Patent ID: 7356415

Claim:
A method implemented in a data processing system for generating and storing data characterizing at least one region of said plurality of regions, wherein the data process system comprising a plurality of descriptor vectors associated with a plurality of regions of molecules stored in a database, wherein the plurality of descriptor vectors are classified into groups, the method comprising the steps of: generating an entry comprising i) an identifier that identifies said at least one region, and ii) data characterizing a set of axes derived from a property distribution of said at least one region; mapping a descriptor vector associated with said at least one region based on preselected criteria, wherein the mapping maps said plurality of descriptor vectors to a space discriminating between said groups of descriptor vectors; wherein said mapping is derived from the steps of: generating first data representing differences between said groups of descriptor vectors; generating second data representing variations within said groups of descriptor vectors; identifying a set of component vectors that maximizes an F disturbed criterion function, said F distributed criterion function having a numerator based upon said first data and a denominator based upon said second data; generating an F distributed statistic for subsets of said component vectors, said F distributed statistic having a numerator based upon said first data and a denominator based upon said second data; for each particular subset of component vectors, calculating a probability value for the F-distributed statistic associated with the particular subset; selecting a probability value from probability values for said subsets of component vectors based upon a predetermined criterion; identifying the subset of said component vectors associated with the selected probability value; generating a mapping to a space corresponding to the subset of component vectors associated with the selected probability value, and storing the mapping for subsequent processing; generating a key that corresponds to said mapping of the descriptor vector associated with said at least one region; and storing said entry in a memory, wherein said key is associated with said entry such that the key indexes the entry for retrieval.