Reasoning with Sets of Defaults in Default Logic

We present a general approach for representing and reasoning with sets of defaults in default logic, focusing on reasoning about preferences among sets of defaults. First, we consider how to control the application of a set of defaults so that either all apply (if possible) or none do (if not). From this, an approach to dealing with preferences among sets of default rules is developed. We begin with an ordered default theory , consisting of a standard default theory, but with possible preferences on sets of rules. This theory is transformed into a second, standard default theory wherein the preferences are respected. The approach differs from other work, in that we obtain standard default theories and do not rely on prioritized versions of default logic. In practical terms this means we can immediately use existing default logic theorem provers for an implementation. Also, we directly generate just those extensions containing the most preferred applied rules; in contrast, most previous approaches generate all extensions, then select the most preferred. In a major application of the approach, we show how semimonotonic default theories can be encoded so that reasoning can be carried out at the object level. With this, we can reason about default extensions from within the framework of a standard default logic. Hence one can encode notions such as skeptical and credulous conclusions, and can reason about such conclusions within a single extension.     

Assumption‐Based Argumentation Equipped with Preferences and its Application to Decision Making,Practical Reasoning,and Epistemic Reasoning

The existing approaches that map the given explicit preferences into standard assumption‐based argumentation (ABA) frameworks reveal some difficulties such as generating a huge number of rules. To overcome them, we present an assumption‐based argumentation framework equipped with preferences (p_ABA). It increases the expressive power of ABA by incorporating preferences between sentences into the framework. The semantics of p_ABA is given by extensions, which are maximal among extensions of ABA with regard to the extension ordering “lifted” from the given sentence ordering. As a theoretical contribution of this study, we show that prioritized logic programming can be formulated as a specific form of p_ABA. The advantage of our approach is that not only does p_ABA enable us to express different kinds of preferences such as preferences over rules, over goals, or over decisions by means of sentence orderings but we can also successfully obtain solutions from extensions of the p_ABA expressing the respective knowledge for various applications such as epistemic reasoning, practical reasoning, and decision making with preferences in a uniform and domain‐independent way without suffering from difficulties of the existing approaches.     

多变量规则的线性插值推理方法

插值推理是稀疏规则条件下的一类重要的推理方法，单变量的情况已有较多研究，但针对多变量情况的研究还不多，仅有的几种插值方法，存在着难以保证推理结果的凸性和正规性等问题。多变量规则的插值推理是插值推理研究的重要方面，为了在多变量稀疏规则条件下能得到好的插值推理结果，本文对多变量规则的插值推理方法进行了研究，提出了一个多变量规则的线性插值推理方法。该方法能较好地保证推理结果隶属函数的凸性和正规性，为智能系统中的模糊推理提供了一个十分有用的工具。     

Job-shop scheduling using automated reasoning: A case study of the car-sequencing problem

The job-shop scheduling problem is known to be NP-complete. The version of interest in this paper concerns an assembly line designed to produce various cars, each of which requires a (possibly different) set of options. The combinatorics of the problem preclude seeking a maximal solution. Nevertheless, because of the underlying economic considerations, an approach that yields a good sequence of cars, given the specific required options for each, would be most valuable. In this paper, we focus on an environment for seeking, studying, and evaluating approaches for yielding good sequences. The environment we discuss relies on the automated reasoning program ITP. Automated reasoning programs of this type offer a wide variety of ways to reason, strategies for controlling the reasoning, and auxiliary procedures that contribute to the effective study of problems of this kind. We view the study presented in this paper as a prototype of what can be accomplished with the assistance of an automated reasoning program.     

Fuzzy methods for case-based recommendation and decision support

The paper proposes two case-based methods for recommending decisions to users on the basis of information stored in a database. In both approaches, fuzzy sets and related (approximate) reasoning techniques are used for modeling user preferences and decision principles in a flexible manner. The first approach, case-based decision making, can principally be seen as a case-based counterpart to classical decision principles well-known from statistical decision theory. The second approach, called case-based elicitation, combines aspects from flexible querying of databases and case-based prediction. Roughly, imagine a user who aims at choosing an optimal alternative among a given set of options. The preferences with respect to these alternatives are formalized in terms of flexible constraints, the expression of which refers to cases stored in a database. As both types of decision support might provide useful tools for recommender systems, we also place the methods in a broader context and discuss the role of fuzzy set theory in some related fields.     

Default reasoning and belief revision: A syntax-independent approach

As an important variant of Reiter‘s default logic.Poole(1988) developed a nonmonotonic reasoning framework in the classical first-order language,Brewka and Nebel extended Poole‘s approach in order to enable a representation of priorities between defaults.In this paper a general framework for default reasoning is presented,which can be viewed as a generalization of the three approaches above.It is proved that the syntax-independent default reasoning in this framework is identical to the general belief revision operation introduced by Zhang et al.(1997).This esult provides a solution to the problem whether there is a correspondence between belief revision and default logic for the infinite case .As a by-product,an answer to the the question,raised by Mankinson and Gaerdenfors(1991),is also given about whether there is a counterpart contraciton in nonmonotonic logic.     

