Content Censorship in the InterPlanetary File System

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is currently the largest decentralized storage solution in operation, with thousands of active participants and millions of daily content transfers. IPFS is used as remote data storage for numerous blockchain-based smart contracts, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT), and decentralized applications. We present a content censorship attack that can be executed with minimal effort and cost, and that prevents the retrieval of any chosen content in the IPFS network. The attack exploits a conceptual issue in a core component of IPFS, the Kademlia Distributed Hash Table (DHT), which is used to resolve content IDs to peer addresses. We provide efficient detection and mitigation mechanisms for this vulnerability. Our mechanisms achieve a 99.6\% detection rate and mitigate 100\% of the detected attacks with minimal signaling and computational overhead. We followed responsible disclosure procedures, and our countermeasures are scheduled for deployment in the future versions of IPFS.Comment: 15 pages (including references), 15 figures. Accepted to be published at the Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS) Symposium 202

Familial and Clinical Correlates in Depressed Adolescents with Borderline Personality Disorder Traits

Introduction: Chart review is a low-cost, but highly informative, method to describe symptoms, treatment and risk factors associated with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and to adapt screening and intervention to clinical reality. Previous chart review studies report more aggressiveness/anger and psychotic features in youths with BPD. They show that adverse family environment and parental psychopathology constitute important factors for BPD pathology. Objectives: To examine clinical characteristics of depressed BPD adolescents (12-17 years old) outpatients according to gender and to explore variables which are associated with BPD traits. Methods: A retrospective chart review using the Child and Adolescent Version of the Retrospective Diagnostic Instrument for Borderlines was conducted on 30 depressed BPD adolescents with BPD traits and 28 non-BPD depressed patients without BPD traits. Participants who reached the C-DIB threshold for BPD were included in the BPD traits group. The Child and Adolescent Version of the Retrospective Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines was used to determine the presence of BPD. Comparisons analyses were performed using Pearson’s Chi-square test. Associated factors were determined using regression analyses. Results: BPD traits participants outpatients were characterised by higher family problems (parental psychopathology, parent disagreement/argument, parent-child relational problem), more aggressive symptoms, and higher rates of family intervention and hospitalisation. A number of familial factors (parental history of delinquency, substance use, or personality disorders, having siblings, parental disagreement/argument in boys) were associated with BPD symptomatologytraits. Attention seeking and problematic functioning (does not adapt well to group activities) were also associated with BPD traits. Discussion: Our study stresses the need to assess BPD traits in adolescent psychiatric evaluation, especially in presence of aggressive behaviours, family problems and attention seeking. Our results also highlight the importance of exploring family characteristics intervention in adolescents with BPD traits

The ETO2 transcriptional cofactor maintains acute leukemia by driving a MYB/EP300‐dependent stemness program

Transcriptional cofactors of the ETO family are recurrent fusion partners in acute leukemia. We characterized the ETO2 regulome by integrating transcriptomic and chromatin binding analyses in human erythroleukemia xenografts and controlled ETO2 depletion models. We demonstrate that beyond its well‐established repressive activity, ETO2 directly activates transcription of MYB, among other genes. The ETO2‐activated signature is associated with a poorer prognosis in erythroleukemia but also in other acute myeloid and lymphoid leukemia subtypes. Mechanistically, ETO2 colocalizes with EP300 and MYB at enhancers supporting the existence of an ETO2/MYB feedforward transcription activation loop (e.g., on MYB itself). Both small‐molecule and PROTAC‐mediated inhibition of EP300 acetyltransferases strongly reduced ETO2 protein, chromatin binding, and ETO2‐activated transcripts. Taken together, our data show that ETO2 positively enforces a leukemia maintenance program that is mediated in part by the MYB transcription factor and that relies on acetyltransferase cofactors to stabilize ETO2 scaffolding activity

Evaluation Of Population-Varieties Developed Within A Wheat Participatory Breeding Program In France: Performances, Diversity, Stability And Adaptation

Modern agricultural systems rely on little crop genetic diversity, especially with the use of homogeneous varieties grown on large areas. However crop genetic diversity within fields is a lever for a more sustainable production, allowing for a greater stability through combined resistances to biotic and abiotic stress, and buffering environmental heterogeneity which characterizes organic systems. In France, a Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB) project has been applied on bread wheat since 2006 involving farmers and facilitators of the farmers' seed network Réseau Semences Paysannes and INRA researchers for the development of populations based on a decentralized selection in farmers' fields. This project leads to the development of heterogeneous populations whose intra-variety genetic diversity should allow them to adapt to farmers' practices and environments. We evaluated the agronomic behavior, genetic diversity, stability and local adaptation of ten populations developed within the PPB program compared to two commercial pure line varieties. Some populations had very interesting responses when considering grain yield, biomass production and protein content, and six of them were not significantly less productive than the two commercial varieties when comparing overall grain yield per population. While no clear evidence of local adaptation was detected, we found that populations' quality and in a lesser extent grain yield were more stable over years than that of commercial varieties. Protein content stability over time was positively correlated to genetic diversity with no significant drawback on protein production

GeneFarm, structural and functional annotation of Arabidopsis gene and protein families by a network of experts

