Project acronym Age Asymmetry
Project Age-Selective Segregation of Organelles
Researcher (PI) Pekka Aleksi Katajisto
Host Institution (HI) HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS3, ERC-2015-STG
Summary Our tissues are constantly renewed by stem cells. Over time, stem cells accumulate cellular damage that will compromise renewal and results in aging. As stem cells can divide asymmetrically, segregation of harmful factors to the differentiating daughter cell could be one possible mechanism for slowing damage accumulation in the stem cell. However, current evidence for such mechanisms comes mainly from analogous findings in yeast, and studies have concentrated only on few types of cellular damage.
I hypothesize that the chronological age of a subcellular component is a proxy for all the damage it has sustained. In order to secure regeneration, mammalian stem cells may therefore specifically sort old cellular material asymmetrically. To study this, I have developed a novel strategy and tools to address the age-selective segregation of any protein in stem cell division. Using this approach, I have already discovered that stem-like cells of the human mammary epithelium indeed apportion chronologically old mitochondria asymmetrically in cell division, and enrich old mitochondria to the differentiating daughter cell. We will investigate the mechanisms underlying this novel phenomenon, and its relevance for mammalian aging.
We will first identify how old and young mitochondria differ, and how stem cells recognize them to facilitate the asymmetric segregation. Next, we will analyze the extent of asymmetric age-selective segregation by targeting several other subcellular compartments in a stem cell division. Finally, we will determine whether the discovered age-selective segregation is a general property of stem cell in vivo, and it's functional relevance for maintenance of stem cells and tissue regeneration. Our discoveries may open new possibilities to target aging associated functional decline by induction of asymmetric age-selective organelle segregation.
Summary
Our tissues are constantly renewed by stem cells. Over time, stem cells accumulate cellular damage that will compromise renewal and results in aging. As stem cells can divide asymmetrically, segregation of harmful factors to the differentiating daughter cell could be one possible mechanism for slowing damage accumulation in the stem cell. However, current evidence for such mechanisms comes mainly from analogous findings in yeast, and studies have concentrated only on few types of cellular damage.
I hypothesize that the chronological age of a subcellular component is a proxy for all the damage it has sustained. In order to secure regeneration, mammalian stem cells may therefore specifically sort old cellular material asymmetrically. To study this, I have developed a novel strategy and tools to address the age-selective segregation of any protein in stem cell division. Using this approach, I have already discovered that stem-like cells of the human mammary epithelium indeed apportion chronologically old mitochondria asymmetrically in cell division, and enrich old mitochondria to the differentiating daughter cell. We will investigate the mechanisms underlying this novel phenomenon, and its relevance for mammalian aging.
We will first identify how old and young mitochondria differ, and how stem cells recognize them to facilitate the asymmetric segregation. Next, we will analyze the extent of asymmetric age-selective segregation by targeting several other subcellular compartments in a stem cell division. Finally, we will determine whether the discovered age-selective segregation is a general property of stem cell in vivo, and it's functional relevance for maintenance of stem cells and tissue regeneration. Our discoveries may open new possibilities to target aging associated functional decline by induction of asymmetric age-selective organelle segregation.
Max ERC Funding
1 500 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2016-05-01, End date: 2021-04-30
Project acronym aQUARiUM
Project QUAntum nanophotonics in Rolled-Up Metamaterials
Researcher (PI) Humeyra CAGLAYAN
Host Institution (HI) TAMPEREEN KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2018-STG
Summary Novel sophisticated technologies that exploit the laws of quantum physics form a cornerstone for the future well-being, economic growth and security of Europe. Here photonic devices have gained a prominent position because the absorption, emission, propagation or storage of a photon is a process that can be harnessed at a fundamental level and render more practical ways to use light for such applications. However, the interaction of light with single quantum systems under ambient conditions is typically very weak and difficult to control. Furthermore, there are quantum phenomena occurring in matter at nanometer length scales that are currently not well understood. These deficiencies have a direct and severe impact on creating a bridge between quantum physics and photonic device technologies. aQUARiUM, precisely address the issue of controlling and enhancing the interaction between few photons and rolled-up nanostructures with ability to be deployed in practical applications.
