@article{9455, abstract = {Proteins of the ARGONAUTE family are important in diverse posttranscriptional RNA-mediated gene-silencing systems as well as in transcriptional gene silencing in Drosophila and fission yeast and in programmed DNA elimination in Tetrahymena. We cloned ARGONAUTE4 (AGO4) from a screen for mutants that suppress silencing of the Arabidopsis SUPERMAN(SUP) gene. The ago4-1 mutant reactivated silentSUP alleles and decreased CpNpG and asymmetric DNA methylation as well as histone H3 lysine-9 methylation. In addition,ago4-1 blocked histone and DNA methylation and the accumulation of 25-nucleotide small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that correspond to the retroelement AtSN1. These results suggest that AGO4 and long siRNAs direct chromatin modifications, including histone methylation and non-CpG DNA methylation.}, author = {Zilberman, Daniel and Cao, Xiaofeng and Jacobsen, Steven E.}, issn = {1095-9203}, journal = {Science}, keywords = {Multidisciplinary}, number = {5607}, pages = {716--719}, publisher = {American Association for the Advancement of Science}, title = {{ARGONAUTE4 control of locus-specific siRNA accumulation and DNA and histone methylation}}, doi = {10.1126/science.1079695}, volume = {299}, year = {2003}, } @inproceedings{4628, abstract = {Discounting the future means that the value, today, of a unit payoffis 1 if the payoffo ccurs today, a if it occurs tomorrow, a 2 if it occurs the day after tomorrow, and so on, for some real-valued discount factor 0 < a < 1. Discounting (or inflation) is a key paradigm in economics and has been studied in Markov decision processes as well as game theory. We submit that discounting also has a natural place in systems engineering: for nonterminating systems, a potential bug in the far-away future is less troubling than a potential bug today. We therefore develop a systems theory with discounting. Our theory includes several basic elements: discounted versions of system properties that correspond to the ω-regular properties, fixpoint-based algorithms for checking discounted properties, and a quantitative notion of bisimilarity for capturing the difference between two states with respect to discounted properties. We present the theory in a general form that applies to probabilistic systems as well as multicomponent systems (games), but it readily specializes to classical transition systems. We show that discounting, besides its natural practical appeal, has also several mathematical benefits. First, the resulting theory is robust, in that small perturbations of a system can cause only small changes in the properties of the system. Second, the theory is computational, in that the values of discounted properties, as well as the discounted bisimilarity distance between states, can be computed to any desired degree of precision.}, author = {De Alfaro, Luca and Henzinger, Thomas A and Majumdar, Ritankar}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 30th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming}, isbn = {9783540404934}, location = {Eindhoven, The Netherlands}, pages = {1022 -- 1037}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{Discounting the future in systems theory}}, doi = {10.1007/3-540-45061-0_79}, volume = {2719}, year = {2003}, } @article{13436, abstract = {Cross-metathesis reactions of α,β-unsaturated sulfones and sulfoxides in the presence of molybdenum and ruthenium pre-catalysts were tested. A selective metahesis reaction was achieved between functionalized terminal olefins and vinyl sulfones by using the ‘second generation’ ruthenium catalysts 1c–h while the highly active Schrock catalyst 1b was found to be functional group incompatible with vinyl sulfones. The cross-metathesis products were isolated in good yields with an excellent (E)-selectivity. Both the molybdenum and ruthenium-based complexes were, however, incompatible with α,β- and β,γ-unsaturated sulfoxides.}, author = {Michrowska, Anna and Bieniek, Michał and Kim, Mikhail and Klajn, Rafal and Grela, Karol}, issn = {1464-5416}, journal = {Tetrahedron}, keywords = {Organic Chemistry, Drug Discovery, Biochemistry}, number = {25}, pages = {4525--4531}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Cross-metathesis reaction of vinyl sulfones and sulfoxides}}, doi = {10.1016/s0040-4020(03)00682-3}, volume = {59}, year = {2003}, } @inproceedings{4561, abstract = {We present a formalism for specifying component interfaces that expose component requirements on limited resources. The formalism permits an algorithmic check if two or more components, when put together, exceed the available resources. Moreover, the formalism can be used to compute the quantity of resources necessary for satisfying the requirements of a collection of components. The formalism can be instantiated in several ways. For example, several components may draw power from the