397 research outputs found
Formal Verification of Nonlinear Inequalities with Taylor Interval Approximations
We present a formal tool for verification of multivariate nonlinear
inequalities. Our verification method is based on interval arithmetic with
Taylor approximations. Our tool is implemented in the HOL Light proof assistant
and it is capable to verify multivariate nonlinear polynomial and
non-polynomial inequalities on rectangular domains. One of the main features of
our work is an efficient implementation of the verification procedure which can
prove non-trivial high-dimensional inequalities in several seconds. We
developed the verification tool as a part of the Flyspeck project (a formal
proof of the Kepler conjecture). The Flyspeck project includes about 1000
nonlinear inequalities. We successfully tested our method on more than 100
Flyspeck inequalities and estimated that the formal verification procedure is
about 3000 times slower than an informal verification method implemented in
C++. We also describe future work and prospective optimizations for our method.Comment: 15 page
Le traitement de l'haemonchose et de l'oesophagostomose ovines par les agents tensio-actifs (alkylsulfates de soude)
Aucun résumé disponible en français
Mise au point d'un nouveau procédé de lutte anthelminthique : utilisation d'agents tensio-actifs (alkylsulfate de sodium) dans le traitement de la gastrothylose bovine à Madagascar
Aucun résumé disponible en français
Electrochemical deprotonation of phosphate on stainless steel
Voltammetric experiments performed in phosphate buffer at constant pH 8.0 on platinum and stainless steel revealed clear reduction
currents, which were correlated to the concentrations of phosphate. On the basis of the reactions proposed previously, a model was elaborated,
assuming that both H2PO4 and HPO4
2 underwent cathodic deprotonation, and including the acidâbase equilibriums. A kinetic model was
derived by analogy with the equations generally used for hydrogen evolution. Numerical fitting of the experimental data confirmed that the
phosphate species may act as an efficient catalyst of hydrogen evolution via electrochemical deprotonation. This reaction may introduce an
unexpected reversible pathway of hydrogen formation in the mechanisms of anaerobic corrosion. The possible new insights offered by the
electrochemical deprotonation of phosphate in microbially influenced corrosion was finally discussed
Proving Tight Bounds on Univariate Expressions with Elementary Functions in Coq
International audienceThe verification of floating-point mathematical libraries requires computing numerical bounds on approximation errors. Due to the tightness of these bounds and the peculiar structure of approximation errors, such a verification is out of the reach of generic tools such as computer algebra systems. In fact, the inherent difficulty of computing such bounds often mandates a formal proof of them. In this paper, we present a tactic for the Coq proof assistant that is designed to automatically and formally prove bounds on univariate expressions. It is based on a formalization of floating-point and interval arithmetic, associated with an on-the-fly computation of Taylor expansions. All the computations are performed inside Coq's logic, in a reflexive setting. This paper also compares our tactic with various existing tools on a large set of examples
Vancomycin-induced Henoch-Schönlein purpura: a case report
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Henoch-Schönlein purpura is a small-vessel systemic vasculitis. Although its exact pathophysiology remains unknown, Henoch-Schönlein purpura has been reported in association with various medical conditions including hypersensitivity. We report the case of a patient with vancomycin-induced Henoch-Schönlein purpura.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 42-year-old Caucasian man who had previously undergone a heart transplant was diagnosed as having an intra-abdominal abscess after he underwent a Hartmann procedure. At 15 days after initiation of antibiotic therapy including vancomycin, he developed a purpuric rash of the lower limbs, arthralgia, and macroscopic hematuria. At that time, our patient was already on hemodialysis for end-stage renal disease. Henoch-Schönlein purpura was diagnosed. After a second 15-day course of vancomycin, a second flare of Henoch-Schönlein purpura occurred. Skin biopsies showed leucocytoclastic vasculitis with IgA deposits and eosinophils in the peri-capillary inflammatory infiltrate, suggesting an allergic mechanism. After vancomycin was stopped, we did not observe any further flares. Only five cases of isolated cutaneous vasculitis, one case of lupus-like syndrome and one case of Henoch-Schönlein purpura after vancomycin treatment have been described to date in the literature.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Clinicians should be aware that systemic vasculitis can be induced by some treatments. Vancomycin is a widely prescribed antibiotic. Occurrence of rare but serious Henoch-Schönlein purpura associated with vancomycin requires its prompt discontinuation.</p
Polynomial function intervals for floating-point software verification
The focus of our work is the verification of tight functional properties of numerical programs, such as showing that a floating-point implementation of Riemann integration computes a close approximation of the exact integral. Programmers and engineers writing such programs will benefit from verification tools that support an expressive specification language and that are highly automated. Our work provides a new method for verification of numerical software, supporting a substantially more expressive language for specifications than other publicly available automated tools. The additional expressivity in the specification language is provided by two constructs. First, the specification can feature inclusions between interval arithmetic expressions. Second, the integral operator from classical analysis can be used in the specifications, where the integration bounds can be arbitrary expressions over real variables. To support our claim of expressivity, we outline the verification of four example programs, including the integration example mentioned earlier. A key component of our method is an algorithm for proving numerical theorems. This algorithm is based on automatic polynomial approximation of non-linear real and real-interval functions defined by expressions. The PolyPaver tool is our implementation of the algorithm and its source code is publicly available. In this paper we report on experiments using PolyPaver that indicate that the additional expressivity does not come at a performance cost when comparing with other publicly available state-of-the-art provers. We also include a scalability study that explores the limits of PolyPaver in proving tight functional specifications of progressively larger randomly generated programs
Influences of Excluded Volume of Molecules on Signaling Processes on Biomembrane
We investigate the influences of the excluded volume of molecules on
biochemical reaction processes on 2-dimensional surfaces using a model of
signal transduction processes on biomembranes. We perform simulations of the
2-dimensional cell-based model, which describes the reactions and diffusion of
the receptors, signaling proteins, target proteins, and crowders on the cell
membrane. The signaling proteins are activated by receptors, and these
activated signaling proteins activate target proteins that bind autonomously
from the cytoplasm to the membrane, and unbind from the membrane if activated.
If the target proteins bind frequently, the volume fraction of molecules on the
membrane becomes so large that the excluded volume of the molecules for the
reaction and diffusion dynamics cannot be negligible. We find that such
excluded volume effects of the molecules induce non-trivial variations of the
signal flow, defined as the activation frequency of target proteins, as
follows. With an increase in the binding rate of target proteins, the signal
flow varies by i) monotonically increasing; ii) increasing then decreasing in a
bell-shaped curve; or iii) increasing, decreasing, then increasing in an
S-shaped curve. We further demonstrate that the excluded volume of molecules
influences the hierarchical molecular distributions throughout the reaction
processes. In particular, when the system exhibits a large signal flow, the
signaling proteins tend to surround the receptors to form receptor-signaling
protein clusters, and the target proteins tend to become distributed around
such clusters. To explain these phenomena, we analyze the stochastic model of
the local motions of molecules around the receptor.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figure
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