CP-nets 的完备性及一致性研究

CP-nets是一种简单而又直观的图形化偏好表示工具,成为近几年人工智能的一个研究热点.然而,任意二值CP-nets上的强占优算法还没有给出,CP-nets可表示的偏好的完备性还无人研究,CP-nets所能表示的偏好是否一致也还未彻底解决.基于CP-nets上的强占优运算研究CP-nets的完备性和一致性.首先,通过构造CP-nets导出图及其性质的研究,得出强占优的本质是求取翻转关系的传递闭包,从而利用Warshall算法求出可判断任意CP-nets的强占优;其次,通过求取3种不同结构(可分离的、链表结构和树形结构)的CP-nets的偏好个数,给出了CP-nets可表达的偏好的不完备性定理,并给出了可分离的CP-nets中偏好的计数公式;最后,研究CP-nets的一致性,给出了CP-nets的一致性判定定理及其算法.所做工作不仅解决了Boutilier和Goldsmith提出的一些难题,还深化了CP-nets的基础理论研究.     

CP-nets的可满足性及一致性研究

CP-nets是一种简单而又直观的图形化偏好表示工具,成为近几年人工智能的一个研究热点,然而对于CP-nets的可满足性和一致性等相关性质的研究还很欠缺.既没有给出严格的定义,也没有探讨不同性质之间的联系,没有一个求可满足性序列的通用算法.从研究CP-nets的可满足性和一致性的关系着手,得出了任意结构二值CP-nets的可满足性判定算法及可满足性序列生成算法.首先通过构造CP-nets导出图及其性质的研究,得出CP-nets的可满足性及一致性的相关定理.再把不同性质结合起来分析,给出CP-nets可满足性等价于一致性的结论,从而利用拓扑排序的思想实现了任意结构二值CP-nets的可满足性序列的生成.强化和扩充了Boutilier所提出的一些概念,深化了CP-nets的基础理论研究.     

CP-nets及其表达能力研究

偏好处理是人工智能中的一个重要研究内容, 它的4个研究热点是偏好的表示、 提取、 聚合和推理. 条件偏好网(Conditional preference networks, CP-nets)是一种简单直观的偏好表示的图形工具, 但很少有工作研究CP-nets的表达能力. 本文研究CP-nets的表达能力, 详细研究了CP-nets表达偏好的完备性, 其上构造的运算复杂度以及适用的场合. 首先给出了CP-nets模型上的几个运算, 利用改进的Warshall算法求出了二值网的强占优测试在最坏情况下的复杂度为O(4n). 其次通过构造CP-nets导出图及其性质的研究, 得出CP-nets特别适合不完全信息下的多属性定性偏好决策. 当需要处理更完全信息时, 可借助于与Agent的交互来完成. 虽然我们给出了CP-nets的强占优测试的理论解, 但其理论上可解, 实际上不可解. 为了解决强占优测试的指数级复杂度问题, 本文最后给出了一种带有软约束的满足问题(Soft constraint satisfaction problem, SCSP)的求解方法. 它把CP-nets中的定性运算转为约束半环中的定量运算, 从而将指数级的复杂度转化为多项式的复杂度, 间接提高了部分CP-nets的表达能力. 本文所做的工作是对Boutilier和Bistarelli工作的改进和提高.     

Operators of preference composition for CP-nets

Now the handling of user preference is becoming an increasingly important issue in database fields where they capture soft criteria for queries. A broader category of qualitative preferences with dependent relations among multiple attributes is widely existing, which is CP-nets. In this article, we focus on designing the operators of preference composition for CP-nets. Firstly, we extend Pareto composition to our model by including equivalence relation ≈, incomparability relation ∥ and conflicting relation ⊥, which can preserve a strict partial order and conditional associativity. On this basis, two questions are solved: (a) the generation of satisfiability sequences for CP-nets, (b) the top-k queries of relational database with CP-nets preference. For (a), a CP-net is induced into multiple tables, consequently the strong dominance tests between outcomes can be solved by using preference composition instead of using induced preference graph of CP-nets. For (b), we adopt the concept of Query Lattice to provide a natural semantics for the block sequence answering a preference query, where two algorithms (called QOCP and IQOCP) are introduced. These questions are solved efficiently and effectively at the perspective of combination of graph model and relational database.     

