Semi-Supervised Classification with Informative Missing Labels in Weibull Mixture Models

Abstract

We consider semi-supervised classification from a partially classified sample arising from a two-component Weibull mixture. The feature is observed for all data, whereas some class labels are missing. The probability of a missing label is modelled as a function of classification uncertainty, giving a feature-dependent missing-at-random (MAR) mechanism that shares parameters with the Weibull-mixture classifier. The missing-label indicators can therefore provide information about the classifier in addition to the observed features and available class labels. Under a common Weibull shape, a Bayes' rule has at most one positive decision boundary, which is unique when the rule is nonconstant; under unequal shapes, it can have two. We characterise these decision regions, derive the Fisher information for the classifier after adjustment for nuisance parameters in the missingness model, and obtain a decision-boundary expansion of the expected error rate of the plug-in sample rule relative to the Bayes error. The expansion yields classification-specific asymptotic relative efficiency formulas for the one- and two-boundary cases and shows that a positive-definite increase in Fisher information is sufficient, but not necessary, for a smaller first-order expected error rate. Numerical studies and a semi-synthetic analysis based on hard-drive failure data illustrate potential reductions in expected error rate and improvements in decision-boundary estimation from modelling feature-dependent label missingness.