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Project acronym 5COFM
Project Five Centuries of Marriages
Researcher (PI) Anna Cabré
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH6, ERC-2010-AdG_20100407
Summary This long-term research project is based on the data-mining of the Llibres d'Esposalles conserved at the Archives of the Barcelona Cathedral, an extraordinary data source comprising 244 books of marriage licenses records. It covers about 550.000 unions from over 250 parishes of the Diocese between 1451 and 1905. Its impeccable conservation is a miracle in a region where parish archives have undergone massive destruction. The books include data on the tax posed on each couple depending on their social class, on an eight-tiered scale. These data allow for research on multiple aspects of demographic research, especially on the very long run, such as: population estimates, marriage dynamics, cycles, and indirect estimations for fertility, migration and survival, as well as socio-economic studies related to social homogamy, social mobility, and transmission of social and occupational position. Being continuous over five centuries, the source constitutes a unique instrument to study the dynamics of population distribution, the expansion of the city of Barcelona and the constitution of its metropolitan area, as well as the chronology and the geography in the constitution of new social classes. To this end, a digital library and a database, the Barcelona Historical Marriages Database (BHiMaD), are to be created and completed. An ERC-AG will help doing so while undertaking the research analysis of the database in parallel. The research team, at the U. Autònoma de Barcelona, involves researchers from the Center for Demo-graphic Studies and the Computer Vision Center experts in historical databases and computer-aided recognition of ancient manuscripts. 5CofM will serve the preservation of the original "Llibres d'Esposalles" and unlock the full potential embedded in the collection.
This long-term research project is based on the data-mining of the Llibres d'Esposalles conserved at the Archives of the Barcelona Cathedral, an extraordinary data source comprising 244 books of marriage licenses records. It covers about 550.000 unions from over 250 parishes of the Diocese between 1451 and 1905. Its impeccable conservation is a miracle in a region where parish archives have undergone massive destruction. The books include data on the tax posed on each couple depending on their social class, on an eight-tiered scale. These data allow for research on multiple aspects of demographic research, especially on the very long run, such as: population estimates, marriage dynamics, cycles, and indirect estimations for fertility, migration and survival, as well as socio-economic studies related to social homogamy, social mobility, and transmission of social and occupational position. Being continuous over five centuries, the source constitutes a unique instrument to study the dynamics of population distribution, the expansion of the city of Barcelona and the constitution of its metropolitan area, as well as the chronology and the geography in the constitution of new social classes. To this end, a digital library and a database, the Barcelona Historical Marriages Database (BHiMaD), are to be created and completed. An ERC-AG will help doing so while undertaking the research analysis of the database in parallel. The research team, at the U. Autònoma de Barcelona, involves researchers from the Center for Demo-graphic Studies and the Computer Vision Center experts in historical databases and computer-aided recognition of ancient manuscripts. 5CofM will serve the preservation of the original "Llibres d'Esposalles" and unlock the full potential embedded in the collection.
Project acronym ABEP
Project Asset Bubbles and Economic Policy
Researcher (PI) Jaume Ventura Fontanet
Host Institution (HI) Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI)
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), SH1, ERC-2009-AdG
Summary Advanced capitalist economies experience large and persistent movements in asset prices that are difficult to justify with economic fundamentals. The internet bubble of the 1990s and the real state market bubble of the 2000s are two recent examples. The predominant view is that these bubbles are a market failure, and are caused by some form of individual irrationality on the part of market participants. This project is based instead on the view that market participants are individually rational, although this does not preclude sometimes collectively sub-optimal outcomes. Bubbles are thus not a source of market failure by themselves but instead arise as a result of a pre-existing market failure, namely, the existence of pockets of dynamically inefficient investments. Under some conditions, bubbles partly solve this problem, increasing market efficiency and welfare. It is also possible however that bubbles do not solve the underlying problem and, in addition, create negative side-effects. The main objective of this project is to develop this view of asset bubbles, and produce an empirically-relevant macroeconomic framework that allows us to address the following questions: (i) What is the relationship between bubbles and financial market frictions? Special emphasis is given to how the globalization of financial markets and the development of new financial products affect the size and effects of bubbles. (ii) What is the relationship between bubbles, economic growth and unemployment? The theory suggests the presence of virtuous and vicious cycles, as economic growth creates the conditions for bubbles to pop up, while bubbles create incentives for economic growth to happen. (iii) What is the optimal policy to manage bubbles? We need to develop the tools that allow policy makers to sustain those bubbles that have positive effects and burst those that have negative effects.
Advanced capitalist economies experience large and persistent movements in asset prices that are difficult to justify with economic fundamentals. The internet bubble of the 1990s and the real state market bubble of the 2000s are two recent examples. The predominant view is that these bubbles are a market failure, and are caused by some form of individual irrationality on the part of market participants. This project is based instead on the view that market participants are individually rational, although this does not preclude sometimes collectively sub-optimal outcomes. Bubbles are thus not a source of market failure by themselves but instead arise as a result of a pre-existing market failure, namely, the existence of pockets of dynamically inefficient investments. Under some conditions, bubbles partly solve this problem, increasing market efficiency and welfare. It is also possible however that bubbles do not solve the underlying problem and, in addition, create negative side-effects. The main objective of this project is to develop this view of asset bubbles, and produce an empirically-relevant macroeconomic framework that allows us to address the following questions: (i) What is the relationship between bubbles and financial market frictions? Special emphasis is given to how the globalization of financial markets and the development of new financial products affect the size and effects of bubbles. (ii) What is the relationship between bubbles, economic growth and unemployment? The theory suggests the presence of virtuous and vicious cycles, as economic growth creates the conditions for bubbles to pop up, while bubbles create incentives for economic growth to happen. (iii) What is the optimal policy to manage bubbles? We need to develop the tools that allow policy makers to sustain those bubbles that have positive effects and burst those that have negative effects.
Project acronym AGRIWESTMED
Project Origins and spread of agriculture in the south-western Mediterranean region
Researcher (PI) Maria Leonor Peña Chocarro
Host Institution (HI) AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DEINVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Summary This project focuses on one of the most fascinating events of the long history of the human species: the origins and spread of agriculture. Research over the past 40 years has provided an invaluable dataset on crop domestication and the spread of agriculture into Europe. However, despite the enormous advances in research there are important areas that remain almost unexplored, some of immense interest. This is the case of the western Mediterranean region from where our knowledge is still limited (Iberian Peninsula) or almost inexistent (northern Morocco). The last few years have witnessed a considerable increase in archaeobotany and the effort of a group of Spanish researchers working together in different aspects of agriculture has started to produce the first results. My proposal will approach the study of the arrival of agriculture to the western Mediterranean by exploring different interrelated research areas. The project involves the application of different techniques (analysis of charred plant remains, pollen and non-pollen microfossils, phytoliths, micro-wear analyses, isotopes, soil micromorphology, genetics, and ethnoarchaeology) which will help to define the emergence and spread of agriculture in the area, its likely place of origin, its main technological attributes as well as the range crop husbandry practices carried out. The interaction between the different approaches and the methodologies involved will allow achieving a greater understanding of the type of agriculture that characterized the first farming communities in the most south-western part of Europe.
This project focuses on one of the most fascinating events of the long history of the human species: the origins and spread of agriculture. Research over the past 40 years has provided an invaluable dataset on crop domestication and the spread of agriculture into Europe. However, despite the enormous advances in research there are important areas that remain almost unexplored, some of immense interest. This is the case of the western Mediterranean region from where our knowledge is still limited (Iberian Peninsula) or almost inexistent (northern Morocco). The last few years have witnessed a considerable increase in archaeobotany and the effort of a group of Spanish researchers working together in different aspects of agriculture has started to produce the first results. My proposal will approach the study of the arrival of agriculture to the western Mediterranean by exploring different interrelated research areas. The project involves the application of different techniques (analysis of charred plant remains, pollen and non-pollen microfossils, phytoliths, micro-wear analyses, isotopes, soil micromorphology, genetics, and ethnoarchaeology) which will help to define the emergence and spread of agriculture in the area, its likely place of origin, its main technological attributes as well as the range crop husbandry practices carried out. The interaction between the different approaches and the methodologies involved will allow achieving a greater understanding of the type of agriculture that characterized the first farming communities in the most south-western part of Europe.
Project acronym APMPAL
Project Asset Prices and Macro Policy when Agents Learn
Researcher (PI) Albert Marcet Torrens
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACIÓ MARKETS, ORGANIZATIONS AND VOTES IN ECONOMICS
Summary "A conventional assumption in dynamic models is that agents form their expectations in a very sophisticated manner. In particular, that they have Rational Expectations (RE). We develop some tools to relax this assumption while retaining fully optimal behaviour by agents. We study implications for asset pricing and macro policy. We assume that agents have a consistent set of beliefs that is close, but not equal, to RE. Agents are ""Internally Rational"", that is, they behave rationally given their system of beliefs. Thus, it is conceptually a small deviation from RE. It provides microfoundations for models of adaptive learning, since the learning algorithm is determined by agents' optimal behaviour. In previous work we have shown that this framework can match stock price and housing price fluctuations, and that policy implications are quite different. In this project we intend to: i) develop further the foundations of internally rational (IR) learning, ii) apply this to explain observed asset price price behavior, such as stock prices, bond prices, inflation, commodity derivatives, and exchange rates, iii) extend the IR framework to the case when agents entertain various models, iv) optimal policy under IR learning and under private information when some hidden shocks are not revealed ex-post. Along the way we will address policy issues such as: effects of creating derivative markets, sovereign spread as a signal of sovereign default risk, tests of fiscal sustainability, fiscal policy when agents learn, monetary policy (more specifically, QE measures and interest rate policy), and the role of credibility in macro policy."
"A conventional assumption in dynamic models is that agents form their expectations in a very sophisticated manner. In particular, that they have Rational Expectations (RE). We develop some tools to relax this assumption while retaining fully optimal behaviour by agents. We study implications for asset pricing and macro policy. We assume that agents have a consistent set of beliefs that is close, but not equal, to RE. Agents are ""Internally Rational"", that is, they behave rationally given their system of beliefs. Thus, it is conceptually a small deviation from RE. It provides microfoundations for models of adaptive learning, since the learning algorithm is determined by agents' optimal behaviour. In previous work we have shown that this framework can match stock price and housing price fluctuations, and that policy implications are quite different. In this project we intend to: i) develop further the foundations of internally rational (IR) learning, ii) apply this to explain observed asset price price behavior, such as stock prices, bond prices, inflation, commodity derivatives, and exchange rates, iii) extend the IR framework to the case when agents entertain various models, iv) optimal policy under IR learning and under private information when some hidden shocks are not revealed ex-post. Along the way we will address policy issues such as: effects of creating derivative markets, sovereign spread as a signal of sovereign default risk, tests of fiscal sustainability, fiscal policy when agents learn, monetary policy (more specifically, QE measures and interest rate policy), and the role of credibility in macro policy."
Project acronym APMPAL-HET
Project Asset Prices and Macro Policy when Agents Learn and are Heterogeneous
Summary Based on the APMPAL (ERC) project we continue to develop the frameworks of internal rationality (IR) and optimal signal extraction (OSE). Under IR investors/consumers behave rationally given their subjective beliefs about prices, these beliefs are compatible with data. Under OSE the government has partial information, it knows how policy influences observed variables and signal extraction. We develop further the foundations of IR and OSE with an emphasis on heterogeneous agents. We study sovereign bond crisis and heterogeneity of beliefs in asset pricing models under IR, using survey data on expectations. Under IR the assets' stochastic discount factor depends on the agents' decision function and beliefs; this modifies some key asset pricing results. We extend OSE to models with state variables, forward-looking constraints and heterogeneity. Under IR agents' prior beliefs determine the effects of a policy reform. If the government does not observe prior beliefs it has partial information, thus OSE should be used to analyse policy reforms under IR. If IR heterogeneous workers forecast their productivity either from their own wage or their neighbours' in a network, low current wages discourage search and human capital accumulation, leading to low productivity. This can explain low development of a country or social exclusion of a group. Worker subsidies redistribute wealth and can increase productivity if they "teach" agents to exit a low-wage state. We build DSGE models under IR for prediction and policy analysis. We develop time-series tools for predicting macro and asset market variables, using information available to the analyst, and we introduce non-linearities and survey expectations using insights from models under IR. We study how IR and OSE change the view on macro policy issues such as tax smoothing, debt management, Taylor rule, level of inflation, fiscal/monetary policy coordination, factor taxation or redistribution.
