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Browsing by Author "Dunson, David B."

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Bayesian Graphical Models for Multivariate Functional Data
    Zhu, Hongxiao; Strawn, Nate; Dunson, David B. (2016-11-28)
    Graphical models express conditional independence relationships among variables. Although methods for vector-valued data are well established, functional data graphical models remain underdeveloped. By functional data, we refer to data that are realizations of random functions varying over a continuum (e.g., images, signals). We introduce a notion of conditional independence between random functions, and construct a framework for Bayesian inference of undirected, decomposable graphs in the multivariate functional data context. This framework is based on extending Markov distributions and hyper Markov laws from random variables to random processes, providing a principled alternative to naive application of multivariate methods to discretized functional data. Markov properties facilitate the composition of likelihoods and priors according to the decomposition of a graph. Our focus is on Gaussian process graphical models using orthogonal basis expansions. We propose a hyper-inverse-Wishart-process prior for the covariance kernels of the infinite coeficient sequences of the basis expansion, and establish its existence and uniqueness. We also prove the strong hyper Markov property and the conjugacy of this prior under a finite rank condition of the prior kernel parameter. Stochastic search Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms are developed for posterior inference, assessed through simulations, and applied to a study of brain activity and alcoholism.
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    Graph auto-encoding brain networks with applications to analyzing large-scale brain imaging datasets
    Liu, Meimei; Zhang, Zhengwu; Dunson, David B. (Academic Press-Elsevier, 2021-12-15)
    There has been a huge interest in studying human brain connectomes inferred from different imaging modalities and exploring their relationships with human traits, such as cognition. Brain connectomes are usually represented as networks, with nodes corresponding to different regions of interest (ROIs) and edges to connection strengths between ROIs. Due to the high-dimensionality and non-Euclidean nature of networks, it is challenging to depict their population distribution and relate them to human traits. Current approaches focus on summarizing the network using either pre-specified topological features or principal components analysis (PCA). In this paper, building on recent advances in deep learning, we develop a nonlinear latent factor model to characterize the population distribution of brain graphs and infer their relationships to human traits. We refer to our method as Graph AuTo-Encoding (GATE). We applied GATE to two large-scale brain imaging datasets, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study and the Human Connectome Project (HCP) for adults, to study the structural brain connectome and its relationship with cognition. Numerical results demonstrate huge advantages of GATE over competitors in terms of prediction accuracy, statistical inference, and computing efficiency. We found that the structural connectome has a stronger association with a wide range of human cognitive traits than was apparent using previous approaches.
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    Nonparametric Bayes multiresolution testing for high-dimensional rare events
    Datta, Jyotishka; Banerjee, Sayantan; Dunson, David B. (2024-01)
    In a variety of application areas, there is interest in assessing evidence of differences in the intensity of event realizations between groups. For example, in cancer genomic studies collecting data on rare variants, the focus is on assessing whether and how the variant profile changes with the disease subtype. Motivated by this application, we develop multiresolution nonparametric Bayes tests for differential mutation rates across groups. The multiresolution approach yields fast and accurate detection of spatial clusters of rare variants, and our nonparametric Bayes framework provides great flexibility for modeling the intensities of rare variants. Some theoretical properties are also assessed, including weak consistency of our Dirichlet Process-Poisson-Gamma mixture over multiple resolutions. Simulation studies illustrate excellent small sample properties relative to competitors, and we apply the method to detect rare variants related to common variable immunodeficiency from whole exome sequencing data on 215 patients and over 60,027 control subjects.