Subject ▸ classification

DESPOTA (DEndogram Slicing through a PermutatiOn Test Approach) is a novel approach exploiting permutation tests in order to automatically detect a partition among those embedded in a dendrogram. Unlike the traditional approach, DESPOTA includes in the search space also partitions not corresponding to horizontal cuts of the dendrogram. The output of hierarchical clustering methods is typically displayed as a dendrogram describing a family of nested partitions. However, the exploitable partitions are usually restricted to those relying on horizontal cuts of the tree, missing the possibility to explore the whole set of partitions housed in the dendrogram.