Construction of concept granule based on rough set and representation of knowledge-based complex system

The isomorphic relationship between indiscernibility relation in rough set theory and nominal scale in formal concept analysis was studied in this paper, upon which the conceptual elements were constructed as the basic units of internal elements in a knowledge-based complex system. The nature of the association between conceptual elements was studied in this paper, where the definition and properties of association intensity were provided. Furthermore, concept granules were constructed by studying the mapping between conceptual elements. The general forms of expansion and aggregation of concept granules were also given. The theories in the study laid the foundation for evolutionary analysis of knowledge-based complex system, and offered a referential model to the studies on knowledge evolution of ontology engineering. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.