Pattern classification has been successfully applied in many problem domains, such as biometric recognition, document classification or medical diagnosis. Missing or unknown data are a common drawback that pattern recognition techniques need to deal with when solving real-life classification tasks. Machine learning approaches and methods imported from statistical learning theory have been most intensively studied and used in this subject. The aim of this work is to analyze the missing data problem in pattern classification tasks, and to summarize and compare some of the well-known methods used for handling missing values.

Abstract-Combination approaches provide an interesting way to improve adaptive filter performance. In this paper, we study the mean-square performance of a convex combination of two transversal filters. The individual filters are independently adapted using their own error signals, while the combination is adapted by means of a stochastic gradient algorithm in order to minimize the error of the overall structure. General expressions are derived that show that the method is universal with respect to the component filters, i.e., in steady-state, it performs at least as well as the best component filter. Furthermore, when the correlation between the a priori errors of the components is low enough, their combination is able to outperform both of them. Using energy conservation relations, we specialize the results to a combination of least mean-square filters operating both in stationary and in nonstationary scenarios. We also show how the universality of the scheme can be exploited to design filters with improved tracking performance.

The broadcast scheduling problem (BSP) arises in frame design for packet radio networks (PRNs). The frame structure determines the main communication parameters: communication delay and throughput. The BSP is a combinatorial optimization problem which is known to be NP-hard. To solve it, we propose an algorithm with two main steps which naturally arise from the problem structure: the first one tackles the hardest contraints and the second one carries out the throughput optimization. This algorithm combines a Hopfield neural network for the constraints satisfaction and a genetic algorithm for achieving a maximal throughput. The algorithm performance is compared with that of existing algorithms in several benchmark cases; in all of them, our algorithm finds the optimum frame length and outperforms previous algorithms in the resulting throughput.

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