Accepting grammars and systems

We investigate several kinds of regulated rewriting (programmed, matrix, with regular control, ordered, and variants thereof) and of parallel rewriting mechanisms (Lindenmayer systems, uniformly limited Lindenmayer systems, limited Lindenmayer systems and scattered context grammars) as accepting devices, in contrast with the usual generating mode. In some cases, accepting mode turns out to be just as powerful as generating mode, e.g. within the grammars of the Chomsky hierarchy, within random context, regular control, L systems, uniformly limited L systems, scattered context. Most of these equivalences can be proved using a metatheorem on so-called context condition grammars. In case of matrix grammars and programmed grammars without appearance checking, a straightforward construction leads to the desired equivalence result. Interestingly, accepting devices are (strictly) more powerful than their generating counterparts in case of ordered grammars, programmed and matrix grammars with appearance checking (even programmed grammarsm with unconditional transfer), and 1lET0L systems. More precisely, if we admit erasing productions, we arrive at new characterizations of the recursivley enumerable languages, and if we do not admit them, we get new characterizations of the context-sensitive languages. Moreover, we supplement the published literature showing: - The emptiness and membership problems are recursivley solvable for generating ordered grammars, even if we admit erasing productions. - Uniformly limited propagating systems can be simulated by programmed grammars without erasing and without appearance checking, hence the emptiness and membership problems are recursively solvable for such systems. - We briefly discuss the degree of nondeterminism and the degree of synchronization for devices with limited parallelism

Optimal non-reversible linear drift for the convergence to equilibrium of a diffusion

We consider non-reversible perturbations of reversible diffusions that do not alter the invariant distribution and we ask whether there exists an optimal perturbation such that the rate of convergence to equilibrium is maximized. We solve this problem for the case of linear drift by proving the existence of such optimal perturbations and by providing an easily implementable algorithm for constructing them. We discuss in particular the role of the prefactor in the exponential convergence estimate. Our rigorous results are illustrated by numerical experiments

Mehrfach-limitierte Lindenmayer-Systeme

The theory of L systems originated with the biologist and mathematician Aristide Lindenmayer. His original goal was to provide mathematical models for the simultaneous development of cells in filamentous organisms. Since L systems may be viewed as rewriting systems, their generated languages, i.e., sets of organisms encoded by strings, are also subject to formal language theory, which aims to classify formal languages as well as their generating mechanisms according to various properties, such as generative power, decidability, etc. D. Wätjen introduced and studied k-limited L systems in order to combine the purely sequential mode of rewriting and the purely parallel mode of rewriting in context-free grammars, respectively, L systems. In biology, these systems may be interpreted as organisms, for which the simultaneous growth of cells is restricted by the supply of some resources of food being limited by some finite value k. In this thesis the constraint of a common limit k is relaxed in favor of individual resource limits k(a) for every cell-type a, which yields the new notion of multi-limited L system. The language families generated by such systems are then classified according to their sets of limits k(a). At first, an intuitive approach to the different mechanisms of the L system variants is provided by presenting a method for the graphical interpretation of L systems, the so-called turtle interpretation. Suitable computer programs implementing a turtle interpreter as well as free-programmable simulators for multi-limited, k-limited, and uniformly k-limited L systems, are developed and their source-code is appended. Subsequently, language families generated by multi-limited L systems are compared to each other, to Wätjen's k-limited as well as to non-limited language families, and to the families of the Chomsky Hierarchy. Besides asymptotically comparing the generative power of multi-limited L systems to that of the underlying non-limited L systems, also their closure properties are investigated.Der Biologe und Mathematiker Aristide Lindenmayer begründete die Theorie der L-Systeme. Das ursprüngliche Ziel dieser Theorie ist die Bereitstellung mathematischer Modelle zur Untersuchung des simultanen Zellwachstums fadenartiger Organismen. Da L-Systeme als eine Art von Ersetzungssystemen definiert sind, sind ihre erzeugten Sprachen, d.h. die Mengen der durch Zeichenketten beschriebenen Organismen, ebenfalls Gegenstand der Theorie der formalen Sprachen. Diese Theorie klassifiziert formale Sprachen sowie ihre Erzeugungsmechanismen gemäß ihrer Eigenschaften, wie z.B. Erzeugungsmächtigkeit oder Entscheidbarkeit. Als ein Sprachen-erzeugender Mechanismus, der zwischen der rein sequentiellen Ersetzung kontextfreier Grammatiken und der rein parallelen Ersetzung von L-Systemen liegt, sind k-limitierte L-Systeme von D. Wätjen eingeführt und untersucht worden. In der Biologie können diese Systeme als Organismen interpretiert werden, deren simultanes Zellwachstum beschränkt ist durch individuelle Nahrungsvorräte mit einer einheitlichen endlichen Kapazität k. Die in dieser Arbeit betrachteten mehrfach-limitierten L-Systeme bilden eine Verallgemeinerung der k-limitierten L-Systeme, indem sie für jeden Zelltyp a einen individuellen Nahrungsvorrat mit einer spezifischen Kapazität k(a) anstelle der einheitlichen Kapazität k vorsehen. Diese Arbeit führt mehrfach-limitierte L-Systeme ein und definiert eine geeignete Kategorisierung der von ihnen erzeugten Sprachfamilien anhand der erlaubten Mengen von Limits k(a). Zunächst wird ein intuitiver Zugang zu den verschiedenen Mechanismen der L-System-Varianten ermöglicht, indem eine Methode zur grafischen Interpretation von L-Systemen, die sogenannte Turtle-Interpretation, vorgestellt wird. Hierzu werden geeignete Computer-Programme für einen Turtle-Interpreter sowie für frei programmierbare Simulatoren von mehrfach-limitierten, k-limitierten sowie uniform k-limitierten L-Systemen erstellt und ihr Quell-Code zur Verfügung gestellt. Die von mehrfach-limitierten L-Systemen erzeugten Sprachfamilien werden bzgl. ihrer Inklusionseigenschaften untereinander, mit Wätjens k-limitierten Sprachfamilien, mit den nicht-limitierten Sprachfamilien sowie mit der Chomsky Hierarchie verglichen. Die Erzeugungsmächtigkeit von mehrfach-limitierten L-Systemen wird asymptotisch verglichen mit den jeweils unterliegenden nicht-limitierten L-Systemen. Des weiteren werden die Abschlusseigenschaften der mehrfach-limitierten L-Systeme untersucht

