Abstract: Text manipulation is one of the most common tasks for everyone using a computer. The increasing number of textual information in electronic format that every computer user collects everyday stresses the need of more powerful tools to interact with texts. Indeed, much work has been done to provide nonprogramming tools that can be useful for the most common text manipulation issues. Regular Expressions (RE), introduced by Kleene, are well–known in the formal language theory. RE received several extensions, depending on the application of interest. In almost all the implementations of RE search algorithms (e.g. the egrep [A] UNIX command, or the Perl [17] language pattern matching constructs) we find backreferences (as defind in [1]), i.e. expressions that make reference to the string matched by a previous subexpression. Generally speaking, it seems that all the kinds of synchronizations between subexpressions in a RE can be very useful when interacting with texts. Therefore, we introduce the Synchronized Regular Expressions (SRE) as a derivation of the Regular Expressions. We use SRE to present a formal study of the already known backreferences extension, and of a new extension proposed by us, which we call the synchronized exponents. Moreover, since we are talking about formalisms that should have a practical utility and can be used in the real world, we have the problem of how to present SRE to the final users. Therefore, in this paper we also propose a user–friendly syntax for SRE to be used in implementations of SRE–powered search algorithms.

Abstract: We present a symbolic model checking algorithm for verification of Nash equilibria in finite state mechanisms modeling Multiple Administrative Domains (MAD) distributed systems. Given a finite state mechanism, a proposed protocol for each agent and an indifference threshold for rewards, our model checker returns PASS if the proposed protocol is a Nash equilibrium (up to the given indifference threshold) for the given mechanism, FAIL otherwise. We implemented our model checking algorithm inside the NuSMV model checker and present experimental results showing its effectiveness for moderate size mechanisms. For example, we can handle mechanisms which corresponding normal form games would have more than $10^20$ entries. To the best of our knowledge, no model checking algorithm for verification of mechanism Nash equilibria has been previously published.

Abstract: In this paper we present an explicit verification algorithm for Probabilistic Systems defining discrete time/finite state Markov Chains. We restrict ourselves to verification of Bounded PCTL formulas (BPCTL), that is, PCTL formulas in which all Until operators are bounded, possibly with different bounds. This means that we consider only paths (system runs) of bounded length. Given a Markov Chain $\cal M$ and a BPCTL formula Φ, our algorithm checks if Φ is satisfied in $\cal M$. This allows to verify important properties, such as reliability in Discrete Time Hybrid Systems. We present an implementation of our algorithm within a suitable extension of the Mur$\varphi$ verifier. We call FHP-Mur$\varphi$ (Finite Horizon Probabilistic Mur$\varphi$) such extension of the Mur$\varphi$ verifier. We give experimental results comparing FHP-Mur$\varphi$ with (a finite horizon subset of) PRISM, a state-of-the-art symbolic model checker for Markov Chains. Our experimental results show that FHP-Mur$\varphi$ can effectively handle verification of BPCTL formulas for systems that are out of reach for PRISM, namely those involving arithmetic operations on the state variables (e.g. hybrid systems).

Abstract: Automatic analysis of Hybrid Systems poses formidable challenges both from a modeling as well as from a verification point of view. We present a case study on automatic verification of a Turbogas Control System (TCS) using an extended version of the Mur$\varphi$ verifier. TCS is the heart of ICARO, a 2MW Co-generative Electric Power Plant. For large hybrid systems, as TCS is, the modeling effort accounts for a significant part of the whole verification activity. In order to ease our modeling effort we extended the Mur$\varphi$ verifier by importing the C language long double type (finite precision real numbers) into it. We give experimental results on running our extended Mur$\varphi$ on our TCS model. For example using Mur$\varphi$ we were able to compute an admissible range of values for the variation speed of the user demand of electric power to the turbogas.