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Abstract : |
Recently substantial research efforts have been spent on extending database technology in various ways towards a better support of applications of the nineties. In contrast, the tough problems of adding the right uncertainty reasoning capabilities have received relatively modest attention despite evident importance. Among the many faces of uncertainty we focus on what we call problematic knowledge, which is- e. g.- inherent in what-if decision scenarios. Based on a rule calculus with probability intervals introduced lately [GKT 91] we show how to do rule chaining under independence and how to add comparative probability. Also a method for reasoning with uncertain facts, founded on the notions of maximal context and detachment, is given. Full database support can be given to the calculus. We discuss some aspects of the optimization problem and how to deliver uncertainty reasoning to the user's application by interoperability in a heterogeneous database environment. 1., |
