The reduction and fusion of fuzzy covering systems based on the evidence theory

This paper studies reduction of a fuzzy covering and fusion of multi-fuzzy covering systems based on the evidence theory and rough set theory. A novel pair of belief and plausibility functions is defined by employing a method of non-classical probability model and the approximation operators of a fuzzy covering. Then we study the reduction of a fuzzy covering based on the functions we presented. In the case of multiple information sources, we present a method of information fusion for multi-fuzzy covering systems, by which objects can be well classified in a fuzzy covering decision system. Finally, by using the method of maximum flow, we discuss under what conditions, fuzzy covering approximation operators can be induced by a fuzzy belief structure.     

Updating attribute reduction in incomplete decision systems with the variation of attribute set

In rough set theory, attribute reduction is a challenging problem in the applications in which data with numbers of attributes available. Moreover, due to dynamic characteristics of data collection in decision systems, attribute reduction will change dynamically as attribute set in decision systems varies over time. How to carry out updating attribute reduction by utilizing previous information is an important task that can help to improve the efficiency of knowledge discovery. In view of that attribute reduction algorithms in incomplete decision systems with the variation of attribute set have not yet been discussed so far. This paper focuses on positive region-based attribute reduction algorithm to solve the attribute reduction problem efficiently in the incomplete decision systems with dynamically varying attribute set. We first introduce an incremental manner to calculate the new positive region and tolerance classes. Consequently, based on the calculated positive region and tolerance classes, the corresponding attribute reduction algorithms on how to compute new attribute reduct are put forward respectively when an attribute set is added into and deleted from the incomplete decision systems. Finally, numerical experiments conducted on different data sets from UCI validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithms in incomplete decision systems with the variation of attribute set.     

Bijective soft set decision system based parameters reduction under fuzzy environments

Gong et al. (2010) and Xiao et al. (2010) have proposed the notion of bijective soft set and exclusive disjunctive soft set, respectively, which is a subtype of soft set. On the basis of their work, this paper extends these notions to fuzzy environments, and formulates the concept of bijective fuzzy soft set, which can deal with more uncertain problems. Moreover, this paper proposes two parameters reduction algorithms: one (Algorithm 1) is based on bijective fuzzy soft system, and the other (Algorithm 2) takes weight of an element into consideration. Since the threshold plays an important role in these algorithms, we proposed an algorithm (Algorithm 3) to decide the optimal value of threshold specially. Afterwards, an example analysis of the two parameters reduction algorithms is given and the result shows that the two algorithms lead to the same parameters reduction of a bijective fuzzy soft system. Since Algorithm 2 considers the detail weights of elements, thus it can be used in more uncertain problems, such as time series analysis problems, than Algorithm 1.     

Ranking generalized fuzzy numbers in fuzzy decision making based on the left and right transfer coefficients and areas

Although a number of recent studies have proposed ranking fuzzy numbers based on the deviation degree, most of them have exhibited several shortcomings associated with non-discriminative and counter-intuitive problems. In fact, none of the existing deviation degree methods has guaranteed consistencies between the ranking of fuzzy numbers and that of their images under all situations. They have also ignored decision maker’s attitude toward risk, which significantly influences final ranking result. To overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks, this study proposes a new approach for ranking fuzzy numbers that ensures full consideration for all information of fuzzy numbers. Accordingly, an overall ranking index is obtained by the integration of the information from the left and the right (LR) areas between fuzzy numbers, the centroid points of fuzzy numbers and the decision maker’s attitude toward risk. This new method is efficient for evaluating generalized fuzzy numbers and distinguishing symmetric fuzzy numbers. It also overcomes the shortcomings of the existing approaches based on deviation degree. Several numerical examples are provided to illustrate the superiority of the proposed approach. Lastly, a new fuzzy MCDM approach for generalized fuzzy numbers is proposed based on the proposed ranking approach and the concept of generalized fuzzy numbers. The proposed fuzzy MCDM approach does not require the normalization process and thus avoids the loss of information results from transforming generalized fuzzy numbers to normal form.     

