Covariance | EPFL Graph Search

In probability theory and statistics, covariance is a measure of the joint variability of two random variables. If the greater values of one variable mainly correspond with the greater values of the other variable, and the same holds for the lesser values (that is, the variables tend to show similar behavior), the covariance is positive. In the opposite case, when the greater values of one variable mainly correspond to the lesser values of the other, (that is, the variables tend to show opposite behavior), the covariance is negative. The sign of the covariance, therefore, shows the tendency in the linear relationship between the variables. The magnitude of the covariance is the geometric mean of the variances that are in-common for the two random variables. The correlation coefficient normalizes the covariance by dividing by the geometric mean of the total variances for the two random variables. A distinction must be made between (1) the covariance of two random variables, which is

Procrustes Metrics and Optimal Transport for Covariance Operators

Valentina Masarotto

Covariance operators play a fundamental role in functional data analysis, providing the canonical means to analyse functional variation via the celebrated Karhunen-Loève expansion. These operators may themselves be subject to variation, for instance in contexts where multiple functional populations are to be compared. Statistical techniques to analyse such variation are intimately linked with the choice of metric on the space of such operators, as well as with their intrinsic infinite-dimensionality. We will show that we can identify the space of infinite-dimensional covariance operators equipped with the Procrustes size-and-shape metric from shape theory, with that of centred Gaussian processes, equipped with the Wasserstein metric of optimal transportation. We then describe key geometrical and topological aspects of the space of covariance operators endowed with the Procrustes metric. Through the notion of multicoupling of Gaussian measures, we establish existence, uniqueness and stability for the Fréchet mean of covariance operators with respect to the Procrustes metric. Furthermore, we will provide generative models that are canonical for such metric. We then turn to the problem of comparing several samples of stochastic processes with respect to their second-order structure, and we subsequently describe the main modes of variation in this second order structure. These two tasks are carried out via an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of covariance operators respectively. In order to perform ANOVA, we introduce a novel approach based on optimal (multi)transport and identify each covariance with an optimal transport map. These maps are then contrasted with the identity with respect to a norm-induced distance. The resulting test statistic, calibrated by permutation, outperforms the state-of-the-art in the functional case. If the null hypothesis postulating equality of the operators is rejected, thanks to a geometric interpretation of the transport maps we can construct a PCA on the tangent space with the aim of understanding the sample variability. Finally, we provide a further example of use of the optimal transport framework, by applying it to the problem of clustering of operators. Two different clustering algorithms are presented, one of which is innovative. The transportation ANOVA, PCA and clustering are validated both on simulated scenarios and real dataset.

EPFL2019

A Quasi-Likelihood Approach to Zero-Inflated Spatial Count Data

Anthea Monod

The increased accessibility of data that are geographically referenced and correlated increases the demand for techniques of spatial data analysis. The subset of such data comprised of discrete counts exhibit particular difficulties and the challenges further increase when a large proportion (typically 50% or more) of the counts are zero-valued. Such scenarios arise in many applications in numerous fields of research and it is often desirable to infer on subtleties of the process, despite the lack of substantive information obscuring the underlying stochastic mechanism generating the data. An ecological example provides the impetus for the research in this thesis: when observations for a species are recorded over a spatial region, and many of the counts are zero-valued, are the abundant zeros due to bad luck, or are aspects of the region making it unsuitable for the survival of the species? In the framework of generalized linear models, we first develop a zero-inflated Poisson generalized linear regression model, which explains the variability of the responses given a set of measured covariates, and additionally allows for the distinction of two kinds of zeros: sampling ("bad luck" zeros), and structural (zeros that provide insight into the data-generating process). We then adapt this model to the spatial setting by incorporating dependence within the model via a general, leniently-defined quasi-likelihood strategy, which provides consistent, efficient and asymptotically normal estimators, even under erroneous assumptions of the covariance structure. In addition to this advantage of robustness to dependence misspecification, our quasi-likelihood model overcomes the need for the complete specification of a probability model, thus rendering it very general and relevant to many settings. To complement the developed regression model, we further propose methods for the simulation of zero-inflated spatial stochastic processes. This is done by deconstructing the entire process into a mixed, marked spatial point process: we augment existing algorithms for the simulation of spatial marked point processes to comprise a stochastic mechanism to generate zero-abundant marks (counts) at each location. We propose several such mechanisms, and consider interaction and dependence processes for random locations as well as over a lattice.

EPFL2012

Covariance Estimation for Random Surfaces beyond Separability

Tomas Masák

This thesis focuses on non-parametric covariance estimation for random surfaces, i.e.~functional data on a two-dimensional domain. Non-parametric covariance estimation lies at the heart of functional data analysis, andconsiderations of statistical and computational efficiency often compel the use of separability of the covariance, when working with random surfaces. We seek to provide efficient alternatives to this ambivalent assumption.In Chapter 2, we study a setting where the covariance structure may fail to be separable locally -- either due to noise contamination or due to the presence of a non-separable short-range dependent signal component. That is, the covariance is an additive perturbation of a separable component by a non-separable but banded component. We introduce non-parametric estimators hinging on shifted partial tracing -- a novel concept enjoying strong denoising properties. We illustrate the usefulness of the proposed methodology on a data set of mortality surfaces.In Chapter 3, we propose a distinctive decomposition of the covariance, which allows us to understand separability as an unconventional form of low-rankness. From this perspective, a separable covariance has rank one. Allowing for a higher rank suggests a structured class in which any covariance can be approximated up to an arbitrary precision. The key notion of the partial inner product allows us to generalize the power iteration method to general Hilbert spaces and estimate the aforementioned decomposition from data. Truncation and retention of the leading terms automatically induces a non-parametric estimator of the covariance, whose parsimony is dictated by the truncation level. Advantages of this approach, allowing for estimation beyond separability, are demonstrated on the task of classification of EEG signals.While Chapters 2 and 3 propose several generalizations of separability in the densely sampled regime, Chapter 4 deals with the sparse regime, where the latent surfaces are observed only at few irregular locations. Here, a separable covariance estimator based on local linear smoothers is proposed, which is the first non-parametric utilization of separability in the sparse regime. The assumption of separability reduces the intrinsically four-dimensional smoothing problem into several two-dimensional smoothers and allows the proposed estimator to retain the classical minimax-optimal convergence rate for two-dimensional smoothers. The proposed methodology is used for a qualitative analysis of implied volatility surfaces corresponding to call options, and for prediction of the latent surfaces based on information from the entire data set, allowing for uncertainty quantification. Our quantitative results show that the proposed methodology outperforms the common approach of pre-smoothing every implied volatility surface separately.Throughout the thesis, we put emphasis on computational aspects, since those are the main reason behind the immense popularity of separability. We show that the covariance structures of Chapters 2 and 3 come with no (asymptotic) computational overhead relative to assuming separability. In fact, the proposed covariance structures can be estimated and manipulated with the same asymptotic costs as the separable model. In particular, we develop numerical algorithms that can be used for efficient inversion, as required e.g.~for prediction. All the methods are implemented in R and available on~GitHub.

EPFL2022