title: Compositional synthesis of supervisors in the form of state machines and state maps

authors: Mohajerani, Sahar

subjects: computer science

abstract: This paper investigates the compositional abstraction-based synthesis of least restrictive, controllable, and nonblocking supervisors for discrete event systems that are given as a large number of finite-state machines. It compares a previous algorithm that synthesises modular supervisors in the form of state machines, with an alternative that records state maps after each abstraction step and uses these to control the system. The state map-based algorithm supports all abstraction methods used previously, and in addition allows for nondeterminism, hiding, and transition removal. It has been implemented in the software tool Supremica and applied to several large industrial models. The experimental results and the complexity analysis show that state maps can be computed efficiently and in many cases require less memory than state machine-based supervisors.

text: Compositional synthesis of supervisors in the form of state machines and state maps This paper investigates the compositional abstraction-based synthesis of least restrictive, controllable, and nonblocking supervisors for discrete event systems that are given as a large number of finite-state machines. It compares a previous algorithm that synthesises modular supervisors in the form of state machines, with an alternative that records state maps after each abstraction step and uses these to control the system. The state map-based algorithm supports all abstraction methods used previously, and in addition allows for nondeterminism, hiding, and transition removal. It has been implemented in the software tool Supremica and applied to several large industrial models. The experimental results and the complexity analysis show that state maps can be computed efficiently and in many cases require less memory than state machine-based supervisors.

year: 2017

title: Introductory notes to working paper series ‘a social history of mining in the Te Aroha mining district’

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: These working papers are provided as a resource for historians and genealogists. When covering the lives of individuals, they are deliberately as detailed as possible – possibly too detailed on such aspects as land ownership, but the intention is to provide as much information as is traceable. The nature of my research was inspired by the farewell address given by Sir Keith Hancock when he retired from being head of the History Department in the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, when I was a student there. He included the comment that, in his retirement, he would tend his own garden; not meaning an intention to turn from historical research to gardening but to focus his research on his own locality, meaning the district of Monaro to the south of Canberra. The outcome was his publication, through Cambridge University Press, in 1972, of his excellent Discovering Monaro: A study of man’s inpact on his environment. The structure of this book combined a general analysis of geology, weather patterns, farming practices, and many other issues with case studies of farmers and others who lived in and developed the district. As this is a social history of the Te Aroha district, concentrating on mining, his example has been followed, with general papers being combined with personal accounts that illustrate the points made in the former papers. For instance, there is a paper on the skills required for successful prospecting, and the paper on Billy Nicholl relates the story of one of the most successful prospectors (successful at Waihi, that is, much less so elsewhere). As an unexpectedly large amounts of information was uncovered about some of those included in the case studies, the latter have ballooned far beyond the modest mini-biographies originally anticipated.

text: Introductory notes to working paper series ‘a social history of mining in the Te Aroha mining district’ These working papers are provided as a resource for historians and genealogists. When covering the lives of individuals, they are deliberately as detailed as possible – possibly too detailed on such aspects as land ownership, but the intention is to provide as much information as is traceable. The nature of my research was inspired by the farewell address given by Sir Keith Hancock when he retired from being head of the History Department in the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, when I was a student there. He included the comment that, in his retirement, he would tend his own garden; not meaning an intention to turn from historical research to gardening but to focus his research on his own locality, meaning the district of Monaro to the south of Canberra. The outcome was his publication, through Cambridge University Press, in 1972, of his excellent Discovering Monaro: A study of man’s inpact on his environment. The structure of this book combined a general analysis of geology, weather patterns, farming practices, and many other issues with case studies of farmers and others who lived in and developed the district. As this is a social history of the Te Aroha district, concentrating on mining, his example has been followed, with general papers being combined with personal accounts that illustrate the points made in the former papers. For instance, there is a paper on the skills required for successful prospecting, and the paper on Billy Nicholl relates the story of one of the most successful prospectors (successful at Waihi, that is, much less so elsewhere). As an unexpectedly large amounts of information was uncovered about some of those included in the case studies, the latter have ballooned far beyond the modest mini-biographies originally anticipated.

year: 2016

title: ‘Indigenous Rights’ or ‘Racial Privileges’: The rhetoric of ‘race’ in New Zealand politics

authors: Barber, Keith

subjects: indigeneity

abstract: The New Zealand parliamentary election campaign of 2005 was marked by a significant break in the consensus between the two major political parties, Labour and National, in the area of Maori affairs: a consensus that had previously been articulated in terms of a shared commitment to 'biculturalism' and the Treaty of Waitangi. In January 2004, the National Party launched an attack on government policies, describing them as giving unfair privileges to Maori based purely on 'race'. The present paper examines the National Party's adoption of the rhetoric of 'race' and the conceptual, political and ideological considerations behind it. It also examines attitudinal, social policy and socioeconomic factors to explain the widespread acceptability of this rhetoric among the New Zealand public. These events are considered within the context of a growing academic and political critique of 'culturalism' in New Zealand social policy and social science.

text: ‘Indigenous Rights’ or ‘Racial Privileges’: The rhetoric of ‘race’ in New Zealand politics The New Zealand parliamentary election campaign of 2005 was marked by a significant break in the consensus between the two major political parties, Labour and National, in the area of Maori affairs: a consensus that had previously been articulated in terms of a shared commitment to 'biculturalism' and the Treaty of Waitangi. In January 2004, the National Party launched an attack on government policies, describing them as giving unfair privileges to Maori based purely on 'race'. The present paper examines the National Party's adoption of the rhetoric of 'race' and the conceptual, political and ideological considerations behind it. It also examines attitudinal, social policy and socioeconomic factors to explain the widespread acceptability of this rhetoric among the New Zealand public. These events are considered within the context of a growing academic and political critique of 'culturalism' in New Zealand social policy and social science.

year: 2008