’ cognition as well. Moreover, SIF brings both the context and the social back into cognitive science. I will show SIF’s relevance for Friston’s work on the anticipating brain, and apply it in the domain of architecture and public health. SIF will radically widen the scope of the increasingly influential field of embodied cognitive science.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 850 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-05-01, End date: 2021-04-30
Project acronym AgeConsolidate
Project The Missing Link of Episodic Memory Decline in Aging: The Role of Inefficient Systems Consolidation
Researcher (PI) Anders Martin FJELL
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITETET I OSLO
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH4, ERC-2016-COG
Summary Which brain mechanisms are responsible for the faith of the memories we make with age, whether they wither or stay, and in what form? Episodic memory function does decline with age. While this decline can have multiple causes, research has focused almost entirely on encoding and retrieval processes, largely ignoring a third critical process– consolidation. The objective of AgeConsolidate is to provide this missing link, by combining novel experimental cognitive paradigms with neuroimaging in a longitudinal large-scale attempt to directly test how age-related changes in consolidation processes in the brain impact episodic memory decline. The ambitious aims of the present proposal are two-fold:
(1) Use recent advances in memory consolidation theory to achieve an elaborate model of episodic memory deficits in aging
(2) Use aging as a model to uncover how structural and functional brain changes affect episodic memory consolidation in general
The novelty of the project lies in the synthesis of recent methodological advances and theoretical models for episodic memory consolidation to explain age-related decline, by employing a unique combination of a range of different techniques and approaches. This is ground-breaking, in that it aims at taking our understanding of the brain processes underlying episodic memory decline in aging to a new level, while at the same time advancing our theoretical understanding of how episodic memories are consolidated in the human brain. To obtain this outcome, I will test the main hypothesis of the project: Brain processes of episodic memory consolidation are less effective in older adults, and this can account for a significant portion of the episodic memory decline in aging. This will be answered by six secondary hypotheses, with 1-3 experiments or tasks designated to address each hypothesis, focusing on functional and structural MRI, positron emission tomography data and sleep experiments to target consolidation from different angles.
Summary
Which brain mechanisms are responsible for the faith of the memories we make with age, whether they wither or stay, and in what form? Episodic memory function does decline with age. While this decline can have multiple causes, research has focused almost entirely on encoding and retrieval processes, largely ignoring a third critical process– consolidation. The objective of AgeConsolidate is to provide this missing link, by combining novel experimental cognitive paradigms with neuroimaging in a longitudinal large-scale attempt to directly test how age-related changes in consolidation processes in the brain impact episodic memory decline. The ambitious aims of the present proposal are two-fold:
(1) Use recent advances in memory consolidation theory to achieve an elaborate model of episodic memory deficits in aging
(2) Use aging as a model to uncover how structural and functional brain changes affect episodic memory consolidation in general
The novelty of the project lies in the synthesis of recent methodological advances and theoretical models for episodic memory consolidation to explain age-related decline, by employing a unique combination of a range of different techniques and approaches. This is ground-breaking, in that it aims at taking our understanding of the brain processes underlying episodic memory decline in aging to a new level, while at the same time advancing our theoretical understanding of how episodic memories are consolidated in the human brain. To obtain this outcome, I will test the main hypothesis of the project: Brain processes of episodic memory consolidation are less effective in older adults, and this can account for a significant portion of the episodic memory decline in aging. This will be answered by six secondary hypotheses, with 1-3 experiments or tasks designated to address each hypothesis, focusing on functional and structural MRI, positron emission tomography data and sleep experiments to target consolidation from different angles.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 482 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-05-01, End date: 2022-04-30
Project acronym AGNES
Project ACTIVE AGEING – RESILIENCE AND EXTERNAL SUPPORT AS MODIFIERS OF THE DISABLEMENT OUTCOME
Researcher (PI) Taina Tuulikki RANTANEN
Host Institution (HI) JYVASKYLAN YLIOPISTO
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH3, ERC-2015-AdG
Summary The goals are 1. To develop a scale assessing the diversity of active ageing with four dimensions that are ability (what people can do), activity (what people do do), ambition (what are the valued activities that people want to do), and autonomy (how satisfied people are with the opportunity to do valued activities); 2. To examine health and physical and psychological functioning as the determinants and social and build environment, resilience and personal skills as modifiers of active ageing; 3. To develop a multicomponent sustainable intervention aiming to promote active ageing (methods: counselling, information technology, help from volunteers); 4. To test the feasibility and effectiveness on the intervention; and 5. To study cohort effects on the phenotypes on the pathway to active ageing.
