Linear structure of fuzzy rough sets

Theories of fuzzy sets and rough sets are powerful mathematical tools for modelling various types of uncertainty. Molodtsov (Comput Math Appl 37:19–31, 1999 [6]) initiated a novel concept called soft sets, a new mathematical tool for dealing with uncertainties. It has been found that fuzzy sets, rough sets, and soft sets are closely related concepts (Aktas and Cagman in Inf Sci 1(77):2726–2735, 2007 [1]). Research works on soft sets are very active and progressing rapidly in these years. In 2001, Maji et al. (J Fuzzy Math 9(3):589–602, 2001 [5]) proposed the idea of intuitionistic fuzzy soft set theory and established some results on them. Based on an equivalence relation on the universe of discourse, Dubois and Prade (Int J Gen Syst 17:191–209, 1990 [3]) introduced the lower and upper approximation of fuzzy sets in a Pawlak approximation space and obtained a new notion called rough fuzzy sets. Feng et al. (Soft Compt 14:899–911, 2009 [4]) introduced lower and upper soft rough approximation of fuzzy sets in a soft approximation space and obtained a new hybrid model called soft rough fuzzy sets which is the extension of Dubois and Prade’s rough fuzzy sets. The aim of this chapter is to consider lower and upper soft rough intuitionistic fuzzy approximation of intuitionistic fuzzy sets in intuitionistic fuzzy soft approximation space (IF soft approximation space) and obtain a new hybrid model called soft rough intuitionistic fuzzy sets which can be seen as extension of both the previous work by Dubois and Prade and Feng et al.

A fuzzy rough set is a pair of fuzzy sets resulting from the approximation of a fuzzy/crist set in a fuzzy approximation space. A fuzzy rough set algebra is a fuzzy set algebra with added dual pair of fuzzy rough approximation operators. In this paper, we study the mathematical structures of fuzzy rough set algebras in infinite universes of discourse. We first define the concept of fuzzy rough set algebras by the axiomatic approach. We then examine the properties of fuzzy rough approximation operators in different types of fuzzy rough set algebras. We also prove that if a system \(({\cal F}(U), \cap, \cup, \sim, L, H)\) is a (respectively, a serial, a reflexive, a symmetric, a transitive, a topological, a similarity) fuzzy rough set algebra then the derived system \(({\cal F}(U), \cap, \cup, \sim, LL, HH)\) is also a (respectively, a serial, a reflexive, a symmetric, a transitive, a topological, a similarity) fuzzy rough set algebra.KeywordsApproximation operatorsFuzzy rough setsFuzzy setsFuzzy rough set algebrasRough sets

This paper presents a general framework for the study of covering-based fuzzy approximation operators in which a fuzzy set can be approximated by some elements in a crisp or a fuzzy covering of the universe of discourse. Two types of approximation operators, crisp-covering-based rough fuzzy approximation operators and fuzzy-covering-based fuzzy rough approximation operators, are defined, their properties are examined in detail. Finally, the comparison of these new approximation operators is done, a sufficient and necessary condition is given under which some operators are equivalent, and approximation operator characterization of fuzzy partitions of the universe is obtained.KeywordsCrisp coveringsfuzzy coveringsfuzzy-covering-based fuzzy rough approximation operatorsfuzzy partitionsfuzzy sets

Granular structure plays a very important role in the model construction, theoretical analysis and algorithm design of a granular computing method. The granular structures of classical rough sets and fuzzy rough sets have been proven to be clear. In classical rough set theory, equivalence classes are basic granules, and the lower and upper approximations of a set can be computed by those basic granules. In the theory of fuzzy rough set, granular fuzzy sets can be used to describe the lower and upper approximations of a fuzzy set. This paper discusses the granular structure of type-2 fuzzy rough sets over two universes. Definitions of type-2 fuzzy rough sets over two universes are given based on a wavy-slice representation of type-2 fuzzy sets. Two granular type-2 fuzzy sets are deduced and then proven to be basic granules of type-2 fuzzy rough sets over two universes. Then, the properties of lower and upper approximation operators and these two granular type-2 fuzzy sets are investigated. At last, several examples are given to show the applications of type-2 fuzzy rough sets over two universes.

A rough fuzzy set is the result of approximation of a fuzzy set with respect to a crisp approximation space. In this paper, we investigate topological structures of rough fuzzy sets. We first show that a reflexive crisp rough approximation space can induce a fuzzy Alexandrov space. We then prove that the lower and upper rough fuzzy approximation operators are, respectively, the fuzzy interior operator and fuzzy closure operator if and only if the binary relation in the crisp approximation space is reflexive and transitive. Finally, we examine that a similarity crisp approximation space can produce a fuzzy clopen topological space.KeywordsApproximation operatorsBinary relationsFuzzy topologiesRough fuzzy setsRough sets

Fuzzy concepts are represented by fuzzy sets, so a fuzzy knowledge is defined to be a collection of fuzzy sets (concepts) which includes two constants, 1 (true) and 0 (false). Abstractly, a logical derivation is a finite series of logical operations acting on a given knowledge. In fuzzy world, logical operations are defined by mathematical operations. So fuzzy logical derivations are mathematical derivations, and vice versa In this paper, the closure of fuzzy reasoning is characterized by fuzzy rough sets, and by topologies (neighborhood systems). A new fuzzy concept F N is derivable from the old knowledge K iff the membership function of F N is continuous in K-topology, or equivalently, iff F N is a rough fuzzy set (concept) of I N D(K),or plainly, iff the membership function of F N is a “step” function in the sense that it takes a constant value in each equivalence class of I N D(K).A fuzzy set L partitions the universe into equivalence classes; each equivalence class consists of those elements which have the same degree of membership. The indiscernibility relation I N D(K)over K is the “intersection” of all the equivalence relations induced by the fuzzy sets in K. The membership function of a fuzzy set is a real valued function, so U can be given the minimal topology such that the membership function of each fuzzy set in K is a continuous function. Such topology is called K-topology.

