Statistical Learning
SoS Certifiability of Subgaussian Distributions and its Algorithmic Applications
Diakonikolas, Ilias, Hopkins, Samuel B., Pensia, Ankit, Tiegel, Stefan
We prove that there is a universal constant $C>0$ so that for every $d \in \mathbb N$, every centered subgaussian distribution $\mathcal D$ on $\mathbb R^d$, and every even $p \in \mathbb N$, the $d$-variate polynomial $(Cp)^{p/2} \cdot \|v\|_{2}^p - \mathbb E_{X \sim \mathcal D} \langle v,X\rangle^p$ is a sum of square polynomials. This establishes that every subgaussian distribution is \emph{SoS-certifiably subgaussian} -- a condition that yields efficient learning algorithms for a wide variety of high-dimensional statistical tasks. As a direct corollary, we obtain computationally efficient algorithms with near-optimal guarantees for the following tasks, when given samples from an arbitrary subgaussian distribution: robust mean estimation, list-decodable mean estimation, clustering mean-separated mixture models, robust covariance-aware mean estimation, robust covariance estimation, and robust linear regression. Our proof makes essential use of Talagrand's generic chaining/majorizing measures theorem.
Generative Example-Based Explanations: Bridging the Gap between Generative Modeling and Explainability
Vaeth, Philipp, Fruehwald, Alexander M., Paassen, Benjamin, Gregorova, Magda
Recently, several methods have leveraged deep generative modeling to produce example-based explanations of decision algorithms for high-dimensional input data. Despite promising results, a disconnect exists between these methods and the classical explainability literature, which focuses on lower-dimensional data with semantically meaningful features. This conceptual and communication gap leads to misunderstandings and misalignments in goals and expectations. In this paper, we bridge this gap by proposing a novel probabilistic framework for local example-based explanations. Our framework integrates the critical characteristics of classical local explanation desiderata while being amenable to high-dimensional data and their modeling through deep generative models. Our aim is to facilitate communication, foster rigor and transparency, and improve the quality of peer discussion and research progress.
Multi-view clustering integrating anchor attribute and structural information
Multisource data has spurred the development of advanced clustering algorithms, such as multi-view clustering, which critically relies on constructing similarity matrices. Traditional algorithms typically generate these matrices from sample attributes alone. However, real-world networks often include pairwise directed topological structures critical for clustering. This paper introduces a novel multi-view clustering algorithm, AAS. It utilizes a two-step proximity approach via anchors in each view, integrating attribute and directed structural information. This approach enhances the clarity of category characteristics in the similarity matrices. The anchor structural similarity matrix leverages strongly connected components of directed graphs. The entire process-from similarity matrices construction to clustering - is consolidated into a unified optimization framework. Comparative experiments on the modified Attribute SBM dataset against eight algorithms affirm the effectiveness and superiority of AAS.
A Systematic Review of Machine Learning in Sports Betting: Techniques, Challenges, and Future Directions
Galekwa, Renรฉ Manassรฉ, Tshimula, Jean Marie, Tajeuna, Etienne Gael, Kyandoghere, Kyamakya
The sports betting industry has experienced rapid growth, driven largely by technological advancements and the proliferation of online platforms. Machine learning (ML) has played a pivotal role in the transformation of this sector by enabling more accurate predictions, dynamic odds-setting, and enhanced risk management for both bookmakers and bettors. This systematic review explores various ML techniques, including support vector machines, random forests, and neural networks, as applied in different sports such as soccer, basketball, tennis, and cricket. These models utilize historical data, in-game statistics, and real-time information to optimize betting strategies and identify value bets, ultimately improving profitability. For bookmakers, ML facilitates dynamic odds adjustment and effective risk management, while bettors leverage data-driven insights to exploit market inefficiencies. This review also underscores the role of ML in fraud detection, where anomaly detection models are used to identify suspicious betting patterns. Despite these advancements, challenges such as data quality, real-time decision-making, and the inherent unpredictability of sports outcomes remain. Ethical concerns related to transparency and fairness are also of significant importance. Future research should focus on developing adaptive models that integrate multimodal data and manage risk in a manner akin to financial portfolios. This review provides a comprehensive examination of the current applications of ML in sports betting, and highlights both the potential and the limitations of these technologies.
