Possibilistic Extension of Dom ain Information System (DIS) Framework
Deemah Alomair
1,2 a
and Ridha Khedri
1 b
1
Department of Computing and Software, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
2
Department of Computer Information Systems, Imam A bdulrahman Bin Faisal University, K.S.A.
Keywords:
Uncertainty, Incomplete Information, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Ontology Modelling,
Ontologies, Possibilistic Logic, Ontology Reasoning.
Abstract:
Uncertainty poses a significant challenge in ontology-based systems, manifesting in forms such as incomplete
information, imprecision, vagueness, ambiguity, or inconsistency. This paper addresses this challenge by
introducing a quantitative possibilistic approach to manage and model incomplete information systematically.
Ontologies are modelled using the Domain Information System (DIS) framework, which is designed to handle
Cartesian data structured as sets of tuples or lists, enabling the construction of ontologies grounded i n the
dataset under consideration. Possibility theory is employed to extend the DIS framework, enhancing its ability
to represent and reason with incomplete information. The proposed extension captures uncertainty associated
with instances, attributes, relationships, and concepts. Furthermore, we propose a reasoning mechanism within
DIS that leverages necessity-based possibilistic logic to draw inferences under uncertainty. The proposed
approach is characterized by its simplicity. It improves the expressiveness of DIS-based systems, introducing
a foundation for flexible and robust decision-making in the presence of incomplete information.
1 INTRODUCTION
One of the primary challenges in knowledge-based
systems, particularly those that rely on ontologies
for domain reasoning, is managing un c ertainty stem-
ming f rom incomplete informatio n. I n dataset-driven
ontologies, data is contextualized to define con-
cepts, relationships, and instances. However, real-
world applications frequently suffer from missing
or partial informa tion, leadin g to epistemic uncer-
tainty (Sentz and Ferson, 2002). This type of un-
certainty a ffects instance classification, attribute re-
liability, relationship strength, and concept validity.
When unaddressed, such uncertainty can render on-
tologies either overly rigid, failing to a c commodate
partial knowledge, or misleading, by permitting un-
justified inferences. Effectively managing uncer-
tainty is therefore essential to ensure the expressive-
ness, reliability, and ad aptability o f onto logy-ba sed
systems, especially in the context of decision sup-
port or auto mated reasoning systems. To illustrate,
consider a customer service ontology; the con c ept
PositiveFeedback
may depend on attributes like
Satisfaction
,
Quality
, and
ResponseTime
. If one
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9397-9999
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2499-1040
of these values is m issing or partially available, classi-
cal inference systems may fail to classify an instance
as
PositiveFeedback
or do so incorrectly. This
highlights the n eed f or a framework that can represent
and reason under partial kn owledge.
This pap er introdu c es a quantitative possibilistic
extension to the Domain Information System (DIS)
framework (Marinache et al., 2 021) to represent and
reason und e r partial knowledge. DIS is a bottom-
up, data-centric formalism that constructs ontologies
from datasets, structurally separating the domain on-
tology from the data view and linking them via a map-
ping operator. Unlike Description Logic (DL)-based
ontologies, which separate th e A-Box and T-Box log-
ically, DIS achieves this separation structurally and
grounds the ontology in data, red ucing data-ontology
mismatches. DIS is useful for aligning ontologies
with real-world datasets, which makes it particularly
effective fo r domains where ontologies must be gen-
erated or ada pted from existing data sources, im-
proving modularity, transparency, and maintainability
in ontology design. In contr ast to tra ditional ontol-
ogy languages like Web Ontology L a nguage (OWL),
which struggle to directly represent mereological re-
lationships in Cartesian d atasets (i.e., the structured
data itself) without complex extensions, DIS lever-
108
Alomair, D. and Khedri, R.
Possibilistic Extension of Domain Information System (DIS) Framework.
DOI: 10.5220/0013706800004000
Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
In Proceedings of the 17th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management (IC3K 2025) - Volume 2: KEOD and KMIS, pages
108-119
ISBN: 978-989-758-769-6; ISSN: 2184-3228
Proceedings Copyright © 2025 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda.
ages cylindric algebra and Boolean algebra to model
both data structures an d conceptual part-whole re-
lations. This enables more natural and robust han-
dling of mereological reasoning within structured
data. However, the original DIS mod el does not cap-
ture domain uncertainty and information uncertainty.
The propo sed approach overcomes this by associating
each ontological componen t with quantified cer tainty.
Unlike vagueness or imprecision, the fo-
cus here is on un certainty due to incomplete-
ness, typically addressed via probability theory
(e.g., (Laha and Rohatgi, 2020)), possibility th eory
(e.g., (Dubois and Prade, 2015)), or Dempster–Shafer
theory (e.g., (Sentz and Ferson, 2002)), as discussed
in (Alomair et al., 2025). I n this study, possibility
theory is adopted and rationale behind this selection
is explained in the section 5.
The proposed appro ach models uncertainty across
all key ontological elem e nts: attributes, concepts, re-
lationships, and instances. The key contributions of
this paper are as follows:
1. Modelling Uncertainty of Attributes: Introduc es a
necessity-based mapping from the d ataset’s attributes
to ontology concepts.
2. Modelling Uncertainty of In stances: Proposes an
instance distribution relation (SV
D
), allowing a datum
(instance) to be assigned to multiple sorts (attributes)
with varying degrees of certainty.
3. Modelling Uncertainty of Relationships: Intro-
duces necessity-based relationship, wh ich allows re-
lationships to hold with varying levels of certainty.
4. Modelling Uncertainty of Concepts: Refines the
construction of datascape concepts (which depend on
available data values) by incorporating uncertainty
modelling into their data-specializing predicate.
5. Possibilistic Reasoning for Uncertainty -Aware I n-
ference: Develops a reasoning mechanism within
the DIS framework, leveraging necessity-based pos-
sibilistic logic to support inference under incomplete
informa tion.
The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 in-
troduces foundational theor ie s. Section 3 presents the
integration of possibilistic componen ts into the DIS
framework, followed by uncertainty-aware reasoning
in Section 4. Section 5 reviews relate d work and of-
fers a discussion. Section 6 concludes the paper and
outlines futur e directions.
2 PRELIMINARIES
This section reviews uncertainty in ontolog y, intro-
duces possibility theor y a nd possibilistic logic, and
presents the theoretical background of the DIS frame-
work.