With aQUARiUM, we will take epsilon (permittivity)-near-zero (ENZ) metamaterials into quantum nanophotonics. To this end, we will integrate quantum emitters with rolled-up waveguides, that act as ENZ metamaterial, to expand and redefine the range of light-matter interactions. We will explore the electromagnetic design freedom enabled by the extended modes of ENZ medium, which “stretches” the effective wavelength inside the structure. Specifically, aQUARiUM is built around the following two objectives: (i) Enhancing light-matter interactions with single emitters (Enhance) independent of emitter position. (ii) Enabling collective excitations in dense emitter ensembles (Collect) coherently connect emitters on nanophotonic devices to obtain coherent emission.
aQUARiUM aims to create novel light-sources and long-term entanglement generation and beyond. The envisioned outcome of aQUARiUM is a wholly new photonic platform applicable across a diverse range of areas.
Summary
Novel sophisticated technologies that exploit the laws of quantum physics form a cornerstone for the future well-being, economic growth and security of Europe. Here photonic devices have gained a prominent position because the absorption, emission, propagation or storage of a photon is a process that can be harnessed at a fundamental level and render more practical ways to use light for such applications. However, the interaction of light with single quantum systems under ambient conditions is typically very weak and difficult to control. Furthermore, there are quantum phenomena occurring in matter at nanometer length scales that are currently not well understood. These deficiencies have a direct and severe impact on creating a bridge between quantum physics and photonic device technologies. aQUARiUM, precisely address the issue of controlling and enhancing the interaction between few photons and rolled-up nanostructures with ability to be deployed in practical applications.
With aQUARiUM, we will take epsilon (permittivity)-near-zero (ENZ) metamaterials into quantum nanophotonics. To this end, we will integrate quantum emitters with rolled-up waveguides, that act as ENZ metamaterial, to expand and redefine the range of light-matter interactions. We will explore the electromagnetic design freedom enabled by the extended modes of ENZ medium, which “stretches” the effective wavelength inside the structure. Specifically, aQUARiUM is built around the following two objectives: (i) Enhancing light-matter interactions with single emitters (Enhance) independent of emitter position. (ii) Enabling collective excitations in dense emitter ensembles (Collect) coherently connect emitters on nanophotonic devices to obtain coherent emission.
aQUARiUM aims to create novel light-sources and long-term entanglement generation and beyond. The envisioned outcome of aQUARiUM is a wholly new photonic platform applicable across a diverse range of areas.
Max ERC Funding
1 499 431 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-01-01, End date: 2023-12-31
Project acronym CLIMASLOW
Project Slowing Down Climate Change: Combining Climate Law and Climate Science to Identify the Best Options to Reduce Emissions of Short-Lived Climate Forcers in Developing Countries
Researcher (PI) Kati Marjo Johanna Kulovesi
Host Institution (HI) ITA-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2015-STG
Summary The ClimaSlow project opens new interdisciplinary horizons to identify the best opportunities to enhance the global legal and regulatory framework for reducing emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCFs), with particular attention to developing countries as projected key sources of future SLCF emissions. It proceeds from the assumption that strengthening the global legal and regulatory framework for SLCFs would bring important benefits in terms of slowing down climate change and reducing local air pollution. However, legal and regulatory options to step up action on SLCFs have not been studied comprehensively. Furthermore, the climate impacts of the various options are not adequately understood.
In contrast to traditional legal analysis that would focus one legal system or instrument, the project will study the relevant legal and regulatory frameworks comprehensively, considering the international, regional, national and transnational levels. It will seek to identify various options, both formal legal instruments and informal regulatory initiatives, to strengthen the global legal and regulatory frameworks applicable to SLCFs. In addition to providing information on best options to regulate SLCFs, this novel, comprehensive approach will help scholars to improve their understanding of the implications of ongoing changes in global legal landscape, including its presumed fragmentation and deformalisation.
