Abstract: A load balancer computer for configuring a load balancing program in the load balancer for a cluster of servers to dispatch client requests to the servers in the cluster. The load balancer computer includes one or more storage devices and program instructions stored on the storage devices. The program instructions are: to detect that the cluster cannot handle the client requests with a predetermined level of performance, and in response, automatically request configuration information for another server not currently active in the cluster, to configure the load balancing program for adding the other server to the cluster to handle client requests; and to automatically configure the load balancing program for the cluster to add the other server to the cluster in accordance with the configuration information received for the other server. The configuration information configures the load balancing program for the other server based on a cookie affinity rule.

Abstract: A method includes receiving a text. The method also includes identifying a set of linguistic characteristics contained in the text. The method also includes determining a plurality of time periods in which the text was potentially written based on the set of linguistic characteristics. The method also includes retrieving a set of reference documents for each time period. The method also includes producing a set of proximity scores by performing a set of proximity checks using the set of linguistic characteristics, the set of reference documents, and the text, where the proximity checks analyze how often and how close linguistic characteristics are to one another. The method also includes ranking the plurality of time periods based on the set of proximity scores and returning a set of one or more ranked time periods of the plurality of time periods.

Abstract: System, method, and computer program product to identify candidate values to provide to a deep question answering (QA) system as part of a case, by receiving a case, wherein the case includes a plurality of documents for evaluation by the deep QA system, evaluating the plurality of documents using natural language processing (NLP) to identify one or more concepts reflected by text content within the plurality of documents in the case, wherein the plurality of documents includes a plurality of distinct values for at least a first one of the concepts, selecting, from the plurality of distinct values, a candidate value for the first concept to provide to the deep QA system to process the case, and prior to submitting the case to the deep QA system, returning at least the candidate value selected for the first concept to present in a user interface.

Abstract: Methods to perform an operation comprising: identifying a first attribute of a source code in a deep question answering system, computing an influence score for the first attribute based on a rule in the source code used to compute a confidence score for each of a plurality of candidate answers generated by the deep question answering system, computing an importance score for the first attribute based at least in part on the computed influence score, and upon determining that the importance score exceeds a predefined threshold, storing an indication that the first attribute is an important attribute relative to other attributes specified in the source code.

Abstract: Systems and computer program products to perform an operation comprising: identifying a first attribute of a source code in a deep question answering system, computing an influence score for the first attribute based on a rule in the source code used to compute a confidence score for each of a plurality of candidate answers generated by the deep question answering system, computing an importance score for the first attribute based at least in part on the computed influence score, and upon determining that the importance score exceeds a predefined threshold, storing an indication that the first attribute is an important attribute relative to other attributes specified in the source code.

Abstract: Methods to, responsive to receiving a case by a deep question answering (deep QA) system, identify, in a corpus of information, a first variable for which a value was not specified in the case, compute an importance score for the first variable based on a concept in the corpus, wherein the concept is associated with the first variable, and upon determining that the importance score exceeds an importance threshold, determine that specifying a value for the first variable increases a confidence score of a response returned by the deep QA system beyond a confidence threshold.

Abstract: Systems and computer program products to, responsive to receiving a case by a deep question answering (deep QA) system, identify, in a corpus of information, a first variable for which a value was not specified in the case, compute an importance score for the first variable based on a concept in the corpus, wherein the concept is associated with the first variable, and upon determining that the importance score exceeds an importance threshold, determine that specifying a value for the first variable increases a confidence score of a response returned by the deep QA system beyond a confidence threshold.

Abstract: The invention is a method and apparatus for facilitating facilitates load balancing in a server farm. In accordance with various aspects of the invention, all of the information about each server necessary for a load balancing program to define and execute a load balancing algorithm is stored at a predetermined URL for each server. The load balancer can query the predefined URL, which returns the necessary information. The load balancer then dynamically configures the load balancing algorithm in accordance with the returned information.

Abstract: Managing confidence data in a question-answering environment is disclosed. Managing confidence data can include sorting, based on a set of answer categories for a subject matter, a first set of a plurality of answers into a first answer category. The first set can correspond to at least one of a third set of a plurality of confidence scores and the second set can correspond to at least one of a fourth set of the plurality of confidence scores. Managing confidence data can include classifying confidence scores of the third set into one of a plurality of confidence buckets using a first threshold and determining a fifth set of a plurality of thresholds using the plurality of confidence scores. Managing confidence data can include classifying unclassified confidence scores of the third set into one of the plurality of confidence buckets using the fifth set of the plurality of thresholds.

