Search

Search and optimization are generally considered as tasks to be performed on a digital computer. Computers are finite objects, and even when the spaces being searched are nominally infinite, such as the real numbers, the actual search is limited to finite representations. Thus it is reasonable for a mathematical analysis of search and optimization to begin in finite spaces, where the connection to computational methods is most readily apparent. The formalism to be presented over the next several chapters will address optimization within arbitrary Hausdorff topological spaces. Such spaces are perhaps unfamiliar to many students of heuristic-driven optimization, and hence this chapter provides a concrete grounding of the ideas motivating the more abstract formulation to follow in Chapters 6, 8 and 9.

In one perspective, the main theme of this research revolves around the inverse problem in the context of general rough sets that concerns the existence of rough basis for given approximations in a context. Granular operator spaces and variants were recently introduced by the present author as an optimal framework for anti-chain based algebraic semantics of general rough sets and the inverse problem. In the framework, various sub-types of crisp and non-crisp objects are identifiable that may be missed in more restrictive formalism. This is also because in the latter cases concepts of complementation and negation are taken for granted - while in reality they have a complicated dialectical basis. This motivates a general approach to dialectical rough sets building on previous work of the present author and figures of opposition. In this paper dialectical rough logics are invented from a semantic perspective, a concept of dialectical predicates is formalized, connection with dialetheias and glutty negation are established, parthood analyzed and studied from the viewpoint of classical and dialectical figures of opposition by the present author. The proposed method become more geometrical and encompass parthood as a primary relation (as opposed to roughly equivalent objects) for algebraic semantics.

We propose a new formula to explain circular velocity profiles of spiral galaxies obtained from the Starobinsky model in Palatini formalism. It is based on the assumption that the gravity can be described by two conformally related metrics: one of them is responsible for the measurement of distances, while the other so-called dark metric, is responsible for a geodesic equation and therefore can be used for the description of the velocity profile. The formula is tested against a subset of galaxies taken from the HI Nearby Galaxy Survey (THINGS)., 6 two-collumn pages, 2 figures, 1 table; Major changes in v2; version to match the published one in Eur. Phys. J. C

This chapter explains the importance and application of the theoretical formalism and surface structure simulation tools.

Transition systems are a powerful formalism, which is widely used for process model representation. A number of approaches were proposed in the process mining field to tackle the problem of constructing transition systems from event logs. Existing approaches discover transition systems that are either too large or too small. In this paper we propose an original approach to discover transition systems that perfectly fit event logs and whose size is adjustable depending on the user’s need. The proposed approach allows the ability to achieve a required balance between simple and precise models.

In this chapter, we discuss the coupling to the electromagnetic radiation field semiclassically and derive the transition rates for absorption and induced emission in the dipole approximation. We compare with the fully quantized treatment and derive the rate of spontaneous fluorescence. We introduce the Condon approximation for optical transitions. The Franck–Condon-weighted density of states is formulated with the time-correlation function formalism. We discuss the generation of pure Born–Oppenheimer states with very short excitation pulses. Finally, we consider radiationless transitions.

We introduce heap automata, a formalism for automatic reasoning about robustness properties of the symbolic heap fragment of separation logic with user-defined inductive predicates. Robustness properties, such as satisfiability, reachability, and acyclicity, are important for a wide range of reasoning tasks in automated program analysis and verification based on separation logic. Previously, such properties have appeared in many places in the separation logic literature, but have not been studied in a systematic manner. In this paper, we develop an algorithmic framework based on heap automata that allows us to derive asymptotically optimal decision procedures for a wide range of robustness properties in a uniform way.

In f-electron systems, the spin and orbital degrees of freedom are coupled through strong spin–orbit interaction to form a J-multiplet. The J-multiplet is further split into several crystalline electric field levels, where each level has its own electric and magnetic characters. In such cases, it is appropriate to describe the electronic degrees of freedom in terms of multipole moments. Actually in f-electron systems, there are cases where higher order multipole moments order by themselves and play important roles in their physical properties. In this chapter, we start by explaining the basic concept and usage of multipole moments. It is especially important to understand electric and magnetic multipole moments are coupled in magnetic fields. After explaining how the multipole moments are involved in the formalism of resonant X-ray scattering, we describe some typical experimental cases, where resonant X-ray diffraction has played a conclusive role.

