Evolutionary under-sampling based bagging ensemble method for imbalanced data classification

In the class imbalanced learning scenario, traditional machine learning algorithms focusing on optimizing the overall accuracy tend to achieve poor classification performance especially for the minority class in which we are most interested. To solve this problem, many effective approaches have been proposed. Among them, the bagging ensemble methods with integration of the under-sampling techniques have demonstrated better performance than some other ones including the bagging ensemble methods integrated with the over-sampling techniques, the cost-sensitive methods, etc. Although these under-sampling techniques promote the diversity among the generated base classifiers with the help of random partition or sampling for the majority class, they do not take any measure to ensure the individual classification performance, consequently affecting the achievability of better ensemble performance. On the other hand, evolutionary under-sampling EUS as a novel undersampling technique has been successfully applied in searching for the best majority class subset for training a good-performance nearest neighbor classifier. Inspired by EUS, in this paper, we try to introduce it into the under-sampling bagging framework and propose an EUS based bagging ensemble method EUS-Bag by designing a new fitness function considering three factors to make EUS better suited to the framework. With our fitness function, EUS-Bag could generate a set of accurate and diverse base classifiers. To verify the effectiveness of EUS-Bag, we conduct a series of comparison experiments on 22 two-class imbalanced classification problems. Experimental results measured using recall, geometric mean and AUC all demonstrate its superior performance.     

A dempster-shafer theoretic framework for boosting based ensemble design

Training set resampling based ensemble design techniques are successfully used to reduce the classification errors of the base classifiers. Boosting is one of the techniques used for this purpose where each training set is obtained by drawing samples with replacement from the available training set according to a weighted distribution which is modified for each new classifier to be included in the ensemble. The weighted resampling results in a classifier set, each being accurate in different parts of the input space mainly specified the sample weights. In this study, a dynamic integration of boosting based ensembles is proposed so as to take into account the heterogeneity of the input sets. An evidence-theoretic framework is developed for this purpose so as to take into account the weights and distances of the neighboring training samples in both training and testing boosting based ensembles. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is compared to the AdaBoost algorithm using three different base classifiers.     

A theoretical analysis of bagging as a linear combination of classifiers

We apply an analytical framework for the analysis of linearly combined classifiers to ensembles generated by bagging. This provides an analytical model of bagging misclassification probability as a function of the ensemble size, which is a novel result in the literature. Experimental results on real data sets confirm the theoretical predictions. This allows us to derive a novel and theoretically grounded guideline for choosing bagging ensemble size. Furthermore, our results are consistent with explanations of bagging in terms of classifier instability and variance reduction, support the optimality of the simple average over the weighted average combining rule for ensembles generated by bagging, and apply to other randomization-based methods for constructing classifier ensembles. Although our results do not allow to compare bagging misclassification probability with the one of an individual classifier trained on the original training set, we discuss how the considered theoretical framework could be exploited to this aim.     

Building bagging on critical instances

The ensemble method is a powerful data mining paradigm, which builds a classification model by integrating multiple diversified component learners. Bagging is one of the most successful ensemble methods. It is made of bootstrap-inspired classifiers and uses these classifiers to get an aggregated classifier. However, in bagging, bootstrapped training sets become more and more similar as redundancy is increasing. Besides redundancy, any training set is usually subject to noise. Moreover, the training set might be imbalanced. Thus, each training instance has a different impact on the learning process. This paper explores some properties of the ensemble margin and its use in improving the performance of bagging. We introduce a new approach to measure the importance of training data in learning, based on the margin theory. Then, a new bagging method concentrating on critical instances is proposed. This method is more accurate than bagging and more robust than boosting. Compared to bagging, it reduces the bias while generally keeping the same variance. Our findings suggest that (a) examples with low margins tend to be more critical for the classifier performance; (b) examples with higher margins tend to be more redundant; (c) misclassified examples with high margins tend to be noisy examples. Our experimental results on 15 various data sets show that the generalization error of bagging can be reduced up to 2.5% and its resilience to noise strengthened by iteratively removing both typical and noisy training instances, reducing the training set size by up to 75%.     

