B-spline-based hidden Markov models employ B-splines to specify the emission distributions, offering a more flexible modelling approach to data than conventional parametric HMMs. We introduce a Bayesian framework for inference, enabling the simultaneous estimation of all unknown model parameters including the number of states. A parsimonious knot configuration of the B-splines is identified by the use of a trans-dimensional Markov chain sampling algorithm, while model selection regarding the number of states can be performed based on the marginal likelihood within a parallel sampling framework. Using extensive simulation studies, we demonstrate the superiority of our methodology over alternative approaches as well as its robustness and scalability. We illustrate the explorative use of our methods for data on activity in animals, i.e. whitetip-sharks. The flexibility of our Bayesian approach also facilitates the incorporation of more realistic assumptions and we demonstrate this by developing a novel hierarchical conditional HMM to analyse human activity for circadian and sleep modelling.
The aim of this work is to extend the usual optimal experimental design paradigm to experiments where the settings of one or more factors are functions. Such factors are known as profile factors, or as dynamic factors. For these new experiments, a design consists of combinations of functions for each run of the experiment. After briefly introducing the class of profile factors, basis functions are described with primary focus given on the B-spline basis system, due to its computational efficiency and useful properties. Basis function expansions are applied to a functional linear model consisting of profile factors, reducing the problem to an optimisation of basis coefficients. The methodology developed comprises special cases, including combinations of profile and non-functional factors, interactions, and polynomial effects. The method is finally applied to an experimental design problem in a Biopharmaceutical study that is performed using the Ambr250 modular bioreactor.
In the past decades, model averaging (MA) has attracted much attention as it has emerged as an alternative tool to the model selection (MS) statistical approach. Hansen [\emph{Econometrica} \textbf{75} (2007) 1175--1189] introduced a Mallows model averaging (MMA) method with model weights selected by minimizing a Mallows' $C_p$ criterion. The main theoretical justification for MMA is an asymptotic optimality (AOP), which states that the risk/loss of the resulting MA estimator is asymptotically equivalent to that of the best but infeasible averaged model. MMA's AOP is proved in the literature by either constraining weights in a special discrete weight set or limiting the number of candidate models. In this work, it is first shown that under these restrictions, however, the optimal risk of MA becomes an unreachable target, and MMA may converge more slowly than MS. In this background, a foundational issue that has not been addressed is: When a suitably large set of candidate models is considered, and the model weights are not harmfully constrained, can the MMA estimator perform asymptotically as well as the optimal convex combination of the candidate models? We answer this question in a nested model setting commonly adopted in the area of MA. We provide finite sample inequalities for the risk of MMA and show that without unnatural restrictions on the candidate models, MMA's AOP holds in a general continuous weight set under certain mild conditions. Several specific methods for constructing the candidate model sets are proposed. Implications on minimax adaptivity are given as well. The results from simulations back up our theoretical findings.
This paper proposes a novel slacks-based interval DEA approach that computes interval targets, slacks, and crisp inefficiency scores. It uses interval arithmetic and requires solving a mixed-integer linear program. The corresponding super-efficiency formulation to discriminate among the efficient units is also presented. We also provide a case study of its application to sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean region, assessing the sustainable tourism efficiency of twelve Mediterranean regions to validate the proposed approach. The inputs and outputs cover the three sustainability dimensions and include GHG emissions as an undesirable output. Three regions were found inefficient, and the corresponding inputs and output improvements were computed. A total rank of the regions was also obtained using the super-efficiency model.
How do score-based generative models (SBMs) learn the data distribution supported on a low-dimensional manifold? We investigate the score model of a trained SBM through its linear approximations and subspaces spanned by local feature vectors. During diffusion as the noise decreases, the local dimensionality increases and becomes more varied between different sample sequences. Importantly, we find that the learned vector field mixes samples by a non-conservative field within the manifold, although it denoises with normal projections as if there is an energy function in off-manifold directions. At each noise level, the subspace spanned by the local features overlap with an effective density function. These observations suggest that SBMs can flexibly mix samples with the learned score field while carefully maintaining a manifold-like structure of the data distribution.
Compartmental models provide simple and efficient tools to analyze the relevant transmission processes during an outbreak, to produce short-term forecasts or transmission scenarios, and to assess the impact of vaccination campaigns. However, their calibration is not straightforward, since many factors contribute to the rapid change of the transmission dynamics during an epidemic. For example, there might be changes in the individual awareness, the imposition of non-pharmacological interventions and the emergence of new variants. As a consequence, model parameters such as the transmission rate are doomed to change in time, making their assessment more challenging. Here, we propose to use Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) to track the temporal changes in the model parameters and provide an estimate of the model state variables. PINNs recently gained attention in many engineering applications thanks to their ability to consider both the information from data (typically uncertain) and the governing equations of the system. The ability of PINNs to identify unknown model parameters makes them particularly suitable to solve ill-posed inverse problems, such as those arising in the application of epidemiological models. Here, we develop a reduced-split approach for the implementation of PINNs to estimate the temporal changes in the state variables and transmission rate of an epidemic based on the SIR model equation and infectious data. The main idea is to split the training first on the epidemiological data, and then on the residual of the system equations. The proposed method is applied to five synthetic test cases and two real scenarios reproducing the first months of the COVID-19 Italian pandemic. Our results show that the split implementation of PINNs outperforms the standard approach in terms of accuracy (up to one order of magnitude) and computational times (speed up of 20%).
