Rough set theory for the interval-valued fuzzy information systems

The notion of a rough set was originally proposed by Pawlak [Z. Pawlak, Rough sets, International Journal of Computer and Information Sciences 11 (5) (1982) 341-356]. Later on, Dubois and Prade [D. Dubois, H. Prade, Rough fuzzy sets and fuzzy rough sets, International Journal of General System 17 (2-3) (1990) 191-209] introduced rough fuzzy sets and fuzzy rough sets as a generalization of rough sets. This paper deals with an interval-valued fuzzy information system by means of integrating the classical Pawlak rough set theory with the interval-valued fuzzy set theory and discusses the basic rough set theory for the interval-valued fuzzy information systems. In this paper we firstly define the rough approximation of an interval-valued fuzzy set on the universe U in the classical Pawlak approximation space and the generalized approximation space respectively, i.e., the space on which the interval-valued rough fuzzy set model is built. Secondly several interesting properties of the approximation operators are examined, and the interrelationships of the interval-valued rough fuzzy set models in the classical Pawlak approximation space and the generalized approximation space are investigated. Thirdly we discuss the attribute reduction of the interval-valued fuzzy information systems. Finally, the methods of the knowledge discovery for the interval-valued fuzzy information systems are presented with an example.     

不完备区间值模糊信息系统的粗糙集理论

考虑到模糊信息系统的不完备性和信息值的不确定性,讨论了不完备区间值模糊信息系统的粗糙集理论,给出了粗糙近似算子的性质。研究了不完备区间值模糊信息系统上的知识发现,提出了基于不完备区间值决策表的决策规则和属性约简,最后给出算例。     

Knowledge acquisition in incomplete fuzzy information systems via the rough set approach

Abstract: Machine learning can extract desired knowledge from training examples and ease the development bottleneck in building expert systems. Most learning approaches derive rules from complete and incomplete data sets. If attribute values are known as possibility distributions on the domain of the attributes, the system is called an incomplete fuzzy information system. Learning from incomplete fuzzy data sets is usually more difficult than learning from complete data sets and incomplete data sets. In this paper, we deal with the problem of producing a set of certain and possible rules from incomplete fuzzy data sets based on rough sets. The notions of lower and upper generalized fuzzy rough approximations are introduced. By using the fuzzy rough upper approximation operator, we transform each fuzzy subset of the domain of every attribute in an incomplete fuzzy information system into a fuzzy subset of the universe, from which fuzzy similarity neighbourhoods of objects in the system are derived. The fuzzy lower and upper approximations for any subset of the universe are then calculated and the knowledge hidden in the information system is unravelled and expressed in the form of decision rules.     

Characterization of rough set approximations in Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy set theory

The primitive notions in rough set theory are lower and upper approximation operators defined by a fixed binary relation and satisfying many interesting properties. Many types of generalized rough set models have been proposed in the literature. This paper discusses the rough approximations of Atanassov intuitionistic fuzzy sets in crisp and fuzzy approximation spaces in which both constructive and axiomatic approaches are used. In the constructive approach, concepts of rough intuitionistic fuzzy sets and intuitionistic fuzzy rough sets are defined, properties of rough intuitionistic fuzzy approximation operators and intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators are examined. Different classes of rough intuitionistic fuzzy set algebras and intuitionistic fuzzy rough set algebras are obtained from different types of fuzzy relations. In the axiomatic approach, an operator-oriented characterization of rough sets is proposed, that is, rough intuitionistic fuzzy approximation operators and intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators are defined by axioms. Different axiom sets of upper and lower intuitionistic fuzzy set-theoretic operators guarantee the existence of different types of crisp/fuzzy relations which produce the same operators.     

Improving the performance of fuzzy rule-based classification systems with interval-valued fuzzy sets and genetic amplitude tuning

Among the computational intelligence techniques employed to solve classification problems, Fuzzy Rule-Based Classification Systems (FRBCSs) are a popular tool because of their interpretable models based on linguistic variables, which are easier to understand for the experts or end-users.The aim of this paper is to enhance the performance of FRBCSs by extending the Knowledge Base with the application of the concept of Interval-Valued Fuzzy Sets (IVFSs). We consider a post-processing genetic tuning step that adjusts the amplitude of the upper bound of the IVFS to contextualize the fuzzy partitions and to obtain a most accurate solution to the problem.We analyze the goodness of this approach using two basic and well-known fuzzy rule learning algorithms, the Chi et al.’s method and the fuzzy hybrid genetics-based machine learning algorithm. We show the improvement achieved by this model through an extensive empirical study with a large collection of data-sets.     

