Cryptocurrency scams: analysis and perspectives

Since the inception of Bitcoin in 2009, the market of cryptocurrencies has grown beyond the initial expectations, as witnessed by the thousands of tokenised assets available on the market, whose daily trades amount to dozens of USD billions. The pseudonymity features of these cryptocurrencies have attracted the attention of cybercriminals, who exploit them to carry out potentially untraceable scams. The wide range of cryptocurrency-based scams observed over the last ten years has fostered the research on the analysis of their effects, and the development of techniques to counter them. However, doing research in this field requires addressing several challenges: for instance, although a few data sources about cryptocurrency scams are publicly available, they often contain incomplete or misclassified data. Further, there is no standard taxonomy of scams, which leads to ambiguous and incoherent interpretations of their nature. Indeed, the unavailability of reliable datasets makes it difficult to train effective automatic classifiers that can detect and analyse cryptocurrency scams. In this paper, we perform an extensive review of the scientific literature on cryptocurrency scams, which we systematise according to a novel taxonomy. By collecting and homogenising data from different public sources, we build a uniform dataset of thousands of cryptocurrency scams.We devise an automatic tool that recognises scams and classifies them according to our taxonomy.We assess the effectiveness of our tool through standard performance metrics.We also give an in-depth analysis of the classification results, offering several insights into threat types, from their features to their connection with other types. Finally, we provide a set of guidelines that policymakers could follow to improve user protection against cryptocurrency scams

Systemic reactive (AA) amyloidosis in the course of common variable immunodeficiency

Patients with primary immunodeficiencies (PID) are currently at low risk for the development of systemic reactive AA amyloidosis. A patient with common variable immunodeficiency and nephrotic syndrome was referred to our Clinic from a Nephrology unit. She had a history of recurrent infections. Monthly intramuscular immunoglobulin substitution treatment was started in 1979, subsequently switched to intravenous route. Between 1984 and 2007, she continued to experience infections and did not have follow-up visits in an Immunology Centre. Replacement therapy was discontinued in 2008 for adverse events related to IVIG infusion; since then she was admitted for recurrent cellulitis, sepsis, and pneumonia. In 2009, the patient developed massive proteinuria and renal failure due to clinically overt reactive systemic AA amyloidosis. Despite the prompt resumption of antibody replacement, adequate IgG levels were not achieved and SAA concentration remained elevated. Delay in diagnosis and inadequate treatment of PIDs results in increased irreversible complications, including AA amyloidosis

Systemic reactive (AA) amyloidosis in the course of common variable immunodeficiency

Patients with primary immunodeficiencies (PID) are currently at low risk for the development of systemic reactive AA amyloidosis. A patient with common variable immunodeficiency and nephrotic syndrome was referred to our Clinic from a Nephrology unit. She had a history of recurrent infections. Monthly intramuscular immunoglobulin substitution treatment was started in 1979, subsequently switched to intravenous route. Between 1984 and 2007, she continued to experience infections and did not have follow-up visits in an Immunology Centre. Replacement therapy was discontinued in 2008 for adverse events related to IVIG infusion; since then she was admitted for recurrent cellulitis, sepsis, and pneumonia. In 2009, the patient developed massive proteinuria and renal failure due to clinically overt reactive systemic AA amyloidosis. Despite the prompt resumption of antibody replacement, adequate IgG levels were not achieved and SAA concentration remained elevated. Delay in diagnosis and inadequate treatment of PIDs results in increased irreversible complications, including AA amyloidosis

Atazanavir/ritonavir with lamivudine as maintenance therapy in virologically suppressed HIV-infected patients: 96 week outcomes of a randomized trial

Objectives: To investigate the long-term safety and efficacy of a treatment switch to dual ART with atazanavir/ritonavir+lamivudine versus continuing a standard regimen with atazanavir/ritonavir+2NRTI in virologically suppressed patients. Methods: ATLAS-M is a 96 week open-label, randomized, non-inferiority (margin -12%) trial enrolling HIV-infected adults on atazanavir/ritonavir+2NRTI, with stable HIV-RNA < 50 copies/mL and CD4 counts.200 cells/mm 3 . At baseline, patients were randomized 1:1 to switch to atazanavir/ritonavir+lamivudine or to continue the previous regimen. Here, we report the 96 week efficacy and safety data. The study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01599364. Results: Overall, 266 subjects were enrolled (133 in each arm). At 96 weeks, in the ITT population, patients free of treatment failure totalled 103 (77.4%) with atazanavir/ritonavir+lamivudine and 87 (65.4%) with triple therapy (difference +12.0%, 95% CI +1.2/+22.8, P=0.030), demonstrating the superiority of dual therapy. Two (1.5%) and 9 (6.8%) virological failures occurred in the dual-therapy arm and the triple-therapy arm, respectively, without development of resistance to any study drug. Clinical adverse events occurred at similar rates in both arms. A higher frequency of grade 3-4 hyperbilirubinemia (66.9% versus 50.4%, P=0.006) and hypertriglyceridaemia (6.8% versus 1.5%, P=0.031) occurred with dual therapy, although this never led to treatment discontinuation. A significant improvement in renal function and lumbar spine bone mineral density occurred in the dual-therapy arm. The evolution of CD4, HIV-DNA levels and neurocognitive performance was similar in both arms. Conclusions: In this randomized study, a treatment switch to atazanavir/ritonavir+lamivudine was superior over the continuation of atazanavir/ritonavir+2NRTI in virologically suppressed patients, with a sustained benefit in terms of improved renal function and bone mineral density