College of Computer and Information Sciences

Department of Information Technology

Lab 1
Data Mining and Data Warehouse First Semester

Using your Text book, solve the following problems:

1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, and 1.14

1.1. What is data mining? In your answer, address the following:

(a) Is it another hype?
(b) Is it a simple transformation of technology developed from databases, statistics, and machine
learning?
(c) Explain how the evolution of database technology led to data mining.
(d) Describe the steps involved in data mining when viewed as a process of knowledge discovery.
Data mining refers to the process or method that extracts or \mines" interesting knowledge or
patterns from large amounts of data.
(a) Is it another hype?
Data mining is not another hype. Instead, the need for data mining has arisen due to the wide
availability of huge amounts of data and the imminent need for turning such data into useful
information and knowledge. Thus, data mining can be viewed as the result of the natural
evolution of information technology.
(b) Is it a simple transformation of technology developed from databases, statistics, and
machine learning?
No. Data mining is more than a simple transformation of technology developed from
databases, statistics, and machine learning. Instead, data mining involves an integration,
rather than a simple transformation, of techniques from multiple disciplines such as database
technology, statistics, ma chine learning, high-performance computing, pattern recognition,
neural networks, data visualization, information retrieval, image and signal processing, and
spatial data analysis.
(c) Explain how the evolution of database technology led to data mining.
Database technology began with the development of data collection and database creation
mechanisms that led to the development of effective mechanisms for data management
including data storage and retrieval, and query and transaction processing. The large number
of database systems offering query and transaction processing eventually and naturally led to
the need for data analysis and understanding.
Hence, data mining began its development out of this necessity.
(d) Describe the steps involved in data mining when viewed as a process of knowledge
discovery.
The steps involved in data mining when viewed as a process of knowledge discovery are as
follows:
-Data cleaning, a process that removes or transforms noise and inconsistent data
- Data integration, where multiple data sources may be combined
-Data selection, where data relevant to the analysis task are retrieved from the database
-Data transformation, where data are transformed or consolidated into forms appropriate
for mining.
- Data mining, an essential process where intelligent and efficient methods are applied in
order to extract patterns
- Pattern evaluation, a process that identifies the truly interesting patterns representing
knowledge based on some interestingness measures
- Knowledge presentation, where visualization and knowledge representation techniques
are used to present the mined knowledge to the user
- See Figure 1.4 ( Data mining as a step in the process of knowledge discovery. ) page#6

1.2. Present an example where data mining is crucial to the success of a business. What data
mining functions does this business need? Can they be performed alternatively by data query
processing or simple statistical analysis?
Answer:
A department store, for example, can use data mining to assist with its target marketing mail
campaign.
Using data mining functions such as association, the store can use the mined strong
association rules to determine which products bought by one group of customers are likely to
lead to the buying of certain other products. With this information, the store can then mail
marketing materials only to those kinds of customers who exhibit a high likelihood of
purchasing additional products. Data query processing is used for data or information
retrieval and does not have the means for finding association rules. Similarly, simple
statistical analysis cannot handle large amounts of data such as those of customer records in a
department store.

1.4. How is a data warehouse different from a database? How are they similar?
Answer:
- Differences between a data warehouse and a database: A data warehouse is a repository
of information collected from multiple sources, over a history of time, stored under a unified
schema, and used for data analysis and decision support; whereas a database, is a collection
of interrelated data that represents the current status of the stored data. There could be
multiple heterogeneous databases where
the schema of one database may not agree with the schema of another. A database system
supports ad-hoc query and on-line transaction processing. Additional differences are detailed
in Section 3.1.1 (Differences between Operational Databases Systems and Data Warehouses).
- Similarities between a data warehouse and a database: Both are repositories of
information, storing huge amounts of persistent data.

