Toward recognizing and conveying an attitude of doubt via natural language

This paper addresses the dual problems of recognizing when an agent is expressing an attitude of doubt toward a proposition and of realizing natural language utterances that effectively convey such doubt. It presents naturally occurring examples that illustrate the wide variety of ways in which doubt can be expressed. The paper presents a recognition algorithm that uses linguistic, contextual, and world knowledge to determine when an agent is expressing doubt at a proposition and to identify the proposition that is being doubted. It then presents a realization algorithm that uses these knowledge sources to formulate utterances that will convey doubt when an agent cannot accept a proposition due to conflict between it and some other proposition in the agent's knowledge base.     

实时分布式Multi Agent控制理论的理想实现平台——现场总线控制系统

针对当前实时分布式Multi-Agent控制理论缺乏赖以实现的通用系统平台现状，本文提出“ 将现场总线控制系统作为各种实时分布式Multi-Agent控制理论实现的通用系 统平台”这一新的命题．文中通过分析现场总线控制系统的成因和体系结构特点，论证了该 命题的正确性与可行性，并探讨了面对现场总线百家争鸣的现状应采用的选型策略．该命题 的提出，为实时分布式Multi-Agent控制理论走出低谷开创新的局面指出了一条切实可行的 新途径．     

A model for reasoning about persistence and causation

Reasoning about change requires predicting how long a proposition, having become true, will continue to be so. Lacking perfect knowledge, an agent may be constrained to believe that a proposition persists indefinitely simply because there is no way for the agent to infer a contravening proposition with certainty. In this paper, we describe a model of causal reasoning that accounts for knowledge concerning cause-and-effect relationships and knowledge concerning the tendency for propositions to persist or not as a function of time passing. Our model has a natural encoding in the form of a network representation for probabilistic models. We consider the computational properties of our model by reviewing recent advances in computing the consequences of models encoded in this network representation. Finally, we discuss how our probabilistic model addresses certain classical problems in temporal reasoning (e. g., the frame and qualification problems).     

利用规划命题关系图构建目标议程和宏动作

对智能规划中的常用工具——放松式规划图(relaxed planning graph,简称RPG)的图论性质进行了深入研究.将RPG中的命题层抽取出来,得到一个不包含任何动作的命题关系图(proposition relation graph,简称PRG),发现PRG仍具有RPG的主要规划性质.初步研究结果包括以下4个方面:初始命题集(initial proposition set,简称IPS)的闭出邻集(close out-neighborhoods,简称CON)是放松式规划可达命题集(relaxed reachable proposition set,简称R-RPS);初始状态命题到目标状态命题的最大距离是规划解长度的合理估计;无圈序指出了对应命题被实现的顺序要求;出度或入度为1的结点收缩对应规划中构造的宏动作.上述结果中,前两者说明PRG保留RPG的主要规划性质,后两者可用于建立目标议程或宏动作提取等领域.还提出与上述结论相关的3种算法:从RPG中得到PRG的算法(复杂性为O(mn2),其中,n为RPG的命题数,m为RPG的动作数);约简无圈序算法(复杂性为O(n+m),其中,n为PRG的结点数,m为PRG的边数);宏动作建议算法(复杂性为O(n2),n为PRG的结点数).     

Comment on “Dynamic quantum secret sharing”

Hsu et al. (Quantum Inf Process 12:331–344,2013) proposed a dynamic quantum secret sharing (DQSS) protocol using the entanglement swapping of Bell states for an agent to easily join (or leave) the system. In 2013, Wang and Li (Quantum Inf Process 12(5):1991–1997, 2013) proposed a collusion attack on Hsu et al.’s DQSS protocol. Nevertheless, this study points out a new security issue on Hsu et al.’s DQSS protocol regarding to the honesty of a revoked agent. Without considering this issue, the DQSS protocol could be failed to provide secret sharing function.     

A note on the time travel approach for handling time windows in vehicle routing problems

In this paper, we identify two cases in which the proposition for calculating time window penalties presented in Nagata, Y., Bräysy, O. and Dullaert, W. A penalty-based edge assembly memetic algorithm for the vehicle routing problem with time windows, Computers & Operations Research 2010;37(4): 724–37 yields incorrect results. We derive the corrected proposition and use numerical studies to show that a significant proportion of the evaluations performed by a Tabu Search for VRPTW falls under the two incorrect cases. Moreover, we demonstrate that the incorrect time window handling has a significant negative impact on the solution quality of the Tabu Search.     

