Abstract
This paper introduces symbolic data analysis, explaining how it extends the classical data models to take into account more complete and complex information. Several examples motivate the approach, before the modeling of variables assuming new types of realizations are formally presented. Some methods for the (multivariate) analysis of symbolic data are presented and discussed. This is however far from being exhaustive, given the present dynamic development of this new field of research. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company.

Abstract
Several meta-learning approaches have been developed for the problem of algorithm selection. In this context, it is of central importance to collect a sufficient number of datasets to be used as meta-examples in order to provide reliable results. Recently, some proposals to generate datasets have addressed this issue with successful results. These proposals include datasetoids, which is a simple manipulation method to obtain new datasets from existing ones. However, the increase in the number of datasets raises another issue: in order to generate meta-examples for training, it is necessary to estimate the performance of the algorithms on the datasets. This typically requires running all candidate algorithms on all datasets, which is computationally very expensive. One approach to address this problem is the use of active learning, termed active meta-learning. In this paper we investigate the combined use of active meta-learning and datasetoids. Our results show that it is possible to significantly reduce the computational cost of generating meta-examples not only without loss of meta-learning accuracy but with potential gains.

Abstract

Abstract
Several meta-learning approaches have been developed for the problem of algorithm selection. In this context, it is of central importance to collect a sufficient number of datasets to be used as meta-examples in order to provide reliable results. Recently, some proposals to generate datasets have addressed this issue with successful results. These proposals include datasetoids, which is a simple manipulation method to obtain new datasets from existing ones. However, the increase in the number of datasets raises another issue: in order to generate meta-examples for training, it is necessary to estimate the performance of the algorithms on the datasets. This typically requires running all candidate algorithms on all datasets, which is computationally very expensive. One approach to address this problem is the use of an active learning approach to meta-learning, termed active meta-learning. In this paper we investigate the combined use of an active meta-learning approach based on an uncertainty score and datasetoids. Based on our results, we conclude that the accuracy of our method is very good results with as little as 10% to 20% of the meta-examples labeled.

Abstract
Several meta-learning approaches have been developed for the problem of algorithm selection. In this context, it is of central importance to collect a sufficient number of datasets to be used as meta-examples in order to provide reliable results. Recently, some proposals to generate datasets have addressed this issue with successful results. These proposals include datasetoids, which is a simple manipulation method to obtain new datasets from existing ones. However, the increase in the number of datasets raises another issue: in order to generate meta-examples for training, it is necessary to estimate the performance of the algorithms on the datasets. This typically requires running all candidate algorithms on all datasets, which is computationally very expensive. In a recent paper, active meta-learning has been used to address this problem. An uncertainty sampling method for the k-NN algorithm using a least confidence score based on a distance measure was employed. Here we extend that work, namely by investigating three hypotheses: 1) is there advantage in using a frequency-based least confidence score over the distance-based score? 2) given that the meta-learning problem used has three classes, is it better to use a margin-based score? and 3) given that datasetoids are expected to contain some noise, are better results achieved by starting the search with all datasets already labeled? Some of the results obtained are unexpected and should be further analyzed. However, they confirm that active meta-learning can significantly reduce the computational cost of meta-learning with potential gains in accuracy.

Abstract
Several optimization methods can find good solutions for different instances of the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). Since there is no method that generates the best solution for all instances, the selection of the most promising method for a given TSP instance is a difficult task. This paper describes a meta-learning-based approach to select optimization methods for the TSP. Multilayer perceptron (MLP) networks are trained with TSP examples. These examples are described by a set of TSP characteristics and the cost of solutions obtained by a set of optimization methods. The trained MLP network model is then used to predict a ranking of these methods for a new TSP instance. Correlation measures are used to compare the predicted ranking with the ranking previously known. The obtained results suggest that the proposed approach is promising. © 2011 IEEE.