Towards a Formalism-Based Toolkit for Automotive Applications

The success of a number of projects has been shown to be significantly improved by the use of a formalism. However, there remains an open issue: to what extent can a development process based on a singular formal notation and method succeed. The majority of approaches demonstrate a low level of flexibility by attempting to use a single notation to express all of the different aspects encountered in software development. Often, these approaches leave a number of scalability issues open. We prefer a more eclectic approach. In our experience, the use of a formalism-based toolkit with adequate notations for each development phase is a viable solution. Following this principle, any specific notation is used only where and when it is really suitable and not necessarily over the entire software lifecycle. The approach explored in this article is perhaps slowly emerging in practice - we hope to accelerate its adoption. However, the major challenge is still finding the best way to instantiate it for each specific application scenario. In this work, we describe a development process and method for automotive applications which consists of five phases. The process recognizes the need for having adequate (and tailored) notations (Problem Frames, Requirements State Machine Language, and Event-B) for each development phase as well as direct traceability between the documents produced during each phase. This allows for a stepwise verification/validation of the system under development. The ideas for the formal development method have evolved over two significant case studies carried out in the DEPLOY project

Steatosis and liver cancer in transgenic mice expressing the structural and nonstructural proteins of hepatitis C virus

Background and Aims: The aim of this study was to determine whether expression of hepatitis C virus proteins alters hepatic morphology or function in the absence of inflammation. Methods: Transgenic C57BL/6 mice with liver-specific expression of RNA encoding the complete viral polyprotein (FL-N transgene) or viral structural proteins (S-N transgene) were compared with nontransgenic littermates for altered liver morphology and function. Results: FL-N transcripts were detectable only by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, and S-N transcripts were identified in Northern blots. The abundance of viral proteins was sufficient for detection only in S-N transgenic animals. There was no inflammation in transgenic livers, but mice expressing either transgene developed age-related hepatic steatosis that was more severe in males. Apoptotic or proliferating hepatocytes were not significantly increased. Hepatocellular adenoma or carcinoma developed in older male animals expressing either transgene, but their incidence reached statistical significance only in FL-N animals. Neither was ever observed in age-matched nontransgenic mice. Conclusions: Constitutive expression of viral proteins leads to common pathologic features of hepatitis C in the absence of specific anti-viral immune responses. Expression of the structural proteins enhances a low background of steatosis in C57BL/6 mice, while additional low level expression of nonstructural proteins increases the risk of cancer