Alternating binary classifier and graph learning from partial labels

Semi-supervised binary classifier learning is a fundamental machine learning task where only partial binary labels are observed, and labels of the remaining data need to be interpolated. Leveraging on the advances of graph signal processing (GSP), recently binary classifier learning is posed as a signal restoration problem regularized using a graph smoothness prior, where the undirected graph consists of a set of vertices and a set of weighted edges connecting vertices with similar features. In this paper, we improve the performance of such a graph-based classifier by simultaneously optimizing the feature weights used in the construction of the similarity graph. Specifically, we start by interpolating missing labels by first formulating a boolean quadratic program with a graph signal smoothness objective, then relax it to a convex semi-definite program, solvable in polynomial time. Next, we optimize the feature weights used for construction of the similarity graph by reusing the smoothness objective but with a convex set constraint for the weight vector. The reposed convex but non-differentiable problem is solved via an iterative proximal gradient descent algorithm. The two steps are solved alternately until convergence. Experimental results show that our alternating classifier / graph learning algorithm outperforms existing graph-based methods and support vector machines with various kernels

Label Propagation for Learning with Label Proportions

Learning with Label Proportions (LLP) is the problem of recovering the underlying true labels given a dataset when the data is presented in the form of bags. This paradigm is particularly suitable in contexts where providing individual labels is expensive and label aggregates are more easily obtained. In the healthcare domain, it is a burden for a patient to keep a detailed diary of their daily routines, but often they will be amenable to provide higher level summaries of daily behavior. We present a novel and efficient graph-based algorithm that encourages local smoothness and exploits the global structure of the data, while preserving the `mass' of each bag.Comment: Accepted to MLSP 201

Structure-Aware Classification using Supervised Dictionary Learning

In this paper, we propose a supervised dictionary learning algorithm that aims to preserve the local geometry in both dimensions of the data. A graph-based regularization explicitly takes into account the local manifold structure of the data points. A second graph regularization gives similar treatment to the feature domain and helps in learning a more robust dictionary. Both graphs can be constructed from the training data or learned and adapted along the dictionary learning process. The combination of these two terms promotes the discriminative power of the learned sparse representations and leads to improved classification accuracy. The proposed method was evaluated on several different datasets, representing both single-label and multi-label classification problems, and demonstrated better performance compared with other dictionary based approaches