12 Unsupervised Learning

12.1 Conceptual

12.1.1 Question 1

This problem involves the \(K\)-means clustering algorithm.

1. Prove (12.18).

2. On the basis of this identity, argue that the \(K\)-means clustering algorithm (Algorithm 12.2) decreases the objective (12.17) at each iteration.

12.1.2 Question 2

Suppose that we have four observations, for which we compute a dissimilarity matrix, given by

\[\begin{bmatrix} & 0.3 & 0.4 & 0.7 \\ 0.3 & & 0.5 & 0.8 \\ 0.4 & 0.5 & & 0.45 \\ 0.7 & 0.8 & 0.45 & \\ \end{bmatrix}\]

For instance, the dissimilarity between the first and second observations is 0.3, and the dissimilarity between the second and fourth observations is 0.8.

1. On the basis of this dissimilarity matrix, sketch the dendrogram that results from hierarchically clustering these four observations using complete linkage. Be sure to indicate on the plot the height at which each fusion occurs, as well as the observations corresponding to each leaf in the dendrogram.

2. Repeat (a), this time using single linkage clustering.

3. Suppose that we cut the dendrogram obtained in (a) such that two clusters result. Which observations are in each cluster?

4. Suppose that we cut the dendrogram obtained in (b) such that two clusters result. Which observations are in each cluster?

5. It is mentioned in the chapter that at each fusion in the dendrogram, the position of the two clusters being fused can be swapped without changing the meaning of the dendrogram. Draw a dendrogram that is equivalent to the dendrogram in (a), for which two or more of the leaves are repositioned, but for which the meaning of the dendrogram is the same.

12.1.3 Question 3

In this problem, you will perform \(K\)-means clustering manually, with \(K = 2\), on a small example with \(n = 6\) observations and \(p = 2\) features. The observations are as follows.

Obs.	\(X_1\)	\(X_2\)
1	1	4
2	1	3
3	0	4
4	5	1
5	6	2
6	4	0

1. Plot the observations.

2. Randomly assign a cluster label to each observation. You can use the sample() command in R to do this. Report the cluster labels for each observation.

3. Compute the centroid for each cluster.

4. Assign each observation to the centroid to which it is closest, in terms of Euclidean distance. Report the cluster labels for each observation.

5. Repeat (c) and (d) until the answers obtained stop changing.

6. In your plot from (a), color the observations according to the cluster labels obtained.

12.1.4 Question 4

Suppose that for a particular data set, we perform hierarchical clustering using single linkage and using complete linkage. We obtain two dendrograms.

1. At a certain point on the single linkage dendrogram, the clusters {1, 2, 3} and {4, 5} fuse. On the complete linkage dendrogram, the clusters {1, 2, 3} and {4, 5} also fuse at a certain point. Which fusion will occur higher on the tree, or will they fuse at the same height, or is there not enough information to tell?

2. At a certain point on the single linkage dendrogram, the clusters {5} and {6} fuse. On the complete linkage dendrogram, the clusters {5} and {6} also fuse at a certain point. Which fusion will occur higher on the tree, or will they fuse at the same height, or is there not enough information to tell?

12.1.5 Question 5

In words, describe the results that you would expect if you performed \(K\)-means clustering of the eight shoppers in Figure 12.16, on the basis of their sock and computer purchases, with \(K = 2\). Give three answers, one for each of the variable scalings displayed. Explain.

12.1.6 Question 6

We saw in Section 12.2.2 that the principal component loading and score vectors provide an approximation to a matrix, in the sense of (12.5). Specifically, the principal component score and loading vectors solve the optimization problem given in (12.6).

Now, suppose that the M principal component score vectors zim, \(m = 1,...,M\), are known. Using (12.6), explain that the first \(M\) principal component loading vectors \(\phi_{jm}\), \(m = 1,...,M\), can be obtaining by performing \(M\) separate least squares linear regressions. In each regression, the principal component score vectors are the predictors, and one of the features of the data matrix is the response.

12.2 Applied

12.2.1 Question 7

In the chapter, we mentioned the use of correlation-based distance and Euclidean distance as dissimilarity measures for hierarchical clustering. It turns out that these two measures are almost equivalent: if each observation has been centered to have mean zero and standard deviation one, and if we let \(r_{ij}\) denote the correlation between the \(i\)th and \(j\)th observations, then the quantity \(1 − r_{ij}\) is proportional to the squared Euclidean distance between the ith and jth observations.

On the USArrests data, show that this proportionality holds.

Hint: The Euclidean distance can be calculated using the dist() function, and correlations can be calculated using the cor() function.

