Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35465234›Full record

ArticlePatterns (New York, N.Y.)2022

Hierarchical confounder discovery in the experiment-machine learning cycle.

Alex Rogozhnikov, Pavan Ramkumar, Rishi Bedi, Saul Kato, G Sean Escola

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Patterns (New York, N.Y.), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. A practical introduction to holo-omics.Cell reports methods · 2024
    Review
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Alex RogozhnikovHerophilus, Inc., San Francisco, CA 94107, USA.
Pavan RamkumarHerophilus, Inc., San Francisco, CA 94107, USA.
Rishi BediHerophilus, Inc., San Francisco, CA 94107, USA.
Saul KatoHerophilus, Inc., San Francisco, CA 94107, USA.
G Sean EscolaHerophilus, Inc., San Francisco, CA 94107, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The promise of machine learning (ML) to extract insights from high-dimensional datasets is tempered by confounding variables. It behooves scientists to determine if a model has extracted the desired information or instead fallen prey to bias. Due to features of natural phenomena and experimental design constraints, bioscience datasets are often organized in nested hierarchies that obfuscate the origins of confounding effects and render confounder amelioration methods ineffective. We propose a non-parametric statistical method called the rank-to-group (RTG) score that identifies hierarchical confounder effects in raw data and ML-derived embeddings. We show that RTG scores correctly assign the effects of hierarchical confounders when linear methods fail. In a public biomedical image dataset, we discover unreported effects of experimental design. We then use RTG scores to discover crossmodal correlated variability in a multi-phenotypic biological dataset. This approach should be generally useful in experiment-analysis cycles and to ensure confounder robustness in ML models.

Indexed as

biasconfoundersdebiasingexperimental designhierarchical confoundersmachine learningMann-Whitney U testrobustnessstem cell biology

Identifiers

PMID35465234
PMCPMC9024009

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.