Based on the APMPAL (ERC) project we continue to develop the frameworks of internal rationality (IR) and optimal signal extraction (OSE). Under IR investors/consumers behave rationally given their subjective beliefs about prices, these beliefs are compatible with data. Under OSE the government has partial information, it knows how policy influences observed variables and signal extraction. We develop further the foundations of IR and OSE with an emphasis on heterogeneous agents. We study sovereign bond crisis and heterogeneity of beliefs in asset pricing models under IR, using survey data on expectations. Under IR the assets' stochastic discount factor depends on the agents' decision function and beliefs; this modifies some key asset pricing results. We extend OSE to models with state variables, forward-looking constraints and heterogeneity. Under IR agents' prior beliefs determine the effects of a policy reform. If the government does not observe prior beliefs it has partial information, thus OSE should be used to analyse policy reforms under IR. If IR heterogeneous workers forecast their productivity either from their own wage or their neighbours' in a network, low current wages discourage search and human capital accumulation, leading to low productivity. This can explain low development of a country or social exclusion of a group. Worker subsidies redistribute wealth and can increase productivity if they "teach" agents to exit a low-wage state. We build DSGE models under IR for prediction and policy analysis. We develop time-series tools for predicting macro and asset market variables, using information available to the analyst, and we introduce non-linearities and survey expectations using insights from models under IR. We study how IR and OSE change the view on macro policy issues such as tax smoothing, debt management, Taylor rule, level of inflation, fiscal/monetary policy coordination, factor taxation or redistribution.
Project acronym ARTSOUNDSCAPES
Project The sound of special places: exploring rock art soundscapes and the sacred
Researcher (PI) A. Margarita DIAZ-ANDREU
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
Summary The ARTSOUNDSCAPES project deals with sound, rock art and sacred landscapes among past hunter-gatherers and early agricultural societies around the world. The potential of sound to stimulate powerful emotions makes it a common medium for conferring places with extraordinary agency. Ethnographic and ethnohistorical sources indicate that these sites are often endowed with a sacred significance and, in many cases, they also receive special treatment, including the production of rock paintings. Despite the aural experience being an integral component of the human condition and a key element in ritual, archaeology has largely been unable to study it systematically. Rock art landscapes are no exception and, although some studies have been made, they have largely been reproached for their lack of scientific rigour and subjectivity. ARTSOUNDSCAPES will fully address this weakness by investigating the perception of sound in rock art landscapes from an interdisciplinary approach. Borrowing methods developed in acoustic engineering, the project will assess, from an objective and quantitative perspective, the acoustic properties of rock art landscapes in selected areas around the world: the Western/Central Mediterranean in Europe, Siberia in Asia, and Baja California in North America. Human experiences associated with altered or mystical states invoked by the identified special sonic characteristics of these landscapes will be further tested by exploring the psychoacoustic effects these soundscapes have on people and their neural correlate to brain activity. The project will also thoroughly survey ethnographic attitudes to sacred soundscapes based on both current premodern societies and ethnohistorical sources. The groundbreaking combination of this array of interdisciplinary approaches will facilitate the ultimate aim of the project: to propose a phenomenological understanding of sacred soundscapes among late hunter-gatherers and early agriculturalists around the world.
The ARTSOUNDSCAPES project deals with sound, rock art and sacred landscapes among past hunter-gatherers and early agricultural societies around the world. The potential of sound to stimulate powerful emotions makes it a common medium for conferring places with extraordinary agency. Ethnographic and ethnohistorical sources indicate that these sites are often endowed with a sacred significance and, in many cases, they also receive special treatment, including the production of rock paintings. Despite the aural experience being an integral component of the human condition and a key element in ritual, archaeology has largely been unable to study it systematically. Rock art landscapes are no exception and, although some studies have been made, they have largely been reproached for their lack of scientific rigour and subjectivity. ARTSOUNDSCAPES will fully address this weakness by investigating the perception of sound in rock art landscapes from an interdisciplinary approach. Borrowing methods developed in acoustic engineering, the project will assess, from an objective and quantitative perspective, the acoustic properties of rock art landscapes in selected areas around the world: the Western/Central Mediterranean in Europe, Siberia in Asia, and Baja California in North America. Human experiences associated with altered or mystical states invoked by the identified special sonic characteristics of these landscapes will be further tested by exploring the psychoacoustic effects these soundscapes have on people and their neural correlate to brain activity. The project will also thoroughly survey ethnographic attitudes to sacred soundscapes based on both current premodern societies and ethnohistorical sources. The groundbreaking combination of this array of interdisciplinary approaches will facilitate the ultimate aim of the project: to propose a phenomenological understanding of sacred soundscapes among late hunter-gatherers and early agriculturalists around the world.
Project acronym BILITERACY
Project Bi-literacy: Learning to read in L1 and in L2
Researcher (PI) Manuel Francisco Carreiras Valiña
Host Institution (HI) BCBL BASQUE CENTER ON COGNITION BRAIN AND LANGUAGE
Summary Learning to read is probably one of the most exciting discoveries in our life. Using a longitudinal approach, the research proposed examines how the human brain responds to two major challenges: (a) the instantiation a complex cognitive function for which there is no genetic blueprint (learning to read in a first language, L1), and (b) the accommodation to new statistical regularities when learning to read in a second language (L2). The aim of the present research project is to identify the neural substrates of the reading process and its constituent cognitive components, with specific attention to individual differences and reading disabilities; as well as to investigate the relationship between specific cognitive functions and the changes in neural activity that take place in the course of learning to read in L1 and in L2. The project will employ a longitudinal design. We will recruit children before they learn to read in L1 and in L2 and track reading development with both cognitive and neuroimaging measures over 24 months. The findings from this project will provide a deeper understanding of (a) how general neurocognitive factors and language specific factors underlie individual differences – and reading disabilities– in reading acquisition in L1 and in L2; (b) how the neuro-cognitive circuitry changes and brain mechanisms synchronize while instantiating reading in L1 and in L2; (c) what the limitations and the extent of brain plasticity are in young readers. An interdisciplinary and multi-methodological approach is one of the keys to success of the present project, along with strong theory-driven investigation. By combining both we will generate breakthroughs to advance our understanding of how literacy in L1 and in L2 is acquired and mastered. The research proposed will also lay the foundations for more applied investigations of best practice in teaching reading in first and subsequent languages, and devising intervention methods for reading disabilities.
Learning to read is probably one of the most exciting discoveries in our life. Using a longitudinal approach, the research proposed examines how the human brain responds to two major challenges: (a) the instantiation a complex cognitive function for which there is no genetic blueprint (learning to read in a first language, L1), and (b) the accommodation to new statistical regularities when learning to read in a second language (L2). The aim of the present research project is to identify the neural substrates of the reading process and its constituent cognitive components, with specific attention to individual differences and reading disabilities; as well as to investigate the relationship between specific cognitive functions and the changes in neural activity that take place in the course of learning to read in L1 and in L2. The project will employ a longitudinal design. We will recruit children before they learn to read in L1 and in L2 and track reading development with both cognitive and neuroimaging measures over 24 months. The findings from this project will provide a deeper understanding of (a) how general neurocognitive factors and language specific factors underlie individual differences – and reading disabilities– in reading acquisition in L1 and in L2; (b) how the neuro-cognitive circuitry changes and brain mechanisms synchronize while instantiating reading in L1 and in L2; (c) what the limitations and the extent of brain plasticity are in young readers. An interdisciplinary and multi-methodological approach is one of the keys to success of the present project, along with strong theory-driven investigation. By combining both we will generate breakthroughs to advance our understanding of how literacy in L1 and in L2 is acquired and mastered. The research proposed will also lay the foundations for more applied investigations of best practice in teaching reading in first and subsequent languages, and devising intervention methods for reading disabilities.
Project acronym BUBPOL
Project Monetary Policy and Asset Price Bubbles
Researcher (PI) Jordi Galí Garreta
Summary "The proposed research project seeks to further our understanding on two important questions for the design of monetary policy: (a) What are the effects of monetary policy interventions on asset price bubbles? (b) How should monetary policy be conducted in the presence of asset price bubbles? The first part of the project will focus on the development of a theoretical framework that can be used to analyze rigorously the implications of alternative monetary policy rules in the presence of asset price bubbles, and to characterize the optimal monetary policy. In particular, I plan to use such a framework to assess the merits of a "leaning against the wind" strategy, which calls for a systematic rise in interest rates in response to the development of a bubble. The second part of the project will seek to produce evidence, both empirical and experimental, regarding the effects of monetary policy on asset price bubbles. The empirical evidence will seek to identify and estimate the sign and response of asset price bubbles to interest rate changes, exploiting the potential differences in the joint behavior of interest rates and asset prices during "bubbly" episodes, in comparison to "normal" times. In addition, I plan to conduct some lab experiments in order to shed some light on the link between monetary policy and bubbles. Participants will trade two assets, a one-period riskless asset and a long-lived stock, in an environment consistent with the existence of asset price bubbles in equilibrium. Monetary policy interventions will take the form of changes in the short-term interest rate, engineered by the experimenter. The experiments will allow us to evaluate some of the predictions of the theoretical models regarding the impact of monetary policy on the dynamics of bubbles, as well as the effectiveness of "leaning against the wind" policies."
"The proposed research project seeks to further our understanding on two important questions for the design of monetary policy: (a) What are the effects of monetary policy interventions on asset price bubbles? (b) How should monetary policy be conducted in the presence of asset price bubbles? The first part of the project will focus on the development of a theoretical framework that can be used to analyze rigorously the implications of alternative monetary policy rules in the presence of asset price bubbles, and to characterize the optimal monetary policy. In particular, I plan to use such a framework to assess the merits of a "leaning against the wind" strategy, which calls for a systematic rise in interest rates in response to the development of a bubble. The second part of the project will seek to produce evidence, both empirical and experimental, regarding the effects of monetary policy on asset price bubbles. The empirical evidence will seek to identify and estimate the sign and response of asset price bubbles to interest rate changes, exploiting the potential differences in the joint behavior of interest rates and asset prices during "bubbly" episodes, in comparison to "normal" times. In addition, I plan to conduct some lab experiments in order to shed some light on the link between monetary policy and bubbles. Participants will trade two assets, a one-period riskless asset and a long-lived stock, in an environment consistent with the existence of asset price bubbles in equilibrium. Monetary policy interventions will take the form of changes in the short-term interest rate, engineered by the experimenter. The experiments will allow us to evaluate some of the predictions of the theoretical models regarding the impact of monetary policy on the dynamics of bubbles, as well as the effectiveness of "leaning against the wind" policies."
Project acronym CANCER&AGEING
Project COMMOM MECHANISMS UNDERLYING CANCER AND AGEING
Researcher (PI) Manuel Serrano
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACION CENTRO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIONES ONCOLOGICAS CARLOS III