12.2.2 Question 8

In Section 12.2.3, a formula for calculating PVE was given in Equation 12.10. We also saw that the PVE can be obtained using the sdev output of the prcomp() function.

On the USArrests data, calculate PVE in two ways:

1. Using the sdev output of the prcomp() function, as was done in Section 12.2.3.

2. By applying Equation 12.10 directly. That is, use the prcomp() function to compute the principal component loadings. Then, use those loadings in Equation 12.10 to obtain the PVE.

These two approaches should give the same results.

Hint: You will only obtain the same results in (a) and (b) if the same data is used in both cases. For instance, if in (a) you performed prcomp() using centered and scaled variables, then you must center and scale the variables before applying Equation 12.10 in (b).

12.2.3 Question 9

Consider the USArrests data. We will now perform hierarchical clustering on the states.

1. Using hierarchical clustering with complete linkage and Euclidean distance, cluster the states.

2. Cut the dendrogram at a height that results in three distinct clusters. Which states belong to which clusters?

3. Hierarchically cluster the states using complete linkage and Euclidean distance, after scaling the variables to have standard deviation one.

4. What effect does scaling the variables have on the hierarchical clustering obtained? In your opinion, should the variables be scaled before the inter-observation dissimilarities are computed? Provide a justification for your answer.

12.2.4 Question 10

In this problem, you will generate simulated data, and then perform PCA and \(K\)-means clustering on the data.

1. Generate a simulated data set with 20 observations in each of three classes (i.e. 60 observations total), and 50 variables.

   Hint: There are a number of functions in R that you can use to generate data. One example is the rnorm() function; runif() is another option. Be sure to add a mean shift to the observations in each class so that there are three distinct classes.

2. Perform PCA on the 60 observations and plot the first two principal component score vectors. Use a different color to indicate the observations in each of the three classes. If the three classes appear separated in this plot, then continue on to part (c). If not, then return to part (a) and modify the simulation so that there is greater separation between the three classes. Do not continue to part (c) until the three classes show at least some separation in the first two principal component score vectors.

3. Perform \(K\)-means clustering of the observations with \(K = 3\). How well do the clusters that you obtained in \(K\)-means clustering compare to the true class labels?

   Hint: You can use the table() function in R to compare the true class labels to the class labels obtained by clustering. Be careful how you interpret the results: \(K\)-means clustering will arbitrarily number the clusters, so you cannot simply check whether the true class labels and clustering labels are the same.

4. Perform \(K\)-means clustering with \(K = 2\). Describe your results.

5. Now perform \(K\)-means clustering with \(K = 4\), and describe your results.

6. Now perform \(K\)-means clustering with \(K = 3\) on the first two principal component score vectors, rather than on the raw data. That is, perform \(K\)-means clustering on the \(60 \times 2\) matrix of which the first column is the first principal component score vector, and the second column is the second principal component score vector. Comment on the results.

7. Using the scale() function, perform \(K\)-means clustering with \(K = 3\) on the data after scaling each variable to have standard deviation one. How do these results compare to those obtained in (b)? Explain.

12.2.5 Question 11

Write an R function to perform matrix completion as in Algorithm 12.1, and as outlined in Section 12.5.2. In each iteration, the function should keep track of the relative error, as well as the iteration count. Iterations should continue until the relative error is small enough or until some maximum number of iterations is reached (set a default value for this maximum number). Furthermore, there should be an option to print out the progress in each iteration.

Test your function on the Boston data. First, standardize the features to have mean zero and standard deviation one using the scale() function. Run an experiment where you randomly leave out an increasing (and nested) number of observations from 5% to 30%, in steps of 5%. Apply Algorithm 12.1 with \(M = 1,2,...,8\). Display the approximation error as a function of the fraction of observations that are missing, and the value of \(M\), averaged over 10 repetitions of the experiment.

12.2.6 Question 12

In Section 12.5.2, Algorithm 12.1 was implemented using the svd() function. However, given the connection between the svd() function and the prcomp() function highlighted in the lab, we could have instead implemented the algorithm using prcomp().

Write a function to implement Algorithm 12.1 that makes use of prcomp() rather than svd().

12.2.7 Question 13

On the book website, www.StatLearning.com, there is a gene expression data set (Ch10Ex11.csv) that consists of 40 tissue samples with measurements on 1,000 genes. The first 20 samples are from healthy patients, while the second 20 are from a diseased group.

1. Load in the data using read.csv(). You will need to select header = F.

2. Apply hierarchical clustering to the samples using correlation-based distance, and plot the dendrogram. Do the genes separate the samples into the two groups? Do your results depend on the type of linkage used?

3. Your collaborator wants to know which genes differ the most across the two groups. Suggest a way to answer this question, and apply it here.