Abstract: A measuring tape device may include a housing having an aperture, a reel assembly defining an axis, a blade having a first end configured to extend from the housing through the aperture and a second end configured to be wound on the reel assembly, and a transverse aperture extending through the housing in a direction substantially parallel to the axis.

Abstract: An elongate medical apparatus and a method for manufacturing the same. The apparatus including a base element and at least one spline. The base element and the at least one spline may include various materials to define various characteristics of the apparatus. For example, the base element may include a first material and define a lumen therein. The at least one spline may protrude from an outer surface of the base element and may include a second material. In one or more embodiments, the at least one spline may extend along a helical path.

Abstract: A method for training a classifier to classify elements of a data set according to a characteristic is described. The data set includes N elements with the elements each characterized by at least one feature. The method includes the steps of forming a first labeled subset of elements from the data set with the elements of the first labeled subset each labeled according to whether the element includes the characteristic, training an algorithmic classifier to classify for the characteristic according to the first labeled subset thereby determining which at least one feature is relevant to classifying for the characteristic; and then querying with the classifier an inverted index, with this inverted index formed over the at least one feature and generated from the data set, thereby generating a ranked set of elements from the data set.

Abstract: A method for training a classifier to classify elements of a data set according to a characteristic is described. The data set includes N elements with the elements each characterized by at least one feature. The method includes the steps of forming a first labeled subset of elements from the data set with the elements of the first labeled subset each labeled according to whether the element includes the characteristic, training an algorithmic classifier to classify for the characteristic according to the first labeled subset thereby determining which at least one feature is relevant to classifying for the characteristic; and then querying with the classifier an inverted index, with this inverted index formed over the at least one feature and generated from the data set, thereby generating a ranked set of elements from the data set.

Abstract: A method for determining link feature weights from a data set of linked elements is described. These link feature weights are indicative of whether a link travels to a subset of the data set, which has a predetermined characteristic. The link features weights also correspond to link features associated with links between the linked elements of the data set. The method comprises the steps of first choosing the link features in accordance with the predetermined characteristic of the subset and then determining the link feature weights based on evaluating a measure that the link travels towards the subset. In one embodiment, the link feature weights are utilized in a web crawler for crawling web pages to extract information such as biography pages and the like.

Abstract: A method for extracting a structured record (190) from a document (100) is described where the the structured record includes information related to a predetermined subject matter (120), with this information being organized into categories within the structured record. The method comprises the steps of identifying a span of text (130) in the document (100) according to criteria associated with the predetermined subject matter and processing (150) the span of text to extract at least one text element associated with at least one of the categories of the structured record (190) from the document (100).