Summary "In recent years, we have made significant contributions to the understanding of the tumour suppressors p53, p16INK4a, and ARF, particularly in relation with cellular senescence and aging. The current project is motivated by two hypothesis: 1) that the INK4/ARF locus is a sensor of epigenetic damage and this is at the basis of its activation by oncogenes and aging; and, 2) that the accumulation of cellular damage and stress is at the basis of both cancer and aging, and consequently ""anti-damage genes"", such as tumour suppressors, simultaneously counteract both cancer and aging. With regard to the INK4/ARF locus, the project includes: 1.1) the generation of null mice for the Regulatory Domain (RD) thought to be essential for the proper regulation of the locus; 1.2) the study of the INK4/ARF anti-sense transcription and its importance for the assembly of Polycomb repressive complexes; 1.3) the generation of mice carrying the human INK4/ARF locus to analyze, among other aspects, whether the known differences between the human and murine loci are ""locus autonomous""; and, 1.4) to analyze the INK4/ARF locus in the process of epigenetic reprogramming both from ES cells to differentiated cells and, conversely, from differentiated cells to induced-pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. With regard to the impact of ""anti-damage genes"" on cancer and aging, the project includes: 2.1) the analysis of the aging of super-INK4/ARF mice and super-p53 mice; 2.2) we have generated super-PTEN mice and we will examine whether PTEN not only confers cancer resistance but also anti-aging activity; and, finally, 2.3) we have generated super-SIRT1 mice, which is among the best-characterized anti-aging genes in non-mammalian model systems (where it is named Sir2) involved in protection from metabolic damage, and we will study the cancer and aging of these mice. Together, this project will significantly advance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying cancer and aging."
"In recent years, we have made significant contributions to the understanding of the tumour suppressors p53, p16INK4a, and ARF, particularly in relation with cellular senescence and aging. The current project is motivated by two hypothesis: 1) that the INK4/ARF locus is a sensor of epigenetic damage and this is at the basis of its activation by oncogenes and aging; and, 2) that the accumulation of cellular damage and stress is at the basis of both cancer and aging, and consequently ""anti-damage genes"", such as tumour suppressors, simultaneously counteract both cancer and aging. With regard to the INK4/ARF locus, the project includes: 1.1) the generation of null mice for the Regulatory Domain (RD) thought to be essential for the proper regulation of the locus; 1.2) the study of the INK4/ARF anti-sense transcription and its importance for the assembly of Polycomb repressive complexes; 1.3) the generation of mice carrying the human INK4/ARF locus to analyze, among other aspects, whether the known differences between the human and murine loci are ""locus autonomous""; and, 1.4) to analyze the INK4/ARF locus in the process of epigenetic reprogramming both from ES cells to differentiated cells and, conversely, from differentiated cells to induced-pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. With regard to the impact of ""anti-damage genes"" on cancer and aging, the project includes: 2.1) the analysis of the aging of super-INK4/ARF mice and super-p53 mice; 2.2) we have generated super-PTEN mice and we will examine whether PTEN not only confers cancer resistance but also anti-aging activity; and, finally, 2.3) we have generated super-SIRT1 mice, which is among the best-characterized anti-aging genes in non-mammalian model systems (where it is named Sir2) involved in protection from metabolic damage, and we will study the cancer and aging of these mice. Together, this project will significantly advance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying cancer and aging."
Project acronym CDAC
Project "The role of consciousness in adaptive behavior: A combined empirical, computational and robot based approach"
Researcher (PI) Paulus Franciscus Maria Joseph Verschure
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD POMPEU FABRA
Summary "Understanding the nature of consciousness is one of the grand outstanding scientific challenges and two of its features stand out: consciousness is defined as the construction of one coherent scene but this scene is experienced with a delay relative to the action of the agent and not necessarily the cause of actions and thoughts. Did evolution render solutions to the challenge of survival that includes epiphenomenal processes? The Conscious Distributed Adaptive Control (CDAC) project aims at resolving this paradox by using a multi-disciplinary approach to show the functional role of consciousness in adaptive behaviour, to identify its underlying neuronal principles and to construct a neuromorphic robot based real-time conscious architecture. CDAC proposes that the shift from surviving in a physical world to one that is dominated by intentional agents requires radically different control architectures combining parallel and distributed control loops to assure real-time operation together with a second level of control that assures coherence through sequential coherent representation of self and the task domain, i.e. consciousness. This conscious scene is driving dedicated credit assignment and planning beyond the immediately given information. CDAC advances a comprehensive framework progressing beyond the state of the art and will be realized using system level models of a conscious architecture, detailed computational studies of its underlying neuronal substrate focusing, empirical validation with a humanoid robot and stroke patients and the advancement of beyond state of the art tools appropriate to the complexity of its objectives. The CDAC project directly addresses one of the main outstanding questions in science: the function and genesis of consciousness and will advance our understanding of mind and brain, provide radically new neurorehabilitation technologies and contribute to realizing a new generation of robots with advanced social competence."
"Understanding the nature of consciousness is one of the grand outstanding scientific challenges and two of its features stand out: consciousness is defined as the construction of one coherent scene but this scene is experienced with a delay relative to the action of the agent and not necessarily the cause of actions and thoughts. Did evolution render solutions to the challenge of survival that includes epiphenomenal processes? The Conscious Distributed Adaptive Control (CDAC) project aims at resolving this paradox by using a multi-disciplinary approach to show the functional role of consciousness in adaptive behaviour, to identify its underlying neuronal principles and to construct a neuromorphic robot based real-time conscious architecture. CDAC proposes that the shift from surviving in a physical world to one that is dominated by intentional agents requires radically different control architectures combining parallel and distributed control loops to assure real-time operation together with a second level of control that assures coherence through sequential coherent representation of self and the task domain, i.e. consciousness. This conscious scene is driving dedicated credit assignment and planning beyond the immediately given information. CDAC advances a comprehensive framework progressing beyond the state of the art and will be realized using system level models of a conscious architecture, detailed computational studies of its underlying neuronal substrate focusing, empirical validation with a humanoid robot and stroke patients and the advancement of beyond state of the art tools appropriate to the complexity of its objectives. The CDAC project directly addresses one of the main outstanding questions in science: the function and genesis of consciousness and will advance our understanding of mind and brain, provide radically new neurorehabilitation technologies and contribute to realizing a new generation of robots with advanced social competence."
Project acronym CIRGEN
Project Circulating Gender in the Global Enlightenment: Ideas, Networks, Agencies
Researcher (PI) Monica Bolufer Peruga
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT DE VALENCIA
Summary Research on the role played by women as actors and by gender as a cultural category has crucially contributed to historiographical revision of the Enlightenment and its legacy to the modern world. However, the perspective adopted has been national or, if comparative, mostly radial. A leap forward is urgent because current circulationist approaches to the Enlightenment tend to forget its key gender dimension and to underplay contributions from Southern Europe. This projects offers, for the first time in the field, a systematic,truly transnational and transatlantic approach, which knits together cultural, intellectual, gender and postcolonial history, literary, philosophical and visual studies. It looks at the cultural transfer of gender notions in global perspective around five axes: translation, learned sociability, travel, reading and sensibility, to be explored through textual and iconographic analysis and archival research. Adopting the vantage point of Spain and its empire will allow to question approaches based either on the "national context" or the centre-periphery dichotomy, to reassess the role of the Catholic Enlightenment in the making of modernity and to highlight the mediating roles played by local actors, male and female, in processes of sociocultural change. CIRGEN's specific objectives are: to challenge dichotomous visions of Enlightenment discourses of gender by stressing their plural (and often conflictive) contribution to modernity; to decenter customary radial perspectives by stressing multilateral dialogues both within Europe and beyond; to better understand the role played by gender in the cultural geography of Enlightenment, particularly in the construction of the South/North symbolic divide; to produce empirically grounded evidence of the practical and iconic role of women in the making of modern reading publics; to foster innovative scholarship on the gendering of emotions in defining national identities and moral standards of civilization.
Research on the role played by women as actors and by gender as a cultural category has crucially contributed to historiographical revision of the Enlightenment and its legacy to the modern world. However, the perspective adopted has been national or, if comparative, mostly radial. A leap forward is urgent because current circulationist approaches to the Enlightenment tend to forget its key gender dimension and to underplay contributions from Southern Europe. This projects offers, for the first time in the field, a systematic,truly transnational and transatlantic approach, which knits together cultural, intellectual, gender and postcolonial history, literary, philosophical and visual studies. It looks at the cultural transfer of gender notions in global perspective around five axes: translation, learned sociability, travel, reading and sensibility, to be explored through textual and iconographic analysis and archival research. Adopting the vantage point of Spain and its empire will allow to question approaches based either on the "national context" or the centre-periphery dichotomy, to reassess the role of the Catholic Enlightenment in the making of modernity and to highlight the mediating roles played by local actors, male and female, in processes of sociocultural change. CIRGEN's specific objectives are: to challenge dichotomous visions of Enlightenment discourses of gender by stressing their plural (and often conflictive) contribution to modernity; to decenter customary radial perspectives by stressing multilateral dialogues both within Europe and beyond; to better understand the role played by gender in the cultural geography of Enlightenment, particularly in the construction of the South/North symbolic divide; to produce empirically grounded evidence of the practical and iconic role of women in the making of modern reading publics; to foster innovative scholarship on the gendering of emotions in defining national identities and moral standards of civilization.
Project acronym CORPI
Project Conversion, Overlapping Religiosities, Polemics, Interaction: Early Modern Iberia and Beyond
Researcher (PI) Mercedes Garcia-Arenal Rodriguez
Summary In an early sixteenth-century treatise Martín de Figuerola, a convert from Islam who sought to convince the Muslims of Valencia and Aragon to join him, reports a story he claims to have heard from the Muslim judge of Cocentaina (Valencia). The latter had told him that, in marriage contracts between local Muslims, it was customary for women to demand that their husbands take them to the capital city of Valencia for the springtime festivities of Corpus Christi and those of the Virgin Mary in August. Simply put, the purpose of this project is to unravel the complex interplay of all the ingredients that this apparently trivial yet fascinating anecdote encapsulates. It will bring under close analysis the existence in sixteenth-century Iberia of cross-currents common to different religious groups, areas of local religiosity in which different religions overlapped, and vague or hybrid sorts of religiosity which indicate the blurring of clear ascriptions, categories, and borders. At the same time, it will also scrutinize the efforts made by different social actors (and generations of scholars after them) to establish clear, essential differentiations, to define neat categories and ascriptions, and thus to separate, reject, and stigmatize individuals and groups. The project will study adversarial relationships reconceived as dependencies, against a complex backdrop of dramatic religious change: shortly before Martín de Figuerola's text was written, Iberia's Jews had been expelled, and a few years later its Muslims would be forced to convert to Christianity, only to be expelled in their turn a century later. The multi-faceted analysis of these phenomena will involve unearthing new archival material, most notably Inquisition trials, as well as numerous sixteenth- and seventeenth-century texts (both manuscripts and early modern editions) ranging from new translations of the Qur'an and other Jewish and Islamic classics, to a rich polemical literature.
In an early sixteenth-century treatise Martín de Figuerola, a convert from Islam who sought to convince the Muslims of Valencia and Aragon to join him, reports a story he claims to have heard from the Muslim judge of Cocentaina (Valencia). The latter had told him that, in marriage contracts between local Muslims, it was customary for women to demand that their husbands take them to the capital city of Valencia for the springtime festivities of Corpus Christi and those of the Virgin Mary in August. Simply put, the purpose of this project is to unravel the complex interplay of all the ingredients that this apparently trivial yet fascinating anecdote encapsulates. It will bring under close analysis the existence in sixteenth-century Iberia of cross-currents common to different religious groups, areas of local religiosity in which different religions overlapped, and vague or hybrid sorts of religiosity which indicate the blurring of clear ascriptions, categories, and borders. At the same time, it will also scrutinize the efforts made by different social actors (and generations of scholars after them) to establish clear, essential differentiations, to define neat categories and ascriptions, and thus to separate, reject, and stigmatize individuals and groups. The project will study adversarial relationships reconceived as dependencies, against a complex backdrop of dramatic religious change: shortly before Martín de Figuerola's text was written, Iberia's Jews had been expelled, and a few years later its Muslims would be forced to convert to Christianity, only to be expelled in their turn a century later. The multi-faceted analysis of these phenomena will involve unearthing new archival material, most notably Inquisition trials, as well as numerous sixteenth- and seventeenth-century texts (both manuscripts and early modern editions) ranging from new translations of the Qur'an and other Jewish and Islamic classics, to a rich polemical literature.
Project acronym DEATHSWITCHING
Project Identifying genes and pathways that drive molecular switches and back-up mechanisms between apoptosis and autophagy
Researcher (PI) Adi Kimchi
Call Details Advanced Grant (AdG), LS3, ERC-2012-ADG_20120314
