Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for providing ranking services. In one aspect, first signals are received from a first subscriber, and second signals are received from a second subscriber. The signals include information characterizing individual user actions relating to individual ones of first or second resources, respectively, values for one or more predefined parameters, and values for one or more first subscriber-specific parameters that are specific to the first or second subscriber, respectively. First ranking data is generated from the first signals, but not from values for any subscriber-specific parameter that is not a subscriber-specific parameter for the first subscriber. Second ranking data is generated from the second signals, but not from values for any subscriber-specific parameter that is not a subscriber-specific parameter for the second subscriber.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for exchanging information in accordance with a protocol. In one aspect, signals reporting user actions related to resources and ranking data ranking the resources based on the signals are exchanged in accordance with a protocol. The protocol defines types of user actions that can be reported by the signals, a format for specifying values for one or more of a set of predefined parameters for qualifying the user actions, a format for specifying one or more subscriber-specific parameters relating to the resources or the user actions, and a format for identifying resources to which the user actions are related using a namespace defined by the subscriber.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for ranking resources. One or more signals reporting one or more actions by the plurality of users related to a respective resource are received, where a reported action is a presentation of the respective resource, an addition of the respective resource, or a deletion of the respective resource. The reported actions include one or more short deletions of the respective resource. A respective long-addition click-through rate (LACTR) is determined for the respective resource based on a number of reported presentations of the respective resource and a difference between a number of reported additions of the respective resource and a number of short deletions of the respective resource. The plurality of resources are ranked based on the respective LACTRs for the plurality of resources. The ranking of the plurality of resources are provided.

Abstract: According to another embodiment of the invention, an approach is provided for estimating how a particular user would rate a particular item from a plurality of items. The approach is applicable to any type of items, including rental items such as movies, music and games, and the invention is not limited to any particular type of item. One or more items from the plurality of items that have ratings similar to the particular item are identified. Then, one or more other users are identified that have given ratings to the one or more items that are substantially similar to ratings given by the particular user to the one or more items. Finally, an estimation is made of how the particular user would rate the particular item based upon ratings for the particular item given by the one or more other users.

Abstract: By genotyping analysis in combination with Monte-Carlo estimation, a model for predicting an hepatitis B patient to response to interferon treatment is constructed. With this model, by selecting STR markers combination, the hepatitis B patients are divided into three groups comprising high response rate, ambiguous, and low response rate, respectively, and hence, predictions of treatment response for HBV patients, especially for interferon therapy, are obtained.