Selecting intervals to optimize the design of observational studies subject to fine balance constraints

IF 0.9 4区数学 Q4 COMPUTER SCIENCE, INTERDISCIPLINARY APPLICATIONS

Journal of Combinatorial Optimization Pub Date : 2024-03-31 DOI:10.1007/s10878-024-01116-y

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Motivated by designing observational studies using matching methods subject to fine balance constraints, we introduce a new optimization problem. This problem consists of two phases. In the first phase, the goal is to cluster the values of a continuous covariate into a limited number of intervals. In the second phase, we find the optimal matching subject to fine balance constraints with respect to the new covariate we obtained in the first phase. We show that the resulting optimization problem is NP-hard. However, it admits an FPT algorithm with respect to a natural parameter. This FPT algorithm also translates into a polynomial time algorithm for the most natural special cases of the problem.

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选择时间间隔，优化受微观平衡限制的观察研究设计

摘要在使用匹配方法设计观察研究时，由于受到微观平衡的限制，我们提出了一个新的优化问题。该问题由两个阶段组成。在第一阶段，目标是将连续协变量的值聚类到数量有限的区间内。在第二阶段，我们要根据在第一阶段获得的新协方差，在精细平衡约束条件下找到最优匹配。我们证明，由此产生的优化问题具有 NP 难度。不过，它可以用一个自然参数的 FPT 算法来解决。对于该问题最自然的特殊情况，这种 FPT 算法还可以转化为多项式时间算法。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Combinatorial Optimization 数学-计算机：跨学科应用

CiteScore

2.00

自引率

10.00%

发文量

审稿时长

6 months

期刊介绍： The objective of Journal of Combinatorial Optimization is to advance and promote the theory and applications of combinatorial optimization, which is an area of research at the intersection of applied mathematics, computer science, and operations research and which overlaps with many other areas such as computation complexity, computational biology, VLSI design, communication networks, and management science. It includes complexity analysis and algorithm design for combinatorial optimization problems, numerical experiments and problem discovery with applications in science and engineering. The Journal of Combinatorial Optimization publishes refereed papers dealing with all theoretical, computational and applied aspects of combinatorial optimization. It also publishes reviews of appropriate books and special issues of journals.