Summary A cell's decision to die is governed by multiple input signals received from a complex network of programmed cell death (PCD) pathways, including apoptosis and programmed necrosis. Additionally, under some conditions, autophagy, whose function is mainly pro-survival, may act as a back-up death pathway. We propose to apply new approaches to study the molecular basis of two important questions that await resolution in the field: a) how the cell switches from a pro-survival autophagic response to an apoptotic response and b) whether and how pro-survival autophagy is converted to a death mechanism when apoptosis is blocked. To address the first issue, we will screen for direct physical interactions between autophagic and apoptotic proteins, using the protein fragment complementation assay. Validated pairs will be studied in depth to identify built-in molecular switches that activate apoptosis when autophagy fails to restore homeostasis. As a pilot case to address the concept of molecular 'sensors' and 'switches', we will focus on the previously identified Atg12/Bcl-2 interaction. In the second line of research we will categorize autophagy-dependent cell death triggers into those that directly result from autophagy-dependent degradation, either by excessive self-digestion or by selective protein degradation, and those that utilize the autophagy machinery to activate programmed necrosis. We will identify the genes regulating these scenarios by whole genome RNAi screens for increased cell survival. In parallel, we will use a cell library of annotated fluorescent-tagged proteins for measuring selective protein degradation. These will be the starting point for identification of the molecular pathways that convert survival autophagy to a death program. Finally, we will explore the physiological relevance of back-up death mechanisms and the newly identified molecular mechanisms to developmental PCD during the cavitation process in early stages of embryogenesis.
A cell's decision to die is governed by multiple input signals received from a complex network of programmed cell death (PCD) pathways, including apoptosis and programmed necrosis. Additionally, under some conditions, autophagy, whose function is mainly pro-survival, may act as a back-up death pathway. We propose to apply new approaches to study the molecular basis of two important questions that await resolution in the field: a) how the cell switches from a pro-survival autophagic response to an apoptotic response and b) whether and how pro-survival autophagy is converted to a death mechanism when apoptosis is blocked. To address the first issue, we will screen for direct physical interactions between autophagic and apoptotic proteins, using the protein fragment complementation assay. Validated pairs will be studied in depth to identify built-in molecular switches that activate apoptosis when autophagy fails to restore homeostasis. As a pilot case to address the concept of molecular 'sensors' and 'switches', we will focus on the previously identified Atg12/Bcl-2 interaction. In the second line of research we will categorize autophagy-dependent cell death triggers into those that directly result from autophagy-dependent degradation, either by excessive self-digestion or by selective protein degradation, and those that utilize the autophagy machinery to activate programmed necrosis. We will identify the genes regulating these scenarios by whole genome RNAi screens for increased cell survival. In parallel, we will use a cell library of annotated fluorescent-tagged proteins for measuring selective protein degradation. These will be the starting point for identification of the molecular pathways that convert survival autophagy to a death program. Finally, we will explore the physiological relevance of back-up death mechanisms and the newly identified molecular mechanisms to developmental PCD during the cavitation process in early stages of embryogenesis.
Project acronym DIASPORAINTRANSITION
Project A Diaspora in Transition - Cultural and Religious Changes in Western Sephardic Communities in the Early Modern Period
Researcher (PI) Yosef Mauricio Kaplan
Summary The communities of the Western Sephardic Diaspora were founded in the 16th and 17th centuries by New Christians from Iberia who returned to Judaism that had been abandoned by their ancestors in the late Middle Ages. This project will concentrate on the changes in the religious conceptions and behavior as well as the cultural patterns of the communities of Amsterdam, Hamburg, Leghorn, London, and Bordeaux. We will analyze the vigorous activity of their leaders to set the boundaries of their new religious identity in comparison to the policy of several Christian "communities of belief," which went into exile following religious persecution in their homelands. We will also examine the changes in the attitude toward Judaism during the 17th century in certain segments of the Sephardic Diaspora: rather than a normative system covering every area of life, Judaism came to be seen as a system of faith restricted to the religious sphere. We will seek to explain the extent to which this significant change influenced their institutions and social behaviour. This study will provide us with better understanding of the place of the Jews in European society. At the same time, we will subject a central series of concepts in the historiographical discourse of the Early Modern Period to critical analysis: confessionalization, disciplinary revolution, civilizing process, affective individualism, etc. This phase of the research will be based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of many hundreds of documents, texts and the material remains of these communities. Using sociological and anthropological models, we will analyze ceremonies and rituals described at length in the sources, the social and cultural meaning of the architecture of the Sephardic synagogues of that time, and of other visual symbols.
The communities of the Western Sephardic Diaspora were founded in the 16th and 17th centuries by New Christians from Iberia who returned to Judaism that had been abandoned by their ancestors in the late Middle Ages. This project will concentrate on the changes in the religious conceptions and behavior as well as the cultural patterns of the communities of Amsterdam, Hamburg, Leghorn, London, and Bordeaux. We will analyze the vigorous activity of their leaders to set the boundaries of their new religious identity in comparison to the policy of several Christian "communities of belief," which went into exile following religious persecution in their homelands. We will also examine the changes in the attitude toward Judaism during the 17th century in certain segments of the Sephardic Diaspora: rather than a normative system covering every area of life, Judaism came to be seen as a system of faith restricted to the religious sphere. We will seek to explain the extent to which this significant change influenced their institutions and social behaviour. This study will provide us with better understanding of the place of the Jews in European society. At the same time, we will subject a central series of concepts in the historiographical discourse of the Early Modern Period to critical analysis: confessionalization, disciplinary revolution, civilizing process, affective individualism, etc. This phase of the research will be based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of many hundreds of documents, texts and the material remains of these communities. Using sociological and anthropological models, we will analyze ceremonies and rituals described at length in the sources, the social and cultural meaning of the architecture of the Sephardic synagogues of that time, and of other visual symbols.
Project acronym DIDONE
Project The Sources of Absolute Music: Mapping Emotions in Eighteenth-Century Italian Opera
Researcher (PI) Álvaro TORRENTE SANCHEZ GUISANDE
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID
Summary The belief that 'the end of music is to move human affections' (Descartes, Compendium musicae) has been a central issue in European musical thought since Plato. Opera was invented to recover the power of Ancient music to move the human heart, and its history is a permanent exploration of the capacity of action, words and music to convey emotions. In the eighteenth century a new type of opera consolidated with the chief concern of expressing the character's emotions as they changed throughout the drama, inspired by Descartes' theory of human passions. The key expressive medium was the aria col da capo, where a single, distinct passion was represented, like a concentrated pill of emotional meaning. The ideal corpus to study this issue are the 900 operas set to music by 300 composers on the 27 dramas by Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782). It contains a comprehensive catalogue of emotions in music, a unique window of opportunity to scrutinize conventions that defined music expression and meaning for over a century, paving the way for the emergence of 'absolute' instrumental music, autonomous from any other art form. DIDONE presents an innovative approach to unveil these conventions: the creation of a corpus of 4,000 digitized arias from 200 opera scores based on Metastasio's eight most popular dramas, to be analysed using traditional methods and big data computer technology. The comparative scrutiny of dozens of different musical settings of the same librettos will reveal how composers correlate specific dramatic circumstances and emotions with distinct poetic and musical features. The results will be applicable to three main fields: (i) opera performance; (ii) analysis and interpretation of other types of music; and (iii) composition in several scenarios, from film soundtracks to creation by Artificial Intelligence. An opera festival will be designed to recover and disseminate this hitherto ignored repertoire, which was essential to define the European musical identity.
The belief that 'the end of music is to move human affections' (Descartes, Compendium musicae) has been a central issue in European musical thought since Plato. Opera was invented to recover the power of Ancient music to move the human heart, and its history is a permanent exploration of the capacity of action, words and music to convey emotions. In the eighteenth century a new type of opera consolidated with the chief concern of expressing the character's emotions as they changed throughout the drama, inspired by Descartes' theory of human passions. The key expressive medium was the aria col da capo, where a single, distinct passion was represented, like a concentrated pill of emotional meaning. The ideal corpus to study this issue are the 900 operas set to music by 300 composers on the 27 dramas by Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782). It contains a comprehensive catalogue of emotions in music, a unique window of opportunity to scrutinize conventions that defined music expression and meaning for over a century, paving the way for the emergence of 'absolute' instrumental music, autonomous from any other art form. DIDONE presents an innovative approach to unveil these conventions: the creation of a corpus of 4,000 digitized arias from 200 opera scores based on Metastasio's eight most popular dramas, to be analysed using traditional methods and big data computer technology. The comparative scrutiny of dozens of different musical settings of the same librettos will reveal how composers correlate specific dramatic circumstances and emotions with distinct poetic and musical features. The results will be applicable to three main fields: (i) opera performance; (ii) analysis and interpretation of other types of music; and (iii) composition in several scenarios, from film soundtracks to creation by Artificial Intelligence. An opera festival will be designed to recover and disseminate this hitherto ignored repertoire, which was essential to define the European musical identity.
Project acronym DIGITALBABY
Project The emergence of understanding from the combination of innate mechanisms and visual experience
Researcher (PI) Shimon Ullman
Summary The goal of this research initiative is to construct large-scale computational modeling of how knowledge of the world emerges from the combination of innate mechanisms and visual experience. The ultimate goal is a 'digital baby' model which, through perception and interaction with the world, develops on its own representations of complex concepts that allow it to understand the world around it, in terms of objects, object categories, events, agents, actions, goals, social interactions, etc. A wealth of empirical research in the cognitive sciences have studied how natural concepts in these domains are acquired spontaneously and efficiently from perceptual experience, but a major open challenge is an understating of the processes and computations involved by rigorous testable models. To deal with this challenge we propose a novel methodology based on two components. The first, 'computational Nativism', is a computational theory of cognitively and biologically plausible innate structures , which guide the system along specific paths through its acquisition of knowledge, to continuously acquire meaningful concepts, which can be significant to the observer, but statistically inconspicuous in the sensory input. The second, 'embedded interpretation' is a new way of acquiring extended learning and interpretation processes. This is obtained by placing perceptual inference mechanisms within a broader perception-action loop, where the actions in the loop are not overt actions, but internal operation over internal representation. The results will provide new modeling and understanding of the age-old problem of how innate mechanisms and perception are combined in human cognition, and may lay foundation for a major research direction dealing with computational cognitive development.
The goal of this research initiative is to construct large-scale computational modeling of how knowledge of the world emerges from the combination of innate mechanisms and visual experience. The ultimate goal is a 'digital baby' model which, through perception and interaction with the world, develops on its own representations of complex concepts that allow it to understand the world around it, in terms of objects, object categories, events, agents, actions, goals, social interactions, etc. A wealth of empirical research in the cognitive sciences have studied how natural concepts in these domains are acquired spontaneously and efficiently from perceptual experience, but a major open challenge is an understating of the processes and computations involved by rigorous testable models. To deal with this challenge we propose a novel methodology based on two components. The first, 'computational Nativism', is a computational theory of cognitively and biologically plausible innate structures , which guide the system along specific paths through its acquisition of knowledge, to continuously acquire meaningful concepts, which can be significant to the observer, but statistically inconspicuous in the sensory input. The second, 'embedded interpretation' is a new way of acquiring extended learning and interpretation processes. This is obtained by placing perceptual inference mechanisms within a broader perception-action loop, where the actions in the loop are not overt actions, but internal operation over internal representation. The results will provide new modeling and understanding of the age-old problem of how innate mechanisms and perception are combined in human cognition, and may lay foundation for a major research direction dealing with computational cognitive development.
Project acronym DYNURBAN
Project Urban dynamics: learning from integrated models and big data
Researcher (PI) Diego PUGA
Host Institution (HI) FUNDACION CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS MONETARIOS Y FINANCIEROS
