1,720,969 research outputs found

    Ensembles of extremely randomized predictive clustering trees for predicting structured outputs

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    We address the task of learning ensembles of predictive models for structured output prediction (SOP). We focus on three SOP tasks: multi-target regression (MTR), multi-label classification (MLC) and hierarchical multi-label classification (HMC). In contrast to standard classification and regression, where the output is a single (discrete or continuous) variable, in SOP the output is a data structure—a tuple of continuous variables MTR, a tuple of binary variables MLC or a tuple of binary variables with hierarchical dependencies (HMC). SOP is gaining increasing interest in the research community due to its applicability in a variety of practically relevant domains. In this context, we consider the Extra-Tree ensemble learning method—the overall top performer in the DREAM4 and DREAM5 challenges for gene network reconstruction. We extend this method for SOP tasks and call the extension Extra-PCTs ensembles. As base predictive models we propose using predictive clustering trees (PCTs)–a generalization of decision trees for predicting structured outputs. We conduct a comprehensive experimental evaluation of the proposed method on a collection of 41 benchmark datasets: 21 for MTR, 10 for MLC and 10 for HMC. We first investigate the influence of the size of the ensemble and the size of the feature subset considered at each node. We then compare the performance of Extra-PCTs to other ensemble methods (random forests and bagging), as well as to single PCTs. The experimental evaluation reveals that the Extra-PCTs achieve optimal performance in terms of predictive power and computational cost, with 50 base predictive models across the three tasks. The recommended values for feature subset sizes vary across the tasks, and also depend on whether the dataset contains only binary and/or sparse attributes. The Extra-PCTs give better predictive performance than a single tree (the differences are typically statistically significant). Moreover, the Extra-PCTs are the best performing ensemble method (except for the MLC task, where performances are similar to those of random forests), and Extra-PCTs can be used to learn good feature rankings for all of the tasks considered here

    Semi-supervised regression trees with application to QSAR modelling

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    Despite the ease of collecting abundance of data about various phenomena, obtaining labeled data needed for learning models with high predictive performance remains a difficult and expensive task in many domains. This issue is particularly present in the case of the analysis of scientific data where obtaining labeled data typically requires expensive experiments. Moreover, in the analysis of scientific data, another issue is of fundamental importance: the interpretability of the models and the explainability of their decisions. By taking into account these considerations, we propose a novel semi-supervised method to learn regression trees. Thanks to the semi-supervised machine learning approach, the method is able to exploit information coming not only from labeled data, but also from unlabeled data, thus alleviating the issue of lack of labeled data. The method is based on the predictive clustering trees paradigm that extends regression trees towards structured output prediction. This allows us to obtain interpretable regression trees. The method we propose is particularly suited for the chemoinformatics task of quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) modeling, which is the main application context considered in this paper. Specifically, we evaluate the proposed method on 4 QSAR modelling datasets and illustrate its use on a case study of predicting farnesyltransferase inhibitors. Additionally, we also evaluate our approach on 10 benchmark datasets not related to the QSAR modeling problem. The evaluation reveals the following: semi-supervised trees and ensembles thereof have better predictive performance than their supervised counterparts (especially when the number of labeled examples is very small); different datasets and different amounts of labeled data require different amounts of unlabeled data to be included in the learning process; and the learned semi-supervised regression trees can be used to better understand the problem at hand and the way predictions are being made

    Semi-Supervised Predictive Clustering Trees for (Hierarchical) Multi-Label Classification

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    Semi-supervised learning (SSL) is a common approach to learning predictive models using not only labeled, but also unlabeled examples. While SSL for the simple tasks of classification and regression has received much attention from the research community, this is not the case for complex prediction tasks with structurally dependent variables, such as multi-label classification and hierarchical multi-label classification. These tasks may require additional information, possibly coming from the underlying distribution in the descriptive space provided by unlabeled examples, to better face the challenging task of simultaneously predicting multiple class labels. In this paper, we investigate this aspect and propose a (hierarchical) multi-label classification method based on semi-supervised learning of predictive clustering trees, which we also extend towards ensemble learning. Extensive experimental evaluation conducted on 24 datasets shows significant advantages of the proposed method and its extension with respect to their supervised counterparts. Moreover, the method preserves interpretability of classical tree-based models

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more sophisticated methods

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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