Abstract: A method and apparatus for a Web-enabled transaction and collaborative management application are described. In one embodiment, the application is centered around a user-friendly home navigation page designed to facilitate convenience for the user in accessing information or entering and tracking data. All information is sorted by project or matter name. A client user may view information one matter at a time, all matters at once, or any user-specified number of matters. Access is restricted to authorized users with password access rights. The application enables the tracking of information that is beneficial to all levels of the user's organization, that is substantive and relevant to different levels of the user's staff, and that aids the client in making informed decisions regarding its current transactions and documents relating thereto.

Abstract: A similarity engine generates compact representations of objects called sketches. Sketches of different objects can be compared to determine the similarity between the two objects. The sketch for an object may be generated by creating a vector corresponding to the object, where each coordinate of the vector is associated with a corresponding weight. The weight associated with each coordinate in the vector is multiplied by a predetermined hashing vector to generate a product vector, and the product vectors are summed. The similarity engine may then generate a compact representation of the object based on the summed product vector.

Abstract: A computer implemented method for mapping data from one presentation to another includes capturing and transmitting the context of an original report based on an originating data source such that it preserves the organization of the query and variable levels of context “fidelity”. The context of the originating report is translated in terms of the originating data source to a target context for presentation of a target report based on a target data source. The translation of different mapping scenarios is controlled in accordance with a translation model with a translation map.

Abstract: A method (100) of researching and analyzing information contained in documents that belong to a first database (200) and are organized according to a first set of fields (210) for an electronic search and retrieval by a computer (850). The method includes the steps of: a) conducting an electronic search (202) of the first database to retrieve at least one document; b) developing user-defined fields (300); c) reading (310) the at least one document to retrieve information pertaining to the user-defined fields; d) entering into a second database (510) the at least one document, values of the first set of fields for the at least one document, the user-defined fields and the retrieved information pertaining to the user-defined fields; and e) analyzing (506) the information contained in the second database.

Abstract: A software-driven method for the initialization of re-writable optical media is provided. Embodiments include a software-driven method for the formatting of re-writable optical media to include defining a file system and writing a UDF reader to the optical media to enable implementation on a plurality of optical media devices in a plurality of operating system environments. The re-writable optical media is initialized using either user data or initialization patterns in a background operation to allow user interaction with the optical media during initialization. Methods are provided for multi-track capabilities of the optical media. Prior to initialization of the entire media space of an optical media, a session can be closed to enable compatibility of a partially initialized media in a ROM device. Further methods are provided to re-open a closed session to complete initialization of the media space.

Abstract: Data is stored in a persistent, user-defined, shareable in-memory database table. In response to a search request that specifies a number of results to be retrieved from a desired starting point, the data is located in the in-memory database table and the specified number of results from the desired starting point are returned. The data is retrieved from the in-memory database table by retrieving stored descriptors corresponding to search terms in the search request. The stored descriptors are mapped to location information in a header area of the in-memory database table. Using the location information data is retrieved either from a data area of the in-memory database table or from a relational data store.

Abstract: IDDS is implemented as a kernel resident data source which provides per-system call audit records into user space in a timely manner. Each invocation of a system call is audited and a record of the activity is placed into a circular buffer in the kernel. A user-space process reads the data from the buffer via a device driver interface. A device driver provides a clean interface between the kernel and the IDS. The semantics of device drivers are familiar to most UNIX programmers, following the standard file-based open-read-write-close paradigm.

Abstract: An efficient technique for storing, updating, locating, and retrieving data is provided. In particular, data may be stored in a persistent, user-defined, shareable in-memory database table. Once this in-memory database table is created and loaded with data, data may be located in the table. When a search request specifying a number of results to be retrieved from a desired starting point is received, the data is located in an in-memory database table. Then, the specified number of results from a desired starting point are returned. Furthermore, data that is accessed via an in-memory database table is updated upon receiving an update request. The data that is updated may either be data in a data area of the in-memory database table or may be relational data. When data is updated, a high speed index used to access the in-memory database table is also updated.

Abstract: A directory server including a supplier server, a consumer server in communication with the supplier server, a plurality of pluggable services that manage replication of data contained within the directory server from the supplier server to the consumer server, and a change sequence number used to determine ordering of operations performed on the consumer server. Replication of data is managed using the change sequence number.

Abstract: A system and a method providing for the distribution and management of a large corpus of value added electronic documents while providing customized services to a plurality of diverse end users.

Abstract: A method of eliminating disturbance of database storage areas is provided, which includes the steps of: checking if it is time to execute database storage status analysis; analyzing a state of database storage areas and outputting values corresponding to disturbance factors as a status analysis result; checking whether each of the disturbance factors has reached a state that requires to be eliminated; and referring to an association table matching disturbance resolution processing with factors to be eliminated by the processing and selecting appropriate processing that can eliminate the disturbance caused by the factor.

