An LTL Semantics of Business Workflows with Recovery

We describe a business workflow case study with abnormal behavior management (i.e. recovery) and demonstrate how temporal logics and model checking can provide a methodology to iteratively revise the design and obtain a correct-by construction system. To do so we define a formal semantics by giving a compilation of generic workflow patterns into LTL and we use the bound model checker Zot to prove specific properties and requirements validity. The working assumption is that such a lightweight approach would easily fit into processes that are already in place without the need for a radical change of procedures, tools and people's attitudes. The complexity of formalisms and invasiveness of methods have been demonstrated to be one of the major drawback and obstacle for deployment of formal engineering techniques into mundane projects

Non-null Infinitesimal Micro-steps: a Metric Temporal Logic Approach

Many systems include components interacting with each other that evolve with possibly very different speeds. To deal with this situation many formal models adopt the abstraction of "zero-time transitions", which do not consume time. These however have several drawbacks in terms of naturalness and logic consistency, as a system is modeled to be in different states at the same time. We propose a novel approach that exploits concepts from non-standard analysis to introduce a notion of micro- and macro-steps in an extension of the TRIO metric temporal logic, called X-TRIO. We use X-TRIO to provide a formal semantics and an automated verification technique to Stateflow-like notations used in the design of flexible manufacturing systems.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures, submitted to the conference "FORMATS: Formal Modelling and Analysis of Timed Systems" 201

Organization and evolution of synthetic idiotypic networks

We introduce a class of weighted graphs whose properties are meant to mimic the topological features of idiotypic networks, namely the interaction networks involving the B-core of the immune system. Each node is endowed with a bit-string representing the idiotypic specificity of the corresponding B cell and a proper distance between any couple of bit-strings provides the coupling strength between the two nodes. We show that a biased distribution of the entries in bit-strings can yield fringes in the (weighted) degree distribution, small-worlds features, and scaling laws, in agreement with experimental findings. We also investigate the role of ageing, thought of as a progressive increase in the degree of bias in bit-strings, and we show that it can possibly induce mild percolation phenomena, which are investigated too.Comment: 13 page

Food price pass-through in the euro area The role of asymmetries and non-linearities

In this paper we analyse the pass-through of a commodity price shock along the food price chain in the euro area. Unlike the existing literature, which mainly focuses on food commodity prices quoted in international markets, we use a novel database that accounts for the role of the Common Agricultural Policy in the European Union. We model several departures from the linear pass-through benchmark and compare alternative specifications with aggregate and disaggregate food data. Overall, when the appropriate dataset and methodology are used, it is possible to identify a significant and longlasting food price pass-through. The results of our regressions are applied to the strong increase in food prices in the 2007-08 period; a simple decomposition exercise shows that commodity prices are the main determinant of the increase in producer and consumer prices, thus solving the pass-through puzzle highlighted in the existing literature for the euro area. JEL Classification: C32, C53, E3, Q17food commodity prices, inflation, non-linearities, Pass-Through

Effect of post-exercise increase in creatine-kinase activity on performance parameters in Standardbred racehorses.

In equine sports medicine, the most considered performance parameter is the Onset of Blood Lactate Accumulation (OBLA), fixed at 4 mmol/L (Courocè-Malblanc et Hodgson, 2014). Nevertheless, in human medicine several methods to define individual Lactate Threshold (LT) were developed (Faude et al., 2009). Horses with poor performance were reported to have post-exercise creatine-kinase (CK) activity higher than good performer (Fraipont et al., 2011). Aim of the study is to evaluate LTs calculated by different methods in horses with increased post-exercise CK activity.Data from a cohort of Standardbred racehorses that underwent poor performance evaluation, including incremental treadmill test with plasma lactate analysis at different speed steps, were retrospectively collected. A blood sample was collected 6hrs post-exercise and CK activity was evaluated with spectrophotometric method. A case group of 10 horses (3.1±1.0 y.o.) that did not present any other alteration potentially influencing performance than post-exercise CK activity greater than reference value (>735 U/L) was selected (Valli, 2017). An age-matched and sex-matched control group of 10 horses with no alteration potentially influencing performance and normal post-exercise CK activity was selected. Lactate concentrations obtained during treadmill test were analysed with a dedicated sotware (Newell et al., 2009) and LT was determined by the following methods: a)Inflection Point, i.e. the point of intersection between two linear splines, b)Lactate Threshold by logaritmic transformation, c)OBLA and d)Initial Rise of 1 mmol/L post baseline. Values of different LTs from the two groups were compared by means of unpaired t-test.Statistical analysis showed that OBLA was significantly lower (p=0.009) in case group when compared to controls. No differences between the two groups were observed for other LTs values.Results suggest that elevated post-exercise CK activity, consistent with muscular damage, has a negative impact on performance. Moreover, OBLA seems to be an appropriate parameter for performance profiling in racehorses

Un sistema gerarchico basato su Voronoi per la risoluzione di query multiattributo

