Comments on “Statistical reasoning with set-valued information: Ontic vs. epistemic view” by Inés Couso and Didier Dubois

I discuss some aspects of the distinction between ontic and epistemic views of sets as representation of imprecise or incomplete information. In particular, I consider its implications on imprecise probability representations: credal sets and sets of desirable gambles. It is emphasized that the interpretation of the same mathematical object can be different depending on the point of view from which this element is considered. In the case of a fuzzy information on a random variable, it is possible to define a possibility distribution on the simplex of probability distributions. I add some comments about the properties of this possibility distribution.     

On various ways of tackling incomplete information in statistics

This short paper discusses the contributions made to the featured section on Low Quality Data. We further refine the distinction between the ontic and epistemic views of imprecise data in statistics. We also question the extent to which likelihood functions can be viewed as belief functions. Finally we comment on the data disambiguation effect of learning methods, relating it to data reconciliation problems.     

Selective sums of loopy partizan graph games

A loopy partizan graph game is a two-person game of perfect information which is played on a labelled digraph. The disjunctive sum, the continued conjunctive sum, and the selective sum are formulations for playing several l.p.g.g.'s simultaneously, so as to form a single compound game. In this paper, we present an analysis of the selective sum by utilizing certain elements of the theories for the disjunctive sum and the continued conjunctive sum.     

A double-sided multiunit combinatorial auction for substitutes: Theory and algorithms

Combinatorial exchanges have existed for a long time in securities markets. In these auctions buyers and sellers can place orders on combinations, or bundles of different securities. These orders are conjunctive: they are matched only if the full bundle is available. On business-to-business (B2B) exchanges, buyers have the choice to receive the same product with different attributes; for instance the same product can be produced by different sellers. A buyer indicates his preference by submitting a disjunctive order, where he specifies the quantity he wants of each particular good and what limit price he is willing to pay for each good, thus providing a subjective valuation of each attribute. Only the goods with the best prices will be traded. This article considers a doubled-sided multiunit combinatorial auction for substitutes, that is, a uniform price auction where buyers and sellers place both types of orders, conjunctive (AND orders) and disjunctive (XOR orders). We show that linear competitive prices exist. We also propose an algorithm to clear the market, which is particularly efficient when the number of traders is large, and the goods are divisible.     

Sequential convexification in reverse convex and disjunctive programming

This paper is about a property of certain combinatorial structures, called sequential convexifiability, shown by Balas (1974, 1979) to hold for facial disjunctive programs. Sequential convexifiability means that the convex hull of a nonconvex set defined by a collection of constraints can be generated by imposing the constraints one by one, sequentially, and generating each time the convex hull of the resulting set. Here we extend the class of problems considered to disjunctive programs with infinitely many terms, also known as reverse convex programs, and give necessary and sufficient conditions for the solution sets of such problems to be sequentially convexifiable. We point out important classes of problems in addition to facial disjunctive programs (for instance, reverse convex programs with equations only) for which the conditions are always satisfied. Finally, we give examples of disjunctive programs for which the conditions are violated, and so the procedure breaks down.The research underlying this report was supported by Grant ECS-8601660 of The National Science Foundation and Contract N00014-85-K-0198 with the Office of Naval Research. Reproduction in whole or in part is permitted for any purpose of the U.S. Government.On leave from the University of Aarhus, Denmark.     

基于异或软集合的不完备信息系统约减

软集合理论是处理不确定问题的一种新兴数学理论.作为软集合重要的应用领域之一,软集合的参数约减的研究大都基于完备信息系统.介绍了异或软集合的改进运算以及异或软集合决策系统,提出了一种基于异或软集合的不完备信息系统约减方法,同时与拓扑方法相比较.结果表明,算法得出的约减软集合是拓扑法求出的约减软集合的一个子集,即该算法在对数据刻画方面较为细致和全面.     

Evidence-theory-based numerical algorithms of attribute reduction with neighborhood-covering rough sets

Covering rough sets generalize traditional rough sets by considering coverings of the universe instead of partitions, and neighborhood-covering rough sets have been demonstrated to be a reasonable selection for attribute reduction with covering rough sets. In this paper, numerical algorithms of attribute reduction with neighborhood-covering rough sets are developed by using evidence theory. We firstly employ belief and plausibility functions to measure lower and upper approximations in neighborhood-covering rough sets, and then, the attribute reductions of covering information systems and decision systems are characterized by these respective functions. The concepts of the significance and the relative significance of coverings are also developed to design algorithms for finding reducts. Based on these discussions, connections between neighborhood-covering rough sets and evidence theory are set up to establish a basic framework of numerical characterizations of attribute reduction with these sets.     

