{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T00:55:19Z","timestamp":1760144119131,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,19]],"date-time":"2024-03-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1710806400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"FCT\u2014Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e a Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["SFRH\/BD\/145472\/2019","UIDB\/50008\/2020","C645008882-00000055"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SFRH\/BD\/145472\/2019","UIDB\/50008\/2020","C645008882-00000055"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Instituto de Telecomunica\u00e7\u00f5es","award":["SFRH\/BD\/145472\/2019","UIDB\/50008\/2020","C645008882-00000055"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SFRH\/BD\/145472\/2019","UIDB\/50008\/2020","C645008882-00000055"]}]},{"name":"Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan","award":["SFRH\/BD\/145472\/2019","UIDB\/50008\/2020","C645008882-00000055"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["SFRH\/BD\/145472\/2019","UIDB\/50008\/2020","C645008882-00000055"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The partial information decomposition (PID) framework is concerned with decomposing the information that a set of (two or more) random variables (the sources) has about another variable (the target) into three types of information: unique, redundant, and synergistic. Classical information theory alone does not provide a unique way to decompose information in this manner and additional assumptions have to be made. One often overlooked way to achieve this decomposition is using a so-called measure of union information\u2014which quantifies the information that is present in at least one of the sources\u2014from which a synergy measure stems. In this paper, we introduce a new measure of union information based on adopting a communication channel perspective, compare it with existing measures, and study some of its properties. We also include a comprehensive critical review of characterizations of union information and synergy measures that have been proposed in the literature.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e26030271","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,20]],"date-time":"2024-03-20T05:04:12Z","timestamp":1710911052000},"page":"271","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["A Measure of Synergy Based on Union Information"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6723-9468","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andr\u00e9 F. C.","family":"Gomes","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Telecomunica\u00e7\u00f5es and LUMLIS (Lisbon ELLIS Unit), Instituto Superior T\u00e9cnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0970-7745","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"M\u00e1rio A. T.","family":"Figueiredo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Telecomunica\u00e7\u00f5es and LUMLIS (Lisbon ELLIS Unit), Instituto Superior T\u00e9cnico, Universidade de Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Williams, P., and Beer, R. (2010). Nonnegative decomposition of multivariate information. arXiv."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lizier, J., Flecker, B., and Williams, P. (2013, January 15\u201319). Towards a synergy-based approach to measuring information modification. Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE Symposium on Artificial Life (ALIFE), Singapore.","DOI":"10.1109\/ALIFE.2013.6602430"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wibral, M., Finn, C., Wollstadt, P., Lizier, J.T., and Priesemann, V. (2017). 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