ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

A fundamental feature of language is that it allows us to reproduce what others have said. It is traditionally assumed that there are two ways of doing this: direct discourse, where you preserve the original speech act verbatim, and indirect discourse, where you paraphrase it in your own words. In accordance with this dichotomy, linguists have posited a number of universal characteristics to distinguish the two modes. At the same time, we are seeing more and more examples that seem to fall somewhere in between. I reject the direct indirect distinction and replace it with a new paradigm of blended discourse. Combining insights from philosophy and linguistics, my framework has only one kind of speech reporting, in which a speaker always attempts to convey the content of the reported words from her own perspective, but can quote certain parts verbatim, thereby effectively switching to the reported perspective. To explain why some languages are shiftier than others, I hypothesize that a greater distance from face-to-face communication, with the possibility of extra- and paralinguistic perspective marking, necessitated the introduction of an artificial direct indirect separation. I test this hypothesis by investigating languages that are closely tied to direct communication: Dutch child language, as recent studies hint at a very late acquisition of the direct indirect distinction; Dutch Sign Language, which has a special role shift marker that bears a striking resemblance to the quotational shift of blended discourse; and Ancient Greek, where philologists have long been observing perspective shifts. In sum, my research combines a new philosophical insight on the nature of reported speech with formal semantic rigor and linguistic data from child language experiments, native signers, and Greek philology.

677 254 €

Start date: 2011-03-01, End date: 2016-08-31

Thanks to the recent advances in mapping brain activation during task performance using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (i.e., studying the brain in action), it is now possible to study one of the oldest questions in psychology: how the development of neural circuitry underlies the development of cognition and emotion. The ‘Storm and Stress’ of adolescence, a period during which adolescents develop cognitively with great speed but are also risk-takers and sensitive to opinions of their peer group, has puzzled scientists for centuries. New technologies of brain mapping have the potential to shed new light on the mystery of adolescence. The approach proposed here concerns the investigation of brain regions which underlie developmental changes in cognitive, emotional and social-emotional functions over the course of child and adolescent development. For this purpose I will measure functional brain development longitudinally across the age range 8-20 years by using a combined cross-sectional longitudinal design including 240 participants. Participants will take part in two testing sessions over a four-year-period in order to track the within-subject time courses of functional brain development for cognitive, emotional and social-emotional functions and to understand how these functions develop relative to each other in the same individuals, using multilevel models for change. The cross-sectional longitudinal assessment of cognitive, emotional and social-emotional functional brain development in relation to brain structure and hormone levels is unique in the international field and has the potential to provide new explanations for old questions. The application of brain mapping combined with multilevel models for change is original, and allows for the examination of developmental trajectories rather than age comparisons. An integrative mapping (i.e., combined with task performance and with biological markers) of functional brain development is important not only for theory development, but also for understanding how children learn new tasks and participate in a complex social world, and eventually to tailor educational programs to the needs of children.

1 500 000 €

Start date: 2011-02-01, End date: 2016-01-31

The ComplexData project aims at advancing our understanding of the statistical treatment of varied types of complex data by generating new theory and methods, and to obtain progress in concrete current biophysical problems through the implementation of the new tools developed. Complex Data constitute data where the basic object of observation cannot be described in the standard Euclidean context of statistics, but rather needs to be thought of as an element of an abstract mathematical space with special properties. Scientific progress has, in recent years, begun to generate an increasing number of new and complex types of data that require statistical understanding and analysis. Four such types of data that are arising in the context of current scientific research and that the project will be focusing on are: random integral transforms, random unlabelled shapes, random flows of functions, and random tensor fields. In these unconventional contexts for statistics, the strategy of the project will be to carefully exploit the special aspects involved due to geometry, dimension and randomness in order to be able to either adapt and synthesize existing statistical methods, or to generate new statistical ideas altogether. However, the project will not restrict itself to merely studying the theoretical aspects of complex data, but will be truly interdisciplinary. The connecting thread among all the above data types is that their study is motivated by, and will be applied to concrete practical problems arising in the study of biological structure, dynamics, and function: biophysics. For this reason, the programme will be in interaction with local and international contacts from this field. In particular, the theoretical/methodological output of the four programme research foci will be applied to gain insights in the following corresponding four application areas: electron microscopy, protein homology, DNA molecular dynamics, brain imaging.

681 146 €

Start date: 2011-06-01, End date: 2016-05-31

The technology of the 20th century was dominated by a single material class: The semiconductors, whose properties can be tuned between those of metals and insulators all of which describable by single-electron effects. In contrast, quantum magnets and strongly correlated electron systems offer a full palette of quantum mechanical many-electron states. CONQUEST aim to discover, understand and demonstrate control over such quantum states. A new experimental approach, building on established powerful laboratory and neutron scattering techniques combined with dynamical control-perturbations, will be developed to study correlated quantum effects in magnetic materials. The immediate goal is to open a new field of non-equilibrium and time dependent studies in solid state physics. The long-term vision is that the approach might nurture the materials of the 21st century.