Special subsets of difference sets with particular emphasis on skew Hadamard difference sets

This article introduces a new approach to studying difference sets via their additive properties. We introduce the concept of special subsets, which are interesting combinatorial objects in their own right, but also provide a mechanism for measuring additive regularity. Skew Hadamard difference sets are given special attention, and the structure of their special subsets leads to several results on multipliers, including a categorisation of the full multiplier group of an abelian skew Hadamard difference set. We also count the number of ways to write elements as a product of any number of elements of a skew Hadamard difference set.      

Strong valid inequalities for orthogonal disjunctions and bilinear covering sets

In this paper, we derive a closed-form characterization of the convex hull of a generic nonlinear set, when this convex hull is completely determined by orthogonal restrictions of the original set. Although the tools used in this construction include disjunctive programming and convex extensions, our characterization does not introduce additional variables. We develop and apply a toolbox of results to check the technical assumptions under which this convexification tool can be employed. We demonstrate its applicability in integer programming by providing an alternate derivation of the split cut for mixed-integer polyhedral sets and finding the convex hull of certain mixed/pure-integer bilinear sets. We then extend the utility of the convexification tool to relaxing nonconvex inequalities, which are not naturally disjunctive, by providing sufficient conditions for establishing the convex extension property over the non-negative orthant. We illustrate the utility of this result by deriving the convex hull of a continuous bilinear covering set over the non-negative orthant. Although we illustrate our results primarily on bilinear covering sets, they also apply to more general polynomial covering sets for which they yield new tight relaxations.     

Independence concepts in evidence theory

We study three conditions of independence within evidence theory framework. The first condition refers to the selection of pairs of focal sets. The remaining two ones are related to the choice of a pair of elements, once a pair of focal sets has been selected. These three concepts allow us to formalize the ideas of lack of interaction among variables and among their (imprecise) observations. We illustrate the difference between both types of independence with simple examples about drawing balls from urns. We show that there are no implication relationships between both of them. We also study the relationships between the concepts of “independence in the selection” and “random set independence”, showing that they cannot be simultaneously satisfied, except in some very particular cases.     

Idempotent uninorms

Uninorms are an important generalization of t-norms and t-conorms, having a neutral element lying anywhere in the unit interval. Two broad classes of idempotent uninorms are fully characterized: the class of left-continuous ones and the class of right-continuous ones. In particular, the important subclasses of conjunctive left-continuous idempotent uninorms and of disjunctive right-continuous idempotent uninorms are characterized by means of super-involutive and sub-involutive decreasing unary operators. As a consequence, it is shown that any involutive negator gives rise to a conjunctive left-continuous idempotent uninorm and to a disjunctive right-continuous idempotent uninorm.     

Toward the classification of biangular harmonic frames

Equiangular tight frames (ETFs) and biangular tight frames (BTFs) – sets of unit vectors with basis-like properties whose pairwise absolute inner products admit exactly one or two values, respectively – are useful for many applications. A well-understood class of ETFs are those which manifest as harmonic frames – vector sets defined in terms of the characters of finite abelian groups – because they are characterized by combinatorial objects called difference sets.This work is dedicated to the study of the underlying combinatorial structures of harmonic BTFs. We show that if a harmonic frame is generated by a divisible difference set, a partial difference set or by a special structure with certain Gauss summing properties – all three of which are generalizations of difference sets that fall under the umbrella term “bidifference set” – then it is either a BTF or an ETF. However, we also show that the relationship between harmonic BTFs and bidifference sets is not as straightforward as the correspondence between harmonic ETFs and difference sets, as there are examples of bidifference sets that do not generate harmonic BTFs. In addition, we study another class of combinatorial structures, the nested divisible difference sets, which yields an example of a harmonic BTF that is not generated by a bidifference set.     

Transitive sets in Euclidean Ramsey theory

A finite set X in some Euclidean space Rn is called Ramsey if for any k there is a d such that whenever Rd is k-coloured it contains a monochromatic set congruent to X. This notion was introduced by Erd?s, Graham, Montgomery, Rothschild, Spencer and Straus, who asked if a set is Ramsey if and only if it is spherical, meaning that it lies on the surface of a sphere. This question (made into a conjecture by Graham) has dominated subsequent work in Euclidean Ramsey theory.In this paper we introduce a new conjecture regarding which sets are Ramsey; this is the first ever ‘rival’ conjecture to the conjecture above. Calling a finite set transitive if its symmetry group acts transitively—in other words, if all points of the set look the same—our conjecture is that the Ramsey sets are precisely the transitive sets, together with their subsets. One appealing feature of this conjecture is that it reduces (in one direction) to a purely combinatorial statement. We give this statement as well as several other related conjectures. We also prove the first non-trivial cases of the statement.Curiously, it is far from obvious that our new conjecture is genuinely different from the old. We show that they are indeed different by proving that not every spherical set embeds in a transitive set. This result may be of independent interest.     