Abstract: A record management system is provided for generating a multi-dimensional view for different measures. A set of records is retrieved in response to a set of queries. The records include dimension values and measure values, which are associated with the measures. The set of records is maintained in a master table. The record management system generates a record structure foundation, including a query map and a master table index. The record management system then employs the record structure foundation to generate a multi-dimensional layout mapping for the measures that are to be represented in the view. The record structure foundation and measure values in the master table are used to convert the layout mapping into the desired multi-dimensional view.

Abstract: A document retrieval apparatus for retrieving a document including a query character string among a plurality of registered documents includes a text separating unit which separates the registered documents and a query character string into n-grams and words, an n-gram index which stores therein information about occurrences of n-grams appearing in the registered documents on a n-gram-specific basis, a word-boundary-position index which stores therein information about occurrences of word boundaries appearing in the registered documents in a compressed form, a character-string-based search unit which identifies one or more registered documents including the query character string by looking up one or more n-grams of the query character string in the n-gram index, and a word-based search unit which checks whether the query character string appears as word in the one or more identified registered documents by looking up one or more words of the query character string in the word-boundary-position index, thereby

Abstract: A rapidly deployable, integrated online sales system consisting of a core storefront application that executes on a conventional web database server, a guided buying and sales configuration module for selling products and services, a content management module, a recommendation system for making recommendations during a shopping session, an advertising management system, a profiling system for customizing customer interactions based on the site visitor's demonstrated interests, and reporting system that provides an analysis of a user's behavior to create the valuable reports. The various components of the desired system are first assembled as a pre-integrated prototype system on a source computer that can be rapidly recreated using pre-written operating system installation scripts which execute during the deployment process, prompting the installer to provide data values used to modify the content of pre-written configuration template files to accommodate the special needs of each individual installation.

Abstract: A computer based system and method determines packaging for a part. The system and method allow a user to establish a set of part characteristics and generates the packaging specification as a function thereof. Additionally the system and method uses packaging materials and packaging methods stored in a database and allows the association of one or more of the packaging materials and packaging methods to a part to create the packaging specification.

Abstract: Computer systems are typically designed with multiple levels of memory hierarchy. Prefetching has been employed to overcome the latency of fetching data or instructions from or to memory. In modern transaction processing systems, database servers, operating systems, and other commercial and engineering applications, information is frequently organized in trees, graphs, and linked lists. Lack of spatial locality results in a high probability that a miss will be incurred at each cache in the memory hierarchy. The present invention significantly increases the cache hit rates of many important data structure traversals, and thereby the potential throughput of the computer system and application in which it is employed. For data structure traversals in which the traversal path may be predetermined, a transformation is performed on the data structure that permits references to nodes that will be traversed in the future be computed sufficiently far in advance to prefetch the data into cache.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a system for managing environmental audit information which includes receiving environmental audit information, accessing a predetermined set of environmental audit protocols, associating the audit information with at least one of the environmental audit protocols to form at least one environmental audit record, and storing the environmental audit record. The system of the present invention may also restrict access to the audit record, such that a quality assurance reviewer may review said audit record and may designate the status of that review, but may not modify the contents of the audit record.

Abstract: A framework for answering Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) queries from previously cached queries includes a proxy server configured to receive client directory queries. The proxy server maintains a cache of data (entries) and semantic information associated with a query. In response to a query received from client, the proxy invokes a query containment procedure which uses the semantics of the incoming and stored queries to determine whether the query can be answered from cached queries. The proxy answers queries from the local cache when possible, and for other queries it sends the request to a directory server. The semantics of the new query and the resulting data (entries) are added to the cache. The method and apparatus can be used for positive conjunctive queries for answering equality, range and substring queries.

Abstract: A wireless data processing device 2 stores partially completed versions of a file needed to replace a current version of a file used by that target device 2. When a device storing a more up-to-date version of the file than the current complete version stored by the target device 2 moves into range, downloading of that new version either completely, or resuming from a previously reached point, is initiated. When the in-range device has more than one version of the file that could be downloaded, the version selected for initial download may be the one which will take least time to complete.

Abstract: A file conversion system includes a filter and conversion tool and an Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) tool. The filter and conversion tool reads a first file comprises a first digital content item and a corresponding first indication of style to be applied to the first digital content item and a second digital content item and a corresponding second indication of style to be applied to the second digital content item. The filter and conversion tool modifies the first file to remove the first digital content item from the first file and converts the modified first file to a second file comprising the second digital content item and a HTML tag based on the second style indication of the first file. The HTML to XHTML tool converts the second file to a third file comprising XHTML tags.