Abstract: A method for returning a data item to a requestor (where the requestor may, for example, be a systems application) including: receiving a request to access a data item having data contents of uncertain state (i.e. because the data item is pending completion of a transaction), obtaining the data item contents and an indication of the state (e.g. delete_on_commit) of the data item contents, and returning this information to the requestor.

Abstract: In accordance with aspects of the present invention, provided are methods for incrementally estimating the cardinality of a derived relation including statistically correlated partially applicable predicates for a range-partitioned table. During the generation of a QEP a cardinality estimate is calculated in which one or more partially applicable predicates is correlated to another partially applicable predicate and/or to one or more fully applicable predicates. The cardinality includes a number of rows expected to be returned by the QEP and is computed in an incremental fashion for each operator of the QEP.

Abstract: In accordance with the teachings described herein, systems and methods are provided for data sorting. A method for use with one or more processing devices in order to merge sorted runs of data may include the steps of: defining a plurality of floating buffers; calculating a number of data blocks for each floating buffer; configuring the floating buffers to store the number of data blocks; and using the floating buffers to perform an external data sorting operation. A data sorting system may include one or more programs, and may be used with a plurality of floating buffers and a data storage device for storing a plurality of sorted runs of data blocks, each data block including a plurality of data records. The one or more programs in a data sorting system may be operable to calculate a number of data blocks for each floating buffer and configure the plurality of floating buffers to store the number of data blocks.

Abstract: A system and method for maintaining checkpoints of a keyed data structure using a sequential log are provided. The system and method are built upon the idea of writing all updates to a keyed data structure in a physically sequential location. The system and method make use of a two-stage operation. In a first stage, various values of the same key are combined such that only the latest value in a given checkpoint interval is maintained for writing to persistent storage. In a second stage of the operation, a periodic write operation is performed to actually store the latest values for the key-value pairs to a persistent storage. All such updates to key-value pairs are written to the end of a sequential log. This minimizes the physical storage input/output (I/O) overhead for the write operations. Data structures are provided for identifying the most current entries in the sequential log for each key-value pair.

Abstract: A calculating unit of an integration server calculates an optimal processing sharing ratio for image format conversion processing between the integration server and each of a plurality of video accumulation servers. A processing unit of the integration server and each of the video accumulation servers perform image format conversion processing in a distributed manner based on the processing sharing ratio. An integrating unit of the integration server integrates the multimedia data subjected to the conversion processing by each of the video accumulation servers and the multimedia data subjected to the conversion processing by the processing unit.

Abstract: A method and system for autonomic relevancy building using information obtained from clients to improve customer support. Upon receiving a client request for product support information, product support information objects representing the requested product support information in an information library are identified. Relevant product support information corresponding to the identified relevant product support information objects are provided to the client. Data regarding whether or not the information provided to the client is relevant may be obtained from the client through implicit feedback (such as, system usage), explicit feedback (such as, user feedback), metadata information, or any combination thereof. Relevancy associations may be created between the product support information objects based on the relevancy data. Relevancy weights may also be assigned to each relevancy association based on the relevancy data, wherein the relevancy weights designate a certainty of each relevancy association.

Abstract: A method for providing processed data definition documents (DDDs) or processed document object models (DOMs) for object oriented programming. The use of these processed data definitions simplifies the data structures and streamlines programming to access the data. A standard DDD/DOM has a hierarchical branched structure having a number of levels each with elements/nodes and attributes. The DDD is written in a platform independent markup language. An element/node is selected and its attributes are identified. All ‘children’ of the selected element/node are identified. The attributes of the selected element/node (parent) are then copied to each child for all children in the DDD/DOM. This is repeated for all elements/nodes in the DDD/DOM to result in a processed DDD/processed DOM which is now structured to allow program access to data in a more direct manner.

Abstract: Storage Area Network (storage area network) management employs agents, each under the control of a common server. Determination and assignment of available agents to candidate manageable entities suffers from several deficiencies. Distributed access control information may be security sensitive. Distribution of the access data across the local storage at the manageable entities is cumbersome to track and manage. Embodiments of the invention provide assignment of agents to manageable entities from a central repository, therefore avoiding distributed sensitive information. Depending upon the type of managed entity the agent is adapted to manage, the server retrieves access data from the repository, rather than from a local initialization (.ini) file. Each agent determines which storage elements it can manage. The server correlates the information sent by each agent for each configured managed entity to generate a management correlation.

Abstract: A method, device, and software for presenting search results obtained from a plurality of databases, based on an end-user specified query, is disclosed. In an embodiment, the search results are combined from results from a first index and results from a second index. The first index comprises a plurality of index entries modifiable by an administrator, and the second index comprises a plurality of index entries that are not modifiable by the administrator. In the combined search results, any search result from the second index for which an associated key field is identical to the associated key field of a matching search result in the first set of search results is discarded in favor of the matching search result in the first set of search results.

