papers

Publications (50)

cs.LG2025

Peer Effect Estimation in the Presence of Simultaneous Feedback and Unobserved Confounders

Xiaojing Du, Jiuyong Li, Lin Liu +2

Estimating peer causal effects within complex real-world networks such as social networks is challenging, primarily due to simultaneous feedback between peers and unobserved confou…

cs.LG2024

Community-Centric Graph Unlearning

Yi Li, Shichao Zhang, Guixian Zhang +1

Graph unlearning technology has become increasingly important since the advent of the `right to be forgotten' and the growing concerns about the privacy and security of artificial…

cs.LG2024

Linking Model Intervention to Causal Interpretation in Model Explanation

Debo Cheng, Ziqi Xu, Jiuyong Li +4

Intervention intuition is often used in model explanation where the intervention effect of a feature on the outcome is quantified by the difference of a model prediction when the f…

cs.LG2024

Causal Effect Estimation using identifiable Variational AutoEncoder with Latent Confounders and Post-Treatment Variables

Yang Xie, Ziqi Xu, Debo Cheng +4

Estimating causal effects from observational data is challenging, especially in the presence of latent confounders. Much work has been done on addressing this challenge, but most o…

cs.IR2025

Interaction-Data-guided Conditional Instrumental Variables for Debiasing Recommender Systems

Zhirong Huang, Debo Cheng, Jiuyong Li +3

It is often challenging to identify a valid instrumental variable (IV), although the IV methods have been regarded as effective tools of addressing the confounding bias introduced…

cs.IR2024

Ripple Knowledge Graph Convolutional Networks For Recommendation Systems

Chen Li, Yang Cao, Ye Zhu +3

Using knowledge graphs to assist deep learning models in making recommendation decisions has recently been proven to effectively improve the model's interpretability and accuracy.…

cs.LG2023

Disentangled Latent Representation Learning for Tackling the Confounding M-Bias Problem in Causal Inference

Debo Cheng, Yang Xie, Ziqi Xu +5

In causal inference, it is a fundamental task to estimate the causal effect from observational data. However, latent confounders pose major challenges in causal inference in observ…

cs.DS2023

Matching Using Sufficient Dimension Reduction for Heterogeneity Causal Effect Estimation

Haoran Zhao, Yinghao Zhang, Debo Cheng +2

Causal inference plays an important role in under standing the underlying mechanisation of the data generation process across various domains. It is challenging to estimate the ave…

cs.LG2025

DeNoise: Learning Robust Graph Representations for Unsupervised Graph-Level Anomaly Detection

Qingfeng Chen, Haojin Zeng, Jingyi Jie +2

With the rapid growth of graph-structured data in critical domains, unsupervised graph-level anomaly detection (UGAD) has become a pivotal task. UGAD seeks to identify entire graph…

cs.LG2025

ShapeX: Shapelet-Driven Post Hoc Explanations for Time Series Classification Models

Bosong Huang, Ming Jin, Yuxuan Liang +5

Explaining time series classification models is crucial, particularly in high-stakes applications such as healthcare and finance, where transparency and trust play a critical role.…

cs.DB2023

FASTAGEDS: Fast Approximate Graph Entity Dependency Discovery

Guangtong Zhou, Selasi Kwashie, Yidi Zhang +5

This paper studies the discovery of approximate rules in property graphs. We propose a semantically meaningful measure of error for mining graph entity dependencies (GEDs) at almos…

q-bio.QM2023

Causal Intervention for Measuring Confidence in Drug-Target Interaction Prediction

Wenting Ye, Chen Li, Yang Xie +5

Identifying and discovering drug-target interactions(DTIs) are vital steps in drug discovery and development. They play a crucial role in assisting scientists in finding new drugs…

cs.LG2022

Assessing Classifier Fairness with Collider Bias

Zhenlong Xu, Ziqi Xu, Jixue Liu +5

The increasing application of machine learning techniques in everyday decision-making processes has brought concerns about the fairness of algorithmic decision-making. This paper c…

cs.AI2023

Data-Driven Causal Effect Estimation Based on Graphical Causal Modelling: A Survey

Debo Cheng, Jiuyong Li, Lin Liu +2

In many fields of scientific research and real-world applications, unbiased estimation of causal effects from non-experimental data is crucial for understanding the mechanism under…

stat.ME2022

Local search for efficient causal effect estimation

Debo Cheng, Jiuyong Li, Lin Liu +3

Causal effect estimation from observational data is a challenging problem, especially with high dimensional data and in the presence of unobserved variables. The available data-dri…

cs.LG2023

Learning Conditional Instrumental Variable Representation for Causal Effect Estimation