1 500 000 €

Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-03-31

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and natural killer (NK) cells release granzyme and perforin from cytotoxic granules into the immune synapse to induce apoptosis of target cells that are either virus-infected or cancerous. Granzyme A activates a caspase-independent apoptotic pathway and induces mitochondrial damage characterized by superoxide anion production and loss of the mitochondrial transmembrane potential, without disrupting the integrity of the mitochondrial outer membrane; while causing single-stranded DNA damage. GzmB induces both caspase-dependent and caspase-independent cell death. In the caspase-dependent pathway, mitochondrial functions are altered as evidenced by the loss of mitochondrial transmembrane potential and the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). The mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM) is disrupted, resulting in the release of apoptogenic factors. To date, research on mitochondrial-dependent apoptosis has focused on mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP) however whether the generation of ROS is incidental or essential to the execution of apoptosis remains unclear. Like human GzmA, human GzmB promotes cell death in a ROS-dependent manner. Preliminary data suggest that human GzmB can induce ROS in a MOMP-independent manner as Bax and Bak double knockout MEF cells treated with human GzmB and perforin still display a robust ROS production and dye in an ROS-dependent manner. Since GzmA and GzmB induce cell death in a ROS-dependent manner, we hypothesize that oxygen free radicals are central to the execution of programmed cell death induced by the cytotoxic granules. Therefore, the goal of this proposal is to dissect the key molecular events triggered by ROS that lead to Citotoxic Tcell-induced target cell death. A combination of biochemical, genetic and proteomic approaches in association with Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) spectroscopy methodology will be used to unravel the essential role ROS play in CTL-mediated killing.

1 500 000 €

Start date: 2011-05-01, End date: 2016-04-30

"Looking up on a starry night, it’s easy to imagine that the Universe is unchanging. In reality, however, the Universe is teeming with activity: there are massive explosions from accreting black holes, bright radio flashes from ultra-magnetic pulsars, and likely other spectacles that have so far escaped our prying eyes. These fleeting events can happen faster than the blink of an eye and, importantly, they trace the most extreme astrophysical phenomena. Catching these rare performances poses a major challenge for observational astronomers, but the scientific payoff is well worth the effort. With this proposal, I will mould the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope into DRAGNET, the world's premier high-speed, wide-angle camera for radio astronomy. Radio waves are a unique and powerful way of investigating the most extreme astrophysical processes. With DRAGNET I will characterize the rate of fast radio transients, i.e. astrophysical bursts lasting less than a second, and search for new astrophysical phenomena in this largely unexplored domain. This has the potential to give us transformative insight into the extremes of gravity and dense matter. Alongside this, I will simultaneously monitor hundreds of radio-emitting neutron stars (pulsars) on a regular basis. This will allow me to understand why some neutron stars pulse regularly, while others show rapid switches in their emission properties. This will address the physics behind the strongest magnetic fields in the Universe. I have led the construction of LOFAR's high-time-resolution observing capabilities; in this project I will capitalize on that investment and do cutting-edge science that is beyond the reach of any other existing telescope. Simply put, this project will establish a world-leading research group in the emerging field of fast radio transients and will crystallize the wide-field radio telescope as an essential tool for unveiling the bustling activity that makes our Universe so interesting to study."

1 964 587 €

Start date: 2014-01-01, End date: 2018-12-31

This proposal aims to advance a new general theory that links plasticity in prey responses to predation and biogeochemical processes to explain context-dependent variations in ecosystem functioning. The physiological reaction of prey to predation involves allocating resources from production to support emergency functions. An example of such a reaction is an increase in maintenance respiration concomitant with higher carbohydrate and lower N demand. Such changes in prey energy and elemental budget should alter the role prey play in regulating the quality of detrital inputs to soils. Nutrient content of detritus is an important determinant of the way soil communities regulate ecosystem processes. Thus, the physiological reaction of prey to predation can potentially explicate changes in ecosystem functioning. My first empirical examination of a few selected mechanisms of this theory has yielded very promising insights. The main objectives of this proposal are: (1) To systematically test whether prey reactions to predation are consistent with the proposed theory’s predictions across species and ecosystems; (2) to examine the interface between stress physiology and anti-predatory behaviors in explaining predator induced diet shift, and (3) to evaluate how predator induced responses at the individual level regulate ecosystem processes. To address these objectives, I propose combining manipulative field experiments, highly controlled laboratory and garden experiments, and stable-isotopes pulse chase approaches. I will examine individual prey responses and the emerging patterns across five food-chains that represent phylogenetically distant taxa and disparate ecosystems. The proposed study is expected to revolutionize our understanding of the mechanisms by which aboveground predators regulate ecosystem processes. Promoting such a mechanistic understanding is crucial to predict how human-induced changes in biodiversity will affect life-supporting ecosystem services.

