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Soft computing for knowledge discovery and data mining
Maimon O., Rokach L., Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., Secaucus, NJ, 2007. Type: Book (9780387699349)
Date Reviewed: Jun 27 2008

A number of subjects related to soft computing for knowledge discovery and data mining are covered in this collection of well-organized papers. This subject is of great importance because of the explosive amount of data that is on the Web, and because of the challenge in discovering knowledge and useful information among this massive amount of data.

The book starts with an introduction to the field of soft computing, which, according to the authors, is a collection of new techniques in artificial intelligence (AI) that exploit a tolerance for imprecision, uncertainty, and partial truth in order to achieve tractability, robustness, and low solution cost. The techniques investigated include artificial neural networks (ANNs), genetic programming and algorithms, and fuzzy logic, in addition to some more recent, advanced developments, such as swarm intelligence, agent technology, frequent-itemset mining, and homogeneity-based algorithms for optimally controlling the error rates in overfitting and overgeneralization to address the classification accuracy issue in data mining.

The main strengths of the book include its organization, its rich collection of references at the end of each chapter, and its coverage of the topic. The book is very well organized, containing 16 chapters organized into five parts. The first chapter, making up Part 1, introduces the overall topic of soft computing for knowledge discovery and data mining. Each of the next four parts covers one of the central themes listed above. Every chapter starts with a summary of a couple of sentences to a few hundred words that clearly lays out the main points of the chapter. The organization of the chapters is fairly uniform, in that readers can find a pattern that is easy to follow. The chapters typically begin with an introduction, followed by discussions of the theme, and often including some examples. Each chapter ends with a very rich collection of references that readers will find useful for pursuing the subject further. The coverage of the topics is appropriate and very informative. The book touches a wide range of application areas as well.

One weakness of the book is its index, which is very sparse, making it very difficult to find any particular piece of information without reading the section(s).

The book is a good reference for scholars as well as practitioners in the field. It could also be used as a textbook in a graduate-level introductory course.

Reviewer:  Xiannong Meng Review #: CR135769 (0904-0335)
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