Visual Inference Specification Methods for Modularized Rulebases. Overview and Integration Proposal
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paper_title: The HeKatE methodology. Hybrid engineering of intelligent systems

paper_content:

This paper describes a new approach, the HeKatE methodology, to the design and development of complex rule-based systems for control and decision support. The main paradigm for rule representation, namely, eXtended Tabular Trees (XTT), ensures high density and transparency of visual knowledge representation. Contrary to traditional, flat rule-based systems, the XTT approach is focused on groups of similar rules rather than on single rules. Such groups form decision tables which are connected into a network for inference. Efficient inference is assured as only the rules necessary for achieving the goal, identified by the context of inference and partial order among tables, are fired. In the paper a new version of the language-XTT22-is presented. It is based on ALSV(FD) logic, also described in the paper. Another distinctive feature of the presented approach is a top-down design methodology based on successive refinement of the project. It starts with Attribute Relationship Diagram (ARD) development. Such a diagram represents relationships between system variables. Based on the ARD scheme, XTT tables and links between them are generated. The tables are filled with expert-provided constraints on values of the attributes. The code for rule representation is generated in a humanreadable representation called HMR and interpreted with a provided inference engine called HeaRT. A set of software tools supporting the visual design and development stages is described in brief.
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paper_title: Logical Foundations for Rule-Based Systems

paper_content:

Logical Foundations of Rule-Based Systems.- Propositional Logic.- Predicate Calculus.- Attribute Logic.- Resolution.- Dual Resolution.- Principles of Rule-Based Systems.- Basic Structure of Rule-Based Systems.- Rule-Based Systems in Propositional Logic.- Rule-Based Systems in Attributive Logic.- Rule-Based Systems in First-Order Logic.- Inference Control in Rule-Based Systems.- Logic Programming and Prolog.- Verification of Rule-Based Systems.- Principles of Verification of Rule-Based Systems.- Analysis of Redundancy.- Analysis of Indeterminism and Inconsistency.- Reduction of Rule-Based Systems.- Analysis of Completeness.- Design of Rule-Based Systems.- An Introduction to Design of Rule-Based Systems.- Logical Foundations: the ?-Trees Based Approach.- Design of Tabular Rule-Based Systems with XTT.- Design Example: Thermostat.- Concluding Remarks.
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paper_title: Jboss Drools Business Rules

paper_content:

Capture, automate, and reuse your business processes in a clear English language that your computer can understand. An easy-to-understand JBoss Drools business rules tutorial for non-programmers Automate your business processes such as order processing, supply management, staff activity, and more Prototype, test, and implement workflows by themselves using business rules that are simple statements written in an English-like language Discover advanced features of Drools to write clear business rules that execute quickly For confident users of Excel or other business software, this book is everything you need to learn JBoss Drools business rules and successfully automate your business. In Detail In business, a lot of actions are trigged by rules: "Order more ice cream when the stock is below 100 units and temperature is above 25 C", "Approve credit card application when the credit background check is OK, past relationship with the customer is profitable, and identity is confirmed", and so on. Traditional computer programming languages make it difficult to translate this "natural language" into a software program. But JBoss Rules (also known as Drools) enables anybody with basic IT skills and an understanding of the business to turn statements such as these into running computer code. This book will teach you to specify business rules using JBoss Drools, and then put them into action in your business. You will be able to create rules that trigger actions and decisions, based on data that comes from a variety of sources and departments right across your business. Regardless of the size of your business, you can make your processes more effective and manageable by adopting JBoss Rules. Banks use business rules to process your mortgage (home loan) application, and to manage the process through each step (initial indication of amount available, actual application, approval of the total according to strict rules regarding the amount of income, house value, previous repayment record, swapping title deeds, and so on). Countries such as Australia apply business rules to visa applications (when you want to go and live there)--you get points for your age, whether you have a degree or masters, your occupation, any family members in the country, and a variety of other factors. Supermarkets apply business rules to what stock they should have on their shelves and where--this depends upon analyzing factors such as how much shelf space there is, what location the supermarket is in, what people have bought the week before, the weather forecast for next week (for example, ice cream in hot weather), and what discounts the manufacturers are giving. This book shows how you can use similar rules and processes in your business or organization. It begins with a detailed, clear explanation of business rules and how JBoss Rules supports them. You will then see how to install and get to grips with the essential software required to use JBoss Rules. Once you have mastered the basic tools, you will learn how to build practical and effective of the business rule systems. The book provides clear explanations of business rule jargon. You will learn how to work with Decision Tables, Domain-Specifi c Languages (DSL)s, the Guvnor and JBoss Integrated Development Environment (IDE), workflow and much more. By the end of the book you will know exactly how to harness the power of JBoss Rules in your business. What you will learn from this book? Understand the basics of business rules and JBoss rules with minimal effortInstall the required software easily and learn to use the Guvnor, which is a user-friendly web editor that's also powerful enough to test our rules as we write themLearn to write sophisticated rules and import the fact model into the Guvnor and then build a guided rule around it, which makes your web pages a lot clearerGain complete knowledge of what we can do with the Guvnor rule editor, and then use the JBoss IDE as an even more powerful way of writing rules, and automate processes for discounts, orders, sales, and moreKnow the structure of the rule file through the example of a shipping schedule, which will help you with your own shipping scheduleTest your rules not only in the Guvnor, but also using FIT for rule testing against requirements documents; run unit tests using JUnit for error-free rules and interruption-free servicesSpecifically, non-developers can work with Excel spreadsheets as a fact model to develop business processes without learning any other new technologyWork with DSLs (Domain-Specific Languages) and rule flow to make writing rules easy; which makes staff training quicker and your working life easierDeploy your business rules to the real world, which completes your project successfully, and combine this into a web project using the framework of your choice to provide better servicesBenefit from concepts such as truth maintenance, conflict resolution, pattern matching rules agenda, and the Rete algorithm to provide advanced and faster business systems so that staff efficiency is maximized Approach This book takes a practical approach, with step-by-step instructions. It doesn't hesitate to talk about the technologies, but takes time to explain them (to an Excel power-user level). There is a good use of graphics and code where necessary. Who this book is written for? If you are a business analyst - somebody involved with enterprise IT but at a high level, understanding problems and planning solutions, rather than coding in-depth implementations - then this book is for you. If you are a business user who needs to write rules, or a technical person who needs to support rules, this book is for you. If you are looking for an introduction to rule engine technology, this book will satisfy your needs. If you are a business user and want to write rules using Guvnor/JBoss IDE, this book will be suitable for you. This book will also suit your need if you are a business user and want to understand what Drools can do and how it works, but would rather leave the implementation to a developer.
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paper_title: Jess in action : rule-based systems in Java

paper_content:

A practical handbook for anyone interested in programming rule-based systems and written by the creator of the popular Java rule engine, Jess, this book is structured around a series of large, fully developed practical examples of rule-based programming in Java. After the topic of rule-based systems is introduced, software developers and architects are shown the Jess rule programming language in an accessible, tutorial style. Demonstrated is how to quickly progress from building freestanding, interactive applications, through soft real-time control systems, to rule-based Web and Enterprise software. Specific issues covered in this process include designing the application, writing a PC repair assistant, embedding Jess in Java applications, and using a rule engine in the J2EE environment.
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paper_title: Production Matching for Large Learning Systems

paper_content:

One of the central results of AI research in the 1970''s was that to achieve good performance, AI systems must have large amounts of knowledge. Machine learning techniques have been developed to automatically acquire knowledge, often in the form of if-then rules (productions). Unfortunately, this often leads to a utility problem --- the "learning" ends up causing an overall slowdown in the system. This is because the more rules a system has, the longer it takes to match them against the current situation in order to determine which ones are applicable. To address this problem, this thesis is aimed at enabling the scaling up of the number of rules in production systems. We examine a diverse set of testbed systems, each of which learns at least 100,000 rules. We show that with the best existing match algorithms, the match cost increases linearly in the number of rules in these systems. This is inadequate for large learning systems, because it leads to a utility problem. We then examine the causes of this linear increase, and develop techniques which eliminate the major causes. The end result is an improved match algorithm, Rete/UL, which is a general extension of the existing state-of-the-art Rete match algorithm. Rete/UL''s performance scales well on a significantly broader class of systems than existing match algorithms. The use of Rete/UL rather than Rete significantly reduces or eliminates the utility problem in all the testbed systems.
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paper_title: The HeKatE methodology. Hybrid engineering of intelligent systems

paper_content:

This paper describes a new approach, the HeKatE methodology, to the design and development of complex rule-based systems for control and decision support. The main paradigm for rule representation, namely, eXtended Tabular Trees (XTT), ensures high density and transparency of visual knowledge representation. Contrary to traditional, flat rule-based systems, the XTT approach is focused on groups of similar rules rather than on single rules. Such groups form decision tables which are connected into a network for inference. Efficient inference is assured as only the rules necessary for achieving the goal, identified by the context of inference and partial order among tables, are fired. In the paper a new version of the language-XTT22-is presented. It is based on ALSV(FD) logic, also described in the paper. Another distinctive feature of the presented approach is a top-down design methodology based on successive refinement of the project. It starts with Attribute Relationship Diagram (ARD) development. Such a diagram represents relationships between system variables. Based on the ARD scheme, XTT tables and links between them are generated. The tables are filled with expert-provided constraints on values of the attributes. The code for rule representation is generated in a humanreadable representation called HMR and interpreted with a provided inference engine called HeaRT. A set of software tools supporting the visual design and development stages is described in brief.
---
paper_title: The HeKatE methodology. Hybrid engineering of intelligent systems

paper_content:

This paper describes a new approach, the HeKatE methodology, to the design and development of complex rule-based systems for control and decision support. The main paradigm for rule representation, namely, eXtended Tabular Trees (XTT), ensures high density and transparency of visual knowledge representation. Contrary to traditional, flat rule-based systems, the XTT approach is focused on groups of similar rules rather than on single rules. Such groups form decision tables which are connected into a network for inference. Efficient inference is assured as only the rules necessary for achieving the goal, identified by the context of inference and partial order among tables, are fired. In the paper a new version of the language-XTT22-is presented. It is based on ALSV(FD) logic, also described in the paper. Another distinctive feature of the presented approach is a top-down design methodology based on successive refinement of the project. It starts with Attribute Relationship Diagram (ARD) development. Such a diagram represents relationships between system variables. Based on the ARD scheme, XTT tables and links between them are generated. The tables are filled with expert-provided constraints on values of the attributes. The code for rule representation is generated in a humanreadable representation called HMR and interpreted with a provided inference engine called HeaRT. A set of software tools supporting the visual design and development stages is described in brief.
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paper_title: Analysis of UML Representation for XTT and ARD Rule Design Methods ∗

paper_content:

The report concerns the UML representation for XTT and ARD Rule Design Meth- ods. In the report an overview of the Software and Knowledge Engineering background is given and the HeKatE methodology is explained. Furthermore, the UML representation for XTT and ARD representation is introduced and the metamodel for this representation is discussed. The translation between UML models, serialized to XMI, and the HeKatE representation is con- sidered and suitable translation algorithms for XSL Transformations are presented.
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Title: Visual Inference Specification Methods for Modularized Rulebases. Overview and Integration Proposal

Section 1: Introduction
Description 1: Introduce the topic of rule-based systems, their complexity, and the necessity for visual inference specification methods. Outline the objective of the paper, which is to present an overview and a proposal for integrating three methodologies for modularizing rulebases.

Section 2: Rule Modularization Techniques
Description 2: Discuss the need for modularization in rule-based systems, highlighting various techniques and tools that provide visual methods for rule inference and rule management.

Section 3: Drools
Description 3: Provide an overview of Drools, its components, and its role in rule-based and structured knowledge representation, along with its limitations.

Section 4: XTT2
Description 4: Describe the XTT2 methodology, its phases of design, and its hybrid approach to knowledge representation, as well as its strengths and weaknesses.

Section 5: Proposal of Rule Translation from XTT2 to Drools
Description 5: Present the proposal for translating rules from XTT2 to Drools, including the process of generating Drools files and addressing structural differences between the two methodologies.

Section 6: Proposal of XTT2 Inference Design with BPMN
Description 6: Discuss the integration proposal of XTT2 with BPMN, examining different scenarios for combining the two methodologies.

Section 7: Conclusions and Future Work
Description 7: Summarize the main points of the paper, highlight the current progress in the integration proposals, and outline future research directions.