[Research] subset selection problem

[Robin Sabhnani]

Hi,

Here is the question:

Imagine there are M pairs of numbers (a_1, b_1), (a_2, b_2) ... (a_m, b_m).
For each subset m_1 of these M pairs we define a 2x2 table as follows:

\sum a_i \sum b_i (i in m_1)
\sum a_j \sum b_j (j in M - m_1)

Is there a linear order algorithm in M to find the subset m_1 that yields
the lowest p-value using fisher's exact test for the above 2x2 table?

Any pointers/papers/ideas/thoughts will be helpful.

Thanks in advance.
-- 
Robin Sabhnani
Machine Learning PhD student