CS322 Fall 1999
Module 7 (Knowledge Representation Issues)
Assignment 7

Solution.

The aim of this assignment is to learn about some knowledge representation issues that will be used later in the course.

Question 1

Consider the relations:

course(Id,Year,Inst,Room,Limit) that is true if the course with identifier Id, in year Year has instructor Inst, is held in room Room and has a limit of Limit students.
limit(Id,Year,Limit) that is true if the course with identifier Id, in year Year has a limit of Limit students.

Consider the knowledge base:

limit(Id,Year,Limit) <-
   course(Id,Year,Inst,Room,Limit).
course(cs322,1999,david,cicsr208,120).
course(cs322,1998,craig,cicsr208,100).
course(cs327,1999,jim,cicsr202,50).

Give the knowledge base where we represent the course relation using the object-attribute-value representation. (I.e., specify the above three facts for course in terms of the prop relation.)
Define limit in terms of this new representation for the course information. (The limit relation should have the same semantics as before.)
Explain why it may be advantageous to use the object-attribute-value representation for course information.

Check that your representation works with CIlog. Your new axiomatization should be able to answer exactly the same limit queries as the original version.

Solution

Here is a CILog axiomatization of the course relation using the object-attribute-value representation. I have tried to give meaningful names for the individuals I created:

prop(cs322_1999,identifier,cs322).
prop(cs322_1999,year,1999).
prop(cs322_1999,instructor,david).
prop(cs322_1999,room,cicsr208).
prop(cs322_1999,limit,120).
prop(cs322_1998,identifier,cs322).
prop(cs322_1998,year,1999).
prop(cs322_1998,instructor,craig).
prop(cs322_1998,room,cicsr208).
prop(cs322_1998,limit,100).
prop(cs327_1999,identifier,cs327).
prop(cs327_1999,year,1999).
prop(cs327_1999,instructor,jim).
prop(cs327_1999,room,cicsr202).
prop(cs327_1999,limit,50).

limit cen be defined using:

limit(Id,Year,Limit) <-
   prop(Obj,intentifier,Id) &
   prop(Obj,year,Year) &
   prop(Obj,limit,Limit).

Question 2

Suppose a conditional expression is either:

a value, where a value is either a number or is a Boolean value (true or false); or
is of the form if(Att,Then,Else) where Att is a Boolean attribute, and Then and Else are conditional expressions.

You are to write a relation

ceval(Obj,CE,Val) where Obj is an object, CE is a conditional expression and Val is the resulting value of evaluating the conditional expression for the individual Obj.

To evaluate a conditional expression for an individual is simple: if the conditional expression is a value, then that value is returned. If the conditional expression is of the form if(Att,Then,Else), then if the value of the attribute Att for the individual is true, you evaluate the Then conditional expression, otherwise evaluate the Else conditional expression.

For example, given the knowledge base:

prop(cs322,fun,true).
prop(cs322,easy,false).
prop(cs322,interesting,true).
prop(cs322,confusing,true).

Then ceval(cs322,if(fun,if(easy,99,80),if(confusing,55,70)),Val) should return Val=80.

Solution

Here is the CILog axiomatization:

ceval(Obj,V,V) <- value(V).
ceval(Obj, if(Att,Then,Else), V) <-
   prop(Obj, Att, true) &
   ceval(Obj, Then, V).
ceval(Obj, if(Att,Then,Else), V) <-
   prop(Obj, Att, false) &
   ceval(Obj, Else, V).
value(N) <- 
   number(N).
value(true).
value(false).

David Poole

CS322 Fall 1999Module 7 (Knowledge Representation Issues)Assignment 7

Solution.

Question 1

Solution

Question 2

Solution

CS322 Fall 1999
Module 7 (Knowledge Representation Issues)
Assignment 7