In randomized trials, repeated measures of the outcome are routinely collected. The mixed model for repeated measures (MMRM) leverages the information from these repeated outcome measures, and is often used for the primary analysis to estimate the average treatment effect at the primary endpoint. MMRM, however, can suffer from bias and precision loss when it models intermediate outcomes incorrectly, and hence fails to use the post-randomization information harmlessly. This paper proposes an extension of the commonly used MMRM, called IMMRM, that improves the robustness and optimizes the precision gain from covariate adjustment, stratified randomization, and adjustment for intermediate outcome measures. Under regularity conditions and missing completely at random, we prove that the IMMRM estimator for the average treatment effect is robust to arbitrary model misspecification and is asymptotically equal or more precise than the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) estimator and the MMRM estimator. Under missing at random, IMMRM is less likely to be misspecified than MMRM, and we demonstrate via simulation studies that IMMRM continues to have less bias and smaller variance. Our results are further supported by a re-analysis of a randomized trial for the treatment of diabetes.
Permutation tests are widely recognized as robust alternatives to tests based on the normal theory. Random permutation tests have been frequently employed to assess the significance of variables in linear models. Despite their widespread use, existing random permutation tests lack finite-sample and assumption-free guarantees for controlling type I error in partial correlation tests. To address this standing challenge, we develop a conformal test through permutation-augmented regressions, which we refer to as PALMRT. PALMRT not only achieves power competitive with conventional methods but also provides reliable control of type I errors at no more than $2\alpha$ given any targeted level $\alpha$, for arbitrary fixed-designs and error distributions. We confirmed this through extensive simulations. Compared to the cyclic permutation test (CPT), which also offers theoretical guarantees, PALMRT does not significantly compromise power or set stringent requirements on the sample size, making it suitable for diverse biomedical applications. We further illustrate their differences in a long-Covid study where PALMRT validated key findings previously identified using the t-test, while CPT suffered from a drastic loss of power. We endorse PALMRT as a robust and practical hypothesis test in scientific research for its superior error control, power preservation, and simplicity.
We introduce a new type of query mechanism for collecting human feedback, called the perceptual adjustment query ( PAQ). Being both informative and cognitively lightweight, the PAQ adopts an inverted measurement scheme, and combines advantages from both cardinal and ordinal queries. We showcase the PAQ in the metric learning problem, where we collect PAQ measurements to learn an unknown Mahalanobis distance. This gives rise to a high-dimensional, low-rank matrix estimation problem to which standard matrix estimators cannot be applied. Consequently, we develop a two-stage estimator for metric learning from PAQs, and provide sample complexity guarantees for this estimator. We present numerical simulations demonstrating the performance of the estimator and its notable properties.
The fields of soft and bio-inspired robotics promise to imbue synthetic systems with capabilities found in the natural world. However, many of these biological capabilities are yet to be realized. For example, vines in nature direct growth via localized responses embedded in the cells of vine body, allowing an organism without a central brain to successfully search for resources (e.g., light). Yet to date, vine-inspired robots have yet to show such localized embedded responsiveness. Here we present a vine-inspired robotic device with material-level responses embedded in its skin and capable of growing and steering toward either a light or heat stimulus. We present basic modeling of the concept, design details, and experimental results showing its behavior in response to infrared (IR) and visible light. Our simple design concept advances the capabilities of bio-inspired robots and lays the foundation for future growing robots that are capable of seeking light or heat, yet are extremely simple and low-cost.
Besov priors are nonparametric priors that can model spatially inhomogeneous functions. They are routinely used in inverse problems and imaging, where they exhibit attractive sparsity-promoting and edge-preserving features. A recent line of work has initiated the study of their asymptotic frequentist convergence properties. In the present paper, we consider the theoretical recovery performance of the posterior distributions associated to Besov-Laplace priors in the density estimation model, under the assumption that the observations are generated by a possibly spatially inhomogeneous true density belonging to a Besov space. We improve on existing results and show that carefully tuned Besov-Laplace priors attain optimal posterior contraction rates. Furthermore, we show that hierarchical procedures involving a hyper-prior on the regularity parameter lead to adaptation to any smoothness level.
