arXiv subjects

Johan Van Horebeek

Publications and source records attributed to Johan Van Horebeek.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Adjusted Wasserstein distances for bridging empirical and true distributions with applications to MDS

This paper examines how metric adjustments to Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) can enhance its effectiveness as a visual tool for pattern recognition. The distance under consideration, referred to as Max-D-SW, is an adjustment of the Max-Sliced Wasserstein distance. In contrast to the original formulation, which optimizes over single unit directions, Max-D-SW aggregates contributions over orthonormal bases. This modification provides a clear numerical advantage in MDS outcomes, particularly when applied to heavy-tailed distributions. We also establish sample-complexity bounds showing that Max-D-SW remains statistically tractable, with rates comparable to those of its max-sliced counterpart. Moreover, we show that a better sample complexity for a metric does not necessarily translate into better performance when the metric is used as an input for MDS.

stat.ML↗

arXiv2025

Local Statistical Parity for the Estimation of Fair Decision Trees

Given the high computational complexity of decision tree estimation, classical methods construct a tree by adding one node at a time in a recursive way. To facilitate promoting fairness, we propose a fairness criterion local to the tree nodes. We prove how it is related to the Statistical Parity criterion, popular in the Algorithmic Fairness literature, and show how to incorporate it into standard recursive tree estimation algorithms. We present a tree estimation algorithm called Constrained Logistic Regression Tree (C-LRT), which is a modification of the standard CART algorithm using locally linear classifiers and imposing restrictions as done in Constrained Logistic Regression. Finally, we evaluate the performance of trees estimated with C-LRT on datasets commonly used in the Algorithmic Fairness literature, using various classification and fairness metrics. The results confirm that C-LRT successfully allows to control and balance accuracy and fairness.

cs.LG↗