Abstract: A primary database's log records are used to update a second database that has a different encoding scheme than the log record and the primary database. This encoding scheme, for example, may involve compression, encryption, or another data transformation. First, a stale encoded data record from the second database is identified. This data record is one whose counterpart in the primary database has been updated in the primary database and where update has been logged. The stale data record is modified to reflect its contents as encoded by the first encoding scheme rather than the second. Then, the logged change is applied to update the modified record. The updated record is then decoded and subsequently re-encoded according to the second encoding scheme. This record is then stored in the second database replacing the stale second data record.

Abstract: The present invention is an catalog database system and method in which there are a plurality of catalog objects. Each catalog object contains at least one attribute and at least some of the catalog objects have at least one search path leading to at least one other object. A first object and the attributes of other objects in the electronic catalog are displayed. Those attributes which are defined in the first object and inherited to all descendant objects which are in any search path leading from the first object are displayed as strongly relevant attributes. Those attributes which are defined in at least one object which is in any search path leading from the first object are displayed as weakly relevant attributes. Those attributes which are contained in no objects which are in any search path leading from the first object are displayed as irrelevant attributes. To access a catalog object, a selection of an attribute or attribute value from among those displayed is accepted from a user.

Abstract: A customer service system includes a natural language device, a remote device remotely coupled to the natural language device over a network and a database coupled to the natural language device. The database has a plurality of answers stored on it that are indexed to natural language keys. The natural language device implements a natural language understanding system. The natural language device receives a natural language question over the network from the remote device. The question is analyzed using the natural language understanding system. Based on the analysis, the database is then queried. An answer to the question is received based on the query, and the answer is provided to the remote device over the network.

Abstract: Access to hypermedia servers connected to networks such as the Internet can be provided through mobile devices such as wireless telephones. Hypermedia links such as Uniform Resource Locators (URL) are used to identify and control access to resources on the network. These links are usually very long, are difficult to remember, and are difficult to enter into many mobile devices. These difficulties could be overcome by storing lists of frequently used links or "bookmarks" in the mobile device but limited memory in the device generally prevents this. This limitation is overcome by storing designated hypermedia links on a bookmark server. In one embodiment, the URL of the bookmark server is sent to the mobile device during initialization of the device. By allowing a user can to save, retrieve and maintain lists of frequently used links on the bookmark server, access to favorite resources on a network is greatly simplified.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for establishing the legitimacy of use of a block of digitally represented information residing in a computer of a user. The block of digitally represented information may be a text file, a sound recording, a graphical file or a software file. The computer includes a program that processes the selected file to generate a substantially unique identification code. The code is transmitted to a server that contains a listing of files correlated to status data, indicative of whether the file is proprietary material and the conditions associated with its use. If the server locates an entry in its database it retrieves the status data and transmits it to the user's computer. In the event the identification code issued by the user's computer is not sufficiently discriminative, i.e.

Abstract: Using LZW data compression/decompression processing techniques, textual input data is compressed by parsing consecutive words of the text into phrases and storing the phrases in a dictionary with compressed phrase codes associated therewith. The textual input data is searched by determining the longest match with the stored phrases in the dictionary and the compressed phrase code associated with the longest match is output to a compressed text database and stored at a location thereof. A list of references is maintained associated with each stored phrase to the locations in the compressed text database at which the compressed phrase code for the phrase is stored. Lists of word-to-phrase references are also created providing references for each distinct word encountered in the text to the stored phrases containing the word.

Abstract: In a computer-implemented method for generating a response to an aggregate query request on a source database, a random sample of records is extracted from the source database to generate a sample database. Then an aggregate query is performed on the sample database to generate a sample result, and an estimate of the aggregate query request on the source database is derived from the sample result.

Abstract: A system and method for processing electronic mail status rendezvous. A system for processing electronic mail status rendezvous includes an object for receiving a status message having incomplete reported recipient information; an object for initiating a candidate list of a plurality of candidates, the candidates being selected according to an identification in the status message; an object for preparing a search list of object identifiers; an object for eliminating non-matching candidates; and an object for selecting a matching candidate. A method for processing electronic mail status rendezvous includes the steps of receiving a status message having incomplete reported recipient information; preparing a candidate list of a plurality of candidates; the candidates selected according to an identification in the status message, preparing a search list of object identifiers; eliminating non-matching candidates; and selecting a matching candidate.

Abstract: A method and mechanism for responding to a query in a hierarchically organized system of documents and folders. In response to the query, a set of documents is retrieved based on specified criteria. Only documents in that set which match a specified scope are returned in a result set. Scope testing is performed on each of the documents in the set by obtaining a document identifier of each document, and then using that document identifier to obtain a document identifier of the parent folder thereof. The document identifier of the parent folder is used as a key to a data structure, which stores flags indicative of whether parent folders are in the specified scope. If the flag for a given parent folder indicates that the parent folder is in scope, the document having that parent is returned in the result set. If the flag indicates that the current document is not in scope, that document is not returned.

Abstract: A query issue processing method, a query conversion processing method, and a data control processing method are provided for enhancing the efficiency of random sampling processing for use in a database processing system. In query issue processing 2, a query including random sampling processing is issued. In query conversion processing 8, application sequences of random sampling processing and another query processing are exchanged by considering a sampling unit of the random sampling processing. Further, in record control processing 4, random access to a secondary storage device is reduced, thereby enhancing random sampling processing efficiency. Unlike the conventional query conversion processing not considering the sampling unit, the issuance of the query including random sampling processing and performing query conversion by considering the sampling unit allow random sampling to be applied also to a query including aggregation processing, thereby enhancing the efficiency of queries in a wider range.

