976,151 research outputs found
Mechanizing Principia Logico-Metaphysica in Functional Type Theory
Principia Logico-Metaphysica contains a foundational logical theory for
metaphysics, mathematics, and the sciences. It includes a canonical development
of Abstract Object Theory [AOT], a metaphysical theory (inspired by ideas of
Ernst Mally, formalized by Zalta) that distinguishes between ordinary and
abstract objects.
This article reports on recent work in which AOT has been successfully
represented and partly automated in the proof assistant system Isabelle/HOL.
Initial experiments within this framework reveal a crucial but overlooked fact:
a deeply-rooted and known paradox is reintroduced in AOT when the logic of
complex terms is simply adjoined to AOT's specially-formulated comprehension
principle for relations. This result constitutes a new and important paradox,
given how much expressive and analytic power is contributed by having the two
kinds of complex terms in the system. Its discovery is the highlight of our
joint project and provides strong evidence for a new kind of scientific
practice in philosophy, namely, computational metaphysics.
Our results were made technically possible by a suitable adaptation of
Benzm\"uller's metalogical approach to universal reasoning by semantically
embedding theories in classical higher-order logic. This approach enables one
to reuse state-of-the-art higher-order proof assistants, such as Isabelle/HOL,
for mechanizing and experimentally exploring challenging logics and theories
such as AOT. Our results also provide a fresh perspective on the question of
whether relational type theory or functional type theory better serves as a
foundation for logic and metaphysics.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures; preprint of article with same title to appear in
The Review of Symbolic Logi
The similarity metric
A new class of distances appropriate for measuring similarity relations
between sequences, say one type of similarity per distance, is studied. We
propose a new ``normalized information distance'', based on the noncomputable
notion of Kolmogorov complexity, and show that it is in this class and it
minorizes every computable distance in the class (that is, it is universal in
that it discovers all computable similarities). We demonstrate that it is a
metric and call it the {\em similarity metric}. This theory forms the
foundation for a new practical tool. To evidence generality and robustness we
give two distinctive applications in widely divergent areas using standard
compression programs like gzip and GenCompress. First, we compare whole
mitochondrial genomes and infer their evolutionary history. This results in a
first completely automatic computed whole mitochondrial phylogeny tree.
Secondly, we fully automatically compute the language tree of 52 different
languages.Comment: 13 pages, LaTex, 5 figures, Part of this work appeared in Proc. 14th
ACM-SIAM Symp. Discrete Algorithms, 2003. This is the final, corrected,
version to appear in IEEE Trans Inform. T
An Effective Fixpoint Semantics for Linear Logic Programs
In this paper we investigate the theoretical foundation of a new bottom-up
semantics for linear logic programs, and more precisely for the fragment of
LinLog that consists of the language LO enriched with the constant 1. We use
constraints to symbolically and finitely represent possibly infinite
collections of provable goals. We define a fixpoint semantics based on a new
operator in the style of Tp working over constraints. An application of the
fixpoint operator can be computed algorithmically. As sufficient conditions for
termination, we show that the fixpoint computation is guaranteed to converge
for propositional LO. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to define an
effective fixpoint semantics for linear logic programs. As an application of
our framework, we also present a formal investigation of the relations between
LO and Disjunctive Logic Programming. Using an approach based on abstract
interpretation, we show that DLP fixpoint semantics can be viewed as an
abstraction of our semantics for LO. We prove that the resulting abstraction is
correct and complete for an interesting class of LO programs encoding Petri
Nets.Comment: 39 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic
Programmin
The moduli space of matroids
In the first part of the paper, we clarify the connections between several
algebraic objects appearing in matroid theory: both partial fields and
hyperfields are fuzzy rings, fuzzy rings are tracts, and these relations are
compatible with the respective matroid theories. Moreover, fuzzy rings are
ordered blueprints and lie in the intersection of tracts with ordered
blueprints; we call the objects of this intersection pastures.
In the second part, we construct moduli spaces for matroids over pastures. We
show that, for any non-empty finite set , the functor taking a pasture
to the set of isomorphism classes of rank- -matroids on is
representable by an ordered blue scheme , the moduli space of
rank- matroids on .
In the third part, we draw conclusions on matroid theory. A classical
rank- matroid on corresponds to a -valued point of
where is the Krasner hyperfield. Such a point defines a
residue pasture , which we call the universal pasture of . We show that
for every pasture , morphisms are canonically in bijection with
-matroid structures on .
An analogous weak universal pasture classifies weak -matroid
structures on . The unit group of can be canonically identified with
the Tutte group of . We call the sub-pasture of generated by
``cross-ratios' the foundation of ,. It parametrizes rescaling classes of
weak -matroid structures on , and its unit group is coincides with the
inner Tutte group of . We show that a matroid is regular if and only if
its foundation is the regular partial field, and a non-regular matroid is
binary if and only if its foundation is the field with two elements. This
yields a new proof of the fact that a matroid is regular if and only if it is
both binary and orientable.Comment: 83 page
Scalar Wave Equation Modeling with Time-Space Domain Dispersion-Relation-Based Staggered-Grid Finite-Difference Schemes
The staggered-grid finite-difference (SFD) method is widely used in numerical modeling of wave equations. Conventional SFD stencils for spatial derivatives are usually designed in the space domain. However, when they are used to solve wave equations, it becomes difficult to satisfy the dispersion relations exactly. Liu and Sen (2009c) proposed a new SFD scheme for one-dimensional (1D) scalar wave equation based on the time-space domain dispersion relation and plane wave theory, which is made to satisfy the exact dispersion relation. This new SFD scheme has greater accuracy and better stability than a conventional scheme under the same discretizations. In this paper, we develop this new SFD scheme further for numerical solution of 2D and 3D scalar wave equations. We demonstrate that the modeling accuracy is second order when the conventional 2M-th-order space-domain SFD and the second order time-domain finite-difference stencils are directly used to solve the scalar wave equation. However, under the same discretization, our 1D scheme can reach 2M-th-order accuracy and is always stable; 2D and 3D schemes can reach 2M-th-order accuracy along 8 and 48 directions, respectively, and have better stability. The advantages of the new schemes are also demonstrated with dispersion analysis, stability analysis, and numerical modeling.National Natural Science Foundation of China 41074100Important National Science & Technology Specific Project of China 2008ZX05024-001Institute for Geophysic
A generic competency framework for labour relations practitioners in the South African Public Service.
This article reports on the findings of a qualitative content analysis study that
explored the generic competencies required of labour relations practitioners in
the South African public service with a view to developing a generic
competency framework for these practitioners. Data were gathered through
conducting semi-structured interviews with 17 labour relations experts from
different institutions. The data were coded and categorised, and themes were
identified that characterised the participants’ experiences, perceptions and
views, providing evidence about the competencies of labour relations
practitioners. From the data, 44 competencies were identified that could be
regarded as essential to labour relations practitioners’ successful and efficient
fulfilment of their role, and these competencies were grouped into nine themes.
A generic competency framework for labour relations practitioners was
developed based on the results obtained. The findings of this study could
potentially form the foundation of new theory for the advancement, training and
development of labour relations practitioners.Human Resource Managemen
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