Some novel Monte Carlo algorithms for challenging inference problems

This work consists of two separate parts. In the first part we extend the work on exact simulation of diffusions introduced in [9]. The authors in that paper introduced a methodology for simulating a diffusion process and for performing parametric inference for a partially observed diffusion. In par...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Marshall, Tristan Roy Gray
Published: Lancaster University 2009
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Online Access:http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.556695
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Summary:This work consists of two separate parts. In the first part we extend the work on exact simulation of diffusions introduced in [9]. The authors in that paper introduced a methodology for simulating a diffusion process and for performing parametric inference for a partially observed diffusion. In particular they demonstrated how to perform Bayesian inference for a parameter θ of such a diffusion; it is possible to implement a Gibbs Sampler that alternately imputes the paths between observed points conditionally on θ, and updating for θ conditionally on the imputed paths. , This algorithm simulates values (θn)n≥l whose distribution converges to the true posterior in the n→t ∞ limit; we extend their algorithm to simulate exact samples from the posterior within a finite time - so-called perfect simulation. In the second part we consider a class of adaptive MCMC algorithms using a Langevin-type proposal density. We state and prove regularity conditions for the convergence of these algorithms. In addition to these theoretical results we introduce a number of methodological innovations that can be applied much more generally. We assess the performance of these algorithms with simulation studies, including an example of the statistical analysis of a point process driven by a latent log-Gaussian Cox process.