In quantum mechanics, the state reduction due to a measurement is called the collapse of a wavefunction. Its study is often perceived as a somewhat mystical phenomenon because of the lack of proper understanding. As a result, the formalism for the state reduction is often somewhat inadequately presented. However, as will be explained in Sect. 7.1, the state reduction due to a measurement follows automatically from the formulation of quantum mechanics, as described in Sect. 1.2. Starting with the formulation of quantum mechanics given in Sects. 1.2 and 1.4, we give a detailed formulation of the state reduction due to a measurement. In Sect. 7.2, we discuss the relation with the uncertainty relation using these concepts. Finally, in Sect. 7.4, we propose a measurement with negligible state reduction.

This is an introduction to the models of accretion discs around black holes. After a presentation of the nonrelativistic equations describing the structure and evolution of geometrically thin accretion discs, we discuss their steady-state solutions and compare them to observation. Next, we describe in detail the thermal–viscous disc instability model and its application to dwarf novae for which it was designed and its X-ray irradiated disc version which explains the soft X-ray transients, i.e. outbursting black hole low-mass X-ray binaries. We then turn to the role of advection in accretion flows onto black holes illustrating its action and importance with a toy model describing both ADAFs and slim discs. We conclude with a presentation of the general-relativistic formalism describing accretion discs in the Kerr spacetime.

In this work we show that the causal behaviour of any bounded Petri net is definable in monadic second order MSO logic. Our proof relies in a definability vs recognizability result for DAGs whose edges and vertices can be covered by a constant number of paths. Our notion of recognizability is defined in terms of saturated slice automata, a formalism for the specification of infinite families of graphs. We show that a family $$\mathfrak {G}$$ of k-coverable DAGs is recognizable by a saturated slice automaton if and only if $$\mathfrak {G}$$ is definable in monadic second order logic. This result generalizes Buchi's theorem from the context of strings, to the context of k-coverable DAGs.

This chapter provides the calculated N2- and O2-broadening coefficients of triatomic HD16O (H16OD) molecule obtained from complex Robert-Bonamy formalism.

We introduce a formalism modelling communication of distributed agents strictly in continuous-time. Within this framework, we study the problem of synthesising local strategies for individual agents such that a specified set of goal states is reached, or reached with at least a given probability. The flow of time is modelled explicitly based on continuous-time randomness, with two natural implications: First, the non-determinism stemming from interleaving disappears. Second, when we restrict to a subclass of non-urgent models, the quantitative value problem for two players can be solved in EXPTIME. Indeed, the explicit continuous time enables players to communicate their states by delaying synchronisation (which is unrestricted for non-urgent models). In general, the problems are undecidable already for two players in the quantitative case and three players in the qualitative case. The qualitative undecidability is shown by a reduction to decentralized POMDPs for which we provide the strongest (and rather surprising) undecidability result so far.

We present the orthogonality-constrained Hartree–Fock (HF) method for excited states in a combination with the Moller–Plesset-like perturbation theory for the correlation energy. This developed “HF + MP2” formalism for excited states allows for the treatment of both ground and excited states in a balanced manner. Unlike a previous work (Glushkov in Chem Phys Lett 287:189, 1998 ), our interest has shifted toward highly doubly excited states of atoms and doubly ionized core hole molecular states which are attractive from the experimental point of view. The accuracy of the method is demonstrated by calculations of more than 30 highly excited states of the He and Li atoms and about 10 doubly excited core hole states of some diatomic molecules (CO, NO and LiF).

