Approximation Problem Research Articles

ANOVA approximation with mixed tensor product basis on scattered points

In this paper we consider an orthonormal basis, generated by a tensor product of Fourier basis functions, half period cosine basis functions, and the Chebyshev basis functions. We deal with the approximation problem in high dimensions related to this basis and design a fast algorithm to multiply with the underlying matrix, consisting of rows of the non-equidistant Fourier matrix, the non-equidistant cosine matrix and the non-equidistant Chebyshev matrix, and its transposed. Using this, we derive the ANOVA (analysis of variance) decomposition for functions with partially periodic boundary conditions through using the Fourier basis in some dimensions and the half period cosine basis or the Chebyshev basis in others. We consider sensitivity analysis in this setting, in order to find an adapted basis for the underlying approximation problem. More precisely, we find the underlying index set of the multidimensional series expansion. Additionally, we test this ANOVA approximation with mixed basis at numerical experiments, and refer to the advantage of interpretable results.

Approximate balancing weights for clustered observational study designs.

In a clustered observational study, a treatment is assigned to groups and all units within the group are exposed to the treatment. We develop a new method for statistical adjustment in clustered observational studies using approximate balancing weights, a generalization of inverse propensity score weights that solve a convex optimization problem to find a set of weights that directly minimize a measure of covariate imbalance, subject to an additional penalty on the variance of the weights. We tailor the approximate balancing weights optimization problem to the clustered observational study setting by deriving an upper bound on the mean square error and finding weights that minimize this upper bound, linking the level of covariate balance to a bound on the bias. We implement the procedure by specializing the bound to a random cluster-level effects model, leading to a variance penalty that incorporates the signal-to-noise ratio and penalizes the weight on individuals and the total weight on groups differently according to the the intra-class correlation.

Optimal with Respect to Accuracy Recovery of Some Classes Functions by Fourier Series

Introduction. Function approximation (approximation or restoration) is widely used in data analysis, model building, and forecasting. The goal of function approximation is to find the function that best approximates the original function. This can be useful when the original function is too complex to analyze or when a model needs to be simplified for more efficient computation or interpretation. Function approximation is an important tool in science, engineering, economics, and other fields where data analysis and modeling are required. It allows you to simplify complex functions, identify patterns in the behavior of the object of study, and predict the value of a function beyond the available data. The purpose of the paper is consider the problems of approximation of a function, which on some interval is given by its values in some set of nodal points and belongs to some class of functions by trigonometric Fourier series with a given accuracy and at fulfillment of given constraints on its execution time. The main attention is paid to obtaining estimates of computational complexity (implementation time) and solving the problem of function approximation by Fourier series with a given or maximum possible accuracy using efficient algorithms for solving optimization problems. Results. The general formulation of the problem of approximation of functions by Fourier series in accordance with the technology of solving problems of computational and applied mathematics with specified values of quality characteristics is presented. Estimates of the error of the proposed approximation algorithms using for the computation of Fourier coefficients the optimal in accuracy and close to them quadrature formulas for the computation of integrals from rapidly oscillating functions of the classes of Helder and Lipschitz with given fixed values in the nodes of a fixed grid are given. The corresponding quadrature formulas and constructive estimates of the error of the method of approximation of functions of the specified classes are given. Estimates of computational complexity of the given algorithms are obtained, which allow us to set real constraints on the time of algorithm implementation with a given or maximum possible accuracy. Conclusions. A comprehensive analysis of the quality of the considered algorithms for the approximation of functions by Fourier series using the accuracy-optimal (or close to them) quadrature formulas for the computation of Fourier coefficients for the computation of integrals from rapidly oscillating functions is presented. The estimates of their main characteristics – accuracy and computational complexity – are obtained. Keywords: function approximation, Fourier series, Fourier series coefficients, approximation error, computational complexity.

Sampling Points-Independent Identification of the Fractional Maxwell Model of Viscoelastic Materials Based on Stress Relaxation Experiment Data.

