A comparative study of two formal semantics of the SIGNAL language

International audienceSIGNAL is a part of the synchronous languages family, which are broadly used in the design of safety-critical real-time systems such as avionics, space systems, and nuclear power plants. There exist several semantics for SIGNAL, such as denotational semantics based on traces (called trace semantics), denotational semantics based on tags (called tagged model semantics), operational semantics presented by structural style through an inductive definition of the set of possible transitions, operational semantics defined by synchronous transition systems (STS), etc. However, there is little research about the equivalence between these semantics.In this work, we would like to prove the equivalence between the trace semantics and the tagged model semantics, to get a determined and precise semantics of the SIGNAL language. These two semantics have several different definitions respectively, we select appropriate ones and mechanize them in the Coq platform, the Coq expressions of the abstract syntax of SIGNAL and the two semantics domains, i.e., the trace model and the tagged model, are also given. The distance between these two semantics discourages a direct proof of equivalence. Instead, we transformthem to an intermediate model, which mixes the features of both the trace semantics and the tagged model semantics. Finally, we get a determined and precise semantics of SIGNAL

Modified (PNA, 2'-O-methyl and phosphoramidate) anti-TAR antisense oligonucleotides as strong and specific inhibitors of in vitro HIV-1 reverse transcription.

Natural beta-phosphodiester 16mer and 15mer antisense oligonucleotides targeted against the HIV-1 and HIV-2 TAR RNAs respectively were previously described as sequence-specific inhibitors of in vitro retroviral reverse transcription. In this work, we tested chemically modified oligonucleotide analogues: alpha-phosphodiester, phosphorothioate, methylphosphonate, peptide nucleic acid or PNA, 2'- o -methyl and (N3'-P5') phosphoramidate versions of the 16mer anti-TAR oligonucleotide. PNA, 2'- O -methyl and (N3'-P5') phosphoramidate oligomers showed a strong inhibitory effect compared with the unmodified 16mer, with reverse transcription inhibition (IC50) values in the nanomolar range. The inhibition was sequence-specific, as scrambled and mismatched control oligonucleotides were not able to inhibit cDNA synthesis. No direct binding of the 2'- O -methyl, PNA or (N3'-P5') phosphoramidate anti-TAR oligonucleotides to the HIV-1 reverse transcriptase was observed. The higher T m obtained with 2'- O -methyl, (N3'-P5') phosphoramidate and PNA molecules concerning the annealing with the stem-loop structure of the TAR RNA, in comparison with the beta-phosphodiester oligonucleotides, is correlated with their high inhibitory effect on reverse transcription