An Empirical Comparison of Three Inference Methods

In this paper, an empirical evaluation of three inference methods for uncertain reasoning is presented in the context of Pathfinder, a large expert system for the diagnosis of lymph-node pathology. The inference procedures evaluated are (1) Bayes' theorem, assuming evidence is conditionally independent given each hypothesis; (2) odds-likelihood updating, assuming evidence is conditionally independent given each hypothesis and given the negation of each hypothesis; and (3) a inference method related to the Dempster-Shafer theory of belief. Both expert-rating and decision-theoretic metrics are used to compare the diagnostic accuracy of the inference methods.Comment: Appears in Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI1988

A topos for algebraic quantum theory

The aim of this paper is to relate algebraic quantum mechanics to topos theory, so as to construct new foundations for quantum logic and quantum spaces. Motivated by Bohr's idea that the empirical content of quantum physics is accessible only through classical physics, we show how a C*-algebra of observables A induces a topos T(A) in which the amalgamation of all of its commutative subalgebras comprises a single commutative C*-algebra. According to the constructive Gelfand duality theorem of Banaschewski and Mulvey, the latter has an internal spectrum S(A) in T(A), which in our approach plays the role of a quantum phase space of the system. Thus we associate a locale (which is the topos-theoretical notion of a space and which intrinsically carries the intuitionistic logical structure of a Heyting algebra) to a C*-algebra (which is the noncommutative notion of a space). In this setting, states on A become probability measures (more precisely, valuations) on S(A), and self-adjoint elements of A define continuous functions (more precisely, locale maps) from S(A) to Scott's interval domain. Noting that open subsets of S(A) correspond to propositions about the system, the pairing map that assigns a (generalized) truth value to a state and a proposition assumes an extremely simple categorical form. Formulated in this way, the quantum theory defined by A is essentially turned into a classical theory, internal to the topos T(A).Comment: 52 pages, final version, to appear in Communications in Mathematical Physic

Inductive and Functional Types in Ludics

Ludics is a logical framework in which types/formulas are modelled by sets of terms with the same computational behaviour. This paper investigates the representation of inductive data types and functional types in ludics. We study their structure following a game semantics approach. Inductive types are interpreted as least fixed points, and we prove an internal completeness result giving an explicit construction for such fixed points. The interactive properties of the ludics interpretation of inductive and functional types are then studied. In particular, we identify which higher-order functions types fail to satisfy type safety, and we give a computational explanation

Deduction by combining semantic tableaux and integer programming

. In this paper we propose to extend the current capabilities of automated reasoning systems by making use of techniques from integer programming. We describe the architecture of an automated reasoning system based on a Herbrand procedure (enumeration of formula instances) on clauses. The input are arbitrary sentences of first-order logic. The translation into clauses is done incrementally and is controlled by a semantic tableau procedure using unification. This amounts to an incremental polynomial CNF transformation which at the same time encodes part of the tableau structure and, therefore, tableau-specific refinements that reduce the search space. Checking propositional unsatisfiability of the resulting sequence of clauses can either be done with a symbolic inference system such as the Davis-Putnam procedure or it can be done using integer programming. If the latter is used a number of advantages become apparent. Introduction In this paper we propose to extend the current capabilit..

Musical Rhetoric, Narrative, Drama, and Their Negation in Morton Feldman\u27s Piano and String Quartet

Though Morton Feldman famously expressed his aversion to conventional compositional rhetoric early in his career, an examination of his music from the late 1970s onward reveals a more complex and ambiguous relationship with musical rhetoric than has often been acknowledged. In his own writings Feldman hinted at the notion of illusory function and directionality in his music, as well as to the phenomenon of negation. It is my contention that the extended-length works written in the last years of the composer\u27s life, which frequently feature tantalizing suggestions of conventional musical narrative, provide rich opportunity for readings of these statements. My examination focuses upon Piano and String Quartet, one of the composer\u27s very last works, which, I argue, exemplifies compositional approaches characteristic of much of Feldman\u27s music from this period in its evocation and simultaneous negation of a sense of traditional narrative linearity