Hi Fabio This is Basilio from Rio de Janeiro Have you tried SVD in thsi matrix to see if you find any pattern? If you have matrices of Arrival , Scores ,etc...try single SVD of the tensors resulting . See Understanding Complex Data Sets :Data Mining with Matrix Decomposition* *(Skillicorn Chapman Hall) . Best regards Basilio Hi Fabio This is Basilio from Rio de Janeiro Have you tried SVD in thsi matrix to see if you find any pattern? If you have matrices of Arrival , scores ,...try single SVD of the tensors resulting . See Understanding Complex Data Sets :Data Mining with Matrix Decomposition* *(Skillicorn Chapman Hall) . Best regards Basilio 2012/7/25 Rigat, Fabio <[log in to unmask]> > Dear all, > > Recommendations are welcome on published methods to address the > following type of question: > > A fixed set of athletes 1:N participate to 1:p distinct competitions. > From the full N times p matrix of results (e.g. Arrival times, scores,…) an > equivalent size matrix of ranks is calculated. > Column 1:p of this rank matrix lists a 1 for first classified and so forth > up to N for the last athlete for each competition. > A sports commentator wishes to cluster this matrix so as to discriminate > groups of athletes associated to a distinctive pattern of results. > For instance, some athletes may be more versed for endurance competitions > and less so for short-distance fast competitions. > A priori, the number and nature of these patterns are unknown. > > Best wishes > > Fabio Rigat > You may leave the list at any time by sending the command > > SIGNOFF allstat > > to [log in to unmask], leaving the subject line blank. > -- Basilio de Bragança Pereira ,DIC and PhD(Imperial College), DL(COPPE) *UFRJ-Federal University of Rio de Janeiro *Titular Professor of Bioestatistics and of Applied Statistics *FM-School of Medicine and COPPE-Posgraduate School of Engineering and HUCFF-University Hospital Clementino Fraga Filho. *Tel: 55 21 2562-7045/7047/2618/2558 www.po.ufrj.br/basilio/ *MailAddress: COPPE/UFRJ Caixa Postal 68507 CEP 21941-972 Rio de Janeiro,RJ Brazil You may leave the list at any time by sending the command SIGNOFF allstat to [log in to unmask], leaving the subject line blank.