Multi-confidence rule acquisition and confidence-preserved attribute reduction in interval-valued decision systems

Rule acquisition is one of the most important objectives in the analysis of decision systems. Because of the interference of errors, a real-world decision system is generally inconsistent, which can lead to the consequence that some rules extracted from the system are not certain but possible rules. In practice, however, the possible rules with high confidence are also useful in making decision. With this consideration, we study how to extract from an interval-valued decision system the compact decision rules whose confidences are not less than a pre-specified threshold. Specifically, by properly defining a binary relation on an interval-valued information system, the concept of interval-valued granular rules is presented for the interval-valued decision system. Then, an index is introduced to measure the confidence of an interval-valued granular rule and an implication relationship is defined between the interval-valued granular rules whose confidences are not less than the threshold. Based on the implication relationship, a confidence-preserved attribute reduction approach is proposed to extract compact decision rules and a combinatorial optimization-based algorithm is developed to compute all the reducts of an interval-valued decision system. Finally, some numerical experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the reduction approach and the gain of using the possible rules in making decision.     

A fuzzy relation space for group decision theory

In this paper reciprocal relations over n alternatives are defined, and their efficacy as a model of the group decision process is investigated. Several measures of individual preference and group consensus are defined and analyzed, and are used to generate associated measures of distance to consensus. Various decision oriented goals are identified, and we characterize these goals geometrically as subsets of a convex subset of a hyperplane in Rⁿ. An application of this model for assessing degree of consensus is given.     

Multiple-attribute decision support system based on fuzzy logic for performance assessment

This paper deals with the problem of assessing the performance of a set of production units, simultaneously considering different kinds of information, yielded by a Data Envelopment Analysis, a qualitative data analysis and an expert assessment. The tool for integrating heterogeneous data is a model that applies fuzzy logic to decision support systems. The results obtained are a holistic performance assessment of each unit of the set and a ranking order of the units.     

A fuzzy multiobjective programming algorithm in decision support systems

Multicriteria analysis is one of the analytical functions in the problem processing system of decision support systems (DSS). In this paper, an interactive and iterative fuzzy programming method for solving a quasi-optimization problem in complex decisions under constraints involving a multiple objective function is proposed. Comparing with an adapted gradient search method, a surrogate worth tradeoff method, and a Zionts—Wallenius method, an approximate preference structure is emphasized in the proposed method.     

A historical review of evolutionary learning methods for Mamdani-type fuzzy rule-based systems: Designing interpretable genetic fuzzy systems

The need for trading off interpretability and accuracy is intrinsic to the use of fuzzy systems. The obtaining of accurate but also human-comprehensible fuzzy systems played a key role in Zadeh and Mamdani’s seminal ideas and system identification methodologies. Nevertheless, before the advent of soft computing, accuracy progressively became the main concern of fuzzy model builders, making the resulting fuzzy systems get closer to black-box models such as neural networks. Fortunately, the fuzzy modeling scientific community has come back to its origins by considering design techniques dealing with the interpretability-accuracy tradeoff. In particular, the use of genetic fuzzy systems has been widely extended thanks to their inherent flexibility and their capability to jointly consider different optimization criteria. The current contribution constitutes a review on the most representative genetic fuzzy systems relying on Mamdani-type fuzzy rule-based systems to obtain interpretable linguistic fuzzy models with a good accuracy.     

Multiple criteria decision making method based on normal interval‐valued intuitionistic fuzzy generalized aggregation operator

On the basis of the normal intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (NIFNs), we proposed the normal interval‐valued intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (NIVIFNs) in which the values of the membership and nonmembership were extended to interval numbers. First, the definition, the properties, the score function and accuracy function of the NIVIFNs are briefly introduced, and the operational laws are defined. Second, some aggregation operators based on the NIVIFNs are proposed, such as normal interval‐valued intuitionistic fuzzy weighted arithmetic averaging operator, normal interval‐valued intuitionistic fuzzy ordered weighted arithmetic averaging operator, normal interval‐valued intuitionistic fuzzy hybrid weighted arithmetic averaging operator, normal interval‐valued intuitionistic fuzzy weighted geometric averaging operator, normal interval‐valued intuitionistic fuzzy ordered weighted geometric averaging operator, normal interval‐valued intuitionistic fuzzy hybrid weighted geometric averaging operator, and normal interval‐valued intuitionistic fuzzy generalized weighted averaging operator, normal interval‐valued intuitionistic fuzzy generalized ordered weighted averaging operator, normal interval‐valued intuitionistic fuzzy generalized hybrid weighted averaging operator, and some properties of these operators, such as idempotency, monotonicity, boundedness, commutativity, are studied. Further, an approach to the decision making problems with the NIVIFNs is established. Finally, an illustrative example is given to verify the developed approach and to demonstrate its practicality and effectiveness. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 277–290, 2016     

Hierarchical structure and applications of fuzzy logical systems

This paper focuses on hierarchical structures of formulas in fuzzy logical systems. Basic concepts and hierarchical structures of generalized tautologies based on a class of fuzzy logical systems are discussed. The class of fuzzy logical systems contains the monoidal t-norm based system and its several important schematic extensions: the ?ukasiewicz logical system, the Gödel logical system, the product logical system and the nilpotent minimum logical system. Furthermore, hierarchical structures of generalized tautologies are applied to discuss the transformation situation of tautological degrees during the procedure of fuzzy reasoning.     