Considerable development has been observed in the area of applying fractional-order rheological models to describe the viscoelastic properties of miscellaneous materials in the last few decades together with the increasingly stronger adoption of fractional calculus. The fractional Maxwell model is the best-known non-integer-order rheological model. A weighted least-square approximation problem of the relaxation modulus by the fractional Maxwell model is considered when only the time measurements of the relaxation modulus corrupted by additive noises are accessible for identification. This study was dedicated to the determination of the model, optimal in the sense of the integral square weighted model quality index, which does not depend on the particular sampling points applied in the stress relaxation experiment. It is proved that even when the real description of the material relaxation modulus is entirely unknown, the optimal fractional Maxwell model parameters can be recovered from the relaxation modulus measurements recorded for sampling time points selected randomly according to respective randomization. The identified model is a strongly consistent estimate of the desired optimal model. The exponential convergence rate is demonstrated both by the stochastic convergence analysis and by the numerical studies. A simple scheme for the optimal model identification is given. Numerical studies are presented for the materials described by the short relaxation times of the unimodal Gauss-like relaxation spectrum and the long relaxation times of the Baumgaertel, Schausberger and Winter spectrum. These studies have shown that the appropriate randomization introduced in the selection of sampling points guarantees that the sequence of the optimal fractional Maxwell model parameters asymptotically converge to parameters independent of these sampling points. The robustness of the identified model to the measurement disturbances was demonstrated by analytical analysis and numerical studies.

Energy-Efficient Neuromorphic Architectures for Nuclear Radiation Detection Applications.

A comprehensive analysis and simulation of two memristor-based neuromorphic architectures for nuclear radiation detection is presented. Both scalable architectures retrofit a locally competitive algorithm to solve overcomplete sparse approximation problems by harnessing memristor crossbar execution of vector-matrix multiplications. The proposed systems demonstrate excellent accuracy and throughput while consuming minimal energy for radionuclide detection. To ensure that the simulation results of our proposed hardware are realistic, the memristor parameters are chosen from our own fabricated memristor devices. Based on these results, we conclude that memristor-based computing is the preeminent technology for a radiation detection platform.

Arbitrary-Scale Point Cloud Upsampling by Voxel-Based Network with Latent Geometric-Consistent Learning

Recently, arbitrary-scale point cloud upsampling mechanism became increasingly popular due to its efficiency and convenience for practical applications. To achieve this, most previous approaches formulate it as a problem of surface approximation and employ point-based networks to learn surface representations. However, learning surfaces from sparse point clouds is more challenging, and thus they often suffer from the low-fidelity geometry approximation. To address it, we propose an arbitrary-scale Point cloud Upsampling framework using Voxel-based Network (PU-VoxelNet). Thanks to the completeness and regularity inherited from the voxel representation, voxel-based networks are capable of providing predefined grid space to approximate 3D surface, and an arbitrary number of points can be reconstructed according to the predicted density distribution within each grid cell. However, we investigate the inaccurate grid sampling caused by imprecise density predictions. To address this issue, a density-guided grid resampling method is developed to generate high-fidelity points while effectively avoiding sampling outliers. Further, to improve the fine-grained details, we present an auxiliary training supervision to enforce the latent geometric consistency among local surface patches. Extensive experiments indicate the proposed approach outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches not only in terms of fixed upsampling rates but also for arbitrary-scale upsampling. The code is available at https://github.com/hikvision-research/3DVision

Solving Maxmin Optimization Problems via Population Games

Population games are games with a finite set of available strategies and an infinite number of players, in which the reward for choosing a given strategy is a function of the distribution of players over strategies. The paper shows that, in a certain class of maxmin optimization problems, it is possible to associate a population game to a given maxmin problem in such a way that solutions to the optimization problem are found from Nash equilibria of the associated game. Iterative solution methods for maxmin optimization problems can then be derived from systems of differential equations whose trajectories are known to converge to Nash equilibria. In particular, we use a discrete-time version of the celebrated replicator equation of evolutionary game theory, also known in machine learning as the exponential multiplicative weights algorithm. The resulting algorithm can be viewed as a generalization of the Iteratively Reweighted Least Squares (IRLS) method, which is well known in numerical analysis as a useful technique for solving Chebyshev function approximation problems on a finite grid. Examples are provided to show the use of the generalized IRLS method in collective investment and in decision making under model uncertainty.

