Directly estimates Fisher score for likelihood maximization.
problem Intractable likelihood functions with model simulations.
method Gradient-based optimization using local score matching and linear parameterization.
result Efficient approximation of Fisher score improves likelihood maximization.
Corrects pseudo log-likelihood method issues in various applications.
problem Log-likelihood function unbounded issues in pseudo log-likelihood methods.
method Provided a counterexample and corrected algorithms in previous literature.
result Ensured well-definedness of maximum pseudo log-likelihood estimation.
MINIMALIST maximizes mutual information for likelihood estimation from simulated data.
problem Learning model parameters from likelihood functions that cannot be computed.
method Maximizes mutual information between simulated data and model parameters using neural networks.
result Different methods aiming at the same optimal energy form can be directly benchmarked.
A new VIS approach improves log-likelihood estimation in latent variable models.
problem Challenges in achieving high log-likelihood with VI for complex posterior distributions.
method Uses forward χ2 divergence to optimize proposal distribution for better log-likelihood estimation. result Consistently outperforms state-of-the-art baselines in log-likelihood and parameter estimation.
Paper proposes efficient and accurate initialization and EM algorithm for PL mixture models.
problem Initialization issues and combinatorial complexity in PL likelihood maximization.
method Initialization algorithm and EM algorithm for true log-likelihood maximization.
result Proposed algorithm provides accurate initial estimates and efficiently maximizes true log-likelihood.
This paper improves SNN training by using multiple sample compartments.
problem Training SNNs with single-sample estimators leads to inaccurate log-likelihood estimates.
method Proposes a GEM-based online learning algorithm that uses multiple independent spiking signals.
result Significant improvements in log-likelihood, accuracy, and calibration with multiple compartments.
New method resolves nonidentifiability in mixture models.
problem Nonidentifiability in marginal models of mixture models.
method Introducing an effective temperature to generalize the marginal likelihood.
result Maximization of the generalized likelihood leads to unique results.
New method boosts BOED using SBI and neural likelihood.
problem Maximizing EIG in BOED with intractable likelihood.
method Neural likelihood estimation, multi-start gradient ascent.
result Significantly improved BOED performance over state-of-the-art.
Improved autoregressive models generate higher quality images and are more robust to noise.
problem Generating high-quality images from autoregressive models.
method Noise conditional maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) with score-based sampling.
result Models trained with noise conditional MLE achieve better test likelihoods and generate higher quality images.
New method estimates latent gene expression factors without overlap with known confounders.
problem Estimating latent variance components in gene expression data with known confounders.
method Restricted maximum-likelihood method maximizing likelihood on orthogonal subspace.
result Method reduces runtime and attains greater likelihood values than gradient-based optimizers.
New method improves causal structure discovery with Prior-Fitted Networks.
problem Errors in likelihood estimation limit proper causal structure discovery.
method Amortized causal discovery with Prior-Fitted Networks.
result Significant gains in structure recovery compared to baselines.
New AD methods improve likelihood estimation for partially observed systems.
problem Estimating likelihood functions for partially observed nonlinear systems.
method Embedding AD particle filter methods in a theoretical framework, developing new algorithms for likelihood maximization.
result Mean squared error significantly lower than existing algorithms.
New method estimates animal density using acoustic data, accounting for unknown call identities.
problem Estimating animal density or call density from acoustic data with unknown call identities.
method Monte Carlo Expectation-Maximization (MCEM) method to resolve unknown call identities.
result Estimates are within 15% of expert-constructed estimates and incorporate uncertainty about call identities.
Maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) is one of the most important methods in machine learning, and the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is often used to obtain maximum likelihood estimates. However, EM heavily depends on initial configurations and fails to find the global optimum. On the other hand, in the field …
A new method for training diffusion models using likelihood matching.
problem Training efficient and accurate diffusion models.
method Likelihood Matching approach, quasi-likelihood approximation, score and Hessian estimation.
result Consistent matching of first two transitional moments between diffusion steps.
