An automatic technique to determine cluster number for complex biologic datasets
Wu Xiaojun · China Journal of Bioinformatics · 2010
The number of cluster,which is generally determined manually,is a critical parameter affecting the effectiveness of clustering.So the clustering techniques are not applicable in some complex biologic datasets that are difficult to get such apriori information.To overcome this problem,an automatic technique to determine the optimal cluster number was proposed in this paper.The significant calculation is implemented by an optimization algorithm that utilizes the reformulated objective function that reflects the idea of compactness of intra-cluster and separation of inter-cluster,and then the optimal cluster number is determined by using the maximum criteria of second order difference of objective function.The simulated tests show that the new method can automatically and properly get the cluster number for complex datasets.