A health care performance assessment apparatus (10) includes at least one processor (16, 20, 22, 24) programmed to: collect information associated with medically-related events from a plurality of databases; group the collected information associated with medically-related events into episode of care (EOC) data structures wherein each EOC data structure contains the collected information for a single EOC treating a medical condition or providing a medical procedure to a single patient; store the EOC data structures in an EOC repository (18); group EOC data structures having a chosen commonality into at least one cohort; and calculate at least one key performance indicators (KPIs) for the cohorts. A display (2) is configured to display the KPIs for at least one selected cohort.

A computing system is configured to receive location data from a first wireless device of a first user. The system determines one or more coordinates associated with an establishment. The system determines that the first user is located at the establishment using the location data and the coordinates associated with the establishment. The system receives, from a second wireless device of a second user, a request for a location of the first user. The system determines that that the second user has permission to obtain the location of the first user. The system then transmits, to the second wireless device, information associated with the establishment where the first user is determined to be located.

Techniques are disclosed utilizing cognitive computing to improve commercial communications from vendors to users. A user's financial account(s) and location may be monitored to determine when a user is within a threshold distance of a vendor. If the user is within the threshold distance the methods and systems disclosed may determine which targeted commercial communications to transmit to the user based upon a shopping profile for the user. The shopping profile may include a dataset indicative of the shopping habits of the user.

The present disclosure discloses a method and apparatus for mining offline resources. The method includes: acquiring at least two pieces of user search log information; acquiring a user demand characteristic set according to a search formula included in the user search log information, the user demand characteristic set including a keyword set; and matching the user demand characteristic set with a defined offline resource set, to acquire offline resource information corresponding to the user demand characteristic set.

The present invention relates to a system and method for tracking product and service discounts. Specifically, the present invention comprises a consumer application resident on a smart phone for tracking discounts of products and services at retailers and a store application for informing consumers of discounts on products and services.

A residual value forecasting system may utilize heterogeneous data, such as used market data, industry-specific data, and non-industry-specific data, from disparate data sources to produce residual value forecasts of an item based on a sophisticated residual value forecasting model particularly configured for agility. The system can dynamically and quickly adapt to change in data inputs and produce custom outputs. The system may determine a baseline value for an item using the used market data, a microeconomic factor using the industry-specific data, and a macroeconomic factor using the non-industry-specific data, as well as adjustments such as locality adjustments and modifications. Given the macroeconomic factor and the microeconomic factor relative to the locality-adjusted value of the item and in view of the competitive sets of similar and/or substitute items in the same industry, the system can generate an accurate forecast residual value of the item at a future time point.

Systems and methods for controlling at least one security device based on the behavior of at least one tag. The methods comprise: generating sensor data relating to movement by at least one sensor disposed in a first tag; analyzing the sensor data to determine if an item to which the first tag is coupled is being handled in an unusual, abnormal or nervous manner; determining if an enterprise system has lost communicative contact with the first tag coupled to the item that is being handled in an unusual, abnormal or nervous manner; and causing an operational state of the security device to change in response to the loss of the communicative contact between the enterprise system and the first tag.

A server apparatus as a management apparatus in a system includes a controller configured to execute acquiring commodity-or-the-like purchase information of a user in a first mobile store from a store device of the first mobile store, selecting a commodity or a service predicted to be purchased next by the user based on commodities or services in the acquired commodity-or-the-like purchase information, and transmitting information regarding the user to a store device of a second mobile store dealing in the selected commodity or service.

A system for hierarchical cooperative computing is provided, comprising a vector definition service configured to receive a user-submitted request, and compile the request into a vector; a rules engine configured to retrieve the vector from the vector definition service, and evaluate the vector for appropriateness; a parametric evaluator configured to parameterize the vector, and generate at least a run from the parameterized vector; and an optimizer configured to retrieve the run from the parametric evaluator, and determine an optimal plan for executing the user-submitted request.

An information processing apparatus includes a controller configured to determine the demand of a consumer for a product based on a behavior of the consumer that is detected in a moving object and store the result of the determination about the demand into a storage unit with the result of the determination being correlated with the predetermined place, the moving object being configured to autonomously travel based on an operation instruction and move the product or an advertisement for the product to a predetermined place.