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Discrete-valued belief structures combination and normalization using evidential reasoning rule

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Abstract

Discrete-valued belief structures (DBSs) (known as discrete belief structures) are universal in real life, differ from precise-valued belief structures, and interval-valued belief structures (IBSs). However, the combination of different discrete belief structures presents a problem that has yet to be solved. Therefore, this study investigated the respective counter-intuitive types of behavior associated with the combination of discrete belief structures within the frameworks of the Dempster-Shafer theory. (DST) evidential reasoning (ER) for the purpose of constructing a more general method for the combination and normalization of discrete evidence. Finally, an experimental application is provided to indicate that the proposed method is suitable for combining and normalizing conflict-free/conflicting discrete evidence, and can effectively solve problems involving group decision-making (GDM) with uncertain preference ordinals, such as in a software selection problem.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under the Grant No. 61773123 and 71801050, the National Social Science Foundation of China (19BGL016), New Century Excellent Talents Support Program of Fujian Higher Education Institutions (Fujian education department [2018] No.47), and the Anhui Provincial Planning Project of Philosophy and Social Science (AHSKQ2019D024).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Decision Sciences Institute, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350116, People’s Republic of China

    Xing-Xian Zhang, Ying-Ming Wang & Lei Chen

  2. School of Architecture and Engineering, Tongling University, Tongling, 244061, People’s Republic of China

    Xing-Xian Zhang

  3. Key Laboratory of Spatial Data Mining & Information Sharing of Ministry of Education, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350116, People’s Republic of China

    Ying-Ming Wang

  4. School of Information Enginnering, Fujian Business University, Fuzhou, 350506, People’s Republic of China

    Sheng-Qun Chen

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  1. Xing-Xian Zhang
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  2. Ying-Ming Wang
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  3. Sheng-Qun Chen
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  4. Lei Chen
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Correspondence to Ying-Ming Wang.

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Zhang, XX., Wang, YM., Chen, SQ. et al. Discrete-valued belief structures combination and normalization using evidential reasoning rule. Appl Intell 51, 1379–1393 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10489-020-01897-9

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