Sparse Representation for High-dimensional Multiclass Microarray Data Classification

Sparse representation of signals has achieved satisfactory results in classification applications compared to the conventional methods. Microarray data, which are obtained from monitoring the expression levels of thousands of genes simultaneously, have very high dimensions in relation to the small number of samples. This has led to the weaknesses of state-of-the-art classifiers to cope with the microarray data classification problem. The ability of the sparse representation to represent the signals as a linear combination of a small number of training data and to provide a brief description of signals led to reducing computational complexity as well as increasing classification accuracy in many applications. Using all training samples in the dictionary imposes a high computational burden on the sparse coding stage of high dimensional data. Proposed solutions to solve this problem can be roughly divided into two categories: selection of a subset of training data using different criteria, or learning a concise dictionary. Another important factor in increasing the speed and accuracy of a sparse representation-based classifier is the algorithm which is used to solve the related {ell}1 -norm minimization problem. In this paper, different sparse representation-based classification methods are investigated in order to tackle the problem of 14-Tumors microarray data classification. Our experimental results show that good performances are obtained by selecting a subset of the original atoms and learning the associated dictionary. Also, using SL0 sparse coding algorithm increases speed, and in most cases, accuracy of the classifiers.