Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Antoniano-Villalobos, Isadora, Borgonovo, Emanuele, Lu, Xuefei
Format: Preprint
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.09424
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866913408000983040
author Antoniano-Villalobos, Isadora
Borgonovo, Emanuele
Lu, Xuefei
author_facet Antoniano-Villalobos, Isadora
Borgonovo, Emanuele
Lu, Xuefei
contents Computer experiments are becoming increasingly important in scientific investigations. In the presence of uncertainty, analysts employ probabilistic sensitivity methods to identify the key-drivers of change in the quantities of interest. Simulation complexity, large dimensionality and long running times may force analysts to make statistical inference at small sample sizes. Methods designed to estimate probabilistic sensitivity measures at relatively low computational costs are attracting increasing interest. We propose a fully Bayesian approach to the estimation of probabilistic sensitivity measures based on a one-sample design. We discuss, first, new estimators based on placing piecewise constant priors on the conditional distributions of the output given each input, by partitioning the input space. We then present two alternatives, based on Bayesian non-parametric density estimation, which bypass the need for predefined partitions. In all cases, the Bayesian paradigm guarantees the quantification of uncertainty in the estimation process through the posterior distribution over the sensitivity measures, without requiring additional simulator evaluations. The performance of the proposed methods is compared to that of traditional point estimators in a series of numerical experiments comprising synthetic but challenging simulators, as well as a realistic application. $\textit{An Updated Version of the Manuscript is Forthcoming in Statistics and Computing.}$
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_1907_09424
institution arXiv
publishDate 2019
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Bayesian estimation of probabilistic sensitivity measures
Antoniano-Villalobos, Isadora
Borgonovo, Emanuele
Lu, Xuefei
Methodology
Computer experiments are becoming increasingly important in scientific investigations. In the presence of uncertainty, analysts employ probabilistic sensitivity methods to identify the key-drivers of change in the quantities of interest. Simulation complexity, large dimensionality and long running times may force analysts to make statistical inference at small sample sizes. Methods designed to estimate probabilistic sensitivity measures at relatively low computational costs are attracting increasing interest. We propose a fully Bayesian approach to the estimation of probabilistic sensitivity measures based on a one-sample design. We discuss, first, new estimators based on placing piecewise constant priors on the conditional distributions of the output given each input, by partitioning the input space. We then present two alternatives, based on Bayesian non-parametric density estimation, which bypass the need for predefined partitions. In all cases, the Bayesian paradigm guarantees the quantification of uncertainty in the estimation process through the posterior distribution over the sensitivity measures, without requiring additional simulator evaluations. The performance of the proposed methods is compared to that of traditional point estimators in a series of numerical experiments comprising synthetic but challenging simulators, as well as a realistic application. $\textit{An Updated Version of the Manuscript is Forthcoming in Statistics and Computing.}$
title Bayesian estimation of probabilistic sensitivity measures
topic Methodology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.09424