Financial Information Integration In the Presence of Equational Ontological Conflicts
Author(s)
Firat, Aykut
Madnick, Stuart E.
Grosof, Benjamin
Date Issued
January 2003
Series/Report no.
Computer Science (CS);
Abstract
While there are efforts to establish a single international accounting standard, there are strong current and future needs to handle heterogeneous accounting methods and systems. We advocate a context-based approach to dealing with multiple accounting standards and equational ontological conflicts. In this paper we first define what we mean by equational ontological conflicts and then describe a new approach, using Constraint Logic Programming and abductive reasoning, to reconcile such conflicts among disparate information systems. In particular, we focus on the use of Constraint Handling Rules as a simultaneous symbolic equation solver, which is a powerful way to combine, invert and simplify multiple conversion functions that translate between different contexts. Finally, we demonstrate a sample application using our prototype implementation that demonstrates the viability of our approach.
Subjects
equational ontological conflicts
Constraint Logic Programming
abductive reasoning
Constraint Handling Rules
Extended COntext INterchange
Persistent DSpace Link
