Abstract: Techniques and mechanisms described herein facilitate the performance metric based placement of bids. According to various embodiments, a first threshold value for bid placement may be identified. The first threshold value may designate a first threshold performance metric level for advertising opportunity bid requests received during a designated time period. An estimated performance metric may be determined for a designated advertising opportunity bid request received during the designated time period. A bid placement message may be transmitted via a communications interface when the estimated performance metric is greater than the first threshold value. The bid request may identify the designated advertising opportunity bid request and a bid placement value.

Abstract: Techniques and mechanisms described herein facilitate the dynamic selection of bid price. According to various embodiments, a base bid price may be determined for an advertising opportunity bid request received at a communications interface during a designated time period. A designated bid price may be for the advertising opportunity bid request. The designated bid price may be determined at least in part by applying a bid multiplier value to the base bid price. The bid multiplier value may reflect a target pacing rate associated with the designated time period. A bid placement message may be transmitted via the communications interface. The bid placement message may identify the advertising opportunity bid request and the designated bid price.

Abstract: Techniques and mechanisms described herein facilitate efficient budget pacing. According to various embodiments, a plurality of advertising request opportunities may be received at a communications interface during a time interval divided into a plurality of time periods. The time periods may include a designated time period, and a pacing rate for the designated time period may be determined. Each of the advertising request opportunities may be capable of being purchased to present a respective online advertisement. The pacing rate may designate a portion of the advertising request opportunities received during the designated time period on which to bid. One or more instructions may be transmitted to place a plurality of bids on selected ones of the advertising request opportunities received during the designated time period in accordance with the pacing rate.

Abstract: Techniques and mechanisms described herein facilitate adaptive fuzzy fallback stratified sampling. According to various embodiments, an actual or estimated minimum vertex cover of a feature dependency graph representing a dataset may be determined. The dataset may include a plurality of feature vectors and a plurality of features. Each feature vector may include a plurality of feature values that correspond with the features. The feature dependency graph may represent a plurality of conditional dependencies between the features. The minimum vertex cover may designate a subset of the features for strata selection. The feature vectors may be partitioned into a plurality of strata based on the designated subset of features. Each stratum may include one or more of the feature vectors. Each feature vector may be assigned to a corresponding stratum based on the values of the designated subset of features for the feature vector.

Abstract: A generic approach for automatically ingesting data into an HDFS (Hadoop File System) based data warehouse includes a datahub server, a generic pipelined data loading framework, and a meta-data model that, together, address data loading efficiency, data source heterogeneities, and data warehouse schema evolvement. The loading efficiency is achieved via the MapReduce scale-out solution. The meta-data model is comprised of configuration files and a catalog. The configuration file is setup per ingestion task. The catalog manages the data warehouse schema. When a scheduled data loading task is executed, the configuration files and the catalog collaboratively drive the datahub server to load the heterogeneous data to their destination schemas automatically.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for a data warehouse built on top of MapReduce is provided. A virtual view is defined on top of the common star or snowflake data warehouse schema. A SQL-like, but much more succinct, query language is provided to leverage the virtual view. Many advanced query processing features leveraging the virtual view are also provided. Further, several optimization techniques ranging from data compression and access method to multi-query optimization and exploiting materialized views are provided. Further, a technique to seamlessly integrate the data warehouse system into any ad-hoc MapReduce jobs is provided. Thus, fully leveraging the power of both MapReduce and data warehouse technologies is achieved.

Abstract: Current data records having a start and end time are transformed into a 2D space having a first dimension for each data record's start time and a second dimension for each data record's end time. Historical queries specifying data ranges are obtained. A response was previously sent for each historical query and specifying a sub-portion of data records that overlap with such historical query's specified data range. Partitioning schemes for the current data records in the 2D space are generated. An optimum partitioning scheme having a lowest cost is selected based on costs of executing the historical queries with respect to each of the partitioning schemes. The optimum partitioning scheme is applied on the current data records, including newly received data records, in the 2D space so that any subsequently received queries are applied against the current data records as partitioned by the optimum partitioning scheme in the 2D space.

Abstract: A bid determination platform receives specifications for advertisements, each associated with a model configured to adjust a parameter value of a bid based on different combinations of user and/or media content characteristics associated with different advertisement requests. The platform also receives an advertisement request for placement of an advertisement on an advertisement space of a publisher's media content that has been requested by a user, and the advertisement request is associated with a set of user and media content profile data. For each of the advertisements, all or a subset of the set of user and/or media content profile data is input to each model so as to determine an associated parameter value. Bids for each advertisement are determined, with at least some bids being based on the associated parameter value. An optimum bid is sent with a location of its advertisement to the advertisement request sender.

