Selected Publications in Machine Learning and AI
My work in machine learning and AI focuses on developing scalable algorithms, optimization methods, and reinforcement learning techniques with applications in health, science, and engineering. These contributions have appeared in leading conferences such as ICML and ICLR, as well as flagship IEEE and INFORMS journals. Representative papers include:
(group members are underlined and corresponding authors are denoted by *)
- Yang, H., Zhang, T. (co-first author), and Xue, L.* (2025)
Theoretical Guarantees for Sparse Principal Component Analysis based on the Elastic Net. (link, arXiv)
IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, in press. - Zhang, H., Zheng, Z. (co-first author), and Xue, L.* (2025)
Gap-Dependent Bounds for Federated Q-Learning. (arXiv)
The Forty-Second International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). - Yu, X., He, Z. (co-first author), Sun, Y.*, Xue, L.*, and Li, R. (2025)
Understanding the Accuracy-Communication Trade-off in Personalized Federated Learning. (arXiv)
The Forty-Second International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). - Zheng, Z., Zhang, H. (co-first author) and Xue, L.* (2025)
Gap-Dependent Bounds for Q-Learning using Reference-Advantage Decomposition. (link, arXiv)
The Thirteenth International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR). (Spotlight) - Zheng, Z., Zhang, H. (co-first author) and Xue, L.* (2025)
Federated Q-Learning with Reference-Advantage Decomposition: Almost Optimal Regret and Logarithmic Communication Cost. (link, arXiv)
The Thirteenth International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR). - Zheng, Z., Gao, F., Xue, L.* and Yang, J.* (2024)
Federated Q-Learning: Linear Regret Speedup with Low Communication Cost. (link, arXiv)
The Twelfth International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR). - Zheng, Z., Ma, S.* and Xue, L.* (2024)
A New Inexact Proximal Linear Algorithm with Adaptive Stopping Criteria for Robust Phase Retrieval. (link, arXiv)
IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 72: 1081-1093. - Wang, Z., Liu, B. (co-first author), Chen, S., Ma, S., Xue, L.* and Zhao, H. (2022)
A Manifold Proximal Linear Method for Sparse Spectral Clustering with Application to Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Data Analysis. (link, arXiv)
INFORMS Journal on Optimization, 4: 200-214. - Wang, B., Ma, S. and Xue, L.. (2022)
Riemannian Stochastic Proximal Gradient Methods for Nonsmooth Optimization over Stiefel Manifold. (link, arXiv)
Journal of Machine Learning Research, 23: 1−33. - Chen, S., Ma, S., Xue, L. and Zou, H. (2020)
An Alternating Manifold Proximal Gradient Method for Sparse PCA and Sparse CCA. (link, arXiv)
INFORMS Journal on Optimization, 2: 192-208. - Zou, H. and Xue, L. (2018)
A Selective Overview of Sparse Principal Component Analysis. (link)
Proceedings of the IEEE, 106: 1311-1320.
I work on foundational problems in statistics and data science, including causal inference, graphical methods, high-dimensional statistics, large-scale inference, optimal transport, and random objects. My publications have appeared in flagship ASA, IMS, and INFORMS journals, including Annals of Statistics, Biometrika, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Jounral of Econometrics, and Management Science.
