Optimization is the process of making a system, design, or decision as effective or functional as possible by adjusting variables to find the best possible solution within given constraints. It is widely used across various fields such as mathematics, engineering, economics, and computer science to enhance performance and efficiency.
Cost-sensitive learning is a type of machine learning that takes into account the varying costs of different types of errors, aiming to minimize the overall cost rather than just the error rate. This approach is particularly useful in situations where false positives and false negatives have significantly different consequences, such as in medical diagnosis or fraud detection.
Cost-Sensitive Decision Trees are a variation of decision trees that incorporate the costs associated with different types of classification errors, making them particularly useful for applications where the consequences of false positives and false negatives are significantly different. By integrating cost considerations directly into the model-building process, these trees aim to minimize the total expected cost rather than simply maximizing accuracy.