Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates warning of collision between a primary principal and one or more non-primary principals. The system includes a triggering mechanism and a preliminary assessment mechanism. During operation, the triggering mechanism determines whether a trigger condition is met based on the state of the primary principal. When the trigger condition is met, the preliminary assessment mechanism generates one or more collision scenarios associated with the trigger condition, assesses a preliminary probability of collision in a collision scenario, and, based on the preliminary probability of collision in the collision scenario, activates a specialized assessment mechanism to assess a refined probability of collision in the collision scenario.

Abstract: A machine-controlled method can include determining an extended interval quality of service (QoS) specification for a batch job and determining a remaining data center resource requirement for the batch job based on the extended interval QoS specification. The machine-controlled method can also include determining an immediate QoS specification for the batch job based on the remaining data center resource requirement.

Abstract: A method of managing traffic in an ad-hoc network includes receiving, at a local node, a received synopsis of data sample updates in a neighbor storage of a neighboring node, the synopsis being based at least in part on dynamic priorities associated with the data samples. The received synopsis is then compared with data sample updates in a local storage of the local node and the local node determines which data samples will be transmitted.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates assessment of collision between a primary principal and a non-primary principal for early warning. During operation, the system receives information which indicates a state of the primary principal and a state of the non-primary principal. The system divides future time into a number of time intervals, and estimates a number of possible future states of the primary and non-primary principals, wherein each future state corresponds to a time interval. The system further represents the possible future states of the primary or non-primary principal as one or more geometric objects in a space of which at least one dimension indicates the time. In addition, the system determines a probability of collision between the primary and non-primary principals based on the geometric objects.

Abstract: Embodiments of a system, a method, and a computer-program product (e.g., software) for aggregating an energy service from a number of participants for use by a power-system operator is described. This aggregation may be performed by an aggregator, which is between the participants and the power-system operator. In particular, the aggregator may use an embedded economic mechanism to calculate a price that matches supply (or cutback) of power and/or load from the participants with a desired supply of the power-system operator. Because the aggregator typically does not know the participants' exact propensity to respond as a function of price (supply function), the aggregator calculates the purchase price using one or more iterations in which an initial probe price is provided to the participants, and the participants respond with supply-function approximations that are valid in proximity to the current probe price.

Abstract: Embodiments of a system, a method, and a computer-program product (e.g., software) for aggregating an energy service from a group of loads with time-varying operating cycles are described. This aggregation may be performed by an aggregator, which provides the energy service to a power-system operator. In particular, for a desired demand response, a demand-response mechanism may modify a demand response of a given load by mapping an initial operating cycle of the load before a demand-response event to a final operating cycle. In addition, the demand-response mechanism may transition the given load to a new operating cycle associated with the demand-response event using a temporal set-point trajectory. This aggregation technique may ensure that a distribution of phases of the group of loads is, on average, uncorrelated with each other, either by preserving or modifying the distribution of phases prior to the demand-response event.

Abstract: Techniques for providing privacy protection are provided. A query is received. Privacy policy information, extracted knowledge and optional information about available public information are determined. Information about the knowledge extraction transformations applied to create the extracted knowledge and the source data is determined. Privacy protecting transformations are determined and applied to transform the extracted knowledge based on the selected privacy policy, optional information about available public information, the characteristics of the applied knowledge extractions transformations, the source data and optional previous user queries.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that for facilitating assessment of collision between a primary principal and a non-primary principal for early warning. During operation, the system periodically performs the following operations: The system obtains a current observation of the primary principal and non-primary principal. The system then assesses one or more future states for the primary and non-primary principals, respectively, based on: the current observation of the primary and non-primary principals, a dynamics model of the primary principal, and a mental-state model of a person associated with the primary principal. The system further produces one or more results which indicate an assessment of collision between the primary and non-primary principals.

Abstract: A method of managing traffic in an ad hoc network includes measuring local data traffic levels on at least one network resource. Criteria are established for different transmission media. A microutility of a data sample is evaluated and the data sample is transmitted through one or more media, the selection of the media being based upon evaluation of the microutility against the criteria.

Abstract: An information dissemination system has at least one node acting as a data source, at least one node acting as a data recipient, and an information layer residing on all of the nodes in a system. The information layer receives a generic utility function from an application on the node acting as a data source wanting to propagate information, uses the generic utility function at the node acting as data source to produce a microutility and uses the microutility on non-data source nodes of the system to propagate the information through the system to any recipients based upon the microutility.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates collision warning. During operation, the system receives information on one or more predicted collisions and determines a utility of issuing a warning for a predicted collision based on the received information. The system further schedules one or more warnings for the predicted collisions based on the utilities of issuing the warnings.

