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Signal temporal logic (STL) formulas have been widely used as a formal language to express complex robotic specifications, thanks to their rich expressiveness and explicit time semantics. Existing approaches for STL control synthesis suffer from limited scalability with respect to the task complexity and lack of robustness against the uncertainty, for example, external disturbances. In this paper, we study the online control synthesis problem for uncertain discrete-time systems subject to STL specifications. Different from existing techniques, we propose an approach based on STL, reachability analysis, and temporal logic trees. First, based on a real-time version of STL semantics, we develop the notion of tube-based temporal logic tree (tTLT) and its recursive (offline) construction algorithm. We show that the tTLT is an under-approximation of the STL formula, in the sense that a trajectory satisfying a tTLT also satisfies the corresponding STL formula. Then, an online control synthesis algorithm is designed using the constructed tTLT. It is shown that when the STL formula is robustly satisfiable and the initial state of the system belongs to the initial root node of the tTLT, it is guaranteed that the trajectory generated by the control synthesis algorithm satisfies the STL formula. We validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach by several simulation examples and further demonstrate its practical usability on a hardware experiment. These results show that our approach is able to handle complex STL formulas with long horizons and ensure the robustness against the disturbances, which is beyond the scope of the state-of-the-art STL control synthesis approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geometric problem solving (GPS) has always been a long-standing challenge in the fields of automated reasoning. Its problem representation and solution process embody rich symmetry. This paper is the second in a series of our works. Based on the Geometry Formalization Theory and the FormalGeo geometric formal system, we have developed the Formal Geometric Problem Solver (FGPS) in Python 3.10, which can serve as an interactive assistant or as an automated problem solver. FGPS is capable of executing geometric predicate logic and performing relational reasoning and algebraic computation, ultimately achieving readable, traceable, and verifiable automated solutions for geometric problems. We observed that symmetry phenomena exist at various levels within FGPS and utilized these symmetries to further refine the system's design. FGPS employs symbols to represent geometric shapes and transforms various geometric patterns into a set of symbolic operation rules. This maintains symmetry in basic transformations, shape constructions, and the application of theorems. Moreover, we also have annotated the formalgeo7k dataset, which contains 6981 geometry problems with detailed formal language descriptions and solutions. Experiments on formalgeo7k validate the correctness and utility of the FGPS. The forward search method with random strategy achieved a 39.71% problem-solving success rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling and verification of the correct behavior of embedded real-time systems with strict timing constraints is a well-known and important problem. Failing to fulfill a deadline in system operation can have severe consequences in the practical case. This paper proposes an approach to formal modeling and schedulability analysis. A novel extension of Petri Nets named Constraint Time Petri Nets (C-TPN) is developed, which enables the modeling of a collection of interdependent real-time tasks whose execution is constrained by the use of priority and shared resources like processors and memory data. A C-TPN model is reduced to a network of Timed Automata in the context of the popular Uppaal toolbox. Both functional and, most importantly, temporal properties can be assessed by exhaustive model checking and/or statistical model checking based on simulations. This paper first describes and motivates the proposed C-TPN modeling language and its formal semantics. Then, a Uppaal translation is shown. Finally, three models of embedded real-time systems are considered, and their properties are thoroughly verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal pattern languages are used in industry to communicate and analyse requirements, as they are said to be both machine-readable and intuitively understandable for humans. The questions arise to what extent this intuitive understanding of a pattern language is in agreement with its formal semantics and whether this understanding can be increased systematically. We present two consecutive empirical experiments to address these questions. The formal semantics serves as an objective judge on the intuitive understanding. Our experiments confirm the practical usefulness of HanforPL insofar the intuition matches the formal semantics in most practically relevant cases. They also reveal a number of edge cases where even a prior exposure to formal logic is not a guarantee for correct understanding. We present and validate systematic adjustments to the patterns, leading to several large increases in understandability but come at the cost of new, but less impactful ambiguities. We demonstrate how an inquiry on the alignment of the intuitive and formal semantics of a pattern language can help to understand and improve the language. While results regarding the understandability of HanforPL are favourable in commonly used cases, there is potential for improvement. The systematic adaption of patterns shows that small modifications may have large effects on the alignment of formal and intuitive semantics, and that modification must be considered with caution in the context of the respective pattern to avoid unintentionally adding new ambiguities. This article is an extension of our published REFSQ paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the modern world, structured and semi-structured knowledge bases hold a considerable amount of data. There-fore, people who are familiar with formal query languages should not be the only ones who can efficiently and clearly query them. Semantic Parsing (SP) is converting natural language utterances into formal meaning representations. The paper suggests a model for SP that uses a novel method of utilizing the Semi-Supervised Generative Adversarial Network (SS-GAN) to enhance the classifier performance. The proposed SS-GAN extends the fine-tuning of word embedding architectures using unlabeled examples in a generative adversarial environment. We provide a regularization strategy for addressing the mode missing problem and unstable training in SS-GAN. The main viewpoint is to use the extracted feature vectors from the discriminator. Hence, the generator produces outputs by aiding the discriminator's learned features. A reconstruction loss is added to the loss function of the SS-GAN to drive the genera-tor to reconstruct outputs from the discriminator's features, hence steering the generator toward actual data configurations. The proposed reconstruction loss improves the performance of SS-GAN, produces high-quality outputs, and may be combined with other regularization loss functions to improve the performance of diverse GANs. We employ BERT word