RMTL: an R library for multi-task learning

Abstract

MOTIVATION\nMulti-task learning (MTL) is a machine learning technique for simultaneous learning of multiple related classification or regression tasks. Despite its increasing popularity, MTL algorithms are currently not available in the widely used software environment R, creating a bottleneck for their application in biomedical research.\n\n\nRESULTS\nWe developed an efficient, easy-to-use R library for MTL (www.r-project.org) comprising 10 algorithms applicable for regression, classification, joint predictor selection, task clustering, low-rank learning and incorporation of biological networks. We demonstrate the utility of the algorithms using simulated data.\n\n\nAVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION\nThe RMTL package is an open source R package and is freely available at https://github.com/transbioZI/RMTL. RMTL will also be available on cran.r-project.org.\n\n\nSUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION\nSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.