scholarly journals Calibrating general posterior credible regions

Biometrika ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 479-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Syring ◽  
Ryan Martin

Summary Calibration of credible regions derived from under- or misspecified models is an important and challenging problem. In this paper, we introduce a scalar tuning parameter that controls the posterior distribution spread, and develop a Monte Carlo algorithm that sets this parameter so that the corresponding credible region achieves the nominal frequentist coverage probability.

Author(s):  
Therese M. Donovan ◽  
Ruth M. Mickey

In this chapter, the “Shark Attack Problem” (Chapter 11) is revisited. Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is introduced as another way to determine a posterior distribution of λ‎, the mean number of shark attacks per year. The MCMC approach is so versatile that it can be used to solve almost any kind of parameter estimation problem. The chapter highlights the Metropolis algorithm in detail and illustrates its application, step by step, for the “Shark Attack Problem.” The posterior distribution generated in Chapter 11 using the gamma-Poisson conjugate is compared with the MCMC posterior distribution to show how successful the MCMC method can be. By the end of the chapter, the reader should also understand the following concepts: tuning parameter, MCMC inference, traceplot, and moment matching.


Author(s):  
P. Tsilifis ◽  
R. G. Ghanem

A novel approach is presented for constructing polynomial chaos representations of scalar quantities of interest (QoI) that extends previously developed methods for adaptation in Homogeneous Chaos spaces. In this work, we develop a Bayesian formulation of the problem that characterizes the posterior distributions of the series coefficients and the adaptation rotation matrix acting on the Gaussian input variables. The adaptation matrix is thus construed as a new parameter of the map from input to QoI, estimated through Bayesian inference. For the computation of the coefficients' posterior distribution, we use a variational inference approach that approximates the posterior with a member of the same exponential family as the prior, such that it minimizes a Kullback–Leibler criterion. On the other hand, the posterior distribution of the rotation matrix is explored by employing a Geodesic Monte Carlo sampling approach, consisting of a variation of the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo algorithm for embedded manifolds, in our case, the Stiefel manifold of orthonormal matrices. The performance of our method is demonstrated through a series of numerical examples, including the problem of multiphase flow in heterogeneous porous media.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-244
Author(s):  
W. John Thrasher ◽  
Michael Mascagni

AbstractIt has been shown that when using a Monte Carlo algorithm to estimate the electrostatic free energy of a biomolecule in a solution, individual random walks can become entrapped in the geometry. We examine a proposed solution, using a sharp restart during the Walk-on-Subdomains step, in more detail. We show that the point at which this solution introduces significant bias is related to properties intrinsic to the molecule being examined. We also examine two potential methods of generating a sharp restart point and show that they both cause no significant bias in the examined molecules and increase the stability of the run times of the individual walks.


Biometrika ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 107 (3) ◽  
pp. 745-752 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sirio Legramanti ◽  
Daniele Durante ◽  
David B Dunson

Summary The dimension of the parameter space is typically unknown in a variety of models that rely on factorizations. For example, in factor analysis the number of latent factors is not known and has to be inferred from the data. Although classical shrinkage priors are useful in such contexts, increasing shrinkage priors can provide a more effective approach that progressively penalizes expansions with growing complexity. In this article we propose a novel increasing shrinkage prior, called the cumulative shrinkage process, for the parameters that control the dimension in overcomplete formulations. Our construction has broad applicability and is based on an interpretable sequence of spike-and-slab distributions which assign increasing mass to the spike as the model complexity grows. Using factor analysis as an illustrative example, we show that this formulation has theoretical and practical advantages relative to current competitors, including an improved ability to recover the model dimension. An adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm is proposed, and the performance gains are outlined in simulations and in an application to personality data.


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