A General Framework for Expressing Preferences in Causal Reasoning and Planning

We consider the problem of representing arbitrary preferencesin causal reasoning and planning systems. In planning, a preferencemay be seen as a goal or constraint that is desirable, but notnecessary, to satisfy. To begin, we define a very general querylanguage for histories, or interleaved sequences of world statesand actions. Based on this, we specify a second language inwhich preferences are defined. A single preference defines abinary relation on histories, indicating that one history ispreferred to the other. From this, one can define global preferenceorderings on the set of histories, the maximal elements of whichare the preferred histories. The approach is very general andflexible; thus it constitutes a ‘base’ languagein terms of which higher-level preferences may be defined. Tothis end, we investigate two fundamental types of preferencesthat we call choice and temporal preferences. We consider concretestrategies for these types of preferences and encode them interms of our framework. We suggest how to express aggregatesin the approach, allowing, e.g. the expression of a preferencefor histories with lowest total action costs. Last, our approachcan be used to express other approaches and so serves as a commonframework in which such approaches can be expressed and compared.We illustrate this by indicating how an approach due to Sonand Pontelli can be encoded in our approach, as well as thelanguage PDDL3.     

Extending the Maximum Entropy Approach to Variable Strength Defaults

A generalisation of the maximum entropy (ME) approach to default reasoning [7,8] to cater for variable strength defaults is presented. The assumptions on which the original work was based are reviewed and revised. A new algorithm is presented that is shown to compute the ME-ranking under these more general conditions. The limitations of the revised approach are discussed and a test for the uniqueness of the ME-solution is given. The ME-solutions to several illustrative examples of default reasoning are given, and the approach is shown to handle them appropriately. The conclusion is that the ME-approach can be regarded as providing a benchmark theory of default reasoning against which default intuitions and other default systems may be assessed.     

A reasoning-based approach to machine learning

This paper describes a novel approach to machine learning, based on the principle of learning by reasoning. Current learning systems have significant limitations such as brittleness, i.e., the deterioration of performance on a different domain or problem and lack of power required for handling real-world learning problems. The goal of our research was to develop an approach in which many of these limitations are overcome in a unified, coherent and general framework. Our learning approach is based on principles of reasoning, such as the discovery of the underlying principle and the recognition of the deeper basis of similarity, which is somewhat akin to human learning. In this paper, we argue the importance of these principles and tie the limitations of current systems to the lack of application of these principles. We then present the technique developed and illustrate it on a learning problem not directly solvable by previous approaches.     

一种新的多维稀疏规则模糊插值推理方法

经典的插值理论针对一维稀疏规则库的条件，提出了各种不同的插值方法，取得了很多很好的经验．但对多维稀疏规则条件的近似推理，研究很少，仅有的几种插值方法，存在着难以保证推理结果的凸性和正规性等问题．为了在多维稀疏规则条件下能得到好的插值推理结果。提出了一种基于几何相似的插值推理方法．该方法能较好地保证推理结果隶属函数的凸性和正规性，为智能系统中的模糊推理提供了一个十分有用的工具．     

基于证据推理的确定因子规则库推理方法

不确定性推理方法是人工智能领域的一个主要研究内容,If-then规则是人工智能领域最常见的知识表示方法. 文章针对实际问题往往具有不确定性的特点,提出基于证据推理的确定因子规则库推理方法.首先在If-then规则的基础上给出确定因子结构和确定因子规则库知识表示方法,该方法可以有效利用各种类型的不确定性信息,充分考虑了前提、结论以及规则本身的多种不确定性. 然后,提出了基于证据推理的确定因子规则库推理方法. 该方法通过将已知事实与规则前提进行匹配,推断结论并得到已知事实条件下的前提确定因子;进一步,根据证据推理算法得到结论的确定因子. 文章最后,通过基于证据推理的确定因子规则库推理方法在UCI数据集分类问题的应用算例,说明该方法的可行性和高效性.     

Qualitative reasoning with directional relations

Qualitative spatial reasoning (QSR) pursues a symbolic approach to reasoning about a spatial domain. Qualitative calculi are defined to capture domain properties in relation operations, granting a relation algebraic approach to reasoning. QSR has two primary goals: providing a symbolic model for human common-sense level of reasoning and providing efficient means for reasoning. In this paper, we dismantle the hope for efficient reasoning about directional information in infinite spatial domains by showing that it is inherently hard to decide consistency of a set of constraints that represents positions in the plane by specifying directions from reference objects. We assume that these reference objects are not fixed but only constrained through directional relations themselves. Known QSR reasoning methods fail to handle this information.     