Many models have been proposed for multidimensional data warehouse modeling and most consider a same function to determine how measure values are aggregated according to different data detail levels. We provide a conceptual model that supports (1) multiple aggregations, associating to the same measure a different aggregation function according to analysis axes, and (2) differentiated aggregation, allowing specific aggregations at each detail level. Our model is based on a graphical formalism that allows controlling the validity of aggregation functions (distributive, algebraic or holistic). We also show how conceptual modeling can be used, in an R-OLAP environment, for building lattices of pre-computed aggregates.

We present a novel method for reasoning about time in state-based proof-oriented formalisms. The method builds on a non-classical model of time, the Leibnizian model, in which time is a relative property determined by the observations of an evolving subject, rather than one of the fundamental dimensions. It proves to be remarkably effective in the context of the Event-B formalism. We illustrate the method with a machine-checked proof of Fischer’s algorithm that, to our knowledge, is simpler than other proofs available in the literature.

Runtime monitoring is the process of checking whether an execution trace of a running system satisfies a given specification. For this to be effective, monitors which run trace-checking algorithms must be efficient so that they introduce minimal computational overhead. We present the MarQ tool for monitoring properties expressed as Quantified Event Automata. This formalism generalises previous automata-based specification methods. MarQ extends the established parametric trace slicing technique and incorporates existing techniques for indexing and garbage collection as well as a new technique for optimising runtime monitoring: structural specialisations where monitors are generated based on structural characteristics of the monitored property. MarQ recently came top in two tracks in the 1st international Runtime Verification competition, showing that MarQ is one of the most efficient existing monitoring tools for both offline monitoring of trace logs and online monitoring of running systems.

We study a propositional variant of Hoare logic that can be used for reasoning about programs that exhibit both angelic and demonic nondeterminism. We work in an uninterpreted setting, where the meaning of the atomic actions is specified axiomatically using hypotheses of a certain form. Our logical formalism is entirely compositional and it subsumes the non-compositional formalism of safety games on finite graphs. We present sound and complete Hoare-style (partial-correctness) calculi that are useful for establishing Hoare assertions, as well as for synthesizing implementations. The computational complexity of the Hoare theory of dual nondeterminism is investigated using operational models, and it is shown that the theory is complete for exponential time.

Recursion-free Horn-clause constraints have received much recent attention in the verification community. It extends Craig interpolation, and is proposed as a unifying formalism for expressing abstraction refinement. In abstraction refinement, it is often desirable to infer "simple" refinements, and researchers have studied techniques for inferring simple Craig interpolants. Drawing on the line of work, this paper presents a technique for inferring simple solutions to recursion-free Hornclause constraints. Our contribution is a constraint solving algorithm that lazily samples fragments of the given constraints whose solution spaces are used to form a simple solution for the whole. We have implemented a prototype of the constraint solving algorithm in a verification tool, and have confirmed that it is able to infer simple solutions that aid the verification process.

Grid Systems is a formalism for modelling population and ecosystem dynamics that combines features of membrane computing, such as rewrite rules and maximal parallelism, with a representation of space similar to that of Cellular Automata. Moreover, Grid Systems include features for the description of environmental events and of events that can be associated with frequencies and durations that can be either deterministic or stochastic. The combination of all of these features makes Grid Systems a comprehensive formalism for the modelling and analysis of ecosystems. This tool paper describes the implementation and the features of a simulator for Grid Systems. The simulator is equipped with a graphical user interface for defining and editing models of populations, and for simulating population dynamics and movement. The aim of this tool is to allow modellers to construct and analyse models based on a comprehensive and rigorous formalism such as Grid Systems with a friendly interface.

