[Research] subset selection problem

[Jeff Schneider]

I'll offer a coffee/pepsi to anyone who solves this puzzle :-)

I feel like such an algorithm must be possible, but I haven't been able to 
come up with one yet.

Jeff.


Robin Sabhnani wrote:
> 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.