A First-Order Logic Semantics for Communication-Parametric BPMN Collaborations

International audienceBPMN is suitable to model not only intra-organization workflows but also inter-organization collaborations. There has been a great effort in providing a formal semantics for BPMN, and then in building verification tools on top of this semantics. However, communication aspects are often discarded in the literature. This is an issue since BPMN has gained interest outside its original scope, e.g., for the IoT, where the configuration of communication modes plays an important role. In this paper, we propose a formal semantics for a subset of BPMN, taking into account inter-process communication and parametric verification with reference to communication modes. As opposed to transformational approaches, that map BPMN into some formal model such as transition systems or Petri nets, we give a direct formalization in First-Order Logic that is then implemented in TLA + to enable formal verification. Our approach is tool supported. The tool, as well as the TLA + theories, and experiment models are available online

Phyto-polyphenols as potential inhibitors of breast cancer metastasis

Abstract Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women as metastasis is currently the main cause of mortality. Breast cancer cells undergoing metastasis acquire resistance to death signals and increase of cellular motility and invasiveness. Plants are rich in polyphenolic compounds, many of them with known medicinal effects. Various phyto-polyphenols have also been demonstrated to suppress cancer growth. Their mechanism of action is usually pleiotropic as they target multiple signaling pathways regulating key cellular processes such as proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation. Importantly, some phyto- polyphenols show low level of toxicity to untransformed cells, but selective suppressing effects on cancer cells proliferation and differentiation. In this review, we summarize the current information about the mechanism of action of some phyto-polyphenols that have demonstrated anti-carcinogenic activities in vitro and in vivo. Gained knowledge of how these natural polyphenolic compounds work can give us a clue for the development of novel anti-metastatic agents