<p> One of the most common goals of hierarchical clustering is finding those branches of a tree that form quantifiably distinct data subtypes. Achieving this goal in a statistically meaningful way requires (a) a measure of distinctness of a branch and (b) a test to determine the significance of the observed measure, applicable to all branches and across multiple scales of dissimilarity. </p><p> We formulate a method termed Tree Branches Evaluated Statistically for Tightness (TBEST) for identifying significantly distinct tree branches in hierarchical clusters. For each branch of the tree a measure of distinctness, or tightness, is defined as a rational function of heights, both of the branch and of its parent. A statistical procedure is then developed to determine the significance of the observed values of tightness. We test TBEST as a tool for tree-based data partitioning by applying it to five benchmark datasets, one of them synthetic and the other four each from a different area of biology. With each of the five datasets, there is a well-defined partition of the data into classes. In all test cases TBEST performs on par with or better than the existing techniques. </p><p> One dataset uses Cores Of Recurrent Events (CORE) to select features. CORE was developed with my participation in the course of this work. An R language implementation of the method is available from the Comprehensive R Archive Network: cran.r-project.org/web/packages/CORE/index.html. </p><p> Based on our benchmark analysis, TBEST is a tool of choice for detection of significantly distinct branches in hierarchical trees grown from biological data. An R language implementation of the method is available from the Comprehensive R Archive Network: cran.r-project.org/web/packages/TBEST/index.html.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3685086 |
| Date | 10 March 2015 |
| Creators | Sun, Guoli |
| Publisher | State University of New York at Stony Brook |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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