Title: Case studies in divisive hierarchical clustering

Authors: Paulo Rogério Nietto; Maria Do Carmo Nicoletti

Addresses: Faculdade Campo Limpo Paulista (FACCAMP), C.L. Paulista, SP, Brazil ' Faculdade Campo Limpo Paulista (FACCAMP), C.L. Paulista, SP, Brazil; Computer Science Department, Universidade Federal de S. Carlos, SP, Brazil

Abstract: Hierarchical clustering algorithms can be characterised as agglomerative or divisive. Divisive clustering algorithms are not as popular as agglomerative, due to the complexity involved in their processes. The divisive algorithm DIvisive ANAlysis (DIANA) was proposed as an attempt to minimise the computational complexity embedded in divisive algorithms. This work focuses on an empirical comparative analysis of clustering results obtained by four algorithms, DIANA, k-means, EM and farthest first, in nine sets of patterns having different characteristics. Taking into account the sets of patterns used in the experiments, in general, the clusterings induced by the DIANA algorithm are an indication that the bisection strategy employed by the algorithm can produce clustering entirely different from those produced by the other three algorithms. Its splits are performed recursively down the clustering hierarchy, in a greedy way - once it is done, there is no way back to restore a previous cluster.

Keywords: clustering; divisive hierarchical clustering algorithms; DIANA algorithm.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICA.2017.084893

International Journal of Innovative Computing and Applications, 2017 Vol.8 No.2, pp.102 - 112

Received: 22 Dec 2016
Accepted: 24 Dec 2016
Published online: 08 Jul 2017 *

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