Aggregated fuzzy answer set programming

Fuzzy Answer Set programming (FASP) is an extension of answer set programming (ASP), based on fuzzy logic. It allows to encode continuous optimization problems in the same concise manner as ASP allows to model combinatorial problems. As a result of its inherent continuity, rules in FASP may be satisfied or violated to certain degrees. Rather than insisting that all rules are fully satisfied, we may only require that they are satisfied partially, to the best extent possible. However, most approaches that feature partial rule satisfaction limit themselves to attaching predefined weights to rules, which is not sufficiently flexible for most real-life applications. In this paper, we develop an alternative, based on aggregator functions that specify which (combination of) rules are most important to satisfy. We extend upon previous work by allowing aggregator expressions to define partially ordered preferences, and by the use of a fixpoint semantics

Barriers to Entry, Deregulation and Workplace Training: A Theoretical Model with Evidence from Europe

We study the impact of barriers to entry on workplace training. Our theoretical model indicates that there are two contrasting effects of deregulation on training. With a given number of firms, deregulation reduces the size of rents per unit of output that firms can reap by training their employees. Yet, the number of firms increases, thereby raising output and profit gains from training and improving investment incentives. The latter effect always prevails. Our empirical analysis, based on repeated cross-section data from 15 European countries and 12 industries, confirms the predictions of the model and shows that deregulation increases training incidence.training, product market competition, Europe

Three Essays on the Determinants and Effects of Public Sector Bargaining Laws.

The theoretical foundation of this model is the economic theory of regulation as developed by Stigler; in addition, modifications of the economic or special interest theory implied by the Public Choice school of thought are employed. A synthesis of these two theories of regulation, then, provides the framework upon which to develop a general model of the causes and consequences of laws regulating the bargaining rights of state employees. Topic One is devoted exclusively to the determinants of state-wide bargaining rights laws. The data are pooled over two years, and state laws are classified into one of three possible categories: bargaining prohibition (or nonexistence of a law), mandatory meet and confer, and mandatory bargaining. The dependent variable, then, is ordinal. Each observation is a discrete realization of the underlying, unobservable variable, sentiment toward public unionism. Estimation proceeds by the technique of McKelvey and Zavonia (1976). The independent variables are divided into two categories: economic/demographic, and political. Inclusion of variables in the former category is motivated by the Chicago School\u27s interest group theory, while the Public Choice School and Economics of Legislatures School suggest variables proxying characteristics of the political process. Topic Two, employing the basic model developed in Topic One, estimates the determinants and effects of bargaining laws simultaneously. The dependent variable in the effects equation is union density. Single equation estimation of either process is assumed to suffer from simultaneous equations bias, the consequences of which are biased and inconsistent parameter estimates. An econometric technique developed by Heckman (1978) is employed in order to account for the estimation of an ordinally measured endogenous variable within a simultaneous equations system. Topic Three applies the simultaneously estimated general model developed in Topic Two to three separate employee groups: teachers, firefighters, and police officers. By doing this, comparisons may be made among individual sub-groups, and the applicability of the general model tested

Conserving plant diversity in Europe: outcomes, criticisms and perspectives of the Habitats Directive application in Italy

Habitat Directive is the core strategy of nature conservation in Europe aiming at halting biodiversity loss. In this study the results of the third Italian assessment regarding the conservation status (CS) of plants listed in the Habitat Directive (Flora of community interest—FCI) was presented. Data was collected from several sources related to plant distribution, population data, habitats and pressures. Following the official European procedure, all parameters were evaluated and combined to give the CS of each taxon in each biogeographical region of presence. A comparison between the recent Italian IUCN and Reporting assessments was performed in order to evaluate the consistency between these two assessments. The official EU checklist comprises 113 Italian plant taxa, 107 of which were examined in this study. Our results showed a critical situation with only 34% of favourable CS, while 50% were unfavourable (40% inadequate plus 10% bad) and 16% unknown, in particular in the Mediterranean bioregion, where the unfavourable assessments reach the 65%. The results of the Report were consistent with those of the IUCN assessment, in which 41.9% of plants were threatened with extinction. This report highlighted some benefits and criticisms at national level, but it may have a wider significance. Although a general advance of knowledge, a great effort is needed to reach the Habitats Directive goals. Despite the limited resources, monitoring activities needs to be improved in order to close information gaps for several plants. A positive outcome was the development of a specific national project funded by the Italian Ministry of Environment, with the ambitious target to set future monitoring activities for FCI and optimize monitoring efforts

The Impact of Group Music Therapy on Negative Affect of People with Co-Occurring Substance Use Disorders and Mental Illnesses

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of group music therapy on levels of self-reported negative affect (NA) among men and women on a residential unit of an integrated dual diagnosis treatment program. More specifically, we sought to determine if and to what degree engagement in composition, receptive (listening), re-creation (performing), and improvisation experiences would result in a shift—namely, a decrease—in the intensity of self-reported NA. Participants were adults in residential treatment who had been diagnosed with co-occurring substance use disorders (SUDs) and mental illnesses (MIs), predominantly mood and anxiety disorders. Twenty group-music-therapy sessions were held on the unit. Three researcher-developed visual analogue scales were used to assess pre- and postsession levels of anxiety, anger, and sadness. In total, 89 surveys were analyzed. Results indicate that nearly a third of the participants who were involved in the treatment groups reported a decrease in anxiety, sadness, and anger combined, with more than half of the responses in each of these three emotional states indicating a decrease. While these are encouraging results, generalization of findings is limited primarily by the use of a nonstandardized measurement tool, the absence of a control group, the possibility of intentional deceit, and the potential for researcher bias in the collection and compilation of the data

An Elementary Theory of Comparative Advantage

Comparative advantage, whether driven by technology or factor endowment, is at the core of neoclassical trade theory. Using tools from the mathematics of complementarity, this paper offers a simple, yet unifying perspective on the fundamental forces that shape comparative advantage. The main results characterize sufficient conditions on factor productivity and factor supply to predict patterns of international specialization in a multi-factor generalization of the Ricardian model to which we refer as an "elementary neoclassical economy." These conditions, which hold for an arbitrarily large number of countries, goods, and factors, generalize and extend many results from the previous trade literature. They also offer new insights about the joint effects of technology and factor endowments on international specialization.

From fuzzy to annotated semantic web languages

The aim of this chapter is to present a detailed, selfcontained and comprehensive account of the state of the art in representing and reasoning with fuzzy knowledge in Semantic Web Languages such as triple languages RDF/RDFS, conceptual languages of the OWL 2 family and rule languages. We further show how one may generalise them to so-called annotation domains, that cover also e.g. temporal and provenance extensions

REVIEW OF MODELING PREFERENCES FOR DECISION MODELS

A group decision problem is set in environments where there is a common issue to solve, a set of possible options to choose, and a set of individuals who are experts and express their opinions about the set of possible alternatives with the intention to reach a collective decision as the unique solution of the problem in question. The modeling of the preferences of the decision-maker is an essential stage in the construction of models used in the theory of decision, operations research, economics, etc. On decision problems experts use models of representation of preferences that are close to their disciplines or fields of work. The structures of information most commonly used for the representation of the preferences of experts are vectors of utility, orders of preference and preference relations. In decision problems, the expression of preferences domain is the domain of information used by the experts to express their preferences, the main are numerical, linguistic, and intervalar stressing the multi-granular linguistic. This paper is a review of these concepts. Its purpose is to provide a guide of bibliographic references for these concepts, which are briefly discussed in this document