Ερευνητικά Αποτελέσματα Ξένων Ερευνητών - Europedirect

Stars, like interstellar nuclear reactors, create new elements essential for the formation of new stars. Advanced telescopes have made it possible for EU-funded astronomers to deepen our understanding of their mass-loss process.

Stars spend most of their lifetime on what is called the main sequence. In this state of hydrostatic equilibrium, nuclear fusion inside the stars' counterbalances gravitational forces, preventing them from imploding. When nuclear fuel has been consumed within the core, the stellar structures adjust to maintain equilibrium.

Improved accuracy of cosmic microwave background measurements have opened the way for testing extensions of the established model of structure formation in the early universe. Among the possible extensions, the most relevant to particle physics is dark energy and dark matter.

Geographic information systems (GISs) and Earth observation (EO) have helped map human settlement over 5 000 years across a large area of the Sahara Desert.

Pastoral dispersion and settlement of indigenous peoples and nomadic tribes offers important insight into how communities grew and gave birth to collective identities. One case where this is true is in north Africa’s Sahara Desert, across which the Tuareg people had dispersed over the last few thousand years.

Europe is committed to position itself as a key player in the market of innovative products for rapidly growing urban populations. An EU-funded initiative improved regional framework conditions to encourage dynamic innovation in embedded system technologies and their application domains.

Traditionally, computations on soft porous materials and interfaces are performed using simple phenomenological models. EU-funded researchers proposed modelling such media using homogenisation, where macroscopic properties are derived from microscopic ones.

Homogenisation is the process of characterising a system with a few parameters while retaining its basic characteristics. The computational counterpart of this process was at the centre of the EU-funded project MULTISCALEFSI (Multiscale fluid-solid interaction in heterogeneous materials and interfaces).

Major societal challenges such as urbanisation and climate change are impacting the social fabric of urban life, the economy of cities and the quality of urban environments throughout Europe. An EU initiative introduced decision-support tools for sustainable urban development challenges.

European researchers investigated the epigenetic component in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Their results bring us a step closer to unravelling the alterations encountered in the ADHD brain.

The effects of gentrification are being exacerbated by the debt crisis and subsequent austerity in southern European cities (SECs). An EU initiative explored the relationship between gentrification and policy, as well as forms of resistance and alternative responses.

Gentrification resistance practices are emerging in SECs. However, these efforts appear to be fragmented, and there is a lack of systematic understanding of their potential and capability to counter urban inequalities.

Many of Europe’s heritage buildings are falling victim to graffiti and dirt. New tests on different anti-graffiti and anti-dirt coatings provide valuable scientific insight into improving protective and preventive products and techniques.

Understanding how neuronal circuits determine brain function remains one of the biggest challenges of neuroscience. A European study dissected the mechanisms by which cell layers emerge in the cerebral cortex.

Under physiological conditions, cells maintain their genomic integrity by activating DNA damage response (DDR) mechanisms. Understanding how defects in these repair processes can trigger cancer formation will help develop novel anti-cancer therapies.

Gauge-gravity duality has created new links between gravity and quantum theory. It has also provided EU-funded scientists with powerful tools to deepen our current understanding of hydrodynamics.

Over the past years, theoretical ideas from the abstract world of geometrical forms have been introduced to the realm of experimental condensed matter physics. The Anti-de Sitter / conformal field theory (ADS/CFT) correspondence or gauge-gravity duality, coming from notions of string theory is behind this crossover.

Nature is increasingly being assigned a monetary value so that we can understand its benefits in an economic context. EU researchers investigated how the economic valuing of nature has been applied in the UK and whether it has worked.

In Europe and around the world, biodiversity conservation is being reframed around nature's economic value. This is affecting the way that society perceives the natural world.

New high-tech viewing technology facilitates the rendition of archaeological data in 3D, making it accessible to researchers online. This facilitates collaborative projects and data exchange as well.

The high cost of batteries poses a major barrier to wider adoption of electric cars. An EU-funded project took several steps to increase lifetime and energy density of lithium-ion batteries, while also enhancing safety, cost and performance.

Electric vehicles play an important role in EU plans to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants from road transport. To become more competitive, manufacturing costs of lithium-ion batteries for electric cars and the cost per kilowatt-hours need to be drastically reduced.

An EU-funded initiative carefully studied one of the standard models used in the study of random media – random walk in a random environment (RWRE).

Large deviation theory is a cornerstone of modern probability and used in statistical mechanics, information theory, risk management plus many other fields. The project LARGEDEVRWRE (Large deviations for random walks in random environments) was established to achieve a deeper understanding of the large deviation properties of multidimensional RWRE.

An EU initiative delved deep into how western European society assimilated metallurgy and developed different metallurgical traditions. It also examined to what extent such processes were affected by social contacts.

The EU-funded SMITH (Society, metallurgy and innovation: The Iberian hypothesis) project explored the specific technological conditions and processes of metal production in Iberia as a basis for comparison with Europe and the Near East. It also evaluated the social and ideological impact of metallurgy in prehistoric societies.

EU-funded biologists have investigated the effect of reproductive isolation on competition in the invasive species Centaurea solstitialis.

The EU-funded project REPROWEED (Reproductive isolation and competitive ability between native and non-native ranges of invasive weeds) investigated processes that allow invasive species to be successful in both native and non-native regions. Scientists focused on local adaptation of traits, with particular emphasis on changes in reproductive systems.

Microreactors are a powerful tool for intensifying chemical reactions. EU scientists studied their application in synthesising trifluoromethylstyrene compounds using light to accelerate the reaction.

The mobility and portability of healthcare creates technical, regulatory and administrative difficulties, and raises several ethical, social and political issues. An EU initiative assessed how portable mobile health technologies (mHTs) will affect and be affected by the current system of healthcare values.