Effect of land use on soil nematode community composition and co-occurrence network relationship

Land use influences soil biota community composition and diversity,and then belowground ecosystem processes and functions.To characterize the effect of land use on soil biota,soil nematode communities in crop land,forest land and fallow land were investigated in six regions of northern China.Generic richness,diversity,abundance and biomass of soil nematodes was the lowest in crop land.The richness and diversity of soil nematodes were 28.8and 15.1%higher in fallow land than in crop land,respectively.No significant differences in soil nematode indices were found between forest land and fallow land,but their network keystone genera composition was different.Among the keystone genera,50%of forest land genera were omnivores-predators and 36%of fallow land genera were bacterivores.The proportion of fungivores in forest land was 20.8%lower than in fallow land.The network complexity and the stability were lower in crop land than forest land and fallow land.Soil pH,NH_(4)^(+)-N and NO_(3)^(–)-N were the major factors influencing the soil nematode community in crop land while soil organic carbon and moisture were the major factors in forest land.Soil nematode communities in crop land influenced by artificial management practices were more dependent on the soil environment than communities in forest land and fallow land.Land use induced soil environment variation and altered network relationships by influencing trophic group proportions among keystone nematode genera.

Machine learning prediction model for gray-level co-occurrence matrix features of synchronous liver metastasis in colorectal cancer

BACKGROUND Synchronous liver metastasis(SLM)is a significant contributor to morbidity in colorectal cancer(CRC).There are no effective predictive device integration algorithms to predict adverse SLM events during the diagnosis of CRC.AIM To explore the risk factors for SLM in CRC and construct a visual prediction model based on gray-level co-occurrence matrix(GLCM)features collected from magnetic resonance imaging(MRI).METHODS Our study retrospectively enrolled 392 patients with CRC from Yichang Central People’s Hospital from January 2015 to May 2023.Patients were randomly divided into a training and validation group(3:7).The clinical parameters and GLCM features extracted from MRI were included as candidate variables.The prediction model was constructed using a generalized linear regression model,random forest model(RFM),and artificial neural network model.Receiver operating characteristic curves and decision curves were used to evaluate the prediction model.RESULTS Among the 392 patients,48 had SLM(12.24%).We obtained fourteen GLCM imaging data for variable screening of SLM prediction models.Inverse difference,mean sum,sum entropy,sum variance,sum of squares,energy,and difference variance were listed as candidate variables,and the prediction efficiency(area under the curve)of the subsequent RFM in the training set and internal validation set was 0.917[95%confidence interval(95%CI):0.866-0.968]and 0.09(95%CI:0.858-0.960),respectively.CONCLUSION A predictive model combining GLCM image features with machine learning can predict SLM in CRC.This model can assist clinicians in making timely and personalized clinical decisions.

Inversion tillage with straw incorporation affects the patterns of soil microbial co-occurrence and multi-nutrient cycling in a Hapli-Udic Cambisol

Inversion tillage with straw amendment is widely applied in northeastern China, and it can substantially increase the storage of carbon and improve multiple subsoil functions. Soil microorganisms are believed to be the key to this process,but research into their role in subsoil amelioration is limited. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted in 2018 in a region in northeastern China with Hapli-Udic Cambisol using four treatments: conventional tillage(CT, tillage to a depth of 15 cm with no straw incorporation), straw incorporation with conventional tillage(SCT, tillage to a depth of 15 cm),inversion tillage(IT, tillage to a depth of 35 cm) and straw incorporation with inversion tillage(SIT, tillage to a depth of 35 cm). The soils were managed by inversion to a depth of 15 or 35 cm every year after harvest. The results indicated that SIT improved soil multi-nutrient cycling variables and increased the availability of key nutrients such as soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, available nitrogen, available phosphorus and available potassium in both the topsoil and subsoil.In contrast to CT and SCT, SIT created a looser microbial network structure but with highly centralized clusters by reducing the topological properties of average connectivity and node number, and by increasing the average path length and the modularity. A Random Forest analysis found that the average path length and the clustering coefficient were the main determinants of soil multi-nutrient cycling. These findings suggested that SIT can be an effective option for improving soil multi-nutrient cycling and the structure of microbial networks, and they provide crucial information about the microbial strategies that drive the decomposition of straw in Hapli-Udic Cambisol.

