{"title":"Zero patterns in multi-way binary contingency tables with uniform margins","authors":"Roberto Fontana , Elisa Perrone , Fabio Rapallo","doi":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109582","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109582","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study the problem of transforming a multi-way contingency table into an equivalent table with uniform margins and same dependence structure. This is an old question which relates to recent advances in copula modeling for discrete random vectors. In this work, we focus on multi-way binary tables and develop novel theory to show how the zero patterns affect the existence of the transformation as well as its statistical interpretability in terms of dependence structure. The implementation of the theory relies on combinatorial and linear programming techniques, which can also be applied to arbitrary multi-way tables. In addition, we investigate which odds ratios characterize the unique solution in relation to specific zero patterns. Several examples are described to illustrate the approach and point to interesting future research directions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13842,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Approximate Reasoning","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 109582"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145270160","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Choosing the center of star-shaped set-valued data compatible with measure-preserving arithmetic","authors":"Gil González-Rodríguez","doi":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109575","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109575","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Set-valued data has traditionally been represented by considering non-empty compact and convex subsets of <span><math><msup><mrow><mi>R</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>d</mi></mrow></msup></math></span> with the usual Minkowski addition. An alternative and flexible setting that admits a functional representation are the star-shaped sets. A framework based on a center-radial characterization has been introduced to treat these sets from a statistical point of view. The arithmetic is defined directionally, which is more natural for representing imprecision propagation in higher dimensions. Nevertheless, the problem of determining a center for star-shaped sets coherent with the arithmetic and sound for statistical purposes has not been fully addressed yet. The aim is to advance on the directional characterization for star-shaped sets by considering a measure-preserving arithmetic together with a center selection fully compatible with this arithmetic. The practicability of the new framework will be illustrated using a classical dataset in set-valued statistics.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13842,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Approximate Reasoning","volume":"188 ","pages":"Article 109575"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145108487","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Inner and outer approximation of the image of a set by a nonlinear function","authors":"Maël Godard , Luc Jaulin , Damien Massé","doi":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109574","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109574","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper proposes an original method to compute an inner and an outer approximation of the image <span><math><mi>f</mi><mo>(</mo><mi>X</mi><mo>)</mo></math></span> of a subset <span><math><mi>X</mi></math></span> of <span><math><msup><mrow><mi>R</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>n</mi></mrow></msup></math></span> (<em>e.g.</em>, <span><math><mi>X</mi></math></span> is the unit ball) by a smooth nonlinear function <span><math><mi>f</mi><mo>:</mo><msup><mrow><mi>R</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>n</mi></mrow></msup><mo>→</mo><msup><mrow><mi>R</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>n</mi></mrow></msup></math></span>. A boundary approach is proposed. More precisely, the boundary <span><math><mo>∂</mo><mi>f</mi><mo>(</mo><mi>X</mi><mo>)</mo></math></span> will be covered by parallelepipeds in order to get an accurate enclosure of <span><math><mi>f</mi><mo>(</mo><mi>X</mi><mo>)</mo></math></span>.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13842,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Approximate Reasoning","volume":"187 ","pages":"Article 109574"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145104299","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Huilai Zhi , Qing Wan , Ting Qian , Yinan Li , Jiang Yang
{"title":"The properties of 3-valued formal contexts in a cognitive viewpoint","authors":"Huilai Zhi , Qing Wan , Ting Qian , Yinan Li , Jiang Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109573","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109573","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>3-valued formal contexts are abstracted from various types of applications such as incomplete formal context based data mining, shadow sets based knowledge discovery and conflict analysis. 3-valued formal contexts differ from binary-valued formal contexts in many aspects, and many distinguished details have not been investigated. To this end, some of the most important properties of 3-valued formal contexts are systematically explored in a cognitive viewpoint based on formal concept analysis. At first, 3-valued concept lattices and formal concept lattices are compared from multiple perspectives, including the connections between formal concepts and 3-valued concepts, and the meet-preserving mappings from formal concept lattices to 3-valued concept lattices. After that, based on the completions of 3-valued contexts, the connections between 3-valued concept lattices and three-way concept lattices are explored. Finally, it is proved that a 3-valued concept lattice is the minimum closure that contains formal concept lattices, and there is an order-preserving mapping from formal concepts to equivalence classes of 3-valued concepts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13842,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Approximate Reasoning","volume":"187 ","pages":"Article 109573"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145104298","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Three types of internal conflict and its measurement in Dempster-Shafer theory","authors":"Andrey G. Bronevich , Alexander E. Lepskiy","doi":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109572","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109572","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper, we extend the ideas of measuring conflict among belief functions based on solving Kantorovich problems to the case of measuring conflict within a belief function. We consider three possible interpretations of conflict-free information and propose the functionals for measuring conflict, which can be considered as counterparts of known functionals like the auto-conflict measure, the measure of dissonance, and the measure of logical inconsistency.