New Method for Parameter Estimation in Probabilistic Models: Minimum Probability Flow

New method for parameter estimation in probabilistic models: minimum probability flow.

Fitting probabilistic models to data is often difficult, due to the general intractability of the partition function. We propose a new parameter fitting method, minimum probability flow (MPF), which is applicable to any parametric model. We demonstrate parameter estimation using MPF in two cases: a continuous state space model, and an Ising spin glass. In the latter case, MPF outperforms curren...

Distributed Parameter Estimation in Probabilistic Graphical Models

This paper presents foundational theoretical results on distributed parameter estimation for undirected probabilistic graphical models. It introduces a general condition on composite likelihood decompositions of these models which guarantees the global consistency of distributed estimators, provided the local estimators are consistent.

A NEW APPROACH FOR PARAMETER ESTIMATION IN FUZZY LOGISTIC REGRESSION

Logistic regression analysis is used to model categorical dependent variable. It is usually used in social sciences and clinical research. Human thoughts and disease diagnosis in clinical research contain vagueness. This situation leads researchers to combine fuzzy set and statistical theories. Fuzzy logistic regression analysis is one of the outcomes of this combination and it is used in situa...

Minimum Probability Flow Learning

Minimum Probability Flow Learning

Fitting probabilistic models to data is often difficult, due to the general intractability of the partition function and its derivatives. Here we propose a new parameter estimation technique that does not require computing an intractable normalization factor or sampling from the equilibrium distribution of the model. This is achieved by establishing dynamics that would transform the observed da...