Sarah Vluymans - Böcker

This book presents novel classification algorithms for four challenging prediction tasks, namely learning from imbalanced, semi-supervised, multi-instance and multi-label data. The methods are based on fuzzy rough set theory, a mathematical framework used to model uncertainty in data. The book makes two main contributions: helping readers gain a deeper understanding of the underlying mathematical theory; and developing new, intuitive and well-performing classification approaches. The authors bridge the gap between the theoretical proposals of the mathematical model and important challenges in machine learning.   The intended readership of this book includes anyone interested in learning more about fuzzy rough set theory and how to use it in practical machine learning contexts. Although the core audience chiefly consists of mathematicians, computer scientists and engineers, the content will also be interesting and accessible to students and professionals from a range of other fields.

This book provides a general overview of multiple instance learning (MIL), defining the framework and covering the central paradigms. The authors discuss the most important algorithms for MIL such as classification, regression and clustering. With a focus on classification, a taxonomy is set and the most relevant proposals are specified. Efficient algorithms are developed to discover relevant information when working with uncertainty. Key representative applications are included.This book carries out a study of the key related fields of distance metrics and alternative hypothesis. Chapters examine new and developing aspects of MIL such as data reduction for multi-instance problems and imbalanced MIL data. Class imbalance for multi-instance problems is defined at the bag level, a type of representation that utilizes ambiguity due to the fact that bag labels are available, but the labels of the individual instances are not defined.Additionally, multiple instance multiple label learning is explored. This learning framework introduces flexibility and ambiguity in the object representation providing a natural formulation for representing complicated objects. Thus, an object is represented by a bag of instances and is allowed to have associated multiple class labels simultaneously. This book is suitable for developers and engineers working to apply MIL techniques to solve a variety of real-world problems. It is also useful for researchers or students seeking a thorough overview of MIL literature, methods, and tools.