Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A method of selecting an outcome corresponding to the presentation of two or more qualitative inputs, said inputs being members of one or more well-ordered sets, the method comprising:storing in computer readable memory one or more tables correlating combinations of inputs to outcomes;electronically receiving at least two of the inputs, wherein the presentation of the inputs is accomplished through a fault tree analytical model (“FTAM”), wherein the inputs comprise at least one root cause of a fault, wherein the root cause is a high level of design complexity; andretrieving from computer readable memory the outcome that corresponds to the at least two inputs, wherein said outcome is obtained through the application of at least one pre-defined result table specifying the possible inputs and at least one necessary outcome, wherein the outcome selected comprises a gate modification of the at least one pre-defined result table, and wherein the gate modification reflects the results of data mining on historical data relating, at least in part, to the one root cause of the fault. 2. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the inputs is a member of a set with two members and at least one of the inputs is a member of a set with three members. 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the tables stored conform to five-value logic. 4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:comparing the outcome to historical or empirical data; andmodifying the one or more tables in conformity with the comparison. 5. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for selecting an outcome in response to a plurality of inputs, the computer readable program code in said article of manufacture comprising:computer readable program code, when being executed, causing a computer to receive a presentation of one or more members of one or more well-ordered sets of qualitative inputs, wherein the presentation of the inputs is accomplished through a fault tree analytical model (“FTAM”), wherein the qualitative inputs comprise at least one root cause of a fault, wherein the root cause is a high level of design complexity; andcomputer readable program code, when being executed, causing a computer to select an outcome corresponding to the presentation of the one or more members of the one or more well-ordered sets of qualitative inputs, said outcome which is obtained through the application of at least one pre-defined result table specifying the possible inputs and at least one necessary outcome, wherein the outcome selected comprises a gate modification of the at least one pre-defined result table, and wherein the gate modification reflects the results of data mining on historical data relating, at least in part, to the one root cause of the fault. 6. The article of claim 5 wherein the computer readable program code, when being executed, causing a computer to select an outcome is accomplished through the application of five-value logic. 7. The article of claim 5 wherein there are two sets of qualitative inputs. 8. The article of claim 7 wherein one of the two sets has 3 members and the other has 2 members. 9. A non-transitory computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for electronically evaluating at least two input values, the method comprising:storing in computer readable memory one or more tables correlating combinations of inputs to outcomes;electronically receiving at least two of inputs, wherein a presentation of the inputs for the receiving is accomplished through a fault tree analytical model (“FTAM”), wherein the inputs comprise at least one root cause of a fault, wherein the root cause is a high level of design complexity; andretrieving from computer readable memory the outcome that corresponds to the at least two inputs, wherein said outcome is obtained through the application of at least one pre-defined result table specifying the possible inputs and at least one necessary outcome, wherein the outcome selected comprises a gate modification of the at least one pre-defined result table, and wherein the gate modification reflects the results of data mining on historical data relating, at least in part, to the one root cause of the fault. 10. The medium of claim 9 wherein, in the method, at least one of the inputs is a member of a set with two members and at least one of the inputs is a member of a set with three members. 11. The medium of claim 9 wherein, in the method, the tables stored conform to five-value logic. 12. The medium of claim 9 wherein the method further comprises:comparing the outcome to historical or empirical data; andmodifying the one or more tables in conformity with the comparison. 13. A qualitative outcome selection platform comprising:an input module configured to receive at least two qualitative inputs, said inputs being members of one or more well-ordered sets, wherein a presentation of the inputs for the receiving is accomplished through a fault tree analytical model (“FTAM”), wherein the inputs comprise at least one root cause of a fault, wherein the root cause is a high level of design complexity;a processor configured to execute at least one evaluation process that includes comparing the inputs to defined input combinations, wherein said evaluation process is accomplished through the application of at least one pre-defined result table specifying the possible inputs and at least one necessary outcome, wherein the outcome selected comprises a gate modification of the at least one pre-defined result table, wherein the gate modification reflects the results of data mining on historical data relating, at least in part, to the one root cause of the fault, and retrieving the outcome defined as correlative to the appropriate combination; andan output module configured to output the correlative outcome. 14. The platform of claim 13 wherein at least one of the inputs is a member of a set with two members and at least one of the inputs is a member of a set with three members. 15. The platform of claim 13 wherein the defined input combinations and correlative outcomes conform to five value logic. 16. The platform of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to:compare the outcome to historical or empirical data; andmodify the defined input combinations and correlative outcomes to conform with the results of the comparison.