Data Mining Solutions: Methods and Tools for Solving Real-World Problems

Book Description

Cutting-edge data mining techniques and tools for solving your toughest analytical problems

Data Mining Solutions

In down-to-earth language, data mining experts Christopher Westphal and Teresa Blaxton introduce a brand new approach to data mining analysis. Through their extensive real-world experience, they have developed and documented many practical and proven techniques to make your own data mining efforts more successful. You'll get a refreshing "out-of-the-box" approach to data mining that will help you maximize your time and problem-solving resources, and prepare for the next wave of data mining-visualization. You will read about ways in which data mining has been used to:
* Discover patterns of insider trading in the stock market
* Evaluate the utility of marketing campaigns
* Analyze retail sales patterns across geographic regions
* Identify money laundering operations
* Target DNA sequences for pharmaceutical testing and development

The book is accompanied by a CD-ROM that contains:
* Demo and trial versions of numerous visual data mining tools
* Active web-page links for each of the products profiled
* GIF files corresponding to all book images

Customer Reviews:

A good introduction to data mining.......1999-03-02

I think this is one of the best books on data mining. The book covers whole range of issues related to data mining and it makes the book in a way unique since you will find it extremely difficult to find another source that is as comprehensive as Data Mining Solutions. Although data mining is a quite complicated process, the book is easy to read. Authors maintain nice flow of ideas through out the book. Now the strong and weak things about the book will follow.

Things I particularly liked in the book:

· Excellent introduction to the topic. I have tried other sources on data mining and this book is by far the most comprehensive and easy to understand.

· An extremely good blend of theory and practice. Authors seem to be very experienced in dealing with various data mining issues. Solutions and examples from telecommunications, fraud detection and other areas show how the theoretical background can be applied to real life problems.

· Authors cover not only the processes of data preparation and analysis but also explain the ways of presenting the results which I think is crucial thing to one's success.

· Authors try not to over-emphasize the power of various data mining techniques. You will find explanations of pros & cons for each of the techniques and suggestions on when to use them with the most success.

· The book includes a good coverage of data mining tools (software) that will help you once you decide to apply data mining techniques to real world problems.

Things that you might miss:

· Sometimes figures lack description so it takes some time to understand what authors have meant.

· Sometimes you might want deeper description of topics covered.

Overall, I think this is a really good book on data mining, especially for newcomers. The book gives a broad understanding of various data mining areas and it definitely can serve as a good starting point for gaining more benefit out of the existing databases in your business. I give five stars out of five.

A practical resource to read before you start data mining........1999-02-09

Data mining is an important segment of computer science that is growing in popularity. It is also diverging into many different branches. As a developer of shareware that targets quantitative data mining solutions, I purchased this book to improve my understanding of the full data mining market. This book helped me understand where our software fits into the bigger picture and more importantly the detail in the book has provided us with some worthwhile new ways to improve our software. Additionally, it is the only book available that covers the spectrum of visual data mining methods and systems.

For the ordinary person, a book such as this is a good place to start data mining. To achieve anything useful with data mining, you first need to get an idea of what you are trying to achieve and how you are going to achieve it. Without this background knowledge you are more than likely going to waste a lot of valuable time and quite a lot of money on the expensive tools that service the market.

Data Mining Solutions will help you get on the right path as it has a good blend of academic detail, software overviews and most importantly it gives practical details as to why you might want to use data mining in the first place. There are also some quite interesting insights into issues like fraud, which add some drama to the computer-related discussions.

The usual approach taken in computing is to first purchase the product and then learn the science. For data mining, this purchase should be preceded by some practical background reading from a resource such as this. I highly recommend this book as a place to start your voyages of data mining discovery.

Good intro to data visualization for novices........1999-02-03

Westphal and Blaxton do a good job of introducing data mining concepts, but focus too heavily on data visualization techniques. A large chunk of the book is devoted to tool walk throughs, information that will be outdated soon. The case studies cover several industries, but fail to show the authors' methodology in action. The greatest shortcoming is the EXTREMELY brief discussion on neural networks, genetic algorithms and other non-visual analytic methods. If you are a beginner in data visualization, buy this book. Anyone looking for in depth (or even an intro) discussion on AI and statistics, look elsewhere.

