Computational statistics using the Bayesian Inference Engine

This paper introduces the Bayesian Inference Engine (BIE), a general parallel, optimised software package for parameter inference and model selection. This package is motivated by the analysis needs of modern astronomical surveys and the need to organise and reuse expensive derived data. The BIE is the first platform for computational statistics designed explicitly to enable Bayesian update and model comparison for astronomical problems. Bayesian update is based on the representation of high-dimensional posterior distributions using metric-ball-tree based kernel density estimation. Among its algorithmic offerings, the BIE emphasises hybrid tempered MCMC schemes that robustly sample multimodal posterior distributions in high-dimensional parameter spaces. Moreover, the BIE is implements a full persistence or serialisation system that stores the full byte-level image of the running inference and previously characterised posterior distributions for later use. Two new algorithms to compute the marginal likelihood from the posterior distribution, developed for and implemented in the BIE, enable model comparison for complex models and data sets. Finally, the BIE was designed to be a collaborative platform for applying Bayesian methodology to astronomy. It includes an extensible object-oriented and easily extended framework that implements every aspect of the Bayesian inference. By providing a variety of statistical algorithms for all phases of the inference problem, a scientist may explore a variety of approaches with a single model and data implementation. Additional technical details and download details are available from http://www.astro.umass.edu/bie. The BIE is distributed under the GNU GPL.Comment: Resubmitted version. Additional technical details and download details are available from http://www.astro.umass.edu/bie. The BIE is distributed under the GNU GP

Assembling strategies in extrinsic evolvable hardware with bi-directional incremental evolution

Bidirectional incremental evolution (BIE) has been proposed as a technique to overcome the ”stalling” effect in evolvable hardware applications. However preliminary results show perceptible dependence of performance of BIE and quality of evaluated circuit on assembling strategy applied during reverse stage of incremental evolution. The purpose of this paper is to develop assembling strategy that will assist BIE to produce relatively optimal solution with minimal computational effort (e.g. the minimal number of generations)

An efficient representation for kernels in the 2d dynamics displacement discontinuity method for cracked elastic materials

The displacement discontinuity method is a rather standard approach to study cracks in elastic materials. This is in fact a certain technique to construct the system of Boundary Integral Equations (BIE), or equivalently, Boundary Element Methods (BEM). In the static case this typically results in explicit expressions for the kernels of respective BIE, both in 2d and 3d problems. In the work the authors give efficient representations for such kernels in explicit form

On evolution of relatively large combinational logic circuits

Evolvable hardware (EHW) (Yao and Higuchi, 1999) is a technique introduced to automatically design circuits where the circuit configuration is carried out by evolutionary algorithms. One of the main difficulties in using EHW to solve real-world problems is the scalability. Until now, several strategies have been proposed to avoid this problem, but none of them completely tackle the issue. In this paper three different methods for evolving the most complex circuits have been tested for their scalability. These methods are bi-directional incremental evolution (SO-BIE); generalised disjunction decomposition (GD-BIE) and evolutionary strategies (ES) with dynamic mutation rate. In order to achieve the generalised conclusions the chosen approaches were tested using multipliers, traditionally used in EHW, but also logic circuits taken from MCNC (Yang, 1991) benchmark library and randomly generated circuits. The analysis of the approaches demonstrated that PLA-based ES is capable of evolving logic circuits of up to 12 inputs. The use of SO-BIE allows the generation of fully functional circuits of 14 inputs and GD-BIE is estimated to be able to evolve circuits of 21 inputs

Rigorous analysis of internal resonances in 3-D hybrid FE-BIE formulations by means of the Poincaré-Steklov operator

3-D hybrid finite-element (FE) boundary integral equation (BIE) formulations are widely used because of their ability to simulate large inhomogeneous structures in both open and bounded simulation domains by applying each method where it is the most efficient. However, some formulations suffer from breakdown frequencies at which the solution is not uniquely defined and errors are introduced due to internal resonances. In this paper, we investigate the occurrence of spurious solutions resulting from these resonances by using the concept of the Poincare-Steklov or Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator, which provides a relation between the tangential electric field and the electric current on the boundary of a domain. By identifying this operator in both the FE and BIE method, several new properties of internal resonances in 3-D hybrid FE-BIE formulations are easily derived. Several conformal and nonconformal formulations are studied and the theory is then applied to a scattering problem

Ali je Kitajska sposobna prehiteti svet v filozofiji in estetiki? Odziv na komentarje Aleša Erjavca, Ernesta Ženka in Roka Benčina o teorijah zhuyi in Bie-moderni