Temporal characteristics of algae-denitrifying bacteria co-occurrence patterns and denitrifier assembly in epiphytic biofilms on submerged macrophytes in Caohai Lake,SW China

Denitrifying bacteria in epiphytic biofilms play a crucial role in nitrogen cycle in aquatic habitats.However,little is known about the connection between algae and denitrifying bacteria and their assembly processes in epiphytic biofilms.Epiphytic biofilms were collected from submerged macrophytes(Patamogeton lucens and Najas marina L.)in the Caohai Lake,Guizhou,SW China,from July to November 2020 to:(1)investigate the impact of abiotic and biotic variables on denitrifying bacterial communities;(2)investigate the temporal variation of the algae-denitrifying bacteria co-occurrence networks;and(3)determine the contribution of deterministic and stochastic processes to the formation of denitrifying bacterial communities.Abiotic and biotic factors influenced the variation in the denitrifying bacterial community,as shown in the Mantel test.The co-occurrence network analysis unveiled intricate interactions among algae to denitrifying bacteria.Denitrifying bacterial community co-occurrence network complexity(larger average degrees representing stronger network complexity)increased continuously from July to September and decreased in October before increasing in November.The co-occurrence network complexity of the algae and nirS-encoding denitrifying bacteria tended to increase from July to November.The co-occurrence network complexity of the algal and denitrifying bacterial communities was modified by ammonia nitrogen(NH_(4)^(+)-N)and total phosphorus(TP),pH,and water temperature(WT),according to the ordinary least-squares(OLS)model.The modified stochasticity ratio(MST)results reveal that deterministic selection dominated the assembly of denitrifying bacterial communities.The influence of environmental variables to denitrifying bacterial communities,as well as characteristics of algal-bacterial co-occurrence networks and the assembly process of denitrifying bacterial communities,were discovered in epiphytic biofilms in this study.The findings could aid in the appropriate understanding and use of epiphytic biofilms denitrification function,as well as the enhancement of water quality.

Environment drives the co-occurrence of bacteria and microeukaryotes in a typical subtropical bay

The co-occurrence of bacteria and microeukaryote species is a ubiquitous ecological phenomenon,but there is limited cross-domain research in aquatic environments.We conducted a network statistical analysis and visualization of microbial cross-domain co-occurrence patterns based on DNA sampling of a typical subtropical bay during four seasons,using high-throughput sequencing of both 18S rRNA and 16S rRNA genes.First,we found obvious relationships between network stability and network complexity indices.For example,increased cooperation and modularity were found to weaken the stability of cross-domain networks.Secondly,we found that bacterial operational taxonomic units(OTUs)were the most important contributors to network complexity and stability as they occupied more nodes,constituted more keystone OTUs,built more connections,more importantly,ignoring bacteria led to greater variation in network robustness.Gammaproteobacteria,Alphaproteobacteria,Bacteroidetes,and Actinobacteria were the most ecologically important groups.Finally,we found that the environmental drivers most associated with cross-domain networks varied across seasons(in detail,the network in January was primarily constrained by temperature and salinity,the network in April was primarily constrained by depth and temperature,the network in July was mainly affected by depth,temperature,and salinity,depth was the most important factor affecting the network in October)and that environmental influence was stronger on bacteria than on microeukaryotes.

Community composition,co-occurrence,and environmental drivers of bacterioplankton community in surface and 50-m water layers in the subarctic North Pacific

The Western Subarctic Gyre(WSG)is one of the two gyre-systems in the subarctic North Pacific known for high nutrient and low-chlorophyll waters.However,the bacterioplankton in marine water of this area,either in terms of the taxonomic composition or functional structure,remains relatively unexplored.A total of 22 sampling sites from two water layers(surface water,SW and 50-m layer water,FW)were collected in this area.The physiochemical parameters of waters,Synechococcus,and bacterial density,as well as the bacterioplankton community composition and distribution pattern,were analyzed.The nutrient concentrations of DIN,DIP,and DSi,Chl-a concentration,and the average abundance of heterobacteria in FW were higher than those in SW.However,temperature and the average abundance of Synechococcus and pico-eukaryotes were higher in SW.A total of 3269 OTUs were assigned,and 2123OTUs were commonly shared;moreover,similar alpha diversity patterns were observed in both SW and FW.The bacterioplankton community showed significantly obvious correlation with salinity,DIP,DIN,and Chl a in both SW and FW.Proteobacteria,Cyanobacteria,Bacteroidota,Actinobacteriota,and Firmicutes were the main phyla while Synechococcus_CC9902,Psychrobacter,and Sulfitobacter were the dominant genera in each sampling site.Most correlations that happened between the OTUs in the cooccurrence network were positive and inter-module.Higher edges and graph density were found in SW,indicating that more correlations occurred,and the community was more complex in SW.This study provided novel knowledge on the bacterioplankton community structure and the correlation characteristics in WSG.

