Abstract Existing classification analysis techniques (e.g., decision tree induction, backpropagation neural network, k-nearest neighbor classification, etc.) generally exhibit satisfactory classification effectiveness when dealing with data with non-skewed class distribution. However, real-world applications (e.g., churn prediction and fraud detection) often involve highly skewed data in decision outcomes (e.g., 2% churners and 98% non-churners). Such a highly skewed class distribution problem, if not properly addressed, would imperil the resulting learning effectiveness and might result in a ¡§null¡¨ prediction system that simply predicts all instances as having the majority decision class as the training instances (e.g., predicting all customers as non-churners). In this study, we extended the multi-classifier class-combiner approach and proposed a clustering-based multi-classifier class-combiner technique to address the highly skewed class distribution problem in classification analysis. In addition, we proposed four distance-based methods for selecting a subset of instances having the majority decision class for lowering the degree of skewness in a data set. Using two real-world datasets (including mortality prediction for burn patients and customer loyalty prediction), empirical results suggested that the proposed clustering-based multi-classifier class-combiner technique generally outperformed the traditional multi-classifier class-combiner approach and the four distance-based methods. Keywords: Data Mining, Classification Analysis, Skewed Class Distribution Problem, Decision Tree Induction, Multi-classifier Class-combiner Approach, Clustering-based Multi-classifier Class-combiner Approach

Existing classification analysis techniques (e.g., decision tree induction,) generally exhibit satisfactory classification effectiveness when dealing with data with non-skewed class distribution. However, real-world applications (e.g., churn prediction and fraud detection) often involve highly skewed data in decision outcomes. Such a highly skewed class distribution problem, if not properly addressed, would imperil the resulting learning effectiveness. In this study, we empirically evaluate three different approaches, namely the under-sampling, the over-sampling and the multi-classifier committee approaches, for addressing classification with highly skewed class distribution. Due to its popularity, C4.5 is selected as the underlying classification analysis technique. Based on 10 highly skewed class distribution datasets, our empirical evaluations suggest that the multi-classifier committee generally outperformed the under-sampling and the over-sampling approaches, using the recall rate, precision rate and F1-measure as the evaluation criteria. Furthermore, for applications aiming at a high recall rate, use of the over-sampling approach will be suggested. On the other hand, if the precision rate is the primary concern, adoption of the classification model induced directly from original datasets would be recommended.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:37:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luis Alexandre Rodrigues.pdf: 1364668 bytes, checksum: ac6c4273730fb6f75f7a0ceead7e4c1f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-05 / Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie / This work presents a process to detect suspected cases of fraud at automobile claims dataset, which is evaluated the economic created by it. Because of a detection process presenting misclassific ation, it is necessary to evaluate the financial economy made by the process not only its accuracy in detecting suspected cases of fraud. This process uses a combination of classifiers, with C4.5 Decision Tree, Naive Bayes and Support Vector Machine, const ructed by samples of the data set with automobile claims. This way, the process defined by this work can obtain the balance between the accuracy of classification and the financial economy. / Este trabalho apresenta um processo para detectar casos suspeitos de fraude em conjunto de dados com sinistros de automóvel, em que é avaliada a economia financeira gerada por ele. Devido ao fato de um processo de detecção apresentar erros de classificação, é necessário avaliar a economia financeira apresentada pelo processo e não somente a sua precisão na detecção de casos suspeitos de fraude. Este processo utiliza a combinação de classificadores, sendo Árvore de Decisão C4.5, Naive Bayes e Support Vector Machine, construídos por amostras do conjunto de dados com sinistros de automóvel. Desta forma, o processo definido por este trabalho pode obter o equilíbrio entre a precisão da classificação e a economia financeira.