Innovative practical guide to visual data mining methods.......1998-10-26

This practical guide to visual data mining strategies for networks, hierarchies, temporal data, and landscapes is the best I have seen. The realistic examples from financial fraud detection, telecommunications network analysis, retail sales, bio-informatics, etc. reveal the remarkable power of these novel techniques. The authors guide readers through the process of data preparation, analysis, and discovery with numerous figures from many of the rapidly emerging commercial systems. If you have important data that you must understand, you'll benefit from this book.

Book Description

Randall Germain explores the changing political economy of finance at the global level. He relates changes in global finance to wider changes in the organization of the international economy, and considers how commercial and investment banks have responded institutionally to these changes. Changes in the institutional organization of credit have rendered traditional policy instruments for controlling credit less useful today than in the past. Germain thus argues that the international organization of credit is likely to be relatively unstable into the twenty-first century, and the role of states within the global credit system will be precarious.

Average customer rating:
Obscenity and Public Morality Censorship in a Liberal Society
Harry M. Clor
Manufacturer: U. Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000RUSO2O

Average customer rating:
Obscenity and Public Morality: Censorship in a Liberal Society
Harry M. Clor
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Textbook Binding
ASIN: 0226110338

Average customer rating:
Obscenity and Public Morality: Censorship in a Liberal Society.
Harry M. CLOR
Manufacturer: The University of Chicago Press, 1969.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JWC7BY

Average customer rating:
Obscenity and Public Morality Censorship in a Liberal Society
Clor Harry M
Manufacturer: The University of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LCES46

Average customer rating:
Obscenity and Public Morality: Censorship in a Liberal Society
Henry M. Clor
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OP2YZA

Book Description

This issue is addressed to researchers dealing with seismic studies as the result of an interactive process as part of macroseismic approaches and an a-priori determination of the elements if the territory is involved in the seismic risk evaluation. The significant features which distinguish the work can be identified in the use of new methods for the evaluation of the damage scenarios of historical earthquakes (the local intensity virtual distribution); the adoption of a quick procedure of 2nd level seismic microzonation, depicted on a reduced number of parameters and in situ surveys; the characterization of an innovative seismic vulnerability evaluation procedure based on the analyses of the safety reducers and social priority levels of the elements of territory. The proposed studies, carried out in Sicily and Calabria (Italy), define an operative level of approaches aimed at engineering and civil protection applications.

Book Description

In fabrication of FeRAMs, various academic and technological backgrounds are necessary, which include ferroelectric materials, thin film formation, device physics, circuit design, and so on. This book covers from fundamentals to applications of ferroelectric random access memories (FeRAMs). The book consists of 5 parts: (1) ferroelectric thin films, (2) deposition and characterization methods, (3) fabrication process and circuit design, (4) advanced-type memories, and (5) applications and future prospects; each part is further divided into several chapters. Because of the wide range of topics discussed, each chapter in this book was written by one of the best authors knowing the specific topic very well. Thus, this is a good introductory book on FeRAM for graduate students and newcomers to this field; it also helps specialists to understand FeRAMs more deeply.

Average customer rating:

Fun rated R book

Not Kinky's usual fare, but still tasty

"Everything comes out in the wash if you use enough Tide."

Captivating

The title is the best part of this book...

Kill Two Birds & Get Stoned: A Novel
Kinky Friedman
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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The Prisoner of Vandam Street: A Novel

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ASIN: 0060935286
Release Date: 2004-04-13

Book Description

Walter Snow is doomed. He stares at the blank pages in his typewriter, hoping for the spark that will finally ignite his ambition to write the Great Armenian Novel.

And then he meets Clyde Potts. She is beautiful, intelligent, charming, perhaps psychic, and, for better or worse, very possibly unbalanced. With Potts's joie de vivre and her certified-insane partner in crime, Fox Harris, Snow is caught up in a series of pranks against corporate sprawl that they execute with a bit of booze and some wacky tobaccy from Australia known as Malabimbi Madness.

Things quickly spin out of control as the trio's ultimate, diuretically inspired prank leads to an unexpected, shocking conclusion, and Walter is left to wonder if the only things you ever keep in this life are the things you let slip through your fingers.

