MOTIVATION: Within medical research there is an increasing trend toward deriving multiple types of data from the same individual. The most effective prognostic prediction methods should use all available data, as this maximizes the amount of information used. In this article, we consider a variety of learning strategies to boost prediction performance based on the use of all available data. IMPLEMENTATION: We consider data integration via the use of multiple kernel learning supervised learning methods. We propose a scheme in which feature selection by statistical score is performed separately per data type and by pathway membership. We further consider the introduction of a confidence measure for the class assignment, both to remove some ambiguously labeled datapoints from the training data and to implement a cautious classifier that only makes predictions when the associated confidence is high. RESULTS: We use the METABRIC dataset for breast cancer, with prediction of survival at 2000 days from diagnosis. Predictive accuracy is improved by using kernels that exclusively use those genes, as features, which are known members of particular pathways. We show that yet further improvements can be made by using a range of additional kernels based on clinical covariates such as Estrogen Receptor (ER) status. Using this range of measures to improve prediction performance, we show that the test accuracy on new instances is nearly 80%, though predictions are only made on 69.2% of the patient cohort. AVAILABILITY: https://github.com/jseoane/FSMKL CONTACT: [email protected] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

Genome-wide association studies have identified a wealth of genetic variants involved in complex traits and multifactorial diseases. There is now considerable interest in testing variants for association with multiple phenotypes (pleiotropy) and for testing multiple variants for association with a single phenotype (gene-based association tests). Such approaches can increase statistical power by combining evidence for association over multiple phenotypes or genetic variants respectively. Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) measures the correlation between two sets of multidimensional variables, and thus offers the potential to combine these two approaches. To apply CCA, we must restrict the number of attributes relative to the number of samples. Hence we consider modules of genetic variation that can comprise a gene, a pathway or another biologically relevant grouping, and/or a set of phenotypes. In order to do this, we use an attribute selection strategy based on a binary genetic algorithm. Applied to a UK-based prospective cohort study of 4286 women (the British Women's Heart and Health Study), we find improved statistical power in the detection of previously reported genetic associations, and identify a number of novel pleiotropic associations between genetic variants and phenotypes. New discoveries include gene-based association of NSF with triglyceride levels and several genes (ACSM3, ERI2, IL18RAP, IL23RAP and NRG1) with left ventricular hypertrophy phenotypes. In multiple-phenotype analyses we find association of NRG1 with left ventricular hypertrophy phenotypes, fibrinogen and urea and pleiotropic relationships of F7 and F10 with Factor VII, Factor IX and cholesterol levels.

The classification of signals is usually based on the extraction of various features that subsequently will be used as an input to a classifier. These features are extracted as a result of the experts’ prior knowledge, which may often involve a lack of the information necessary for an accurate classification in all cases. This study proposes a new technique, in which a genetic algorithm is used to automatically extract frequency-domain features from a set of signals, with no need of prior knowledge. This allows, first, to achieve greater accuracy in the classification of signals, and, secondly, to discover new data on the signals to be classified. This system was used to solve a well-known problem: classification of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, and its results show a better performance in comparison with other works on the same problem.