1 379 600 €

Start date: 2014-02-01, End date: 2019-01-31

A major challenge in neuroscience is to understand how information is stored and coded within single nerve cells (neurons) and across neuron populations in the brain. Nerve cell fibres (axons) are thought to provide the wiring to connect neurons and conduct the electrical nerve impulse (action potential; AP). Recent discoveries, however, show that the initial part of axons actively participates in modulating APs and providing a means to enhance the computational repertoire of neurons in the central nervous system. To decrease the temporal delay in information transmission over long distances most axons are myelinated. Here, we will test the hypothesis that the degree of myelination of single axons directly and indirectly influences the mechanisms of AP generation and neural coding. We will use a novel approach of patch-clamp recording combined with immunohistochemical and ultrastructural identification to develop a detailed model of single myelinated neocortical axons. We also will investigate the neuron-glia interactions responsible for the myelination process and measure whether their development follows an activity-dependent process. Finally, we will elucidate the physiological and molecular similarities and discrepancies between myelinated and experimentally demyelinated single neocortical axons. These studies will provide a novel methodological framework to study central nervous system axons and yield basic insights into myelin physiology and pathophysiology.

1 994 640 €

Start date: 2011-04-01, End date: 2016-03-31

Soon after new antibiotics are introduced, bacterial strains resistant to their action emerge. Recently, non-specific factors that promote the later appearance of specific mechanisms of resistance have been found. Some of these so-called global factors (as opposed to specific resistance mechanisms) emerge as major players in shaping the rate of evolution of resistance. For example, a mutation in the mismatch repair system is a global genetic factor that increases the mutation rate and therefore leads to an increased probability to evolve resistance. In addition to global genetic factors, it is becoming clear that global phenotypic factors play a crucial role in resistance evolution. For example, activation of stress responses can also result in an elevated mutation rate and accelerated evolution of drug resistance. A natural question which arises in this context is how sub-populations of phenotypic variants differ in their evolutionary potential, and how that, in turn, affects the rate at which an entire population adapts to antibiotic stress. I propose a multidisciplinary approach to the systematic and quantitative study of the non-specific factors that affect the mode and tempo of evolution towards antibiotic resistance. Our preliminary results indicate that the presence of dormant bacteria that survive antibiotic treatment affects the rate of resistance evolution in bacterial populations. I will exploit the established expertise of my lab using microfluidic devices for single cell analyses to track the emergence of resistance at the single-cell level, in real-time, and to study the correlation between the phenotype of single bacteria and the probability to evolve resistance. My second approach will take advantage of the recent developments in experimental evolution and high throughput sequencing and combine those with single cells observations for the systematic search of E.coli genes that affect the rate of resistance evolution. We will study replicate populations of E.coli, founded by either laboratory strains or clinical isolates, as they evolve in parallel, under antibiotic stress. Evolved populations will be compared with ancestral populations in order to identify genes and phenotypes that have changed during the evolution of antibiotic resistance. Finally, in silico evolution that simulates the experimental conditions will be developed to analyze the contribution of global factors on resistance evolution. The evolution of antibiotic resistance is not only a fascinating demonstration of the power of evolution but also represents one of the major health threats today. I anticipate that this multidisciplinary study of the global factors that influence the evolution of resistance, from the single cell to the population level, will shed light on the mechanisms used by bacteria to accelerate evolution in general, as well as provide clues as to how to prevent the emergence of antibiotic resistance.

1 458 200 €

Start date: 2010-11-01, End date: 2015-10-31

The Great Hunger (1845-49) radically transformed Ireland: it led to the wide-scale eviction of farmers, killed one million of the rural population, and caused massive emigration to other parts of the British Empire and the United States. Moreover, the Great Famine encouraged anti-English, nationalist sentiments and its trauma is pivotal to the development of an Irish postcolonial consciousness between 1847-1921. There is a vast unexplored transatlantic corpus of prose fiction, written between the aftermath of the Famine and the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, which remembers the years of starvation and diaspora. My project is the first to inventorise and bring together this under-researched body of literature, written in Ireland and by Irish immigrants in England, Canada and the United States. This fiction requires intensive examination for significant reasons, offering alternative perspectives on how the Famine was culturally experienced than previous studies have displayed, and representing subaltern voices and recollections. Moreover, the texts are written in the homeland as well as in diaspora, by migrated Irish or their descendants. An examination of the corpus will therefore move beyond the largely nation-oriented frontiers of cultural memory studies towards innovative, transnational approaches. The project specifically investigates how remembrance is mediated through time, from one generation to another, and space, in diaspora. It aims to evolve a novel theoretical model about the interaction between temporal and spatial relocation in literary remembrance. This pioneering model will generate groundbreaking insights into the interaction between memory and ethnic identity in comparative contexts of cultural dislocation, a colonised homeland and migrant communities; and in processes of cultural relocation: de-colonisation and ethnic integration. At the same time, the project will analyse genre aspects which play a dynamic role in processes of cultural remembrance, contributing a new perspective to the interdisciplinary debate on media of recollection in cultural memory studies.

