7,414 research outputs found
Capturing Assumptions while Designing a Verification Model for Embedded Systems
A formal proof of a system correctness typically holds under a number of assumptions. Leaving them implicit raises the chance of using the system in a context that violates some assumptions, which in return may invalidate the correctness proof. The goal of this paper is to show how combining informal and formal techniques in the process of modelling and formal verification helps capturing these assumptions. As we focus on embedded systems, the assumptions are about the control software, the system on which the software is running and the systemās environment. We present them as a list written in natural language that supplements the formally verified embedded system model. These two together are a better argument for system correctness than each of these given separately
Obtaining Formal Models through Non-Monotonic Refinement
When designing a model for formal verification, we want to\ud
be certain that what we proved about the model also holds for the system we modelled. This raises the question of whether our model represents the system, and what makes us confident about this. By performing so called, non-monotonic refinement in the modelling process, we make the steps and decisions explicit. This helps us to (1) increase the confidence that the model represents the system, (2) structure and organize the communication with domain experts and the problem owner, and (3) identify rational steps made while modelling. We focus on embedded control systems
Winning Cores in Parity Games
We introduce the novel notion of winning cores in parity games and develop a
deterministic polynomial-time under-approximation algorithm for solving parity
games based on winning core approximation. Underlying this algorithm are a
number properties about winning cores which are interesting in their own right.
In particular, we show that the winning core and the winning region for a
player in a parity game are equivalently empty. Moreover, the winning core
contains all fatal attractors but is not necessarily a dominion itself.
Experimental results are very positive both with respect to quality of
approximation and running time. It outperforms existing state-of-the-art
algorithms significantly on most benchmarks
The GED
The General Educational Development (GED) credential is issued on the basis of an eight hour subject-based test. The test claims to establish equivalence between dropouts and traditional high school graduates, opening the door to college and positions in the labor market. In 2008 alone, almost 500,000 dropouts passed the test, amounting to 12% of all high school credentials issued in that year. This chapter reviews the academic literature on the GED, which finds minimal value of the certificate in terms of labor market outcomes and that only a few individuals successfully use it as a path to obtain post-secondary credentials. Although the GED establishes cognitive equivalence on one measure of scholastic aptitude, recipients still face limited opportunity due to deficits in noncognitive skills such as persistence, motivation and reliability. The literature finds that the GED testing program distorts social statistics on high school completion rates, minority graduation gaps, and sources of wage growth. Recent work demonstrates that, through its availability and low cost, the GED also induces some students to drop out of school. The GED program is unique to the United States and Canada, but provides policy insight relevant to any nation's educational context.returns to education, GED, dropouts, graduation rate, noncognitive skills
How Do StateāBusiness Relations Shape Sustainable Development?
The achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals will depend on the ways in which states and businesses engage with one another. While stateābusiness interactions can take many forms, they inherently involve processes of negotiation through which actors in both camps pursue their own interests. Successfully accelerating sustainability, generating inclusion or reducing inequalities will depend on whether such negotiations build on and support interdependencies, create trust, and develop shared ideas about challenges and potential solutions. But the factors that determine the nature and outcomes of stateābusiness relations are not yet well-enough understood, particularly in relation to goals beyond economic growth, where trade-offs are often more apparent.UK Department for International Developmen
Enhancement of perfluorooctanoate and perfluorooctanesulfonate activity at acoustic cavitation bubble interfaces
Acoustic cavitation driven by ultrasonic irradiation decomposes and mineralizes the recalcitrant perfluorinated surfactants perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA). Pyrolytic cleavage of the ionic headgroup is the rate-determining step. In this study, we examine the sonochemical adsorption of PFOX, where X = S for PFOS and A for PFOA, by determining kinetic order and absolute rates over an initial PFOX concentration range of 20 nM to 200 Ī¼M. Sonochemical PFOX kinetics transition from pseudo-first-order at low initial concentrations, [PFOX]_i 40 Ī¼M, as the bubble interface sites are saturated. At PFOX concentrations below 100 Ī¼M, concentration-dependent rates were modeled with LangmuirāHinshelwood (LH) kinetics. Empirically determined rate maximums, V_(Max)^(āPFOA) = 2230 Ā± 560 nM min^ā1 and V_(Max)^(āPFOS) = 230 Ā± 60 nM min^ā1, were used in the LH model, and sonochemical surface activities were estimated to be K_(Sono)^(PFOS) = 120000 M^ā1 and K_(Sono)^(PFOA) = 28500 M^ā1, 60 and 80 times greater than equilibrium surface activities, K_(Eq)^(PFOS) and K_(Eq)^(PFOA). These results suggest enhanced sonochemical degradation rates for PFOX when the bubble interface is undersaturated. The present results are compared to previously reported sonochemical kinetics of nonvolatile surfactants
Abrupt grain boundary melting in ice
The effect of impurities on the grain boundary melting of ice is investigated
through an extension of Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek theory, in which we
include retarded potential effects in a calculation of the full frequency
dependent van der Waals and Coulombic interactions within a grain boundary. At
high dopant concentrations the classical solutal effect dominates the melting
behavior. However, depending on the amount of impurity and the surface charge
density, as temperature decreases, the attractive tail of the dispersion force
interaction begins to compete effectively with the repulsive screened Coulomb
interaction. This leads to a film-thickness/temperature curve that changes
depending on the relative strengths of these interactions and exhibits a
decrease in the film thickness with increasing impurity level. More striking is
the fact that at very large film thicknesses, the repulsive Coulomb interaction
can be effectively screened leading to an abrupt reduction to zero film
thickness.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur
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