Abstract: The invention concerns a method, arrangement and computer program product for handling communication between at least two applications in a communication network with the aid of at least one communication queue, the arrangement comprising a processor acting on computer instructions whereby said arrangement is operative to receive, in at least one common default communication queue, messages from a variety of applications according to a default communication model, distribute the messages to destination applications, monitor network communication parameters, predict the status of the communication quality based on the monitored network communication parameters, compare the predicted status with at least one communication failure criterion, select a corresponding relief communication model if the communication failure criterion is fulfilled, and implement the selected relief communication model.

Abstract: A query handling arrangement is disclosed for a federated database system. The database system includes data storing applications configured to store data in corresponding databases. The query handling arrangement includes a query handling device that receives a database query from a query generating application concerning the obtaining of data from the databases, obtains usage profiles regarding allowed use of the data in the databases provided by a usage profile announcing device, investigates the usage profiles, obtains data from the databases according to the obtained usage profiles, and responds to the query with the obtained data.

Abstract: A method, predictive analytics system, and computer program product for performing online and offline learning is provided. The system obtains a first function used to generate a prediction, where the first function was generated from a first set of training data. The system sets a second function as being equal to the first function. The system further collects during an interval a second set of training data. At the end of the interval, the predictive analytics system updates the first function based on the second set of training data. While the first function is being updated, a third set of training data is collected. The system updates the second function while the first function is being updated. The updating of the second function is based on the third set of training data, where the third set of training data is more recent than the second set of training data.

Abstract: A method for ranking users within a network is disclosed. The method includes the steps of generating a ranking measure for each of a plurality of users within the network, monitoring network performance of the plurality of users, and identifying occurrence of conflict between ranking measure and network performance of a user. The method further includes the steps of resolving the conflict by reference to an authority and using information from the resolved conflict to inform subsequent generation of ranking measures. Also disclosed are a computer program product for carrying out a method of ranking users within a network and an apparatus configured to rank users within a network.

Abstract: Query handling devices in a federated database system and related methods and computer program products for handling queries in the federated database system are disclosed. The query handling device receives database queries directed towards a group of databases from several applications and filters the queries based on common query rules such as common query syntax, investigates the queries that have passed the filtering, and sends the investigated queries to the databases. The investigation includes prioritising between at least some queries according to a query prioritisation scheme. The prioritised queries are sent according to the query prioritisation scheme.

Abstract: A method for propagating user preference information in a communications network, in which the user preference information may be available for a subset of users within the network. The method comprises generating individual user attribute vectors, based on user historical data and estimating user preference information. The method further comprises defining a community structure for the network and generating a stacked representation for users, the representation comprising the user attribute vector augmented with an aggregated vector of estimated user preferences of members of the user's community. The method further comprises learning a function relating the stacked representation to user preference, using the subset of users, and applying the learned function to users outside the subset.