A locally-built, LLM-digested index of recent arXiv papers in quant finance, geometry/topology, and statistical ML — keyword search served straight from SQLite on this machine.
Given a sequential learning algorithm and a target model, sequential machine teaching aims to find the shortest training sequence to drive the learning algorithm to the target model. We present the first principled way to find such shortest training sequences. Our key insight is to formulate sequential machine teaching…
Controller-Augmented Hidden Markov Models (CHMMs) are a framework for constrained sequential inference.
problem Hidden Markov models fail under pathwise constraints like precedence, visitation, or monotonic state progression.
method CHMMs compile constraints into finite-state controllers, then use standard forward-backward and Viterbi recursions to compute exact constrained posteriors and paths.
result CHMMs provide exact constrained inference, monotone ascent in constrained EM, and linear complexity in controller cardinality.
Improved diffusion models using energy distillation and sequential Monte Carlo.
problem Training instability and inferior performance in energy parameterized diffusion models.
method Introduced a novel training regime for energy functions through distillation of pre-trained diffusion models, and cast the sampling procedure as a Feynman Kac model.
result Demonstrated improved performance and new sampling techniques.
This study improves audit sampling by using sequential procedures with statistical guarantees.
problem Improving audit efficiency and reliability with statistical methods.
method Formulated as a sequential testing problem, defining null and alternative hypotheses, stopping and decision rules, and exact boundary conditions.
result Exact design yields ex ante control of decision error probabilities, and simulation-based implementation approximates this design.
There are over 15 distinct communities that work in the general area of sequential decisions and information, often referred to as decisions under uncertainty or stochastic optimization. We focus on two of the most important fields: stochastic optimal control, with its roots in deterministic optimal control, and reinfo…
One way to solve lasso problems when the dictionary does not fit into available memory is to first screen the dictionary to remove unneeded features. Prior research has shown that sequential screening methods offer the greatest promise in this endeavor. Most existing work on sequential screening targets the context of …
Applications in machine learning, optimization, and control require the sequential selection of a few system elements, such as sensors, data, or actuators, to optimize the system performance across multiple time steps. However, in failure-prone and adversarial environments, sensors get attacked, data get deleted, and a…
We present a representation learning algorithm that learns a low-dimensional latent dynamical system from high-dimensional \textit{sequential} raw data, e.g., video. The framework builds upon recent advances in amortized inference methods that use both an inference network and a refinement procedure to output samples f…
We propose and analyze sequential design methods for the problem of ranking several response surfaces. Namely, given L≥2 response surfaces over a continuous input space X, the aim is to efficiently find the index of the minimal response across the entire X. The response surfaces are not known and ha…
Develops a new framework for analyzing sequential decision-making problems using information theory.
problem Lack of information-theoretic generalization bounds for sequential decision-making problems.
method Introduces a sequential supersample framework that separates learner filtration from proof-side enlargement, controlling the generalization gap by sequential CMI.
result Establishes a sequential CMI that controls the generalization gap in sequential decision-making problems.
The problem of multi-hypothesis testing with controlled sensing of observations is considered. The distribution of observations collected under each control is assumed to follow a single-parameter exponential family distribution. The goal is to design a policy to find the true hypothesis with minimum expected delay whi…
A new method uses ABC-SMC to infer hybrid models in bioprocesses with limited data.
problem Inference of hybrid models in bioprocesses with limited real data and high uncertainties.
method Approximate Bayesian Computation with Sequential Monte Carlo (ABC-SMC) and linear Gaussian dynamic Bayesian network (LG-DBN) for posterior distribution approximation.
result The method accelerates hybrid model inference and supports process monitoring and robust control.
Partially observable environments present an important open challenge in the domain of sequential control learning with delayed rewards. Despite numerous attempts during the two last decades, the majority of reinforcement learning algorithms and associated approximate models, applied to this context, still assume Marko…
Generalising the idea of the classical EM algorithm that is widely used for computing maximum likelihood estimates, we propose an EM-Control (EM-C) algorithm for solving multi-period finite time horizon stochastic control problems. The new algorithm sequentially updates the control policies in each time period using Mo…
We propose a nonparametric sequential test that aims to address two practical problems pertinent to online randomized experiments: (i) how to do a hypothesis test for complex metrics; (ii) how to prevent type 1 error inflation under continuous monitoring. The proposed test does not require knowledge of the underlying…
We study data poisoning attacks in the online setting where training items arrive sequentially, and the attacker may perturb the current item to manipulate online learning. Importantly, the attacker has no knowledge of future training items nor the data generating distribution. We formulate online data poisoning attack…
This paper solves a Bayes sequential impulse control problem for a diffusion, whose drift has an unobservable parameter with a change point. The partially-observed problem is reformulated into one with full observations, via a change of probability measure which removes the drift. The optimal impulse controls can be ex…
New approach transfers rewards learned in one environment to reinforcement learning in a new environment.
problem Transfer of rewards learned using inverse reinforcement learning from one environment to a new, different environment.
method Formulate the problem as a joint system of Bellman equations, develop minimax estimators for the target soft-q-function, solve the source and target system of equations jointly.
result The coupled approach removes the first-order influence of source Bellman residual error compared to the sequential approach.