A Formal Study of the Privacy Concerns in Biometric-Based Remote Authentication Schemes

With their increasing popularity in cryptosystems, biometrics have attracted more and more attention from the information security community. However, how to handle the relevant privacy concerns remains to be troublesome. In this paper, we propose a novel security model to formalize the privacy concerns in biometric-based remote authentication schemes. Our security model covers a number of practical privacy concerns such as identity privacy and transaction anonymity, which have not been formally considered in the literature. In addition, we propose a general biometric-based remote authentication scheme and prove its security in our security model

Marine Biotechnology: A New Vision and Strategy for Europe

Marine Board-ESF The Marine Board provides a pan-European platform for its member organisations to develop common priorities, to advance marine research, and to bridge the gap between science and policy in order to meet future marine science challenges and opportunities. The Marine Board was established in 1995 to facilitate enhanced cooperation between European marine science organisations (both research institutes and research funding agencies) towards the development of a common vision on the research priorities and strategies for marine science in Europe. In 2010, the Marine Board represents 30 Member Organisations from 19 countries. The Marine Board provides the essential components for transferring knowledge for leadership in marine research in Europe. Adopting a strategic role, the Marine Board serves its Member Organisations by providing a forum within which marine research policy advice to national agencies and to the European Commission is developed, with the objective of promoting the establishment of the European Marine Research Area

Methicillin-resistant and methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus from Vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus) in Saint Kitts

Antimicrobial resistance has been described in all ecosystems, including wildlife. Here we investigated the presence of methicillin-resistant and susceptible staphylococci in both colony-born and wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus sabaeus). Through selective isolation, PCR, MALDI-TOF, and whole-genome sequencing, methicillin-resistant and susceptible Staphylococcus spp. isolated from vervet monkeys were characterized. We obtained putatively methicillin-resistant staphylococci from 29 of the 34 nasal samples collected. Strains were identified by MALDI-TOF analysis. Staphylococcus cohnii (n = 15) was the most commonly isolated species, while nine other species were isolated one or two times. PCR analysis indicated that eight [28%] strains were mecA positive. The whole-genome sequencing [WGS] included eight methicillin-resistant strains (S. epidermidis (n = 2), S. cohnii (n = 3), S. arlettae (n = 2) and S. hominis (n = 1)), nine additional S. cohnii strains and two strains that could not be identified by MALDI-TOF, but genetically characterized as one S. cohnii and one S. warneri. Different resistance genes carried by different mobile genetic elements, mainly blaZ (n = 10) and tet(K) (n = 5) were found, while msr(A), cat, fosB, dfrG, erm(C), mph(C) and str were identified in one to three strains. Phylogenetic analysis of the S. cohnii strains based on SNPs indicated four clusters associated with colony born or wild. In addition, one singleton S. cohnii isolated did not form a separate group and clustered within other S. cohnii strains submitted to the NCBI. In this study, we demonstrated the presence of AMR and mobile genetic elements to both colony-born and wild vervet monkeys. We also identified a previously undescribed prevalence of S. cohnii in the nasal flora of these monkeys, which merits further investigation

The European flagship of marine sciences for a sustainable future

Marine Genomics Europe brings genomics into marine biology. It will strengthen and integrate the community of marine biologists forstructuring the European Research Area (ERA). Marine scientists in Europe summarize their successes with genome technologies in the marine sciences and make a plea for a concerted international effort to raise greater public education for support

Toward systems biology in brown algae to explore acclimation and adaptation to the shore environment.

International audienceBrown algae belong to a phylogenetic lineage distantly related to land plants and animals. They are almost exclusively found in the intertidal zone, a harsh and frequently changing environment where organisms are submitted to marine and terrestrial constraints. In relation with their unique evolutionary history and their habitat, they feature several peculiarities, including at the level of their primary and secondary metabolism. The establishment of Ectocarpus siliculosus as a model organism for brown algae has represented a framework in which several omics techniques have been developed, in particular, to study the response of these organisms to abiotic stresses. With the recent publication of medium to high throughput profiling data, it is now possible to envision integrating observations at the cellular scale to apply systems biology approaches. As a first step, we propose a protocol focusing on integrating heterogeneous knowledge gained on brown algal metabolism. The resulting abstraction of the system will then help understanding how brown algae cope with changes in abiotic parameters within their unique habitat, and to decipher some of the mechanisms underlying their (1) acclimation and (2) adaptation, respectively consequences of (1) the behavior or (2) the topology of the system resulting from the integrative approach

Increase of the mean inner Coulomb potential in Au clusters induced by surface tension and its implication for electron scattering

Electron holography in a transmission electron microscope was applied to measure the phase shift induced by Au clusters as a function of the cluster size. Large phase shifts Df observed for small Au clusters cannot be described by the well-known equation Df=C_E V_0 t (C_E: interaction constant, V_0: mean inner Coulomb potential (MIP) of bulk gold, t: cluster thickness). The rapid increase of the Au MIP with decreasing cluster size derived from Df, can be explained by the compressive strain of surface atoms in the cluster