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Markov chain Monte Carlo methods for exponential family models with intractable normalizing constant, such as the exchange algorithm, require simulations of the sufficient statistics at every iteration of the Markov chain, which often…
We introduce a new class of sequential Monte Carlo methods which reformulates the essence of the nested sampling method of Skilling (2006) in terms of sequential Monte Carlo techniques. Two new algorithms are proposed, nested sampling via…
Practitioners of Bayesian statistics have long depended on Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) to obtain samples from intractable posterior distributions. Unfortunately, MCMC algorithms are typically serial, and do not scale to the large…
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…
We describe a general strategy for sampling configurations from a given distribution, NOT based on the standard Metropolis (Markov chain) strategy. It uses the fact that nontrivial problems in statistical physics are high dimensional and…
We propose a general framework using spike-and-slab prior distributions to aid with the development of high-dimensional Bayesian inference. Our framework allows inference with a general quasi-likelihood function. We show that highly…
Likelihood-free methods, such as approximate Bayesian computation, are powerful tools for practical inference problems with intractable likelihood functions. Markov chain Monte Carlo and sequential Monte Carlo variants of approximate…
Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) has been progressively incorporated within the statistician's toolbox as an alternative sampling method in settings when standard Metropolis-Hastings is inefficient. HMC generates a Markov chain on an augmented…
Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods are fundamental to Bayesian computation, but can be computationally intensive, especially in high-dimensional settings. Push-forward generative models, such as generative adversarial networks (GANs),…
Bayesian inference in the presence of an intractable likelihood function is computationally challenging. When following a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach to approximate the posterior distribution in this context, one typically…
We present a computational model to reconstruct trees of ancestors for animals with sexual reproduction. Through a recursive algorithm combined with a random number generator, it is possible to reproduce the number of ancestors for each…
Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods provide consistent of integrals as the number of iterations goes to infinity. MCMC estimators are generally biased after any fixed number of iterations. We propose to remove this bias by using…
Habitat selection models are used in ecology to link the distribution of animals to environmental covariates, and identify habitats that are important for conservation. The most widely used models of this type, resource selection functions,…
The Bayesian elastic net regression model is characterized by the regression coefficient prior distribution, the negative log density of which corresponds to the elastic net penalty function. While Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods…
Estimating model parameters of a general family of cure models is always a challenging task mainly due to flatness and multimodality of the likelihood function. In this work, we propose a fully Bayesian approach in order to overcome these…
We present a Bayesian approach to the problem of determining parameters for coalescing binary systems observed with laser interferometric detectors. By applying a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm, specifically the Gibbs sampler, we…
We are interested in modelling Darwinian evolution, resulting from the interplay of phenotypic variation and natural selection through ecological interactions. Our models are rooted in the microscopic, stochastic description of a population…
Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms are invaluable tools for exploring stationary properties of physical systems, especially in situations where direct sampling is unfeasible. Common implementations of Monte Carlo algorithms employ…
Bayesian model selection, with precedents in George and McCulloch (1993) and Abramovich et al. (1998), support credibility measures that relate model uncertainty, but computation can be costly when sparse priors are approximate. We design…
The generalized inverse Gaussian, denoted $\mathrm{GIG}(p, a, b)$, is a flexible family of distributions that includes the gamma, inverse gamma, and inverse Gaussian distributions as special cases. In addition to its applications in…