Structured variable selection in support vector machines

When applying the support vector machine (SVM) to high-dimensional classification problems, we often impose a sparse structure in the SVM to eliminate the influences of the irrelevant predictors. The lasso and other variable selection techniques have been successfully used in the SVM to perform automatic variable selection. In some problems, there is a natural hierarchical structure among the variables. Thus, in order to have an interpretable SVM classifier, it is important to respect the heredity principle when enforcing the sparsity in the SVM. Many variable selection methods, however, do not respect the heredity principle. In this paper we enforce both sparsity and the heredity principle in the SVM by using the so-called structured variable selection (SVS) framework originally proposed in Yuan, Joseph and Zou (2007). We minimize the empirical hinge loss under a set of linear inequality constraints and a lasso-type penalty. The solution always obeys the desired heredity principle and enjoys sparsity. The new SVM classifier can be efficiently fitted, because the optimization problem is a linear program. Another contribution of this work is to present a nonparametric extension of the SVS framework, and we propose nonparametric heredity SVMs. Simulated and real data are used to illustrate the merits of the proposed method.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-EJS125 the Electronic Journal of Statistics (http://www.i-journals.org/ejs/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Structured variable selection and estimation

In linear regression problems with related predictors, it is desirable to do variable selection and estimation by maintaining the hierarchical or structural relationships among predictors. In this paper we propose non-negative garrote methods that can naturally incorporate such relationships defined through effect heredity principles or marginality principles. We show that the methods are very easy to compute and enjoy nice theoretical properties. We also show that the methods can be easily extended to deal with more general regression problems such as generalized linear models. Simulations and real examples are used to illustrate the merits of the proposed methods.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOAS254 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Composite quantile regression and the oracle Model Selection Theory

Coefficient estimation and variable selection in multiple linear regression is routinely done in the (penalized) least squares (LS) framework. The concept of model selection oracle introduced by Fan and Li [J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. 96 (2001) 1348--1360] characterizes the optimal behavior of a model selection procedure. However, the least-squares oracle theory breaks down if the error variance is infinite. In the current paper we propose a new regression method called composite quantile regression (CQR). We show that the oracle model selection theory using the CQR oracle works beautifully even when the error variance is infinite. We develop a new oracular procedure to achieve the optimal properties of the CQR oracle. When the error variance is finite, CQR still enjoys great advantages in terms of estimation efficiency. We show that the relative efficiency of CQR compared to the least squares is greater than 70% regardless the error distribution. Moreover, CQR could be much more efficient and sometimes arbitrarily more efficient than the least squares. The same conclusions hold when comparing a CQR-oracular estimator with a LS-oracular estimator.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOS507 the Annals of Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

A Direct Approach to Sparse Discriminant Analysis in Ultra-high Dimensions

1 online resource (PDF, 27 pages

Upregulation of Mitochondrial Uncoupling Protein-2 by the AMP-Activated Protein Kinase in Endothelial Cells Attenuates Oxidative Stress in Diabetes

OBJECTIVE—Recent evidence suggests that the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is an important therapeutic target for diabetes. The present study was conducted to determine how AMPK activation suppressed tyrosine nitration of prostacyclin synthase in diabetes