Lasso regression with block updatingΒΆ
Sometimes, it is very useful to update a set of parameters together. For example, variables that are highly correlated are often good to update together. In PyMC 3 block updating is simple, as example will demonstrate.
Here we have a LASSO regression model where the two coefficients are strongly correlated. Normally, we would define the coefficient parameters as a single random variable, but here we define them separately to show how to do block updates.
First we generate some fake data.
[1]:
%matplotlib inline
import numpy as np
from matplotlib.pylab import *
from pymc3 import *
d = np.random.normal(size=(3, 30))
d1 = d[0] + 4
d2 = d[1] + 4
yd = 0.2 * d1 + 0.3 * d2 + d[2]
Then define the random variables.
[2]:
lam = 3
with Model() as model:
s = Exponential("s", 1)
tau = Uniform("tau", 0, 1000)
b = lam * tau
m1 = Laplace("m1", 0, b)
m2 = Laplace("m2", 0, b)
p = d1 * m1 + d2 * m2
y = Normal("y", mu=p, sigma=s, observed=yd)
For most samplers, including Metropolis and HamiltonianMC, simply pass a list of variables to sample as a block. This works with both scalar and array parameters.
[3]:
with model:
start = find_MAP()
step1 = Metropolis([m1, m2])
step2 = Slice([s, tau])
trace = sample(10000, [step1, step2], start=start)
Multiprocess sampling (4 chains in 4 jobs)
CompoundStep
>CompoundStep
>>Metropolis: [m2]
>>Metropolis: [m1]
>CompoundStep
>>Slice: [tau]
>>Slice: [s]
Sampling 4 chains for 1_000 tune and 10_000 draw iterations (4_000 + 40_000 draws total) took 53 seconds.
The number of effective samples is smaller than 10% for some parameters.
[4]:
traceplot(trace);
/dependencies/arviz/arviz/data/io_pymc3.py:89: FutureWarning: Using `from_pymc3` without the model will be deprecated in a future release. Not using the model will return less accurate and less useful results. Make sure you use the model argument or call from_pymc3 within a model context.
FutureWarning,

[5]:
hexbin(trace[m1], trace[m2], gridsize=50)
axis("off");

[6]:
%load_ext watermark
%watermark -n -u -v -iv -w
platform 1.0.8
matplotlib 3.2.1
re 2.2.1
numpy 1.18.5
logging 0.5.1.2
last updated: Fri Jun 12 2020
CPython 3.7.7
IPython 7.15.0
watermark 2.0.2