same source. Then, the formalism supports compatibility checks such as: can two components, when put together, achieve their tasks without ever exceeding the available amount of peak power? or, can they achieve their tasks by using no more than the initially available amount of energy (i.e., power accumulated over time)? The corresponding quantitative questions that our algorithms answer are the following: what is the amount of peak power needed for two components to be put together? what is the corresponding amount of initial energy? To solve these questions, we model interfaces with resource requirements as games with quantitative objectives. The games are played on state spaces where each state is labeled by a number (representing, e.g., power consumption), and a play produces an infinite path of labels. The objective may be, for example, to minimize the largest label that occurs during a play. We illustrate our approach by modeling compatibility questions for the components of robot control software, and of wireless sensor networks.}, author = {Chakrabarti, Arindam and De Alfaro, Luca and Henzinger, Thomas A and Stoelinga, Mariëlle}, booktitle = {Third International Conference on Embedded Software}, isbn = {9783540202233}, location = {Philadelphia, PA, USA}, pages = {117 -- 133}, publisher = {ACM}, title = {{Resource interfaces}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-540-45212-6_9}, volume = {2855}, year = {2003}, } @inproceedings{4630, abstract = {We consider concurrent two-person games played in real time, in which the players decide both which action to play, and when to play it. Such timed games differ from untimed games in two essential ways. First, players can take each other by surprise, because actions are played with delays that cannot be anticipated by the opponent. Second, a player should not be able to win the game by preventing time from diverging. We present a model of timed games that preserves the element of surprise and accounts for time divergence in a way that treats both players symmetrically and applies to all ω-regular winning conditions. We prove that the ability to take each other by surprise adds extra power to the players. For the case that the games are specified in the style of timed automata, we provide symbolic algorithms for their solution with respect to all ω-regular winning conditions. We also show that for these timed games, memory strategies are more powerful than memoryless strategies already in the case of reachability objectives.}, author = {De Alfaro, Luca and Faella, Marco and Henzinger, Thomas A and Majumdar, Ritankar and Stoelinga, Mariëlle}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Concurrency Theory}, isbn = {9783540407539}, location = {Marseille, France}, pages = {144 -- 158}, publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl - Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik}, title = {{The element of surprise in timed games}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-540-45187-7_9}, volume = {2761}, year = {2003}, } @article{4468, abstract = {Giotto is a high-level programming language for time-triggered control applications. The authors begin with a conceptual overview of its methodology, discuss the Giotto helicopter project, and summarize available Giotto implementations.}, author = {Henzinger, Thomas A and Kirsch, Christoph and Sanvido, Marco and Pree, Wolfgang}, issn = {1066-033X }, journal = {IEEE Control Systems Magazine}, number = {1}, pages = {50 -- 64}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{From control models to real-time code using Giotto}}, doi = {10.1109/MCS.2003.1172829}, volume = {23}, year = {2003}, } @inbook{4465, abstract = {Giotto is a principled, tool-supported design methodology for implementing embedded control systems on platforms of possibly distributed sensors, actuators, CPUs, and networks. Giotto is based on the principle that time-triggered task invocations plus time-triggered mode switches can form the abstract essence of programming real-time control systems. Giotto consists of a programming language with a formal semantics, and a retargetable compiler and runtime library. Giotto supports the automation of control system design by strictly separating platform-independent functionality and timing concerns from platform-dependent scheduling and communication issues. The time-triggered predictability of Giotto makes it particularly suitable for safety-critical applications with hard real-time constraints. We illustrate the platform independence and time-triggered execution of Giotto by coordinating a heterogeneous flock of Intel x86 robots and Lego Mindstorms robots.