?
On Suboptimality of GreConD for Boolean Matrix Factorisation of Contranominal Scales
In this paper we study certain properties of the GreConD algorithm for Boolean matrix factorisation, a popular technique in Data Mining with binary relational data. This greedy algorithm was inspired by the fact that the optimal number of factors for the Boolean matrix factorisation can be chosen among the formal concepts of the correspond- ing formal context. In particular, we consider one of the hardest cases (in terms of the numerous of possible factors), the so-called contranominal scales, and show that the output of GreConD is not optimal in this case. Moreover, we formally analyse its output by means of recurrences and generating functions and provide the reader with the closed form for the returned number of factors. An algorithm generating the optimal num- ber of factors and the corresponding product matrices P and Q is also provided by us for the case of contranominal scales.