Customer Reviews:

Fun rated R book.......2007-08-04

this book is pretty quick moving and has the ability to reach into your own subconcious, if you feel out of the mainstream then check out this baby, its hilarious and will connect to your own feelings of hatred towards starbucks, haah yeah its good. though it does fall into the category of stupid protagonists that ask way too many questions, which makes me feel that the author expects me to need the questions answered to follow the story; instead of expecting the reader to HAVE A BRAIN.

Not Kinky's usual fare, but still tasty.......2006-09-26

I'm a huge fan of the Kinkster and have read most of his detective novels. This book deviates from that path, but brings along enough deviates to make it work. Kinky's wordplay is more creative in some of the mysteries, but I liked this plot. And I liked Walter Snow: I sensed levels to him that I want to explore. Maybe he'll make a comeback... he could bump into the Kinkster at a Chinese restaurant and hire the Kinkster to locate Clyde, who of course is no longer living off the coast of Brazil, etc.

"Everything comes out in the wash if you use enough Tide.".......2004-12-27

WOW!,what a read.
Kinky has put together his best book yet.There are a great bunch of lines in this story.Typical of Kinky,you'll find several on one page and then he'll go several pages before laying on a few more.At times, it seems like he writes while riding a rollercoaster.Not all rollercoasters have to have wheels,you know-I wonder what kind Kinky rides?

Here's some of Kinky,s wisdom to chew on:

"Man cannot live on bagles alone."

"How you wear what you wear is everything."

"There was a bathroom big enough for a midget without any
dreams."

"Don't you know that when you capture something in words,you
make it disappear?"

"The only things you ever really keep in this life,are the
things you let slip through your fingers."

"This woman was a ticket for the train to Hell."

"It's always easier to get into a mental hospital,than it is
to get out of one."

"It's seldom a good sign when the bartender's drunker than
the patrons."

"That's also why,if you like the book,you should never meet
the author."

Just in case you've spent the last year in some faraway land ,
you might be unaware that the Kingster is running for
Governor of the State of Texas.Check out on the Web under
Kinky Friedman for Governor.At least with Kinky as Governor
you'll know where he stands,and he'll tell it to you like it
is.Maybe he'll put his friend Willie in charge of ATF and
bring back his new friend Clyde from Moro de Sao Paulo ,off
the coast of Brazil ,and put her in charge of States
Initatives.That ought to wake up the Establishment.
Kinky was a guest on Larry King a couple of weeks ago and
served notice that things are going to change when he gets
elected.

Captivating.......2004-12-11

Once again the Kinkster successfuly ventures into another world. A place far removed from the bizarre detective and his insane group to an intense writer searching for inspiration not found in a bottle. The outrageous adventures are "out there" but if one pays attention you get the sense that Mr. Snow is not as superficial as he seems at first glance. I couldn't put the book down, I was keenly interested in finding out if his relationship with Clyde ever went beyond the pleasures of a solo act!

The title is the best part of this book..........2004-11-01

I love the title--it's worthy of one of the funniest, most intelligent people I have ever met only one time (that would be Kinky--I had the priviledge of meeting him at a book signing in NYC). I love Kinky Friedman. Were I a female, I would probably consider compromising my virture for a vigorous roll in the hay with him but paradoxically, I really hated this book. It's not the worst book I ever read but it's one of those books where you read for 15 pages and suddenly become aware that some significant event has occurred but you were so bored you didn't even notice. Out of my loyalty to the Kinkster, of whom I have been a fan since the Jewboy days, I read the book to the end but once I closed the book, I felt like I had to shower to remove the overpowering odor of the mildewy plot.

Speaking of the Jewboys, I wish Kinky's sidekick Jewford would write a book. That boy's funny.

Average customer rating:

Dissappointed

Mycenaean Warriors

Very simplified reconstructions

Great Reference Book

Illustrations are leagues ahead of Macedonian Warrior

The Mycenaeans c.1650-1100 BC (Elite)
Nicolas Grguric
Manufacturer: Osprey Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Greece | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | Greece | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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Bronze Age War Chariots (New Vanguard)

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Macedonian Warrior: Alexander's Elite Infantryman (Warrior)

Sassanian Elite Cavalry AD 224-642 (Elite)

ASIN: 1841768979
Release Date: 2005-09-10

Book Description

The timeless appeal of Homer's epic poem of the ancient TrojanWar, The Iliad, has meant an eduring interest in the Mycenaen age. Modern scholarship and new archaeological evidence now allows us to recontruct with reasonable confidence the appearance of this great warrior civilization, which dominated much of the eastern Mediterranean between the 16th and 12th centuries BC. We can also make deductions, from the few surviving pictorial sources, about the tactics of these armies. This absorbing text is illustrated with examples of the archaeological and pictorial evidence, and with striking colour reconstructions of light and heavy infantry and chariot warriors of the Mycenaean age.

