2,182 research outputs found
Classification under Streaming Emerging New Classes: A Solution using Completely Random Trees
This paper investigates an important problem in stream mining, i.e.,
classification under streaming emerging new classes or SENC. The common
approach is to treat it as a classification problem and solve it using either a
supervised learner or a semi-supervised learner. We propose an alternative
approach by using unsupervised learning as the basis to solve this problem. The
SENC problem can be decomposed into three sub problems: detecting emerging new
classes, classifying for known classes, and updating models to enable
classification of instances of the new class and detection of more emerging new
classes. The proposed method employs completely random trees which have been
shown to work well in unsupervised learning and supervised learning
independently in the literature. This is the first time, as far as we know,
that completely random trees are used as a single common core to solve all
three sub problems: unsupervised learning, supervised learning and model update
in data streams. We show that the proposed unsupervised-learning-focused method
often achieves significantly better outcomes than existing
classification-focused methods
A survey on learning from imbalanced data streams: taxonomy, challenges, empirical study, and reproducible experimental framework
Class imbalance poses new challenges when it comes to classifying data
streams. Many algorithms recently proposed in the literature tackle this
problem using a variety of data-level, algorithm-level, and ensemble
approaches. However, there is a lack of standardized and agreed-upon procedures
on how to evaluate these algorithms. This work presents a taxonomy of
algorithms for imbalanced data streams and proposes a standardized, exhaustive,
and informative experimental testbed to evaluate algorithms in a collection of
diverse and challenging imbalanced data stream scenarios. The experimental
study evaluates 24 state-of-the-art data streams algorithms on 515 imbalanced
data streams that combine static and dynamic class imbalance ratios,
instance-level difficulties, concept drift, real-world and semi-synthetic
datasets in binary and multi-class scenarios. This leads to the largest
experimental study conducted so far in the data stream mining domain. We
discuss the advantages and disadvantages of state-of-the-art classifiers in
each of these scenarios and we provide general recommendations to end-users for
selecting the best algorithms for imbalanced data streams. Additionally, we
formulate open challenges and future directions for this domain. Our
experimental testbed is fully reproducible and easy to extend with new methods.
This way we propose the first standardized approach to conducting experiments
in imbalanced data streams that can be used by other researchers to create
trustworthy and fair evaluation of newly proposed methods. Our experimental
framework can be downloaded from
https://github.com/canoalberto/imbalanced-streams
Continual learning from stationary and non-stationary data
Continual learning aims at developing models that are capable of working on constantly evolving problems over a long-time horizon. In such environments, we can distinguish three essential aspects of training and maintaining machine learning models - incorporating new knowledge, retaining it and reacting to changes. Each of them poses its own challenges, constituting a compound problem with multiple goals.
Remembering previously incorporated concepts is the main property of a model that is required when dealing with stationary distributions. In non-stationary environments, models should be capable of selectively forgetting outdated decision boundaries and adapting to new concepts. Finally, a significant difficulty can be found in combining these two abilities within a single learning algorithm, since, in such scenarios, we have to balance remembering and forgetting instead of focusing only on one aspect.
The presented dissertation addressed these problems in an exploratory way. Its main goal was to grasp the continual learning paradigm as a whole, analyze its different branches and tackle identified issues covering various aspects of learning from sequentially incoming data. By doing so, this work not only filled several gaps in the current continual learning research but also emphasized the complexity and diversity of challenges existing in this domain. Comprehensive experiments conducted for all of the presented contributions have demonstrated their effectiveness and substantiated the validity of the stated claims
CONTINUAL LEARNING FOR MULTI-LABEL DRIFTING DATA STREAMS USING HOMOGENEOUS ENSEMBLE OF SELF-ADJUSTING NEAREST NEIGHBORS
Multi-label data streams are sequences of multi-label instances arriving over time to a multi-label classifier. The properties of the data stream may continuously change due to concept drift. Therefore, algorithms must adapt constantly to the new data distributions. In this paper we propose a novel ensemble method for multi-label drifting streams named Homogeneous Ensemble of Self-Adjusting Nearest Neighbors (HESAkNN). It leverages a self-adjusting kNN as a base classifier with the advantages of ensembles to adapt to concept drift in the multi-label environment. To promote diverse knowledge within the ensemble, each base classifier is given a unique subset of features and samples to train on. These samples are distributed to classifiers in a probabilistic manner that follows a Poisson distribution as in online bagging. Accompanying these mechanisms, a collection of ADWIN detectors monitor each classifier for the occurrence of a concept drift. Upon detection, the algorithm automatically trains additional classifiers in the background to attempt to capture new concepts. After a pre-determined number of instances, both active and background classifiers are compared and only the most accurate classifiers are selected to populate the new active ensemble. The experimental study compares the proposed approach with 30 other classifiers including problem transformation, algorithm adaptation, kNNs, and ensembles on 30 diverse multi-label datasets and 11 performance metrics. Results validated using non-parametric statistical analysis support the better performance of the heterogeneous ensemble and highlights the contribution of the feature and instance diversity in improving the performance of the ensemble
Dynamic Data Mining: Methodology and Algorithms
Supervised data stream mining has become an important and challenging data mining task in modern
organizations. The key challenges are threefold: (1) a possibly infinite number of streaming examples
and time-critical analysis constraints; (2) concept drift; and (3) skewed data distributions.
