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Maria L. Rizzo

Publications and source records attributed to Maria L. Rizzo.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2020

Kernel k-Groups via Hartigan's Method

Energy statistics was proposed by Sz\' ekely in the 80's inspired by Newton's gravitational potential in classical mechanics and it provides a model-free hypothesis test for equality of distributions. In its original form, energy statistics was formulated in Euclidean spaces. More recently, it was generalized to metric spaces of negative type. In this paper, we consider a formulation for the clustering problem using a weighted version of energy statistics in spaces of negative type. We show that this approach leads to a quadratically constrained quadratic program in the associated kernel space, establishing connections with graph partitioning problems and kernel methods in machine learning. To find local solutions of such an optimization problem, we propose kernel k-groups, which is an extension of Hartigan's method to kernel spaces. Kernel k-groups is cheaper than spectral clustering and has the same computational cost as kernel k-means (which is based on Lloyd's heuristic) but our numerical results show an improved performance, especially in higher dimensions. Moreover, we verify the efficiency of kernel k-groups in community detection in sparse stochastic block models which has fascinating applications in several areas of science.

stat.ML↗
arXiv2017

K-groups: A Generalization of K-means Clustering

We propose a new class of distribution-based clustering algorithms, called k-groups, based on energy distance between samples. The energy distance clustering criterion assigns observations to clusters according to a multi-sample energy statistic that measures the distance between distributions. The energy distance determines a consistent test for equality of distributions, and it is based on a population distance that characterizes equality of distributions. The k-groups procedure therefore generalizes the k-means method, which separates clusters that have different means. We propose two k-groups algorithms: k-groups by first variation; and k-groups by second variation. The implementation of k-groups is partly based on Hartigan and Wong's algorithm for k-means. The algorithm is generalized from moving one point on each iteration (first variation) to moving $m$ $(m > 1)$ points. For univariate data, we prove that Hartigan and Wong's k-means algorithm is a special case of k-groups by first variation. The simulation results from univariate and multivariate cases show that our k-groups algorithms perform as well as Hartigan and Wong's k-means algorithm when clusters are well-separated and normally distributed. Moreover, both k-groups algorithms perform better than k-means when data does not have a finite first moment or data has strong skewness and heavy tails. For non--spherical clusters, both k-groups algorithms performed better than k-means in high dimension, and k-groups by first variation is consistent as dimension increases. In a case study on dermatology data with 34 features, both k-groups algorithms performed better than k-means.

stat.ME↗
arXiv2014

Partial Distance Correlation with Methods for Dissimilarities

Distance covariance and distance correlation are scalar coefficients that characterize independence of random vectors in arbitrary dimension. Properties, extensions, and applications of distance correlation have been discussed in the recent literature, but the problem of defining the partial distance correlation has remained an open question of considerable interest. The problem of partial distance correlation is more complex than partial correlation partly because the squared distance covariance is not an inner product in the usual linear space. For the definition of partial distance correlation we introduce a new Hilbert space where the squared distance covariance is the inner product. We define the partial distance correlation statistics with the help of this Hilbert space, and develop and implement a test for zero partial distance correlation. Our intermediate results provide an unbiased estimator of squared distance covariance, and a neat solution to the problem of distance correlation for dissimilarities rather than distances.

stat.ME↗
arXiv2010

DISCO analysis: A nonparametric extension of analysis of variance

In classical analysis of variance, dispersion is measured by considering squared distances of sample elements from the sample mean. We consider a measure of dispersion for univariate or multivariate response based on all pairwise distances between-sample elements, and derive an analogous distance components (DISCO) decomposition for powers of distance in $(0,2]$. The ANOVA F statistic is obtained when the index (exponent) is 2. For each index in $(0,2)$, this decomposition determines a nonparametric test for the multi-sample hypothesis of equal distributions that is statistically consistent against general alternatives.

stat.AP↗
arXiv2010

Brownian distance covariance

Distance correlation is a new class of multivariate dependence coefficients applicable to random vectors of arbitrary and not necessarily equal dimension. Distance covariance and distance correlation are analogous to product-moment covariance and correlation, but generalize and extend these classical bivariate measures of dependence. Distance correlation characterizes independence: it is zero if and only if the random vectors are independent. The notion of covariance with respect to a stochastic process is introduced, and it is shown that population distance covariance coincides with the covariance with respect to Brownian motion; thus, both can be called Brownian distance covariance. In the bivariate case, Brownian covariance is the natural extension of product-moment covariance, as we obtain Pearson product-moment covariance by replacing the Brownian motion in the definition with identity. The corresponding statistic has an elegantly simple computing formula. Advantages of applying Brownian covariance and correlation vs the classical Pearson covariance and correlation are discussed and illustrated.

stat.AP↗
arXiv2008

Measuring and testing dependence by correlation of distances

Distance correlation is a new measure of dependence between random vectors. Distance covariance and distance correlation are analogous to product-moment covariance and correlation, but unlike the classical definition of correlation, distance correlation is zero only if the random vectors are independent. The empirical distance dependence measures are based on certain Euclidean distances between sample elements rather than sample moments, yet have a compact representation analogous to the classical covariance and correlation. Asymptotic properties and applications in testing independence are discussed. Implementation of the test and Monte Carlo results are also presented.

math.ST↗