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Amortising Inference and Meta-Learning Priors in Neural Networks

Rochussen, Tommy, Fortuin, Vincent

arXiv.org Machine Learning

One of the core facets of Bayesianism is in the updating of prior beliefs in light of new evidence$\text{ -- }$so how can we maintain a Bayesian approach if we have no prior beliefs in the first place? This is one of the central challenges in the field of Bayesian deep learning, where it is not clear how to represent beliefs about a prediction task by prior distributions over model parameters. Bridging the fields of Bayesian deep learning and probabilistic meta-learning, we introduce a way to $\textit{learn}$ a weights prior from a collection of datasets by introducing a way to perform per-dataset amortised variational inference. The model we develop can be viewed as a neural process whose latent variable is the set of weights of a BNN and whose decoder is the neural network parameterised by a sample of the latent variable itself. This unique model allows us to study the behaviour of Bayesian neural networks under well-specified priors, use Bayesian neural networks as flexible generative models, and perform desirable but previously elusive feats in neural processes such as within-task minibatching or meta-learning under extreme data-starvation.


Meta-LearningStationaryStochasticProcess PredictionwithConvolutionalNeuralProcesses

Neural Information Processing Systems

Prediction in such models can be viewed as atranslation equivariant map from observed data sets to predictiveSPs, emphasizing the intimate relationship between stationarity andequivariance.


From bones to steel: Why ice skates were a terrible idea that worked

Popular Science

Fleming went on to win the gold medal. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. From figure skating to ice hockey, many of the most popular winter sports stem from a long history of people simply playing around on ice skates . Part of what makes a good skater so fun to watch is the juxtaposition of their clear technical skill and the seeming effortlessness with which they glide across the ice. They make it seem so natural.


Spatio-temporal modeling and forecasting with Fourier neural operators

Nag, Pratik, Zammit-Mangion, Andrew, Singh, Sumeetpal, Cressie, Noel

arXiv.org Machine Learning

Spatio-temporal process models are often used for modeling dynamic physical and biological phenomena that evolve across space and time. These phenomena may exhibit environmental heterogeneity and complex interactions that are difficult to capture using traditional statistical process models such as Gaussian processes. This work proposes the use of Fourier neural operators (FNOs) for constructing statistical dynamical spatio-temporal models for forecasting. An FNO is a flexible mapping of functions that approximates the solution operator of possibly unknown linear or non-linear partial differential equations (PDEs) in a computationally efficient manner. It does so using samples of inputs and their respective outputs, and hence explicit knowledge of the underlying PDE is not required. Through simulations from a nonlinear PDE with known solution, we compare FNO forecasts to those from state-of-the-art statistical spatio-temporal-forecasting methods. Further, using sea surface temperature data over the Atlantic Ocean and precipitation data across Europe, we demonstrate the ability of FNO-based dynamic spatio-temporal (DST) statistical modeling to capture complex real-world spatio-temporal dependencies. Using collections of testing instances, we show that the FNO-DST forecasts are accurate with valid uncertainty quantification.


The sex trends set to define 2026 - including 'digital threesomes' and the return of the office romance

Daily Mail - Science & tech

Revealed: Chilling text NASCAR star Greg Biffle's wife sent to her mom just minutes before tragic plane crash'Old age' doesn't kill us... scientists reveal true causes of death Immutable: I can't get enough of Melania, the Real Housewife of Washington, says JAN MOIR The tiny diet change that brought down my sky-high cholesterol WITHOUT statins or drugs. Mike was told he risked a heart attack or stroke. CNBC anchor who slammed Trump's tariffs as'insane' stunned live on air as inflation figures send shockwaves through Wall Street Dramatic bodycam video shows moment suspected kidnapper is arrested after 40 years on the run... as her neighbor thinks arrest is a joke Rob Reiner's'petrified' parting words about son Nick at Conan O'Brien party... and why his haunted A-list friends can't stop talking about it Reiner family bombshell as insiders reveal who is paying for Nick's celebrity lawyer... their secret motive... and who will REALLY inherit $200m fortune Doctors said my hip pain was just tendinitis from sitting all day at work. The real cause may kill me... they had left it far too late Bondi hero is handed $2.5million cheque in his hospital bed - then asks unbelievable question Pete Davidson is a dad! Kim Kardashian's ex welcomes first child with model girlfriend Elsie Hewitt Mica Miller's pastor husband is indicted for shocking acts before his wife was killed days after filing for divorce Trump suspends diversity visa lottery after Kristi Noem says'heinous' Brown University shooter entered US through program Jeffrey Epstein attended dinner with tech billionaires three years after he was convicted of sex crimes - as new photos of the event are released from pedophile's estate The sex trends set to define 2026 - including'digital threesomes' and the return of the office romance You probably won't discuss it around the Christmas dinner table - but experts have revealed the sex trends set to define 2026. Similar to how fashion, tech and lifestyle trends change over time, sexual behaviour also experiences cultural shifts.


