In the feature subset selection problem, a learning algorithm is faced with the problem of selecting a relevant subset of features upon which to focus its attention, while ignoring the rest. To achieve the best possible performance with a particular learning algorithm on a particular training set, a feature subset selection method should consider how the algorithm and the training set interact. We explore the relation between optimal feature subset selection and relevance. Our wrapper method searches for an optimal feature subset tailored to a particular algorithm and a domain. We study the strengths and weaknesses of the wrapper approach and show a series of improved designs. We compare the wrapper approach to induction without feature subset selection and to Relief, a filter approach to feature subset selection. Significant improvement in accuracy is achieved for some datasets for the two families of induction algorithms used: decision trees and

: Practical pattern classification and knowledge discovery problems require selection of a subset of attributes or features (from a much larger set) to represent the patterns to be classified. This is due to the fact that the performance of the classifier (usually induced by some learning algorithm) and the cost of classification are sensitive to the choice of the features used to construct the classifier. Exhaustive evaluation of possible feature subsets is usually infeasible in practice because of the large amount of computational effort required. Genetic algorithms, which belong to a class of randomized heuristic search techniques, offer an attractive approach to find near-optimal solutions to such optimization problems. This paper presents an approach to feature subset selection using a genetic algorithm. Some advantages of this approach include the ability to accommodate multiple criteria such as accuracy and cost of classification into the feature selection process and to find fe...

Feature selection has been the focus of interest for quite some time and much work has been done. With the creation of huge databases and the consequent requirements for good machine learning techniques, new problems arise and novel approaches to feature selection are in demand. This survey is a comprehensive overview of many existing methods from the 1970's to the present. It identifies four steps of a typical feature selection method, and categorizes the different existing methods in terms of generation procedures and evaluation functions, and reveals hitherto unattempted combinations of generation procedures and evaluation functions. Representative methods are chosen from each category for detailed explanation and discussion via example. Benchmark datasets with different characteristics are used for comparative study. The strengths and weaknesses of different methods are explained. Guidelines for applying feature selection methods are given based on data types and domain characteris...

Decision trees have proved to be valuable tools for the description, classification and generalization of data. Work on constructing decision trees from data exists in multiple disciplines such as statistics, pattern recognition, decision theory, signal processing, machine learning and artificial neural networks. Researchers in these disciplines, sometimes working on quite different problems, identified similar issues and heuristics for decision tree construction. This paper surveys existing work on decision tree construction, attempting to identify the important issues involved, directions the work has taken and the current state of the art. Keywords: classification, tree-structured classifiers, data compaction 1. Introduction Advances in data collection methods, storage and processing technology are providing a unique challenge and opportunity for automated data exploration techniques. Enormous amounts of data are being collected daily from major scientific projects e.g., Human Genome...

In this doctoral dissertation, we study three basic problems in machine learning and two new hypothesis spaces with corresponding learning algorithms. The problems we investigate are: accuracy estimation, feature subset selection, and parameter tuning. The latter two problems are related and are studied under the wrapper approach. The hypothesis spaces we investigate are: decision tables with a default majority rule (DTMs) and oblivious read-once decision graphs (OODGs).

Feature selection can be defined as a problem of finding a minimum set of M relevant attributes that describes the dataset as well as the original N attributes do, where M N . After examining the problems with both the exhaustive and the heuristic approach to feature selection, this paper proposes a probabilistic approach. The theoretic analysis and the experimental study show that the proposed approach is simple to implement and guaranteed to find the optimal if resources permit. It is also fast in obtaining results and effective in selecting features that improve the performance of a learning algorithm. An on-site application involving huge datasets has been conducted independently. It proves the effectiveness and scalability of the proposed algorithm. Discussed also are various aspects and applications of this feature selection algorithm. 1 Introduction The problem of feature selection can be defined as finding M relevant attributes among the N original attrib...

This paper introduces concepts and algorithms of feature selection, surveys existing feature selection algorithms for classification and clustering, groups and compares different algorithms with a categorizing framework based on search strategies, evaluation criteria, and data mining tasks, reveals unattempted combinations, and provides guidelines in selecting feature selection algorithms. With the categorizing framework, we continue our efforts toward building an integrated system for intelligent feature selection. A unifying platform is proposed as an intermediate step. An illustrative example is presented to show how existing feature selection algorithms can be integrated into a meta algorithm that can take advantage of individual algorithms. An added advantage of doing so is to help a user employ a suitable algorithm without knowing details of each algorithm. Some real-world applications are included to demonstrate the use of feature selection in data mining. We conclude this work by identifying trends and challenges of feature selection research and development.

Feature selection is applied to reduce the number of features in many applications where data has hundreds or thousands of features. Existing feature selection methods mainly focus on finding relevant features. In this paper, we show that feature relevance alone is insufficient for efficient feature selection of high-dimensional data. We define feature redundancy and propose to perform explicit redundancy analysis in feature selection. A new framework is introduced that decouples relevance analysis and redundancy analysis. We develop a correlation-based method for relevance and redundancy analysis, and conduct an empirical study of its efficiency and effectiveness comparing with representative methods.

The traditional motivation behind feature selection algorithms is to find the best subset of features for a task using one particular learning algorithm. Given the recent success of ensembles, however, we investigate the notion of ensemble feature selection in this paper. This task is harder than traditional feature selection in that one not only needs to find features germane to the learning task and learning algorithm, but one also needs to find a set of feature subsets that will promote disagreement among the ensemble's classifiers. In this paper, we present an ensemble feature selection approach that is based on genetic algorithms. Our algorithm shows improved performance over the popular and powerful ensemble approaches of AdaBoost and Bagging and demonstrates the utility of ensemble feature selection. Introduction Feature selection algorithms attempt to find and remove the features which are unhelpful or destructive to learning (Almuallim & Dietterich 1994; Cherkauer & Shavlik 1...

The paper describes a new, logic-based methodology for analyzing observations. The key features of the Logical Analysis of Data (LAD) are the discovery of minimal sets of features necessary for explaining all observations and the detection of hidden patterns in the data capable of distinguishing observations describing positive outcome events from negative outcome events. Combinations of such patterns are used for developing general classification procedures. An implementation of this methodology is described in the paper along with the results of numerical experiments demonstrating the classification performance of LAD in comparison with the reported results of other procedures. In the final section, we describe three pilot studies on applications of LAD to oil exploration, psychometric testing, and the analysis of developments in the Chinese transitional economy. These pilot studies demonstrate not only the classification power of LAD, but also its flexibility and capability t...