Project acronym HONORLOGIC
Project The Cultural Logic of Honor and Social Interaction: A Cross-Cultural Comparison
Researcher (PI) Ayse USKUL
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY OF KENT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH3, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Understanding (un)willingness to coordinate with others, to compromise when faced with different choices, or to apologize for transgressions is crucial as these behaviors can act as strong facilitators or inhibitors of important interpersonal processes such as negotiations and coalition building. These behaviors play a major role when individuals from different cultural backgrounds work together to solve disputes or address joint challenges. Yet, we know little about what these behaviors mean in different cultural groups or how they are approached. With HONORLOGIC, I aim to initiate a step-change in our understanding of cultural variation in these important domains of social behavior by providing unique, multimethod, comparative and converging evidence from a wide range of cultural groups. I will answer the question “How do cultural groups that promote honor as a core cultural value approach coordinating with others, reaching compromise, and offering apologies?” by integrating insights from social/cultural psychology, behavioral economics, and anthropology. I will do this by collecting quantitative data using economic games, experiments, and surveys from Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia, as cultural groups where honor has been shown to play a defining role in individuals’ social worlds. I will also run the proposed studies in the US, the UK, Japan and Korea to provide a broader comparative perspective.
HONORLOGIC will produce transformative evidence for theories of social interaction and decision making in psychology, economics, and evolutionary science by (a) producing innovative theory and data with an interdisciplinary and multi-method approach, (b) increasing the diversity of the existing evidence pool, (c) testing established theoretical assumptions in new cultural groups, and (d) contributing to capacity building in under-researched cultural groups in psychological research.
Summary
Understanding (un)willingness to coordinate with others, to compromise when faced with different choices, or to apologize for transgressions is crucial as these behaviors can act as strong facilitators or inhibitors of important interpersonal processes such as negotiations and coalition building. These behaviors play a major role when individuals from different cultural backgrounds work together to solve disputes or address joint challenges. Yet, we know little about what these behaviors mean in different cultural groups or how they are approached. With HONORLOGIC, I aim to initiate a step-change in our understanding of cultural variation in these important domains of social behavior by providing unique, multimethod, comparative and converging evidence from a wide range of cultural groups. I will answer the question “How do cultural groups that promote honor as a core cultural value approach coordinating with others, reaching compromise, and offering apologies?” by integrating insights from social/cultural psychology, behavioral economics, and anthropology. I will do this by collecting quantitative data using economic games, experiments, and surveys from Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Egypt and Tunisia, as cultural groups where honor has been shown to play a defining role in individuals’ social worlds. I will also run the proposed studies in the US, the UK, Japan and Korea to provide a broader comparative perspective.
HONORLOGIC will produce transformative evidence for theories of social interaction and decision making in psychology, economics, and evolutionary science by (a) producing innovative theory and data with an interdisciplinary and multi-method approach, (b) increasing the diversity of the existing evidence pool, (c) testing established theoretical assumptions in new cultural groups, and (d) contributing to capacity building in under-researched cultural groups in psychological research.
Max ERC Funding
1 998 694 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-09-01, End date: 2024-08-31
Project acronym IGOC
Project Interactions between Groups, Orbits, and Cartans
Researcher (PI) Xin Li
Host Institution (HI) QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE1, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Recently, we discovered that the notion of Cartan subalgebras builds bridges between C*-algebras, topological dynamics, and geometric group theory. The goal of this research project is to develop our understanding of this concept in order to attack the following major open questions:
I. The UCT question
II. The Baum-Connes conjecture
III. The conjugacy problem for topological shifts
IV. Quasi-isometry rigidity for polycyclic groups
UCT stands for Universal Coefficient Theorem and is a crucial ingredient in classification. I want to make progress on the open question whether sufficiently regular C*-algebras satisfy the UCT, taking my joint work with Barlak as a starting point.
The Baum-Connes conjecture predicts a K-theory formula for group C*-algebras which has far-reaching applications in geometry and algebra as it implies open conjectures of Novikov and Kaplansky. My new approach to II will be based on Cartan subalgebras and the notion of independent resolutions due to Norling and myself.
Problem III asks for algorithms deciding which shifts are topologically conjugate. It has driven a lot of research in symbolic dynamics.
Conjecture IV asserts that every group quasi-isometric to a polycyclic group must already be virtually polycyclic. A solution would be a milestone in our understanding of solvable Lie groups.
To attack III and IV, I want to develop the new notion of continuous orbit equivalence which (as I recently showed) is closely related to Cartan subalgebras.
Problems I to IV address important challenges, so that any progress will result in a major breakthrough. On top of that, my project will initiate new interactions between several mathematical areas. It is exactly the right time to develop the proposed research programme as it takes up recent breakthroughs in classification of C*-algebras, orbit equivalence for Cantor minimal systems, and measured group theory, where measure-theoretic analogues of our key concepts have been highly successful.
