Diagnostic apparatus using polynomials to determine the likelihood of an occurrence of a cause given an effect

摘要

Apparatus for determining a likelihood of occurrence of a cause of one or more effects comprises: means for receiving and/or accessing training data relating to previously-identified relationships between one or more causes and one or more effects;means for defining one or more functions representative of the relationships and means for determining a likelihood of occurrence of one or more causes of one or more given effects using the mappings. The function(s) is in the form of polynomials which define quantified mappings between the one or more causes and one or more effects. Each of the polynomials is associated with each of a plurality of respective reference points with at least some of which have a weight value assigned thereto. At least one of the weight values is an independent variable ("primary weight") and at least one of the weight values is dependent on one or more of the primary weights ("secondary weight")