Addressing an important gap in current knowledge, the project will combine analysis of the merits of the various legal and regulatory options with estimates of their climate change impacts on the basis of climate modeling. This way, it will be able to identify the alternatives that are the most promising both from the legal point of view and in terms of climate change mitigation potential. The project will generate information that is policy-relevant and context-specific but can simultaneously provide broader lessons and open new interdisciplinary horizons.
Summary
The ClimaSlow project opens new interdisciplinary horizons to identify the best opportunities to enhance the global legal and regulatory framework for reducing emissions of short-lived climate pollutants (SLCFs), with particular attention to developing countries as projected key sources of future SLCF emissions. It proceeds from the assumption that strengthening the global legal and regulatory framework for SLCFs would bring important benefits in terms of slowing down climate change and reducing local air pollution. However, legal and regulatory options to step up action on SLCFs have not been studied comprehensively. Furthermore, the climate impacts of the various options are not adequately understood.
In contrast to traditional legal analysis that would focus one legal system or instrument, the project will study the relevant legal and regulatory frameworks comprehensively, considering the international, regional, national and transnational levels. It will seek to identify various options, both formal legal instruments and informal regulatory initiatives, to strengthen the global legal and regulatory frameworks applicable to SLCFs. In addition to providing information on best options to regulate SLCFs, this novel, comprehensive approach will help scholars to improve their understanding of the implications of ongoing changes in global legal landscape, including its presumed fragmentation and deformalisation.
Addressing an important gap in current knowledge, the project will combine analysis of the merits of the various legal and regulatory options with estimates of their climate change impacts on the basis of climate modeling. This way, it will be able to identify the alternatives that are the most promising both from the legal point of view and in terms of climate change mitigation potential. The project will generate information that is policy-relevant and context-specific but can simultaneously provide broader lessons and open new interdisciplinary horizons.
Max ERC Funding
1 456 179 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-01-01, End date: 2021-12-31
Project acronym FOUNDLAW
Project Reinventing the Foundations
of European Legal Culture 1934-1964
Researcher (PI) Kaius Tapani Tuori
Host Institution (HI) HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2012-StG_20111124
Summary It is often claimed in the rights and culture debate that certain rights are a reflection of a European culture and tradition and thus not universal. What this study demonstrates is that even in Europe the rights tradition is a conscious construction by a group of legal scholars reacting to contemporary events.
This study is about a group of innovators who are forced to reinvent themselves and their science abroad after being exiled by Nazi Germany. This reinvention meant that they had to first rethink all that they had previously done and then to address a new audience in a new language, simultaneously trying to make sense of the catastrophe. In response, they created a theory a common European legal culture, founded on ideals of the rule of law. A reaction to the nationalistic totalitarian regimes, they sought to show a great tradition based on liberty and justice.
What this study offers is a twist, in that the reinvention had a second, even more influential life after the war. What the anti-totalitarian narrative formed by the exiles offered to the academic community was an explanation and a new self-understanding of law and legal science as a bulwark against dictatorship, enabling them to respond to the challenge of socialism.
Combining archival research, bibliometrical studies and social analysis, the project will study the creation of the rights theory through the intellectual histories of five key figures. Studying correspondence, lecture notes, and published materials on how the idea of a common European legal past was formulated, discussed and disseminated, the project contests the claims of current research that the rights tradition was an accepted historical fact. The starting point of the study, 1934, is the first response to the Nazi takeover and the expelling of civil servants of Jewish ancestry, while the end point, 1964, includes the reaction to the Berlin Wall and the consolidation of the hostilities between East and West in Europe.
Summary
It is often claimed in the rights and culture debate that certain rights are a reflection of a European culture and tradition and thus not universal. What this study demonstrates is that even in Europe the rights tradition is a conscious construction by a group of legal scholars reacting to contemporary events.