Summary
Recently, we discovered that the notion of Cartan subalgebras builds bridges between C*-algebras, topological dynamics, and geometric group theory. The goal of this research project is to develop our understanding of this concept in order to attack the following major open questions:
I. The UCT question
II. The Baum-Connes conjecture
III. The conjugacy problem for topological shifts
IV. Quasi-isometry rigidity for polycyclic groups
UCT stands for Universal Coefficient Theorem and is a crucial ingredient in classification. I want to make progress on the open question whether sufficiently regular C*-algebras satisfy the UCT, taking my joint work with Barlak as a starting point.
The Baum-Connes conjecture predicts a K-theory formula for group C*-algebras which has far-reaching applications in geometry and algebra as it implies open conjectures of Novikov and Kaplansky. My new approach to II will be based on Cartan subalgebras and the notion of independent resolutions due to Norling and myself.
Problem III asks for algorithms deciding which shifts are topologically conjugate. It has driven a lot of research in symbolic dynamics.
Conjecture IV asserts that every group quasi-isometric to a polycyclic group must already be virtually polycyclic. A solution would be a milestone in our understanding of solvable Lie groups.
To attack III and IV, I want to develop the new notion of continuous orbit equivalence which (as I recently showed) is closely related to Cartan subalgebras.
Problems I to IV address important challenges, so that any progress will result in a major breakthrough. On top of that, my project will initiate new interactions between several mathematical areas. It is exactly the right time to develop the proposed research programme as it takes up recent breakthroughs in classification of C*-algebras, orbit equivalence for Cantor minimal systems, and measured group theory, where measure-theoretic analogues of our key concepts have been highly successful.
Max ERC Funding
1 296 966 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-09-01, End date: 2024-08-31
Project acronym NanoMechShape
Project Molecular control of actin network architecture and mechanics during cell shape changes
Researcher (PI) Ewa PALUCH
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS3, ERC-2018-COG
Summary Precise control of shape is key to cell physiology, and cell shape deregulation is at the heart of many pathologies. As cell morphology is controlled by forces, studies integrating physics with biology are required to truly understand morphogenesis. NanoMechShape will take such an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the regulation of animal cell shape.
In animal cells, actin networks are the primary determinants of shape. Most cell shape changes fall into two categories: 1) those driven by contractions of the actin cortex, a thin network underlying the membrane in rounded cells; and 2) those resulting from transitions between the cortex and other actin networks, such as lamellipodia and filopodia. To understand cell deformations, it is thus essential to understand the regulation of cortex contractile tension and the mechanisms controlling transitions in actin architecture.
NanoMechShape will comprise three aims. First, we will explore how cortex tension is regulated. We will focus on the role of cortex architecture, which remains elusive due to the difficulty in probing the organisation of the thin cortical network. We will unveil cortex architecture using super-resolution and electron microscopy, and systematically investigate how nanoscale architectural features affect tension. Second, we will explore how the identified regulatory mechanisms contribute to the establishment of a cortical tension gradient. We will focus on the gradient driving cytokinetic furrow ingression, an exemplar tension-driven shape change. Third, we will investigate transitions in actin architecture underlying cell spreading. We will compare spreading at the end of mitosis and during differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells, paving the way to investigations of the crosstalk between cell shape and fate.
By bridging a fundamental gap between molecular processes and cell-scale behaviors, our multidisciplinary study will unveil some of the fundamental principles of cell morphogenesis.
Summary
Precise control of shape is key to cell physiology, and cell shape deregulation is at the heart of many pathologies. As cell morphology is controlled by forces, studies integrating physics with biology are required to truly understand morphogenesis. NanoMechShape will take such an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the regulation of animal cell shape.
In animal cells, actin networks are the primary determinants of shape. Most cell shape changes fall into two categories: 1) those driven by contractions of the actin cortex, a thin network underlying the membrane in rounded cells; and 2) those resulting from transitions between the cortex and other actin networks, such as lamellipodia and filopodia. To understand cell deformations, it is thus essential to understand the regulation of cortex contractile tension and the mechanisms controlling transitions in actin architecture.
NanoMechShape will comprise three aims. First, we will explore how cortex tension is regulated. We will focus on the role of cortex architecture, which remains elusive due to the difficulty in probing the organisation of the thin cortical network. We will unveil cortex architecture using super-resolution and electron microscopy, and systematically investigate how nanoscale architectural features affect tension. Second, we will explore how the identified regulatory mechanisms contribute to the establishment of a cortical tension gradient. We will focus on the gradient driving cytokinetic furrow ingression, an exemplar tension-driven shape change. Third, we will investigate transitions in actin architecture underlying cell spreading. We will compare spreading at the end of mitosis and during differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells, paving the way to investigations of the crosstalk between cell shape and fate.
