We present a scalable strategy for development of mesh-free hybrid neuro-symbolic partial differential equation solvers based on existing mesh-based numerical discretization methods. Particularly, this strategy can be used to efficiently train neural network surrogate models of partial differential equations by (i) leveraging the accuracy and convergence properties of advanced numerical methods, solvers, and preconditioners, as well as (ii) better scalability to higher order PDEs by strictly limiting optimization to first order automatic differentiation. The presented neural bootstrapping method (hereby dubbed NBM) is based on evaluation of the finite discretization residuals of the PDE system obtained on implicit Cartesian cells centered on a set of random collocation points with respect to trainable parameters of the neural network. Importantly, the conservation laws and symmetries present in the bootstrapped finite discretization equations inform the neural network about solution regularities within local neighborhoods of training points. We apply NBM to the important class of elliptic problems with jump conditions across irregular interfaces in three spatial dimensions. We show the method is convergent such that model accuracy improves by increasing number of collocation points in the domain and predonditioning the residuals. We show NBM is competitive in terms of memory and training speed with other PINN-type frameworks. The algorithms presented here are implemented using \texttt{JAX} in a software package named \texttt{JAX-DIPS} (//github.com/JAX-DIPS/JAX-DIPS), standing for differentiable interfacial PDE solver. We open sourced \texttt{JAX-DIPS} to facilitate research into use of differentiable algorithms for developing hybrid PDE solvers.
We present a semi-Lagrangian characteristic mapping method for the incompressible Euler equations on a rotating sphere. The numerical method uses a spatio-temporal discretization of the inverse flow map generated by the Eulerian velocity as a composition of sub-interval flows formed by $C^1$ spherical spline interpolants. This approximation technique has the capacity of resolving sub-grid scales generated over time without increasing the spatial resolution of the computational grid. The numerical method is analyzed and validated using standard test cases yielding third-order accuracy in the supremum norm. Numerical experiments illustrating the unique resolution properties of the method are performed and demonstrate the ability to reproduce the forward energy cascade at sub-grid scales by upsampling the numerical solution.
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.
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.
We present a new framework for modelling multivariate extremes, based on an angular-radial representation of the probability density function. Under this representation, the problem of modelling multivariate extremes is transformed to that of modelling an angular density and the tail of the radial variable, conditional on angle. Motivated by univariate theory, we assume that the tail of the conditional radial distribution converges to a generalised Pareto (GP) distribution. To simplify inference, we also assume that the angular density is continuous and finite and the GP parameter functions are continuous with angle. We refer to the resulting model as the semi-parametric angular-radial (SPAR) model for multivariate extremes. We consider the effect of the choice of polar coordinate system and introduce generalised concepts of angular-radial coordinate systems and generalised scalar angles in two dimensions. We show that under certain conditions, the choice of polar coordinate system does not affect the validity of the SPAR assumptions. However, some choices of coordinate system lead to simpler representations. In contrast, we show that the choice of margin does affect whether the model assumptions are satisfied. In particular, the use of Laplace margins results in a form of the density function for which the SPAR assumptions are satisfied for many common families of copula, with various dependence classes. We show that the SPAR model provides a more versatile framework for characterising multivariate extremes than provided by existing approaches, and that several commonly-used approaches are special cases of the SPAR model. Moreover, the SPAR framework provides a means of characterising all `extreme regions' of a joint distribution using a single inference. Applications in which this is useful are discussed.
Insurers usually turn to generalized linear models for modelling claim frequency and severity data. Due to their success in other fields, machine learning techniques are gaining popularity within the actuarial toolbox. Our paper contributes to the literature on frequency-severity insurance pricing with machine learning via deep learning structures. We present a benchmark study on four insurance data sets with frequency and severity targets in the presence of multiple types of input features. We compare in detail the performance of: a generalized linear model on binned input data, a gradient-boosted tree model, a feed-forward neural network (FFNN), and the combined actuarial neural network (CANN). Our CANNs combine a baseline prediction established with a GLM and GBM, respectively, with a neural network correction. We explain the data preprocessing steps with specific focus on the multiple types of input features typically present in tabular insurance data sets, such as postal codes, numeric and categorical covariates. Autoencoders are used to embed the categorical variables into the neural network and we explore their potential advantages in a frequency-severity setting. Finally, we construct global surrogate models for the neural nets' frequency and severity models. These surrogates enable the translation of the essential insights captured by the FFNNs or CANNs to GLMs. As such, a technical tariff table results that can easily be deployed in practice.
phyloDB is a modular and extensible framework for large-scale phylogenetic analyses, which are essential for understanding epidemics evolution. It relies on the Neo4j graph database for data storage and processing, providing a schema and an API for representing and querying phylogenetic data. Custom algorithms are also supported, allowing to perform heavy computations directly over the data, and to store results in the database. Multiple computation results are stored as multilayer networks, promoting and facilitating comparative analyses, as well as avoiding unnecessary ab initio computations. The experimental evaluation results showcase that phyloDB is efficient and scalable with respect to both API operations and algorithms execution.
