Scalable Subset Selection in Linear Mixed Models

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Thompson, Ryan, Wand, Matt P., Wang, Joanna J. J.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Thompson, Ryan
Wand, Matt P.
Wang, Joanna J. J.
author_facet Thompson, Ryan
Wand, Matt P.
Wang, Joanna J. J.
contents Linear mixed models (LMMs), which incorporate fixed and random effects, are key tools for analyzing heterogeneous data, such as in personalized medicine. Nowadays, this type of data is increasingly wide, sometimes containing thousands of candidate predictors, necessitating sparsity for prediction and interpretation. However, existing sparse learning methods for LMMs do not scale well beyond tens or hundreds of predictors, leaving a large gap compared with sparse methods for linear models, which ignore random effects. This paper closes the gap with a new $\ell_0$ regularized method for LMM subset selection that can run on datasets containing thousands of predictors in seconds to minutes. On the computational front, we develop a coordinate descent algorithm as our main workhorse and provide a guarantee of its convergence. We also develop a local search algorithm to help traverse the nonconvex optimization surface. Both algorithms readily extend to subset selection in generalized LMMs via a penalized quasi-likelihood approximation. On the statistical front, we provide a finite-sample bound on the Kullback-Leibler divergence of the new method. We then demonstrate its excellent performance in experiments involving synthetic and real datasets.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_20425
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Scalable Subset Selection in Linear Mixed Models
Thompson, Ryan
Wand, Matt P.
Wang, Joanna J. J.
Machine Learning
Computation
Methodology
Linear mixed models (LMMs), which incorporate fixed and random effects, are key tools for analyzing heterogeneous data, such as in personalized medicine. Nowadays, this type of data is increasingly wide, sometimes containing thousands of candidate predictors, necessitating sparsity for prediction and interpretation. However, existing sparse learning methods for LMMs do not scale well beyond tens or hundreds of predictors, leaving a large gap compared with sparse methods for linear models, which ignore random effects. This paper closes the gap with a new $\ell_0$ regularized method for LMM subset selection that can run on datasets containing thousands of predictors in seconds to minutes. On the computational front, we develop a coordinate descent algorithm as our main workhorse and provide a guarantee of its convergence. We also develop a local search algorithm to help traverse the nonconvex optimization surface. Both algorithms readily extend to subset selection in generalized LMMs via a penalized quasi-likelihood approximation. On the statistical front, we provide a finite-sample bound on the Kullback-Leibler divergence of the new method. We then demonstrate its excellent performance in experiments involving synthetic and real datasets.
title Scalable Subset Selection in Linear Mixed Models
topic Machine Learning
Computation
Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.20425