2.1 Uncertainty and Ontolog y
Information imperfection includes incompleten ess,
imprecision, vagueness, ambiguity, and inconsis-
tency (Ma et al. , 2013; Bosc and Prade, 1997). The
paper adopts a broad interpretation, consid ering
uncertainty as arising from any of these defi-
ciencies, as adopted in (Anand and Kumar, 2022;
Ceravolo et al., 2008). Incompleteness arises when
informa tion is partial. This creates uncertainty about
which interpretation of a statement to rely on, of-
ten addressed by calculating an estimation degree
for possible worlds (Straccia, 2013). Imprecision
refers to the lack of exactness, occurring when data
is expressed in approxima te or qualitative terms in -
stead o f prec ise values (Ma et al., 2013). Vagueness
emerges when terms or concepts lack clear bound-
aries (Straccia and Bobillo, 2017). Ambiguity ar ises
from multiple interpreta tions (Ma et al., 2013), and
inconsistency involves contradictions, such as con-
flicting statements (Bosc and Prade, 1997).
An extensive review of uncertainty mod-
elling in domain ontologies is presented
in (Alomair et al. , 2025). The survey examines
over 550 stud ie s published between 2010 and 202 4
on this topic. A guidin g taxonomy is p roposed,
classifying o ntological uncertainty into concept
uncertainty an d information uncertainty. This clas-
sification supports the systematic id entification of
uncertainty types across ontological frameworks and
the selection of appropriate formalisms to manage
them. Concept uncertainty involves uncertainty of
relationships, uncertainty of attributes defining a
concept, and unc ertainty due to semantic ambigu ity,
where context influences the interpretatio n of a
concept. Information unc ertainty concerns asso-
ciating instance s with concepts or re la tions. The
identified unce rtainties are a ttributed to incomplete,
imprecise, vague, or inconsistent information. Then,
various formalisms are presented to manage these
uncertainties. This taxonomy offers a structured ap-
proach to understanding and addressing uncertainty
in o ntology-driven systems. A visual r e presentation
of the taxonomy is shown in Figure 1.
2.2 Possibility Theory and Possibilistic
Logic
Possibility theory m odels incomplete and inconsistent
knowledge using qualitative (ordinal) or quantitative
(numerical) approaches (Dubois and Prade, 2015).
Possibilistic Extension of Domain Information System (DIS) Framework
109
Figure 1: Ontological Uncertainty Taxonomy.
The q ualitative approach ranks events withou t nu-
merical degree (e.g., highly possible”, ”possible”, or
”less possible”), while the quantitative approach as-
signs a numerical degree to represent degrees of pos-
sibility. Possibility distribution represents an agent’s
knowledge a bout the world by assigning plausibility
degrees to states in a set S, which may be finite or in-
finite. Formally, it is a function π : S L, where L is
a totally ordered scale (often [0,1]). The value π(x)
expresses how plausible the state x S. A value of
π(x) = 0 means state x is imp ossible, while π(x) = 1
means it is fully plausible. If S is exhaustive, at least
one state must have plausibility 1. The possibilis-
tic framework captures both comp lete and inco mplete
knowledge. Complete knowledge is represented by
assigning possibility 1 to a sin gle state and 0 to all
others. Complete ignorance is mo deled by assign-
ing possibility 1 to all states, indicating that any state
could be true. The possibility distribution forms the
basis for defining possibility and necessity measures
over any sub set X S:
Π(X) = sup
xX
π(x) and N(X) = inf
x/X
(1 π(x)), (1)
where Π(X) indicates feasibility, and N(X) expresses
certainty (Alola et al., 201 3). The measures are dual
via: N(X) = 1 Π(X
), where X
is the comp le -
ment of X . Possibility measures follow the maxitiv-
ity a x iom: Π(A B) =
max
(Π(A),Π(B)), while ne-
cessity measure satisfies the dual minitivity axiom:
N(A B) =
min
(N(A),N(B)). The necessity degree
for the union o f two sets satisfies th e following pr op-
erty, expressed a s (Dubois and Prade, 2014):
N(A B)
max
(N(A),N(B)) (2)
Unlike probab ility theory, which quantifies
likelihood, possibility theory evaluates feasibility.
In (Zadeh, 1999), a distinction betwe en possibility
and probability theories has been made through an
example of ”Hans is ea ting eggs for breakfast”. In
his example, the possibility distribution of (π
X
(3) =
1) suggests it is en tirely possible for Hans to eat
three eggs, but the probability (P
X
(3) = 0.1) indicates
this outcome is statistically rare. Th is demonstrates
that high possibility does n ot imply high probabil-
ity, though an impossible event (π
X
(u) = 0) has zero
probability (P
X
(u) = 0).
Possibility theory underpins possibilistic lo gic,
which we limit here to necessity-based possibilistic
logic (Dubois et al., 1994; Dubois and Prade, 2014;
Nieves et al., 2007). In this logic, a formula is a pair
(θ,α), where θ is a classical first-order logic formula,
and α [0, 1] is a certainty or priority degree. Th is
pair indicates that θ is certain at least to level α, (i.e.,
N(θ) α). Th e interval [0,1] can be replaced by
any linearly ordered scale. Standard lim it conditions
hold: Π() = N() = 0, Π() = N() = 1, where
and denote contradiction and tautology, re spec-
tively. In the formal system of this logic, the follow-
ing properties hold: N(θ γ) =
min
({N(θ),N(γ)})
and N(θ γ)
max
({N(θ),N(γ)}), where θ and γ
are formulae. One of its ma in rules is the weakest
link resolution rule:
(¬θ γ,α),(θ δ,β) (γ δ,
min
(α,β)), (3)
Here, the conclusio ns certainty is the smallest among
the premises, reflecting that an inference chain is lim-
ited by its weakest premise.
The weighted minimum and maximum
operations, introdu ced in (Grabisch , 1998;
Dubois and Prade, 1986) within the framework
of possibility the ory, generalize the standard
min
and
max
functions to account for elements from different
contexts, each associated with a distinct weight of
importance. These op erations refine aggregation by
modulating the influence of each element based on
its assigned weight.