(group members are underlined and corresponding authors are denoted by *)
- Li, D., Xue, L.*, Yang, H. and Yu, X. (2025)
Power-Enhanced Two-Sample Mean Tests for High-Dimensional Microbiome Compositional Data. (link, arXiv)
Biometrics, in press. - Agarwal, A., Lee, K. (co-first author), and Xue, L.* (2025)
Clustering Time-Evolving Networks Using Temporal Exponential-Family Random Graph Models with Conditional Dyadic Independence and Dynamic Latent Blocks. (link)
Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, in press. - Tao, J., Chen, Q.*, Snyder Jr., J. W., Kumar, A. S., Meisami, A. and Xue, L.* (2024+)
A Graphical Point Process Framework for Understanding Removal Effects in Multi-Touch Attribution. (link, arXiv, ssrn)
Management Science, in press. - Yu, X., Zhang, L., Srinivasan, A., Xie, M. and Xue, L.* (2024+)
A Unified Combination Framework for Dependent Tests with Applications to Microbiome Association Studies. (link, arXiv)
Biometrics, in press. - Chen, Q., Agarwal, A., Fong, D., DeSarbo, W. S. and Xue, L.* (2024+)
Model-Based Co-Clustering in Customer Targeting Utilizing Large-Scale Online Product Rating Networks. (link)
Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, in press. - Bhattacharjee, S., Li, B. and Xue, L.* (2025)
Nonlinear Global Fréchet Regression for Random Objects via Weak Conditional Expectation. (link, arXiv)
The Annals of Statistics, 53: 117-143. - Zhang, Q., Xue, L.* and Li, B. (2024)
Dimension Reduction for Fréchet Regression. (link, arXiv)
[Winner of 2023 ASA Nonparametric Statistics Best Student Paper Award]
Journal of the American Statistical Association, 119: 2733-2747. - Rios, N., Xue, L.* and Zhan, X. (2024)
A Latent Variable Mixture Model for Composition-on-Composition Regression with Application to Chemical Recycling. (link)
The Annals of Applied Statistics, 18: 3253-3273. - Zhang, Q., Li, B. and Xue, L.* (2024)
Nonlinear Sufficient Dimension Reduction for Distribution-on-Distribution Regression. (link, arXiv)
Journal of Multivariate Analysis, 202: 105302. - Liu, B., Zhang, Q. (co-first author), Xue, L.*, Song, P. X. K. and Kang, J. (2024)
Robust High-Dimensional Regression with Coefficient Thresholding and its Application to Imaging Data Analysis. (link, arXiv) [Winner of 2019 ASA Statistics in Imaging Best Student Paper Award]
Journal of the American Statistical Association, 119: 715-729. - Yu, X., Li, D. and Xue, L.* (2024)
Fisher's Combined Probability Test for High-Dimensional Covariance Matrices. (link, arXiv)
Journal of the American Statistical Association, 119: 511-524. - Tao, J., Li, B. and Xue, L.* (2024)
An Additive Graphical Model for Discrete Data. (link, arXiv)
Journal of the American Statistical Association, 119: 368-381. - Yu, X., Yao, J. and Xue, L.* (2024)
Power Enhancement for Testing Multi-Factor Asset Pricing Models via Fisher's Method. (link, ssrn)
Journal of Econometrics, 239: 105458. - Yu, X., Li, D., Xue, L.* and Li, R. (2024)
Power-Enhanced Simultaneous Test of High-Dimensional Mean Vectors and Covariance Matrices with Application to Gene-Set Testing. (link, arXiv)
Journal of the American Statistical Association, 118: 2548-2561. - Li, D., Srinivasan, A. (co-first author), Chen, Q.* and Xue, L.* (2023)
Robust Covariance Matrix Estimation for High-Dimensional Compositional Data with Application to Sales Data Analysis. (link)
Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, 41: 1090-1100. - Li, D., Srinivasan, A. (co-first author), Xue, L.* and Zhan, X. (2023)
Robust Shape Matrix Estimation for High-Dimensional Compositional Data with Application to Microbial Inter-Taxa Analysis. (link)
