Aggregation of multi-objective fuzzy symmetry-based clustering techniques for improving gene and cancer classification

Abstract

The current work reports about the application of a cluster ensemble approach in combining results produced by some multiobjective-based clustering techniques. Firstly, some multiobjective-based fuzzy clustering techniques are developed using the search capabilities of differential evolution and particle swarm optimization. Both these clustering techniques utilize a recently developed point symmetry-based distance for allocation of points to different clusters. The appropriate partitioning from a data set is identified by optimizing simultaneously two cluster quality measures, namely Xie–Beni index and FSym-index. First objective function uses Euclidean distance as a similarity measure, and the second objective function uses point symmetry-based distance in its computation. A set of trade-off solutions are produced by each of these clustering techniques on the final Pareto optimal front. Finally, this set of solutions are combined using a link-based cluster ensemble technique. The effectiveness of ensemble techniques is illustrated on partitioning some real-life gene expression and cancer data sets where automatic identification of set of genes or set of cancer tissues is a pressing issue. The potency of the ensemble techniques applied on both the multi-objective DE- and PSO-based clustering approaches is shown in comparison with several state-of-the-art techniques.