Related papers: Simple variance bounds with applications to Bayesi…
We consider the problem of bounding large deviations for non-i.i.d. random variables that are allowed to have arbitrary dependencies. Previous works typically assumed a specific dependence structure, namely the existence of independent…
We propose a new functional analytic approach to Stein's method of exchangeable pairs that does not require the pair at hand to satisfy any approximate linear regression property. We make use of this theory in order to derive abstract…
By combining the Minkowski inequality and the quantum Chernoff bound, we derive easy-to-compute upper bounds for the error probability affecting the optimal discrimination of Gaussian states. In particular, these bounds are useful when the…
Bayesian neural network models (BNN) have re-surged in recent years due to the advancement of scalable computations and its utility in solving complex prediction problems in a wide variety of applications. Despite the popularity and…
We introduce a version of Stein's method of comparison of operators specifically tailored to the problem of bounding the Wasserstein-1 distance between continuous and discrete distributions on the real line. Our approach rests on a new…
We consider the problem of estimating complex statistical latent variable models using variational Bayes methods. These methods are used when exact posterior inference is either infeasible or computationally expensive, and they approximate…
Many modern unsupervised or semi-supervised machine learning algorithms rely on Bayesian probabilistic models. These models are usually intractable and thus require approximate inference. Variational inference (VI) lets us approximate a…
We provide a general result for bounding the difference between point probabilities of integer supported distributions and the translated Poisson distribution, a convenient alternative to the discretized normal. We illustrate our theorem in…
Estimating boundary curves has many applications such as economics, climate science, and medicine. Bayesian trend filtering has been developed as one of locally adaptive smoothing methods to estimate the non-stationary trend of data. This…
Let $X_1,X_2,...,X_n$ be a sequence of independent or locally dependent random variables taking values in $\mathbb{Z}_+$. In this paper, we derive sharp bounds, via a new probabilistic method, for the total variation distance between the…
The posterior variance of Gaussian processes is a valuable measure of the learning error which is exploited in various applications such as safe reinforcement learning and control design. However, suitable analysis of the posterior variance…
Sums of independent, bounded random variables concentrate around their expectation approximately as well a Gaussian of the same variance. Well known results of this form include the Bernstein, Hoeffding, and Chernoff inequalities and many…
Variational Bayes (VB) is rapidly becoming a popular tool for Bayesian inference in statistical modeling. However, the existing VB algorithms are restricted to cases where the likelihood is tractable, which precludes the use of VB in many…
Approximate Bayesian inference on the basis of summary statistics is well-suited to complex problems for which the likelihood is either mathematically or computationally intractable. However the methods that use rejection suffer from the…
Frequentist conditions for asymptotic suitability of Bayesian procedures focus on lower bounds for prior mass in Kullback-Leibler neighbourhoods of the data distribution. The goal of this paper is to investigate the flexibility in criteria…
We generalize the well-known zero bias distribution and the $\lambda$-Stein pair to an approximate zero bias distribution and an approximate $\lambda,R$-Stein pair, respectively. Berry Esseen type bounds to the normal, based on approximate…
We provide an overview of some recent techniques involving the Malliavin calculus of variations and the so-called ``Stein's method'' for the Gaussian approximations of probability distributions. Special attention is devoted to establishing…
The purpose of this dissertation is to introduce a version of Stein's method of exchangeable pairs to solve problems in measure concentration. We specifically target systems of dependent random variables, since that is where the power of…
The Laplace approximation is a popular method for constructing a Gaussian approximation to the Bayesian posterior and thereby approximating the posterior mean and variance. But approximation quality is a concern. One might consider using…
We introduce a Bayesian approach to predictive density calibration and combination that accounts for parameter uncertainty and model set incompleteness through the use of random calibration functionals and random combination weights.…