基于co-occurrence相似度的聚类集成方法

首先提出了一种基于属性值的co-occurrence相似度概念,通过对其进一步的研究,提出了3个等价性表述;然后对属性值之间的co-occurrence相似度进行引申,给出了数据对象之间co-occurrence相似度的定义,并将其成功应用到聚类集成方法中。利用co-occurrence相似度在计算某个初始聚类结果中数据对象之间的相似度时,充分考虑了其他初始聚类结果和该初始聚类结果之间的相互影响和联系。实验表明,基于co-occurrence相似度的聚类集成(CSCE)方法能有效识别数据之间的细微结构,有助于提高聚类集成的效果。

基于加权co-occurrence矩阵的聚类集成算法

聚类集成是数据挖掘研究的一个热点。它是利用同一数据集的多个聚类划分集成在一起,以提高聚类分析的性能。当前相关研究大多没有考虑进行集成的聚类成员的质量,因此较差的成员会对集成结果产生不良影响。文中提出了一种基于加权co-occurrence矩阵的聚类集成算法(WCSCE)。该方法首先计算出聚类成员基于属性值的co-occurrence矩阵,然后对聚类成员的质量进行简单评价并赋予权重,生成加权co-occurrence矩阵,进而产生集成结果。最后通过实验验证了该算法的有效性,并提高了聚类质量。

Co-occurrence Patterns of Above-ground and Below-ground Mite Communities in Farmland of Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China

One of the fundamental questions in community ecology is whether communities are random or formed by deterministic mechanisms. Although many efforts have been made to verify non-randomness in community structure, little is known with regard to co-occurrence patterns in above-ground and below-ground communities. In this paper, we used a null model to test non-randomness in the structure of the above-ground and below-ground mite communities in farmland of the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China. Then, we used four tests for non-randomness to recognize species pairs that would be demonstrated as significantly aggregated or segregated co-occurrences of the above-ground and below-ground mite communities. The pattern of the above-ground mite commu- nity was significantly non-random in October, suggesting species segregation and hence interspecific competition. Additionally, species co-occurrence patterns did not differ from randomness in the above-ground mite community in August or in below-ground mite com- munities in August and October. Only one significant species pair was detected in the above-ground mite community in August, while no significant species pairs were recognized in the above-ground mite community in October or in the below-ground mite communities in August and October. The results indicate that non-randomness and significant species pairs may not be the general rule in the above-ground and below-ground mite communities in farmland of the Sanjiang Plain at the fine scale.

Artificial intelligence on diabetic retinopathy diagnosis: an automatic classification method based on grey level co-occurrence matrix and naive Bayesian model

AIM: To develop an automatic tool on screening diabetic retinopathy(DR) from diabetic patients.METHODS: We extracted textures from eye fundus images of each diabetes subject using grey level co-occurrence matrix method and trained a Bayesian model based on these textures. The receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve was used to estimate the sensitivity and specificity of the Bayesian model.RESULTS: A total of 1000 eyes fundus images from diabetic patients in which 298 eyes were diagnosed as DR by two ophthalmologists. The Bayesian model was trained using four extracted textures including contrast, entropy, angular second moment and correlation using a training dataset. The Bayesian model achieved a sensitivity of 0.949 and a specificity of 0.928 in the validation dataset. The area under the ROC curve was 0.938, and the 10-fold cross validation method showed that the average accuracy rate is 93.5%.CONCLUSION: Textures extracted by grey level cooccurrence can be useful information for DR diagnosis, and a trained Bayesian model based on these textures can be an effective tool for DR screening among diabetic patients.