基于蕴涵度和蕴涵率的蕴涵型命题真值求法

文章通过分析蕴涵型复合命题的真假涵义,并引入蕴涵度和蕴涵率两种度量,而得到了一种关于蕴涵型复合命题的真值计算新方法,即支命题之间的实际蕴涵度或蕴涵率对复合命题中描述蕴涵关系特征的语言值的符合度就是该复合命题的真值。该方法统一了确定性和不确定性蕴涵型复合命题的真值求法,填补了不确定性蕴涵型复合命题真值计算的空白,因而将在机器推理特别是不确定性推理中发挥重要作用。     

Uncertainty calculus with verbally defined belief-intervals

The intended purpose of the present article is two-fold: first, introducing an interval-like representation of uncertainty that is an adequate summary of the following two items of information: a report on how strongly the validity of a proposition is supported by a body of evidence and a report on how strongly the validity of its negation is supported. A representation of this type is called a beliefinterval and is introduced as a subinterval of a certain verbal scale consisting of nine linguistic estimates expressing the amount of support provided for the validity of a proposition and/or its negation; each linguistic estimate is represented as a fuzzy number in the interval [0,1]. A belief-interval is bounded from below by an estimate indicating the so-called degree of support and from above by an estimate indicating the so-called degree of plauibility. The latter is defined as the difference between a fuzzy number representing the maximal degree of support that might be provided for a proposition in general and a fuzzy number expressing the degree of support provided for the validity of the negation of the proposition under consideration. The so-introduced degrees of support and plausibility of a proposition are subjective measurements provided by the expert on the basis of some negative and/or positive evidence available to him. Thus, these two notions do not have the same measure-based origins as do the set-theoretic measures of support and plausibility proposed by G. Shafer, neither do they coincide with the possibility and necessity measures proposed by L. Zadeh. The main difference is that in our case the degree of plausibility might be, in cases of contradictory beliefs, less than its corresponding degree of support. Three types of belief-intervals are identified on the basis of the different amounts of support that might be provided for the validity of a proposition and/or its negation, namely balanced, unbalanced, and contradictory belief-intervals. The second objective of this article is to propose a calculus for the belief-intervals by extending the usual logical connectives and, or, negation, and implies. Thus, conjunctive and disjunctive operators are introduced using the Dubois' parametrized family of T-norms and their dual T-conorms. The parameter Q characterizing the latter is being interpreted as a measure of the strength of these connectives and further interpretation of the notion of strength is done in the cases of independent and dependent evidence. This leads to the introduction of specific conjunctive and disjunctive operators to be used separately in each of the latter two cases. A negation operator is proposed with the main purpose of determining the belief-interval to be assigned to the negation of a particular proposition, given the belief-interval of the proposition alone. A so-called aggregation operator is introduced with the purpose of aggregating multiple belief-intervals assigned to one and the same proposition into a total belief-interval for this particular proposition. Detachment operators are proposed for determining the belief-interval of a conclusion given the belief-interval of the premise and the one that represents the amount of belief commited to the validity of the inference rule itself. Two different detachment operators are constructed for use in cases when: (1) the presence of the negation of the premise suggests the presence of the negation of the conclusion, and (2) when the presence of the negation of the premise does not tell anything at all with respect to the validity of the conclusion to be drawn.     

自然语言显式命题自动识别和解析方法

自然语言中包含很多显式命题,正确理解这些命题是理解文本信息的关键.正确识别显式命题并解析其中的关键成分有助于理清语言中的逻辑关系、辅助自然语言理解.该文基于百度百科数据构建了自然语言显式命题标注数据集,并提出两个研究任务:自然语言显式命题自动识别和命题关键成分解析.其中,显式命题自动识别任务判断一个自然语言句子是否为命...     