This paper proposes a novel profile likelihood method for estimating the covariance parameters in exploratory factor analysis of high-dimensional Gaussian datasets with fewer observations than number of variables. An implicitly restarted Lanczos algorithm and a limited-memory quasi-Newton method are implemented to deve…
Implicit probabilistic models are models defined naturally in terms of a sampling procedure and often induces a likelihood function that cannot be expressed explicitly. We develop a simple method for estimating parameters in implicit models that does not require knowledge of the form of the likelihood function or any d…
We present an asymptotic analysis of Viterbi Training (VT) and contrast it with a more conventional Maximum Likelihood (ML) approach to parameter estimation in Hidden Markov Models. While ML estimator works by (locally) maximizing the likelihood of the observed data, VT seeks to maximize the probability of the most lik…
We develop a maximum penalized quasi-likelihood estimator for estimating in a nonparametric way the diffusion function of a diffusion process, as an alternative to more traditional kernel-based estimators. After developing a numerical scheme for computing the maximizer of the penalized maximum quasi-likelihood function…
Paper proposes a new method for estimating conditional densities using logistic regressions.
problem Estimating conditional densities for complex distributions.
method Parametric conditional density estimation via weighted logistic regressions.
result Maximum likelihood estimates can be obtained efficiently via a block-wise alternating maximization scheme and local case-control sampling.
Training deep generative models with maximum likelihood remains a challenge. The typical workaround is to use variational inference (VI) and maximize a lower bound to the log marginal likelihood of the data. Variational auto-encoders (VAEs) adopt this approach. They further amortize the cost of inference by using a rec…
In this study, we consider an empirical Bayes method for Boltzmann machines and propose an algorithm for it. The empirical Bayes method allows estimation of the values of the hyperparameters of the Boltzmann machine by maximizing a specific likelihood function referred to as the empirical Bayes likelihood function in t…
We study a new parametric approach for particular hidden stochastic models such as the Stochastic Volatility model. This method is based on contrast minimization and deconvolution. After proving consistency and asymptotic normality of the estimation leading to asymptotic confidence intervals, we provide a thorough nume…
Unbiased gradient estimation improves VAE performance.
problem Training VAEs via maximum likelihood is difficult due to intractable integrals.
method Introduced unbiased estimators of the log-likelihood gradient using coupled Markov chains.
result Unbiased estimators lead to better predictive performance in VAEs.
A new method for experimental design focuses on predicting downstream quantities of interest.
problem Designs that maximize parameter learning may not maximize downstream quantity prediction.
method Likelihood-free goal-oriented optimal experimental design (LF-GO-OED) using ABC density ratio estimation.
result LF-GO-OED maximizes the expected information gain for downstream quantities.
This paper studies the estimation of low-rank Markov chains from empirical trajectories. We propose a non-convex estimator based on rank-constrained likelihood maximization. Statistical upper bounds are provided for the Kullback-Leiber divergence and the ℓ2 risk between the estimator and the true transition matri…
Latent class model (LCM), which is a finite mixture of different categorical distributions, is one of the most widely used models in statistics and machine learning fields. Because of its non-continuous nature and the flexibility in shape, researchers in practice areas such as marketing and social sciences also frequen…
Regularized EM algorithm improves clustering performance with small sample sizes.
problem Performance reduction in EM algorithm due to small sample size and poorly conditioned covariance matrices.
method Regularized EM algorithm that uses prior knowledge to ensure positive definiteness of covariance matrices.
result The regularized EM algorithm outperforms standard EM in clustering tasks with small sample sizes.
We propose a supervised anomaly detection method based on neural density estimators, where the negative log likelihood is used for the anomaly score. Density estimators have been widely used for unsupervised anomaly detection. By the recent advance of deep learning, the density estimation performance has been greatly i…
New method improves community detection for large networks.
problem Inefficient community detection for large sparse networks.
method Decouples row and column labels in likelihood function for fast alternating maximization.
result Strongly consistent estimates of communities with provable convergence guarantee.
Method estimates noise variance in Gaussian process regression.
problem Estimating noise variance in Gaussian process regression models.
method Reduces hyperparameter space, uses marginal likelihood function, derives bounds and asymptotes.
result Computational advantages and robustness compared to traditional methods.
Paper develops methods for estimating and forecasting integer-valued trawl processes.
problem Estimation and forecasting of continuous-time integer-valued trawl processes.
method Composite likelihood methods, focusing on pairwise likelihood.
result Consistency and asymptotic normality of the estimator in the short memory case.