embedding for our model, which can be included in a downstream task and fine-tuned as a model, while the pre-trained BERT model can capture various linguistic properties. We examine the suggested model using the WikiSQL and SparC datasets, and the analysis findings reveal our model outperforms its rivals. The findings from our experiments indicate that the need for labeled samples can be minimized, down to as few as 100 instances, while still achieving commendable classification outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many tasks in statistical and causal inference can be construed as problems of entailment in a suitable formal language. We ask whether those problems are more difficult, from a computational perspective, for causal probabilistic languages than for pure probabilistic (or "associational") languages. Despite several senses in which causal reasoning is indeed more complex—both expressively and inferentially—we show that causal entailment (or satisfiability) problems can be systematically and robustly reduced to purely probabilistic problems. Thus there is no jump in computational complexity. Along the way we answer several open problems concerning the complexity of well-known probability logics, in particular demonstrating the ${\exists \mathbb {R}}$ -completeness of a polynomial probability calculus, as well as a seemingly much simpler system, the logic of comparative conditional probability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an attempt to bridge the gap between deep learning and grammatical inference. Indeed, it provides an algorithm to extract a (stochastic) formal language from any recurrent neural network trained for language modelling. In detail, the algorithm uses the already trained network as an oracle—and thus does not require the access to the inner representation of the black-box—and applies a spectral approach to infer a weighted automaton. As weighted automata compute linear functions, they are computationally more efficient than neural networks and thus the nature of the approach is the one of knowledge distillation. We detail experiments on 62 data sets (both synthetic and from real-world applications) that allow an in-depth study of the abilities of the proposed algorithm. The results show the WA we extract are good approximations of the RNN, validating the approach. Moreover, we show how the process provides interesting insights toward the behavior of RNN learned on data, enlarging the scope of this work to the one of explainability of deep learning models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at a further understanding on the role of formal language education in immigrants' inclusion and identity redefinition in a new society. We analyze adult immigrants' perspectives on education in Icelandic as a second language (ISL) by conducting a cross-analysis of a survey and various ethnographic studies. Many immigrants in Iceland report dissatisfaction with language courses and prefer to have courses better tailored to their practical daily needs. Teachers are evaluated positively, but curricular utility, concerns about in-class evaluations, unevenly prepared student cohorts, lack of opportunity to use class knowledge in further education, and a lack of availability of courses in rural areas are mentioned as challenges. This indicates that ISL education does not fulfil its "dual purpose" declared in the 2007 Icelandic immigration policy: strengthening the position of Icelandic and speeding up immigrants' integration. We make suggestions for further development of ISL education based on learners' perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundamental relations in private law are claims and duties. These legal relations can be changed by agents with the appropriate legal powers. We use propositional dynamic logic and ideas about propositional control from the agency literature to formalize these changes in legal relations. Our models are sets of states with functions specifying atomic facts, agents' abilities to change atomic facts, legal relations between agents concerning changing atomic facts and agents' powers. We present a formal language that allows us to describe models and changes of models caused by two kinds of actions: actions that change atomic facts and actions that change legal relations. Next, we present a sound and complete calculus for this language. The paper demonstrates that the perspective on actions borrowed from computer science can be used to shed interesting light on the dynamics of legal relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an interview with mathematician Martin Raussen, who discusses his involvement with the Nordic Congress of Mathematicians and his experiences interviewing Abel Prize recipients. Raussen reflects on his early interest in mathematics and his education, highlighting the challenges and excitement of studying the subject. He delves into his research on the interplay between directed homotopy in algebraic topology and concurrency in theoretical computer science, explaining the concept of concurrency and its relevance in distributed computing. Raussen also discusses his involvement in public outreach and conducting interviews with Abel Prize laureates. The article emphasizes the importance of promoting mathematics and the challenges in communicating its beauty and significance to the general public. It also mentions the increasing influence of mathematics in technology and society, as well as the role of computers and artificial intelligence in advancing mathematical research. The interview concludes with a discussion on the different approaches to mathematics and the importance of both theory building and problem solving. Raussen also shares his interests outside of mathematics, including reading popular science books, listening to music, and spending time with family. [Extracted from the article]

Rough set theory (RST) is a formal theory derived from logical properties of information systems. Rough set theory extends traditional set theory by defining a subset of a universe through the use of a pair of sets referred to as the lower and upper approximations. It is a mathematical approach for dealing with ambiguities and imprecisions in a variety of situation. Since its introduction by Zdislaw Pawlak in the late eighties of the previous century, it has evolved into pure and applied directions from mathematical, logical, and computational perspectives. The area of rough set theory in computational mathematics is rapidly developing. As far as vagueness and imprecision are concerned, rough set theory is basically a mathematical approach. An equivalence relation is a key concept in rough set models. Approximations at the lower and upper levels are constructed based on equivalence classes. There is wide application of algebraic systems in sequential machines, formal languages, arithmetic codes, and error-correction algorithms. The study of any set will be effective if an algebraic structure is developed for it. In the context of semigroups research, rough set theory can be used to analyse and understand the properties and relationships within semigroups. Semigroups and related algebraic structures and their properties can be explored more deeply when rough set theory is applied. The aim of this paper is to extend the concept of rough semigroup ideals. It has already been shown