Let X = {x
1
,· ·· ,x
n
} be a set of criteria. Let a
i
and
w
i
be, respectively, the score and the weight of impor-
tance attributed to criterion x
i
such that Σ
n
i=1
w
i
= 1.
Then we have:
Weighted Min
(a
1
,· ·· ,a
n
) =
min
(i | 1 i n :
max
((1 w
i
),a
i
)).
This formulation ensures that elements w ith lower
weights con tribute less to the overall minimum com-
putation. Similarly, the operation
Weighted Max
is
given by:
Weighted Max
(a
1
,· ·· ,a
n
) =
max
(i | 1 i n :
min
(w
i
,a
i
)).
KEOD 2025 - 17th International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development
110
2.3 Domain Information System
DIS is an ontology framework consisting of
three primary components (Marinache et al., 2021;
Marinache, 2025): Domain Ontology View (DOnt)
O, Domain Data View (DDV) A, and mapping func-
tion τ linking A to O, forming the structure D =
(O,A,τ).
The DOnt, O = (C ,L, G), is composed of three el-
ements. The concept structure C = (C,,e
c
), which
is a commutative idempoten t monoid where the ca r-
rier set C includes an em pty concept (e
c
), a set of
atomic co ncepts (T ) derived directly from d a ta set at-
tributes, and composite concepts forme d using the
operator. The Boolean la ttice L = (L,
c
) organizes
concepts hierar chically based on a natural order
c
,
defined as c
1
c
c
2
c
1
c
2
= c
2
. Lastly, the set
of rooted graphs G pr ovides additional expressiveness
by capturing concepts and relations beyond those de-
fined by the lattice structure. Each roo ted graph G
t
i
=
(C
i
,R
i
,t
i
) consists of a set o f vertices C
i
C, a set of
edges R
i
, and a root vertex t
i
L.
The D DV, A = (A,+,,,0
A
,1
A
,{c
k
}
kU
), is
formalized as a diagonal-free cylindric algebra, whe re
U is a finite set of sorts (the universe). The main
notion of this view is sor t, which corresponds to a n
attribute in the dataset. The ordered pair of a sort
and its value is known as
Sorted Value
(
SV
). A
set of
SV
with a ma ximum of one
SV
for each sort
forms
Sorted Datum
(
S Datum
). The carrier set A
consists of
Sorted Data
(
S Data
), structured as a set
of
S Datum
. The cylindrification operators c
k
are in-
dexed by the sorts used in the data, corresponding to
the elements o f L, the carrier set of the Boolean lattice
L. For a deeper under standing of cylindric algebra,
readers are referred to ( Imieli´nski and Lipski, 1984).
The final component of DIS is the mapp ing func-
tion τ : A L, which links the elements of A in DDV
to their corresponding conc epts in the Boolean lattice
L within DOnt. To define τ, several helper opera-
tors in troduced, one of which is the helper map ping
operator η : U L. This ensures a one-to-one corre-
spondence between the sorts in DDV and the atomic
concepts in the Boolean lattice of DOnt. Ensuring
a seamless mapping from data attributes to ontology
concepts: η(S
attr
) = attr, where S
attr
and attr are a
sort and an atomic concept, respectively.
In DIS, concepts ar e categoriz ed based on their de -
pendence on objective reality or data elem e nts, lead -
ing to the distinction between objective concepts and
datascape concepts, de noted by C
d
. Objective con-
cepts exist independently of any dataset. For instance,
consider the objective statemen t (x | x Animal :
Pet(x)). The concept Pet remains valid regardless
of wheth er supporting data is available. In contrast,
datascape conce pts rely on data for their definition
and existence. For instance, consider the modified
example (x | x Animal : Active
Pet(x)). The con-
cept Active
Pet, defined as a pet that exercises fo r at
least one hour daily, depen ds on a specific data source
such as d a ily ac tivity log s. If such data is unavailable
or does not meet the require d con ditions, the concept
cannot be re alized. Formally, a datascape concept in
a DIS is defined as follows:
Definition 1 (From (Alomair and Khedri, 2025),
Datascape Concept). Let D = (O, A,τ) be a g iven
DIS. For a carrier set A in A and a lattice L in
O, a datascape concept C
d
is defined as follows:
C
d
def
= {a | τ(a) L Φ(a)}, where a A and Φ
is a data-specializing predicate expressed in Disjunc-
tive Normal Form (DNF). This predicate Φ is given
by: Φ(a) = (i | 1 i N : Ψ
i
(a)), with N is a
natural nu m ber, and each conjunctive clau se Ψ
i
(a)
is defined as: Ψ
i
(a) = ( j | 1 j M :
(i, j)
(a)),
where M is a n atural number and
(i, j)
(a) = ( f
(i, j)
(a·
sort
name
(i, j)
),c
(i, j)
) R
(i, j)
, where f
(i, j)
F , and
F = {⊕,e
c
,
L
,+,⋆,,0,1,τ,cyl} is the set of func-
tion symbols, c
(i, j)
is a gro und term in the DIS lan-
guage, and R
(i, j)
is a relator.
Based on the above definition, we define the oper-
ation as an operation on concepts.
Definition 2. Let D = (O,A, τ) be a given DIS. Let
C
d
1
= {a | τ(a) L Φ
1
(a)}, and C
d
2
= {a | τ(a)
L Φ
2
(a)} be two d atascape concepts defined on D.
We have C
d
1
C
d
2
=
C
d
1
C
d
2
= {a | τ(a) L (Φ
1
(a) Φ
2
(a))}.
The structure of the C
d
1
C
d
2
is that of a datas-
cape as (Φ
1
(a) Φ
2
(a)) is in DNF and the othe r con-
ditions stipulated by Definition 1 are satisfied. More-
over, the empty concept e can be perceived as a datas-
cape concept defined as e = {a | τ(a) = e
c
false} =
/
0. Hence, if we take, for a given DIS, C
d
is the set of
datascape concepts, then (C
d
,,e
c
) is a commutative
monoid due to the pr operties of set union.
Illustrative Example of DIS Construction. We co n-
sider a
CustomerService
dataset with the attr ibutes:
Satisfaction
,
Quality
, and
ResponseTime
. The
correspo nding DIS structure is built as follows:
1. Lattice construction: Each dataset attribute
is mapped to an atomic concept: τ =
{(
Quality
,
Status
),(
ResponseTime
,
Duration
),
(
Satisfaction
,
Comfort
)}. Then the rest of the
Boolean lattice is generated, where each node rep-
resents a possible composition of atom ic con cepts
(e.g.,
status Tenure
=
Status
Duration
).
