We consider the problem of computing a Gaussian approximation to the posterior distribution of a parameter given a large number N of observations and a Gaussian prior, when the dimension of the parameter d is also large. To address this problem we build on a recently introduced recursive algorithm for variational Gaussian approximation of the posterior, called recursive variational Gaussian approximation (RVGA), which is a single pass algorithm, free of parameter tuning. In this paper, we consider the case where the parameter dimension d is high, and we propose a novel version of RVGA that scales linearly in the dimension d (as well as in the number of observations N), and which only requires linear storage capacity in d. This is afforded by the use of a novel recursive expectation maximization (EM) algorithm applied for factor analysis introduced herein, to approximate at each step the covariance matrix of the Gaussian distribution conveying the uncertainty in the parameter. The approach is successfully illustrated on the problems of high dimensional least-squares and logistic regression, and generalized to a large class of nonlinear models.
This paper presents a new method for reconstructing regions of interest (ROI) from a limited number of computed tomography (CT) measurements. Classical model-based iterative reconstruction methods lead to images with predictable features. Still, they often suffer from tedious parameterization and slow convergence. On the contrary, deep learning methods are fast, and they can reach high reconstruction quality by leveraging information from large datasets, but they lack interpretability. At the crossroads of both methods, deep unfolding networks have been recently proposed. Their design includes the physics of the imaging system and the steps of an iterative optimization algorithm. Motivated by the success of these networks for various applications, we introduce an unfolding neural network called U-RDBFB designed for ROI CT reconstruction from limited data. Few-view truncated data are effectively handled thanks to a robust non-convex data fidelity term combined with a sparsity-inducing regularization function. We unfold the Dual Block coordinate Forward-Backward (DBFB) algorithm, embedded in an iterative reweighted scheme, allowing the learning of key parameters in a supervised manner. Our experiments show an improvement over several state-of-the-art methods, including a model-based iterative scheme, a multi-scale deep learning architecture, and other deep unfolding methods.
This work, for the first time, introduces two constant factor approximation algorithms with linear query complexity for non-monotone submodular maximization over a ground set of size $n$ subject to a knapsack constraint, $\mathsf{DLA}$ and $\mathsf{RLA}$. $\mathsf{DLA}$ is a deterministic algorithm that provides an approximation factor of $6+\epsilon$ while $\mathsf{RLA}$ is a randomized algorithm with an approximation factor of $4+\epsilon$. Both run in $O(n \log(1/\epsilon)/\epsilon)$ query complexity. The key idea to obtain a constant approximation ratio with linear query lies in: (1) dividing the ground set into two appropriate subsets to find the near-optimal solution over these subsets with linear queries, and (2) combining a threshold greedy with properties of two disjoint sets or a random selection process to improve solution quality. In addition to the theoretical analysis, we have evaluated our proposed solutions with three applications: Revenue Maximization, Image Summarization, and Maximum Weighted Cut, showing that our algorithms not only return comparative results to state-of-the-art algorithms but also require significantly fewer queries.
In this work, we propose a novel framework for large-scale Gaussian process (GP) modeling. Contrary to the global, and local approximations proposed in the literature to address the computational bottleneck with exact GP modeling, we employ a combined global-local approach in building the approximation. Our framework uses a subset-of-data approach where the subset is a union of a set of global points designed to capture the global trend in the data, and a set of local points specific to a given testing location to capture the local trend around the testing location. The correlation function is also modeled as a combination of a global, and a local kernel. The performance of our framework, which we refer to as TwinGP, is on par or better than the state-of-the-art GP modeling methods at a fraction of their computational cost.
Laplace approximation is a very useful tool in Bayesian inference and it claims a nearly Gaussian behavior of the posterior. \cite{SpLaplace2022} established some rather accurate finite sample results about the quality of Laplace approximation in terms of the so called effective dimension $p$ under the critical dimension constraint $p^{3} \ll n$. However, this condition can be too restrictive for many applications like error-in-operator problem or Deep Neuronal Networks. This paper addresses the question whether the dimensionality condition can be relaxed and the accuracy of approximation can be improved if the target of estimation is low dimensional while the nuisance parameter is high or infinite dimensional. Under mild conditions, the marginal posterior can be approximated by a Gaussian mixture and the accuracy of the approximation only depends on the target dimension. Under the condition $p^{2} \ll n$ or in some special situation like semi-orthogonality, the Gaussian mixture can be replaced by one Gaussian distribution leading to a classical Laplace result. The second result greatly benefits from the recent advances in Gaussian comparison from \cite{GNSUl2017}. The results are illustrated and specified for the case of error-in-operator model.
We discuss the approximation of the eigensolutions associated with the Maxwell eigenvalues problem in the framework of least-squares finite elements. We write the Maxwell curl curl equation as a system of two first order equation and design a novel least-squares formulation whose minimum is attained at the solution of the system. The eigensolution are then approximated by considering the eigenmodes of the underlying solution operator. We study the convergence of the finite element approximation and we show several numerical tests confirming the good behavior of the method. It turns out that nodal elements can be successfully employed for the approximation of our problem also in presence of singular solutions.
