A Formal Framework For Multi-Party Business Protocols (Revision of CentER DP 2008-79)

Enterprise-class information systems based on the principles of Service Oriented Architecture comprise large numbers of long-running, highly dynamic complex end-to-end service interactions, called conversations, based on message exchanges that typically transcend several organizations and span several geographical locations. Conversations in service-based systems can be described using business protocols that are formal notations specifying the timed message exchanges among participants in a conversation from a local point of view (orchestrations) or global (choreographies). In this work we introduce a formal framework based on Deterministic Finite Automata enriched with temporal constraints to describe multi-party business protocols. We also explore the notion of multi-party business protocol soundness and show how it is possible to execute a multi-party protocol consistently in a completely distributed manner and at the same time ensure the progression of the execution (i.e. no “deadlocks”).service oriented architecture;message exchange patterns business protocols;orchestrations;choreographies;soundness

QoS Analysis in Heterogeneous Choreography Interactions

International audienceWith an increasing number of services and devices interacting in a decentralized manner, choreographies are an active area of investigation. The heterogeneous nature of interacting systems leads to choreographies that may not only include conventional services, but also sensor-actuator networks, databases and service feeds. Their middleware behavior within choreographies is captured through abstract interaction paradigms such as client-service, publish-subscribe and tuple space. In this paper, we study these heterogeneous interaction paradigms, connected through an eXtensible Service Bus proposed in the CHOReOS project. As the functioning of such choreographies is dependent on the Quality of Service (QoS) performance of participating entities, an intricate analysis of interaction paradigms and their effect on QoS metrics is needed. We study the composition of QoS metrics in heterogeneous choreographies, and the subsequent tradeoffs. This produces interesting insights such as selection of a particular system and its middleware during design time or end-to-end QoS expectation/guarantees during runtime. Non-parametric hypothesis tests are applied to systems, where QoS dependent services may be replaced at runtime to prevent deterioration in performance

A Formal Framework For Multi-Party Business Protocols (Revision of CentER DP 2008-79)

Enterprise-class information systems based on the principles of Service Oriented Architecture comprise large numbers of long-running, highly dynamic complex end-to-end service interactions, called conversations, based on message exchanges that typically transcend several organizations and span several geographical locations. Conversations in service-based systems can be described using business protocols that are formal notations specifying the timed message exchanges among participants in a conversation from a local point of view (orchestrations) or global (choreographies). In this work we introduce a formal framework based on Deterministic Finite Automata enriched with temporal constraints to describe multi-party business protocols. We also explore the notion of multi-party business protocol soundness and show how it is possible to execute a multi-party protocol consistently in a completely distributed manner and at the same time ensure the progression of the execution (i.e. no “deadlocks”)

'Correction of unrealizable service choreographies’

This thesis is devoted to the detection and correction of design flaws affecting service choreographies. Service choreographies are models that specify how software services are composed in a decentralized, message-driven fashion. In particular, this work focuses on flaws that compromise the realizability of services choreographies, i.e., those flaws that prevent the choreographies from actually been enacted by their participants in a distributed fashion. Contributions include a novel realizability analysis method based on Control Flow Graphs and the concept of participant-awareness, a large portfolio of strategies for generating changes for correcting the realizability defects without risking of introducing others as side-effect and observations on the interplay of realizability in choreographies and the type of modeling constructs that are offered by choreography modeling languages

A Formal Framework for Multi-Party Business Protocols (Replaced by CentER DP 2009-05)

Service Oriented Architecture deployments comprise large numbers of long-running, highly dynamic complex end-to-end service interactions reflecting asynchronous message flows that typically transcend several organizations and span several geographical locations. Business protocols are formalisms to model the structure of the message-based interactions among services and can be flexible ranging from conventional inter-organizational point-to-point service interactions to fully blown dynamic multi-party interactions of global reach. In this work we introduce a formal framework based on Deterministic Finite Automata enriched with temporal constraints, to describe multi-party business protocols. We extend this framework with the notion of multi-party business protocol soundness and show how it is possible to execute a multi-party protocol consistently in a completely distributed manner while guaranteeing eventual termination

Environmental radioactivity surveillance system of ANPA

No nuclear power station are operative in Italy as a consequence of the general public debate on the use of nuclear energy, stressed by the Chernobyl accident and culminated in the Public Referendum in 1987, but within a distance of a few hundreds kilometres from its border several nuclear plants are operating. In case of a nuclear emergency, for instance, an accident in a transboundary plant, ANPA, National Agency for the Environmental Protection, as the duty to coordinate the technical activities supporting the Civil Protection Agency responsible for the management of national-scale radiological emergency. In this context, the realisation of the ANPA Environmental Radiological Surveillance System was started in 1996. The system was designed for continuous monitoring and early warning purposes and then the airborne particulate was selected as main environmental matrix to be observed. The system is composed of two nation-wide monitoring networks connected to the control centre operating at the ANPA's Emergency Centre; measurements, alarm signals and system status informations are transmitted to the centre in real time for data evaluation, reporting and recording into a data-base and for remote diagnostics of the monitoring station functioning. The ANPA Environmental Radioactivity Surveillance System will be described emphasizing the characteristics of automatic monitoring network

Towards a quality model for choreography

Quality attributes of software products like maintainability and reliability have been widely studied in the Software Engineering literature. Their understanding has proven instrumental for developing best practices and tooling support that ultimately result in higher-quality software. In this paper we investigate external quality attributes (i.e. aspects of quality visible to the end user) of service choreographies. Service choreographies are service compositions that specify completely distributed, message-based interactions among services. Our work is a first step towards the definition of a quality model for service choreographies

Case Report: Liraglutide for Weight Management in Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndromic Obesity

Genetic obesity, including syndromic and non-syndromic forms, represents a minority of cases compared to essential obesity but gene dysregulations lead to complex clinical conditions that make their management particularly difficult. Among them, Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS) is a multisystem human genomic imprinting disorder characterized by overgrowth. We describe the first case of liraglutide treatment in an 18-year-old boy patient affected by BWS complicated by macroglossia, cryptorchidism, nephroblastoma, organomegaly, microscopic lymphocytic colitis, pharmacologically treated arterial hypertension, obesity, and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. He presented a normal cognitive development. Body mass index at the time of first transition visit in the adult endocrinology department at the age of 18-years-old was 40.6 kg/m2 without glucose metabolism impairment. Lifestyle interventions failed because of poor compliance. During 20 months of 3.0 mg liraglutide treatment, a weight loss of 19 kg (−13.3%) and BMI reduction of 6.8 points were registered without side effects. To date, liraglutide treatment was effective on obesity in 7 subjects with Prader Willy Syndrome and 14 with melanocortin-4 receptor mutations. The efficacy of liraglutide in BWS could be related to a crosstalk among glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-1 system, mechanisms related to the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1C (CDKN1C), and dopamine mesolimbic circuit. Clinical trials aiming at a tailored medicine in genetic obesity are needed