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.

Cluster analysis finds groups in data automatically. Most methods have been heuristic and leave open such central questions as: how many clusters are there? Which method should I use? How should I handle outliers? Classification assigns new observations to groups given previously classified observations, and also has open questions about parameter tuning, robustness and uncertainty assessment. This book frames cluster analysis and classification in terms of statistical models, thus yielding principled estimation, testing and prediction methods, and sound answers to the central questions. It builds the basic ideas in an accessible but rigorous way, with extensive data examples and R code; describes modern approaches to high-dimensional data and networks; and explains such recent advances as Bayesian regularization, non-Gaussian model-based clustering, cluster merging, variable selection, semi-supervised and robust classification, clustering of functional data, text and images, and co-clustering. Written for advanced undergraduates in data science, as well as researchers and practitioners, it assumes basic knowledge of multivariate calculus, linear algebra, probability and statistics.

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.

This is the first book to take a truly comprehensive look at clustering. It begins with an introduction to cluster analysis and goes on to explore: proximity measures; hierarchical clustering; partition clustering; neural network-based clustering; kernel-based clustering; sequential data clustering; large-scale data clustering; data visualization and high-dimensional data clustering; and cluster validation. The authors assume no previous background in clustering and their generous inclusion of examples and references help make the subject matter comprehensible for readers of varying levels and backgrounds.

Partitioning around medoids (Program PAM). Clustering large applications (Program CLARA). Fuzzy analysis (Program FANNY). Agglomerative Nesting (Program AGNES). Divisive analysis (Program DIANA). Monothetic analysis (Program MONA). Appendix.

Design clever algorithms that discover hidden patterns and draw responses from unstructured, unlabeled data. Key FeaturesBuild state-of-the-art algorithms that can solve your business' problemsLearn how to find hidden patterns in your dataRevise key concepts with hands-on exercises using real-world datasetsBook Description Starting with the basics, Applied Unsupervised Learning with R explains clustering methods, distribution analysis, data encoders, and features of R that enable you to understand your data better and get answers to your most pressing business questions. This book begins with the most important and commonly used method for unsupervised learning - clustering - and explains the three main clustering algorithms - k-means, divisive, and agglomerative. Following this, you'll study market basket analysis, kernel density estimation, principal component analysis, and anomaly detection. You'll be introduced to these methods using code written in R, with further instructions on how to work with, edit, and improve R code. To help you gain a practical understanding, the book also features useful tips on applying these methods to real business problems, including market segmentation and fraud detection. By working through interesting activities, you'll explore data encoders and latent variable models. By the end of this book, you will have a better understanding of different anomaly detection methods, such as outlier detection, Mahalanobis distances, and contextual and collective anomaly detection. What you will learnImplement clustering methods such as k-means, agglomerative, and divisiveWrite code in R to analyze market segmentation and consumer behaviorEstimate distribution and probabilities of different outcomesImplement dimension reduction using principal component analysisApply anomaly detection methods to identify fraudDesign algorithms with R and learn how to edit or improve codeWho this book is for Applied Unsupervised Learning with R is designed for business professionals who want to learn about methods to understand their data better, and developers who have an interest in unsupervised learning. Although the book is for beginners, it will be beneficial to have some basic, beginner-level familiarity with R. This includes an understanding of how to open the R console, how to read data, and how to create a loop. To easily understand the concepts of this book, you should also know basic mathematical concepts, including exponents, square roots, means, and medians.