741 000 €

Start date: 2010-10-01, End date: 2015-09-30

We will study phase transitions and chemical and biological reactions in liquid mixtures in electric field gradients. These new phase transitions are essential in statistical physics and thermodynamics. We will examine theoretically the complex and yet unexplored phase ordering dynamics in which droplets nucleate and move under the external nonuniform force. We will look in detail at the interfacial instabilities which develop when the field is increased. We will investigate how time-varying potentials produce electromagnetic waves and how their spatial decay in the bistable liquid leads to phase changes. These transitions open a new and general way to control the spatio-temporal behaviour of chemical reactions by directly manipulating the solvents' concentrations. When two or more reagents are preferentially soluble in one of the mixture's components, field-induced phase separation leads to acceleration of the reaction. When the reagents are soluble in different solvents, field-induced demixing will lead to the reaction taking place at a slow rate and at a two-dimensional surface. Additionally, the electric field allows us to turn the reaction on or off. The numerical study and simulations will be complemented by experiments. We will study theoretically and experimentally biochemical reactions. We will find how actin-related structures are affected by field gradients. Using an electric field as a tool we will control the rate of actin polymerisation. We will investigate if an external field can damage cancer cells by disrupting their actin-related activity. The above phenomena will be studied in a microfluidics environment. We will elucidate the separation hydrodynamics occurring when thermodynamically miscible liquids flow in a channel and how electric fields can reversibly create and destroy optical interfaces, as is relevant in optofluidics. Chemical and biological reactions will be examined in the context of lab-on-a-chip.

1 482 200 €

Start date: 2010-08-01, End date: 2015-07-31

The aim of this project is to write a history of the Muslim paradise and hell. Researchers (PI, RF and two doctoral researchers) will assess the extent to which Islamic traditions favour or reject a view of human existence as directed toward the otherworld. They will do so by examining a variety of intellectual traditions from the inception of Islam in the 7th century CE until today. The focus of investigation will not just be on the ‘high tradition’ of Islamic theology and jurisprudence, but also on mystical, philosophical, artistic and ‘popular’ traditions, thereby avoiding a monolithic, essentialising account of Islam’s attitude toward the hereafter. As has been argued, the relationship between this world (dunya) and the otherworld (akhira) is as important to Islam as the mind/body dualism is to the intellectual history of the West. However, no sustained effort of analysis has been made in modern Islamic Studies to reflect on the dunya/akhira relationship, and on the boundary that separates the two. This project will be the first comprehensive and systematic attempt in this direction. Five axes of research will underlie this endeavor: (1) the eschatological imaginaire, (2) material culture and the arts, (3) theology and law, (4) mysticism and philosophy, and (5) modern and contemporary visions of the hereafter. The project (proposed duration: 48 months), which is to begin on 1 March 2011, will be based at the Utrecht University and led by Dr Christian Lange (PhD Harvard, 2006, 70%), currently Lecturer in Islamic Studies at New College/School of Divinity. The research team will include one research assistant (100%, 45 months) and two doctoral researchers (100%, 36 months). Financial support is solicited to facilitate the survey of manuscripts and manuscript research in various collections in North America, Europe and Asia, and to help organise two scholarly symposia in Islamic eschatology and one comparative conference.

978 368 €

Start date: 2011-03-01, End date: 2015-04-30

This linguistic research aims to determine and theoretically explain the properties of incomplete parenthesis, in comparison to regular ellipsis and fragments. Thereby, we will provide a systematic typology of (incomplete) parenthetical constructions and amalgamated sentences based on grammatical features, taking into account the effects of syntax, information structure and prosody. We also add a cross-linguistic perspective by comparing the inventory and behavior of parentheses in a number of languages from different families, and we will collect the results in a specialized database that will be made publicly available via an online application.

1 499 554 €

Start date: 2011-02-01, End date: 2016-01-31

Understanding economic and political integration has long been a central concern for economists. An important missing ingredient in the existing literature is the analysis of endogenously determined social identity. By “social identity” I refer to the fact that individuals often care deeply about the groups to which they belong. By “endogenously determined” I refer to the fact that individuals do not automatically identify with every group they belong to: whether or not an individual identifies with a given group depends on the characteristics of this group as well as on how close to this group the individual perceives herself. Empirical results obtained over the past decade allow us to integrate identity concerns into standard economic models. I propose to develop and test a theory of integration that does just that. Consider two states that may either be independent countries or form a union. The stability and desirability of unification may sometimes depend on the extent to which citizens identify with the union or with their states. But the profile of identities itself depends on the political-economic outcome under unification. The first step in developing the theory is to translate the evidence concerning behavior in groups into a concise statement of what it means to “identify” with a particular group and what factors shape identification decisions. The theory will then study the equilibrium outcomes of a political economy model of integration, where actions and identities are endogenously determined. The second part of the project will empirically examine the relation between social identities, individual characteristics, and European integration. To appropriately measure identification, I propose to employ experimental methods based on revealed preference conducted with a large and diverse sample of European citizens. This will be complemented by historical multi-country survey data on self-reported identity, political attitudes and behavior.

