Optimal combination of nested clusters by a greedy approximation algorithm

IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell. 2009 Nov;31(11):2083-7. doi: 10.1109/TPAMI.2009.75.

Abstract

Given a set of clusters, we consider an optimization problem which seeks a subset of clusters that maximizes the microaverage F-measure. This optimal value can be used as an evaluation measure of the goodness of clustering. For arbitrarily overlapping clusters, finding the optimal value is NP-hard. We claim that a greedy approximation algorithm yields the global optimal solution for clusters that overlap only by nesting. We present a mathematical proof of this claim by induction. For a family of n clusters containing a total of N objects, this algorithm has an {\rm O}(n;{2}) time complexity and O(N) space complexity.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Artificial Intelligence*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Decision Support Techniques*
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Pattern Recognition, Automated / methods*