We describe and analyze a hybrid finite element/neural network method for predicting solutions of partial differential equations. The methodology is designed for obtaining fine scale fluctuations from neural networks in a local manner. The network is capable of locally correcting a coarse finite element solution towards a fine solution taking the source term and the coarse approximation as input. Key observation is the dependency between quality of predictions and the size of training set which consists of different source terms and corresponding fine & coarse solutions. We provide the a priori error analysis of the method together with the stability analysis of the neural network. The numerical experiments confirm the capability of the network predicting fine finite element solutions. We also illustrate the generalization of the method to problems where test and training domains differ from each other.
The topic of inverse problems, related to Maxwell's equations, in the presence of nonlinear materials is quite new in literature. The lack of contributions in this area can be ascribed to the significant challenges that such problems pose. Retrieving the spatial behaviour of some unknown physical property, starting from boundary measurements, is a nonlinear and highly ill-posed problem even in the presence of linear materials. And the complexity exponentially grows when the focus is on nonlinear material properties. Recently, the Monotonicity Principle has been extended to nonlinear materials under very general assumptions. Starting from the theoretical background given by this extension, we develop a first real-time inversion method for the inverse obstacle problem in the presence of nonlinear materials. The Monotonicity Principle is the foundation of a class of non-iterative algorithms for tomography of linear materials. It has been successfully applied to various problems, governed by different PDEs. In the linear case, MP based inversion methods ensure excellent performances and compatibility with real-time applications. We focus on problems governed by elliptical PDEs and, as an example of application, we treat the Magnetostatic Permeability Tomography problem, in which the aim is to retrieve the spatial behaviour of magnetic permeability through boundary measurements in DC operations. In this paper, we provide some preliminary results giving the foundation of our method and extended numerical examples.
The Graded of Membership (GoM) model is a powerful tool for inferring latent classes in categorical data, which enables subjects to belong to multiple latent classes. However, its application is limited to categorical data with nonnegative integer responses, making it inappropriate for datasets with continuous or negative responses. To address this limitation, this paper proposes a novel model named the Weighted Grade of Membership (WGoM) model. Compared with GoM, our WGoM relaxes GoM's distribution constraint on the generation of a response matrix and it is more general than GoM. We then propose an algorithm to estimate the latent mixed memberships and the other WGoM parameters. We derive the error bounds of the estimated parameters and show that the algorithm is statistically consistent. The algorithmic performance is validated in both synthetic and real-world datasets. The results demonstrate that our algorithm is accurate and efficient, indicating its high potential for practical applications. This paper makes a valuable contribution to the literature by introducing a novel model that extends the applicability of the GoM model and provides a more flexible framework for analyzing categorical data with weighted responses.
The Koopman operator presents an attractive approach to achieve global linearization of nonlinear systems, making it a valuable method for simplifying the understanding of complex dynamics. While data-driven methodologies have exhibited promise in approximating finite Koopman operators, they grapple with various challenges, such as the judicious selection of observables, dimensionality reduction, and the ability to predict complex system behaviours accurately. This study presents a novel approach termed Mori-Zwanzig autoencoder (MZ-AE) to robustly approximate the Koopman operator in low-dimensional spaces. The proposed method leverages a nonlinear autoencoder to extract key observables for approximating a finite invariant Koopman subspace and integrates a non-Markovian correction mechanism using the Mori-Zwanzig formalism. Consequently, this approach yields a closed representation of dynamics within the latent manifold of the nonlinear autoencoder, thereby enhancing the precision and stability of the Koopman operator approximation. Demonstrations showcase the technique's ability to capture regime transitions in the flow around a circular cylinder. It also provided a low dimensional approximation for chaotic Kuramoto-Sivashinsky with promising short-term predictability and robust long-term statistical performance. By bridging the gap between data-driven techniques and the mathematical foundations of Koopman theory, MZ-AE offers a promising avenue for improved understanding and prediction of complex nonlinear dynamics.