Debo Cheng, Ziqi Xu, Jiuyong Li +3

One of the fundamental challenges in causal inference is to estimate the causal effect of a treatment on its outcome of interest from observational data. However, causal effect est…

cs.AI2024

Estimating Peer Direct and Indirect Effects in Observational Network Data

Xiaojing Du, Jiuyong Li, Debo Cheng +3

Estimating causal effects is crucial for decision-makers in many applications, but it is particularly challenging with observational network data due to peer interactions. Many alg…

cs.AI2020

Causal query in observational data with hidden variables

Debo Cheng, Jiuyong Li, Lin Liu +3

This paper discusses the problem of causal query in observational data with hidden variables, with the aim of seeking the change of an outcome when "manipulating" a variable while…

cs.AI2023

Ancestral Instrument Method for Causal Inference without Complete Knowledge

Debo Cheng, Jiuyong Li, Lin Liu +3

Unobserved confounding is the main obstacle to causal effect estimation from observational data. Instrumental variables (IVs) are widely used for causal effect estimation when ther…

cs.LG2025

Learning Fair Graph Representations with Multi-view Information Bottleneck

Chuxun Liu, Debo Cheng, Qingfeng Chen +3

Graph neural networks (GNNs) excel on relational data by passing messages over node features and structure, but they can amplify training data biases, propagating discriminatory at…

cs.LG2023

Causal Effect Estimation with Variational AutoEncoder and the Front Door Criterion

Ziqi Xu, Debo Cheng, Jiuyong Li +3

An essential problem in causal inference is estimating causal effects from observational data. The problem becomes more challenging with the presence of unobserved confounders. Whe…

cs.DC2024

Mining Area Skyline Objects from Map-based Big Data using Apache Spark Framework

Chen Li, Ye Zhu, Yang Cao +4

The computation of the skyline provides a mechanism for utilizing multiple location-based criteria to identify optimal data points. However, the efficiency of these computations di…

cs.CL2024

Counterfactual Samples Constructing and Training for Commonsense Statements Estimation

Chong Liu, Zaiwen Feng, Lin Liu +5

Plausibility Estimation (PE) plays a crucial role for enabling language models to objectively comprehend the real world. While large language models (LLMs) demonstrate remarkable c…

cs.AI2026

Disentangled Instrumental Variables for Causal Inference with Networked Observational Data

Zhirong Huang, Debo Cheng, Guixian Zhang +3

Instrumental variables (IVs) are crucial for addressing unobservable confounders, yet their stringent exogeneity assumptions pose significant challenges in networked data. Existing…

cs.LG2024

Leaning Time-Varying Instruments for Identifying Causal Effects in Time-Series Data

Debo Cheng, Ziqi Xu, Jiuyong Li +4

Querying causal effects from time-series data is important across various fields, including healthcare, economics, climate science, and epidemiology. However, this task becomes com…

cs.SI2026

Identifying the Group to Intervene on to Maximise Effect Under Cross-Group Interference

Xiaojing Du, Jiuyong Li, Lin Liu +3

In many networked systems, interventions applied to one group of units can induce substantial causal effects on another group through cross-group interference pathways. Despite its…

cs.LG2024

TSI: A Multi-View Representation Learning Approach for Time Series Forecasting

Wentao Gao, Ziqi Xu, Jiuyong Li +6

As the growing demand for long sequence time-series forecasting in real-world applications, such as electricity consumption planning, the significance of time series forecasting be…

cs.IR2024

Debiased Contrastive Representation Learning for Mitigating Dual Biases in Recommender Systems

Zhirong Huang, Shichao Zhang, Debo Cheng +3

In recommender systems, popularity and conformity biases undermine recommender effectiveness by disproportionately favouring popular items, leading to their over-representation in…

cs.IR2024

Mitigating Dual Latent Confounding Biases in Recommender Systems

Jianfeng Deng, Qingfeng Chen, Debo Cheng +3

Recommender systems are extensively utilised across various areas to predict user preferences for personalised experiences and enhanced user engagement and satisfaction. Traditiona…

cs.AI2025

Hybrid Local Causal Discovery

Zhaolong Ling, Honghui Peng, Yiwen Zhang +4

Local causal discovery aims to learn and distinguish the direct causes and effects of a target variable from observed data. Existing constraint-based local causal discovery methods…

cs.SI2024

Towards Fair Graph Representation Learning in Social Networks

Guixian Zhang, Guan Yuan, Debo Cheng +3

With the widespread use of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) for representation learning from network data, the fairness of GNN models has raised great attention lately. Fair GNNs aim t…

stat.ME2020

Towards unique and unbiased causal effect estimation from data with hidden variables

Debo Cheng, Jiuyong Li, Lin Liu +3

Causal effect estimation from observational data is a crucial but challenging task. Currently, only a limited number of data-driven causal effect estimation methods are available.…

cs.CL2024

Advancing Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis through Deep Learning Models

Chen Li, Huidong Tang, Jinli Zhang +3

Aspect-based sentiment analysis predicts sentiment polarity with fine granularity. While graph convolutional networks (GCNs) are widely utilized for sentimental feature extraction,…

cs.IR2025

Mitigating Propensity Bias of Large Language Models for Recommender Systems

Guixian Zhang, Guan Yuan, Debo Cheng +3

The rapid development of Large Language Models (LLMs) creates new opportunities for recommender systems, especially by exploiting the side information (e.g., descriptions and analy…

cs.LG2023

Instrumental Variable Estimation for Causal Inference in Longitudinal Data with Time-Dependent Latent Confounders