Questa tesi ha lo scopo di creare, sfruttando le tecniche delle reti di Voronoi, un sistema P2P gerarchico e distribuito che permetta la pubblicazione di risorse, costituite da un numero arbitrario di attributi, che possano anche coincidere sui loro valori; inoltre deve permettere la loro reperibilità risolvendo in modo efficiente ed efficace range query multi attributo immesse dagli utenti della rete

Introducing new technology into italian certified electronic mail: a proposal

Over the last decade, an increasing number of Certified E-Mail systems (CEM) have been implemented in Europe and worldwide, but their diffusion and validity are mainly restricted in a national arena. Despite the effort of European Union (EU) that recently defined a specification for guaranteeing interoperability of CEM systems between Member States, its adoption has not be not yet fuelled, mainly since any CEM system receives a legal value by its State legislation. It is difficult to extend the legal value of CEM security mechanisms, e.g. receipts with timestamps which are considered evidences and legal proofs in disputes that may arise from different Parties inside a State, unless a common political and legal agreement will be created. At this aim, recently EU introduce the new Regulation on Electronic Identification and Trust Services (eIDAS), to address this issue. We believe that the first step for encouraging a more large adoption between communities is to implement CEMs using standard worldwide recognized solutions.In this paper we propose a technical evolution of the Italian CEM, called Posta Elettronica Certificata (PEC) moving from a close mechanisms to the adoption of a more standardized, distributed solution, based on DNS Security Extensions (DNSSec). This proposal would have a minimal impact on the legislation, restricted to the annex that defines PEC technical rules.

A temporal logic for micro- and macro-step-based real-time systems: Foundations and applications

Many systems include components interacting with each other that evolve at possibly very different speeds. To deal with this situation many formal models adopt the abstraction of “zero-time transitions”, which do not consume time. These, however, have several drawbacks in terms of naturalness and logic consistency, as a system is modeled to be in different states at the same time. We propose a novel approach that exploits concepts from non-standard analysis and pairs them with the traditional “next” operator of temporal logic to introduce a notion of micro- and macro-steps; our approach is enacted in an extension of the TRIO metric temporal logic, called X-TRIO. We study the expressiveness and decidability properties of the new logic. Decidability is achieved through translation of a meaningful subset of X-TRIO into Linear Temporal Logic, a traditional way to support automated verification. We illustrate the usefulness and the generality of our approach by applying it to provide a formal semantics of timed Petri nets, which allows for their automated verification. We also give an overview of a formal semantics of Stateflow/Simulink diagrams, defined in terms of X-TRIO, which has been applied to the automated verification of a robotic cell

Mapping and Evaluating the Attractiveness of Pilgrim Routes from an Experiential Perspective: the Case of the ‘Paths through Italy’

The assessment of tourist offerings and the attractiveness of tourist destinations has been the subject of many studies in the tourism management literature over the years. Several authors have examined the territorial characteristics and factors that nurture tourist destination attractiveness in order to create flexible models that are capable of providing recommendations and instructions for destination management policies in the tourism industry. However, one of the fields in which this topic has so far been under-studied is with regard to pilgrim routes. Calling upon the ‘Atlas of the Paths through Italy’ which represents the official census or count of Italian routes published and recognised by the Ministry of Environmental, Cultural and Tourism Heritage (MiBACT) in 2016, the purpose of this article is to compare all the ‘Paths through Italy’ and classify them according to their expressed or unexpressed tourism potential. In particular, through an experiential approach and the use of Fuzzy Set Ideal Type Analysis (FSITA) methodology, this article aims to evaluate the attractiveness of the Paths in terms of their structural capability, create a taxonomy of the Paths, identify the most attractive type of Path which should be taken as a best practice benchmark, and provide managerial and policy suggestions to improve the attractiveness of the weaker Paths. The results of the analysis found that three Paths had strong potential and six Paths had good potential for tourism development. This study provides both a descriptive framework and an interpretative approach to the Italian Paths to help public intuitions manage and develop policies for the sustainable development of these pilgrimage routes

Start up ed evoluzione di un distretto dell'ICT: il caso dell'area cagliaritana

A partire dai primi anni Novanta si sono delineate nel nostro paese innovative traiettorie di sviluppo locale all'interno della new economy. L'articolo affronta il caso emblematico della Sardegna, dove, nell'area cagliaritana, si è formato un originale cluster di imprese della new economy, tale da suggerire la denominazione per quella zona di "Silicon Valley del Mediterraneo". Ma come è potuto accadere che, in una regione del Mezzogiorno, caratterizzata da problemi di integrazione territoriale con il resto del paese, oltre che di industrializzazione, si sia potuto aprire questo nuovo sentiero di sviluppo economico? Tanto più in un settore high tech, molto distante dalla vocazione economica di quei territori? Il lavoro cerca di fornire una risposta a tali interrogativi offrendo anche nuovi spunti di riflessione sulle potenzialità  innovative di altre aree del Mezzogiorn