Maria Luisa Villani

Ant Colony Optimization for Deadlock Detection in Concurrent Systems

Ensuring deadlock freedom is one of the most critical requirements in the design and validation of concurrent systems. The biggest challenge toward the development of effective deadlock detection schemes remains the state-space explosion problem when model checking is used for proving the correctness of a system with respect to a desired behavior. In this paper we propose the use of the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) to reduce the state explosion problem arising when finding deadlocks in complex networks described using Calculus of Communicating Systems (CCS). Moreover, ACO is used to provide minimal counterexamples. In fact, although one of the strongest advantages of model checking is the generation of counterexamples when verification fails, traditional model checkers may return very long counterexamples. We present an implementation of our technique and encouraging experimental results on several benchmarks. These results are then compared with other heuristic-based search strategies, retaining the advantages of our approach.

Incremental construction of systems: An efficient characterization of the lacking sub-system

Abstract Software engineering research is driven by the aim of making software development more dynamic, flexible and evolvable. Nowadays the emphasis is on the evolution of pre-existing sub-systems and component and service-based development, where often only a part of the system is totally under control of the designer, most components being remotely operated by external vendors. In this context, we tackle the following problem: given the formal specification of the (incomplete) system, say it p , already built, how to characterize collaborators of p to be selected, based on a given communication interface L , so that a given property φ is satisfied. Using properties described by temporal logic formulae and systems by CCS processes, if φ is the formula to be satisfied by the complete system, an efficient and automatic procedure is defined to identify a formula ψ such that, for each existing process q satisfying ψ , the process ( p ∣ q ) ∖ L satisfies φ . Important features of this result are simplicity of the derived property ψ , compared to the original one, and scalability of the verification process. Such characteristics are necessary for applying the method to both incremental design and system evolution scenarios where p is already in place, and one needs to understand the specification of the functionality of the new component that should correctly interact with p . Indeed, in general, finding a suitable partner for p is easier than finding a complete system satisfying the global property. Moreover, in this paper it is shown how ψ can be used also to select a set of possible candidate processes q through a property-directed and structural heuristic. From the verification point of view, the description of the lacking component through a logic formula guarantees correctness of the integration with p of any process that exhibits a behaviour compliant with the inferred formula.

Semantics-based services for a low carbon society

A low carbon society aims at fighting global warming by stimulating synergic efforts from governments, industry and scientific communities. Decision support systems should be adopted to provide policy makers with possible scenarios, options for prompt countermeasures in case of side effects on environment, economy and society due to low carbon society policies, and also options for information management. A necessary precondition to fulfill this agenda is to face the complexity of this multi-disciplinary domain and to reach a common understanding on it as a formal specification. Ontologies are widely accepted means to share knowledge. Together with semantic rules, they enable advanced semantic services to manage knowledge in a smarter way. Here we address the European Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS) and we present a knowledge base consisting of the EREON ontology and a catalogue of rules. Then we describe two innovative semantic services to manage ETS data and information on ETS scenarios. A semantics-based approach for the Low Carbon Society is proposed.A Knowledge Base for the Emissions Trading System (ETS) is presented.Ontological foundations of the ETS ontology (EREON) are described.Rules Taxonomy and Rules Catalogue are the basis for the semantic services.

A Semantics-Based Approach to Generation of Emergency Management Scenario Models

Interoperable companies making business together form large networks. Communication and exchange of goods and documents is permitted by critical infrastructures like the energy network, the railway, and the telecommunication network. These are threatened by several hazards spanning from natural disasters, as earthquakes and tsunami, to anthropic events, as terrorist attacks. An example of such catastrophic events is the Fukushima nuclear disaster causing deaths, destroying buildings and infrastructures and impacting on the supply chains of several companies. Simulation is one of the most promising means to prepare to such events. However, manual definition of emergency management scenarios is a complex task, due to their inherent unpredictability. In this paper an automatic approach to support generation of emergency management scenarios is proposed. This is based on the CEML scenarios modelling language, on the design patterns-based modelling methodology, on the notion of mini-story, and on emergency management ontologies.