Customer Reviews:

Dissappointed.......2007-09-20

Based on the price and title, I thought there would be a lot more from this book. Unfortunately, I didn't read the description. If all you want is to know about warfare in this culture in this time, then this is your book. If you thought, like me, that it would be about the culture in a wider range, it's not.

You can find probably 20 books with more info on this same material, cheaper, if you keep looking.

Mycenaean Warriors.......2007-04-02

This book tackles a tough topic-contemporaries of the ancient Egyptians, Hittites, and Israelites who left little written evidence of their own history behind. Nonetheless, from a combination of archaeology and pictoral evidence from the Mycenaeans themselves, the author and Angus McBride both paint a convincing picture of these obviously formidable warriors, forefathers of the Greeks.

Very simplified reconstructions.......2007-03-21

The Achaean warriors reconstrutions are very generic and simplified. The books laks in several important findigs and art representations (pottery, fresco, sculpture) of armour/corselets elements, weapons, shields, helmets etc... coming from the Late Helladic time.
No accurate and detailed research has been made for this book.

Great Reference Book.......2007-03-04

I teach Ancient History and Ancient Literature. I find the book to be of great help in bringing students to an understanding of Mycenaean warfare. I was a bit disappointed in the art depicting the later Mycenaean Age, but all in all, very helpful.

Illustrations are leagues ahead of Macedonian Warrior.......2006-04-26

I have this volume, and while possibly not quite McBride's top effort, on his worst day he is eons ahead of Christa Hook, the "illustrator" for Macedonian Warrior. Folks, if you want an example of shoddy artistic effort, compare Macedonian Warrior to The Mycenaeans. Those here critical of Angus McBride will quickly change their minds. As a professional illustrator I don't enjoy flaying the work of other artists, but her work is dreadful.

On the other hand, I found The Mycenaeans illustrations to be good, and find no problem with the technique or color. The work complements what I had in mind of the period.

Average customer rating:

Fermor's a great writer but this isn't his best

The Traveller's Tree: Island-Hopping Through the Caribbean in the 1940's
Patrick Leigh Fermor
Manufacturer: Narrative Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

19th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
Expeditions & Discoveries | World | History | Subjects | Books
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A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube (New York Review Books Classics)

Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates (New York Review Books Classics)

Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece (New York Review Books Classics)

Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese (New York Review Books Classics)

The Violins of Saint-Jacques

ASIN: 1589762487

Download Description

Find out what might make a cannibal eat his meal in depressed silence in Fermor's narrative of his experiences wandering around the Caribbean in the 1940's.

Customer Reviews:

Fermor's a great writer but this isn't his best.......2005-05-13

I love Patrick Leigh Fermor. His book "A Time of Gifts" about his travels in the 1930's across Europe mostly walking was what got me interested in travel writing in the first place. And "A TIme of Gifts" is still the best travel book I have ever read.

This is not his best, though since it is Fermor, it is still very, very good. One of the problems is that Fermor is travelling to check off places visited. There is a little of the "If it's Tuesday, I must be in Belgium" frame of mind. Too many islands, in too little time. There are excellent descriptions of a few things like the history of some of the islands and voodoo. But this book lacks the depth of "A Time of Gifts" or "Between the Woods and the Water".

Also, Fermor is travelling with companions rather than alone like the above books. This means that he doesn't meet and get intimately acquainted with the people in the places he visits. When you are travelling with people, you converse with them and bounce ideas off of them rather than the strangers you come in contact with. And the interesting person who might invite you to his home if you were alone won't if you are with a group.

Part of the problem lies with the Caribbean islands themselves. This was a time when there were no cruise ships, tourism or Club Meds. Also, World War II had meant years of no involvement with the wider world.

