An Introduction to Classification and Clustering
Barry J. Everitt, Sabine Landau, Morven Leese, Daniel R. Stahl · Wiley series in probability and statistics · 2011
Classification, in its widest sense, is needed for the development of language, which consists of words that help to recognize and discusses the different types of events, objects and people. The classification has two main aims. The first is the prediction-separating diseases that require different treatments. The second is to provide a basis for research into aetiology- the causes of different types of disease. This chapter aims to provide objective and stable classifications. Objective in the sense that the analysis of the same set of organisms by the same sequence of numerical methods produces the same classification; stable in that the classification remains the same under a wide variety of additions of organisms or of new characteristics describing them. It describes briefly a number of applications of cluster analysis reported in some of these disciplines. Controlled Vocabulary Terms cluster analysis