Exact Bounds for Interval and Fuzzy Functions under Monotonicity Constraints, with Potential Applications to Biostratigraphy

Authors

Emil Platon
Kavitha Tupelly
Vladik Kreinovich, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Scott A. Starks, The University of Texas at El PasoFollow
Karen Villaverde

Publication Date

2-2005

Comments

UTEP-CS-04-27b.

Published in Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems FUZZ-IEEE'2005, Reno, Nevada, May 22-25, 2005, pp. 891-896.

Abstract

The age of fossil species in samples recovered from a well that penetrates an undisturbed sequence of sedimentary rocks increases with depth. The results of biostratigraphic analysis of such a sequence consist of several age-depth values -- both known with interval (or fuzzy) uncertainty -- and we would like to find, for each possible depth, the interval of the possible values of the corresponding age. A similar problem of bounding an intervally (fuzzily) defined function under monotonicity constraint occurs in many other application areas. In this paper, we provide an efficient algorithm for solving this problem.