Rewrite Closure and CF Hedge Automata

We introduce an extension of hedge automata called bidimensional context-free hedge automata. The class of unranked ordered tree languages they recognize is shown to be preserved by rewrite closure with inverse-monadic rules. We also extend the parameterized rewriting rules used for modeling the W3C XQuery Update Facility in previous works, by the possibility to insert a new parent node above a given node. We show that the rewrite closure of hedge automata languages with these extended rewriting systems are context-free hedge languages

Effets de composts de déchets sur les propriétés chimiques du sol et la solubilité d’éléments minéraux sous deux régimes hydriques en conditions contrôlées au Togo

L'utilisation des composts de dechets en agriculture est lfune des voies principales dans la restauration de la fertilite des terres degradees. Cependant, les effets dfun compost dependent fortement de sa nature chimique et des conditions environnementales. Afin de mieux comprendre le mecanisme dfaction des composts de dechets sur les proprietes  chimiques du sol et la solubilite des ions, cinq types de composts de dechets ont ete testes selon un dispositif en blocs de Fischer repartis en trois repetitions par traitements. Les resultats obtenus revelent que les composts de dechets ont en general eleve le pH du sol de 2,13 unites et la conductivite electrique de 1301,9 µS/cm. Les traitements a engrais  synthetique NPK ont par contre reduit le pH de 0,51 unite. A lfexception du traitement a compost de dechets agroalimentaires, les traitements a compost ont en general reduit le potentiel Redox contrairement aux  traitements temoin et a engrais synthetiques. Ainsi, les traitements a engrais synthetique et a compost de dechets agroalimentaires sous deficit hydrique presentent respectivement des potentiels de 307,5 mV et 265 mV contre 262,5 mV pour le temoin absolu sous deficit hydrique. Lfetude de la fraction hydrosoluble des elements mineraux montre que la solubilite des cations essentiels (Ca, Mg et K) est liee fortement a leur concentration dans le substrat de culture contrairement aux elements traces metallique dont la solubilite depend essentiellement du pH et du potentiel Redox. Par ailleurs, le deficit hydrique a entraine lfelevation de la conductivite electrique chez les traitements a composts. Ces resultats seront utilises dans la phytoremediation des sols pollues.Mots cles : engrais organiques, amendements, parametres chimiques, ions, biodisponibilite

Verifying Temporal Regular Properties of Abstractions of Term Rewriting Systems

The tree automaton completion is an algorithm used for proving safety properties of systems that can be modeled by a term rewriting system. This representation and verification technique works well for proving properties of infinite systems like cryptographic protocols or more recently on Java Bytecode programs. This algorithm computes a tree automaton which represents a (regular) over approximation of the set of reachable terms by rewriting initial terms. This approach is limited by the lack of information about rewriting relation between terms. Actually, terms in relation by rewriting are in the same equivalence class: there are recognized by the same state in the tree automaton. Our objective is to produce an automaton embedding an abstraction of the rewriting relation sufficient to prove temporal properties of the term rewriting system. We propose to extend the algorithm to produce an automaton having more equivalence classes to distinguish a term or a subterm from its successors w.r.t. rewriting. While ground transitions are used to recognize equivalence classes of terms, epsilon-transitions represent the rewriting relation between terms. From the completed automaton, it is possible to automatically build a Kripke structure abstracting the rewriting sequence. States of the Kripke structure are states of the tree automaton and the transition relation is given by the set of epsilon-transitions. States of the Kripke structure are labelled by the set of terms recognized using ground transitions. On this Kripke structure, we define the Regular Linear Temporal Logic (R-LTL) for expressing properties. Such properties can then be checked using standard model checking algorithms. The only difference between LTL and R-LTL is that predicates are replaced by regular sets of acceptable terms

Effects of proton versus photon irradiation on (lymph) angiogenic, inflammatory, proliferative and anti-tumor immune responses in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