Application of tropical optimization for solving multicriteria problems of pairwise comparisons using log-Chebyshev approximation

We consider a decision-making problem to find absolute ratings of alternatives that are compared in pairs under multiple criteria, subject to constraints in the form of two-sided bounds on ratios between the ratings. Given matrices of pairwise comparisons made according to the criteria, the problem is formulated as the log-Chebyshev approximation of these matrices by a common consistent matrix (a symmetrically reciprocal matrix of unit rank) to minimize the approximation errors for all matrices simultaneously. We rearrange the approximation problem as a constrained multiobjective optimization problem of finding a vector that determines the approximating consistent matrix. The problem is then represented in the framework of tropical algebra, which deals with the theory and applications of idempotent semirings and provides a formal basis for fuzzy and interval arithmetic. We apply methods and results of tropical optimization to develop a new approach for handling the multiobjective optimization problem according to various principles of optimality. New complete solutions in the sense of the max-ordering, lexicographic ordering and lexicographic max-ordering optimality are obtained, which are given in a compact vector form ready for formal analysis and efficient computation. We present numerical examples of solving multicriteria problems of rating four alternatives from pairwise comparisons to illustrate the technique and compare it with others.

Complexity of a root clustering algorithm for holomorphic functions

Approximating the roots of a holomorphic function in an input box is a fundamental problem in many domains. Most algorithms in the literature for solving this problem are conditional, i.e., they make some simplifying assumptions, such as, all the roots are simple or there are no roots on the boundary of the input box, or the underlying machine model is Real RAM. Root clustering is a generalization of the root approximation problem that allows for errors in the computation and makes no assumption on the multiplicity of the roots. An unconditional algorithm for computing a root clustering of a holomorphic function was given by Yap, Sagraloff and Sharma in 2013 [36]. They proposed a subdivision based algorithm using effective predicates based on Pellet's test while avoiding any comparison with zeros (using soft zero comparisons instead). In this paper, we analyze the running time of their algorithm. We use the continuous amortization framework to derive an upper bound on the size of the subdivision tree. We specialize this bound to the case of polynomials and some simple transcendental functions such as exponential and trigonometric sine. We show that the algorithm takes exponential time even for these simple functions, unlike the case of polynomials. We also derive a bound on the bit-precision used by the algorithm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such result for holomorphic functions. We introduce new geometric parameters, such as the relative growth of the function on the input box, for analyzing the algorithm. Thus, our estimates naturally generalize the known results, i.e., for the case of polynomials.

Moduli of smoothness, K-functionals and Jackson-type inequalities associated with kernel function approximation in learning theory

We give investigations on a kernel function approximation problem arising from learning theory and show the convergence rate from the view of classical Fourier analysis. First, we provide the general definition for a modulus of smoothness and a [Formula: see text]-functional, and show that they are equivalent. In particular, we give explicit representation for some moduli of smoothness. Second, we establish some Jackson-type inequalities for the approximation error associated with some non-radial kernels. Also we apply these results to some concrete classical kernel function spaces and give Jackson-type inequalities for some concrete RKHS approximation problems. Finally, we apply these discussions to learning theory and describe the learning rates with the moduli of smoothness. The tools we used are Fourier analysis and the semigroup operator. The results show that the Jackson-type inequalities of approximation by some radial kernel functions on compact set with nonempty interiors cannot be expressed with the classical moduli of smoothness.

PECJ: Stream Window Join on Disorder Data Streams with Proactive Error Compensation

Stream Window Join (SWJ), a vital operation in stream analytics, struggles with achieving a balance between accuracy and latency due to out-of-order data arrivals. Existing methods predominantly rely on adaptive buffering, but often fall short in performance, thereby constraining practical applications. We introduce PECJ, a solution that proactively incorporates unobserved data to enhance accuracy while reducing latency, thus requiring robust predictive modeling of stream oscillation. At the heart of PECJ lies a mathematical formulation of the posterior distribution approximation (PDA) problem using variational inference (VI). This approach circumvents error propagation while meeting the low-latency demands of SWJ. We detail the implementation of PECJ, striking a balance between complexity and generality, and discuss both analytical and learning-based approaches. Experimental evaluations reveal PECJ's superior performance. The successful integration of PECJ into a multi-threaded SWJ benchmark testbed further establishes its practical value, demonstrating promising advancements in enhancing data stream processing capabilities amidst out-of-order data.

