Section: New Results

Semantics of Negative Sequential Patterns

In the field of pattern mining, a negative sequential pattern expresses behavior by a sequence of present and absent events. In [14], we shed light on the ambiguity of this notation and identify eight possible semantics with the relation of inclusion of a motif in a sequence. These semantics are illustrated and we are studying them formally. We thus propose dominance and equivalence relationships between these semantics, and we highlight new properties of anti-monotony. These results could be used to develop new efficient algorithms for mining frequent negative sequential patterns.