This volume was born from the experience of the authors as researchers and educators,whichsuggeststhatmanystudentsofdataminingarehandicapped in their research by the lack of a formal, systematic education in its mat- matics. The data mining literature contains many excellent titles that address the needs of users with a variety of interests ranging from decision making to p- tern investigation in biological data. However, these books do not deal with the mathematical tools that are currently needed by data mining researchers and doctoral students. We felt it timely to produce a book that integrates the mathematics of data mining with its applications. We emphasize that this book is about mathematical tools for data mining and not about data mining itself; despite this, a substantial amount of applications of mathematical c- cepts in data mining are presented. The book is intended as a reference for the working data miner. In our opinion, three areas of mathematics are vital for data mining: set theory,includingpartially orderedsetsandcombinatorics;linear algebra,with its many applications in principal component analysis and neural networks; and probability theory, which plays a foundational role in statistics, machine learning and data mining. Thisvolumeisdedicatedtothestudyofset-theoreticalfoundationsofdata mining. Two further volumes are contemplated that will cover linear algebra and probability theory. The ?rst part of this book, dedicated to set theory, begins with a study of functionsandrelations.Applicationsofthesefundamentalconceptstosuch- sues as equivalences and partitions are discussed. Also, we prepare the ground for the following volumes by discussing indicator functions, ?elds and?-?elds, and other concepts.
The maturing of the field of data mining has brought about an increased level of mathematical sophistication. Such disciplines like topology, combinatorics, partially ordered sets and their associated algebraic structures (lattices and Boolean algebras), and metric spaces are increasingly applied in data mining research. This book presents these mathematical foundations of data mining integrated with applications to provide the reader with a comprehensive reference.
Mathematics is presented in a thorough and rigorous manner offering a detailed explanation of each topic, with applications to data mining such as frequent item sets, clustering, decision trees also being discussed. More than 400 exercises are included and they form an integral part of the material. Some of the exercises are in reality supplemental material and their solutions are included. The reader is assumed to have a knowledge of elementary analysis.
Features and topics:
? Study of functions and relations
? Applications are provided throughout
? Presents graphs and hypergraphs
? Covers partially ordered sets, lattices and Boolean algebras
? Finite partially ordered sets
? Focuses on metric spaces
? Includes combinatorics
? Discusses the theory of the Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension of collections of sets
This wide-ranging, thoroughly detailed volume is self-contained and intended for researchers and graduate students, and will prove an invaluable reference tool.
