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Optimal testing using combined test statistics across independent studies

Neural Information Processing Systems

Combining test statistics from independent trials or experiments is a popular method of meta-analysis. However, there is very limited theoretical understanding of the power of the combined test, especially in high-dimensional models considering composite hypotheses tests. We derive a mathematical framework to study standard {meta-analysis} testing approaches in the context of the many normal means model, which serves as the platform to investigate more complex models.We introduce a natural and mild restriction on the meta-level combination functions of the local trials. This allows us to mathematically quantify the cost of compressing $m$ trials into real-valued test statistics and combining these. We then derive minimax lower and matching upper bounds for the separation rates of standard combination methods for e.g.


Covariate Shift Corrected Conditional Randomization Test

Neural Information Processing Systems

Conditional independence tests are crucial across various disciplines in determining the independence of an outcome variable $Y$ from a treatment variable $X$, conditioning on a set of confounders $Z$. The Conditional Randomization Test (CRT) offers a powerful framework for such testing by assuming known distributions of $X \mid Z$; it controls the Type-I error exactly, allowing for the use of flexible, black-box test statistics. In practice, testing for conditional independence often involves using data from a source population to draw conclusions about a target population. This can be challenging due to covariate shift---differences in the distribution of $X$, $Z$, and surrogate variables, which can affect the conditional distribution of $Y \mid X, Z$---rendering traditional CRT approaches invalid. To address this issue, we propose a novel Covariate Shift Corrected Pearson Chi-squared Conditional Randomization (csPCR) test. This test adapts to covariate shifts by integrating importance weights and employing the control variates method to reduce variance in the test statistics and thus enhance power. Theoretically, we establish that the csPCR test controls the Type-I error asymptotically. Empirically, through simulation studies, we demonstrate that our method not only maintains control over Type-I errors but also exhibits superior power, confirming its efficacy and practical utility in real-world scenarios where covariate shifts are prevalent. Finally, we apply our methodology to a real-world dataset to assess the impact of a COVID-19 treatment on the 90-day mortality rate among patients.


High-Dimensional Change Point Detection using Graph Spanning Ratio

Sun, Youngwen, Papagiannouli, Katerina, Spokoiny, Vladimir

arXiv.org Machine Learning

Inspired by graph-based methodologies, we introduce a novel graph-spanning algorithm designed to identify changes in both offline and online data across low to high dimensions. This versatile approach is applicable to Euclidean and graph-structured data with unknown distributions, while maintaining control over error probabilities. Theoretically, we demonstrate that the algorithm achieves high detection power when the magnitude of the change surpasses the lower bound of the minimax separation rate, which scales on the order of $\sqrt{nd}$. Our method outperforms other techniques in terms of accuracy for both Gaussian and non-Gaussian data. Notably, it maintains strong detection power even with small observation windows, making it particularly effective for online environments where timely and precise change detection is critical.


Novelty detection on path space

Gasteratos, Ioannis, Jacquier, Antoine, Lemercier, Maud, Lyons, Terry, Salvi, Cristopher

arXiv.org Machine Learning

We frame novelty detection on path space as a hypothesis testing problem with signature-based test statistics. Using transportation-cost inequalities of Gasteratos and Jacquier (2023), we obtain tail bounds for false positive rates that extend beyond Gaussian measures to laws of RDE solutions with smooth bounded vector fields, yielding estimates of quantiles and p-values. Exploiting the shuffle product, we derive exact formulae for smooth surrogates of conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) in terms of expected signatures, leading to new one-class SVM algorithms optimising smooth CVaR objectives. We then establish lower bounds on type-$\mathrm{II}$ error for alternatives with finite first moment, giving general power bounds when the reference measure and the alternative are absolutely continuous with respect to each other. Finally, we evaluate numerically the type-$\mathrm{I}$ error and statistical power of signature-based test statistic, using synthetic anomalous diffusion data and real-world molecular biology data.


Multivariate tests of association based on univariate tests

Ruth Heller, Yair Heller

Neural Information Processing Systems

For testing two vector random variables for independence, we propose testing whether the distance of one vector from an arbitrary center point is independent from the distance of the other vector from another arbitrary center point by a univariate test. We prove that under minimal assumptions, it is enough to have a consistent univariate independence test on the distances, to guarantee that the power to detect dependence between the random vectors increases to one with sample size. If the univariate test is distribution-free, the multivariate test will also be distribution-free.