5110731
A Problem Reduction Approach to Program Synthesis
Program synthesis is the transformation of a specification of a user's problem into a computer program. A problem reduction approach to program synthesis is presented. During synthesis the user's problem is decomposed in a top-down manner into a hierarchy of subproblems. with directly solveable subproblems at the bottom. Solving these subproblems results in the bottom-up composition of a program whose structure reflects the subproblem hierarchy. The program is guaranteed to satisfy the specification and to terminate on all legal inputs. We illustrate this approach by presenting the knowledge needed to synthesize a class of divide and conquer algorithms and by deriving a Merge sort algorithm.
7947888
Constructing Specification Morphisms
Specification morphisms underlie the refinement of algebraic specifications and provide the logical foundations for algorithm and data structure design. We present four techniques for formally, even mechanically, constructing specification morphisms. The first two techniques, verifying a manually constructed signature morphism and composition of specification morphisms are well-known. The remaining two techniques exploit the axioms of the source specification to help infer the translation of sort and function symbols from the source specification. The third, unskolemization, finds the translation of a function symbol by replacing occurrences of it in an axiom by an existentially quantified variable. A constructive proof of the translated axiom yields a witness to the existential that serves as the desired translation of the function symbol. The fourth technique, connections between specifications, allows the transfer of structure from one specification morphism to another. The unskolemization and connection techniques arose as abstractions from the algorithm design tactics implemented in the KIDS program transformation system (Smith (1990)). They suggest a more general approach to providing mechanized support for applying design knowledge expressed axiomatically.
44957593
Toward a Classification Approach to Design
This paper addresses the problem of how to construct refinements of specifications formally and incrementally. The key idea is to use a taxonomy of abstract design concepts, each represented by a design theory An abstract design concept is applied by constructing a specification morphism from its design theory to a requirement specification. Procedures for propagating constraints, computing colimits, and constructing specification morphisms provide computational support for this approach. Although we conjecture that classification generally applies to the incremental application of knowledge represented in a taxonomy of design theories, this paper mainly focuses on algorithm design theories and presents several examples of design by classification.
206511487
Composition and refinement of behavioral specifications
This paper presents a mechanizable framework for specifying, developing, and reasoning about complex systems. The framework combines features from algebraic specifications, abstract state machines, and refinement calculus, all couched in a categorical setting. In particular, we show how to extend algebraic specifications to evolving specifications (especs) in such a way that composition and refinement operations extend to capture the dynamics of evolving, adaptive, and self-adaptive software development, while remaining efficiently computable. The framework is partially implemented in the Epoxi system.
12681881
Synthesis of Constraint Algorithms
17878068
Guarded Transitions in Evolving Specifications
We represent state machines in the category of specifications, where assignment statements correspond exactly to interpretations between theories [7, 8]. However, the guards on an assignment require a special construction. In this paper we raise guards to the same level as assignments by treating each as a distinct category over a shared set of objects. A guarded assignment is represented as a pair of arrows, a guard arrow and an assignment arrow. We give a general construction for combining arrows over a factorization system, and show its specialization to the category of specifications. This construction allows us to define the fine structure of state machine morphisms with respect to guards. Guards define the flow of control in a computation, and how they may be translated under refinement is central to the formal treatment of safety, liveness, concurrency, and determinism.