1 050 000 €

Start date: 2014-03-01, End date: 2019-02-28

The central purpose of this project is to bring down interdisciplinary barriers by showing how the Slavic and the Jewish heritage can each be approached as a unique repository of the unknown texts, traditions, and sensibilities of the other. By focusing on previously unexplored or under-explored medieval texts, I aim to reconstruct the Jewish and Slavic legacies, some of whose materials have been considered lost, while others were misinterpreted or neglected. This research project will resort to historical and philological techniques hitherto considered mutually incompatible in this field. The study intends to use methods of cultural archaeology to explore medieval Judeo-Slavic transparency. By cultural transparency we understand the mutual permeability of different cultures, which facilitates the exchange of ideas and genres of creativity between them. Cultural archeology involves methods of multi-disciplinary research based on the assumption that Eastern Europe constituted a melting pot characterized by an intensive cross-fertilization of cultural legacies. Cultural archaeology studies different historical, religious, and literary texts by looking at them as a palimpsest in which earlier texts and types of discourse come to the fore as shaped by their contemporary socio-cultural settings. The proposed theme has far-reaching methodological implications beyond the Judeo-Slavic cultural realm. This project will build a model of cross-cultural interaction to achieve a better understanding of the situations in which different faith-based ethnic cultures cohabit.

1 044 000 €

Start date: 2010-11-01, End date: 2016-10-31

Throughout the Earth’s history, the mutualism between plants and their fungal partners has mediated nutrient cycles and energy flow in ecosystems. Underground, mycorrhizal fungi and plant roots form vast networks of connected individuals, in which sugars from roots are exchanged for nutrients from fungi. How is cooperation maintained in plant-fungal networks? Selfish individuals can potentially exploit the collaboration, reaping nutrient benefits while paying no costs. So, why cooperate at all? I recently demonstrated that plant and fungal partners are able to detect variation in nutrient provisioning by the other, and adjust their own strategy accordingly (Kiers et al. Science 2011). We argued that the partnership functions like an economic market: partners compete by trading resources, and those offering the best rate of exchange are rewarded. While this work suggests that plants and fungi can successfully negotiate conditions of trade, we have yet to conclusively demonstrate what drives ‘fair’ trade dynamics. In particular, we do not know how partner performance is evaluated, nor how trade strategies respond to changes in resource levels. I present an interdisciplinary program of research to address this problem by investigating four aspects critical to market regulation in nature: (1) Responses to external resources, (2) Partner decisions, (3) Network formation, (4) Conflict resolution within networks. Using a combination of gene-level characterization, microscale manipulation of nutrient landscapes, experimental evolution, and game theory, I will test: (1) how plant and fungal trading strategies respond to changing resource levels; (2) how hosts control fungal ‘behavior’, stimulating them to collect specific nutrients; (3) the role of fungal fusion in network formation; (4) how genetic conflicts within a fungal network are resolved. This work opens up a new field of research into how markets evolve and are stabilized in non-animal systems.

1 492 438 €

Start date: 2014-02-01, End date: 2019-01-31

What makes understanding the ecology and evolution of microbes such a unique challenge is the fact that, while the life of microbes unfold at scales of a few micrometers, their impact on ecosystems can be perceived at the scale of meters or kilometers. Our inability to map ecosystem-level processes to the micro-scale interactions that take place in microbial communities is one of the main obstacles hindering the development of mechanistic models that allow us to interpret microbial diversity and predict community dynamics. The overarching goal of this research project is to understand how the biotic interactions between microbes at the scale of micrometers impact microbial community structure and dynamics. By reconstructing the spatial structure and the interaction networks of microbial populations colonizing particles of a few tens of microns in diameter in aquatic environments, the proposed research will build mechanistic models that will serve to i) clarify the structure-function mapping of microbial ‘species’ in the environment, ii) understand microbial community assembly at the relevant physical scales iii) model how perturbations in the environment lead to micro-scale shifts in community structure and iv) elucidate how biotic interactions influence genome evolution in microbial communities. The results of this project will fill a fundamental gap in microbial sciences, allowing us to connect micro-scale population and community interactions to the global diversity and function of microbial communities.

1 940 085 €

Start date: 2013-11-01, End date: 2018-10-31

Advances in growth and fabrication of semiconductor nanostructures have led to both the production of exquisitely sensitive force transducers and the development of solid-state quantum devices. Force transducers, typically monolithic Si cantilevers, are central to techniques such as AFM, and MFM. On the other hand, quantum devices including quantum wells, quantum dots (QDs), and single electron transistors are essential to technologies like lasers, optical detectors, and in experiments on quantum information. These two types of devices have – until now – occupied distinct material systems and have, for the most part, not been combined. New developments in the growth of inorganic nanowires (NWs), however, are set to change the status quo. Researchers can now grow nanoscale structures from the bottom-up with unprecedented mechanical properties. Unlike traditional top-down cantilevers, which are etched or milled out of a larger block of material, bottom-up structures are assembled unit-by-unit to be almost defect-free on the atomic-scale. This near perfection gives NWs a much smaller mechanical dissipation than their top-down counterparts, while their higher resonance frequencies allow them to couple less strongly to common sources of noise. Meanwhile, layer-by-layer growth of NWs is rapidly developing such that both axial and radial heterostructures have now been realized. Such fine control allows for band-structure engineering and the production of devices including FETs, single photon sources, and QDs. NWs are also attractive hosts for optical emitters as their geometry favors the efficient extraction of photons. These properties and the fact that a NW can be integrated as the tip of an SPM make NWs extremely promising devices. We propose to develop the use of NWs as scanning multifunctional sensors. We intend to 1) use NW cantilevers as force transducers in high-resolution scanning force microscopy, and 2) use NW quantum devices as scanning sensors.