This study is about a group of innovators who are forced to reinvent themselves and their science abroad after being exiled by Nazi Germany. This reinvention meant that they had to first rethink all that they had previously done and then to address a new audience in a new language, simultaneously trying to make sense of the catastrophe. In response, they created a theory a common European legal culture, founded on ideals of the rule of law. A reaction to the nationalistic totalitarian regimes, they sought to show a great tradition based on liberty and justice.
What this study offers is a twist, in that the reinvention had a second, even more influential life after the war. What the anti-totalitarian narrative formed by the exiles offered to the academic community was an explanation and a new self-understanding of law and legal science as a bulwark against dictatorship, enabling them to respond to the challenge of socialism.
Combining archival research, bibliometrical studies and social analysis, the project will study the creation of the rights theory through the intellectual histories of five key figures. Studying correspondence, lecture notes, and published materials on how the idea of a common European legal past was formulated, discussed and disseminated, the project contests the claims of current research that the rights tradition was an accepted historical fact. The starting point of the study, 1934, is the first response to the Nazi takeover and the expelling of civil servants of Jewish ancestry, while the end point, 1964, includes the reaction to the Berlin Wall and the consolidation of the hostilities between East and West in Europe.
Max ERC Funding
1 476 429 €
Duration
Start date: 2013-03-01, End date: 2018-02-28
Project acronym ImagiDem
Project Imagi(ni)ng Democracy: European youth becoming citizens by visual participation
Researcher (PI) Eeva LUHTAKALLIO
Host Institution (HI) TAMPEREEN KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2018-STG
Summary The current political and institutional crises render the future of European democracy uncertain. To gain deeper insights into what the current discontent may lead to, and how to address it for the good of an equal and inclusive democracy, we have to study future political actors, today’s young citizens, and examine what are the means of political action prevalent to them. The public sphere of today’s youth is increasingly dominated by visual content, and therefore the visual dimension of political participation is to be a key concern in research thereof. The current youth’s understanding of political action – building arguments, mobilizing, and participating – is likely to become firmly anchored in repertoires of visual participation. ImagiDem will explore, analyze, and conceptualize visual participation of young European citizens in order to formulate a model of democratic practices in the 2020s.
ImagiDem addresses visual political participation and democratic practices among young citizens in the European context using a radical triple-strategy: it combines visual ethnography with computational big data minining and analysis, and deploys this combination to a comparative research setting. The project design includes four countries of comparison – Finland, France, Germany, and Portugal – with both an ethnographic and a computational subproject realized in each of them. Both methodological approaches – comparative online ethnography, and computational, machine learning based analysis of large sets of social media image data – are risky and hitherto scarcely explored.
The theoretical challenge ImagiDem takes is to develop pragmatist theorizing of visual justification and engagements on the one hand, and visual cultural toolkits and frames, on the other. With this methodologico-theoretical toolkit, ImagiDem provides overarching analysis of the future of European democracy.
Summary
The current political and institutional crises render the future of European democracy uncertain. To gain deeper insights into what the current discontent may lead to, and how to address it for the good of an equal and inclusive democracy, we have to study future political actors, today’s young citizens, and examine what are the means of political action prevalent to them. The public sphere of today’s youth is increasingly dominated by visual content, and therefore the visual dimension of political participation is to be a key concern in research thereof. The current youth’s understanding of political action – building arguments, mobilizing, and participating – is likely to become firmly anchored in repertoires of visual participation. ImagiDem will explore, analyze, and conceptualize visual participation of young European citizens in order to formulate a model of democratic practices in the 2020s.
ImagiDem addresses visual political participation and democratic practices among young citizens in the European context using a radical triple-strategy: it combines visual ethnography with computational big data minining and analysis, and deploys this combination to a comparative research setting. The project design includes four countries of comparison – Finland, France, Germany, and Portugal – with both an ethnographic and a computational subproject realized in each of them. Both methodological approaches – comparative online ethnography, and computational, machine learning based analysis of large sets of social media image data – are risky and hitherto scarcely explored.
