9,739 research outputs found
Generalizing Informed Sampling for Asymptotically Optimal Sampling-based Kinodynamic Planning via Markov Chain Monte Carlo
Asymptotically-optimal motion planners such as RRT* have been shown to
incrementally approximate the shortest path between start and goal states. Once
an initial solution is found, their performance can be dramatically improved by
restricting subsequent samples to regions of the state space that can
potentially improve the current solution. When the motion planning problem lies
in a Euclidean space, this region , called the informed set, can be
sampled directly. However, when planning with differential constraints in
non-Euclidean state spaces, no analytic solutions exists to sampling
directly.
State-of-the-art approaches to sampling in such domains such as
Hierarchical Rejection Sampling (HRS) may still be slow in high-dimensional
state space. This may cause the planning algorithm to spend most of its time
trying to produces samples in rather than explore it. In this paper,
we suggest an alternative approach to produce samples in the informed set
for a wide range of settings. Our main insight is to recast this
problem as one of sampling uniformly within the sub-level-set of an implicit
non-convex function. This recasting enables us to apply Monte Carlo sampling
methods, used very effectively in the Machine Learning and Optimization
communities, to solve our problem. We show for a wide range of scenarios that
using our sampler can accelerate the convergence rate to high-quality solutions
in high-dimensional problems
fMRI activation detection with EEG priors
The purpose of brain mapping techniques is to advance the understanding of the relationship between structure and function in the human brain in so-called activation studies. In this work, an advanced statistical model for combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) recordings is developed to fuse complementary information about the location of neuronal activity. More precisely, a new Bayesian method is proposed for enhancing fMRI activation detection by the use of EEG-based spatial prior information in stimulus based experimental paradigms. I.e., we model and analyse stimulus influence by a spatial Bayesian variable selection scheme, and extend existing high-dimensional regression methods by incorporating prior information on binary selection indicators via a latent probit regression with either a spatially-varying or constant EEG effect. Spatially-varying effects are regularized by intrinsic Markov random field priors. Inference is based on a full Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approach. Whether the proposed algorithm is able to increase the sensitivity of mere fMRI models is examined in both a real-world application and a simulation study. We observed, that carefully selected EEG--prior information additionally increases sensitivity in activation regions that have been distorted by a low signal-to-noise ratio
Discussion of "Geodesic Monte Carlo on Embedded Manifolds"
Contributed discussion and rejoinder to "Geodesic Monte Carlo on Embedded
Manifolds" (arXiv:1301.6064)Comment: Discussion of arXiv:1301.6064. To appear in the Scandinavian Journal
of Statistics. 18 page
Segmentation of skin lesions in 2D and 3D ultrasound images using a spatially coherent generalized Rayleigh mixture model
This paper addresses the problem of jointly estimating the statistical distribution and segmenting lesions in multiple-tissue high-frequency skin ultrasound images. The distribution of multiple-tissue images is modeled as a spatially coherent finite mixture of heavy-tailed Rayleigh distributions. Spatial coherence inherent to biological tissues is modeled by enforcing local dependence between the mixture components. An original Bayesian algorithm combined with a Markov chain Monte Carlo method is then proposed to jointly estimate the mixture parameters and a label-vector associating each voxel to a tissue. More precisely, a hybrid Metropolis-within-Gibbs sampler is used to draw samples that are asymptotically distributed according to the posterior distribution of the Bayesian model. The Bayesian estimators of the model parameters are then computed from the generated samples. Simulation results are conducted on synthetic data to illustrate the performance of the proposed estimation strategy. The method is then successfully applied to the segmentation of in vivo skin tumors in high-frequency 2-D and 3-D ultrasound images
Learning-based attacks in cyber-physical systems
We introduce the problem of learning-based attacks in a simple abstraction of
cyber-physical systems---the case of a discrete-time, linear, time-invariant
plant that may be subject to an attack that overrides the sensor readings and
the controller actions. The attacker attempts to learn the dynamics of the
plant and subsequently override the controller's actuation signal, to destroy
the plant without being detected. The attacker can feed fictitious sensor
readings to the controller using its estimate of the plant dynamics and mimic
the legitimate plant operation. The controller, on the other hand, is
constantly on the lookout for an attack; once the controller detects an attack,
it immediately shuts the plant off. In the case of scalar plants, we derive an