Classification Performance of Bagging and Boosting Type Ensemble Methods with Small Training Sets

Classification performance of an ensemble method can be deciphered by studying the bias and variance contribution to its classification error. Statistically, the bias and variance of a single classifier is controlled by the size of the training set and the complexity of the classifier. It has been both theoretically and empirically established that the classification performance (hence bias and variance) of a single classifier can be improved partially by using a suitable ensemble method of the classifier and resampling the original training set. In this paper, we have empirically examined the bias-variance decomposition of three different types of ensemble methods with different training sample sizes consisting of 10% to maximum 63% of the observations from the original training sample. First ensemble is bagging, second one is a boosting type ensemble named adaboost and the last one is a bagging type hybrid ensemble method, called bundling. All the ensembles are trained on training samples constructed with small subsampling ratios (SSR) 0.10, 0.20, 0.30, 0.40, 0.50 and bootstrapping. The experiments are all done on 20 UCI Machine Learning repository datasets and designed to find out the optimal training sample size (smaller than the original training sample) for each ensemble and then find out the optimal ensemble with smaller trianing sets with respect to the bias-variance performance. The bias-variance decomposition of bundling shows that this ensemble method with small subsamples has significantly lower bias and variance than subsampled and bootstrapped version of bagging and adaboost.     

基于多机器学习竞争策略的短时雷电预报

传统的雷电数据预测方法往往采用单一最优机器学习算法,较少考虑气象数据的时空变化等现象。针对该现象,提出一种基于集成策略的多机器学习短时雷电预报算法。首先,对气象数据进行属性约简,降低数据维度;其次,在数据集上训练多种异构机器学习分类器,并基于预测质量筛选最优基分类器;最后,通过对最优基分类器训练权重,并结合集成策略产生最终分类器。实验表明,该方法优于传统单最优方法,其平均预测准确率提高了9.5%。     

CAT-RFE:点击欺诈的集成检测框架

点击欺诈是近年来最常见的网络犯罪手段之一,互联网广告行业每年都会因点击欺诈而遭受巨大损失。为了能够在海量点击中有效地检测欺诈点击,构建了多种充分结合广告点击与时间属性关系的特征,并提出了一种点击欺诈检测的集成学习框架——CAT-RFE集成学习框架。CAT-RFE集成学习框架包含3个部分:基分类器、递归特征消除(RFE,recursive feature elimination)和voting集成学习。其中,将适用于类别特征的梯度提升模型——CatBoost(categorical boosting)作为基分类器;RFE是基于贪心策略的特征选择方法,可在多组特征中选出较好的特征组合;Voting集成学习是采用投票的方式将多个基分类器的结果进行组合的学习方法。该框架通过CatBoost和RFE在特征空间中获取多组较优的特征组合,再在这些特征组合下的训练结果通过voting进行集成,获得集成的点击欺诈检测结果。该框架采用了相同的基分类器和集成学习方法,不仅克服了差异较大的分类器相互制约而导致集成结果不理想的问题,也克服了RFE在选择特征时容易陷入局部最优解的问题,具备更好的检测能力。在实际互联网点击欺诈数据集上的性能评估和对比实验结果显示,CAT-RFE集成学习框架的点击欺诈检测能力超过了CatBoost模型、CatBoost和RFE组合的模型以及其他机器学习模型,证明该框架具备良好的竞争力。该框架为互联网广告点击欺诈检测提供一种可行的解决方案。     

Attribute bagging: improving accuracy of classifier ensembles by using random feature subsets

We present attribute bagging (AB), a technique for improving the accuracy and stability of classifier ensembles induced using random subsets of features. AB is a wrapper method that can be used with any learning algorithm. It establishes an appropriate attribute subset size and then randomly selects subsets of features, creating projections of the training set on which the ensemble classifiers are built. The induced classifiers are then used for voting. This article compares the performance of our AB method with bagging and other algorithms on a hand-pose recognition dataset. It is shown that AB gives consistently better results than bagging, both in accuracy and stability. The performance of ensemble voting in bagging and the AB method as a function of the attribute subset size and the number of voters for both weighted and unweighted voting is tested and discussed. We also demonstrate that ranking the attribute subsets by their classification accuracy and voting using only the best subsets further improves the resulting performance of the ensemble.     