Variants of P Systems with Toxic Objects

Toxic objects have been introduced to avoid trap rules, especially in (purely) catalytic P systems. No toxic object is allowed to stay idle during a valid derivation in a P system with toxic objects. In this paper we consider special variants of toxic P systems where the set of toxic objects is prede ned { either by requiring all objects to be toxic or all catalysts to be toxic or all objects except the catalysts to be toxic. With all objects staying inside and being toxic, purely catalytic P systems cannot go beyond the nite sets, neither as generating nor as accepting systems. With allowing the output to be sent to the environment, exactly the regular sets can be generated. With non-cooperative systems with all objects being toxic we can generate exactly the Parikh sets of languages generated by extended Lindenmayer systems. Catalytic P systems with all catalysts being toxic can generate at least PsMAT

A tree grammar-based visual password scheme

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, August 31, 2015.Visual password schemes can be considered as an alternative to alphanumeric passwords. Studies have shown that alphanumeric passwords can, amongst others, be eavesdropped, shoulder surfed, or guessed, and are susceptible to brute force automated attacks. Visual password schemes use images, in place of alphanumeric characters, for authentication. For example, users of visual password schemes either select images (Cognometric) or points on an image (Locimetric) or attempt to redraw their password image (Drawmetric), in order to gain authentication. Visual passwords are limited by the so-called password space, i.e., by the size of the alphabet from which users can draw to create a password and by susceptibility to stealing of passimages by someone looking over your shoulders, referred to as shoulder surfing in the literature. The use of automatically generated highly similar abstract images defeats shoulder surfing and means that an almost unlimited pool of images is available for use in a visual password scheme, thus also overcoming the issue of limited potential password space. This research investigated visual password schemes. In particular, this study looked at the possibility of using tree picture grammars to generate abstract graphics for use in a visual password scheme. In this work, we also took a look at how humans determine similarity of abstract computer generated images, referred to as perceptual similarity in the literature. We drew on the psychological idea of similarity and matched that as closely as possible with a mathematical measure of image similarity, using Content Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) and tree edit distance measures. To this end, an online similarity survey was conducted with respondents ordering answer images in order of similarity to question images, involving 661 respondents and 50 images. The survey images were also compared with eight, state of the art, computer based similarity measures to determine how closely they model perceptual similarity. Since all the images were generated with tree grammars, the most popular measure of tree similarity, the tree edit distance, was also used to compare the images. Eight different types of tree edit distance measures were used in order to cover the broad range of tree edit distance and tree edit distance approximation methods. All the computer based similarity methods were then correlated with the online similarity survey results, to determine which ones more closely model perceptual similarity. The results were then analysed in the light of some modern psychological theories of perceptual similarity. This work represents a novel approach to the Passfaces type of visual password schemes using dynamically generated pass-images and their highly similar distractors, instead of static pictures stored in an online database. The results of the online survey were then accurately modelled using the most suitable tree edit distance measure, in order to automate the determination of similarity of our generated distractor images. The information gathered from our various experiments was then used in the design of a prototype visual password scheme. The generated images were similar, but not identical, in order to defeat shoulder surfing. This approach overcomes the following problems with this category of visual password schemes: shoulder surfing, bias in image selection, selection of easy to guess pictures and infrastructural limitations like large picture databases, network speed and database security issues. The resulting prototype developed is highly secure, resilient to shoulder surfing and easy for humans to use, and overcomes the aforementioned limitations in this category of visual password schemes