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10270-012-0242-3, Graph transformation is being increasingly used to express the semantics of domain-specific visual languages since its graphical nature makes rules intuitive. However, many application domains require an explicit handling of time to accurately represent the behaviour of a real system and to obtain useful simulation metrics to measure throughputs, utilization times and average delays. Inspired by the vast knowledge and experience accumulated by the discrete event simulation community, we propose a novel way of adding explicit time to graph transformation rules. In particular, we take the event scheduling discrete simulation world view and provide rules with the ability to schedule the occurrence of other rules in the future. Hence, our work combines standard, efficient techniques for discrete event simulation (based on the handling of a future event set) and the intuitive, visual nature of graph transformation. Moreover, we show how our formalism can be used to give semantics to other timed approaches and provide an implementation on top of the rewriting logic system Maude., Work partially sponsored by the Spanish Ministry, under project “Go Lite” (TIN2011-24139) as well as by the R&D programme of the Community of Madrid, project “e-Madrid” (S2009/TIC-1650). We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers, which helped in improving previous versions of the paper.

The demonstration of anomaly cancellation itself was a highly significant event, but as the previous chapter argued, perhaps of more significance was the manner in which the cancellation occurred. The gauge group (and the particle content) of the standard model of particle physics are encoded in the group \(E_{8}\). That the anomalies canceled for \(E_{8} \otimes E_{8}\) pointed to the possibility of constructing physically realistic string models of experimentally accessible low energy physics. In other words, the results promised a genuine theory of all interactions (including quantum gravity) that is (internally) self-consistent and (externally) consistent with experiments and observations. This chapter traces the development of string theory as it attempted to recover realistic physics from the formalism.

An issue of prototyping Systems of Concurrent Cyclic Processes (SCCP), in which a number of concurrently running processes compete to access to a set of resources is considered. The main outcome of this paper is an automated procedure of performance evaluation for such systems with desired values of a wide range of system functional characteristics, such as a schedule of processes flows and the system period. This stage is realised by a procedure of automatic building of an analytical model of SCCP, which is based on the (max, +) algebra formalism. In most cases the (max, +) algebra is used to model of discrete-event systems, while the synchronization is based on rendezvous protocol. However, in this paper - modeling of the systems is based on mutual exclusion protocol, moreover buffers are included. As an illustrative example example RAFI Battery Assembly System was given in this paper.

The Wnt/β-catenin signalling pathway plays an important role in the proliferation of neural cells, and hence it is the main focus of several research aimed at understanding neurodegenerative pathologies. In this paper we consider a compact model of the basic mechanisms of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and we analyse its dynamics by application of an expressive temporal logic formalism, namely the Hybrid Automata Stochastic Logic. This allows us to formally characterise, and effectively assess, sophisticated aspects of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway dynamics.

The consequences of the general reaction formalism for this observable, especially for low energies, are demonstrated. The connections between scattering lengths, scattering phase shifts, and scattering potentials are explained. The effects of inelasticity and absorption and analytically solvable low-energy reaction models are demonstrated.

Polarization phenomena are expected and are important whenever we deal with particles with spin and especially whenever spin-dependent forces contribute to the interaction. Such forces such as a nuclear spin-orbit (L S) force, a spin-spin force, and a tensor force are present already in the interaction between two nucleons and must be considered in nucleus-nucleus interactions. Polarization observables need more complicated descriptions than the cross section. Definitions and the formalism of cartesian and spherical tensor moments are therefore explicitly given.

Clustered graphs are a versatile representation formalism for expressing relations between entities, and simultaneously, reflecting their hierarchical structure. This makes clustered graphs well-suited to model complex structured data. However, obtaining appealing drawings of clustered graphs is a challenging task. We employ the landscape metaphor to visualize clustered graphs in a cheminformatics application. In order to browse chemical compound libraries in a systematic way, we consider two different molecular similarity concepts. Combining the scaffold-based cluster hierarchy with molecular similarity graphs allows for new insights in the analysis of large molecule libraries. Here, like in certain other application domains, the cluster hierarchy does not necessarily reflect the underlying graph structure. We improve the approach taken in [1] by applying a modified treemap algorithm for node positioning that takes the edges of the graph into account. Experiments with real-world instances clearly show that the new algorithm leads to significant improvements in terms of the edge lengths.

