2,980 research outputs found
Enhancing SPH using moving least-squares and radial basis functions
In this paper we consider two sources of enhancement for the meshfree
Lagrangian particle method smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) by improving
the accuracy of the particle approximation. Namely, we will consider shape
functions constructed using: moving least-squares approximation (MLS); radial
basis functions (RBF). Using MLS approximation is appealing because polynomial
consistency of the particle approximation can be enforced. RBFs further appeal
as they allow one to dispense with the smoothing-length -- the parameter in the
SPH method which governs the number of particles within the support of the
shape function. Currently, only ad hoc methods for choosing the
smoothing-length exist. We ensure that any enhancement retains the conservative
and meshfree nature of SPH. In doing so, we derive a new set of
variationally-consistent hydrodynamic equations. Finally, we demonstrate the
performance of the new equations on the Sod shock tube problem.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, In Proc. A4A5, Chester UK, Jul. 18-22 200
The Surface Laplacian Technique in EEG: Theory and Methods
This paper reviews the method of surface Laplacian differentiation to study
EEG. We focus on topics that are helpful for a clear understanding of the
underlying concepts and its efficient implementation, which is especially
important for EEG researchers unfamiliar with the technique. The popular
methods of finite difference and splines are reviewed in detail. The former has
the advantage of simplicity and low computational cost, but its estimates are
prone to a variety of errors due to discretization. The latter eliminates all
issues related to discretization and incorporates a regularization mechanism to
reduce spatial noise, but at the cost of increasing mathematical and
computational complexity. These and several others issues deserving further
development are highlighted, some of which we address to the extent possible.
Here we develop a set of discrete approximations for Laplacian estimates at
peripheral electrodes and a possible solution to the problem of multiple-frame
regularization. We also provide the mathematical details of finite difference
approximations that are missing in the literature, and discuss the problem of
computational performance, which is particularly important in the context of
EEG splines where data sets can be very large. Along this line, the matrix
representation of the surface Laplacian operator is carefully discussed and
some figures are given illustrating the advantages of this approach. In the
final remarks, we briefly sketch a possible way to incorporate finite-size
electrodes into Laplacian estimates that could guide further developments.Comment: 43 pages, 8 figure
Local RBF approximation for scattered data fitting with bivariate splines
In this paper we continue our earlier research [4] aimed at developing effcient methods of local approximation suitable for the first stage of a spline based two-stage scattered data fitting algorithm. As an improvement to the pure polynomial local approximation method used in [5], a hybrid polynomial/radial basis scheme was considered in [4], where the local knot locations for the RBF terms were selected using a greedy knot insertion algorithm. In this paper standard radial local approximations based on interpolation or least squares are considered and a faster procedure is used for knot selection, signicantly reducing the computational cost of the method. Error analysis of the method and numerical results illustrating its performance are given
A new code for orbit analysis and Schwarzschild modelling of triaxial stellar systems
We review the methods used to study the orbital structure and chaotic
properties of various galactic models and to construct self-consistent
equilibrium solutions by Schwarzschild's orbit superposition technique. These
methods are implemented in a new publicly available software tool, SMILE, which
is intended to be a convenient and interactive instrument for studying a
variety of 2D and 3D models, including arbitrary potentials represented by a
basis-set expansion, a spherical-harmonic expansion with coefficients being
smooth functions of radius (splines), or a set of fixed point masses. We also
propose two new variants of Schwarzschild modelling, in which the density of
each orbit is represented by the coefficients of the basis-set or spline
spherical-harmonic expansion, and the orbit weights are assigned in such a way
as to reproduce the coefficients of the underlying density model. We explore
the accuracy of these general-purpose potential expansions and show that they
may be efficiently used to approximate a wide range of analytic density models
and serve as smooth representations of discrete particle sets (e.g. snapshots
from an N-body simulation), for instance, for the purpose of orbit analysis of
the snapshot. For the variants of Schwarzschild modelling, we use two test
cases - a triaxial Dehnen model containing a central black hole, and a model
re-created from an N-body snapshot obtained by a cold collapse. These tests
demonstrate that all modelling approaches are capable of creating equilibrium
models.Comment: MNRAS, 24 pages, 18 figures. Software is available at
http://td.lpi.ru/~eugvas/smile
Implicit Copulas from Bayesian Regularized Regression Smoothers
We show how to extract the implicit copula of a response vector from a
Bayesian regularized regression smoother with Gaussian disturbances. The copula
can be used to compare smoothers that employ different shrinkage priors and
function bases. We illustrate with three popular choices of shrinkage priors
--- a pairwise prior, the horseshoe prior and a g prior augmented with a point
mass as employed for Bayesian variable selection --- and both univariate and
multivariate function bases. The implicit copulas are high-dimensional, have
flexible dependence structures that are far from that of a Gaussian copula, and
are unavailable in closed form. However, we show how they can be evaluated by
first constructing a Gaussian copula conditional on the regularization
parameters, and then integrating over these. Combined with non-parametric
margins the regularized smoothers can be used to model the distribution of
non-Gaussian univariate responses conditional on the covariates. Efficient
Markov chain Monte Carlo schemes for evaluating the copula are given for this
case. Using both simulated and real data, we show how such copula smoothing
models can improve the quality of resulting function estimates and predictive
distributions
A mixed model approach for structured hazard regression
The classical Cox proportional hazards model is a benchmark approach to analyze continuous survival times in the presence of covariate information. In a number of applications, there is a need to relax one or more of its inherent assumptions, such as linearity of the predictor or the proportional hazards property. Also, one is often interested in jointly estimating the baseline hazard together with covariate effects or one may wish to add a spatial component for spatially correlated survival data. We propose an extended Cox model, where the (log-)baseline hazard is weakly parameterized using penalized splines and the usual linear predictor is replaced by a structured additive predictor incorporating nonlinear effects of continuous covariates and further time scales, spatial effects, frailty components, and more complex interactions. Inclusion of time-varying coefficients leads to models that relax the proportional hazards assumption. Nonlinear and time-varying effects are modelled through penalized splines, and spatial components are treated as correlated random effects following either a Markov random field or a stationary Gaussian random field. All model components, including smoothing parameters, are specified within a unified framework and are estimated simultaneously based on mixed model methodology. The estimation procedure for such general mixed hazard regression models is derived using penalized likelihood for regression coefficients and (approximate) marginal likelihood for smoothing parameters. Performance of the proposed method is studied through simulation and an application to leukemia survival data in Northwest England
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