As máquinas elétricas rotativas são hoje a principal forma de transformação da energia elétrica em mecânica motriz e os motores de indução trifásicos têm grande relevância dentro do setor produtivo. A garantia de um correto funcionamento torna-se vital para eficácia e competitividade da empresa dentro do setor fabril. Assim sendo, um correto diagnóstico e classificação de falhas de funcionamento dos motores em operação pode fornecer maior segurança no processo de tomada de decisão sobre a manutenção, aumentar a produtividade e eliminar os riscos e os danos aos processos como um todo. A proposição deste trabalho baseia-se na análise das correntes de estator no domínio da frequência com sinais injetados na máquina juntamente com a modulação de alimentação para o diagnóstico do motor sem defeitos, com falhas de curtocircuito nos enrolamentos do estator e com falhas de rotor. A proposta é validada numa ampla faixa de frequências de operação bem como de regimes de conjugado de carga. São analisados os desempenhos individuais de cinco técnicas de classificadores de padrões, sendo proposta a utilização de: i) Perceptron Multicamadas, ii) Máquina de Vetores de Suporte, iii) k-Vizinhos Próximos, iv) Árvore de Decisão C 4.5 e v) Naive Bayes. Complementarmente, é desenvolvido um comparativo dos métodos de classificação de padrões para avaliar a precisão de classificação frente aos diversos níveis de severidade das falhas. Resultados experimentais com motor de 1 cv são apresentados para validar a proposta. / Rotating electric machines are today the main form of transformation of electrical energy in motor mechanics and three-phase induction motors have great relevance within the productive sector. Thus a correct diagnosis and classification of failures of the engines in operation can provide security in the decision making process on maintenance, increase productivity and eliminate risks and damages to processes as a whole. The purpose of this paper is based on the analysis of the stator currents in the frequency domain with signals injected into the machine together with the power modulation for the diagnosis of motor faultless, stator winding short-circuit faults and rotor faults. Considering also, for validation of the proposal is validated on a broad range frequency of operation as well as load torque. We analyze the individual performances of five standard classifier techniques, proposing the use of: i) Multilayers Perceptron, ii) Support Vector Machine, iii) k-Nearest Neighbor, iv) C 4.5 Decision Tree and v) Naive Bayes. Complementarily, a comparison of the methods of classification of standards is developed to evaluate the accuracy of classification against the different levels of severity of the failures. Experimental results with 735.5 w and 1.471 w engines are presented to validate the proposal.

Automated visual inspection is an emerging multi-disciplinary field with many challenges; it combines different aspects of computer vision, pattern recognition, automation, and control systems. There does not exist a large body of work dedicated to the design of generalized visual inspection systems; that is, those that might easily be made applicable to different product types. This is an important oversight, in that many improvements in design and implementation times, as well as costs, might be realized with a system that could easily be made to function in different production environments. <br /><br /> This thesis proposes a framework for generalizing and automating the design of the defect classification stage of an automated visual inspection system. It involves using an expandable set of features which are optimized along with the classifier operating on them in order to adapt to the application at hand. The particular implementation explored involves optimizing the feature set in disjoint sets logically grouped by feature type to keep search spaces reasonable. Operator input is kept at a minimum throughout this customization process, since it is limited only to those cases in which the existing feature library cannot adequately delineate the classes at hand, at which time new features (or pools) may have to be introduced by an engineer with experience in the domain. <br /><br /> Two novel methods are put forward which fit well within this framework: cluster-space and hybrid-space classifiers. They are compared in a series of tests against both standard benchmark classifiers, as well as mean and majority vote multi-classifiers, on feature sets comprised of just the logical feature subsets, as well as the entire feature sets formed by their union. The proposed classifiers as well as the benchmarks are optimized with both a progressive combinatorial approach and with an genetic algorithm. Experimentation was performed on true colour industrial lumber defect images, as well as binary hand-written digits. <br /><br /> Based on the experiments conducted in this work, it was found that the sequentially optimized multi hybrid-space methods are capable of matching the performances of the benchmark classifiers on the lumber data, with the exception of the mean-rule multi-classifiers, which dominated most experiments by approximately 3% in classification accuracy. The genetic algorithm optimized hybrid-space multi-classifier achieved best performance however; an accuracy of 79. 2%. <br /><br /> The numeral dataset results were less promising; the proposed methods could not equal benchmark performance. This is probably because the numeral feature-sets were much more conducive to good class separation, with standard benchmark accuracies approaching 95% not uncommon. This indicates that the cluster-space transform inherent to the proposed methods appear to be most useful in highly dependant or confusing feature-spaces, a hypothesis supported by the outstanding performance of the single hybrid-space classifier in the difficult texture feature subspace: 42. 6% accuracy, a 6% increase over the best benchmark performance. <br /><br /> The generalized framework proposed appears promising, because classifier performance over feature sets formed by the union of independently optimized feature subsets regularly met and exceeded those classifiers operating on feature sets formed by the optimization of the feature set in its entirety. This finding corroborates earlier work with similar results [3, 9], and is an aspect of pattern recognition that should be examined further.