Human use of categories exhibits a prototype effect; concepts become more defined through a conversation. Modelling these gradual clarifications of what a word signifies is equally important in human - computer interactions, for example in interactions about geographic concepts and the information that is needed in a given situation. We address here the simplified, but essentially realistic, question of what is meant by "map" and how the concept is refined. We apply the methods Aerts, Gabora and Rosch have described and explore how they can be integrated into practical systems. In this paper we explore the optimal selection of a map through a conversation with the client to elucidate their intentions. The example case contains effects which are similar to the "guppy effect" that is known from the literature and is a key reason to apply quantum mechanical formalism. The results are promising, and we sketch the extension to the construction of "custom made" maps from layers. This will provide users with maps that optimally reflect what map elements should be visible for use in a given context.

This chapter is on radioactivity, a spontaneous process in which an unstable parent nucleus emits a particle or electromagnetic radiation and transforms into a more stable daughter nucleus that may or may not be stable. Discovered in 1896 by Henri Becquerel, radioactive decay is governed by the formalism based on the definition of activity and the radioactive decay constant. The chapter starts with a simple decay of radioactive parent into a stable daughter and then concentrates on more complicated decay series in which a parent decays into radioactive daughter that in turn decays into a granddaughter nuclide that may also be unstable. The chapter also introduces the various equilibria between daughter and parent nuclides and presents a generalized approach to series decay. It concludes with a discussion of many-component decay series, branching decay, and decay of mixtures of several radionuclides composing a radioactive sample.

Chapter two introduces the on-shell recursion and discusses universal factorization properties for color ordered amplitudes. After a discussion of Poincare and conformal symmetry, the 𝒩=4 super Yang-Mills theory is introduced, along with its super-amplitude formalism and a supersymmetric on-shell recursion relation allowing for an exact solution.

In this chapter we look at the Veneziano model and the rather the wider project of generalising it to multi-particle, multi-loop situations. This was considered to be a genuinely possible route to a full theory of strong interaction physics. Accordingly, many physicist-hours were spent labouring on it, despite the fact that the framework was in many ways utterly detached from most areas of particle physics. There emerged clear early problems with the Veneziano model (the lack of unitarity and the restriction to a 4-particle process) that were resolved with remarkable speed and skill, well within two years, as was the problem of formulating an appropriate mathematical framework. The result was a general, elegant operator formalism for dual models that clearly pointed towards some underlying system responsible for generating the excitation spectrum.

Temporal logics are an obvious high-level descriptive companion formalism to dynamical systems which model behavior as deterministic evolution of state over time. A wide variety of distinct temporal logics applicable to dynamical systems exists, and each candidate has its own pragmatic justification. Here, a systematic approach to the construction of temporal logics for dynamical systems is proposed: Firstly, it is noted that dynamical systems can be seen as coalgebras in various ways. Secondly, a straightforward standard construction of modal logics out of coalgebras, namely Moss’s coalgebraic logic, is applied. Lastly, the resulting systems are characterized with respect to the temporal properties they express.

We present a translation function from nominal rewriting systems (NRSs) to combinatory reduction systems (CRSs), transforming closed nominal rules and ground nominal terms to CRSs rules and terms while preserving the rewriting relation. This result, together with previous translations from CRSs to NRSs and between CRSs and other higher-order rewriting formalisms, opens up the path for a transfer of results between higher-order and nominal rewriting. In particular, techniques and properties of the rewriting relation, such as termination, can be exported from one formalism to the other.

In this Chapter, I will explore the use of modeling in order to understand how Science works. I will discuss the modeling of scientific communities, providing a general, non-comprehensive overview of existing models, with a focus on the use of the tools of Agent-Based Modeling and Opinion Dynamics. A special attention will be paid to models inspired by a Bayesian formalism of Opinion Dynamics. The objective of this exploration is to better understand the effect that different conditions might have on the reliability of the opinions of a scientific community. We will see that, by using artificial worlds as exploring grounds, we can prevent some epistemological problems with the definition of truth and obtain insights on the conditions that might cause the quest for more reliable knowledge to fail. A simple model of scientific agents opinions influenced by colleagues and experimental results about the world they live in will also be discussed.

