Runtime Verification of Temporal Properties over Out-of-order Data Streams

We present a monitoring approach for verifying systems at runtime. Our approach targets systems whose components communicate with the monitors over unreliable channels, where messages can be delayed or lost. In contrast to prior works, whose property specification languages are limited to propositional temporal logics, our approach handles an extension of the real-time logic MTL with freeze quantifiers for reasoning about data values. We present its underlying theory based on a new three-valued semantics that is well suited to soundly and completely reason online about event streams in the presence of message delay or loss. We also evaluate our approach experimentally. Our prototype implementation processes hundreds of events per second in settings where messages are received out of order.Comment: long version of the CAV 2017 pape

SMEDL: Combining Synchronous and Asynchronous Monitoring

Two major approaches have emerged in runtime verification, based on synchronous and asynchronous monitoring. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages and is applicable in different situations. In this paper, we explore a hybrid approach, where low-level properties are checked synchronously, while higher-level ones are checked asynchronously. We present a tool for constructing and deploying monitors based on an architecture specification. Monitor logic and patterns of communication between monitors are specified in a language SMEDL. The language and the tool are illustrated using a case study of a robotic simulator

Quantum chemistry calculation aided design of chiral ionic liquid-based extraction system for amlodipine separation

Amlodipine is a widely used medication in treating hypertension, which is also known as a chiral compound. So far efforts have been made to obtain optically pure (S)-amlodipine because (R)-amlodipine has poor efficacy and is related to undesirable side effects. However, the available separation methods for amlodipine are still unsatisfactory. Recently, chiral separation has become a promising application of chiral ionic liquids (CILs), because the structural designability enables them adjustable separation efficiency for specific tasks. In this work, a high-efficient CIL-based liquid-liquid extraction system was developed for racemic amlodipine separation with the assistance of quantum chemistry calculations. Enantioselectivity up to 1.35 achieved by the novel system at 298.15 K is significantly higher than other available extraction systems. Moreover, the recycling of CIL can be easily realized by backward extraction of amlodipine, which is important for the industrial application of CILs

Correct-by-construction implementation of runtime monitors using stepwise refinement

Runtime verification (RV) is a lightweight technique for verifying traces of computer systems. One challenge in applying RV is to guarantee that the implementation of a runtime monitor correctly detects and signals unexpected events. In this paper, we present a method for deriving correct-by-construction implementations of runtime monitors from high-level specifications using Fiat, a Coq library for stepwise refinement. SMEDL (Scenario-based Meta-Event Definition Language), a domain specific language for event-driven RV, is chosen as the specification language. We propose an operational semantics for SMEDL suitable to be used in Fiat to describe the behavior of a monitor in a relational way. Then, by utilizing Fiat\u27s refinement calculus, we transform a declarative monitor specification into an executable runtime monitor with a proof that the behavior of the implementation is strictly a subset of that provided by the specification. Moreover, we define a predicate on the syntax structure of a monitor definition to ensure termination and determinism. Most of the proof work required to generate monitor code has been automated

Genetics and geography of leukocyte telomere length in sub-Saharan Africans

Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) might be causal in cardiovascular disease and major cancers. To elucidate the roles of genetics and geography in LTL variability across humans, we compared LTL measured in 1295 sub-Saharan Africans (SSAs) with 559 African-Americans (AAms) and 2464 European-Americans (EAms). LTL differed significantly across SSAs (P = 0.003), with the San from Botswana (with the oldest genomic ancestry) having the longest LTL and populations from Ethiopia having the shortest LTL. SSAs had significantly longer LTL than AAms [P = 6.5(e-16)] whose LTL was significantly longer than EAms [P = 2.5(e-7)]. Genetic variation in SSAs explained 52% of LTL variance versus 27% in AAms and 34% in EAms. Adjustment for genetic variation removed the LTL differences among SSAs. LTL genetic variation among SSAs, with the longest LTL in the San, supports the hypothesis that longer LTL was ancestral in humans. Identifying factors driving LTL variation in Africa may have important ramifications for LTL-associated diseases

