i am personally using cluster analysis, to see if different parts of a tumour from an individual patient, have the same "genetic" profile.
if the different "regions" have the same gene loss or not.

if all the regions have the same genetic profile, than i will expect all the regions to "cluster" together,

or if they are different, i can see "which" regions are more "closely" related, because they will be put in the "same" cluster.

sorry does that make sense?

check out these websites for further clarification:

http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/stcluan.html

http://www.psychstat.missouristate.edu/multibook/mlt04.htm

"
Cluster analysis is thus a tool of discovery. It may reveal associations and structure in data which, though not previously evident, nevertheless are sensible and useful once found. The results of cluster analysis may contribute to the definition of a formal classification scheme, such as a taxonomy for related animals, insects or plants; or suggest statistical models with which to describe populations; or indicate rules for assigning new cases to classes for identification and diagnostic purposes; or provide measures of definition, size and change in what previously were only broad concepts; or find exemplars to represent classes."

..."What is cluster analysis?

Cluster analysis is an exploratory data analysis tool for solving classification problems. Its object is to sort cases (people, things, events, etc) into groups, or clusters, so that the degree of association is strong between members of the same cluster and weak between members of different clusters. Each cluster thus describes, in terms of the data collected, the class to which its members belong; and this description may be abstracted through use from the particular to the general class or type...."

pamw, you don't sound stupid at all! that's a good question! :)

in a nutshell:
"Clustering can be considered the most important unsupervised learning problem; so, as every other problem of this kind, it deals with finding a structure in a collection of unlabeled data.
A loose definition of clustering could be “the process of organizing objects into groups whose members are similar in some way”.
A cluster is therefore a collection of objects which are “similar” between them and are “dissimilar” to the objects belonging to other clusters."


cont....

Hmmm I haven't really completed any of my chapters to final polished version so it's difficult for me to figure out how long i take on a chapter.

sometimes a chapter involves alot of literature reading and tying everything up, or another chapter consists of alot of result analysis which sucks up a lot of time.

i think you're working just fine. and i wish i had your problem! my problem is more of a motivation to keep working at my thesis for hours on end.

so that's really great you willing to invest so much time on your thesis

basically it takes as long as it takes, and you're already putting deadlines on yourself, so i wouldnt worry at all. you're progressing well!

i find giving myself time constraints helps. otherwise if i dont have a "time limit" i can just keep going on forever!

tell yourself you *ONLY* have X amount of time on chapter X, and if you don't get it completed by then, then it's *tough luck!* you have to move onto the next chapter.

that way psychologically you will concentrate on the *essential components*.

check out this article, it might give you some insight. http://www.slackermanager.com/2008/03/my-egg-timers-set-to-30-minutes.html

i know what you mean. i was only meant to spend a couple of days maybe a week maximum researching about cluster analysis, i ended up taking much longer, in the end, i told myself, i *ONLY* have one day to finish the research, reading and making notes. and you know what, i got it done, in the day, because i knew i only had that one day left to get it done.

i know in the begining getting the first draft does take a long time.
so dont feel bad about you spending time working on your chapter, because you're working on your thesis, and that is great! .

lol just noticed we can't say c**p - my post has been edited. wow the admin are fast!

oh sorry to hear that. if i were in your shoes, i would feel exactly the same, very frustrated and wanting to break things.

but yah good idea, once you've let out all your frustrations, come up with an idea or a plan to figure out what you can do instead. good luck!

when you say its c**p? do you mean the data doesnt match the hypothesis? that it gives the opposite of what you would expect?
what is the data actually showing? maybe the data isn't crap. maybe it's telling you *something*

"Am I saying anything can be completed in half an hour? Well, no. But that next action on your project can. If it can’t, you’ve made it too big. This leads to resistance which leads to procrastination. "
"...I pace my projects (and my day) in 15-30 minute increments"

"My Tips for Egg Timer Safety

I should say - I create a daily work plan that is organized in 15-30 min increments. I don’t schedule these times, I just list the things I want to advance today and put time estimates next to each. I work on them in whatever order I feel inspired. To get the most out of your time it helps to use the first few minutes to get my head on straight before diving right in.

Make the time outcome based: “When this 30 minutes is up I will….”
Think through the best approach — “If I want this ‘done’, done my best bet is….”
Then Dig in "

i've started working in 30minute bursts, but i do find once the timer goes off, i say to myself okay i just need 5 more minutes to get X done.
"Time constraints work because they force you to focus on only the most important aspects of any given task or project. Given an unlimited budget of time, it’s only human to start making things bigger than they are. We add embellishments. We ‘research’ on Google. We play with fonts and fuss over the margins."

nice little article about the virtues of using an egg timer.

it's a good idea to give yourself a time constraint, otherwise (and i have a huge tendency to do this) i will spend hours and hours on something and go abit OTT on it.

telling yourself you only have 30minutes to do X helps to focus on the "essential" bits. and prevent you from going on tangents.

http://www.slackermanager.com/2008/03/my-egg-timers-set-to-30-minutes.html

my week aim: spend time on each chapter (3-6) concentrating on the results section.

monday: chapter 3
tuesday: chapter 4
wednesday: chapter 5
thursday: chapter 6
---

todays aim:
chapter 3:
SNP results.

i was just given great advice by K on her diary, and she wrote (Which i wanted to share with you incase you didnt read it)..

"....Don't worry about long term plans such as finishing your thesis on time, just focus at 1 week at a time. I found short terms plans (1 week max) more achievable than long plans. Tiny plans (daily) never worked for me, it needed lots of efforts and usually left me frustrated at the end of the day. Perhaps, you can worry once a week instead of once a day, write down your plan for the week. And after the week finishes you can worry and check if you have achieved the targets or not. If you didn't achieve them you can write down the reasons so you will not face the same problems next week."