Meaningful aggregation functions mapping ordinal scales into an ordinal scale: a state of the art

We present an overview of the meaningful aggregation functions mapping ordinal scales into an ordinal scale. Three main classes are discussed, namely order invariant functions, comparison meaningful functions on a single ordinal scale, and comparison meaningful functions on independent ordinal scales. It appears that the most prominent meaningful aggregation functions are lattice polynomial functions, that is, functions built only on projections and minimum and maximum operations

Characterizations of discrete Sugeno integrals as polynomial functions over distributive lattices

We give several characterizations of discrete Sugeno integrals over bounded distributive lattices, as particular cases of lattice polynomial functions, that is, functions which can be represented in the language of bounded lattices using variables and constants. We also consider the subclass of term functions as well as the classes of symmetric polynomial functions and weighted minimum and maximum functions, and present their characterizations, accordingly. Moreover, we discuss normal form representations of these functions

Axiomatizations of quasi-polynomial functions on bounded chains

Two emergent properties in aggregation theory are investigated, namely horizontal maxitivity and comonotonic maxitivity (as well as their dual counterparts) which are commonly defined by means of certain functional equations. We completely describe the function classes axiomatized by each of these properties, up to weak versions of monotonicity in the cases of horizontal maxitivity and minitivity. While studying the classes axiomatized by combinations of these properties, we introduce the concept of quasi-polynomial function which appears as a natural extension of the well-established notion of polynomial function. We give further axiomatizations for this class both in terms of functional equations and natural relaxations of homogeneity and median decomposability. As noteworthy particular cases, we investigate those subclasses of quasi-term functions and quasi-weighted maximum and minimum functions, and provide characterizations accordingly

Invariant functionals on completely distributive lattices

In this paper we are interested in functionals defined on completely distributive lattices and which are invariant under mappings preserving {arbitrary} joins and meets. We prove that the class of nondecreasing invariant functionals coincides with the class of Sugeno integrals associated with $\{0,1\}$-valued capacities, the so-called term functionals, thus extending previous results both to the infinitary case as well as to the realm of completely distributive lattices. Furthermore, we show that, in the case of functionals over complete chains, the nondecreasing condition is redundant. Characterizations of the class of Sugeno integrals, as well as its superclass comprising all polynomial functionals, are provided by showing that the axiomatizations (given in terms of homogeneity) of their restriction to finitary functionals still hold over completely distributive lattices. We also present canonical normal form representations of polynomial functionals on completely distributive lattices, which appear as the natural extensions to their finitary counterparts, and as a by-product we obtain an axiomatization of complete distributivity in the case of bounded lattices

Weighted lattice polynomials of independent random variables

We give the cumulative distribution functions, the expected values, and the moments of weighted lattice polynomials when regarded as real functions of independent random variables. Since weighted lattice polynomial functions include ordinary lattice polynomial functions and, particularly, order statistics, our results encompass the corresponding formulas for these particular functions. We also provide an application to the reliability analysis of coherent systems.Comment: 14 page

Measuring the interactions among variables of functions over the unit hypercube

By considering a least squares approximation of a given square integrable function $f\colon[0,1]^n\to\R$ by a multilinear polynomial of a specified degree, we define an index which measures the overall interaction among variables of $f$. This definition extends the concept of Banzhaf interaction index introduced in cooperative game theory. Our approach is partly inspired from multilinear regression analysis, where interactions among the independent variables are taken into consideration. We show that this interaction index has appealing properties which naturally generalize the properties of the Banzhaf interaction index. In particular, we interpret this index as an expected value of the difference quotients of $f$ or, under certain natural conditions on $f$, as an expected value of the derivatives of $f$. These interpretations show a strong analogy between the introduced interaction index and the overall importance index defined by Grabisch and Labreuche [7]. Finally, we discuss a few applications of the interaction index

Associative polynomial functions over bounded distributive lattices

The associativity property, usually defined for binary functions, can be generalized to functions of a given fixed arity n>=1 as well as to functions of multiple arities. In this paper, we investigate these two generalizations in the case of polynomial functions over bounded distributive lattices and present explicit descriptions of the corresponding associative functions. We also show that, in this case, both generalizations of associativity are essentially the same.Comment: Final versio