Automated Deduction – CADE 28

This open access book constitutes the proceeding of the 28th International Conference on Automated Deduction, CADE 28, held virtually in July 2021. The 29 full papers and 7 system descriptions presented together with 2 invited papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 76 submissions. CADE is the major forum for the presentation of research in all aspects of automated deduction, including foundations, applications, implementations, and practical experience. The papers are organized in the following topics: Logical foundations; theory and principles; implementation and application; ATP and AI; and system descriptions

Risk and Safety in Engineering Processes

This research project focused on the treatment of safety risks in railways. Existing methodologies for assessment and management of the safety risk on railways are mostly empirical and have been developed out of a need to satisfy the regulatory requirements and in response to a number of major accidents. Almost all of these processes and methodologies have been developed in support of approvals of specific products or very simple systems and do not add up to a holistic coherent methodology suited for analysis of modern, complex systems, involving many vastly different constituents (software, hardware, people, products developed in different parts of the world, etc.). The complexities of modern railway projects necessitate a new approach to risk analysis and management. At the outset, the focus of the research was on the organisation of the family of existing system analysis methodologies into a coherent, heterogeneous methodology. An extensive review of existing methodologies and processes was undertaken and is summarised in this thesis. Relationships between different methodologies and their properties were investigated seeking to define the rules for embedding these into a hierarchical nest and relating their emergent properties. Four projects were utilised as case studies for the evaluation of existing methodologies and processes and initial development. This thesis describes the methodology adopted in support of development of the System Safety Case and the structure of the document. Based on that experience and knowledge a set of high level requirements was identified for an integrated, holistic system safety analysis and management process. A framework consisting of existing and novel methodologies and processes was developed and trialled on a real life project. During the trial several gaps in the process were identified and adequate new methodologies or processes defined and implemented to complete the framework. The trial was very successful and the new framework, referred to as the Engineering Safety Case Management Process is implemented across the London Underground Upgrades Directory

Maximum risk reduction with a fixed budget in the railway industry

Decision-makers in safety-critical industries such as the railways are frequently faced with the complexity of selecting technological, procedural and operational solutions to minimise staff, passengers and third parties’ safety risks. In reality, the options for maximising risk reduction are limited by time and budget constraints as well as performance objectives. Maximising risk reduction is particularly necessary in the times of economic recession where critical services such as those on the UK rail network are not immune to budget cuts. This dilemma is further complicated by statutory frameworks stipulating ‘suitable and sufficient’ risk assessments and constraints such as ‘as low as reasonably practicable’. These significantly influence risk reduction option selection and influence their effective implementation. This thesis provides extensive research in this area and highlights the limitations of widely applied practices. These practices have limited significance on fundamental engineering principles and become impracticable when a constraint such as a fixed budget is applied – this is the current reality of UK rail network operations and risk management. This thesis identifies three main areas of weaknesses to achieving the desired objectives with current risk reduction methods as: Inaccurate, and unclear problem definition; Option evaluation and selection removed from implementation subsequently resulting in misrepresentation of risks and costs; Use of concepts and methods that are not based on fundamental engineering principles, not verifiable and with resultant sub-optimal solutions. Although not solely intended for a single industrial sector, this thesis focuses on guiding the railway risk decision-maker by providing clear categorisation of measures used on railways for risk reduction. This thesis establishes a novel understanding of risk reduction measures’ application limitations and respective strengths. This is achieved by applying ‘key generic engineering principles’ to measures employed for risk reduction. A comprehensive study of their preventive and protective capability in different configurations is presented. Subsequently, the fundamental understanding of risk reduction measures and their railway applications, the ‘cost-of-failure’ (CoF), ‘risk reduction readiness’ (RRR), ‘design-operationalprocedural-technical’ (DOPT) concepts are developed for rational and cost-effective risk reduction. These concepts are shown to be particularly relevant to cases where blind applications of economic and mathematical theories are misleading and detrimental to engineering risk management. The case for successfully implementing this framework for maximum risk reduction within a fixed budget is further strengthened by applying, for the first time in railway risk reduction applications, the dynamic programming technique based on practical railway examples

Legislative regulation of railway finance in England

Issued also as thesis (PH.D.) University of Illinois.Bibliography: p. 188-192

31th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases

Information modelling is becoming more and more important topic for researchers, designers, and users of information systems.The amount and complexity of information itself, the number of abstractionlevels of information, and the size of databases and knowledge bases arecontinuously growing. Conceptual modelling is one of the sub-areas ofinformation modelling. The aim of this conference is to bring together experts from different areas of computer science and other disciplines, who have a common interest in understanding and solving problems on information modelling and knowledge bases, as well as applying the results of research to practice. We also aim to recognize and study new areas on modelling and knowledge bases to which more attention should be paid. Therefore philosophy and logic, cognitive science, knowledge management, linguistics and management science are relevant areas, too. In the conference, there will be three categories of presentations, i.e. full papers, short papers and position papers

Strategies to modernize the land registration system in Kenya

Het landregistratiesysteem in Kenya is in 1897 tot stand gekomen om de land registratie van de blanke kolonisten te ondersteunen die in de 19e eeuw in het land kwamen. De laatste honderd jaar dat het system heeft bestaan is het grotendeels hetzelfde gebleven; de registers worden in papierformaat bewaard en de meerderheid van de processen worden handmatig uitgevoerd. Het ontbreken van een modern registratie system heeft aan de problemen van de land administratie in het land bijgedragen. De overheid heeft de noodzaak tot modernisering van het landregistratiesysteem aangegeven ter verbetering van de ondersteuning van de land administratie, ter ondersteuning van de ontwikkeling van een geïntegreerd landinformatie managementsysteem en van een nationaal ruimtelijke data infrastructuur. Echter, het hardnekkige probleem bij deze inspanningen is het gebrek aan strategiën voor een dergelijke modernizering. Deze studie draagt daarom bij aan de oplossing voor deze problemen door de volgende doelstellingen: evaluatie van het huidige landregistratiesysteem in Kenya, identificatie en analyse van zijn sterkten en zwakheden, ontwikkeling van strategieën voor de modernisering van het Keniaanse systeem en de ontwikkeling van een concept voor een modern landregistratiesysteem

Advanced Sensors for Real-Time Monitoring Applications

It is impossible to imagine the modern world without sensors, or without real-time information about almost everything—from local temperature to material composition and health parameters. We sense, measure, and process data and act accordingly all the time. In fact, real-time monitoring and information is key to a successful business, an assistant in life-saving decisions that healthcare professionals make, and a tool in research that could revolutionize the future. To ensure that sensors address the rapidly developing needs of various areas of our lives and activities, scientists, researchers, manufacturers, and end-users have established an efficient dialogue so that the newest technological achievements in all aspects of real-time sensing can be implemented for the benefit of the wider community. This book documents some of the results of such a dialogue and reports on advances in sensors and sensor systems for existing and emerging real-time monitoring applications