Abstract: Managing confidence data in a question-answering environment is disclosed. Managing confidence data can include sorting, based on a set of answer categories for a subject matter, a first set of a plurality of answers into a first answer category. The first set can correspond to at least one of a third set of a plurality of confidence scores and the second set can correspond to at least one of a fourth set of the plurality of confidence scores. Managing confidence data can include classifying confidence scores of the third set into one of a plurality of confidence buckets using a first threshold and determining a fifth set of a plurality of thresholds using the plurality of confidence scores. Managing confidence data can include classifying unclassified confidence scores of the third set into one of the plurality of confidence buckets using the fifth set of the plurality of thresholds.

Abstract: Mechanisms are provided for outputting a treatment recommendation for a medical malady. The mechanisms receive an input specifying a medical malady of a specified patient and determine one or more constituent agents of a potential treatment for the specified medical malady of the specified patient. The mechanisms retrieve a treatment toxicity profile corresponding to the medical malady. In addition, the mechanisms calculate a treatment toxicity score for the potential treatment based on a comparison of patient medical attributes of the specified patient to toxicity criteria associated with the one or more constituent agents identified in the treatment toxicity profile. The mechanisms then output a treatment recommendation based on the treatment toxicity score.

Abstract: Mechanisms are provided for generating an answer to a superlative question. The mechanisms analyze the superlative question to extract a superlative term in the superlative question and a focus. A metric by which to evaluate the superlative term is identified based on one of a clue term in the superlative question or one or more portions of content of a corpus of information including the superlative term and focus. A search of the corpus is executed to identify one or more candidate answers to the superlative question based on evidence passages in the corpus, the superlative term, the focus, and the metric. A final answer to the superlative question is output based on the one or more candidate answers.

Abstract: The invention is a method and apparatus for facilitating facilitates load balancing in a server farm. In accordance with various aspects of the invention, all of the information about each server necessary for a load balancing program to define and execute a load balancing algorithm is stored at a predetermined URL for each server. The load balancer can query the predefined URL, which returns the necessary information. The load balancer then dynamically configures the load balancing algorithm in accordance with the returned information.

Abstract: The invention is a method and apparatus for facilitating facilitates load balancing in a server farm. In accordance with various aspects of the invention, all of the information about each server necessary for a load balancing program to define and execute a load balancing algorithm is stored at a predetermined URL for each server. The load balancer can query the predefined URL, which returns the necessary information. The load balancer then dynamically configures the load balancing algorithm in accordance with the returned information.

Abstract: The invention is a method and apparatus for facilitating facilitates load balancing in a server farm. In accordance with various aspects of the invention, all of the information about each server necessary for a load balancing program to define and execute a load balancing algorithm is stored at a predetermined URL for each server. The load balancer can query the predefined URL, which returns the necessary information. The load balancer then dynamically configures the load balancing algorithm in accordance with the returned information.

Abstract: The invention is a method and apparatus for facilitating facilitates load balancing in a server farm. In accordance with various aspects of the invention, all of the information about each server necessary for a load balancing program to define and execute a load balancing algorithm is stored at a predetermined URL for each server. The load balancer can query the predefined URL, which returns the necessary information. The load balancer then dynamically configures the load balancing algorithm in accordance with the returned information.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product for implementing a customizable visual configuration (VC) template to retrieve and display a working set of system configuration objects. The computer-implementable method includes selecting a current system configuration object. Once a system configuration object is selected, a VC utility examines all available VC templates. The VC utility displays available VC templates whose starting configuration object matches the selected current system configuration object. In response to a selected VC template, the VC utility retrieves and displays system configuration objects defined by the selected VC template.

Abstract: The invention is a method and apparatus for facilitating facilitates load balancing in a server farm. In accordance with various aspects of the invention, all of the information about each server necessary for a load balancing program to define and execute a load balancing algorithm is stored at a predetermined URL for each server. The load balancer can query the predefined URL, which returns the necessary information. The load balancer then dynamically configures the load balancing algorithm in accordance with the returned information.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer implemented instructions for processing a request in a data processing system. The request is received. In response to a first hash value being present within the request, the first hash value is compared to a second hash value that was computed locally, wherein the second hash value represents a current policy configuration for assigning a quality of service. In response to a match between the first hash value and the second hash value, other information in the request is used to establish a quality of service for packets associated with the request.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed that enable an application to prioritize its traffic in an application-specific manner, such that traffic which is most important to this application can be prioritized over traffic that is less important to this application, where this prioritization information is reflected in differential treatment of the traffic within the network. An application conveys relative priority information for its traffic to a Web proxy or edge server, and this device then consults stored policy information to determine how the traffic should be prioritized in the network. The Web proxy also ensures that usage of network resources is balanced among multiple applications. Cookies are used for transmitting priority information between the edge server and application in an efficient manner.