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Reliability sensitivity analysis is concerned with measuring the influence of a system's uncertain input parameters on its probability of failure. Statistically dependent inputs present a challenge in both computing and interpreting these…

Applications · Statistics 2023-06-21 Max Ehre , Iason Papaioannou , Daniel Straub

The dual problem of testing the predictive significance of a particular covariate, and identification of the set of relevant covariates is common in applied research and methodological investigations. To study this problem in the context of…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2015-06-11 Julian A. A. Collazos , Adriano Z. Zambom

Recent deep-learning models have achieved impressive predictive performance by learning complex functions of many variables, often at the cost of interpretability. This chapter covers recent work aiming to interpret models by attributing…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2021-08-20 Chandan Singh , Wooseok Ha , Bin Yu

While regression models capture the relationship between predictors and the response variable, they often lack intuitive accompanying methods to understand the influence of predictors on the outcome. To address this, we introduce an…

Methodology · Statistics 2026-02-06 Jihao You , Dan Tulpan , Jiaojiao Diao , Jennifer L. Ellis

Reliable estimation of feature contributions in machine learning models is essential for trust, transparency and regulatory compliance, especially when models are proprietary or otherwise operate as black boxes. While permutation-based…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-12-24 Albert Dorador

In the sparse linear regression setting, we consider testing the significance of the predictor variable that enters the current lasso model, in the sequence of models visited along the lasso solution path. We propose a simple test statistic…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2014-05-27 Richard Lockhart , Jonathan Taylor , Ryan J. Tibshirani , Robert Tibshirani

Classical regression analysis relates the expectation of a response variable to a linear combination of explanatory variables. In this article, we propose a covariance regression model that parameterizes the covariance matrix of a…

Methodology · Statistics 2011-03-01 Peter D. Hoff , Xiaoyue Niu

Variable importance plays a pivotal role in interpretable machine learning as it helps measure the impact of factors on the output of the prediction model. Model agnostic methods based on the generation of "null" features via permutation…

The spectra of random feature matrices provide essential information on the conditioning of the linear system used in random feature regression problems and are thus connected to the consistency and generalization of random feature models.…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2022-12-13 Zhijun Chen , Hayden Schaeffer , Rachel Ward

Sparse covariance matrices play crucial roles by encoding the interdependencies between variables in numerous fields such as genetics and neuroscience. Despite substantial studies on sparse covariance matrices, existing methods face several…

Methodology · Statistics 2026-03-03 Rakheon Kim , Irina Gaynanova

We develop a pivotal test to assess the statistical significance of the feature variables in a single-layer feedforward neural network regression model. We propose a gradient-based test statistic and study its asymptotics using…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2020-11-10 Enguerrand Horel , Kay Giesecke

For complex latent variable models, the likelihood function is not available in closed form. In this context, a popular method to perform parameter estimation is Importance Weighted Variational Inference. It essentially maximizes the…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2025-01-16 Badr-Eddine Cherief-Abdellatif , Randal Douc , Arnaud Doucet , Hugo Marival

A sensitivity analysis in an observational study assesses the robustness of significant findings to unmeasured confounding. While sensitivity analyses in matched observational studies have been well addressed when there is a single outcome…

Methodology · Statistics 2015-11-05 Colin B. Fogarty , Dylan S. Small

Credible causal effect estimation requires treated subjects and controls to be otherwise similar. In observational settings, such as analysis of electronic health records, this is not guaranteed. Investigators must balance background…

Methodology · Statistics 2024-07-11 Lauren D. Liao , Samuel D. Pimentel

Positive predictive value and negative predictive value are two widely used parameters to assess the clinical usefulness of a medical diagnostic test. When there are two diagnostic tests, it is recommendable to make a comparative assessment…

Methodology · Statistics 2024-05-29 Antonio Martín Andrés , Pedro Femia Marzo

Causal models communicate our assumptions about causes and effects in real-world phe- nomena. Often the interest lies in the identification of the effect of an action which means deriving an expression from the observed probability…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2018-06-20 Santtu Tikka , Juha Karvanen

As machine learning models increasingly impact society, their opaque nature poses challenges to trust and accountability, particularly in fairness contexts. Understanding how individual features influence model outcomes is crucial for…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-02-11 Camille Little , Madeline Navarro , Santiago Segarra , Genevera Allen

Composite indicators aggregate a set of variables using weights which are understood to reflect the variables' importance in the index. In this paper we propose to measure the importance of a given variable within existing composite…

Applications · Statistics 2018-08-02 Paolo Paruolo , Andrea Saltelli , Michaela Saisana

This paper is about variable selection with the random forests algorithm in presence of correlated predictors. In high-dimensional regression or classification frameworks, variable selection is a difficult task, that becomes even more…

Methodology · Statistics 2016-04-19 Baptiste Gregorutti , Bertrand Michel , Philippe Saint-Pierre

Interest in targeted disease prevention has stimulated development of models that assign risks to individuals, using their personal covariates. We need to evaluate these models, and to quantify the gains achieved by expanding a model with…

Methodology · Statistics 2009-06-16 Alice S. Whittemore