Delta-4 is a 5-nation, 13-partner project that has been investigating the achievement of dependability in open distributed systems, including real-time systems. This book describes the design and validation of the distributed fault-tolerant architecture developed within this project. The key features of the Delta-4 architecture are: (a) a distributed object-oriented application support environment; (b) built-in support for user-transparent fault tolerance; (c) use of multicast or group communication protocols; and (d) use of standard off the-shelf processors and standard local area network technology with minimum specialized hardware. The book is organized as follows: The first 3 chapters give an overview of the architecture's objectives and of the architecture itself, and compare the proposed solutions with other approaches. Chapters 4 to 12 give a more detailed insight into the Delta-4 architectural concepts. Chapters 4 and 5 are devoted to providing a firm set of general concepts and terminology regarding dependable and real-time computing. Chapter 6 is centred on fault-tolerance techniques based on distribution. The description of the architecture itself commences with a description of the Delta-4 application support environment (Deltase) in chapter 7. Two variants of the architecture - the Delta-4 Open System Architecture (OSA) and the Delta-4 Extra Performance Architecture (XPA) - are described respectively in chapters 8 and 9. Both variants of the architecture have a common underlying basis for dependable multicasting, i. e.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second European Dependable Computing Conference, EDCC-2, held in Taormina, Italy, in October 1996. The book presents 26 revised full papers selected from a total of 66 submissions based on the reviews of 146 referees. The papers are organized in sections on distributed fault tolerance, fault injection, modelling and evaluation, fault-tolerant design, basic hardware models, testing, verification, replication and distribution, and system level diagnosis.

This volume presents the proceedings of the second European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS 92), held in Toulouse in November 1992. The aim of this symposium is to further the progress of research in computer security by bringing together researchers in this area, by promoting the exchange of ideas with system developers, and by encouraging links with researchers in areas related to computer science, informationtheory, and artificial intelligence. The volume contains 24 papers organizedinto sections on access control, formal methods, authentication, distributed systems, database security, system architectures, and applications. ESORICS 92 was organized by AFCET (Association francaise des sciences et technologies de l'information et des syst mes) in cooperation with a large number of national and international societies and institutes.

Design and Analysis of Distributed Embedded Systems is organized similar to the conference. Chapters 1 and 2 deal with specification methods and their analysis while Chapter 6 concentrates on timing and performance analysis. Chapter 3 describes approaches to system verification at different levels of abstraction. Chapter 4 deals with fault tolerance and detection. Middleware and software reuse aspects are treated in Chapter 5. Chapters 7 and 8 concentrate on the distribution related topics such as partitioning, scheduling and communication. The book closes with a chapter on design methods and frameworks.

This book summarizes the current knowledge on a cascade of gene regulation levels which operate in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells and which has until recently been poorly understood. While transcriptional control of eukaryotic genes has been extensively researched and the understanding of this process has reached very sophisticated levels, post- transcriptional control has received much less attention. As the contributions in this book demonstrate, not only is post-transcriptional control in eukaryotes better understood, it is now thought to be a major player in gene expression control in a number of key processes, i.e. control of cell proliferation, gametogenesis and early development or cellular homeostasis.

It was with great pleasure that, on behalf of the entire organizing committee, I welcomed participants to EDCC-4, the Fourth European Dependable Computing Conference, held for the ?rst time in France. The fourth issue of EDCC carried on the traditions established bythe previous conferences in this series: EDCC-1 was held in Berlin (Germany) in October 1994, EDCC-2 in Taormina (Italy) in October 1996, and EDCC-3 in Prague (Czech Republic) in September 1999. EDCC evolved from a merger of tow other conference series at the moment when the Iron Curtain fell. One of these, known as the ”International Conf- ence on Fault-Tolerant Computing Systems”, was organized during the period 1982–1991, bythe German Technical Interest Group ”Fault-Tolerant Computing Systems”. The other series, known as the ”International Conference on Fault- Tolerant Systems and Diagnostics”, was organized during the period 1975–1990 in the former Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, and the former GDR. The c- position of the EDCC steering committee and the organizing committees of the successive issues of the conference have mirrored the East–West uni?cation ch- acter of the conference series. The EDCC conference is becoming a unique meeting point for researchers and practitioners from all over the world in the ?eld of Dependable Systems. It is organized bythe SEE Working Group ”Dependable Computing” in France, the GI/ITG/GMA Technical Committee on Dependabilityand Fault Tolerance in Germany, and the AICA Working Group ”Dependability of Computer Systems” in Italy. Furthermore, committees of several global professional organizations, such as IEEE and IFIP, support the conference.

As software systems become ubiquitous, the issues of dependability become more and more critical. Given that solutions to these issues must be taken into account from the very beginning of the design process, it is appropriate that dependability is addressed at the architectural level. This book results from an effort to bring together the research communities of software architectures and dependability. Inspired by the ICSE 2003 Workshop on Software Architectures for Dependable Systems, the book focuses on topics relevant to improving the state of the art in architecting dependable systems. The 15 thoroughly reviewed papers originate partly from the workshop; others were solicited in order to achieve complete coverage of all relevant aspects. The papers are organized into topical sections on architectures for dependability, fault-tolerance in software architectures, dependability analysis in software architectures, and industrial experience.