A constrained singular value decomposition method that integrates sparsity and orthogonality

PLoS One. 2019 Mar 13;14(3):e0211463. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0211463. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

We propose a new sparsification method for the singular value decomposition-called the constrained singular value decomposition (CSVD)-that can incorporate multiple constraints such as sparsification and orthogonality for the left and right singular vectors. The CSVD can combine different constraints because it implements each constraint as a projection onto a convex set, and because it integrates these constraints as projections onto the intersection of multiple convex sets. We show that, with appropriate sparsification constants, the algorithm is guaranteed to converge to a stable point. We also propose and analyze the convergence of an efficient algorithm for the specific case of the projection onto the balls defined by the norms L1 and L2. We illustrate the CSVD and compare it to the standard singular value decomposition and to a non-orthogonal related sparsification method with: 1) a simulated example, 2) a small set of face images (corresponding to a configuration with a number of variables much larger than the number of observations), and 3) a psychometric application with a large number of observations and a small number of variables. The companion R-package, csvd, that implements the algorithms described in this paper, along with reproducible examples, are available for download from https://github.com/vguillemot/csvd.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Data Interpretation, Statistical*
  • Databases, Factual / statistics & numerical data
  • Face / anatomy & histology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Imagination
  • Male
  • Models, Statistical
  • Multivariate Analysis
  • Pattern Recognition, Automated / statistics & numerical data
  • Principal Component Analysis
  • Psychometrics / statistics & numerical data

Grants and funding

This article benefitted from a EURIAS fellowship at the Paris Institute for Advanced Studies (France), co-funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, under the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for research, and from a funding from the French State programme “Investissements d’avenir”, managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-11-LABX-0027-01 Labex RFIEA+). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.