Design of fuzzy logic controllers based on generalized T-operators

Since Zadeh first proposed the basic principle of fuzzy logic controllers in 1968, the and operators have been popular in the design of fuzzy logic controllers. In this paper, the general concept of T-operators is introduced into the conventional design methods for fuzzy logic controllers so that a general and flexible methodology for the design of these fuzzy logic controllers is available. Then, by computer simulations, studies are made so as to determine the relations between the various T-operators and the performance of a fuzzy logic controller. It is concluded that the performance of the fuzzy logic controller for a given class of plants very much depends upon the choice of the T-operators.     

Notes on Riesz''s theorem on fuzzy measure space

Riesz's theorems on fuzzy measure space have been improved in essence.     

基于概念格的决策形式背景属性约简及规则提取

给出了决策形式背景下的属性约简与规则提取方法.为此,针对属性约简中起不同作用的属性,区分了必要属性与不必要属性,给出了各类属性的特征和判别方法;在此基础上得到了决策形式背景下的规则提取与属性约简方法,并通过实例表明了该约简方法的可行性与有效性.     

A formal theory of generalized intermediate syllogisms

In this paper, we continue developing the formal theory of intermediate quantifiers (expressions such as most, few, almost all, a lot of, many, a great deal of, a large part of, a small part of). The theory is a fuzzy-logic formalization of the concept introduced by Peterson in his book. We will syntactically prove that 105 generalized Aristotle's syllogisms introduced in this book are valid in our theory. At the same time, we will also prove that syllogisms listed there as invalid are invalid also in our theory. Therefore, we believe that our theory provides a reasonable mathematical model of the generalized syllogistics.     

Generalized fuzzy set systems and particularization

It is suggested that there exists many fuzzy set systems, each with its specific pointwise operations for union and intersection. A general law of compound possibilities is valid for all these systems, as well as a general law for representing marginal possibility distributions as unions of fuzzy sets. Max-min fuzzy sets are a special case of a fuzzy set system which uses the pointwise operations of max and min for union and intersection respectively. Probabilistic fuzzy sets are another special case which uses the operations of addition and multiplication. Probably there exists an infinite number of fuzzy set operations and systems. It is shown why the law of idempotency for intersection is not required for such systems. An essential difference between the meaning of the operations of union and intersection in traditional measure theory as compared with their meaning in the theory of possibility is pointed out. The operation of particularization is used to illustrate that the two distinct classical theories of nonfuzzy relations and of probability are merely two aspects of a more generalized theory of fuzzy sets. It is shown that we must distinguish between particularization of conditional fuzzy sets and of joint fuzzy sets. The concept of restriction of nonfuzzy relations is a special case of particularization of both conditional and joint fuzzy sets. The computation of joint probabilities from conditional and marginal ones is a special case of particularization of conditional probabilistic fuzzy sets. The difference between linguistic modifiers of type 1 and particulating modifiers is pointed out, as well as a general difference between nouns and adjectives.     

Persistence of lower-dimensional hyperbolic invariant tori for generalized Hamiltonian systems

In this paper we study the persistence of lower dimensional hyperbolic invariant tori for generalized Hamiltonian systems. Here the generalized Hamiltonian systems refer to the systems which may admit a distinct number of action and angle variables. In particular, systems under consideration can be odd-dimensional. Under Rüssmann-type non-degenerate condition, by introducing a modified linear KAM iterative scheme, we proved that the majority of the lower-dimensional hyperbolic invariant tori persist under small perturbations for generalized Hamiltonian systems.     

Group decision making using fuzzy sets theory for evaluating the rate of aggregative risk in software development

The purpose of this study is not only to build a group decision making structure model of risk in software development but also to propose two algorithms to tackle the rate of aggregative risk in a fuzzy environment by fuzzy sets theory during any phase of the life cycle. While evaluating the rate of aggregative risk, one may adjust or improve the weights or grades of the factors until she/he can accept it. Moreover, our result will be more objective and unbiased since it is generated by a group of evaluators.