We present a new temporal logic for the specification and verification of real-time systems. This logic is deJned on discrete time transition systems which are interpreted in an abstract manner instead of the usual stuttering interpretation. Our approach directly allows the abstraction of realtime systems by ignoring irrelevant qualitative properties, but without loosing any quantitative inform...

Business process modeling is performed during the requirements analysis and specification of business software systems. Checking qualitative aspects of business processes is required for quality assurance, as well as for compliance with non-functional requirements. We show how business process models represented as Role Activity Diagrams can be formally checked using process algebras and tempor...

Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), in collaboration with the California HealthCare Foundation, Project HealthDesign is a $5 million national program of PHR systems. Administered by a national program office at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Project HealthDesign's goal is to design and test a variety of PHR tools and applications that work together to help people achieve ...

We demonstrate an automated method for proving temporal logic statements about solutions to ordinary differential equations (ODES), even in the face of an incomplete specification of the ODE. The method combines an implemented, on-the-fly, model checking algorithm for statements in the temporal logic CTL* with the output of the qualitative simulation algorithm QSIM. Based on the QSIM Guaranteed...

When constructing a formal model of emotions for intelligent agents, two types of aspects have to be taken into account. First, qualitative aspects pertain to the conditions that elicit emotions. Second, quantitative aspects pertain to the actual experience and intensity of elicited emotions. In this paper, we show how the qualitative aspects of a well-known psychological model of human emotion...

Qualitative conditionals of the form If A then normally B can be viewed as default rules, and they require a semantical treatment going beyond the models used in classical logic. Ranking functions assigning degrees of plausibility to each possible world have been proposed as an appropriate semantic formalism. In this paper, we discuss the computation of c-representations corresponding to partic...

Bayesian networks typically require thousands of probability parameters for their specification, many of which are bound to be inaccurate. Knowledge of the direction of change in an output probability of a network occasioned by changes in one or more of its parameters, i.e. the qualitative effect of parameter changes, has been shown to be useful both for parameter tuning and in pre-processing f...

This paper develops a general, theoretical computational model for discussing synchronization and specification scheme. We analyze the domains of relationships between agents in a coordination system. A set of algorithms is proposed to derive reasonable relations between agents. Possible conflicts in the agent specification are firstly detected and eliminated. The mechanism constructs partial o...

Modelling, specification and analysis of manufacturing systems require different forms of modelling to analyse their functional, behavioural, information, resource and management aspects at two major levels of details. The first level, called macro-level, is concerned with high-level system design, analysis and specification for which a consistent and precise system description is required. The...