Unified Bayesian Optimisation for mixed variables improves performance.
problem Efficient optimisation of problems with both categorical and continuous variables.
method Derive value proposals from the Expected Improvement criterion to optimise both categorical and continuous variables under a single acquisition metric.
result Unified approach significantly outperforms existing methods across mixed-variable tasks.
Discond-VAE separates continuous and discrete factors in data.
problem Separating shared and class-specific variations in real-world data.
method Introduces private and public latent variables to represent continuous and discrete factors, respectively.
result Discond-VAE successfully disentangles class-dependent continuous factors from discrete factors.
Improves risk and variability measures continuity and consistency.
problem Improving the continuity and consistency of risk and variability measures.
method Analyzes convex and order bounded above functionals on Frechet lattices and Orlicz spaces.
result Order-continuous, law-invariant functionals on Orlicz spaces are strongly consistent everywhere.
Study develops method for estimating causal effects in continuous variables.
problem Lack of methods for estimating causal effects in continuous variables.
method Develops a method independent of data generating models for continuous variable interventions.
result Preserves identifiability of data and applies to any generating models.
CIPNN model tackles continuous latent variables, solving intractable posterior problems.
problem Solving intractable posterior calculation for continuous latent variables.
method Derives analytical solution for posterior of continuous latent variables, proposes CIPNN and CIPAE.
result CIPNN model demonstrates great classification capability, solving problems for continuous latent variables.
Bayesian optimization tackles mixed discrete-continuous problems with Gaussian processes.
problem Optimizing problems with both discrete and continuous variables using costly simulations.
method Relaxing discrete variables into continuous latent variables, using Bayesian optimization, and incorporating compatibility constraints with Lagrangians.
result Comparative analysis of different mixed Bayesian optimization approaches.
Hybrid quantum neural networks predict continuous variables.
problem Predicting continuous variables using quantum computing.
method Quantum classical hybrid neural networks for continuous variable prediction.
result Quantum neural networks outperform classical methods in continuous variable prediction.
Estimating causal models from observational data is a crucial task in data analysis. For continuous-valued data, Shimizu et al. have proposed a linear acyclic non-Gaussian model to understand the data generating process, and have shown that their model is identifiable when the number of data is sufficiently large. Howe…
New bounds on continuous random variables' right-tail probabilities.
problem Finding precise upper and lower limits for right-tail probabilities of continuous random variables.
method Developed new bounds based on PDF, first derivative, and two parameters.
result The new bounds are tight for various continuous random variables.
In recent years, there is a growing interest in learning Bayesian networks with continuous variables. Learning the structure of such networks is a computationally expensive procedure, which limits most applications to parameter learning. This problem is even more acute when learning networks with hidden variables. We p…
We adapt a Markov Random Field learning algorithm for continuous variables.
problem Learning sparse pairwise Markov Random Fields with continuous variables.
method Adapted Vuffray et al. (2019) algorithm for continuous variables and provided analysis.
result Sample complexity scales logarithmically with the number of variables.
New measure assesses predictive dependence between continuous variables, capturing non-functional relationships.
problem Quantifying the joint dependence between continuous random variables.
method Introduces a novel, fully non-parametric measure bounded [0,1] that assesses predictive accuracy loss.
result The measure captures a wide range of relationships, including non-functional ones, and is interpretable.
Method discovers local independence in systems with continuous variables.
problem Applying Context-Specific Independence (CSI) to continuous variables is impractical.
method Neural contextual decomposition (NCD) learns partition of joint outcome space.
result NCD successfully discovers local independence in synthetic and real-world systems.
We propose a technique for increasing the efficiency of gradient-based inference and learning in Bayesian networks with multiple layers of continuous latent vari- ables. We show that, in many cases, it is possible to express such models in an auxiliary form, where continuous latent variables are conditionally determini…
Recently developed techniques have made it possible to quickly learn accurate probability density functions from data in low-dimensional continuous space. In particular, mixtures of Gaussians can be fitted to data very quickly using an accelerated EM algorithm that employs multiresolution kd-trees (Moore, 1999). In thi…
Criterion extends identifiability for continuous mixtures of kernels.
problem Identify continuous mixtures of kernels.
method Generating-function accessibility criterion based on moment-generating functions or Laplace transforms.
result Criterion applies to mixtures of discrete and continuous variables.
