Search results for "Conditional independence"
showing 10 items of 17 documents
Inferring slowly-changing dynamic gene-regulatory networks
2015
Dynamic gene-regulatory networks are complex since the interaction patterns between their components mean that it is impossible to study parts of the network in separation. This holistic character of gene-regulatory networks poses a real challenge to any type of modelling. Graphical models are a class of models that connect the network with a conditional independence relationships between random variables. By interpreting these random variables as gene activities and the conditional independence relationships as functional non-relatedness, graphical models have been used to describe gene-regulatory networks. Whereas the literature has been focused on static networks, most time-course experi…
Backwards Martingales and Exchangeability
2020
With many data acquisitions, such as telephone surveys, the order in which the data come does not matter. Mathematically, we say that a family of random variables is exchangeable if the joint distribution does not change under finite permutations. De Finetti’s structural theorem says that an infinite family of E-valued exchangeable random variables can be described by a two-stage experiment. At the first stage, a probability distribution Ξ on E is drawn at random. At the second stage, independent and identically distributed random variables with distribution Ξ are implemented.
Estimation of causal effects with small data in the presence of trapdoor variables
2021
We consider the problem of estimating causal effects of interventions from observational data when well-known back-door and front-door adjustments are not applicable. We show that when an identifiable causal effect is subject to an implicit functional constraint that is not deducible from conditional independence relations, the estimator of the causal effect can exhibit bias in small samples. This bias is related to variables that we call trapdoor variables. We use simulated data to study different strategies to account for trapdoor variables and suggest how the related trapdoor bias might be minimized. The importance of trapdoor variables in causal effect estimation is illustrated with rea…
Robust Conditional Independence maps of single-voxel Magnetic Resonance Spectra to elucidate associations between brain tumours and metabolites.
2020
The aim of the paper is two-fold. First, we show that structure finding with the PC algorithm can be inherently unstable and requires further operational constraints in order to consistently obtain models that are faithful to the data. We propose a methodology to stabilise the structure finding process, minimising both false positive and false negative error rates. This is demonstrated with synthetic data. Second, to apply the proposed structure finding methodology to a data set comprising single-voxel Magnetic Resonance Spectra of normal brain and three classes of brain tumours, to elucidate the associations between brain tumour types and a range of observed metabolites that are known to b…
Inferring networks from high-dimensional data with mixed variables
2014
We present two methodologies to deal with high-dimensional data with mixed variables, the strongly decomposable graphical model and the regression-type graphical model. The first model is used to infer conditional independence graphs. The latter model is applied to compute the relative importance or contribution of each predictor to the response variables. Recently, penalized likelihood approaches have also been proposed to estimate graph structures. In a simulation study, we compare the performance of the strongly decomposable graphical model and the graphical lasso in terms of graph recovering. Five different graph structures are used to simulate the data: the banded graph, the cluster gr…
Causal Inference in Geoscience and Remote Sensing From Observational Data
2020
Establishing causal relations between random variables from observational data is perhaps the most important challenge in today’s science. In remote sensing and geosciences, this is of special relevance to better understand the earth’s system and the complex interactions between the governing processes. In this paper, we focus on an observational causal inference, and thus, we try to estimate the correct direction of causation using a finite set of empirical data. In addition, we focus on the more complex bivariate scenario that requires strong assumptions and no conditional independence tests can be used. In particular, we explore the framework of (nondeterministic) additive noise models, …
Moderating effects of subgroups in linear models
1989
SUMMARY Possibilities for moderating effects of a subgrouping variable on strength or direction of an association have been much discussed by social scientists but have not been given satisfactory statistical formulations. The results concern directed measures of associations in linear models containing just three variables. Some key words: Analysis of covariance; Analysis of variance; cG-distribution; Conditional independence; Graphical chain model; Parallel regressions; Yule-Simpson paradox. 1. INTRODUCTION Linear models are commonly used as a framework to estimate and test how a continuous response variable depends on potential influencing variables. This paper is concerned with the situ…
Derived variables calculated from similar joint responses: some characteristics and examples
1995
Abstract A technique (Cox and Wermuth, 1992) is reviewed for finding linear combinations of a set of response variables having special relations of linear conditional independence with a set of explanatory variables. A theorem in linear algebra is used both to examine conditions in which the derived variables take a specially simple form and lead to reduced computations. Examples are discussed of medical and psychological investigations in which the method has aided interpretation.
Response models for mixed binary and quantitative variables
1992
SUMMARY A number of special representations are considered for the joint distribution of qualitative, mostly binary, and quantitative variables. In addition to the conditional Gaussian models and to conditional Gaussian regression chain models some emphasis is placed on models derived from an underlying multivariate normal distribution and on models in which discrete probabilities are specified linearly in terms of unknown parameters. The possibilities for choosing between the models empirically are examined, as well as the testing of independence and conditional independence and the estimation of parameters. Often the testing of independence is exactly or nearly the same for a number of di…
On Association Models Defined over Independence Graphs
1998
Conditions on joint distributions are given under which two variables will be conditionally associated whenever an independence graph does not imply a corresponding conditional independence statement. To this end the notions of parametric cancellation, of stable paths and of quasi-linear models are discussed in some detail.