Elementary data structures in ALGOL-like languages

AbstractJ.C. Reynolds has pointed out that ALGOL 60 has a set of properties not shared by most of the languages usually regarded as being its successors. We propose to use this ALGOL-like framework to design a language that could adequately support both applicative and imperative programming while also retaining the advantages of each of the “pure” frameworks. This paper discusses elementary data-structuring facilities (products, arrays, sums) for such a language, taking advantage of recent developments, such as this author's “quantification” notation, and the notion of “conjunctive type” proposed by Coppo and Dezani, and adapted to explicitly-typed languages by Reynolds

Universal neural field computation

Turing machines and G\"odel numbers are important pillars of the theory of computation. Thus, any computational architecture needs to show how it could relate to Turing machines and how stable implementations of Turing computation are possible. In this chapter, we implement universal Turing computation in a neural field environment. To this end, we employ the canonical symbologram representation of a Turing machine obtained from a G\"odel encoding of its symbolic repertoire and generalized shifts. The resulting nonlinear dynamical automaton (NDA) is a piecewise affine-linear map acting on the unit square that is partitioned into rectangular domains. Instead of looking at point dynamics in phase space, we then consider functional dynamics of probability distributions functions (p.d.f.s) over phase space. This is generally described by a Frobenius-Perron integral transformation that can be regarded as a neural field equation over the unit square as feature space of a dynamic field theory (DFT). Solving the Frobenius-Perron equation yields that uniform p.d.f.s with rectangular support are mapped onto uniform p.d.f.s with rectangular support, again. We call the resulting representation \emph{dynamic field automaton}.Comment: 21 pages; 6 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1204.546

Formal verification of a memory model for C-like imperative languages

http://www.springer.com/International audienceThis paper presents a formal verification with the Coq proof assistant of a memory model for C-like imperative languages. This model defines the memory layout and the operations that manage the memory. The model has been specified at two levels of abstraction and implemented as part of an ongoing certification in Coq of a moderately-optimising C compiler. Many properties of the memory have been verified in the specification. They facilitate the definition of precise formal semantics of C pointers. A certified OCaml code implementing the memory model has been automatically extracted from the specifications

A historical perspective on the discovery of statins

Cholesterol is essential for the functioning of all human organs, but it is nevertheless the cause of coronary heart disease. Over the course of nearly a century of investigation, scientists have developed several lines of evidence that establish the causal connection between blood cholesterol, atherosclerosis, and coronary heart disease. Building on that knowledge, scientists and the pharmaceutical industry have successfully developed a remarkably effective class of drugs—the statins—that lower cholesterol levels in blood and reduce the frequency of heart attacks

Princeples of Programming Languages

xiii 272 hal.; ill.; 24 cm

Principles of programming languages

xiv+271hlm.;23c

Monoidal Indeterminates and Categories of Possible Worlds

AbstractGiven any symmetric monoidal category C, a small symmetric monoidal category Σ and a strong monoidal functor j:Σ→C, it is shown how to construct C[x:jΣ], a polynomial such category, the result of freely adjoining to C a system x of monoidal indeterminates for every object j(w) with w∈Σ satisfying a naturality constraint with the arrows of Σ. As a special case, we show how to construct the free co-affine category (symmetric monoidal category with initial unit) on a given small symmetric monoidal category. It is then shown that all the known categories of “possible worlds” used to treat languages that allow for dynamic creation of “new” variables, locations, or names are in fact instances of this construction and hence have appropriate universality properties