arXiv subjects

Laura Giordano

Publications and source records attributed to Laura Giordano.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Proceedings 42nd International Conference on Logic Programming

Since the first conference in Marseille in 1982, the International Conference on Logic Programming (ICLP) has been the premier international event for presenting research in logic programming. These proceedings include the Technical Communications of the 42nd ICLP, held 20-23 July 2026 as part of FLoC 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal. The papers and extended abstracts in this volume address the following areas and topics: theoretical foundations, language design and programming methodologies, program analysis and optimization, applications and implementation methodologies. This volume features contributions to two submission tracks of ICLP 2026: the Main track and the Recently Published Research track.

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arXiv2026

A framework for Conditional Reasoning in Answer Set Programming

In this paper we introduce a Conditional Answer Set Programming framework (Conditional ASP) for the definition of conditional extensions of Answer Set Programming (ASP). The approach builds on a conditional logic with typicality, and on the combination of a conditional knowledge base with an ASP program, and allows for conditional reasoning over the answer sets of the program. The formalism relies on a multi-preferential semantics, and on the KLM preferential semantics, as a special case. Conditional entailment is encoded in ASP and a complexity upper-bound is provided.

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arXiv2024

Temporal Many-valued Conditional Logics: a Preliminary Report

In this paper we propose a many-valued temporal conditional logic. We start from a many-valued logic with typicality, and extend it with the temporal operators of the Linear Time Temporal Logic (LTL), thus providing a formalism which is able to capture the dynamics of a system, trough strict and defeasible temporal properties. We also consider an instantiation of the formalism for gradual argumentation.

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arXiv2023

A preferential interpretation of MultiLayer Perceptrons in a conditional logic with typicality

In this paper we investigate the relationships between a multipreferential semantics for defeasible reasoning in knowledge representation and a multilayer neural network model. Weighted knowledge bases for a simple description logic with typicality are considered under a (many-valued) ``concept-wise" multipreference semantics. The semantics is used to provide a preferential interpretation of MultiLayer Perceptrons (MLPs). A model checking and an entailment based approach are exploited in the verification of conditional properties of MLPs.

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arXiv2023

Complexity and scalability of defeasible reasoning in many-valued weighted knowledge bases with typicality

Weighted knowledge bases for description logics with typicality under a "concept-wise" multi-preferential semantics provide a logical interpretation of MultiLayer Perceptrons. In this context, Answer Set Programming (ASP) has been shown to be suitable for addressing defeasible reasoning in the finitely many-valued case, providing a $Π^p_2$ upper bound on the complexity of the problem, nonetheless leaving unknown the exact complexity and only providing a proof-of-concept implementation. This paper fulfils the lack by providing a $P^{NP[log]}$-completeness result and new ASP encodings that deal with weighted knowledge bases with large search spaces.

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arXiv2022

Many-valued Argumentation, Conditionals and a Probabilistic Semantics for Gradual Argumentation

In this paper we propose a general approach to define a many-valued preferential interpretation of gradual argumentation semantics. The approach allows for conditional reasoning over arguments and boolean combination of arguments, with respect to a class of gradual semantics, through the verification of graded (strict or defeasible) implications over a preferential interpretation. As a proof of concept, in the finitely-valued case, an Answer set Programming approach is proposed for conditional reasoning in a many-valued argumentation semantics of weighted argumentation graphs. The paper also develops and discusses a probabilistic semantics for gradual argumentation, which builds on the many-valued conditional semantics.

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arXiv2022

An ASP approach for reasoning on neural networks under a finitely many-valued semantics for weighted conditional knowledge bases

Weighted knowledge bases for description logics with typicality have been recently considered under a "concept-wise" multipreference semantics (in both the two-valued and fuzzy case), as the basis of a logical semantics of MultiLayer Perceptrons (MLPs). In this paper we consider weighted conditional ALC knowledge bases with typicality in the finitely many-valued case, through three different semantic constructions. For the boolean fragment LC of ALC we exploit ASP and "asprin" for reasoning with the concept-wise multipreference entailment under a phi-coherent semantics, suitable to characterize the stationary states of MLPs. As a proof of concept, we experiment the proposed approach for checking properties of trained MLPs. The paper is under consideration for acceptance in TPLP.

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arXiv2021

A conditional, a fuzzy and a probabilistic interpretation of self-organising maps

In this paper we establish a link between fuzzy and preferential semantics for description logics and Self-Organising Maps, which have been proposed as possible candidates to explain the psychological mechanisms underlying category generalisation. In particular, we show that the input/output behavior of a Self-Organising Map after training can be described by a fuzzy description logic interpretation as well as by a preferential interpretation, based on a concept-wise multipreference semantics, which takes into account preferences with respect to different concepts and has been recently proposed for ranked and for weighted defeasible description logics. Properties of the network can be proven by model checking on the fuzzy or on the preferential interpretation. Starting from the fuzzy interpretation, we also provide a probabilistic account for this neural network model.

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arXiv2021

From Weighted Conditionals of Multilayer Perceptrons to Gradual Argumentation and Back

A fuzzy multipreference semantics has been recently proposed for weighted conditional knowledge bases, and used to develop a logical semantics for Multilayer Perceptrons, by regarding a deep neural network (after training) as a weighted conditional knowledge base. This semantics, in its different variants, suggests some gradual argumentation semantics, which are related to the family of the gradual semantics studied by Amgoud and Doder. The relationships between weighted conditional knowledge bases and MLPs extend to the proposed gradual semantics to capture the stationary states of MPs, in agreement with previous results on the relationship between argumentation frameworks and neural networks. The paper also suggests a simple way to extend the proposed semantics to deal attacks/supports by a boolean combination of arguments, based on the fuzzy semantics of weighted conditionals, as well as an approach for defeasible reasoning over a weighted argumentation graph, building on the proposed gradual semantics.