Combined effects of habitat and interspec ificinteraction define co-occurrence patterns of sympatric Galliformes

Background:Disentangling the relative importance of environmental variables and interspecific interaction in modulating co-occurrence patterns of sympatric species is essential for understanding the mechanisms of community assembly and biodiversity. For the two sympatric Galliformes, Silver Pheasants (Lophura nycthemera) and Whitenecklaced Partridges (Arborophila gingica), we know little about the role of habitat use and interspecific interactions in modulating their coexistence. Methods:We adopted a probabilistic approach incorporating habitat preference and interspecific interaction using occupancy model to account for imperfect detection,and used daily activity pattern analysis to investigate the cooccurrence pattern of these two sympatric Galliformes in wet and dry seasons. Results: We found that the detection probability of Silver Pheasant and White-necklaced Partridge were related to habitat variables and interspecific interaction. The presence of Silver Pheasant increases the detection probability of White-necklaced Partridge in both the wet and dry season. However, the presence of White-necklaced Partridges increases the detection probability of Silver Pheasants in the wet season, but decreases the probability in the dry season. Further, Silver Pheasants were detected frequently in the sites of high values of enhanced vegetable index (EVI) in both the wet and dry season, and in sites away from human residential settlement in the wet season. Whitenecklaced partridges were mainly detected in low EVI sites. The site use probabilities of two Galliformes were best explained by habitat variables, Silver Pheasants and White-necklaced Partridges preferred steeper areas during the wet and dry season. Both species mainly occurred in low EVI areas during the wet season and occupied sites away from the resident settlement during the dry season. Moreover, the site use probabilities of two species had opposite relationships with forest canopy coverage. Silver Pheasants preferred areas with high forest canopy coverage whereas White-necklaced Partridges preferred low forest canopy coverage in the dry season, and vice versa in the wet season. Species interaction factor (SIF)corroborated weak evidence of the dependence of the site use of one species on that of the other in the either dry or wet season.Temporally, high overlapping of daily activity pattern indicated no significantly temporal niche differentiation between sympatric Galliformes in both wet and dry seasons. Conclusions:Our results demonstrated that the presence of two species influenced the detection probability interactively and there was no temporal partitioning in activity time between Silver Pheasants and White-necklaced Partridges in the wet and dry seasons.The site use probability of two Galliformes was best explained by habitat variables, especially the forest canopy coverage.Therefore, environmental variables and interspecific interaction are the leading drivers regulating the detection and site use probability and promoting co-occurrence of Silver Pheasants and White-necklaced Partridges.

Assembly and co-occurrence patterns of rare and abundant bacterial sub-communities in rice rhizosphere soil under short-term nitrogen deep placement

Nitrogen(N)deep placement has been found to reduce N leaching and increase N use efficiency in paddy fields.However,relatively little is known how bacterial consortia,especially abundant and rare taxa,respond to N deep placement,which is critical for understanding the biodiversity and function of agricultural ecosystem.In this study,lllumina sequencing and ecological models were conducted to examine the diversity patterns and underlying assembly mechanisms of abundant and rare taxa in rice rhizosphere soil under different N fertilization regimes at four rice growth stages in paddy fields.The results showed that abundant and rare bacteria had distinct distribution patterns in rhizosphere samples.Abundant bacteria showed ubiquitous distribution;while rare taxa exhibited uneven distribution across all samples.Stochastic processes dominated community assembly of both abundant and rare bacteria,with dispersal limitation playing a more vital role in abundant bacteria,and undominated processes playing a more important role in rare bacteria.The N deep placement was associated with a greater influence of dispersal limitation than the broadcast N fertilizer(BN)and no N fertilizer(NN)treatments in abundant and rare taxa of rhizosphere soil;while greater contributions from homogenizing dispersal were observed for BN and NN in rare taxa.Network analysis indicated that abundant taxa with closer relationships were usually more likely to occupy the central position of the network than rare taxa.Nevertheless,most of the keystone species were rare taxa and might have played essential roles in maintaining the network stability.Overall,these findings highlighted that the ecological mechanisms and co-occurrence patterns of abundant and rare bacteria in rhizosphere soil under N deep placement.

