In Probabilistic Logic Nilsson uses the device of a probability distribution over a set of possible worlds to assign probabilities to the sentences of a logical language. In his paper Nilsson concen­ trated on inference and associated computational issues. This paper, on the other hand, exam­ ines the probabilistic semantics in more detail, .particularly for the case of first order languages, a...

The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), like groupware systems, intranet or videoconference, enable team members to work on the same project but from different places. Some teams are called virtual because they exist only through the network. As the work is geographically distributed, bonds and relationships between people become more important. Indeed, the lack of faceto-face com...

This paper proposes syntactic combination rules for merging uncertain propositional knowledge bases provided by different sources of information, in the framework of possibilistic logic. These rules are the counterparts of combination rules which can be applied to the possibility distributions (defined on the set of possible worlds), which represent the semantics of each propositional knowledge...

We introduce A-ranked preferential structures and combine them with an accessibility relation. A-ranked preferential structures are intermediate between simple preferential structures and ranked structures. The additional accessibilty relation allows us to consider only parts of the overall Aranked structure. This framework allows us to formalize contrary to duty obligations, and other pictures...

We present in this paper a new model for representing probabilistic information in a semi-structured (XML) database, based on the use of probabilistic event variables. This work is motivated by the need of keeping track of both confidence and lineage of the information stored in a semi-structured warehouse. For instance, the modules of a (Hidden Web) content warehouse may derive information con...

In the actual world frame, energy efficiency becomes a necessity. Since 1995, Kyoto protocol has highlighted that humans need to improve their energy consumption and reduce CO2 signature. Building consumption represent a third of the global energy consumption and Information Technology (IT) equipment is weighing heavily on energy expenses. For example, Google equipment consumes 0,01 percent of ...

Hypothetical queries are queries embedding hypotheses about the database. The embedded hypothesis in a hypothetical query indicates, so to say, a state of the database intended for the rest of the query. Thus the answer to a hypothetical query h > q, with a hypothesis h, is in principle the result of evaluating q against the database revised with h. In case h is inconsistent with the database, ...

The initial part of this paper explores and rejects three standard views of how scientific laws might be systematically connected with physical necessity or possibility. The first concerns laws and their consequences, the second concerns the so-called counterfactual connection, and the third concerns a possible worlds construction of physical necessity. The remaining part introduces a neglected...

Three categories, varying from lowest to highest levels of abstraction, of possible relationships between psychology and literature are critically examined. The first category represents the lowest level of abstraction and involves ‘psychology in literature’: literature as a source of psychological data; literature as a source of insights for psychology. The second involves literature as an ind...

The article investigates the sceptical challenge from an information-theoretic perspective. Its main goal is to articulate and defend the view that either informational scepticism is radical, but then it is epistemologically innocuous because redundant; or it is moderate, but then epistemologically beneficial because useful. In order to pursue this cooptation strategy, the article is divided in...