Possibilistic Extension of Domain Information System (DIS) Framework
111
2. Objective roote d graph concept: Rooted graphs
enrich the ontology beyond lattice nodes.
One such objective concept is
Feedback
,
rooted at
CustomerService
, and defined ab-
stractly as follows:
Feedback
def
= {a | τ(a)
CustomerService
}.
3. Datascape rooted graph concept: A rooted graph
concept might be a datascape concept, in which
its definition depends o n data. For exam-
ple, the concept
PositiveFeedback
can be
defined as:
PositiveFeedback
= {a | τ(a)
CustomerService
a.
Satisfaction
0.6}.
The predicate here indicates tha t an instance a of
the
Satisfaction
attributes sho uld have a value
greater than or equa l to 0.6.
4. Construc tion of the domain data view: An ex-
ample of
SV
is (
Quality
,
Good
). An exam-
ple of
S Datum
is dt 1 = {(
Quality
,
Good
),
(
ResponseTime
,
Fast
), (
Satisfaction
,
Yes
)}.
An example o f
S Data
is a = {dt 1,dt n}.
5. Building the whole DI S system: The D IS is then
formed by (O,A,τ). A full illustration of the DIS
structure is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Customer Service DIS Framework.
3 UNCERTAINTY MODELLING
IN DIS FRAMEWORK
In this section, we extend the DIS fram ework to
handle uncertainty by addressing two key que stions:
What type o f unce rtainty can be modelled, and where
in the DIS framework it can be introduced. As note d
in section 1, we focus on incomplete information and
adopt possibility theory as the formalism.
To illustrate where uncertainty can arise, Figure 3
shows an example using a customer service dataset.
Database attributes may assign values, introducing
uncertainty of instances. These attributes are mapped
via the operator τ (shown by arrows) to atomic con-
cepts introducing uncertainty of attributes. The lat-
tice is further expanded with multiple rooted gra phs,
such as
PositiveFeedback
and
Feedback
, introduc-
ing uncertainty of concep ts. The
Feedback
graph in-
cludes specialized c oncepts like
Rating
, with arrows
indicating sem a ntic paths among th e se concepts, cap-
turing the uncertainty of relationships.
Figure 3: Necessity Degrees Assigned to D I S.
Since the focus is on uncertain ty due to incom-
plete info rmation, it is cru cial to distinguish between
data and inform a tion. In our formalism, a datu m is
strictly a raw value witho ut any assigned context (e.g.,
the num ber 3.7 isolated fr om metadata, units, or se-
mantics). At this stage, it has no uncertainty; Un-
certainty arises only when contextual interpretation is
applied (e.g., labelling 3.7 as “sensor voltage reading
with ±0.2 error”). We acknowledge that the broader
literature often tr eats data as implicitly contextualized
(and th us uncertain), but our formalism explicitly sep-
arates raw values from their con textua l layers. It is
also important to emphasize that the assigned degree
is explicitly interpreted as a measure of certainty, not
as a degree of truth or graded quality. For this reason,
we ad opt necessity-based possibilistic logic, wh e re
KEOD 2025 - 17th International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development
112
necessity degrees directly cor respond to the degree of
certainty. This interpretation aligns naturally with our
setting, in which the degree reflects the certainty in
the existence of concep ts, in instance- to-concept and
attribute-to-concept associa tions, and in th e presence
of relationships. In our approach, we examine four
types of uncer ta inty:
1. Uncertainty of mapping in sta nces to sorts: When
mapping a value to a sort(attribute), for example, as
indicated in Figure 3, the
Quality
attribute being as-
signed values like
Good
or
Bad
, with a necessity de-
gree reflecting the degree of certainty with which the
value belongs to a given sort. For instan ce, assigning
(
Good
,0.9) to
Quality
indicates that for this particu-
lar instanc e, it is 0.9 certain that the
Quality
is
Good
.
2. Uncertainty in mapping attributes to atomic con-
cepts: When mapping a sort to a lattice concept, such
as associating
Quality
with the
Status
concept as
N(
Quality
Status
) = 0.7 .
3. Uncertainty of relationships: When defining rela-
tionships am ong r ooted graph concepts, like the rela-
tionship betwe e n
Rating
and
Feedback
is associated
with N(
isA
(
Rating
,
Feedback
)) = 0.9.
4. Uncertainty of datascape concepts: This
uncertainty arises when a concept is defined
in terms of data co nditions that may them-
selves be unc e rtain. For example, consider
the datascape concept
PositiveFeedback
, de-
fined as
PositiveFeedback
= {a | τ(a)
CustomerService
a.
Satisfaction
0.6}.
Here, the condition (Φ(a) = a.
Satisfaction
0.6)
is the data-specializing predicate that character-
izes the concept. In our fram ework, the necessity
degree of the datascape concept itself, that is, the
degree to which the concept
PositiveFeedback
holds in the presence of incomplete inform ation, is
derived dir e ctly from the necessity with which its
data-specializing predicate is satisfied.
The first three types of uncertainty that are listed
above are given by the domain expert, while the last
one is calculated .
3.1 Uncertainty of Mapping Instances
to Sorts
In the traditional DIS framework, data records
(instances) are typically assigned to sorts (attributes)
through a certain mapping fun ction. Th is assign-
ment is
SV
: V U, where V is a finite set of
values assigned to the sort, and U is a finite set
of sorts (the universe). For example, consider a
customer service database presented in Figure 3,
where the a ttribute
Quality
can take values such
as
Good
and
Bad
. The traditional mapping function
would assign these values to the
Quality
sort,
as
SV
(
Good
) =
Quality
and
SV
(
Bad
) =
Quality
.
However, u ncertainty brings nondeterminism in this
mapping, as a value might be assigned to several
sorts with some degree of certainty. Hence, to
account for the uncertainty in these assignments,
we introduce a new relatio n called the instance
distribution relation, deno ted SV
D
, and defined as
SV
D
V × U × [0,1]. The r elation SV
D
relates a
data value to sor ts and necessity degree tha t represent
the degree of certainty in the assignment. A da ta
value might be assigned to several sorts with varying
degrees of certainty. In the example, the instance
distribution relation could re turn values like: SV
D
=
{ (
Good
,(
Quality
,0.9)),(
Bad
,(
Quality
,0.9)),
(
Bad
,(
Quality
,0.4)),(
Good
,(
Satisfaction
,0.7))}.
