arXiv subjects

Xinming An

Publications and source records attributed to Xinming An.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

When Retain Constraints Conflict: Mitigating Forget-Retain Interference in Tabular Data

Machine unlearning aims to remove the influence of designated training data while preserving model utility, but its behavior on tabular data remains underexplored. This gap is important because tabular prediction is widely used in high-stakes domains and is increasingly adapted to language models through record serialization and schema-aware prompting. We identify a key challenge that distinguishes tabular unlearning from unlearning in free-form text or other modalities: schema-induced forget-retain overlap. In serialized tabular data, records share fixed column-name/value slots, similar attribute ranges, and common output spaces. Consequently, a forget row may have nearby retain rows that rely on the same high-signal attributes, causing retain preservation to oppose the update required for forgetting. Motivated by this failure mode, we propose Conflict-Aware Unlearning (CAU), a schema-aware approach that reduces forget-retain interference by relaxing preservation constraints on retained rows that most conflict with the forget set. Across sample-level and feature-level unlearning on clinical and non-medical tabular tasks, CAU more closely matches a retraining oracle while maintaining predictive utility and retain-region behavior. Our results show that reliable tabular LLM unlearning depends not only on the forgetting objective, but also on how retain constraints are constructed.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2026

Multivariate Multinomial Logit Model with ANOVA Decomposition for Correlated Categorical Outcomes

In medical research, patients often have multiple interdependent outcomes, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and pain among trauma survivors. Most existing research uses multinomial regression to analyze these interdependent outcomes separately, which ignores correlations between concurrent conditions. This omission may lead to loss of information and reduced predictive accuracy. Accounting for correlations between multiple categorical outcomes requires a high-dimensional parameter space, making model estimation challenging. In this paper, we propose a multivariate multinomial logit model that captures outcome correlations and uses the ANOVA decomposition of the parameter space to reduce the number of parameters. The ANOVA decomposition enables explicit conditional model formulations, which allow for a computationally much simpler composite likelihood for model estimation. We develop an efficient Minorization-Maximization (MM) algorithm to maximize the composite likelihood, which also incorporates variable selection via a bridge penalty. Simulation studies are conducted to evaluate our method, demonstrating its accuracy in parameter estimation and variable selection. We further illustrate our method using data from the AURORA study.

stat.ME↗

arXiv2023

On Heterogeneous Treatment Effects in Heterogeneous Causal Graphs

Heterogeneity and comorbidity are two interwoven challenges associated with various healthcare problems that greatly hampered research on developing effective treatment and understanding of the underlying neurobiological mechanism. Very few studies have been conducted to investigate heterogeneous causal effects (HCEs) in graphical contexts due to the lack of statistical methods. To characterize this heterogeneity, we first conceptualize heterogeneous causal graphs (HCGs) by generalizing the causal graphical model with confounder-based interactions and multiple mediators. Such confounders with an interaction with the treatment are known as moderators. This allows us to flexibly produce HCGs given different moderators and explicitly characterize HCEs from the treatment or potential mediators on the outcome. We establish the theoretical forms of HCEs and derive their properties at the individual level in both linear and nonlinear models. An interactive structural learning is developed to estimate the complex HCGs and HCEs with confidence intervals provided. Our method is empirically justified by extensive simulations and its practical usefulness is illustrated by exploring causality among psychiatric disorders for trauma survivors.

stat.ME↗

arXiv2022

Exploratory Hidden Markov Factor Models for Longitudinal Mobile Health Data: Application to Adverse Posttraumatic Neuropsychiatric Sequelae

Adverse posttraumatic neuropsychiatric sequelae (APNS) are common among veterans and millions of Americans after traumatic exposures, resulting in substantial burdens for trauma survivors and society. Despite numerous studies conducted on APNS over the past decades, there has been limited progress in understanding the underlying neurobiological mechanisms due to several unique challenges. One of these challenges is the reliance on subjective self-report measures to assess APNS, which can easily result in measurement errors and biases (e.g., recall bias). To mitigate this issue, in this paper, we investigate the potential of leveraging the objective longitudinal mobile device data to identify homogeneous APNS states and study the dynamic transitions and potential risk factors of APNS after trauma exposure. To handle specific challenges posed by longitudinal mobile device data, we developed exploratory hidden Markov factor models and designed a Stabilized Expectation-Maximization algorithm for parameter estimation. Simulation studies were conducted to evaluate the performance of parameter estimation and model selection. Finally, to demonstrate the practical utility of the method, we applied it to mobile device data collected from the Advancing Understanding of RecOvery afteR traumA (AURORA) study.

stat.AP↗

arXiv2017

Computing and Graphing Probability Values of Pearson Distributions: A SAS/IML Macro

Any empirical data can be approximated to one of Pearson distributions using the first four moments of the data (Elderton and Johnson, 1969; Pearson, 1895; Solomon and Stephens, 1978). Thus, Pearson distributions made statistical analysis possible for data with unknown distributions. There are both extant old-fashioned in-print tables (Pearson and Hartley, 1972) and contemporary computer programs (Amos and Daniel, 1971; Bouver and Bargmann, 1974; Bowman and Shenton, 1979; Davis and Stephens, 1983; Pan, 2009) available for obtaining percentage points of Pearson distributions corresponding to certain pre-specifed percentages (or probability values) (e.g., 1.0%, 2.5%, 5.0%, etc.), but they are little useful in statistical analysis because we have to rely on unwieldy second difference interpolation to calculate a probability value of a Pearson distribution corresponding to any given percentage point, such as an observed test statistic in hypothesis testing. Thus, the present study develops a SAS/IML macro program to compute and graph probability values of Pearson distributions for any given percentage point so as to facilitate researchers to conduct statistical analysis on data with unknown distributions.

stat.CO↗