Gradient‐based steering for vision‐based crowd simulation algorithms

Most recent crowd simulation algorithms equip agents with a synthetic vision component for steering. They offer promising perspectives through a more realistic simulation of the way humans navigate according to their perception of the surrounding environment. In this paper, we propose a new perception/motion loop to steering agents along collision free trajectories that significantly improves the quality of vision‐based crowd simulators. In contrast with solutions where agents avoid collisions in a purely reactive (binary) way, we suggest exploring the full range of possible adaptations and retaining the locally optimal one. To this end, we introduce a cost function, based on perceptual variables, which estimates an agent's situation considering both the risks of future collision and a desired destination. We then compute the partial derivatives of that function with respect to all possible motion adaptations. The agent then adapts its motion by following the gradient. This paper has thus two main contributions: the definition of a general purpose control scheme for steering synthetic vision‐based agents; and the proposition of cost functions for evaluating the perceived danger of the current situation. We demonstrate improvements in several cases.     

基于演化Agent的推理模型

本文描述了一种基于演化 agent的推理模型 ,并用这种推理模型来处理定理机器证明 .传统上 ,定理机器证明常常使用某种逻辑表示 ,然后再进行推理 ,这些方法往往缺乏灵活性 ,且证明过程难以理解 .在本文所叙述的方法中 ,演化 agent能将目标即待证定理分解成越来越小且越来越容易证明的子目标 ,最后完成定理证明 .这种方法非常类似于人类在证明定理时一般所采用的思维方式 ,因而 ,显得更灵活、更具有适应性     

An agent architecture for strategy-centric adaptive QoS control in flexible videoconference system

In this paper, we propose an agent architecture to improve flexibility of a videoconference system with strategy-centric adaptive QoS (Quality of Service) control mechanism. The proposed architecture realizes more flexibility by changing their QoS control strategies dynamically. To switch the strategies, system considers the properties of problems occurred on QoS and status of problem solving process. This architecture is introduced as a part of knowledge base of agent that deals with cooperation between software module of videoconference systems. We have implemented the mechanism, and our prototype system shows its capability of flexible problem solving against the QoS degradation, along with other possible problems within the given time limitation. Thus we confirmed that the proposed architecture can improve its flexibility of a videoconference system compared to traditional systems. Takuo Suganuma, Dr.Eng.: He is a research associate of Research Institute of Electrical Communication of Tohoku University. He received a Dr.Eng. degree from Chiba Institute of Technology in 1997. His research interests include agent-based computing and design methodology for distributed systems. He is a member of IPSJ, IEICE and IEEE. SungDoke Lee: He is a Ph.D. Student in the Graduate School of Information Sciences in Tohoku University. He received his MEng degree at Chonbuk National University, Korea in 1991. His research interests include Flexible Network and Knowledge of Agent. Tetsuo Kinoshita, Dr.Eng.: He is an associate professor of Research Institute of Electrical Communication of Tohoku University. He received a Dr.Eng. degree in information engineering from Tohoku University, Japan. His research interests include knowledge engineering, cooperative distributed processing and agent-based computing. He received the the IPSJ Best Paper Award in 1997, etc. He is a member of IPSJ, IEICE, JSAI, AAAI, ACM and IEEE. Norio Shiratori, Dr.Eng.: After receiving his Dr.Eng degree at Tohoku University, he joined the Research Institute of Electrical Communication of Tohoku University in 1977, and is now a professor at the same University. He has been engaged in research on distributed processing system, and flexible intelligent network. He received the 25th Anniversary of IPSJ Memorial Prize-Winning Paper Award in 1985, the 6th Telecommunications Advancement Foundation Incorporation Award in 1991, the Best Paper Award of ICOIN-9 in 1994, the IPSJ Best Paper Award in 1997, etc. He has been named a Fellow of the IEEE for his contributions to the field of computer communication networks.     

Explorers and expanders, both early and late [commercial technology markets]

Explorers and expanders keep the engine of development running. Explorers test a new value proposition or apply a technology in a new way. They learn about, for example, the true scope of business opportunity or what a buyer values in a new design or service. Expanders develop a low-risk value proposition for mainstream customers, those who want reliability, and shied away from most explorers. Although it is possible to explain these roles in abstract terms, the article takes the easier approach and simply illustrates them based on events. Companies considered include: IBM; MCI; PSINet; BBN Technologies; Cisco; Dell; Best Buy; and Circuit City.     

