Patent ID: 7043468

Claim:
A computerized method for measuring the a degree of coherence of the arrangement of nodes as in a hierarchy comprising the steps of: a) receiving a predetermined hierarchy of nodes arranged in a tree format with one or more subtrees, wherein a subtree of one of the nodes includes any descendant nodes in the hierarchy that stem from the one node, the hierarchy of nodes includes at least a first node and a second node, and the nodes in the hierarchy are associated with one another as one of a sibling node, a child node, and a parent node, wherein the second node is a child node of the first node when the second node stems from the first node without any intervening node therebetween and the second node belongs in the subtree of the first node; wherein the first node is a parent node of the second node when the second node is the child node of the first node and belongs in the subtree of the first node; and wherein the first node is a sibling node with the second node when the first and second nodes stem from a same parent node without any intervening node therebetween, and the first node and the second node belong to the subtree of the same parent node; b) receiving a plurality of training cases that are filed under the nodes in the hierarchy; and c) responsive thereto for determining a coherence measure, for at least one of the nodes in the hierarchy that has a local environment, by evaluating the training cases filed in the subtree of the at least one node with respect to the training cases filed in the local environment of the at least one node; wherein the local environment of the at least one node includes any parent node of the at least one node, any nodes that are sibling nodes of the at least one node, and any nodes that belong to the subtrees under the sibling nodes of the at least one node.