title: GT-Miner: a graph-theoretic data miner, viewer, and model processor.
abstract: Inexpensive computational power combined with high-throughput experimental platforms has created a wealth of biological information requiring analytical tools and techniques for interpretation. Graph-theoretic concepts and tools have provided an important foundation for information visualization, integration, and analysis of datasets, but they have often been relegated to background analysis tasks. GT-Miner is designed for visual data analysis and mining operations, interacts with other software, including databases, and works with diverse data types. It facilitates a discovery-oriented approach to data mining wherein exploration of alterations of the data and variations of the visualization is encouraged. The user is presented with a basic iterative process, consisting of loading, visualizing, transforming, and then storing the resultant information. Complex analyses are built-up through repeated iterations and user interactions. The iterative process is optimized by automatic layout following transformations and by maintaining a current selection set of interest for elements modified by the transformations. Multiple visualizations are supported including hierarchical, spring, and force-directed self-organizing layouts. Graphs can be transformed with an extensible set of algorithms or manually with an integral visual editor. GT-Miner is intended to allow easier access to visual data mining for the non-expert.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The GT-Miner program and supplemental materials, including example uses and a user guide, are freely available from http://www.cifr.ncsu.edu/bioinformatics/downloads/
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrated Fungal Research (CIFR), Department of Plant Pathology, Box 7251, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7251, USA.
authors.forename: Douglas E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Amy J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Powell
authors.forename: Ignazio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Carbone
authors.forename: Ralph A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Dean