Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for handling within a database system data items that are associated with data types whose native structure is not known to the database system. The data items are stored within the database system in their native structure, even though it is not understood by the database system. To store the data items, the database system calls a pickling routine that is provided by the user, or by the runtime subsystem of the programming environment that is native to the data item. To retrieve the routine from storage, the database system calls an unpickling routine, also provided by the user or the appropriate runtime subsystem. Because the database maintains the data items in their native format, no conversions are required as the data items are passed between the database system and external routines that manipulate the data items.

Abstract: In the present invention, a similar vector is searched from a several hundreds dimensional vector database at a high speed, by a single vector index, and in accordance with either measure of an inner product or a distance by designating a similarity search range and maximum obtained pieces number, vector index preparation is performed by decomposing each vector into a plurality of partial vectors and characterizing the vector by a norm division, belonging region and declination division to prepare an index, and similarity search is performed by obtaining a partial query vector and partial search range from a query vector and search range, performing similarity search in each partial space to accumulate a difference from the search range and to obtain an upper limit value, and obtaining a correct measure from a higher upper limit value to obtain a final similarity search result.

Abstract: A system and method for providing a single software package that performs and integrates the same informational tasks that people perform on paper is disclosed. The system includes a user interface called a Page which is a generalized representation of the automation of all classes of informational tasks. The system includes an Information Manager which maintains the informational relationships within which a User interacts with the system interface or the Pages. The system further includes a Control Structure to manage the Performance and interactions among the Pages.

Abstract: A hierarchical/relational translation system is provided for enabling information from unrelated heterogeneous relational computing systems to be accessed, navigated, searched, browsed, and shared over a hierarchical computing system. In one embodiment, the hierarchical/relational translation system includes a virtual directory server for capturing information in the nature of relational database schema and metadata. The captured schema and metadata are then translated into virtual directories that are universally compatible with standard communication protocols used with hierarchical computing systems. A virtual directory of information organizes an index of data records and a standard addressing schema is provided to enable customizable access to relevant views of relational computing systems. Several embodiments for presenting the virtual directory information tree are included. In one embodiment, the virtual directory is displayed using browser format.

Abstract: The refinement of existing search output. The present invention further improves upon the prior art in that: (1) it provides a means for employing the automation of the selection process; (2) it further provides for the elimination of the need to manually reformulate the search, which is very tedious; and (3) the use of weighted logic processes to refine the search.

Abstract: An information recovery system automatically selects storage for a replication of a data volume.

Abstract: A data-management system manages identical data stored in main-memory areas of several computers connected via a network. The system has a transaction acceptor to accept a request for executing a transaction of accessing the database, a transaction executor to execute the transaction, a replication processor to process the replica data to reflect updated data sent from the original site and a data receiver and a data transmitter. An updating transaction for the data of the database is performed by the transaction executor but allowed only for the original site. The updated data is transmitted from the data transmitter of the original site and received by the data receiver of the replica site and reflected on the replica data of the replica site by the replication processing section.

Abstract: A system for synchronizing distributed stored documents includes a core-node (110), a plurality of branch-nodes (120, 130), and a network (140) connecting the core-node with the branch-nodes. Each branch-node includes: a branch-database server (123, 133) for storing a summary of all distributed stored documents, wherein the summary can be updated in accordance with a sync message received from the core-node; and a branch-FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server for storing the distributed stored documents, the branch-FTP server having the function of exchanging documents with the core-node. The core-node includes a core-database server (113), a core-FTP server (309), and an application server (310). The core-database server stores a summary of all distributed stored documents. The core-FTP server is used for storing the distributed stored documents. The application server comprises a sync controlling module (313) that controls data exchange between the core-FTP server and the branch-FTP servers.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and apparatus for building a database of content objectionable scenes of an audiovisual work, and a method and apparatus which uses the database to control reproduction of the work. The database may be stored on a server and made available to clients which control an audiovisual reproduction apparatus through a direct dial-up or Internet connection.

Abstract: A scheme for constructing a database in a user system, which can automatically store those portions of the structured documents which contain important contents without exerting a burden on the user is disclosed. A structured document provided by a server device is obtained according to a document request made by the user system, where each structured document has a structure represented by tags in each structured document. Then, at least one important portion is automatically extracted from the structured document by utilizing the structure of the structured document according to prescribed extraction criteria specified in advance, and the extracted important portion is stored into the database, while the obtained structured document is transferred to the user system.

