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Main Authors: Guan, Zoe, Parmigiani, Giovanni, Patil, Prasad
Format: Preprint
Published: 2019
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.07382
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author Guan, Zoe
Parmigiani, Giovanni
Patil, Prasad
author_facet Guan, Zoe
Parmigiani, Giovanni
Patil, Prasad
contents A critical decision point when training predictors using multiple studies is whether studies should be combined or treated separately. We compare two multi-study prediction approaches in the presence of potential heterogeneity in predictor-outcome relationships across datasets: 1) merging all of the datasets and training a single learner, and 2) multi-study ensembling, which involves training a separate learner on each dataset and combining the predictions resulting from each learner. For ridge regression, we show analytically and confirm via simulation that merging yields lower prediction error than ensembling when the predictor-outcome relationships are relatively homogeneous across studies. However, as cross-study heterogeneity increases, there exists a transition point beyond which ensembling outperforms merging. We provide analytic expressions for the transition point in various scenarios, study asymptotic properties, and illustrate how transition point theory can be used for deciding when studies should be combined with an application from metagenomics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_1905_07382
institution arXiv
publishDate 2019
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Merging versus Ensembling in Multi-Study Prediction: Theoretical Insight from Random Effects
Guan, Zoe
Parmigiani, Giovanni
Patil, Prasad
Machine Learning
A critical decision point when training predictors using multiple studies is whether studies should be combined or treated separately. We compare two multi-study prediction approaches in the presence of potential heterogeneity in predictor-outcome relationships across datasets: 1) merging all of the datasets and training a single learner, and 2) multi-study ensembling, which involves training a separate learner on each dataset and combining the predictions resulting from each learner. For ridge regression, we show analytically and confirm via simulation that merging yields lower prediction error than ensembling when the predictor-outcome relationships are relatively homogeneous across studies. However, as cross-study heterogeneity increases, there exists a transition point beyond which ensembling outperforms merging. We provide analytic expressions for the transition point in various scenarios, study asymptotic properties, and illustrate how transition point theory can be used for deciding when studies should be combined with an application from metagenomics.
title Merging versus Ensembling in Multi-Study Prediction: Theoretical Insight from Random Effects
topic Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.07382