This volume contains revised versions of selected papers presented at the biennial meeting of the Classi?cation and Data Analysis Group (CLADAG) of the Italian Statistical Society, which was held in Macerata, September 12–14, 2007. Carlo Laurochairedthe Scienti?c ProgrammeCommitteeand FrancescoPalumbochaired the Local Organizing Committee. The scienti?c programme scheduled 150 oral presentations and one poster s- sion. Sessions were organised in ?ve plenary sessions, 10 invited paper specialised sessions and 24 solicited paper sessions. Contributed papers and posters were 54 and 12, respectively. Five eminent scholars, who have given important impact in the Classi?cation and Data Analysis ?elds, were invited as keynote speakers, they are H. Bozdogan, S. R. Masera, G. McLachlan, A. Montanari, A. Rizzi. Invited Paper Specialised Sessions focused on the following topics: Knowledge extraction from temporal data models Statistical models with errors-in-covariates Multivariate analysis for microarray data Cluster analysis of complex data Educational processes assessment by means of latent variables models Classi?cation of complex data Multidimensional scaling Statistical models for public policies Classi?cation models for enterprise risk management Model-based clustering It is worth noting that two of the ten specialised sessions were organised by the French (Classi?cation of complex data) and Japanese (Multidimensional scaling) classi?cation societies. The SPC is grateful to professorsOkada (Japan) and Zighed (France), who took charge of the Japanese and French specialised session org- isation, respectively.
The volume provides results from the latest methodological developments in data analysis and classification and highlights new emerging subjects within the field. It contains articles about statistical models, classification, cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling, multivariate analysis, latent variables, knowledge extraction from temporal data, financial and economic applications, and missing values. Papers cover both theoretical and empirical aspects.