Here, the data value
Good
is assigned to the
Quality
sort with a certainty of 0.9, while the value
Bad
is
assigned to the same sort with two different certainty
degrees: 0.9 and 0.4. These reflect varying contexts,
such as different data records, whe re assignment
certainty d iffers. Although the notation does n ot
explicitly represent context, it is implicitly captured
through association with different instances. Add i-
tionally,
Good
is assigned to the
Satisfaction
sort
with a certainty of 0.7. This extension enables the
framework to better reflect un certainty by accommo-
dating varying degrees of certainty in data-to-sort
assignments.
3.2 Uncertainty in Mapping Attributes
to Atomic Concepts
As previously discussed in subsection 2.3, the DI S
framework defines the helper mapping operator η :
U L, which assigns each sort (attributes) in U to its
correspo nding atom ic concept in the Boolean lattice.
Similar to the uncertainty of instances, uncertainty in
attribute mapping introduces non-determinism when
associating sorts with atomic lattice concepts. To ac-
count for this, we define the mapping distribution re-
lation η
D
, which captures the uncertainty in this map-
ping. The relation η
D
U × L × [0,1] is provided
by a domain expert, and assigns a necessity degree to
each potential mapping.
Consider th e customer service database presented
in Figur e 3, where the m a pping operators η are de-
fined as follows:
η(
Quality
) =
Status
,η(
Satisfaction
) =
Comfort
,η(
ResponseTime
) =
Duration
.
Possibilistic Extension of Domain Information System (DIS) Framework
113
In this mapping, the sorts
Quality
,
Satisfaction
,
and
ResponseTime
correspo nd to the atomic con-
cepts
Status
,
Comfort
, and
Duration
, respectively.
To capture the uncertainty in the se mappings, the
mapping distribution relation η
D
assigns a necessity
degree to each a ssocia tion:
η
D
(
Quality
) = (
Status
, 0.7),
η
D
(
Satisfaction
) = (
Comfort
, 0.9),
η
D
(
ResponseTime
) = (
Duration
, 0.8).
These degrees indicate the degree of certainty in each
mapping, allowing the DIS framework to handle the
uncertainty in the alignment betwee n data attributes
and ontology concepts.
3.3 Uncertainty of Relationships
Within the DIS framework, there are relationships be-
tween the co ncepts of rooted graphs and a parthood
relationship between the concepts of the Bo olean lat-
tice. The parthood re la tionship
c
forms the rela-
tionship between objective concepts given in the lat-
tice. The existence of this relationship among lat-
tice concepts is certain, as they are constructed by
a Cartesian construction from the ato mic concepts.
In othe r terms, a concept k
1
is considered a
partOf
another concept k, if k
1
is a Cartesian projection of
k or if its atomic structur e is a subset of that of k.
However, the relations among the concepts of the
rooted g raph might be uncertain. Given a rooted
graph G
t
i
= (C
i
,R
i
,t
i
), C
i
C, R
i
C
i
× C
i
, t
i
L,
its relation is transformed to give each edge a neces-
sity degree. We extend R
i
to a necessity-based R
D
i
.
Hence, R
D
i
R
i
× [0,1], which incorporates nece ssity
degrees to quantify the degree of cer ta inty associated
with each relationship.
In the customer service database illustrated
in Figure 3, the relation o f the rooted graph, denoted
by R
i
, is the following: R
i
=
{(
isA
(
PositiveFeedback
,
CustomerService
)),
(
isA
(
Complaints
,
Feedback
)),
(
isA
(
Rating
,
Feedback
)),
(
isA
(
Feedback
,
CustomerService
)),
(
isA
(
Compliments
,
Feedback
))}
Hence, the relations R
D
i
is given as follows: R
D
i
= {
(
isA
(
PositiveFeedback
,
CustomerService
),0.4),
(
isA
(
Complaints
,
Feedback
),1),
(
isA
(
Rating
,
Feedback
),0.9)
(
isA
(
Feedback
,
CustomerService
),0.5),
(
isA
(
Compliments
,
Feedback
),0.7)}
These necessity degrees quantify the degree of cer-
tainty in each relationship, enabling the framework
DIS to systematically capture and reason about un-
certainty in relational structures.
3.4 Uncertainty of Datascape Concepts
If we examine the elementary predicate
(i, j)
(a),
which is used in building the data-spec ia lizing pre di-
cate Φ(a) of a datascape concept and which is equal
to ( f
(i, j)
(a·
sort name
(i, j)
),c
(i, j)
) R
(i, j)
, we find that
there are two sources of uncertainty. The first comes
from mapping a datum a to a sort due to the usage
of the term a ·
sort name
(i, j)
, an d th e second comes
from the relator R
(i, j)
used in
(i, j)
(a). He nce, by
capturing these two sources of uncertainty, we capture
the uncertain ty of th e d a ta scape concept. For that, we
adopt the weighted minim um function, previously de-
fined in subsection 2.2. The weights of instance map-
ping w
inst
, and the weight of the relationship w
rel
assign relative importanc e to the necessity measures
SV
D
(a) and R
D
i
(a), with w
inst
+ w
rel
= 1. Then, we
have the following inductive procedur e for calculat-
ing the nec essity degree N
Φ(a)
of a datascape concept
having Φ as its data-specializing predicate.
Procedure 3.1 (Necessity Degree of a Datascape
Predicate). Let D = (O,A, τ) be a given DIS. Let
C
d
= {a | τ(a) L Φ(a)} be a datascape con-
cept that is defined within D, and has Φ as its spe -
cializing predicate. For a given element a A, let
δ = (w
inst
= w
Wrel
)
(SV
D
(a) (1 w
inst
))
(R
D
(i, j)
(a) (1 w
Wrel
))
. The n ecessity degree
N(Φ(a)) is computed indu ctively as follows:
Base cases:
1. N(true) = 1;
2. N(false) = 0.
3. N(
(i, j)
(a)) =
min
SV
D
(a),R
D
(i, j)
(a)
, if δ = true,
min
max
(1 w
inst
),SV
D
(a)
,
max
(1 w
rel
),R
D
(i, j)
(a)
!
