A Fault Analytic Method against HB+

The search for lightweight authentication protocols suitable for low-cost RFID tags constitutes an active and challenging research area. In this context, a family of protocols based on the LPN problem has been proposed: the so-called HB-family. Despite the rich literature regarding the cryptanalysis of these protocols, there are no published results about the impact of fault analysis over them. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by presenting a fault analytic method against a prominent member of the HB-family: HB+ protocol. We demonstrate that the fault analysis model can lead to a flexible and effective attack against HB-like protocols, posing a serious threat over them

HOPX homeobox methylation in differentiated thyroid cancer and its clinical relevance

Background: The inactivation of the tumor-suppressor homeodomain-only protein X (HOPX) usually involves promoter methylation in several cancer types. This study aimed to investigate the HOPX-β mRNA expression and promoter methylation and their clinical relevance in differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). Patients and methods: Clinicopathological data and paraffin-embedded thyroid tumor tissues from 21 patients with DTC and 6 with benign tumors (T) and their non-tumor parenchyma (NT) were investigated. Tumor cell lines (FTC238, FTC236 and WRO) were treated with demethylating agent. HOPX-β mRNA expression was assessed by qRT-PCR and methylation status by Q-MSP. Thyroid cancer data from Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) was also collected. Results: HOPX-β mRNA re-expression in two cell lines treated with demethylating agent was observed concomitantly with reduced promoter methylation. Reduced mRNA expression in T group compared to their NT was observed, and reduced protein expression in T compared to NT was observed in three cases. Low mRNA expression with high methylation status was detected in 6/14 DTC samples. High methylation status was associated with older age at diagnosis, recurrent or progressive disease and with the presence of new neoplasm event post initial therapy while hyper-methylation correlated with worse overall survival, worse disease-free status and older age. Conclusion: A moderate coupling of downregulation of HOPX-β mRNA expression in DTC followed by high HOPX-β promoter methylation was observed however; high HOPX promoter methylation status was associated with the worse prognosis of DTC patients

A list of land plants of Parque Nacional do Caparaó, Brazil, highlights the presence of sampling gaps within this protected area

Brazilian protected areas are essential for plant conservation in the Atlantic Forest domain, one of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots. A major challenge for improving conservation actions is to know the plant richness, protected by these areas. Online databases offer an accessible way to build plant species lists and to provide relevant information about biodiversity. A list of land plants of “Parque Nacional do Caparaó” (PNC) was previously built using online databases and published on the website "Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil." Here, we provide and discuss additional information about plant species richness, endemism and conservation in the PNC that could not be included in the List. We documented 1,791 species of land plants as occurring in PNC, of which 63 are cited as threatened (CR, EN or VU) by the Brazilian National Red List, seven as data deficient (DD) and five as priorities for conservation. Fifity-one species were possible new ocurrences for ES and MG states

Criptoanálise de protocolos direcionados a dispositivos de baixo poder computacional

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Tecnologia, Departamento de Engenharia Elétrica, 2009.O uso de dispositivos que geram comunicação sem contato, possibilitando identificação por rádio frequência, como os RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), tem avançado bastante em todo o mundo por permitirem transações rápidas, serem duráveis, de fácil manuseio e seu preço estar em queda. Por estes motivos o RFID, que é utilizado principalmente como um meio para identificação, aos poucos tem substituído sistemas como o de Código de Barras. Além disso, a tecnologia RFID está sendo utilizada também para validação dos mais diversos documentos como passaportes e passes pessoais, para rastreamento de carnes e de produtos oriundos das indústrias em geral. Este mercado em ascensão tem gerado a necessidade de criação e análise de algoritmos e de protocolos criptográficos direcionados a estes dispositivos, notórios pelo seu baixo poder computacional. Vários protocolos têm sido criados, porém muito poucos diferentes métodos de ataques têm sido propostos. Com esta preocupação quanto a importância destes sistemas e também com a privacidade dos usuários, nós analisamos e criamos várias novas técnicas de ataques a alguns desses protocolos e algoritmos direcionados a dispositivos de baixo poder de processamento. Este trabalho apresenta nove resultados referentes a ataques criptoanalíticos que criamos para protocolos direcionados a esses dispositivos. Um dos resultados corresponde a um ataque passivo e probabilístico ao protocolo HB, extensivo aos protocolos HB+, HB++, HB#s e HB*, onde obtivemos resultados bastante eficientes, na maioria dos casos melhores do que todos aqueles já apresentados na literatura, como o método BKW [12] e o método otimizado de Fossorier et al. [22]. Uma outra linha de nossa pesquisa que desenvolvemos e obtivemos resultados bastante expressivos foi a de criação de métodos de criptoanálise utilizando-se de ataques por falha aos protocolos HB, HB+, HB# e Random-HB#, sendo extensivos ao protocolos HB++ e HB*. Nós também desenvolvemos linhas de pesquisa referentes a criação de métodos de ataques, um ativo e um passivo, a protocolos baseados no problema da soma de k mínimos, assim como criamos métodos de ataques, um ativo e um passivo, ao protocolo HB-MP. Por fim, criamos também um método de ataque ativo ao algoritmo simétrico baseado em autômata celular, regra 30, possibilitando a recuperação de toda a chave utilizada. __________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTRadio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) are gradually becoming a common part of our daily lives. Initially thought as an improved substitute to bar-code based identification systems, they are now being used for identifying valid passports, counterfeit gods and for tracking animals. RFID based systems are mostly used for providing efficient identification. It is, thus, essential to ensure that they are resistant against attacks performed by malicious users attempting to impersonate a legal user. This task, known as the identification problem, is well known in cryptography. However, the classical solutions usually cannot be applied to the RFID environment, due to the lack of computational power and restrictions to bandwidth and battery consumption. Thus, one has to design solutions suitable to this tightly restricted environment and analyze their proposed security . This thesis analyzes several cryptographic protocols (mostly identification protocols) proposed for computational devices with low computational power. More specifically, we design several novel attacks against the family of protocols HB, against identification protocols based on the hardness of the sum of k mins problems and against a stream cipher based on cellular automata. Our results significantly improve over previous published attacks. Moreover, we introduce, to the best of our knowledge, the first fault based attacks againt RFID identification protocols