About the approximation of a field of an extended source by a sphere wave in the far illumination region

On the base of a coherent emitting straight segment, the problem of approximate description of the field of an extended source in the far illumination region is considered. It is shown that in regions close to the directions of intensity maximums the source field can be approximated by mean of sphere waves. The sphericity condition in corresponding region is found. The problem of approximation of an extended source field by means of a plane wave is also discusses. As a result of a next approximation of a spherical wave, the condition for the approximation of a field of extended source by means of a plane wave was found.

Efficient and stable SAV-based methods for gradient flows arising from deep learning

The optimization algorithm plays an important role in deep learning and significantly affects the stability and efficiency of the training process, and consequently the accuracy of the neural network approximation. A suitable (initial) learning rate is crucial for the optimization algorithm in deep learning. However, a small learning rate is usually needed to guarantee the convergence of the optimization algorithm, resulting in a slow training process. We develop in this work efficient and energy stable optimization methods for function approximation problems as well as solving partial differential equations using deep learning. In particular, we consider the gradient flows arising from deep learning from the continuous point of view, and employ the particle method (PM) and the smoothed particle method (SPM) for the space discretization while we adopt SAV-based schemes, combined with the adaptive strategy used in Adam algorithm, for the time discretization. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods, we present a number of numerical tests to demonstrate that the SAV-based schemes significantly improve the efficiency and stability of the training as well as the accuracy of the neural network approximation. We also show that the SPM approach gives a slightly better accuracy than the PM approach. We further demonstrate the advantage of using adaptive learning rate in dealing with more complex problems.

A data-driven implicit deep adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system capable of manifold learning for function approximation

Fuzzy Neural Networks (FNN) have the ability of decision-making based on constructing semi-ellipsoidal clusters in the input space as the antecedent parts of their fuzzy rules. To determine the output value for each input instance, FNNs consider its membership degree to different sub-regions of the input space. However, forming such meaningful sub-regions is not possible in all applications due to the nonlinear interactions among input variables and their low information gain. Indeed, the samples could be distributed on a manifold in the input space. Therefore, to cover the input space, we need lots of rules, each representing a small region of input space. This issue decreases the generalization ability of the model along with its explainability. Consequently, to efficiently form fuzzy rules, first, it is necessary to unfold the manifold by mapping the samples to an appropriate embedding space. Next, the fuzzy rules in the form of semi-ellipsoidal regions should be constructed in this extracted feature space. Deep Fuzzy Neural Networks address this problem by representation learning through stacking multiple cascade mapping layers. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for nonlinear function approximation and time-series prediction problems, based on using the kernel trick to implicitly learn the mapping function to the new feature space. Moreover, to initialize the fuzzy rules, a KNN-based method using the kernel trick is proposed. A hierarchical Levenberg–Marquardt approach is applied to learn the model’s parameters. The performance and structure of the proposed method are studied and compared with some other relevant methods in synthetic and real-world benchmarks. Based on these experiments, the proposed method has the best performance with the most parsimonious architecture. According to these experiments, the test RMSE of the proposed method is 0.002 for Mc-Glass chaotic time-series prediction, 0.015 for a Nonlinear dynamic system identification, 0.0345 for Box–Jenkins nonlinear system identification, 0.0609 for Fuel consumption prediction of automobiles, 10.24 for Sydney stock price tracking, and 0.595 for California housing.

Mixed-integer linear programming formulations and column generation algorithms for the Minimum Normalized Cuts problem on networks

This paper deals with the k-way normalized cut problem in complex networks. It presents a methodology that uses mathematical optimization to provide mixed-integer linear programming formulations for the problem. The paper also develops a branch-and-price algorithm for the above-mentioned problem which scales better than the compact formulations. Additionally, a heuristic algorithm which is able to approximate large-scale image problems in those cases where the exact methods are not applicable is presented. Extensive computational experiments assess the usefulness of these methods to solve the k-way normalized cut problem. Finally, we have applied the minimum normalized cut objective function to the segmentation of actual images, showing the applicability of the introduced methodology.

