Strengthening Compute and Data intensive Capacities of Armenia

International audienceTraditionally, Armenia has had a leading position within the computer science and Information Technology sectors in the South Caucasus region and beyond. Information Technology (IT) is also one of the fastest growing industries of the Armenian economy [1]. In 2000, the Government of Armenia recognized the IT sector as the primary constituent of the country's economic progress. Armenia is, more than ever, in need of cutting-edge and relevant e-infrastructures and e-services to tackle today's societal and scientific challenges. The Institute for Informatics and Automation Problems (IIAP) of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA) [2] is the only state supported structure for software, hardware, and brainware technologies in Armenia. The institute is responsible for Armenia's National research and education network (Academic Scientific Research Computer Network of Armenia, ASNET-AM) [3] and the National Grid Initiative (ArmNGI) [4], and provides computational and networking facilities and advanced services to users. The main objective of this article is to highlight key activities that will spur Armenia to strengthen its scientific computing capacity thanks to the analysis made of the current trends of e-Infrastructures in Europe and the USA

Multidisciplinary High Performance Data Analysis Forum: summary and recommendations (SIAM CSE 2019)

TalkInternational audienceThe Multidisciplinary High Performance Data Analysis for Societal Challenges Forum held in Saint Girons (France) on June 17-19, 2018 was organized by the Informatics Research Institute of Toulouse (IRIT) and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), with the support of the LabEx CIMI (Centre International de Mathmatiques et Informatique de Toulouse). The participants included decision-makers in research laboratories and academy, all faced with problems related to societal challenges. The forum had an international dimension with the participation of representatives from the USA, Japan and Europe. The planning of the forum was motivated by the realization that the digital transformation is of great concern for public and private research organisations. This forum will be convened yearly, such that participants will be able to take stock ,share experiences, and propose dynamic approaches for organizing R&D communities. The first Forum sought to foment discussions about on going or yet to-be implemented mechanisms for data collection and processing related to the societal challenges. It is important to assess their potential impact, particularly on the management of research teams working on societal challenges. The out come of the first forum is summarized in recommendations that will be presented during the talk

Governance Foundations for the European Cybersecurity Community

International audienceWhile Regulation EU 2021/887 of 20 May 2021 established the European Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology and Research Competence Centre and the Network of National Coordination Centres, it has not addressed in any detail the identification, structuring, or coordination of the cybersecurity actors in Europe. This paper proposes their structure and input, extending on work done in the project CyberSec4Europe, which was funded by the European Commission to design, test, and demonstrate potential governance structures for the European Cybersecurity community

Multiple endemic and pandemic lineages of the rice blast pathogen and gene flow into recombining populations from Southeast continental Asia

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Coexistence of multiple endemic and pandemic lineages of the rice blast pathogen

The rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae (syn. Pyricularia oryzae ) is both a threat to global food security and a model for plant pathology. Molecular pathologists need an accurate understanding of the origins and line of descent of M. oryzae populations, to identify the genetic and functional bases of pathogen adaptation, and to guide the development of more effective control strategies. We used a whole-genome sequence analysis of samples from different times and places to infer details about the genetic makeup of M. oryzae from a global collection of isolates. Analyses of population structure identified six lineages within M. oryzae , including two pandemic on japonica and indica rice, respectively, and four lineages with more restricted distributions. Tip-dating calibration indicated that M. oryzae lineages separated about a millenium ago, long after the initial domestication of rice. The major lineage endemic to continental Southeast Asia displayed signatures of sexual recombination and evidence of DNA acquisition from multiple lineages. Tests for weak natural selection revealed that the pandemic spread of clonal lineages entailed an evolutionary ‘cost’, in terms of the accumulation of deleterious mutations. Our findings reveal the coexistence of multiple endemic and pandemic lineages with contrasting population and genetic characteristics within a widely distributed pathogen

Genomic analysis reveals multiple endemic and pandemic lineages of rice blast and gene flow into recombining populations from southeast continental Asia

