Measures of discord in the Dempster-Shafer theory (Q1204806)

This paper presents a complementary study of a previous one of the authors [Int. J. Gen. Syst. 18, No. 2, 155-166 (1990; Zbl 0732.60004)] in which a measure of discord was introduced as an uncertainty measure in the framework of Dempster-Shafer theory. That measure overcomes certain deficiencies in two measures defined in the same context, the measure of dissonance (Yager, 1983) and the measure of confusion (Höhle, 1982), and takes on values greater than or equal to those for the first one and lower than or equal to those for the second one. The aim of the paper is mainly focused on analyzing some mathematical aspects of the measure of discord, such as its additivity, its range, and its behavior in some interesting examples. On the other hand, a total measure of uncertainty, defined as the sum of discord and nonspecificity is concisely examined. Finally, some related open problems are commented on.