204 research outputs found
Optimal Strategies in Infinite-state Stochastic Reachability Games
We consider perfect-information reachability stochastic games for 2 players
on infinite graphs. We identify a subclass of such games, and prove two
interesting properties of it: first, Player Max always has optimal strategies
in games from this subclass, and second, these games are strongly determined.
The subclass is defined by the property that the set of all values can only
have one accumulation point -- 0. Our results nicely mirror recent results for
finitely-branching games, where, on the contrary, Player Min always has optimal
strategies. However, our proof methods are substantially different, because the
roles of the players are not symmetric. We also do not restrict the branching
of the games. Finally, we apply our results in the context of recently studied
One-Counter stochastic games
New results on pushdown module checking with imperfect information
Model checking of open pushdown systems (OPD) w.r.t. standard branching
temporal logics (pushdown module checking or PMC) has been recently
investigated in the literature, both in the context of environments with
perfect and imperfect information about the system (in the last case, the
environment has only a partial view of the system's control states and stack
content). For standard CTL, PMC with imperfect information is known to be
undecidable. If the stack content is assumed to be visible, then the problem is
decidable and 2EXPTIME-complete (matching the complexity of PMC with perfect
information against CTL). The decidability status of PMC with imperfect
information against CTL restricted to the case where the depth of the stack
content is visible is open. In this paper, we show that with this restriction,
PMC with imperfect information against CTL remains undecidable. On the other
hand, we individuate an interesting subclass of OPDS with visible stack content
depth such that PMC with imperfect information against the existential fragment
of CTL is decidable and in 2EXPTIME. Moreover, we show that the program
complexity of PMC with imperfect information and visible stack content against
CTL is 2EXPTIME-complete (hence, exponentially harder than the program
complexity of PMC with perfect information, which is known to be
EXPTIME-complete).Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2011, arXiv:1106.081
Development of minimal fermentation media supplementation for ethanol production using two Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains
Ethanol production by fermentation is strongly dependent on media composition. Specific nutrients, such as trace elements, vitamins and nitrogen will affect the physiological state and, consequently, the fermentation performance of the micro-organism employed. The purpose of this study has been to assess the highest ethanol production by a minimal medium, instead of the more complex nutrients supplementation used during alcoholic fermentation. All fermentation tests were carried out using a microwell plate reader to monitor the processes. Two Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains (NCYC 2826 and NCYC 3445) were tested using three nitrogen sources, supplied with different vitamin and salts. The results show that solutions made of urea phosphate, KCl, MgSO4·7H2O, Ca-panthothenate, biotin allowed an ethanol yield of 22.9 and 23.4 g/L for strain NCYC 2826 and NCYC 3445, respectively, representing 90 and 92% of the theoretical yield. All tests were carried out using glucose as common reference carbon source
Synthesis from Recursive-Components Libraries
Synthesis is the automatic construction of a system from its specification.
In classical synthesis algorithms it is always assumed that the system is
"constructed from scratch" rather than composed from reusable components. This,
of course, rarely happens in real life. In real life, almost every non-trivial
commercial software system relies heavily on using libraries of reusable
components. Furthermore, other contexts, such as web-service orchestration, can
be modeled as synthesis of a system from a library of components.
In 2009 we introduced LTL synthesis from libraries of reusable components.
Here, we extend the work and study synthesis from component libraries with
"call and return"' control flow structure. Such control-flow structure is very
common in software systems. We define the problem of Nested-Words Temporal
Logic (NWTL) synthesis from recursive component libraries, where NWTL is a
specification formalism, richer than LTL, that is suitable for "call and
return" computations. We solve the problem, providing a synthesis algorithm,
and show the problem is 2EXPTIME-complete, as standard synthesis.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2011, arXiv:1106.081
Towards Efficient Exact Synthesis for Linear Hybrid Systems
We study the problem of automatically computing the controllable region of a
Linear Hybrid Automaton, with respect to a safety objective. We describe the
techniques that are needed to effectively and efficiently implement a
recently-proposed solution procedure, based on polyhedral abstractions of the
state space. Supporting experimental results are presented, based on an
implementation of the proposed techniques on top of the tool PHAVer.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2011, arXiv:1106.081
The predictive and prognostic potential of plasma telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) RNA in rectal cancer patients
Background: Preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) followed by surgery is the standard care for locally advanced rectal cancer,
but tumour response to CRT and disease outcome are variable. The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of plasma
telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) levels in predicting tumour response and clinical outcome.
Methods: 176 rectal cancer patients were included. Plasma samples were collected at baseline (before CRT\ubcT0), 2 weeks after
CRT was initiated (T1), post-CRT and before surgery (T2), and 4\u20138 months after surgery (T3) time points. Plasma TERT mRNA levels
and total cell-free RNA were determined using real-time PCR.
Results: Plasma levels of TERT were significantly lower at T2 (Po0.0001) in responders than in non-responders. Post-CRT TERT
levels and the differences between pre- and post-CRT TERT levels independently predicted tumour response, and the prediction
model had an area under curve of 0.80 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.73\u20130.87). Multiple analysis demonstrated that patients with
detectable TERT levels at T2 and T3 time points had a risk of disease progression 2.13 (95% CI 1.10\u20134.11)-fold and 4.55 (95% CI
1.48\u201313.95)-fold higher, respectively, than those with undetectable plasma TERT levels.