To address these three challenges, this thesis proposes the novel dynamic data mining (DDM)
methodology by effectively applying supervised ensemble models to data stream mining. DDM can be
loosely defined as categorization-organization-selection of supervised ensemble models. It is inspired
by the idea that although the underlying concepts in a data stream are time-varying, their distinctions
can be identified. Therefore, the models trained on the distinct concepts can be dynamically selected in
order to classify incoming examples of similar concepts.
First, following the general paradigm of DDM, we examine the different concept-drifting stream
mining scenarios and propose corresponding effective and efficient data mining algorithms.
• To address concept drift caused merely by changes of variable distributions, which we term
pseudo concept drift, base models built on categorized streaming data are organized and
selected in line with their corresponding variable distribution characteristics.
• To address concept drift caused by changes of variable and class joint distributions, which we
term true concept drift, an effective data categorization scheme is introduced. A group of
working models is dynamically organized and selected for reacting to the drifting concept.
Secondly, we introduce an integration stream mining framework, enabling the paradigm advocated by
DDM to be widely applicable for other stream mining problems. Therefore, we are able to introduce
easily six effective algorithms for mining data streams with skewed class distributions.
In addition, we also introduce a new ensemble model approach for batch learning, following the same
methodology. Both theoretical and empirical studies demonstrate its effectiveness.
Future work would be targeted at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed
algorithms. Meantime, we would explore the possibilities of using the integration framework to solve
other open stream mining research problems
A Survey on Semi-Supervised Learning for Delayed Partially Labelled Data Streams
Unlabelled data appear in many domains and are particularly relevant to
streaming applications, where even though data is abundant, labelled data is
rare. To address the learning problems associated with such data, one can
ignore the unlabelled data and focus only on the labelled data (supervised
learning); use the labelled data and attempt to leverage the unlabelled data
(semi-supervised learning); or assume some labels will be available on request
(active learning). The first approach is the simplest, yet the amount of
labelled data available will limit the predictive performance. The second
relies on finding and exploiting the underlying characteristics of the data
distribution. The third depends on an external agent to provide the required
labels in a timely fashion. This survey pays special attention to methods that
leverage unlabelled data in a semi-supervised setting. We also discuss the
delayed labelling issue, which impacts both fully supervised and
semi-supervised methods. We propose a unified problem setting, discuss the
learning guarantees and existing methods, explain the differences between
related problem settings. Finally, we review the current benchmarking practices
and propose adaptations to enhance them
A survey on machine learning for recurring concept drifting data streams
The problem of concept drift has gained a lot of attention in recent years. This aspect is key in many domains exhibiting non-stationary as well as cyclic patterns and structural breaks affecting their generative processes. In this survey, we review the relevant literature to deal with regime changes in the behaviour of continuous data streams. The study starts with a general introduction to the field of data stream learning, describing recent works on passive or active mechanisms to adapt or detect concept drifts, frequent challenges in this area, and related performance metrics. Then, different supervised and non-supervised approaches such as online ensembles, meta-learning and model-based clustering that can be used to deal with seasonalities in a data stream are covered. The aim is to point out new research trends and give future research directions on the usage of machine learning techniques for data streams which can help in the event of shifts and recurrences in continuous learning scenarios in near real-time
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