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Out-of-bag predictions and evaluation


library(aorsf)
library(survival)

Out-of-bag data

In random forests, each tree is grown with a bootstrapped version of the training set. Because bootstrap samples are selected with replacement, each bootstrapped training set contains about two-thirds of instances in the original training set. The ‘out-of-bag’ data are instances that are not in the bootstrapped training set.

Out-of-bag predictions and error

Each tree in the random forest can make predictions for its out-of-bag data, and the out-of-bag predictions can be aggregated to make an ensemble out-of-bag prediction. Since the out-of-bag data are not used to grow the tree, the accuracy of the ensemble out-of-bag predictions approximate the generalization error of the random forest. Out-of-bag prediction error plays a central role for some routines that estimate variable importance, e.g. negation importance.

We fit an oblique random survival forest and plot the distribution of the ensemble out-of-bag predictions.


fit <- orsf(data = pbc_orsf, 
            formula = Surv(time, status) ~ . - id,
            oobag_pred_type = 'surv',
            n_tree = 5,
            oobag_pred_horizon = 2000)

hist(fit$pred_oobag, 
     main = 'Out-of-bag survival predictions at t=2,000')

Next, let’s check the out-of-bag accuracy of fit:


# what function is used to evaluate out-of-bag predictions?
fit$eval_oobag$stat_type
#> [1] "Harrell's C-index"

# what is the output from this function?
fit$eval_oobag$stat_values
#>           [,1]
#> [1,] 0.7728356

The out-of-bag estimate of Harrell’s C-index (the default method to evaluate out-of-bag predictions) is 0.7728356.

Monitoring out-of-bag error

As each out-of-bag data set contains about one-third of the training set, the out-of-bag error estimate usually converges to a stable value as more trees are added to the forest. If you want to monitor the convergence of out-of-bag error for your own oblique random survival forest, you can set oobag_eval_every to compute out-of-bag error at every oobag_eval_every tree. For example, let’s compute out-of-bag error after fitting each tree in a forest of 50 trees:


fit <- orsf(data = pbc_orsf,
            formula = Surv(time, status) ~ . - id,
            n_tree = 20,
            tree_seeds = 2,
            oobag_pred_type = 'surv',
            oobag_pred_horizon = 2000,
            oobag_eval_every = 1)

plot(
 x = seq(1, 20, by = 1),
 y = fit$eval_oobag$stat_values, 
 main = 'Out-of-bag C-statistic computed after each new tree is grown.',
 xlab = 'Number of trees grown',
 ylab = fit$eval_oobag$stat_type
)

lines(x=seq(1, 20), y = fit$eval_oobag$stat_values)

In general, at least 500 trees are recommended for a random forest fit. We’re just using 10 for illustration.

User-supplied out-of-bag evaluation functions

In some cases, you may want more control over how out-of-bag error is estimated. For example, let’s use the Brier score from the SurvMetrics package:


oobag_brier_surv <- function(y_mat, w_vec, s_vec){

 # use if SurvMetrics is available
 if(requireNamespace("SurvMetrics")){
  
  return(
   # output is numeric vector of length 1
   as.numeric(
    SurvMetrics::Brier(
     object = Surv(time = y_mat[, 1], event = y_mat[, 2]), 
     pre_sp = s_vec,
     # t_star in Brier() should match oob_pred_horizon in orsf()
     t_star = 2000
    )
   )
  )
  
  
 }
 
 # if not available, use a dummy version
 mean( (y_mat[,2] - (1-s_vec))^2 )
 
 
}

There are two ways to apply your own function to compute out-of-bag error. First, you can apply your function to the out-of-bag survival predictions that are stored in ‘aorsf’ objects, e.g:


oobag_brier_surv(y_mat = pbc_orsf[,c('time', 'status')],
                 s_vec = fit$pred_oobag)
#> Loading required namespace: SurvMetrics
#> [1] 0.11869

Second, you can pass your function into orsf(), and it will be used in place of Harrell’s C-statistic:


# instead of copy/pasting the modeling code and then modifying it,
# you can just use orsf_update.

fit_brier <- orsf_update(fit, oobag_fun = oobag_brier_surv)

plot(
 x = seq(1, 20, by = 1),
 y = fit_brier$eval_oobag$stat_values, 
 main = 'Out-of-bag error computed after each new tree is grown.',
 sub = 'For the Brier score, lower values indicate more accurate predictions',
 xlab = 'Number of trees grown',
 ylab = "Brier score"
)

lines(x=seq(1, 20), y = fit_brier$eval_oobag$stat_values)

Specific instructions on user-supplied functions

if you use your own oobag_fun note the following:

Notes

When evaluating out-of-bag error:

These binaries (installable software) and packages are in development.
They may not be fully stable and should be used with caution. We make no claims about them.