In many applications, a stochastic system is studied using a model implicitly defined via a simulator. We develop a simulation-based parameter inference method for implicitly defined models. Our method differs from traditional likelihood-based inference in that it uses a metamodel for the distribution of a log-likelihood estimator. The metamodel is built on a local asymptotic normality (LAN) property satisfied by the simulation-based log-likelihood estimator under certain conditions. A method for hypothesis test is developed under the metamodel. Our method can enable accurate parameter estimation and uncertainty quantification where other Monte Carlo methods for parameter inference become highly inefficient due to large Monte Carlo variance. We demonstrate our method using numerical examples including a mechanistic model for the population dynamics of infectious disease.
Bayesian modeling provides a principled approach to quantifying uncertainty in model parameters and model structure and has seen a surge of applications in recent years. Within the context of a Bayesian workflow, we are concerned with model selection for the purpose of finding models that best explain the data, that is, help us understand the underlying data generating process. Since we rarely have access to the true process, all we are left with during real-world analyses is incomplete causal knowledge from sources outside of the current data and model predictions of said data. This leads to the important question of when the use of prediction as a proxy for explanation for the purpose of model selection is valid. We approach this question by means of large-scale simulations of Bayesian generalized linear models where we investigate various causal and statistical misspecifications. Our results indicate that the use of prediction as proxy for explanation is valid and safe only when the models under consideration are sufficiently consistent with the underlying causal structure of the true data generating process.
Generalized linear models (GLMs) are popular for data-analysis in almost all quantitative sciences, but the choice of likelihood family and link function is often difficult. This motivates the search for likelihoods and links that minimize the impact of potential misspecification. We perform a large-scale simulation study on double-bounded and lower-bounded response data where we systematically vary both true and assumed likelihoods and links. In contrast to previous studies, we also study posterior calibration and uncertainty metrics in addition to point-estimate accuracy. Our results indicate that certain likelihoods and links can be remarkably robust to misspecification, performing almost on par with their respective true counterparts. Additionally, normal likelihood models with identity link (i.e., linear regression) often achieve calibration comparable to the more structurally faithful alternatives, at least in the studied scenarios. On the basis of our findings, we provide practical suggestions for robust likelihood and link choices in GLMs.
This work presents an abstract framework for the design, implementation, and analysis of the multiscale spectral generalized finite element method (MS-GFEM), a particular numerical multiscale method originally proposed in [I. Babuska and R. Lipton, Multiscale Model.\;\,Simul., 9 (2011), pp.~373--406]. MS-GFEM is a partition of unity method employing optimal local approximation spaces constructed from local spectral problems. We establish a general local approximation theory demonstrating exponential convergence with respect to local degrees of freedom under certain assumptions, with explicit dependence on key problem parameters. Our framework applies to a broad class of multiscale PDEs with $L^{\infty}$-coefficients in both continuous and discrete, finite element settings, including highly indefinite problems (convection-dominated diffusion, as well as the high-frequency Helmholtz, Maxwell and elastic wave equations with impedance boundary conditions), and higher-order problems. Notably, we prove a local convergence rate of $O(e^{-cn^{1/d}})$ for MS-GFEM for all these problems, improving upon the $O(e^{-cn^{1/(d+1)}})$ rate shown by Babuska and Lipton. Moreover, based on the abstract local approximation theory for MS-GFEM, we establish a unified framework for showing low-rank approximations to multiscale PDEs. This framework applies to the aforementioned problems, proving that the associated Green's functions admit an $O(|\log\epsilon|^{d})$-term separable approximation on well-separated domains with error $\epsilon>0$. Our analysis improves and generalizes the result in [M. Bebendorf and W. Hackbusch, Numerische Mathematik, 95 (2003), pp.~1-28] where an $O(|\log\epsilon|^{d+1})$-term separable approximation was proved for Poisson-type problems.
Gaussian processes (GPs) are a popular class of Bayesian nonparametric models, but its training can be computationally burdensome for massive training datasets. While there has been notable work on scaling up these models for big data, existing methods typically rely on a stationary GP assumption for approximation, and can thus perform poorly when the underlying response surface is non-stationary, i.e., it has some regions of rapid change and other regions with little change. Such non-stationarity is, however, ubiquitous in real-world problems, including our motivating application for surrogate modeling of computer experiments. We thus propose a new Product of Sparse GP (ProSpar-GP) method for scalable GP modeling with massive non-stationary data. The ProSpar-GP makes use of a carefully-constructed product-of-experts formulation of sparse GP experts, where different experts are placed within local regions of non-stationarity. These GP experts are fit via a novel variational inference approach, which capitalizes on mini-batching and GPU acceleration for efficient optimization of inducing points and length-scale parameters for each expert. We further show that the ProSpar-GP is Kolmogorov-consistent, in that its generative distribution defines a valid stochastic process over the prediction space; such a property provides essential stability for variational inference, particularly in the presence of non-stationarity. We then demonstrate the improved performance of the ProSpar-GP over the state-of-the-art, in a suite of numerical experiments and an application for surrogate modeling of a satellite drag simulator.