Theories of Meaning in Schema Matching : A Review
---
paper_title: Research Commentary: Information Systems and Conceptual Modeling— A Research Agenda

paper_content:

Within the information systems field, the task of conceptual modeling involves building a representation of selected phenomena in some domain. High-quality conceptual modeling work is important because it facilitates early detection and correction of system development errors. It also plays an increasingly important role in activities like business process reengineering and documentation of best-practice data and process models in enterprise resource planning systems. Yet little research has been undertaken on many aspects of conceptual modeling. In this paper, we propose a framework to motivate research that addresses the following fundamental question:How can we model the world to better facilitate our developing, implementing, using, and maintaining more valuable information systems? The framework comprises four elements: conceptual-modeling grammars, conceptual-modeling methods, conceptual-modeling scripts, and conceptual-modeling contexts. We provide examples of the types of research that have already been undertaken on each element and illustrate research opportunities that exist.
---
paper_title: Still Desperately Seeking the IT Artifact

paper_content:

An insecticide containing, insect attracting and exterminating drum having a farm animal neck encircling drum suspending and dangling rope, said drum being made of self-shape retaining moldable plastic material and comprising a cup-like receiver section embodying a cylindrical wall telscoping into a cylindrical skirt-like depending rim on the coordinating cover section. These two sections are separably but retentively assembled, the receptacle portion of the receiver section having a fine mesh screen bottom and enclosing a built-in container for a wad of cotton saturated with a suitably functioning insecticide. The attracted insects (flies, wasps, mosquitoes, ticks, mites and the like) land on the exterior surface of the screen, eat, die and drop to the ground. Currents of air circulate freely and aid in the accumulating and exterminating steps. The sections snap together and promote necessary handling and replenishing steps. The top of the cover section is provided with an upstanding hanger flange having paired holes through which lower free ends of the suspending rope are adjustably threaded.
---
paper_title: Using transformations to improve semantic matching

paper_content:

Many AI tasks require determining whether two knowledge representations encode the same knowledge. Solving this matching problem is hard because representations may encode the same content but differ substantially in form. Previous approaches to this problem have used either syntactic measures, such as graph edit distance, or semantic knowledge to determine the "distance" between two representations. Although semantic approaches outperform syntactic ones, previous research has focused primarily on the use of taxonomic knowledge. We show that this is not enough because mismatches between representations go largely unaddressed. In this paper, we describe how transformations can augment existing semantic approaches to further improve matching. We also describe the application of our approach to the task of critiquing military Courses of Action and compare its performance to other leading algorithms.
---
paper_title: A survey of approaches to automatic schema matching

paper_content:

Schema matching is a basic problem in many database application domains, such as data integration, E-business, data warehousing, and semantic query processing. In current implementations, schema matching is typically performed manually, which has significant limitations. On the other hand, previous research papers have proposed many techniques to achieve a partial automation of the match operation for specific application domains. We present a taxonomy that covers many of these existing approaches, and we describe the approaches in some detail. In particular, we distinguish between schema-level and instance-level, element-level and structure-level, and language-based and constraint-based matchers. Based on our classification we review some previous match implementations thereby indicating which part of the solution space they cover. We intend our taxonomy and review of past work to be useful when comparing different approaches to schema matching, when developing a new match algorithm, and when implementing a schema matching component.
---
paper_title: Semantic Heterogeneity in Multidatabase Systems: A Review and a Proposed Meta-Data Structure

paper_content:

This article reviews current research on the issue of semantic conflict resolution in multidatabase system design. It is observed that in multidatabase systems, semantic conflicts need to be resolved at both schema level and instance level. Based on the literature review, a new taxonomy for differentiating semantic conflicts and a meta-data representation incorporating the taxonomy are proposed. It is argued that the new meta-data representation is effective for summarizing local schemata, and hence it can serve as a common protocol for multidatabase systems that require instance level conflict resolution.
---
paper_title: Automated resolution of semantic heterogeneity in multidatabases

paper_content:

A multidatabase system provides integrated access to heterogeneous, autonomous local databases in a distributed system. An important problem in current multidatabase systems is identification of semantically similar data in different local databases. The Summary Schemas Model (SSM) is proposed as an extension to multidatabase systems to aid in semantic identification. The SSM uses a global data structure to abstract the information available in a multidatabase system. This abstracted form allows users to use their own terms (imprecise queries) when accessing data rather than being forced to use system-specified terms. The system uses the global data structure to match the user's terms to the semantically closest available system terms. A simulation of the SSM is presented to compare imprecise-query processing with corresponding query-processing costs in a standard multidatabase system. The costs and benefits of the SSM are discussed, and future research directions are presented.
---
paper_title: View integration: A step forward in solving structural conflicts

paper_content:

Thanks to the development of the federated systems approach on the one hand and the emphasis on user involvement in database design on the other, the interest in schema integration techniques is significantly increasing. Theories, methods and tools have been proposed. Conflict resolution is the key issue. Different perceptions by schema designers may lead to different representations. A way must be found to support these different representations within a single system. Most current integration methodologies rely on modification of initial schemas to solve the conflicts. This approach needs a strong interaction with the database administrator, who has authority to modify the initial schemas. This paper presents an approach to view integration specifically intended to support the coexistence of different representations of the same real-world objects. The main characteristics of this approach are the following: automatic resolution of structural conflicts, conflict resolution performed without modification of initial views, use of a formal declarative approach for user definition of inter-view correspondences, applicability to a variety of data models, and automatic generation of structural and operational mappings between the views and the integrated schema. Allowing users' views to be kept unchanged should result in improved user satisfaction. Each user is able to define his own view of the database, without having to conform to some other user's view. Moreover, such a feature is essential in database integration if existing programs are to be preserved. >
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paper_title: The PROMPT Suite: Interactive Tools for Ontology Merging and Mapping

paper_content:

Researchers in the ontology-design field have developed the content for ontologies in many domain areas. This distributed nature of ontology development has led to a large number of ontologies covering overlapping domains. In order for these ontologies to be reused, they first need to be merged or aligned to one another. We developed a suite of tools for managing multiple ontologies. These suite provides users with a uniform framework for comparing, aligning, and merging ontologies, maintaining versions, translating between different formalisms. Two of the tools in the suite support semi-automatic ontology merging: IPROMPT is an interactive ontology-merging tool that guides the user through the merging process, presenting him with suggestions for next steps and identifying inconsistencies and potential problems. ANCHORPROMPT uses a graph structure of ontologies to find correlation between concepts and to provide additional information for IPROMPT.
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paper_title: A graph-oriented model for articulation of ontology interdependencies

paper_content:

Ontologies explicate the contents, essential properties, and relationships between terms in a knowledge base. Many sources are now accessible with associated ontologies. Most prior work on the use of ontologies relies on the construction of a single global ontology covering all sources. Such an approach is not scalable and maintainable especially when the sources change frequently. We propose a scalable and easily maintainable approach based on the interoperation of ontologies. To handle user queries crossing the boundaries of the underlying information systems, the interoperation between the ontologies should be precisely defined. Our approach is to use rules that cross the semantic gap by creating an articulation or linkage between the systems. The rules are generated using a semi-automatic articulation tool with the help of a domain expert. To make the ontologies amenable for automatic composition, based on the accumulated knowledge rules, we represent them using a graph-oriented model extended with a small algebraic operator set. ONION, a user-friendly toolkit, aids the experts in bridging the semantic gap in real-life settings. Our framework provides a sound foundation to simplify the work of domain experts, enables integration with public semantic dictionaries, like Wordnet, and will derive ODMG-compliant mediators automatically.
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paper_title: Multi-user view integration system (MUVIS): an expert system for view integration

paper_content:

A description is given of the architecture and development of a knowledge-based system called MUVIS (multiuser view integration system) to support the design of distributed object-oriented databases. MUVIS is implemented using an object-oriented development environment. It assists database designers in representing user views and integrating these views into a global conceptual view. The view integration component is decoupled from the view modeling component. The underlying data model, the semantic data model, treats all parts of the design as objects, thereby reducing the complexity of the integration. >
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paper_title: A matching algorithm for measuring the structural similarity between an XML document and a DTD and its applications

paper_content:

In this paper we propose a matching algorithm for measuring the structural similarity between an XML document and a DTD. The matching algorithm, by comparing the document structure against the one the DTD requires, is able to identify commonalities and differences. Differences can be due to the presence of extra elements with respect to those the DTD requires and to the absence of required elements. The evaluation of commonalities and differences gives raise to a numerical rank of the structural similarity. Moreover, in the paper, some applications of the matching algorithm are discussed. Specifically, the matching algorithm is exploited for the classification of XML documents against a set of DTDs, the evolution of the DTD structure, the evaluation of structural queries, the selective dissemination of XML documents, and the protection of XML document contents.
---
paper_title: Using transformations to improve semantic matching

paper_content:

Many AI tasks require determining whether two knowledge representations encode the same knowledge. Solving this matching problem is hard because representations may encode the same content but differ substantially in form. Previous approaches to this problem have used either syntactic measures, such as graph edit distance, or semantic knowledge to determine the "distance" between two representations. Although semantic approaches outperform syntactic ones, previous research has focused primarily on the use of taxonomic knowledge. We show that this is not enough because mismatches between representations go largely unaddressed. In this paper, we describe how transformations can augment existing semantic approaches to further improve matching. We also describe the application of our approach to the task of critiquing military Courses of Action and compare its performance to other leading algorithms.
---
paper_title: WordNet: An Electronic Lexical Database

paper_content:

