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Density-based Silhouette diagnostics for clustering methods

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Abstract

Silhouette information evaluates the quality of the partition detected by a clustering technique. Since it is based on a measure of distance between the clustered observations, its standard formulation is not adequate when a density-based clustering technique is used. In this work we propose a suitable modification of the Silhouette information aimed at evaluating the quality of clusters in a density-based framework. It is based on the estimation of the data posterior probabilities of belonging to the clusters and may be used to measure our confidence about data allocation to the clusters as well as to choose the best partition among different ones.

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  1. Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Trieste, P.le Europa, 1, Trieste, Italy

    Giovanna Menardi

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  1. Giovanna Menardi
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Correspondence to Giovanna Menardi.

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Menardi, G. Density-based Silhouette diagnostics for clustering methods. Stat Comput 21, 295–308 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11222-010-9169-0

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