Asynchronous Testing of Synchronous Components in GALS Systems

International audienceGALS (Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous) systems, such as the Internet of Things or autonomous cars, integrate reactive synchronous components that interact asynchronously. The complexity induced by combining synchronous and asynchronous aspects makes GALS systems difficult to develop and debug. Ensuring their functional correctness and reliability requires rigorous design methodologies, based on formal methods and assisted by validation tools. In this paper we propose a testing methodology for GALS systems integrating: (1) synchronous and asynchronous concurrent models; (2) functional unit testing and behavioral conformance testing; and (3) various formal methods and their tool equipments. We leverage the conformance test generation for asynchronous systems to automatically derive realistic scenarios (input constraints and oracle), which are necessary ingredients for the unit testing of individual synchronous components, and are difficult and error-prone to design manually. We illustrate our approach on a simple, but relevant example inspired by autonomous cars

Component-aware Input-Output Conformance

Part 1: Full PapersInternational audienceBlack-box conformance testing based on a compositional model of the intended behaviour is a very attractive approach to validate the correctness of an implementation. In this context, input-output conformance is a scientifically well-established formalisation of the testing process. This paper discusses peculiar problems arising in situations where the implementation is a monolithic black box, for instance for reasons of intellectual property restrictions, while the specification is compositional. In essence, tests need to be enabled to observe progress in individual specification-level components. For that, we will reconsider input-output conformance so that it can faithfully deal with such situations. Refined notions of quiescence play a central role in a proper treatment of the problem. We focus on the scenario of parallel components with fully asynchronous communication covering very many notorious practical examples. We finally illustrate the practical implications of component-aware conformance testing in the context of a prominent example, namely networked embedded software

TESTOR: A Modular Tool for On-the-Fly Conformance Test Case Generation

International audienceWe present TESTOR, a tool for on-the-fly conformance test case generation, guided by test purposes. Concretely, given a formal specification of a system and a test purpose, TESTOR automatically generates test cases, which assess using black box testing techniques the conformance to the specification of a system under test. In this context, a test purpose describes the goal states to be reached by the test and enables one to indicate parts of the specification that should be ignored during the testing process. Compared to the existing tool TGV, TESTOR has a more modular architecture, based on generic graph transformation components , is capable of extracting a test case completely on the fly, and enables a more flexible expression of test purposes, taking advantage of the multiway rendezvous. TESTOR has been implemented on top of the CADP verification toolbox, evaluated on three published case-studies and more than 10000 examples taken from the non-regression test suites of CADP

Multi-omics profiling identifies a deregulated FUS-MAP1B axis in ALS/FTD-associated UBQLN2 mutants

Ubiquilin-2 (UBQLN2) is a ubiquitin-binding protein that shuttles ubiquitinated proteins to proteasomal and autophagic degradation. UBQLN2 mutations are genetically linked to the neurodegenerative disorders amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia (ALS/FTD). However, it remains elusive how UBQLN2 mutations cause ALS/FTD. Here, we systematically examined proteomic and transcriptomic changes in patient-derived lymphoblasts and CRISPR/Cas9-engineered HeLa cells carrying ALS/FTD UBQLN2 mutations. This analysis revealed a strong up-regulation of the microtubule-associated protein 1B (MAP1B) which was also observed in UBQLN2 knockout cells and primary rodent neurons depleted of UBQLN2, suggesting that a UBQLN2 loss-of-function mechanism is responsible for the elevated MAP1B levels. Consistent with MAP1B's role in microtubule binding, we detected an increase in total and acetylated tubulin. Furthermore, we uncovered that UBQLN2 mutations result in decreased phosphorylation of MAP1B and of the ALS/FTD-linked fused in sarcoma (FUS) protein at S439 which is critical for regulating FUS-RNA binding and MAP1B protein abundance. Together, our findings point to a deregulated UBQLN2-FUS-MAP1B axis that may link protein homeostasis, RNA metabolism, and cytoskeleton dynamics, three molecular pathomechanisms of ALS/FTD