The theoretical challenge ImagiDem takes is to develop pragmatist theorizing of visual justification and engagements on the one hand, and visual cultural toolkits and frames, on the other. With this methodologico-theoretical toolkit, ImagiDem provides overarching analysis of the future of European democracy.
Max ERC Funding
1 474 594 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-05-01, End date: 2024-04-30
Project acronym QUESPACE
Project Quantifying Energy Circulation in Space Plasma
Researcher (PI) Minna Maria Emilia Palmroth
Host Institution (HI) ILMATIETEEN LAITOS
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2007-StG
Summary The project aims to quantify energy circulation in space plasmas. Scientifically, energy transfer is a fundamental plasma physical problem having many applications in a variety of plasma environments ranging from coronal heating on the Sun to electric heating in the ionosphere. Technologically, understanding the plasma and energy transport properties is a step toward predictions of the space environment needed for spacecraft design and operations. The space physics community lacks an accurate and self-consistent numerical model capable of describing the global plasma system in particular in the inner magnetosphere, where major magnetic storms can cause serious damage to space-borne technology. The project has two goals: 1. Novel integration of observations from ESA’s four-spacecraft Cluster mission with simulation results to gain quantitative understanding of global energy transport properties in the near-Earth space; 2. Development of a new self-consistent global plasma simulation that describes multi-component and multi-temperature plasmas to resolve non-MHD processes that currently cannot be self-consistently described by the existing global plasma simulations. The new simulation methods are now feasible due to the increased computational capabilities. Our existing simulation environment and unique analysis methods have brought exciting new results on magnetospheric energy circulation. Seven years after launch, the Cluster database is now large enough to quantitatively assess these effects. The proposing team has a long record in observational research of global energetics and a world-leading role in developing global magnetospheric computer simulations.
Summary
The project aims to quantify energy circulation in space plasmas. Scientifically, energy transfer is a fundamental plasma physical problem having many applications in a variety of plasma environments ranging from coronal heating on the Sun to electric heating in the ionosphere. Technologically, understanding the plasma and energy transport properties is a step toward predictions of the space environment needed for spacecraft design and operations. The space physics community lacks an accurate and self-consistent numerical model capable of describing the global plasma system in particular in the inner magnetosphere, where major magnetic storms can cause serious damage to space-borne technology. The project has two goals: 1. Novel integration of observations from ESA’s four-spacecraft Cluster mission with simulation results to gain quantitative understanding of global energy transport properties in the near-Earth space; 2. Development of a new self-consistent global plasma simulation that describes multi-component and multi-temperature plasmas to resolve non-MHD processes that currently cannot be self-consistently described by the existing global plasma simulations. The new simulation methods are now feasible due to the increased computational capabilities. Our existing simulation environment and unique analysis methods have brought exciting new results on magnetospheric energy circulation. Seven years after launch, the Cluster database is now large enough to quantitatively assess these effects. The proposing team has a long record in observational research of global energetics and a world-leading role in developing global magnetospheric computer simulations.
Max ERC Funding
699 985 €
Duration
Start date: 2008-09-01, End date: 2013-08-31
Project acronym RevMito
Project Deciphering and reversing the consequences of mitochondrial DNA damage
Researcher (PI) Cory Dunn
Host Institution (HI) HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS3, ERC-2014-STG
Summary Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) encodes several proteins playing key roles in bioenergetics. Pathological mutations of mtDNA can be inherited or may accumulate following treatment for viral infections or cancer. Furthermore, many organisms, including humans, accumulate significant mtDNA damage during their lifespan, and it is therefore possible that mtDNA mutations can promote the aging process.
There are no effective treatments for most diseases caused by mtDNA mutation. An understanding of the cellular consequences of mtDNA damage is clearly imperative. Toward this goal, we use the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a cellular model of mitochondrial dysfunction. Genetic manipulation and biochemical study of this organism is easily achieved, and many proteins and processes important for mitochondrial biogenesis were first uncovered and best characterized using this experimental system. Importantly, current evidence suggests that processes required for survival of cells lacking a mitochondrial genome are widely conserved between yeast and other organisms, making likely the application of our findings to human health.
