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    A Global Discretization Approach to Handle Numerical Attributes as Preprocessing

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    Wu_ku_0099M_14127_DATA_1.pdf (1.041Mb)
    Issue Date
    2015-08-31
    Author
    Wu, Xun
    Publisher
    University of Kansas
    Format
    60 pages
    Type
    Thesis
    Degree Level
    M.S.
    Discipline
    Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
    Rights
    Copyright held by the author.
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    Abstract
    Discretization is a common technique to handle numerical attributes in data mining, and it divides continuous values into several intervals by defining multiple thresholds. Decision tree learning algorithms, such as C4.5 and random forests, are able to deal with numerical attributes by applying discretization technique and transforming them into nominal attributes based on one impurity-based criterion, such as information gain or Gini gain. However, there is no doubt that a considerable amount of distinct values are located in the same interval after discretization, through which digital information delivered by the original continuous values are lost. In this thesis, we proposed a global discretization method that can keep the information within the original numerical attributes by expanding them into multiple nominal ones based on each of the candidate cut-point values. The discretized data set, which includes only nominal attributes, evolves from the original data set. We analyzed the problem by applying two decision tree learning algorithms (C4.5 and random forests) respectively to each of the twelve pairs of data sets (original and discretized data sets) and evaluating the performances (prediction accuracy rate) of the obtained classification models in Weka Experimenter. This is followed by two separate Wilcoxon tests (each test for one learning algorithm) to decide whether there is a level of statistical significance among these paired data sets. Results of both tests indicate that there is no clear difference in terms of performances by using the discretized data sets compared to the original ones. But in some cases, the discretized models of both classifiers slightly outperform their paired original models.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1808/19410
    Collections
    • Engineering Dissertations and Theses [1055]
    • Theses [3828]

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    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    Image Credits
     

     

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