A Mathematical Analysis of Neural Operator Behaviors
Neural operators have emerged as transformative tools for learning mappings between infinite-dimensional function spaces, offering useful applications in solving complex partial differential equations (PDEs). This paper presents a rigorous mathematical framework for analyzing the behaviors of neural operators, with a focus on their stability, convergence, clustering dynamics, universality, and generalization error. By proposing a list of novel theorems, we provide stability bounds in Sobolev spaces and demonstrate clustering in function space via gradient flow interpretation, guiding neural operator design and optimization. Based on these theoretical gurantees, we aim to offer clear and unified guidance in a single setting for the future design of neural operator-based methods.
Absorb & Escape: Overcoming Single Model Limitations in Generating Genomic Sequences
Li, Zehui, Ni, Yuhao, Xia, Guoxuan, Beardall, William, Das, Akashaditya, Stan, Guy-Bart, Zhao, Yiren
Abstract Recent advances in immunology and synthetic biology have accelerated the development of deep generative methods for DNA sequence design. Two dominant approaches in this field are AutoRegressive (AR) models and Diffusion Models (DMs). However, genomic sequences are functionally heterogeneous, consisting of multiple connected regions (e.g., Promoter Regions, Exons, and Introns) where elements within each region come from the same probability distribution, but the overall sequence is non-homogeneous. This heterogeneous nature presents challenges for a single model to accurately generate genomic sequences. In this paper, we analyze the properties of AR models and DMs in heterogeneous genomic sequence generation, pointing out crucial limitations in both methods: (i) AR models capture the underlying distribution of data by factorizing and learning the transition probability but fail to capture the global property of DNA sequences. (ii) DMs learn to recover the global distribution but tend to produce errors at the base pair level. To overcome the limitations of both approaches, we propose a post-training sampling method, termed Absorb & Escape (A&E) to perform compositional generation from AR models and DMs. This approach starts with samples generated by DMs and refines the sample quality using an AR model through the alternation of the Absorb and Escape steps. To assess the quality of generated sequences, we conduct extensive experiments on 15 species for conditional and unconditional DNA generation. The experiment results from motif distribution, diversity checks, and genome integration tests unequivocally show that A&E outperforms state-of-the-art AR models and DMs in genomic sequence generation.
On Probabilistic Pullback Metrics on Latent Hyperbolic Manifolds
Augenstein, Luis, Jaquier, Noรฉmie, Asfour, Tamim, Rozo, Leonel
Gaussian Process Latent Variable Models (GPLVMs) have proven effective in capturing complex, high-dimensional data through lower-dimensional representations. Recent advances show that using Riemannian manifolds as latent spaces provides more flexibility to learn higher quality embeddings. This paper focuses on the hyperbolic manifold, a particularly suitable choice for modeling hierarchical relationships. While previous approaches relied on hyperbolic geodesics for interpolating the latent space, this often results in paths crossing low-data regions, leading to highly uncertain predictions. Instead, we propose augmenting the hyperbolic metric with a pullback metric to account for distortions introduced by the GPLVM's nonlinear mapping. Through various experiments, we demonstrate that geodesics on the pullback metric not only respect the geometry of the hyperbolic latent space but also align with the underlying data distribution, significantly reducing uncertainty in predictions.
Self-Supervised Meta-Learning for All-Layer DNN-Based Adaptive Control with Stability Guarantees
He, Guanqi, Choudhary, Yogita, Shi, Guanya
A critical goal of adaptive control is enabling robots to rapidly adapt in dynamic environments. Recent studies have developed a meta-learning-based adaptive control scheme, which uses meta-learning to extract nonlinear features (represented by Deep Neural Networks (DNNs)) from offline data, and uses adaptive control to update linear coefficients online. However, such a scheme is fundamentally limited by the linear parameterization of uncertainties and does not fully unleash the capability of DNNs. This paper introduces a novel learning-based adaptive control framework that pretrains a DNN via self-supervised meta-learning (SSML) from offline trajectories and online adapts the full DNN via composite adaptation. In particular, the offline SSML stage leverages the time consistency in trajectory data to train the DNN to predict future disturbances from history, in a self-supervised manner without environment condition labels. The online stage carefully designs a control law and an adaptation law to update the full DNN with stability guarantees. Empirically, the proposed framework significantly outperforms (19-39%) various classic and learning-based adaptive control baselines, in challenging real-world quadrotor tracking problems under large dynamic wind disturbance.