Automated visual inspection is an emerging multi-disciplinary field with many challenges; it combines different aspects of computer vision, pattern recognition, automation, and control systems. There does not exist a large body of work dedicated to the design of generalized visual inspection systems; that is, those that might easily be made applicable to different product types. This is an important oversight, in that many improvements in design and implementation times, as well as costs, might be realized with a system that could easily be made to function in different production environments. <br /><br /> This thesis proposes a framework for generalizing and automating the design of the defect classification stage of an automated visual inspection system. It involves using an expandable set of features which are optimized along with the classifier operating on them in order to adapt to the application at hand. The particular implementation explored involves optimizing the feature set in disjoint sets logically grouped by feature type to keep search spaces reasonable. Operator input is kept at a minimum throughout this customization process, since it is limited only to those cases in which the existing feature library cannot adequately delineate the classes at hand, at which time new features (or pools) may have to be introduced by an engineer with experience in the domain. <br /><br /> Two novel methods are put forward which fit well within this framework: cluster-space and hybrid-space classifiers. They are compared in a series of tests against both standard benchmark classifiers, as well as mean and majority vote multi-classifiers, on feature sets comprised of just the logical feature subsets, as well as the entire feature sets formed by their union. The proposed classifiers as well as the benchmarks are optimized with both a progressive combinatorial approach and with an genetic algorithm. Experimentation was performed on true colour industrial lumber defect images, as well as binary hand-written digits. <br /><br /> Based on the experiments conducted in this work, it was found that the sequentially optimized multi hybrid-space methods are capable of matching the performances of the benchmark classifiers on the lumber data, with the exception of the mean-rule multi-classifiers, which dominated most experiments by approximately 3% in classification accuracy. The genetic algorithm optimized hybrid-space multi-classifier achieved best performance however; an accuracy of 79. 2%. <br /><br /> The numeral dataset results were less promising; the proposed methods could not equal benchmark performance. This is probably because the numeral feature-sets were much more conducive to good class separation, with standard benchmark accuracies approaching 95% not uncommon. This indicates that the cluster-space transform inherent to the proposed methods appear to be most useful in highly dependant or confusing feature-spaces, a hypothesis supported by the outstanding performance of the single hybrid-space classifier in the difficult texture feature subspace: 42. 6% accuracy, a 6% increase over the best benchmark performance. <br /><br /> The generalized framework proposed appears promising, because classifier performance over feature sets formed by the union of independently optimized feature subsets regularly met and exceeded those classifiers operating on feature sets formed by the optimization of the feature set in its entirety. This finding corroborates earlier work with similar results [3, 9], and is an aspect of pattern recognition that should be examined further.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:47:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ValeriaMSB.pdf: 564848 bytes, checksum: fbed1b62b5d33ac05db3c528f1bdcf62 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-07-14 / The use of intelligent agents in multi-classifier systems appeared in order to making the centralized decision process of a multi-classifier system into a distributed, flexible and incremental one. Based on this, the NeurAge (Neural Agents) system (Abreu et al 2004) was proposed. This system has a superior performance to some combination-centered methods (Abreu, Canuto, and Santana 2005). The negotiation is important to the multiagent system performance, but most of negotiations are defined informaly. A way to formalize the negotiation process is using an ontology. In the context of classification tasks, the ontology provides