基于异构分类器集成的增量学习算法

将集成学习的思想引入到增量学习之中可以显著提升学习效果,近年关于集成式增量学习的研究大多采用加权投票的方式将多个同质分类器进行结合,并没有很好地解决增量学习中的稳定-可塑性难题。针对此提出了一种异构分类器集成增量学习算法。该算法在训练过程中,为使模型更具稳定性,用新数据训练多个基分类器加入到异构的集成模型之中,同时采用局部敏感哈希表保存数据梗概以备待测样本近邻的查找;为了适应不断变化的数据,还会用新获得的数据更新集成模型中基分类器的投票权重;对待测样本进行类别预测时,以局部敏感哈希表中与待测样本相似的数据作为桥梁,计算基分类器针对该待测样本的动态权重,结合多个基分类器的投票权重和动态权重判定待测样本所属类别。通过对比实验,证明了该增量算法有比较高的稳定性和泛化能力。     

基于遗传规划集成学习的网络作弊检测

网络作弊检测是搜索引擎的重要挑战之一,该文提出基于遗传规划的集成学习方法 (简记为GPENL)来检测网络作弊。该方法首先通过欠抽样技术从原训练集中抽样得到t个不同的训练集;然后使用c个不同的分类算法对t个训练集进行训练得到t*c个基分类器;最后利用遗传规划得到t*c个基分类器的集成方式。新方法不仅将欠抽样技术和集成学习融合起来提高非平衡数据集的分类性能,还能方便地集成不同类型的基分类器。在WEBSPAM-UK2006数据集上所做的实验表明无论是同态集成还是异态集成,GPENL均能提高分类的性能,且异态集成比同态集成更加有效;GPENL比AdaBoost、Bagging、RandomForest、多数投票集成、EDKC算法和基于Prediction Spamicity的方法取得更高的F-度量值。     

递减样本集成学习算法

从多个弱分类器重构出强分类器的集成学习方法是机器学习领域的重要研究方向之一。尽管已有多种多样性基本分类器的生成方法被提出,但这些方法的鲁棒性仍有待提高。递减样本集成学习算法综合了目前最为流行的boosting与bagging算法的学习思想,通过不断移除训练集中置信度较高的样本,使训练集空间依次递减,使得某些被低估的样本在后续的分类器中得到充分训练。该策略形成一系列递减的训练子集,因而也生成一系列多样性的基本分类器。类似于boosting与bagging算法,递减样本集成学习方法采用投票策略对基本分类器进行整合。通过严格的十折叠交叉检验,在8个UCI数据集与7种基本分类器上的测试表明,递减样本集成学习算法总体上要优于boosting与bagging算法。     

重采样在微博机器人识别中的应用研究

随着微博机器人账户的不断增多,对其识别检测已成为当前数据挖掘领域的热点问题。已有的微博机器人识别研究多使用爬取搜集的相关数据,在小规模平衡分布的机器人与普通用户数据集上训练并验证算法模型, 在样本分布不平衡的真实情况下存在局限性。重采样是一种针对不平衡数据集分类的常用技术,为探究重采样对 相关监督学习机器人识别算法的影响,该文以微热点数据挖掘竞赛的真实数据为基础,提出一种结合重采样的微 博机器人识别框架,在5种不同采样方式的基础上使用多种评价指标,综合评估了7种监督学习算法在不平衡验 证集上的分类性能。实验结果表明,以往基于小规模平衡样本数据训练的模型在真实情况下的Recall有较大降低,而结合重采样的算法框架能够大幅提高机器人账户的识别率,其中使用 NearMiss欠采样会让算法的 Recall大幅提升,而使用 ADASYN 过采样会让算法的 G_mean有所提高。一般而言,微博用户的发布时间、发布地域以及 发布时间间隔等属性是区分正常用户和机器人的重要特征属性。重采样调整了机器学习算法所依赖的特征属性, 从而获得更好的预测性能。     