Contributions of formal language theory to the study of dialogues

For more than 30 years, the problem of providing a formal framework for modeling dialogues has been a topic of great interest for the scientific areas of Linguistics, Philosophy, Cognitive Science, Formal Languages, Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence. In the beginning the goal was to develop a "conversational computer", an automated system that could engage in a conversation in the same way as humans do. After studies showed the difficulties of achieving this goal Formal Language Theory and Artificial Intelligence have contributed to Dialogue Theory with the study and simulation of machine to machine and human to machine dialogues inspired by Linguistic studies of human interactions. The aim of our thesis is to propose a formal approach for the study of dialogues. Our work is an interdisciplinary one that connects theories and results in Dialogue Theory mainly from Formal Language Theory, but also from another areas like Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics and Multiprogramming. We contribute to Dialogue Theory by introducing a hierarchy of formal frameworks for the definition of protocols for dialogue interaction. Each framework defines a transition system in which dialogue protocols might be uniformly expressed and compared. The frameworks we propose are based on finite state transition systems and Grammar systems from Formal Language Theory and a multi-agent language for the specification of dialogue protocols from Artificial Intelligence. Grammar System Theory is a subfield of Formal Language Theory that studies how several (a finite number) of language defining devices (language processors or grammars) jointly develop a common symbolic environment (a string or a finite set of strings) by the application of language operations (for instance rewriting rules). For the frameworks we propose we study some of their formal properties, we compare their expressiveness, we investigate their practical application in Dialogue Theory and we analyze their connection with theories of human-like conversation from Linguistics. In addition we contribute to Grammar System Theory by proposing a new approach for the verification and derivation of Grammar systems. We analyze possible advantages of interpreting grammars as multiprograms that are susceptible of verification and derivation using the Owicki-Gries logic, a Hoare-based logic from the Multiprogramming field

P Systems with Randomized Right-hand Sides of Rules

P systems are a model of hierarchically compartmentalized multiset rewriting. We introduce a novel kind of P systems in which rules are dynamically constructed in each step by non-deterministic pairing of left-hand and right-hand sides. We de ne three variants of right-hand side randomization and compare each of them with the power of conventional P systems. It turns out that all three variants enable non-cooperative P systems to generate exponential (and thus non-semi-linear) number languages. We also give a binary normal form for one of the variants of P systems with randomized rule right-hand sides. Finally, we also discuss extensions of the three variants to tissue P systems, i.e., P systems on an arbitrary graph structure

Groups defined by language theoretic classes

In this thesis we shall study classes of groups defined by formal languages. Our first main topic is the class of groups defined by having an ET0L co-word problem; i.e., the class of co-ET0L groups. We show this class is closed under taking direct products and standard restricted wreath products with virtually free top groups. We also show the class is closed under passing to finite index overgroups and finitely generated subgroups. Further, we show that this class contains the free product Zn * Zm as well as Zn * G for any virtually free group G. The second topic that we consider is a new class of groups that we introduce called epiregular groups. We show that this class contains all automatic groups and the Baumslag-Solitar group BS(1,2). Further we show that the class of epiregular groups is closed under taking graph products, and passing to finite index overgroups