Data-driven modeling is useful for reconstructing nonlinear dynamical systems when the true data generating mechanism is unknown or too expensive to compute. Having reliable uncertainty assessment of the forecast enables tools to be deployed to predict new scenarios that haven't been observed before. In this work, we derive internal uncertainty assessments from a few models for probabilistic forecasts. First, we extend the parallel partial Gaussian processes for predicting the one-step-ahead vector-valued transition function that links the observations between the current and next time points, and quantify the uncertainty of predictions by posterior sampling. Second, we show the equivalence between the dynamic mode decomposition and maximum likelihood estimator of a linear mapping matrix in a linear state space model. This connection provides data generating models of dynamic mode decomposition and thus, the uncertainty of the predictions can be obtained. Third, we draw close connections between data-driven models of nonlinear dynamical systems, such as proper orthogonal decomposition, dynamic mode decomposition and parallel partial Gaussian processes, through a unified view of data generating models. We study two numerical examples, where the inputs of the dynamics are assumed to be known in the first example and the inputs are unknown in the second example. The examples indicate that uncertainty of forecast can be properly quantified, whereas model or input misspecification can degrade the accuracy of uncertainty quantification.
The proximal policy optimization (PPO) algorithm stands as one of the most prosperous methods in the field of reinforcement learning (RL). Despite its success, the theoretical understanding of PPO remains deficient. Specifically, it is unclear whether PPO or its optimistic variants can effectively solve linear Markov decision processes (MDPs), which are arguably the simplest models in RL with function approximation. To bridge this gap, we propose an optimistic variant of PPO for episodic adversarial linear MDPs with full-information feedback, and establish a $\tilde{\mathcal{O}}(d^{3/4}H^2K^{3/4})$ regret for it. Here $d$ is the ambient dimension of linear MDPs, $H$ is the length of each episode, and $K$ is the number of episodes. Compared with existing policy-based algorithms, we achieve the state-of-the-art regret bound in both stochastic linear MDPs and adversarial linear MDPs with full information. Additionally, our algorithm design features a novel multi-batched updating mechanism and the theoretical analysis utilizes a new covering number argument of value and policy classes, which might be of independent interest.
Recent studies have shown that episodic reinforcement learning (RL) is no harder than bandits when the total reward is bounded by $1$, and proved regret bounds that have a polylogarithmic dependence on the planning horizon $H$. However, it remains an open question that if such results can be carried over to adversarial RL, where the reward is adversarially chosen at each episode. In this paper, we answer this question affirmatively by proposing the first horizon-free policy search algorithm. To tackle the challenges caused by exploration and adversarially chosen reward, our algorithm employs (1) a variance-uncertainty-aware weighted least square estimator for the transition kernel; and (2) an occupancy measure-based technique for the online search of a \emph{stochastic} policy. We show that our algorithm achieves an $\tilde{O}\big((d+\log (|\mathcal{S}|^2 |\mathcal{A}|))\sqrt{K}\big)$ regret with full-information feedback, where $d$ is the dimension of a known feature mapping linearly parametrizing the unknown transition kernel of the MDP, $K$ is the number of episodes, $|\mathcal{S}|$ and $|\mathcal{A}|$ are the cardinalities of the state and action spaces. We also provide hardness results and regret lower bounds to justify the near optimality of our algorithm and the unavoidability of $\log|\mathcal{S}|$ and $\log|\mathcal{A}|$ in the regret bound.
Characterizing how neural network depth, width, and dataset size jointly impact model quality is a central problem in deep learning theory. We give here a complete solution in the special case of linear networks with output dimension one trained using zero noise Bayesian inference with Gaussian weight priors and mean squared error as a negative log-likelihood. For any training dataset, network depth, and hidden layer widths, we find non-asymptotic expressions for the predictive posterior and Bayesian model evidence in terms of Meijer-G functions, a class of meromorphic special functions of a single complex variable. Through novel asymptotic expansions of these Meijer-G functions, a rich new picture of the joint role of depth, width, and dataset size emerges. We show that linear networks make provably optimal predictions at infinite depth: the posterior of infinitely deep linear networks with data-agnostic priors is the same as that of shallow networks with evidence-maximizing data-dependent priors. This yields a principled reason to prefer deeper networks when priors are forced to be data-agnostic. Moreover, we show that with data-agnostic priors, Bayesian model evidence in wide linear networks is maximized at infinite depth, elucidating the salutary role of increased depth for model selection. Underpinning our results is a novel emergent notion of effective depth, given by the number of hidden layers times the number of data points divided by the network width; this determines the structure of the posterior in the large-data limit.
Under-approximations of reachable sets and tubes have been receiving growing research attention due to their important roles in control synthesis and verification. Available under-approximation methods applicable to continuous-time linear systems typically assume the ability to compute transition matrices and their integrals exactly, which is not feasible in general, and/or suffer from high computational costs. In this note, we attempt to overcome these drawbacks for a class of linear time-invariant (LTI) systems, where we propose a novel method to under-approximate finite-time forward reachable sets and tubes, utilizing approximations of the matrix exponential and its integral. In particular, we consider the class of continuous-time LTI systems with an identity input matrix and initial and input values belonging to full dimensional sets that are affine transformations of closed unit balls. The proposed method yields computationally efficient under-approximations of reachable sets and tubes, when implemented using zonotopes, with first-order convergence guarantees in the sense of the Hausdorff distance. To illustrate its performance, we implement our approach in three numerical examples, where linear systems of dimensions ranging between 2 and 200 are considered.