基于贝叶斯方法的范例检索

提出了利用贝叶斯概率理论进行范例推理，因为在范例库中进行范例检索是范例推理中的一个非常重要的组成部分。该文中主要考虑的是如何利用贝叶斯方法进行范例检索并提出了一个评估两个范例相似程度的匹配函数。在传统的方法中，可以用欧氏距离等方法来评估两个范例的相似性。在实验中，把这两种方法进行了比较，实验结果表明贝叶斯方法不仅呵行，而且比用欧氏距离方法更优。     

A hierarchical approach for the redesign of chemical processes

An approach to improve the management of complexity during the redesign of technical processes is proposed. The approach consists of two abstract steps. In the first step, model-based reasoning is used to generate automatically alternative representations of an existing process at several levels of abstraction. In the second step, process alternatives are generated through the application of case-based reasoning. The key point of our framework is the modeling approach, which is an extension of the Multimodeling and Multilevel Flow Modeling methodologies. These, together with a systematic design methodology, are used to represent a process hierarchically, thus improving the identification of analogous equipment/sections from different processes. The hierarchical representation results in sets of equipment/sections organized according to their functions and intentions. A case-based reasoning system then retrieves from a library of cases similar equipment/sections to the one selected by the user. The final output is a set of equipment/sections ordered according to their similarity. Human intervention is necessary to adapt the most promising case within the original process.     

A multi-viewpoint system to support abductive reasoning

The paper proposes a multi-viewpoint system to support human abductive reasoning for diagnosis, prognosis and trial-and-error activities for supervising automated systems. This multi-viewpoint approach interprets the same set of events from the different viewpoints in this set. The algorithms for managing these viewpoints and the set of events are related to hypothetical reasoning, and they use several main functions to (1) select or reject certain events, (2) cancel or recover these events, and (3) manage the consistency of the viewpoints. This approach is applied to diagnosis and trial-and-error activities related to the phone troubleshooting problem.     

基于案例和模糊推理的农业虫害专家系统研究

为了满足实.际虫害诊断问题对专家系统的要求,根据虫害特征诊断的现实特点和要求,首次将模糊技术和案例推理相融合,引入到虫害诊断专家系统的设计中.阐述了模糊案例推理的知识表示,给出了模糊案例推理技术的推理过程,提出了基于案例与模糊推理的虫害诊断推理机制.对二者的结合方式做了阐述,给出了专家系统的整体实现结构,并时各个模块的实现方法进行了详尽的阐述,最终以一个实例演示了实例诊断的流程.     

On a rule-based interpretation of default conditionals

In nonmonotonic reasoning, a default conditional α→β has most often been informally interpreted as a defeasible version of a classical conditional, usually the material conditional. There is however an alternative interpretation, in which a default is regarded essentially as a rule, leading from premises to conclusion. In this paper, we present a family of logics, based on this alternative interpretation. A general semantic framework under this rule-based interpretation is developed, and associated proof theories for a family of weak conditional logics is specified. Nonmonotonic inference is easily defined in these logics. Interestingly, the logics presented here are weaker than the commonly-accepted base conditional approach for defeasible reasoning. However, this approach resolves problems that have been associated with previous approaches.      

Multi-modal diagnosis combining case-based and model-based reasoning: a formal and experimental analysis

Integrating different reasoning modes in the construction of an intelligent system is one of the most interesting and challenging aspects of modern AI. Exploiting the complementarity and the synergy of different approaches is one of the main motivations that led several researchers to investigate the possibilities of building multi-modal reasoning systems, where different reasoning modalities and different knowledge representation formalisms are integrated and combined. Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) is often considered a fundamental modality in several multi-modal reasoning systems; CBR integration has been shown very useful and practical in several domains and tasks. The right way of devising a CBR integration is however very complex and a principled way of combining different modalities is needed to gain the maximum effectiveness and efficiency for a particular task. In this paper we present results (both theoretical and experimental) concerning architectures integrating CBR and Model-Based Reasoning (MBR) in the context of diagnostic problem solving. We first show that both the MBR and CBR approaches to diagnosis may suffer from computational intractability, and therefore a careful combination of the two approaches may be useful to reduce the computational cost in the average case. The most important contribution of the paper is the analysis of the different facets that may influence the entire performance of a multi-modal reasoning system, namely computational complexity, system competence in problem solving and the quality of the sets of produced solutions. We show that an opportunistic and flexible architecture able to estimate the right cooperation among modalities can exhibit a satisfactory behavior with respect to every performance aspect. An analysis of different ways of integrating CBR is performed both at the experimental and at the analytical level. On the analytical side, a cost model and a competence model able to analyze a multi-modal architecture through the analysis of its individual components are introduced and discussed. On the experimental side, a very detailed set of experiments has been carried out, showing that a flexible and opportunistic integration can provide significant advantages in the use of a multi-modal architecture.