Summary City growth is driven by a combination of systematic determinants and shocks. Random growth models predict realistic city size distributions but ignore, for instance, the strong empirical association between human capital and city growth. Models with systematic determinants predict degenerate size distributions. We will develop an integrated model that combines systematic and random determinants to explain the link between human capital, entrepreneurship and growth, while generating relevant city size distributions. We will calibrate the model to quantify the contribution of cities to aggregate growth. Urban growth also has a poorly understood spatial component. Combining gridded data of land use, population, businesses and roads for 3 decennial periods we will track the evolution of land use in the US with an unprecedented level of spatial detail. We will pay particular attention to the magnitude and causes of "slash-and-burn" development: instances when built-up land stops meeting needs in terms of use and intensity and, instead of being redeveloped, it is abandoned while previously open space is built up. Job-to-job flows across cities matter for efficiency and during the recent crisis they have plummeted. We will study them with individual social security data. Even if there have only been small changes in mismatch between unemployed workers and vacancies during the crisis, if workers shy away from moving to take a job in another city, misallocation can increase substantially. We will also study commuting flows for Spain and the UK based on anonymized cell phone location records. We will identify urban areas by iteratively aggregating municipalities if more than a given share of transit flows end in the rest of the urban area. We will also measure the extent to which people cross paths with others opening the possibility of personal interactions, and assess the extent to which this generates productivity-enhancing agglomeration economies.
City growth is driven by a combination of systematic determinants and shocks. Random growth models predict realistic city size distributions but ignore, for instance, the strong empirical association between human capital and city growth. Models with systematic determinants predict degenerate size distributions. We will develop an integrated model that combines systematic and random determinants to explain the link between human capital, entrepreneurship and growth, while generating relevant city size distributions. We will calibrate the model to quantify the contribution of cities to aggregate growth. Urban growth also has a poorly understood spatial component. Combining gridded data of land use, population, businesses and roads for 3 decennial periods we will track the evolution of land use in the US with an unprecedented level of spatial detail. We will pay particular attention to the magnitude and causes of "slash-and-burn" development: instances when built-up land stops meeting needs in terms of use and intensity and, instead of being redeveloped, it is abandoned while previously open space is built up. Job-to-job flows across cities matter for efficiency and during the recent crisis they have plummeted. We will study them with individual social security data. Even if there have only been small changes in mismatch between unemployed workers and vacancies during the crisis, if workers shy away from moving to take a job in another city, misallocation can increase substantially. We will also study commuting flows for Spain and the UK based on anonymized cell phone location records. We will identify urban areas by iteratively aggregating municipalities if more than a given share of transit flows end in the rest of the urban area. We will also measure the extent to which people cross paths with others opening the possibility of personal interactions, and assess the extent to which this generates productivity-enhancing agglomeration economies.
Project acronym DYSTRUCTURE
Project The Dynamical and Structural Basis of Human Mind Complexity: Segregation and Integration of Information and Processing in the Brain
Researcher (PI) Gustavo Deco
Summary "Perceptions, memories, emotions, and everything that makes us human, demand the flexible integration of information represented and computed in a distributed manner. The human brain is structured into a large number of areas in which information and computation are highly segregated. Normal brain functions require the integration of functionally specialized but widely distributed brain areas. Furthermore, human behavior entails a flexible task- dependent interplay between different subsets of these brain areas in order to integrate them according to the corresponding goal-directed requirements. We contend that the functional and encoding roles of diverse neuronal populations across areas are subject to intra- and inter-cortical dynamics. More concretely, we hypothesize that coherent oscillations within frequency-specific large-scale networks and coherent structuring of the underlying fluctuations are crucial mechanisms for the flexible integration of distributed processing and interaction of representations. The project aims to elucidate precisely the interplay and mutual entrainment between local brain area dynamics and global network dynamics and their breakdown in brain diseases. We wish to better understand how segregated distributed information and processing are integrated in a flexible and context-dependent way as required for goal-directed behavior. It will allow us to comprehend the mechanisms underlying brain functions by complementing structural and activation based analyses with dynamics. We expect to gain a full explanation of the mechanisms that mediate the interactions between global and local spatio-temporal patterns of activity revealed at many levels of observations (fMRI, EEG, MEG) in humans under task and resting conditions, complemented and further constrained by using more detailed characterization of brain dynamics via Local Field Potentials and neuronal recording in animals under task and resting conditions."
"Perceptions, memories, emotions, and everything that makes us human, demand the flexible integration of information represented and computed in a distributed manner. The human brain is structured into a large number of areas in which information and computation are highly segregated. Normal brain functions require the integration of functionally specialized but widely distributed brain areas. Furthermore, human behavior entails a flexible task- dependent interplay between different subsets of these brain areas in order to integrate them according to the corresponding goal-directed requirements. We contend that the functional and encoding roles of diverse neuronal populations across areas are subject to intra- and inter-cortical dynamics. More concretely, we hypothesize that coherent oscillations within frequency-specific large-scale networks and coherent structuring of the underlying fluctuations are crucial mechanisms for the flexible integration of distributed processing and interaction of representations. The project aims to elucidate precisely the interplay and mutual entrainment between local brain area dynamics and global network dynamics and their breakdown in brain diseases. We wish to better understand how segregated distributed information and processing are integrated in a flexible and context-dependent way as required for goal-directed behavior. It will allow us to comprehend the mechanisms underlying brain functions by complementing structural and activation based analyses with dynamics. We expect to gain a full explanation of the mechanisms that mediate the interactions between global and local spatio-temporal patterns of activity revealed at many levels of observations (fMRI, EEG, MEG) in humans under task and resting conditions, complemented and further constrained by using more detailed characterization of brain dynamics via Local Field Potentials and neuronal recording in animals under task and resting conditions."
Project acronym ECHO
Project Early conditions, delayed adult effects and morbidity, disability and mortality in modern human populations
Researcher (PI) Alberto Palloni
Summary This project aims to reformulate and generalize standard theories of human health and mortality. It proposes new formal models and a systematic agenda to empirically test hypotheses that link developmental biology, epigenetics and adult human illness, disability and mortality. We seek to break new ground developing innovative formal models for illnesses and mortality, testing new hypotheses about the evolution of human health and, to the extent permitted by findings, reformulating standard theories to make them applicable to a less restrictive segment of populations than they are now. Over the past two decades there has been massive growth of research on the nature of delayed adult effects of conditions experienced in early life. This field of research is known as the Developmental Origins of Adult Health and Disease (DOHaD). Increasing evidence suggests that the mechanisms that are implicated are epigenetic and constitute an evolved adaptation selected over thousands of years to improve fitness in changing landscapes. The emergence of DOHaD is as close as we will ever come to a paradigmatic shift in the study of human health, disability and mortality. The most tantalizing possibility is that advances in our understanding of epigenetic mechanisms will shed light on pathways linking early exposures and delayed adult health thus fundamentally transforming our understanding of human illnesses and, in one fell swoop, bridge population health, epigenetics, and developmental and evolutionary biology. The overarching goal of this project is to contribute to this nascent area of study by (a) proposing new formal demographic models of health, disability and mortality; (b) empirically testing DOHaD predictions with population data; (c) testing a microsimulation model to verify DOHaD predictions about two conditions, obesity and Type 2 Diabetes, and (d) assessing the adult health, disability and mortality toll implicated by relations between early conditions, obesity and T2D.
This project aims to reformulate and generalize standard theories of human health and mortality. It proposes new formal models and a systematic agenda to empirically test hypotheses that link developmental biology, epigenetics and adult human illness, disability and mortality. We seek to break new ground developing innovative formal models for illnesses and mortality, testing new hypotheses about the evolution of human health and, to the extent permitted by findings, reformulating standard theories to make them applicable to a less restrictive segment of populations than they are now. Over the past two decades there has been massive growth of research on the nature of delayed adult effects of conditions experienced in early life. This field of research is known as the Developmental Origins of Adult Health and Disease (DOHaD). Increasing evidence suggests that the mechanisms that are implicated are epigenetic and constitute an evolved adaptation selected over thousands of years to improve fitness in changing landscapes. The emergence of DOHaD is as close as we will ever come to a paradigmatic shift in the study of human health, disability and mortality. The most tantalizing possibility is that advances in our understanding of epigenetic mechanisms will shed light on pathways linking early exposures and delayed adult health thus fundamentally transforming our understanding of human illnesses and, in one fell swoop, bridge population health, epigenetics, and developmental and evolutionary biology. The overarching goal of this project is to contribute to this nascent area of study by (a) proposing new formal demographic models of health, disability and mortality; (b) empirically testing DOHaD predictions with population data; (c) testing a microsimulation model to verify DOHaD predictions about two conditions, obesity and Type 2 Diabetes, and (d) assessing the adult health, disability and mortality toll implicated by relations between early conditions, obesity and T2D.
Project acronym EDUCATION-LONG-RUN
Project Long-Run Effects of Education Interventions: Evidence from Randomized Trials
Researcher (PI) Haim Victor Lavy
Summary The vast majority of published research on the impact of school interventions has examined their effects on short-run outcomes, primarily test scores. While important, a possibly deeper question of interest to society is the impact of such interventions on long-run life outcomes. This is a critical question because the ultimate goal of education is to improve lifetime well-being. Recent research has begun to look at this issue but much work remains to be done, particularly with regard to the long-term effects of interventions explicitly targeting improvement in general quality and students' educational attainment. This proposal examines the impact of seven different schooling interventions – teachers' quality, school quality, remedial education, school choice, teacher incentive payments, students' conditional cash transfers and an experiment with an increase in the return to schooling – on long-run life outcomes, including educational attainment, employment, income, marriage and fertility, crime and welfare dependency. To address this important question I will exploit unique data from seven experimental programs and natural experiments implemented simultaneously at different schools in Israel. All programs were successful in achieving their short-term objectives, though the cost of the programs varied. This undertaking presents a unique context with unusual data and very compelling empirical settings. I will examine whether these programs also achieved a longer-term measure of success by improving students' life outcomes. Another unique feature of the proposed study is that the interventions vary widely and touch on some emergent educational trends. The body of empirical evidence from this study will provide a more complete picture of the individual and social returns from these educational interventions, and will allow policymakers to make more informed decisions when deciding which educational programs lead to the most beneficial use of limited school resources.
The vast majority of published research on the impact of school interventions has examined their effects on short-run outcomes, primarily test scores. While important, a possibly deeper question of interest to society is the impact of such interventions on long-run life outcomes. This is a critical question because the ultimate goal of education is to improve lifetime well-being. Recent research has begun to look at this issue but much work remains to be done, particularly with regard to the long-term effects of interventions explicitly targeting improvement in general quality and students' educational attainment. This proposal examines the impact of seven different schooling interventions – teachers' quality, school quality, remedial education, school choice, teacher incentive payments, students' conditional cash transfers and an experiment with an increase in the return to schooling – on long-run life outcomes, including educational attainment, employment, income, marriage and fertility, crime and welfare dependency. To address this important question I will exploit unique data from seven experimental programs and natural experiments implemented simultaneously at different schools in Israel. All programs were successful in achieving their short-term objectives, though the cost of the programs varied. This undertaking presents a unique context with unusual data and very compelling empirical settings. I will examine whether these programs also achieved a longer-term measure of success by improving students' life outcomes. Another unique feature of the proposed study is that the interventions vary widely and touch on some emergent educational trends. The body of empirical evidence from this study will provide a more complete picture of the individual and social returns from these educational interventions, and will allow policymakers to make more informed decisions when deciding which educational programs lead to the most beneficial use of limited school resources.