that some properties of rough (left, right) ideals in semigroups can be obtained by extending the notion of a left (right) ideal in a semigroup. As a result of considering h-ideals in semigroups, rough upper hideals (left & right) have been introduced here along with their properties. Also, the results related to rough semi-lattices and rough quotient semigroups are given. These concepts are explained with suitable examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Team formation in an environment where some relevant parameters are not known in advance is a challenging problem. Communicating automata and distributed algorithms have been used to describe protocols for team formation. A high‐level specification provides a mathematical description of a protocol or a program. TLA +$$ {}^{+} $$ is a formal specification language designed to provide high‐level specifications of concurrent and distributed systems. The associated model checker known as TLC is capable of model checking the TLA +$$ {}^{+} $$ specifications. Recently, formal specification of a team formation protocol is given using TLA +$$ {}^{+} $$ when there is a single initiator (an agent or a robot) that initiates the team formation. Using TLA +$$ {}^{+} $$, we examine the formal specification for the multiple initiator situation and demonstrate that a composition technique can yield a single monolithic specification for the multiple initiator situation from the single initiator situation specification. We have used models of varying sizes, and the TLC model checker has confirmed that the protocol's specifications meet certain desired characteristics in each case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear temporal logic ( LTL ) and its variant interpreted on finite traces ( LTL f ) are among the most popular specification languages in the fields of formal verification, artificial intelligence, and others. In this paper, we focus on the satisfiability problem for LTL and LTL f formulas, for which many techniques have been devised during the last decades. Among these are tableau systems, of which the most recent is Reynolds' tree-shaped tableau. We provide a SAT-based algorithm for LTL and LTL f satisfiability checking based on Reynolds' tableau, proving its correctness and discussing experimental results obtained through its implementation in the BLACK satisfiability checker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language is a unique ability of human beings. Although relatively simple for humans, the ability to understand human language is a highly complex task for machines. For a machine to learn a particular language, it must understand not only the words and rules used in a particular language, but also the context of sentences and the meaning that words take on in a particular context. In the experimental development we present in this paper, the goal was the development of the language model SRBerta—a language model designed to understand the formal language of Serbian legal documents. SRBerta is the first of its kind since it has been trained using Cyrillic legal texts contained within a dataset created specifically for this purpose. The main goal of SRBerta network development was to understand the formal language of Serbian legislation. The training process was carried out using minimal resources (single NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 GPU) and performed in two phases—base model training and fine-tuning. We will present the structure of the model, the structure of the training datasets, the training process, and the evaluation results. Further, we will explain the accuracy metric used in our case and demonstrate that SRBerta achieves a high level of accuracy for the task of masked language modeling in Serbian Cyrillic legal texts. Finally, SRBerta model and training datasets are publicly available for scientific and commercial purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Specification languages for runtime verification are commonly rooted in formal languages, such as temporal logic, automata, or regular expressions. We argue that, for practical purposes, specification languages for monitoring should allow language features similar to those found in general purpose programming languages, in addition to providing specialized monitoring constructs. Using a realistic and large event-log, we compare two such programming-oriented monitoring language systems to a temporal logic-based monitoring system that was previously evaluated on the same log. The first programming-oriented language is a library in Scala developed for runtime verification. The other language is a scripting language, originally developed for fast static code analysis. We formulate the same reasonably complex properties as in the temporal logic case, using both methods, and compare the efficiency with which they can be checked against the large event log, and the ease with which the properties can be formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Order-preserving DAG grammars (OPDGs) is a formalism for representing languages of structurally restricted graphs. As demonstrated in [17], they are sufficiently expressive to model abstract meaning representations in natural language processing, a graph-based form of semantic representation in which nodes encode objects and edges relations. At the same time, they can be parsed in (n 2 + n m) , where m and n are the sizes of the grammar and the input graph, respectively. In this work, we provide an initial algebra semantic for OPDGs, which allows us to view them as regular tree grammars under an equivalence theory. This makes it possible to transfer results from the field of formal tree languages to the domain of OPDGs, both in the unweighted and the weighted case. In particular, we show that deterministic OPDGs can be minimised efficiently, and that they are learnable under the "minimal adequeate teacher" paradigm, that is, by querying an oracle for equivalence between languages, and membership of individual graphs. To conclude, we demonstrate that the languages generated by OPDGs are definable in monadic second-order logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study set out to re-examine the effectiveness of study abroad programs in second language (L2) acquisition through a multi-level meta-analysis. Overall, 42 primary studies published between 1995 and 2019 were identified, and in total 283 effect sizes were meta-analysed. This study implemented a three-level random effects model to account for the clustered, mutually dependent effect sizes often nested in the primary studies of L2 study abroad research. The results indicated a medium-to-large effect (g = 0.87) on study abroad language programs. Essentially, the featured moderators in general explained more heterogeneity variances at level 3 (i.e. the between-study level) than at level 2 (i.e. the within study level). For study abroad language learners, language acquisition is optimal when learners, in particular those of a lower proficiency level, take both formal and content-based language courses while living with host families. Learners' age and pre-program training may not moderate the effectiveness of study abroad language programs. Importantly, this study further established that the length of study abroad programs are positively associated with learners' language gains, but that an extended