11630076
Capacity allocation with competitive retailers
This paper addresses a problem in supply chain management that how scarce resources can be efficiently allocated among competing interests. We present a formal model of allocation mechanisms for such settings that a supplier with limited production capacity allocates its products to a set of competitive retailers. In contrary to the existing allocation mechanisms in which retailers are local monopolists, the new model exhibits much more complicated market behaviors. We show that the widely-used proportional allocation mechanism is no longer necessarily Pareto optimal, even if all retailers are in a symmetric situation. A necessary and sufficient condition for the proportional allocation to be Pareto optimal is given. We propose a truth-inducing allocation mechanism based on our capacity allocation model, which is more intuitive and applicable than the existing truth-inducing mechanisms.
10882024
Frame problem in dynamic logic
This paper provides a formal analysis on the solutions of the frame problem by using dynamic logic. We encode Pednault's syntax-based solution, Baker's state-minimization policy, and Gelfond & Lifchitz's Action Language A in the propositional dynamic logic (PDL). The formal relationships among these solutions are given. The results of the paper show that dynamic logic, as one of the formalisms for reasoning about dynamic domains, can be used as a formal tool for comparing, analyzing and unifying logics of action.
1234389
Nonmonotonic Reasoning and Multiple Belief Revision
The aim of the present paper is to reveal the interrelation between general patterns of nonmonotonic reasoning and multiple belief revision. For this purpose we de ne a nonmonotonic inference frame in which individual inference rules have been proposed in the literature but their combination as a system has not been investigated. It is shown that such a system is so strong that almost all the rules (including the supracompactness) suggested for nonmonotonic inference relations in the literature hold in it. We prove that this nonmonotonic inference frame is strictly correspendent with multiple belief revision operation. On the basis of this result we analyse a speci c paradigm of defult theory which satis es all the rules under consideration and discuss limitations of methods based on consequence relations for the study of nonmonotonic reasoning.
8370711
Consistency of Action Descriptions
As a contribution to the metatheory of reasoning about actions, we present some characteristics of the consistency of action theories. Three levels of consistency are investigated for the evaluation of action descriptions: uniform consistency, consistency of formulas and regional consistency. The first two provide an intuitive resolution of problems of explanation conflicts and fluent dependency. The concept of regional consistency provides for a measure of ramification. A highly expressive form of action descriptions, the normal form, is introduced to facilitate this analysis. The relative satisfiability of the situation calculus is generalized to accommodate non-deterministic effects and ramifications.
8107681
A Computational Model of Logic-Based Negotiation
This paper presents a computational model of negotiation based on Nebel's syntax-based belief revision. The model guarantees a unique bargaining solution for each bargaining game without using lotteries. Its game-theoretic properties are discussed against the existence and uniqueness of Nash equilibrium and subgame perfect equilibrium. We also study essential computational properties in relation to our negotiation model. In particular, we show that the deal membership checking is DP-complete and the corresponding agreement inference problem is Π2P-hard.
15449547
Encoding Solutions of the Frame Problem in Dynamic Logic
We investigate the relationship amongst some solutions to the frame problem. We encode Pednault's syntax-based solution [20], Baker's state-minimization policy [1], and Gelfond & Lifchitz's Action Language A [7] in the propositional dynamic logic (PDL). The formal relationships among these solutions are given. The results of the paper show that dynamic logic, as one of the formalisms for reasoning about dynamic domains, can be used as a formal tool for comparing and unifying logics of action.
3129003
Efficient computation of temporal aggregates with range predicates
A temporal aggregation query is an important but costly operation for applications that maintain time-evolving data (data warehouses, temporal databases, etc.). Due to the large volume of such data, performance improvements for temporal aggregation queries are critical. In this paper we examine techniques to compute temporal aggregates that include key-range predicates (range temporal aggregates). In particular we concentrate on SUM, COUNT and AVG aggregates. This problem is novel; to handle arbitrary key ranges, previous methods would need to keep a separate index for every possible key range. We propose an approach based on a new index structure called the Multiversion SB-Tree, which incorporates features from both the SB-Tree and the Multiversion B-Tree, to handle arbitrary key-range temporal SUM, COUNT and AVG queries. We analyze the performance of our approach and present experimental results that show its efficiency.
1196574
On Spatial-Range Closest-Pair Query
An important query for spatial database research is to find the closest pair of objects in a given space. Existing work assumes two objects of the closest pair come from two different data sets indexed by R-trees. The closest pair in the whole space will be found via an optimzed R-tree join technique. However, this technique doesn’t perform well when the two data sets are identical. And it doesn’t work when the search range is some area other than the whole space. In this paper, we address the closest pair problem within the same data set. Further more, we propose a practical extension to the closest pair problem to involve a query range. The problem now becomes finding the closest pair of objects among those inside a given range. After extending the existing techniques to solve the new problem, we proposed two index structures based on augmenting the R-tree and we also give algorithms for maintaining these structrures. Experimental results show that our structures are more robust than earlier approaches.
10620171
Characterization of palmprints by wavelet signatures via directional context modeling
The palmprint is one of the most reliable physiological characteristics that can be used to distinguish between individuals. Current palmprint-based systems are more user friendly, more cost effective, and require fewer data signatures than traditional fingerprint-based identification systems. The principal lines and wrinkles captured in a low-resolution palmprint image provide more than enough information to uniquely identify an individual. This paper presents a palmprint identification scheme that characterizes a palmprint using a set of statistical signatures. The palmprint is first transformed into the wavelet domain, and the directional context of each wavelet subband is defined and computed in order to collect the predominant coefficients of its principal lines and wrinkles. A set of statistical signatures, which includes gravity center, density, spatial dispersivity and energy, is then defined to characterize the palmprint with the selected directional context values. A classification and identification scheme based on these signatures is subsequently developed. This scheme exploits the features of principal lines and prominent wrinkles sufficiently and achieves satisfactory results. Compared with the line-segments-matching or interesting-points-matching based palmprint verification schemes, the proposed scheme uses a much smaller amount of data signatures. It also provides a convenient classification strategy and more accurate identification.
17458789
Efficient Complex Query Support for Multiversion XML Documents
Managing multiple versions of XML documents represents a critical requirement for many applications. Also, there has been much recent interest in supporting complex queries on XML data (e.g., regular path expressions, structural projections, DIFF queries). In this paper, we examine the problem of supporting efficiently complex queries on multiversioned XML documents. Our approach relies on a scheme based on durable node numbers (DNNs) that preserve the order among the XML tree nodes and are invariant with respect to updates. Using the document's DNNs various complex queries are reduced to combinations of partial version retrieval queries. We examine three indexing schemes to efficiently evaluate partial version retrieval queries in this environment. A thorough performance analysis is then presented to reveal the advantages of each scheme.
2785687
Close pair queries in moving object databases
Databases of moving objects are important for air traffic control, ground traffic, and battlefield configurations. We introduce the (historical and spatial) range close-pair query for moving objects as an important problem for such databases. The purpose of a range close-pair query for moving objects is to find pairs of objects that were closer than ε during time interval $I$ and within spatial range R, where ε, I and R are user-specified parameters.This paper solves the range close-pair query using two components: the retrieval component and the close-pair identification component. The retrieval component breaks up long trajectories into trajectory segments, which are produced in increasing time order, without the need for sorting. The retrieval component takes advantage of a new index mechanism, the Multiple TSB-tree. The segments are then pipelined to the close-pair identification component. The identification component introduces a novel spatial sweep that sweeps by time and one spatial dimension at the same time. Extensive experimental results are provided, demonstrating the advantages of the new approach when considering close pairs.