We will study the repercussions of mtDNA damage by three different strategies. First, we will investigate the link between a conserved, nutrient-sensitive signalling pathway and the outcome of mtDNA loss, since much recent evidence points to modulation of such pathways as a potential approach to increase the fitness of cells with mtDNA damage. Second, we will explore the possibility that defects in cytosolic proteostasis are precipitated by mtDNA mutation. Third, we will apply the knowledge and concepts gained in S. cerevisiae to both candidate-based and unbiased searches for genes that determine the aftermath of severe mtDNA damage in human cells. Beyond the mechanistic knowledge of mitochondrial dysfunction that will emerge from this project, we expect to identify new avenues toward the treatment of mitochondrial disease.
Summary
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) encodes several proteins playing key roles in bioenergetics. Pathological mutations of mtDNA can be inherited or may accumulate following treatment for viral infections or cancer. Furthermore, many organisms, including humans, accumulate significant mtDNA damage during their lifespan, and it is therefore possible that mtDNA mutations can promote the aging process.
There are no effective treatments for most diseases caused by mtDNA mutation. An understanding of the cellular consequences of mtDNA damage is clearly imperative. Toward this goal, we use the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a cellular model of mitochondrial dysfunction. Genetic manipulation and biochemical study of this organism is easily achieved, and many proteins and processes important for mitochondrial biogenesis were first uncovered and best characterized using this experimental system. Importantly, current evidence suggests that processes required for survival of cells lacking a mitochondrial genome are widely conserved between yeast and other organisms, making likely the application of our findings to human health.
We will study the repercussions of mtDNA damage by three different strategies. First, we will investigate the link between a conserved, nutrient-sensitive signalling pathway and the outcome of mtDNA loss, since much recent evidence points to modulation of such pathways as a potential approach to increase the fitness of cells with mtDNA damage. Second, we will explore the possibility that defects in cytosolic proteostasis are precipitated by mtDNA mutation. Third, we will apply the knowledge and concepts gained in S. cerevisiae to both candidate-based and unbiased searches for genes that determine the aftermath of severe mtDNA damage in human cells. Beyond the mechanistic knowledge of mitochondrial dysfunction that will emerge from this project, we expect to identify new avenues toward the treatment of mitochondrial disease.
Max ERC Funding
1 497 160 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-04-01, End date: 2020-03-31
Project acronym SPAECO
Project Spatial ecology: bringing mathematical theory and data together
Researcher (PI) Otso Tapio Ovaskainen
Host Institution (HI) HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), LS5, ERC-2007-StG
Summary The goal of my research plan is to make fundamental progress in the understanding of the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of populations inhabiting the heterogeneous and changing landscapes of the real world. To reach this goal, I will construct general and mathematically rigorous theories and develop novel statistical approaches linking the theories to data. In the mathematical part of the project, I will construct and analyze spatial and stochastic individual-based models formulated as spatiotemporal point processes. I have already made a methodological breakthrough by showing how such models can be analyzed in a mathematically rigorous manner. I plan to use and further develop the mathematical theory to study the interplay among endogenous and exogenous factors in spatial ecology, genetics, and evolution. To link the theory with data, I will develop novel combinations of forward (from process to pattern) and inverse (from pattern to process) approaches in the context of five empirical problems. First, I will build on the strong interaction between empirical studies and modelling in the Glanville fritillary butterfly to develop approaches that integrate genetics with ecology and evolutionary biology in highly fragmented landscapes. Second, I will investigate dead-wood dependent species as a model system of population dynamics in dynamic landscapes, bridging the current gap between data and theory in this system. Third, I will use existing data on butterflies, wolves and bears to study how animal movement depends on the interplay between landscape structure and movement behaviour and on intra- and interspecific interactions. Fourth, I will address fundamental questions in evolutionary quantitative genetics, e.g. the evolution of the matrix of additive genetic variances and covariances. Finally, I will develop Bayesian state-space approaches to root species distribution modelling more deeply in ecological theory.
