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. This paper shows that the accuracy of learned text classifiers can be improved by augmenting a small number of labeled training documents with a large pool of unlabeled documents. This is important because in many text classification problems obtaining training labels is expensive, while large quantities of unlabeled documents are readily available. We introduce an algorithm for learning from labeled and unlabeled documents based on the combination of Expectation-Maximization (EM) and a naive Bayes classifier. The algorithm first trains a classifier using the available labeled documents, and probabilistically labels the unlabeled documents. It then trains a new classifier using the labels for all the documents, and iterates to convergence. This basic EM procedure works well when the data conform to the generative assumptions of the model. However these assumptions are often violated in practice, and poor performance can result. We present two extensions to the algorithm that improve ...

Data mining applications place special requirements on clustering algorithms including: the ability to find clusters embedded in subspaces of high dimensional data, scalability, end-user comprehensibility of the results, non-presumption of any canonical data distribution, and insensitivity to the order of input records. We present CLIQUE, a clustering algorithm that satisfies each of these requirements. CLIQUE identifies dense clusters in subspaces of maximum dimensionality. It generates cluster descriptions in the form of DNF expressions that are minimized for ease of comprehension. It produces identical results irrespective of the order in which input records are presented and does not presume any specific mathematical form for data distribution. Through experiments, we show that CLIQUE efficiently finds accurate clusters in large high dimensional datasets.

Mining information and knowledge from large databases has been recognized by many researchers as a key research topic in database systems and machine learning, and by many industrial companies as an important area with an opportunity of major revenues. Researchers in many different fields have shown great interest in data mining. Several emerging applications in information providing services, such as data warehousing and on-line services over the Internet, also call for various data mining techniques to better understand user behavior, to improve the service provided, and to increase the business opportunities. In response to such a demand, this article is to provide a survey, from a database researcher's point of view, on the data mining techniques developed recently. A classification of the available data mining techniques is provided and a comparative study of such techniques is presented.

Abstract. This paper presents a novel statistical method for factor analysis of binary and count data which is closely related to a technique known as Latent Semantic Analysis. In contrast to the latter method which stems from linear algebra and performs a Singular Value Decomposition of co-occurrence tables, the proposed technique uses a generative latent class model to perform a probabilistic mixture decomposition. This results in a more principled approach with a solid foundation in statistical inference. More precisely, we propose to make use of a temperature controlled version of the Expectation Maximization algorithm for model fitting, which has shown excellent performance in practice. Probabilistic Latent Semantic Analysis has many applications, most prominently in information retrieval, natural language processing, machine learning from text, and in related areas. The paper presents perplexity results for different types of text and linguistic data collections and discusses an application in automated document indexing. The experiments indicate substantial and consistent improvements of the probabilistic method over standard Latent Semantic Analysis.

■ Data mining and knowledge discovery in databases have been attracting a significant amount of research, industry, and media attention of late. What is all the excitement about? This article provides an overview of this emerging field, clarifying how data mining and knowledge discovery in databases are related both to each other and to related fields, such as machine learning, statistics, and databases. The article mentions particular real-world applications, specific data-mining techniques, challenges involved in real-world applications of knowledge discovery, and current and future research directions in the field. Across a wide variety of fields, data are

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Practical clustering algorithms require multiple data scans to achieve convergence. For large databases, these scans become prohibitively expensive. We present a scalable clustering framework applicable to a wide class of iterative clustering. We require at most one scan of the database. In this work, the framework is instantiated and numerically justified with the popular K-Means clustering algorithm. The method is based on identifying regions of the data that are compressible, regions that must be maintained in memory, and regions that are discardable. The algorithm operates within the confines of a limited memory buffer. Empirical results demonstrate that the scalable scheme outperforms a sampling-based approach. In our scheme, data resolution is preserved to the extent possible based upon the size of the allocated memory buffer and the fit of current clustering model to the data. The framework is naturally extended to update multiple clustering models simultaneously. We empirically evaluate on synthetic and publicly available data sets.

In recent years there has been a flurry of works on learning Bayesian networks from data. One of the hard problems in this area is how to effectively learn the structure of a belief network from incomplete data---that is, in the presence of missing values or hidden variables. In a recent paper, I introduced an algorithm called Structural EM that combines the standard Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm, which optimizes parameters, with structure search for model selection. That algorithm learns networks based on penalized likelihood scores, which include the BIC/MDL score and various approximations to the Bayesian score. In this paper, I extend Structural EM to deal directly with Bayesian model selection. I prove the convergence of the resulting algorithm and show how to apply it for learning a large class of probabilistic models, including Bayesian networks and some variants thereof.

Practical approaches to clustering use an iterative procedure (e.g. K-Means, EM) which converges to one of numerous local minima. It is known that these iterative techniques are especially sensitive to initial starting conditions. We present a procedure for computing a refined starting condition from a given initial one that is based on an efficient technique for estimating the modes of a distribution. The refined initial starting condition allows the iterative algorithm to converge to a "better" local minimum. The procedure is applicable to a wide class of clustering algorithms for both discrete and continuous data. We demonstrate the application of this method to the popular K-Means clustering algorithm and show that refined initial starting points indeed lead to improved solutions. Refinement run time is considerably lower than the time required to cluster the full database. The method is scalable and can be coupled with a scalable clustering algorithm to address the large-scale cl...