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13842,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Approximate Reasoning","volume":"187 ","pages":"Article 109572"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145104438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cross-worker joint modeling-based label integration for crowdsourcing","authors":"Can Pan, Liangxiao Jiang, Shanshan Si","doi":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109570","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109570","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In crowdsourcing learning, label integration algorithms are applied to infer each instance's integrated label from its multiple noisy label set. Recent advancements have demonstrated that worker modeling is an effective approach to improving label integration's performance. In real-world crowdsourced scenarios, however, each worker often annotates a few instances only, leading to insufficient worker modeling. To address this issue, we propose a novel cross-worker joint modeling-based label integration (CJMLI) algorithm. Different from existing algorithms that focus on modeling individual workers solely, CJMLI exploits cross-worker joint modeling to effectively mitigate the impact of insufficient worker modeling. Specifically, we first employ majority voting to get initial integrated labels and then apply them to estimate worker qualities. Subsequently, for each instance, we randomly select a subset of workers to estimate its class membership probabilities and then generate a weighted instance for each class. Next, we use the weighted instances to train a classifier. This process is executed several times to get multiple classifiers. Finally, we use weighted majority voting to fuse their predicted labels to infer the final integrated label of each instance. Extensive experiments demonstrate that CJMLI significantly outperforms all its competitors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13842,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Approximate Reasoning","volume":"187 ","pages":"Article 109570"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145104297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ruili Guo , Qinghua Zhang , Yunlong Cheng , Ying Yang , Hang Zhong
{"title":"Optimal scale combination selection based on a monotonic variable precision multi-scale rough set model","authors":"Ruili Guo , Qinghua Zhang , Yunlong Cheng , Ying Yang , Hang Zhong","doi":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109569","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109569","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Most existing generalized multi-scale rough set models (GMRSMs) are based on Pawlak's rough set, which lacks fault tolerance and thus limits their generalization ability. To improve generalization, the variable precision generalized multi-scale rough set model (VPGMRSM) was proposed. However, this model disrupts the monotonicity of the positive region, posing challenges for optimal scale combination (OSC) selection. To address these issues, a monotonic VPGMRSM is proposed in this paper through a two-stage approximation process. The proposed model preserves the monotonicity of the GMRSM and the fault tolerance of the VPGMRSM, and is further applied to OSC selection. First, the non-monotonicity of the positive region in the original VPGMRSM is analyzed. Then, a monotonic VPGMRSM is proposed, whose information measurements are proven to satisfy the monotonicity lacking in the original model. Second, an extended definition of OSC is proposed based on the positive region in the new model, which significantly simplifies and improves the efficiency of the OSC selection process. Third, two OSC selection algorithms are proposed: one based on binary search to find a single OSC, and the other based on three-way decision theory to identify all OSCs. Finally, the experimental results validate the monotonicity of the positive region in the new model and demonstrate that the proposed algorithms are not only suitable for VPGMRSMs, but also effectively reduce the computation time.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13842,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Approximate Reasoning","volume":"187 ","pages":"Article 109569"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145044515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Three-way conflict analysis: Issue reduct based on incomplete fuzzy value information","authors":"Hai-Long Yang , Sheng Gao , Zhi-Lian Guo","doi":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109568","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109568","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the three-way conflict analysis (TWCA), certain core issues lead to the emergence, development, and resolution of conflicts. Issue reduct enables us to concentrate on key issues and more accurately identify the root causes of conflicts. Existing research primarily addresses issue reduct based on complete three-valued situation tables (TSTs), which have certain limitations. This paper discusses the issue reduct in TWCA based on incomplete fuzzy-valued situation tables (IFSTs). First, to deal with incomplete information, we introduce the Social Trust Network (STN) and the <em>K</em>-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) method, employing an iterative weighting method to fill in missing values. Second, by utilizing the matrix representation of relations among agents, we transform the relation matrix into constraint conditions and propose a recursive backtracking algorithm with pruning strategies to calculate conflict, neutrality, alliance, and global reducts. Finally, we use the development plan of the Gansu Provincial Government as a case study to illustrate the model's applicability and advantages through parameter and comparative analysis.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13842,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Approximate Reasoning","volume":"187 ","pages":"Article 109568"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145104296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unimodular triangulations in Łukasiewicz logic: Complexity bounds of probabilistic coherence","authors":"Tommaso Flaminio , Serafina Lapenta , Sebastiano Napolitano","doi":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109565","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109565","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A proof for the NP-containment for the probabilistic coherence problem over events represented by formulas of the infinite-valued Łukasiewicz logic was proposed in <span><span>[1]</span></span>. The geometric and combinatorial argument to prove that complexity bound contains a mistake that is fixed in the present paper. Actually we present two ways to restore that imprecise claim and, by doing so, we show that the main result of that paper is indeed valid.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13842,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Approximate Reasoning","volume":"187 ","pages":"Article 109565"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145044514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Some fuzzy neighborhood operators on fuzzy β-covering approximation space and their application in user preference evaluation","authors":"Wei Li , Xiaolei Wang , Bin Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109566","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijar.2025.109566","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As a generalization of covering, fuzzy <em>β</em>-covering provides a more accurate and practical representation for incomplete information. This paper primarily proposes several fuzzy neighborhood operators based on diverse aggregation functions in an fuzzy <em>β</em>-covering approximation space (F<em>β</em>CAS) and develops a novel TOPSIS method to address the decision-making problem related to user preference factors. First, two classes of fuzzy neighborhood operators are introduced, derived from <em>t</em>-norms, overlap functions and their residual implications in an F<em>β</em>CAS, with their properties thoroughly analyzed. In addition, multiple fuzzy <em>β</em>-coverings are generated from the original fuzzy <em>β</em>-covering, and the classifications of fuzzy neighborhood operators, along with their partial order relationships, are examined. Based on these operators, two kinds of fuzzy <em>β</em>-covering-based rough sets (F<em>β</em>CRS) are established. Finally, an F<em>β</em>CRS-based fuzzy TOPSIS method is developed to evaluate user preference factors for fresh fruit, thereby demonstrating the rationality and feasibility of the proposed approach.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":13842,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Approximate Reasoning","volume":"187 ","pages":"Article 109566"},"PeriodicalIF":3.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145044513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}