International audienceThe proximity of organs at risk makes the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) challenging by standard radiotherapy. The higher precision in tumor targeting of proton (P) therapy could promote it as the treatment of choice for HNSCC. Besides the physical advantage in dose deposition, few is known about the biological impact of P versus photons (X) in this setting. To investigate the comparative biological effects of P versus X radiation in HNSCC cells, we assessed the relative biological effectiveness (RBE), viability, proliferation and mRNA levels for genes involved in (lymph)angiogenesis, inflammation, proliferation and anti-tumor immunity. These parameters, particularly VEGF-C protein levels and regulations, were documented in freshly irradiated and/or long-term surviving cells receiving low/high-dose, single (SI)/multiple (MI) irradiations with P/X. The RBE was found to be 1.1 Key (lymph)angiogenesis and inflammation genes were downregulated (except for vegf-c) after P and upregulated after X irradiation in MI surviving cells, demonstrating a more favorable profile after P irradiation. Both irradiation types stimulated vegf-c promoter activity in a NF-κB-dependent transcriptional regulation manner, but at a lesser extent after P, as compared to X irradiation, which correlated with mRNA and protein levels. The cells surviving to MI by P or X generated tumors with higher volume, anarchic architecture and increased density of blood vessels. Increased lymphangiogenesis and a transcriptomic analysis in favor of a more aggressive phenotype were observed in tumors generated with X-irradiated cells. Increased detection of lymphatic vessels in relapsed tumors from patients receiving X radiotherapy was consistent with these findings. This study provides new data about the biological advantage of P, as compared to X irradiation. In addition to its physical advantage in dose deposition, P irradiation may help to improve treatment approaches for HNSCC

Compositionality for Quantitative Specifications

We provide a framework for compositional and iterative design and verification of systems with quantitative information, such as rewards, time or energy. It is based on disjunctive modal transition systems where we allow actions to bear various types of quantitative information. Throughout the design process the actions can be further refined and the information made more precise. We show how to compute the results of standard operations on the systems, including the quotient (residual), which has not been previously considered for quantitative non-deterministic systems. Our quantitative framework has close connections to the modal nu-calculus and is compositional with respect to general notions of distances between systems and the standard operations

Protective efficacy of a live attenuated vaccine against Argentine hemorrhagic fever. AHF Study Group

Fil: Maiztegui, Julio I. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Virales Humanas; Argentina.Fil: McKee Jr, K. T. Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Estados Unidos.Fil: Barrera Oro, J G. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán; Argentina.Fil: Harrison, L H. University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health,Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Estados Unidos.Fil: Gibbs, P H. Division of Disease Assessment, US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Maryland 21701; Estados Unidos.Fil: Feuillade, María Rosa. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Virales Humanas; Argentina.Fil: Enria, Delia. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Virales Humanas; Argentina.Fil: Briggiler, Ana M. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Virales Humanas; Argentina.Fil: Levis, Silvana. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Virales Humanas; Argentina.Fil: Ambrosio, Ana María. ANLIS Dr.C.G.Malbrán. Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Virales Humanas; Argentina.Fil: Halsey, N A. Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland; Estados Unidos.Fil: Peters, C J. Special Pathogens Branch, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia; Estados Unidos.Argentine hemorrhagic fever (AHF), caused by the arenavirus Junin, is a major public health problem among agricultural workers in Argentina. A prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, efficacy trial of Candid 1, a live attenuated Junin virus vaccine, was conducted over two consecutive epidemic seasons among 6500 male agricultural workers in the AHF-endemic region. Twenty-three men developed laboratory-confirmed AHF during the study; 22 received placebo and 1 received vaccine (vaccine efficacy 95%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 82%-99%). Three additional subjects in each group developed laboratory-confirmed Junin virus infection associated with mild illnesses that did not fulfill the clinical case definition for AHF, yielding a protective efficacy for prevention of any illness associated with Junin virus infection of 84% (95% CI, 60%-94%). No serious adverse events were attributed to vaccination. Candid 1, the first vaccine for the prevention of illness caused by an arenavirus, is safe and highly efficacious

Controlled Term Rewriting

International audienceMotivated by the problem of verification of imperative tree transformation programs, we study the combination, called controlled term rewriting systems (CntTRS), of term rewriting rules with con- straints selecting the possible rewrite positions. These constraints are specified, for each rewrite rule, by a selection automaton which defines a set of positions in a term based on tree automata computations. We show that reachability is PSPACE-complete for so-called monotonic CntTRS, such that the size of every left-hand-side of every rewrite rule is larger or equal to the size of the corresponding right-hand-side, and also for the class of context-free non-collapsing CntTRS, which transform Context-Free (CF) tree language into CF tree languages. When allowing size-reducing rules, reachability becomes undecidable, even for flat CntTRS (both sides of rewrite rules are of depth at most one) when restricting to words (i.e. function symbols have arity at most one), and for ground CntTRS (rewrite rules have no variables). We also consider a restricted version of the control such that a position is selected if the sequence of symbols on the path from that position to the root of the tree belongs to a given regular language. This restriction enables decision results in the above cases