Summary
The goal of my research plan is to make fundamental progress in the understanding of the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of populations inhabiting the heterogeneous and changing landscapes of the real world. To reach this goal, I will construct general and mathematically rigorous theories and develop novel statistical approaches linking the theories to data. In the mathematical part of the project, I will construct and analyze spatial and stochastic individual-based models formulated as spatiotemporal point processes. I have already made a methodological breakthrough by showing how such models can be analyzed in a mathematically rigorous manner. I plan to use and further develop the mathematical theory to study the interplay among endogenous and exogenous factors in spatial ecology, genetics, and evolution. To link the theory with data, I will develop novel combinations of forward (from process to pattern) and inverse (from pattern to process) approaches in the context of five empirical problems. First, I will build on the strong interaction between empirical studies and modelling in the Glanville fritillary butterfly to develop approaches that integrate genetics with ecology and evolutionary biology in highly fragmented landscapes. Second, I will investigate dead-wood dependent species as a model system of population dynamics in dynamic landscapes, bridging the current gap between data and theory in this system. Third, I will use existing data on butterflies, wolves and bears to study how animal movement depends on the interplay between landscape structure and movement behaviour and on intra- and interspecific interactions. Fourth, I will address fundamental questions in evolutionary quantitative genetics, e.g. the evolution of the matrix of additive genetic variances and covariances. Finally, I will develop Bayesian state-space approaches to root species distribution modelling more deeply in ecological theory.
Max ERC Funding
1 501 421 €
Duration
Start date: 2008-07-01, End date: 2013-06-30
Project acronym TEPESS
Project Technologies and psychophysics of spatial sound
Researcher (PI) Ville Pulkki
Host Institution (HI) AALTO KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), PE7, ERC-2009-StG
Summary Spatial audio is a field, which investigates technologies to capture and reproduce sound in a way that the spatial properties of it are either preserved or modified depending on application. For example, modern surround sound techniques try to reproduce the sound scene perceived by a human listener in the same way than in the original occasion. The principal investigator (PI) has been able to develop a number of technologies in spatial audio field and to transfer them to the industry. The project would have two work packages, one concentrating on development of technology (WP1) and the other on perceptual studies (WP2). The perceptual studies are assumed to help technology development, and new technologies are assumed to reveal new phenomena in perception. The main issue for WP1 is the development of generic audio format. In future all music records and movie audio tracks are targeted to be in this format, which would be suitable for listening with any loudspeaker setup and also with headphones, always with optimal spatial and timbral quality. The development of the format is based on a technique by the PI, which is extended in this work for enhanced playback over loudspeakers and over headphones. Also, new techniques are developed for sound input from different types of microphones and from existing audio formats. The perceptual issues studied in WP2 would be the functioning of spatial hearing with wide sources and complex sound scenarios, together with computational modeling of brain mechanisms devoted to binaural hearing. The crossmodal effects between vision and auditory systems would also be investigated in the anechoic chamber specially equipped for spatial sound research. As the final task, the perceptual quality of developed generic audio format in different listening scenarios would be evaluated with subjective and objective tests.
Summary
Spatial audio is a field, which investigates technologies to capture and reproduce sound in a way that the spatial properties of it are either preserved or modified depending on application. For example, modern surround sound techniques try to reproduce the sound scene perceived by a human listener in the same way than in the original occasion. The principal investigator (PI) has been able to develop a number of technologies in spatial audio field and to transfer them to the industry. The project would have two work packages, one concentrating on development of technology (WP1) and the other on perceptual studies (WP2). The perceptual studies are assumed to help technology development, and new technologies are assumed to reveal new phenomena in perception. The main issue for WP1 is the development of generic audio format. In future all music records and movie audio tracks are targeted to be in this format, which would be suitable for listening with any loudspeaker setup and also with headphones, always with optimal spatial and timbral quality. The development of the format is based on a technique by the PI, which is extended in this work for enhanced playback over loudspeakers and over headphones. Also, new techniques are developed for sound input from different types of microphones and from existing audio formats. The perceptual issues studied in WP2 would be the functioning of spatial hearing with wide sources and complex sound scenarios, together with computational modeling of brain mechanisms devoted to binaural hearing. The crossmodal effects between vision and auditory systems would also be investigated in the anechoic chamber specially equipped for spatial sound research. As the final task, the perceptual quality of developed generic audio format in different listening scenarios would be evaluated with subjective and objective tests.
