45,873 research outputs found
Homeomorphic Embedding for Online Termination of Symbolic Methods
Well-quasi orders in general, and homeomorphic embedding in particular, have gained popularity to ensure the termination of techniques for program analysis, specialisation, transformation, and verification. In this paper we survey and discuss this use of homeomorphic embedding and clarify the advantages of such an approach over one using well-founded orders. We also discuss various extensions of the homeomorphic embedding relation. We conclude with a study of homeomorphic embedding in the context of metaprogramming, presenting some new (positive and negative) results and open problems
Flow Logic
Flow networks have attracted a lot of research in computer science. Indeed,
many questions in numerous application areas can be reduced to questions about
flow networks. Many of these applications would benefit from a framework in
which one can formally reason about properties of flow networks that go beyond
their maximal flow. We introduce Flow Logics: modal logics that treat flow
functions as explicit first-order objects and enable the specification of rich
properties of flow networks. The syntax of our logic BFL* (Branching Flow
Logic) is similar to the syntax of the temporal logic CTL*, except that atomic
assertions may be flow propositions, like or , for
, which refer to the value of the flow in a vertex, and
that first-order quantification can be applied both to paths and to flow
functions. We present an exhaustive study of the theoretical and practical
aspects of BFL*, as well as extensions and fragments of it. Our extensions
include flow quantifications that range over non-integral flow functions or
over maximal flow functions, path quantification that ranges over paths along
which non-zero flow travels, past operators, and first-order quantification of
flow values. We focus on the model-checking problem and show that it is
PSPACE-complete, as it is for CTL*. Handling of flow quantifiers, however,
increases the complexity in terms of the network to , even
for the LFL and BFL fragments, which are the flow-counterparts of LTL and CTL.
We are still able to point to a useful fragment of BFL* for which the
model-checking problem can be solved in polynomial time. Finally, we introduce
and study the query-checking problem for BFL*, where under-specified BFL*
formulas are used for network exploration
Organization Development for Social Change
The field of organization development (OD) has emerged from efforts to improve the performance of organizations, largely in the for-profit sector but more recently in the public and not-for-profit sectors as well. This paper examines how OD concepts and tools can be used to solve problems and foster constructive change at the societal level as well. It examines four areas in which OD can make such contributions: (1) strengthening social change-focused organizations, (2) scaling up the impacts of such agencies, (3) creating new inter-organizational systems, and (4) changing contexts that shape the action of actors strategic to social change. It discusses examples and the kinds of change agent roles and interventions that are important for each. Finally, it discusses some implications for organization development intervention, practitioners, and the field at large.This publication is Hauser Center Working Paper No. 25. The Hauser Center Working Paper Series was launched during the summer of 2000. The Series enables the Hauser Center to share with a broad audience important works-in-progress written by Hauser Center scholars and researchers
On Deciding Local Theory Extensions via E-matching
Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) solvers incorporate decision procedures
for theories of data types that commonly occur in software. This makes them
important tools for automating verification problems. A limitation frequently
encountered is that verification problems are often not fully expressible in
the theories supported natively by the solvers. Many solvers allow the
specification of application-specific theories as quantified axioms, but their
handling is incomplete outside of narrow special cases.
In this work, we show how SMT solvers can be used to obtain complete decision
procedures for local theory extensions, an important class of theories that are
decidable using finite instantiation of axioms. We present an algorithm that
uses E-matching to generate instances incrementally during the search,
significantly reducing the number of generated instances compared to eager
instantiation strategies. We have used two SMT solvers to implement this
algorithm and conducted an extensive experimental evaluation on benchmarks
derived from verification conditions for heap-manipulating programs. We believe
that our results are of interest to both the users of SMT solvers as well as
their developers
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