The use of aggregation in causal simulation

摘要

Aggregation is an abstraction technique for dynamically creating new descriptions of a system's behavior. Aggregation works by detecting repeating cycles of processes and creating a continuous process description of the cycle's behavior. Since this behavioral abstraction results in a continuous process, the powerful transition analysis technique may be applied to determine the system's final state.This paper reports on a program which uses aggregation to perform causal simulation in the domain of molecular genetics. A detailed analysis of aggregation indicates the requirements and limitations of the technique as well as problems for future research.