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This paper presents a detailed theoretical analysis of the three stochastic approximation proximal gradient algorithms proposed in our companion paper [49] to set regularization parameters by marginal maximum likelihood estimation. We prove…
Specialized classifiers, namely those dedicated to a subset of classes, are often adopted in real-world recognition systems. However, integrating such classifiers is nontrivial. Existing methods, e.g. weighted average, usually implicitly…
The analysis of many problems of interest associated with Markov chains, e.g. stationary distributions, moments of first passage time distributions and moments of occupation time random variables, involves the solution of a system of linear…
Recently a majorization method for optimizing partition functions of log-linear models was proposed alongside a novel quadratic variational upper-bound. In the batch setting, it outperformed state-of-the-art first- and second-order…
Expectation Maximization (EM) is among the most popular algorithms for estimating parameters of statistical models. However, EM, which is an iterative algorithm based on the maximum likelihood principle, is generally only guaranteed to find…
A stochastic incremental subgradient algorithm for the minimization of a sum of convex functions is introduced. The method sequentially uses partial subgradient information and the sequence of partial subgradients is determined by a general…
In the thesis we take the split chain approach to analyzing Markov chains and use it to establish fixed-width results for estimators obtained via Markov chain Monte Carlo procedures (MCMC). Theoretical results include necessary and…
Sequential optimization methods are often confronted with the curse of dimensionality in high-dimensional spaces. Current approaches under the Gaussian process framework are still burdened by the computational complexity of tracking…
In this paper we study various properties of finite stochastic systems or hidden Markov chains as they are alternatively called. We discuss their construction following different approaches and we also derive recursive filtering formulas…
This paper reviews the design of experiments for generalised linear models, including optimal design, Bayesian design and designs for models with random effects.
This is a short review of two common approximations in stochastic chemical and biochemical kinetics. It will appear as Chapter 6 in the book "Quantitative Biology: Theory, Computational Methods and Examples of Models" edited by Brian…
We extend the Markov chain tree theorem to general commutative semirings, and we generalize the state reduction algorithm to commutative semifields. This leads to a new universal algorithm, whose prototype is the state reduction algorithm…
Combinatorial Optimization problems are widespread in domains such as logistics, manufacturing, and drug discovery, yet their NP-hard nature makes them computationally challenging. Recent Neural Combinatorial Optimization methods leverage…
Schemata theory, Markov chains, and statistical mechanics have been used to explain how evolutionary algorithms (EAs) work. Incremental success has been achieved with all of these methods, but each has been stymied by limitations related to…
The goal of this tutorial is to introduce key models, algorithms, and open questions related to the use of optimization methods for solving problems arising in machine learning. It is written with an INFORMS audience in mind, specifically…
We address regularised versions of the Expectation-Maximisation (EM) algorithm for Generalised Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) in the context of panel data (measured on several individuals at different time-points). A random response y is…
Many recent successful (deep) reinforcement learning algorithms make use of regularization, generally based on entropy or Kullback-Leibler divergence. We propose a general theory of regularized Markov Decision Processes that generalizes…
We survey information-theoretic approaches to the reduction of Markov chains. Our survey is structured in two parts: The first part considers Markov chain coarse graining, which focuses on projecting the Markov chain to a process on a…
In this paper we look at a connection between the $\ell_q,0\leq q\leq 1$, optimization and under-determined linear systems of equations with sparse solutions. The case $q=1$, or in other words $\ell_1$ optimization and its a connection with…
We consider the Markov chain approximations for singular stable-like processes. First we obtain properties of some Markov chains. Then we construct the approximating Markov chains and give a necessary condition for weak convergence of these…