Debo Cheng, Ziqi Xu, Jiuyong Li +4

Causal inference from longitudinal observational data is a challenging problem due to the difficulty in correctly identifying the time-dependent confounders, especially in the pres…

cs.LG2022

Causal Inference with Conditional Instruments using Deep Generative Models

Debo Cheng, Ziqi Xu, Jiuyong Li +3

The instrumental variable (IV) approach is a widely used way to estimate the causal effects of a treatment on an outcome of interest from observational data with latent confounders…

cs.AI2022

Discovering Ancestral Instrumental Variables for Causal Inference from Observational Data

Debo Cheng, Jiuyong Li, Lin Liu +3

Instrumental variable (IV) is a powerful approach to inferring the causal effect of a treatment on an outcome of interest from observational data even when there exist latent confo…

cs.LG2023

Disentangled Representation for Causal Mediation Analysis

Ziqi Xu, Debo Cheng, Jiuyong Li +3

Estimating direct and indirect causal effects from observational data is crucial to understanding the causal mechanisms and predicting the behaviour under different interventions.…

stat.ME2020

Sufficient Dimension Reduction for Average Causal Effect Estimation

Debo Cheng, Jiuyong Li, Lin Liu +1

Having a large number of covariates can have a negative impact on the quality of causal effect estimation since confounding adjustment becomes unreliable when the number of covaria…

cs.LG2024

Disentangled Representation Learning for Causal Inference with Instruments

Debo Cheng, Jiuyong Li, Lin Liu +4

Latent confounders are a fundamental challenge for inferring causal effects from observational data. The instrumental variable (IV) approach is a practical way to address this chal…

cs.IR2024

Multi-Cause Deconfounding for Recommender Systems with Latent Confounders

Zhirong Huang, Shichao Zhang, Debo Cheng +3

In recommender systems, various latent confounding factors (e.g., user social environment and item public attractiveness) can affect user behavior, item exposure, and feedback in d…

cs.IR2025

A Novel Generative Model with Causality Constraint for Mitigating Biases in Recommender Systems

Jianfeng Deng, Qingfeng Chen, Debo Cheng +3

Accurately predicting counterfactual user feedback is essential for building effective recommender systems. However, latent confounding bias can obscure the true causal relationshi…

cs.LG2023

Causal Inference with Conditional Front-Door Adjustment and Identifiable Variational Autoencoder

Ziqi Xu, Debo Cheng, Jiuyong Li +3

An essential and challenging problem in causal inference is causal effect estimation from observational data. The problem becomes more difficult with the presence of unobserved con…

cs.CL2025

Leveraging Deep Neural Networks for Aspect-Based Sentiment Classification

Chen Li, Debo Cheng, Yasuhiko Morimoto

Aspect-based sentiment analysis seeks to determine sentiment with a high level of detail. While graph convolutional networks (GCNs) are commonly used for extracting sentiment featu…

cs.AI2025

Harnessing LLM for Noise-Robust Cognitive Diagnosis in Web-Based Intelligent Education Systems

Guixian Zhang, Guan Yuan, Ziqi Xu +4

Cognitive diagnostics in the Web-based Intelligent Education System (WIES) aims to assess students' mastery of knowledge concepts from heterogeneous, noisy interactions. Recent wor…

stat.ML2025

Deconfounding Multi-Cause Latent Confounders: A Factor-Model Approach to Climate Model Bias Correction

Wentao Gao, Jiuyong Li, Debo Cheng +7

Global Climate Models (GCMs) are crucial for predicting future climate changes by simulating the Earth systems. However, the GCM Outputs exhibit systematic biases due to model unce…

cs.LG2023

Disentangled Representation with Causal Constraints for Counterfactual Fairness

Ziqi Xu, Jixue Liu, Debo Cheng +3

Much research has been devoted to the problem of learning fair representations; however, they do not explicitly the relationship between latent representations. In many real-world…

cs.LG2025

Toward Fair Graph Neural Networks Via Dual-Teacher Knowledge Distillation

Chengyu Li, Debo Cheng, Guixian Zhang +2

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have demonstrated strong performance in graph representation learning across various real-world applications. However, they often produce biased predic…

cs.LG2023

Conditional Instrumental Variable Regression with Representation Learning for Causal Inference

Debo Cheng, Ziqi Xu, Jiuyong Li +3

This paper studies the challenging problem of estimating causal effects from observational data, in the presence of unobserved confounders. The two-stage least square (TSLS) method…

cs.CV2025

Efficient Adaptive Label Refinement for Label Noise Learning

Wenzhen Zhang, Debo Cheng, Guangquan Lu +3

Deep neural networks are highly susceptible to overfitting noisy labels, which leads to degraded performance. Existing methods address this issue by employing manually defined crit…