Absolutely yes, to understand the system and how it shapes the way individuals behave within it is crucial. This can really help bridge the theory practice gap and give us greater power to support / empower women and their families through true individualised care!
We need a revaluing, focussing & reculturing of how Midwives are perceived in media & challenge issues head on through strength based reasoning. Blaming systems only covers the underlining value of relationships at the heart of safe, trustworthy, enjoyable, sustainable midwifery.
Agree Eva. We all need to be vigilant about how Midwives are portrayed in the media and respond.
Irritating, misinformed, coercive and derogatory. Whatever Megan chooses for her birth place and mode of birth would be criticised and sensationalised. Such poor journalism.
Miss you too Susan! Hope the sun is shining in NZ!


SO MANY QUESTIONS.... HERE ARE A FEW ANSWERS!
TRAVEL & LOGISTICSAirportsJohn Wayne Airport (SNA) Located in the middle of Orange County and 20 to 30 minutes from all 360DG Group Hotels. More than 20 direct flights daily.
Los Angeles International (LAX) 45 minutes to one hour away from all our Group Hotels. Southern California's largest domestic and international hub.
Long Beach Airport (LGB) This little-known airport is a great option with service from major airlines, including JetBlue, Delta, Southwest, and American Airlines. Located 30 to 45 minutes from 360DG's OC Group Hotels.
Climate & ConditionsHo hum – another cloudless day in the 70s and 80s. Welcome to Orange County!
We haven't actually stayed in any of these places, but they look pretty good to us!
View On AirbnbIncludes private bedroom,bathroom and backyard.
View On AirbnbDowntown HB Paradise.