Genomic projects heavily depend on genome annotations and are limited by the current deficiencies in the published predictions of gene structure and function. It follows that, improved annotation will allow better data mining of genomes, and more secure planning and design of experiments. The purpose of the GeneFarm project is to obtain homogeneous, reliable, documented and traceable annotations for Arabidopsis nuclear genes and gene products, and to enter them into an added-value database. This re-annotation project is being performed exhaustively on every member of each gene family. Performing a family-wide annotation makes the task easier and more efficient than a gene-by-gene approach since many features obtained for one gene can be extrapolated to some or all the other genes of a family. A complete annotation procedure based on the most efficient prediction tools available is being used by 16 partner laboratories, each contributing annotated families from its field of expertise. A database, named GeneFarm, and an associated user-friendly interface to query the annotations have been developed. More than 3000 genes distributed over 300 families have been annotated and are available at http://genoplante-info.infobiogen.fr/Genefarm/. Furthermore, collaboration with the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is underway to integrate the GeneFarm data into the protein knowledgebase Swiss-Prot

GeneFarm, structural and functional annotation of Arabidopsis gene and protein families by a network of experts

Genomic projects heavily depend on genome annotations and are limited by the current deficiencies in the published predictions of gene structure and function. It follows that, improved annotation will allow better data mining of genomes, and more secure planning and design of experiments. The purpose of the GeneFarm project is to obtain homogeneous, reliable, documented and traceable annotations for Arabidopsis nuclear genes and gene products, and to enter them into an added-value database. This re-annotation project is being performed exhaustively on every member of each gene family. Performing a family-wide annotation makes the task easier and more efficient than a gene-by-gene approach since many features obtained for one gene can be extrapolated to some or all the other genes of a family. A complete annotation procedure based on the most efficient prediction tools available is being used by 16 partner laboratories, each contributing annotated families from its field of expertise. A database, named GeneFarm, and an associated user-friendly interface to query the annotations have been developed. More than 3000 genes distributed over 300 families have been annotated and are available at http://genoplante-info.infobiogen.fr/Genefarm/. Furthermore, collaboration with the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is underway to integrate the GeneFarm data into the protein knowledgebase Swiss-Pro

Mosaic Activating Mutations in GNA11 and GNAQ Are Associated with Phakomatosis Pigmentovascularis and Extensive Dermal Melanocytosis.

Common birthmarks can be an indicator of underlying genetic disease but are often overlooked. Mongolian blue spots (dermal melanocytosis) are usually localized and transient, but they can be extensive, permanent, and associated with extracutaneous abnormalities. Co-occurrence with vascular birthmarks defines a subtype of phakomatosis pigmentovascularis, a group of syndromes associated with neurovascular, ophthalmological, overgrowth, and malignant complications. Here, we discover that extensive dermal melanocytosis and phakomatosis pigmentovascularis are associated with activating mutations in GNA11 and GNAQ, genes that encode Gα subunits of heterotrimeric G proteins. The mutations were detected at very low levels in affected tissues but were undetectable in the blood, indicating that these conditions are postzygotic mosaic disorders. In vitro expression of mutant GNA11(R183C) and GNA11(Q209L) in human cell lines demonstrated activation of the downstream p38 MAPK signaling pathway and the p38, JNK, and ERK pathways, respectively. Transgenic mosaic zebrafish models expressing mutant GNA11(R183C) under promoter mitfa developed extensive dermal melanocytosis recapitulating the human phenotype. Phakomatosis pigmentovascularis and extensive dermal melanocytosis are therefore diagnoses in the group of mosaic heterotrimeric G-protein disorders, joining McCune-Albright and Sturge-Weber syndromes. These findings will allow accurate clinical and molecular diagnosis of this subset of common birthmarks, thereby identifying infants at risk for serious complications, and provide novel therapeutic opportunities

Les villes du Brésil : un laboratoire transatlantique et transdisciplinaire

Présentation Sébastien Velut Cet entretien témoigne, à travers un parcours singulier, de l’importance qu’a eue au Creda la géographie, et particulièrement la géographie urbaine, ainsi que les recherches sur le Brésil pendant plus de cinquante ans. Disparue en mars 2021, Hélène Rivière d’Arc incarne cet engagement sur des terrains brésiliens des équipes de la rue Saint-Guillaume, où elle a fait toute sa carrière, dans les unités de recherche qui, sous différentes dénominations (CEPES, LA111, ..

Numerical simulations on mixing of passive scalars in river confluences

The study deals with the mixing of passive scalars (such as pollutants) in open-channel confluences when the two inflows exhibit different concentrations. The dispersion of such passive scalars is investigated through the analysis of the processes enhancing the mixing in the confluence in order to estimate the length for complete mixing Lm in the downstream branch. The aim of this study is then to establish a correlation between this length for complete mixing Lm and characteristics of the confluence, namely its angle and two hydrodynamic parameters that are the momentum ratio M* of the inflows and the width-to-depth ratio of the downstream branch b/h. In this work, the flow in the confluence is numerically simulated by RANS calculation coupled with the advection-diffusion equation at field scale, i.e. with Reynolds and Froude numbers corresponding to real rivers (Re = 107 and Fr=0.1). The role of other parameters such as bed discordance or bed forms... is not addressed here. The numerical results highlight that the mixing in the confluence and its downstream branch, is enhanced by the presence of secondary currents that are themselves strongly affected by the characteristics of the confluence. The results aim at getting an operative empirical law linking the geometric and hydrodynamic parameters of the confluence with Lm