This paper proposes a new feature selection method that uses a backward elimination procedure similar to that implemented in support vector machine recursive feature elimination (SVM-RFE). Unlike the SVM-RFE method, at each step, the proposed approach computes the feature ranking score from a statistical analysis of weight vectors of multiple linear SVMs trained on subsamples of the original training data. We tested the proposed method on four gene expression datasets for cancer classification. The results show that the proposed feature selection method selects better gene subsets than the original SVM-RFE and improves the classification accuracy. A Gene Ontology-based similarity assessment indicates that the selected subsets are functionally diverse, further validating our gene selection method. This investigation also suggests that, for gene expression-based cancer classification, average test error from multiple partitions of training and test sets can be recommended as a reference of performance quality.

Background: Genomics and proteomics analyses regularly involve the simultaneous test of hundreds of hypotheses, either on numerical or categorical data. To correct for the occurrence of false positives, validation tests based on multiple testing correction, such as Bonferroni and Benjamini and Hochberg, and re-sampling, such as permutation tests, are frequently used. Despite the known power of permutation-based tests, most available tools offer such tests for either t-test or ANOVA only. Less attention has been given to tests for categorical data, such as the Chi-square. This project takes a first step by developing an open-source software tool, Ptest, that addresses the need to offer public software tools incorporating these and other statistical tests with options for correcting for multiple hypotheses. Results: This study developed a public-domain, user-friendly software whose purpose was twofold: first, to estimate test statistics for categorical and numerical data; and second, to validate the significance of the test statistics via Bonferroni, Benjamini and Hochberg, and a permutation test of numerical and categorical data. The tool allows the calculation of Chi-square test for categorical data, and ANOVA test, Bartlett's test and t-test for paired and unpaired data. Once a test statistic is calculated, Bonferroni, Benjamini and Hochberg, and a permutation tests are implemented, independently, to control for Type I errors. An evaluation of the software using different public data sets is reported, which illustrates the power of permutation tests for multiple hypotheses assessment and for controlling the rate of Type I errors. Conclusion: The analytical options offered by the software can be applied to support a significant spectrum of hypothesis testing tasks in functional genomics, using both numerical and categorical data.

One of the challenges in virtual environments is the difficulty users have in interacting with these increasingly complex systems. Ultimately, endowing machines with the ability to perceive users emotions will enable a more intuitive and reliable interaction. Consequently, using the electroencephalogram as a bio-signal sensor, the affective state of a user can be modelled and subsequently utilised in order to achieve a system that can recognise and react to the user’s emotions. This paper investigates features extracted from electroencephalogram signals for the purpose of affective state modelling based on Russell’s Circumplex Model. Investigations are presented that aim to provide the foundation for future work in modelling user affect to enhance interaction experience in virtual environments. The DEAP dataset was used within this work, along with a Support Vector Machine and Random Forest, which yielded reasonable classification accuracies for Valence and Arousal using feature vectors based on statistical measurements and band power from the α, β, δ, and ???? waves and High Order Crossing of the EEG signal.

The gene ontology and annotations derived from the S.cerivisiae genome database were analyzed to calculate functional similarity of gene products. Three methods for measuring similarity (including a distance-based approach) were implemented. Significant, quantitative relationships between similarity and expression correlation of pairs of genes were detected. Using a known gene expression dataset in yeast, this study compared more than three million pairs of gene products on the basis of these functional properties. Highly correlated genes exhibit strong similarity based on information originating from the gene ontology taxonomies. Such a similarity is significantly stronger than that observed between weakly correlated genes. This study supports the feasibility of applying gene ontology-driven similarity methods to functional prediction tasks, such as the validation of gene expression analyses and the identification of false positives in protein interaction studies.