Title
Reasoning in qualitatively defined systems using interval-based difference equations
Abstract
Quantitative research and statistical techniques have long been regarded as superior ways of analyzing knowledge in social sciences. To deal with incomplete or imprecise knowledge while modeling systems, traditional approaches in social sciences (i.e., management science, operations research) have attempted to measure social facts by making approximations of the problem under analysis, Recent Artificial Intelligence (AI) research on qualitative reasoning which focuses on using qualitative knowledge to reason about the everyday physical world, suggests an opportunity to extend the capability of current logicomathematical instruments used by social scientists, This paper proposes an interval propagation difference equation method, a type of qualitative-quantitative simulation method, to model dynamic systems by abstracting from the underlying true model, The proposed difference equation method can be used to model problems requiring discrete-time analysis, such as applications involving time-lag relationships, Moreover, the method does not require the exact functional form of the problem under analysis to be known with certainty, The incomplete or imprecise knowledge available about the functional form of the true model, and the values of its variables, are represented with bounding functions and interval values respectively.
Year
DOI
Venue
1995
10.1109/21.391291
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
Keywords
Field
DocType
convergence,difference equations,inference mechanisms,problem solving,social sciences,bounding functions,discrete-time analysis,dynamic systems,imprecise knowledg,incomplete knowledge,interval propagation difference equation method,qualitative knowledge,qualitative reasoning,qualitative-quantitative simulation method,qualitatively defined systems,social sciences,time-lag relationships
Convergence (routing),Management information systems,Differential equation,Causality,Mathematical optimization,Certainty,Computer science,Artificial intelligence,Machine learning,Dynamical system,Qualitative reasoning,Bounding overwatch
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
25
7
0018-9472
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
7
1.00
7
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
M. Y. Kiang1384.66
A. Hinkkanen271.00
A. B. Whinston37538.32