Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback
image/svg+xml art designer at PLoS, modified by Wikipedia users Nina, Beao, JakobVoss, and AnonMoos Open Access logo, converted into svg, designed by PLoS. This version with transparent background. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Open_Access_logo_PLoS_white.svg art designer at PLoS, modified by Wikipedia users Nina, Beao, JakobVoss, and AnonMoos http://www.plos.org/ ZENODOarrow_drop_down
image/svg+xml art designer at PLoS, modified by Wikipedia users Nina, Beao, JakobVoss, and AnonMoos Open Access logo, converted into svg, designed by PLoS. This version with transparent background. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Open_Access_logo_PLoS_white.svg art designer at PLoS, modified by Wikipedia users Nina, Beao, JakobVoss, and AnonMoos http://www.plos.org/
ZENODO
Preprint . 2026
License: CC BY
Data sources: ZENODO
ZENODO
Preprint . 2026
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
ZENODO
Preprint . 2026
License: CC BY
Data sources: Datacite
versions View all 2 versions
addClaim

IWBS: Influence-Weighted Bagged Splines for Robust Regression in Small-Data Regimes

Authors: Voronsbekher, Valentyn;

IWBS: Influence-Weighted Bagged Splines for Robust Regression in Small-Data Regimes

Abstract

High-capacity machine learning models, such as Gradient Boosting Machines(GBM) and deep Random Forests, often succumb to the bias-variance trade-offwhen training data is scarce (N < 500). While they offer low bias, they frequentlyoverfit noise or fail to approximate smooth functions due to discrete partitioning.Conversely, classical linear models (OLS) offer stability but lack the capacity tomodel complex dynamics. This paper introduces Influence-Weighted BaggedSplines (IWBS), a specialized ensemble architecture designed for high-complexity,small-data regimes. IWBS combines the flexibility of randomized additive splineswith a novel Out-of-Bag (OOB) Stability Weighting mechanism. Unlike stan-dard bagging, which averages learners uniformly, IWBS penalizes ensemble mem-bers that exhibit high prediction instability on held-out data. We benchmark IWBSagainst fully tuned Tree Ensembles (GBM, Random Forest) and specialized small-data solvers (Gaussian Processes, GAMs, Kernel Ridge Regression) across physical,economic, and biological domains. Results demonstrate that IWBS achieves state-of-the-art performance in signal-rich tasks (Concrete, Moneyball), outperformingboth tree-based methods and kernel smoothers by capturing high-frequency non-linearities without overfitting. Furthermore, we establish the method’s boundaryconditions, showing that in high-noise regimes (Diabetes), global smoothers likeKernel Ridge Regression remain superior to structure-discovery approaches.

Related Organizations
Keywords

Splines, Machine Learning, Bagging, IWBS, Small Data, Regression

  • BIP!
    Impact byBIP!
    selected citations
    These citations are derived from selected sources.
    This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
    0
    popularity
    This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
    Average
    influence
    This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
    Average
    impulse
    This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
    Average
Powered by OpenAIRE graph
Found an issue? Give us feedback
selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
Average
Average