Related papers: Approximate Deduction in Single Evidential Bodies
Inferring the value of a property of a large stochastic system is a difficult task when the number of samples is insufficient to reliably estimate the probability distribution. The Bayesian estimator of the property of interest requires the…
We develop a domain-theoretic framework for imprecise probability reasoning and inference on general topological spaces with a countably based continuous lattice of open sets. We address two distinct forms of uncertainty: partial or…
Fields like public health, public policy, and social science often want to quantify the degree of dependence between variables whose relationships take on unknown functional forms. Typically, in fact, researchers in these fields are…
We present novel bounds for estimating discrete probability distributions under the $\ell_\infty$ norm. These are nearly optimal in various precise senses, including a kind of instance-optimality. Our data-dependent convergence guarantees…
A fundamental class of inferential problems are those characterised by there having been a substantial degree of pre-data (or prior) belief that the value of a model parameter was equal or lay close to a specified value, which may, for…
Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) is commonly used for parameter estimation and model comparison for intractable simulator-based models whose likelihood function cannot be evaluated. In this paper we instead investigate the feasibility…
We present and examine a result related to uncertainty reasoning, namely that a certain plausibility space of Cox's type can be uniquely embedded in a minimal ordered field. This, although a purely mathematical result, can be claimed to…
Bayes' theorem incorporates distinct types of information through the likelihood and prior. Direct observations of state variables enter the likelihood and modify posterior probabilities through consistent updating. Information in terms of…
We elaborate on a deconvolution method, used to estimate the empirical distribution of unknown parameters, as suggested recently by Efron (2013). It is applied to estimating the empirical distribution of the 'sampling probabilities' of m…
Probabilistic inference provides a language for describing how organisms may learn from and adapt to their environment. The computations needed to implement probabilistic inference often require specific representations, akin to having the…
When knowledge is obtained from a database, it is only possible to deduce confidence intervals for probability values. With confidence intervals replacing point values, the results in the set covering model include interval constraints for…
Mathematical proof aims to deliver confident conclusions, but a very similar process of deduction can be used to make uncertain estimates that are open to revision. A key ingredient in such reasoning is the use of a "default" estimate of…
With reference to a binary outcome and a binary mediator, we derive identification bounds for natural effects under a reduced set of assumptions. Specifically, no assumptions about confounding are made that involve the outcome; we only…
The paper builds upon a recent approach to find the approximate bounds of a real function using Polynomial Chaos expansions. Given a function of random variables with compact support probability distributions, the intuition is to quantify…
Theoretically as well as experimentally it is investigated how people represent their knowledge in order to make decisions or to share their knowledge with others. Experiment 1 probes into the ways how people 6ather information about the…
We are concerned with the problem of introducing credibility type information into reasoning systems. The concept of credibility allows us to discount information provided by agents. An important characteristic of this kind of procedure is…
We develop methods for efficient amortized approximate Bayesian inference over posterior distributions of probabilistic clustering models, such as Dirichlet process mixture models. The approach is based on mapping distributed,…
Many scientifically well-motivated statistical models in natural, engineering and environmental sciences are specified through a generative process, but in some cases it may not be possible to write down a likelihood for these models…
We present a novel probabilistic programming framework that couples directly to existing large-scale simulators through a cross-platform probabilistic execution protocol, which allows general-purpose inference engines to record and control…
Orthogonal polynomial approximations form the foundation to a set of well-established methods for uncertainty quantification known as polynomial chaos. These approximations deliver models for emulating physical systems in a variety of…