The HEat modulated Infinite DImensional Heston (HEIDIH) model and its numerical approximation are introduced and analyzed. This model falls into the general framework of infinite dimensional Heston stochastic volatility models of (F.E. Benth, I.C. Simonsen '18), introduced for the pricing of forward contracts. The HEIDIH model consists of a one-dimensional stochastic advection equation coupled with a stochastic volatility process, defined as a Cholesky-type decomposition of the tensor product of a Hilbert-space valued Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, the mild solution to the stochastic heat equation on the real half-line. The advection and heat equations are driven by independent space-time Gaussian processes which are white in time and colored in space, with the latter covariance structure expressed by two different kernels. First, a class of weight-stationary kernels are given, under which regularity results for the HEIDIH model in fractional Sobolev spaces are formulated. In particular, the class includes weighted Mat\'ern kernels. Second, numerical approximation of the model is considered. An error decomposition formula, pointwise in space and time, for a finite-difference scheme is proven. For a special case, essentially sharp convergence rates are obtained when this is combined with a fully discrete finite element approximation of the stochastic heat equation. The analysis takes into account a localization error, a pointwise-in-space finite element discretization error and an error stemming from the noise being sampled pointwise in space. The rates obtained in the analysis are higher than what would be obtained using a standard Sobolev embedding technique. Numerical simulations illustrate the results.
Recently, deep learning-based methods achieved promising performance in nuclei detection and classification applications. However, training deep learning-based methods requires a large amount of pixel-wise annotated data, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive, especially in 3D images. An alternative approach is to adapt weak-annotation methods, such as labeling each nucleus with a point, but this method does not extend from 2D histopathology images (for which it was originally developed) to 3D immunofluorescent images. The reason is that 3D images contain multiple channels (z-axis) for nuclei and different markers separately, which makes training using point annotations difficult. To address this challenge, we propose the Label-efficient Contrastive learning-based (LECL) model to detect and classify various types of nuclei in 3D immunofluorescent images. Previous methods use Maximum Intensity Projection (MIP) to convert immunofluorescent images with multiple slices to 2D images, which can cause signals from different z-stacks to falsely appear associated with each other. To overcome this, we devised an Extended Maximum Intensity Projection (EMIP) approach that addresses issues using MIP. Furthermore, we performed a Supervised Contrastive Learning (SCL) approach for weakly supervised settings. We conducted experiments on cardiovascular datasets and found that our proposed framework is effective and efficient in detecting and classifying various types of nuclei in 3D immunofluorescent images.
In this paper we establish limit theorems for power variations of stochastic processes controlled by fractional Brownian motions with Hurst parameter $H\leq 1/2$. We show that the power variations of such processes can be decomposed into the mix of several weighted random sums plus some remainder terms, and the convergences of power variations are dominated by different combinations of those weighted sums depending on whether $H<1/4$, $H=1/4$, or $H>1/4$. We show that when $H\geq 1/4$ the centered power variation converges stably at the rate $n^{-1/2}$, and when $H<1/4$ it converges in probability at the rate $n^{-2H}$. We determine the limit of the mixed weighted sum based on a rough path approach developed in \cite{LT20}.
A general class of the almost instantaneous fixed-to-variable-length (AIFV) codes is proposed, which contains every possible binary code we can make when allowing finite bits of decoding delay. The contribution of the paper lies in the following. (i) Introducing $N$-bit-delay AIFV codes, constructed by multiple code trees with higher flexibility than the conventional AIFV codes. (ii) Proving that the proposed codes can represent any uniquely-encodable and uniquely-decodable variable-to-variable length codes. (iii) Showing how to express codes as multiple code trees with minimum decoding delay. (iv) Formulating the constraints of decodability as the comparison of intervals in the real number line. The theoretical results in this paper are expected to be useful for further study on AIFV codes.
StreamBed is a capacity planning system for stream processing.It predicts, ahead of any production deployment, the resources that a query will require to process an incoming data rate sustainably, and the appropriate configuration of these resources. StreamBed builds a capacity planning model by piloting a series of runs of the target query in a small-scale, controlled testbed. We implement StreamBed for the popular Flink DSP engine. Our evaluation with large-scale queries of the Nexmark benchmark demonstrates that StreamBed can effectively and accurately predict capacity requirements for jobs spanning more than 1,000 cores using a testbed of only 48 cores.
In this paper, two novel classes of implicit exponential Runge-Kutta (ERK) methods are studied for solving highly oscillatory systems. Firstly, we analyze the symplectic conditions for two kinds of exponential integrators and obtain the symplectic method. In order to effectively solve highly oscillatory problems, we try to design the highly accurate implicit ERK integrators. By comparing the Taylor series expansion of numerical solution with exact solution, it can be verified that the order conditions of two new kinds of exponential methods are identical to classical Runge-Kutta (RK) methods, which implies that using the coefficients of RK methods, some highly accurate numerical methods are directly formulated. Furthermore, we also investigate the linear stability properties for these exponential methods. Finally, numerical results not only display the long time energy preservation of the symplectic method, but also present the accuracy and efficiency of these formulated methods in comparison with standard ERK methods.