Library abstraction for C/C++ concurrency

When constructing complex concurrent systems, abstraction is vital: programmers should be able to reason about concurrent libraries in terms of abstract specifications that hide the implementation details. Relaxed memory models present substantial challenges in this respect, as libraries need not provide sequentially consistent abstractions: to avoid unnecessary synchronisation, they may allow clients to observe relaxed memory effects, and library specifications must capture these. In this paper, we propose a criterion for sound library abstraction in the new C11 and C++11 concurrency model, generalising the standard sequentially consistent notion of linearizability. We prove that our criterion soundly captures all client-library interactions, both through call and return values, and through the subtle synchronisation effects arising from the memory model. To illustrate our approach, we verify implementations against specifications for the lock-free Treiber stack and a producer-consumer queue. Ours is the first approach to compositional reasoning for concurrent C11/C++11 programs. 1

Grammars with two-sided contexts

In a recent paper (M. Barash, A. Okhotin, "Defining contexts in context-free grammars", LATA 2012), the authors introduced an extension of the context-free grammars equipped with an operator for referring to the left context of the substring being defined. This paper proposes a more general model, in which context specifications may be two-sided, that is, both the left and the right contexts can be specified by the corresponding operators. The paper gives the definitions and establishes the basic theory of such grammars, leading to a normal form and a parsing algorithm working in time O(n^4), where n is the length of the input string.Comment: In Proceedings AFL 2014, arXiv:1405.527

Stream Productivity by Outermost Termination

Streams are infinite sequences over a given data type. A stream specification is a set of equations intended to define a stream. A core property is productivity: unfolding the equations produces the intended stream in the limit. In this paper we show that productivity is equivalent to termination with respect to the balanced outermost strategy of a TRS obtained by adding an additional rule. For specifications not involving branching symbols balancedness is obtained for free, by which tools for proving outermost termination can be used to prove productivity fully automatically

Borel Ranks and Wadge Degrees of Context Free Omega Languages

We show that, from a topological point of view, considering the Borel and the Wadge hierarchies, 1-counter B\"uchi automata have the same accepting power than Turing machines equipped with a B\"uchi acceptance condition. In particular, for every non null recursive ordinal alpha, there exist some Sigma^0_alpha-complete and some Pi^0_alpha-complete omega context free languages accepted by 1-counter B\"uchi automata, and the supremum of the set of Borel ranks of context free omega languages is the ordinal gamma^1_2 which is strictly greater than the first non recursive ordinal. This very surprising result gives answers to questions of H. Lescow and W. Thomas [Logical Specifications of Infinite Computations, In:"A Decade of Concurrency", LNCS 803, Springer, 1994, p. 583-621]

Development of an infrared imaging system for the surface tension driven convection experiment

An infrared imaging system is used to quantify the imposed surface temperature distribution along a liquid/gas free surface in support of the Surface Tension Driven Convection Experiment, a planned Space Transportation System flight experiment. For ground-based work a commercially available instrument was used to determine the feasibility of using this type of imaging system for this experiment. The ground-based work was used as a baseline for compiling specifications for a flight qualified imager to be designed, fabricated, tested and qualified for flight. The requirements and the specifications for the flight model are given along with the reasons for departures from the ground-based equipment. The flight qualification requirements discussed are a representative sample of the necessary procedures which must be followed to flight qualify diagnostic equipment for use aboard the STS. The potential problems and concerns associated with operating an imaging system on orbit are also discussed

Development of an infrared imaging system for the surface tension driven convection experiment

An infrared imaging system is used to quantify the imposed surface temperature distribution along a liquid/gas free surface in support of the Surface Tension Driven Convection Experiment, a planned Space Transportation System flight experiment. For ground-based work a commercially available instrument was used to determine the feasibility of using the type of imaging system for this experiment. The ground-based work was used as a baseline for compiling specifications for a flight qualified imager to be designed, fabricated, tested and qualified for flight. The requirements and specifications for the flight model are given along with the reasons for departures from the ground-based equipment. The flight qualification requirements discussed are a representative sample of the necessary procedures which must be followed to flight qualify diagnostic equipment for use aboard the STS. The potential problems and concerns associated with operating an imaging system in orbit are also discussed

ADDITIVE VERSUS PROPORTIONAL PEST DAMAGE FUNCTIONS: WHY ECOLOGY MATTERS

Economic analyses of pests typically assume damage is either additively separable from pest free yield or proportional to it. This paper describes the ecological assumptions required for additive and proportional damage functions to demonstrate that both specifications are reasonable. Ecological research supports a proportional damage function for competitive pests such as weeds, while for insect pests the appropriate damage function depends on the level of pest free yield. Theoretical analysis identifies differences between additive and proportional damage functions in terms of the impact of pest control on output variance and the concavity of output in the pest control input.Pest Economics, Damage Function, Damage Control, Risk Reducing Input, Increasing Returns, Functional Response, Crop Production/Industries, Environmental Economics and Policy,