Open and Branching Behavioral Synthesis with Scenario Clauses

The Software Engineering community has identified behavioral specification as one of the main challenges to be addressed for the transference of formal verification techniques such as model checking. In particular, expressivity of the specification language is a key factor, especially when dealing with Open Systems and controllability of events and branching time behavior reasoning. In this work, we propose the Feather Weight Visual Scenarios (FVS) language as an appealing declarative and formal verification tool to specify and synthesize the expected behavior of systems. FVS can express linear and branching properties in closed and Open systems. The validity of our approach is proved by employing FVS in complex, complete, and industrial relevant case studies, showing the flexibility and expressive power of FVS, which constitute the crucial features that distinguish our approach.

Amygdala: Neuroanatomical and Morphophysiological Features in Terms of Neurological and Neurodegenerative Diseases

The amygdala is one of the most discussed structures of the brain. Correlations between its level of activity, size, biochemical organization, and various pathologies are the subject of many studies, and can serve as a marker of existing or future disease. It is hypothesized that the amygdala is not just a structural unit, but includes many other regions in the brain. In this review, we present the updated neuroanatomical and physiological aspects of the amygdala, discussing its involvement in neurodegenerative and neurological diseases. The amygdala plays an important role in the processing of input signals and behavioral synthesis. Lesions in the amygdala have been shown to cause neurological disfunction of ranging severity. Abnormality in the amygdala leads to conditions such as depression, anxiety, autism, and also promotes biochemical and physiological imbalance. The amygdala collects pathological proteins, and this fact can be considered to play a big role in the progression and diagnosis of many degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Lewy body diseases, and hippocampal sclerosis. The amygdala has shown to play a crucial role as a central communication system in the brain, therefore understanding its neuroanatomical and physiological features can open a channel for targeted therapy of neurodegenerative diseases.