A long-winded X validated discussion on the [textbook] mean-variance conjugate posterior for the Normal model left me [mildly] depressed at the point and use of answering questions on this forum. Especially as it came at the same time as a catastrophic outcome for my mathematical statistics exam. Possibly an incentive to quit X validated as one quits smoking, although this is not the first attempt…
Archive for Bayesian statistics
I’m getting the point
Posted in Statistics with tags Bayesian statistics, Bayesian textbook, conjugate priors, cross validated, final exam, StackExchange, teaching on February 14, 2019 by xi'anBinomial vs Bernoulli
Posted in Books, Statistics with tags Bayesian model choice, Bayesian statistics, conditioning, cross validated, sufficiency on December 25, 2018 by xi'anAn interesting confusion on X validated where someone was convinced that using the Bernoulli representation of a sequence of Bernoulli experiments led to different posterior probabilities of two possible models than when using their Binomial representation. The confusion actually stemmed from using different conditionals, namely N¹=4,N²=1 in the first case (for a model M¹ with two probabilities p¹ and p²) and N¹+N²=5 in the second case (for a model M² with a single probability p⁰). While (N¹,N²) is sufficient for the first model and N¹+N² is sufficient for the second model, P(M¹|N¹,N²) is not commensurable to P(M²|N¹+N²)! Another illustration of the fickleness of the notion of sufficiency when comparing models.
at CIRM [jatp]
Posted in Mountains, pictures, Running, Travel with tags Bayesian statistics, calanques, Cassis, CIRM, CNRS, iles du Frioul, Indian summer, jatp, Jean Morlet Chair, littoral, Luminy, Marseille, Mediterranean Sea, Parc National des Calanques, rock climbing, sea, summer school, trail running on October 21, 2018 by xi'ana jump back in time
Posted in Books, Kids, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Bayesian statistics, Fortran, French army, LaTeX, mixture of distributions, noninformative priors, Purdue University, S, software, Spain, Valencia 3, Valencia conferences on October 1, 2018 by xi'anAs the Department of Statistics in Warwick is slowly emptying its shelves and offices for the big migration to the new building that is almost completed, books and documents are abandoned in the corridors and the work spaces. On this occasion, I thus happened to spot a vintage edition of the Valencia 3 proceedings. I had missed this meeting and hence the volume for, during the last year of my PhD, I was drafted in the French Navy and as a result prohibited to travel abroad. (Although on reflection I could have safely done it with no one in the military the wiser!) Reading through the papers thirty years later is a weird experience, as I do not remember most of the papers, the exception being the mixture modelling paper by José Bernardo and Javier Giròn which I studied a few years later when writing the mixture estimation and simulation paper with Jean Diebolt. And then again in our much more recent non-informative paper with Clara Grazian. And Prem Goel’s survey of Bayesian software. That is, 1987 state of the art software. Covering an amazing eighteen list. Including versions by Zellner, Tierney, Schervish, Smith [but no MCMC], Jaynes, Goldstein, Geweke, van Dijk, Bauwens, which apparently did not survive the ages till now. Most were in Fortran but S was also mentioned. And another version of Tierney, Kass and Kadane on Laplace approximations. And the reference paper of Dennis Lindley [who was already retired from UCL at that time!] on the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. And another paper by Don Rubin on using SIR (Rubin, 1983) for simulating from posterior distributions with missing data. Ten years before the particle filter paper, and apparently missing the possibility of weights with infinite variance.
There already were some illustrations of Bayesian analysis in action, including one by Jay Kadane reproduced in his book. And several papers by Jim Berger, Tony O’Hagan, Luis Pericchi and others on imprecise Bayesian modelling, which was in tune with the era, the imprecise probability book by Peter Walley about to appear. And a paper by Shaw on numerical integration that mentioned quasi-random methods. Applied to a 12 component Normal mixture.Overall, a much less theoretical content than I would have expected. And nothing about shrinkage estimators, although a fraction of the speakers had worked on this topic most recently.
At a less fundamental level, this was a time when LaTeX was becoming a standard, as shown by a few papers in the volume (and as I was to find when visiting Purdue the year after), even though most were still typed on a typewriter, including a manuscript addition by Dennis Lindley. And Warwick appeared as a Bayesian hotpot!, with at least five papers written by people there permanently or on a long term visit. (In case a local is interested in it, I have kept the volume, to be found in my new office!)
Bayesian statistics in the big data era
Posted in Mountains, pictures, Running, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Bayesian statistics, big data, calanques, CIRM, conference, Jean Morlet Chair, Kerrie Mengersen, Luminy, Marseille, Mont Puget, stats4good, Université Aix Marseille on May 7, 2018 by xi'anIn conjunction with Kerrie Mengersen’ Jean Morlet Chair at CIRM, Luminy, Marseilles, we organise a special conference “Bayesian statistics in the big data era” on November 26-30, 2018, with the following speakers having already confirmed attendance
Sudipto Banerjee (UCLA, US)
Tamara Broderick (MIT, US)
Noël Cressie (Wollongong, OZ)
Marco Cuturi (ENSAE, FR)
David Dunson (Duke, US)
Sylvia Frühwirth-Schnatter (WU, AU)
Amy Herring (Duke, US)
Gregor Kastner (WU, AU)
Ruth King (Edinburgh, UK)
Antonio Lijoi (Bocconi, IT)
Jean-Michel Marin (Montpellier, FR)
Antonietta Mira (Lugano, CH)
Peter Müller (UT Austin, US)
Igor Pruenster (Bocconi, IT)
Stéphane Robin (INRA, FR)
Heejung Shim (U Melbourne, OZ)
Minh-Ngoc Tran (UNSW, OZ)
Darren Wilkinson (Newcastle, UK)
(more)
Registration is free but compulsory, and we encourage all interested data scientists (and beyond) to apply and to contribute a talk or a poster. The size of the audience is limited to a maximum of 80 participants, on a first-come first-serve basis. (Cheap housing is available on the campus, located in the gorgeous national park des Calanques south of Marseilles.)
In connection with this conference, there will be a workshop the previous weekend on “Young Bayesians and Big Data for social good”, to get junior researchers interested in the analysis of data related with social issues and human rights to work with a few senior researchers. More details soon, here and on the CIRM website.
Masterclass in Bayesian Statistics in Marseilles next Fall
Posted in Books, Kids, Mountains, pictures, R, Running, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Aalto Science Institute, applied Bayesian analysis, Bayesian statistics, calanques, CIRM, CNRS, France, INLA, Luminy, Marseille, masterclass, Méditerranée, Provence, QUT, R, SMF, STAN on April 9, 2018 by xi'anAll interested participants in this masterclass should pre-register as early as possible, given that the total attendance is limited to roughly 90 participants. Some specific funding for local expenses (i.e., food + accommodation on-siteat CIRM) is available (thanks to CIRM, and potentially to Fondation Jacques Hadamard, to be confirmed); this funding will be attributed by the scientific committee, with high priority to PhD students and post-docs.