Multi-modal AI for comprehensive breast cancer prognostication
Witowski, Jan, Zeng, Ken, Cappadona, Joseph, Elayoubi, Jailan, Chiru, Elena Diana, Chan, Nancy, Kang, Young-Joon, Howard, Frederick, Ostrovnaya, Irina, Fernandez-Granda, Carlos, Schnabel, Freya, Ozerdem, Ugur, Liu, Kangning, Steinsnyder, Zoe, Thakore, Nitya, Sadic, Mohammad, Yeung, Frank, Liu, Elisa, Hill, Theodore, Swett, Benjamin, Rigau, Danielle, Clayburn, Andrew, Speirs, Valerie, Vetter, Marcus, Sojak, Lina, Soysal, Simone Muenst, Baumhoer, Daniel, Choucair, Khalil, Zong, Yu, Daoud, Lina, Saad, Anas, Abdulsattar, Waleed, Beydoun, Rafic, Pan, Jia-Wern, Makmur, Haslina, Teo, Soo-Hwang, Pak, Linda Ma, Angel, Victor, Zilenaite-Petrulaitiene, Dovile, Laurinavicius, Arvydas, Klar, Natalie, Piening, Brian D., Bifulco, Carlo, Jun, Sun-Young, Yi, Jae Pak, Lim, Su Hyun, Brufsky, Adam, Esteva, Francisco J., Pusztai, Lajos, LeCun, Yann, Geras, Krzysztof J.
Treatment selection in breast cancer is guided by molecular subtypes and clinical characteristics. Recurrence risk assessment plays a crucial role in personalizing treatment. Current methods, including genomic assays, have limited accuracy and clinical utility, leading to suboptimal decisions for many patients. We developed a test for breast cancer patient stratification based on digital pathology and clinical characteristics using novel AI methods. Specifically, we utilized a vision transformer-based pan-cancer foundation model trained with self-supervised learning to extract features from digitized H&E-stained slides. These features were integrated with clinical data to form a multi-modal AI test predicting cancer recurrence and death. The test was developed and evaluated using data from a total of 8,161 breast cancer patients across 15 cohorts originating from seven countries. Of these, 3,502 patients from five cohorts were used exclusively for evaluation, while the remaining patients were used for training. Our test accurately predicted our primary endpoint, disease-free interval, in the five external cohorts (C-index: 0.71 [0.68-0.75], HR: 3.63 [3.02-4.37, p<0.01]). In a direct comparison (N=858), the AI test was more accurate than Oncotype DX, the standard-of-care 21-gene assay, with a C-index of 0.67 [0.61-0.74] versus 0.61 [0.49-0.73], respectively. Additionally, the AI test added independent information to Oncotype DX in a multivariate analysis (HR: 3.11 [1.91-5.09, p<0.01)]). The test demonstrated robust accuracy across all major breast cancer subtypes, including TNBC (C-index: 0.71 [0.62-0.81], HR: 3.81 [2.35-6.17, p=0.02]), where no diagnostic tools are currently recommended by clinical guidelines. These results suggest that our AI test can improve accuracy, extend applicability to a wider range of patients, and enhance access to treatment selection tools.
Deep Trees for (Un)structured Data: Tractability, Performance, and Interpretability
Bertsimas, Dimitris, Everest, Lisa, Gu, Jiayi, Peroni, Matthew, Stoumpou, Vasiliki
Decision Trees have remained a popular machine learning method for tabular datasets, mainly due to their interpretability. However, they lack the expressiveness needed to handle highly nonlinear or unstructured datasets. Motivated by recent advances in tree-based machine learning (ML) techniques and first-order optimization methods, we introduce Generalized Soft Trees (GSTs), which extend soft decision trees (STs) and are capable of processing images directly. We demonstrate their advantages with respect to tractability, performance, and interpretability. We develop a tractable approach to growing GSTs, given by the DeepTree algorithm, which, in addition to new regularization terms, produces high-quality models with far fewer nodes and greater interpretability than traditional soft trees. We test the performance of our GSTs on benchmark tabular and image datasets, including MIMIC-IV, MNIST, Fashion MNIST, CIFAR-10 and Celeb-A. We show that our approach outperforms other popular tree methods (CART, Random Forests, XGBoost) in almost all of the datasets, with Convolutional Trees having a significant edge in the hardest CIFAR-10 and Fashion MNIST datasets. Finally, we explore the interpretability of our GSTs and find that even the most complex GSTs are considerably more interpretable than deep neural networks. Overall, our approach of Generalized Soft Trees provides a tractable method that is high-performing on (un)structured datasets and preserves interpretability more than traditional deep learning methods.