Abstract: The present invention implements computing systems in a configuration to reduce downtime. The computing systems are configured, without implementing a hot stand-by or mirrored configuration, to handle mission critical applications without failing. A user may determine the benefit of implementing the configuration over traditional methods, and may forecast estimated revenues generated from business operations in the configuration.

Abstract: A method and system for ranking messages of discussion threads based on relationships between messages and authors is provided. The ranking system defines an equation for attributes of a message and an author. The equations define the attribute values and are based on relationships between the attribute and the attributes associated with the same type of object, and different types of objects. The ranking system iteratively calculates the attribute values for the objects using the equations until the attribute values converge on a solution. The ranking system then ranks the messages based on attribute values.

Abstract: A method and system for determining dominance of the media elements of display pages is provided. The dominance system provides a scoring mechanism for scoring the dominance of media elements of display pages based on features of each media element of the display page. To generate the scores for the media elements of the display page, the dominance system first identifies the media elements and then identifies the features of the media elements. The dominance system then scores the identified media elements using the provided scoring mechanism and the identified features.

Abstract: A data processing system processes data sets (such as low-resolution transaction data) into high-resolution data sets by mapping generic information into attribute-based specific information that is stored in a database. The extracting frequent pattern information from the database using frequent pattern growth techniques, a compact frequent pattern tree data structure efficiently holds frequent pattern information for multiple transactions having one or more items in each transaction. Frequent pattern data is transformed for ease of use with rule generation algorithms by removing redundant information (such as part group items) or by consolidating items corresponding to a part group and replacing those items with a proxy item for purposes of power set generation.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for transferring N table instances X1, X2, . . . , XN of a table T from a source database S to destination databases D1, D2, . . . , DN, respectively. The method is implemented by executing a computer code by a processor of a computer system. N is at least 1. For I=1, 2, . . . , N the method includes: determining whether the table T has been defined for destination database DI, and if it is determined that the table T has not been defined for the destination database DI, then defining the table T for the destination database DI; and transferring the instance XI of the N table instances from the source database S into the defined table T of the destination database DI.

Abstract: An apparatus and method is disclosed which can efficiently execute construction of a contents management database and setting of a reproduction list. The information processing apparatus includes a storage section for storing a plurality of pieces of contents and a data processing section. The data processing section sets a directory having a tree structure, sets layer attribute information representative of attributes of layers which form the tree structure, and coordinates each of pieces of the layer attribute information with a group which includes contents or a group belonging to a lower layer than the layer indicated by the piece of the layer attribute information to produce a group tree as a contents management directory composed of the groups and the contents.

Abstract: In one aspect, a method of storing data includes receiving instances of data and storing the instances in an entity instance table, allocating a unique identifier to each instance of data received for storage in the entity instance table, such that each instance can be uniquely referred to, and providing a relationship definition table for storing relationship definitions. Each relationship definition has three data fields. The method also includes receiving three unique identifiers of selected instances of data stored in the entity instance table and storing the three unique identifiers as a relationship definition in the relationship definition table. A relationship is defined by the unique identifiers of exactly three instances of data and each of the three unique identifiers is contained in a respective one of the three data fields of the relationship definition.

Abstract: A garbage collector treats a heap as divided into regions. From a candidate set of those regions, it selects the collection sets on which it performs collection increments from among those regions in accordance with a selection criterion separate from the ages of the objects that those regions contain. It nonetheless segregates objects according to age, placing objects in such a manner that no candidate-set region containing an object whose age is less than some predetermined maximum also contains an object of a different age.

Abstract: A customer information management system which enables integration of data across lines of business that classify data using distinct formats. In the system, a plurality of lines of business are in communication with one another and with a customer server. A customer information model produces a common classification format used by the customer server. Adapters at each line of business translate information between the format used by the customer server and the format used by the respective line of business. In use, the customer server may glean information from all of the lines of business and produce detailed data stores about customers. A first line of business may also obtain information from a second line of business by making a request through the customer server.

Abstract: Restoring data includes providing data in a first storage area of a first type that contains sections of data, providing data in a second storage area of a second type wherein the second type has, for each section of data thereof, either a pointer to a corresponding section of data of the first storage area or a pointer to corresponding section of data of a third storage area of the first type, providing data in at least one other storage area of the second type, and, for each particular section of data of the second storage area having a pointer to the third storage area, providing to a corresponding section of the first storage area an indirect pointer to a corresponding section of the third storage area if no storage areas of the at least one other storage area point to the corresponding section of the first storage area.

Abstract: A set of structures and techniques are described herein whereby an exemplary concurrent shared object, namely a shared skip list, can be implemented in a lock-free manner. Indeed, we have developed a number of interesting variants of a lock-free shared skip-list, including variants that may be employed to provide a lock-free shared dictionary. In some variants, a key-value dictionary is implemented.