Statistica Sinica, 33: 1577-1602. - Yu, X., Yao, J. and Xue, L.* (2022)
Nonparametric Estimation and Conformal Inference of the Sufficient Forecasting with a Diverging Number of Factors. (link) [Winner of 2018 ASA Business and Economic Statistics Distinguished Student Paper Award]
Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, 40: 342-354. - Lee, K. H., Chen, Q.*, DeSarbo, W. S. and Xue, L.* (2022)
Estimating Finite Mixtures of Ordinal Graphical Models. (link, arXiv)
Psychometrika, 87: 83–106. - Luo, W., Xue, L.* (co-first author), Yao, J. and Yu, X.(2022)
Inverse Moment Methods for Sufficient Forecasting using High-Dimensional Predictors. (link, arXiv, ssrn)
Biometrika, 109: 473–487. - Srinivasan, A., Xue, L.* and Zhan, X. (2021)
Compositional Knockoff Filter for FDR Control in Microbiome Regression Analysis. (link, bioRxiv)
[Recognized as a top cited paper among work published in an issue between 1 January 2021 – 15 December 2022]
Biometrics, 77: 984-995. - Ke, Z. T., Xue, L. and Yang, F. (2020)
Diagonally-Dominant Principal Component Analysis. (link, arXiv)
Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 29: 592-607. - Du, K, Huddart, S. J., Xue, L. and Zhang, Y. (2020)
Using a Hidden Markov Model to Measure Earnings Quality. (link, ssrn, earnings fidelity)
Journal of Accounting & Economics, 69: 101281. - Lee, K. H., Xue, L.*, and Hunter, D. R. (2020)
Model-Based Clustering of Time-Evolving Networks through Temporal ERGMs. (link, arXiv)
[Winner of 2016 ASA Statistical Learning and Data Science Best Student Paper Award]
Journal of Multivariate Analysis, 175: 104540. - Agarwal, A. and Xue, L.* (2020)
Model-Based Clustering of Nonparametric Weighted Networks with Application to Water Pollution Analysis. (link)
[Winner of 2018 ASA Risk Analysis Best Student Paper Award]
Technometrics, 62: 161-172. - Kim, B., Lee, K. H. (co-first author), Xue, L. and Niu, X. (2018)
A Review of Dynamic Network Models with Latent Variables. (link)
Statistics Surveys, 12: 105-135. - Li. D., Xue, L. (co-first author) and Zou, H. (2018)
Applications of Peter Hall's Martingale Limit Theory to Estimating and Testing High Dimensional Covariance Matrices. (link)
Statistica Sinica, 28: 2657-2670. - Lee, K. H. and Xue, L.* (2018)
Nonparametric Finite Mixture of Gaussian Graphical Models. (link, arXiv)
[Winner of 2016 ICSA Distinguished Student Paper Award]
Technometrics, 60: 511-521. - Fan, J., Xue, L.* and Yao, J. (2017)
Sufficient Forecasting Using Factor Models. (link, arXiv, ssrn)
Jounral of Econometrics, 201: 292-306. - Fan, J., Xue, L. and Zou, H. (2016)
Multi-Task Quantile Regression Under the Transnormal Model. (link, pdf)
Journal of the American Statistical Association, 111: 1726-1735. - Fan, J., Xue, L. and Zou, H. (2014)
Strong Oracle Optimality of Folded Concave Penalized Estimation. (link, arXiv)
The Annals of Statistics, 42: 819-849. - Xue, L. and Zou, H. (2014).
Rank-based Tapering Estimation of Bandable Correlation Matrices. (link)
Statistica Sinica, 24: 83-100. - Ma, S., Xue, L. and Zou, H. (2013)
Alternating Direction Methods for Latent Variable Gaussian Graphical Model Selection. (link, arXiv)
Neural Computation, 25: 2172-2198. - Xue, L. and Zou, H. (2013).
Minimax Optimal Estimation of General Bandable Covariance Matrices. (link)
Journal of Multivariate Analysis, 116: 45-51. - Xue, L., Zou, H. and Cai, T. (2012).
Nonconcave Penalized Composite Conditional Likelihood Estimation of Sparse Ising Models. (link, arXiv)
The Annals of Statistics, 40(3): 1403-1429. - Xue, L. and Zou, H. (2012).