CP-nets的代数表示及其模型求取算法

条件偏好网(CP-nets)是一种表示定性条件偏好关系的语言。针对目前CP-nets的图形表示方法难以实现运算的特点提出一种二值无环CP-nets的代数表示方法。该方法将CP-nets组织成邻接链表的形式,纵向存储CP-nets拓扑排序的序列,其结点域以命题逻辑的主析取范式来表示二值CP-nets的条件偏好表。横向存储各个顶点的父亲集,它对应决策属性的条件集。随后基于CP-nets的代数表示方法,研究二值无环CP-nets上的直接模型和间接模型的求取算法。实验结果表明,CP-nets不仅能用直观的图形来表示,也可用紧凑的代数方法来表示。     

Representing model theory in a type-theoretical logical framework

In a broad sense, logic is the field of formal languages for knowledge and truth that have a formal semantics. It tends to be difficult to give a narrower definition because very different kinds of logics exist. One of the most fundamental contrasts is between the different methods of assigning semantics. Here two classes can be distinguished: model theoretical semantics based on a foundation of mathematics such as set theory, and proof theoretical semantics based on an inference system possibly formulated within a type theory.Logical frameworks have been developed to cope with the variety of available logics unifying the underlying ontological notions and providing a meta-theory to reason abstractly about logics. While these have been very successful, they have so far focused on either model or proof theoretical semantics. We contribute to a unified framework by showing how the type/proof theoretical Edinburgh Logical Framework (LF) can be applied to the representation of model theoretical logics.We give a comprehensive formal representation of first-order logic, covering both its proof and its model theoretical semantics as well as its soundness in LF. For the model theory, we have to represent the mathematical foundation itself in LF, and we provide two solutions for that. Firstly, we give a meta-language that is strong enough to represent the model theory while being simple enough to be treated as a fragment of untyped set theory. Secondly, we represent Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory and show how it subsumes our meta-language. Specific models are represented as LF morphisms.All representations are given in and mechanically verified by the Twelf implementation of LF. Moreover, we use the Twelf module system to treat all connectives and quantifiers independently. Thus, individual connectives are available for reuse when representing other logics, and we obtain the first version of a feature library from which logics can be pieced together.Our results and methods are not restricted to first-order logic and scale to a wide variety of logical systems, thus demonstrating the feasibility of comprehensively formalizing large scale representation theorems in a logical framework.     

CP-nets学习的复杂度

CP-nets是一种简单且直观的图形化偏好表示工具,其表示、推理和学习是3个基本问题。不同于基于统计学习理论的研究方法,文中基于逻辑理论来研究二值CP-nets的学习问题。首先,建立命题公式的可满足性和CP-nets表示的偏好公式之间的联系,将CP-nets的学习问题转化为命题的推理问题。随后,给出两类具有特殊结构的CP-nets的学习问题的计算复杂度,其中最复杂的无环CP-nets上的学习问题是NP-complete,而最简单的集合结构CP-nets上的学习问题是P。这些结论给出了CP-nets(如链结构、有界树宽)学习问题复杂度的上下界。     

Extended Semantics and Optimization Algorithms for CP-Networks

Preference elicitation is a serious bottleneck in many decision support applications and agent specification tasks. Ceteris paribus (CP)-nets were designed to make the process of preference elicitation simpler and more intuitive for lay users by graphically structuring a set of CP preference statements—preference statements that most people find natural and intuitive. Beside their usefulness in the process of preference elicitation, CP-nets support efficient optimization algorithms that are crucial in most applications (e.g., the selection of the best action to execute or the best product configuration). In various contexts, CP-nets with an underlying cyclic structure emerge naturally. Often, they are inconsistent according to the current semantics, and the user is required to revise them. In this paper, we show how optimization queries can be meaningfully answered in many "inconsistent" networks without troubling the user with requests for revisions. In addition, we describe a method for focusing the user's revision process when revisions are truly needed. In the process, we provide a formal semantics that justifies our approach and new techniques for computing optimal outcomes. Some of the methods we use are based on a reduction to the problem of computing stable models for nonmonotonic logic programs, and we explore this relationship closely.     

