Representation of definite, indefinite and infinite temporal information

摘要

An information system is used for representing and managing indicative information from multiple sources describing the state of an enterprise. Most information systems model enterprises that are crisp. A crisp enterprise is one that is highly quantifiable; relationships are fixed and attributes are atomic valued. The premises for this paper are precise enterprises, where data are imperfect and multiple conflicting sources of information do exist. In such cases, information can be imperfect and/or temporal, or any possible combination of each two of them. In domains where information is perfect, all information sources are absolutely reliable. In more speculative domains, like diagnosis, information may be asserted relatively to some time intervals in which it is possibly defined and probably believed. In such domains different sources of information may be assigned different degrees of reliability. Value imperfection and/or temporal indeterminacy may cause uncertainty. Temporal information may be recurring, periodical or definite.