and prolonged domestic program does not necessarily lead to such gains. Research and pedagogical implications are further discussed based on the research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a standard for modeling dynamic systems. UML behavioral state machines are used for modeling the dynamic behavior of object-oriented designs. The UML specification, maintained by the Object Management Group (OMG), is documented in natural language (in contrast to formal language). The inherent ambiguity of natural languages may introduce inconsistencies in the resulting statemachine model. Formalizing UML state machine specification aims at solving the ambiguity problem and at providing a uniform view to software designers and developers. Such a formalization also aims at providing a foundation for automatic verification of UML state machine models, which can help to find software design vulnerabilities at an early stage and reduce the development cost. We provide here a comprehensive survey of existing work from 1997 to 2021 related to formalizing UML state machine semantics for the purpose of conducting model checking at the design stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the way people communicate and convey information, particularly in public spaces. This paper investigates the use of language and signs in COVID-19-related directives in Japan from a pragmatic perspective. Using data collected through a linguistic landscape survey, the study qualitatively examines the use of politeness in linguistic formulation and the semiotic use of space through the combination of signs and objects. The analyses reveal the differences in politeness strategies used in top-down signs compared to bottom-up signs. Top-down signs, such as those produced by the government or large organizations, tend to use an invitation form and incomplete sentences, whereas bottom-up signs, created by individuals or small shops, often use more formal language and formulaic request expressions. The study highlights the role of addressers of bottom-up signs as "handlers" who play an active role in pragmatically utilizing space through the arrangement of semiotic signs. The study argues that a detailed linguistic and semiotic analysis is crucial in comprehending how meaning is co-constructed in the linguistic and semiotic landscape. This is particularly relevant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, where clear and effective communication is of utmost importance in order to maintain public health and safety. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the use of language and signs in public spaces, and have implications for the development of effective communicative strategies in the context of the pandemic and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advocates the use of compositional specifications based on formal languages as a means of modelling and analysing sophisticated collective behaviour in natural systems. With the use of appropriate linguistic constructs, models can be developed that are both compact and intuitive, and can be easily refined and extended in small steps. Automated workflows can be implemented on top of this methodology to provide quick feedback, enabling rapid design iterations. To support our argument, we present three examples from the natural world, focusing on flocks of birds and colonies of ants, which feature well-known examples of emergent behaviour in collective adaptive systems. We use an agent-based language to develop simple models that aim at capturing these collective phenomena, and discuss the specific language constructs that we use in the process. Then, we adapt an existing verification tool for the language to simulate our models, and show that our simulations do display emergent behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring RPA (robotic process automation) security is a critical aspect when developing and operating automated software robots. One of the key steps for developing secure software robots is the design stage: the identification and specification of the requirements for the security of the system, the description of system precedents, the interaction between the classes involved in the robot being created, etc. Designs using security-oriented formal modeling languages, such as the UMLsec extension of UML, involve not only a visual representation of diagrams but also the possibility to focus the attention on security issues. However, currently, in the scientific community, there is no possibility of using stereotypes specialized for robots—a mechanism for expanding the unified modeling language that would explicitly reflect a specific problem in the subject area. In this article, we propose that the UMLRPAsec-extension for RPA can be used to model security in the RPA context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the contexts of language experience in relation to language dominance in eighty-seven Italian–German primary school children in Germany using the MAIN narrative task. We compare current language experience in the heritage language (Italian) and the majority language (German) in both formal and informal settings, and we examine the respective impact on micro- and macrostructure measures, including different language domains. Some previous findings emphasized the importance of language experience in formal contexts. By contrast, our results suggest that, in particular, language experience in informal contexts determines vocabulary and fluency in the heritage and majority language, while there are no effects of exposure on syntactic complexity. Furthermore, while the younger children are relatively balanced, the older children are more dominant in the societal language. Our findings imply that the use of the minority language in informal contexts should be encouraged to promote its development and maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research paper is to identify and analyze word choice errors committed in spoken English by Saudi EFL students at King Khalid University. It also seeks to identify the origins of the errors and to suggest relevant solutions to assist learners in developing lexical competence and reducing the occurrence of these errors. The research focuses on five different forms of word choice errors. These errors consist of errors of redundancy, literal translation, subject/verb agreement, collocation, and inappropriate usage of formal and informal words. To gather data, the study is based on conducting structured interviews with three EFL-speaking teachers. It also employs a speaking test as a data collection technique from fifteen EFL learners chosen at random, who are required to speak one by one in front of the class for 3-6 minutes. Their oral performance is recorded by mobile phones. According to data analysis, the most common error category is literal translation (33.97%), which is followed by collocation errors (24.88%) as well as subject/verb agreement (18.66%). Furthermore, there are redundancy errors with a percentage of (12.44%). The last type of error committed is inappropriate use of formal and informal language, which has a percentage of (10.04%). The study attributes these errors to a variety of causes, including the Arabic language's impact as well as ineffective teaching techniques and learning strategies. The study offers several recommendations and