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arXiv2021

Weighted Conditional EL{^}bot Knowledge Bases with Integer Weights: an ASP Approach

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arXiv2021

Reasoning about actions with EL ontologies with temporal answer sets

We propose an approach based on Answer Set Programming for reasoning about actions with domain descriptions including ontological knowledge, expressed in the lightweight description logic EL^\bot. We consider a temporal action theory, which allows for non-deterministic actions and causal rules to deal with ramifications, and whose extensions are defined by temporal answer sets. We provide conditions under which action consistency can be guaranteed with respect to an ontology, by a polynomial encoding of an action theory extended with an EL^\bot knowledge base (in normal form) into a temporal action theory.

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arXiv2021

On the KLM properties of a fuzzy DL with Typicality

The paper investigates the properties of a fuzzy logic of typicality. The extension of fuzzy logic with a typicality operator was proposed in recent work to define a fuzzy multipreference semantics for Multilayer Perceptrons, by regarding the deep neural network as a conditional knowledge base. In this paper, we study its properties. First, a monotonic extension of a fuzzy ALC with typicality is considered (called ALC^FT) and a reformulation the KLM properties of a preferential consequence relation for this logic is devised. Most of the properties are satisfied, depending on the reformulation and on the fuzzy combination functions considered. We then strengthen ALC^FT with a closure construction by introducing a notion of faithful model of a weighted knowledge base, which generalizes the notion of coherent model of a conditional knowledge base previously introduced, and we study its properties.

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arXiv2021

From Common Sense Reasoning to Neural Network Models through Multiple Preferences: an overview

In this paper we discuss the relationships between conditional and preferential logics and neural network models, based on a multi-preferential semantics. We propose a concept-wise multipreference semantics, recently introduced for defeasible description logics to take into account preferences with respect to different concepts, as a tool for providing a semantic interpretation to neural network models. This approach has been explored both for unsupervised neural network models (Self-Organising Maps) and for supervised ones (Multilayer Perceptrons), and we expect that the same approach might be extended to other neural network models. It allows for logical properties of the network to be checked (by model checking) over an interpretation capturing the input-output behavior of the network. For Multilayer Perceptrons, the deep network itself can be regarded as a conditional knowledge base, in which synaptic connections correspond to weighted conditionals. The paper describes the general approach, through the cases of Self-Organising Maps and Multilayer Perceptrons, and discusses some open issues and perspectives.

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arXiv2021

Weighted defeasible knowledge bases and a multipreference semantics for a deep neural network model

In this paper we investigate the relationships between a multipreferential semantics for defeasible reasoning in knowledge representation and a deep neural network model. Weighted knowledge bases for description logics are considered under a "concept-wise" multipreference semantics. The semantics is further extended to fuzzy interpretations and exploited to provide a preferential interpretation of Multilayer Perceptrons.

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arXiv2020

A framework for a modular multi-concept lexicographic closure semantics

We define a modular multi-concept extension of the lexicographic closure semantics for defeasible description logics with typicality. The idea is that of distributing the defeasible properties of concepts into different modules, according to their subject, and of defining a notion of preference for each module based on the lexicographic closure semantics. The preferential semantics of the knowledge base can then be defined as a combination of the preferences of the single modules. The range of possibilities, from fine grained to coarse grained modules, provides a spectrum of alternative semantics.

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arXiv2020

A reconstruction of the multipreference closure

The paper describes a preferential approach for dealing with exceptions in KLM preferential logics, based on the rational closure. It is well known that the rational closure does not allow an independent handling of the inheritance of different defeasible properties of concepts. Several solutions have been proposed to face this problem and the lexicographic closure is the most notable one. In this work, we consider an alternative closure construction, called the Multi Preference closure (MP-closure), that has been first considered for reasoning with exceptions in DLs. Here, we reconstruct the notion of MP-closure in the propositional case and we show that it is a natural variant of Lehmann's lexicographic closure. Abandoning Maximal Entropy (an alternative route already considered but not explored by Lehmann) leads to a construction which exploits a different lexicographic ordering w.r.t. the lexicographic closure, and determines a preferential consequence relation rather than a rational consequence relation. We show that, building on the MP-closure semantics, rationality can be recovered, at least from the semantic point of view, resulting in a rational consequence relation which is stronger than the rational closure, but incomparable with the lexicographic closure. We also show that the MP-closure is stronger than the Relevant Closure.

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arXiv2020

On a plausible concept-wise multipreference semantics and its relations with self-organising maps

Inthispaperwedescribeaconcept-wisemulti-preferencesemantics for description logic which has its root in the preferential approach for modeling defeasible reasoning in knowledge representation. We argue that this proposal, beside satisfying some desired properties, such as KLM postulates, and avoiding the drowning problem, also defines a plausible notion of semantics. We motivate the plausibility of the concept-wise multi-preference semantics by developing a logical semantics of self-organising maps, which have been proposed as possible candidates to explain the psychological mechanisms underlying category generalisation, in terms of multi-preference interpretations.

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arXiv2020

An ASP approach for reasoning in a concept-aware multipreferential lightweight DL

In this paper we develop a concept aware multi-preferential semantics for dealing with typicality in description logics, where preferences are associated with concepts, starting from a collection of ranked TBoxes containing defeasible concept inclusions. Preferences are combined to define a preferential interpretation in which defeasible inclusions can be evaluated. The construction of the concept-aware multipreference semantics is related to Brewka's framework for qualitative preferences. We exploit Answer Set Programming (in particular, asprin) to achieve defeasible reasoning under the multipreference approach for the lightweight description logic EL+bot. The paper is under consideration for acceptance in TPLP.

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