HeFS: Helper-Enhanced Feature Selection via Pareto-Optimized Genetic Search

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Fan, Yusi, Wang, Tian, Yan, Zhiying, Liu, Chang, Zhou, Qiong, Lu, Qi, Guo, Zhehao, Deng, Ziqi, Zhu, Wenyu, Zhang, Ruochi, Zhou, Fengfeng
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Fan, Yusi
Wang, Tian
Yan, Zhiying
Liu, Chang
Zhou, Qiong
Lu, Qi
Guo, Zhehao
Deng, Ziqi
Zhu, Wenyu
Zhang, Ruochi
Zhou, Fengfeng
author_facet Fan, Yusi
Wang, Tian
Yan, Zhiying
Liu, Chang
Zhou, Qiong
Lu, Qi
Guo, Zhehao
Deng, Ziqi
Zhu, Wenyu
Zhang, Ruochi
Zhou, Fengfeng
contents Feature selection is a combinatorial optimization problem that is NP-hard. Conventional approaches often employ heuristic or greedy strategies, which are prone to premature convergence and may fail to capture subtle yet informative features. This limitation becomes especially critical in high-dimensional datasets, where complex and interdependent feature relationships prevail. We introduce the HeFS (Helper-Enhanced Feature Selection) framework to refine feature subsets produced by existing algorithms. HeFS systematically searches the residual feature space to identify a Helper Set - features that complement the original subset and improve classification performance. The approach employs a biased initialization scheme and a ratio-guided mutation mechanism within a genetic algorithm, coupled with Pareto-based multi-objective optimization to jointly maximize predictive accuracy and feature complementarity. Experiments on 18 benchmark datasets demonstrate that HeFS consistently identifies overlooked yet informative features and achieves superior performance over state-of-the-art methods, including in challenging domains such as gastric cancer classification, drug toxicity prediction, and computer science applications. The code and datasets are available at https://healthinformaticslab.org/supp/.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_18575
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle HeFS: Helper-Enhanced Feature Selection via Pareto-Optimized Genetic Search
Fan, Yusi
Wang, Tian
Yan, Zhiying
Liu, Chang
Zhou, Qiong
Lu, Qi
Guo, Zhehao
Deng, Ziqi
Zhu, Wenyu
Zhang, Ruochi
Zhou, Fengfeng
Machine Learning
Quantitative Methods
Feature selection is a combinatorial optimization problem that is NP-hard. Conventional approaches often employ heuristic or greedy strategies, which are prone to premature convergence and may fail to capture subtle yet informative features. This limitation becomes especially critical in high-dimensional datasets, where complex and interdependent feature relationships prevail. We introduce the HeFS (Helper-Enhanced Feature Selection) framework to refine feature subsets produced by existing algorithms. HeFS systematically searches the residual feature space to identify a Helper Set - features that complement the original subset and improve classification performance. The approach employs a biased initialization scheme and a ratio-guided mutation mechanism within a genetic algorithm, coupled with Pareto-based multi-objective optimization to jointly maximize predictive accuracy and feature complementarity. Experiments on 18 benchmark datasets demonstrate that HeFS consistently identifies overlooked yet informative features and achieves superior performance over state-of-the-art methods, including in challenging domains such as gastric cancer classification, drug toxicity prediction, and computer science applications. The code and datasets are available at https://healthinformaticslab.org/supp/.
title HeFS: Helper-Enhanced Feature Selection via Pareto-Optimized Genetic Search
topic Machine Learning
Quantitative Methods
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18575