X-IM Framework to Overcome Semantic Heterogeneity Across XBRL Filings

Semantic heterogeneity in XBRL precludes the full automation of the business reporting pipeline, a key motivation for the SEC’s XBRL mandate. To mitigate this problem, several approaches leveraging Semantic Web technologies have emerged. While some approaches are promising, their mapping accuracy in resolving semantic heterogeneity must be improved to realize the promised benefits of XBRL. Considering this limitation and following the design science research methodology (DSRM), we develop a novel framework, XBRL indexing-based mapping (X-IM), which takes advantage of the representational model of representation theory to map heterogeneous XBRL elements across diverse XBRL filings. The application of representation theory to the design process informs the use of XBRL label linkbases as a repository of regularities constitutive of the relationships between financial item names and the concepts they describe along a set of equivalent financial terms of interest to investors. The instantiated design artifact is thoroughly evaluated using standard information retrieval metrics. Our experiments show that X-IM significantly outperforms existing methods

Initial CONNECT Architecture

Interoperability remains a fundamental challenge when connecting heterogeneous systems which encounter and spontaneously communicate with one another in pervasive computing environments. This challenge is exasperated by the highly heterogeneous technologies employed by each of the interacting parties, i.e., in terms of hardware, operating system, middleware protocols, and application protocols. The key aim of the CONNECT project is to drop this heterogeneity barrier and achieve universal interoperability. Here we report on the development of the overall CONNECT architecture that will underpin this solution; in this respect, we present the following contributions: i) an elicitation of interoperability requirements from a set of pervasive computing scenarios, ii) a survey of existing solutions to interoperability, iii) an initial view of the CONNECT architecture, and iv) a series of experiments to provide initial validation of the architecture

Dialectics of the Global and the Local in Contemporary Neo-Identities

Today’s social reality is shaped by controversial yet simultaneous phenomena of globalization and localization - overwhelming unification and interconnectedness in technology, economy, politics and culture that goes together with intensification of striving for recognition by local communities. The trends of constructing and presenting new, generally more fluid and flexible identities are strong and visible in different parts of the world and on various social levels. The aim of this research is to analyse contemporary phenomenon of paradoxical and complex interrelation and dialectics of processes of global unification and localization through study of newly constructed identities, articulations of individuality and uniqueness by certain communities. The new understanding of these creatively-constructed identities is coined into a new term of neo-identity, the title notion of this thesis. Neo-identities are constructed of a peculiar interplay of the global and the local: they emphasize differences and distinctiveness, local in other words, but they also originate to the global processes (global threat or global fashion) and tend to construct themselves in order to find better ways of inclusion into a global societal network, either economic, political or social and ideological. The practical part of the analysis provides illustrative material to the theoretical description of neo-identities. Two unrelated phenomena of South Ossetian national identity construction and emergence of Internet slang that unexpectedly fast spread offline in Russia are turned into case studies of neo-identities.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Crowdsourced online dispute resolution

Solving disputes often takes a considerable amount of time and money. That holds for everyone involved. A new type of dispute resolution called Crowdsourced Online Dispute Resolution (CODR) seems to have the potential to offer a cheap, fast, and democratic dispute resolution procedure. Since it is currently not clear whether CODR procedures comply with the requirements of procedural fairness, the attractiveness and the acceptance of CODR procedures may be in discussion. This thesis aims to establish whether CODR can fairly resolve disputes. First, it provides a framework of CODR, analyses the differences between CODR and other dispute resolution schemes, and constructs interpretation of procedural fairness that merges objective and subjective procedural fairness. Second, the research investigates whether the current CODR procedures are fair and proposes a model of a CODR procedure that complies with the interpretation of procedural fairness. The findings of the research indicate that CODR can be designed to fairly resolve disputes.Exploring the Frontiers of International La

Decentralisation and budget accountability in the twilight of Mexican presidentialism.

This dissertation is an attempt to understand how Mexico's democratisation process transformed budget accountability and the relationship between the federal, state and municipal governments. With the decline of presidentialism, two major changes occurred: the federal Congress became a more powerful regulator of public expenditure; and a large share of the budget was decentralised to subnational governments. The research objective is to produce an empirical analysis of how it came about that the president lost control over a major share of discretionary budgetary spending while state and municipal authorities increased their financial capacities without strong local systems of checks and balances. The dissertation is focused on two reforms related to budgetary policy: 1) The creation of a new Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) at federal level; and 2) The decentralisation of federal spending to states and municipalities. The creation of a new SAI, the Auditoria Superior de la Federacion (ASF), improved the political autonomy and technical capability of the congressional bureau in charge of ex post budgetary oversight. Through the ASF, the Congress improved its capability to demand an accountable presidency. The second reform was the decentralisation of an important share of government expenditure to state and municipal authorities. This implied the creation of clear norms and transparent formulas for the distribution of public resources among the three levels of government. In the former political system, the President had the unwritten prerogative to decide the geographical allocation of public expenditure, according to unaccountable criteria. The federal Executive had deep pockets and full political power to determine the fiscal surplus or financial bankruptcy of a subnational government. The decentralisation process created rules that forced the President to render financial accounts to subnational governments. For the first time, the Federal Executive had to follow transparent and stable criteria for the transfer of resources to states and municipalities. The decentralisation process rested on the premise that local authorities would allocate public expenditure more efficiently and would maximise social welfare. The decentralisation of public expenditure increased the accountability of the federal government to states and municipalities. However, a central claim in my thesis is that an unforeseen consequence of this process was a lack of accountability of political leaders at subnational levels. With the dusk of presidentialism and the decentralisation of expenditure, governors and municipal presidents gained ample margins of political and financial power. Thorough a census of state SAIs and an Index of Budget Information, the thesis will provide empirical evidence on the importance of accountability institutions in the transfer of spending responsibilities to subnational governments. With weak accountability mechanisms at the local level, there are no guarantees that decentralisation will deliver its theoretical expectations of efficiency and welfare. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)