pedagogical implications to help EFL learners overcome and minimize word choice errors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The document is a review of a book titled "Usage-based and Typological Approaches to Linguistic Units." The book examines whether linguistic categories like subject, clause, or predicate are universal across languages or specific to each language. It presents research articles that use authentic corpus data and a usage-based approach to explore the universality of linguistic units and the concept of "participant orientation" in different languages. The review discusses the perspectives and findings presented in the book, including studies on English, Finnish, Japanese, and Indonesian conversations. The reviewer suggests future research should include more languages, consider diachronic analysis, and explore the role of prosody in linguistic units. Overall, the book challenges traditional views on the universality of linguistic categories and provides valuable insights into the study of linguistic units. It is recommended for those interested in gaining a deeper understanding of these topics. [Extracted from the article]

Simple rewriting rules are used to produce alphanumeric strings that embed fractal number sequences and are directly translatable into descriptions of hydrocarbon structures of considerable complexity, featuring hierarchical schemes. Rotations of the alphanumeric strings lead to radical rearrangements of the corresponding structures, which lose their initial schemes and become much less predictable, featuring different topologies of polygonal cycles. This shows that a complex and not necessarily ordered molecular structure may nevertheless have a relatively low algorithmic complexity. The variety and versatility of reorganization in chemical topology, due to the nonlocal representation of bonds in the coding string, may have played a role in prebiotic chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that social media can provide valuable tools for L2 teaching and learning, particularly for developing learners' informal learning of non-academic interactional registers, socio-pragmatics, culture, and multiliteracies. However, the fact that their benefits are more pronounced in informal contexts due to their quotidian nature poses a challenge for incorporating them into formal language instruction settings. In response, we designed social media-enhanced instruction for 12 intermediate-level learners of Turkish as a foreign language at a large public American university. Learners were required to post tweets in Turkish and engage with both their colleagues and native speakers of Turkish on Twitter each week, writing biweekly journal entries about their experiences. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative data, consisting of learners' journal entries, tweets, and the projects they developed as part of the instruction, were collected before, during, and after instruction and then analyzed using grounded qualitative techniques. The findings provide insight into how Turkish learners can engage in various social media literacy practices, developing awareness of everyday Turkish cultural discourses and language uses. The findings highlight the potential of social media-enhanced language learning as a means to engage in digital participatory culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article titled "A theory of Ln grammars: One size fits all?" discusses the debate surrounding the theoretical models of grammar and their applicability to bilingual and multilingual speakers. The authors argue that exoskeletal models of grammar, which separate syntax and morphology, can explain bilingual data without the need for additional constraints proposed in the Feature Reassembly (FR) view. They also discuss the Null Theory approach, which suggests that the same kind of theory can account for both monolingual and bilingual grammars. However, the article raises questions about the feasibility of this approach and emphasizes the importance of considering the variability and complexity of bilingual language acquisition. The authors conclude by highlighting the need for a proper treatment of both first-order and second-order constraints in modeling bilingual grammars and the role of bilingual data in shaping theories of grammar. [Extracted from the article]

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), is a standardized graphical language used for the graphical modeling of business processes. A BPMN model is composed of several small graphs called elements; these elements make it possible to describe the activities, the events, and the interactions between the components of a business process. Among the essential elements of BPMN are gateways, which control the flow of data. However, the big challenge of these gateways is the existence of several interpretations of the same BPMN model containing gateways; this is due to the informal and ambiguous definition. Several works have proposed the formalization of gateways using formal languages such as process algebras, Petri nets, etc. The purpose of this article is to propose a formalization of BPMN gateways using the formal language DD-LOTOS. DDLOTOS is defined on a semantics of true parallelism called maximality semantics and allows to support distribution and temporal constraints. We then propose the verification of certain properties using the UPPAAL model checker. Our approach has been validated through a case study representing the online purchasing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lambek categorial grammars is a class of formal grammars based on the Lambek calculus. Pentus proved in 1993 that they generate exactly the class of context-free languages without the empty word. In this paper, we study categorial grammars based on the Lambek calculus with the permutation rule LP. Of particular interest is the product-free fragment of LP called the Lambek-van Benthem calculus LBC. Buszkowski in his 1984 paper conjectured that grammars based on the Lambek-van Benthem calculus (LBC-grammars for short) generate exactly permutation closures of context-free languages. In this paper, we disprove this conjecture by presenting a language generated by an LBC-grammar that is not a permutation closure of any context-free language. Firstly, we introduce an ad-hoc modification of vector addition systems called linearly-restricted branching vector addition systems with states and additional memory (LRBVASSAMs for short) and prove that the latter are equivalent to LBC-grammars. Then we construct an LRBVASSAM that generates a non-semilinear set and thus disprove Buszkowski's conjecture. Since Buszkowski's conjecture is false, not so much is known about the languages generated by LBC-grammars or by LP-grammars. The equivalence of LRBVASSAMs and LBC-grammars allows us to establish a number of their properties. We show that LP-grammars generate the same class of languages as LBC-grammars; that is, removing product from LP does not decrease expressive power of corresponding categorial grammars. We also prove that this class of languages is closed under union, intersection, concatenation, and Kleene plus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including the Construction Grammar, specifically exploring how constructional approaches can be integrated and utilized in formal grammar.