“If You Can Measure It, You Can Change It.” Active ageing assessment needs conceptual progress, which I propose to do. A quantifiable scale will be developed that captures the diversity of active ageing stemming from the WHO definition of active ageing as the process of optimizing opportunities for health and participation in the society for all people in line with their needs, goals and capacities as they age. I will collect cross-sectional data (N=1000, ages 75, 80 and 85 years) and model the pathway to active ageing with state-of-the art statistical methods. By doing this I will create novel knowledge on preconditions for active ageing. The collected cohort data will be compared to a pre-existing cohort data that was collected 25 years ago to obtain knowledge about changes over time in functioning of older people. A randomized controlled trial (N=200) will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of the envisioned intervention promoting active ageing through participation. The project will regenerate ageing research by launching a novel scale, by training young scientists, by creating new concepts and theory development and by producing evidence for active ageing promotion
Summary
The goals are 1. To develop a scale assessing the diversity of active ageing with four dimensions that are ability (what people can do), activity (what people do do), ambition (what are the valued activities that people want to do), and autonomy (how satisfied people are with the opportunity to do valued activities); 2. To examine health and physical and psychological functioning as the determinants and social and build environment, resilience and personal skills as modifiers of active ageing; 3. To develop a multicomponent sustainable intervention aiming to promote active ageing (methods: counselling, information technology, help from volunteers); 4. To test the feasibility and effectiveness on the intervention; and 5. To study cohort effects on the phenotypes on the pathway to active ageing.
“If You Can Measure It, You Can Change It.” Active ageing assessment needs conceptual progress, which I propose to do. A quantifiable scale will be developed that captures the diversity of active ageing stemming from the WHO definition of active ageing as the process of optimizing opportunities for health and participation in the society for all people in line with their needs, goals and capacities as they age. I will collect cross-sectional data (N=1000, ages 75, 80 and 85 years) and model the pathway to active ageing with state-of-the art statistical methods. By doing this I will create novel knowledge on preconditions for active ageing. The collected cohort data will be compared to a pre-existing cohort data that was collected 25 years ago to obtain knowledge about changes over time in functioning of older people. A randomized controlled trial (N=200) will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of the envisioned intervention promoting active ageing through participation. The project will regenerate ageing research by launching a novel scale, by training young scientists, by creating new concepts and theory development and by producing evidence for active ageing promotion
Max ERC Funding
2 044 364 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-09-01, End date: 2021-08-31
Project acronym ALEXANDRIA
Project Large-Scale Formal Proof for the Working Mathematician
Researcher (PI) Lawrence PAULSON
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), PE6, ERC-2016-ADG
Summary Mathematical proofs have always been prone to error. Today, proofs can be hundreds of pages long and combine results from many specialisms, making them almost impossible to check. One solution is to deploy modern verification technology. Interactive theorem provers have demonstrated their potential as vehicles for formalising mathematics through achievements such as the verification of the Kepler Conjecture. Proofs done using such tools reach a high standard of correctness.
However, existing theorem provers are unsuitable for mathematics. Their formal proofs are unreadable. They struggle to do simple tasks, such as evaluating limits. They lack much basic mathematics, and the material they do have is difficult to locate and apply.
ALEXANDRIA will create a proof development environment attractive to working mathematicians, utilising the best technology available across computer science. Its focus will be the management and use of large-scale mathematical knowledge, both theorems and algorithms. The project will employ mathematicians to investigate the formalisation of mathematics in practice. Our already substantial formalised libraries will serve as the starting point. They will be extended and annotated to support sophisticated searches. Techniques will be borrowed from machine learning, information retrieval and natural language processing. Algorithms will be treated similarly: ALEXANDRIA will help users find and invoke the proof methods and algorithms appropriate for the task.
ALEXANDRIA will provide (1) comprehensive formal mathematical libraries; (2) search within libraries, and the mining of libraries for proof patterns; (3) automated support for the construction of large formal proofs; (4) sound and practical computer algebra tools.
ALEXANDRIA will be based on legible structured proofs. Formal proofs should be not mere code, but a machine-checkable form of communication between mathematicians.
Summary
Mathematical proofs have always been prone to error. Today, proofs can be hundreds of pages long and combine results from many specialisms, making them almost impossible to check. One solution is to deploy modern verification technology. Interactive theorem provers have demonstrated their potential as vehicles for formalising mathematics through achievements such as the verification of the Kepler Conjecture. Proofs done using such tools reach a high standard of correctness.