1 480 680 €

Start date: 2013-11-01, End date: 2018-10-31

The neocortex is organized into neural circuits that perform distinct computations, from sensory processing and motor control to memory, learning and language. Neuromodulatory systems projecting to the neocortex exert a powerful influence on cortical computations through neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine, monoamines and neuropeptides. The prefrontal cortex (PFC), a cortical region required for working memory, attention and goal-directed behavior, receives dense projections from multiple neuromodulatory systems that dramatically impact its function. Pioneering work has shown that pharmacological manipulation of these systems can potently modulate attention and cognitive function and that impaired neuromodulation can lead to psychiatric disease. Yet, much of the view of high level cortical function is focused on models that either ignore neuromodulation altogether or treat it as a reward or arousal signal. We propose to elucidate the dynamics and mechanisms of prefrontal neuromodulatory tuning, from the level of synapses and cells to circuits and animal behavior. To achieve this goal, we will map the circuit-level impact of synaptic neuromodulatory inputs on the prefrontal cortex circuit dynamics, develop and apply two novel optogenetic approaches for light-based synaptic silencing and optical recording of cortical neuromodulatory activity in vivo, and establish the causal roles of PFC neuromodulation in attention and working memory. These experiments will enable us for the first time to delineate the specific contribution of distinct neuromodulatory systems to prefrontal function, integrating comprehensive cell- and circuit-level analysis with unique opto-physiological readouts in behaving animals. The project will yield an integrative view of prefrontal neuromodulation, revealing its impact on cortical function and dissecting its roles in cognitive function.

1 429 460 €

Start date: 2014-02-01, End date: 2019-01-31

We always take in a certain perspective when we speak. Languages have a wide variety of linguistic means to express perspective. While perspectival elements are most of the time used from the perspective of the speaker, they can also be used from the perspective of someone else, a possibility that is fully exploited in narratives. The central aim of this project is to deepen our understanding of perspective shifts. It will not only elucidate the semantic and pragmatic mechanisms underlying interpretation shifts of specific expressions, but also unite them in a general formal model of perspective shift. Moreover, these insights will be used to unravel the linguistic grounding of narrative perspective. The project will focus on Ancient Greek, a language with a particularly rich perspective system. Not only do many classes of expressions involve perspective in some way (e.g. attitudinal particles, optative mood, tense and aspect, evaluatives, participles), but authors like Thucydides are also known for their subtle manipulation of narrative perspective. It is far from clear, however, how these shifts in narrative perspective are effected by the linguistic expressions used. This project will study (i) the relation between attitudinal particles and perspective shifts, (ii) the role of evaluative expressions, and (iii) the relation between temporal perspective and narrative perspective. State-of-the-art computational methods will be used to extract data from existing corpora, revealing patterns that have eluded traditional methods; this methodology will be a major innovation in the field of classical philology. The present project goes beyond previous semantic studies (i) by investigating more subtle and pervasive ways of perspective creation than the free indirect discourse technique and (ii) through the development of a general formal model of perspective shift, integrating the contribution of several perspective involving expressions.

1 044 798 €

Start date: 2013-12-01, End date: 2018-11-30

Not all cells in bacterial populations exhibit exactly the same phenotype, even though they grow in the same environment and are genetically identical. One of the main driving forces of phenotypic variation is stochasticity, or noise, in gene expression. Possible molecular origins contributing to noise in protein synthesis are stochastic fluctuations in the biochemical reactions of gene expression itself, namely transcription and translation. The driving hypothesis of this application is that the human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae utilizes noisy gene expression to successfully colonize and invade its host. To test this supposition, the total amount of noise in key regulatory networks for virulence factor production will be quantified. Using natural and synthetic bistable switches as highly sensitive probes for noise, in combination with state-of-the-art single-cell imaging, microfluidics and direct transcriptome sequencing, the molecular mechanisms underlying noise generation in S. pneumoniae will be determined. By constructing strains with altered levels of phenotypic variation, the importance of noisy gene expression in S. pneumoniae pathogenesis will be tested. S. pneumoniae is a leading cause of bacterial pneumoniae, meningitis, and sepsis worldwide. The molecular mechanisms that cause switching of S. pneumoniae to its virulent states are barely understood, although it becomes increasingly clear that noise-driven phenotypic variation plays an important role in pneumococcal pathogenesis. Therefore, understanding the molecular origins of phenotypic variation in S. pneumoniae might not only provide novel fundamental insights in gene expression, but also result in the identification of new anti-pneumococcal targets.

