In this paper, an optimization problem with uncertain constraint coefficients is considered. Possibility theory is used to model the uncertainty. Namely, a joint possibility distribution in constraint coefficient realizations, called scenarios, is specified. This possibility distribution induces a necessity measure in scenario set, which in turn describes an ambiguity set of probability distributions in scenario set. The distributionally robust approach is then used to convert the imprecise constraints into deterministic equivalents. Namely, the left-hand side of an imprecise constraint is evaluated by using a risk measure with respect to the worst probability distribution that can occur. In this paper, the Conditional Value at Risk is used as the risk measure, which generalizes the strict robust and expected value approaches, commonly used in literature. A general framework for solving such a class of problems is described. Some cases which can be solved in polynomial time are identified.
相關內容
Optimizing multiple competing objectives is a common problem across science and industry. The inherent inextricable trade-off between those objectives leads one to the task of exploring their Pareto front. A meaningful quantity for the purpose of the latter is the hypervolume indicator, which is used in Bayesian Optimization (BO) and Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs). However, the computational complexity for the calculation of the hypervolume scales unfavorably with increasing number of objectives and data points, which restricts its use in those common multi-objective optimization frameworks. To overcome these restrictions we propose to approximate the hypervolume function with a deep neural network, which we call DeepHV. For better sample efficiency and generalization, we exploit the fact that the hypervolume is scale-equivariant in each of the objectives as well as permutation invariant w.r.t. both the objectives and the samples, by using a deep neural network that is equivariant w.r.t. the combined group of scalings and permutations. We evaluate our method against exact, and approximate hypervolume methods in terms of accuracy, computation time, and generalization. We also apply and compare our methods to state-of-the-art multi-objective BO methods and EAs on a range of synthetic benchmark test cases. The results show that our methods are promising for such multi-objective optimization tasks.
We develop a provably efficient importance sampling scheme that estimates exit probabilities of solutions to small-noise stochastic reaction-diffusion equations from scaled neighborhoods of a stable equilibrium. The moderate deviation scaling allows for a local approximation of the nonlinear dynamics by their linearized version. In addition, we identify a finite-dimensional subspace where exits take place with high probability. Using stochastic control and variational methods we show that our scheme performs well both in the zero noise limit and pre-asymptotically. Simulation studies for stochastically perturbed bistable dynamics illustrate the theoretical results.
An important strategy for identifying principal causal effects, which are often used in settings with noncompliance, is to invoke the principal ignorability (PI) assumption. As PI is untestable, it is important to gauge how sensitive effect estimates are to its violation. We focus on this task for the common one-sided noncompliance setting where there are two principal strata, compliers and noncompliers. Under PI, compliers and noncompliers share the same outcome-mean-given-covariates function under the control condition. For sensitivity analysis, we allow this function to differ between compliers and noncompliers in several ways, indexed by an odds ratio, a generalized odds ratio, a mean ratio, or a standardized mean difference sensitivity parameter. We tailor sensitivity analysis techniques (with any sensitivity parameter choice) to several types of PI-based main analysis methods, including outcome regression, influence function (IF) based and weighting methods. We illustrate the proposed sensitivity analyses using several outcome types from the JOBS II study. This application estimates nuisance functions parametrically -- for simplicity and accessibility. In addition, we establish rate conditions on nonparametric nuisance estimation for IF-based estimators to be asymptotically normal -- with a view to inform nonparametric inference.
In this paper we propose a variant of enriched Galerkin methods for second order elliptic equations with over-penalization of interior jump terms. The bilinear form with interior over-penalization gives a non-standard norm which is different from the discrete energy norm in the classical discontinuous Galerkin methods. Nonetheless we prove that optimal a priori error estimates with the standard discrete energy norm can be obtained by combining a priori and a posteriori error analysis techniques. We also show that the interior over-penalization is advantageous for constructing preconditioners robust to mesh refinement by analyzing spectral equivalence of bilinear forms. Numerical results are included to illustrate the convergence and preconditioning results.
Symmetry is a cornerstone of much of mathematics, and many probability distributions possess symmetries characterized by their invariance to a collection of group actions. Thus, many mathematical and statistical methods rely on such symmetry holding and ostensibly fail if symmetry is broken. This work considers under what conditions a sequence of probability measures asymptotically gains such symmetry or invariance to a collection of group actions. Considering the many symmetries of the Gaussian distribution, this work effectively proposes a non-parametric type of central limit theorem. That is, a Lipschitz function of a high dimensional random vector will be asymptotically invariant to the actions of certain compact topological groups. Applications of this include a partial law of the iterated logarithm for uniformly random points in an $\ell_p^n$-ball and an asymptotic equivalence between classical parametric statistical tests and their randomization counterparts even when invariance assumptions are violated.