However, existing theorem provers are unsuitable for mathematics. Their formal proofs are unreadable. They struggle to do simple tasks, such as evaluating limits. They lack much basic mathematics, and the material they do have is difficult to locate and apply.
ALEXANDRIA will create a proof development environment attractive to working mathematicians, utilising the best technology available across computer science. Its focus will be the management and use of large-scale mathematical knowledge, both theorems and algorithms. The project will employ mathematicians to investigate the formalisation of mathematics in practice. Our already substantial formalised libraries will serve as the starting point. They will be extended and annotated to support sophisticated searches. Techniques will be borrowed from machine learning, information retrieval and natural language processing. Algorithms will be treated similarly: ALEXANDRIA will help users find and invoke the proof methods and algorithms appropriate for the task.
ALEXANDRIA will provide (1) comprehensive formal mathematical libraries; (2) search within libraries, and the mining of libraries for proof patterns; (3) automated support for the construction of large formal proofs; (4) sound and practical computer algebra tools.
ALEXANDRIA will be based on legible structured proofs. Formal proofs should be not mere code, but a machine-checkable form of communication between mathematicians.
Max ERC Funding
2 430 140 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-09-01, End date: 2022-08-31
Project acronym ALGILE
Project Foundations of Algebraic and Dynamic Data Management Systems
Researcher (PI) Christoph Koch
Host Institution (HI) ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FEDERALE DE LAUSANNE
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE6, ERC-2011-StG_20101014
Summary "Contemporary database query languages are ultimately founded on logic and feature an additive operation – usually a form of (multi)set union or disjunction – that is asymmetric in that additions or updates do not always have an inverse. This asymmetry puts a greater part of the machinery of abstract algebra for equation solving outside the reach of databases. However, such equation solving would be a key functionality that problems such as query equivalence testing and data integration could be reduced to: In the current scenario of the presence of an asymmetric additive operation they are undecidable. Moreover, query languages with a symmetric additive operation (i.e., which has an inverse and is thus based on ring theory) would open up databases for a large range of new scientific and mathematical applications.
The goal of the proposed project is to reinvent database management systems with a foundation in abstract algebra and specifically in ring theory. The presence of an additive inverse allows to cleanly define differences between queries. This gives rise to a database analog of differential calculus that leads to radically new incremental and adaptive query evaluation algorithms that substantially outperform the state of the art techniques. These algorithms enable a new class of systems which I call Dynamic Data Management Systems. Such systems can maintain continuously fresh query views at extremely high update rates and have important applications in interactive Large-scale Data Analysis. There is a natural connection between differences and updates, motivating the group theoretic study of updates that will lead to better ways of creating out-of-core data processing algorithms for new storage devices. Basing queries on ring theory leads to a new class of systems, Algebraic Data Management Systems, which herald a convergence of database systems and computer algebra systems."
Summary
"Contemporary database query languages are ultimately founded on logic and feature an additive operation – usually a form of (multi)set union or disjunction – that is asymmetric in that additions or updates do not always have an inverse. This asymmetry puts a greater part of the machinery of abstract algebra for equation solving outside the reach of databases. However, such equation solving would be a key functionality that problems such as query equivalence testing and data integration could be reduced to: In the current scenario of the presence of an asymmetric additive operation they are undecidable. Moreover, query languages with a symmetric additive operation (i.e., which has an inverse and is thus based on ring theory) would open up databases for a large range of new scientific and mathematical applications.
The goal of the proposed project is to reinvent database management systems with a foundation in abstract algebra and specifically in ring theory. The presence of an additive inverse allows to cleanly define differences between queries. This gives rise to a database analog of differential calculus that leads to radically new incremental and adaptive query evaluation algorithms that substantially outperform the state of the art techniques. These algorithms enable a new class of systems which I call Dynamic Data Management Systems. Such systems can maintain continuously fresh query views at extremely high update rates and have important applications in interactive Large-scale Data Analysis. There is a natural connection between differences and updates, motivating the group theoretic study of updates that will lead to better ways of creating out-of-core data processing algorithms for new storage devices. Basing queries on ring theory leads to a new class of systems, Algebraic Data Management Systems, which herald a convergence of database systems and computer algebra systems."
Max ERC Funding
1 480 548 €
Duration
Start date: 2012-01-01, End date: 2016-12-31