一种基于粗糙集属性约简的多分类器集成方法

为提高多分类器系统的分类精度,提出了一种基于粗糙集属性约简的分类器集成方法 MCS_ARS。该方法利用粗糙集属性约简和数据子集划分方法获得若干个特征约简子集和数据子集,并据此训练基分类器;然后利用分类结果相似性得到验证集的若干个预测类别;最后利用多数投票法得到验证集的最终类别。利用UCI标准数据集对方法 MCS_ARS的性能进行测试。实验结果表明,相较于经典的集成方法,方法 MCS_ARS可以获得更高的分类准确率和稳定性。     

Cluster‐based ensemble of classifiers

This paper presents cluster‐based ensemble classifier – an approach toward generating ensemble of classifiers using multiple clusters within classified data. Clustering is incorporated to partition data set into multiple clusters of highly correlated data that are difficult to separate otherwise and different base classifiers are used to learn class boundaries within the clusters. As the different base classifiers engage on different difficult‐to‐classify subsets of the data, the learning of the base classifiers is more focussed and accurate. A selection rather than fusion approach achieves the final verdict on patterns of unknown classes. The impact of clustering on the learning parameters and accuracy of a number of learning algorithms including neural network, support vector machine, decision tree and k‐NN classifier is investigated. A number of benchmark data sets from the UCI machine learning repository were used to evaluate the cluster‐based ensemble classifier and the experimental results demonstrate its superiority over bagging and boosting.     

基于GAN-AdaBoost-DT不平衡分类算法的信用卡欺诈分类

针对传统单个分类器在不平衡数据上分类效果有限的问题，基于对抗生成网络（GAN）和集成学习方法，提出一种新的针对二类不平衡数据集的分类方法——对抗生成网络-自适应增强-决策树（GAN-AdaBoost-DT）算法。首先，利用GAN训练得到生成模型，生成模型生成少数类样本，降低数据的不平衡性；其次，将生成的少数类样本代入自适应增强（AdaBoost）模型框架，更改权重，改进AdaBoost模型，提升以决策树（DT）为基分类器的AdaBoost模型的分类性能。使用受测者工作特征曲线下面积（AUC）作为分类评价指标，在信用卡诈骗数据集上的实验分析表明，该算法与合成少数类样本集成学习相比，准确率提高了4.5%，受测者工作特征曲线下面积提高了6.5%；对比改进的合成少数类样本集成学习，准确率提高了4.9%，AUC值提高了5.9%；对比随机欠采样集成学习，准确率提高了4.5%，受测者工作特征曲线下面积提高了5.4%。在UCI和KEEL的其他数据集上的实验结果表明，该算法在不平衡二分类问题上能提高总体的准确率，优化分类器性能。     

使用PCA建立基于规则的组合分类器

提出了一种使用基于规则的基分类器建立组合分类器的新方法PCARules。尽管新方法也采用基分类器预测的加权投票来决定待分类样本的类,但是为基分类器创建训练数据集的方法与bagging和boosting完全不同。该方法不是通过抽样为基分类器创建数据集,而是随机地将特征划分成K个子集,使用PCA得到每个子集的主成分,形成新的特征空间,并将所有训练数据映射到新的特征空间作为基分类器的训练集。在UCI机器学习库的30个随机选取的数据集上的实验表明:算法不仅能够显著提高基于规则的分类方法的分类性能,而且与bagging和boosting等传统组合方法相比,在大部分数据集上都具有更高的分类准确率。     

