Can anybody help me to find a potential application for this mathematical problem

For example, N=3, parties are P1, P2, P3. D=4, dimensions are named as (A,B,C,D).

R=2, P1 has records T1=(a1,b1,c1,d1),T2=(a2,b1,c2,d1);
     P2 has records T3=(a1,b1,c1,d1),T4=(a2,b1,c2,d3);
     P3 has records T5=(a1,b1,c1,d1),T6=(a1,b1,c2,d4);

Then, the 3-party union on dimension A ={T1.A, T2.A, ..., T6.A}={4*a1, 2*a2};

union on B={T1.B, T2.B, ..., T6.B}={6*b1};
union on C={3*c1,3*c2};
union on D={4*d1,d3,d4};

The mathematical problem is: given the parties and their records, the parties want to find whether each record T has the property that the value on T.A appears at least k1 times in the 3-party union on dimension A, the value on T.B appears at least k2 times in the union on B, the value on T.C appears at least k3 times in the union on C, and the value on T.D appears at least k4 times in the union on D.

For example, when k1=k2=k3=k4=2, T2 has this property, because a2, b1, c2, d1 appear at least 2 times in the 3-party union on dimension A, B, C, D respectively. T1, T3, T5 have also the property, but T4 and T6 haven't.

Is there any application for this problem? I mean, given the parties and their records, what are the motivations to find such a property? I find some applications in customer management in chain stores, and intrusion alert in distributed network monitoring, but feel that they are still not very appropriate.

Can anybody help me? Thanks a lot!

Simon Received on Fri Jun 13 2008 - 09:19:00 CEST