Introduction to the 1996 HICSS MiniTrack on Logic Modeling

The first paper is “Logical vs Numerical Inference on Statistical Databases,” by Sumit Dutta Chowdhury, George T. Duncan, Ramayya Krishnan, Stephen Roehrig, and Sumitra Mukherjee. This paper is presents new results in the important and nettlesome area of database confidentiality, using a numerical approach to logical inference. The next paper in the first session is “Defeasible Logic Graphs for Decision Support,” by Donald Nute and Katrin Erk. The paper explores the use of graph-based representations for defeasible reasoning. Such representations are promising for user interfaces. Combining effective user interfaces with defeasible reasoning systems offers the prospect of exiting new kinds of DSS. The third paper in the first session is “A Propaedeutic on Logic for Object-Oriented Systems Analysis and Design,” Steven 0. Kimbrough and Will iam J. Vachula. The paper presents and discusses a series of requirements for support of systems analysis and design, which requirements are far from being met with existing CASE tools. The paper then argues that these requirements may be met via straightforward inference on logical representations of systems analysis diagrams.