7373228
Unifying proof methodologies of duration calculus and timed linear temporal logic
Abstract.Linear temporal logic (LTL) has been widely used for specification and verification of reactive systems. Its standard model is sequences of states (or state transitions), and formulas describe sequencing of state transitions. When LTL is used to model real-time systems, a state is extended with a time stamp to record when a state transition takes place. Duration calculus (DC) is another well studied approach for real-time systems development. DC models behaviours of a system by functions from the domain of reals representing time to the system states. This paper extends this time domain to the Cartesian product of the real and the natural numbers. With the extended time domain, we provide the chop modality with a non-overlapping interpretation. This allows some linear temporal operators explicitly dealing with the discrete dimension of time to be derivable from the chop modality in essentially the same way that their continuous-time counterparts are in the classical DC. This provides a nice embedding of some timed LTL (TLTL) modalities into DC to unify the methods from DC and LTL for real-time systems development: Requirements and high level design decisions are interval properties and are therefore specified and reasoned about in DC, while properties of an implementation, as well as the refinement relation between two implementations, are specified and verified compositionally and inductively in LTL. Implementation properties are related to requirement and design properties by rules for lifting LTL formulas to DC formulas.
16560725
rCOS: A refinement calculus of object systems
This article presents a mathematical characterization of object-oriented concepts by defining an observation-oriented semantics for a relational object-based language with a rich variety of features including subtypes, visibility, inheritance, type casting, dynamic binding and polymorphism. The language can be used to specify object-oriented designs as well as programs. We present a calculus that supports both structural and behavioural refinement of object-oriented designs. The design calculus is based on the predicate logic in Hoare and He's Unifying Theories of Programming (UTP).
7323063
rCOS: Refinement of Component and Object Systems
We present a model of object-oriented and component-based refinement. For object-orientation, the model is class-based and refinement is about correct changes in the structure, methods of classes and the main program, rather than changes in the behaviour of individual objects. This allows us to prove refinement laws for both high level design patterns and low level refactoring. For component-based development, we focus on the separation of concerns of interface and functional contracts, leaving refinement of interaction protocols in future work. The model supports the specification of these aspects at different levels of abstractions and their consistency. 
 
Based on the semantics, we also provide a general definitional approach to defining different relational semantic models with different features and constraints.
14189544
Verification, refinement and scheduling of real-time programs
Abstract A real-time program can be developed by refining a specification into program code. Verification of the timing properties of the program is then usually done at two levels: verification of the ordering of timed actions in the program and proof that execution of the program on a specific system will meet its timing requirements. Refinement is done within a formal model but the second step requires a different framework in which scheduling theory analysis is used and actual program execution times can be taken into account. The implementation of a program on a system is said to be feasible or schedulable if it will meet all the timing deadlines. This paper shows how the feasibility of scheduling a real-time program can also be proved as a step in the refinement of the program from its specification. Verification of this step of refinement makes use of methods from scheduling theory within a formal system development framework.
5135154
Linking UML models of design and requirement
Both a UML model of requirement and a UML model of a design are defined as a pair of class diagram and a family of sequence diagrams. We then give an unified semantics for models of requirements and designs. We define the consistency between a design class diagram and the interaction diagrams and show how the removal of inconsistency can be treated as a model refinement. We then formally define the correctness of UML model of design with respect to the model of requirement.
39997807
Component-Based Software Engineering
We discuss some of the difficulties and significant issues that we need to consider when developing a formal method for component-based software engineering. We argue that to deal with the challenges, there is a need in research to link existing theories and methods of programming for effective support to component-based software engineering. We then present our initiative on a unified multi-view approach to modelling, design and analysis of component systems, emphasising the integration of models for different views.
10909052
Trust in the preservation of digital information
An institutional guarantee can help address the major hurdle of digital preservation---winning people's trust.
28594120
Pattern recognition using Markov random field models
In this paper, we propose Markov random field models for pattern recognition, which provide a flexible and natural framework for modelling the interactions between spatially related random variables in their neighbourhood systems. The proposed approach is superior to conventional approaches in many aspects. This paper introduces the concept of states into Markov random filed models, presents a theoretic analysis of the approach, discusses issues of designing neighbourhood system and cliques, and analyses properties of the models. We have applied our method to the recognition of unconstrained handwritten numerals. The experimental results show that the proposed approach can achieve high performance.
6930232
Expressive expression mapping with ratio images
Facial expressions exhibit not only facial feature motions, but also subtle changes in illumination and appearance (e.g., facial creases and wrinkles). These details are important visual cues, but they are difficult to synthesize. Traditional expression mapping techniques consider feature motions while the details in illumination changes are ignored. In this paper, we present a novel technique for facial expression mapping. We capture the illumination change of one person's expression in what we call an expression ratio image (ERI). Together with geometric warping, we map an ERI to any other person's face image to generate more expressive facial expressions.
209400997
An energy-balanced transmission scheme for sensor networks.
20897828
A Formal Definition for Trust in Distributed Systems
Trust is an important concept in distributed computing environments and plays a critical role in ensuring and enhancing system security. Although various trust models have been proposed for distributed or pervasive computing systems, little research has been conducted to describe trust in precise and formal way. In this paper, we present a formal definition to express the meaning of trust in distributed computing systems. With this definition, we rigorously analyze the important properties of trust relation, such as reflexivity and conditional transitivity, and describe the trust relations in Role-Based Access Control. Our definition is comprehensive in that the semantic meaning of the trust definition is feasible to describe trust relations in both traditional distributed systems and dynamic pervasive computing environments. This research provides a solid base for formal trust reasoning and effective trust management implementation in distributed systems and pervasive computing environments.