MVRSM optimizes expensive functions with mixed variables, outperforming state-of-the-art methods.
problem Minimizing expensive functions with mixed continuous and integer variables.
method Mixed-Variable ReLU-based Surrogate Modelling (MVRSM) using rectified linear units.
result MVRSM outperforms state-of-the-art methods on synthetic and real-life benchmarks.
The reparameterization trick enables optimizing large scale stochastic computation graphs via gradient descent. The essence of the trick is to refactor each stochastic node into a differentiable function of its parameters and a random variable with fixed distribution. After refactoring, the gradients of the loss propag…
New gradient estimators for discrete variables improve model training.
problem Training models with discrete latent variables is challenging due to high gradient variance.
method Introduced novel gradient estimators based on importance sampling and statistical couplings, extending to categorical variables.
result Proposed gradient estimators outperform previous methods in systematic experiments.
A hybrid model for Bayesian optimization handles mixed variables using MCTS for categorical and GP for continuous.
problem Optimizing functions with mixed variable types (continuous, integer, categorical).
method Merges MCTS for categorical and GP for continuous variables, integrates UCTS search strategy, and dynamically selects kernels.
result Hybrid models outperform traditional methods in Bayesian optimization.
Develops analysis of Hölder continuous mappings on Heisenberg groups.
problem Analyzing Hölder continuous mappings on Heisenberg groups.
method Theory of distributional Jacobians and pullbacks of differential forms.
result Simple proof of a generalization of the Gromov non-embedding theorem and new results about Hölder homotopy groups.
A new clustering model for mixed datasets combines continuous and non-continuous data.
problem Challenges in clustering mixed data due to heterogeneous variables.
method Mixed Deep Gaussian Mixture Model (MDGMM) with multilayer architecture.
result Automatic selection of model specifications and optimal number of clusters.
A new method clusters mixed-type data efficiently.
problem Clustering mixed-type data with continuous and categorical variables.
method Extends Information Bottleneck principle to heterogeneous data using generalised product kernels.
result DIBmix outperforms four established methods in various scenarios.
Paper identifies and estimates CAPCEs in continuous treatment settings.
problem Estimating heterogeneous causal effects of continuous treatments.
method Instrumental variable approach to identify CAPCEs under weaker conditions.
result Developed three families of CAPCE estimators with statistical properties analyzed.
Foster and Hart proposed an operational measure of riskiness for discrete random variables. We show that their defining equation has no solution for many common continuous distributions including many uniform distributions, e.g. We show how to extend consistently the definition of riskiness to continuous random variabl…
Proposes a method to estimate causal effects of continuous treatments using instrumental variables.
problem Estimating causal effects of continuous treatments in the presence of unmeasured confounders.
method Introduces a novel framework using instrumental variables and a uniform regular weighting function to identify and estimate average dose-response functions.
result Establishes the asymptotic properties of the proposed methods for estimating average dose-response functions.
Unsupervised framework captures acquisition variability in structural connectomes.
problem Acquisition differences across sites, scanners, and protocols complicate structural connectome analysis.
method An unsupervised framework using architectural annealing to balance discrete and continuous latent variables.
result Architectural annealing produces stronger site learning than baseline models.
ecpc R-package improves high-dimensional prediction with co-data.
problem High-dimensional prediction with more variables than samples.
method Adaptive ridge penalised models with co-data, including continuous co-data.
result Improved variable selection and prediction performance.
Paper develops a novel approach for classifying high-dimensional mixed data.
problem Handling datasets with both categorical and continuous variables of high dimensions.
method Location model with Gaussian conditional distributions, kernel smoothing for bandwidth choice, penalized likelihood estimation.
result Competitive performance of the proposed classifier demonstrated through simulations and real data.
Paper develops compact formulations for optimization problems with rank-one convex functions and indicator variables.
problem Optimization problems involving rank-one convex functions with support constraints.
method Perspective reformulation techniques to exploit conic structure and establish convex hull results.
result Systematic perspective formulations for convex hull descriptions of sets with nonlinear separable or non-separable objective functions and combinatorial constraints.
HyBO optimizes hybrid structures using diffusion kernels.
problem Optimizing complex interactions between discrete and continuous variables.
method HyBO uses diffusion kernels over hybrid spaces with additive kernel formulation.
result HyBO significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods on real-world benchmarks.