Regularized Rank-Based Estimation of High-Dimensional Nonparanormal Graphical Models. (link, arXiv)
The Annals of Statistics, 40(5): 2541-2571. - Xue, L., Ma, S. and Zou, H. (2012).
Positive-Definite L1-Penalized Estimation of Large Covariance Matrices. (link, arXiv)
Journal of the American Statistical Association, 107: 1480-1491. - Xue, L. and Zou, H. (2011).
Sure Independence Screening and Compressed Random Sensing. (link)
Biometrika, 98(2): 371-380.
(group members are underlined and corresponding authors are denoted by *)
- Din, M., Paul, S., Ullah, S., Yang, H., Xu, R. G., Abidin, N. A. Z., Sun, A., Chen, Y. C., Gao, R., Chowdhury, B., Zhou, F., Rogers, S., Miller, M., Biswas, A., Hu, L., Fan, Z., Zaher, Fan, J., Chen, Z., C., Berman, M., Xue, L., Ju, L., and Chen, Y. (2024)
Multi-Parametric Thrombus Profiling Microfluidics Detects Intensified Biomechanical Thrombogenesis Associated with Hypertension and Aging. (link)
Nature Communications. 15: 9067. - Shaheen, S., Wen, T., Zheng, Z., Xue, L., Baka, J. and Brantley, S. L. (2024).
Wastewaters Co-Produced with Shale Gas Drive Slight Regional Salinization of Groundwater. (link)
Environmental Science & Technology. 58: 17862-17873. - Agarwal, A., Wen, T., Chen, A., Zhang, A. Y., Niu, X., Zhan, X., Xue, L.* and Brantley, S. L. (2020).
Assessing Contamination of Stream Networks Near Shale Gas Development Using a New Geospatial Tool. (link)
Environmental Science & Technology, 54: 8632–8639. - Chen, Y., Ju, L., Zhou, F., Liao, J., Xue, L., Su, Q., Yuan, Y., Lu, H., Jackson, S. and Zhu C. (2019).
An Integrin αIIbβ3 Intermediate Affinity State Mediates Biomechanical Platelet Aggregation. (link)
[Featured in Georgia Tech News, University of Sydney News, Heart Research Institute News, Penn State News, EurekAlert! Science News, Scimex, ScienceDaily, Medical Xpress, and BioPortfolio]
Nature Materials, 18, 760–769. - Wen, T., Agarwal, A. (co-first author), Xue, L.*, Chen, A., Herman, A., Li, Z. and Brantley, S. L. (2019).
Assessing Changes in Groundwater Chemistry in Landscapes with More Than 100 Years of Oil and Gas Development. (link)
Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, 21, 384-396. - Lin, N., Jing, R., Wang, Y., Yonekura, E., Fan, F. and Xue, L. (2017).
A Statistical Investigation of the Dependence of Tropical Cyclone Intensity Change on the Surrounding Environment. (link)
Monthly Weather Review, 145, 2813-2831. - Ju, L., Chen, Y., Xue, L., Du, X. and Zhu C. (2016).
Cooperative Unfolding of Distinctive Mechanoreceptor Domains Transduces Force into Signals. (link)
[Featured in NSF Science360, Georgia Tech News and Penn State News]
eLife, e15447.
- Rridgeway, G, Rosenberger, J & Xue, L. (2020)
A Call for Statisticians to Engage in Gun Violence Research. (pdf)
Statistics Serving Society, National Institute of Statistical Sciences.
- Rudin, C, Dunson, D, Irizarry, R, Ji, H, Laber, E, Leek, J, McCormick, T, Rose, S, Schafer, C, van der Laan, M, Wasserman, L & Xue, L. (2014)
Discovery with Data: Leveraging Statistics with Computer Science to Transform Science and Society. (pdf, website)
[Featured in Amstat News, Consortium of Social Science Associations, Statistics Views, and The American Statistician]
Science Policy and Advocacy, American Statistical Association.