Abstract: Techniques for protecting non-public information in a mobile environment are provided. A request for non-public information about users in a mobile environment is received. Privacy policies, non-public and optional public information about the users affected by the request are determined. An optional privacy impact indicator is determined based on how satisfying the request increases the current public information about the users. Crowds of users having similar attribute name/values are optionally determined. User and optional requestor privacy policies which associate threshold release criteria such minimum crowd size, minimum consideration with the non-public information are determined. A privacy agreement is reached for the disclosure of the requested non-public information based on the compatibility of the requester and user privacy policies. Privacy protecting transformations are optionally determined and applied to create crowds or groups associated with the requested attribute.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method of managing resources in a virtual machine environment can include determining a specification of provisioning success corresponding to each of multiple jobs in the virtual machine environment, determining a prediction of resource needs corresponding to each of the jobs, and determining a resource specification corresponding to each of the jobs based on the specification of provisioning success and the prediction of resource needs.

Abstract: A computer-implemented system and method for providing community-based advertising term disambiguation is provided. Articles of digital information and a plurality of social indexes that are each associated with a social community are maintained. Each social index includes topics that each relate to one or more of the articles. The social community exhibiting the most closely-matched similarity to the advertising content is chosen based on their social indexes. The advertising content with the articles related to the topics included in the social index of the social community chosen is placed.

Abstract: A computer-implemented system and method for providing topic-guided broadening of advertising targets in social indexing is provided. Articles of digital information and one or more social indexes are maintained. Each social index includes topics that each relate to one or more of the articles. A Web page, which includes one or more of the articles, is identified. The one or more topics in at least one of the social indexes related to the one or more articles are determined. A plurality of advertising expressions that are each associated with advertising content for an online advertiser are received. Each of the advertising expressions is successively matched to the one or more topics related to the one or more articles followed by matching words descriptive of the one or more topics.

Abstract: Techniques are provided to determine user-interest features and user-interest parameter weights for a user-interest model. The user-interest features are pre-determined and/or determined dynamically. Pre-determined user-interest features are based on user-interest profiles, prior user activities, documents listed in a resume, reading or browsing patterns and the like. Dynamically determined user-interest features include features learned from an archive of user activities using statistical analysis, machine learning and the like. User-interest parameter weights are pre-determined and/or dynamically determined. Pre-determined user-interest parameter weights include parameter weights manually entered by a user indicating the relevant importance of a user-interest feature and parameter weights previously learned from an archive of the user's past activities.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for facilitating presentation of activity-based advertising. During operation, the system receives a set of contextual data of a customer and makes a prediction of the customer's future activity. The system then receives a number of advertisements from the advertisers. Based on the prediction, the system chooses a received advertisement to present to the customer. The system further determines the customer's subsequent activity and confirms the prediction of the customer's activity. The system then receives payments from the advertisers whose advertisement is presented based on whether the prediction is confirmed.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides an activity-based advertisement system that identifies customer indeterminacy. During operation, the system receives a number of trajectories of a customer, and identifies an indeterminacy point based on the trajectory patterns. The system then determines one or more receptive opportunities for presenting advertisements based on the indeterminacy point. The system further presents one or more advertisements to the customer during a period corresponding to the receptive opportunity.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides an activity-based advertisement system. During operation, the system identifies at an advertising service provider a set of features that characterize a customer's activity. The system then receives at least one trigger from the trigger author, wherein the trigger is based on the features and specifies conditions for an advertising opportunity. The system then identifies an advertising opportunity for a customer when the conditions specified by the trigger are met. The system further presents one or more advertisements to the customer during the opportunity period.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates presentation of activity-based advertising based on receptive opportunities. During operation, the system identifies a number of topics. The system then receives a number of advertisements from advertisers, wherein a respective advertisement is associated with a topic. For a respective topic, the system determines a number of candidate advertisements associated with that topic to be pending presentations. The system further analyzes an activity in which a customer is engaged. Next, the system identifies a receptive opportunity to present one or more advertisements to the customer based on the activity analysis. The system then determines among the pending presentations one or more advertisements to present to the customer during the identified receptive opportunity. Subsequently, the system presents the determined advertisements to the customer during the opportunity period.