A Methodology for Automated Verification of Rosetta Specification Transformations

The Rosetta system-level design language is a specification language created to support design and analysis of heterogeneous models at varying levels of abstraction. These abstraction levels are represented in Rosetta as domains, specifying a particular semantic vocabulary and modeling style. The following dissertation proposes a framework, semantics and methodology for automated verification of safety preservation over specification transformations between domains. Utilizing the ideas of lattice theory, abstract interpretation and category theory we define the semantics of a Rosetta domain as well as safety of specification transformations between domains using Galois connections and functors. With the help of Isabelle, a higher order logic theorem prover, we verify the existence of Galois connections between Rosetta domains as well as safety of transforming specifications between these domains. The following work overviews the semantic infrastructure required to construct the Rosetta domain lattice and provides a methodology for verification of transformations within the lattice

Mastering Heterogeneous Behavioural Models

Heterogeneity is one important feature of complex systems, leading to the complexity of their construction and analysis. Moving the heterogeneity at model level helps in mastering the difficulty of composing heterogeneous models which constitute a large system. We propose a method made of an algebra and structure morphisms to deal with the interaction of behavioural models, provided that they are compatible. We prove that heterogeneous models can interact in a safe way, and therefore complex heterogeneous systems can be built and analysed incrementally. The Uppaal tool is targeted for experimentations.Comment: 16 pages, a short version to appear in MEDI'201

An Institutional Framework for Heterogeneous Formal Development in UML

We present a framework for formal software development with UML. In contrast to previous approaches that equip UML with a formal semantics, we follow an institution based heterogeneous approach. This can express suitable formal semantics of the different UML diagram types directly, without the need to map everything to one specific formalism (let it be first-order logic or graph grammars). We show how different aspects of the formal development process can be coherently formalised, ranging from requirements over design and Hoare-style conditions on code to the implementation itself. The framework can be used to verify consistency of different UML diagrams both horizontally (e.g., consistency among various requirements) as well as vertically (e.g., correctness of design or implementation w.r.t. the requirements)

Components Interoperability through Mediating Connector Patterns

A key objective for ubiquitous environments is to enable system interoperability between system's components that are highly heterogeneous. In particular, the challenge is to embed in the system architecture the necessary support to cope with behavioral diversity in order to allow components to coordinate and communicate. The continuously evolving environment further asks for an automated and on-the-fly approach. In this paper we present the design building blocks for the dynamic and on-the-fly interoperability between heterogeneous components. Specifically, we describe an Architectural Pattern called Mediating Connector, that is the key enabler for communication. In addition, we present a set of Basic Mediator Patterns, that describe the basic mismatches which can occur when components try to interact, and their corresponding solutions.Comment: In Proceedings WCSI 2010, arXiv:1010.233

Heterogeneous biomedical database integration using a hybrid strategy: a p53 cancer research database.

Complex problems in life science research give rise to multidisciplinary collaboration, and hence, to the need for heterogeneous database integration. The tumor suppressor p53 is mutated in close to 50% of human cancers, and a small drug-like molecule with the ability to restore native function to cancerous p53 mutants is a long-held medical goal of cancer treatment. The Cancer Research DataBase (CRDB) was designed in support of a project to find such small molecules. As a cancer informatics project, the CRDB involved small molecule data, computational docking results, functional assays, and protein structure data. As an example of the hybrid strategy for data integration, it combined the mediation and data warehousing approaches. This paper uses the CRDB to illustrate the hybrid strategy as a viable approach to heterogeneous data integration in biomedicine, and provides a design method for those considering similar systems. More efficient data sharing implies increased productivity, and, hopefully, improved chances of success in cancer research. (Code and database schemas are freely downloadable, http://www.igb.uci.edu/research/research.html.)

The Knowledge Level in Cognitive Architectures: Current Limitations and Possible Developments

In this paper we identify and characterize an analysis of two problematic aspects affecting the representational level of cognitive architectures (CAs), namely: the limited size and the homogeneous typology of the encoded and processed knowledge. We argue that such aspects may constitute not only a technological problem that, in our opinion, should be addressed in order to build articial agents able to exhibit intelligent behaviours in general scenarios, but also an epistemological one, since they limit the plausibility of the comparison of the CAs' knowledge representation and processing mechanisms with those executed by humans in their everyday activities. In the final part of the paper further directions of research will be explored, trying to address current limitations and future challenges

A Semantic Collaboration Method Based on Uniform Knowledge Graph

The Semantic Internet of Things is the extension of the Internet of Things and the Semantic Web, which aims to build an interoperable collaborative system to solve the heterogeneous problems in the Internet of Things. However, the Semantic Internet of Things has the characteristics of both the Internet of Things and the Semantic Web environment, and the corresponding semantic data presents many new data features. In this study, we analyze the characteristics of semantic data and propose the concept of a uniform knowledge graph, allowing us to be applied to the environment of the Semantic Internet of Things better. Here, we design a semantic collaboration method based on a uniform knowledge graph. It can take the uniform knowledge graph as the form of knowledge organization and representation, and provide a useful data basis for semantic collaboration by constructing semantic links to complete semantic relation between different data sets, to achieve the semantic collaboration in the Semantic Internet of Things. Our experiments show that the proposed method can analyze and understand the semantics of user requirements better and provide more satisfactory outcomes