The focus of this book is sequential pattern mining. In many applications, such as bioinformatics, web access traces, system utilization logs, etc., the data is naturally in the form of sequences. This information has been of great interest for analyzing the sequential data to find its inherent characteristics. Examples of sequential patterns include but are not limited to protein sequence motifs and web page navigation traces.

In many applications, e.g., bioinformatics, web access traces, system u- lization logs, etc., the data is naturally in the form of sequences. It has been of great interests to analyze the sequential data to find their inherent char- teristics. The sequential pattern is one of the most widely studied models to capture such characteristics. Examples of sequential patterns include but are not limited to protein sequence motifs and web page navigation traces. In this book, we focus on sequential pattern mining. To meet different needs of various applications, several models of sequential patterns have been proposed. We do not only study the mathematical definitions and application domains of these models, but also the algorithms on how to effectively and efficiently find these patterns. The objective of this book is to provide computer scientists and domain - perts such as life scientists with a set of tools in analyzing and understanding the nature of various sequences by : (1) identifying the specific model(s) of - quential patterns that are most suitable, and (2) providing an efficient algorithm for mining these patterns. Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Data Mining is the process of extracting implicit knowledge and discovery of interesting characteristics and patterns that are not explicitly represented in the databases. The techniques can play an important role in understanding data and in capturing intrinsic relationships among data instances. Data mining has been an active research area in the past decade and has been proved to be very useful.

In many applications, e.g., bioinformatics, web access traces, system u- lization logs, etc., the data is naturally in the form of sequences. It has been of great interests to analyze the sequential data to find their inherent char- teristics. The sequential pattern is one of the most widely studied models to capture such characteristics. Examples of sequential patterns include but are not limited to protein sequence motifs and web page navigation traces. In this book, we focus on sequential pattern mining. To meet different needs of various applications, several models of sequential patterns have been proposed. We do not only study the mathematical definitions and application domains of these models, but also the algorithms on how to effectively and efficiently find these patterns. The objective of this book is to provide computer scientists and domain - perts such as life scientists with a set of tools in analyzing and understanding the nature of various sequences by : (1) identifying the specific model(s) of - quential patterns that are most suitable, and (2) providing an efficient algorithm for mining these patterns. Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Data Mining is the process of extracting implicit knowledge and discovery of interesting characteristics and patterns that are not explicitly represented in the databases. The techniques can play an important role in understanding data and in capturing intrinsic relationships among data instances. Data mining has been an active research area in the past decade and has been proved to be very useful.

This volume contains the papers presented at the inaugural workshop on Data Mining and Bioinformatics at the 32nd International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB). The purpose of this workshop was to begin bringing - gether researchersfrom database, data mining, and bioinformatics areas to help leverage respective successes in each to the others. We also hope to expose the richness, complexity, and challenges in this area that involves mining very large complex biological data that will only grow in size and complexity as geno- scale high-throughput techniques become more routine. The problems are s- ?ciently di?erent enough from traditional data mining problems (outside of life sciences) that novel approaches must be taken to data mine in this area. The workshop was held in Seoul, Korea, on September 11, 2006. We received 30 submissions in response to the call for papers. Each subm- sion was assigned to at least three members of the Program Committee. The Program Committee discussed the submission electronically, judging them on their importance, originality, clarity, relevance, and appropriateness to the - pected audience. The Program Committee selected 15 papers for presentation. These papers arein the areasof microarraydata analysis, bioinformaticssystem and text retrieval, application of gene expression data, and sequence analysis. Because of the format of the workshop and the high number of submissions, many good papers could not be included.

The focus of this book is sequential pattern mining. In many applications, such as bioinformatics, web access traces, system utilization logs, etc., the data is naturally in the form of sequences. This information has been of great interest for analyzing the sequential data to find its inherent characteristics. Examples of sequential patterns include but are not limited to protein sequence motifs and web page navigation traces.

In many applications, e.g., bioinformatics, web access traces, system u- lization logs, etc., the data is naturally in the form of sequences. It has been of great interests to analyze the sequential data to find their inherent char- teristics. The sequential pattern is one of the most widely studied models to capture such characteristics. Examples of sequential patterns include but are not limited to protein sequence motifs and web page navigation traces. In this book, we focus on sequential pattern mining. To meet different needs of various applications, several models of sequential patterns have been proposed. We do not only study the mathematical definitions and application domains of these models, but also the algorithms on how to effectively and efficiently find these patterns. The objective of this book is to provide computer scientists and domain - perts such as life scientists with a set of tools in analyzing and understanding the nature of various sequences by : (1) identifying the specific model(s) of - quential patterns that are most suitable, and (2) providing an efficient algorithm for mining these patterns. Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Data Mining is the process of extracting implicit knowledge and discovery of interesting characteristics and patterns that are not explicitly represented in the databases. The techniques can play an important role in understanding data and in capturing intrinsic relationships among data instances. Data mining has been an active research area in the past decade and has been proved to be very useful.

In many applications, e.g., bioinformatics, web access traces, system u- lization logs, etc., the data is naturally in the form of sequences. It has been of great interests to analyze the sequential data to find their inherent char- teristics. The sequential pattern is one of the most widely studied models to capture such characteristics. Examples of sequential patterns include but are not limited to protein sequence motifs and web page navigation traces. In this book, we focus on sequential pattern mining. To meet different needs of various applications, several models of sequential patterns have been proposed. We do not only study the mathematical definitions and application domains of these models, but also the algorithms on how to effectively and efficiently find these patterns. The objective of this book is to provide computer scientists and domain - perts such as life scientists with a set of tools in analyzing and understanding the nature of various sequences by : (1) identifying the specific model(s) of - quential patterns that are most suitable, and (2) providing an efficient algorithm for mining these patterns. Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Data Mining is the process of extracting implicit knowledge and discovery of interesting characteristics and patterns that are not explicitly represented in the databases. The techniques can play an important role in understanding data and in capturing intrinsic relationships among data instances. Data mining has been an active research area in the past decade and has been proved to be very useful.

This volume contains the papers presented at the inaugural workshop on Data Mining and Bioinformatics at the 32nd International Conference on Very Large Data Bases (VLDB). The purpose of this workshop was to begin bringing - gether researchersfrom database, data mining, and bioinformatics areas to help leverage respective successes in each to the others. We also hope to expose the richness, complexity, and challenges in this area that involves mining very large complex biological data that will only grow in size and complexity as geno- scale high-throughput techniques become more routine. The problems are s- ?ciently di?erent enough from traditional data mining problems (outside of life sciences) that novel approaches must be taken to data mine in this area. The workshop was held in Seoul, Korea, on September 11, 2006. We received 30 submissions in response to the call for papers. Each subm- sion was assigned to at least three members of the Program Committee. The Program Committee discussed the submission electronically, judging them on their importance, originality, clarity, relevance, and appropriateness to the - pected audience. The Program Committee selected 15 papers for presentation. These papers arein the areasof microarraydata analysis, bioinformaticssystem and text retrieval, application of gene expression data, and sequence analysis. Because of the format of the workshop and the high number of submissions, many good papers could not be included.