optpart (version 3.0-3)

flexbeta: Calculate a Flexible-Beta Dendrogram

Description

Calculates Lance and Williams flexible-beta dendrogram with simplified argument

Usage

flexbeta(dis,beta=-0.25,alpha=(1-beta)/2,gamma=0)

Arguments

dis

a distance or dissimilarity object of class ‘dist’

beta

the Beta coefficient

alpha

the Alpha coefficients (assumed equal)

gamma

the gamma coefficient

Value

An object of class ‘hclust’ for plotting and analysis like other hclust objects, as compared to objects of class ‘agnes’ as generated by the agnes function in package cluster.

Details

Calculates a flexible-beta dendrogram from a dissimilarity matrix specifying minimum parameters. The routine is simply a wrapper for the agnes function from package cluster with suitable arguments specified to achieve desired results. Ecologist in particular (but many others) find beta = -0.25 a good default.

References

Lance, G.N., and W.T. Williams (1966). A General Theory of Classifactory Sorting Strategies, I. Hierarchical Systems. Computer J. *9*, 373-380.

See Also

agnes

Examples

# NOT RUN {
data(shoshveg)
dis.bc <- dsvdis(shoshveg,'bray')
flexb <- flexbeta(dis.bc)
# }