A Cross-Modal Generative Adversarial Network for Scenarios Generation of Renewable Energy

Scenarios data of renewable energy resources plays an essential role in the study of mitigating the risk in the power system due to their intermittent nature. Existing researches have mainly focused on how to generate high-quality time series based scenarios with corrupted or missing observed data. However, the multimodality of renewable energy resources is largely ignored from the perspective of the spatial-temporal correlation which can significantly strengthen the renewable energy prediction and optimization. To make full use of these multi-modal data and further improve the data quality of scenarios, a cross-modal Generative Adversarial Network (cGAN) model is proposed with the setting of two spatial-temporal transformer models. In cGAN, the task of scenarios generation is formulated as a probability approximation problem. Then, a cross-modal scenarios generation framework is constructed to process data from multi-modal observations. Theoretically, it can generate infinite number of uncertain scenarios data via the repeated random noise sampling technique. Extensive experiments are carried out at a NREL photovoltaic power dataset and a real-world wind power dataset, respectively. The results validate the state-of-the-art performance of cGAN, even though the validation dataset is missing at random. Moreover, the results also show that the setting of spatial-temporal transformer clearly explains the contributions of different modal data, and stabilize the training process of cGAN. Finally, a stochastic day-head economic dispatch is also studied to show the practical value of cGAN.

Approximation of the Objective Function of Single-Machine Scheduling Problem

The problem of the approximation of the coefficients of the objective function of a scheduling problem for a single machine is considered. It is necessary to minimize the total weighted completion times of jobs with unknown weight coefficients when a set of problem instances with known optimal schedules is given. It is shown that the approximation problem can be reduced to finding a solution to a system of linear inequalities for weight coefficients. For the case of simultaneous job release times, a method for solving the corresponding system of inequalities has been developed. Based on it, a polynomial algorithm for finding values of weight coefficients that satisfy the given optimal schedules was constructed. The complexity of the algorithm is O(n2(N+n)) operations, where n is the number of jobs and N is the number of given instances with known optimal schedules. The accuracy of the algorithm is estimated by experimentally measuring the function ε(N,n)=1n∑j=1n∣wj−wj0∣wj0, which is an indicator of the average modulus of the relative deviation of the found values wj from the true values wj0. An analysis of the results shows a high correlation between the dependence ε(N,n) and a function of the form α(n)/N, where α(n) is a decreasing function of n.

Approximation of multistage stochastic programming problems by smoothed quantization

We present an approximation technique for solving multistage stochastic programming problems with an underlying Markov stochastic process. This process is approximated by a discrete skeleton process, which is consequently smoothed down by means of the original unconditional distribution. Approximated in this way, the problem is solvable by means of Markov Stochastic Dual Dynamic Programming. We state an upper bound for the nested distance between the exact process and its approximation and discuss its convergence in the one-dimensional case. We further propose an adjustment of the approximation, which guarantees that the approximate problem is bounded. Finally, we apply our technique to a real-life production-emission trading problem and demonstrate the performance of its approximation given the “true” distribution of the random parameters.

Optimal control of an elastic–rigid obstacle problem

In this paper, we consider the optimal control problem of an elastic–rigid obstacle problem. The force is considered as the control, and the corresponding solution to the elastic–rigid obstacle problem is taken to be the state. An approximate optimization problem is proposed by regularizing the original non-differentiable constrained problem, and the connection between the two formulations is established through some convergence results. Existence of optimal pairs is proved and necessary optimality conditions are derived.

Ameliorated Snake Optimizer-Based Approximate Merging of Disk Wang-Ball Curves.

A method for the approximate merging of disk Wang-Ball (DWB) curves based on the modified snake optimizer (BEESO) is proposed in this paper to address the problem of difficulties in the merging of DWB curves. By extending the approximate merging problem for traditional curves to disk curves and viewing it as an optimization problem, an approximate merging model is established to minimize the merging error through an error formulation. Considering the complexity of the model built, a BEESO with better convergence accuracy and convergence speed is introduced, which combines the snake optimizer (SO) and three strategies including bi-directional search, evolutionary population dynamics, and elite opposition-based learning. The merging results and merging errors of numerical examples demonstrate that BEESO is effective in solving approximate merging models, and it provides a new method for the compression and transfer of product shape data in Computer-Aided Geometric Design.