an approach to formalize the concepts and rules that manage the relations between these concepts. This work aims at using ontologies to make a formal description of the negotiation methods of a multi-agent system for classification tasks, more specifically the NeurAge system. Through ontologies, we intend to make the NeurAge system more formal and open, allowing that new agents can be part of such system during the negotiation. In this sense, the NeurAge System will be studied on the basis of its functioning and reaching, mainly, the negotiation methods used by the same ones. After that, some negotiation ontologies found in literature will be studied, and then those that were chosen for this work will be adapted to the negotiation methods used in the NeurAge. / A utiliza??o de agentes inteligentes em sistemas multi-classificadores surgiu devido ? necessidade de tornar o processo de tomada de decis?o de tais sistemas distribu?do, aut?nomo e flex?vel. Baseado nisso, foi proposto o sistema NeurAge (Neural Agents) (Abreu et al 2004). Este sistema possui um desempenho superior a v?rios m?todos de combina??o centralizados (Abreu, Canuto, and Santana 2005). A negocia??o ? importante para o desempenho de um sistema multiagente, por?m a maioria das negocia??es s?o definidas de maneira informal. Um modo de formalizar as negocia??es ? atrav?s do uso de ontologias. Dentro do contexto de classifica??o de padr?es, o uso de ontologias fornece uma abordagem para formalizar os conceitos e regras que governam as rela??es entre esses conceitos. O objetivo deste trabalho ? utilizar ontologias para formalizar os m?todos de negocia??o de um sistema multiagente para reconhecimento de padr?es, mais especificamente o sistema NeurAge. Atrav?s de ontologias, pretende-se deixar o sistema NeurAge mais formal e aberto, permitindo que novos agentes possam fazer parte de tal sistema durante o processo de negocia??o. Para a realiza??o deste objetivo, o Sistema NeurAge ser? estudado com base em seu funcionamento e focalizando, principalmente, os m?todos de negocia??o utilizados pelo mesmo. Na seq??ncia, algumas ontologias para negocia??o encontradas na literatura ser?o estudadas, e ent?o aquelas que foram escolhidas para este trabalho ser?o adaptadas aos m?todos de negocia??o utilizados no NeurAge.

In a wide range of applications, decisions must be made by combining information from multiple agents with varying levels of trust and expertise. For example, citizen science involves large numbers of human volunteers with differing skills, while disaster management requires aggregating information from multiple people and devices to make timely decisions. This thesis introduces efficient and scalable Bayesian inference for decision combination, allowing us to fuse the responses of multiple agents in large, real-world problems and account for the agents’ unreliability in a principled manner. As the behaviour of individual agents can change significantly, for example if agents move in a physical space or learn to perform an analysis task, this work proposes a novel combination method that accounts for these time variations in a fully Bayesian manner using a dynamic generalised linear model. This approach can also be used to augment agents’ responses with continuous feature data, thus permitting decision-making when agents’ responses are in limited supply. Working with information inferred using the proposed Bayesian techniques, an information-theoretic approach is developed for choosing optimal pairs of tasks and agents. This approach is demonstrated by an algorithm that maintains a trustworthy pool of workers and enables efficient learning by selecting informative tasks. The novel methods developed here are compared theoretically and empirically to a range of existing decision combination methods, using both simulated and real data. The results show that the methodology proposed in this thesis improves accuracy and computational efficiency over alternative approaches, and allows for insights to be determined into the behavioural groupings of agents.