A first-order conditional logic for prototypical properties

An approach for representing knowledge about defaults and prototypical properties is presented. This is accomplished by adding to first-order logic a “variable conditional” operator to express relations between entities and prototypical properties of such entities. Truth conditions for this operator are based on a possible-worlds semantics; a proof theory is provided, and the logic is shown to be sound and complete. Properties of the resultant formal system are argued to correspond to common intuitions concerning defaults and prototypical properties. Moreover the system is argued to provide a more appropriate basis for representing knowledge about such entities than other existing approaches.     

从偏好数据库中挖掘Ceteris Paribus偏好

针对传统的推荐系统需要用户给出明确的偏好矩阵（U-I矩阵）,进而使用自动化技术来获取用户偏好的问题,提出了一种从偏好数据库中挖掘出Agent的偏好信息的方法。从知识发现的角度,通过Ceteris Paribus规则（CP规则）,提出了k阶偏好挖掘算法（kPreM）。在算法中,利用k阶CP规则对偏好数据库中的信息进行剪枝处理,减少了数据库扫描次数,从而提高了偏好信息的挖掘效率。随后以一种通用的图模型——条件偏好网（CP-nets）为工具,揭示了用户的偏好可近似表达为CP-nets的定性条件偏好网。实验结果表明,用户的偏好都是带有条件的偏好。另外,通过挖掘得出的CP-nets偏好模型,为设计个性化的推荐系统提供了理论基础。     

Set-theoretic completeness for epistemic and conditional logic

The standard approach to logic in the literature in philosophy and mathematics, which has also been adopted in computer science, is to define a language (the syntax), an appropriate class of models together with an interpretation of formulas in the language (the semantics), a collection of axioms and rules of inference characterizing reasoning (the proof theory), and then relate the proof theory to the semantics via soundness and completeness results. Here we consider an approach that is more common in the economics literature, which works purely at the semantic, set-theoretic level. We provide set-theoretic completeness results for a number of epistemic and conditional logics, and contrast the expressive power of the syntactic and set-theoretic approaches. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Three-valued completion for abductive logic programs

In this paper, we propose a three-valued completion semantics for abductive logic programs, which solves some problems associated with the Console et al. two-valued completion semantics. The semantics is a generalization of Kunen's completion semantics for general logic programs, which is known to correspond very well to a class of effective proof procedures for general logic programs. Secondly, we propose a proof procedure for abductive logic programs, which is a generalization of a proof procedure for general logic programs based on constructive negation. This proof procedure is sound and complete with respect to the proposed semantics. By generalizing a number of results on general logic programs to the class of abductive logic programs, we present further evidence for the idea that limited forms of abduction can be added quite naturally to general logic programs.     

A LOGIC OF ARGUMENTATION FOR REASONING UNDER UNCERTAINTY

We present the syntax and proof theory of a logic of argumentation, LA. We also outline the development of a category theoretic semantics for LA. LA is the core of a proof theoretic model for reasoning under uncertainty. In this logic, propositions are labeled with a representation of the arguments which support their validity. Arguments may then be aggregated to collect more information about the potential validity of the propositions of interest. We make the notion of aggregation primitive to the logic, and then define strength mappings from sets of arguments to one of a number of possible dictionaries. This provides a uniform framework which incorporates a number of numerical and symbolic techniques for assigning subjective confidences to propositions on the basis of their supporting arguments. These aggregation techniques are also described with examples.     

Autoepistemic logic programming

An autoepistemic logic programming language is derived from a subset of a three-valued autoepistemic logic, called 3AEL. Autoepistemic programs generalize several ideas underlying logic programming: stable, supported, and well-founded models, Fitting's semantics, Kunen's semantics, and abductive frameworks can all be captured through simple autoepistemic translations; moreover, SLDNF-resolution and a generate-and-test method for stable semantics are generalized to provide sound and complete proof methods for autoepistemic programs. These methods extend existing proof methods for 3AEL. Thus autoepistemic logic programming, besides contributing to the understanding of 3AEL, can be seen as a unifying framework for the theory of logic programs. It should also be regarded as a first step toward a flexible environment where different forms of inference can be formally integrated.This paper is an extended version of [8]. I am grateful to my advisor, Giorgio Levi, to Paolo Mancarella, who read the first version of the paper, and to the anonymous referees, whose comments led to sensible improvements.     