1.5. Briefly describe the following advanced database systems and applications: object
relational databases, spatial databases, text databases, multimedia databases, the World Wide
Web.
Answer:
-An objected-oriented database is designed based on the object-oriented programming
paradigm where data are a large number of objects organized into classes and class
hierarchies. Each entity in the database is considered as an object. The object contains a set
of variables that describe the object, a set of messages that the object can use to communicate
with other objects or with the rest of the database system, and a set of methods where each
method holds the code to implement a message.
- A spatial database contains spatial-related data, which may be represented in the form of
raster or vector data. Raster data consists of n-dimensional bit maps or pixel maps, and
vector data are represented by lines, points, polygons or other kinds of processed primitives,
Some examples of spatial databases include geographical (map) databases, VLSI chip
designs, and medical and satellite images databases.
- A text database is a database that contains text documents or other word descriptions in
the form of long sentences or paragraphs, such as product specifications, error or bug
reports, warning messages, summary reports, notes, or other documents.
-A multimedia database stores images, audio, and video data, and is used in applications
such as picture content-based retrieval, voice-mail systems, video-on-demand systems, the
World Wide Web, and speech-based user interfaces.
-The World Wide Web provides rich, world-wide, on-line information services, where data
objects are linked together to facilitate interactive access. Some examples of distributed
information services associated with the World Wide Web include America Online, Yahoo!,
AltaVista, and Prodigy.

1.6 Define each of the following data mining functionalities:

characterization, discrimination, association and correlation analysis, classification,
prediction, clustering, and evolution analysis.
Give examples of each data mining functionality, using a real-life database
with which you are familiar.

Answer:
- Characterization is a summarization of the general characteristics or features of a target
class of data. For example, the characteristics of students can be produced, generating a
profile of all the University first year computing science students, which may include such
information as a high GPA and large number of courses taken.
- Discrimination is a comparison of the general features of target class data objects with the
general features of objects from one or a set of contrasting classes. For example, the general
features of students with high GPA's may be compared with the general features of students
with low GPA's. The resulting description could be a general comparative profile of the
students such as 75% of the students with high GPA's are fourth-year computing science
students while 65% of the students with low GPA's are not.
- Association is the discovery of association rules showing attribute-value conditions that
occur frequently together in a given set of data. For example, a data mining system may
find association rules like

where X is a variable representing a student. The rule indicates that of the students under
study, 12% (support) major in computing science and own a personal computer. There is a
98% probability (confidence, or certainty) that a student in this group owns a personal
computer.
- Classification differs from prediction in that the former constructs a set of models (or
functions) that describe and distinguish data classes or concepts, whereas the latter builds
a model to predict some missing or unavailable, and often numerical, data values. Their
similarity is that they are both tools for prediction: Classification is used for predicting
the class label of data objects and prediction is typically used for predicting missing
numerical data values.
-Clustering analyzes data objects without consulting a known class label. The objects are
clustered or grouped based on the principle of maximizing the intraclass similarity and
minimizing the interclass similarity. Each cluster that is formed can be viewed as a class of
objects. Clustering can also facilitate taxonomy formation, that is, the organization of
observations into a hierarchy of classes that group similar events together.
-Data evolution analysis describes and models regularities or trends for objects whose
behavior changes over time. Although this may include characterization, discrimination,
association, classification, or clustering of time-related data, distinct features of such an
analysis include time-series data analysis, sequence or periodicity pattern matching, and
similarity-based data analysis.
1.14 Describe three challenges to data mining regarding data mining methodology and user
interaction issues.
Answer:
Challenges to data mining regarding data mining methodology and user interaction issues
include the following: mining different kinds of knowledge in databases, interactive mining
of knowledge at multiple levels of abstraction, incorporation of background knowledge, data
mining query languages and ad hoc data mining, presentation and visualization of data
mining results, handling noisy or incomplete data, and pattern evaluation. Below are the
descriptions of the first three challenges mentioned:
- Mining different kinds of knowledge in databases: Different users are interested in
different kinds of knowledge and will require a wide range of data analysis and knowledge
discovery tasks such as data characterization, discrimination, association, classification,
clustering, trend and deviation analysis, and similarity analysis. Each of these tasks will use
the same database in different ways and will require different data mining techniques.

- Interactive mining of knowledge at multiple levels of abstraction: Interactive mining,

with the use of OLAP operations on a data cube, allows users to focus the search for
patterns, providing and refining data mining requests based on returned results. The user
can then interactively view the data and discover patterns at multiple granularities and
from different angles.
- Incorporation of background knowledge: Background knowledge, or information
regarding the domain under study such as integrity constraints and deduction rules, may be
used to guide the discovery process and allow discovered patterns to be expressed in concise
terms and at different levels of abstraction. This helps to focus and speed up a data mining
process or judge the interestingness of discovered patterns.