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Similarity-based Logic Programming (briefly, SLP ) has been proposed to enhance the LP paradigm with a kind of approximate reasoning which supports flexible information retrieval applications. This approach uses a fuzzy similarity relation R between symbols in the program's signature, while keeping the syntax for program clauses as in classical LP . Another recent proposal is the QLP (D) scheme for Qualified Logic Programming, an extension of the LP paradigm which supports approximate reasoning and more. This approach uses annotated program clauses and a parametrically given domain D whose elements qualify logical assertions by measuring their closeness to various users' expectations. In this paper we propose a more expressive scheme SQLP (R, D) which subsumes both SLP and QLP (D) as particular cases. We also show that SQLP (R, D) programs can be transformed into semantically equivalent QLP (D) programs. As a consequence, existing QLP (D) implementations can be used to give efficient support for similarity-based reasoning.

Uncertainty in logic programming has been widely investigated in the last decades, leading to multiple extensions of the classical LP paradigm. However, few of these are designed as extensions of the well-established and powerful CLP scheme for Constraint Logic Programming. In a previous work we have proposed the SQCLP (proximity-based qualified constraint logic programming) scheme as a quite expressive extension of CLP with support for qualification values and proximity relations as generalizations of uncertainty values and similarity relations, respectively. In this paper we provide a transformation technique for transforming SQCLP programs and goals into semantically equivalent CLP programs and goals, and a practical Prolog-based implementation of some particularly useful instances of the SQCLP scheme. We also illustrate, by showing some simple-and working-examples, how the prototype can be effectively used as a tool for solving problems where qualification values and proximity relations play a key role. Intended use of SQCLP includes flexible information retrieval applications. Definition 2.3 (Correct Abstract Goal Solving Systems)An abstract goal solving system for SQCLP(S, D, C) is any device that takes a program P and a goal G as input and yields various triples σ, µ, Π , called computed answers, as outputs. Such a goal solving system is called:1. Sound iff every computed answer is a solution σ, µ, Π ∈ Sol P (G).

Uncertainty in Logic Programming has been investigated during the last decades, dealing with various extensions of the classical LP paradigm and different applications. Existing proposals rely on different approaches, such as clause annotations based on uncertain truth values, qualification values as a generalization of uncertain truth values, and unification based on proximity relations. On the other hand, the CLP scheme has established itself as a powerful extension of LP that supports efficient computation over specialized domains while keeping a clean declarative semantics. In this report we propose a new scheme SQ-CLP designed as an extension of CLP that supports qualification values and proximity relations. We show that several previous proposals can be viewed as particular cases of the new scheme, obtained by partial instantiation. We present a declarative semantics for SQCLP that is based on observables, providing fixpoint and proof-theoretical characterizations of least program models as well as an implementation-independent notion of goal solutions.

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