text:
Mystery of the Nile Interview: Director/Producer Jordi Llompart
Written by: BMZ Staff
BMZ catches up with Director/Producer Jordi Llompart on his Large Format film debut, MYSTERY OF THE NILE, a film that captures the first full descent of the Nile River from source to sea.
Spanish filmmaker Jordi Llompart has been in the film and television business for more than 20 years. He makes his large format feature film debut with MYSTERY OF THE NILE, a film that tracks the first full descent of the Nile River. As director and producer of the film, Llompart captures the emotional and historical impact of this epic expedition.
Big Movie Zone: Can you tell us a bit about your background in filmmaking and how you became involved in the Giant Screen genre?
Jordi Llompart: My professional career started more than 20 years ago in journalism. I started directing programs in a radio station and writing articles and reports. After a few years, I was hired to direct and present daily and non-daily news programs in television and then I became attracted by the report and documentary genres. Between 1994 and 1996 I traveled all over the world shooting a quality documentary series for television about the conservation of the world's cultural heritage that brought me a lot of awards and public recognition. It could be said that the documentary series The Vanishing Past was my first great experience in movie making production and direction. After the success of The Vanishing Past, I created the production company Orbita Max, from which I have produced and directed documentary series and films for television such as Nomads of the Human Condition, and I started going towards the cinematographic format that is most spectacular and best uses the documentary language, the Large Format IMAX. My first contact with the LF industry was New York's 1999 GSTA, where I realized my projects and my way of understanding the documentary language could fit in very well. I immersed myself into the LF industry to learn about it and this is how Mystery of the Nile has become a reality.
BMZ: What brought you to the Nile project? How did MacGillivray Freeman get involved, and what role did each company play?
JL: Mystery of the Nile was born as a logical and natural consequence of previously shooting The Vanishing Past, that took me around a lot of countries in the Mediterranean, Africa and Middle East, such as Egypt, Ethiopia or Yemen.
I found that the cultural connection between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt through the Blue Nile was very interesting and a new topic for the IMAX audiences, and soon I started exploring different projects around this idea. My first project was entitled Sands of Africa but didn't come through, and then I improved it with the idea of traveling down the Blue Nile. After some time, when I was lacking only a quarter of the founding for the project, the people at MacGillivray Freeman Films expressed their interest in participating in it. Among their projects in development, they had a movie about the Nile and they considered that we could join our efforts and work together. This is how our relationship started for a project that has been shaping thanks to many people's contributions, and in which Greg MacGillivray and his team have played a great role for their technical experience in this format. We can say that Orbita Max has basically undertaken the conception of the film and new ideas that have been combined with the experience and the solvency of MFF.
BMZ: How did the idea of this film originate? Did the Nile explorers seek out to film their expedition, and if so who made the decision to do so in Large Format?
JL: The idea for the film in large format has more than 5 years. As I previously said, it has been the result of the success of The Vanishing Past and of my desire of making a movie for IMAX theatres. I thought that Egypt and the Nile were very well known and very attractive topics, to which we could add new concepts such as discovering Sudan and Ethiopia through the waters of the great Nile, the Blue Nile.
BMZ: The film documents the first full descent of the Nile River from source to sea. Why hasn't an undertaking like this been completed before? Has it ever been attempted?
JL: Until our expedition, there is no documentation about any other previous expedition to run the entire Blue Nile. It is well known that throughout history, Greek and Roman travelers, as well as Christian missionaries from Syria, Egypt and other countries, had visited some parts of the Blue Nile, and during the 20th century, some adventurers had run some parts of the river, but no one had been able to run the entire Blue Nile from Ethiopia to the Mediterranean sea in Egypt.
BMZ: Can you describe the filming process for Mystery of the Nile? Were you and the crew present with the explorers for the entire journey?
JL: As it usually happens with a documentary project based in reality, the success depends on the fact that the main characters get really involved in the project or that everything you encounter during the shooting is favorable. Therefore, I have to say that when we were about to begin the shooting, all of us -- especially me -- were very aware that the movie had to be done day after day, reacting quickly to many factors, and one of them was that we needed our explorers to be motivated to do a lot of things that no one would do only for the money. So it was very important that our explorers, real people, not actors, were enthusiastic and collaborating people.
In order to find the main characters for the movie, we contacted many people from all over the world over several weeks: photographers, archaeologists, scientists, journalists, etc. Finally, thanks to our own and our contacts and friends' efforts, we were able to find the candidates we needed. But we really couldn't be sure about this until we started the shooting, because until the first day shooting in Ethiopia, we would not know how our candidates would react to everything we would ask them to do. We weren't even sure if some or all of them would dare to run the entire expedition to the sea.
The challenge was huge: we were starting to shoot in a country with many logistic difficulties and without being sure about how our explorers would react. From California, everyone was more optimistic than me, probably because I knew very well these three countries and I had experienced very negative issues in the past that made me very cautious. Finally, I clearly saw that having a successful expedition would be possible when I realized during the shooting that we were surrounded by very competent and collaborating people like the second unit director Richard Bangs, the expedition leader and the movie main character Pasquale Scaturro, and the kayaker and cinematographer Gordon Brown.
The filming process was the only one we could do: first shooting in many planned spots along the river in order to structure the script of the movie -- this process took us two months in a row in Ethiopia and Egypt, and an extra month in Sudan -- and then, we gave the explorers an IMAX camera so they could shoot extra footage on their way down the river. Then we would meet them in certain spots along the river for new sequences. The truth is that the process was very risky because we had to combine the logical cinematographic necessities and the great logistic difficulties. There were a lot of places where we wanted to shoot at that were totally inaccessible.
BMZ: What kinds of dangers did you experience while filming?
JL: The greatest dangers for the shooting were, without a doubt, the big logistic and bureaucratic difficulties to move more than 70 people with passports from many different nationalities, and seven tons of shooting and rafting material. We had a lot of bureaucratic problems with customs, the engine of a helicopter broke and the organization of the shooting was very complicated at all levels. Also, the explorers had to overcome crocodiles, hippos, malaria and bandit attacks, and some accidents that thankfully were solved going to the hospital. Many things happened and we were very lucky. When the finished the shooting I realized that, but now that some time has gone by, I even realized it more, we were very lucky.
BMZ: Taking an IMAX camera would seem unwieldy on this type of journey. Were any technological innovations necessary?
JL: From my experience I can say that working with video cameras is so much easier; but at the same time, working in 15/70 is so much more stimulating for a professional. In my case, working with Reed Smoot and Brad Ohlund has been great. Each of them uses the camera in a totally different way: one gets the best possible cinematography and the other one gets the best possible spontaneous sequences. We all know that a 36 kilos camera -- we had four of them -- can be seen as something a bit anachronistic if we compare it with the evolution of digital cameras, and I'm surprised that no further investigations have been developed in order to improve not only the cameras but also the future substitution of this format for another one that is easier to use maintaining the same image quality. But things progress very quickly and I'm sure that there will be some surprises very soon.
BMZ: The expedition crosses three countries in Africa (Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia). Was there a particular area or landscape that blew you away? Any memorable shots that stand out?
JL: Mystery of the Nile has amazing cinematographic moments, like the image of the acacia that opens the movie, the aerial shoots of Tississat Falls and the Nile, or when shadows of camels are projected on the walls of an Egyptian monastery. There are also moments when the images and the music -- everybody loves the music -- create an atmosphere of emotional intensity and beauty, like the ones in front of Meroe's black pyramids in Sudan. But I sincerely believe that the best thing in the movie is the narrative intensity that describes the adventure our explorers are going through. I believe that the editing work for the movie has also been very important in order to create a movie that works in every way.
BMZ: What do you hope audiences take away from the film?
JL: I think that the audience feel that they have shared with the explorers a unique experience: a travel full of emotions to one of the most fascinating places on Earth, a true IMAX experience that had not been seen in this format for a long time. I don't want to be too pretentious and think it is a perfect movie, but the response from the audience is excellent and indicates us that people had not enjoyed an IMAX movie so much for a long time.
BMZ: What future projects are you currently working on? Do you hope to continue working in the LF medium, and if so, would it be another collaboration with Greg MacGillivray?
JL: Mystery of the Nile is not the only movie that Orbita Max will do. We have other projects in development that I still can't share with you and that I would like to co-produce with Greg MacGillivray again if we both feel like it. Greg and his team are great people whom I really get along with and, to tell you the truth, they have a level of commitment to quality that is not easy to find in other companies of the LF industry.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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La confiserie Sérardy est une confiserie, située au 11 rue de Paris à Moulins dans le département français de l'Allier (région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes). Institution depuis 1886, Bernard Sérardy qui a succéder à son père en 1898 fit redécorer la boutique 1907 et y créa sa spécialité de chocolat, les « palets d'or ». Les décors d'origine sont toujours conservés, ce qui vaut au magasin une inscription au titre des monuments historique depuis janvier 2022.

