1 UNCERTAIN DATA MODELIN THE GENERAL CASE, THE OCCURRENCE OF ITEMS M...

1.1 Uncertain Data Model

In the general case, the occurrence of items may be de-

pendent. For example, the decision to purchase a new music

The uncertain data model applied in this paper is based

video DVD may mean they are unlikely to purchase a mu-

on the possible worlds semantic with existential uncertain

sic CD by the same artist. Alternatively, some items must

items.

be bought together. If these conditional probabilities are

Definition 2. An uncertain item is an item x ∈ I whose

known, they can be used in our methods. For example,

presence in a transaction t ∈ T is defined by an existential

the probability that both a video and music are purchased

probability P (x ∈ t) ∈ (0, 1). A certain item is an item

by customer B is P ({V ideo, M usic} ∈ t B ) = P (V ideo ∈

where P(x ∈ t) ∈ {0, 1}. I is the set of all possible items.

t B ) ∗ P (M usic ∈ t B |V ideo ∈ t B ).

Definition 3. An uncertain transaction t is a transac-