Abstract: A method of tracking data through a multi-tier computing architecture includes initializing a first row pointer of a dataset with data form a database, placing changes to the data in the second row pointer of the dataset, comparing the first and second row pointers, and declaring a state of the data in response to comparing the first and second row pointers. A system for tracking data through a multi-tier architecture includes an initialize module, a change module, a compare module, and a declare module. The initialize module initializes a first row pointer of a dataset with data from a database. The change module places changes to the data in a second row pointer of the dataset. The compare module compares the first and second row pointers. The declare module declares a state of the data in response to comparing the first and second row pointers.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses for locating electronic documents by allowing a user to specify, prioritize and control the order of a resulting hit list at the front end of a search are provided. One embodiment provides a method for searching electronic documents, comprising: receiving a search expression including one or more search terms having one or more weight criteria, wherein the one or more weight criteria include a user designated score modifier; finding one or more candidate documents based on the search expression; calculating a score for each candidate document according to the one or more weight criteria; and transmitting information for displaying a list of the one or more candidate documents reflecting the calculated scores. The weight criteria may be selected from a location of the one or more search terms, a format of the one or more search terms, and a frequency count of the one or more search terms.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for searching data to locate a portion identified by a search query. The data may comprise text files in a database. The search query comprises two or more data fragments expected to be contained in the portion of data being sought and in any order. The method comprises receiving the data fragments and searching the data to locate matches between the data and the respective data fragments. Any overlapping matches are discriminated and replaced by an iterative search process until there is found a minimal portion of the data containing all of the data fragments without overlaps, the term minimal meaning a portion with only one complete set of the data fragments (though some but not all can be duplicated). The identified portion of text can be highlighted in a display of the data.

Abstract: In this invention, we propose an adaptive lock escalation scheme that can significantly enhance the performance of the database management system under excessive lock requests. In existing lock escalation methods, under excessive lock requests, the system's performance degrades abruptly even leading to a live halt in the worst case. The present invention, an adaptive lock escalation in database management systems, proposes a new notion of the unescalatable lock, which is the major cause for making the transactions abort due to lack of lock resources. It uses semi lock escalation and lock blocking based on the total number of unescalatable locks to suppress the growth of unescalatable locks. Furthermore, it guarantees that at least one transaction can complete without getting into live halt by using selective relief.

Abstract: The invention concerns a detection of duplicate tuples in a database. Previous domain independent detection of duplicated tuples relied on standard similarity functions (e.g., edit distance, cosine metric) between multi-attribute tuples. However, such prior art approaches result in large numbers of false positives if they are used to identify domain-specific abbreviations and conventions. In accordance with the invention a process for duplicate detection is implemented based on interpreting records from multiple dimensional tables in a data warehouse, which are associated with hierarchies specified through key—foreign key relationships in a snowflake schema. The invention exploits the extra knowledge available from the table hierarchy to develop a high quality, scalable duplicate detection process.

Abstract: A method and system for synchronization of data stores is described. A synchronization initiator sends a sync key to a synchronization partner requesting to synchronize to some checkpoint. An integer is used as the sync key. When the sent sync key is zero the synchronization partner performs an initial synchronization. When the sent sync key is a value other than zero, the synchronization partner attempts to synchronize to the desired state. The value of the sync key is incremented only upon successful synchronization. A sync server can also include a sync key with change update notifications sent to a sync client, which the client can use to determine if the update notification is a valid update from the current sync state or is a delayed and obsolete update that should be discarded.

Abstract: Provided is a method, system, and program for automatically handling an error when retrieving a file for an application. An error is detected while the application retrieves a file from the storage device. A user defined policy is checked to determine whether a backup copy should be restored, and the file is restored from the backup copy if the user defined policy indicates that the backup copy should be used.

Abstract: A method for evaluating a user query on a relational database having records stored therein, a workload made up of a set of queries that have been executed on the database, and a query optimizer that generates a query execution plan for the user query. Each query plan includes a plurality of intermediate query plan components that verify a subset of records from the database meeting query criteria. The method accesses the query plan and a set of stored intermediate statistics for records verified by query components, such as histograms that summarize the cardinality of the records that verify the query component. The method forms a transformed query plan based on the selected intermediate statistics (possibly by rewriting the query plan) and estimates the cardinality of the transformed query plan to arrive at a more accurate cardinality estimate for the query.

Abstract: A process is provided for documenting the contents of at least one version of a plurality of data products stored in a database, at least one of the products being a composite product having at least a portion of at least one of the data products included therein. The process includes the steps of: creating a state file to be associated with a version of a composite product to be created, the state file specifying a selected version of at least one selected data product to be used in creating the composite product; using the state file to access the selected version of the selected product from the database; creating the version of the composite product by including therein at least a portion of the selected version of the selected product; and generating a state history file associated with the version of the composite product, the state history file indicating that at least a portion of the selected version of the selected product is included within the version of the composite product.

Abstract: A recommender system employs implicit ratings generated from monitoring user interaction with an item, such as while listening to a music track on a MP3 player or reading an electronic book. A method for generating item recommendations includes: providing an item to a device having an application for engaging a repetitive activity with the provided item, wherein the repetitive activity occurs primarily during standalone operation of the device; generating a history of user interaction with the provided item, wherein user interaction includes engaging in the repetitive activity with the provided item; transforming the history of user interactions into an implicit rating of the provided item; and using the implicit rating of the provided item to generate recommendations of other items.