Defeasible inheritance networks are a non-monotonic framework that deals with hierarchical knowledge. On the other hand, rational closure is acknowledged as a landmark of the preferential approach. We will combine these two approaches and define a new non-monotonic closure operation for propositional knowledge bases that combines the advantages of both. Then we redefine such a procedure for Description Logics, a family of logics well-suited to model structured information. In both cases we will provide a simple reasoning method that is build on top of the classical entailment relation.

Query containment has been studied extensively in KR and databases, for different kinds of query languages and domain constraints. We address the longstanding open problem of containment under expressive description logic (DL) constraints for two-way regular path queries (2RPQs) and their conjunctions, which generalize conjunctive queries with the ability to express regular navigation. We show that, surprisingly, functionality constraints alone make containment of 2RPQs already ExpTime-hard. By employing automata-theoretic techniques, we also provide a matching upper bound that extends to very expressive DL constraints. For conjunctive 2RPQs we prove a further exponential jump in complexity, and provide again a matching upper bound for expressive DLs. Our techniques provide also a solution to the problem of query entailment over DL knowledge bases in which individuals in the ABox may be related through regular role-paths.

The automata-based approach is based on translating a knowledge base (KB) whose satisfiability is to be checked In this work we describe the theoretical foundations into some variant of automata on infinite trees that accepts and the implementation of a new automata-based tree-shaped models of the KB, and checking such an automaton technique for reasoning over expressive Description for non-emptiness. This approach is powerful and flexible. Logics that is worst-case optimal and lends itself It is acknowledged that it provides a very robust basis to an efficient implementation. In order to show for showing worst-case optimal complexity upper bounds, the feasibility of the approach, we have realized a and has been applied for a wide range of expressive DLs working prototype of a reasoner based upon these and reasoning services (cf.

We define an extension of stit logic that encompasses subjective probabilities representing beliefs about simultaneous choice exertion of other agents. The formalism enables us to express the notion of "attempt" as a choice exertion that maximizes the chance of success with respect to an action effect. The notion of attempt (or effort) is central in philosophical and legal discussions on responsibility and liability.

Multi-context systems (MCS) are a powerful framework for interlinking heterogeneous knowledge sources. They model the flow of information among different reasoning components (called contexts) in a declarative way, using so-called bridge rules, where contexts and bridge rules may be nonmonotonic. We considerably generalize MCS to managed MCS (mMCS): while the original bridge rules can only add information to contexts, our generalization allows arbitrary operations on context knowledge bases to be freely defined, e.g., deletion or revision operators. The paper motivates and introduces the generalized framework and presents several interesting instances. Furthermore, we consider inconsistency management in mMCS and complexity issues.

One criticism often advanced against abstract argumentation frameworks (AFs), is that these consider only one form of interaction between atomic arguments: specifically that an argument attacks another. Attempts to broaden the class of relationships include bipolar frameworks, where arguments support others, and abstract dialectical frameworks (ADFs). The latter, allow "acceptance'' of an argument, x, to be predicated on a given propositional function, C_x, dependent on the corresponding acceptance of its parents, i.e. those y for which occurs. Although offering a richly expressive formalism subsuming both standard and bipolar AFs, an issue that arises with ADFs is whether this expressiveness is achieved in a manner that would be infeasible within standard AFs. Can the semantics used in ADFs be mapped to some AF semantics? How many arguments are needed in an AF to "simulate'' an ADF? We show that (in a formally defined sense) any ADF can be simulated by an AF of similar size and that this translation can be realised by a polynomial time algorithm.

It is well-known that satisfiability (and hence validity) in the minimal classical modal logic is a PSPACE-complete problem. In this paper we consider the satisfiability and validity problems (here they are not dual, although mutually reducible) for the minimal modal logic over a finite Lukasiewicz chain, and show that they also are PSPACE-complete. This result is also true when adding either the Delta operator or truth constants in the language, i.e. in all these cases it is PSPACE-complete.

Uncertainty is unavoidable when modeling most application domains. In medicine, for example, symptoms (such as pain, dizziness, or nausea) are always subjective, and hence imprecise and incomparable. Additionally, concepts and their relationships may be inexpressible in a crisp, clear-cut manner. We extend the description logic ALC with multi-valued semantics based on lattices that can handle uncertainty on concepts as well as on the axioms of the ontology. We introduce reasoning methods for this logic w.r.t. general concept inclusions and show that the complexity of reasoning is not increased by this new semantics.

We analyze the complexity of reasoning in EL with defeasible inclusions, and extend previous results by tightening lower and upper complexity bounds and by relaxing some syntactic restrictions. We further extend the old framework by supporting arbitrary priority relations over defeasible inclusions.

A tree decomposition We construct an homogeneous (and ω-categorical) of a constraint network is a tree decomposition of its constraint representation of the relation algebra RCC8, which graph: roughly speaking, a decomposition defines a is one of the fundamental formalisms for spatial set of subnetworks that can be glued together in a treelike reasoning. As a consequence we obtain that the manner. The width of such a decomposition, then, is the size network consistency problem for RCC8 can be of the largest subnetwork in the decomposition (in terms of solved in polynomial time for networks of bounded the variables in the network).