9047301
Computer modelling and estimation of recruitment patterns of non-branching coral colonies at three sites in the Wakatobi Marine Park, S.E. Sulawesi, Indonesia; implications for coral reef conservation
We have studied growth and estimated recruitment of massive coral colonies at three sites, Kaledupa, Hoga and Sampela, separated by about 1.5 km in the Wakatobi Marine National Park, S.E. Sulawesi, Indonesia. There was significantly higher species richness (P B/0.05), coral cover (P B/0.05) and rugosity (P B/0.01) at Kaledupa than at Sampela. A model for coral reef growth has been developed based on a rational polynomial function: dx=dt a1W a2W 2 a3W 3 . . . anW n 1 b1W b2W 2 b3W 3 . . . bmW m where dx /dt is an index of coral growth with time; W is the variable (for example, coral weight, coral length or coral area), up to the power of n in the numerator and m in the denominator; a1. . .. . .an and b1. . .bm are constants. The values for n and m represent the degree of the polynomial, and can relate to the morphology of the coral. The model was used to simulate typical coral growth curves, and tested using published data obtained by weighing coral colonies underwater in reefs on the south-west coast of Curaçao [‘Neth. J. Sea Res. 10 (1976) 285’]. The model proved an accurate fit to the data, and parameters were obtained for a number of coral species. Surface area data was obtained on over 1200 massive corals at three different sites in the Wakatobi Marine National Park, S.E. Sulawesi, Indonesia. The year of an individual’s recruitment was calculated from knowledge of the growth rate modified by application of the rational polynomial model. The estimated pattern of recruitment was variable, with little numbers of massive corals settling and growing before 1950 at the heavily used site, Sampela, relative to the reef site with little or no human use, Kaledupa, and the intermediate site, Hoga. There was a significantly greater sedimentation rate at Sampela than at either Kaledupa (P B/0.0001) or Hoga (P B/0.0005). The relative mean abundance of fish families present at the reef crests at the three sites, determined using digital video photography, did not correlate with sedimentation rates, underwater visibility or lack of large nonbranching coral colonies. Radial growth rates of three genera of non-branching corals were significantly lower at Sampela than at Kaledupa or at Hoga, and there was a high correlation (r /0.89) between radial growth rates and underwater visibility. Porites spp. was the most abundant coral over all the sites and at all depths followed by Favites (P B/0.04) and Favia spp. (P B/0.03). Colony ages of Porites corals were significantly lower at the 5 m reef flat on the Sampela reef than at the same depth on both other reefs (P B/0.005). At Sampela, only 2.8% of corals on the 5 m reef crest are of a size to have survived from before 1950. The Scleractinian coral community of Sampela is severely impacted by depositing sediments which can lead to the suffocation of corals, whilst also decreasing light penetration resulting in decreased growth and calcification rates. The net loss of material from Sampela, if not checked, could result in the loss of this protective barrier which would be to the detriment of the sublittoral sand flats and hence the Sampela village. # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
6938855
mSpace: improving information access to multimedia domains with multimodal exploratory search
Overview of mSpace interaction approach for presenting exploratory search particularly in the audio domain by using slices, preview cues, and user-determined organization of information from high-dimensional spaces
18928754
An improved algorithm to determine lower bounds for the fixed spectrum frequency assignment problem
Frequencies have to be assigned to transmitters whenever a radio network is established or modified. This is ideally done is a way which minimises interference in the network. Lower bounds are necessary to establish the effectiveness of the heuristic algorithms used for this task and to assess the quality of the assignments obtained. 
 
In the fixed spectrum frequency assignment problem the available frequencies are known in advance. The constraints are often binary constraints, specifying the necessary frequency separation between given pairs of transmitters. There may be penalties (or weights) associated with the violation of each constraint; it is then either necessary to minimise the number of constraints violated or, increasingly often, to minimise the sum of the weights associated with violated constraints. 
 
A technique for generating lower bounds for these quantities is presented. This is an evolution of a technique which has recently appeared in the literature. It produces better quality bounds, is in general significantly faster and allows larger problems to be handled.
27096788
Mobile Location
30879884
Generation of lower bounds for minimum span frequency assignment
Minimum span frequency assignment problems require lower bounds for the span in order to assess the quality of individual assignments, and to effectively compare different meta-heuristic algorithms. The generation of good lower bounds requires the identification of critical subproblems. These subproblems are subgraphs of a constraint graph. Sometimes clique subgraphs lead to good lower bounds. However for some problems the clique must be modified in order to obtain the best possible bound. This can be time consuming, requires manual intervention and is dependent on the initial clique obtained and the specific problem. For practical use, a simple bounding technique is needed that can be universally applied to all problems without modification. Two algorithms based on meta-heuristics are presented that aim to find a subproblem that gives the best possible lower bound. This avoids the need for clique detection routines and manual intervention, and gives a robust and automatic method for generating lower bounds for all minimum span problems. These algorithms use mathematical programming formulations of the frequency assignment problem. Extensive testing on a wide range of problems shows that bounds from the new algorithms match those using previous techniques, and in some cases are significantly better.