1 498 846 €

Start date: 2013-11-01, End date: 2018-10-31

Quantum design, the ability to control the microscopic properties of a quantum system, has proven to be an invaluable tool in experimental physics. Carbon nanotubes are an ideal system to implement quantum design in the solid-state; their strongly interacting electrons, unusual spin properties, and unique mechanical qualities make them an excellent platform for studying quantum phenomena in low dimensions. However, for many years this potential has been hindered by the dominance of strong electronic disorder in this system. Fortunately, a series of recent breakthroughs in making nanotubes free of disorder has dramatically changed this situation, opening up a wide range of opportunities for high-precision experiments in these systems. In this work I propose to develop a new technology that will enable quantum design experiments in carbon nanotubes. This technology, which builds on my recent development of ultra-clean electronic devices in nanotubes, will allow us to create nanotube device-architectures that go far beyond those currently available. Specifically, we will be able to control the properties of individual electrons with microscopic precision (~100nm), manipulate their quantum states, and image their individual wavefunctions. This new toolset will be used to study previously unexplored realms in condensed matter physics, ranging from the correlated states-of-matter formed by electrons in one-dimension, to quantum information experiments with multiple electronic spins, and finally to mechanical studies of nanotube resonators in the quantum limit. These studies will address some of the most fundamental aspects pertaining to the physics of electrons, spins and phonons in low dimensions.

1 499 940 €

Start date: 2011-01-01, End date: 2015-12-31

An electoral system is an essential component of representative democracy. It translates preferences of citizens to a legislative body and inevitably distorts preferences, voicing some more loudly than others. Theorizing and empirically analyzing how the electoral system tilts the playing ground is the aim of this study. The number of seats allotted to an electoral district—the district magnitude (DM)—is perhaps the most important component defining an electoral system. It is long established that DM affects key features of the political landscape in a country, such as representation, the number of parties, the type of government (single- or multi-party coalition), parties’ strategy, voters’ consideration, and even redistribution policy. Most democracies, however, have districts of many different magnitudes, and the range often reaches thirty seats gap between the smallest and largest districts in a country. Districts in Portugal, for instance, vary between two and forty-eight seats, and in Switzerland between one and thirty-five. The voluminous literature on electoral districts uniformly sidesteps this heterogeneity, focusing instead on a single middle district per country. The proposed study is the first large-scale study that theorizes about and empirically analyzes the effects of within-country district structure. I address questions such as: how does district heterogeneity shape representation at the national level? How does it affect the party system? And how does it affect party coordination? In the first part of the study I will theorize about various aspects of district heterogeneity in a country (e.g., skewness, effective number of magnitudes). I will gain deep understanding for district distributions and develop politically-relevant measures of heterogeneity. Drawing on insights from the theoretical part, the second part will empirically examine how district heterogeneity affects the political landscape, and in particular representation, party system, and party coordination. This part relies on extensive district- and national-level data collection and data analysis in OECD countries as well as in-depth case analysis. Analyzing the effect of district heterogeneity on representation, party systems, and party coordination will open new avenues of research about design of electoral systems.

1 038 686 €

Start date: 2010-11-01, End date: 2016-10-31

"This project is an anthropological study of how citizenship is being reconfigured through hybrid forms of governance. It will research these transformations by focusing on public-private ‘security assemblages’, with particular emphasis on the role of the private security industry. Much recent scholarly debate has focused on shifting modes of governance in a context of neoliberal globalization. Specific attention has focused on how governance is increasingly achieved through networks or assemblages of state, corporate and voluntary actors. Such assemblages of state and non-state actors blur the lines between public and private, and between local, national and transnational. This research will extend this debate by investigating the implications this form of governance has for how different groups enact and experience citizenship, concentrating on public-private security assemblages as hybrid, multi-scalar governance structures. It will examine how forms of ‘differentiated citizenship’ are produced, and how political subjectivities shift, as a result of these forms of security governance. These transformations in citizenship will be analyzed through a multi-sited, comparative analysis of security assemblages in Jerusalem (Israel), Kingston (Jamaica) and Nairobi (Kenya). The project will research the composition, operation and regulation of public-private security assemblages, with special attention to the global mobilities of security experts and expertise. In each setting, the project will study the practices and discourses that structure relations between state and non-state security providers, clients and those seen as threats. It will focus on the ‘security encounter’ between these different actors, in which new social relationships and subjectivities are produced. The project is expected to lead to the development of an anthropological theory of security governance with both theoretical and applied relevance."