By bridging a fundamental gap between molecular processes and cell-scale behaviors, our multidisciplinary study will unveil some of the fundamental principles of cell morphogenesis.
Max ERC Funding
1 943 071 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-05-01, End date: 2024-04-30
Project acronym PoliticsOfPatents
Project Politics of Patents: Re-imagining citizenship via clothing inventions 1820 - 2020
Researcher (PI) Katrina Elly JUNGNICKEL
Host Institution (HI) GOLDSMITHS' COLLEGE
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH3, ERC-2018-COG
Summary From Victorian women cyclists, who suffered social stigma for daring to replace their skirts with bloomers a century ago, to the recent French burkini ban, where women were forcibly removed from beaches, specifically clothed bodies have long been sites of debate about gender, race, class and religion in public space. Clothing is directly connected to social life and the political world and as such is central to ideas around the politics of identity, participation and belonging. Yet, it is under explored in relation to citizenship studies. This five-year project undertakes for the first time a transnational sociological investigation of 200 years of clothing inventions. It focuses on clothing patents in Espacenet, the European Patent Office’s free online database. Inventors are the focus as they operate on the cutting edge of social and political change; building on the past to make claims on the present and imagine different futures. Central to this research is the idea that clothing inventors can be explored as citizen-makers and that clothing patents are rich untapped sources of data that render visible alternative citizenship possibilities, which may provoke new questions about things we take for granted. The research will be located in a Patent Lab using an inventive mixed-methods approach including quantitative and in-depth visual and document analysis, interviews with inventors and garment reconstruction.
Summary
From Victorian women cyclists, who suffered social stigma for daring to replace their skirts with bloomers a century ago, to the recent French burkini ban, where women were forcibly removed from beaches, specifically clothed bodies have long been sites of debate about gender, race, class and religion in public space. Clothing is directly connected to social life and the political world and as such is central to ideas around the politics of identity, participation and belonging. Yet, it is under explored in relation to citizenship studies. This five-year project undertakes for the first time a transnational sociological investigation of 200 years of clothing inventions. It focuses on clothing patents in Espacenet, the European Patent Office’s free online database. Inventors are the focus as they operate on the cutting edge of social and political change; building on the past to make claims on the present and imagine different futures. Central to this research is the idea that clothing inventors can be explored as citizen-makers and that clothing patents are rich untapped sources of data that render visible alternative citizenship possibilities, which may provoke new questions about things we take for granted. The research will be located in a Patent Lab using an inventive mixed-methods approach including quantitative and in-depth visual and document analysis, interviews with inventors and garment reconstruction.
Max ERC Funding
1 802 154 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-03-01, End date: 2024-02-29
Project acronym ProteoNE_dynamics
Project Surveillance mechanisms regulating nuclear envelope architecture and homeostasis
Researcher (PI) Pedro Nuno Chaves Simoes de Carvalho
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), LS3, ERC-2018-COG
Summary The nuclear envelope (NE) is a major hub of eukaryotic cellular organization, influencing a myriad of processes, from gene regulation and repair to cell motility and fate. This central role of the NE depends on its elaborate structure, particularly on the organization of its inner nuclear membrane (INM). This peculiar membrane is continuous with the rest of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) but faces the nucleoplasm and contains a distinctive set of proteins, which confer a unique identity to the INM. Importantly, mutations in several INM proteins result in a wide range of diseases, such as muscular dystrophies and premature aging syndromes, highlighting the key roles of the INM proteome in cell homeostasis. However, the mechanisms establishing and maintaining the INM proteome identity and integrity have remained mysterious.
My lab recently identified a quality control system that, by targeting aberrant proteins for degradation, regulates INM identity and homeostasis. This proposal describes a framework to expand our findings and to provide a comprehensive and integrated understanding of the INM proteome. By combining my expertise in membrane protein analysis with newly developed proximity biotinylation and proteomics approaches, we will for the first time probe the complex INM environment of living mammalian cells. A systematic examination of the INM proteome, its turnover rates and changes in response to different physiological conditions will reveal functions of INM proteins and their regulatory pathways. Moreover, it will characterize INM surveillance mechanisms and evaluate their contributions to NE proteostasis.
In sum, this proposal will provide a panoramic yet detailed view of the mechanisms underlying INM functions, identity and homeostasis, both in interphase and during NE reformation in mitosis. Given the clinical relevance of many INM proteins, our studies may illuminate current understanding of diseases such as laminopathies and cancer.