The document is a summary of the journal article "Selected Papers from Datalog 2.0 2022" published in the Theory & Practice of Logic Programming. The article discusses the 4th International Workshop on the Resurgence of Datalog in Academia and Industry (Datalog 2.0 2022), which aimed to bring together researchers, implementors, and users of Datalog. The workshop received a significant number of submissions, and 21 papers were accepted for publication. The article also highlights the inclusion of an invited talk by Reinhard Pichler and emphasizes the collaborative and vibrant nature of the Datalog community. The document concludes by expressing anticipation for the future contributions and innovations in Datalog research. [Extracted from the article]

In this paper we study the behaviour of conjugacy languages in virtual graph products, extending results by Ciobanu et al. [13]. We focus primarily on virtual graph products in the form of a semi-direct product. First, we study the behaviour of twisted conjugacy representatives in right-angled Artin and Coxeter groups. We prove regularity of the conjugacy geodesic language for virtual graph products in certain cases, and highlight properties of the spherical conjugacy language, depending on the automorphism and ordering on the generating set. Finally, we give a criterion for when the spherical conjugacy language is not unambiguous context-free for virtual graph products. We can extend this further in the case of virtual RAAGs, to show the spherical conjugacy language is not context-free. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the language-of-thought hypothesis, regular sequences are compressed in human memory using recursive loops akin to a mental program that predicts future items. We tested this theory by probing memory for 16-item sequences made of two sounds. We recorded brain activity with functional MRI and magneto-encephalography (MEG) while participants listened to a hierarchy of sequences of variable complexity, whose minimal description required transition probabilities, chunking, or nested structures. Occasional deviant sounds probed the participants' knowledge of the sequence. We predicted that task difficulty and brain activity would be proportional to the complexity derived from the minimal description length in our formal language. Furthermore, activity should increase with complexity for learned sequences, and decrease with complexity for deviants. These predictions were upheld in both fMRI and MEG, indicating that sequence predictions are highly dependent on sequence structure and become weaker and delayed as complexity increases. The proposed language recruited bilateral superior temporal, precentral, anterior intraparietal, and cerebellar cortices. These regions overlapped extensively with a localizer for mathematical calculation, and much less with spoken or written language processing. We propose that these areas collectively encode regular sequences as repetitions with variations and their recursive composition into nested structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depression is a severe mental health issue. The user‐generated content on social media (SM) is growing nowadays. Some computational approaches have been proposed for detecting depression based on users' SM data. However, because of the use of formal language, short range of words and misspellings in the SM data, depression detection (DD) is a challenging task. This paper proposes a novel deep learning (DL) technique for performing DD of the SM data with the help of the hybrid feature selection (FS) mechanism. Initially, two publicly available datasets containing user tweets are collected for implementing the proposed research model. Then the collected datasets are preprocessed for further processing. The preprocessing phase includes critical processes that contribute to creating a ready‐to‐use dataset for training and testing. After preprocessing, the preprocessed data is divided into prime and non‐prime words based on the dictionary approach. After that, the hybrid FS approach is implemented to select the most relevant features from the prime and non‐prime words for higher classification accuracy (AC). In the hybrid model, firstly Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency integrated Modified Information Gain (TFIDF‐MIG) approach is proposed that assigns the score value of each prime and non‐prime word in the dataset. Secondly, optimal features are selected from the weighted features using the Improved Elephant Herding Algorithm (IEHA). Finally, the decided features from the hybrid model are fed into the DL model, namely attention included improved ReLU‐based Convolution Neural Network with Long Short‐Term Memory (AIRCNN‐LSTM) for DD. Experiments are performed on the collected datasets to assess the proposed model's performance efficiency. The results of the extensive experiments show that the presented work outperforms existing techniques regarding DD classification AC by locating the best solutions. At the same time, it reduces the number of features chosen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal Language: In this essay, I reflect on the systematic exclusion of people with intellectual disabilities from philosophy even as their personhood is subject to ongoing philosophical debates. Theorizing this disenfranchisement as a form of epistemic oppression, I consider it in the context of the invalidation of disabled perspectives more broadly and characteristics of knowledge-production that confer credibility in philosophy. I end with a call for transformation through the framework of disability justice. I include an Easy Read summary, a plain language companion, and discussion questions, which restate my argument in simplified language and invite dialogue, demonstrating how philosophy might resist epistemic gatekeeping and imagine knowledge-production otherwise. Plain Language: This essay is about philosophy and intellectual disability (ID). People with ID do not get to do philosophy very much. Some reasons they are left out are: – Disabled people are