基于证据理论和Vague集的多属性群决策方法研究

为了解决人们在复杂环境中决策困难的问题,论文基于Vague集描述不确定事物的优势,通过证据理论对Vague集进行合成,得到一种信息集结的多属性群决策方法。该算法首先考虑专家评分的可信度,在分析Vague集与证据理论的数学关系后,使用证据理论将各方案在各属性下的专家集证据集结。然后通过Vague集记分函数进行属性权重的计算,将方案集在属性集下的Vague评价值进行加权修正,再通过证据理论将属性集证据集结得到各方案最终的Vague评价值。之后使用记分函数计算每一方案的得分来确定最优方案。最后通过算例进一步说明所提方法的可行性与有效性。文章给出的算法使决策者在不确定环境下可以进行理性决策,从而选出最优方案。     

Strict and tolerant antidivision queries with ordinal layered preferences

In this paper, we are interested in taking preferences into account for a family of queries inspired by the antidivision. An antidivision query aims at retrieving the elements associated with none of the elements of a specified set of values. We suggest the introduction of preferences inside such queries with the following specificities: (i) the user gives his/her preferences in an ordinal way and (ii) the preferences apply to the divisor which is defined as a hierarchy of sets. Different uses of the hierarchy are investigated, which leads to queries conveying different semantics and the property of the result delivered is characterized. Furthermore, the case where a conjunctive stratified antidivision query returns an empty set of answers is dealt with, and an approach aimed at relaxing such queries is proposed.     

Using multiple sources of information to recognize and classify objects

In this paper we consider the problem of selecting an object or a course of action from a set of possible alternatives. To give the paper focus, we concentrate initially on an object recognition problem in which the characteristic features of the object are reported by remote sensors. We then extend the method to a more general class of selection problems and consider several different scenarios.

Information is provided by a set of knowledge system reports on a single feature, and the output from these systems is not totally explicit but provides posible values for the observed feature along with a degree of certitude.We use fuzzy sets to represent this vague information. Information from independent sources is combined using the Dempster-Shafer approach adapted to the situation in which the focal elements are fuzzy as in the recent paper by J. Yen [7]. We base our selection rule on the belief and plausibility functions generated by this approach to accessing evidence.

For situations in which the information is too sparse and/or too vague to make a single selection, we construct a preference relationship based on the concept of averaged subsethood for fuzzy sets as discussed by B. Koskoin [4]. We also define an explicit metric upon which to base our selection mechanism for situations in which the Dempster-Shafer rule of combination is inappropriate     

属性粗糙集的新型近似算子

由等价类中元素属性测度的上、下确界定义的属性粗糙集,没有充分反映等价类中其它元素的作用,在信息处理中不免造成元素信息的丢失.为此提出一种新的属性粗糙集近似算子的表示方法,给出了相应的性质并实例说明了这一方法的合理性.     

内P-反动态信息特征与信息恢复

P-集合(packet sets)是一个动态模型,P-集合是由内P-集合x~F(internal packet set X~F)与外P-集合XF(~Fouter packet set X~F)构成的元素集合对;或者(X~F,X~F)是P-集合.利用内P-集合的结构,给出内P-信息,内P-反动态信息,信息的内P-反动态恢复概念,给出内P-反动态信息的属性合取收缩生成,给出内P-反动态信息与内P-信息同属性定理,给出内P-反动态信息存在与属性合取范式定理,给出信息的内P-反动态恢复属性定理.这些基本理论结果是把内P-集合与一类信息系统故障状态识别交叉,渗透研究得到的.     

Lukasiewicz-based merging possibilistic networks

Possibility theory provides a good framework for dealing with merging problems when information is pervaded with uncertainty and inconsistency. Many merging operators in possibility theory have been proposed. This paper develops a new approach to merging uncertain information modeled by possibilistic networks. In this approach we restrict our attention to show how a “triangular norm” establishes a lower bound on the degree to which an assessment is true when it is obtained by a set of initial hypothesis represented by a joint possibility distribution. This operator is characterized by its high effect of reinforcement. A strongly conjunctive operator is suitable to merge networks that are not involved in conflict, especially those supported by both sources. In this paper, the Lukasiewicz t-norm is first applied to a set of possibility measures to combine networks having the same and different graphical structures. We then present a method to merge possibilistic networks dealing with cycles.