, otherwise.
Inductive cases:
1. Conjunction of atomic predicates:
N(Ψ
i
(a)) = min
j | 1 j M : N(
(i, j)
(a))
2. Disjunction of conjunctive clauses:
N(Φ(a)) = max
i | 1 i N : N(Ψ
i
(a))
KEOD 2025 - 17th International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development
114
In the base case, the necessity degree of ea ch
atomic pr edicate is consid ered. The necessity degree
of the ground terms true and false are , respectively,
1 and 0. For the elementa ry term
(i, j)
(a) forming
Φ(a), we have several cases:
When we have equal weights of all the criteria, then
the weights are omitted in determining N((a)).
When both the certainty of a m a pped to its sort
is below 1 minus the weight assigned to the map-
ping, and the certainty of the relator R
D
(i, j)
(a) used
in is also below 1 minus the weight assigned to
the relationship, then the weights are also omitted.
Hence, when (SV
D
(a) (1 w
inst
) and R
D
(i, j)
(a)
(1 w
Wrel
) m eans that the importance or influence of
the mapping of instances to sorts and the relator in the
overall-uncertainty determination outweighs the level
of uncertainty a ssoc ia ted with it. That is why we ig-
nore the weights in this case.
We can extend the necessity degree function to the
datascape concepts as follows: N(C
d
)
def
= N(Φ) =
max
a | a A : N(Φ(a))
, where C
d
= {a | τ(a)
L Φ(a)} is a datascape concept that is defined
within a DIS D. We take the
max
of the individual
necessity degrees due to the union property described
earlier in Equation 2.
For o bjective concepts in the lattice, the composi-
tion operator enables the formation of new concepts
by comp osing existing ones i.e., creating composite
concepts f rom the set of atomic concepts T . Writing
k = k
1
k
2
means that concept k is constructed by
the Cartesian product of concepts k
1
and k
2
. These
concepts are certain and carry no unce rtainty. An al-
ternative way to consider uncertainty in an objective
concept is considering its specializing predicate that
is always true, hence its certainty degree is 1.
4 REASONING ON
POSSIBILISTIC DIS
FRAMEWORK
We discuss several reasoning tasks and their govern-
ing inference rules for deriving conclusions in differ-
ent reason ing scenarios. These tasks are concept sat-
isfiability and concept subsumption. Each of which is
explained in detail. We use N to denote the n ecessity
degree function.
4.1 Concept Satisfiability
In this subsection, we examine concept satisfiability
in necessity-based reasoning within the DIS frame-
work, distinguishing between the objective and the
datascape concept satisfiability.
In the classical DIS framework, a datascape con-
cept is considere d satisfiable if its corresponding data
values exist within the carrier set of the DDV. How-
ever, in the necessity-b a sed extension of DIS, we in-
troduce the necessity degree to account for incom-
plete information of the data specializin g predicate
(Φ(a)), which defin e s the datascape concept. In
this extended framework, a datascape concept C
d
is
deemed satisfiable if ther e exists a t least one instance
a C
d
such that the necessity degree N(a,C
d
) of this
instance is strictly greater than zero. Therefore, a
datascape concept is satisfiable if and only if its ne-
cessity degree is strictly greater than zero, indicating
that there is sufficient data support for the con c ept’s
existence.
Definition 3. Let D = (O,A, τ) be a given DIS. Let
C
d
= {a | τ(a) L Φ(a)} be a datascape concept
that is defined within D, with Φ(a) as its data spe-
cializing predicate. The datascape concept C
d
is sat-
isfiable, denoted by stsfd(C
d
), if and only if (a |
a A : N(Φ(a)) > 0 ).
For objective concepts within the Boolean lattice,
their certainty is inheren tly guaranteed, as they are
directly linked to the DDV of the DIS under con-
sideration. Thus, their satisfiability is inherently en-
sured, m eaning they are both valid and certain to ex-
ist. The satisfiability of a c omposite concept is also
guaran teed, as its atomic components have a degree
of necessity of one. In this case, the combin a tion of
their necessity degree results in the composite con-
cept also having a necessity degree of one, ensuring
its satisfiability. If, from another perspective, one sees
objective conc epts as con cepts that are independent
of datasets, which translates into a data specializing
predicate equivalent to true, then using Definition 3
and Procedure 3.1(item 1), one infers that its n eces-
sity degree is also equal to one.
Claim 4.1. Let C
d
1
and C
d
2
be datascape concepts
defined in a given DIS. Let Φ
1
(a) and Φ
2
(a) be their
data specializing predicates, respectively. We have
stsfd(C
d
1
C
d
2
) stsfd(C
d
1
) stsfd(C
d
2
).
Proof. The concepts C
d
1
and C
d
2
are two da tas-
cape concepts. Hence, by Definitio n 1 and for D =
(O,A,τ) is a given DIS, we can write C
d
1
and C
d
2
as follows: C
d
1
def
= {a | τ(a) L Φ
1
(a)}, a nd
C
d
2
def
= {a | τ(a) L Φ
2
(a)}.
Then, we have
stsfd
(C
d
1
C
d
2
)
h Definition 2 i
stsfd
{a | τ(a) L (Φ
1
(a) Φ
2
(a))}
Possibilistic Extension of Domain Information System (DIS) Framework
115
h Definition 3: Satisfiability of datascape
concept i
(a | a A : N(Φ
1
(a)) > 0 N(Φ
2
(a)) > 0 )
h Axiom Distributivity f or i
(a | a A : N(Φ
1
(a)) > 0 )
(a | a A : N(Φ
2
(a)) > 0 )
h Definition 3 i
stsfd
(C
d
1
)
stsfd
(C
d
2
)
Example 4.1 (Satisfiability of a Datas-
cape Conce pt). Consider the data scape con-
cept PositiveFeedback = {a | τ(a)
CustomerService a.Satisfaction 0.6}.