not believed when they talk about their lives. – The way we write in philosophy makes it hard for people with ID to join. I think we should change how we do philosophy. I wrote a summary that is easy to read. I wrote questions to talk about together. I want to think about how to do philosophy better. Easy Read Summary: Philosophers are thinkers. They think about how the world is and how it should be. They think about intellectual disability (ID). Some thinkers say people with intellectual disabilities (ID) are worth less than other people. Most people with intellectual disabilities (ID) do not get to say what they think. We can change how we think by including people with intellectual disabilities (ID). We can believe what people with intellectual disabilities (ID) say about their lives. We can write and speak in simple ways. We can give people help thinking and making decisions. We can include people who do not speak or write. We can think as a community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ends of these phrases also provide the verse-final rhyme-word, which usually has the metrical form (- - //), matching the quantitative meter of the ultimate metrical feet in surrounding verses. The rhyme-words of the verses adjacent to 50:8 in this passage are the following: I al-majid i (v. 1), I ajib i (v. 2), I ba id i (v. 3), I afi i (v. 4), I marij i (v. 5), I furuj i (v. 6), I bahij i (v. 7), I al- a id i (v. 9), I na id i (v. 10), and I al-khuruj i (v. 11). Rhyme and meter, the key constraints of poetry, have a profound effect on the structures that can be used within verses. V. 36 is preceded by the verse-final rhyme words I kabira i and I khabira i (4:34-35), and v. 107 is preceded by the verse-final rhyme words I akima i , I kha ima i , and I ra ima i (4:104-6), all of which exhibit the quantitative metrical form (/ - - //). Because the singular is I a jaf i (masc.)/ I ajfa i (fem.), the expected plural would be I ujf i , like other adjectives of the form I af al, fa la i describing defects, such as I a ma i (masc. sing.), I amya i (fem. sing.), "blind", which takes the plural I umy i . [Extracted from the article]

This study examines how the Chinese government has adopted authoritarian digital populism to justify its political programs through its official social media sub-accounts. Through discourse analysis, we investigate textual material concerning the "Belt and Road Initiative" (BRI) posted on a representative WeChat account, Xiakedao. We find Xiakedao performing digital populism through stylistic-emotional manipulation to portray the benefits of the BRI to China, BRI countries, and the world, or, put succinctly, to legitimize the BRI. Specifically, in 2014–2016, through mixing informal and formal language, Xiakedao based its legitimization on stirring up a sense of hegemonic superiority by painting it as a strategy capable of significantly advancing China's interests. Since 2017, Xiakedao has shifted to emphasizing its massive global contribution to stimulate nationalist pride and exploiting a trauma complex to bestow a counter-hegemonic aura on it. Drawing on Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory, we argue that Xiakedao has utilized the terms "China" and "BRI" as an empty signifier and a floating signifier, respectively. We unravel its discursive strategies of fixing their meanings and (re)drawing antagonistic frontiers to legitimize the BRI during different periods. The study contributes to theoretically understanding how an authoritarian state legitimizes the same political programs from disparate stances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by results on the rationality of equivariant Hilbert series of some hierarchical models in algebraic statistics we introduce the Segre product of formal languages and apply it to establish rationality of equivariant Hilbert series in new cases. To this end we show that the Segre product of two regular languages is again regular. We also prove that every filtration of algebras given as a tensor product of families of algebras with rational equivariant Hilbert series has a rational equivariant Hilbert series. The term equivariant is used broadly to include the action of the monoid of nonnegative integers by shifting variables. Furthermore, we exhibit a filtration of shift invariant monomial algebras that has a rational equivariant Hilbert series, but whose presentation ideals do not stabilize. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines two alleged limitations in the use of formal languages: on the one hand, the trade-offs between expressive and inferential power, and on the other, the phenomenon of system imprisonment. After reconceptualizing the issue, we consider the role played by modality in the understanding of certain aspects of mathematical structures, and argue for its centrality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the emerging technologies have been constantly shaping the education domain, especially the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for language learning, which has attracted significant attention. Many of the AI tools are being used for learning foreign languages, in both formal and informal ways. There are many studies that have explored the potential of the recent technology "ChatGPT" for education and learning languages, but none of the existing studies have conducted any exploratory study for assessing the usability of ChatGPT. This paper conducts an assessment for usability of ChatGPT for formal English language learning. The study uses a standard questionnaire-based approach to ask participants about their feedback for usefulness and effectiveness of ChatGPT. The participants were asked for their feedback after performing series of tasks related to formal English language learning with ChatGPT. A variety of student participants were selected for this study with diverse English language proficiency levels, education levels, and nationalities. The quantitative analysis of the participant responses shed light on their experience with regards to the usability of ChatGPT for performing