Abstract: A system for creating and using a universal tag to gather consumer data from a website for the purposes of targeted advertising is provided. The universal tag system has two main subsystems. The first subsystem is a configuration system that is used to define the consumer data to be collected from the website and to define taxonomy and transformation rules to be applied to the collected consumer data. The second subsystem is a runtime system that runs a universal tag client-side script, which is triggered when a consumer lands on a webpage of the website, for collecting the defined consumer data. The runtime system then applies the transformation rules to the collected data and updates a user profile corresponding to the consumer with the transformed data. As well, the runtime system applies the taxonomy rules to the collected data and categorizes the consumer for the purposes of subsequent targeted advertising.

Abstract: A bivariate metric is disclosed, in which one variable measures the variability of the estimate, and the other measures the accuracy of classifying the positive and negative users. A bagged logistic regression model is used, which achieves a comparable classification accuracy as a usual logistic regression, but a much more stable estimate of individual advertising channel contributions. Embodiments of the invention also provide an intuitive and simple probabilistic model to quantify the attribution of different advertising channels directly. Both the bagged logistic model and the probabilistic model are then applied to a real world data set from a multichannel advertising campaign.

Abstract: Within a computer networking environment, bid requests having data are received at a communication interface of a bid determination platform. Bids for a plurality of advertisements are determined via a computer processor of the bid determination platform based on the data associated with such bid request. Via the computer processor, at least a first portion of the bids that were determined for one or more of the bid requests are decreased based on one or more quantitative and qualitative factors, such as missing variable data, of the one or more bid request's associated data. For each bid request, an optimum set of one or more of the determined bids is selected and transmitted, along with a reference to the associated advertisement, via the communication interface to a sender of the bid request.

Abstract: The system provides an automatically targeted network for text and graphical advertising based on cost-per-action bidded pricing, wherein actions comprise any of acquisitions, purchases, downloads, registrations, donations, clicks, and impressions. Contextual, search and behavioral relevance features are integrated to optimize ad selection for advertisers, who enter action objectives, associated bids, and creatives or catalog assets. The assets are automatically analyzed and stored, and ads are automatically constructed for catalog assets. When an ad request is received from a user terminal in regard to a publisher asset, e.g. a web page, the ad request is matched to a stored contextual analysis of at least a portion the publisher asset if available, and preferably to a profile associated with the user of the user terminal. The best advertisements are determined, based upon a predicted response, and are then served, i.e. displayed, at the user terminal, based upon available ad space.

Abstract: A self-orientating hand held game unit includes a display screen, a game piece illustrated on the screen, and a touch sensitive system to detect the movement of a finger across the screen and operate the game piece to launch a projectile toward a target on the screen.

Abstract: A vertical-axis wind turbine for use with an electrical generator for producing power by converting the energy of wind currents into mechanical rotational energy which is then used to operate the electrical generator. In an embodiment, a rotor is responsive to wind currents by imparting rotation upon a central vertical shaft. Preferably, the rotor is designed with functional curved surfaces for efficient operation.

Abstract: A vertical-axis wind turbine for use with an electrical generator for producing power by converting the energy of wind currents into mechanical rotational energy which is then used to operate the electrical generator. In an embodiment, a rotor is responsive to wind currents by imparting rotation upon a central vertical shaft. Preferably, the rotor is designed with functional curved surfaces for efficient operation.

Abstract: A system for generating behavior segments and serving targeted ads. The system generates variables based on data from targeted users, incorporates recency, frequency, and velocity for the variables; optimizes the variables; converts the variables into behavior segments; and saves the behavior segments to a database. The system updates the behavior segments in real time. When a publisher requests an ad call, the system generates a score for advertisements based on the user profile, multiplies the score by the amount each advertiser is willing to pay for serving their ad, selects the highest value, and serves the ad.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a word game wherein words are formed by arrangement of letters of the alphabet appearing on the faces of a set of dice wherein each letter represented and the number of times the letter is represented in the set of dice, approximates the frequency of their appearance in a corpus of words.

Abstract: A manually or automatically controlled adjusting bed-chair combination for persons suffering limited mobility due to accident, disease, or age who thus require intensive caregiving efforts by others. This portable body supporting device provides a patient with greater mobility and self-care even if he/she is confined therein for weeks, months, or longer. The bed-chair includes an upper frame for supporting the invalid's body in a large number of postures ranging from side, supine, sitting, reclining or standing. In turn, this upper frame is articulated by lower supporting frames powered by linear actuators, or the equivalent, and controlled by the patient control or the caregiver's override and automatically preset control to provide a timed regimen of turning or tilting according to the occupant's needs. Whether in bed or chair mode, the support frame consists of an upper body, middle and leg-foot segment. The mid-section provides a base to which the other two sections are pivotally mounted.