European philosophers and aestheticians hold that the humanities in China, including philosophy and aesthetics, may have bright prospects, but they do not necessarily regard them as first class. Contrary to this point of view, Bie-modernism (“bie xian dai zhuyi” in Chinese pinyin) believes that China’s humanities have world-class aspirations, although in this respect there are different motivations with regard to the Chinese government and the Chinese people. Lacking the most basic Enlightenment modernity, Chinese society and China’s humanities also lack a real modernity, which has been guiding the discourse of Chinese humanities since 1989. Only exported contemporary Chinese avant-garde art has the modernity of reflection and criticism that is proper to Bie-modernist[1] art. Therefore, if China’s humanities can learn from the Chinese avant-garde art spirit and adhere to Bie-modernism, it is possible to enter the international ranks. Then it will not be impossible to lead the world.[1]     Bie-modern theory, which was published in 2014, includes both the Bie-modern social situation and Bie-modernism, the latter of which counters the Bie-modern social situation. “Bie-modern” means the hybridity of the pre-modern, modern and post-modern, or the mixed social form of feudalism, socialism and capitalism. “Bie-modern” is doubtful modernity or pseudo-modernity, but Bie-modernism aims to eliminate pseudo-modernity and to set up real modernity. In Georgia Southwestern State University (USA), the Center for Chinese Bie-modern Studies (CCBMS) was founded in 2017. Evropski filozofi in estetiki trdijo, da imajo humanistične vede na Kitajskem, vključno s filozofijo in estetiko, morda svetlo prihodnost, vseeno pa v njih ne vidijo nujno nečesa prvorazrednega. V nasprotju s tem pogledom bie-modernizem (bie xian dai zhuyi) verjame, da ima kitajska humanistika pričakovanja svetovnih razsežnosti, čeprav obstajajo glede tega različne motivacije, ko gre za kitajsko vlado in ko gre za kitajsko ljudstvo. Ob tem, da pogrešata najosnovnejšo razsvetljensko modernost, kitajska družba in kitajska humanistika pogrešata tudi dejansko modernost, ki je vodila diskurz kitajske humanistike od leta 1989. Le izvožena sodobna avantgardna kitajska umetnost poseduje modernost refleksije in kritike, ki je lastna bie-modernistični umetnosti.[1] Le če se kitajske humanistične vede lahko učijo od duha kitajske avantgarde ter so zveste bie-modernizmu, lahko vstopijo v mednarodne vrste. pripadajo lahko vstopijo v mednarodni okvir. Potem sveta ne bo nemogoče voditi.[1]     Teorija o bie-modernosti, ki je bila objavljena leta 2014, vsebuje tako bie-moderno družbeno situacijo kot bie-modernizem, drugi od katerih nasprotuje bie-moderni družbeni situaciji. »Bie-moderen« pomeni hibridnost pred-modernega, bie-modernega in postmodernega ali mešano družbeno obliko fevdalizma, socializma in kapitalizma. »Bie-moderen« je dvomeča modernost ali psevdo-modernost, pri čemer skuša bie-modernizem odstraniti psevdo-modernost in vzpostaviti dejansko modernost. Gl. Georgia Southwestern State University, ZDA, Center za kitajske bie-moderne študije (CCBMS), ustanovljen leta 2017.

On-surface radiation condition for multiple scattering of waves

The formulation of the on-surface radiation condition (OSRC) is extended to handle wave scattering problems in the presence of multiple obstacles. The new multiple-OSRC simultaneously accounts for the outgoing behavior of the wave fields, as well as, the multiple wave reflections between the obstacles. Like boundary integral equations (BIE), this method leads to a reduction in dimensionality (from volume to surface) of the discretization region. However, as opposed to BIE, the proposed technique leads to boundary integral equations with smooth kernels. Hence, these Fredholm integral equations can be handled accurately and robustly with standard numerical approaches without the need to remove singularities. Moreover, under weak scattering conditions, this approach renders a convergent iterative method which bypasses the need to solve single scattering problems at each iteration. Inherited from the original OSRC, the proposed multiple-OSRC is generally a crude approximate method. If accuracy is not satisfactory, this approach may serve as a good initial guess or as an inexpensive pre-conditioner for Krylov iterative solutions of BIE

Determinants of grids, tori, cylinders and M\"{o}bius ladders

Recently, Bie\~{n} [A. Bie\~{n}, The problem of singularity for planar grids, Discrete Math. 311 (2011), 921--931] obtained a recursive formula for the determinant of a grid. Also, recently, Pragel [D. Pragel, Determinants of box products of paths, Discrete Math. 312 (2012), 1844--1847], independently, obtained an explicit formula for this determinant. In this paper, we give a short proof for this problem. Furthermore, applying the same technique, we get explicit formulas for the determinant of a torus, a cylinder, and a M\"{o}bius ladder