In this work, we propose a novel framework for estimating the dimension of the data manifold using a trained diffusion model. A diffusion model approximates the score function i.e. the gradient of the log density of a noise-corrupted version of the target distribution for varying levels of corruption. If the data concentrates around a manifold embedded in the high-dimensional ambient space, then as the level of corruption decreases, the score function points towards the manifold, as this direction becomes the direction of maximal likelihood increase. Therefore, for small levels of corruption, the diffusion model provides us with access to an approximation of the normal bundle of the data manifold. This allows us to estimate the dimension of the tangent space, thus, the intrinsic dimension of the data manifold. To the best of our knowledge, our method is the first deep-learning based estimator of the data manifold dimension and it outperforms well established statistical estimators in controlled experiments on both Euclidean and image data.
This paper considers statistical inference of time-varying network vector autoregression models for large-scale time series. A latent group structure is imposed on the heterogeneous and node-specific time-varying momentum and network spillover effects so that the number of unknown time-varying coefficients to be estimated can be reduced considerably. A classic agglomerative clustering algorithm with normalized distance matrix estimates is combined with a generalized information criterion to consistently estimate the latent group number and membership. A post-grouping local linear smoothing method is proposed to estimate the group-specific time-varying momentum and network effects, substantially improving the convergence rates of the preliminary estimates which ignore the latent structure. In addition, a post-grouping specification test is conducted to verify the validity of the parametric model assumption for group-specific time-varying coefficient functions, and the asymptotic theory is derived for the test statistic constructed via a kernel weighted quadratic form under the null and alternative hypotheses. Numerical studies including Monte-Carlo simulation and an empirical application to the global trade flow data are presented to examine the finite-sample performance of the developed model and methodology.
Existing text-video retrieval solutions are, in essence, discriminant models focused on maximizing the conditional likelihood, i.e., p(candidates|query). While straightforward, this de facto paradigm overlooks the underlying data distribution p(query), which makes it challenging to identify out-of-distribution data. To address this limitation, we creatively tackle this task from a generative viewpoint and model the correlation between the text and the video as their joint probability p(candidates,query). This is accomplished through a diffusion-based text-video retrieval framework (DiffusionRet), which models the retrieval task as a process of gradually generating joint distribution from noise. During training, DiffusionRet is optimized from both the generation and discrimination perspectives, with the generator being optimized by generation loss and the feature extractor trained with contrastive loss. In this way, DiffusionRet cleverly leverages the strengths of both generative and discriminative methods. Extensive experiments on five commonly used text-video retrieval benchmarks, including MSRVTT, LSMDC, MSVD, ActivityNet Captions, and DiDeMo, with superior performances, justify the efficacy of our method. More encouragingly, without any modification, DiffusionRet even performs well in out-domain retrieval settings. We believe this work brings fundamental insights into the related fields. Code will be available at //github.com/jpthu17/DiffusionRet.
Autoencoders have demonstrated remarkable success in learning low-dimensional latent features of high-dimensional data across various applications. Assuming that data are sampled near a low-dimensional manifold, we employ chart autoencoders, which encode data into low-dimensional latent features on a collection of charts, preserving the topology and geometry of the data manifold. Our paper establishes statistical guarantees on the generalization error of chart autoencoders, and we demonstrate their denoising capabilities by considering $n$ noisy training samples, along with their noise-free counterparts, on a $d$-dimensional manifold. By training autoencoders, we show that chart autoencoders can effectively denoise the input data with normal noise. We prove that, under proper network architectures, chart autoencoders achieve a squared generalization error in the order of $\displaystyle n^{-\frac{2}{d+2}}\log^4 n$, which depends on the intrinsic dimension of the manifold and only weakly depends on the ambient dimension and noise level. We further extend our theory on data with noise containing both normal and tangential components, where chart autoencoders still exhibit a denoising effect for the normal component. As a special case, our theory also applies to classical autoencoders, as long as the data manifold has a global parametrization. Our results provide a solid theoretical foundation for the effectiveness of autoencoders, which is further validated through several numerical experiments.
Selection of covariates is crucial in the estimation of average treatment effects given observational data with high or even ultra-high dimensional pretreatment variables. Existing methods for this problem typically assume sparse linear models for both outcome and univariate treatment, and cannot handle situations with ultra-high dimensional covariates. In this paper, we propose a new covariate selection strategy called double screening prior adaptive lasso (DSPAL) to select confounders and predictors of the outcome for multivariate treatments, which combines the adaptive lasso method with the marginal conditional (in)dependence prior information to select target covariates, in order to eliminate confounding bias and improve statistical efficiency. The distinctive features of our proposal are that it can be applied to high-dimensional or even ultra-high dimensional covariates for multivariate treatments, and can deal with the cases of both parametric and nonparametric outcome models, which makes it more robust compared to other methods. Our theoretical analyses show that the proposed procedure enjoys the sure screening property, the ranking consistency property and the variable selection consistency. Through a simulation study, we demonstrate that the proposed approach selects all confounders and predictors consistently and estimates the multivariate treatment effects with smaller bias and mean squared error compared to several alternatives under various scenarios. In real data analysis, the method is applied to estimate the causal effect of a three-dimensional continuous environmental treatment on cholesterol level and enlightening results are obtained.
