Patent ID: 8756182

Claim:
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer readable program of computer instructions, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to carry out the following operations: receiving a signature that is a collection of measurable node entities and their expected directions of change with respect to a reference node; and assessing a degree of activation of the signature by scoring one or more data sets against the signature to compute an amplitude score; wherein the amplitude score is a sum of adjusted log-fold changes of measured node entities in the signature divided by a number of node entities in the signature, where an adjustment applied to the log-fold changes is made by (i) multiplying by −1 the log-fold changes of those measured node entities expected a priori to decrease in response to an increase in the reference node, and (ii) multiplying by +1 the log-fold changes of those measured node entities expected a priori to increase in response to an increase in the reference node.