International audiencePopulation genomic structure represents a key observable feature of pathogen lineage emergence, divergence and spread, and population genetic models fitted to genome-wide data can be used as a baseline against which to identify the genomic features and molecular mechanisms involved in pathogen adaptation or reproductive isolation. The rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae is the most damaging rice pathogen, and a textbook example of widely distributed, rapidly adapting pathogen, despite limited genetic diversity. The aim of our study was to elucidate the factors and evolutionary changes underlying the emergence, diversification and spread of M. oryzae. Analyses of population structure based on single-read Illumina resequencing of 48 isolates identified four pandemic lineages of which three were highly clonal, and one recombining, as previously reported using microsatellite multilocus typing. We also found two lineages endemic to China, represented by only a few individuals in our dataset. Because recombination is limited in this system, we could use a phylogenetic approach to date the emergence and global dispersal of M. oryzae. The sequenced isolates were collected between 1973 and 2009, which allowed us to calibrate tree nodes using dated tips. Our analysis provided an estimate of ~10.000 years before present for the split between the population infecting rice from those infecting Setaria millet, corresponding to the oldest archaeological evidence for human exploitation of rice. We also found that the six lineages of M. oryzae diverged almost simultaneously ~2.000 years ago, which might correspond to the initial spread of rice cultivation outside Asia. Phylogenomic analyses revealed discordant genealogies among chromosomes, suggesting incomplete lineage sorting associated with rapid diversification. Analyses of the distribution of lineage-specific variants revealed possible exchanges of genomic fragments among clonal lineages, suggesting that hyphal fusion and genetic exchange between mycelia may play a role in increasing the genome diversity of asexual rice blast populations. Our work provides a population-level genomic framework for defining molecular markers to assist in the control of rice blast and for investigating the molecular underpinnings of phenotypic and fitness differences between divergent lineage

The ESCOMPTE Program: an overview

In this paper, the “Expérience sur Site pour COntraindre les Modèles de Pollution atmosphérique et de Transport d'Emissions” (ESCOMPTE) program is presented. The ESCOMPTE program is used to produce a relevant set of data for testing and evaluating regional pollution models. It includes high-resolution (in space and time) atmospheric emission inventories and field experiments, and covers an area of 120×120 km, centered over the Marseilles-Berre area in the southeast of France during Summer 2001. This region presents a high occurrence of photochemical pollution events, which result from numerous industrial and urban sources of primary pollutants. From the dynamical characteristics of the area, sea-breeze circulation and channeling effects due to terrain features highly influence the location of the pollutant plumes. ESCOMPTE will provide a highly documented framework for dynamics and chemistry studies.Campaign strategies and experimental set up are described. During the planning phase, existing modeling results helped defining the experimental design. The campaign involved surface measurement networks, remote sensing, ship-borne, balloon-borne, and airplane measurements. Mean standard meteorological parameters and turbulent fluxes, ozone, ozone precursors, photochemically active trace gases, and aerosols were measured. Five intensive observation periods (IOPs) were documented using a wide spectrum of instruments, involving aircraft (7) (one of them equipped with a Doppler lidar, the others for in situ meteorological and chemical measurements), constant volume balloons (33), ozone lidars (5), wind profilers (15 sodars and radars), Doppler scanning lidar (1), radiosonde systems (at 4 locations), instrumented ships (2). In addition to the air quality networks from environmental agencies, 15 supplementary ground stations equipped for chemistry and/or meteorology and/or surface flux measurements, were operational. All instruments were calibrated and compared during a Quality Control/Quality Assurance (QC/QA) week, at the very beginning of the campaign.Fifteen days were intensively documented during five IOPs, referenced as 1, 2a, 2b, 3, and 4. High pollution levels were encountered during sea-breeze conditions observed during IOPs 2b and 3, whereas IOPs 2a and 4 corresponded to moderate wind, and channeled plume regimes. In addition, hourly emissions inventories for all IOPs were established to complete data sets and to finalize the ESCOMPTE database (EDB).Two other projects were associated to ESCOMPTE: urban boundary layer (UBL) and tropospheric water vapor content by GPS tomography (GPS/H2O). They took advantage of the scientific environment provided by ESCOMPTE

Requirements Analysis from Vertical Stakeholders

International audienceThis document describes requirements, as identified by the stakeholders of CyberSec4Europe, for the seven vertical areas that have been defined in the project: Open Banking, Supply Chain, Privacy-preserving Identity Management, Security Incident Reporting, Maritime Cybersecurity, Medical Data Exchange, and Smart Cities. The findings and recommendations are based on the works of Task 4.1, which focuses on engaging the vertical stakeholders of the project, so as to collect their needs, the problems they face, and the challenges they will be forced to meet in the near future. A combination of methods was used for eliciting the requirements from the stakeholders, and receiving their feedback on important cybersecurity problems and approaches needed to deal with them for their respective economic sectors. These methods comprised online questionnaires, structured interviews, a number of brainstorming workshops, and desk research. The conclusions of our analyses, presented in this document, show that the stakeholders envision resilient systems, infrastructures, and societies as their common objective. It emerges from this task that their needs will only be fulfilled by an environment that wisely encompasses regulation, incentives, structural reorganisations, and capacity building, along with research and deployment of new technologies, as detailed in the text