Has the web transformed experience goods into search goods?

Klein (Journal of Business Research 41(3): 195–203, 1998) posited that the Web can transform experience goods into search goods (ES shifts). We examine her proposition in three ways. First, we critically assess the background of her proposition in light of the Web evolution in the past decade. Second, we conduct a comparison of past studies that measured the extent of search, experience, and credence (SEC) characteristics of goods. Third, we report the results of an exploratory survey on a set of commonly purchased products to benchmark possible ES shifts against the past studies. Their results indicate that SEC classification changes do not seem significant.     

Network Formation with Heterogeneous Agents and Absolute Friction

We present a model of strategic network formation with absolute friction and heterogeneous agents. The individual payoffs from a given network are determined by the difference of an agent specific utility function that depends on the number of her direct links and the sum of her link-costs. These link-costs decompose in a symmetric function that represents the social distance between the two agents and an agent specific function representing the partner’s quality. From a theoretical point of view, we analyze strong pairwise stable networks (Belleflamme and Bloch, Int Econ Rev 45(2):387–411, 2004) and show that our model always has a unique strong pairwise stable network which is also strongly stable (Dutta and Mutuswami, J Econ Theory, 76:322–344, 1997). From a practical point of view, we provide an algorithm that reproduces this stable network from information on the individual payoff structure. We illustrate the use of this algorithm by applying it to an informal risk sharing network data set from the village of Nyakatoke in rural Tanzania.     

Quantum complementarity and logical indeterminacy

Whenever a mathematical proposition to be proved requires more information than it is contained in an axiomatic system, it can neither be proved nor disproved, i.e. it is undecidable, or logically undetermined, within this axiomatic system. I will show that certain mathematical propositions on a d-valent function of a binary argument can be encoded in d-dimensional quantum states of mutually unbiased basis (MUB) sets, and truth values of the propositions can be tested in MUB measurements. I will then show that a proposition is undecidable within the system of axioms encoded in the state, if and only if the measurement associated with the proposition gives completely random outcomes.     

Knowledge representation using fuzzy Petri nets-revisited

In the paper by S. Chen et al. (see ibid., vol.2, no.3, p.311-19, 1990), the authors proposed an algorithm which determines whether there exists an antecedent-consequence relationship from a fuzzy proposition d _s to proposition d_j and if the degree of truth of proposition d_s is given, then the degree of truth of proposition d_j can be evaluated. The fuzzy reasoning algorithm proposed by S. Chen et al. (1990) was found not to be working with all types of data. We propose: (1) a modified form of the algorithm, and (2) a concept of hierarchical fuzzy Petri nets for data abstraction     

Modeling the forensic two-trace problem with Bayesian networks

The forensic two-trace problem is a perplexing inference problem introduced by Evett (J Forensic Sci Soc 27:375–381, 1987). Different possible ways of wording the competing pair of propositions (i.e., one proposition advanced by the prosecution and one proposition advanced by the defence) led to different quantifications of the value of the evidence (Meester and Sjerps in Biometrics 59:727–732, 2003). Here, we re-examine this scenario with the aim of clarifying the interrelationships that exist between the different solutions, and in this way, produce a global vision of the problem. We propose to investigate the different expressions for evaluating the value of the evidence by using a graphical approach, i.e. Bayesian networks, to model the rationale behind each of the proposed solutions and the assumptions made on the unknown parameters in this problem.     

On the size of a square-free morphism on a three letter alphabet

In this article we prove a proposition on the size of a (3-square)-free morphism on a three letter alphabet A. A consequence of it is that the minimal size of a square-free morphism $\text{h:A1→A1 is 18}$. This gives a solution to a problem posed by Berstel (1982).     

决策形势背景的命题推演

在形势背景的基础上,通过弱化形式概念构成的条件,定义了比形式概念更为广泛的认知基本单位,即命题。基于一些基本概念如必然命题和充分命题,给出了命题的一些相关性质及各种命题间的关系,以及获取一些新命题的有效方式。通过确定一个命题的程度即确定度,探讨了基于决策形式背景中的命题推理方法,为形势背景上的不确定推理提供了一种新的认知框架。