A teaching device to acquaint dental students and also patients with endodontic root canal techniques performed by dentists and utilizing an electronic oscillator having a scale reading in electric current measurement and a pair of electrical circuit conductors being connected at one end to the terminals of the oscillator and the opposite ends thereof respectively being connectable to one or more small diameter metal wires which simulate dental reamers and files which are movable in root canal-simulating passages of uniform diameter complementary to that of said wires and formed in a transparent model of a human tooth including a root and cusp thereon and mounted in a transparent enclosure in which the root portion of the tooth extends with the cusp of the model extending above the upper end of the enclosure.
---
paper_title: Uniform techniques for deriving Similarities of objects and subschemes in heterogeneous databases

paper_content:

The availability of automatic tools for inferring semantics of database schemes is useful to solve several database design problems such as that of obtaining cooperative information systems or data warehouses from large sets of data sources. In this context, a main problem is to single out similarities or dissimilarities among scheme objects (interscheme properties). This paper presents graph-based techniques for a uniform derivation of interscheme properties including synonymies, homonymies, type conflicts, and subscheme similarities. These techniques are characterized by a common core: the computation of maximum weight matchings on some bipartite weighted graphs derived using a suitable metrics to measure semantic closeness of objects. The techniques have been implemented in a system prototype. Several experiments conducted with it, and (in part) accounted for in the paper, confirmed the effectiveness of our approach.
---
paper_title: Similarity flooding: a versatile graph matching algorithm and its application to schema matching

paper_content:

Matching elements of two data schemas or two data instances plays a key role in data warehousing, e-business, or even biochemical applications. In this paper we present a matching algorithm based on a fixpoint computation that is usable across different scenarios. The algorithm takes two graphs (schemas, catalogs, or other data structures) as input, and produces as output a mapping between corresponding nodes of the graphs. Depending on the matching goal, a subset of the mapping is chosen using filters. After our algorithm runs, we expect a human to check and if necessary adjust the results. As a matter of fact, we evaluate the 'accuracy' of the algorithm by counting the number of needed adjustments. We conducted a user study, in which our accuracy metric was used to estimate the labor savings that the users could obtain by utilizing our algorithm to obtain an initial matching. Finally, we illustrate how our matching algorithm is deployed as one of several high-level operators in an implemented testbed for managing information models and mappings.
---
paper_title: System-guided view integration for object-oriented databases

paper_content:

Some of the shortcomings of current view integration methodologies, namely, a low emphasis on full-scale automated systems, a lack of algorithmic specifications of the integration activities, inattention to the design of databases with new properties such as databases for computer-aided design, and insufficient experience with data models with a rich set of type and abstraction mechanisms, are attacked simultaneously. The focus is on design databases for software engineering applications. The approach relies on a semantic model based on structural object-orientation with various features tailored to these applications. The expressiveness of the model is used to take the first steps toward algorithmic solutions, and it is demonstrated how corresponding tools could be embedded methodically within the view integration process and technically within a database design environment. The central ideal is to compute so-called assumption predicates that express suggested similarities between structures in two schemas to be integrated, and then have a human integrator confirm or reject them. The basic method is exemplified for the CERM data model that includes molecular aggregation, generalization, and versioning. >
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paper_title: A theory of attributed equivalence in databases with application to schema integration

paper_content:

The authors present a common foundation for integrating pairs of entity sets, pairs of relationship sets, and an entity set with a relationship set. This common foundation is based on the basic principle of integrating attributes. Any pair of objects whose identifying attributes can be integrated can themselves be integrated. Several definitions of attribute equivalence are presented. These definitions can be used to specify the exact nature of the relationship between a pair of attributes. Based on these definitions, several strategies for attribute integration are presented and evaluated. >
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paper_title: An information retrieval approach to ontology mapping

paper_content:

In this paper, we present a heuristic mapping method and a prototype mapping system that support the process of semi-automatic ontology mapping for the purpose of improving semantic interoperability in heterogeneous systems. The approach is based on the idea of semantic enrichment, i.e., using instance information of the ontology to enrich the original ontology and calculate similarities between concepts in two ontologies. The functional settings for the mapping system are discussed and the evaluation of the prototype implementation of the approach is reported.
---
paper_title: The Clio project: managing heterogeneity

paper_content:

Clio is a system for managing and facilitating the complex tasks of heterogeneous data transformation and integration. In Clio, we have collected together a powerful set of data management techniques that have proven invaluable in tackling these difficult problems. In this paper, we present the underlying themes of our approach and present a brief case study.
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paper_title: On schema matching with opaque column names and data values

paper_content:

Most previous solutions to the schema matching problem rely in some fashion upon identifying "similar" column names in the schemas to be matched, or by recognizing common domains in the data stored in the schemas. While each of these approaches is valuable in many cases, they are not infallible, and there exist instances of the schema matching problem for which they do not even apply. Such problem instances typically arise when the column names in the schemas and the data in the columns are "opaque" or very difficult to interpret. In this paper we propose a two-step technique that works even in the presence of opaque column names and data values. In the first step, we measure the pair-wise attribute correlations in the tables to be matched and construct a dependency graph using mutual information as a measure of the dependency between attributes. In the second stage, we find matching node pairs in the dependency graphs by running a graph matching algorithm. We validate our approach with an experimental study, the results of which suggest that such an approach can be a useful addition to a set of (semi) automatic schema matching techniques.
---
paper_title: Learning to match ontologies on the Semantic Web

paper_content:

On the Semantic Web, data will inevitably come from many different ontologies, and information processing across ontologies is not possible without knowing the semantic mappings between them. Manually finding such mappings is tedious, error-prone, and clearly not possible on the Web scale. Hence the development of tools to assist in the ontology mapping process is crucial to the success of the Semantic Web. We describe GLUE, a system that employs machine learning techniques to find such mappings. Given two ontologies, for each concept in one ontology GLUE finds the most similar concept in the other ontology. We give well-founded probabilistic definitions to several practical similarity measures and show that GLUE can work with all of them. Another key feature of GLUE is that it uses multiple learning strategies, each of which exploits well a different type of information either in the data instances or in the taxonomic structure of the ontologies. To further improve matching accuracy, we extend GLUE to incorporate commonsense knowledge and domain constraints into the matching process. Our approach is thus distinguished in that it works with a variety of well-defined similarity notions and that it efficiently incorporates multiple types of knowledge. We describe a set of experiments on several real-world domains and show that GLUE proposes highly accurate semantic mappings. Finally, we extend GLUE to find complex mappings between ontologies and describe experiments that show the promise of the approach.
---
paper_title: Database Integration Using Neural Networks: Implementation and Experiences

paper_content:

Applications in a wide variety of industries require access to multiple heterogeneous distributed databases. One step in heterogeneous database integration is semantic integration: identifying corresponding attributes in different databases that represent the same real world concept. The rules of semantic integration can not be ‘pre-programmed’ since the information to be accessed is heterogeneous and attribute correspondences could be fuzzy. Manually comparing all possible pairs of attributes is an unreasonably large task. We have applied artificial neural networks (ANNs) to this problem. Metadata describing attributes is automatically extracted from a database to represent their ‘signatures’. The metadata is used to train neural networks to find similar patterns of metadata describing corresponding attributes from other databases. In our system, the rules to determine corresponding attributes are discovered through machine learning. This paper describes how we applied neural network techniques in a database integration problem and how we represent an attribute with its metadata as discriminators. This paper focuses on our experiments on effectiveness of neural networks and each discriminator. We also discuss difficulties of using neural networks for this problem and our wish list for the Machine Learning community.
---
paper_title: Automated resolution of semantic heterogeneity in multidatabases

paper_content:

A multidatabase system provides integrated access to heterogeneous, autonomous local databases in a distributed system. An important problem in current multidatabase systems is identification of semantically similar data in different local databases. The Summary Schemas Model (SSM) is proposed as an extension to multidatabase systems to aid in semantic identification. The SSM uses a global data structure to abstract the information available in a multidatabase system. This abstracted form allows users to use their own terms (imprecise queries) when accessing data rather than being forced to use system-specified terms. The system uses the global data structure to match the user's terms to the semantically closest available system terms. A simulation of the SSM is presented to compare imprecise-query processing with corresponding query-processing costs in a standard multidatabase system. The costs and benefits of the SSM are discussed, and future research directions are presented.
---
paper_title: The PROMPT Suite: Interactive Tools for Ontology Merging and Mapping

paper_content:

Researchers in the ontology-design field have developed the content for ontologies in many domain areas. This distributed nature of ontology development has led to a large number of ontologies covering overlapping domains. In order for these ontologies to be reused, they first need to be merged or aligned to one another. We developed a suite of tools for managing multiple ontologies. These suite provides users with a uniform framework for comparing, aligning, and merging ontologies, maintaining versions, translating between different formalisms. Two of the tools in the suite support semi-automatic ontology merging: IPROMPT is an interactive ontology-merging tool that guides the user through the merging process, presenting him with suggestions for next steps and identifying inconsistencies and potential problems. ANCHORPROMPT uses a graph structure of ontologies to find correlation between concepts and to provide additional information for IPROMPT.
---
paper_title: An information retrieval approach to ontology mapping

paper_content:

In this paper, we present a heuristic mapping method and a prototype mapping system that support the process of semi-automatic ontology mapping for the purpose of improving semantic interoperability in heterogeneous systems. The approach is based on the idea of semantic enrichment, i.e., using instance information of the ontology to enrich the original ontology and calculate similarities between concepts in two ontologies. The functional settings for the mapping system are discussed and the evaluation of the prototype implementation of the approach is reported.
---
paper_title: Using transformations to improve semantic matching

paper_content:

Many AI tasks require determining whether two knowledge representations encode the same knowledge. Solving this matching problem is hard because representations may encode the same content but differ substantially in form. Previous approaches to this problem have used either syntactic measures, such as graph edit distance, or semantic knowledge to determine the "distance" between two representations. Although semantic approaches outperform syntactic ones, previous research has focused primarily on the use of taxonomic knowledge. We show that this is not enough because mismatches between representations go largely unaddressed. In this paper, we describe how transformations can augment existing semantic approaches to further improve matching. We also describe the application of our approach to the task of critiquing military Courses of Action and compare its performance to other leading algorithms.
---
paper_title: Still Desperately Seeking the IT Artifact

paper_content:

An insecticide containing, insect attracting and exterminating drum having a farm animal neck encircling drum suspending and dangling rope, said drum being made of self-shape retaining moldable plastic material and comprising a cup-like receiver section embodying a cylindrical wall telscoping into a cylindrical skirt-like depending rim on the coordinating cover section. These two sections are separably but retentively assembled, the receptacle portion of the receiver section having a fine mesh screen bottom and enclosing a built-in container for a wad of cotton saturated with a suitably functioning insecticide. The attracted insects (flies, wasps, mosquitoes, ticks, mites and the like) land on the exterior surface of the screen, eat, die and drop to the ground. Currents of air circulate freely and aid in the accumulating and exterminating steps. The sections snap together and promote necessary handling and replenishing steps. The top of the cover section is provided with an upstanding hanger flange having paired holes through which lower free ends of the suspending rope are adjustably threaded.
---
paper_title: Uniform techniques for deriving Similarities of objects and subschemes in heterogeneous databases

paper_content:

The availability of automatic tools for inferring semantics of database schemes is useful to solve several database design problems such as that of obtaining cooperative information systems or data warehouses from large sets of data sources. In this context, a main problem is to single out similarities or dissimilarities among scheme objects (interscheme properties). This paper presents graph-based techniques for a uniform derivation of interscheme properties including synonymies, homonymies, type conflicts, and subscheme similarities. These techniques are characterized by a common core: the computation of maximum weight matchings on some bipartite weighted graphs derived using a suitable metrics to measure semantic closeness of objects. The techniques have been implemented in a system prototype. Several experiments conducted with it, and (in part) accounted for in the paper, confirmed the effectiveness of our approach.
---
paper_title: Similarity flooding: a versatile graph matching algorithm and its application to schema matching

paper_content:

Matching elements of two data schemas or two data instances plays a key role in data warehousing, e-business, or even biochemical applications. In this paper we present a matching algorithm based on a fixpoint computation that is usable across different scenarios. The algorithm takes two graphs (schemas, catalogs, or other data structures) as input, and produces as output a mapping between corresponding nodes of the graphs. Depending on the matching goal, a subset of the mapping is chosen using filters. After our algorithm runs, we expect a human to check and if necessary adjust the results. As a matter of fact, we evaluate the 'accuracy' of the algorithm by counting the number of needed adjustments. We conducted a user study, in which our accuracy metric was used to estimate the labor savings that the users could obtain by utilizing our algorithm to obtain an initial matching. Finally, we illustrate how our matching algorithm is deployed as one of several high-level operators in an implemented testbed for managing information models and mappings.
---
paper_title: On schema matching with opaque column names and data values

paper_content:

Most previous solutions to the schema matching problem rely in some fashion upon identifying "similar" column names in the schemas to be matched, or by recognizing common domains in the data stored in the schemas. While each of these approaches is valuable in many cases, they are not infallible, and there exist instances of the schema matching problem for which they do not even apply. Such problem instances typically arise when the column names in the schemas and the data in the columns are "opaque" or very difficult to interpret. In this paper we propose a two-step technique that works even in the presence of opaque column names and data values. In the first step, we measure the pair-wise attribute correlations in the tables to be matched and construct a dependency graph using mutual information as a measure of the dependency between attributes. In the second stage, we find matching node pairs in the dependency graphs by running a graph matching algorithm. We validate our approach with an experimental study, the results of which suggest that such an approach can be a useful addition to a set of (semi) automatic schema matching techniques.
---
paper_title: Learning to match ontologies on the Semantic Web

paper_content:

On the Semantic Web, data will inevitably come from many different ontologies, and information processing across ontologies is not possible without knowing the semantic mappings between them. Manually finding such mappings is tedious, error-prone, and clearly not possible on the Web scale. Hence the development of tools to assist in the ontology mapping process is crucial to the success of the Semantic Web. We describe GLUE, a system that employs machine learning techniques to find such mappings. Given two ontologies, for each concept in one ontology GLUE finds the most similar concept in the other ontology. We give well-founded probabilistic definitions to several practical similarity measures and show that GLUE can work with all of them. Another key feature of GLUE is that it uses multiple learning strategies, each of which exploits well a different type of information either in the data instances or in the taxonomic structure of the ontologies. To further improve matching accuracy, we extend GLUE to incorporate commonsense knowledge and domain constraints into the matching process. Our approach is thus distinguished in that it works with a variety of well-defined similarity notions and that it efficiently incorporates multiple types of knowledge. We describe a set of experiments on several real-world domains and show that GLUE proposes highly accurate semantic mappings. Finally, we extend GLUE to find complex mappings between ontologies and describe experiments that show the promise of the approach.
---
paper_title: A survey of approaches to automatic schema matching

paper_content:

Schema matching is a basic problem in many database application domains, such as data integration, E-business, data warehousing, and semantic query processing. In current implementations, schema matching is typically performed manually, which has significant limitations. On the other hand, previous research papers have proposed many techniques to achieve a partial automation of the match operation for specific application domains. We present a taxonomy that covers many of these existing approaches, and we describe the approaches in some detail. In particular, we distinguish between schema-level and instance-level, element-level and structure-level, and language-based and constraint-based matchers. Based on our classification we review some previous match implementations thereby indicating which part of the solution space they cover. We intend our taxonomy and review of past work to be useful when comparing different approaches to schema matching, when developing a new match algorithm, and when implementing a schema matching component.
---
paper_title: Naming and Necessity

paper_content:

I hope that some people see some connection between the two topics in the title. If not, anyway, such connections will be developed in the course of these talks. Furthermore, because of the use of tools involving reference and necessity in analytic philosophy today, our views on these topics really have wide-ranging implications for other problems in philosophy that traditionally might be thought far-removed, like arguments over the mind-body problem or the so-called ‘identity thesis’. Materialism, in this form, often now gets involved in very intricate ways in questions about what is necessary or contingent in identity of properties — questions like that. So, it is really very important to philosophers who may want to work in many domains to get clear about these concepts. Maybe I will say something about the mind-body problem in the course of these talks. I want to talk also at some point (I don’t know if I can get it in) about substances and natural kinds.
---
paper_title: Conceptual Structures: Information Processing in Mind and Machine

paper_content:

A new cultivar of Saintpaulia ionantha distinguished by its continuous and profuse production of vivid and well defined bi-color flowers, borne upright above the foliage on erect and rigid peduncles and exhibiting clean white petals each narrowly bordered by a bright blue margin.
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paper_title: The Uses of Argument.

paper_content:

Preface Introduction 1. Fields of argument and modals 2. Probability 3. The layout of arguments 4. Working logic and idealised logic 5. The origins of epistemological theory Conclusion References Index.
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paper_title: Active Rules in Database Systems

paper_content:

From the Publisher: ::: Active rules provide a new and important method for developing database applications, and the subject is seeing an increasing amount of attention from commercial database companies. This book provides a timely survey of the field from the point of view of some of the subject's most active researchers. Database researchers and developers will find this book provides a valuable overview of the design and use of active database systems.
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paper_title: Dynamic integration and query processing with ranked role sets

paper_content:

The role-set approach is a new conceptual framework for data integration in multidatabase systems that maintains the materialization autonomy of local database systems and provides users with more accurate information. The role-set approach presents the answer to a query as a set of relations where the distinct intersections between the relations correspond to the various roles played by an entity. The authors show how the basic role-based approach can be extended in the absence of information about the multidatabase keys (global IDs). They propose a strategy based on ranked role-sets that makes use of a semantic integration procedure based on neural networks to determine candidate global IDs. The data integration and query processing steps then produce a number of role-sets, ranked by the similarity of the candidate IDs.
---
paper_title: Database Integration Using Neural Networks: Implementation and Experiences

paper_content:

Applications in a wide variety of industries require access to multiple heterogeneous distributed databases. One step in heterogeneous database integration is semantic integration: identifying corresponding attributes in different databases that represent the same real world concept. The rules of semantic integration can not be ‘pre-programmed’ since the information to be accessed is heterogeneous and attribute correspondences could be fuzzy. Manually comparing all possible pairs of attributes is an unreasonably large task. We have applied artificial neural networks (ANNs) to this problem. Metadata describing attributes is automatically extracted from a database to represent their ‘signatures’. The metadata is used to train neural networks to find similar patterns of metadata describing corresponding attributes from other databases. In our system, the rules to determine corresponding attributes are discovered through machine learning. This paper describes how we applied neural network techniques in a database integration problem and how we represent an attribute with its metadata as discriminators. This paper focuses on our experiments on effectiveness of neural networks and each discriminator. We also discuss difficulties of using neural networks for this problem and our wish list for the Machine Learning community.
---
paper_title: An information retrieval approach to ontology mapping

paper_content:

In this paper, we present a heuristic mapping method and a prototype mapping system that support the process of semi-automatic ontology mapping for the purpose of improving semantic interoperability in heterogeneous systems. The approach is based on the idea of semantic enrichment, i.e., using instance information of the ontology to enrich the original ontology and calculate similarities between concepts in two ontologies. The functional settings for the mapping system are discussed and the evaluation of the prototype implementation of the approach is reported.
---
paper_title: Ontology Mapping through Analysis of Model Extension

paper_content:

The overall problem addressed in this paper is to improve semantic interoperability in heterogeneous systems. Normally, the semantics of data is carried by ontology (concept model). Reconciling data semantics therefore boils down to reconciling relevant ontologies. A candidate solution is to use extensional information, i.e. the instance information of the ontology to enrich the ontology and further, based on the enrichment structure to calculate similarities between concepts in two ontologies.
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paper_title: Semantic Enrichment for Ontology Mapping

paper_content:

In this paper, we present a heuristic mapping method and a prototype mapping system that support the process of semi-automatic ontology mapping for the purpose of improving semantic interoperability in heterogeneous systems. The approach is based on the idea of semantic enrichment, i.e. using instance information of the ontology to enrich the original ontology and calculate similarities between concepts in two ontologies. The functional settings for the mapping system are discussed and the evaluation of the prototype implementation of the approach is reported.
---
paper_title: Still Desperately Seeking the IT Artifact

paper_content:

An insecticide containing, insect attracting and exterminating drum having a farm animal neck encircling drum suspending and dangling rope, said drum being made of self-shape retaining moldable plastic material and comprising a cup-like receiver section embodying a cylindrical wall telscoping into a cylindrical skirt-like depending rim on the coordinating cover section. These two sections are separably but retentively assembled, the receptacle portion of the receiver section having a fine mesh screen bottom and enclosing a built-in container for a wad of cotton saturated with a suitably functioning insecticide. The attracted insects (flies, wasps, mosquitoes, ticks, mites and the like) land on the exterior surface of the screen, eat, die and drop to the ground. Currents of air circulate freely and aid in the accumulating and exterminating steps. The sections snap together and promote necessary handling and replenishing steps. The top of the cover section is provided with an upstanding hanger flange having paired holes through which lower free ends of the suspending rope are adjustably threaded.
---
paper_title: Automated resolution of semantic heterogeneity in multidatabases

paper_content:

A multidatabase system provides integrated access to heterogeneous, autonomous local databases in a distributed system. An important problem in current multidatabase systems is identification of semantically similar data in different local databases. The Summary Schemas Model (SSM) is proposed as an extension to multidatabase systems to aid in semantic identification. The SSM uses a global data structure to abstract the information available in a multidatabase system. This abstracted form allows users to use their own terms (imprecise queries) when accessing data rather than being forced to use system-specified terms. The system uses the global data structure to match the user's terms to the semantically closest available system terms. A simulation of the SSM is presented to compare imprecise-query processing with corresponding query-processing costs in a standard multidatabase system. The costs and benefits of the SSM are discussed, and future research directions are presented.
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paper_title: A graph-oriented model for articulation of ontology interdependencies

paper_content:

Ontologies explicate the contents, essential properties, and relationships between terms in a knowledge base. Many sources are now accessible with associated ontologies. Most prior work on the use of ontologies relies on the construction of a single global ontology covering all sources. Such an approach is not scalable and maintainable especially when the sources change frequently. We propose a scalable and easily maintainable approach based on the interoperation of ontologies. To handle user queries crossing the boundaries of the underlying information systems, the interoperation between the ontologies should be precisely defined. Our approach is to use rules that cross the semantic gap by creating an articulation or linkage between the systems. The rules are generated using a semi-automatic articulation tool with the help of a domain expert. To make the ontologies amenable for automatic composition, based on the accumulated knowledge rules, we represent them using a graph-oriented model extended with a small algebraic operator set. ONION, a user-friendly toolkit, aids the experts in bridging the semantic gap in real-life settings. Our framework provides a sound foundation to simplify the work of domain experts, enables integration with public semantic dictionaries, like Wordnet, and will derive ODMG-compliant mediators automatically.
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paper_title: The Clio project: managing heterogeneity

paper_content:

Clio is a system for managing and facilitating the complex tasks of heterogeneous data transformation and integration. In Clio, we have collected together a powerful set of data management techniques that have proven invaluable in tackling these difficult problems. In this paper, we present the underlying themes of our approach and present a brief case study.
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paper_title: Still Desperately Seeking the IT Artifact

paper_content:

An insecticide containing, insect attracting and exterminating drum having a farm animal neck encircling drum suspending and dangling rope, said drum being made of self-shape retaining moldable plastic material and comprising a cup-like receiver section embodying a cylindrical wall telscoping into a cylindrical skirt-like depending rim on the coordinating cover section. These two sections are separably but retentively assembled, the receptacle portion of the receiver section having a fine mesh screen bottom and enclosing a built-in container for a wad of cotton saturated with a suitably functioning insecticide. The attracted insects (flies, wasps, mosquitoes, ticks, mites and the like) land on the exterior surface of the screen, eat, die and drop to the ground. Currents of air circulate freely and aid in the accumulating and exterminating steps. The sections snap together and promote necessary handling and replenishing steps. The top of the cover section is provided with an upstanding hanger flange having paired holes through which lower free ends of the suspending rope are adjustably threaded.
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paper_title: Similarity flooding: a versatile graph matching algorithm and its application to schema matching

paper_content:

Matching elements of two data schemas or two data instances plays a key role in data warehousing, e-business, or even biochemical applications. In this paper we present a matching algorithm based on a fixpoint computation that is usable across different scenarios. The algorithm takes two graphs (schemas, catalogs, or other data structures) as input, and produces as output a mapping between corresponding nodes of the graphs. Depending on the matching goal, a subset of the mapping is chosen using filters. After our algorithm runs, we expect a human to check and if necessary adjust the results. As a matter of fact, we evaluate the 'accuracy' of the algorithm by counting the number of needed adjustments. We conducted a user study, in which our accuracy metric was used to estimate the labor savings that the users could obtain by utilizing our algorithm to obtain an initial matching. Finally, we illustrate how our matching algorithm is deployed as one of several high-level operators in an implemented testbed for managing information models and mappings.
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paper_title: Semi-automatic, semantic discovery of properties from database schemes

paper_content:

An important tool for the integration of large federated database systems is a global dictionary describing all the involved schemes into an unified framework. The first step in the construction of such a dictionary is the discovery of the properties holding among objects in different schemes. This paper presents novel algorithms to discover possible synonyms, homonyms and inclusions. In addition, the paper also deals with another crucial step in the construction of a dictionary: schema integration. The approach proposed for this step exploits inter-schema properties discovered in the previous step to achieve schema integration. This approach is also concerned with producing suitable abstractions in order to structure the description of the global dictionary into a hierarchy of concepts in order to yield a more flexible, uniform view of the attached databases. The above two steps are interleaved with other steps (mainly devoted to interfacing with database administrators and to validating the discovered properties) and have been experimented with for the construction of a global dictionary for a large number of public administration database systems.
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paper_title: Still Desperately Seeking the IT Artifact

paper_content:

An insecticide containing, insect attracting and exterminating drum having a farm animal neck encircling drum suspending and dangling rope, said drum being made of self-shape retaining moldable plastic material and comprising a cup-like receiver section embodying a cylindrical wall telscoping into a cylindrical skirt-like depending rim on the coordinating cover section. These two sections are separably but retentively assembled, the receptacle portion of the receiver section having a fine mesh screen bottom and enclosing a built-in container for a wad of cotton saturated with a suitably functioning insecticide. The attracted insects (flies, wasps, mosquitoes, ticks, mites and the like) land on the exterior surface of the screen, eat, die and drop to the ground. Currents of air circulate freely and aid in the accumulating and exterminating steps. The sections snap together and promote necessary handling and replenishing steps. The top of the cover section is provided with an upstanding hanger flange having paired holes through which lower free ends of the suspending rope are adjustably threaded.
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paper_title: Using transformations to improve semantic matching

paper_content:

Many AI tasks require determining whether two knowledge representations encode the same knowledge. Solving this matching problem is hard because representations may encode the same content but differ substantially in form. Previous approaches to this problem have used either syntactic measures, such as graph edit distance, or semantic knowledge to determine the "distance" between two representations. Although semantic approaches outperform syntactic ones, previous research has focused primarily on the use of taxonomic knowledge. We show that this is not enough because mismatches between representations go largely unaddressed. In this paper, we describe how transformations can augment existing semantic approaches to further improve matching. We also describe the application of our approach to the task of critiquing military Courses of Action and compare its performance to other leading algorithms.
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Title: Theories of Meaning in Schema Matching: A Review

Section 1: Introduction
Description 1: To provide background on database integration and the importance of schema matching, along with the aims of the paper.

Section 2: Schema Matching and Meaning
Description 2: To explore the relevance of theories of meaning held by database integrators in schema matching and how these theories influence matching decisions.

Section 3: Existing Schema Matching Methods
Description 3: To give an overview of existing schema matching methods, including their features and how they categorize information.

Section 4: Schema-Level Methods
Description 4: To describe methods that use schema-level information for schema matching, such as linguistic and syntactical information.

Section 5: Instance-Level Methods
Description 5: To discuss methods that use instance-level information in addition to or instead of schema-level information.

Section 6: Empirical Evaluation of Schema Matching Methods
Description 6: To evaluate various schema matching methods by comparing their performance to a set of reference matches.

Section 7: A Theoretical Foundation for Schema Matching
Description 7: To introduce theories of meaning from reference disciplines like philosophy, psychology, and cognition, and their application to schema matching.

Section 8: Discussion
Description 8: To classify existing schema matching methods along the new dimension of theories of meaning and outline research questions for future studies.

Section 9: Conclusion
Description 9: To summarize the novel contributions of the paper, propose the theoretical foundation for schema matching, and suggest future research directions.

Section 10: Appendix
Description 10: To provide brief descriptions of the schema matching methods examined in the survey.