Topology Optimization seeks to find the best design that satisfies a set of constraints while maximizing system performance. Traditional iterative optimization methods like SIMP can be computationally expensive and get stuck in local minima, limiting their applicability to complex or large-scale problems. Learning-based approaches have been developed to accelerate the topology optimization process, but these methods can generate designs with floating material and low performance when challenged with out-of-distribution constraint configurations. Recently, deep generative models, such as Generative Adversarial Networks and Diffusion Models, conditioned on constraints and physics fields have shown promise, but they require extensive pre-processing and surrogate models for improving performance. To address these issues, we propose a Generative Optimization method that integrates classic optimization like SIMP as a refining mechanism for the topology generated by a deep generative model. We also remove the need for conditioning on physical fields using a computationally inexpensive approximation inspired by classic ODE solutions and reduce the number of steps needed to generate a feasible and performant topology. Our method allows us to efficiently generate good topologies and explicitly guide them to regions with high manufacturability and high performance, without the need for external auxiliary models or additional labeled data. We believe that our method can lead to significant advancements in the design and optimization of structures in engineering applications, and can be applied to a broader spectrum of performance-aware engineering design problems.
We discuss Bayesian inference for a known-mean Gaussian model with a compound symmetric variance-covariance matrix. Since the space of such matrices is a linear subspace of that of positive definite matrices, we utilize the methods of Pisano (2022) to decompose the usual Wishart conjugate prior and derive a closed-form, three-parameter, bivariate conjugate prior distribution for the compound-symmetric half-precision matrix. The off-diagonal entry is found to have a non-central Kummer-Beta distribution conditioned on the diagonal, which is shown to have a gamma distribution generalized with Gauss's hypergeometric function. Such considerations yield a treatment of maximum a posteriori estimation for such matrices in Gaussian settings, including the Bayesian evidence and flexibility penalty attributable to Rougier and Priebe (2019). We also demonstrate how the prior may be utilized to naturally test for the positivity of a common within-class correlation in a random-intercept model using two data-driven examples.
We study the problem of sampling from a target distribution in $\mathbb{R}^d$ whose potential is not smooth. Compared with the sampling problem with smooth potentials, this problem is much less well-understood due to the lack of smoothness. In this paper, we propose a novel sampling algorithm for a class of non-smooth potentials by first approximating them by smooth potentials using a technique that is akin to Nesterov smoothing. We then utilize sampling algorithms on the smooth potentials to generate approximate samples from the original non-smooth potentials. With a properly chosen smoothing intensity, the accuracy of the algorithm is guaranteed. Hence we obtain non-asymptotic convergence results based on existing analysis of smooth sampling. We verify our convergence result on a synthetic example and apply our method to improve the worst-case performance of Bayesian inference on a real-world example.
Many machine learning problems can be framed in the context of estimating functions, and often these are time-dependent functions that are estimated in real-time as observations arrive. Gaussian processes (GPs) are an attractive choice for modeling real-valued nonlinear functions due to their flexibility and uncertainty quantification. However, the typical GP regression model suffers from several drawbacks: 1) Conventional GP inference scales $O(N^{3})$ with respect to the number of observations; 2) Updating a GP model sequentially is not trivial; and 3) Covariance kernels typically enforce stationarity constraints on the function, while GPs with non-stationary covariance kernels are often intractable to use in practice. To overcome these issues, we propose a sequential Monte Carlo algorithm to fit infinite mixtures of GPs that capture non-stationary behavior while allowing for online, distributed inference. Our approach empirically improves performance over state-of-the-art methods for online GP estimation in the presence of non-stationarity in time-series data. To demonstrate the utility of our proposed online Gaussian process mixture-of-experts approach in applied settings, we show that we can sucessfully implement an optimization algorithm using online Gaussian process bandits.
In many scenarios, the interpretability of machine learning models is a highly required but difficult task. To explain the individual predictions of such models, local model-agnostic approaches have been proposed. However, the process generating the explanations can be, for a user, as mysterious as the prediction to be explained. Furthermore, interpretability methods frequently lack theoretical guarantees, and their behavior on simple models is frequently unknown. While it is difficult, if not impossible, to ensure that an explainer behaves as expected on a cutting-edge model, we can at least ensure that everything works on simple, already interpretable models. In this paper, we present a theoretical analysis of Anchors (Ribeiro et al., 2018): a popular rule-based interpretability method that highlights a small set of words to explain a text classifier's decision. After formalizing its algorithm and providing useful insights, we demonstrate mathematically that Anchors produces meaningful results when used with linear text classifiers on top of a TF-IDF vectorization. We believe that our analysis framework can aid in the development of new explainability methods based on solid theoretical foundations.
Genito-Pelvic Pain/Penetration-Disorder (GPPPD) is a common disorder but rarely treated in routine care. Previous research documents that GPPPD symptoms can be treated effectively using internet-based psychological interventions. However, non-response remains common for all state-of-the-art treatments and it is unclear which patient groups are expected to benefit most from an internet-based intervention. Multivariable prediction models are increasingly used to identify predictors of heterogeneous treatment effects, and to allocate treatments with the greatest expected benefits. In this study, we developed and internally validated a multivariable decision tree model that predicts effects of an internet-based treatment on a multidimensional composite score of GPPPD symptoms. Data of a randomized controlled trial comparing the internet-based intervention to a waitlist control group (N =200) was used to develop a decision tree model using model-based recursive partitioning. Model performance was assessed by examining the apparent and bootstrap bias-corrected performance. The final pruned decision tree consisted of one splitting variable, joint dyadic coping, based on which two response clusters emerged. No effect was found for patients with low dyadic coping ($n$=33; $d$=0.12; 95% CI: -0.57-0.80), while large effects ($d$=1.00; 95%CI: 0.68-1.32; $n$=167) are predicted for those with high dyadic coping at baseline. The bootstrap-bias-corrected performance of the model was $R^2$=27.74% (RMSE=13.22).