New method for mixed data types in graphical models.
problem Challenges in analyzing data with mixed variable types.
method Latent Gaussian copula models with leveraged polychoric and polyserial correlations.
result Flexible and scalable methodology for mixed data types.
Continuized Nesterov acceleration accelerates stochastic gradient descent and gossip algorithms.
problem Improving the convergence rate of stochastic gradient descent and gossip algorithms.
method Introducing a continuized variant of Nesterov acceleration, which mixes variables continuously and takes gradient steps at random times.
result The continuized Nesterov acceleration achieves convergence rates similar to Nesterov's original acceleration but with random parameters.
Paper proves EM algorithm convergence for mixtures of discrete and continuous parameters.
problem Nontrivial convergence analysis for EM algorithms with mixed-integer parameters.
method Introduces conditions for EM convergence in mixed-integer optimization.
result Proves convergence of EM-based sparse Bayesian learning algorithm.
Flow based models such as Real NVP are an extremely powerful approach to density estimation. However, existing flow based models are restricted to transforming continuous densities over a continuous input space into similarly continuous distributions over continuous latent variables. This makes them poorly suited for m…
Method bounds continuous-valued treatment effects when confounding variables are hidden.
problem Inferring causal effects of continuous treatments when hidden confounders are present.
method Novel methodology to bound average and conditional average continuous-valued treatment effects.
result Method gives tighter coverage of true dose-response curve than existing methods.
Joint distributions over many variables are frequently modeled by decomposing them into products of simpler, lower-dimensional conditional distributions, such as in sparsely connected Bayesian networks. However, automatically learning such models can be very computationally expensive when there are many datapoints and …
New criteria distinguish cause from effect in data, overcoming statistical limitations.
problem Determining causal direction from statistical dependence alone.
method Intuitive criteria based on simplicity of prediction, tested on synthetic data.
result Criteria accurately distinguish cause from effect in various scenarios.
We present a new and very concrete connection between cluster algebras and knot theory. This connection is being made via continued fractions and snake graphs. It is known that the class of 2-bridge knots and links is parametrized by continued fractions, and it has recently been shown that one can associate to each con…
This paper tackles convex-submodular minimax problems in mixed continuous-discrete domains.
problem Convex-submodular minimax problems in mixed continuous-discrete domains.
method Introduces new notions of optimality and proposes iterative algorithms combining discrete and continuous optimization.
result Characterizes convergence rates, computational complexity, and quality of solutions for convex and monotone-submodular minimax problems.
Principal component analysis (PCA) is arguably the most popular tool in multivariate exploratory data analysis. In this paper, we consider the question of how to handle heterogeneous variables that include continuous, binary, and ordinal. In the probabilistic interpretation of low-rank PCA, the data has a normal multiv…
DisARM improves gradient estimation for binary latent variables.
problem Challenges in training models with discrete latent variables.
method Uses antithetic sampling over continuous augmentation.
result DisARM consistently outperforms ARM and baseline methods in log-likelihood and variance.
While graphical models for continuous data (Gaussian graphical models) and discrete data (Ising models) have been extensively studied, there is little work on graphical models linking both continuous and discrete variables (mixed data), which are common in many scientific applications. We propose a novel graphical mode…
The optimization of expensive to evaluate, black-box, mixed-variable functions, i.e. functions that have continuous and discrete inputs, is a difficult and yet pervasive problem in science and engineering. In Bayesian optimization (BO), special cases of this problem that consider fully continuous or fully discrete doma…
We develop a primal dual active set with continuation algorithm for solving the \ell^0-regularized least-squares problem that frequently arises in compressed sensing. The algorithm couples the the primal dual active set method with a continuation strategy on the regularization parameter. At each inner iteration, it fir…
A novel method optimizes variable-stiffness structures for better strength and weight.
problem Optimizing variable-stiffness structures for higher strength and lighter weight.
method A novel multi-stage concurrent topology optimization scheme combining DMO, S-BPTO, and CFAO.
result The method ensures better fibre angle convergence and stable optimization.
Discrete random variables are natural components of probabilistic clustering models. A number of VAE variants with discrete latent variables have been developed. Training such methods requires marginalizing over the discrete latent variables, causing training time complexity to be linear in the number clusters. By appl…
Probabilistic models with discrete latent variables naturally capture datasets composed of discrete classes. However, they are difficult to train efficiently, since backpropagation through discrete variables is generally not possible. We present a novel method to train a class of probabilistic models with discrete late…