Cristina Sernadas

TROLL: a language for object-oriented specification of information systems

TROLL is a language particularly suited for the early stages of information system development, when the universe of discourse must be described. In TROLL the descriptions of the static and dynamic aspects of entities are integrated into object descriptions. Sublanguages for data terms, for first-order and temporal assertions, and for processes, are used to describe respectively the static properties, the behavior, and the evolution over time of objects. TROLL organizes system design through object-orientation and the support of abstractions such as classification, specialization, roles, and aggregation. Language features for state interactions and dependencies among components support the composition of the system from smaller modules, as does the facility of defining interfaces on top of object descriptions.

Fibring of logics as a categorial construction

Much attention has been given recently to the mechanism of fibring of logics, allowing free mixing of the connectives and using proof rules from both logics. Fibring seems to be a rather useful and general form of combination of logics that deserves detailed study. It is now well understood at the proof-theoretic level. However, the semantics of fibring is still insufficiently understood. Herein we provide a categorial definition of both proof-theoretic and model-theoretic fibring for logics without terms. To this end, we introduce the categories of Hilbert calculi, interpretation systems and logic system presentations. By choosing appropriate notions of morphism it is possible to obtain pure fibring as a coproduct. Fibring with shared symbols is then easily obtained by cocartesian lifting from the category of signatures. Soundness is shown to be preserved by these constructions. We illustrate the constructions within propositional modal logic.

Fibring: Completeness Preservation

A completeness theorem is established for logics with congruence endowed with general semantics (in the style of general frames). As a corollary, completeness is shown to be preserved by fibring logics with congruence provided that congruence is retained in the resulting logic. The class of logics with equivalence is shown to be closed under fibring and to be included in the class of logics with congruence. Thus, completeness is shown to be preserved by fibring logics with equivalence and general semantics. An example is provided showing that completeness is not always preserved by fibring ligics endowed with standard (non general) semantics. A categorial characterization of fibring is provided using coproducts and cocartesian liftings.

Abstract Object Types: A Temporal Perspective

The notion of abstract object type (AOT) tends to overlay the already classical concept of abstract data type (ADT) in several fields of application. Objects, although much more complex than data, have the advantage of dealing with states and processes. For that reason, they become useful, for instance, in the design of database applications and in software engineering. The difficulty lies in finding a suitable formalism for the abstract definition of objects, at least as effective as the equational formalism has been in the definition of abstract data types. The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the main features of such a formalism. Concepts, tools and techniques are provided for the abstract definition of objects. A primitive language is presented allowing structured and rather independent definitions of object types. Each object is described as a temporal entity that evolves because of the events that happen during its life. The interaction between objects is reduced to event sharing. Both liveness and safety requirements can be stated and verified. Two case studies are presented for illustrating every aspect of the approach: the stack example which is very popular in the ADT area, thus allowing the comparison between the concepts of ADT and AOT, and the well known example of the eating philosophers which allows the discussion of the dynamic aspects.

Probabilistic Situation Calculus

In this article we propose a Probabilistic Situation Calculus logical language to represent and reason with knowledge about dynamic worlds in which actions have uncertain effects. Uncertain effects are modeled by dividing an action into two subparts: a deterministic (agent produced) input and a probabilistic reaction (produced by nature). We assume that the probabilities of the reactions have known distributions.Our logical language is an extension to Situation Calculae in the style proposed by Raymond Reiter. There are three aspects to this work. First, we extend the language in order to accommodate the necessary distinctions (e.g., the separation of actions into inputs and reactions). Second, we develop the notion of Randomly Reactive Automata in order to specify the semantics of our Probabilistic Situation Calculus. Finally, we develop a reasoning system in MATHEMATICA capable of performing temporal projection in the Probabilistic Situation Calculus.

Fibring Non-Truth-Functional Logics: Completeness Preservation

Fibring has been shown to be useful for combining logics endowed withtruth-functional semantics. However, the techniques used so far are unableto cope with fibring of logics endowed with non-truth-functional semanticsas, for example, paraconsistent logics. The first main contribution of thepaper is the development of a suitable abstract notion of logic, that mayalso encompass systems with non-truth-functional connectives, and wherefibring can still be dealt with. Furthermore, it is shown that thisextended notion of fibring preserves completeness under certain reasonableconditions. This completeness transfer result, the second main contributionof the paper, generalizes the one established in Zanardo et al. (2001) butis obtained using new techniques that explore the properties of a suitablemeta-logic (conditional equational logic) where the (possibly)non-truth-functional valuations are specified. The modal paraconsistentlogic of da Costa and Carnielli (1988) is studied in the context of this novel notionof fibring and its completeness is so established.

Fibring Modal First-Order Logics: Completeness Preservation

Fibring is defined as a mechanism for combining logics with a firstorder base, at both the semantic and deductive levels. A completeness theorem is established for a wide class of such logics, using a variation of the Henkin method that takes advantage of the presence of equality and inequality in the logic. As a corollary, completeness is shown to be preserved when fibring logics in that class. A modal first-order logic is obtained as a fibring where neither the Barcan formula nor its converse hold.

Fibring Labelled Deduction Systems

We give a categorial characterization of how labelled deduction systems for logics with a propositional basis behave under unconstrained fibring and under fibring that is constrained by symbol sharing. At the semantic level, we introduce a general semantics for our systems and then give a categorial characterization of fibring of models. Based on this, we establish the conditions under which our systems are sound and complete with respect to the general semantics for the corresponding logics, and establish requirements on logics and systems so that completeness is preserved by both forms of fibring.

Fibring Logics with Topos Semantics

The concept of fibring is extended to higher-order logics with arbitrary modalities and binding operators. A general completeness theorem is established for such logics including HOL and with the meta-theorem of deduction. As a corollary, completeness is shown to be preserved when fibring such rich logics. This result is extended to weaker logics in the cases where fibring preserves conservativeness of HOL-enrichments. Soundness is shown to be preserved by fibring without any further assumptions.

Synchronization of logics

Motivated by applications in software engineering, we propose two forms of combination of logics: synchronization on formulae and synchronization on models. We start by reviewing satisfaction systems, consequence systems, one-step derivation systems and theory spaces, as well as their functorial relationships. We define the synchronization on formulae of two consequence systems and provide a categorial characterization of the construction. For illustration we consider the synchronization of linear temporal logic and equational logic. We define the synchronization on models of two satisfaction systems and provide a categorial characterization of the construction. We illustrate the technique in two cases: linear temporal logic versus equational logic; and linear temporal logic versus branching temporal logic. Finally, we lift the synchronization on formulae to the category of logics over consequences systems.