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Main Authors: Turfah, Ali, Wen, Xiaoquan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.15967
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author Turfah, Ali
Wen, Xiaoquan
author_facet Turfah, Ali
Wen, Xiaoquan
contents Cluster analysis is a popular unsupervised learning tool used in many disciplines to identify heterogeneous sub-populations within a sample. However, validating cluster analysis results and determining the number of clusters in a data set remains an outstanding problem. In this work, we present a global criterion called the Distinguishability criterion to quantify the separability of identified clusters and validate inferred cluster configurations. Our computational implementation of the Distinguishability criterion corresponds to the Bayes risk of a randomized classifier under the 0-1 loss. We propose a combined loss function-based computational framework that integrates the Distinguishability criterion with many commonly used clustering procedures, such as hierarchical clustering, k-means, and finite mixture models. We present these new algorithms as well as the results from comprehensive data analysis based on simulation studies and real data applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_15967
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Interpretable Clustering with the Distinguishability Criterion
Turfah, Ali
Wen, Xiaoquan
Machine Learning
Methodology
Cluster analysis is a popular unsupervised learning tool used in many disciplines to identify heterogeneous sub-populations within a sample. However, validating cluster analysis results and determining the number of clusters in a data set remains an outstanding problem. In this work, we present a global criterion called the Distinguishability criterion to quantify the separability of identified clusters and validate inferred cluster configurations. Our computational implementation of the Distinguishability criterion corresponds to the Bayes risk of a randomized classifier under the 0-1 loss. We propose a combined loss function-based computational framework that integrates the Distinguishability criterion with many commonly used clustering procedures, such as hierarchical clustering, k-means, and finite mixture models. We present these new algorithms as well as the results from comprehensive data analysis based on simulation studies and real data applications.
title Interpretable Clustering with the Distinguishability Criterion
topic Machine Learning
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.15967