Learning fuzzy rules from fuzzy samples based on rough set technique

Although the traditional rough set theory has been a powerful mathematical tool for modeling incompleteness and vagueness, its performance in dealing with initial fuzzy data is usually poor. This paper makes an attempt to improve its performance by extending the traditional rough set approach to the fuzzy environment. The extension is twofold. One is knowledge representation and the other is knowledge reduction. First, we provide new definitions of fuzzy lower and upper approximations by considering the similarity between the two objects. Second, we extend a number of underlying concepts of knowledge reduction (such as the reduct and core) to the fuzzy environment and use these extensions to propose a heuristic algorithm to learn fuzzy rules from initial fuzzy data. Finally, we provide some numerical experiments to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed algorithm. One of the main contributions of this paper is that the fundamental relationship between the reducts and core of rough sets is still pertinent after the proposed extension.     

Polynomial regression interval-valued fuzzy systems

In recent years, the type-2 fuzzy sets theory has been used to model and minimize the effects of uncertainties in rule-base fuzzy logic system (FLS). In order to make the type-2 FLS reasonable and reliable, a new simple and novel statistical method to decide interval-valued fuzzy membership functions and probability type reduce reasoning method for the interval-valued FLS are developed. We have implemented the proposed non-linear (polynomial regression) statistical interval-valued type-2 FLS to perform smart washing machine control. The results show that our quadratic statistical method is more robust to design a reliable type-2 FLS and also can be extend to polynomial model.     

Robustness of interval-valued fuzzy inference

Since interval-valued fuzzy set intuitively addresses not only vagueness (lack of sharp class boundaries) but also a feature of uncertainty (lack of information), interval-valued fuzzy reasoning plays a vital role in intelligent systems including fuzzy control, classification, expert systems, and so on. To utilize interval-valued fuzzy inference better, it is very important to study the fundamental properties of interval-valued fuzzy inference such as robustness. In this paper, we first discuss the robustness of interval-valued fuzzy connectives. And then investigate the robustness of interval-valued fuzzy reasoning in terms of the sensitivity of interval-valued fuzzy connectives and maximum perturbation of interval-valued fuzzy sets. These results reveal that the robustness of interval-valued fuzzy reasoning is directly linked to the selection of interval-valued fuzzy connectives.     

Knowledge modeling based on interval-valued fuzzy rough set and similarity inference: prediction of welding distortion

Knowledge-based modeling is a trend in complex system modeling technology. To extract the process knowledge from an information system, an approach of knowledge modeling based on interval-valued fuzzy rough set is presented in this paper, in which attribute reduction is a key to obtain the simplified knowledge model. Through defining dependency and inclusion functions, algorithms for attribute reduction and rule extraction are obtained. The approximation inference plays an important role in the development of the fuzzy system. To improve the inference mechanism, we provide a method of similaritybased inference in an interval-valued fuzzy environment. larity based approximate reasoning, an inference result is Combining the conventional compositional rule of inference with simideduced via rule translation, similarity matching, relation modification, and projection operation. This approach is applied to the problem of predicting welding distortion in marine structures, and the experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed methods of knowledge modeling and similarity-based inference.     

An interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy MABAC approach for material selection with incomplete weight information

In engineering design, selecting the most suitable material for a particular product is a typical multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) problem, which generally involves several feasible alternatives and conflicting criteria. In this paper, we aim to propose a novel approach based on interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IVIFSs) and multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) for handling material selection problems with incomplete weight information. First, individual evaluations of experts concerning each alternative are aggregated to construct the group interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy (IVIF) decision matrix. Consider the situation where the criteria weight information is partially known, a linear programming model is established for determining the criteria weights. Then, an extended MABAC method within the IVIF environment is developed to rank and select the best material. Finally, two application examples are provided to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed IVIF-MABAC approach. The results suggest that for the automotive instrument panel, polypropylene is the best, for the hip prosthesis, Co–Cr alloys-wrought alloy is the optimal option. Finally, based on the results, comparisons between the IVIF-MABAC and other relevant representative methods are presented. It is observed that the obtained rankings of the alternative materials are good agreement with those derived by the past researchers.     