upper bound on the attacker's deception probability for any measurable control
policy when the attacker uses an arbitrary learning algorithm to estimate the
system dynamics. We then derive lower bounds for the attacker's deception
probability for both scalar and vector plants by assuming a specific
authentication test that inspects the empirical variance of the system
disturbance. We also show how the controller can improve the security of the
system by superimposing a carefully crafted privacy-enhancing signal on top of
the "nominal control policy." Finally, for nonlinear scalar dynamics that
belong to the Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space (RKHS), we investigate the
performance of attacks based on nonlinear Gaussian-processes (GP) learning
algorithms
Approximate Inference for Constructing Astronomical Catalogs from Images
We present a new, fully generative model for constructing astronomical
catalogs from optical telescope image sets. Each pixel intensity is treated as
a random variable with parameters that depend on the latent properties of stars
and galaxies. These latent properties are themselves modeled as random. We
compare two procedures for posterior inference. One procedure is based on
Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) while the other is based on variational
inference (VI). The MCMC procedure excels at quantifying uncertainty, while the
VI procedure is 1000 times faster. On a supercomputer, the VI procedure
efficiently uses 665,000 CPU cores to construct an astronomical catalog from 50
terabytes of images in 14.6 minutes, demonstrating the scaling characteristics
necessary to construct catalogs for upcoming astronomical surveys.Comment: accepted to the Annals of Applied Statistic
New product development in an emerging economy: analysing the role of supplier involvement practices by using Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo technique
The research question is whether the positive relationship found between supplier involvement practices and new product development performances in developed economies also holds in emerging economies. The role of supplier involvement practices in new product development performance is yet to be substantially investigated in the emerging economies (other than China). This premise was examined by distributing a survey instrument (Jayaram’s (2008) published survey instrument that has been utilised in developed economies) to Malaysian manufacturing companies. To gauge the relationship between the supplier involvement practices and new product development (NPD) project performance of 146 companies, structural equation modelling was adopted. Our findings prove that supplier involvement practices have a significant positive impact on NPD project performance in an emerging economy with respect to quality objectives, design objectives, cost objectives, and “time-to-market” objectives. Further analysis using the Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm, yielding a more credible and feasible differentiation, confirmed these results (even in the case of an emerging economy) and indicated that these practices have a 28% impact on variance of NPD project performance. This considerable effect implies that supplier involvement is a must have, although further research is needed to identify the contingencies for its practices
Bayesian inference and non-linear extensions of the CIRCE method for quantifying the uncertainty of closure relationships integrated into thermal-hydraulic system codes
Uncertainty Quantification of closure relationships integrated into
thermal-hydraulic system codes is a critical prerequisite in applying the
Best-Estimate Plus Uncertainty (BEPU) methodology for nuclear safety and
licensing processes.The purpose of the CIRCE method is to estimate the
(log)-Gaussian probability distribution of a multiplicative factor applied to a
reference closure relationship in order to assess its uncertainty. Even though
this method has been implemented with success in numerous physical scenarios,
it can still suffer from substantial limitations such as the linearity
assumption and the difficulty of properly taking into account the inherent
statistical uncertainty. In the paper, we will extend the CIRCE method in two
aspects. On the one hand, we adopt the Bayesian setting putting prior
probability distributions on the parameters of the (log)-Gaussian distribution.
The posterior distribution of the parameters is then computed with respect to
an experimental database by means of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)
algorithms. On the other hand, we tackle the more general setting where the
simulations do not move linearly against the multiplicative factor(s). MCMC
algorithms then become time-prohibitive when the thermal-hydraulic simulations
exceed a few minutes. This handicap is overcome by using Gaussian process (GP)
emulators which can yield both reliable and fast predictions of the
simulations. The GP-based MCMC algorithms will be applied to quantify the
uncertainty of two condensation closure relationships at a safety injection
with respect to a database of experimental tests. The thermal-hydraulic
simulations will be run with the CATHARE 2 computer code.Comment: 37 pages, 5 figure
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