A foundation for runtime monitoring

Runtime Verification is a lightweight technique that complements other verification methods in an effort to ensure software correctness. The technique poses novel questions to software engineers: it is not easy to identify which specifications are amenable to runtime monitor-ing, nor is it clear which monitors effect the required runtime analysis correctly. This exposition targets a foundational understanding of these questions. Particularly, it considers an expressive specification logic (a syntactic variant of the modal μ-calculus) that is agnostic of the verification method used, together with an elemental framework providing an operational semantics for the runtime analysis performed by monitors. The correspondence between the property satisfactions in the logic on the one hand, and the verdicts reached by the monitors performing the analysis on the other, is a central theme of the study. Such a correspondence underpins the concept of monitorability, used to identify the subsets of the logic that can be adequately monitored for by RV. Another theme of the study is that of understanding what should be expected of a monitor in order for the verification process to be correct. We show how the monitor framework considered can constitute a basis whereby various notions of monitor correctness may be defined and investigated.peer-reviewe

Runtime verification of parametric properties using SMEDL

Parametric properties are typical properties to be checked in runtime verification (RV). As a common technique for parametric monitoring, trace slicing divides an execution trace into a set of sub traces which are checked against non-parametric base properties. An efficient trace slicing algorithm is implemented in MOP. Another RV technique, QEA further allows for nested use of universal and existential quantification over parameters. In this paper, we present a methodology for parametric monitoring using the RV framework SMEDL. Trace slicing algorithm in MOP can be expressed by execution of a set of SMEDL monitors. Moreover, the semantics of nested quantifiers is encoded by a hierarchy of monitors for aggregating verdicts of sub traces. Through case studies, we demonstrate that SMEDL provides a natural way to monitor parametric properties with more potentials for flexible deployment and optimizations

A Foundation for Runtime Monitoring

Runtime Verification is a lightweight technique that complements other verification methods in an effort to ensure software correctness. The technique poses novel questions to software engineers: it is not easy to identify which specifications are amenable to runtime monitoring, nor is it clear which monitors effect the required runtime analysis correctly. This exposition targets a foundational understanding of these questions. Particularly, it considers an expressive specification logic (a syntactic variant of the mmucalc) that is agnostic of the verification method used, together with an elemental framework providing an operational semantics for the runtime analysis performed by monitors. The correspondence between the property satisfactions in the logic on the one hand, and the verdicts reached by the monitors performing the analysis on the other, is a central theme of the study. Such a correspondence underpins the concept of monitorability, used to identify the subsets of the logic that can be adequately monitored for by RV. Another theme of the study is that of understanding what should be expected of a monitor in order for the verification process to be correct. We show how the monitor framework considered can constitute a basis whereby various notions of monitor correctness may be defined and investigated

A new family of diprotodontian marsupials from the latest Oligocene of Australia and the evolution of wombats, koalas, and their relatives (Vombatiformes)

We describe the partial cranium and skeleton of a new diprotodontian marsupial from the late Oligocene (~26–25 Ma) Namba Formation of South Australia. This is one of the oldest Australian marsupial fossils known from an associated skeleton and it reveals previously unsuspected morphological diversity within Vombatiformes, the clade that includes wombats (Vombatidae), koalas (Phascolarctidae) and several extinct families. Several aspects of the skull and teeth of the new taxon, which we refer to a new family, are intermediate between members of the fossil family Wynyardiidae and wombats. Its postcranial skeleton exhibits features associated with scratch-digging, but it is unlikely to have been a true burrower. Body mass estimates based on postcranial dimensions range between 143 and 171 kg, suggesting that it was ~5 times larger than living wombats. Phylogenetic analysis based on 79 craniodental and 20 postcranial characters places the new taxon as sister to vombatids, with which it forms the superfamily Vombatoidea as defined here. It suggests that the highly derived vombatids evolved from wynyardiid-like ancestors, and that scratch-digging adaptations evolved in vombatoids prior to the appearance of the ever-growing (hypselodont) molars that are a characteristic feature of all post-Miocene vombatids. Ancestral state reconstructions on our preferred phylogeny suggest that bunolophodont molars are plesiomorphic for vombatiforms, with full lophodonty (characteristic of diprotodontoids) evolving from a selenodont morphology that was retained by phascolarctids and ilariids, and wynyardiids and vombatoids retaining an intermediate selenolophodont condition. There appear to have been at least six independent acquisitions of very large (>100 kg) body size within Vombatiformes, several having already occurred by the late Oligocene