Thus, this concept consists of a single atomic predi-
cate: (a) = (a.Satisfaction 0.6). Assume
the following information is provide d by a domain
expert:
Instance distribution relation:
SV
D
(a
1
) = (Good,(Satisfaction,0.7))
Relator necessity degree: R
D
(a
1
) = (Good
0.6, 0.8)
Wig hts of importance : w
inst
= 0.4, w
Wrel
= 0.6
Then, usin g Procedure 3.1, we compute the necessity
degree of the atomic predicate:
min
max(1 w
inst
,SV
D
(a
1
)), max(1 w
Wrel
,R
D
(a
1
))
= min (max(0.6, 0.7), max(0.4,0.8)) = 0.7
Since Φ(a) consists of just this atomic predicate, we
have:
N(C
d
) = N(Φ(a)) = N((a
1
)) = 0.7
By Definition 3, the concept is satis-
fiable because N(Φ(a)) > 0. Hence:
stsfd(PositiveFeedback) holds.
4.2 Necessity-Based Subsumption
In general, we say that a concept C
1
subsumes a con-
cept C
2
if every instance of C
2
is in C
1
. In c la ssical
DIS, we have an additional kind o f subsumptio n re-
lationship. It is the
partOf
relationship, denoted by
c
, that exists among the mem bers of the Boolean
lattice. When we write C
1
c
C
2
, it indicates that the
instances of C
1
are obtained through the projection of
correspo nding instances of C
2
on the attributes defin-
ing C
1
. In this case, we say that C
2
subsumes C
1
. The
formal definition of DIS based subsumption is given
below:
Definition 4. Given a DIS D = (O,A, τ). Let C
1
and
C
2
be two concepts in the set of concepts of D. We
say that C
2
C
1
iff one of the conditions holds:
1. C
1
L C
2
L C
2
c
C
1
.
2. C
1
and C
2
are two datascape concepts with data
specializing predicates Φ
1
and Φ
2
, respectively and
(a | a A : Φ
2
(a) = Φ
1
(a)).
3. C
1
L and C
2
is a datascape concept. We have
(C
1
,C
2
) R
, where R
is the reflexive transitive c lo-
sure of a relation R of the graph roote d at C
1
.
Definition 4 formalizes conce pt subsumption in
DIS, covering both objective and datascape con c epts.
First, if C
1
and C
2
are objective con c epts in the ontol-
ogy lattice, subsumption h olds if C
2
c
C
1
, meanin g
C
2
is structurally more specific than C
1
per the lat-
tice order, reflecting the traditional subclass relation
of the lattice hierarchical struc ture. Second, if both
are datascape concepts defined by data specializing
predicates Φ
1
and Φ
2
, then C
2
C
1
holds if a A,
the implication Φ
2
= Φ
1
is satisfied. T his ensures
all instances satisfying C
2
also satisfy C
1
. Third, if
C
1
is an objective concept and C
2
is a datascape, sub-
sumption ho lds if a path exists from C
1
to C
2
in the
reflexive-transitive closure R
of relation R. Notably,
all concepts in the graph rooted at C
1
are considered
a spec ialization of C
1
. Subsumption is a partial order
(reflexive, antisymmetric, transitive) over c oncepts, as
stated in the following claim.
Claim 4.2. Given a DIS D = (O,A,τ), the subsump-
tion relation on the set of concepts in D is a partial
order.
Proof. We provide a proof for each case of the sub-
sumption relation as given in Definition 4.
1. In the first case, the subsumption relation is iden-
tical to the
partOf
(i.e.,
c
) relation. The latter sat-
isfies the pro perties required for subsumption (reflex-
ivity, tr ansitivity, and anti-symmetry) because it is de-
fined on a Boolean lattice, which is itself a p artially
ordered set (poset) (Mar inache, 2025).
2. In the seco nd case, the subsumption relation
defines a partial order over the datascape concepts.
This is due to the proper ties of the logical =
operation that satisfies the properties of partial or-
der (Gries and Schne ider, 1993, Pages 57-59 ).
3. In the third case, subsumption is interpreted as
membersh ip to the reflexive transitive closure R
. It
is established that a reflexive transitive closure on an
acyclic graph is a partial order. Indeed, the rooted
graphs a re acyclic, as furthermor e each is a Directed
Acyclic Gr aph (DAG).
KEOD 2025 - 17th International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development
116
In the context of necessity-based subsumption,
the subsumption ne cessity degree is determined by a
domain expert. In addition, as the transitivity of sub-
sumption applies, the degree of transitive subsum p-
tion is governed by the weakest link resolution rule,
presented previously in subsection 2.2. T his approach
to possibilistic transitivity reasoning has bee n adopted
in prior research (e.g., (Mo hamed et al., 2018;
Benferhat and Bouraoui, 201 5)) and has shown effec-
tiveness in han dling uncertainty within possibilistic
ontologies.
Claim 4.3. Let D = (O,A, τ) be a DIS. Let C
1
, C
2
,
and C
3
be concepts defined in D. Let
R
= {(C
1
,C
2
) | C
1
C C
2
C C
1
C
2
}
and R
D
is its corresponding necessity relation. We
have:
((C
1
,C
2
),α) R
D
((C
2
,C
3
),β) R
D
= ((C
1
,C
3
),min(α,β)) R
D
Proof. ((C
1
,C
2
),α) R
D
((C
2
,C
3
),β) R
D
h Definition of R
D
i
(C
1
,C
2
) R
D
(C
2
,C
3
) R
D
N((C
1
,C
2
)) = α N((C
2
,C
3
)) = β
= h Transitivity of R
and the weakest link
resolution rule (Equation 3) i
(C
1
,C
3
) R
D
N((C
1
,C
3
)) =
min
(α,β)
h Definition of R
D
i
((C
1
,C
3
),
min
(α,β)) R
D
The nece ssity- based subsumptio n between objec-
tive c oncepts (
partOf
relation) invariably assumes
a necessity degree of 1, since the parthood rela-
tion among lattice concepts is considered fully cer-
tain i.e., N(
partOf
) = 1, as indicated previously
in subsection 3.3. This certainty extends naturally to
the transitivity of
partOf
relation, wher eby the mini-
mum necessity degree comp uted over a chain of part-
hood relations, among lattice concepts, gives a degree
of 1.
