Fundamenta Informaticae - Volume 124, issue 1-2

Authors: Pal, Sankar K. | Banerjee, Romi | Dutta, Soumitra | Sarma, Samar Sen

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: The Z-number is a new fuzzy-theoretic concept, proposed by Zadeh in 2011. It extends the basic philosophy of Computing With Words (CWW) to include the perception of uncertainty of the information conveyed by a natural language statement. The Z-number thus, serves as a model of linguistic summarization of natural language statements, a technique to merge human-affective perspectives with CWW, and consequently can be envisaged to play a radical role in the domain of CWW-based system design and Natural Language Processing (NLP). This article presents a comprehensive investigation of the Z-number approach to CWW. We present here: a) an outline of …our understanding of the generic architecture, algorithm and challenges underlying CWW in general; b) a detailed study of the Z-number methodology - where we propose an algorithm for CWW using Z-numbers, define a Z-number based operator for the evaluation of the level of requirement satisfaction, and describe simulation experiments of CWW utilizing Z-numbers; and c) analyse the strengths and the challenges of the Z-numbers, and suggest possible solution strategies. We believe that this article would inspire research on the need for inclusion of human-behavioural aspects into CWW, as well as the integration of CWW and NLP. Show more

Keywords: Cognition, fuzzy sets, linguistics, machine learning, text-summarization, dialogue-based systems, affective computing, Natural Language Processing (NLP), perceptions, soft computing, natural computing

DOI: 10.3233/FI-2013-831

Citation: Fundamenta Informaticae, vol. 124, no. 1-2, pp. 197-229, 2013

Authors: Öztürk, Mehmet Ali | İnan, Ebubekir

Article Type: Research Article

Abstract: In 1999, Molodtsov introduced the theory of soft sets, which can be seen as a new mathematical approach to vagueness. In 2002, near set theory was initiated by J. F. Peters as a generalization of Pawlak's rough set theory. In the near set approach, every perceptual granule is a set of objects that have their origin in the physical world. Objects that have, in some degree, affinities are considered perceptually near each other, i.e., objects with similar descriptions. Also, the concept of near groups has been investigated by İnan and Öztürk [30]. The present paper aims to combine the soft …sets approach with near set theory, which gives rise to the new concepts of soft nearness approximation spaces (SNAS), soft lower and upper approximations. Moreover, we give some examples and properties of these soft nearness approximations. Show more

Keywords: Near set, soft set, rough set, soft rough set, soft near set, approximation space, nearness approximation space, soft nearness approximation space

DOI: 10.3233/FI-2013-832

Citation: Fundamenta Informaticae, vol. 124, no. 1-2, pp. 231-250, 2013