Modeling Forest Tree Data Using Sequential Spatial Point Processes

The spatial structure of a forest stand is typically modeled by spatial point process models. Motivated by aerial forest inventories and forest dynamics in general, we propose a sequential spatial approach for modeling forest data. Such an approach is better justified than a static point process model in describing the long-term dependence among the spatial location of trees in a forest and the locations of detected trees in aerial forest inventories. Tree size can be used as a surrogate for the unknown tree age when determining the order in which trees have emerged or are observed on an aerial image. Sequential spatial point processes differ from spatial point processes in that the realizations are ordered sequences of spatial locations, thus allowing us to approximate the spatial dynamics of the phenomena under study. This feature is useful in interpreting the long-term dependence and spatial history of the locations of trees. For the application, we use a forest data set collected from the Kiihtelysvaara forest region in Eastern Finland.

Rejection- and importance-sampling-based perfect simulation for Gibbs hard-sphere models

Coupling-from-the-past (CFTP) methods have been used to generate perfect samples from finite Gibbs hard-sphere models, an important class of spatial point processes consisting of a set of spheres with the centers on a bounded region that are distributed as a homogeneous Poisson point process (PPP) conditioned so that spheres do not overlap with each other. We propose an alternative importance-sampling-based rejection methodology for the perfect sampling of these models. We analyze the asymptotic expected running time complexity of the proposed method when the intensity of the reference PPP increases to infinity while the (expected) sphere radius decreases to zero at varying rates. We further compare the performance of the proposed method analytically and numerically with that of a naive rejection algorithm and of popular dominated CFTP algorithms. Our analysis relies upon identifying large deviations decay rates of the non-overlapping probability of spheres whose centers are distributed as a homogeneous PPP.

Algorithmically deconstructing shot locations as a method for shot quality in hockey

Spatial point processes have been successfully used to model the relative efficiency of shot locations for each player in professional basketball games. Those analyses were possible because each player makes enough baskets to reliably fit a point process model. Goals in hockey are rare enough that a point process cannot be fit to each player’s goal locations, so novel techniques are needed to obtain measures of shot efficiency for each player. A Log-Gaussian Cox Process (LGCP) is used to model all shot locations, including goals, of each NHL player who took at least 500 shots during the 2011–2018 seasons. Each player’s LGCP surface is treated as an image and these images are then used in an unsupervised statistical learning algorithm that decomposes the pictures into a linear combination of spatial basis functions. The coefficients of these basis functions are shown to be a very useful tool to compare players. To incorporate goals, the locations of all shots that resulted in a goal are treated as a “perfect player” and used in the same algorithm (goals are further split into perfect forwards, perfect centres and perfect defence). These perfect players are compared to other players as a measure of shot efficiency. This analysis provides a map of common shooting locations, identifies regions with the most goals relative to the number of shots and demonstrates how each player’s shot location differs from scoring locations.