A Lateral Thinking Framework for Semantic Modelling of Emergencies in Smart Cities

Manual definition of models for emergency management scenarios is a demanding activity due to the huge number of different situations to be considered. It requires knowledge related to the crisis and emergency domains, to the context (e.g., a specific city and its current regulations) and to modelling techniques. In this paper, we propose to tackle this problem according to a lateral thinking perspective and, following this line, we present a framework supporting automatic creation of conceptual models concerning emergency management scenarios by means of semantic techniques. In particular, this framework relies on an ontology and on a set of semantic rules to manage, respectively, the domain and contextual knowledge, and on the design patterns approach to support the modelling activity. A software experimentation of the framework based on SPARQL and applied to emergency scenarios in smart cities is proposed to demonstrate the viability of the approach.

Enhancing Creativity in Risk Assessment of Complex Sociotechnical Systems

We propose the CREAM (CREAtivity Machine) software system to enhance the creativity of experts during vulnerability and risk assessment of complex sociotechnical systems. Our assumption is that a new idea related to a risk can be represented as a fragment of a conceptual model, here named risk mini-model, that can be generated by means of an ontology-based approach for computational creativity. In our solution risk mini-models activate a creative process for stakeholders to identify and understand risks. The whole set of risk mini-models for a specific risk constitutes a risk conceptual model. Such models are included in a knowledge base together with a domain ontology and a set of rules.

Towards ontological foundations of knowledge related to the emissions trading system

ICT for a low carbon society is a new research topic, also supported by the current research programs of the European Commission. The main characteristic of this area is the presence of multi-disciplinary problems spanning from the energy and environment fields to macroeconomics and societal life. Energy plays a key role here as the energy market is tightly coupled with environmental policies. A common grounding for the application of the various analysis methods and tools has to be settled to solve these problems and to reach a holistic view of the society and of its possible evolutions. In this context, we focus on the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and analyze some challenges that can be addressed by ICT. Then we present a first step towards a formal specification of a common and integrated understanding of such domain, motivated by the challenges we have identified. In particular, we discuss the ontological foundations for the development of ETS-related ontologies, of which we present a first example together with a description of an envisaged practical application.

A Flexible Architecture for Cognitive Sensing of Activities in Ambient Assisted Living

We discuss our experience with the design, implementation, deployment and evaluation of a Human Activity Detection application. This application relies on a software architecture for IoT-based monitoring in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), based on a Semantic Message Oriented Middleware (SeMoM). Going beyond traditional sensor management systems, our architecture addresses the heterogeneity challenge in IoT healthcare systems and ensures semantic and technical interoperability. SeMoM is able to handle the data acquisition process for a variety of heterogeneous devices, and to provide a reasoning mechanism based on expert knowledge and logic through cognitive sensors. Sensor data and observations are annotated using an extended version of the Cognitive Semantic Sensor Network (CoSSN) ontology built on top of the Semantic Sensor Network (SSN) ontology. CoSSN provides a formal representation that supports a semantic detection of activities.

Towards Temporal Analysis of Integrated Scenarios for Sustainable Innovation

We propose the TEMPORANA framework for analysis of integrated scenarios aiming at studying the possible effects on the society of sustainable innovation policies. The framework consists of a set of advanced temporal queries for scenario analysis and a software application. Integrated scenarios are possible future states of different aspects of the world (e.g., energy, environment, technology, economy, societal system) representing plausible conditions under different assumptions. Temporal scenario queries aim at detecting a specified behavior for the system over time and, hence, at verifying that a temporal property holds.

A methodology for modeling and measuring interdependencies of information and communications systems used for public administration and eGovernment services

eGovernment services rely on information and communications critical infrastructures. The management of an information and communications critical infrastructure involves activities aimed at ensuring the availability, efficacy and efficiency of a given physical and human system and its related information technology facilities, networks and assets. This requires a deep understanding of the behavior of the complex system, which is, in general, a hard task. A promising approach is to create models of the complex system by analyzing its structural and functional characteristics, and proceed to identify the parameters for assessing and measuring the dependencies between the various components. This paper proposes a methodology for conducting a quantitative analysis of the underlying dependencies based on disturbances during fully operational conditions. Unlike other work in the field, the metrics used in the methodology do not rely on expert interviews or judgments. The utility of the proposed methodology is demonstrated through its application to the Italian System for Public Connectivity, a complex information and communications system that supports Italian eGovernment services. As a case study, the Italian System for Public Connectivity is an excellent exemplar of complex web-based systems that are used to provide public administration and other services in countries around the world.