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1. Learning from Label Proportions: A Mutual Contamination Framework

   Scott, Clayton; Zhang, Jianxin (January 2020, 34th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2020))

   null (Ed.)

   Learning from label proportions (LLP) is a weakly supervised setting for classification in which unlabeled training instances are grouped into bags, and each bag is annotated with the proportion of each class occurring in that bag. Prior work on LLP has yet to establish a consistent learning procedure, nor does there exist a theoretically justified, general purpose training criterion. In this work we address these two issues by posing LLP in terms of mutual contamination models (MCMs), which have recently been applied successfully to study various other weak supervision settings. In the process, we establish several novel technical results for MCMs, including unbiased losses and generalization error bounds under non-iid sampling plans. We also point out the limitations of a common experimental setting for LLP, and propose a new one based on our MCM framework. 

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2. Optimized Bags of Artificial Neural Networks Can Predict the Viability of Organisms Exposed to Nanoparticles

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.3c07462  

   Senanayake, Ravithree D.; Daly, Clyde A.; Hernandez, Rigoberto (March 2024, The Journal of Physical Chemistry A)

   Prediction of organismal viability upon exposure to a nanoparticle in varying environments─as fully specified at the molecular scale─has emerged as a useful figure of merit in the design of engineered nanoparticles. We build on our earlier finding that a bag of artificial neural networks (ANNs) can provide such a prediction when such machines are trained with a relatively small data set (with ca. 200 examples). Therein, viabilities were predicted by consensus using the weighted means of the predictions from the bags. Here, we confirm the accuracy and precision of the prediction of nanoparticle viabilities using an optimized bag of ANNs over sets of data examples that had not previously been used in the training and validation process. We also introduce the viability strip, rather than a single value, as the prediction and construct it from the viability probability distribution of an ensemble of ANNs compatible with the data set. Specifically, the ensemble consists of the ANNs arising from subsets of the data set corresponding to different splittings between training and validation, and the different bags (k-folds). A k−1k machine uses a single partition (or bag) of k – 1 ANNs each trained on 1/k of the data to obtain a consensus prediction, and a k-bag machine quorum samples the k possible k−1k machines available for a given partition. We find that with increasing k in the k-bag or k−1k machines, the viability strips become more normally distributed and their predictions become more precise. Benchmark comparisons between ensembles of 4-bag machines and 34 fraction machines suggest that the 34 fraction machine has similar accuracy while overcoming some of the challenges arising from divergent ANNs in the 4-bag machines. 

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3. Learning from Label Proportions:A Mutual Contamination Framework

   Scott, Clayton; Zhang, Jianxin (January 2020, Advances in neural information processing systems)

   null (Ed.)

   Learning from label proportions (LLP) is a weakly supervised setting for classification in whichunlabeled training instances are grouped into bags, and each bag is annotated with the proportion ofeach class occurring in that bag. Prior work on LLP has yet to establish a consistent learning procedure,nor does there exist a theoretically justified, general purpose training criterion. In this work we addressthese two issues by posing LLP in terms of mutual contamination models (MCMs), which have recentlybeen applied successfully to study various other weak supervision settings. In the process, we establishseveral novel technical results for MCMs, including unbiased losses and generalization error bounds undernon-iid sampling plans. We also point out the limitations ofa common experimental setting for LLP,and propose a new one based on our MCM framework. 

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4. Fair Weak-Supervised Learning: A Multiple-Instance Learning Approach

   https://doi.org/10.1109/IJCNN60899.2024.10651225  

   Dai, Yucong; Jiang, Xiangyu; Hu, Yaowei; Zhang, Lu; Wu, Yongkai (June 2024, IEEE)

   With the prevalence of machine learning in many high-stakes decision-making processes, e.g., hiring and admission, it is important to take fairness into account when practitioners design and deploy machine learning models, especially in scenarios with imperfectly labeled data. Multiple-Instance Learning (MIL) is a weakly supervised approach where instances are grouped in labeled bags, each containing several instances sharing the same label. However, current fairness-centric methods in machine learning often fall short when applied to MIL due to their reliance on instance-level labels. In this work, we introduce a Fair Multiple-Instance Learning (FMIL) framework to ensure fairness in weakly supervised learning. In particular, our method bridges the gap between bag-level and instance-level labeling by leveraging the bag labels, inferring high-confidence instance labels to improve both accuracy and fairness in MIL classifiers. Comprehensive experiments underscore that our FMIL framework substantially reduces biases in MIL without compromising accuracy. 

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5. Selective Inference with Distributed Data

   Liu, S; Panigrahi, S (January 2025, Journal of Machine Learning Research)

   Loh, Po-Ling (Ed.)

   When data are distributed across multiple sites or machines rather than centralized in one location, researchers face the challenge of extracting meaningful information without directly sharing individual data points. While there are many distributed methods for point estimation using sparse regression, few options are available for estimating uncertainties or conducting hypothesis tests based on the estimated sparsity. In this paper, we introduce a procedure for performing selective inference with distributed data. We consider a scenario where each local machine solves a lasso problem and communicates the selected predictors to a central machine. The central machine then aggregates these selected predictors to form a generalized linear model (GLM). Our goal is to provide valid inference for the selected GLM while reusing data that have been used in the model selection process. Our proposed procedure only requires low-dimensional summary statistics from local machines, thus keeping communication costs low and preserving the privacy of individual data sets. Furthermore, this procedure can be applied in scenarios where model selection is repeatedly conducted on randomly subsampled data sets, addressing the p-value lottery problem linked with model selection. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through simulations and an analysis of a medical data set on ICU admissions. 

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