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Browsing by Author "Tortora, Cristina"

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    Handling skewness and directional tails in model-based clustering
    (2025) Tortora, Cristina; Punzo, Antonio; Franczak, Brian C.
    Model-based clustering is a powerful approach used in data analysis to unveil underlying patterns or groups within a data set. However, when applied to clusters that exhibit skewness, heavy tails, or both, the classification of data points becomes more challenging. In this study, we introduce two models considering two component-wise transformations of the observed data within a mixture of multiple scaled contaminated normal (MSCN) distributions. MSCN distributions are designed to enable a different tail behavior in each dimension and directional outlier detection in the direction of the principal components. Using the transformed MSCN distributions as components of a mixture, we obtain model-based clustering techniques that allow for 1) flexible cluster shapes in terms of skewness and kurtosis and 2) component-wise and directional outlier detection. We assess the efficacy of the proposed techniques by comparing them with model-based clustering methods that perform global or component-wise outlier detection using simulated and real data sets. This comparative analysis aims to demonstrate which practical clustering scenarios using the proposed MSCN-based approaches are advantageous.
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    A Laplace-based model with flexible tail behavior
    (2024) Tortora, Cristina; Franczak, Brian C.; Bagnato, Luca; Punzo, Antonio
    The proposed multiple scaled contaminated asymmetric Laplace (MSCAL) distribution is an extension of the multivariate asymmetric Laplace distribution to allow for a different excess kurtosis on each dimension and for more flexible shapes of the hyper-contours. These peculiarities are obtained by working on the principal component (PC) space. The structure of the MSCAL distribution has the further advantage of allowing for automatic PC-wise outlier detection – i.e., detection of outliers separately on each PC – when convenient constraints on the parameters are imposed. The MSCAL is fitted using a Monte Carlo expectation-maximization (MCEM) algorithm that uses a Monte Carlo method to estimate the orthogonal matrix of eigenvectors. A simulation study is used to assess the proposed MCEM in terms of computational efficiency and parameter recovery. In a real data application, the MSCAL is fitted to a real data set containing the anthropometric measurements of monozygotic/dizygotic twins. Both a skewed bivariate subset of the full data, perturbed by some outlying points, and the full data are considered.
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    A mixture of coalesced generalized hyperbolic distributions
    (2019) Tortora, Cristina; Franczak, Brian C.; Browne, Ryan P.; McNicholas, Paul D.
    A mixture of multiple scaled generalized hyperbolic distributions (MMSGHDs) is introduced. Then, a coalesced generalized hyperbolic distribution (CGHD) is developed by joining a generalized hyperbolic distribution with a multiple scaled generalized hyperbolic distribution. After detailing the development of the MMSGHDs, which arises via implementation of a multi-dimensional weight function, the density of the mixture of CGHDs is developed. A parameter estimation scheme is developed using the ever-expanding class of MM algorithms and the Bayesian information criterion is used for model selection. The issue of cluster convexity is examined and a special case of the MMSGHDs is developed that is guaranteed to have convex clusters. These approaches are illustrated and compared using simulated and real data. The identifiability of the MMSGHDs and the mixture of CGHDs are discussed in an appendix.
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    Model-based clustering, classification, and discriminant analysis using the generalized hyperbolic distribution: MixGHD R package
    (2021) Tortora, Cristina; Browne, Ryan P.; ElSherbiny, Aisha; Franczak, Brian C.; McNicholas, Paul D.
    The MixGHD package for R performs model-based clustering, classification, and discriminant analysis using the generalized hyperbolic distribution (GHD). This approach is suitable for data that can be considered a realization of a (multivariate) continuous random variable. The GHD has the advantage of being flexible due to skewness, concentration, and index parameters; as such, clustering methods that use this distribution are capable of estimating clusters characterized by different shapes. The package provides five different models all based on the GHD, an efficient routine for discriminant analysis, and a function to measure cluster agreement. This paper is split into three parts: the first is devoted to the formulation of each method, extending them for classification and discriminant analysis applications, the second focuses on the algorithms, and the third shows the use of the package on real datasets. Software: GPL General Public License version 2 or version 3 or a GPL-compatible license.