Abstract: Briefly, methods and/or systems of contracting and/or de-contracting stored parameters are disclosed.

Abstract: Briefly, embodiments disclosed herein relate to managing transactions in a distributed content transaction system.

Abstract: Briefly, embodiments disclosed herein relate to managing transactions in a distributed content transaction system.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for performing top-k query processing include pruning a list of documents to identify a subset of the list of documents, where pruning includes, for other query terms in the set of query terms, skipping a document in the list of documents based, at least in part, on the contribution of the query term to the score of the corresponding document and the term upper bound for each other query term, in the set of query terms, that matches the document.

Abstract: The present teaching relates to committing transactions over a database in a semi-distributed manner. In one example, a transaction is executed to access a plurality of keys stored in the database. A request is transmitted to a transaction management engine to commit the transaction. The transaction management engine performs a conflict check between the transaction and one or more transactions running concurrently with the transaction, and generates an instruction based on the conflict check. The instruction is received from the transaction management engine. Based on the instruction, one or more of the plurality of keys are updated in the database or data added by the transaction to the database are erased.

Abstract: The present teaching relates to concurrent database operation. In one example, a plurality of requests which includes a scan request to obtain first data associated with a plurality of first keys stored in a database is received concurrently. A global version number is updated upon receipt of the scan request. The first data associated with the plurality of first keys is obtained based on the updated global version number. The first data is provided in response to the scan request.

Abstract: Multi-thread systems and methods are described for concurrently handling requests to commit data updates to a database by a plurality of data transactions. The database preferably supports multi-versioning and the data transactions are preferably isolated by snapshot isolation. In one embodiment, concurrent and lock-free handling of requests to commit data updates includes performing two types of concurrent data conflict detection. A transaction proceeds to commit only if it passes both types of conflict detection. The first type of conflict detection is based on a hash map between data keys and their commit timestamps whereas the second type of conflict detection is based on a log that keeps track of the status of transactions whose requests to commit are actively being processed. In another embodiment, concurrent conflict detection for data items in concurrent transactions is broken down into buckets and locks are used for accessing each bucket.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a processor of a computing device receives a query. The computing device may compare a centroid of each of a plurality of clusters to the query such that a subset of the plurality of clusters is selected, each of the plurality of clusters having a set of data points. An assignment of the subset of the plurality of clusters may be communicated to a hardware accelerator of the computing device. A plurality of threads of the hardware accelerator of the computing device may generate one or more distance tables that store results of intermediate computations corresponding to the query and the subset of the plurality of clusters. The distance tables may be stored in shared memory of the hardware accelerator. A plurality of threads of the hardware accelerator may determine a plurality of data points using the distance tables. The processor may provide query results pertaining to at least a portion of the plurality of data points.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a search engine may generate and store a plurality of search index segments such that each of the search index segments is stored in a corresponding one of a plurality of heaps of memory. The plurality of search index segments may include inverted index segments mapping content to documents containing the content. A garbage collection module may release one or more heaps of the memory.

Abstract: Briefly, embodiments disclosed herein relate to managing transactions in a distributed content transaction system.

Abstract: Briefly, methods and/or systems of contracting and/or de-contracting stored parameters are disclosed.

Abstract: The present teaching relates to concurrency control in log-structured merge (LSM) data stores. In one example, a call is received from a thread for writing a value to a key of LSM components. A shared mode lock is set on the LSM components in response to the call. The value is written to the key once the shared mode lock is set on the LSM components. The shared mode lock is released from the LSM components after the value is written to the key.

Abstract: A system and method for aggregating emotions of users for a media program. A server stores reference audio signal fingerprints, each associated with a reference audio signal of the program. For each user, the server computer: receives a first audio signal fingerprint from a client device operated by a user, the first audio signal fingerprint associated with a first audio signal comprising ambient sound associated with the user and an audio signal of the program; searches the stored reference audio signal fingerprints to determine one that is related to the first audio signal fingerprint; determines an ambient sound signal by obtaining a difference between the stored reference audio signal fingerprint and the first audio signal fingerprint; and determines, using the ambient sound signal, an emotion of the user for a program segment. The server computer aggregates the emotions to determine a representative emotion of the users for the segment.

Abstract: Briefly, embodiments of methods and/or systems of providing services in a distributed file system are disclosed. For one embodiment, as an example, a system may be capable of forming server-side mount tables comprising hierarchically organized namespaces. Server-side mount tables may be replicated or reproduced across services platforms, for example.

Abstract: A method and system for providing targeted applications within an electronic message interface. The method comprises retrieving content from a user's electronic message in the electronic message interface, parsing and interpreting the user's context from the content, and accepting bidding on the user's interpreted context from one or more applications, the one or more applications including triggering conditions related to the user's interpreted context. The one or more applications are ranked based on the bidding. The method further comprises loading the one or more applications into the electronic message interface based on the ranking, and providing one or more follow-up transactions associated with the one or more loaded applications based on the user's interpreted context.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for providing targeted applications within a search engine results page. The method and system includes receiving a search query from a user and interpreting the search query. The method and system then first maps the interpreted query to one or more action templates, wherein mapping the interpreted query to one or more action templates comprises selecting one or more actions associated with the interpreted query. The method and system then maps the selected one or more actions associated with the interpreted query to a plurality of applications and selecting one or more applications associated with the one or more actions. Finally, the method and system displays the one or more applications within a search results page.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for providing targeted applications within a search engine results page. The method and system includes receiving a search query from a user and interpreting the search query. The method and system then first maps the interpreted query to one or more action templates, wherein mapping the interpreted query to one or more action templates comprises selecting one or more actions associated with the interpreted query. The method and system then maps the selected one or more actions associated with the interpreted query to a plurality of applications and selecting one or more applications associated with the one or more actions. Finally, the method and system displays the one or more applications within a search results page.

Abstract: Techniques are provided for detecting and resolving conflicts between native and transactional applications sharing a common database. As transactions are received at the database system, a timestamp is assigned to both the start and the commit time of a transaction, where the timestamps are synchronized with a logical clock in the database system. When the database system receives a native operation, the database system increments the time in the logical clock and assigns that updated time to the native operation. When the transaction is ready to commit, database system may determine conflicts between native and transactional operations. If the database system determines that a native operation conflicts with a transactional operation, database system will abort the transaction.

Abstract: Face-containing images within web pages are automatically annotated to identify the people having those faces. The annotation is based on faces detected in the images and named entities detected in text associated with the images. Each candidate named entity may be scored by the prominence of the named entity in the text relative to the other extracted named entities. Queries are sent to a search engine based on the extracted candidate named entities. Sample images are returned. Face similarity calculations may be computed based on the featured faces and sample faces detected in the search engine-returned sample images to associate a probability score between each featured face and each candidate named entity. A bipartite matching instance may be solved to arrive at a maximum likelihood assignment of named entities to featured faces.

Abstract: A system and method for aggregating emotions of users for a media program. A server stores reference audio signal fingerprints, each associated with a reference audio signal of the program. For each user, the server computer: receives a first audio signal fingerprint from a client device operated by a user, the first audio signal fingerprint associated with a first audio signal comprising ambient sound associated with the user and an audio signal of the program; searches the stored reference audio signal fingerprints to determine one that is related to the first audio signal fingerprint; determines an ambient sound signal by obtaining a difference between the stored reference audio signal fingerprint and the first audio signal fingerprint; and determines, using the ambient sound signal, an emotion of the user for a program segment. The server computer aggregates the emotions to determine a representative emotion of the users for the segment.