Abstract: A method of indexing memory addresses associated with objects in a program file. In the prior art, a file has a single fixup record section which contains information necessary to determine memory addresses once the file is loaded onto the computer system. In the present invention, the fixup records are located within pages defined in the program file (e.g., data or text pages), and the fixup records are chained, that is, a given fixup record is based on a previous fixup record. In this manner, the overall size of the file is significantly reduced by reducing the collective size of all of the fixup records.

Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for controlling access to objects in a hierarchical database. The database may include a directory services repository, and/or synchronized partitions. An access constraint propagator reads an access control property of an ancestor of a target object. The access control property designates an inheritable access constraint such as an object class filter or an "inheritable" flag. The object class filter restricts a grant of rights to objects of an identified class. The "inheritable" flag allows inheritance of an access constraint on a specific object property. The propagator enforces the inheritable access constraint by applying it to at least the target object.

Abstract: A method and system for mapping a persistent dependent object between object-oriented schema and relational data store schema. Prior to application program run-time, schema mapping code is generated that defines a logical combination of null and non-null columns in the relational tables for each dependent class and dependent subclass. The code maps each instance variable of each class and subclass of the dependent to one column of the relational data store schema. The code maps a null value to each column for which a dependent subclass has no corresponding instance variable. At run-time, an application program may invoke the services of a schema map object, which in turn calls an object database driver such as ODBC to store an object in the data store or retrieve an object from the data store.

Abstract: A system and method for returning a sorted result set of information corresponding to files in a file system that have properties which match user query criteria. A view index of files sorted by at least one property common to those files is provided. The view index may be synchronously or asynchronously updated as files are changed. Upon receipt of query requesting a result set of files corresponding to properties in the query criteria, the view index is compared to determine if the properties are maintained in an order that corresponds to the query criteria. If so, the view index is accessed to locate information of files that have the matching properties, and the result set is returned. The view index may be associated with a view description of the identities and order of the properties. The comparison to determine if a view index corresponds with the criteria may then be performed against the view description.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for query simplification by applying generalized inference propagation and generalized transitive closure in SQL queries having selection, projection, join, outer join, and intersection operations. The disclosed transformations and enumeration method unify and solve the problems of 1) unnesting join aggregate queries, and 2) complete enumeration of queries containing outer joins, when the outer join predicate references an aggregated value, or the predicate references more than two base relations in a query subtree. The system first eliminates redundant sub-expressions and modifies expensive binary operations to inexpensive binary operations, then converts complex predicates to simple predicates by application of a generalized selection (GS) operator.

Abstract: A partially relocated object identifier store including "copy from" identifier and "copy to" identifier storage accessible to write barrier logic allows the write barrier logic to maintain consistency between FromSpace and ToSpace instances of a partially relocated memory object without software trap handler overhead. Optional "How far" indication storage facilitates differentiation by the write barrier logic between a copied portion and an uncopied portion of the partially relocated memory object. An optional "mode" indication facilitates differentiation by the write barrier logic between a copy phase and a pointer update phase of relocation by the garbage collector implementation. In some embodiments, pointer update and copying phases may overlap. "Copy to" identifier storage facilitates broadcast of a store-oriented memory access to the FromSpace instance to both FromSpace and ToSpace instances.

Abstract: A multiprocessing system forms a data structure, such as by loading reorganizing, or recovering, while concurrently collecting various statistics about the data structure. The data structure may comprise tables and/or indices, for example. A first processing unit forms the data structure by assimilating data from one or more data sources into data rows, storing the rows in a buffer, and copying the rows from the buffer to the data structure. Concurrently with the forming step, the same or a second processing unit retrieves the rows from the buffer and applies a predetermined analysis to the rows to formulate statistics regarding the data structure.

Abstract: According to the system and method disclosed herein, the present invention provides a system and method for organizing information to perform accurate and efficient collation for information such as languages of various nationalities and regions. This invention provides a number of improvements over the existing string comparison routines: portability, improved performance, ability to handle Unicode, and improved linguistic capability.

Abstract: A natural language processing system uses unformatted naturally occurring text and generates a subject vector representation of the text, which may be an entire document or a part thereof such as its title, a paragraph, clause, or a sentence therein. The subject codes which are used are obtained from a lexical database and the subject code(s) for each word in the text is looked up and assigned from the database. The database may be a dictionary or other word resource which has a semantic classification scheme as designators of subject domains. Various meanings or senses of a word may have assigned thereto multiple, different subject codes and psycholinguistically justified sense meaning disambiguation is used to select the most appropriate subject field code. Preferably, an ordered set of sentence level heuristics is used which is based on the statistical probability or likelihood of one of the plurality of codes being the most appropriate one of the plurality.

Abstract: A write barrier to stores into a partially relocated large or popular memory object facilitates bounded pause time implementations of relocating garbage collectors, including e.g., copying collectors, generational collectors, and collectors providing compaction. Such a write barrier allows a garbage collector implementation to interrupt relocation of large or popular memory objects so as to meet bounded pause time guarantees. A partially relocated object identifier store including "copy from" identifier storage accessible to write barrier logic allows the write barrier logic to maintain consistency between FromSpace and ToSpace instances of a partially relocated memory object. "Copy from" identifier storage allows the write barrier logic, or a trap handler responsive thereto, to broadcast a store-oriented memory access targeting the FromSpace instance to both FromSpace and ToSpace instances.