Handbook Of Cluster Analysis

Handbook of Cluster Analysis provides a comprehensive and unified account of the main research developments in cluster analysis. Written by active, distinguished researchers in this area, the book helps readers make informed choices of the most suitable clustering approach for their problem and make better use of existing cluster analysis tools.The

Although there are several good books on unsupervised machine learning, we felt that many of them are too theoretical. This book provides practical guide to cluster analysis, elegant visualization and interpretation. It contains 5 parts. Part I provides a quick introduction to R and presents required R packages, as well as, data formats and dissimilarity measures for cluster analysis and visualization. Part II covers partitioning clustering methods, which subdivide the data sets into a set of k groups, where k is the number of groups pre-specified by the analyst. Partitioning clustering approaches include: K-means, K-Medoids (PAM) and CLARA algorithms. In Part III, we consider hierarchical clustering method, which is an alternative approach to partitioning clustering. The result of hierarchical clustering is a tree-based representation of the objects called dendrogram. In this part, we describe how to compute, visualize, interpret and compare dendrograms. Part IV describes clustering validation and evaluation strategies, which consists of measuring the goodness of clustering results. Among the chapters covered here, there are: Assessing clustering tendency, Determining the optimal number of clusters, Cluster validation statistics, Choosing the best clustering algorithms and Computing p-value for hierarchical clustering. Part V presents advanced clustering methods, including: Hierarchical k-means clustering, Fuzzy clustering, Model-based clustering and Density-based clustering.

The very significant advances in computer vision and pattern recognition and their applications in the last few years reflect the strong and growing interest in the field as well as the many opportunities and challenges it offers. The second edition of this handbook represents both the latest progress and updated knowledge in this dynamic field. The applications and technological issues are particularly emphasized in this edition to reflect the wide applicability of the field in many practical problems. To keep the book in a single volume, it is not possible to retain all chapters of the first edition. However, the chapters of both editions are well written for permanent reference. This indispensable handbook will continue to serve as an authoritative and comprehensive guide in the field.

The purpose of this book is to thoroughly prepare the reader for applied research in clustering. Cluster analysis comprises a class of statistical techniques for classifying multivariate data into groups or clusters based on their similar features. Clustering is nowadays widely used in several domains of research, such as social sciences, psychology, and marketing, highlighting its multidisciplinary nature. This book provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to clustering and offers practical guidelines for applying clustering tools by carefully chosen real-life datasets and extensive data analyses. The procedures addressed in this book include traditional hard clustering methods and up-to-date developments in soft clustering. Attention is paid to practical examples and applications through the open source statistical software R. Commented R code and output for conducting, step by step, complete cluster analyses are available. The book is intended for researchers interested in applying clustering methods. Basic notions on theoretical issues and on R are provided so that professionals as well as novices with little or no background in the subject will benefit from the book.

Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Handbook organizes all major concepts, theories, methodologies, trends, challenges and applications of data mining (DM) and knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) into a coherent and unified repository. This book first surveys, then provides comprehensive yet concise algorithmic descriptions of methods, including classic methods plus the extensions and novel methods developed recently. This volume concludes with in-depth descriptions of data mining applications in various interdisciplinary industries including finance, marketing, medicine, biology, engineering, telecommunications, software, and security. Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery Handbook is designed for research scientists and graduate-level students in computer science and engineering. This book is also suitable for professionals in fields such as computing applications, information systems management, and strategic research management.

Although clustering--the classification of objects into meaningful sets--is an important procedure in the social sciences today, cluster analysis as a multivariate statistical procedure is poorly understood by many social scientists. This volume is an introduction to cluster analysis for social scientists and students.

The Handbook of Marketing Research: Uses, Misuses, and Future Advances comprehensively explores the approaches for delivering market insights for fact-based decision making in a market-oriented firm. Divided into four parts, the Handbook addresses (1) the different nuances of delivering insights; (2) quantitative, qualitative, and online data gathering techniques; (3) basic and advanced data analysis methods; and (4) the substantial marketing issues that clients are interested in resolving through marketing research.