Orthogonalization of block variables by subspace-projection for quantitative structure property relationship (QSPR) research

A subspace-projection method is developed to construct orthogonal block variable, which is originally from some kinds of series of topological indices or quantum chemical parameters. With the help of canonical correlation analysis, the orthogonal block variables were used to establish the structure-retention index correlation model. The regression of only few new orthogonal variables obtained by canonical correlation analysis against retention index shows significant improvement both in fitting and prediction ability of the correlation model. Moreover, the quantitative intercorrelation between the different block variables of topological indices can also be evaluated with the help of the subspace-projection technique proposed in this work.