216,067 research outputs found
Statistical eigen-inference from large Wishart matrices
We consider settings where the observations are drawn from a zero-mean
multivariate (real or complex) normal distribution with the population
covariance matrix having eigenvalues of arbitrary multiplicity. We assume that
the eigenvectors of the population covariance matrix are unknown and focus on
inferential procedures that are based on the sample eigenvalues alone (i.e.,
"eigen-inference"). Results found in the literature establish the asymptotic
normality of the fluctuation in the trace of powers of the sample covariance
matrix. We develop concrete algorithms for analytically computing the limiting
quantities and the covariance of the fluctuations. We exploit the asymptotic
normality of the trace of powers of the sample covariance matrix to develop
eigenvalue-based procedures for testing and estimation. Specifically, we
formulate a simple test of hypotheses for the population eigenvalues and a
technique for estimating the population eigenvalues in settings where the
cumulative distribution function of the (nonrandom) population eigenvalues has
a staircase structure. Monte Carlo simulations are used to demonstrate the
superiority of the proposed methodologies over classical techniques and the
robustness of the proposed techniques in high-dimensional, (relatively) small
sample size settings. The improved performance results from the fact that the
proposed inference procedures are "global" (in a sense that we describe) and
exploit "global" information thereby overcoming the inherent biases that
cripple classical inference procedures which are "local" and rely on "local"
information.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-AOS583 the Annals of
Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aos/) by the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Efficient training algorithms for HMMs using incremental estimation
Typically, parameter estimation for a hidden Markov model (HMM) is performed using an expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm with the maximum-likelihood (ML) criterion. The EM algorithm is an iterative scheme that is well-defined and numerically stable, but convergence may require a large number of iterations. For speech recognition systems utilizing large amounts of training material, this results in long training times. This paper presents an incremental estimation approach to speed-up the training of HMMs without any loss of recognition performance. The algorithm selects a subset of data from the training set, updates the model parameters based on the subset, and then iterates the process until convergence of the parameters. The advantage of this approach is a substantial increase in the number of iterations of the EM algorithm per training token, which leads to faster training. In order to achieve reliable estimation from a small fraction of the complete data set at each iteration, two training criteria are studied; ML and maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation. Experimental results show that the training of the incremental algorithms is substantially faster than the conventional (batch) method and suffers no loss of recognition performance. Furthermore, the incremental MAP based training algorithm improves performance over the batch versio
On Similarities between Inference in Game Theory and Machine Learning
In this paper, we elucidate the equivalence between inference in game theory and machine learning. Our aim in so doing is to establish an equivalent vocabulary between the two domains so as to facilitate developments at the intersection of both fields, and as proof of the usefulness of this approach, we use recent developments in each field to make useful improvements to the other. More specifically, we consider the analogies between smooth best responses in fictitious play and Bayesian inference methods. Initially, we use these insights to develop and demonstrate an improved algorithm for learning in games based on probabilistic moderation. That is, by integrating over the distribution of opponent strategies (a Bayesian approach within machine learning) rather than taking a simple empirical average (the approach used in standard fictitious play) we derive a novel moderated fictitious play algorithm and show that it is more likely than standard fictitious play to converge to a payoff-dominant but risk-dominated Nash equilibrium in a simple coordination game. Furthermore we consider the converse case, and show how insights from game theory can be used to derive two improved mean field variational learning algorithms. We first show that the standard update rule of mean field variational learning is analogous to a Cournot adjustment within game theory. By analogy with fictitious play, we then suggest an improved update rule, and show that this results in fictitious variational play, an improved mean field variational learning algorithm that exhibits better convergence in highly or strongly connected graphical models. Second, we use a recent advance in fictitious play, namely dynamic fictitious play, to derive a derivative action variational learning algorithm, that exhibits superior convergence properties on a canonical machine learning problem (clustering a mixture distribution)
Bayesian computation via empirical likelihood
Approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) has become an essential tool for the
analysis of complex stochastic models when the likelihood function is
numerically unavailable. However, the well-established statistical method of
empirical likelihood provides another route to such settings that bypasses
simulations from the model and the choices of the ABC parameters (summary
statistics, distance, tolerance), while being convergent in the number of
observations. Furthermore, bypassing model simulations may lead to significant
time savings in complex models, for instance those found in population
genetics. The BCel algorithm we develop in this paper also provides an
evaluation of its own performance through an associated effective sample size.
The method is illustrated using several examples, including estimation of
standard distributions, time series, and population genetics models.Comment: 21 pages, 12 figures, revised version of the previous version with a
new titl
Introducing and evaluating a Gibbs sampler for spatial Poisson regression models
In this paper we present a Gibbs sampler for a Poisson model including spatial effects. Frühwirth-Schnatter und Wagner (2004b) show that by data augmentation via the introduction of two sequences of latent variables a Poisson regression model can be transformed into a normal linear model. We show how this methodology can be extended to spatial Poisson regression models and give details of the resulting Gibbs sampler. In particular, the influence of model parameterisation and different update strategies on the mixing of the MCMC chains are discussed. The developed Gibbs samplers are analysed in two simulation studies and appliedto model the expected number of claims for policyholders of a German car insurance data set. In general, both large and small simulated spatial effects are estimated accurately by the Gibbs samplers and reasonable low autocorrelations are obtained when the data variability is rather large. However, for data with very low heterogeneity, the autocorrelations resulting from the Gibbs samplers are very high, withdrawing the computational advantage over a Metropolis Hastings independence sampler which exhibits very low autocorrelations in all settings
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