Adapting to Change: A Comparison of Continual and Transfer Learning for Modeling Building Thermal Dynamics under Concept Drifts

Raisch, Fabian, Langtry, Max, Koch, Felix, Choudhary, Ruchi, Goebel, Christoph, Tischler, Benjamin

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Transfer Learning (TL) is currently the most effective approach for modeling building thermal dynamics when only limited data are available. TL uses a pretrained model that is fine-tuned to a specific target building. However, it remains unclear how to proceed after initial fine-tuning, as more operational measurement data are collected over time. This challenge becomes even more complex when the dynamics of the building change, for example, after a retrofit or a change in occupancy. In Machine Learning literature, Continual Learning (CL) methods are used to update models of changing systems. TL approaches can also address this challenge by reusing the pretrained model at each update step and fine-tuning it with new measurement data. A comprehensive study on how to incorporate new measurement data over time to improve prediction accuracy and address the challenges of concept drifts (changes in dynamics) for building thermal dynamics is still missing. Therefore, this study compares several CL and TL strategies, as well as a model trained from scratch, for thermal dynamics modeling during building operation. The methods are evaluated using 5--7 years of simulated data representative of single-family houses in Central Europe, including scenarios with concept drifts from retrofits and changes in occupancy. We propose a CL strategy (Seasonal Memory Learning) that provides greater accuracy improvements than existing CL and TL methods, while maintaining low computational effort. SML outperformed the benchmark of initial fine-tuning by 28.1\% without concept drifts and 34.9\% with concept drifts.


AI reconstruction of European weather from the Euro-Atlantic regimes

Camilletti, A., Franch, G., Tomasi, E., Cristoforetti, M.

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

We present a non-linear AI-model designed to reconstruct monthly mean anomalies of the European temperature and precipitation based on the Euro-Atlantic Weather regimes (WR) indices. WR represent recurrent, quasi-stationary, and persistent states of the atmospheric circulation that exert considerable influence over the European weather, therefore offering an opportunity for sub-seasonal to seasonal forecasting. While much research has focused on studying the correlation and impacts of the WR on European weather, the estimation of ground-level climate variables, such as temperature and precipitation, from Euro-Atlantic WR remains largely unexplored and is currently limited to linear methods. The presented AI model can capture and introduce complex non-linearities in the relation between the WR indices, describing the state of the Euro-Atlantic atmospheric circulation and the corresponding surface temperature and precipitation anomalies in Europe. We discuss the AI-model performance in reconstructing the monthly mean two-meter temperature and total precipitation anomalies in the European winter and summer, also varying the number of WR used to describe the monthly atmospheric circulation. We assess the impact of errors on the WR indices in the reconstruction and show that a mean absolute relative error below 80% yields improved seasonal reconstruction compared to the ECMWF operational seasonal forecast system, SEAS5. As a demonstration of practical applicability, we evaluate the model using WR indices predicted by SEAS5, finding slightly better or comparable skill relative to the SEAS5 forecast itself. Our findings demonstrate that WR-based anomaly reconstruction, powered by AI tools, offers a promising pathway for sub-seasonal and seasonal forecasting.


Modular Deep-Learning-Based Early Warning System for Deadly Heatwave Prediction

Xu, Shangqing, Zhao, Zhiyuan, Sharma, Megha, Martín-Olalla, José María, Rodríguez, Alexander, Wellenius, Gregory A., Prakash, B. Aditya

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Severe heatwaves in urban areas significantly threaten public health, calling for establishing early warning strategies. Despite predicting occurrence of heatwaves and attributing historical mortality, predicting an incoming deadly heatwave remains a challenge due to the difficulty in defining and estimating heat-related mortality. Furthermore, establishing an early warning system imposes additional requirements, including data availability, spatial and temporal robustness, and decision costs. To address these challenges, we propose DeepTherm, a modular early warning system for deadly heatwave prediction without requiring heat-related mortality history. By highlighting the flexibility of deep learning, DeepTherm employs a dual-prediction pipeline, disentangling baseline mortality in the absence of heatwaves and other irregular events from all-cause mortality. We evaluated DeepTherm on real-world data across Spain. Results demonstrate consistent, robust, and accurate performance across diverse regions, time periods, and population groups while allowing trade-off between missed alarms and false alarms.


Tractable Weighted First-Order Model Counting with Bounded Treewidth Binary Evidence

Kůla, Václav, Kuang, Qipeng, Wang, Yuyi, Wang, Yuanhong, Kuželka, Ondřej

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

The Weighted First-Order Model Counting Problem (WFOMC) asks to compute the weighted sum of models of a given first-order logic sentence over a given domain. Conditioning WFOMC on evidence -- fixing the truth values of a set of ground literals -- has been shown impossible in time polynomial in the domain size (unless $\mathsf{\#P \subseteq FP}$) even for fragments of logic that are otherwise tractable for WFOMC without evidence. In this work, we address the barrier by restricting the binary evidence to the case where the underlying Gaifman graph has bounded treewidth. We present a polynomial-time algorithm in the domain size for computing WFOMC for the two-variable fragments $\text{FO}^2$ and $\text{C}^2$ conditioned on such binary evidence. Furthermore, we show the applicability of our algorithm in combinatorial problems by solving the stable seating arrangement problem on bounded-treewidth graphs of bounded degree, which was an open problem. We also conducted experiments to show the scalability of our algorithm compared to the existing model counting solvers.