We consider several physical scenarios where black holes within classical gravity theories including R 2 and Ricci-squared corrections and formulated a la Palatini can be analytically studied.

A still not well understood feature of extended bodies in general relativity is the fact that their momentum is not, in general, parallel to the center of mass 4-velocity—the body is said to have “hidden momentum”. It can be split in two main types, a physical one that is gauge invariant, and the pure gauge hidden momentum that arises from the spin supplementary condition. In this paper I focus on the latter, using the formalism of gravitoelectromagnetism, which yields an easy way of understanding it, and under which conditions it arises.

We review the engineering of passive quantum networks for performing fundamental quantum communications tasks, such as the transfer, routing, and splitting of signals that are associated with quantum states. After an introduction to fundamental concepts and notions, the problem of quantum state transfer is discussed for networks of various physical and logical topologies. The discussion is cast in terms of a unified theoretical formalism, which is perfectly suited to addressing the problem in the context of various physical realizations.

The Gene Regulatory Network GRN is the collection of genes and interactions among them, which captures the mutual interactions among genes. Amongst the various currently available models for inferring GRN, the S-System formalism is often considered as an excellent compromise between accuracy and mathematical tractability, although limited to represent the instantaneous interactions only. Recently proposed Time-delayed S-System Model TDSS, an improved version of the traditional S-System model, is capable of representing the delayed interactions present in the genetic network. In this paper, we have shown the results of extensive analysis performed on TDSS over a widely used synthetic network. The two well-known performance measures applied to the synthetic network with various time-delayed regulations clearly demonstrate that the TDSS can capture both the instantaneous and delayed interactions correctly with high precision. Further, we have shown the effect of various samples sizes during the optimization where average error for the inferred parameters are reported and compared with an existing state-or-the-art algorithm.

Nonmonotonic description logic programs (dl-programs) are a well-known formalism for combining rules and ontologies, where rules interact with an underlying ontology via dl-atoms that allow queries to the ontology under a possible update of its assertional part. It is known that dl-atoms may be nonmonotonic and dl-programs without nonmonotonic dl-atoms have many desirable properties. In this paper, we show that it is possible to remove nonmonotonic dl-atoms from a dl-program while preserving its strong/weak answer set semantics. Though the translation is faithful, it relies on the knowledge about monotonicity of dl-atoms. We then thoroughly investigate the complexity of deciding whether a dl-atom is monotonic under the description logics DL-Lite$_{\mathcal R}$, ${\mathcal{EL}}^{++}$, ${\mathcal{SHIF}}$ and ${\mathcal{SHOIN}}$, which is of independent interest for computing strong answer sets. We show that the problem is intractable in general, but tractable for dl-atoms with bounded queries in DL-Lite$_{\mathcal R}$.

This paper contains an extended and improved version of the FDMM formalism presented at ICEIS’2012. FDMM is a formalism to describe how meta models and models are defined in the ADOxx approach as used in the Open Models Initiative. It is based on set theory and first order logic statements. In this way, an exact description of ADOxx meta models and corresponding models can be provided. In the paper at hand we extend the description of the formalism by illustrating how the mathematical statements can be used to support the implementation on the ADOxx platform. For this purpose we show how the FDMM constructs are mapped to statements in the ADOxx Library Language (ALL). As an example of the approach, the formalism and the mapping to ALL are applied to a modeling language from the area of risk management.

To remove problematic, high frequency degrees of freedom from a molecular model, modellers often use rigid body dynamics. The method also has additional benefits, for example it allows molecular charge distributions to be conveniently represented by multipolar moments. Rigid bodies are a well established feature within DL_POLY_ Classic formerly known as DL_POLY_2, which employs the replicated data parallelisation methodology. This paper briefly describes the RB formalism and outlines the strategy for its implementation in DL_POLY_4 formerly known as DL_POLY_3, which uses a very different form of parallelism, namely domain decomposition.