Co-occurrence of IPMN and malignant IPNB complicated by a pancreatobiliary fistula: A case report and review of the literature

BACKGROUND Intraductal papillary neoplasm of the bile duct(IPNB) is pathologically similar to intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm(IPMN). However, there are several significant differences between them. The rate of IPMN associated with extrapancreatic malignancies has been reported to range from 10%-40%, and it may occasionally be complicated with the presence of fistulas. IPMN associated with malignant IPNB is extremely rare and only nine cases have been reported in the literature.CASE SUMMARY We report a 52-year-old man who presented with recurrent cholangitis for nine months. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography showed the common bile duct stricture with dilated pancreatobiliary duct without other abnormal findings. The underlying pathogenesis could not be identified based on the radiologic images. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography revealed a pancreatobiliary fistula with dilated main pancreatic duct, biliary stricture with dilated biliary tree, and mucus discharge from the enlarged orifice of the major papilla. The patient underwent SpyGlass cholangiopancreatoscopy due to a suspected mucin-producing biliary neoplasm and indeterminate main pancreatic duct dilatation. Multiple papillary growing neoplasms with vascular images, with the extent of lesions spreading in the biliopancreatic ductal lumens, were identified by SpyGlass. In addition, the presence of a pancreatobiliary fistula was also identified. The patient was diagnosed as having benign IPMN and malignant IPNB with focal invasion by postoperative pathology. Furthermore, varying histological subtypes were present in both IPMN and IPNB. Pylorus-preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy was performed on the patient with excellent results during the 52 month followup period.CONCLUSION We deemed that pancreatography and SpyGlass allowed for an efficient diagnosis of IPMN with pancreatobiliary fistula, whereas the etiology could not be identified by radiologic imaging.

An Efficient Algorithm for Discovering Co-occurrence Concepts Through Pathfinder Paradigm

The Pathfinder paradigm has been used in generating and analyzing graph models that support clustering similar concepts and minimum-cost paths to provide an associative network structure within a domain. The co-occurrence pathfinder network （ CPFN ） extends the traditional pathfinder paradigm so that co-occurring concepts can be calculated at each sampling time. Existing algorithms take O（n（s）） time to calculate the pathfinder network （PFN） at each sampling time for a non-completed input graph of a CPFN （r = ∞, q = n - 1）, where n is the number of nodes in the input graph, r is the Minkowski exponent and q is the maximum number of links considered in finding a minimum cost path between vertices. To reduce the complexity of calculating the CPFN, we propose a greedy based algorithm, MEC（G） algorithm, which takes shortcuts to avoid unnecessary steps in the existing algorithms, to correctly calculate a CPFN （r = ∞, q= n - 1） in O（klogk） time where k is the number of edges of the input graph. Our example demonstrates the efficiency and correctness of the proposed MEC（G） algorithm, confirming our mathematic analysis on this algorithm.

Binary Image Steganalysis Based on Distortion Level Co-Occurrence Matrix

In recent years,binary image steganography has developed so rapidly that the research of binary image steganalysis becomes more important for information security.In most state-of-the-art binary image steganographic schemes,they always find out the flippable pixels to minimize the embedding distortions.For this reason,the stego images generated by the previous schemes maintain visual quality and it is hard for steganalyzer to capture the embedding trace in spacial domain.However,the distortion maps can be calculated for cover and stego images and the difference between them is significant.In this paper,a novel binary image steganalytic scheme is proposed,which is based on distortion level co-occurrence matrix.The proposed scheme first generates the corresponding distortion maps for cover and stego images.Then the co-occurrence matrix is constructed on the distortion level maps to represent the features of cover and stego images.Finally,support vector machine,based on the gaussian kernel,is used to classify the features.Compared with the prior steganalytic methods,experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can effectively detect stego images.

Seasonal co-occurrence patterns of bacteria and eukaryotic phytoplankton and the ecological response in urban aquatic ecosystem

Microorganisms play a key role in aquatic ecosystems.Recent studies show that keystone taxa in microbial community could change the community structure and function.However,most previous studies focus on abundant taxa but neglected low abundant ones.To clarify the seasonal variation of bacterial and microalgal communities and understand their synergistic adaptation to diff erent environmental factors,we studied the bacterial and eukaryotic phytoplankton communities in Fenhe River that runs through Taiyuan City,central China,and their seasonal co-occurrence patterns using 16S and 18S rDNA sequencing.Results indicate that positive interaction of eukaryotic phytoplankton network was more active than negative one except winter,indicating that the cooperation(symbiotic phenomenon in which phytoplankton are interdependent and mutually benefi cial)among them could improve the adaption of microbial community to the local environmental changes and maintain the stability of microbial network.The main genera that identifi ed as keystone taxa in bacterial network were Salinivibrio and Sphingopyxis of Proteobacteria and they could respond to the variation of nitrite and make use of it,while those that identifi ed as keystone taxa in eukaryotic phytoplankton network were Pseudoschroederia and Nannochloris,and they were more susceptible to nitrate and phosphate.Mychonastes and Cryptomonas were closely related to water temperature.However,the loss of the co-occurrence by environmental factor changes aff ected the stability of network structure.This study provided a reference for analyzing relationship between bacteria and eukaryotic phytoplankton and revealing potential importance of keystone taxa in similar ecological domains in carbon,nitrogen,and phosphorus dynamics.