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:47:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RaulBP.pdf: 1811907 bytes, checksum: 007d54350318472b95b8e06144b749a5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-07-27 / Although some individual techniques of supervised Machine Learning (ML), also known as classifiers, or algorithms of classification, to supply solutions that, most of the time, are considered efficient, have experimental results gotten with the use of large sets of pattern and/or that they have a expressive amount of irrelevant data or incomplete characteristic, that show a decrease in the efficiency of the precision of these techniques. In other words, such techniques can t do an recognition of patterns of an efficient form in complex problems. With the intention to get better performance and efficiency of these ML techniques, were thought about the idea to using some types of LM algorithms work jointly, thus origin to the term Multi-Classifier System (MCS). The MCS s presents, as component, different of LM algorithms, called of base classifiers, and realized a combination of results gotten for these algorithms to reach the final result. So that the MCS has a better performance that the base classifiers, the results gotten for each base classifier must present an certain diversity, in other words, a difference between the results gotten for each classifier that compose the system. It can be said that it does not make signification to have MCS s whose base classifiers have identical answers to the sames patterns. Although the MCS s present better results that the individually systems, has always the search to improve the results gotten for this type of system. Aim at this improvement and a better consistency in the results, as well as a larger diversity of the classifiers of a MCS, comes being recently searched methodologies that present as characteristic the use of weights, or confidence values. These weights can describe the importance that certain classifier supplied when associating with each pattern to a determined class. These weights still are used, in associate with the exits of the classifiers, during the process of recognition (use) of the MCS s. Exist different ways of calculating these weights and can be divided in two categories: the static weights and the dynamic weights. The first category of weights is characterizes for not having the modification of its values during the classification process, different it occurs with the second category, where the values suffers modifications during the classification process. In this work an analysis will be made to verify if the use of the weights, statics as much as dynamics, they can increase the perfomance of the MCS s in comparison with the individually systems. Moreover, will be made an analysis in the diversity gotten for the MCS s, for this mode verify if it has some relation between the use of the weights in the MCS s with different levels of diversity / Apesar de algumas t?cnicas individuais de Aprendizado de M?quina (AM) supervisionado, tamb?mconhecidos como classificadores, ou algoritmos de classifica??o, fornecerem solu??es que, na maioria das vezes, s?o consideradas eficientes, h? resultados experimentais obtidos com a utiliza??o de grandes conjuntos de padr?es e/ou que apresentam uma quantidade expressiva de dados incompletos ou caracter?sticas irrelevantes, que mostram uma queda na efic?cia da precis?o dessas t?cnicas. Ou seja, tais t?cnicas n?o conseguem realizar um reconhecimento de padr?es de uma forma eficiente em problemas complexos. Com o intuito de obter um melhor desempenho e efic?cia dessas t?cnicas de AM, pensouse na id?ia de fazer com que v?rios tipos de algoritmos de AM consigam trabalhar conjuntamente, dando assim origem ao termo Sistema Multi-Classificador (SMC). Os SMC s apresentam, como componentes, diferentes algoritmos de AM, chamados de classificadores base, e realizam uma combina??o dos resultados obtidos por estes algoritmos para atingir o resultado final. Para que o SMC tenha um desempenho melhor que os classificadores base, os resultados obtidos por cada classificador base devem apresentar uma determinada diversidade, ou seja, uma diferen?a entre os resultados obtidos por cada classificador que comp?em o sistema. Pode-se dizer que n?o faz sentido ter SMC s cujos classificadores base possuam respostas id?nticas aos padr?es apresentados. Apesar dos SMC s apresentarem melhores resultados que os sistemas executados individualmente, h? sempre a busca para melhorar os resultados obtidos por esse tipo de sistema. Visando essa melhora e uma maior consist?ncia nos resultados, assim como uma maior diversidade dos classificadores de um SMC, v?m sendo recentemente pesquisadas metodologias que apresentam como caracter?sticas o uso de pesos, ou valores de con- fian?a. Esses pesos podem descrever a import?ncia