We propose a new fuzzy rough set approach which, differently from most known fuzzy set extensions of rough set theory, does not use any fuzzy logical connectives (t-norm, t-conorm, fuzzy implication). As there is no rationale for a particular choice of these connectives, avoiding this choice permits to reduce the part of arbitrary in the fuzzy rough approximation. Another advantage of the new approach is that it is based on the ordinal properties of fuzzy membership degrees only. The concepts of fuzzy lower and upper approximations are thus proposed, creating a base for induction of fuzzy decision rules having syntax and semantics of gradual rules. The proposed approach to rule induction is also interesting from the viewpoint of philosophy supporting data mining and knowledge discovery, because it is concordant with the method of concomitant variations by John Stuart Mill. The decision rules are induced from lower and upper approximations defined for positive and negative relationships between credibility degrees of multiple premises, on one hand, and conclusion, on the other hand.

On (O,G)-fuzzy rough sets based on overlap and grouping functions over complete lattices

In order to effectively handle the real-valued data sets in practice, it is valuable from theoretical and practical aspects to combine fuzzy rough set and variable precision rough set so that a powerful tool can be developed. That is, the model of fuzzy variable precision rough set, which not only can handle numerical data but also is less sensitive to misclassification and perturbation,In this paper, we propose a new variable precision rough fuzzy set by introducing the variable precision parameter to generalized rough fuzzy set, i.e., the variable precision rough fuzzy set based on general relation. We, respectively, define the variable precision rough lower and upper approximations of any fuzzy set and it level set with variable precision parameter by constructive approach. Also, we present the properties of the proposed model in detail. Meanwhile, we establish the relationship between the variable precision rough approximation of a fuzzy set and the rough approximation of the level set for a fuzzy set. Furthermore, we give a new approach to uncertainty measure for variable precision rough fuzzy set established in this paper in order to overcome the limitations of the traditional methods. Finally, some numerical example are used to illuminate the validity of the conclusions given in this paper.

Presently, the Gaussian kernel approach has been widely accepted for measuring the similarities among samples and then constructing various fuzzy rough sets. Notably, the considered parameter plays a crucial role in deriving Gaussian kernel based similarities. This is mainly because different parameters will generate different scales of the similarities. From this point of view, different parameters may result in different fuzzy rough approximations and the corresponding reducts. Generally speaking, to search a parameterized reduct with better generalization performance, a naive approach can be designed by repeating the process of computing reduct through using different parameters. Obviously, it is very time-consuming. To fill such a gap, an acceleration approach is proposed which aims to reduce the elapsed time of searching reducts based on different parameters. The main mechanism of our proposed approach is to take the variation of the used parameters into account, and then the process of finding reduct under current parameter can be realized based on the previous parameter related reduct. The experimental results over 16 UCI data sets, which are obtained by testing different Gaussian kernel based fuzzy rough sets, demonstrate that our proposed acceleration strategy not only can significantly reduce the time consumption of finding reducts in terms of different parameters, but also will not lead to poorer classification performance and significant variation of length of the obtained reducts by comparing with the results obtained by the naive process. This study suggests technical support for quickly finding reducts of parameterized fuzzy rough sets.

Uncertainty about future developments constitutes the most important and most difficult challenge for mankind. Despite this fact, uncertainty is not a part of general science. General science assumes that the future development follows cause-effect relations which can be described by mathematical functions, where the argument represents the cause and the image represents the effect. Scientific theories have exactly this form and it is widely believed that these functions represent “truth”. Of course, this is nonsense as all the scientific theories are with certainty wrong and cannot describe the real evolution correctly. The inappropriate handling of uncertainty in science has produced a strange variety of “uncertainty theories” that causes confusion and helplessness. A friend of mine has expressed his confusion by the following words: ‘Crisp sets’, ‘fuzzy sets’, ‘rough sets’, ‘grey sets’, ‘fuzzy rough sets’, ‘rough fuzzy sets’, ‘fuzzy grey sets’, ‘grey fuzzy sets’, ‘rough grey sets’, ‘grey rough sets’, and now ‘affinity sets’. My goodness! Is there anybody around who can enlighten me, i.e., help me to see a clear pattern in this set of sets, allegedly providing powerful tools to model various kinds of uncertainty? This paper examines the role and the handling of uncertainty in quality control. How is uncertainty quantified in quality control for making decisions aiming at maintaining or improving quality of processes and products.KeywordsRandomnessIgnoranceKnowledgeFuzzynessQuantificationProbabilityCredibilityProbability spaceUncertainty spaceBernoulli space

This paper researched and constructed residuation implication operator of intuitionistic fuzzy T-norms.Based on this,the paper deducted the intuitionistic fuzzy rough sets model,and proved that the Pawlak rough sets,intuitionistic fuzzy sets,fuzzy rough sets,rough fuzzy sets and fuzzy T-norms rough sets were special cases of intuitionistic fuzzy rough sets.At last,some properties of intuitionistic fuzzy sets were presented and proved.

Rough sets and fuzzy sets are both theories for handling uncertain problems, and the viewpoints between them are different. They are complementary than competitive. Much seminal research has been carried out into combining them both; the results are rough fuzzy sets and fuzzy rough sets. In this paper, we introduce the idea of fuzzy rough sets in research of decision tables with quantitative data. Thus, we can handle the decision table directly without discretization. Combining the idea of variable precision rough sets, we make the form of the upper and lower approximation uniform.

On (IO,O)-fuzzy rough sets based on overlap functions

Rough set theory for the interval-valued fuzzy information systems