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Publications

Publications by Alexandre Castro Madeira

2016

Asymmetric Combination of Logics is Functorial: A Survey

Authors
Neves, R; Madeira, A; Barbosa, LS; Martins, MA;

Publication
Recent Trends in Algebraic Development Techniques - 23rd IFIP WG 1.3 International Workshop, WADT 2016, Gregynog, UK, September 21-24, 2016, Revised Selected Papers

Abstract
Asymmetric combination of logics is a formal process that develops the characteristic features of a specific logic on top of another one. Typical examples include the development of temporal, hybrid, and probabilistic dimensions over a given base logic. These examples are surveyed in the paper under a particular perspective—that this sort of combination of logics possesses a functorial nature. Such a view gives rise to several interesting questions. They range from the problem of combining translations (between logics), to that of ensuring property preservation along the process, and the way different asymmetric combinations can be related through appropriate natural transformations.

2016

Dynamic Logic with Binders and Its Application to the Development of Reactive Systems

Authors
Madeira, A; Barbosa, LS; Hennicker, R; Martins, MA;

Publication
THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTING - ICTAC 2016

Abstract
This paper introduces a logic to support the specification and development of reactive systems on various levels of abstraction, from property specifications, concerning e.g. safety and liveness requirements, to constructive specifications representing concrete processes. This is achieved by combining binders of hybrid logic with regular modalities of dynamic logics in the same formalism, which we call D-down arrow-logic. The semantics of our logic focuses on effective processes and is therefore given in terms of reachable transition systems with initial states. The second part of the paper resorts to this logic to frame stepwise development of reactive systems within the software development methodology proposed by Sannella and Tarlecki. In particular, we instantiate the generic concepts of constructor and abstractor implementations by using standard operators on reactive components, like relabelling and parallel composition, as constructors, and bisimulation for abstraction. We also study vertical composition of implementations which relies on the preservation of bisimularity by the constructions on labeleld transition systems.

2017

On Kleene Algebras for Weighted Computation

Authors
Gomes, L; Madeira, A; Barbosa, LS;

Publication
FORMAL METHODS: FOUNDATIONS AND APPLICATIONS, SBMF 2017

Abstract
Kleene algebra with tests (KAT) was introduced as an algebraic structure to model and reason about classic imperative programs, i.e. sequences of discrete actions guarded by Boolean tests. This paper introduces two generalisations of this structure able to express programs as weighted transitions and tests with outcomes in a not necessary bivalent truth space, namely graded Kleene algebra with tests (GKAT) and Heyting Kleene algebra with tests (HKAT). On these contexts, in analogy to Kozen's encoding of Propositional Hoare Logic (PHL) in KAT [10], we discuss the encoding of a graded PHL in HKAT and of its while-free fragment in GKAT.

2014

THE ROLE OF LOGICAL INTERPRETATIONS IN PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

Authors
Martins, MA; Madeira, A; Barbosa, LS;

Publication
LOGICAL METHODS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

Abstract
Stepwise refinement of algebraic specifications is a well known formal methodology for program development. However, traditional notions of refinement based on signature morphisms are often too rigid to capture a number of relevant transformations in the context,at of software design, reuse, and adaptation. This paper proposes a new approach to refinement in which signature morphisms are replaced by logical interpretations as a means to witness refinements. The approach is first presented in the context of equational logic, and later generalised to deductive systems of arbitrary dimension. This allows, for example, relining sentential into equational specifications and the latter into modal ones.

2015

Refinement in hybridised institutions

Authors
Madeira, A; Martins, MA; Barbosa, LS; Hennicker, R;

Publication
FORMAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTING

Abstract
Hybrid logics, which add to the modal description of transition structures the ability to refer to specific states, offer a generic framework to approach the specification and design of reconfigurable systems, i.e., systems with reconfiguration mechanisms governing the dynamic evolution of their execution configurations in response to both external stimuli or internal performance measures. A formal representation of such systems is through transition structures whose states correspond to the different configurations they may adopt. Therefore, each node is endowed with, for example, an algebra, or a first-order structure, to precisely characterise the semantics of the services provided in the corresponding configuration. This paper characterises equivalence and refinement for these sorts of models in a way which is independent of (or parametric on) whatever logic (propositional, equational, fuzzy, etc) is found appropriate to describe the local configurations. A Hennessy-Milner like theorem is proved for hybridised logics.

2018

Behavioural and abstractor specifications revisited

Authors
Hennicker, R; Madeira, A; Wirsing, M;

Publication
THEORETICAL COMPUTER SCIENCE

Abstract
In the area of algebraic specification there are two main approaches for defining observational abstraction: behavioural specifications use a notion of observational satisfaction for the axioms of a specification, whereas abstractor specifications define an abstraction from the standard semantics of a specification w.r.t. an observational equivalence relation between algebras. Earlier work by Bidoit, Hennicker, Wirsing has shown that in the case of first-order logic specifications both concepts coincide semantically under mild assumptions. Analogous results have been shown by Sannella and Hofmann for higher-order logic specifications and recently, by Hennicker and Madeira, for specifications of reactive systems using a dynamic logic with binders. In this paper, we bring these results into a common setting: we isolate a small set of characteristic principles to express the behaviour/abstractor equivalence and show that all three mentioned specification frameworks satisfy these principles and therefore their behaviour and abstractor specifications coincide semantically (under mild assumptions). As a new case we consider observational modal logic where observational satisfaction of Hennessy-Milner logic formulae is defined "up to" silent transitions and observational abstraction is defined by weak bisimulation. We show that in this case the behaviour/abstractor equivalence can only be obtained, if we restrict models to weakly deterministic labelled transition systems.

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