que um determinado classificador forneceu ao associar cada padr?o a uma determinada classe. Esses pesos ainda s?o utilizados, em conjunto com as sa?das dos classificadores, durante o processo de reconhecimento (uso) dos SMC s. Existem diferentes maneiras de se calcular esses pesos e podem ser divididas em duas categorias: os pesos est?ticos e os pesos din?micos. A primeira categoria de pesos se caracteriza por n?o haver a modifica??o de seus valores no decorrer do processo de classifica??o, ao contr?rio do que ocorre com a segunda categoria, onde os valores sofrem modifica??es no decorrer do processo de classifica??o. Neste trabalho ser? feito uma an?lise para verificar se o uso dos pesos, tanto est?ticos quanto din?micos, conseguem aumentar o desempenho dos SMC s em compara??o com estes sistemas executados individualmente. Al?m disso, ser? feita uma an?lise na diversidade obtida pelos SMC s, para dessa forma verificar se h? alguma rela??o entre o uso dos pesos nos SMC s com diferentes n?veis de diversidade

Submitted by João Arthur Martins (joao.arthur@ufpe.br) on 2015-03-12T17:38:41Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertaçao Tiago de Lima.pdf: 1469834 bytes, checksum: 95a0326778b3d0f98bd35a7449d8b92f (MD5) license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Daniella Sodre (daniella.sodre@ufpe.br) on 2015-03-13T14:23:38Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertaçao Tiago de Lima.pdf: 1469834 bytes, checksum: 95a0326778b3d0f98bd35a7449d8b92f (MD5) license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-13T14:23:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertaçao Tiago de Lima.pdf: 1469834 bytes, checksum: 95a0326778b3d0f98bd35a7449d8b92f (MD5) license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-26 / In this dissertation, we present a methodology that aims the automatic construction of multi-classifiers systems based on the combination of selection and fusion. The presented method initially finds an optimum number of clusters for training data set and subsequently determines an ensemble for each cluster found. For model evaluation, the testing data set are submitted to clustering techniques and the nearest cluster to data input will emit a supervised response through its associated ensemble. Self-organizing maps were used in the clustering phase and multilayer perceptrons were used in the classification phase. Adaptive differential evolution has been used in this work in order to optimize the parameters and performance of the different techniques used in the classification and clustering phases. The proposed method, called SFJADE - Selection and Fusion (SF) via Adaptive Differential Evolution (JADE), has been tested on data compression of signals generated by artificial nose sensors and well-known classification problems, including cancer, card, diabetes, glass, heart, horse, soybean and thyroid. The experimental results have shown that the SFJADE method has a better performance than some literature methods while significantly outperforming most of the methods commonly used to construct Multi-Classifier Systems. / Nesta dissertação, nós apresentamos uma metodologia que almeja a construção automática de sistemas de múltiplos classificadores baseados em uma combinação de seleção e fusão. O método apresentado inicialmente encontra um número ótimo de grupos a partir do conjunto de treinamento e subsequentemente determina um comitê para cada grupo encontrado. Para avaliação do modelo, os dados de teste são submetidos à técnica de agrupamento e o grupo mais próximo do dado de entrada irá emitir uma resposta supervisionada por meio de seu comitê associado. Mapas Auto Organizáveis foi usado na fase de agrupamento e Perceptrons de múltiplas camadas na fase de classificação. Evolução Diferencial Adaptativa foi utilizada neste trabalho a fim de otimizar os parâmetros e desempenho das diferentes técnicas utilizadas nas fases de classificação e agrupamento de dados. O método proposto, chamado SFJADE – Selection and Fusion (SF) via Adaptive Differential Evolution (JADE), foi testado em dados gerados para sensores de um nariz artificial e problemas de referência em classificação de padrões, que são: cancer, card, diabetes, glass, heart, heartc e horse. Os resultados experimentais mostraram que SFJADE possui um melhor desempenho que alguns métodos da literatura, além de superar a maioria dos métodos geralmente usados para a construção de sistemas de múltiplos classificadores.