Information entropy,rough entropy and knowledge granulation in incomplete information systems

Rough set theory is a relatively new mathematical tool for use in computer applications in circumstances that are characterized by vagueness and uncertainty. Rough set theory uses a table called an information system, and knowledge is defined as classifications of an information system. In this paper, we introduce the concepts of information entropy, rough entropy, knowledge granulation and granularity measure in incomplete information systems, their important properties are given, and the relationships among these concepts are established. The relationship between the information entropy E(A) and the knowledge granulation GK(A) of knowledge A can be expressed as E(A)+GK(A) = 1, the relationship between the granularity measure G(A) and the rough entropy E _r(A) of knowledge A can be expressed as G(A)+E _r(A) = log₂|U|. The conclusions in Liang and Shi (2004 Liang, J.Y. and Shi, Z.Z. 2004. The information entropy, rough entropy and knowledge granulation in rough set theory. International Journal of Uncertainty, Fuzziness and Knowledge-Based Systems, 12(1): 37–46. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) are special instances in this paper. Furthermore, two inequalities ? log₂ GK(A) ≤ G(A) and E _r(A) ≤ log₂(|U|(1 ? E(A))) about the measures GK, G, E and E _r are obtained. These results will be very helpful for understanding the essence of uncertainty measurement, the significance of an attribute, constructing the heuristic function in a heuristic reduct algorithm and measuring the quality of a decision rule in incomplete information systems.     

Dynamic computing rough approximations approach to time-evolving information granule interval-valued ordered information system

With the advent of Big Data era has seen both the volumes and update rates of data increase rapidly. The granular structure of an information system is evolving with time when redundancy data leaves and new data arrives. In order to quickly achieve the rough approximations of dynamic attribute set interval-valued ordered information system that the attribute set varies over time. In this study, we proposed two dynamic computing rough approximations approaches for time-evolving information granule interval-valued ordered information system which induced by the deletion or addition some attributes, respectively. The updating mechanisms enable obtaining additional knowledge from the varied data without forgetting the prior knowledge. According to these established computing rules, two corresponding dynamic computing algorithms are designed and some examples are illustrated to explain updating principles and show computing process. Furthermore, a series of experiments were conducted to evaluate the computational efficiency of the studied updating mechanisms based on several UCI datasets. The experimental results clearly indicate that these methods significantly outperform the traditional approaches with a dramatic reduction in the computational efficiency to update the rough approximations.     

Dominance-based rough set approach to incomplete interval-valued information system

Since preference order is a crucial feature of data concerning decision situations, the classical rough set model has been generalized by replacing the indiscernibility relation with a dominance relation. The purpose of this paper is to further investigate the dominance-based rough set in incomplete interval-valued information system, which contains both incomplete and imprecise evaluations of objects. By considering three types of unknown values in the incomplete interval-valued information system, a data complement method is used to transform the incomplete interval-valued information system into a traditional one. To generate the optimal decision rules from the incomplete interval-valued decision system, six types of relative reducts are proposed. Not only the relationships between these reducts but also the practical approaches to compute these reducts are then investigated. Some numerical examples are employed to substantiate the conceptual arguments.     

A soft computing method of performance evaluation with MCDM based on interval-valued fuzzy numbers

This study presented a new performance evaluation method for tackling fuzzy multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problems based on combining VIKOR and interval-valued fuzzy sets. The performance evaluation problem often exists in complex administrative processes in which multiple evaluation criteria, subjective/objective assessments and fuzzy conditions have to be taken into consideration simultaneously in management. Here, the subjective, imprecise, inexact and uncertain evaluation processes are modeled as fuzzy numbers by means of linguistic terms, as fuzzy theory can provide an appropriate tool to deal with such uncertainties. However, the presentation of linguistic expressions in the form of ordinary fuzzy sets is not clear enough [15] and [21]. Interval-valued fuzzy sets can provide more flexibility [4] and [14] to represent the imprecise/vague information that results, and it can also provide a more accurate modeling. This paper presents the interval-valued fuzzy VIKOR, which aims to solve MCDM problems in which the weights and performances of criteria are unequal by using the concepts of interval-valued fuzzy sets. A case study for evaluating the performances of three major intercity bus companies from an intercity public transport system is conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of the method.     

