Object oriented development is the methodology of choice for a wide range of applications but those developing critical systems have stayed with techniques with a mathematical basis. Object-Z is a formal specication language that has attempted to bring the benets of an object oriented approach to critical systems. However, it lacks an obvious route to implementation. This paper describes how Ob...

We define a diamonded odd cycle to be an odd cycle C with exactly two chords and either a) C has length five and the two chords are non-crossing; or b) C has length greater than five and has chords (x,y) and (x,z) with (y,z) an edge of C and there exists a node w not on C adjacent to y and C, but not x. In this paper, we show that given a diamonded odd cycle-free graph G, G is perfect if and on...

In 1979, two constructions for making partitionable graphs were introduced in (by Chv2 atal et al. (Ann. Discrete Math. 21 (1984) 197)). The graphs produced by the second construction are called CGPW graphs. A near-factorization (A; B) of a %nite group is roughly speaking a non-trivial factorization of G minus one element into two subsets A and B. Every CGPW graph with n vertices turns out to b...

The recently announced Strong Perfect Graph Theorem states that the class of perfect graphs coincides with the class of graphs containing no induced odd cycle of length at least 5 or the complement of such a cycle. A graph in this second class is called Berge. A bull is a graph with five vertices x, a, b, c, d and five edges xa, xb, ab, ad, bc. A graph is bull-reducible if no vertex is in two b...

The theory of perfect graphs relates the concept of graph colorings to the concept of cliques. In this paper, we introduce the concept of a perfect graph as well as a number of graph classes that are always perfect. We next introduce both theWeak Perfect Graph Theorem and the Strong Perfect Graph Theorem and provide a proof of the Weak Perfect Graph Theorem. We also demonstrate an application o...

We study the problem of encoding cardinality constraints (threshold functions) on Boolean variables into CNF. Specifically, we propose new encodings based on (perfect) hashing that are efficient in terms of the number of clauses, auxiliary variables, and propagation strength. We compare the properties of our encodings to known ones, and provide experimental results evaluating their practical ef...

This essay examines the use of famine-plot rhetoric in the course of disputes over free trade in the French Atlantic during the late eighteenth century. Seeking to discredit officially sanctioned trade monopolies, French plantation owners frequently suggested that the control exercised by metropolitan merchants over transatlantic commerce was responsible for food shortages among the enslaved po...

The Strong Perfect Graph Conjecture, suggested by Claude Berge in 1960, had a major impact on the development of graph theory over the last forty years. It has led to the definitions and study of many new classes of graphs for which the Strong Perfect Graph Conjecture has been verified. Powerful concepts and methods have been developed to prove the Strong Perfect Graph Conjecture for these spec...