Models of complex technological systems inherently contain interactions and dependencies among their input variables that affect their joint influence on the output. Such models are often computationally expensive and few sensitivity analysis methods can effectively process such complexities. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis field as a whole pays limited attention to the nature of interaction effects, whose understanding can prove to be critical for the design of safe and reliable systems. In this paper, we introduce and extensively test a simple binning approach for computing sensitivity indices and demonstrate how complementing it with the smart visualization method, simulation decomposition (SimDec), can permit important insights into the behavior of complex engineering models. The simple binning approach computes first-, second-order effects, and a combined sensitivity index, and is considerably more computationally efficient than Sobol' indices. The totality of the sensitivity analysis framework provides an efficient and intuitive way to analyze the behavior of complex systems containing interactions and dependencies.
A new mechanical model on noncircular shallow tunnelling considering initial stress field is proposed in this paper by constraining far-field ground surface to eliminate displacement singularity at infinity, and the originally unbalanced tunnel excavation problem in existing solutions is turned to an equilibrium one of mixed boundaries. By applying analytic continuation, the mixed boundaries are transformed to a homogenerous Riemann-Hilbert problem, which is subsequently solved via an efficient and accurate iterative method with boundary conditions of static equilibrium, displacement single-valuedness, and traction along tunnel periphery. The Lanczos filtering technique is used in the final stress and displacement solution to reduce the Gibbs phenomena caused by the constrained far-field ground surface for more accurte results. Several numerical cases are conducted to intensively verify the proposed solution by examining boundary conditions and comparing with existing solutions, and all the results are in good agreements. Then more numerical cases are conducted to investigate the stress and deformation distribution along ground surface and tunnel periphery, and several engineering advices are given. Further discussions on the defects of the proposed solution are also conducted for objectivity.
Rational function approximations provide a simple but flexible alternative to polynomial approximation, allowing one to capture complex non-linearities without oscillatory artifacts. However, there have been few attempts to use rational functions on noisy data due to the likelihood of creating spurious singularities. To avoid the creation of singularities, we use Bernstein polynomials and appropriate conditions on their coefficients to force the denominator to be strictly positive. While this reduces the range of rational polynomials that can be expressed, it keeps all the benefits of rational functions while maintaining the robustness of polynomial approximation in noisy data scenarios. Our numerical experiments on noisy data show that existing rational approximation methods continually produce spurious poles inside the approximation domain. This contrasts our method, which cannot create poles in the approximation domain and provides better fits than a polynomial approximation and even penalized splines on functions with multiple variables. Moreover, guaranteeing pole-free in an interval is critical for estimating non-constant coefficients when numerically solving differential equations using spectral methods. This provides a compact representation of the original differential equation, allowing numeric solvers to achieve high accuracy quickly, as seen in our experiments.
In this paper we introduce a multilevel Picard approximation algorithm for general semilinear parabolic PDEs with gradient-dependent nonlinearities whose coefficient functions do not need to be constant. We also provide a full convergence and complexity analysis of our algorithm. To obtain our main results, we consider a particular stochastic fixed-point equation (SFPE) motivated by the Feynman-Kac representation and the Bismut-Elworthy-Li formula. We show that the PDE under consideration has a unique viscosity solution which coincides with the first component of the unique solution of the stochastic fixed-point equation. Moreover, if the PDE admits a strong solution, then the gradient of the unique solution of the PDE coincides with the second component of the unique solution of the stochastic fixed-point equation.
Factor models are widely used for dimension reduction in the analysis of multivariate data. This is achieved through decomposition of a p x p covariance matrix into the sum of two components. Through a latent factor representation, they can be interpreted as a diagonal matrix of idiosyncratic variances and a shared variation matrix, that is, the product of a p x k factor loadings matrix and its transpose. If k << p, this defines a sparse factorisation of the covariance matrix. Historically, little attention has been paid to incorporating prior information in Bayesian analyses using factor models where, at best, the prior for the factor loadings is order invariant. In this work, a class of structured priors is developed that can encode ideas of dependence structure about the shared variation matrix. The construction allows data-informed shrinkage towards sensible parametric structures while also facilitating inference over the number of factors. Using an unconstrained reparameterisation of stationary vector autoregressions, the methodology is extended to stationary dynamic factor models. For computational inference, parameter-expanded Markov chain Monte Carlo samplers are proposed, including an efficient adaptive Gibbs sampler. Two substantive applications showcase the scope of the methodology and its inferential benefits.
注冊地址： 北京市海淀區羊坊店路18號2幢3層301-191