Dynamic weighting ensemble classifiers based on cross-validation

Ensemble of classifiers constitutes one of the main current directions in machine learning and data mining. It is accepted that the ensemble methods can be divided into static and dynamic ones. Dynamic ensemble methods explore the use of different classifiers for different samples and therefore may get better generalization ability than static ensemble methods. However, for most of dynamic approaches based on KNN rule, additional part of training samples should be taken out for estimating “local classification performance” of each base classifier. When the number of training samples is not sufficient enough, it would lead to the lower accuracy of the training model and the unreliableness for estimating local performances of base classifiers, so further hurt the integrated performance. This paper presents a new dynamic ensemble model that introduces cross-validation technique in the process of local performances’ evaluation and then dynamically assigns a weight to each component classifier. Experimental results with 10 UCI data sets demonstrate that when the size of training set is not large enough, the proposed method can achieve better performances compared with some dynamic ensemble methods as well as some classical static ensemble approaches.     

Improving bagging performance through multi-algorithm ensembles

Working as an ensemble method that establishes a committee of classifiers first and then aggregates their outcomes through majority voting, bagging has attracted considerable research interest and been applied in various application domains. It has demonstrated several advantages, but in its present form, bagging has been found to be less accurate than some other ensemble methods. To unlock its power and expand its user base, we propose an approach that improves bagging through the use of multi-algorithm ensembles. In a multi-algorithm ensemble, multiple classification algorithms are employed. Starting from a study of the nature of diversity, we show that compared to using different training sets alone, using heterogeneous algorithms together with different training sets increases diversity in ensembles, and hence we provide a fundamental explanation for research utilizing heterogeneous algorithms. In addition, we partially address the problem of the relationship between diversity and accuracy by providing a non-linear function that describes the relationship between diversity and correlation. Furthermore, after realizing that the bootstrap procedure is the exclusive source of diversity in bagging, we use heterogeneity as another source of diversity and propose an approach utilizing heterogeneous algorithms in bagging. For evaluation, we consider several benchmark data sets from various application domains. The results indicate that, in terms of F1-measure, our approach outperforms most of the other state-of-the-art ensemble methods considered in experiments and, in terms of mean margin, our approach is superior to all the others considered in experiments.     

Allocating training instances to learning agents for team formation

Agents can learn to improve their coordination with their teammates and increase team performance. There are finite training instances, where each training instance is an opportunity for the learning agents to improve their coordination. In this article, we focus on allocating training instances to learning agent pairs, i.e., pairs that improve coordination with each other, with the goal of team formation. Agents learn at different rates, and hence, the allocation of training instances affects the performance of the team formed. We build upon previous work on the Synergy Graph model, that is learned completely from data and represents agents’ capabilities and compatibility in a multi-agent team. We formally define the learning agents team formation problem, and compare it with the multi-armed bandit problem. We consider learning agent pairs that improve linearly and geometrically, i.e., the marginal improvement decreases by a constant factor. We contribute algorithms that allocate the training instances, and compare against algorithms from the multi-armed bandit problem. In our simulations, we demonstrate that our algorithms perform similarly to the bandit algorithms in the linear case, and outperform them in the geometric case. Further, we apply our model and algorithms to a multi-agent foraging problem, thus demonstrating the efficacy of our algorithms in general multi-agent problems.     

Bagging with Adaptive Costs

Ensemble methods have proven to be highly effective in improving the performance of base learners under most circumstances. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm that combines the merits of some existing techniques, namely, bagging, arcing, and stacking. The basic structure of the algorithm resembles bagging. However, the misclassification cost of each training point is repeatedly adjusted according to its observed out-of-bag vote margin. In this way, the method gains the advantage of arcing-building the classifier the ensemble needs - without fixating on potentially noisy points. Computational experiments show that this algorithm performs consistently better than bagging and arcing with linear and nonlinear base classifiers. In view of the characteristics of bacing, a hybrid ensemble learning strategy, which combines bagging and different versions of bacing, is proposed and studied empirically.