Example 4.2 (Transitivity of Concept Subsump-
tion in DIS). Let C
1
= Complaints, C
2
=
Feedback, C
3
= CustomerService be three
concepts defined in given DIS. Suppose the following
necessity-based subsump tion relationships are pro-
vided by the domain expert:
{((Complaints,Feedback),0.6),
((Feedback,CustomerService),0.8)} R
D
By Claim 4.3, the transitive subsumption relation
holds with:
N(Complaints,CustomerService) = 0.6
5 RELATED WORK AND
DISCUSSION
This section reviews ontology mo delling approaches
that handle uncertainty using possibility theory, an d
explains our choice of this formalism.
In possibilistic DL-based approaches, u ncertainty
is modelled by assigning necessity or possibility
degrees to ontology axioms at different levels. For
instance, Pb-π-DL-Lite (Boutouhami et al., 2017)
assigns ne c essity degrees only to ABox assertions,
allowing uncertain instance membership such as
(
Status
,
Good
) = 0.9 in the
CustomerService
domain, without modelling uncertainty at concept
or relationship levels. The work of (Sun, 2013)
focuses o n uncertainty at the TBox level, as-
signing necessity degrees to TBox axioms such
as N(
isA
(
Rating
,
Feedback
)) = 0.8, yet does
not support uncertain instance classification
or data-driven concept definitions. Similarly,
studies such as (Benferhat and Bouraoui, 2015;
Benferhat et al., 201 4; Qi et al., 2011) extend pos-
sibilistic logic to both TBox and A Bo x axioms,
enriching the expressiveness by allowing weighted
axioms at multiple levels; however, their frameworks
still assume that concepts like
PositiveFeedback
are defined and do not enable concept definitions
directly derived fro m data (i.e., datascape concepts).
The study of (Mohamed et al., 2018) further incor-
porates possibility distributions over interpretations,
adding expressiveness to represent uncertainty about
models themselves, but does not provide mechanisms
to ground concepts in uncertain data attributes or
integrate gra ded uncertainty at the attribute-concept
mapping level.
At the language level, (Safia and Aicha, 2014)
propose extending Web Ontology Language 2
(OWL2) with possibilistic annotations, enablin g un-
certainty representation in both concepts and in-
stances. Using the
CustomerService
example, on e
could an notate a concept like
PositiveFeedback
, or
an instances like
Fast
with possibility degree s, yet
the approach still requires concepts to be pre-defined
and does not suppo rt automatic or context-aware con-
struction of co ncepts from data conditions. Finally,
the work of (Ben Salem et al., 2018) assigns possibil-
ity degrees directly to concepts outside DL seman-
tics, like assigning possibility degree to the concept
PositiveFeedback
, but does not address un certainty
propagation from attribute data to instances or mode l
uncertainty in relationships or attribute m appings.
In contrast, our DIS-based framework uniquely in-
tegrates uncertainty at all levels: attributes, instances,
relationships, and d ata-driven concepts. For exam ple,
Possibilistic Extension of Domain Information System (DIS) Framework
117
we model uncertain attribute-conce pt mappings such
as N(
Quality
Status
) = 0.7, uncertain in stance-
concept classification like (
Good
,0.9), and relation-
ships such as N(
isA
(
Rating
,
Feedback
)) = 0.9. Our
datascape concept
PositiveFeedback
is defined by
a data-specializing predicate reflecting the actual sat-
isfaction values, allowing uncertainty in satisfaction
data to propagate naturally to the mem bership degree
in
PositiveFeedback
concept. This unified, data-
grounded modelling allows more expressive, context-
aware reasoning abou t u ncertain information com-
pared to existing possibilistic ontology methods.
From a methodological standpoint, choosing an
uncertainty formalism requires alignment with the
modelling goals and constraints of the framework.
While several candidates exist, including probabilis-
tic approaches and Dempster-Shafer Theory (DST),
we ad opt possibility theor y for its suitability to
our framework. Probability theory enforces the
additivity axiom, requiring the sum of probabil-
ities for mutually exclusive events in a universe
of discour se to equal one even under insufficient
data (Kovalerchuk, 2017), leading to challenges in ac-
curately repr esenting uncertainty. In contrast, possi-
bility theory relaxes this constraint, making it more
suitable for the proposed a pproach. This ratio-
nale is supported by several possibilistic on tology
frameworks (e.g., (Bal-Bourai and Mokhtari, 2016;
Boutouha mi et al., 201 7)). Regarding DST, it is
primarily designed for belief fusion from multi-
ple sources (Mc Clean, 2003), whereas our approach
derives certainty from a single source. More-
over, DST typically assigns belief to sets of hy-
potheses rather than individual ones, making it
more suitable for representing gro up-level uncer-
tainty. In co ntrast, the DIS framework deman ds fine-
grained c e rtainty assignments to individual attributes,
values, and relationships (Sentz a nd Ferson, 2002;
Gordon and Shortliffe, 1984). Possibility th eory di-
rectly supports this by enabling necessity degree s to
annotate specific elements, making it a natural fit for
our ontology-based model.
6 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE
WORK
This paper presents a pr incipled extension of the
DIS framework to support reasonin g under incom-
plete information using necessity-based possibilis-
tic logic. Unlike most ontology-based systems that
assume complete information, our approach mod-
els uncertainty across instance s, attributes, relation-
ships, and concept definitions, e nabling fine-grained,
graded reasoning. A key advantage is replacing bi-
nary infere nces with necessity-valued conclusions, al-
lowing cautious reasoning with p a rtial information.
Overall, this approach provid es a structured fou n-
dation for possibilistic reasoning in ontology- based
systems advancing more expressive a nd uncertain ty-
aware knowledge representations essential for robust
decision-making in complex, data-limited contexts.
We are currently auto mating necessity-
based reasoning tasks using the Domain Infor-
mation System Extended Language ( D ISEL)
tool (Wang et al., 2022). Future work will focu s on
automating necessity d egre e assignment via machine
learning, integrating fuzzy logic to handle impreci-
sion, developing a scalable reasoning engine, and
applying the framework to rea l-world domains. Once
the automation is in place, we plan to use DISEL to
reason over data collected f rom network secu rity pre-
vention mechanisms. This data is often unce rtain an d
originates from diverse sources with varying levels of
reliability. Fu rthermore, this data originates from log
files, whether structured or semi-structur e d, making
it well-suited for DIS modelling. The goal is to pre-
process and clea n the d ata (Khedri et al., 2013), then
apply the proposed reasoning framework to facilitate
reliable and context-aware security de cision-making
in highly dynamic and complex uncertain landscapes.
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