Economic game theory to model the attenuation of virulence of an obligate intracellular bacterium

Diseases induced by obligate intracellular pathogens have a large burden on global human and animal health. Understanding the factors involved in the virulence and fitness of these pathogens contributes to the development of control strategies against these diseases. Based on biological observations, a theoretical model using game theory is proposed to explain how obligate intracellular bacteria interact with their host. The equilibrium in such a game shows that the virulence and fitness of the bacterium is host-triggered and by changing the host's defense system to which the bacterium is confronted, an evolutionary process leads to an attenuated strain. Although, the attenuation procedure has already been conducted in practice in order to develop an attenuated vaccine (e.g., with Ehrlichia ruminantium), there was a lack of understanding of the theoretical basis behind this process. Our work provides a model to better comprehend the existence of different phenotypes and some underlying evolutionary mechanisms for the virulence of obligate intracellular bacteria. (Résumé d'auteur

Targeted Attacks: Redefining Spear Phishing and Business Email Compromise

In today's digital world, cybercrime is responsible for significant damage to organizations, including financial losses, operational disruptions, or intellectual property theft. Cyberattacks often start with an email, the major means of corporate communication. Some rare, severely damaging email threats - known as spear phishing or Business Email Compromise - have emerged. However, the literature disagrees on their definition, impeding security vendors and researchers from mitigating targeted attacks. Therefore, we introduce targeted attacks. We describe targeted-attack-detection techniques as well as social-engineering methods used by fraudsters. Additionally, we present text-based attacks - with textual content as malicious payload - and compare non-targeted and targeted variants

First attempt to motion corrected flow encoding using free-breathing phase-contrast CINE MRI

International audienceThis study demonstrates the feasibility of free-breathing phase-contrast CINE MRI without averaging. A new version of the CINE GRICS algorithm[1] was used to correct for motion

Recovery of succinic acid in fermentation broth via reactive LL extraction: effect of chemical kinetics and solvent choice

In this paper, a study of kinetics effects on the reactive liquid-liquid extraction column is proposed. In a first part, design parameters of reactive liquid-liquid extraction column are derived from a method proposed by Mizzi (2016). In a second part, using a kinetic model, the performances of the column are studied with different configuration and design parameters. This study allows a comparison of the performances of the column in terms of conversion rate, recovery rate and purity. For the chosen examples, the kinetic limitation is very strong. So the unit operations of reactive liquid-liquid extraction with a high retention capacity will be privileged: a cascade of decanter mixers. In conclusion, this article shows that the choice of solvent and the parameters of the column as the solvent flowrate, the number of theoretical stage, liquid hold up or kinetics of the reaction have an important influence on the performances of the column and sometimes on the feasibility of the separation

Solid-liquid exchange between uranium and a synthetic apatite: towards uranium decorporation from bone matrix

Natural uranium exhibits chemical toxicity, especially known with its acute effects on kidney. Simultaneously, it has been proved that uranium accumulates in bones during long-term exposure[1] but its chronical effects on bones are not clear. Particularly the mechanisms associated to accumulation into and release from bones are unknown, which is key to design and test decorporation reagents in future. Bone is a complicated organ, composed of mineralized apatite and organic compounds (mostly type I collagen). Our work is dedicated to the understanding of how uranium is accumulated in the inorganic bone matrix through chemical pathways, and what factors influence the solid/liquid equilibrium between uranium and the bone. To fulfil this goal, apatite materials which mimic bone apatite have been synthesized, with and without uranium. Such apatite materials have been pre-equilibrated with a fluid mimicking blood plasma at physiological pH=7.4