Summary
The nuclear envelope (NE) is a major hub of eukaryotic cellular organization, influencing a myriad of processes, from gene regulation and repair to cell motility and fate. This central role of the NE depends on its elaborate structure, particularly on the organization of its inner nuclear membrane (INM). This peculiar membrane is continuous with the rest of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) but faces the nucleoplasm and contains a distinctive set of proteins, which confer a unique identity to the INM. Importantly, mutations in several INM proteins result in a wide range of diseases, such as muscular dystrophies and premature aging syndromes, highlighting the key roles of the INM proteome in cell homeostasis. However, the mechanisms establishing and maintaining the INM proteome identity and integrity have remained mysterious.
My lab recently identified a quality control system that, by targeting aberrant proteins for degradation, regulates INM identity and homeostasis. This proposal describes a framework to expand our findings and to provide a comprehensive and integrated understanding of the INM proteome. By combining my expertise in membrane protein analysis with newly developed proximity biotinylation and proteomics approaches, we will for the first time probe the complex INM environment of living mammalian cells. A systematic examination of the INM proteome, its turnover rates and changes in response to different physiological conditions will reveal functions of INM proteins and their regulatory pathways. Moreover, it will characterize INM surveillance mechanisms and evaluate their contributions to NE proteostasis.
In sum, this proposal will provide a panoramic yet detailed view of the mechanisms underlying INM functions, identity and homeostasis, both in interphase and during NE reformation in mitosis. Given the clinical relevance of many INM proteins, our studies may illuminate current understanding of diseases such as laminopathies and cancer.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 610 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-07-01, End date: 2024-06-30
Project acronym WallCrossAG
Project Wall-Crossing and Algebraic Geometry
Researcher (PI) Arend BAYER
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE1, ERC-2018-COG
Summary We will establish stability conditions and wall-crossing in derived categories as a standard methodology for a wide range of fundamental problems in algebraic geometry. Previous work based on wall-crossing, in particular my joint work with Macri, has led to breakthroughs on the birational geometry of moduli spaces and related varieties. Recent advances have made clear that the power of stability conditions extends far beyond this setting, allowing us to study vanishing theorems or bounds on global sections, Brill-Noether problems, or moduli spaces of varieties.
The Brill-Noether problem is one of the oldest and most fundamental questions of algebraic geometry, aiming to classify possible degrees and embedding dimensions of embeddings of a given variety into projective spaces. Recent work by myself, a post-doc (Chunyi Li) and a PhD student (Feyzbakhsh) of mine has established wall-crossing as a powerful new method for such questions. We will push this method further, all the way towards a proof of Green's conjecture, and the Green-Lazarsfeld conjecture, for all smooth curves.
We will use similar methods to prove new Bogomolov-Gieseker type inequalities for Chern classes of stable sheaves and complexes on higher-dimensional varieties. In addition to constructing stability conditions on projective threefolds---the biggest open problem within the theory of stability conditions, we will apply them to study moduli spaces of sheaves on higher-dimensional varieties, and to characterise special abelian varieties.
We will use the construction of stability conditions for families of varieties in my current joint work to systematically study the geometry of Fano threefolds and fourfolds, in particular their moduli spaces, by establishing relations between different moduli spaces, and describing their Torelli maps. Finally, we will study rationality questions, with a particular view towards a wall-crossing proof of the irrationality of the very general cubic fourfold.
Summary
We will establish stability conditions and wall-crossing in derived categories as a standard methodology for a wide range of fundamental problems in algebraic geometry. Previous work based on wall-crossing, in particular my joint work with Macri, has led to breakthroughs on the birational geometry of moduli spaces and related varieties. Recent advances have made clear that the power of stability conditions extends far beyond this setting, allowing us to study vanishing theorems or bounds on global sections, Brill-Noether problems, or moduli spaces of varieties.
The Brill-Noether problem is one of the oldest and most fundamental questions of algebraic geometry, aiming to classify possible degrees and embedding dimensions of embeddings of a given variety into projective spaces. Recent work by myself, a post-doc (Chunyi Li) and a PhD student (Feyzbakhsh) of mine has established wall-crossing as a powerful new method for such questions. We will push this method further, all the way towards a proof of Green's conjecture, and the Green-Lazarsfeld conjecture, for all smooth curves.
We will use similar methods to prove new Bogomolov-Gieseker type inequalities for Chern classes of stable sheaves and complexes on higher-dimensional varieties. In addition to constructing stability conditions on projective threefolds---the biggest open problem within the theory of stability conditions, we will apply them to study moduli spaces of sheaves on higher-dimensional varieties, and to characterise special abelian varieties.
We will use the construction of stability conditions for families of varieties in my current joint work to systematically study the geometry of Fano threefolds and fourfolds, in particular their moduli spaces, by establishing relations between different moduli spaces, and describing their Torelli maps. Finally, we will study rationality questions, with a particular view towards a wall-crossing proof of the irrationality of the very general cubic fourfold.
Max ERC Funding
1 999 840 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-06-01, End date: 2024-05-31
