In the first part, this book analyzes the knowledge discovery process in order to understand the relations between knowledge discovery steps and focusing. The part devoted to the development of focusing solutions opens with an analysis of the state of the art, then introduces the relevant techniques, and finally culminates in implementing a unified approach as a generic sampling algorithm, which is then integrated into a commercial data mining system. The last part evaluates specific focusing solutions in various application domains. The book provides various appendicies enhancing easy accessibility.
The book presents a comprehensive introduction to focusing in the context of data mining and knowledge discovery. It is written for researchers and advanced students, as well as for professionals applying data mining and knowledge discovery techniques in practice.