Floristic survey of vascular plants of a poorly known area in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest (Flona do Rio Preto, Espírito Santo)

The Atlantic Forest is one of the most threatened biomes in the world. Despite that, this biome still includes many areas that are poorly known floristically, including several protected areas, such as the "Floresta Nacional do Rio Preto" ("Flona do Rio Preto"), located in the Brazilian State of Espírito Santo. This study used a published vascular plant species list for this protected area from the "Catálogo de Plantas das Unidades de Conservação do Brasil" as the basis to synthesise the species richness, endemism, conservation and new species occurrences found in the "Flona do Rio Preto".The published list of vascular plants was based on field expeditions conducted between 2018 and 2020 and data obtained from herbarium collections available in online databases. Overall, 722 species were documented for the "Flona do Rio Preto", 711 of which are native to Brazil and 349 are endemic to the Atlantic Forest. In addition, 60 species are geographically disjunct between the Atlantic and the Amazon Forests. Most of the documented species are woody and more than 50% of these are trees. Twenty-three species are threatened (CR, EN and VU), while five are Data Deficient (DD). Thirty-two species are new records for the State of Espírito Santo. Our results expand the knowledge of the flora of the Atlantic Forest and provide support for the development of new conservation policies for this protected area

The database of the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems) project

The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used this evidence base to develop global and regional statistical models of how local biodiversity responds to these measures. We describe and make freely available this 2016 release of the database, containing more than 3.2 million records sampled at over 26,000 locations and representing over 47,000 species. We outline how the database can help in answering a range of questions in ecology and conservation biology. To our knowledge, this is the largest and most geographically and taxonomically representative database of spatial comparisons of biodiversity that has been collated to date; it will be useful to researchers and international efforts wishing to model and understand the global status of biodiversity

Brazilian Flora 2020: Leveraging the power of a collaborative scientific network

International audienceThe shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxonomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impediment and the biodiversity crisis are widely recognized, highlighting the urgent need for reliable taxonomic data. Over the past decade, numerous countries worldwide have devoted considerable effort to Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which called for the preparation of a working list of all known plant species by 2010 and an online world Flora by 2020. Brazil is a megadiverse country, home to more of the world's known plant species than any other country. Despite that, Flora Brasiliensis, concluded in 1906, was the last comprehensive treatment of the Brazilian flora. The lack of accurate estimates of the number of species of algae, fungi, and plants occurring in Brazil contributes to the prevailing taxonomic impediment and delays progress towards the GSPC targets. Over the past 12 years, a legion of taxonomists motivated to meet Target 1 of the GSPC, worked together to gather and integrate knowledge on the algal, plant, and fungal diversity of Brazil. Overall, a team of about 980 taxonomists joined efforts in a highly collaborative project that used cybertaxonomy to prepare an updated Flora of Brazil, showing the power of scientific collaboration to reach ambitious goals. This paper presents an overview of the Brazilian Flora 2020 and provides taxonomic and spatial updates on the algae, fungi, and plants found in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. We further identify collection gaps and summarize future goals that extend beyond 2020. Our results show that Brazil is home to 46,975 native species of algae, fungi, and plants, of which 19,669 are endemic to the country. The data compiled to date suggests that the Atlantic Rainforest might be the most diverse Brazilian domain for all plant groups except gymnosperms, which are most diverse in the Amazon. However, scientific knowledge of Brazilian diversity is still unequally distributed, with the Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado being the most intensively sampled and studied biomes in the country. In times of “scientific reductionism”, with botanical and mycological sciences suffering pervasive depreciation in recent decades, the first online Flora of Brazil 2020 significantly enhanced the quality and quantity of taxonomic data available for algae, fungi, and plants from Brazil. This project also made all the information freely available online, providing a firm foundation for future research and for the management, conservation, and sustainable use of the Brazilian funga and flora