Regular expressions and the associated regular algebra provide a rich formalism for specifying and analysing sequential models of computation. For parallel computation, extensions to handle two-dimensional patterns are often required. In this paper we present a new type of regular expressions for two-dimensional patterns based on contours and their composition. Targeted applications comes from the area of modelling, specification, analysis and verification of structured interactive programs via the associated scenario semantics.

Petri net has recently emerged as a promising tool for the modeling and analysis of molecular networks. In this research, gene logic network constructed by approach-logic analysis of phylogenetic profiles method is described. In order to depict the logic interactions between genes, a new Petri net formalism with augmented inhibitor arc is proposed, which is called ALTPN. Two different types of places and different transitions are formulated in ALTPN, and then corresponding firing rule is given. Further, ALTPN of all 1-order and 2-order gene logic types are listed. Finally reachability graph method is used to accomplish asynchronous dynamic analysis of gene logic interactions in colon cancer and some conclusions are drawn.

We here propose the kMLVO kernel Multi-Label Vector Optimization framework designed to handle the common case in binary classification problems, where the observations, at least in part, are not given as an explicit class label, but rather as several scores which relate to the binary classification. Rather than handling each of the scores and the labeling data as separate problems, the kMLVO framework seeks a classifier which will satisfy all the corresponding constraints simultaneously. The framework can naturally handle problems where each of the scores is related differently to the classifying problem, optimizing both the classification, the regressions and the transformations into the different scores. Results from simulations and a protein docking problem in immunology are discussed, and the suggested method is shown to outperform both the corresponding SVM and SVR.

We present a formalism that models the computation of clause sharing portfolio solvers with inprocessing. The soundness of these solvers is not a straightforward property since shared clauses can make a formula unsatisfiable. Therefore, we develop characterizations of simplification techniques and suggest various settings how clause sharing and inprocessing can be combined. Our formalization models most of the recent implemented portfolio systems and we indicate possibilities to improve these. A particular improvement is a novel way to combine clause addition techniques --- like blocked clause addition --- with clause deletion techniques --- like blocked clause elimination or variable elimination.

Argumentation is a powerful technique to harmonise conflicts in open multi-agent systems. However, the social context of agents determines in many situations the way in which agents can argue to reach agreements. In this paper, we advance research in the area of computational argumentation frameworks by proposing an ontological-based knowledge representation formalism for the design of open Multi-Agent Systems in which the participating software agents are able to manage and exchange arguments between themselves taking into account the agents' social context. Therefore, this formalism is represented by means of an ontology that is the core of a case-based argumentation framework for agent societies.

Coordination languages have emerged for the specification and implementation of interaction protocols among concurrent entities. Currently, we are developing a code generator for one such a language, based on the formalism of constraint automata (CA). As part of the compilation process, our tool computes the CA-specific synchronous product of a number of CA, each of which models a constituent of the protocol to generate code for. This ensures that implementations of those CA at run-time reach a consensus about their global behavior in every step. However, using the existing product operator on CA can be practically problematic. In this paper, we provide a solution by defining a new, local product operator on CA that avoids those problems. We then identify a sufficiently large class of CA for which using our new product instead of the existing one is semantics-preserving.

An overview of the techniques traditionally used in dependability analysis that are compliant with current industrial standards (i.e., the International Electrotechnical Commission standards) is provided. In particular, the focus is on those techniques that are chosen as target formalism of model transformations (described in Chap. 7), that is Fault Tree analysis and Petri Net analysis.

This extended abstract offers a brief survey presentation of the specification formalism of modal transition systems and its recent extensions to the quantitative setting of timed as well as stochastic systems. Some applications will also be briefly mentioned.

In this chapter, we will discuss the formalism of the practically relevant representation of the signals obtained from an “ideal” electrode. We will do this using a macroscopic, thermodynamic approach. We will not go into the microscopic details on why and when the electrodes respond in this particular way, leaving this discussion, and also the discussion of the “real-world electrodes”, which are not that ideal, for subsequent chapters.