CP-nets的定性偏好决策及一致性推理

CPnets是一种简单而又直观的图形化偏好表示工具,特别适合描述不完全信息下的具有依赖关系的多属性 定性偏好决策。首先通过构造CP-net s导出图及对其性质的研究,得出强占优测试本质上是导出图上顶点之间的可 达性问题,从而利用图的深度优先通历算法实现了二值网的强占优测试;然后分别从无环图、有环图的角度给出CP- nets一致性的相关定理和性质,提出了判断一致性的3种方法,使得CP-nets的一致性问题得到解决;强化和扩充了 I3outilier所提出的一些概念,深化了CP-net s的基础理论研究。     

Measuring similarity of users with qualitative preferences for service selection

Similarity measures are essential in many preference-based personalized applications such as collaborative recommendation and web service selection. However, previous studies have been mainly focused on the similarity measures for quantitative preference rather than those for qualitative preference, though the latter has attracted much attention recently. This paper aims to fill in this gap by proposing an intuitive similarity measure for conditional qualitative preference which is represented by CP-nets. In particular, we introduce two methods, a basic and a general similarity measures, corresponding to whether two CP-nets share similar structures and contents or not. Experimental results on two real-world data sets demonstrate that our similarity measure can not only correctly reflect the changes of users’ preferences, but also be effective in identifying similar users. In addition, only by adopting the K most important attributes, the computational cost can be greatly reduced while sufficiently high accuracy is preserved. Furthermore, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our method in complementing users’ preferences by aggregating those of similar users in a scenario where users’ preferences are incomplete.     

Semantic forgetting in answer set programming

The notion of forgetting, also known as variable elimination, has been investigated extensively in the context of classical logic, but less so in (nonmonotonic) logic programming and nonmonotonic reasoning. The few approaches that exist are based on syntactic modifications of a program at hand. In this paper, we establish a declarative theory of forgetting for disjunctive logic programs under answer set semantics that is fully based on semantic grounds. The suitability of this theory is justified by a number of desirable properties. In particular, one of our results shows that our notion of forgetting can be entirely captured by classical forgetting. We present several algorithms for computing a representation of the result of forgetting, and provide a characterization of the computational complexity of reasoning from a logic program under forgetting. As applications of our approach, we present a fairly general framework for resolving conflicts in inconsistent knowledge bases that are represented by disjunctive logic programs, and we show how the semantics of inheritance logic programs and update logic programs from the literature can be characterized through forgetting. The basic idea of the conflict resolution framework is to weaken the preferences of each agent by forgetting certain knowledge that causes inconsistency. In particular, we show how to use the notion of forgetting to provide an elegant solution for preference elicitation in disjunctive logic programming.     

Paraconsistent Declarative Semantics for Extended Logic Programs

We introduce a fixpoint semantics for logic programs with two kinds of negation: an explicit negation and a negation-by-failure. The programs may also be prioritized, that is, their clauses may be arranged in a partial order that reflects preferences among the corresponding rules. This yields a robust framework for representing knowledge in logic programs with a considerable expressive power. The declarative semantics for such programs is particularly suitable for reasoning with uncertainty, in the sense that it pinpoints the incomplete and inconsistent parts of the data, and regards the remaining information as classically consistent. As such, this semantics allows to draw conclusions in a non-trivial way, even in cases that the logic programs under consideration are not consistent. Finally, we show that this formalism may be regarded as a simple and flexible process for belief revision.     

Semantics of EqL

The formal semantics of a novel language, called EqL, are presented for first-order functional and Horn logic programming. An EqL program is a set of conditional pattern-directed rules, where the conditions are expressed as a conjunction of equations. The programming paradigm provided by this language may be called equational programming. The declarative semantics of equations is given in terms of their complete set of solutions, and the operational semantics for solving equations is an extension of reduction, called object refinement. The correctness of the operational semantics is established through the soundness and completeness theorems. Examples are given to illustrate the language and its semantics.<>     

缺省理论与相信理论的关系

本文在相信逻辑中引入相信解释与相信模的概念，从语义上把相信逻辑改造成非单调逻辑。一个缺省理论可以直接转换成一个相信逻辑理论，本文中证明了一个缺省理论外延的模集就是对应相信理论的模，从而为缺省理论提供了一种简便的语义。