Histoire

Émile Sérardy a d'abord fondé son commerce à l'endroit de la fabrique de sirop et de limonade Gaillard. Son fils, Bernard Sérardy, se forme dans de nombreuses chocolateries, dont Weiss à Saint-Étienne, comme Compagnon du Tour de France. De retour à Moulins en 1898, il reprend la confiserie familiale et crée un chocolat rond et plat fourré, sous une coque fine de chocolat amer, une ganache à la crème fraîche parfumée au café.

On dit que le Tsar Nicolas II, de passage à Vichy lors de sa visite officielle en France en 1901, se serrait vu offrir des Palets d'Or et qu'il aurait été véritablement conquis. Bernard Sérardy fit réaménager sa boutique en 1900 par l'architecte moulinois Joseph Baury en confiant à Louis Galfione la réalisation du plafond peint. La mosaïque du sol est due à Pietro Favret.

Bernard Sérardy est tué en 1916 au cours de la Première Guerre mondiale et sa veuve vend alors la chocolaterie. La boutique est reprise par les Carré, qui développent la commercialisation de la spécialité jusqu'aux rayons du Bon marché à Paris. Cependant, un chocolatier de Saint-Germain-en-Laye va déposer le brevet des Palets d'or alors que Bernard Sérardy n'avait pas pris la précaution de protéger sa création ; ce dernier ira jusqu'à porter l'affaire devant le tribunal pour faire interdire aux Carré la possibilité de vendre leur spécialité. Les Carré vendent la boutique aux Bellat qui la garderont jusqu'en 1977 pour être reprise par Bernard Jarriges, maître chocolatier.

Aujourd'hui, le propriétaire a changé, mais l'établissement est resté le même.

Descriptif

Notes et références

Voir aussi

Article connexe
 Liste des monuments historiques de Moulins
 Liste de spécialités régionales françaises de confiserie et de chocolaterie.

Liens externes

Serardy
Gastronomie dans l'Allier
Monument historique à Moulins (Allier)
Monument historique inscrit en 2022

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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