Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 683265, 14 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/683265
Research Article
The New and Computationally Efficient MIL-SOM Algorithm: Potential Benefits for Visualization and Analysis of a Large-Scale High-Dimensional Clinically Acquired Geographic Data
1Advanced Geospatial Analysis Laboratory, GIS Research Laboratory for Geographic Medicine, Department of Geography and Environmental Resources, Southern Illinois University, 1000 Faner Drive, MC 4514, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA
2Engineering Building A462, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University, 262 Seongsanno, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 120-749, Republic of Korea
3Department of Chemical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg 24061, USA
Received 25 September 2011; Revised 27 December 2011; Accepted 13 January 2012
Academic Editor: Yoram Louzoun
Copyright © 2012 Tonny J. Oyana et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to introduce an efficient algorithm, namely, the mathematically improved learning-self organizing map (MIL-SOM) algorithm, which speeds up the self-organizing map (SOM) training process. In the proposed MIL-SOM algorithm, the weights of Kohonen’s SOM are based on the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller. Thus, in a typical SOM learning setting, this improvement translates to faster convergence. The basic idea is primarily motivated by the urgent need to develop algorithms with the competence to converge faster and more efficiently than conventional techniques. The MIL-SOM algorithm is tested on four training geographic datasets representing biomedical and disease informatics application domains. Experimental results show that the MIL-SOM algorithm provides a competitive, better updating procedure and performance, good robustness, and it runs faster than Kohonen’s SOM.