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Abstract : |
We present a coherent modeling and reasoning methodology to extend object-oriented databases towards taxonomic and uncertain knowledge. Current ISA-hierarchies are enriched by more general t-classes to improve conceptual modeling. The t-classes themselves are then integrated with probabilistic constraints to express uncertainty. The information content of such taxonomic and probabilistic knowledge can be visualized naturally by special Hasse-diagrams. The second contribution concerns efficient taxonomic and probabilistic deduction. Through a careful interaction between taxonomic and probabilistic knowledge much better inference methods can be devised. 1, |