1 484 656 €

Start date: 2014-04-01, End date: 2019-03-31

"A major goal in biodiversity conservation is to predict responses of biological populations to environmental change. To achieve this, we must identify early warning signals of the demographic changes that underlie population declines. Some studies have achieved phenomenological prediction of sudden changes, but recent advances that link trait-based information with demography hint that a mechanistic understanding is within reach. I propose to develop a predictive framework by identifying the demographic and phenotypic statistics that can be used as early warning signals of demographic regime shifts. I have investigated links between ecological and evolutionary processes in changing environments for many years, and I will now build on this experience to develop a predictive theory. First, we will analyse unique long-term individual-based datasets from nine mammal species. The species represent a continuum of life histories and environmental conditions, and some of them show population dynamic regime shifts. Second, we will construct trait-based demographic models of each system and perturb key parameters to simulate population and trait dynamics under multiple environmental scenarios. The simulations will yield time-series data from which we will estimate demographic and phenotypic statistics. We will test the ability of these statistics to predict demographic changes using a novel decision algorithm framework. Finally, using two laboratory microcosms, we will experimentally test the ability of these statistics to predict population responses to environmental change. This project will exploit nine unique natural systems to identify early warning signals of population change and test these on two experimental systems. Results will provide much-needed predictive insight into how wildlife populations respond to environmental change, and will be of highest importance to management of wildlife populations whether they are of conservation concern, invasive, or exploitable."

1 499 136 €

Start date: 2013-12-01, End date: 2018-11-30

This project endeavors to recalibrate the accepted understanding of the Jewish-Christian interchange in the early modern East-Central Europe in light of an analysis of Jewish theological elaborations of conversion to Christianity. From the mid-seventeenth century onwards conversion to Christianity became one of the central intellectual (and not merely practical) concerns of Judaism. By attempting to reconstruct the theological conceptualizations of conversions (and not – as did other scholars – biographies of the converts), I shall challenge the prevailing scholarly paradigm of the existence of clear and impenetrable boundaries between Judaism and Christianity. My project seeks to systematically discuss this issue on the basis of an analysis of a large amount of previously unknown primary sources, thereby shedding significant new light on the Jewish Christian relations in Central Europe in the early modern period.

1 045 200 €

Start date: 2011-02-01, End date: 2016-01-31

"In the 20th century, states have increasingly sought to apply their laws to situations and persons beyond their borders. They typically did so to protect their own interests from harm spilling over their borders. Recently, however, states appear to be giving their laws ‘extraterritorial’ application to protect global interests, not only when prosecuting international criminals, but also by enacting emissions trading schemes to tackle global warming, by taking sanctions against foreign vessels involved in illegal fishing on the high seas docking in their port, and by fighting foreign corrupt practices with a view to furthering good governance in developing countries. Thus, it appears that a novel principle of jurisdiction is crystallizing that protects global interests through unilateral application of domestic (or regional) law. It is the aim of this research to study this development in-depth, and to examine in particular whether, and under what circumstances, international law countenances such an exercise of unilateral jurisdiction that is aimed at the protection of global interests. The project consists of two pillars. Pillar 1 studies three cases of states or regional organizations unilaterally applying their own laws to (partly) foreign situations considered as threatening global interests: (a) the exercise of unilateral jurisdiction aimed at mitigating climate change; (b) the exercise of port state jurisdiction aimed at protecting sustainable fishing and biological diversity on the high seas; (c) the exercise of unilateral jurisdiction to tackle foreign corruption practices. Pillar 2 is synthetic in nature, and assesses whether, and to what extent, general rules of jurisdiction and jurisdictional restraint concerning the protection of global interests are developing across various fields, including but not limited to the fields studied in Pillar 1."

1 341 529 €

Start date: 2013-11-01, End date: 2018-10-31

Severe spinal cord injury (SCI) permanently abolishes motor functions caudal to the lesion. Various strategies have been pursued to promote functional recovery after such injuries. However, none of these attempts were able to return voluntary movements in paralyzed subjects. Here, we propose an innovative transdisciplinary research program including parallel approaches that will converge into an integrated multi-pronged therapy able to restore voluntary movements after paralyzing SCI. To achieve this goal, we will capitalize on our recent breakthroughs that demonstrate the impressive capacity of pharmacological and electrical spinal cord stimulations to promote full weight bearing walking in paralyzed rats when combined with rehabilitation. In Walk Again, we will improve high level control of spinal circuits with synergistic combinations of pharmacological agents, and with the design of multisite stimulation strategies using electrode arrays. Functional electrical stimulation of muscles will provide complementary low level tuning capacities to adjust limb motion. To allow voluntary control, we will establish a new line of research and pioneer brain-spinal interfaces by which cortical modulations will directly adjust stimulations of spinal circuits and muscles. In the final stages, we will enable neurorehabilitation with this cortico-spinal neuroprosthesis in the presence of anti-NogoA regenerative therapy. The underlying objective is to devise a fully-operative neuroprosthetic system that will enable self-driven rehabilitation in a permissive plastic environment. Walk Again will fertilize frontier research with pioneer ideas that will increase European competitiveness while paving the way toward viable clinical applications to restore function in paralyzed individuals.

1 395 540 €

Start date: 2010-12-01, End date: 2015-11-30