SOM (Self-Organizing Maps)
Self-Organizing Maps or SOMs are a way to organize data for
visualization.
SOMs are generated on the principle that nodes or cells in a SOM that
are
closer to each other are more similar in content to nodes or cells
that are farther apart. This principle is akin to regional demographics
where people who live in Massachussets have more in common with their
neighbors in New Hampshire than they do with people living in Hawaii.
In this fashion, a SOM forms a sort of topology that helps to visualize
data.
In addition, after a SOM is made, new data can be placed onto the
map to
see where these new elements land in respect to old elements. This
helps to see if various clusters of data are organized in a way
that makes sense to the new data.
SOMs are generated either through the creation of Quicklists
that contain objects with numeric or structural data or by isolating a
set of results data. All objects have
to be the same basic type, such as compounds or batches. If the
quicklist contains multiple types of dataobjects, you will need to
select which type of data that you would like to use to create the map.
Here is a simple tutorial on using SOMs
to organize a collection of
compounds.
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