A survey of cost-sensitive decision tree induction algorithms

The past decade has seen a significant interest on the problem of inducing decision trees that take account of costs of misclassification and costs of acquiring the features used for decision making. This survey identifies over 50 algorithms including approaches that are direct adaptations of accuracy based methods, use genetic algorithms, use anytime methods and utilize boosting and bagging. The survey brings together these different studies and novel approaches to cost-sensitive decision tree learning, provides a useful taxonomy, a historical timeline of how the field has developed and should provide a useful reference point for future research in this field

Optimal constraint-based decision tree induction from itemset lattices

International audienceIn this article we show that there is a strong connection between decision tree learning and local pattern mining. This connection allows us to solve the computationally hard problem of finding optimal decision trees in a wide range of applications by post-processing a set of patterns: we use local patterns to construct a global model. We exploit the connection between constraints in pattern mining and constraints in decision tree induction to develop a framework for categorizing decision tree mining constraints. This framework allows us to determine which model constraints can be pushed deeply into the pattern mining process, and allows us to improve the state-of-the-art of optimal decision tree induction

Minimising Decision Tree Size as Combinatorial Optimisation

International audienceDecision tree induction techniques attempt to find small trees that fit a training set of data. This preference for smaller trees, which provides a learning bias, is often justified as being consistent with the principle of Occam's Razor. Informally , this principle states that one should prefer the simpler hypothesis. In this paper we take this principle to the extreme. Specifically, we formulate decision tree induction as a combinatorial optimisation problem in which the objective is to minimise the number of nodes in the tree. We study alternative formulations based on satisfiability, constraint programming, and hybrids with integer linear programming. We empirically compare our approaches against standard induction algorithms, showing that the decision trees we obtain can sometimes be less than half the size of those found by other greedy methods. Furthermore, our decision trees are competitive in terms of accuracy on a variety of well-known benchmarks , often being the most accurate. Even when post-pruning of greedy trees is used, our constraint-based approach is never dominated by any of the existing techniques

Cause Lawyering and Resistance in Israel: The Legal Strategies of Adalah

This article traces the unique dynamic of cause lawyering in the context of a settler-colonial situation in which justice is framed ethnically but operates within the framework of liberal democratic institutions, such as the case of the State of Israel presents. It does so through the examination of the work of one of the most prominent Palestinian Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) engaged in legal activism: ‘Adalah – The Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel’. Using interviews with legal activists and scholars in Adalah and beyond, combined with the analysis of legal documents and publications, this article offers an evaluation of the efficacy of legal resistance, addressing its advantages and limits within the Israeli scenario. This article argues that the law has an important role in this struggle; whilst its capacity to affect political change is indeed limited, it should not be dismissed outright. Sometimes the law is one of the few meaningful sources of influence, and much of the time it serves to expose the contradictions in the hegemonic system, thereby uncovering its weaknesses and forcing it to reveal its oppressive nature. Yet, since the utilization of the legal sphere for resistance is a practice found in between submission and subversion, this article analyses the ways in which this tension can be overcome