Travelers With Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Cured Without Systemic Therapy

Guidelines recommend wound care and/or local therapy as first-line treatment for cutaneous leishmaniasis. An analysis of a referral treatment program in 135 travelers showed that this approach was feasible in 62% of patients, with positive outcome in 83% of evaluable patient

New Code-Based Privacy-Preserving Cryptographic Constructions

Code-based cryptography has a long history but did suffer from periods of slow development. The field has recently attracted a lot of attention as one of the major branches of post-quantum cryptography. However, its subfield of privacy-preserving cryptographic constructions is still rather underdeveloped, e.g., important building blocks such as zero-knowledge range proofs and set membership proofs, and even proofs of knowledge of a hash preimage, have not been known under code-based assumptions. Moreover, almost no substantial technical development has been introduced in the last several years. This work introduces several new code-based privacy-preserving cryptographic constructions that considerably advance the state-of-the-art in code-based cryptography. Specifically, we present $3$ major contributions, each of which potentially yields various other applications. Our first contribution is a code-based statistically hiding and computationally binding commitment scheme with companion zero-knowledge (ZK) argument of knowledge of a valid opening that can be easily extended to prove that the committed bits satisfy other relations. Our second contribution is the first code-based zero-knowledge range argument for committed values, with communication cost logarithmic in the size of the range. A special feature of our range argument is that, while previous works on range proofs/arguments (in all branches of cryptography) only address ranges of non-negative integers, our protocol can handle signed fractional numbers, and hence, can potentially find a larger scope of applications. Our third contribution is the first code-based Merkle-tree accumulator supported by ZK argument of membership, which has been known to enable various interesting applications. In particular, it allows us to obtain the first code-based ring signatures and group signatures with logarithmic signature sizes

On the physical oceanography of the Kattegat and Clyde Sea area, 1996-98, as background to ecophysiological studies of the planktonic crustacean, Meganyctiphanes norvegica (Euphausiacea).

International audienceThe euphausiid. Meganyctiphanes norvegica (M. Sars), has an extremely wide distribution around the North Atlantic, from Canada to the Arctic to the western Mediterranean. It appears to be adaptable to life under quite different oceanographic conditions, yet no morphological features have been identified that distinguish any of the populations occurring in different areas between which exchange must be supposed to be restricted. The genetic, physiological, behavioural and ecological investigations that are being carried out on M. norvegica in the Kattegat, the Clyde Sea area and the Ligurian Sea (the EU MAST III PEP Project) in order to study its adaptability must be closely related to the physical environment within which the respective populations occur. This paper presents a summary of the hydrographic conditions found in the Kattegat and the Clyde Sea area in summer and in winter, during each research cruise, and places them in the context of current understanding of the hydrography in each area. An account of the hydrography of the Ligurian Sea is in preparation (Dallot et al., in preparation). The data will be used in the further analysis of genetic, physiological and behavioural adaptability of M. norvegica, and will be available for use as appropriate to supplement other hydrographic studies in the regions concerned

MESOZOOPLANKTON AND MACROZOOPLANKTON COMPOSITION PATTERNS RELATED TO HYDRODYNAMIC STRUCTURES IN THE LIGURIAN SEA (TROPHOS-2 EXPERIMENT, APRIL-JUNE-1986)

International audienceThe distributional patterns of zooplanktonic fauna based on samples taken during the Trophos-2 cruise (spring 1986) in the western Liguro-Provencal Basin, Mediterranean Sea, are described. This region is permanently exposed to a cyclonic circulation with an associated thermohaline front which encloses a central divergence zone. In the middle of this central area, we encountered a mesoscale (about 70 km diameter) anticyclonic eddy. Taking into account the hydrological structure of the 0 to 200 m upper level, the area could be divided into 4 zones: (1) peripheral and frontal, (2) central Riviera, (3) central Corsica and (4) the eddy. These zones differed in the abundance of several zooplankton species. In particular, some of them showed a higher concentration in the eddy, such as the radiolarian Aulacantha scolymantha, the euphausiid calyptopis larvae, and the copepods Centropages typicus, Pleuromamma gracilis, Mesocalanus tenuicornis, Heterorhabdus papilliger and Euchirella rostrata. We suggest the central eddy is a favorable environment for these large species. Thus, increased primary and secondary production due to the influence of hydrodynamic phenomena appears not to be Limited to the frontal zone. Within the eddy, zooplankton growth could be enhanced, thus favoring export production. To detect zooplankton species assemblages, the stations have been clustered into 5 groups based on their taxonomic composition and abundance. These groups had a rather good geographic coherence although they had a more complex distribution than the physical structure. This higher variability of spatial organization of the 5 plankton assemblages can be explained by behavioral and trophic phenomena

Zooplankton community structure in the Western Mediterranean sea related to mesoscale hydrodynamics

International audienceIn the Liguro-provencal basin (Northwestern Mediterranean sea), an heterogeneous hydrodynamic structure was observed in May 1986 (Pinca & Dallot, 1995). The hydrological system was characterized, as usual for this region, by the cyclonic Ligurian current with its associated thermohaline coastal fronts separating the coastal area from a central divergence zone, but was complicated in 1986 by the presence of an anticyclonic eddy in the middle of the central area. The sampling sites were consequently separated into four zones according to this physical structure. Mesozooplankton community structure related to the physical organization of the water masses is presented here. In order to obtain a description of the community structure, we studied both structure indices (species richness, evenness, dominance) and Rank-Frequency Diagrams. These descriptors showed a certain patchiness: species diversity and evenness were both minimal in the central area and increased towards the zones that surrounded the eddy and the coastal regions. However, almost everywhere we observed a stage 1 in the ecological succession as depicted by Frontier (1976), indicating that the development of the community structure (Margalef, 1967) was still at a juvenile state, else, that it was disturbed by the rapidly growing population of a single species. The most striking characteristic of the data set was actually the strong predominance of one or two copepod species. Centropages typicus prevailed: its population increased during the spring bloom, particularly in the area of the anticyclonic eddy. In order to better identify the organization of the region in terms of different ecological maturity stages and to search for a relation between mesoscale physical structure and community patterns, we grouped the sites on the basis of relative abundance of ranked species. We used an agglomerative cluster analysis with a new dissimilarity index, corrected to limit the weight of the most abundant species. We then tested for differences among the seven obtained groups in terms of structure indices, biological and environmental parameters. The physical environment could be related to the organization of the plankton community. In the central area, where the divergence and the eddy were located, a higher concentration of phytoplankton, total mesozooplankton abundance and biomass were recorded. The eddy was characterized by a higher concentration of relatively bigger and omnivorous copepods (Euchirella rostrata, Pleuromamma gracilis, Centropages typicus), probably favored by their stronger swimming ability in this highly energetic environment. However, the more specific organization of the community was regulated by more complicated biological interrelations that gave rise to a higher level of patchiness in the ecological structure

RESPIRATION AND NITROGEN EXCRETION OF ZOOPLANCKTON .1. EVALUATION OF METABOLIC RATES OF SOME WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN SPECIES

International audienc