different English language learning tasks such as conversation, writing, grammar, and vocabulary. The findings from this study are quite promising and indicate that ChatGPT is an effective tool to be used for formal English language learning. Overall, this study contributes to the fast-growing research domain on using emerging technologies for formal English language learning by conducting in-depth assessment of usability for ChatGPT in formal English language learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We contribute to the refined understanding of language-logic-algebra interplay in a recent algebraic framework over countable words. Algebraic characterizations of the one variable fragment of FO as well as the boolean closure of the existential fragment of FO are established. We develop a seamless integration of the block product operation in the countable setting, and generalize well-known decompositional characterizations of FO and its two variable fragment. We propose an extension of FO admitting infinitary quantifiers to reason about inherent infinitary properties of countable words, and obtain a natural hierarchical block-product based characterization of this extension. Properties expressible in this extension can be simultaneously expressed in the classical logical systems such as WMSO and FO[cut]. We also rule out the possibility of a finite-basis for a block-product based characterization of these logical systems. Finally, we report algebraic characterizations of one variable fragments of the hierarchies of the new extension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service choreographies are a versatile approach for building service-based distributed systems. Many approaches can be found in the literature tackling different aspects of service choreographies, such as choreography realizability and conformance checking, distributed coordination, formal choreographic languages, and scalability. As of today, choreography scalability has not been specifically addressed through approaches that also consider coordination issues while still decoupling these two related aspects. Scalability is one of the most important properties to be considered when building distributed systems. It enhances the user-perceived performances and influences the overall dependability of the system. In particular, load scalability allows distributed service-oriented systems to effectively handle varying loads without suffering performance degradation. In this direction, microservice-based systems are able to scale thanks to the possibility of replicating those microservices exposed to growing loads, distributing their workload among different instances. By leveraging on our experience in coordinating service choreographies, in this paper, we propose a layered architectural style that allows to realize scalable microservice-oriented choreographies. The architecture integrates a fully-distributed coordination layer capable of ensuring the correct interactions and a load-balancing layer that allows to balance of coordinated requests. We discuss the properties of the proposed architectural style and evaluate its benefits on user-perceived performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces two new approaches in the areas of lexical analysis and context-free parsing. We present an extension, MGLL, of generalised parsing which allows multiple input strings to be parsed together efficiently, and we present an enhanced approach to lexical analysis which exploits this multiple parsing capability. The work provides new power to formal language specification and disambiguation, and brings new techniques into the historically well-studied areas of lexical and syntax analysis. It encompasses characterlevel parsing at one extreme and the classical LEX/YACC style division at the other, allowing the advantages of both approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chan monks had a language problem. They needed to deal with at least four registers; the language of the street in their district, the Chan koine with its colloquialisms and argot, the guanhua or official language, and the elite formal language in Literary Sinitic that was packed with allusions. Zen monks in Japan had to deal with registers of Japanese, plus the Chan koine and the formal Literary Chinese. One response was philological, glosses on vocabulary that were likely to be misunderstood, such as dialect words and words that had changed meaning over time. Notably, most of these responses originated in or were connected to the greater Hangzhou region and its Wu language. After discussing whether there was a "standard" or common language used by elites throughout China, this article contends that the awareness of language differences between the "standard" or Mandarin Chinese and the Wu language by native Wu speakers contributed to the rise of Chan philology and then Zen philology. A few key examples of specialized Chan philological texts will be examined, but it should be kept in mind that examples of Chan philology may be embedded in other Chan works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an interpretable geometry solution based on the formal language set of text and diagram. Geometry problems are solved using machines; however, machines encounter challenges in natural language processing and computer vision. Significant progress has improved existing methods in the extraction of geometric formal languages. However, the neglect of the graph structure information in the formal language and the lack of further refinement of the extracted language set can lead to poor theorem prediction and poor accuracy in problem solving. In this paper, a formal language graph is constructed using the extracted formal language set and applied to theorem prediction using a graph convolutional network. To better extract the relationship set of diagram elements, an improved diagram parser is proposed. The test results indicate that the improved method has good results when solving interpretable geometry problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]