}, author = {Henzinger, Thomas A and Horowitz, Benjamin and Kirsch, Christoph}, booktitle = {Software-Enabled Control: Information Technology for Dynamical Systems}, isbn = {9780471234364 }, pages = {123 -- 146}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, title = {{Embedded control systems development with Giotto}}, doi = {10.1002/047172288X.ch8}, year = {2003}, } @inproceedings{4466, abstract = {One source of complexity in the μ-calculus is its ability to specify an unbounded number of switches between universal (AX) and existential (EX) branching modes. We therefore study the problems of satisfiability, validity, model checking, and implication for the universal and existential fragments of the μ-calculus, in which only one branching mode is allowed. The universal fragment is rich enough to express most specifications of interest, and therefore improved algorithms are of practical importance. We show that while the satisfiability and validity problems become indeed simpler for the existential and universal fragments, this is, unfortunately, not the case for model checking and implication. We also show the corresponding results for the alternationfree fragment of the μ-calculus, where no alternations between least and greatest fixed points are allowed. Our results imply that efforts to find a polynomial-time model-checking algorithm for the μ-calculus can be replaced by efforts to find such an algorithm for the universal or existential fragment.}, author = {Henzinger, Thomas A and Kupferman, Orna and Majumdar, Ritankar}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems }, isbn = {9783540008989}, location = {Warsaw, Poland}, pages = {49 -- 64}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{On the universal and existential fragments of the mu-calculus}}, doi = {10.1007/3-540-36577-X_5}, volume = {2619}, year = {2003}, } @inproceedings{4467, abstract = {BLAST (the Berkeley Lazy Abstraction Software verification Tool) is a verification system for checking safety properties of C programs using automatic property-driven construction and model checking of software abstractions. Blast implements an abstract-model check-refine loop to check for reachability of a specified label in the program. The abstract model is built on the fly using predicate abstraction. This model is then checked for reachability. If there is no (abstract) path to the specified error label, Blast reports that the system is safe and produces a succinct proof. Otherwise, it checks if the path is feasible using symbolic execution of the program. If the path is feasible, Blast outputs the path as an error trace, otherwise, it uses the infeasibility of the path to refine the abstract model. Blast short-circuits the loop from abstraction to verification to refinement, integrating the three steps tightly through “lazy abstraction” [5]. This integration can offer significant advantages in performance by avoiding the repetition of work from one iteration of the loop to the next. }, author = {Henzinger, Thomas A and Jhala, Ranjit and Majumdar, Ritankar and Sutre, Grégoire}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 10th International SPIN Workshop }, isbn = {9783540401179}, location = {Portland, OR, USA}, pages = {235 -- 239}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{Software verification with BLAST}}, doi = {10.1007/3-540-44829-2_17}, volume = {2648}, year = {2003}, } @inproceedings{4463, abstract = {We present an algorithm called TAR (“Thread-modular Abstraction Refinement”) for model checking safety properties of concurrent software. The TAR algorithm uses thread-modular assume-guarantee reasoning to overcome the exponential complexity in the control state of multithreaded programs. Thread modularity means that TAR explores the state space of one thread at a time, making assumptions about how the environment can interfere. The TAR algorithm uses counterexample-guided predicate-abstraction refinement to overcome the usually infinite complexity in the data state of C programs. A successive approximation scheme automatically infers the necessary precision on data variables as well as suitable environment assumptions. The scheme is novel in that transition relations are approximated from above, while at the same time environment assumptions are approximated from below. In our software verification tool BLAST we have implemented a fully automatic race checker for multithreaded C programs which is based on the TAR algorithm. This tool has verified a wide variety of commonly used locking idioms, including locking schemes that are not amenable to existing dynamic and static race checkers such as ERASER or WARLOCK.}, author = {Henzinger, Thomas A and Jhala, Ranjit and Majumdar, Ritankar and Qadeer, Shaz}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Computer Aided Verification}, isbn = {9783540405245}, location = {Boulder, CO, USA}, pages = {262 -- 274}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{Thread-modular abstraction refinement}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-540-45069-6_27}, volume = {2725}, year = {2003}, }