A Metric Approach to Hot Topics in Biomedicine via Keyword Co-occurrence

Purpose:To reveal the research hotpots and relationship among three research hot topics in b iomedicine,namely CRISPR,iPS(induced Pluripotent Stem)cell and Synthetic biology.Design/methodology/approach:We set up their keyword co-occurrence networks with using three indicators and information visualization for metric analysis.Findings:The results reveal the main research hotspots in the three topics are different,but the overlapping keywords in the three topics indicate that they are mutually integrated and interacted each other.Research limitations:All analyses use keywords,without any other forms.Practical implications:We try to find the information distribution and structure of these three hot topics for revealing their research status and interactions,and for promoting biomedical developments.Originality/value:We chose the core keywords in three research hot topics in biomedicine by using h-index.

Material microstructures analyzed by using gray level Co-occurrence matrices

The mechanical properties of materials greatly depend on the microstructure morphology. The quantitative characterization of material microstructures is essential for the performance prediction and hence the material design. At present,the quantitative characterization methods mainly rely on the microstructure characterization of shape, size, distribution,and volume fraction, which related to the mechanical properties. These traditional methods have been applied for several decades and the subjectivity of human factors induces unavoidable errors. In this paper, we try to bypass the traditional operations and identify the relationship between the microstructures and the material properties by the texture of image itself directly. The statistical approach is based on gray level Co-occurrence matrix（GLCM）, allowing an objective and repeatable study on material microstructures. We first present how to identify GLCM with the optimal parameters, and then apply the method on three systems with different microstructures. The results show that GLCM can reveal the interface information and microstructures complexity with less human impact. Naturally, there is a good correlation between GLCM and the mechanical properties.

3D Gray Level Co-Occurrence Matrix Based Classification of Favor Benign and Borderline Types in Follicular Neoplasm Images

Since the efficiency of treatment of thyroid disorder depends on the risk of malignancy, indeterminate follicular neoplasm (FN) images should be classified. The diagnosis process has been done by visual interpretation of experienced pathologists. However, it is difficult to separate the favor benign from borderline types. Thus, this paper presents a classification approach based on 3D nuclei model to classify favor benign and borderline types of follicular thyroid adenoma (FTA) in cytological specimens. The proposed method utilized 3D gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) and random forest classifier. It was applied to 22 data sets of FN images. Furthermore, the use of 3D GLCM was compared with 2D GLCM to evaluate the classification results. From experimental results, the proposed system achieved 95.45% of the classification. The use of 3D GLCM was better than 2D GLCM according to the accuracy of classification. Consequently, the proposed method probably helps a pathologist as a prescreening tool.

The reflection of hierarchical cluster analysis of co-occurrence matrices in SPSS

Purpose： To discuss the problems arising from hierarchical cluster analysis of co-occurrence matrices in SPSS, and the corresponding solutions. Design/methodology/approach： We design different methods of using the SPSS hierarchical clustering module for co-occurrence matrices in order to compare these methods. We offer the correct syntax to deactivate the similarity algorithm for clustering analysis within the hierarchical clustering module of SPSS. Findings： When one inputs co-occurrence matrices into the data editor of the SPSS hierarchical clustering module without deactivating the embedded similarity algorithm, the program calculates similarity twice, and thus distorts and overestimates the degree of similarity. Practical implications： We offer the correct syntax to block the similarity algorithm for clustering analysis in the SPSS hierarchical clustering module in the case of co-occurrence matrices. This syntax enables researchers to avoid obtaining incorrect results. Originality/value： This paper presents a method of editing syntax to prevent the default use of a similarity algorithm for SPSS＇s hierarchical clustering module. This will help researchers, especially those from China, to properly implement the co-occurrence matrix when using SPSS for hierarchical cluster analysis, in order to provide more scientific and rational results.