Anyway, this book read slowly and was not as insightful as Fermor's other books, and I really did not find much other than the history that really seemed to have anything to do with the Caribbean islands I have experienced.

Book Description

This edition of Rosner's text offers a mastery of methods most often used in medical research with specific reference to actual medical literature and actual medical research. The approach minimizes mathematical formulation yet gives complete explanations of all important concepts. Every new concept is systematically developed through completely worked-out examples from current medical research problems. Computer output is used to illustrate concepts when appropriate.

Customer Reviews:

The backwards book for biostatistics.......2007-03-23

At the time I was taking bio-statistics for my MPH at Harvard School of Public Health, a friend was taking a different class using this book. I ended up buying it, but only as a reference. Althought the material is all here, the organization is scrambled with theory intermixed with the example that starts the topic discussion - some may like this, but personally it drives me crazy. At the end of the semester, I had a wonderful grasp of statistics, and my friend was pulling his hair out. One real plus of this book is that the index includes the clinical examples that generate the discussion, so I do use this book as a reference for "like-problems".

My Prof had trouble understanding the book!.......2006-12-18

My prof had us buy this book for an intro stats class for grad school. She didn't know how good it would be, but thought it applied to our health policy program. This book was not very good. At one point even our prof said she did not like the book and thought the practice questions were unclear at times. Unless your prof forces you to use this book, I would look at easier books (this is not good for a basic stats class). We also used SAS and this book wasn't any help with that portion of the course. It was not worth the $110 price tag. If you are a prof looking for a stats book, please don't select this one (the price alone is crazy).

Poor layout.......2006-11-10

I was assigned this text for my biostatistics class. Unfortunately, it is a poorly designed textbook, as everything is 'backwards'. Rosner gives examples before he introduces the material; he derives formulas before giving the real equation to use.
The only good thing about the text are the summaries included on the CD-rom. I have decided to read these instead of the actual text, because they are straightforward and leave out extraneous material.

Awesome Biostats Primer!.......2006-02-01

I'm currently an undergraduate student at Univ. South Florida majoring in social work (BSW). I am also doing a math minor because I plan on going on to graduate school in a dual program, social work (MSW) and public health-biostatistics (MSPH).

Having read through the first five chapters (can't put the book down), I found this textbook gives just enough information on the subject matter without going into math theory. Afterall, biostatistics is an applied field not theoretical.

This is a perfect textbook to get primed in the field of biostatistics. I cannot wait to finish this text and learn more theory and history of the many facets that biostatistics has to offer as it relates to the behavioral sciences.

The one drawback about the book is that it does not offer much on how to use a statistical analysis software package, rather it assumes knowledge in this area and just provides the data sets used in the book. A supplimental workbook for this text on the after mentioned topic would be wonderful.

Fundamentals of Biostatistics by Rosner.......2005-11-17

This is an easy-to-read volume on the implementation of statistics for medicinal applications. The author describes the following:

- measures of location i.e. medium white blood counts
- properties of the standard deviation and special case analyses
- graphic methods
- laws of probability
- gynecological problems
- demographic problems and inference
- hypothesis testing and confidence interval analysis
- goodness of fit for regression problems

This work would have a wide audience of readers throughout the
medical world. It is priced reasonably for consumer-conscious
purchasers. The author provides a rendition geared to practitioners. Much of the work is crafted for technical
analysis by professionals , as opposed to theoretical mathematics. For instance, the volume is useful to confirm
medical hypotheses within predefined confidence intervals.

Some reviewers have indicated that the later part of the text
is complicated. For instance, the t-distribution and estimation
techniques may require a simpler explanation. In college, I took
nine reasonably rigorous courses in higher mathematics.
During those courses, I found that the Schaum's Outlines were
good in the areas of calculus, differential equations,
linear algebra, probability and statistical inference. Each
outline provided nearly 1000 solved problems with both theory
and practice explained comprehensively. Students of the Rosner
text would be helped immensely by the Schaum's Outline Series.
This acquisition is still quite good for the price charged.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from World Watch, published by Worldwatch Institute on September 1, 1993. The length of the article is 1253 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Greenpeace Guide to Anti-Environmental Organizations. (book reviews)
Author: Carla Atkinson
Publication: World Watch (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 1, 1993
Publisher: Worldwatch Institute
Volume: v6 Issue: n5 Page: p37(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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