20,612 research outputs found
Abduction in Well-Founded Semantics and Generalized Stable Models
Abductive logic programming offers a formalism to declaratively express and
solve problems in areas such as diagnosis, planning, belief revision and
hypothetical reasoning. Tabled logic programming offers a computational
mechanism that provides a level of declarativity superior to that of Prolog,
and which has supported successful applications in fields such as parsing,
program analysis, and model checking. In this paper we show how to use tabled
logic programming to evaluate queries to abductive frameworks with integrity
constraints when these frameworks contain both default and explicit negation.
The result is the ability to compute abduction over well-founded semantics with
explicit negation and answer sets. Our approach consists of a transformation
and an evaluation method. The transformation adjoins to each objective literal
in a program, an objective literal along with rules that ensure
that will be true if and only if is false. We call the resulting
program a {\em dual} program. The evaluation method, \wfsmeth, then operates on
the dual program. \wfsmeth{} is sound and complete for evaluating queries to
abductive frameworks whose entailment method is based on either the
well-founded semantics with explicit negation, or on answer sets. Further,
\wfsmeth{} is asymptotically as efficient as any known method for either class
of problems. In addition, when abduction is not desired, \wfsmeth{} operating
on a dual program provides a novel tabling method for evaluating queries to
ground extended programs whose complexity and termination properties are
similar to those of the best tabling methods for the well-founded semantics. A
publicly available meta-interpreter has been developed for \wfsmeth{} using the
XSB system.Comment: 48 pages; To appear in Theory and Practice in Logic Programmin
Backdoors to Normality for Disjunctive Logic Programs
Over the last two decades, propositional satisfiability (SAT) has become one
of the most successful and widely applied techniques for the solution of
NP-complete problems. The aim of this paper is to investigate theoretically how
Sat can be utilized for the efficient solution of problems that are harder than
NP or co-NP. In particular, we consider the fundamental reasoning problems in
propositional disjunctive answer set programming (ASP), Brave Reasoning and
Skeptical Reasoning, which ask whether a given atom is contained in at least
one or in all answer sets, respectively. Both problems are located at the
second level of the Polynomial Hierarchy and thus assumed to be harder than NP
or co-NP. One cannot transform these two reasoning problems into SAT in
polynomial time, unless the Polynomial Hierarchy collapses. We show that
certain structural aspects of disjunctive logic programs can be utilized to
break through this complexity barrier, using new techniques from Parameterized
Complexity. In particular, we exhibit transformations from Brave and Skeptical
Reasoning to SAT that run in time O(2^k n^2) where k is a structural parameter
of the instance and n the input size. In other words, the reduction is
fixed-parameter tractable for parameter k. As the parameter k we take the size
of a smallest backdoor with respect to the class of normal (i.e.,
disjunction-free) programs. Such a backdoor is a set of atoms that when deleted
makes the program normal. In consequence, the combinatorial explosion, which is
expected when transforming a problem from the second level of the Polynomial
Hierarchy to the first level, can now be confined to the parameter k, while the
running time of the reduction is polynomial in the input size n, where the
order of the polynomial is independent of k.Comment: A short version will appear in the Proceedings of the Proceedings of
the 27th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI'13). A preliminary
version of the paper was presented on the workshop Answer Set Programming and
Other Computing Paradigms (ASPOCP 2012), 5th International Workshop,
September 4, 2012, Budapest, Hungar
A Goal-Directed Implementation of Query Answering for Hybrid MKNF Knowledge Bases
Ontologies and rules are usually loosely coupled in knowledge representation
formalisms. In fact, ontologies use open-world reasoning while the leading
semantics for rules use non-monotonic, closed-world reasoning. One exception is
the tightly-coupled framework of Minimal Knowledge and Negation as Failure
(MKNF), which allows statements about individuals to be jointly derived via
entailment from an ontology and inferences from rules. Nonetheless, the
practical usefulness of MKNF has not always been clear, although recent work
has formalized a general resolution-based method for querying MKNF when rules
are taken to have the well-founded semantics, and the ontology is modeled by a
general oracle. That work leaves open what algorithms should be used to relate
the entailments of the ontology and the inferences of rules. In this paper we
provide such algorithms, and describe the implementation of a query-driven
system, CDF-Rules, for hybrid knowledge bases combining both (non-monotonic)
rules under the well-founded semantics and a (monotonic) ontology, represented
by a CDF Type-1 (ALQ) theory. To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic
Programming (TPLP
Changing a semantics: opportunism or courage?
The generalized models for higher-order logics introduced by Leon Henkin, and
their multiple offspring over the years, have become a standard tool in many
areas of logic. Even so, discussion has persisted about their technical status,
and perhaps even their conceptual legitimacy. This paper gives a systematic
view of generalized model techniques, discusses what they mean in mathematical
and philosophical terms, and presents a few technical themes and results about
their role in algebraic representation, calibrating provability, lowering
complexity, understanding fixed-point logics, and achieving set-theoretic
absoluteness. We also show how thinking about Henkin's approach to semantics of
logical systems in this generality can yield new results, dispelling the
impression of adhocness. This paper is dedicated to Leon Henkin, a deep
logician who has changed the way we all work, while also being an always open,
modest, and encouraging colleague and friend.Comment: 27 pages. To appear in: The life and work of Leon Henkin: Essays on
his contributions (Studies in Universal Logic) eds: Manzano, M., Sain, I. and
Alonso, E., 201
Using parametric set constraints for locating errors in CLP programs
This paper introduces a framework of parametric descriptive directional types
for constraint logic programming (CLP). It proposes a method for locating type
errors in CLP programs and presents a prototype debugging tool. The main
technique used is checking correctness of programs w.r.t. type specifications.
The approach is based on a generalization of known methods for proving
correctness of logic programs to the case of parametric specifications.
Set-constraint techniques are used for formulating and checking verification
conditions for (parametric) polymorphic type specifications. The specifications
are expressed in a parametric extension of the formalism of term grammars. The
soundness of the method is proved and the prototype debugging tool supporting
the proposed approach is illustrated on examples.
The paper is a substantial extension of the previous work by the same authors
concerning monomorphic directional types.Comment: 64 pages, To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programmin
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