3,229 research outputs found
On CSP and the Algebraic Theory of Effects
We consider CSP from the point of view of the algebraic theory of effects,
which classifies operations as effect constructors or effect deconstructors; it
also provides a link with functional programming, being a refinement of Moggi's
seminal monadic point of view. There is a natural algebraic theory of the
constructors whose free algebra functor is Moggi's monad; we illustrate this by
characterising free and initial algebras in terms of two versions of the stable
failures model of CSP, one more general than the other. Deconstructors are
dealt with as homomorphisms to (possibly non-free) algebras.
One can view CSP's action and choice operators as constructors and the rest,
such as concealment and concurrency, as deconstructors. Carrying this programme
out results in taking deterministic external choice as constructor rather than
general external choice. However, binary deconstructors, such as the CSP
concurrency operator, provide unresolved difficulties. We conclude by
presenting a combination of CSP with Moggi's computational {\lambda}-calculus,
in which the operators, including concurrency, are polymorphic. While the paper
mainly concerns CSP, it ought to be possible to carry over similar ideas to
other process calculi
Actors, actions, and initiative in normative system specification
The logic of norms, called deontic logic, has been used to specify normative constraints for information systems. For example, one can specify in deontic logic the constraints that a book borrowed from a library should be returned within three weeks, and that if it is not returned, the library should send a reminder. Thus, the notion of obligation to perform an action arises naturally in system specification. Intuitively, deontic logic presupposes the concept of anactor who undertakes actions and is responsible for fulfilling obligations. However, the concept of an actor has not been formalized until now in deontic logic. We present a formalization in dynamic logic, which allows us to express the actor who initiates actions or choices. This is then combined with a formalization, presented earlier, of deontic logic in dynamic logic, which allows us to specify obligations, permissions, and prohibitions to perform an action. The addition of actors allows us to expresswho has the responsibility to perform an action. In addition to the application of the concept of an actor in deontic logic, we discuss two other applications of actors. First, we show how to generalize an approach taken up by De Nicola and Hennessy, who eliminate from CCS in favor of internal and external choice. We show that our generalization allows a more accurate specification of system behavior than is possible without it. Second, we show that actors can be used to resolve a long-standing paradox of deontic logic, called the paradox of free-choice permission. Towards the end of the paper, we discuss whether the concept of an actor can be combined with that of an object to formalize the concept of active objects
Uniform Labeled Transition Systems for Nondeterministic, Probabilistic, and Stochastic Process Calculi
Labeled transition systems are typically used to represent the behavior of
nondeterministic processes, with labeled transitions defining a one-step state
to-state reachability relation. This model has been recently made more general
by modifying the transition relation in such a way that it associates with any
source state and transition label a reachability distribution, i.e., a function
mapping each possible target state to a value of some domain that expresses the
degree of one-step reachability of that target state. In this extended
abstract, we show how the resulting model, called ULTraS from Uniform Labeled
Transition System, can be naturally used to give semantics to a fully
nondeterministic, a fully probabilistic, and a fully stochastic variant of a
CSP-like process language.Comment: In Proceedings PACO 2011, arXiv:1108.145
On the freezing of variables in random constraint satisfaction problems
The set of solutions of random constraint satisfaction problems (zero energy
groundstates of mean-field diluted spin glasses) undergoes several structural
phase transitions as the amount of constraints is increased. This set first
breaks down into a large number of well separated clusters. At the freezing
transition, which is in general distinct from the clustering one, some
variables (spins) take the same value in all solutions of a given cluster. In
this paper we study the critical behavior around the freezing transition, which
appears in the unfrozen phase as the divergence of the sizes of the
rearrangements induced in response to the modification of a variable. The
formalism is developed on generic constraint satisfaction problems and applied
in particular to the random satisfiability of boolean formulas and to the
coloring of random graphs. The computation is first performed in random tree
ensembles, for which we underline a connection with percolation models and with
the reconstruction problem of information theory. The validity of these results
for the original random ensembles is then discussed in the framework of the
cavity method.Comment: 32 pages, 7 figure
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