StepMix estimates mixture models with covariates for social science applications.
problem Estimating latent classes with covariates in social science models.
method Pseudo-likelihood estimation using one-, two-, and three-step approaches.
result Unified framework for expectation-maximization subroutines.
The paper proposes a mixture model with segmentation for heterogeneous functional data.
problem Heterogeneity in time and population for functional data.
method Mixture model with segmentation of time, maximum likelihood estimator, EM algorithm with dynamic programming.
result The method is consistent and identifiable, and illustrated on simulated and real datasets.
Work maximization guides machine learning models in adaptive systems.
problem How machine learning models can be optimized for thermodynamic efficiency.
method Introducing thermodynamic principle to compare with maximum-likelihood principle.
result Maximum-work models are equivalent to maximum-likelihood models in adaptive systems.
New approach resolves ambiguity in PPCA model's maximum likelihood estimation.
problem Ambiguity in maximum likelihood estimation of PPCA model due to rotational symmetry.
method Using quotient topological spaces, the approach resolves ambiguity and shows consistency of the maximum likelihood solution.
result Maximum likelihood solution is consistent in an appropriate quotient Euclidean space.
Composite likelihood inference of fractional Gaussian processes with sequentially optimal subset selection
problem Estimating parameters in time series
method Composite likelihood method
result The method reduces computational cost
New method trains any neural network as a generative model.
problem Constrained design of normalizing flows due to analytical invertibility.
method Efficient gradient estimator for non-analytically invertible networks.
result Any dimension-preserving neural network can be used as a generative model.
Expectation Maximization (EM) is among the most popular algorithms for maximum likelihood estimation, but it is generally only guaranteed to find its stationary points of the log-likelihood objective. The goal of this article is to present theoretical and empirical evidence that over-parameterization can help EM avoid …
New algorithm for estimating MLR parameters with non-Gaussian noise.
problem Estimating MLR parameters with non-Gaussian noise.
method Combining ADMM with EM algorithm idea.
result Our method outperforms EM algorithm in non-Gaussian noise case.
This paper considers the problem of networks reconstruction from heterogeneous data using a Gaussian Graphical Mixture Model (GGMM). It is well known that parameter estimation in this context is challenging due to large numbers of variables coupled with the degeneracy of the likelihood. We propose as a solution a penal…
Parameters defined via General Estimating Equations (GEE) can be estimated by maximizing the Empirical Likelihood (EL). Newey and Smith (2004) have recently shown that this EL estimator exhibits desirable higher-order asymptotic properties, namely, that its O(n^-1) bias is small and that bias-corrected EL is higher-ord…
Parameters defined via general estimating equations (GEE) can be estimated by maximizing the empirical likelihood (EL). Newey and Smith [Econometrica 72 (2004) 219--255] have recently shown that this EL estimator exhibits desirable higher-order asymptotic properties, namely, that its O(n−1) bias is small and that …
A robust Gaussian process model using Huber likelihood for outlier resistance.
problem Outliers in observational data sets affect Gaussian process regression's robustness.
method Proposes a Gaussian process model with Huber likelihood and weights based on projection statistics.
result Demonstrates improved statistical efficiency and robustness to outliers.
We present novel understandings of the Gamma-Poisson (GaP) model, a probabilistic matrix factorization model for count data. We show that GaP can be rewritten free of the score/activation matrix. This gives us new insights about the estimation of the topic/dictionary matrix by maximum marginal likelihood estimation. In…
Empirical Bayes method improves Gaussian sequence model inference.
problem Estimating parameters in correlated Gaussian sequence models.
method Maximum Composite Marginal Likelihood (CML) estimator, leveraging geometric Brascamp-Lieb inequality.
result CML estimator converges at rate \( n_*^{-1/2} \) in weighted Hellinger distance.
Unified view of KL-divergence and IPMs via DRE, with new DRM metrics.
problem Unified understanding of KL-divergence and IPMs.
method Unified representation via maximum likelihood density-ratio estimation (DRE).
result Unified form of IPMs and novel DRM metrics.
The log-likelihood loss in heteroscedastic neural networks can lead to poor parameter estimates.
problem Capturing aleatoric uncertainty in deep learning models.
method Examine the log-likelihood loss in conjunction with gradient-based optimizers and propose an alternative formulation, β-NLL. result Using an appropriate β largely mitigates the issue of poor parameter estimates.