Related papers: Approximation algorithms for the normalizing const…
Correlated proportions appear in many real-world applications and present a unique challenge in terms of finding an appropriate probabilistic model due to their constrained nature. The bivariate beta is a natural extension of the well-known…
Modern data analysis frequently involves variables with highly non-Gaussian marginal distributions. However, commonly used analysis methods are most effective with roughly Gaussian data. This paper introduces an automatic transformation…
We present three new approximation algorithms with improved constant ratios for selecting $n$ points in $n$ disks such that the minimum pairwise distance among the points is maximized. (1) A very simple $O(n\log n)$-time algorithm with…
This is an up-to-date introduction to, and overview of, marginal likelihood computation for model selection and hypothesis testing. Computing normalizing constants of probability models (or ratio of constants) is a fundamental issue in many…
In this thesis, new generalizations of the Bethe approximation and new understanding of the replica method are proposed. The Bethe approximation is an efficient approximation for graphical models, which gives an asymptotically accurate…
In this article we generalize Borel's classical approximation results for the regular continued fraction expansion to the alpha-Rosen fraction expansion, using a geometric method. We give a Haas-Series-type result about all possible good…
In this paper we introduce a new clustering technique called Regularity Clustering. This new technique is based on the practical variants of the two constructive versions of the Regularity Lemma, a very useful tool in graph theory. The…
A composite likelihood is an inference function derived by multiplying a set of likelihood components. This approach provides a flexible framework for drawing inference when the likelihood function of a statistical model is computationally…
Let $U$ be a Morse function on a compact connected $m$-dimensional Riemannian manifold, $m \geq 2,$ satisfying $\min U=0$ and let $\mathcal{U} = \{x \in M \: : U(x) = 0\}$ be the set of global minimizers. Consider the stochastic algorithm…
Recent research has developed several Monte Carlo methods for estimating the normalization constant (partition function) based on the idea of annealing. This means sampling successively from a path of distributions that interpolate between…
Computation of the marginal likelihood from a simulated posterior distribution is central to Bayesian model selection but is computationally difficult. I argue that the marginal likelihood can be reliably computed from a posterior sample by…
In this work we discuss the problem of selecting suitable approximators from families of parameterized elementary functions that are known to be dense in a Hilbert space of functions. We consider and analyze published procedures, both…
Consider bivariate observations $(X_1,Y_1), \ldots, (X_n,Y_n) \in \mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}$ with unknown conditional distributions $Q_x$ of $Y$, given that $X = x$. The goal is to estimate these distributions under the sole assumption…
In this work, we propose a new randomized algorithm for computing a low-rank approximation to a given matrix. Taking an approach different from existing literature, our method first involves a specific biased sampling, with an element being…
The G-Wishart distribution is an essential component for the Bayesian analysis of Gaussian graphical models as the conjugate prior for the precision matrix. Evaluating the marginal likelihood of such models usually requires computing…
The Weibull--like distributions form a large class of probability distributions that belong to the domain of attraction for the maxima of the Gumbel law. Besides the Weibull distribution, it includes important distributions as the Gamma…
We recently proposed a general algorithm for approximating nonstandard Bayesian posterior distributions by minimization of their Kullback-Leibler divergence with respect to a more convenient approximating distribution. In this note we offer…
This paper presents a tractable algorithm for estimating an unknown Lipschitz function from noisy observations and establishes an upper bound on its convergence rate. The approach extends max-affine methods from convex shape-restricted…
Approximate inference in probability models is a fundamental task in machine learning. Approximate inference provides powerful tools to Bayesian reasoning, decision making, and Bayesian deep learning. The main goal is to estimate the…
Robust mean estimation is one of the most important problems in statistics: given a set of samples in $\mathbb{R}^d$ where an $\alpha$ fraction are drawn from some distribution $D$ and the rest are adversarially corrupted, we aim to…