Positive approximation and converse approximation in interval-valued fuzzy rough sets

Methods of fuzzy rule extraction based on rough set theory are rarely reported in incomplete interval-valued fuzzy information systems. Thus, this paper deals with such systems. Instead of obtaining rules by attribute reduction, which may have a negative effect on inducting good rules, the objective of this paper is to extract rules without computing attribute reducts. The data completeness of missing attribute values is first presented. Positive and converse approximations in interval-valued fuzzy rough sets are then defined, and their important properties are discussed. Two algorithms based on positive and converse approximations, namely, mine rules based on the positive approximation (MRBPA) and mine rules based on the converse approximation (MRBCA), are proposed for rule extraction. The two algorithms are evaluated by several data sets from the UC Irvine Machine Learning Repository. The experimental results show that MRBPA and MRBCA achieve better classification performances than the method based on attribute reduction.     

Granulation of a fuzzy set: Nonspecificity

Granulation (decomposition) of a fuzzy set A defined on a finite set of objects X is studied. Two types of decomposition are considered: external granulation determined by a given equivalence relation on X and internal granulation created by clusters of elements from X with similar membership grades in A. Axiomatic definitions of measures of granular nonspecificity and granular specificity are proposed. Some general approaches to the construction of measures of granular nonspecificity (specificity) are suggested. Relationship between granular nonspecificity, roughness and nonspecificity of a fuzzy set is discussed.     

Medical diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases using an interval-valued fuzzy rule-based classification system

ObjectiveTo develop a classifier that tackles the problem of determining the risk of a patient of suffering from a cardiovascular disease within the next 10 years. The system has to provide both a diagnosis and an interpretable model explaining the decision. In this way, doctors are able to analyse the usefulness of the information given by the system.MethodsLinguistic fuzzy rule-based classification systems are used, since they provide a good classification rate and a highly interpretable model. More specifically, a new methodology to combine fuzzy rule-based classification systems with interval-valued fuzzy sets is proposed, which is composed of three steps: (1) the modelling of the linguistic labels of the classifier using interval-valued fuzzy sets; (2) the use of the K_α operator in the inference process and (3) the application of a genetic tuning to find the best ignorance degree that each interval-valued fuzzy set represents as well as the best value for the parameter α of the K_α operator in each rule.ResultsThe suitability of the new proposal to deal with this medical diagnosis classification problem is shown by comparing its performance with respect to the one provided by two classical fuzzy classifiers and a previous interval-valued fuzzy rule-based classification system. The performance of the new method is statistically better than the ones obtained with the methods considered in the comparison. The new proposal enhances both the total number of correctly diagnosed patients, around 3% with respect the classical fuzzy classifiers and around 1% vs. the previous interval-valued fuzzy classifier, and the classifier ability to correctly differentiate patients of the different risk categories.ConclusionThe proposed methodology is a suitable tool to face the medical diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases, since it obtains a good classification rate and it also provides an interpretable model that can be easily understood by the doctors.     

On generalized intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators

In rough set theory, the lower and upper approximation operators defined by binary relations satisfy many interesting properties. Various generalizations of Pawlak’s rough approximations have been made in the literature over the years. This paper proposes a general framework for the study of relation-based intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators within which both constructive and axiomatic approaches are used. In the constructive approach, a pair of lower and upper intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators induced from an arbitrary intuitionistic fuzzy relation are defined. Basic properties of the intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators are then examined. By introducing cut sets of intuitionistic fuzzy sets, classical representations of intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators are presented. The connections between special intuitionistic fuzzy relations and intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators are further established. Finally, an operator-oriented characterization of intuitionistic fuzzy rough sets is proposed, that is, intuitionistic fuzzy rough approximation operators are defined by axioms. Different axiom sets of lower and upper intuitionistic fuzzy set-theoretic operators guarantee the existence of different types of intuitionistic fuzzy relations which produce the same operators.     

基于直觉模糊粗糙集的属性约简

针对Jensen下近似定义的局限性,提出一种新的等价类形式的近似算子表示,并将其推广到直觉模糊环境.在此基础上,将相对正域、相对约简、相对核等粗糙集的知识约简概念推广到直觉模糊环境,提出一种直觉模糊信息系统的启发式属性约筒算法.实例计算表明.该方法比Jensen的属性约简方法更为合理有效.