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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Uchikoshi, Motonobu, Akimoto, Youhei
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.12651
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author Uchikoshi, Motonobu
Akimoto, Youhei
author_facet Uchikoshi, Motonobu
Akimoto, Youhei
contents Feature selection is essential for efficient data mining and sometimes encounters the positive-unlabeled (PU) learning scenario, where only a few positive labels are available, while most data remains unlabeled. In certain real-world PU learning tasks, data subjected to adequate feature selection often form clusters with concentrated positive labels. Conventional feature selection methods that treat unlabeled data as negative may fail to capture the statistical characteristics of positive data in such scenarios, leading to suboptimal performance. To address this, we propose a novel feature selection method based on the cluster assumption in PU learning, called FSCPU. FSCPU formulates the feature selection problem as a binary optimization task, with an objective function explicitly designed to incorporate the cluster assumption in the PU learning setting. Experiments on synthetic datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of FSCPU across various data conditions. Moreover, comparisons with 10 conventional algorithms on three open datasets show that FSCPU achieves competitive performance in downstream classification tasks, even when the cluster assumption does not strictly hold.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_12651
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Feature selection based on cluster assumption in PU learning
Uchikoshi, Motonobu
Akimoto, Youhei
Machine Learning
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
Feature selection is essential for efficient data mining and sometimes encounters the positive-unlabeled (PU) learning scenario, where only a few positive labels are available, while most data remains unlabeled. In certain real-world PU learning tasks, data subjected to adequate feature selection often form clusters with concentrated positive labels. Conventional feature selection methods that treat unlabeled data as negative may fail to capture the statistical characteristics of positive data in such scenarios, leading to suboptimal performance. To address this, we propose a novel feature selection method based on the cluster assumption in PU learning, called FSCPU. FSCPU formulates the feature selection problem as a binary optimization task, with an objective function explicitly designed to incorporate the cluster assumption in the PU learning setting. Experiments on synthetic datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of FSCPU across various data conditions. Moreover, comparisons with 10 conventional algorithms on three open datasets show that FSCPU achieves competitive performance in downstream classification tasks, even when the cluster assumption does not strictly hold.
title Feature selection based on cluster assumption in PU learning
topic Machine Learning
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.12651