Conclusions: Plasma TERT levels are independent markers of tumour response and are prognostic of disease progression in rectal
cancer patients who undergo neoadjuvant therapy
Improving BDD Based Symbolic Model Checking with Isomorphism Exploiting Transition Relations
Symbolic model checking by using BDDs has greatly improved the applicability
of model checking. Nevertheless, BDD based symbolic model checking can still be
very memory and time consuming. One main reason is the complex transition
relation of systems. Sometimes, it is even not possible to generate the
transition relation, due to its exhaustive memory requirements. To diminish
this problem, the use of partitioned transition relations has been proposed.
However, there are still systems which can not be verified at all. Furthermore,
if the granularity of the partitions is too fine, the time required for
verification may increase. In this paper we target the symbolic verification of
asynchronous concurrent systems. For such systems we present an approach which
uses similarities in the transition relation to get further memory reductions
and runtime improvements. By applying our approach, even the verification of
systems with an previously intractable transition relation becomes feasible.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2011, arXiv:1106.081
Correlates of HCV seropositivity among familial contacts of HCV positive patients
BACKGROUND: Determinants of intrafamilial HCV transmission are still being debated. The aim of this study is to investigate the correlates of HCV seropositivity among familial contacts of HCV positive patients in Italy. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 175 HCV positive patients (index cases), recruited from Policlinico Gemelli in Rome as well as other hospitals in Central Italy between 1995 and 2000 (40% female, mean age 57 ± 15.2 years), and 259 familial contacts. Differences in proportions of qualitative variables were tested with non-parametric tests (χ(2), Yates correction, Fisher exact test), and a p value < 0.05 was considered significant. A multivariate analysis was conducted using logistic regression in order to verify which variables statistically have an influence on HCV positivity in contact individuals. RESULTS: Seropositivity for HCV was found in 8.9% of the contacts. From the univariate analysis, risk factors significantly associated to HCV positivity in the contacts were: intravenous drug addiction (p = 0.004) and intercourse with drug addicts (p = 0.005). The only variables associated significantly and independently to HCV seropositivity in patients' contacts were intercourse with drug addicts (OR = 19.28; 95% CI: 2.01 – 184.94), the retirement status from work (OR = 3.76; 95% CI: 1.17 – 11.98), the time of the relationship (OR = 1.06; 95% CI: 1.00 – 1.11) and tattoos (OR = 7.68; 95% CI: 1.00 – 60.20). CONCLUSION: The present study confirms that having intercourse with a drug addict is the most significant risk factor for intrafamilial HCV transmission. The association with retirement status from work could be related to both a long-term relationship with an index case and past exposure to common risk factors
A Game-Theoretic approach to Fault Diagnosis of Hybrid Systems
Physical systems can fail. For this reason the problem of identifying and
reacting to faults has received a large attention in the control and computer
science communities. In this paper we study the fault diagnosis problem for
hybrid systems from a game-theoretical point of view. A hybrid system is a
system mixing continuous and discrete behaviours that cannot be faithfully
modeled neither by using a formalism with continuous dynamics only nor by a
formalism including only discrete dynamics. We use the well known framework of
hybrid automata for modeling hybrid systems, and we define a Fault Diagnosis
Game on them, using two players: the environment and the diagnoser. The
environment controls the evolution of the system and chooses whether and when a
fault occurs. The diagnoser observes the external behaviour of the system and
announces whether a fault has occurred or not. Existence of a winning strategy
for the diagnoser implies that faults can be detected correctly, while
computing such a winning strategy corresponds to implement a diagnoser for the
system. We will show how to determine the existence of a winning strategy, and
how to compute it, for some decidable classes of hybrid automata like o-minimal
hybrid automata.Comment: In Proceedings GandALF 2011, arXiv:1106.081
Mortality and pulmonary complications in patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international cohort study
Background: The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on postoperative recovery needs to be understood to inform clinical decision making during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reports 30-day mortality and pulmonary complication rates in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: This international, multicentre, cohort study at 235 hospitals in 24 countries included all patients undergoing surgery who had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed within 7 days before or 30 days after surgery. The primary outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality and was assessed in all enrolled patients. The main secondary outcome measure was pulmonary complications, defined as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or unexpected postoperative ventilation. Findings: This analysis includes 1128 patients who had surgery between Jan 1 and March 31, 2020, of whom 835 (74·0%) had emergency surgery and 280 (24·8%) had elective surgery. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed preoperatively in 294 (26·1%) patients. 30-day mortality was 23·8% (268 of 1128). Pulmonary complications occurred in 577 (51·2%) of 1128 patients; 30-day mortality in these patients was 38·0% (219 of 577), accounting for 81·7% (219 of 268) of all deaths. In adjusted analyses, 30-day mortality was associated with male sex (odds ratio 1·75 [95% CI 1·28–2·40], p\textless0·0001), age 70 years or older versus younger than 70 years (2·30 [1·65–3·22], p\textless0·0001), American Society of Anesthesiologists grades 3–5 versus grades 1–2 (2·35 [1·57–3·53], p\textless0·0001), malignant versus benign or obstetric diagnosis (1·55 [1·01–2·39], p=0·046), emergency versus elective surgery (1·67 [1·06–2·63], p=0·026), and major versus minor surgery (1·52 [1·01–2·31], p=0·047). Interpretation: Postoperative pulmonary complications occur in half of patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection and are associated with high mortality. Thresholds for surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic should be higher than during normal practice, particularly in men aged 70 years and older. Consideration should be given for postponing non-urgent procedures and promoting non-operative treatment to delay or avoid the need for surgery. Funding: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, Bowel and Cancer Research, Bowel Disease Research Foundation, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, British Association of Surgical Oncology, British Gynaecological Cancer Society, European Society of Coloproctology, NIHR Academy, Sarcoma UK, Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland, and Yorkshire Cancer Research
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