Max ERC Funding
1 879 458 €
Duration
Start date: 2009-09-01, End date: 2014-08-31
Project acronym TWES
Project Transnational work and the evolution of sovereignty
Researcher (PI) Nathan Alan Lillie
Host Institution (HI) JYVASKYLAN YLIOPISTO
Call Details Starting Grant (StG), SH2, ERC-2010-StG_20091209
Summary Proposal Summary
This is a proposal to study the growth of posted migrant work in the European Union, and the impact of this on industrial relations. Within the European Union, changes in the application of EU law have resulted in the deterritorialization of sovereign regulatory authority. National industrial relations systems have been subordinated to internal market freedoms in four recent European Court of Justice decisions. These constrain the rights of unions and governments to regulate working conditions of foreign service providers operating in their territory, in effect allowing firms to create “spaces of exception” by exploiting enclaves of alternative, deterritorialized sovereignty. For example, a Polish construction worker on a German construction site working for a Polish subcontractor does not, either in practice or in law, have the same rights as a German or Polish worker working for a German subcontractor because the employment relationship in the first instance is in many respects regulated from Poland. Sovereignty has been reconfigured, through EU law and firm practice, so that it is no longer entirely dependent on territory, but also on other contingencies. It is hypothesized that variegated sovereignty is facilitating the segmentation of labor markets, via transnational subcontracting and agency work.
The project will involve fieldwork in Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and at the EU level. The study will be based on ethnographic interviews, to record the experiences of posted migrants and 'native' workers who work with them, and 'expert' interviews of managers, union officials, and policy makers. Two industries have been selected for study: construction and metalworking, because of the prevalence of posted workers in those industries. There will also be a series of policy interviews aimed at understanding the political/legal changes taking place in the European Union which facilitate the growth of variegated sovereignty. These will be used to construct a series of comparative case studies of work sites and industries. The research team will include the Principle Investigator and three other researchers under his supervision.
Summary
Proposal Summary
This is a proposal to study the growth of posted migrant work in the European Union, and the impact of this on industrial relations. Within the European Union, changes in the application of EU law have resulted in the deterritorialization of sovereign regulatory authority. National industrial relations systems have been subordinated to internal market freedoms in four recent European Court of Justice decisions. These constrain the rights of unions and governments to regulate working conditions of foreign service providers operating in their territory, in effect allowing firms to create “spaces of exception” by exploiting enclaves of alternative, deterritorialized sovereignty. For example, a Polish construction worker on a German construction site working for a Polish subcontractor does not, either in practice or in law, have the same rights as a German or Polish worker working for a German subcontractor because the employment relationship in the first instance is in many respects regulated from Poland. Sovereignty has been reconfigured, through EU law and firm practice, so that it is no longer entirely dependent on territory, but also on other contingencies. It is hypothesized that variegated sovereignty is facilitating the segmentation of labor markets, via transnational subcontracting and agency work.
The project will involve fieldwork in Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and at the EU level. The study will be based on ethnographic interviews, to record the experiences of posted migrants and 'native' workers who work with them, and 'expert' interviews of managers, union officials, and policy makers. Two industries have been selected for study: construction and metalworking, because of the prevalence of posted workers in those industries. There will also be a series of policy interviews aimed at understanding the political/legal changes taking place in the European Union which facilitate the growth of variegated sovereignty. These will be used to construct a series of comparative case studies of work sites and industries. The research team will include the Principle Investigator and three other researchers under his supervision.
Max ERC Funding
913 082 €
Duration
Start date: 2011-01-01, End date: 2014-12-31
